Sewing project redux

I'm not sure if I blogged about it here but just before the holidays I was given a brand new sewing machine which I've wanted for just about as long as I can remember. Having never taken a sewing class or been taught to do much more than replace a button on a shirt, this sewing machine does more than I can imagine I'll ever be competent enough to understand let alone try.

For my first project, I decided to make matching pajama pants for the girls. I figured they couldn't be that hard and if they were a terrible mess only we would see them at bedtime anyway. I thought I'd have them done in a day, tops. Let's just say one pair were finished in a day and it took all day but they were such a hideous mess with not a straight line in sight nor room enough for Noa's diaper. I put the sewing machine upstairs where I rarely go and called my mother-in-law.


Chantal is my fairy godmother when it comes to sewing things. She just seems to flick her little wrist in the direction of the sewing machine and "voila!" a marvelous princess dress complete with adjustable ties, sequin top and organza overlay just magically appears in her hands. So when I called, she laughed and told me to get back to it and that surely it was my pattern-making (I had attempted to draw and cut out the pattern myself--the very first flaw which meant nothing could go right after) not my sewing skills that needed help. And she did what fairy godmothers tend to do. She swooped in and saved the day, and my morale, sending me a pattern she found, traced onto pattern paper and cut out, complete with instructions, labels and, a MINI SEWN PAPER PAIR OF PANTS!! If they weren't so cute and obviously thoughtful of her to make, I might have felt a tad embarrassed at what she was implying about my need for this level of hand-holding through the process. I'm going to cherish those paper pants for the rest of my life for finally lighting the fire under me to bring down my sewing machine and try again.

Tonight, I can finally say I successfully finished my first pair of pajama pants. And it only took me 2 hours and a little help from Ben--he was the mastermind behind the ribbon holes on the front waistband. Not exactly a flick of my wrist but they're done, there are at least two straight seams out of four and they are the right size for next winter. I'll get a picture of Noa modeling them tomorrow morning but I couldn't wait to tell the world that 6 months after my first sewing disaster, I finally finished a pair of pants one of my girls can actually wear! A big thank you to my sewing mentor in France. Merci!

And here's our little bedhead, grumpy model this morning, showing off mommy's awesome job. She's so skinny around the waist that I probably could have taken the pattern in about 2 inches with enough give left for comfort but live and learn. Next time I'll know and adjust for her. I think this pattern will work great for Gi though. Yay!

Back in the land of the living

A certain favorite uncle of mine recently remarked that he and another fellow reader had noticed my unexplained absence here. Well, the only excuse I have is family illness. This spring cold season hit our household with a bang and just never let up. In fact, we have been under the weather for 4.5 weeks straight as of today. And before that, we were still struggling to keep the ear infections and high fevers to a minimum. Gi and I seem to have suffered the brunt of it but little Noa has been down and out a bit too. Ben, with his amazing French antibodies, seems to have caught the first cold and then managed to run a hacking cough all through April and May. Poor guy.

But, this is not my catch-up post.  Instead, I've just decided to jump into the present and leave the catching up for along the way.  Let's say a little prayer the nasty cold bugs are on their way out as summer's warming trend is starting to take hold in our neck of the woods. Our garden is planted, sure to yield us yummy treats of tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, snap peas, green beans, shallots and maybe an ear of corn and a juicy melon or two this year too!

Since it's Friday and I've waited all week to not have to cook I thought I'd also share with you a favorite recipe of mine for a cold dinner that's a snap to prepare on a warm day (I usually poach the chicken earlier in the week and stick it in the fridge until I need a low-prep dinner idea):


Coconut-Curry Chicken Salad

2 large chicken breast halves, poached in chicken broth
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1/2 small yellow onion or better yet, 5-6 green onions, diced
1 unpeeled Pink Lady apple, chopped (or your favorite sweet-tart variety)
1/2c. raisins

Poach the chicken in chicken broth. Bring the poaching liquid to a light boil, put the chicken in then simmer for 10 minutes uncovered. Then, take it off the burner, cover the pot and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Remove the chicken and when cool, cube into bite-size pieces. 

Dressing:

In a food processor combine:

1 6oz. Liberte or other greek-style Coconut flavored yogurt
2 Tbsp. chutney (Trader Joe's Tomato Chutney works well)
4 Tbsp. curry powder
1 Tbsp. ground coriander
1/4c. Sauvignon Blanc or other dry white wine
Salt to taste

*For more coconut flavor, omit wine and add 1/4c. coconut milk and do not refrigerate. Serve immediately. 

Pour the dressing over all the chopped ingredients and refrigerate for an hour or more if you have the time. Serve over a bed of lettuce and a glass of that fine Sauvignon Blanc. My favorite is from our local Nevada City Winery called Sonata, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Cheers from my table to yours!

Plastic egg science experiment!

I saw this sound-memory game idea on pinterest (sorry the link to the original post went bad) and decided I could tweak the idea a little for a twist on teaching Gi about the scientific method. Now, when I was a kid in grammar school I remember those science projects happening every year like clockwork and from what I recall they were boring and I didn't understand the purpose of them nor did I ever work up any excitment over choosing a topic to "study"--aka procrastinate to the last day and then whip up a tri-fold poster board full of encyclopedia Britannic facts and littered with big fat lies about all the work I did during the course of the semester. It was only later in life, during college, that I understood how much we owe to the scientific method and from it the kind of hypothesis-driven entrepreneurial quest for more efficient ways of doing things. I think any preschooler can be taught to think about the world around her from this perspective and it would greatly enhance the imagination to wonder aloud about things, form theories about the observable and then test them out. Okay, so I also think my kids will come to this line of thinking naturally given their very dorky mom and dad. 

So, on to the experiment! I rummaged in my all-things-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with closet and found 4 plastic Easter eggs left over from last year and then since it was snack time anyway, I pulled out four shakeable food items to have Gi put inside the eggs. I must not have been thinking straight because I chose, popcorn, pistachios, M&Ms and raisins. Only three of which were edible and two of those were healthy. But let's not judge a momma by her snack offerings when there's important science work going on!

Then I told Gi we were each going to make hypotheses (hi-paw-the-sees) <--that was for Gi's benefit not yours dear reader, about which egg would sound the loudest and the quietest when we shook them. She wanted to write her hypotheses down and was asking me here how to spell what she wanted to write. She's very disciplined looking here

but this is what happened when I told her it would be Mommy's job to write and her job to shake and eat. I think she must have been excited for those M&Ms.

Anyway, the kiddo guessed, I mean hypothesized, correctly that the raisins would be the quietest egg to shake. And, she wasn't far off when she guessed that the popcorn would be the loudest. We had a shake off between the popcorn and the M&Ms for first place loudest egg and she gave it to the M&Ms. Touche since we had agreed to eat the egg snacks from loudest to quietest. Here I kicked myself for a second and third time.

The experiment went so well Gi decided we had to have another round and try different foods and maybe she was still just a little hungry (and hoping for more candy I'm sure). So I obliged, but found it a little more difficult to come up with foods that would have varying sonorous qualities.

Here, we ended up with goldfish crackers, yogurt melts, baby cereal puffs and Trix cereal. Rinse, lather, repeat the scientific method.

 And don't forget to include the very littlest of scientists too! Noa had a great time eating her egg experiment snacks and making notes about our discoveries. I'm sure the Journal of What Not to Feed Your Kids Before Dinner will be publishing our work asap. Ah, but what fun it was!