Southwest Inspired Dressing Recipe

The only thing to have come out of our garden so far has been lettuce, and we didn't even plant that. Patrick and I planted lettuce last year and it did relatively well in the buckets we had it in. Then it went to seed. I didn't know this, but when lettuce goes to seed, it is a lot like dandelions, which has led to some wonderful volunteer plants this spring. The ones not in the cracks in the sidewalks have been allowed to grow.

All this lettuce has inspired me to make salad, and all this salad has inspired me to make dressing. I made a southwest chicken salad for dinner one day and didn't have some ingredients for the dressing included in the recipe I was roughly following (I honestly can't remember the last time I exactly followed a cooking recipe. Baking yes, cooking, not so much). Furthermore, it didn't sound fantastic. Thus, I looked for some other recipes and, after looking at a few, combined ideas and came up with my own. 

Patrick is used to me doing this and he knows that it doesn't always work out perfectly. We often categorize my experiments into three groups: good as is, has potential with some changes, and not a good idea. This southwest inspired dressing, however, ended up being rather good, so I decided to share it, mostly so I will have written it down. I call it "Southwest Inspired" because that way no one can tell me it is not authentic--and it includes a product developed by a Vietnamese man.

Please note, I rarely measure, so this is all rather approximate. If you try to make this, make sure to taste it as you go. In that sense, everything is "to taste." The sour cream should be regarded as the base, so if you think you put in too much of anything else, just add more sour cream.

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (start with just a little and add to desired heat)

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash (I actually used a store knock off version)

The chili garlic sauce (this stuff) is something I somewhat randomly discovered when Patrick requested I get some kind of sauce like the chutneys he had in Fiji. I kind of fell in love with it. When I was very first pregnant, I craved this stuff. It is rather powerful, so it doesn't take a lot, but I have used this with just about any kind of food: stir fry, pizza, homemade macaroni and cheese. When I was pregnant, I wanted to put it on my oatmeal, but I didn't. I don't know that I would recommend that. Never used it in a dessert either.

Making a Baby Hat

In the past little bit it has gotten rather sunny and warm and I have started taking David outside more frequently. Sometime a few weeks ago, I decided to take David on a walk. Like most babies, he is bald, and, unfortunately I did not have a hat for him. My doctor told me that if I didn't have a hat I could just put sunblock on his head. However, David is not completely bald and I didn't want to make what hair he does have really greasy. Thus, a hat needed to be acquired.

Being me, I decided to make one. I didn't really know what kind of hat I was going to make, so I googled "baby boy sun hat," and decided to do something like this one. I had some fabric that my mother had sent me back when I was still pregnant. It is cotton with a background that is intended to look like denim and a cute bear printed on it. I thought to cotton would be good because it is generally rather cool. My hat is it not tested for sun protection like the one in the picture. I decided I was okay with that. He hasn't gotten burned yet.


Above are all my materials, minus a few sheets of scratch paper. I used the embroidery floss to measure David's head because I had misplaced my tape measure for the moment.

I began by measuring David's head around the widest part. I then used the good old C=2πr to calculate the radius of that part of David's head. I added  5/8 inch seam allowance to that radius and used a compass to draw a circle. If you don't have a compass, use the whole string method. I then drew a rectangle that was as wide as I wanted the hat tall plus 2 seam allowances of 5/8 of an inch and half the circumference I measured plus a 5/8 inch seam allowance long. Finally, I drew a half circle that was 5/8 inch wider than as wide as I wanted the brim of the hat to be and then drew another smaller circle inside that that was the radius of David's head minus 5/8 of an inch.

I cut all the pieces I drew out as you see in the picture at the left. The full circle should just be cut out as is, but the other two should be cut along a fold in the fabric. For my first hat, I cut two of the brim piece (the C shaped piece) but only one of the other two. If I did it again, I would probably line the whole hat and therefore cut out all the pieces twice. If you were to line the whole thing, you could easily make the hat reversible by cutting one of each piece out of one fabric and one of each out of another.

The first thing I did was sew the edges of the rectangle together so that I had a ring of fabric that fit around David's head. If I were doing this so that it was reversible, I would do so with both rectangles separately.

Then, I turned my machine to the longest stitch length and sewed around the outside of my circle, the top of the hat. Again, if I was making a reversible hat, I would do this to both circles separately. Pull on one thread to gather the edge slightly. This makes it much easier to sew the next step.

Next, pin the circle and rectangle right sides together so that it makes a cylinder with one open end. You can continue pull on the thread to help the circle fit properly. When you get it all pinned, make sure you have turned your stitch length back to a reasonable stitch (I always forget this) and sew the two pieces together. Repeat with your other rectangle and circle.

Then, pin the inside of your ring (brim) to the open end of the cylinder and sew. Repeat for the other brim on the other cylinder. You should now basically have two hats. To make them lie better, clip little vs into the curved seams.

Turn both wrong side out and pin the brims together, right sides together. Sew around the outside most of the way, leaving a few inches to turn the hat right side out. I tend to try to make this space as small as possible in everything I do because I would rather spend the time stuffing it through a small hole than sewing up the hole. In this case, however, you won't be hand sewing the hole, which makes it less time consuming.

Once you have turned the hat right side out, turn the raw edges of the hole inside and pin them. Then just put the brim of the hat under the sewing matching and top stitch around the whole brim. This will close the hole as well as keep the brim flatter and a bit stiffer.

If you want to, you could probably make the brim stiffer by stitching around it multiple times at about 1/4 inch intervals until the center of the hat, much like in the inspiration photo. Also, you could line the inside of the brim with stiff lining. I just went with a floppy brim, even though it does look a bit like a ruffle and he is a boy. He has some (blue) socks with bows too. He will live.

I am making a camo one next, mostly because I have camo fabric that was left over from when my brothers were little. I have already cut it out and it will be lined/ reversible (but it is just 2 different camos; I'm using up scraps). If you are making one for a girl, the possibilities are endless: sew ribbon just above the brim, add a flower, put lace on the edge of the brim... I don't know, play around and see what you like.

The Message of the Blog

It has been a bit since I have made a post. I've still been making things, but my husband also graduated and we therefore had family in town. Then I spent about a week recovering from having family in town since I had neglected certain things (like laundry). In my absence from the blog, I  thought a lot about what the purpose of this blog is so as better direct my posts.

There are a ton of blogs out there by people that make all sorts of things. I am sure there is someone who has already done just about everything I have done. Furthermore, I use a lot of materials that I know a lot of other people don't have, so doing exactly what I do is not necessarily very easy. I don't think a large chipped mirror or a set of broken blinds is something very many people have just lying around like the things I used for this post.

My intention is not for people to copy things, necessarily, which is why I don't always do step by step instructions with lots of pictures (still, please feel free to make your versions of anything I do). My intention is two fold: to document some of what I have been up to and to hopefully inspire people to do something.

I don't know that I am the most creative person. I don't think my ideas are that unique. What I do think I have that some do not is the guts to try something that just might not work and then the stubbornness to continue trying to make it turn out after it became a disaster. I mean, look at the pictures of the disassembled couch before I rebuilt it.

Yesterday, for instance, I decided to try to make a crepe out of pancake mix. I honestly don't know why because I knew it wouldn't really work. I had pancake mix and wanted a crepe, I guess. After a couple tries, mixing the batter rather thin, and turning the heat up rather high, I did manage to make a pancake that I could fold up like a crepe around yummy insides. It didn't taste like a crepe, but it kind of looked like one and it was fun. Plus, it didn't taste too badly either, just a lot like a pancake. The first try, though, was an absolute mess.

I guess to quote everybody's favorite teacher who possesses a magic school bus, "Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!" After all, it is rather fun.

Fishnet Jar

One day last week I was trying to play violin. Unfortunately, my e-string peg kept slipping. I was a bit frusterated. Fortunatley, when I got home, Patrick had a great solution: the local dollar store.  We went and bought some chalk line, which includes chalk dust that I could put on the peg to help it stick. Since I rarely just go to the dollar store, get what I need and leave (there are too many fun and funny things there), we walked around the aisles for a bit and wound up with some string.  Not just any string, but a 2 pack of "high quality" string. Pretty exciting, eh? 

Patrick is nearing the end of the semester, which means he is nearing the end of his degree. Thus, he has been staying up a bit later than he sometimes would.  I tend to just wait for him to be done and then we go to bed at the same time. This particular day I had finished dishes and the apartment was clean, so I had a few minutes to do something before bed. The string was still sitting on the table and I have a ton of pasta sauce jars just laying around (I don't know what to do with them all but it seems a shame to get rid of them). I decided to make a fishnet around the jar. 

This technique could really be used on any jar or bottle. It just needs to have a neck of some kind so the string can be tied at the top. First I cut six lengths of string. They were long enough that when I folded them in half and tired them around the jar, they were still about twice as long as the jar. I had plenty of extra string so I probably could have used less, but cut on the long side for your jar so you won't run out. I then tied each string around the top of the jar and organized them so they were evenly spaced. This gave the neck a thicker wrapped area on the neck. Alternately, I could have tied a shorter piece of string around the top and tied each of the longer strings onto that one to give it a different look.

Next, I took a single strand from a group of two and a single strand from the group next to it and tied a square knot to form a triangle. I then did this with the remaining groups all the way around. I tried to make the triangles roughly even, but I didn't measure. I think the imperfections give it more character (and is less work). If you want it to look even, you could measure each string and mark it at the same point with a marker and then tie on those markings. After the first level of knots, my jar looked like the picture to the left.

Next I did the same technique with my new groups of two. This time the strings mad diamonds. I again just eyeballed where I wanted the knot, but if you are measuring, this is where you will want to measure the next level. Don't just measure equal intervals all the way down at once because the knots will probably not be all equal so things with get off. 

At this point I contemplated just finishing . If you desire, you could just pull the loose strings straight down and tie them off on the bottom.  I decided to go on, but it would have looked roughly like the picture to the right if I had stopped. You can really stop at any point from here on, it will just give it a different look. 

To finish off I made sure to tie my last row of knots so they sat just on the edge of the jar when I pulled the string tight. I then took to sets of strings that were opposite each other and tied them tightly across the jar. It helps to get a tight knot to have someone put their finger in the middle of the knot as you tie it. I then tied another of the two sets that were across from each other in a knot around that knot; that is to say I tied the first cross over of the knot under the existing knot and then tied the second cross on top of the knot. I repeated with the remaining two string pairs.

I filled my jar with some clear and bluish marbles I happened to have, though you could put just about anything. Shells would look pretty. I think it turned out pretty well for an under-and-hour  project. If you have some writing on the lid that you don't like, you could simply spray paint the lid. I actually spray painted the lids of three other jars black. They are sitting on the shelf  in front of the mirror in my living room.

How the Couch I Tore Up is Feeding My Pillow Obsession

I have always had a bit of a pillow obsession.  When I was younger, I  thought the perfect room would be one where everything was made of pillows.  I grew up and realized that they have rooms like that and they are called padded cells. Still, I do very much like pillows.

When I tore up and rebuilt the couch, I did not use anywhere close to all the materials the couch had to offer. The back of the couch actually had a ton of stuffing (because it was basically made from 6 large pillows) that I did not use in the storage bench. Some of the stuffing near the outer edges of the pillow was rather disgusting, but a lot of it was still good. So, I saved it with the intention of making pillows to sit on my storage bench.

I made a few pillows here and there, but most of my pillows were made a couple Fridays ago while playing nurse to my brother-in-law who had just had his wisdom teeth removed. I started sewing covers for the pillows that originally came with the couch from the thrift store.  I sewed one but it was slow going because I was changing ice packs every 10 minutes. I thought maybe I would stop there and just cover the other pillow in the pillow case from the leftover sheets from the curtains, but decided I really needed to just get both pillows done. Then, five more pillows later, I decided I should probably stop.

One of the most involved pillows I made was the one to the left. I cut out  leaves from my sheets and basted them on a yellow square in a random scattered pattern. Then I used used a medium wide zigzag with a very small stitch to stitch around the outside of each leaf.I think it turned out okay. I got better at the process as I went along, so the leaves that look pretty good were likely some of the ones I stitched latter.

Pillows are really easy to make because you can make them from all sorts of scraps and you really only need very basic sewing skills to sew a basic pillow, but you can also do all sorts of complex things. Sometimes, however, they are just a bit to easy to make.  When I was making the pillow to the right (which is based off of this one from Joann Fabrics, though I didn't really read their instructions) I messed up my pattern and accidentally made 2 more pillows. Don't ask me how that happened, I am just talented sometimes. I probably should have read the instructions.

I have at least one more pillow I am going to make based on one that someone is selling for $159 here (Who has $150 to spend on a pillow?), but then I think I might have to stop for the front room. I already have a lot of pillows.

I still have a ton of stuffing though, as you can see from this bag to the left..  My bed might be getting some fun pillows to.

Mirror Frame and a Shelf

The house I live in is separated into 4 apartments, one in the attic space, one on the main floor and two in the basement.  We are in the larger of the two basement apartments, and we also have access from our apartment directly into the boiler room, which we use for some extra storage. It has also produced some exciting items.  For instance when we didn't have a lot of extra money around when David was born at the end of November, it miraculously produced a Christmas tree we hadn't known about before.

Another exciting item was a large mirror.  It was dusty and had a bit of damage around the edges, but who finds a 4 foot wide mirror? We pulled it out and cleaned it off and mounted it on the wall the nasty plaid couch I tore up and rebuilt (here) used to sit.

I used a piece of plywood left over from the loft bed (here) to make a shelf. I just spray painted the piece and mounted it on three decorative shelf brackets Patrick and I got at Home Depot (which is quickly becoming a favorite store). We placed it about 2 inches below the edge of the mirror.

I am not much into the distressed look. I mean, a few pieces of antiqued furniture are fine but why would you want to intentionally make something look dirty? In any case, I didn't really like the chipped looking edges, so I decided to frame the mirror. Patrick and I looked at Home Depot for just the right trim (I was thinking garden stakes or something), when I realized we had a set of broken blinds at home (Patrick had replaced them on a job).

I cut a section of blind long enough to edge the entire bottom of the mirror and another for the top. I then cut two lengths that were the height of the mirror minus the width of the two blinds I had cut. This formed a rectangle that lined the mirror (without hanging off the edge).

I then cut additional pieces to fit on top of this rectangle, except the ends were cut at 45 degree angles to fit together like a picture frame. This meant I had two rectangles that lined the mirror while sitting on top, but the edges of the pieces did not line up.

I glued a long piece with the 45 degree cut on top of a long piece without the angle with Gorilla Glue and clamped it in place. I then repeated with the other two long pieces. I similarly glued the short sides together with the non-angled-edged board centered on the angled one. I then fit the boards together so the angled board on the short side overlapped the non-angled board of the long and glued and clamped the corners. It looked like a giant picture frame. I then filled in the holes where the string held the slats together with wall putty. After it all dried, I spray painted the frame.

A couple days later to ensure complete drying of the paint, Patrick helped me used Tacky glue to glue it to the top of the mirror.  We glued it with the mirror on the wall  because that way we could hide the mirror fasteners. Unfortunately, that meant we had to tape it really well while it dried. I chose Tacky glue because, being water soluble, it will wash off. The mirror is not technically ours (though it was made in 1969, so I suspect the original owner doesn't really care). I thought about hot glue but I was unsure if it would a) hold very well and b) manage to not crack the mirror.

I am quite pleased with the result.  Just putting up the mirror really helped distract from the radiator that is the prominent feature of that wall, and the frame and shelf just drove that home.

Coming next: How the couch I tore up is feeding my pillow obsession.

Making a Swaddler

David actually has very few clothes of his own.  My sister Carol has lent me all of her son's baby clothes.  Since Henry is about a year older, this has worked out well. Among the box of clothes Carol lent me was a swaddler, a blanket designed specifically to swaddle babies with Velcro to keep it tight.

This has been wonderful for David. He won't sleep unless he feels pretty cozy and since he can now unswaddle himself, other blankets become loose and present a hazard. Though David can still get his arms out of the swaddler and as of late kick his feet out the bottom, the Velcro keeps the blanket wrapped around his abdomen securely.

Unfortunately, as can be seen in the picture, David is now much too big for this swaddler. He has been too big for a while, but I finally admitted it sometime recently. As I have already fought and surrendered (after about a week of him sleeping no more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time) the battle to have him sleep unswaddled, I decided to make him a new one.

My mother had sent me this bear flannel a while ago and I hadn't had a project for it yet. Though the original was made out of fleece, which is a good deal stretchier, I decided to use this flannel for the swaddler. As we are moving into warmer months, this will help David stay cool and I have swaddled him in flannel receiving blankets on numerous occasions, so I figured this would work as well.

I laid the original swaddler on the fabric and put David on top of that to mark how much taller it needed to be. I didn't actually make it much wider because the problem was length, but I did leave a little room for growth lengthwise. I just cut around the outside to make it just a little larger than I wanted it to be.

The original had darts on the shoulders and by the feet, so I wrapped David in the fabric and made similar darts, like in the picture above. I then cut out another peace of fabric to make the inner pocket he sits in. I folded over the open edge (the edge of the pocket on the top and left side of the picture to the left) twice and hemmed it before sewing up the edge on the bottom to the larger piece.

I then basted the bottom of the pocket to the edge of the larger piece.  I finally folded the entire outside edge over twice and hemmed. I made the darts go toward the outside, like in the picture, and just folded them into the hem as I went.

I then let the project sit for a week (optional step).  Finally yesterday, I got out the fusible Velcro, cut off two small sections, wrapped David in the swaddler, marked where I wanted the Velcro to go and put it on.  It probably took 10 minutes at most. I skipped sewing tabs like the original swaddler as I decided they were unnecessary.

I think he is pretty cute in it, but then I think he always is.