Battle of the Wills - the Cat Won!

The computer screen is behind the cat and the cat, as usual, has plans to bathe and sleep in front of said screen . . . even if I can't see the screen to do my work. After all . . . what is more important. Frustrated, as I did have letters to write and other work to do, I warned the cat that if she didn't move, I was going to get the camera and take her picture. Guess my threat fell on deaf cat ears and she didn't move but I got a couple of really great pictures of the cat.

Strawberry Poke Cake - Gluten-Free Style!

I'm a terrible mother. I have children with December birthdays within two days of each other and I just realized that we were so busy finishing off my daughter's December Birthday Cake that I forgot to make another one for my son . . . two days later. I have been much forgiven as we had fun having a very, very late birthday dinner and cake for him over the weekend. He is a good-natured kid and didn't even realize the omission himself! Strawberry Poke Cake was his choice and I even found a gluten-free cake recipe that turned out great even without the gluten.  It was topped off with homemade whipped cream and my son managed to get two large slices down without a problem! Anyone was a recipe for an easy but very good gluten-free cake, let me know.

How to Build a Pope - Embroidery Machine Style!

 As I mentioned before, I discovered a great photo stitch design of the Pope for my embroidery machine. It takes six changes of thread color to complete and over two hours. Thought I'd show you the start to finish of what the process looks like. The first time I used this pattern, I was sort of worried by the fourth frame and wondered if it would, in fact, turn out to look anything like our Holy Father. As you can see, trust the pattern and the machine as it turns out with a very good likeness.

Summer Salad

Our first weekend of really warm weather has let us know the heat of summer is definitely on its way. In honor of the weather, I composed a cold grilled meat salad for dinner last night. Needing a third salad for the plate, I came up with this one and wanted to share. It was surprisingly good considering the ingredients were very simple.

Celery Apple Corn Salad
2 Gala apples (or your favorite!) diced
5 ribs of celery, diced
1/2 cup frozen corn, defrosted and drained
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (lime is good, too)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Good pinch of dried Tarragon leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
 Salt to taste
Just a dash of cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together to incorporate the mayonnaise and spices into the diced ingredients. Taste for seasoning. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. If you make it ahead of time, the flavor meld together even better. Goes well with slices of cold, grilled chicken or beef.

Long Live the Pope!

 The minute the new Pope made an appearance, I wondered if anyone would be putting together a machine embroidery pattern. A quick Google search found one that was only okay and they were charging five dollars. I didn't need one that badly! Today, I was browsing embroidery sites and came across this pattern . . . for free! My kind of discount. Of course, I had to immediately download it to the sewing machine and give it a try. It was a dense pattern with over 76,000 stitches and took two hours. Naturally, I didn't have to sit there while the machine did its work. I always try to second-guess the machine and if I sit there and watch it work, I'm sure to yelp with dismay when it seems the machine doesn't know what it is doing . . . but it always does once the project is finished. I'm happy with my first attempt. I'm thinking of doing another one only with sepia tints to give it that old photograph look.

Haunted bobbin box . . .

 Since I started my new hobby of machine embroidery, I've needed quite a few more thread colors to make the designs and, of course, corresponding bobbins for the sewing machine. My husband got  the handy bobbin boxes in hopes of me keeping them untangled. It has worked . . . sort of!

Today, I had some free time so got out my sewing machine and threads to spend the afternoon creating. I set the two bobbin boxes on the kitchen table and walked the two or three steps to the sewing table. I sat down and stretched my foot out to press the pedal to get the sewing machine going. Behind me, one of the bobbins rattled loudly in the box . . . all by itself. Startled, I soon figured out that one of them might have been set in it's slot at an angle and just fell into place.

I continued sewing then got up to get another bobbin. Again, I sat down to sew and one of the bobbins popped up and rattled as soon as I started using the pedal on the machine. Earthquake? That only affected one bobbin? I shrugged and continued my work.

I finished the task at hand and had to go into the entry way where my spools of thread are stored. The moment I got past the sewing machine, the same pesky bobbin jumped up into the air, rolled off the table and rattled off into a corner . . . seemingly, by itself! Since it was broad daylight without dark shadows lurking, I went after the bobbin and picked it up. It had unrolled itself of a length of it's thread so I started rewinding it as I walked back to the kitchen table. I kept winding and winding as a huge amount of thread has escaped the captivity of the bobbin. Suddenly, I felt a pull on my shoe. I looked down and saw that the end of the thread was caught in my shoe lace. The answer to the 'spirited' bobbin! Every time I walked around the kitchen, it would pull the thread and jiggle the bobbin but when I walked further afield, it yanked it right out of the tray. Whew! Glad to discover the bobbin had no other abilities than being a handy, plastic item to hold my sewing machine thread!

Christmas, already?

 Not to worry, there are still a bunch of shopping days until Christmas. I've just started getting embroidery patterns done now so I can dedicate a day for turning them into tote bags for gifts or selling during the distant holiday season. I liked the primitive effect of the artwork for this design. Hey, sometimes a cute Nativity scene works, too!