Someday...

I am just so dying over Alicia's brand new studio over HERE. I am so so wanty over it. Please go take a look.

Someday, I will have a room of my own where I can leave my sewing machine set up and have all of my supplies organized and accessible. I am grateful to have a dedicated craft closet, but it is currently a disaster. And I have to set up my sewing machine on the dining room table, so it's constantly being set up and put away over and over when I'm working on a project. And all those little quicky projects never get done because it always seems like too much work to set up for one little thing.

I've started saving inspiration photos for my someday studio. I'll share those soon, along with a peek inside the horrors of my craft closet and show you how I set up when I have everything out for a project.

Also, I've completed the first couple of projects from the Home Ec class! I'll have some pics of them soon!

To Haul Myself Out of a Rut

Oh, hello there, little blog. I am here. Still here. I've been in a rut for the past few months -- creatively, emotionally, physically, mentally. Today has felt like the culmination of a lot of neglect on my part, of myself. So, I've got to pull myself together and get back to the things that make me feel happy and fulfilled (beyond just being a Mom and Wife -- which I don't think I've been doing too well of a job with either, lately). I have definitely been feeling the lack of a creative outlet and in the past few days it's really been wearing on me.


I think I have found the perfect remedy. I've found something that will force me to be creative and to learn new skillz and to be productive. One of my very favorite crafty blog girls, Rachel at Smile and Wave, is co-teaching an online Home Ec class that started yesterday. I am so thrilled to be able to take this class. There is a new project everyday, each one teaching a new sewing skill. Many things I already know, but there are some great advanced things (like pattern reading and alterations) that I just can not wait to learn. I've been wanting to start making my own clothes for so long, but have always been too scared. I'm thinking this will break me into it and give me the confidence to continue.

Each project includes step-by-step instructions, lots of photos and even videos. Questions can be asked and there will be a few live chats with the teachers, too. The private blog will stay up for a year, so the projects can just be completed on my own schedule. I am so so excited.

And, good news, they've extended the registration to August 15, in case anyone wants to sign up! Just go HERE to read more about it, and let me know if you decide to join. I'll definitely be sharing my completed projects on this blog, so check back soon!

Food

Check out my new blog over here!! It's all about food!!

Something Delicious For You to Make and Eat

Holy crap people. Has it really been a month since I've shown my face around here? What on earth have a been doing? There was a week-long visit from the mother-in-law, a week of books taking precedence over computers, a week where I thought I was going to die from a series of maladies all plaguing me at once, and somehow, now here we are a month later. Ooops.

I haven't been working on much anyway. I do have one finished project to show you and a couple of things in progress. There are two quilts I need to get started on asap for weddings both less than a month away (yikes!!). And I have a huge stack of library books that I'm still reading my way through. So, you know.

"But what about this delicious something for me to make and eat?" you ask. I'm about to tell you. It is a minestrone soup. A soup I've made every week for about a month now. We've been eating it for lunch basically every day and we love it (even William!) It was originally based on a recipe from The New Basics Cookbook, but I've made so many alterations that it's really my own now. So here you go!


Cara's MINESTRONE (or, as William calls it, Rocket Soup)

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely diced
1 leek, finely diced (I only have made it with a leek once. It's good, but optional)
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 head of cabbage, roughly chopped into bite-size pieces
1 potato, peeled and diced (I also have used a parsnip, which was really good)
8 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt, to taste
15 oz red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
15 oz white kidney beans (or Great Northern), drained and rinsed
15 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (I get this from Trader Joe's and it's amazing -- it's tomatoes and green chilis. If you don't want a spicy soup, just use regular canned diced tomatoes)
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar(the "secret" ingredient that I think totally makes it!)
freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish

optional: Italian sausage, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

Heat olive oil over med-high in a large pot. Add garlic, onions, carrot and leek and cook until veg start to become tender (10 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally). Add cabbage, potato, stock and tomato paste and turn heat to high. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add 2 tablespoons of parsley along with the oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes.

Add beans, tomatoes and cider vinegar. Simmer until all veg are tender. Adjust seasonings and add sausage if desired. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons of parsley before serving. Serve with Parmesan.

(You can also add pasta to this at the end. Add a few ounces of a small pasta before adding the sausage and simmer until pasta is cooked. We leave out the sausage and pasta generally to reduce calories.)


This recipe yields 6-8 servings and is only between 200-300 calories per serving (without sausage or pasta)! It makes for a tasty, quick, healthy, filling-but-not-heavy lunch. And, like all soups, I like this more the day after it's made. All the flavors really come out and blend.

I will be sad when these veggies go out of season (they've all been coming in our CSA box), but will be just that much more excited to make it next winter! That is the joy of eating seasonally -- you're not likely to burn out if you can only have them at certain foods at certain times of the year! It really makes you not take anything for granted, too. Which is a lesson we all need to learn. :)

P.S. Sorry about the lack of a photo! You'll just have to make this yourself so you can see it. :)

EDIT: Got a photo finally! Doesn't it look delicious??

APPlesauce Guest Blog!

My fun friend Marné asked me to do a guest blog for her iPhone App review blog APPlesauce (how cute is that name?). I was nervous and of course as soon as I sat down to write THE POST, all words just flew out of my brain. But I managed to write something up that is actually pretty coherent, so I'm impressed. Ha!



I got to try out this application called Stylebook. You use it to create looks with clothes from your own wardrobe, or -- my favorite -- to create dream outfits from clothing photos you get off the web. I love it so much. There are photos of some of my fantasy looks included in the review post. Go drool over them.

While you're there, check out the whole blog -- it's really cool! Reviews on all kinds of different iPhone apps and also photos that Marné shoots and edits with her iPhone. <3 iPhone <3

The Help

I have another book recommendation for y'all. My mom brought this book down for me to read way back in October. With the holidays and whatnot, I didn't get around to reading it until just a couple weeks ago. And I looooved it.



The Help is set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi and is about the relationship between white women and their black maids. The story is so engaging and compelling. There are funny parts but, like most great books, it's pretty heartbreaking.

I hope the author writes more novels (I want a sequel to The Help -- I love the characters and want to find out what happened to them all); I really enjoyed her writing. The Help is her first and only book so far. Everyone should most definitely read it!

I Am The Walrus

I made this stuffed Walrus in 7th grade in home-ec. But never actually completed him (I wonder what kind of grade I got?). He was missing his moustache and the stuffing hole wasn't sewn closed. He's been sitting around in various storage boxes in various storage facilities for these 15 years.

Until today. It took approximately 6 minutes to cut out a new moustache, applique it on, and sew the hole closed. A procrastination world record maybe?

William loves him. The Walrus sits on his bed, in all his mustachioed stateliness.