SewMona – Page 28 – A slice of my Florida life

Fostering A Dog

I’ve mentioned before that we foster animals for the humane society – mostly kittens. The other day, my daughter commented that we haven’t had any in a while. She was wondering if I had gotten any e-mails recently. I told her no, I haven’t even had any for dogs. Ever say something like that? The next day, guess what? I got an e-mail from them saying that they had two dogs that needed to be fostered. One required a three month commitment. Since we’ve never had a dog (at least not since DH and I were kids), that one was out. The other one was only a two week foster.

After checking with DH, I e-mailed them back to see if she was still available. The next thing I know, my phone is ringing and it’s the humane society saying that Lulu is still available. They said she’s a shepherd mix and super sweet – loves everyone and everything so she’d be fine with out kids and cats.

Notice they said shepherd mix? It never occurred to me that shepherd could include german shepherd. It didn’t occur to me while we were at the humane society meeting her. It didn’t occur to me until my brother mentioned that she looked like the dog my neighbors had when I was a kid. By then though I’d already decided that she was OK. As a kid, I was afraid of my neighbor’s german shepherd and he knew it! My husband had a german shepherd as a kid and he loved it. I said no way, if we ever get a dog, it will not be a german shepherd. Except that this one is so loving and I’ve changed my tune a bit.

She’s a foster because she’s on medicine for a UTI. The first few days we had her, she was so laid back and didn’t bother the cats at all! We were impressed! A walk around the block in the morning and a couple trips outside during the day and she was good to go. Then, yesterday, we noticed that she was getting a bit more frisky – more like an 11-month old pup. I couldn’t figure out why. We were still making sure she got outside to run around and she had a couple toys and a bone for in the house.

Then, DH realized that she must be feeling better! She wants to chase the cats. Although I really think she just wants to play with them, the cats are not having it. They puff up and hiss and growl. Lulu lays down, puts her head down and makes this cute little noise. She also jumps on the furniture more and she is definitely too big for our furniture! The kids aren’t sure what to think of the “new” Lulu. She wants to play even when they don’t. More trips outside are definitely on the agenda as well as trips to the local dog park (which happens to be very nice!).

I feel bad that I’m counting the days until she’s ready to go back and find her forever home, but this experience has proved two things to me – we won’t be fostering a dog again and we’re probably not ready to have one of our own either! What about you? Are you a dog person or a cat person? Any advice for us to get us through this week?

Resizing Sewing Patterns

Since my daughter is going to private school this year, we’ve entered the world of school uniforms. We bought polo shirts for $5 each at Old Navy. I don’t think I can make one for less than that – plus the hassle of making those little button holes and lining up the buttons…ugh! Skirts and jumpers however are easy to make. Except when you pull out your patterns and see this.

Seriously? Size 4? Even an 8 isn’t quite big enough.

I’m sure it wasn’t that long ago that I bought these sewing patterns and now my little girl needs a size 10. Where did the time go? Anyway, back to pattern resizing.

I held the skirt piece up to her and measured how much longer it needed to be.

It needs to be about six inches longer so I measured from edge and marked it with a pin.

It also needs to be a little wider. Each size is about 1/4 inch so I added an inch to the width of the skirt.

The finished resized piece. I measured my daughter and the resized pieces to be sure the waist and hips would be the right size.

The finished skirt – a perfect fit.

Have you ever resized a pattern or do you just buy a new one?

Cinnamon Bun Waffles

When I was a kid, we had waffles and sausage for dinner almost every week. I loved sausage, especially if it was a little heavy on the fennel. The waffles…well, I didn’t like them so much. I always thought they should be good! Who doesn’t love something smothered in syrup? I tried them with lots of syrup, just a little syrup, lots of butter, a little butter, butter & syrup, but nothing seemed to help. They always gave me a belly ache. I never mentioned that to my parents (I’m really not sure why!); I just said I didn’t like waffles. Finally, after several years (!!) of eating waffles and getting a bellyache, I told my mom. She was properly horrified and said I could make some pancakes to eat with dinner. So, for the past 25+ years, I’ve firmly maintained that I do NOT like waffles.

Then, one day a couple years ago, we were at my parents for dinner and they were having waffles and sausage. I figured I could eat a small piece and then fill up on sausage. So, I ate a small piece…it was REALLY good! No stomach ache at all! I ate another one and possibly another! We have several theories on why they don’t bother me anymore (maybe it was actually the sausage – I’ve since had my gall bladder out, maybe it was the milk in the waffles – this time they were made with seltzer, maybe my taste buds changed). Regardless, waffles show up on our menu regularly now. I always had to borrow my parents waffle iron…then for my birthday, my brother got me my own. It makes two at a time – awesome!

I’ve mentioned before that John comes home with recipes from his speech class. One of them was cinnamon buns made in a waffle iron. We had a package in the fridge that I just never got around to making. So, this morning for breakfast, I made them. It was so easy! Spray the waffle iron, put one cinnamon roll in each section and cook.

The best part is that the icing stays put (at least until you take the first bite).So, do you like waffles? What other things do you cook in your waffle iron?

National S’mores Day – August 10

I was first introduced to this delicious dessert when I was in sixth grade (almost 30 years ago – yikes!). Every year, the sixth grade class would go on a 3 day/2 night campout. One night I remember watching a movie and the chaperones started bringing out these snacks. I didn’t know what they were (can you imagine? Not knowing what a s’more is?). They were delicious and other kids seemed to know what they were. Someone told me what they were called and from that point on, I was in love. Well, with s’mores anyway.

Then my mom found this recipe on the back of a box of Golden Grahams. Delicious! I made tons of these growing up!

Indoor S’mores

8 cups Golden Grahams

1 1/2 cups Milk Chocolate Chips

6 cups mini marshmallows

5 T butter

1 t vanilla

1/4 cup light corn syrup (opt)

Melt 5 cups marshmallows, chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup in a sauce pan. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Grease a 9×13 pan.

Pour cereal into a large bowl and pour marshmallow mixture over it stirring until evenly coated. Stir in remaining marshmallows (I always add some extras too).

Press mixture into pan. Cool at least one hour or until firm. Cut into bars. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

For more s’more ideas, check out my Pinterest board.

Resizing a Button-Up Shirt

My sister-in-law recently gave me a shirt that didn’t fit her. I tried it on and really liked it, except that it was just big enough to look too big and the neck was open a little too low for my comfort. It laid on my sewing chair for a couple weeks. I didn’t really want to take it apart (just the side seams) and resew it. Also, there wasn’t an extra button like I was hoping – I wanted to add another button & button hole at the top. Then, I had a brainstorm – I didn’t need to take it apart; I could just resew it.

I took each side in about 1/2 inch – I didn’t measure or anything, just eyeballed it. I also didn’t change my thread…normally I would, but it does make it a little easier to see the pink in this picture.
Instead of making another buttonhole (not one of my favorite things to do), I just used a snap. It was so much easier!
I think the whole process took less then 15 minutes. The moral of the story – don’t over-think things and make it harder than it needs to be!