Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July one and all!

We celebrated by reading on the porch, relaxing, and going to our neighbors' house for a cookout in the afternoon. Elisa made watermelon mojitos! It was a lovely day. 

Too bad both Boyfriend and I have to work tomorrow. Boo.

Monthly Bood Roundup: April & May

Since I have been so bad about posting, I have decided to combine my book posts for April and May. Save myself some time, ya know?

In April, I read:

Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
An (Almost) Perfect Love Story but Rachel Schurig


I had my first museum internship the summer between my junior and senior years of college. It was at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center in Traverse City, Michigan. I loved it. Along with my co-intern, Whitney, I researched and wrote the narrative for an exhibit on car culture in the TC region. Of course, since we are talking Michigan here, we learned a lot about Henry Ford. He's a very interesting figure, if you ask me. Maybe not always for the greatest reasons (by most accounts, he was seriously anti-Semitic). Whitney and I even met a man from the area that was, at the time, 102 years old. He couldn't hear the frequency of my voice, so Whitney got to conduct the interview. He remembered working in a store and having Henry Ford come in and ask him a question, which I thought was awesome. 

Anyway... I didn't know until recently that Ford had tried to cultivate a rubber plantation in South America. This book talks about that project- the trials, the failures, the remnants left for the people that live there today. It was very interesting, and shed new light for me on Ford and his whole operation.

The Schurig book was one of those that I consider to be a light, fun read. I like to slip those in between heavier things, to give my brain a bit of a break and just read something that is pure entertainment. I particularly enjoy her books because they are set in Michigan (I had a loose theme going on on April, I guess) and they talk about places that I am familiar with. It's a good time. She has a few series (that are all somewhat intertwined) out there and they are very inexpensive for the kindle. I recommend trying them.

In May, I read:

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
Clara's War by Clara Kramer
All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve 

Okay. I have been working on this post for about a month now. I'm sick of it sitting there in the draft state, so I will be brief about my books for May:

Remember Me was a good book if you're into Sophie Kinsella's work. I actually liked it better than some of the others I have read. The Girl Who Chased the Moon was very good. It was my first time reading anything by that author and I really enjoyed it. So much so that you'll be seeing her name pop up in my June roundup a couple of times. Clara's War was fabulous. It is a memoir by a Holocaust survivor and I just loved it. Clara's voice is so strong and unique that her experience will likely stick in my mind for a while. Finally, All He Ever Wanted was... just okay. I read another Shreve novel in June and I liked that one a lot better (but more about that elsewhere).

What have you been reading?

Conquering Post-Work Sleepiness

As I mentioned earlier this week, I am, more often than not, ridiculously tired as soon as I walk in the front door after work. I can spend all day thinking of my evening to-do list and be all jazzed up to be productive and then... nada.

Today, though, was different! I didn't do a ton of stuff, but it was enough of a variety to feel awesome. I:

-washed and sliced strawberries
-baked shortcakes to go with said berries
-took care of some clean laundry
-finished sewing some baby burp cloths (more on that to follow)
-read my book
-watched two awesome episodes of Saved by the Bell (the one where Jessie takes the pills and the one where Kelly goes to Paris to model)

Basically what I'm saying is, "go me! " I feel good tonight.

Skirts

You guys, I'm obsessed with wanting to make skirts. I was trolling the internet for ideas all weekend and have been thinking about fabric for the past two days. I need to make a maxi skirt. And like 1800 pencil skirts. 

Okay. This will happen. Soon.

Oops

Well, it has been quite a while, hasn't it? 

I do apologize for my silence. I think I will attribute this to my new work arrangement. The organization that employs me is consolidating office locations, so I get to travel to downtown Pittsburgh every day (not bad, really, but... more traffic and no free parking than the old location). I also switched my shift from 9-5 to 8-4. Soooo... now I have to wake up about two hours earlier than I was used to and I still get home close to the same time I had been with the old set up. 

Result: I. Am. Exhausted.

I hope to be better about posting in the coming weeks, because I do have a lot to share! 

What have you been up to, friends? Anything good?

Ham & Bean Soup

After Easter dinner, Boyfriend's mom gave me some of the leftover ham to take home. At first, I thought I would make a ham and potato soup... but then I decided that a ham and bean soup would be amazing. I'd never made one before, so I scoured the internet for a recipe that sounded good to me. And I found one! Yay! It turned out very nicely. I can't wait to make it again!!

And, for your viewing pleasure, here is yet another photo looking into the soup pot. Yes... I need to get more creative...

Happy soup time!!

A Kitchen Curtain Near Disaster

A couple of weekends ago, I decided to sew some curtains for the window above my kitchen sink. Until now, I had been making do with the ones that were in the window when we bought the house:

 

Not that these curtains are terrible, of course, I just wanted something more cheerful to look at while in the kitchen. Sorry about the not-super-perfect photo, by the way.

I decided that I would just copy the curtains that were already there for the new set. Here is the fabric I decided to use:

 

I chose the floral for the top two curtains and the solid green for the bottom. Our kitchen walls are painted a sunshine-y yellow, so I thought it would go nicely. When I was looking for a color for the bottom, I had really hoped to find a nice matching coral, but alas. I was unsuccessful.

I took down a curtain from the top and from the bottom to use as my pattern. This is where the near disaster comes in. I was going along just swimmingly, cutting my fabric and watching a Julia Roberts movie I had never seen before on tv. I thought everything was going great. And then I realized that I had cut the fabric for the top two curtains exactly the same. EXACTLY THE SAME. How can they mirror each other when they are the same??? OMG. I was so mad. 

Thankfully, I was able to make it work. I was so nervous, though, because I did not have a suitable amount of extra fabric to start over. So, the top two are not as big as I would have liked and they are not exact mirrors of one another, but they totally work.

Here are the finished curtains:

Ta-da!! And please forgive the miscellaneous stuff around the sink. You can also see my little burro tail plant hanging there. He's so cute. I need to re-pot him this weekend, I think. I'm very excited about my curtains, though. I can't wait to make complementary ones for the two other windows in the kitchen/mudroom!