Thanksgiving Week

I find it hard to follow any menu I make because life happens. Last week, for example, my bike kept getting a flat tire and instead of going to the store by bike I decided to go home and fix it, so we ate what I could find from the cupboard. And then one day my son went to eat at his grandparent's. By posting about last week's menu I can also add pictures!

Breakfasts:
M: oatmeal porridge
T: Cereal
W: 4 grain porridge
T: Raisin and brown sugar oatmeal porridge
F: muesli
S: whipped chocolate semolina porridge

S: Eggless "Buttermilk" Pancakes (I didn't bother to use any egg replacer because there were both baking soda and powder in the recipe) and homemade strawberry jam from the freezer

Lunches:
M: boxed macaroni
T: leftover chili
W: peanut butter and banana sandwiches
T: grilled cheese sandwiches
F: ate out
S: tomato tuna sauce and broken spaghetti
One can of tuna in tomato sauce, few cubes of frozen spinach, frozen peas, milk, oregano, curry and chili powder. Heat until spinach has defrosted and everything has heated through.
Take spaghetti and break into small pieces. Cook as package directs.

Serve.
S: cheese sandwiches with homemade flat bread

Dinners:
M: homemade chili

T: Thanksgiving meal: homemade Tofu turkey stuffed with stuffing, homemade "cranberry" sauce (really made with red whortleberries), ovenbaked sweet potato cubes (just a bit of butter on top), twice baked potato casserole, mushy peas

W: leftovers from Thanksgiving meal
T: whole wheat fusilli and tomato sauce
F: how can I not remember?
S: my son made homemade pizza (we're looking for new dough recipes if you have any)
S: my son went to his grandparent's, so I just snacked

Evening Snacks:
M: date squares

T: carrot "pumpkin" pie with vanilla ice cream (I seldom see pumpkins sold here, so I make the pie from carrots)

W: last of date squares
T: "pumpkin" pie
F: apples
S: "pumpkin" pie
S: "pumpkin" pie and vanilla ice cream

See more menus for this week at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Pink Project Bag, Part 2

I realized after I had cut out the material that I might have difficulty sewing the pieces of my bag together because the seams would be down the middle and there weren't side seams.

But that figured itself out when I started pinning the pieces together and one went inside the other!

I think both of them turned out fine and I should make some more some day. My sister's bag is on the left and mine is on the right. As you can see my handle is narrower and that is because of the seam down the middle.

What I've Tossed this week.

Last week's task was to empty one binder and it wasn't as hard as I thought. I kept 32 pages but tossed ?? (haven't counted them yet!).

Well, haven't knit much

I didn't know what size needles I used for the last pair of gloves I knit for my son, nor do I know what this yarn is, so I started with 3.5 mm needles but they were too big, so now I'm trying 3 mm.

Second Binder

I managed to get rid of most of the papers from last week's binder. I've got about 10 more, so I'll try to do another this week. I need to put new material on some of my chairs. I've already borrowed the stapler twice to do them, but still haven't done them. I'm aiming to get at least one done this week.

Pink Project Bag, Part 1

I thought that I would get the most out of the material for my bag and decided to cut the material differently than my sister's. I folded the material and pattern in half so that I could position the handle as far up as possible and get a bit longer bag. It meant that the seams would be down the middle, but that didn't bother me.

I put pins over the edge of the pattern piece so that I wouldn't forget and cut along it but left the material longer for this bag.

I didn't really think it through and once I had cut out the pieces I noticed that I would have to sew the handle edges in the round rather than flat like my sister's. Fortunately the openings were big enough that I could fit them over the arm.

Stitches Ripped

When my son was much younger I knit him an almost complete balaclava but I never finished the face edging. I don't remember why, but probably he didn't want to wear them anymore. I need to knit him some gloves as it is difficult to find ones with long enough fingers and I remembered the balaclava. As you can see it no longer fits him! I've undone it all, washed it and it's drying now. Hopefully I can start them on the weekend. I don't know what wool it is so I don't know what size needles to use. Which is a pain because I'll have to keep asking him to try them on!

Tasks For The Week

I've got 5 pairs of similar black or blue shorts that are my year round at home clothes. The back seam wears out and I just sew it again. It's been a really long time since I repaired them and they are loose enough that it isn't really noticeable. But it's time to do them. I've only got three to work on as I'm wearing a pair and a pair are in the laundry. So they will get done when they are washed, before next task day!

When you think that you can take shortcuts but really shouldn't bad things happen! I didn't bother to pin the extra material out of the way and ended up sewing it to the seam. Great I thought, I can use it on the blog post. Sew, sew. And I did it again on another one!

My son will probably be going off to university next year, so I'll have to move to a smaller place. We live in a big two bedroom apartment and I'll more than likely have to move to a small one bedroom, which means that I'll have to get rid of a lot of stuff. Knowing how well I like to procrastinate I should get started.

I finished my studies 11 years ago and still have a lot of my notes and stuff in one cupboard. I thought that I could start there and go through it. Maybe a binder a week until they are done? This week's has 7 sections so I'm aiming to look at one section a day.

This Week's Menu

We ended up not having most of what I had planned for last week, so I'll bring some of it over to this week.

Breakfasts:
M: oatmeal porridge
T: Cereal
W: 4 grain porridge
T: Raisin and brown sugar oatmeal porridge
F: Whipped porridge (apple and cinnamon?)
S: Toast and homemade apple jam
S: Eggless pancakes and maple syrup (we didn't have them last week)

Lunches:









Weekdays: Aiming to have leftovers from the night before
M: Cashew Salmon Bake (pictured), baked potato and carrot slices
S: grilled cheese with red pepper

Dinners:
M: coconut red lentils, brown rice
T: french fries (haven't had them in sooo long) and veggie balls
W: spaghetti and homemade sauce (trying carrot and zucchini)
T: spinach and chickpea pie
F: Chili
S: undecided
S: undecided

Evening Snacks:
M: Banana Granola, strawberry soy yogurt, grapes
T: brownies (again), mandarin
W: last piece of marmalade cake from freezer, kiwi?
T: Apple and Red Lingonberry Whipped Porridge
F: Bread and cheese, banana?
S: apple crisp
S: date squares?

My Sister's Sock Project Bag, Part 2

I decided not to line the bag so it wouldn't take up as much room. My machine doesn't sew very well and I'd rather just get things sewn before the machine decides it has had enough of my wanting to use it. Very many years ago I took a sewing class and we were given a piece of cardboard with a smaller piece glued on top. It is for sewing when you are coming to bumps in your sewing. Put it under the foot so it raises the presser foot and there isn't such a big jump over the bump.

15. fold over edge of handles to the back of the material and iron them ✔
16. fold over again to enclose the raw edge and iron ✔
17. sew in from the edge so that the folded edge on the wrong side is sewn also and then iron ✔

18. place wrong sides together and match lines on sides ✔
19. to make a French seam, sew side seems from top to bottom so that the top edges are even ✔

20. pin and sew bottom edge ✔
21. turn inside out and iron seams flat ✔
22. pin sides so that pins are on top of the side to be sewn, trying to match lines and sew from top to bottom with a bigger seam allowance in order to catch the raw edges inside ✔

23. turn right side out and iron ✔
24. take picture when the sun is shining! ✔