The art of sewing

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daily life, everyday life, lack of skill, postaday2013, projects, repetition, sewing

I laugh at myself, fairly often I must say and I will tell you why. As I was walking Jack for the third time this afternoon; I was thinking about what to write for today’s post. My mind was going down the list of things that I had done and read about today and I was wondering how to spice up the typical day that I go through. And then it hit me; I actually did something out of the ordinary today, perfect topic to write about. The reason why I laughed at myself is because until I started rattling down the day’s timeline, I had forgotten that I had broken out the sewing box.

This morning, before the baby girl left to go back to college to start her second semester she asked me if I could sew and repair this odd rip in her favorite fitted sheet that makes up her coordinating sheet set. I said sure, why not. We said our good bye’s, hugged and kissed and she went with the baby boy, her chauffeur, off back to school.

I never learned how to sew; my mother learned at school but at my schools there weren’t any home economic courses provided at all; just reading, writing and arithmetic. Looking back I think that a cooking class, a sewing class, a home accounting class and a basic tools course would do a service to both adolescent girls and boys.

Back to the repair of the fitted sheet; the tear was an L shape and it wasn’t near any seam, so I had to piece it together with needle and thread. Funny enough, once I start sewing; I say once I got started because threading the needle is probably my biggest challenge, between the squinting and the shaking; it was a miracle that I actually got it done. As I was saying, once I start sewing, I don’t mind it too much. I tried to make the stitches as small as possible but with the challenge of joining the torn pieces, the stitches didn’t come out as pretty as they might have been. Honestly I looked like I had challenged Doctor Frankenstein in the stitching department or perhaps it was more Igor, you decide when you look at the photos.

The important thing is that I finished it. I will have to remember to wash the sheet in the delicate cycle because I don’t know if the stitches will hold up to much rough and tumble action. I even double stitched the tear but I am still not confident on the strength of my stitching.

So you see, not every one of my days is typical or dull, I have excitement here in the hills of Blandford.

Dear reader

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audience, blogging, daily life, letter writing, postaday2012, posts

• Who do you picture reading your blog? Write them a letter.

• Dear reader,
  Thanks for stopping by and visiting. It makes me feel really happy to think that you took the time out of your busy day to come see what I have to say about myself and my life. It makes me feel special and I hope that I gave you something to smile about or laugh about or even dare I hope, something to think about? As I write my little posts every day, you are always in my thoughts, I wonder will you be interested or will you even care. As my day go by I often find myself thinking “oh I have to write about that to tell my readers, I wonder what they might think” So you see, even if I don’t know you, I think about you everyday.

Searching for something to write about

Tags

daily life, food, home cooking, pictures, postaday2012

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I took these two pictures because since I had finished my series in “Travels Through France” I realized that I didn’t have much to share with my friends now that I was back to my day-to-day existence here in Blandford. In retrospect, I should have taken the two roasted chickens on my cell phone because they did look very pretty, all golden crispy brown, but I wasn’t thinking of posting or blogging at the moment.

I am getting ahead of myself, the salad is a roasted chicken salad with diced celery, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard and mayonnaise. The drill with chicken in this house is, first comes the roasting and once everyone has had their fill of dark meat and light, I take the paring knife to the birds,not my favorite thing to do because it is messy and a little fatty, and I cut up all the meat in small pieces, dice up the celery with the heart and leaves and mix everything together with mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. It is a very nice chicken salad, I don’t normally eat chicken and I like it.

The other picture is of one of my favorite vegetable dishes, a zucchini saute. Basically it’s a lot of onion and garlic diced and sautéed until translucent, I then add the zucchini diced along with chopped basil and parsley. Once everything is tender, I add a little bit of tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. It doesn’t look like much, I’m sure, but it is mighty good. I have that for dinner and I know that I did something good for my body.

I am still not feeling well and my addled brain is trying to put words together in some sort of entertaining form. I don’t know if I have been successful but I figure I might as well try to write rather than let myself fall out of practice. Falling out of practice can come very easily, I am still trying to get back into my novel. I haven’t touched it since right before I left for France on July 17th. I have to re-establish my writing timetable. Hopefully, next week when I feel stronger I can get back to my two characters Madeleine and Jack, get them out of France and into New York City 1926.

That’s all I have for today, two pictures, some good food and a confession of a lapse in writing discipline. Must not beat myself up too badly over my novel, I might develop writers block if I stress too much. I really don’t want that to happen.