Chicken & Rice

I've been looking for some smaller recipes for chicken breast, and came across this recipe at Food Network that I knew I could scale down. I wasn't sure about using tumeric and cumin instead of Sazon Completa, which was what they use to season arroz con pollo in Miami, but I went ahead and tried it with a few tweaks to tailor it to our tastes and needs.

I did not use a whole chicken, as three small boneless & skinless breasts work better for us. Because I didn't have as much chicken to flavor my rice I added an extra two tablespoons of butter and crumbled a chicken boullion cube into my low-sodium chicken broth. I also only used about a quarter cup of peas because my guy doesn't like them. Despite my tweaks the dish came out absolutely delicious. I loved it and my guy really loved it, so this one will go into the cookbook for future meals.

Bunny Love

I finished the art quilt I made from one of the reward bundles I purchased earlier this month.

The back. I didn't worry about binding the piece or making it perfect, but just stitched my way through taxes, my guy's illness, Mom's death anniversary, and quitting my last bad habit this month. This poor thing has been through a lot. :)

Despite all my emotional baggage this came out wonderfully happy and vibrant, I think -- and comforting. Which it was.

Thrifted Treasure Bags

I needed some binding for the white quilt I have planned, so my guy and I went to a Goodwill we haven't visited before to see if they had any in their craft section. There were lots of supplies bundled up in bags, and what I spotted in this one for $5.99 made me grab it.

I've been wanting some heavy duty kitchen gloves to wear to protect my hands when I scrub pots, but I wasn't willing to pay the $6.99 my market wants for them. This bundle had four new pairs in my size in sealed bags, plus two pot holders and a Kitchen Aid oven mitt (these retail for six bucks) in brand-new condition. I don't need the leather care kit, so I'll donate that back to our Goodwill, and I'm not sure what the sling thing is, but the rest made it a great buy.

This bundle was a bit pricier at $8.99, but you'll see why I bought it when I spread out everything.

The vintage binding, which was apparently $1.34 at Wal-Mart at some time in the past, currently retails new for $3.99 a package (so $23.94 worth.) These are the old 4-yard packages, too, versus the 3-yard Wrights puts out presently. They're all in new condition. The quilt pencil costs $4.99 new, and the heat-n-bond is $5.99 new, and I use both. The other notions are also very usable, especially the pack of embossing card stock, which is just the right size to make gift tags.

Rewards

I rewarded myself for finishing the latest novel for work with these two bundles of art fabric and trims from my favorite textile artist.

This collection will likely end up in a couple of projects.

I don't often work with reds, but the bunny furoshiki scrap grabbed me immediately, and I love the palette. Stay tuned to see what I make of them.

Goodwill Mini Haul

I stopped by Goodwill this week looking for pillowcases and some fabric I can use for backing for a quilt I have in mind to make from my Fabscrap white scraps, and scored a nice little haul. For $3.99 I got this set with a standard pillowcase and twin flat sheet (66" X 96"), pure white with an adorable little cat face print in light gray, all in pristine condition. That's basically 2-1/2 yards of 66" wide backing fabric.

This hand-embroidered set of his and her king pillowcases needs a bit of repair work on the cross stitching, but otherwise they're in fine condition. $2.99 for both.

I sleep with two support pillows that need cases, so I also got this like-new pretty hand-embroidered pillowcase for $1.99.

I bought a set of curtains in a textural bronze synthetic fabric that might work as sashing for another quilt project. $6.99 for the pair. I'm really happy I was able to find everything I needed for very reasonable prices. Plus searching through the textiles at Goodwill is always fun, too.

Extra Spacey

I picked the first of our cosmic carrots, which are growing into monsters in the garden, to use in a chicken potpie recipe.

To give you some perspective on just how big they are, this is the same one in my hand after I topped it and trimmed off the baby rootlets.

Also, a light bulb went off for me when I was thinking about water storage for hurricane season. This was because I'd just seen the prices for official water storage containers, which are beyond ridiculous, and most of what's out there is cheap and flimsy. So I was in the sewing room moving the tote of thrifted fabric when I happened to look at the label on the side. 66 quarts is 16.5 gallons, right? And I probably have twenty or thirty of these nice, sturdy plastic bins with locking lids from my spring clean last year; they're sitting in the garage. They're perfect, no cracks, and a snap to wash out. I can even double what I have if I emptied my fabric stash out of the ones in the closet.

Here's how I think they'd work best: take the empty & clean storage tote into your bathroom, kitchen or wherever you want to use it. That's where you fill it with water and keep it with the lid on. Then after the power goes out, just take the lid off and use a smaller container or jug to take how much water you want from it. If you think you'll need a lot of water, then keep them in your garage or shed (I would not stack them) and fill them all up before a storm.

The Summer Project

A dear artist friend very kindly ruined my resolution not to make any more summer art quilts by sending me not one but three bags of vintage jewelry and findings to use for my textile art.

These little guys also played a part in this idea, so I'm naming them the art quilt twin demons.

I've always wanted to do a shelf quilt, but not with books. I was thinking more of a collection of little wonders, like a cabinet of curiosities.

It would look something like this, to give you the idea. The cool thing about this idea is I can work on each compartment of the quilt rather than try to manage one big surface, and then sew them all together in the end.

Another example with cars. I might do a small test project first to see how I can support the weight of the elements and embellishments, but this is definitely doable. Stay tuned as I work it out.

Ribbons image by Pexels from Pixabay

Cars image by G.C. from Pixabay

Friends or No Friends

I came across this video about happiness relating to friends that has some interesting ideas. I'm not sure if I agree with everything, but most of the points resonated with me and my experiences with friendship (especially the part about toxic friends.)

I don't make friends easily, and part of that is the fallout from choosing to lead a very private life. I've also been burned enough times in the past to make me extremely wary of others who come offering friendship; usually there's an agenda behind it. I am grateful for the two friends who have stuck by me all these years, they're the family I chose. I've also been able to make two new friends through social media. They make me life just a little more wonderful. :)

Not a Myth

I always thought the stories about washing machines eating socks or clothes were just myths. Then an old, thin pillow case I like to use for my neck-support pillow suddenly vanished. I thought I had put it in to wash with our bedsheets, but when I unloaded the washer it was gone. I searched the washer, even running my fingers around the base of the agitator in case it was stuck there, but I couldn't find it.

I drove myself crazy thinking I'd dropped it while loading the machine, and searched the laundry room from top to bottom. I even blamed the dogs, thinking one of them had grabbed it and hid it somewhere. My guy suggested I'm so busy these days I'm forgetting what I do with things (which is true sometimes.)

Ten days later, I'm unloading the washer and I see what looked like a stained, dirty rag sticking out of the bottom of the agitator. I had just finished the load so I couldn't understand why it was so filthy. It was so stuck my guy had to pull it out, and it looked all chewed up, which didn't make sense until I spread it out.

Yep. It's the missing pillowcase.

Fabscrap

While purchasing raffle tickets for Fabscrap's April Earth Month giveaways I ordered a couple of scrap packs and some mendable sample garments. This is the most pure white of the white scrap packs I've received so far.

The cotton multi scrap pack came with some big pieces this time.

A man's dress shirt, minus the collar and sleeves. I'm always fascinated by pieces of clothes.

A sample blouse that is mostly intact, but with the black markings and big cut across the front it really can't be mended. Or maybe it can; I like a challenge.

My mendable tops came with this tagged sample denim shirt, which has some issues with the sleeves and back neckline, but is definitely something I can save.

Finally, this knit shell needs a shoulder sewn together, but is otherwise fine.

Miss You

I've been doing okay this year, Mom. My grief only comes up now and then when something reminds me of you. It's settled down into sorrow instead of pain. I try to remember you with love, always. I think you would be proud of me for finding ways to be happy. You always told me that's what we have to do.

Still miss you, and love you.

It's Quadruplets

The eastern bluebird nesting in our most popular bird house hatched four tiny babies; my guy was able to snap this shot while Mama was out hunting for breakfast (there's one hiding behind these three.) Welcome to the world!

Seasonal Prep

With hurricane season fast approaching, I need to start my annual preparations by inventorying our nonperishable food, batteries, pet food, medicines, etc. and have my guy test our generator and get an extra tank of propane for the grill. My new thinking after experiencing the flooding in 2022 is to boost our food stores so we can hunker down for longer periods of time if we have to. All the country roads leading out of our area are prone to flooding out, plus they're getting old now, so there may be times ahead when they become washed out. Since we're in a low-populated rural area the county won't make road repairs here a priority.

I'm thinking in addition to bottled water I might invest in a few five-gallon storage containers. We fill buckets and the bathtubs whenever there's a storm approaching, but if our outside well pump gets wiped out we won't have water for days or weeks, and there's never a guarantee we can drive out to buy some. I'll also have to freeze more bottled water now that we have the chest freezer to keep cold (I freeze the bottles and use them liked bagged ice because there's no mess or leakage.)

Around the house we've installed light bulbs with their own power supply, should the electricity go out for an extended period. They're good for about six hours, but we won't keep them on except when we have to at night. We have a fairly endless supply of flashlights, and little light-switch style LED lights mounted in the bathrooms. I also like to put together a little basket of toiletries for the guest bathroom in case our neighbors who don't have generators need to use it. Sometimes after a storm the cleanup is hot, sweaty work, and just being able to take a shower is really nice.

Last year we got through the two storms that came just fine, and I'm not worried about doing the same this season. I just like to prepared way in advance and then stay that way so I don't have to run around in panic mode when a hurricane tracks in our direction.

Chilly, But Interesting

Watching the dystopian SF film The Colony was a bit like being trapped in a small, cold room while being forced to listen to other people's rants. Fortunately just as I was ready to give up on the whole thing it turned into a different movie, one that actually engaged me on a couple different levels.

In an unspecified future the elitists of humanity live on Kepler 209, a distant planet that they fled to after Earth became uninhabitable (thanks to humanity, of course.) Only these lucky few have become sterilized by radiation in just two generations (probably from lack of an ozone layer, I'm guessing; almost nothing about Kepler 209 is shown in the film) and want to return to Earth before they literally die out to see if that will jumpstart their reproductive systems. The science there is pretty non-viable, but maybe they have some magic medicine that will help restore their irradiated organs in better conditions. Via some weather stations they left behind they find one small habitable zone and send a mission back to see if they can live there, which supposedly fails. The movie begins with the landing of the second mission.

Blake (brilliantly depicted by Nora Arnezeder) is a member of the second mission, and wants to find her father, who went missing with the first. The landing of her capsule fails miserably, killing one crew member and wounding another. Earth seems to have turned into a giant, featureless tidal estuary that is perpetually wet and misty, and floods every day, so everyone lives in water or mud. There are a few rusting indicators of civilization, and everyone wears clothing (I doubt textiles would have lasted this long under these conditions, but okay.) Raggedy, vicious humans then attack and grab Blake and her commander, who also quickly dies by suicide in captivity. Now Blake is on her own with people she can't communicate with, and then they're attacked by another bunch of raggedy vicious humans who abduct the female children.

Although she has absolutely no reason to help, Blake goes with one of the mothers to rescue her daughter, and ends up a prisoner. She's take to the rotting hulk of a naval ship where the only survivor of the first mission from Kepler (played by Iain Glen) has organized and civilized the "mud people." He welcomes her but sadly tells her that her father is dead. Blake quickly discovers he's a liar, and then goes on her own mission to save the abducted girl, save the mud people and stop the elitists from Kepler from returning to Earth, with mixed results.

The movie had to cram a lot of story into just an hour and forty-four minutes, so there aren't a lot of nuances that probably would have made it better. It's also at times an overly long finger-wagging lecturing soapbox rant about everything that stinks with humanity, so be forewarned. Despite all that, I liked it, mainly due to the acting by Nora Arnezeder. I also nodded to myself over the sterilization via radiation on Kepler 209 plot note, as that's something I've predicted will happen to humans if we leave our planet to colonize Mars. I liked the casting very much, which I thought was pretty spot-on for every role. This definitely isn't a feel-good film, but it was interesting and, when the action picks up, quite engaging. Available on Netflix.

A Small Happiness

Before I start on another large project I want to do some embroidery and slow stitch to exercise my fingers, so I chose these four fabrics from a bundle to make a small art quilt.

I really don't work much with reds, but like the rabbit furoshiki this arrangement feels happy. I used a remnant of a pretty grape print as backing.

Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Old is New

The first project for April is making a pair of throw pillows for my home office sofa out of these two Dresden Plate patchwork blocks from my gifted UFOs bin. To preserve the fragile hand stitching and old feedsack fabrics, I handwashed them before I pressed them. Most of the little stains on them didn't come out, and they don't lay completely flat, but they're clean.

To make them more matched I removed the six striped diamond pieces from one of them, which I'll use for another project. For the backing fabric I'm using a big piece of synthetic white fabric with a slight crepey texture that came in one of my Fabscrap white scrap packs.

With a little strategic tucking I can flatten the blocks as I applique them to the white fabic.

Here's how they turned out. I made them bed-size so I can use them on the bed in the guest room once spring turns to summer.

Spring Garden Update

The garden is always really pretty in spring, so I thought I'd post an update on what we gave growing. The chives are flowering (and you can eat chive flowers, btw) and the nearly-dead oregano really bounced back once we planted it in the ground. I have to take a day to cut and dry these for cooking this year.

We've already eaten all the lettuce that was growing, which was delicious. We left the roots intact and some of them are regrowing new heads.

The brussel sprouts are gigantic.

The little bell pepper we saved from last year's garden has two peppers on it. We don't think it will survive much longer, so we did buy another pepper plant to replace it.

The scallions have sprouted. I use these a lot in cooking so my fingers are crossed they'll do better this spring.

I have one huge bunch of celery left to use, and the cucumbers behind it have sprouted nicely.

The watermelon we managed to overwinter is not looking great, but it does have one little melon on it.

We've eaten all but one of the radishes (front), which we constantly replant, and have a nice crop of cosmic carrots growing (middle). Oddly only one of our pole beans sprouted, but we've replanted the others.

The corn is doing quite well, so we hope to get some ears before hurricane season arrives.