Sewing Machine Cover

This week I finally checked sewing machine cover off of my “to do” list. Very simple. Very satisfying.

Tough Stains

This weekend the stain of ALL stains happened. Black (BLACK!!!!) nail polish spilt on my light beige carpet. The result of my man clearing the coffee table, he’s slightly clumsy. However not nearly as clumsy as I. This wasn’t our first stain, just the worst. In the past we managed to remove dark red wax as well as red wine. This stain was different though, I instantly felt defeated. Luckily my boyfriend is extremely calm and patient and persisted to remove the stain as I shouted out things to try as I read stain removing blogs. It took about a hour but WE DID IT. You can barely see it!

Heres now: Make sure you keep the stain wet, use rubbing alcohol, laundry detergent. Use blotting method to avoid making the stain bigger. After doing this we tried hair spray which was the miracle worker. We continued to use the above over and over taking breaks to vacuum the area. SUCCESS!

Fail!

This week my man and I attempted to make homemade whole wheat bread… twice. Don’t let the picture below fool you. Both attempts were a complete fail! First attempt we didn’t let the yeast sit. Second attempt we substituted margarine for shortening and honey for molasses… didn’t think it would be such a big deal. Oh well, third times a charm?

Playing Catch-up!

I’m back! Haven’t posted a blog for over a week due to “birthday week” and of course Valentines Day. So in this post I’m including two weekly reviews… enjoy.

I’ve made lots of cookies in the past however the dough usually comes from my old friend Mr. Pillsbury. This time I thought I would put some extra time and effort into it and make cookies from scratch. Pretty easy and definitely tastier! All I did was slightly alter the Toll House recipe.

My version of cookie yummers:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 Hershey’s Chipits Skor
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts

Combine ingredients. Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes.

For my 27th birthday I finally took my learners driving test and PASSED! It only took my 11 years to do it!

Image above illustrated by Migy.

Skiing!

This week I had the opportunity to learn how to ski! I have to admit I don’t know how to skate, rollerblade or do anything else that involves a risk factor. So I was terrified the first time I went up the bunny hill… yes thats right I was scared of the bunny hill. As I watched little children continuously pass me I tried to calm my legs from furiously shaking, so by the time I got to the bottom I took a long deserved break.

This is when my boyfriend and I decided to snowshoe up and down Wentworth for Get Up There, a fundraiser and event that raises the awareness in Nova Scotia about Colorectal Cancer. When we got back to the bottom I was determined to conquer the bunny hill! Luckily Nadine (fellow co-worker/previous ski instructor) was determined that she could teach me. I followed the pizza/frie technique (terms used for slowing down and speeding up) and also learned how to turn thanks to my very patient instructor. I can successfully ski down the bunny hill YAY!. Thanks Mike, Angela, Drew and Aaron for cheering me on and helping me along the way!

Snowshoeing up Wentworth, only half way there!

I think this little guy was trying to encourage us. It was a long hike! well worth it though, it was a beautiful hike and it was for a great cause.

Pancakes!

This week I had a mad craving for pancakes! My creative partner Lindsey of like a hamster on a wheel suggested that I should make them from scratch. If you bake at all… you probably have everything you need and the recipe is pretty simple. Its hard to mess up so try adding fruit or cinnamon to flavor them up. So far my favorite pancake concoction is cinnamon and apple mmmmm.

My pancake recipe:

2 eggs
1 1/4 c of milk
2 tsp of vanilla
3 tbsp of butter (or margarine)
1 1/2 c of all purpose flour
3/4 tsp of salt
2 tsp of baking powder
2 tbsp of sugar

The Purl Stitch

This week I finished my first purl stitch scarf! The purl stitch is really quite simple, its the knit stitch done backwards. What I really love about this scarf is the stripe pattern!

Purl how to:

Stripe how to:
1. Knit one row, purl the next. Do this for ten rows.
2. To get the stripe effect I duplicated the tenth row. For example if my tenth row was purl I did a second row of purl. This alternates which side the “knit look” is on.
3. Continue repeating step one and two until you have the desired length of your scarf. Don’t forget if you finish your scarf on a purl stitch you need to do a purl cast off.

Folded-paper CD case

For the new year I’ve decided to try something new every week. Whether its big like traveling to a new place or small like trying a new recipe. I’ll try my best to include “how to” information for all of my “Weekly Review” posts, so If your interested you can try it too. 2010 will be a year or new experiences!

Starting the year off with a very handy, simple project. Props needed: 8.5″ by 11″ paper and a CD.

Step 1. Find a piece of paper, I recommend grabbing something out of your recycling bin.

Step 2. Center the CD in the middle of the paper, fold in the sides of paper to sides of CD.

Step 3. Fold paper in half.

Step 4. Unfold paper. Fold top half to meet half way fold.

Step 5. Fold horizontal creases to sides to make a 45 degree fold, creating a box-shape sticking up toward you.

Step 6. Fold the flap down, this will create tabs on either side.

Step 7. Tuck the tabs that are sticking out into the sides.

Step 8. If you did the last step correct, you just created a pocket!

Step 9. Insert the CD.

Step 10. Dog-ear the top two corners of the top half of paper.

Step 11. Fold down top half of paper.

Step 12. Slip top half of paper into pocket.