Monday, October 6, 2008

Home-made Sewing Table!


The first year of my request, he went out to buy cherry wood for the top and the lift mechanism. I had wanted something that's small but can be opened up to large space and he promised me that he would make it. By the end of the second year, the table had yet to be seen. He told me to just buy one but I held back. Then, I started doing lots of sewing -- quilts, altering pants, making pants and had hijacked the desk and later on, the dining table. There was no place to eat dinner together and I was getting tired of that so I told him that I would buy one. I had it all picked out. I wanted the sylvia 810Q that looks like the picture here.

It costs quite a bit but I was desperate. I really wanted something that can hide the sewing table. After DH saw the price tag, he said he would make it himself and to asked me to give him a few weekends. I scoffed. However, what can I do now but to give him ANOTHER chance? "Wait, I had to," said my yoda voice.

A few weekends later, he produced this:

None of the nice cherry wood. It's all ply woods or MDFs. Heavy as heck. Very sturdy. If the roof were to collapse on the house, this hunk of furniture would still be in one piece. That's how sturdy it is. He and his friend will move it into the house later. I can't wait to try it out. I just hope they don't drop it on their toes.

L's Crazy Log Cabin Quilt

L wanted me to make him a quilt since he saw the quilts I made for J and myself. So, I decided to make a 2-toned Crazy Log Cabin Quilt.

Bought 2 different pattern fabric for this quilt. It has a white muslin backing. There are 48 blocks. I miscalculated and made 72 blocks so I have enough blocks for another quilt. It took a long time because each pair was cut individually. I rushed through the quilting process and as a result, some parts were bunched up and didn't look that clean. From afar, it looked nice though. It had turned out better than I expected. Perhaps next summer, I will make a quilt for DH.

I was running out of large scraps so I had to join some fabric together for the borders. Not bad although I would've preferred to have a uniform border rather than scrappy ones. All in all, not a bad project.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Frozen Pie: Claim Jumper's Restaurant Banana Cream Pie from frozen section

I wanted to get DH a cake to celebrate his 36th birthday but didn't have the time to go to the bakery later on in the day. Instead, I made a blueberry pancake, stuck a candle in it and woke the kids up to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. He wasn't grinning from ear to ear. Bah!

After dropping both kids off at school, I headed to the grocery store to get fruits and vegies. As I wandered around the frozen section, a big box of Banana Cream Pie caught my attention. Furthermore, it was on-sale. All the pie baking competitions I watched on Food Network Challenge for the past 3 days have stimulated my cravings for pies. I've never had any pie besides apple and pumpkin pies. I bought the banana cream pie. When I came home, I took a good look at the box. It said "Claim Jumper's Restaurant Banana Cream Pie: Made with REAL bananas." Cool! Should be healthy, right? Wrong! I found some recipes on-line and they all said the same main ingredients: cream, eggs, BUTTER, sugar ... where are the bananas? The bananas were sliced unto the crust or on top of the filling. So ... it should be "Cream Pie with a few slices of bananas."

Anyway, I digressed. That night we took the first bite excitedly. I don't know if it's bananas or vanilla. The box clearly stated bananas. I guess it did taste good especially if you've not had any sort of unhealthy desserts for a while. Bananas - when frozen or cooked do not look yellow. I don't know what kind of bananas they used to maintain it's bright yellow color or how they cooked it ... or if it's bananas or real banana extract / flavoring.

I vow to try a REAL banana cream pie from a real pie store. I know there's a Baker's Square a few miles away. After I'm sure that I've burnt away the calories from this pie, I'm going to fly there and get myself a REAL pie.

By the way, I've never had a fresh pie before. Thus far, all the pies I've eaten came from the frozen section at the grocery's. They've not made any favorable impressions on me. I should just stick to ice-cream only.