In Progress

Here's the basement with the skim coat drying.

And one totally unrelated pic of Quincy.

New Sewing Room Floor

The new sewing room floor is being installed this weekend.  Here's what it looks like before.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Gluten Free Baking

My friend is testing out a gluten free diet to see if it makes a difference for her.  Luckily, there is a good network of friends and acquaintances who are celiac or gluten intolerant, so she already has a head start on information. 

Since we had to work late one night last week and dinner is usually ordered in, I suggested we cook to make sure she could stick to her gluten free without worrying.  We ran across to the grocery at lunch and bought the ingredients for Greek chicken and potatoes, and a tomato and cucumber salad.  We quickly sliced everything up and tossed the potatoes and chicken in the oven.  The salad went in the fridge.  Everyone enjoyed our "naturally" gluten free dinner, proclaiming it better than the local Italian restaurant!

Then, the highlight, these cookies I baked the night before.  The peanut butter ones are the 4 ingredient flourless peanut butter cookies.  The chocolate chip are my usual recipe with Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour substitute.  The texture was only slightly different than usual.  The outside was a little crispier.  I don't think anyone but me would notice.  Everyone was very excited that all of us could eat some delicious cookies for dessert!   We even saved some for breakfast, but they somehow "mysteriously" disappeared overnight.  Custodians and summer workers, I'm looking at you!

Milo

The latest Milo update:  B12 shots, melatonin, flax seed hull and an antibiotic all to assist his adrenal gland function and intestinal issues.  Continue the special diet.  Recheck blood work in 12 weeks.  Very unlikely lymphoma is an issue.  Hopefully these things will help him digest his food better so he doesn't stand over his bowl barking for more food all day.  He eats more meals than a hobbit.

First Two

Here are the first two charity quilts for Ebony's giveaway contest. 

It's taken me awhile to get some other projects cleared up, but I finished these two Saturday.  On Sunday, I prepped 4 more.  Hopefully they will finish quickly.  It's a busy week this week.  I'm hoping having things ready to go will provide some sewing stress relief. 

One of my skills goals with these projects is to improve my machine sewn binding.  I always prefer machine sewing the first side and hand sewing the back side.  Sometimes you need something faster, or very durable, and machine sewing would be better.  I did one of these quilts by hand and one by machine using a glue down method.  I was pretty satisfied with how it came out.  There were only two small spots that I got to close to or missed the edge.  That was mostly because I was in a hurry since I had to get ready for a party.  Still, I'm looking to improve accuracy with practice.

Sunday Dinner

There's no better way to start the week than with caprese salad with basil and tomatoes from the garden, a prime NY strip steak, steamed asparagus with hollandaise, a delicious red, wine Razor's Edge cabernet, and brownies for dessert. 

New Floor Coming Soon!

We ordered a new floor for the sewing room and I got an email saying that it is in transit.  Whoo hoo!  Unfortunately, that means I have to pack everything up and move it out.  But then I get to move it back onto the new floor.  It's called Mambo Fusion.

Flying Geese Blocks and Pizza

I finished all the geese blocks, stippling two charity quilts and had my friends over to make pizzas for lunch last Thursday, which was tons of fun.  I thought they did  a great job!  I usually use Reinhart's Neo-Neopolitan pizza dough, which is very wet.  For Thursday, I used the recipe from Smittenkitchen.com, which is much easier to work with.  I made the dough in the morning, formed it into balls, and left them to rest on an oiled cookie sheet.  By the time they arrived, hungry and ready to go, I stretched the dough and put it on parchment, then let them top them.  Once the first ones were in the oven, E decided we needed to make a pizza with the apples, bananas and peaches she saw on the counter.  I gave her another ball of dough to stretch out.  She asked for a rolling pin and we made a fruit pizza with butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and fruit.  Not too sure how it tasted as they took it home with them.