angry chicken

vintage cookbooks and chatting about being old and stuff

I think I have shown this self-published cookbook before on the blog. I am too lazy to search it right now, but it deserves another post, regardless. I am still off sugar (except for very special treats, like birthdays, sometimes not my own, etc.) so I have NOT made this exciting cake, but someone should. I love the box cake/pudding idea more than the reality, which is I can never eat them. But they are so funny and joyful to me. And who doesn't want a little European Grandeur?

I just met up with some great friends, and have also been chatting with long distance friends regularly (the app voxer and audio texts back and forth are a godsend for me) and there have been some re-occiruing themes among all of us: 

• getting old
• feeling like our kids and growing up so fast and how different our concerns are now that they are all 12-17 from when they were younger
• how this makes us feel old (and reliving, in silence, what we were doing at this age)
• taking care of aging/ill/ parents while taking care of the kids and also trying to have a marriage
• trying to clean out the house of all the kid stuff they have outgrown
• how this makes us cry
• crying in public for no reason
• feeling old when thinking about saving money for retirement
• feeling like cleaning out all the stuff in the house is too hard
• possibly some crying again
• feeling like we are going crazy
• perimenopause and what the heck (crazy enters here)
• foot/back pain 

It's so great to be able to share al these things, just to know it's not unique and we can all relate. When when say we have had a bad day, or lost it with the kids, we know how bad that can really get, and it's okay.

sewing tiny things

Between sewing for dance shows (opening is tonight at ACMA!) I have been sewing doll clothes. They are very complicated—with lots of fussy details and complex shapes. I love it so much. Sewing for dance I often use stretch fabrics, but with these little outfits I use wovens with with darts and pleats, facings and plackets. It seems maddening, but I find it so relaxing. Mostly because I am not drafting or designing these patterns (yet) I am just cutting out the pieces and putting them together. I don't have to make design decisions and if I mess something up, cutting out another piece is really easy.

This is for a 15.5" doll, which is taller/larger than a Barbie (12") and so much easier to sew for. The fabric also drapes better. It's for a Gene doll, which isn't made anymore. I got her back in 1998 when I lived in Seattle. I tucked her away and didn't bring her out until last month. For real. The girls had never seen her. I forget how I landed on the idea of sewing for her, I think I found some patterns online published years ago by Vogue. It has been perfect timing. I really don't need more clothes, but I love sewing clothes so much, and I love vintage clothes, so it's a great project for me right now.

There are Vogue sewing patterns on Etsy for this doll, and some self-published ones as well. I'm going to start making handbags and hats soon.

Unrelated to all this:

• I am eating super low carb (and no sugar) and it's going really well. It's been about 2 months. I have lost some weight, which needed to happen, but the biggest change is in my body shape. I also don't crave sugar anymore, which is very nice. But it also means I am not baking that much which makes me sad. And my family is a little sad about that, too. But I am still baking on the weekend, I just try to not make things that are too tempting for me. For my low-carb eating I have been using recipes from the Diet Doctor and Ruled Me. It's also really easy to make my cookbooks work for me, by adding either protein or fat, especially my salad based cookbooks. This isn't for everyone, and I'm not sure how it looks long term, but for me it's been really great. I really needed a big change. I just turned 46 and my body and how I process food has changed so much the last few years. I knew something was off and I feel so much better.
• I have been showing all my projects over on Instagram for a while now, and the blog tends to be more about links, and more words of course. Please follow me there if you would like to. I love my blog, and can't imagine not having it, but I realize it's not as frequently updated as it used to be. I'm laughing because I just noticed my recents posts show desserts and sugar, but you know, I just had a birthday.
• We are watching a British gardening show Big Dreams Small Spaces and loving all the garden drama. I'm trying to be a better gardener. I like it, but I have no sun, like NONE, so after years of being in denial about that and having plants die, I have embraced the deep shade garden and am trying to go with it. But, I don't think we will ever have edibles in this yard.