Vacation Week

I took an extra week off to ostensibly "get so much done". 

Well....

While I did a lot - I didn't actually get much done. I chipped away at my list and got to about half of things I wanted to get to. 

 

First was making a huge dent in getting these mittens finished. I've been wanting to make them for more than two years. But with projects for other people and other things needing to be finished first - they had to wait. I started one before heading to California but didn't finish it until I got back here. I had to knit the top several times. And then the cuff was knitted afterward and I didn't have the pink yarn with me. I thought I 'd wanted an orange yarn I had - but it wasn't right. This took some serious doing to get the color variation the way I wanted it. In the end, it was worth all the extra effort and re-dos.  The second mitten is going much smoother but is still quite a project. I'm working on the cuff now and hope to finish them this week. Can't wait to wear them!

The second priority was to make sure the Silhouette cutter was working and it is!!!

 

I've cut a few things out and am excited to plan some new projects. In case you aren't familiar with these, they are just like printers, except that instead of printing on the paper, it cuts out shapes you have set up in the software that comes with the machine. You can cut paper, vinyl, stickers, and ??? I'm looking forward to finding out.  

I did get to one of the essential projects on my list: fixing the love seat! Remember this crazy project?

Well, I didn't put enough webbing on the bottom and pretty quickly it all popped off. The sofa was really saggy and becoming quite uncomfortable to sit in.

You can see in the above image how much the black part is sagging or popping out.
Last time, I did the whole thing by hand, from pulling out all the old nails and staples, to putting it all back on with a regular old staple gun. This time I got smart. I went to the trusty West Philly Tool Library and checked out an air compressor and staple gun. 

Holy Moly did that make a difference! You just squeeze the trigger and BAMphfft. Staple in. The only thing is the noise. The generator is loud loud loud! But some little ear plugs help.

I wasn't taking any chances this time, the base is plastered completely with webbing. And it's not coming off this either. Ever. Right now I am thrilled. Talk to me when I try to reupholster this sucker again. Then I won't be so happy.

But for the moment the base is flat like it should be and it feels much more comfy.  

Today was Stitch & Bitch our monthly knitting and political discussion group. I really look forward to it. We always bring something to eat and it has sort of become my job to bring the sweetie. Well fine by me. I tried one of the "Cocoanut Pudding" recipes in Ellen Emlen's cookbook. It's really more like a giant macaroon in a pie crust than a pudding but maybe I'm doing something wrong. Tasted just fine though.




Cream 1 cup (two sticks) butter with 1 cup sugar. Add 2T cognac 1t. rosewater and 2T coconut milk beat smooth. 
beat 8 egg whites to a snow, (and here's where I think I went wrong) add 3 cups unsweetened coconut.
combine the two mixtures. I think I should have added the coconut to the butter mixture and then folded the egg snow into that mixture.
Put it into a pie crust and bake for 50 minutes at 350F. I had to tent it after 30 minutes. It's very tasty, but I think it needs something. 

I drizzled chocolate over it but that's not quite right. Maybe I need thicker chocolate, but I was also thinking something very light like a pineapple sorbet. Or maybe even just some lemon zest in the crust could do? Not sure. At any rate - definitely a recipe worth working on.