Purging

I found a quick and easy little check list (here) for one woman's home.  I love the idea of Debbie's Sanctuary Challenge (which my irreverent mind will insist saying with a Quasimodo accent, 'Sanctuary!') but this week is super busy for me and I can't think of anything off-hand to do that won't pull me into a project quicksand.  But this seemed easy...and sanctuary facilitating.  So I'm doing some clutter cleaning.  I'm thinking 10 bags.

Sanctuary Challenge

This past weekend we had a speaker at church (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland) who talked about sanctuaries - and about how they should be a refuge from 'the world'.  The most important sanctuary we have is our own home. 

Here's my challenge this week:

Make at least one room...or failing that, PART of one room in your house a place where you (or a family member) can go and feel at peace and safe from the world. 

Let's see some pictures people!

Yam-Salsa Meatballs

I made meatballs on Sunday. Secretly. While the children were watching VeggieTales, I loaded the slow cooker and disposed of the evidence.

At dinner time, the children ate ecstatically. "I love this dinner!" said several children. Trevor asked me what was in it. I told him Costco meatballs. He said, "Yum! Maddie needs to know because I'm going to marry her when I grow up!"

We'll never mind this recipe was born because I had inadvertently picked up a can of yams at the store, not realizing we were out of cranberry sauce. 

Yam-Salsa Meatballs

frozen meatballs (about 2 lbs.)

small jar of mild salsa

large can of yams, drained

Fill the slow cooker about 2/3 full with frozen meatballs. Mash the yams with a fork (or blender). Stir in the salsa. Pour over the meatballs and stir. Cook on low for about 6 hours.

For cran-salsa meatballs, replace the yams with one small can of cranberry sauce.

Gallery Wall

The room's not done yet - but I thought I'd give you a peek at our gallery wall(s).

 

There's no rhyme or reason - except that Steve's relatives are on his side...mine are on my side.
Ignore the bookcase - that's next on my list.





Yes, I went with long curtains, horizontal stripes.



Goodwill steals

I really should know better than to try and take pictures in my bedroom after dark.  Oh well, you get what you get. I thought I'd give you a peek at my newest additions to "Roundup Time at the Lazy B" aka My Master Bedroom.



For $3 I snagged some kind of wooden thingy that was just right for a tv riser...after Andrew and I cut it in half.  So really, the tv riser ended up being $1.50.  The other half is on Steve's night stand...you'll just have to wait to see it.



For $3.50 Steve and I found this cool bench.  It's a bit deep for the space - nothing a table saw can't remedy.

I still haven't sorted out the Great Curtain Dilemma...but I am a step or two closer to a finished room.

Curtain Dilemma



I got a great deal on this Ralph Lauren fabric...the colors and style are right.



My problem is this: should I do traditional long curtains with the stripes vertical?



Or should I do short OR long with the strips horizontal.


Let's recap the choices:
1. Long w/ vertical stripes.
2. Long w/ horizontal stripes.
3. Short w/ horizontal stripes.

Simplicity 4947--Review

I've been sewing clothes lately and have only recently stepped into the black void of pattern sewing.  Sewing from a pattern has been an interesting trip--I find I am greatly inclined to do what I know how to do, sewing to my strengths and whatnot.  But when I cut out and assemble a pattern, I have to do other things--zippers, darts, etc.  Things I would never actually choose to do.

I really like vintage patterns (so much funner to sew something you KNOW you won't find at the store) and this one, found in the GW rummage bins for, like, 50 cents, said 'Jiffy'.  (That's for me!)  It was a awesome, awesome pattern to make my first dress on. Very simple and quick to do but classic.  It could look a ton of different ways based on the fabric and the accessorizing. 

I love the look in that blonde model's face. ("The secret plans for the nuclear weapons are mine, finally mine!  I will crush them all!")

"Hey, Floral Print. (blows cigarette smoke into her face) Nice hair. Why don't you make me some coffee while I take over the world." 

I had five yards of an off-beat Navajo-inspired print I picked up at the great GW for a song--I didn't love, love the print but figured it was cheap as dirt and...well, that's it, really.  It was cheap as dirt.  I wasn't going to cry if I botched the job.  I began cutting at 1pm in the afternoon and finished up that early evening (with tons of downtime because I had to make a run to JoAnne's for a zipper and pick Jonah up from scouts).  I left the hemline below the knee because Zac likes to roller-derby on my lap during sacrament meeting.

Box pleat!

But the neckline.  I had added some inches to the pattern to make it fit my curves which was all well and good for my hips but the subtle boat neckline was bowing out like the lid of that carton of cottage cheese in the fridge, a month past its sell-by date.  Kylene (a skeptical-of-my-Navajo-pattern Kylene) suggested a box pleat.  Instant awesome.  Zero effort.

Still, it needed a name.  The print, as I mentioned, has a little Indian-style Southwestern thing going on which reminds me of 50s sweater-girl Jane Russell.   

The 18-hour-bra for us 'full-figured' gals!

 I saw an interview of her on the Larry King show, maybe 10 years ago.  She was dripping in Southwestern turquoise.  In my callow youth I was icked out.  Turquoise.  Only old ladies wore turquoise.  Time has brought me around on the subject of turquoise.  The rock has grown on me.  And so has the idea of being over-dressed for Larry King. 

I call this "The Eighteen Hour Dress"

Maybe this means I'm an old lady now?