Puppet Theatre

I found myself with two free hours this past weekend, and after tooling around in the sewing room for 20 minutes I was struck with a bolt of creative lightening, direct from Amy Karol and BTRS. I was flipping through the book, looking for a quick project that would be enjoyable. Something challenging, but not too demanding - something creative, but not another tote bag.

I found just what I was looking for with this doorway puppet theatre. The girls have recently started acting out Little Ms. Muffet with a stuffed ladybug and one of their play chairs, and this theatre will hopefully take that playtime to a whole new level.

I love this theatre for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that the height is adjustable. It is truly an activity that will grow with the kids (and adults!) over the years. Plus because you hang it from a suspension rod you can place it all over the house and it is so easy to store and set up. The pattern even has directions for an easy storage case, but I skipped making that for the time being.

All told this project took about 4 hours. The most time consuming part was the measuring and hemming involved. And the best part is that I made this one entirely from stash fabrics. My husband picked up a huge bag of bright, satiny, floral fabrics at a garage sale for 25 cents last summer. At the time I profusely thanked him, but quietly clucked my tongue, thinking "whatever am I going to use those for?" What a silly fool I was! The fabrics stepped up to the plate nicely alongside a thrifted white sheet. Oh, and don't let me count the ways I use thrifted or garage sale sheets around here...I must have a stack of 10 in the sewing room just waiting to be pressed into service. I had the the suspension rod in the closet from when we first moved and had some temporary curtains, and the dowels are straight from my husbands workshop. The only new purchase for this project was a yard of the fringe. I thought about making two mini buntings instead, but the fringe really adds to the formal theatre vibe. All that's missing are the velvet seats for the audience and a crystal chandelier.

I haven't shown it to the kids yet - that's my husband playing with the elephant puppets - but the next rainy day it will surely come out of the closet. They have a set of cute, cute, cute IKEA puppets just begging for a curtain call.

Baking Bread

The number of people in my life either making this bread, or talking about making this bread, has grown exponentially over the past 10 days. It was like every time I turned around someone else was singing the praises of this method, or thrusting some freshly baked goodness under my nose to try.

I actually got the book from the library a couple of months back but didn't try it at the time. This past weekend I got the recipe from my sister-in-law and there's no stopping me now. I love it, my kids love it, my husband loves it, my parents love it, my grandpa loves it. And it is so easy to make!! I have a friend that talked about making this freshly baked bread for her family and midwives while she was in early labor. That's how easy it is.

You can get started with the master recipe, generously printed here. [Admittedly, I don't use a baking stone as we don't have one, but a baking sheet seems to work out well too.]

My own copy of the bread book it on its way to me, along with a copy of Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food. Looks like I'm gearing up for another summer of foodie reading. Any recommendations from you on what to add to my list?

Stitches Midwest

Plans are being laid to attend Stitches Midwest. It will be my first big knitting event and I'm pretty excited!

A little of this, a little of that

My knitting basket is starting to gather a slight layer of dust, and after finishing up my in-process sewing projects I haven't felt the urge to cut or sew. I haven't really felt the pull to do any sort of crafting lately.

The knitting is coming along nicely, I am just feeling a little...how shall we say...bored?...with it. I need to put my nose to the grindstone and finish the two projects I have on my needles so that I can move onto to something fun and new. I realize that I tend to thrive on challenges. I love the learning that comes along with trying something new; and the way that something new fully captures my attention.

My attention is slowly being pulled towards our yard - and the garden that I should start putting in this weekend. There's broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, and pea seedlings to get in the ground. The flowers and tomatoes are coming up nicely, but it will be a few more weeks before they are planted outside.

On a really happy note I successfully defended my dissertation proposal and am now officially a dissertator. I am still finishing off my last class, which will come to an end in early May. I will now spend the next 12-18 months gathering my data, analyzing it and writing up my results.

This past week was also full of new summer recipes. I'd never made fresh tabbouleh before - but believe me, this will be a summer staple around here. I tweaked the recipe to double the feta, and added more salt, pepper and lemon juice. My other recent favorite finds are courtesy of Trader Joe's: truffle brownies (from a box) and lemon curd.

So...no big projects on the horizon at the moment. I'm just waiting in the calm moments for inspiration to strike again. Some friends were singing the praises of freezer paper earlier this week, maybe I'll look in to that.

In the meantime I'll enjoy the days that are getting longer and warmer - and the fact that we are eating dinner in the backyard again!