Anyway, straight into the crafting. Most of my craft projects seem to originate one of two ways. Either there is something I need, and I make up a solution using stuff I have lying around the house, or there is some odd/neat/interesting supply/material I have lying around the house, and I make up a project to use it, usually something at least minimally practical (even if by practical I mean 'looking neat on the wall' but hey). This project would be a need not material led project definatly. Let me show you what my purse looks like generally:
This is on a good day, and still really quite alarming. I love this purse, it is fantastic and the perfect size and shape but it only has ONE pocket on the inside, and it is a huge pocket running the length of one side and with no closure. I carry tons of miscellaneous stuff in bag, from dental floss to safety pins, hair clips, peppermint tea bags, and a variety of gum and mints, and a mini sewing kit, all there just in case I may need it. Perhaps this is a by-product of the long term traveling, the need to pack for the emergency situation (band aids? sunscreen?) but it results in a big pile of stuff loitering around in the pocket of my purse and spilling out into the main compartment, to the point where I have to set my purse down and dig for my keys every time I get to my car, rummage when my phone rings, almost sticking my head all the way into the capacious depths to find anything successfully. It just isn't working for me but I see no reason to ditch the bag just cause it has pocket issues. So I decided to (attempt) to fix my handbags shortcomings myself.
First I took everything out and laid it on my desk, trying to figure out what sort of pockets, how many, what size, I would be needing. Next I measured the width of the purse and then drew a sketch of the pockets I would be making. I rummaged around in my fabric box and picked some heavy black and white fabric for the outside of the pockets and some pink floral for the inside (bright insides of pockets helps you see the contents better) and cut them down to size.
Next I put them front to front and sewed around the edge leaving a small opening at the bottom (remember the placemats, this is exactly the same idea really) and cut off the excess fabric.
Then I flipped them right side out,
and ironed them and pinned and sewed the openings shut.
The next step was to sew it all together into one complete 'pocket insert'
and pin it into the lining of my turned-inside-out purse.
I wonder if it may have been more time savvy to take out the lining, sew the pocket in by machine and then sew the lining back in because what I decided to do (sew around the edge by hand with teeny tiny stitches with a needle- thus the stabbing in the finger with all those layers, and of course followed by the excursion to the store to purchase a much needed thimble) took a very long time and required me to hold my arm at strange angles and was not that easy and was really not fast at all. Easily an hour of hand work. Good movie-watching hand work.
And after that all that was left to do was clip all the treads, and turn it right side out again and fill it with stuff. Yeah organization. You might notice also that I added a key clip that I cut out of a skirt I was getting rid of, since loosing my keys at the bottom (always at the bottom) was one of my biggest issues with the previous set up) I felt a need to add a place of that into the whole configuration. All in all it worked out quite well. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Doesn't look perfect, clearly looks like a do-it-yourself sort of thing but it works for what I want it to work for so that's great. And who doesn't want more pockets!
And now for some food stuff. All that crafting made me hungry, plus the thimble errand (which included picking up lots of other stuff, so it took a lovely long time)and I looked up and it was five and a looooooooooong time since those pancakes. With a distinct chill in the air despite the sun-dappled and inviting looking outside world (deceived I was, a sweater was SO necessary today) and a bit of a case of the sniffles, I was feeling a need for something cozy in my food and so this is what I ended up with:
And there was bacon left from breakfast. And some leftover soup, and I love leftovers, so I heated some soup (corn and pepper it was-yum) and made quick grilled cheese sandwiches, to which I added some roasted red bell peppers and the bacon from breakfast. The cheese (extra sharp Vermont cheddar-i'm a bit of a cheese snob) melted over everything else holding it in place and it was just heavenly. Made me forget the chill entirely. All in all a very productive day. A few more things were done but I'm holding on the them, as I might not complete anything postable tomorrow and this brings it to three posts today what with the catch up from non-internet times, and I wouldn't want to give anyone a false impression as to the typical rate of my writing. Usually three in one day would NOT happen, so I will stop here and leave you with some cheesy goodness. Or a photo, as the sandwiches are gone by now. Eaten. Thoroughly enjoyed. Yum.
Oh and just a quick note about the way I make a killer grilled cheese. Its all about proper prep or pre-grilling assembly. I butter bread that I have lightly toasted (yeah I know it seems redundant but it keeps it from burning and let's use real butter if we can people, it always tastes better) and spread the inside of one piece of bread with mustard. Now this is an issue of contention with my roommate who thinks that this is insane, and that no one else she has ever heard of ever does this. Ever. However she puts mayonnaise on hers, so.....nuff said. And my whole family used mustard on grilled cheese. It's just the way things were done in our house. Maybe it's the quality of our mustard that provoked us to add it to just about everything (and still does) but over all I really don't have an answer, I didn't start doing this out of the blue, it was just how I was taught. t mingles with the cheese flavors so well, amplifying and complimenting each other (and as this time there was also bacon and bell pepper I need not say any more about how fantabulous these sandwiches were, cause I'm kinda drooling on myself here typing and I'm sure it's not good for my computer in the slightest) and just making things better. But I figured I should point out I do this, as it comes up every time grilled cheese is mentioned in this apartment and it seems to be such a hot topic and I just felt like acknowledging that. On that note, I'm signing off and thinking about cookies vs pie for tomorrows bake-splosion. Thoughts?
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