Projects…

<— If you missed it there’s a photo update one entry back <–

I started this cross stitch in the summer time (I think as it was a long time ago):

Not the greatest photo but you get the drift I think…

It was meant to be a Birthday present for Officer since we were taking the cruise the week of his birthday and had planned some things on board/on shore just for that.  We also set a pretty low limit last year for Birthday gift budgets so I thought making him something was a good idea and a nice way to supplement a smaller gift.  Well I quickly got burnt out.  It’s not a hard pattern. Unlike most traditional patterns I tend to work the Pixel people ones a little different starting with one colour in one character on the end then working that colour throughout the whole pattern then moving on to the next and so on.  I don’t like keeping multiple threads hanging and prefer to cut and weave in. I suppose it makes for a messier back but really I don’t care about the back as long as they lay flat when I frame them.  
But I think what got me so burnt out so quickly on this one was that it’s pretty much 98% earth tones as it’s (if you couldn’t tell) all the Lord of the Rings main characters.  I wanted it too look a little like parchment so I choose a beige/straw coloured fabric too.  I found it again a few weeks ago in the back garage (how it got back there I don’t know) and started working away at it in little bits here and there.  Vivien’s getting to an age where she’s interested in what I’m doing (as she’s always been) but will listen when I say "No" or "Don’t touch" so I feel a little more comfortable crafting and sewing around her again. Which is awesome because I’m getting kinda bored not being in school. 

Anyways…I think I’ve finally turned a corner on it as finishing it is all I can think about.

It also might have something to do with the fact that I realized since we have a home with an extra living room AND a entire garage out back that’s set up for a perfect workshop I finally have the space I need to make a doll house!  It’s something I’ve wanted since I was a little girl, but clearly they aren’t for children. To clarify…I’m talking about a house like this:

My plan (for now) is to start small, I’ve been looking at a few different kits for just the house part (Some even come with furniture) and many of the small 2-4 room kind are under $50.  Plus Hobby Lobby sells them so I think I could get 40% off of that too.  But once the house is built and painted start working one room at a time. Right now I’m leaning towards more of a theme rather than a simple generic doll house and may try to do a farm house styled after Anne of Green Gables or a Little House on the Prairie cabin.  In my mind I’m keeping cost down by going more rustic than Victorian.  We’ll see as there’s also a lovely little Tudor cottage that might be some fun!

Officer likes the idea and liked my idea of having him build a model train around it too.  Might be a neat couples thing we do, I build the town, he builds the train! But when Vivien is older I think it might be something she’d enjoy doing as well.  

In another sort of project I tried out a recipe from Pinterest for a Scalloped Hassleback Potato last night as we had leftover soup and I felt we needed a side to dress it up a bit. Hassleback potatoes are the ones where you take a potato, carefully sliced it almost all the way through for the entire length of the potato then depending on the recipe either stuff it between the slices and bake it, or bake it simply with just butter and some herbs or something.   This one looked good although as I was stuffing it one of the taters split in two:

Here they are all stuffed with alternating butter and parmesean cheese.  In hindsight, while the potatoes were perfectly cooked at the half hour mark (they cooked for about an hour) there was so much greese in the pan I had to pour some off and collected nearly a full cup I’d use much smaller bits of butter. I followed the Pin for directions though.

Like I said the end result was tasty but not at all like a scalloped potato (you pour cream over at the end and bake a bit more).  

This is the one that split.  I think I’m going to make this again, but partly in the interest of health try lots less butter and cheese and some more herbs.  It was tasty but a lot of the cheese leaked out (as suspected) and it needed some sour cream and chives as it pretty much was a buttered potato with lovely crisp cheese on top.  A bit plain to be honest.

But still good. 

Anyone else having any luck with Pinterest? A lot of the stuff I’ve tried there is good, but I haven’t really stumbled across anything I can remember being so good I make it regularily.