Busy Week

The sewing room has been really busy and it’s only Wednesday.

I’m starting off with a product review of the Clover Desktop Ultimate Needle Threader that I purchased at Joann Fabrics a while back.  Oh my gosh, it is so helpful.  I’m working on an embroidery project and as many of you crafters know, you work with 18 inches of DMC double thread when you sew.  That isn’t much and you change your thread often.

I found myself spending so much time trying to thread a needle without the Clover that I had to retrieve my new little gadget to give it a try.  It took a bit to get the hang of the process but it’s been a time saver.

This project is a birthday gift for a friend which is long overdue.  I’m a fan of Brynwood Needlework’s and Donna Liljegren’s fine work in all things handmade.  She is an embroidery instructor as well as a quilt instructor and has quite a following.  On January 11^th she was preparing for a class she was teaching involving wool and embroidery.  The Crabapple pattern was so adorable and it fed my long time desire to work on a wool project I figured after the wedding this would give me something to do.  Just faire warning the embroidery work on Crabapple is addicting.

Here are a few pictures of that project.  I’m in the home stretch.  I haven’t had an embroidery needle in my hand for quite some time therefore I had to relearn stitches.  I did however find a fabulous site to help you relearn your stitches.  Mary Corbet is the goto woman when it comes to BEAUTIFUL needlework.  Her site Needle n Thread has wonderful videos on all the stitches.  (I just love the internet.)

And lastly, I get lost in time and really don’t remember what day it is or the position of the month.  For some reason May has been an exceptional month for me forgetting time continuum.  Meaning, it’s Quilt Guild time this Thursday and I’m behind.  Here are the blocks I’m working on for our BOM demonstration.  I thought I had one more week.

I need to get back to work.  I have lots to accomplish in the next two days.

What’s for dinner? Grilling Pork Tenderloins

I purchased the Nordstrom Family Table Cookbook a while back.  I love dining at their restaurant.  They serve creative dishes and it’s just fun.  I’ll never forget my friend and her hubby bringing me the shrimp and polenta salad when I was convalescing after double knee replacement .  Such a good friend!

Many of Nordstrom Café’s daily recipes are in this book.  MANY!  Unfortunately there isn’t a photo with every recipe.  Boo.  I didn’t pay attention and thought there was a picture in the book therefore; I did not take a picture.  (I know, short term memory moment.)

Pork tenderloin is one of the better cuts of pork for those of us working on being healthier.  I like it because there’s lots of left overs.  If you’re a big family, not so much, but because there’s just two of us and a serving portion is between 3 and 4 ounces, yep, there’s a lot of left overs.  Plus, it’s inexpensive and you can freeze them to pull out for another day when they’re on sale.

I have not used this marinade before but I make something similar without the red wine vinegar.  Just saying, THIS IS A KEEPER.  For those of you who love to grill, this is a delicious quick way to make your tenderloin taste amazing.

Pork Tenderloin Marinade

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil (I used Light EVOO)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (I used two)
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano, (I used dried)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used 1 teas.)
• ½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
• 2 pork tenderloins (1 ¼ pounds each)

In a small bowl whisk all of your ingredients till incorporated.  Place the tenderloins into your zip lock bag and pour the marinade over the tenderloins.    Zip it up.  Marinate the loins for an hour but no longer than two hours.  Be sure to turn it over a few times.

Using indirect heat on your grill, grill till the internal temperature is 160° or 170° depending upon how you like it.  Rest the loins for 10 minutes and slice into ½ inch slices.  One serving is three to four slices and it’s plenty.

I served this with a fruit salad.

Happy grilling!

Daughter’s Brunch

My daughter offered to have Mother’s Day Brunch because she wanted to use her new dining room table and all her things she received from her wedding.  Plus, her mother-in-law’s birthday happened to be on Mom’s Day too.  (Happy bday again Paula.)

So many times we’ve heard other married ladies say wouldn’t it be nice to have a shower 10, 20 or 30 years later since styles change AND so do we.  Looking at the table scape you can tell she did a fantastic job of pulling her colors together when she registered for her items.  Grey, yellow and white with not only the lovely bowls but in her placemats, napkins, place settings, and the color of her tabletop all compliment each other.  I have to  hand it to her, she does have some color sense.

The brunch was good too.  I’m a low carb person so I was really pleased with the “Pinterest” ham and egg cups.  That link may not be THE one, but pretty close.  Actually being a past D300 Board member and D300 Foundation founder I love the idea that this sprouted from Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham.  There are many other variations on this little dish.  I took two and shared one with Daisy our little Schnauzer.

She also had a yogurt parfait buffet with the family favorite egg bake.  There was a delicious coffee cake available too.  She served vanilla Greek yogurt.  I’ll be using that from now on.

Notice little Layla hanging out for the big drop.  She is just one of the four dogs at the brunch.  I should’ve gotten a photo of THAT.  There’s a lot of Pug love in that home.

 

Closet Lipo Time

A year ago my husband asked that we have a garage sale after the kids moved out.  Well that time has come.  He was so helpful in creating a place to hang up the really nice things.  Two ladders and a shelving unit piece.

With my daughter getting married and my son becoming a prosecutor in a different county we’re empty nesters for some time to come.

There’s books, appliances, bedding, towels, storage devices, two desks, dog beds, ….lordy here we go.

One good thing, I have to perform lipo on my closet of the 24, 22, 20’s clothing.  One bad thing that I really feel badly about, they’re beautiful pieces of clothing and I don’t have the confidence to refashion the clothing like a few of the very confident bloggers I follow.

They are:

• Renegade Seamstress – Beth
• Miss P  – Portia
• Sewville – Kerrri
• Goodbye Valentino – Sarah

I’m certain they’d make skirts out of the pants.  I can’t even imagine what they’d do with the suit jackets.  Maybe I should ask them.

Plus size Bloggers – Love this

I was chatting with my daughter who attended Torrid’s boot camp for store managers.  She was recently made a store manager which she just really loves.   (FYI, proud mom.)  Torrid is a contemporary store for the plus size woman – I like to think of it as fashion for the younger curvy woman.  Christine let me know that she met a few plus size bloggers at Torrid HQ.  I must be living in a hole, because I had no idea, but then I really don’t check out sites for style – I pretty much check out sites for sewing, quilting and recipes.  My universe is small.

I entered the google zone and voila!  Plus size bloggers.  I listed just a few of them and they are quite sassy lovely ladies having the time of their lives.  I’ve checked out what they are writing about and some of them are quite successful.  They’re invited to MANY style houses, events, etc. to offer their opinion on what the billion dollar (YES BILLION plus) plus size industry needs more of.

I gravitated to Girl with Curves – I just liked the name – and Tanesha Awasthi is just a beautiful woman.  Her style is lovely.  I see in one of her posts that she was wearing an H&M skirt which only goes up to size 14.  She is probably on the low end of plus-size but wears it amazingly well.  What I like is that she takes the runway and converts it to her own style and provides outlets for shoppers to purchase like type things because honestly, I love Tori Burch but $200+ for flats, not so much.

Many plus size  people feel the fashion industry is ignoring them.  I think in part they do not know how to style for the curvy folk.  If you go into the Kohl’s women’s section, it’s really a top that looks like a box with no style and it’s usually brown or black with a magenta thrown in for good luck.  JCP the same way.  H & M who really doesn’t sell to the plus sized market, or the normal person as per Huffington Post, only goes up to size 12 or 14.

Target with it’s high-low designer apparel collections bring in the multitudes but disappoint when the items don’t reach to ALL their customers.  I’m hoping with the new 3.1 Phillip Lim collection coming out in September, Target finds their heart.   It’s a sad day when your newly found designers couldn’t address the size 16 and up during Target’s “special fashion” upgrade.  Thank heavens for Old Navy for they go up to 4X and deliver SAME clothing types as their regular customers.

Thank you to Talbot’s who does  style for the conservatively dressed career woman – I shop there almost exclusively.  You can find linens, lovely sweaters, beautiful pants that fit, jackets, and gorgeous dresses AND they’re designed just like the clothing for their other valued customers.   Torrid has changed significantly over the years.  I even purchased a few items that were very trendy.

I grabbed the links to the fashionistas off of Independent Fashion Bloggers site.   I think you’ll enjoy the excursion.

• Gabi Fresh
• Nicolette Mason
• The Curvy Fashionista
• Jay Miranda
• The Stiletto Siren
• Girl with Curves
• Style It
• Fatshion      Insider
• Curious Fancy
• Cupcake’s      Clothes
• Margie Plus
• Chubble      Bubble
• Pocket      Rocket
• Fat      Shopaholic
• Garner      Style

What’s for dinner? Marinated Flank Steak and Spring Rice

We had a visit from an insurance nurse yesterday (she was SO fun) so we couldn’t eat after 12pm and our appointment was at 6pm.  When you think about NOT eating it makes you crazy hungry.  Hubs asked if I wanted to go to a restaurant after the visit and I indicated we would have to WAIT for our food, so no.

Instead, thinking ahead, I marinated a flank steak and made the rice side after she left.  I really had a taste for an Asian flavor.  The steak turned out well and it was quick on the grill.

Flank Steak

• 1.3 pound flank steak

Marinade

• 2 T low sodium soy sauce
• 1 T oyster sauce
• 2 gloves chopped garlic
• ½ teas restaurant style pepper
• 3 scallions sliced
• ¼ cup light extra virgin olive oil
• Zest of one lime
• Juice of one lime

Using your whisk, emulsify your ingredients.  Place the steak in a freezer bag and pour your marinade over the top.  You can marinade it over night, or for 3 hours like I did.

Using indirect heat, we turn the middle burner off, grill to your liking.   Five minutes on one side, fine on the next, then check for your level of preference.  If you’re wondering if it’s done, we usually cut it open in the middle to see if it’s what we want.  We put it back on the grill for 5 one side, and 5 on the other.  Hubs likes his well.  Me I like pink.

——

While Hubs was busy grilling, I made this really quick delicious rice side dish.  I think I’d like to make it with bulgur if I could ever find it.  Rice is not a friend to diabetics so I really load this up with the good carbs – vegetables.

The secret to this side dish is the dressing.  Fresh lime is my go to citrus.

Spring Rice side dish

Juice of one lime

• 1 cup of the mini carrots chopped
• 1 green pepper, seeded and diced
• 2 scallions, sliced
• 2 stalks of celery slivered
• 3 tablespoons of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 bag of Success brown rice, prepared

Dressing

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon restaurant ground black pepper
• Juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup extra light olive oil

 

Follow the directions on the Success rice packaged.

In a medium bowl place all your veggies and herbs.  Toss.  In a small bowl, add all the dressing ingredients and emulsify with a whisk.  Pour over your veggies and mix while you wait for your rice to be done.  When the rice is finished, drain well and add to the veggies.  Toss.

So we didn’t wait too long after the visit and dinner was done in a flash – or maybe 20 minutes.  And here’s a shout out to my new friend Nurse Mary.  Hey!

 

Where did Irish fairies come from?

Artist, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

There are two schools of thought.  Fairies as Gods – similar to Greek gods or fallen angels.

Paraphrasing Dr. Carolyn White, The History of Irish Fairies;

The divine folk, Tuatha De Danann from the mother goddess Dana, were gods from Greece.  They came to Ireland in a magic mist that hid the sun and them for three days and three nights.  The mortal race known as the high Milsian race, attacked and prevailed.  An agreement was struck between gods and men.  The Mils would inherit the earth’s surface and the defeated Tuatha De Danann would enter the sea caves and the bowels of earth.

The sidhe, or fairies, have retained their godly powers.  While the mortals won the battle, the fairies had the upper hand as they controlled the elements.  At their will crops prospered or withered.   The mortals appeased the gods and held fairs where the gods were honored.  This meant the fairies would protect the crops, ensure good fishing, and guaranteed protection from invaders.

As for fallen angels, during the fifth century when Christians came to Ireland, they needed to discredit the mortal belief in the Tuatha De Danann.  The stories were told that the fairies were fallen angels who, during the heavenly revolt between Lucifer and God, were indecisive.  God banished them to earth for they were still too good to be banished to hell.

When I started reading about the origin of fairies it was amazing what and how all this came about.  It really is fascinating.  Each of these thoughts is collaborated by various readings in Irish folklore all over the web.