Altar Cloths to the Gods of Tacky Fabric

A few months ago a friend introduced me to the wonder of cloth napkins.  I’d love to say that I’ve embraced this concept so as to relieve land fills of tons of paper napkins or to save money purchasing one less product at the grocery, but in all honesty its just an excuse to fully give into my inexplicable love of tacky fabric.  So often, I would peruse the fabrics available at local thrift shops and craft stores falling head over heels in love with fabric that was, for example covered in cats dressed in 16th century clothing (which I actually have in my stash of napkins now) and not knowing what I could do with it.  Did I want a quilt of that pattern?  Did I want yet another tote bag or purse made from it?  Did anyone I know want something of that nature.  Invariably the answer would be ‘no’ and I would move on.  But, no more…1/2 a yard makes 2 napkins and fills me with smiles and glee.  Above are my latest napkins. 

    I experimented with mitered corners, folded over corners and hemmed edges, and then serging.  I genuinely prefer the serged edges; first because I can make a napkin in under 45 seconds and I also don’t like the weight of the hemmed edges and bulky corners. 

Turducken or Chuckey Anyone?

I started reading “Gimp” last night and as is my practice, read the ending first.  I’m not certain why I feel that need, but its all a part of any reading I do…except of course murder mysteries…and I’m oddly pleased.  There are things in the world I haven’t a clue about, things that are perfectly normal to a large number of people and absolutely foreign to me…such as the Turducken or Chuckey.

“A Turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The name is a portmanteau of those ingredients: turkey, duck, and chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.  Its also called a chuckey.”

~From Wikipedia

I suppose I’m not very imaginative, it never would have occurred to me to stuff a bird with  another bird and then for kicks stuff another one in there.  Part of me thinks the person who decided to stuff birds with birds had entirely too much time on their hands and obviously a treasure trove of available dead birds without bones…another part of me though applauds the creativity that asks, “Why just one bird?  And where could I stick more?”

To make your own Turducken, this site should help:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/turkeyrecipes/ss/turduckensbs.htm

For SillyGeuse

Reading Challenge

The first time my family and I lived in Lawton, Oklahoma I decided I was going to read every single biography at the local library and actually did.  It was a great experience and exposed me to so many people and topics I might never have looked in to.  So, seven years later I’ve decided to embark on the same challenge.  The main difference this time around will be that I’m starting at the end of the alphabet…no offense, but I’m just not ready to read about Hank Aaron for the next 2 weeks.  :)  My first selections are:  “My Father, My Son” by Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr. and Lieutenant Elmo Zumwalt III and “Gimp” by Mark Zupan.

These Days

For the past year I fully believed I was moving some time this summer to parts unknown (that being the Army’s love of treating base assignments like the Academy Awards and waiting until the last possible moment to rip open the envelope and announce the winner…your new location) and I like the wise old ant was prepared.  I packed over the last 10 months, carefully tucking knick knacks and the like into boxes and labeling them with the detail accorded donor organs.  In these final weeks leading up to my husband’s sceduled arrival from Korea, I de-cluttered the entire house (what my real estate agent called it…it makes me think of clearing everything but the bare essentials from your home, so prospective buyers think someone lives there, but you do nothing while there).  My kitchen counters are a sea of surfaces, a lone microwave emitting its deadly rays into the house with nothing cute or interesting to bounce off of.  I was pleased, the kids had cooperated and theirrooms were impeccable, the bathrooms gleamed and each night I went to bed knowing I had been one step ahead of the game, had prepared so well this move was going to seem like a vacation and then…

       The Army decided that my husband was not be given a base assignment per say, instead like a piece of precious art he is on loan to Fort Riley, Kansas and will deploy to Iraq in January 2009, and the Imps and I, in our carefully packed house, on the launch pad of moving from this abode…well, we’re staying put for another two years.  Is there any way Murphy’s Law could have struck more perfectly?  *l*

    Now, its back to the hamster wheel, unpacking the house, painting what we hated when we moved in and turning the house back into something like a home….

Why I Adore Anderson Cooper…

[

Michelle Obama in Billings

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to spend the morning with a couple hundred Obama supporters and Barack Obama’s lovely wife, Michelle Obama.  What a dignified and inspiring woman…I loved the introduction given about her, “She didn’t play basketball because everyone told her she should.  She graduated from Princeton because everyone told her she couldn’t.”

M.H.S., aka Moses Head Syndrome

I’ve recently come to the realization that I suffer from Moses Head Syndrome.  The symptoms are fairly easy to identify; pillows that are divided or ‘parted’ down the center (hence the Moses reference) leaving no fluff to cradle the sleepers head, an inability to correct the parted pillow through various and not so subtle ways (fluffing accordian style, placing in the dryer with tennie balls, swinging the pillow against the wall in hopes of re-positioning the pillow stuffing), and a manic need to shop for pillows that are rumored or advertised as un-splittable.  I’ve theorized as to why this happens to me and my many, many pillows…perhaps I have a really heavy head filled with far too many thoughts and dreams, maybe my brain is rather large for my build, or as my Republican step dad thinks, perhaps my head is filled with rocks!   Whatever it may be, I just want a pillow with a life span exceeding a week! 

There’s no explaining Love.
 

Green Porno

Wandering around the internet this morning (when I should have actually been picking up and putting away laundry) I found this link to 8 interesting and often hilarious shorts…Enjoy!

http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno