I'm Going Cruising!

As you read this, I will be boarding the Enchantment of the Seas for a weekend cruise to Nassau! I will be back on Monday, no doubt with pictures (be prepared!). It will be so nice to just not have to worry about doing anything for a few days, lol. Of course I'm bringing a few knitting projects as well as a few books since I plan on just enjoying the ride. I'm never really into the ship activities, so I will make my own fun :)

I'll be back on Monday! Enjoy your weekend :)

Book Review: My Life in France by Julia Child

It's been way to long since I posted a book review, I know. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading though! I actually have a big group of books I plan to review at once when I'm finished entirely, so that is to come soon.

As a precursor to this review, just know that I did not want to read this because of the movie Julie and Julia. I hated that movie. So, moving on...

I picked this book up a few months ago on Half.com and I just got a chance to read it. The book begins when Julia and her husband, Paul, move to Paris for the USIS. Her husband works while she tries to figure out what to do with herself. She learns French and quickly falls in love with the people, the customs, and especially the food. She decides to attend Le Cordon Bleu which starts her lifelong passion for cooking and teaching.

I love the amount of detail paid to her day to day routine while she is writing Mastering The Art of French Cooking and the turmoil she went through just to have it published. My husband bought me her cookbook set several years ago for my birthday (at my request), and I have always enjoyed everything I've made from them. Now that I've read the back story of the book, it gives me a much deeper appreciation of the care and perfectionism that went into making it. Julia is part cook part scientist and tested out every possible option of ingredients on top of every mistake that could be made so that she could tell the reader with surety what to use and how to fix things that go wrong. She also took a lot of time converting the French recipes to use American ingredients, which were extremely different at the time (and let's face it, it's still almost impossible to get crème fraîche here) and can yield different results. She deliberately made the book fool proof so that anyone could make a delicious, authentic French meal just by following her instructions. She also went into great detail to explain all the different methods of preparation needed for each recipe. Reading this book makes me want to read her cookbooks like a book! They are designed to be like a culinary course in your home - pretty fantastic if you ask me.

One of my favorite pics from the book. They sent this out as a Valentine card to their friends and family one year, lol.

I love the casual way this was written. You can absolutely hear Julia Child saying everything - it's like she is talking to you through the book. She uses cute words like phooey, lol. She is a very interesting but also very kind and open person and that really shows through in this book. On top of that she uses quite a bit of French in the book, some of which isn't translated for the reader. It will sound ridiculous, but I studied French for most of my life (it was even my major in college), so I get a snooty kick out of the fact that I could read and understand everything, lol. But hey, it's about France so it needs a little snootiness.

I absolutely loved this book. It is very engaging and I just wanted to keep reading it to see what happened to her next. If you have any interest in cooking, France, or Julia Child (or all 3!), I highly recommend giving this a read. You will enjoy it :)

Thrilling Thrifting!

While on my lunch break yesterday, I went by a local church thrift store. I check there about once a week since it's so close to work and I usually come out with a little thing every now and then. Yesterday though, I hit the mother load. I had to make myself not look at several sections so that I could get back to work and not spend any more money, lol. Check out what I found:

I've literally never seen a single record album in this store before. As I was looking in their back room, I saw a man huffing and puffing while separating a large pile of new items and taking them to their sections in the store and there they were - a big stack of records. And these weren't the average Christmas and Christian 70s music records I usually find around here - they were all music that people sill listen to. I jumped on the stack and started going through them afraid that someone else would swoop in and buy them before I could, lol. I looked at each record I was interested in to see the actual lp's condition (how scratched it was), and I came out with these 14: The Beatles - The White Album, Let It Be, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, 1962 - 1966; The Eagles - Hotel California; Styx - Paradise Theater; Van Halen - Van Halen; Kansas - Point of Know Return; Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys; James Taylor - Sweet Baby James; Queen - News of the World; Lynyrd Skynard - Skynard's First and Last; The London Howling' Wolf Sessions with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts. I went home last night and had a great little listening session and I am seriously amazed at the quality of these records - they play perfectly! I started it off with Van Halen and then switched to The Beatles and so on and so forth. It was pretty awesome.

I also found this nice little lithograph. It looks like a print that has been water colored by hand and it is all butterflies and flowers but in a funky blue and yellow color scheme. I think it will look nice somewhere in our house - I know I'll paint the outer frame silver though. It's really nicely matted and framed and here is what made it even cooler:

It says 95/200 Fantasia and is signed Pearl Abrams across the bottom. I've tried looking up the artist and can't really find much on her. Anyone know where to look? I did find 2 other lithographs of hers that were selling for $100 - $150, so that's reassuring :) I honestly just bought it because I liked it, but it's nice that it make be worth something too.

I also grabbed a Shrek cup from McDonald's for 50¢ (I have a little collection of these and we use them all the time) and this funky floral printed polyester twin sized flat sheet (yes, polyester, you read that right, lol). It's got a little sheen to the it and I figure I will use it as fabric.

So that was my bit of excitement so far this week :) How about you?

Weekend Update: 2 Week Edition!

I've been up to all kinds of things the last 2 weeks and I have yet to blog about the, lol. So I figured I would just combine it all into one mega post - lucky you :) I started off last weekend by finishing all the painting around my bay window to finish off my wall I was working on in the living room. I also changed out all 4 sets of blinds there. It sounds like a simple thing, but it was seriously a lot of work - there will be a separate post about that later.

Once the window was done, the only thing left before moving the furniture back was to change out the old light sockets. The sockets all over my house are not only yicky cream colored, but most of them have been painted on or all scratched up as well - no so pretty. So, I changed them out:

Two of those are actual plugs, the other is just a plain cover. Originally there was a large cable just in a knot and sticking out of the wall. We still have no idea what type of cables they were - it wasn't tv cable or a phone line - so we just pushed it back into the wall and covered it with a plain cover. Now it looks great! No more big hole!

After completing those sockets, I was on a roll and continued with more sockets upstairs. Out bedroom has been painted since before we moved in, but the switches and whatnot have remained old and without covers ever since - which meant there were big dark holes in the wall everywhere. So, I changed out 2 light switches:

As well as covering one with a plain cover (like in the living room) and 5 double plugs. One of the plugs was a home-done install that tapped into the switch for the closet light. It was really difficult to do (the box wasn't mounted right so it kept pushing into the wall as I screwed into it), and on top of that they cut the hole for the box too wide. A normal plate cover just wouldn't hack it. I ended up having to go to Lowe's and buy an extra large cover. Here is the difference:

Quite a difference, huh?(sorry for the crappy photos) Of course that extra large plat was double the price, but they are really cheap anyway so oh well :) After the sockets I finally hung something on the wall in there!

So that was one weekend down and I was definitely pleased with my progress :) This past weekend I decided to keep the momentum going. I've been putting off painting my vent covers for the living room ever since we moved in. It's been on my list and all, but the weather here just hasn't permitted much outdoor spray painting.

 So I finally buckled down and decided I've had holes in my nice finished walls long enough and painted them :) I started with 2 coats of Rustoleum Metal Primer in White, then finished off with 2 coats of Rustoleum Spray Paint in Semi-Gloss White. I went with semi-gloss to match the trim in the room and it worked great. I even bought new screws and painted the tops white to match!

This is my intake vent cover in its permanent spot - directly next to the tv so we see it all the time. It is SOOOO nice to not see a giant hole into the air conditioner cabinet! While I was in there I also replaced that plug too :)

To install the vent cover I had to move the couch and get the ladder in there (the vent is about 12 feet up). While I had the couch moved I decided to change that plug as well :)

And here is my vent cover now :) Isn't it great?! lol Seriously if someone had told me I would be this excited about vent covers one day, I would have said they were crazy. But there is no denying it - I'm ecstatic with how they look. I was also inspired to finally hang this big metal wall art. I bought it at Target at least 5 months ago when it was half price in the clearance isle. It seemed huge in the store and even around my house before I hung it, but look how small it looks on that huge wall, lol. That just goes to show you how big that wall really is. I can't wait to get actual pictures up there around it.

The best part about completing all these little things in the living room is that they were literally the finishing touches in their areas. I can now look at a totally finished section of my house :) It's a great feeling.

Mending Monday: Button Replacement Tips

Today's Mending Monday may seem a bit silly to write a full post on as it's probably the simplest/most commonly done mend ever - replacing a button. My husband recently mentioned how he basically has no pants to wear since they all have lost a button or don't fit, including these cargo shorts that he loves.

Immediately feeling like a bad wife, I sprung into action. I have kind of a strange but cool section of my button stash:

My lovely friend Tara gave me a brown paper bag full of these cards with buttons on them that she picked up at an estate sale. They are cards that they button Rochester Button Company salespeople would have to show customers their products! The only draw back to this nifty little set (I have like 15 cards that are much more full of buttons than this one) is that there is only one of each button. This worked out perfectly for my situation though!

So I selected a button that not only matched the shorts best (it's not perfect, but it's close),but was also the best size - you don't want a button that is the same width as your button hole - it needs to be a little smaller so it will go through the hole. Just try pushing the button through the hole if you're not sure. Next I grabbed my matching khaki colored thread and got to work. Here is a little trick that hopefully will make this silly post worthwhile for you. If you run your needle and thread through beeswax before sewing the button on, it will make it hold better! The beeswax on the threads will bond to itself, making it much harder to break as well as protecting the thread from fraying, which would also cause a break. The beeswax is very cheap in these little containers (so you don't get your sewing box all waxy) or you could just use a block of wax - it would work either way. Once I slide it through the wax, I stitched that bad boy on.

There was still a little tuft of string where the old button sat, so I knew exactly where to sew the button on. If you don't have that, you can look for the holes, or if your fabric doesn't show holes just zip the pants up and see where the fly naturally sits when closed and sew the button there.

Remember to sew diagonally from hole to hole (make an x pattern), and keep the stitches in the same place - this will make your sewing stronger than if you have the stitches spaced out on the back of the piece. I tie my buttons off with a knot I use in knitting - you pull the thread through itself part way to make another loop, pull it down tight, then put the thread completely through and pull it all tight. It makes for added security as it's basically a double knot.

Et Voilà! My husband can now wear his beloved shorts again. Now I just have to tackle the rest of his unwearable pants :)

Check back next Monday for another adventure in mending!

Craftsy: New Free Class - Sew Ready: Machine Basics

This class was released at a very ironic time. My younger sister moved to Japan about a month ago. She knows she will want something to do and she doesn't have to many time consuming hobbies, but she wants to learn to sew. She is getting a machine for her birthday but she was saying that she didn't know how to go about learning everything since she will be far, far away from our mom and me and anyone else who could help explain things to her. About 30 minutes after that conversation, I signed into my Craftsy account and found this class:

Seriously, was that not just meant to be? lol The timing for this class release is just perfect. Now I know that my sister will be able to have someone show her the basics of her machine while she is away from us. Amy Alan is the teacher of this class and I can affirm that she does a great job. She is also the teacher of Basic Serging, so I've had experience watching her. This class shows:

• how to clean and oil your machine
• explains the tools that come with most machines and how to use them
• fixing common beginner sewing problems
• how to thread your machine
• how to use specific feet and needles
• how to change feet and needles

This is a great crash course in using a sewing machine. I'm so glad they released this class now so that my sister will have a little help in getting used to the wonderful world of sewing :)

This class is FREE! To get this class for yourself, just go here and sign up for Craftsy. It's free to join and they have a slough of great free mini classes including this one. You can watch your classes any time and as many times as you want - for life! Pretty awesome. So what are you waiting for?