Keep it Pithy in the Kitchen

I’m liking my new embroidery design.  I embrace domesticity. Really, I do. This apron is full of pride, wit, and a little bit of style. I always have a million phrases I want to embroider and very little time to follow through. Here are a few:
“Shun the Twinkies” (I’m actually working on this but I need some clip art of a twinkie, can’t find any. Help me Robyn ‘cause I know you would wear it.)
“Oh I Can Cook”
“Kiss this Cook”
“This isn’t a restaurant” (I’ve done this before. Hee hee.)
“Make it Yourself” (I’ve done this one too but need to resurrect it because it is my mantra. Maybe this time with a picture of a pig trough.)
Please share your sarcastic cooking phrases with me. (Or those not related to cooking….sarcasm has no designated room in this house.)
Short and pithy please.

Strawberries and Cream Tart

Eeeee-gads! How good was this shortbread-like crust with thickened heavy cream and strawberries? So good I forgot to take a picture! My issue of Food Network magazine arrived Saturday and by that night my mom and I had made this recipe. She made the crust, I made the cream layer, Paul topped it with berries and sugar. A collaborative effort. A delicious dessert. A real keeper of a recipe.  Welcome strawberry season. Next up for strawberry season? Strawberry freezer jam.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

It stopped raining yesterday long enough to snap a few photos. As I walked to my mailbox I noticed my happy little flowers standing tall after lots of rain. (I thought Utah was the desert?)These flame tulips,  hyacinths, and bleeding hearts are all in my front yard. And of course as i am laying down on my sidewalk (on a towel to stay dry) cars drive by and stare at me with Nikon in hand. The neighbors must think I'm nuts. But spring flowers don't last forever.
They sure make me happy.

p.s. Have I mentioned how much I love my 35 mm lens Paul bought me for Christmas? Love the wide aperture (f/1.8) I can shoot now! (Aperture gives that nice fuzzy background)

Smocks for Girls

I swore I’d never make this shirt again, but exactly 2 years have passed since I used this pattern last. That’s long enough for me to have forgotten what a pain making this yoke can be. Ok, not really.  Two years later I still hated making it. However, my daughter absolutely has loved this shirt for two years straight. She wears it along when it’s warm and layered with cardigans when it’s cold. Being the saintly mother that I am (cough, cough), I made her another. I like this one even better. Unfortunately, it does take about 3 hours to make.Here is an easier version of essentially the same smock. This one is gathered at the neckline with elastic instead of with stitches. And no blasted yoke. This is the one hour version.  Giddy-Up. As much as I love the above version, I just can’t be bothered with 3 hours per smock. Especially when it will smothered with grape jelly. So I’ll be making lots more of these sweet little smocks for my girls. But definitely with the below version.
 

Mother’s Day

Bacon and eggs for breakfast (made by Paul)…..cards from the kids (no card from Paul)…..Paul spoke in church: that’s the most I’ve ever heard this shy boy speak about the Gospel in years (public or private)…..a beautiful sunny day…… a picture of me and the kiddos in the backyard…..ate lunch outside on my new patio set……Paul made me pizza for dinner…..Nathan made me brownies…..I bought myself tulips earlier in the week just because I deserve them. A great day to celebrate.

Handmade Headboard

I made a headboard! I made a turquoise headboard! I am no expert in carpentry….although I did take a community night class and made a blanket chest six years ago. But my Dad IS an expert with all things handy, so since he was in town, he was my helper. Err….ok, I was HIS helper. Same thing wise guy. I saw these plans by a fabulous blogger named Ana. It is a knock-off of this $800 headboard at Pottery Barn. From what I read, this headboard could be made in around 2 hours. Seriously? Sign me up! (The finishing, however, took days, more on that later.) So off to Home Desperate Depot we went. We settled on clear pine, although I did buy 2 boards of El Cheap-O (official name) knotty pine for the lower boards that I knew would be covered. My dad tried to talk me out of buying my wood at Home Depot, claiming I would be ripped off. I should go to a lumber yard to get the best deal. Yea, yea, Dad, I can’t be bothered. What’s the worst that would happen? I overpay by 20 bucks or so? He’s a purist, I am not.
So we came home with a bunch of 1x3, 1x4, and 1x6 boards. The wood set me back about $90 George Washingtons. Cha ching! So far, so good! Then we got busy with my miter saw and drill.


I used screws to put the whole thing together (screw from behind or else use wood filler) instead of nails. Why? Because I don’t own a nail gun. I do own an air compressor so I really should get a nail gun. So here’s my Dad puttin’ it all together while I held the camera. His poor back hurt the next day. Thanks Dad!

Aside from using screws, we made a couple more changes. We didn’t use the 2x4 Ana suggests putting on the very top. We thought it looked fine with just another 1x4 to finish it off.  I didn’t want it to look too rustic. Just a little bit used. This picture shows where we used some wood filler. In the end, I could’ve used the El Cheapo pine for the whole thing because I really liked how those lower boards looked once painted. Note to self.

We also opted to brace the back in the middle with a leftover piece of wood, per some other bloggers’ comments. They thought it was a bit flimsy in the back as is. Nice and sturdy now!
Now comes the fun part—the finishing. I wanted to coordinate with my turquoise dresser. So I pulled out my trusty fan deck (all brilliant women own one) and chose this color to match. I was tempted to stain it a nice dark espresso like my nightstands (which are from Four Chairs) but I shun bedroom sets. I really don’t like everything to match so I opted for paint.

It’s called Turquoise Mosaic 7605D by Millenium. Just take any color from any chip or fan deck to Lowe’s and they’ll enter the name into their magic computer which contains the name of all other manufacturers’ paint colors, and voila, you get the color you want without having to go to a bunch of different paint stores.

After 2 coats of paint, I notice a problem. You can’t see the boards anymore. Argh! It practically looks like I used a sheet of plywood. I want to see the individual boards! Too sterile as is. (*Scratches head with what to do*)

So my Dad came up with the idea of clamping boards to the headboard and chiseling out the seams again. In hindsight, we should’ve chiseled the boards as the very, very first step, and roughed ‘em up a bit. Here’s Paul with chisel in hand separating the boards again. Drag and smoosh, drag and smoosh. This is an official carpentry term. You can see at the bottom where we put a sample of stain to warm it up. Oh, I liked it a lot. Without the stain I will admit I cried out, “It belongs in Romper Room!” Phew, I felt better once the stain went on. I brushed it on with a sponge brush, then wiped it off with an old t-shirt.

I feel better now. The boards can be seen, stain was smooshed and slathered in the cracks, and now it’s time for 3 coats of polyurethane. If it hadn’t been 30-40 degrees this week (it’s April for crying out loud!), my 2 layers of paint, 1 layer of stain, and 3 layers of poly would’ve dried much faster. I had to sand with 600 grit sandpaper in between every coat as well. I wanted it smooth baby! Did I mention the headboard only took 2 hours and the finishing took 4 days? I was tempted to skip some steps, but I wanted this nearly perfect.  And you all know I am not a perfectionist.

Here’s my recipe for finishing: I got nervous with the brightness of the turquoise on a sample board so I added an entire 2 fl oz. of brown craft paint lying around my house to the 1 quart of Turquoise Mosaic. In the end, I’m not sure it made much of a difference. But it made me feel like I was sprinkled with pixie dust in the moment. (“Pixie dust…pixie dust…calm down!” Name that movie.) I applied everything with foam brushes to avoid streaks. I need a paint gun now, don’t you think?


Take down my 4-yr old pale turquoise silk headboard (also made by yours truly), clear out the bed, and get busy.

But I first take a moment to laugh at Paul’s collection of vinyl from the 1980s found under our bed. I approve of the Psychedelic Furs 45, but not too sure about the Paula Abdul and M.C. Hammer records. “Straight up now tell me are you really gonna love me forever..oh…oh…oh…”  Back to work Cynthia.

Paul the accountant gets busy with the drill and some bolts. Hubbies are handy too. Sometimes.

I put the box spring back and take a moment to show you, my bloggy friends, how I make and attach a dust ruffle. I’ve talked about this before. But I’m showing you here that for this silk dust ruffle I used twist pins and not staples to attach it to the box spring. Never make a deck for your dust ruffle. Only sissies do that. Just kidding. Well, not really. You gotta take short cuts where you can.


I put my very expensive D.I. Thriftstore (new, not gross) mattress back. And then add my goodies. In case you care, the quilt is from T.J. Maxx and everything else (well, the bedding at least) is made my me.


















I love it! I love it! I am all for paying good money for furniture, but when something as simple as a headboard can be very easily made for $100 bucks, why pay $800? Thanks again to Ana for the fab plans.

Three-Tiered Girls Skirts

I wrote this post last year about how to make summer skirts for a girl (or for you). Well, here is my updated post with a bit more direction.
These measurements will make a skirt approximately size 6-8 for a 23” waist. Finished length will be 18”. To make a different size, see my original post.
You will need 3/4” yard of fabric.

• Top layer: Cut fabric strip 8”x34”
• Middle Layer: Cut fabric strip 7”x51” (obviously you’ll have to piece this to get 51” since fabric is only 44”wide)
• Bottom layer: Cut fabric strip 7” x 77-86” Pieced like the middle layer. I like to keep this layer anywhere from 77”-86” because it’s easier to cut off excess after you’ve gathered it.

If you have the Bernina Ruffler Foot, set the foot to “6” with a stitch length of 2.2. This should gather your 51” middle layer to nearly exactly match your top layer which is 34”.  Attach the middle layer to the top layer, right sides together, duh. Repeat to gather the bottom layer, then attach to the middle layer, cutting off any excess of the bottom layer. Serge or zig zag over all raw edges of your now gathered layer seams. Sew side shut. Make a 1” inch casing at the top and feed elastic through. Hem 1” for the bottom.
Total time to make this skirt? 45 minutes (using ruffler)
No ruffle foot? Gather by hand and start swearing because it will take a couple of hours at least. Gag me with a wooden spoon, because I hate making gathers with long basting stitches. At the very least, gather by sewing a zig zag stitch over a piece of heavy thread or dental floss, then pull the floss to gather. Still a pain though.

This Meal is Dedicated to my Grandparents

I’ve mentioned before that my Grandpa was an avocado rancher.  A few years back he grew a tree for my parents—straight from an avocado pit. He planted it in their front yard (at the time I thought this was tacky) and then eventually he grafted it. The tree finally gave fruit—just a month after he died. My mom brought me some. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted better avocados. If butter grew on trees, this is what it would taste like.

Hallie and I had a great lunch today of avocado salad (heavy on the avocado, light on the lettuce):

 

Topped off with pink grapefruit:

And washed down with cinnamon toast.

I mentioned in the title this post was dedicated to my Grandparents. Why to my Grandma as well? Because I inherited her Bosch mixer that allowed me to make 5 loaves of cinnamon bread at one time. The Monstrous Mormon Mixer has always been the butt of my jokes. After all, who needs to make so much bread at once except mothers of 8? Well, my bloggy friends, I stand corrected. Even Mormon Mothers of Just 3 could use this mixer. My freezer is full of homemade cinnamon bread. At a moments notice I can grab a loaf of cinnamon bread and be in yeasty-bread heaven.

So here’s to my Grandpa’s avocados and my  Grandma’s fabulous mixer. They sure made my tummy happy today.

Keeping Calm

These posters were apparently famous during WW2 in England. I say apparently because I wasn’t alive then, despite what my children think. This poster is from Paa Puu Prints on etsy. Any who….I started selling this pillow a while back. I probably sold 10 or so.  It takes about 35 minutes to embroider, which is a long time for my impatient self. I thought it was rather plain though. And it sure needed that cute crown!

So I drew out a crown, chose a better font (Opus Chords is the name) with serifs, and here is my new design. For some reason Opus Chords looks like this when I type in a word processing program: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. I read music but that’s just plain jibberish! Glad I didn’t end up needing a letter “b” or “x” I guess! (Stop rambling Cynthia!)



This one takes about 40 minutes to embroider. Gag. That’s risky because 40 minutes is a long time for everything to go perfect in embroidery world. (I invariably snap a thread or lose tension and have to play doctor to fix it.) But I love it. The pillow and embroidery design are available in my shop now. The real question you all want to know is, “Cynthia, will you be having one of these pillows in your own home?” Err…..I dunno. I take a strong stance against any home decor which could make me feel guilty.  You’ll never see vinyl lettering in my house that reads “Happiness makes a Home” or whatever because inevitably I’ll see that stupid vinyl art (or pillow in this case) while I’m yelling at my kids. Then I’d feel hypocritical. But I do love this design….maybe I’ll make an exception?

Fix the Floors….Then Leave Town

A while back I asked my very handy father to please help us re-do the landing for our banister. The previous homeowners had the bottom posts anchored in the hickory wood floors. I decision of theirs I hated from the very first day we moved into this house. So 6 months ago my Dad removed the posts and raised them up to the bottom stair—which is where they should’ve been all along. The problem this created was 2 bare wood spots where the posts had been. This 12 inch nightmare would lead to 560 square feet of nightmare.
We had no idea what stain color had been used on the floor either. Dang. Mental dollar signs are increasing.
So I had someone from Pioneer Hardwood Floors come out and give me a bid. (And another company I wasn’t impressed with.) He said he could try to match the floor but there would always be a slight difference in the new color. Dang. I’m not a perfectionist, I didn’t care too much, so I said, no big deal, the floors need a good buff anyway. Mr. Pioneer Hardwood Flooring guy then asked what I used to clean my floor. I replied, “Orange Glow or Murphy’s Oil.” To which he then said, “Your floors have been ruined with those kinds of waxy products. I can’t do your floors—any polyurethane I apply will bubble up because of the oily floors.” After choking down tears, I said, “Huh? Those products are for floors. How could they ruin my floors.” To make a long story short, lots of internet research, and a letter written to the evil Murphy’s Oil company, I found out oil based products do indeed ruin wood floors. Let me repeat that for all you wood floor owners out there…..
Murphy’s Oil and Orange Glow and any other oil based products ruin wood floors. Shun them. Avoid them for all their evilness.  The only remedy is to strip the wood floors down to the bare wood and start over.
Yup, my mental dollar signs went way, way up.
So what’s a girl to do when her floors need a 3-day refinishing process and you are told your family can’t walk on them?

Yup, you leave town for spring break and take a 3 hour drive to Arches National Park. And stay 4 days while your floors are being done.

That’s me on the left waving to Paul. Then my kids, then my sis Patty. Try not to freak out as much as did if you do the Delicate Arch hike. Your kids could but probably won’t fall off the cliffs on this hike. I kept thinking they should put a railing. I know, that would ruin the absolute splendor, but my arm pits would’ve been drier and my heart not pounding as much.

This is Double Arch. Majestic. Literally, majestic. I’m truly embarrassed I’ve lived in Utah 18 years (half my life…weird) and had never been to Arches. A crime. I will go again and again now that I know how amazing it all is.





























How sweet is my daughter exploring in the background here at Double Arch? How old do I look with out make-up. I do believe in make up. I do….I do….

Then we came home to see our new (albeit smelly) floors all redone. Wait a few more days, eat a lot of meals standing up at the counter, then put your furniture back.

The moral of the story is two fold:
1-Don’t ruin your wood floors with Murphy’s Oil or Orange Glow and
2-Don’t wait 18 years of Utah living before going to Arches National Park.

Be My Guest! Be my Guest!

After living in my home for 4 years I finally got around to really decorating the guest room. It had looked like this. But now it looks like this—with just some cream-colored paint, fabric, and a few accesories. I did it all in one day, which drives my friend Liz nuts, (“Did you just whip that up?”)but that’s how I operate. I hate lingering projects so I painted all morning, hit the stores for accesories after lunch, and sewed up the pillows that afternoon/evening.

I am most proud of the awesome orange dust ruffle. I bought a whole bolt of this Amy Butler August Fields fabric on clearance. Love it! I learned the best trick from a designer I used to work with. Instead of making ‘the deck’ for the dust ruffle (which never stays in place) just make the skirt portion and pin in place with twist pins (used to keep slip covers in place, found in home decor notions section at Joanns) or use a staple gun to hold in place. I opted for the staple gun this time. Most box springs are wood and easy to staple into. (Easy to remove as well.) And nobody will ever know!


I like to make my skirt as long as the three sides of the bed, plus 12” for each corner pleat. If you want pleats at the half-way points, make sure you add in extra fabric there as well. I like to add pleats at the half points only if I need to hide my seams where I had to piece the fabric together. This is a busy fabric, you can hardly see my seams, so I opted for just corner pleats. I serge the tops, hem the bottoms, and staple away! Total time for this project? Maybe 1 hour and just 2 1/2 yards of fabric.
I wanted to spruce up the pillows so I used some more of my bed skirt fabric for a pillow and also made a green pillow with my coral design in the center and dupioni silk.

I finished off the room with these greens lamps ($17 each) from Target and green mod frames from Alice Lane. How cute do my cheap-o $7 tables from Ikea look now?

Errrr….ignore the blank frames on the wall. I had those frames stacked in a closet, and thought they would look great, even though I haven’t printed any photos for the end ones yet. :) The chair in the corner was an old freebie spruced up with a white skirt. I made it years ago and still love it. The dresser sure needs a coat of green paint. That’ll be a summer job. So come stay with me dear friends! I make great pancakes for breakfast too.