Why do people have the need to feel superior?

I love Threads.  It’s a great magazine.  I’ve been reading back issues at the library for months now and I’m so excited to pick up the little bits of wisdom that are all over it, but I’m a bit irritated with one thing.

In the letters section at least once (but often multiple times) per issue there’s someone who lambasts Threads for featuring “beginner” techniques and how Threads needs to be a couture magazine only.  It’s like the uproar that happened over the January 2004 of Gourmet (the cupcake tower sparked controversy because it was deemed by many as unworthy of Gourmet and somehow low brow).

 The only difference here is that it happens it seems in every issue of Threads that someone gets upset and says that they were just about to cancel their subscription and then they got the next issue.  Maybe it strokes the editors’ egos to hear people say how much they like issue X, but I resent the cattiness displayed by these comments.  Not all of us grew up at our Grandmother’s knees sewing.  Both my Grandmas sewed, but I never knew until one had died that she did sew, and the other died when I was 10 before she could show me much of anything.  My Mom very proudly duct tapes hems.  Everything I’ve learned about sewing has been from what I’ve read/heard/discovered.  While it may be that a lot of Threads’ readers have moved beyond “beginner” land, there’s no shame in that.

I will say as a musician that I’ve learned more from teaching first graders sol-mi- and la songs than I did playing Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique.  You can learn things from people at every level, even if it’s just–hey, don’t do that (valuable lesson indeed).  There.  I said it.  I’m not into snobby.

 

You need to read this book

In my quest to make this dress, I decided I really needed to understand the quirks about my own figure.  I’m hooked on sewing clothes for myself now, so I owe it to myself to be educated about fit.

Enter Fit for Real People.  I read some reviews on Amazon about it and it sounded like a good reference book, so I bought it.  I had no idea just how comprehensive or useful it really is. I feel like I blindly found the equivalent of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I think after I read this I’ll really have a good working understanding of how to fit patterns to me.  I really love the “you can do it” tone that it has and that their method does NOT require you to make 800 muslins for each dress you make.  Honestly, I’ve never been able to justify the waste of that much fabric.  I’m sure this method is not full-proof, like anything, but it sounds like it fits my personality/the way I problem solve much better than traditional approaches to fit issues. 

Apparently there’s a DVD that they made too–my library has it, so I put it on reserve for myself for kicks and giggles.

 

Procrastination

It’s not like me to put things off, but when I do, I usually do it in a big way. Currently I’m putting off packing the bag for the hospital even though I’ve had a few nights in a row of contractions (they stop before anything exciting happens). I’ve probably been thinking about it for a month. Why haven’t I done it? Who knows?

Today, my procrastination took me to the bookstore first thing in the morning where I read the newest book by my favorite food writer from cover to cover (not really about food and not her best work…Garlic and Sapphires is definitely my favorite).  While I was there I discovered just how many titles look interesting in the area of food writing.  After I finished reading I grabbed lunch and went on a hunt for a new pepper grinder because mine bit the dust–or rather it was turning my pepper into dust until it stopped working entirely.  I found a great mill, but I will try to find it less expensively online.  As I was walking, I stopped at this wonderful paper store where I found this fun paper:

I haven’t decided if I want to cut this up and frame the individual fruits (that would be a lot at 16!) or to just frame it as a poster.  At home now, I’ve probably played more Rocket Mania than is proper and I’m reading Beyond the Great Wall, which is by two of my most favorite cookbook authors of all time.  Nathan got it for me for my birthday, but I haven’t officially sat down to plow my way through it with a pot or two of tea and a mind for travel.

All of this so I avoid packing my bag…perhaps I’m avoiding it because that will be the moment when I must accept that this whole labor thing is going to happen.  I feel remarkably at peace about it, but I think there’s part of me that’s hanging on to the state of denial.  I printed out the spreadsheet I made that lists everything I need.  I’m going to do it today.  Really.  I think I’ll vacuum first.

 

Reading Cave

Valentine’s Day at our house was a quiet occasion…on purpose.  We decided that we didn’t want to battle all of the people out at some restaurant where the staff is probably paid extra to be nice to you and the kitchen staff is rather annoyed that you’re making them work extra hard.

So Nathan got me some beautiful yellow roses (because I think red are boring) and we built a reading cave in our living room. 

As a kid, I loved making little tents in my room with lights and pillows and blankets.  I disappeared in there with a fat stack of books and rarely emerged for the entire day that the structure was up.  We often bemoan the pitiful state of education, and though we haven’t and probably won’t make a final decision for a while as to how to deal with it in relationship to our own kids, one thing Nathan and I both agree needs to happen is that we need to teach our kids to LOVE to read as reading really is the gateway to further education in any subject.  What better way to do so then to build a little blanket fort?  It certainly was a nice way to spend the day with the man I love all stuck in this nice warm cozy den with The Silver Chair, and a couple of books on children I checked out from the library.

I emerged to make us a rack of lamb with some sauteed asparagus and stuffing. 

We decided lamb needs to be a more regular part of our lives. 

We also made smores over our electric stove. 

It was a good day.

 

Way too much cuteness

Sorry for my recent absence.  The past two weeks have been work work work…but not the kind I’m excited about. 

Another member of Sew Mama Sew’s forum suggested recently this book.  After perusing the images of it at this shop (the previous link said that the item is sold out, but I emailed her and said I was interested and she very quickly listed another copy), I decided the clothes looked far too adorable to pass up.  Japanese craft books are pricey, but this is the first book that really looked like I could make everything in it, so I neatly justified the cost, especially since it has 26 patterns!  I’m excited to get going on these projects:

Can you handle all the cuteness of the little purse?  Nathan thinks I’m crazy.

I guess these are all more girly clothes.  There are boys’ clothes in there too (like the little linen suit), I just really loved these.

 

Fried Chicken–or still reading

“As everyone knows, there is only one way to fry a chicken correctly.  Unfortunately, most people think their method is best, but most people are wrong.  Mine is the only right way, and on this subject I feel almost evangelical.”  From Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

So funny.  Any recipe that starts out like that is one that I will read thoroughly.  I wish for Laurie Colwin’s sake that I liked fried chicken because her method is simple and I would say worth a go.  I’m seriously enjoying this book at any rate.  In another chapter, she talks about the perils of feeding fussy eaters.  She suggests having people fill out questionnaires before coming to dinner about any food phobias they might have.  I’m glad to know I’m not the only hostess who has encountered such oddities.  Her humor put a band aid on some painful memories that I’ve had.  Anyhow, go read this book!    

Only one more day of daily posts.  I think I’ll try to keep up more regularly than I had with posting than I did before May.  I’ve rather gotten used to posting every day. 

 

Reading

Such a lovely food writing book/cookbook.  It’s not as wonderful as Ruth Reichl’s Tender At the Bone so far, but it is very charming.  I’m looking foward to finishing it after school is done tomorrow.

 

Prince Caspian

I’m trying to reread through all of the Narnia books before Prince Caspian comes out on the 16th.  I sat down and read all of Prince Caspian before church and after church on Sunday.  I really loved this little bit that I missed the first reading:

“Welcome, child,” he said.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not.  But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

For a time she was so happy that she did not want to speak. 

 

How true it is.  I love C.S. Lewis’ view of the Lord in Narnia.  It’s so comforting.

I’m going to go play my accordion now.  Hmmm…maybe I’ll bring it to school to practice after my classes tomorrow…

 

Ah Necco’s how do I love thee

I’m not a candy fiend.  I like cookies and cakes much more, but Necco’s are special.  My Grandpa always used to have a stash of candy in the closet in his reading room and he would always let us raid it.  He’d always have old-fashioned violet gum and lots of penny candy, but hands down Necco’s were my favorite.  They’re so crunchy and tasty–except for the licorice ones (my brother and I might have pawned those off on our younger cousins–not the nicest thing perhaps).  I mentioned my affinity for said candy one night casually, and last night a friend from my Bible study showed up with two packages for me.  It was the best part of my day.  Martha Stewart once made a children’s birthday cake–it wash a fish covered with Necco’s.  My only thought when I saw that was–that’s a lucky lucky kid.

Nathan and I also stopped at the bookstore, and I picked up these books.  I’m always on the lookout for good children’s books mostly because there’s so many bad ones (stories that aren’t really stories, ones that have bad grammar, and many that are pushing political agendas).  I also started reading very early so there are a lot of picture books that I never read because I was reading chapter books by 1st grade.  I appreciate pictures now–many of them are really beautiful.  Both these authors are great.  Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad books have to be my favorite young reader series.  “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.  So go read one of your childhood favorites and eat some Necco’s!