warm me up

while cruising through etsy yesterday, i came across a lot of clothing items that had been upcycled from old unwanted clothing. great idea, because i have two full baskets of old clothing in our garage. i need to convince my husband that i am going to use them eventually so he won't kick it all to the curb. we've had a very lively discussion about leaving my crap there because i am planning on having a garage sale or using it. is lively discussion the right word, billy? love you, muah.

so here is what i came up with for some old sweaters i have had forevaaaaa. i can't wait to perfect them with some other sweaters and add some details. here i come cold weather!

my favorite things: apartment

i love our apartment. it is absolutely perfect for us.

when billy and i first looked at it we were only dating, but i knew he was looking at it for us...it gave me butterflies. it looked completely different to the cozy little place we know now. billy struck a deal to repaint it all, in exchange for rent, along with some other much needed renovations the owner took care of. eventually i will put up the 'before' pictures so you can see how far it has come.

here are my favorite things in our {home}

*i made this pillow in my first sewing class, b was so proud of me.

*i found old local postcards from an antique store and framed them above our coat hanger. they were used so i love reading the notes on the back people wrote to each other.

*billy and i met on a trip to nepal. friends of ours went back and gifted us this painting from nepal for our wedding.

* i've been meaning to introduce my fish, mordecai. he is terribly shy.

*above the sink~ mordecai, pictures of the nephews and us getting engaged at sunset in grenada.

*shells in shadow boxes from grenada.

*glass on the left holds sea glass, shells and rocks from all of our journeys. glass on the right holds wine corks, dated and the names of who we enjoyed the bottle with. i told billy, if there is a fire please don't leave these behind. i adore them.

*sewing desk. place of joy and tears.

*one of the four original windows like this one. this window is in the office/sewing/keep our crap hidden room.

*we also have three of these mini crawl spaces. they remind me of the doors for the munchkin's homes in wizard of oz.

*our bedroom with more original windows and hard wood floors. my favorite place in the world.

*billy's nightstand. our wedding picture and bamboo i bought him.

*a little cut out in our bedroom.

*we have a door that connects us to the owners side of the house. their kids made signs for all of the doors in their house. this is the sign they made for the door that leads into our apartment. adorable.

*original wooden windows.

*from our deck, the catholic ukrainian church next door. their bells ring every hour. i will miss this so much when we go.

*original door handle.

*our first garden. b's pride and joy.

* no matter where husband and i go, it feels so good to be {home}

one small success

i have had a love/hate relationship with sewing. i love that i can be creative, that i can make usable items, that i can repurpose old items. i hate that i am not as good as i sometimes believe myself to be and that i am so easily discouraged. last week, i tried to make just a simple tank top and i ended up nearly crying and telling my husband, i am not good at anything!!! you see i want to be good at these things, but i want to be good at them NOW. when i get discouraged and aggravated at myself, i won't come back to my sewing machine for days.

after talking to our friends who often feel the same about their creative endeavors, they encouraged me to just keep failing. with every failed tank top, i eventually get closer to a successful tank top. i felt ready to try again. friday i was able to make a halter that was not even close to perfect, but at the end, i wasn't crying and i was excited that i am getting closer.

present from dad

willy and i went to my dads for dinner last night. he had just picked up some of the best sweet corn we have had all summer! he gifted us 14 ears....woohoo.... corn party! i took some time decided on how best to use my new gift. i decided i would freeze a few bags to use later and use a couple ears on something fresh. i used some in this killer crepe recipe i've been waiting to try out!

8 crepes
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
2 small peppers, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 1/2 cup sweet corn
1/4 cup cream cheese
parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic powder


saute veggies in olive oil, stir in chicken, seasonings and cheeses. wrap mixture in crepes. serve immediately or freeze for later.

getting ready for fall

its hard to believe we are already getting ready to do cold weather crops! while we are still getting a lot of fruits and veggies coming in from our garden, we still need to be getting ready for the fall. saturday billy and i spent a lot of time thinning out our garden and planting new stuff. we have already started kale, spinach, red sails and buttercrunch. we will hopefully add bok choy and whatever cold weather crops i can find.

b working very hard

we normally compost or recycle egg crates, but we found a new purpose for them

herbs tied and ready to be dried out

war of the sauces

green tomatoes, bad idea

i came home from work monday night to an amazing smell in our place. my husband had made tomato sauce with ingredients from our garden. we tried his sauce over whole wheat pasta at midnight, i was in heaven. i always thought i was fine with preggo, i was wrong. it was fresh and perfect. tuesday i decided to make some sauces of my own. i planned on making a green and red sauce. neither turned out well. i thought i am a good cook, how could this happen? so i interviewed my husband to find out his secrets!

j- hi will, its me your wife.
b- hi wife.
j- are you ready for your interview?
b- yep.
j- you had a recent success in the kitchen, can you tell me about it?
b- i put an heirloom tomato, onion, minced garlic, and a habanero in our food processor and put it in a sauce pan. at first it was pink then turned to red. i put the lid half on and half off to thicken it. i then mixed in salt, pepper, olive oil and brown sugar, a 1/4 cup at most. then added some garlic powder and seasoned salt. let it continue to simmer on low heat for awhile. then my wife came home. oh wait! i forgot i added oregano, basil and parsley.
j- so why did my sauce fail?
b- you are not generous enough with spices. you used green tomatoes and you needed to let it simmer longer. you need to let the tomatoes do the talking.
j- ok thanks. so does this mean you'll be cooking more?
b- um, its a time factor. my mental state keeps me from cooking. i hope to at minimum cook dinner for my wife.
j- well then, whats your favorite meal your wife makes?
b- the one i always make noises for when i eat it.
j- you do that at all your meals.
b- i forget, there are too many. i'll have to get back to you.
j- i think you liked the chicken kiev and cashew broccoli.
b- oh yea, that was really good. awesome combination.
j- anything else you would like to add?
b- {i will do you a favor and not tell you what he said}

the red mess

mini terrariums

i feel like its been an eternity since my last blog! many times after a bad sewing experience, i feel the need to redeem myself creatively. i made a horribly disfigured shirt the other day, which is why i went mad today with mini terrariums. i first got the idea from a artist on etsy. like most things i see and pine for, i convince myself that i can make it. it is my curse and my blessing. i had tried a few months ago to put some moss i found in a graveyard (ah spooky) into a terrarium i had found. it was slowly dying when i came across a book at the library 'the new terrarium'. i was reinspired to try again.

the whole point of a terrarium is that it makes a basically self sustaining atmosphere. after the initial creating and watering, it should take care of itself! it requires very little water, if any at all. it prefers shade with little sun. it will need to be trimmed hardly ever. ah, so basically you can't kill it! aren't you convinced you need to make one by now!?!?!

i first started with four glass jars i found while shopping at some local thrift store (aka my new favorite past time)


then i lined the bottom with a mixture of small stones and charcoal (charcoal helps the soil from going bad)


i put in a small amount of potting soil


the i arranged each one. there are a variety of plants and flowers you can use, but it is best to make sure they are able to live in this way first. here i used moss, a dwarf fern, some sort of pink flower thing, and pin cushion. i also made a little stone path in one of them.

garden update

yes i am avoiding sewing at the moment if you've noticed. there is no ac and little airflow in that room, where all of my equipment is. hot and cranky jessica does not make inspiring or even good work! so i will update you on the progress of our garden! i feel our veggies were off to a slow start as a lot of stuff is just now ripening. we were able to eat our first tomato! we put it in some salsa that billy made for our house church and then i put some on his sammie for lunch today. its a really good tomato, but not as flavorful as smaller ones.
here is the plant it came from. billy has been restaking it a lot since it is toppling over its tomato cage.
our watermelons, squash and beans are going crazy. they are all intertwined, i guess bad placement on our part.here is the first acorn squash, cutie eh?

finally some little tiny watermelon fruits! how ridiculously cute is that?


this an just odd. i have been getting a ton of GREEN peppers from this plant and today i go out to pick a few and there is this......


and lastly some of our green striped tomatoes are ready! i only know this because we asked a farmer friend of ours how you know when they are ready. he said they start turning a bit yellow and obviously feel softer. i'm so curious to taste these lil guys!

9 hour layover vs. 7 years

this is me laying under the palm trees in punta cana yesterday.


you might be thinking.... so what she goes to these places all the time? or you might be thinking, such an easy job! just hand out a few cokes, then go lay on the beach all day. well shame on you! yes this was an amazing day on a secluded beach with just one little crab, but you need to know what i put up with first. you see i've been with my company 7 years and have only been on a great layover a handful of times. so 7 years vs. maybe 25 hours! i've broken it down to help you understand better:

7 years of:

• waking up at 2 or 3 am to go to work
• countless missed holidays
• being thrown up on
• cleaning up a 5 year old peeing in the galley
• being pushed in security by an old man
• having to tell countless americans what their citizenship is
• repeating the drink list countless times so that they can ask for something i don't have, like say a pina colada
• having to smell the lavatory when people have been sick all week in punta cana
• breaking up fights
• being blamed for the weather and the delay
• explaining what exactly it means to have the seat belt sign on
• telling people not to change their baby on the tray table, its unsanitary!
• having to ask people to take care of their children, its their job not mine.
• chasing after loose pets
• dealing with drunk people- kicking them off the plane, stop serving them or taking away the liquor they are trying to hide for me
• dealing with needy pilots
• listening to people complain that no one at their hotel spoke english... they were in mexico
  
• countless other things, but hopefully you understand
  

25 hours of:

• secluded, beautiful beach