urban earth mother

Our new house is much closer to the T station than our apartment was, but it is further out on the red line. This gives me a much longer ride and I've been taking the opportunity to get more knitting in. It's hard to knit at home with a active near-toddler so the commute is really the best time I have. Never going to work for me Since I not only nurse my daughter but also pump milk at work, I find I have to be mindful of what I wear all the time so that I can have access. With that in mind, I decided to make a nursing sweater. Knitty.com does have a pattern for a nursing halter , but while it looks nice, it's not going to offer me any support (I am MUCH more generously endowed than the model) so I had to think of something else.  I like the idea of something I could lift rather than pull down so decided to work something up myself. Work in progress Knitty had a pattern for a very easy pullover called Tempting that gave me an idea. The eyelet holes at the top mi...

This lead abatement issue has me thinking even more about decorating the house. Even if we can get one of the abatement loans, this will still be costly so making it nice again will have to take some time, working on it on an as and when we can afford it basis. That said, there is so much I want to do, from simple painting to more complex construction. On the simple end, there is a triangular bit of wall under the stairs that cries out for something, but I don't think framed art will do. Solution: chalkboard paint! I see no reason to discourage my child from drawing on walls, but this will keep that impulse a bit controlled and still be fun for all of us. Spouse and I could even use the upper portions for notes to each other. Now of course we wanted to repaint the rooms as well but I think I'd like to add a little bit extra. I think picture rails along the walls, perhaps with a different paint color (or preferably wallpaper) above the rails would look lovely. It's a V...

That phrase sums up our home owning experience right now. We bought a house with little work other than some cosmetic things to be done and now find ourselves facing a very large bill with lots of hassle and work on our part, not to mention the health issues already there. Lead. The house is full of it. Most houses of this age still have lead paint in them. This is pretty much a given here in Boston, and might not have been a problem here had we really been aware of it (no we have no statements from the previous owners on the lead issue) and had been able to make sure we were dusting and mopping daily and making sure every crack was covered. But we weren't and we didn't and now Sprog has high lead levels, the cat surely must (he will be the next to be checked and treated) and the city has inspected and given us an order to delead. Most of the lead seems to be doors, walls and trim, which means paint removal. That's considered high-risk (although removing lead coated w...

Photo by Spouse One of our tomato plants in the upsidedown planter has fruit! There was another one that did but I accidentally pulled that one off. But this baby has two, count 'em, TWO tomatoes on this Defiant vine. There are also two green ones on the Pol Big, one sweet green pepper and one Anaheim hot pepper! My herbs are struggling but four have managed to cling on. I should be getting some mature chive plants before the month is out as well.  Don't ask about the onions (we shall mourn them.) All in all, it's pretty good for a couple who haven't done this sort of thing in ages. I had decided to not get my hopes up this year so having anything makes me happy. We still haven't cleared out the raised beds yet, but I think that will happen as we prepare for autumn.

I've been out in the shed painting a bookcase. I wish I could say "bookcases" but it has taken me ages to get one out there and with the rain it's been too humid to do more than one coat in a session. But one of the fun thing about painting in our shed has been using the unfinished walls to clean brushes and otherwise do things we could never do in our rental apartment. I'll post pictures of bookcase #1 when it is done, but the gist is white outside, the pink inside the hear in the photo inside and on the shelves and the darker red on the inside back. Two bookcases will be like this in the dining room and I'll use that color palate for the two cabinets and the table and chairs in there too. I think the walls need to be painted something different but that works with those colors. I don't feel I can do much in the house until we at least have a couple bookcases ready. Two bookcases are doing temporary duty as pantry shelves right now until we build pr...

Well, we did it! The house is now ours and ready to move in to. Now we need to pack and engage movers. Here's a preview of the house. It cuts off at the end. And yes, the doorbell needs repair to it actually rings.

The Good Life , known in the US as Good Neighbors, was a telvision series about a couple who opt out and decide to become self sufficient - growing their own food, producing their own electricity, etc. The gimic being that they do all this while living in the suburbs. The show is charming (and available on Netflix if you haven't seen it) and much is played for laughs, but I have always seen it as aspirational. The idea of growing our own foodhsa been appealing to me for so long. When I lived in Somerville, we tried having a garden one year, but nothing much grew. Shortly after I moved to a building with no available green space. The tiny unit we are currently in does not even get enough light to grown things on the window sills (well, tables as the sills are far too shallow for even the cat to sit on.) Soon I'll have the opportunity to see how green, or not, my thumb is. One of the things we looked for when house hunting was a large lot. I needed to be able to have a gard...

We're buying a house. It's a little thing - well, twice the size of our apartment but smaller than other houses on the street - built in 1900. It's in Dorchester, right on the red line and I cannot WAIT to close and move in. Expect tales of actual gardening on our actual land. More to come after we close at the end of the month.

The rings for the new baby sling arrived on Friday. For some reason I was thinking that one ordered them singly (which would not really make sense) so when I ordered two of each color I was actually ordering two pairs of each. This is not a problem as I planned to make us two slings each anyway. This is the fabric I bought. I had already ordered purple rings so went for something with some purple in it. It's a heavy cotton/linen, that actually seems like it might be a bit much now that it's made (another reason I'm making several.) As it happened, we were doing laundry on Friday so I had this in the dryer when the post arrived with the rings. I had to hand sew the last of it as the layers were so thick. I may altar the pattern a bit for future ones to make that easier. Once it was finished, I threaded it, tried it on and had to make sure it would work for carrying. Who says cats aren't my first babies! When I was finished with the sewing machine, Spouse decided...

I've not been sewing at all. All my grand schemes of homemade maternity and baby clothes are as dust. But I did find something easy to make that might get me inspired! A Baby Sling! Spouse and I are pretty much on the same page in terms of how we're going to care for this upcoming child and baby wearing is part of that. However, there are several different types of slings and other carriers out there, none of them cheap, and how do we know which kind we'll like? I had been gravitating toward ring-adjusted slinks like the Maya and lo and behold they have a pattern to make your own on their site! I've gone ahead and ordered two sets of rings and now need to hit the fabric shop ! In other pregnancy-related news, I keep waiting for that nesting instinct to kick in where all I want to do is clean. I've done some random cleaning, like scrubbing the cupboard doors in the middle of the night, but that's mainly because I can't sleep because of RSL and start t...

Greetings! As you can see, I'm not the only thing growing here. I planted some basil seeds in our seed sprouter and they seem to be coming up nicely. With luck we'll actually be able to have some homegrown herbs this year, in spite of our city status. I am going to try to set them outside later so that they can get, hopefully, more light than our living room provides. And speaking of things what grow, my darling Spouse came home with a huge bag of produce yesterday. There's a group that sells low-cost organic produce at the housing authority where he's working. He didn't want to take any last time they came even though they offered, but this time he gave in. The haul included a very large amount of rhubarb which he took because no one else wanted it. His first thought was a nice crumble . He ended up making three, one of which he gave away. It might not look pretty, but it sure is tasty. This morning I took a few more spears of rhubarb, because even after thre...

I haven't been posting here as I've been working on a little side project that just became public. And no, I haven't been sewing as I should but I have at least gotten this pattern cut out and ready to alter. I'll need to enlarge the bust quite a bit, but then bring the shoulders back in. Fortunately I bought some Swedish tracing paper which you can actually sew and use as a muslin. Now I just need the motivation to get going! My constant fatigue has subsided now so I should be able to do a little bit before it gets too warm. Most likely I will be getting my fabric at the new Stitch lounge Gather Here . I KNOW I'll be going there when it comes time to make button holes! My machine doesn't have a button holer and I'm not really good at doing them by hand. I will, of course, be delving into their yarn stores too for soft yarns for a new small body. If I start now I might even finish a receiving blanket! But knowing my procrastination, that sounds like a ...

Happy New Year! I'm not one to make new year resolutions (you know, because I break them) but may just set myself a new year goal this year. Not weight loss (which is my constant struggle) or exercise (already have Spouse nagging me (because I asked him to) for that) or packing a lunch every day (although I did bring in three days worth of meals today) but sewing. This year I would like to make one item of clothing per month. The item need not be elaborate, even an accessory could do, but I would like to make use of the expensive sewing machine repairs and this seems rather practical. I may even go all out and finish some of the knit UFOs lurking in the closet as well! So that's the plan for me. Anyone else have any goals for the new year?

If you wear a bra and lament things like underwires shattering before the rest of the bra has worn out, or just want to try your hand at DIY undies, the Bra-makers Supply site rocks! I haven't yet ordered from them, so I don't yet know what there customer service is like, but that will very soon be remedied. I spend close to $100 EACH on my bras so not tossing keeping them going is a big concern for me. Now that I've got a working sewing machine, I may try my hand at making my own dainties and save a little money, as well as having custom design.

Spouse came home from his house-call yesterday with a big black trashbag which he set on the kitchen floor and said, "This is for you." Inside the bag was a 17 pound turkey. Raw. Thawed. Apparently the person he's gone to see had two and they hadn't been kept frozen. One was cooked for Thanksgiving but the other needed to be cooked soon. Guess what I did today? If you said, "Roasted a Turkey," you would be correct! A couple years ago I found a 1924 Boston Cooking-School cook book at a flea market in excellent shape and only $12. It's a great reference book if you can get over some of the rather vague instructions. Here is how to roast a turkey (emphasis mine): Dress, clean, stuff and truss a ten-pound turkey. Place on its side on a rack in a dripping pan, rub entire surface with salt, spread breast, legs and wings with one-third cup butter, rubbed until creamy and mixed with one-fourth cup flour. Dredge bottom of pan with flour. Place in a hot ove...

We were invited over to a friend's home for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. While bringing a dish wasn't required, I offered and brought a large salad, complete with home made dressing, plus a bottle of wine. Many hours of h'ordeuvres, wine, a HUGE meal and dessert later, we were driven home, sated and ready for bed (at least I was ready for bed!) For a wonderful day, I most heartily thank Tim and Susan for hosting, Katherine for bringing us there and Bari and Terry for taking us home. Like in the US, turkey tends to be a once per year food in the UK, in their case at Christmas. And like here, one of the joys of cooking something so massive is leftovers. Spouse apologized for his presumption, but asked if he could take a little turkey home with him. Given that there was HALF a turkey left in a home with one meat eater, they happily obliged. He was looking forward to turkey sandwiches. "In England," he said, "we have them with sage and onion stuffing. Do we h...

I didn't get pictures of all of it as by the time everything was cooked I just wanted to sit down and eat. The menu was: Salad of cabbage, spinach and carrot Roast Quorn with Roasted potatoes Mushy peas Yorkshire pudding Bread with homemade butter Steamed pudding with custard Peas soaking Potatoes await their fate Another gorgeous loaf of bread Fruit was leftover booze-soaked fruit (kept in the freezer) from the Christmas pudding With Custard

Just out of the oven Out of the pan First steaming slice with homemade butter

I decided to start the Christmas Pudding early this year. Traditionally it's supposed to be made the Sunday before Advent (Stirring Up Sunday), but since they are meant to be aged, and Advent means nothing to me, I opted to do it earlier to let it mellow. The first step was chopping 2 cups of mixed fruit and letting it soak overnight in alcohol. Sherry, port, rum or brandy are typically used, but I had none of those! I used a combination of whiskey, Grand Mariner, sweet vermouth and a splash of absinthe. Greased pudding basin and fruit soaked in booze Another old tradition is to place a silver coin in the pudding before steaming. Good luck comes to the person who finds it on their plate. A thuppence (three-penny coin) or sixpence was traditionally used, but these coins disappeared with the switch to decimal currency in 1973.  As luck would have it for us, downtown Boston is chock-a-block with various collectibles shops and we bought about a half dozen assorted coins from WWI...

My sewing machine has been repaired and cleaned and works very nicely. I had so much fabric let over from the six-gore skirt that I decided to go all out and do a skirt without a pattern. I really, really want one of these Vivien of Holloway Pinafore skirts , but a) they're kind of expensive, and b) they don't come in my size. So, what's a girl to do? Well, they look like straight skirts with some darts for shaping, an extra high waist and straps added on. That shouldn't be too hard, right? Well it took longer than I thought simply because I managed to throw my back out and sitting for long periods of time hurt too much. I eventually made myself start it on Saturday so I could wear it to a wedding on Sunday. The straps originally went over the shoulders straight, but I had cut them too long and my sloped shoulders enabled them to slip down constantly. After we got back from the wedding on Monday, I took the straps off in the back and crossed them over. The straps are ...