waterdoodles

I bought some Pentel Aquash Water Brush Pens before vacation and spent time at the beach trying to learn how they handle. I really don’t know what I’m doing with watercolors — just going with the flow. I like taking pictures along the way. The final piece never turns out how I envision it. Hoping to practice letterforms with these pens soon.

refashion: “new” skinny jeans

You know what’s weird about skinny jeans? They never look too short. There are long and ankle length. When they really get short, they become capris. You just can’t go wrong. This is good when your daughter is growing like a weed, but only up and not out.

Temps are getting cooler, so we went through her stash of jeans this weekend. The 10s were a wee bit too short, but fit fine in the waist. The 12s were also a wee bit short, and were way too big in the waist. I decided to do the only logical thing: turn the 10s into skinny jeans.

Ironically, she has a really nice, brand new pair that she hates. They have a decorative seam down the top center that “feels weird.” They look so great on that I refuse to let them go. I’m convinced she’ll come to love them. In the meantime, they became the perfect pattern for refashioning four other pairs.

It’s really amazing to see a pair of pants transformed from something that looks like they’re ready for a flood to something cute and trendy. She was particularly happy that I gave new life to her sparkly Jordaches. (I got my first pair of Jordache jeans when I was just a little bit older than she is now. I LOVED them.)

So today was a good day. I watched football, had a Starbucks, and sewed up a storm. Hello, Fall. We’re ready for you!

pepper season

I have too many peppers. In addition to a crisper full of red and green varieties of varying levels of heat, I have a whole bunch in the deep freeze. Today I got to work tackling the ones in the crisper.

The reds became a mild hot sauce. It has just a tiny kick. I used this recipe, which was recommended by a friend. There weren’t any habanero in mine (too much heat for me!).

The others got stuffed in a big jar to become pickles. I had some extra room, so I threw in some carrots, too. Here’s the recipe. All I added was a pinch of turmeric.

I also made a small jar of dill cucumber and green bean pickles. The cucumber was from my garden!

The peppers in the deep freeze are destined to become jelly, I think. They’ll have to wait for another weekend. I’m done in the kitchen for today.

kale, quinoa, tomato soup

I made this powerhouse of a soup last night and it turned out so good! Minor modifications: used 1T dried basil instead of the suggested blend because that’s what I like, used fire roasted tomatoes because that’s what I had. Suggestion: buy whole leaf kale and de-stem. I used bagged/chopped and no amount of wilting will make the stems not chewy.