For My Next Trick

I will magically make this blog come back to life!  Okay, no so much life as more frequently updated.  And not so much magic as actual working on stuff.  Things are well here at chez flyskim (not that they were all that dire in the first place, what with most of our difficulties being solidly first-world problems).  The Toyota was recovered by the Portland police two weeks after it was stolen, a little dirty and without Mr. flyskim's backpack with his two pairs of spare glasses and his sunglasses, but none the worse for its adventure.  It even had half a tank of gas left.

This was the view from the back patio from of our room.  Seriously? If not for the humidity (91%, yikes!) I might never have come home.  Oh, yes, and the cats.  Too many sand fleas for them.

Mr. flyskim and I recently returned from a vacation in St. Thomas, and we're currently interviewing architects to expand our upstairs which means that I will get a dedicated sewing space back by the end of the year!  We are just filling in some last plants in our back yard, so other than a planned pergola that may go in next year, we're pretty much done except for the watering and the grilling.  Which means that I can get back to the sewing machine! 

Or at least the ironing board.

I spent some time last weekend cutting out the panels for our kitchen curtains, which is the last kitchen project save painting the woodwork.  (I would have taken care of this a couple of weeks ago before Mr. flyskim's parents visited, but did you know that paint can mold?  I didn't, but it can, and it put a damper in my painting plans).

Oooh, wrinkly.

Anyway, curtains.  We have two large expanses of windows in our kitchen, one over the sink and one in the nook.  I like seeing all the wood trim, so I'm just making simple lined panels that will be hung using tension rods on the inside of the window frame.  This will also help with making my fabric go as far as possible because I underestimated how much I need for all the windows.  I'm using fabric from Dwell Studio called Botany Flora in taupe.  I'm hoping that this silhouetted nature pattern will give our kitchen a touch of whimsy.  Here's a slightly less distorted view.

I know that the colorway says taupe, but it looks like a warm silver to me.

Because the kitchen gets a lot of afternoon sun, I'm using a blackout liner (also, our old windows provide little insulating against the cold in winter) which means double the fabric and double the cutting.  I'd show more pictures, but the big pile of panels that are currently draped over the back of the dining room chair isn't really all that interesting to look at.  My next step is to break out the serger and finish all of the edges, and then I can put them together.  I'm hoping to get a couple of the panels done before the end of the week.  I'll post more about it then.

Um, I bought way too many.  We're going to be so sick of strawberries, that we won't even want to eat the jam.

Also on board for this weekend?  Lots of strawberries!  I'm going to try my hand at making some jam.  If that goes well, I'm going to try ketchup.  How big a nerd am I?  I've wanted to try making ketchup ever since I first saw Meet Me In St. Louis.


"Too sour?"

I was young enough when I first saw it that until I saw it as an adult, I didn't have a clear recollection of the film, but I clearly remembered the scene where various members of the family argue over the bubbling ketchup pot about whether it was too sweet or too sour.  This was the moment that I first realized that you couldn't always just run down to the market for a bottle of whatever.  If you wanted something exotic (like ketchup), you made it.  I've wanted to make ketchup ever since.  Also, Mr. flyskim and I felt that it wouldn't be a bad idea to develop some skills that would be useful in the impending apocalypse  (I've been reading The Stand again). 

Anyway, jam.  I've got the berries masticating (don't you love that word?) in sugar with some lavender from our garden.  I don't get to process it until I get home from work tomorrow night.  I'll keep you posted on how this goes.  The jam, not the zombies.  Curtains, too.