Saturday, July 6, 2013

Not much going on...

At least, not in the way of sewing. I've done a few clothing fixes, and I'm very slowly working on a new paper piecing pattern, but otherwise I haven't touched my sewing machine in over a week. What have I been doing instead?

- My girls are on summer vacation. They're staying up at least half an hour later every night, and since I still need to go to bed at the same time, that's 30+ minutes less of me time.

- I've been reading. My husband got William Shakespeare's Star Wars. Its such a fun read. I would pay money to see this play. I'm also re-reading the volumes of Fruits Basket that I own, so I can continue the story with volumes I got from the library.

- I've been reading to my girls. They signed up for the Summer Reading Club at the library, which is 15 minutes a day of reading. We read The Legend of the Golden Snail a few days ago, and I enjoyed the story as much as they did. Then at the end, you can go to the author's website and play a game with the book, which took up another half hour of our day. Yes, we've been reading other books too.

- I made marshmallows. I used Alton Brown's recipe, but used golden syrup instead of corn syrup because I made them as a birthday gift for my daughter's friend who is allergic to corn. I also used corn-free icing sugar and tapioca starch. They turned out awesome, if quite a bit gooier than store-bought marshmallows. But since this friend hasn't had marshmallows in over a year, he thought they were amazing! The only thing I would do differently next time is to add more vanilla extract to cover up the odd aftertaste of the golden syrup.

- We've gone on day trips. We went to the Richmond Night Market last night (the food is SO tasty). We went to Anime Evolution last weekend. I've taken the girls to the pool, the library, the park, friend's houses, a farm, shopping.

I'm sure I've done other things, but I'm also trying to take it slow and enjoy summer. And that means sewing has taken a back seat, and I'm okay with that. Next week we're headed to Trail (an 8 hour drive, plus stops) for my best friend's birthday, and then after that I'll be starting work on Halloween costumes. Chloe and Kara love Teen Titans right now, so Chloe is going to be Raven, and Kara is going to be Terra. After those are done, if I have time, I will make a white mage costume for Jane, and then (hopefully) a Final Fantasy Tactics ninja costume for me.

And that's my life right now. So really, there's a lot going on.