My Absence

I am blogging again. This year has been full of grief, changes, moving, physical limitations. Not sure if this blog will stay up or if my sewing will go on my parenting/unschooling/living blog...

Closets and Cast Iron

No sewing done. I spent all day yesterday cleaning and organizing the sewing/craft/E's special toy closet. And today I must do the same to J's studio before he goes back on nights. Pictures coming later.

I do want to share some cast iron skillet tips though. I googled and came up with the most extensive advice ever. I abused my skillet the other day, I forgot it in a sink and it soaked with water all night, with food residue!! Yuck! I am going to season and cure it today. My parents have a skillet that is like glass it is so shiny and nothing ever sticks, they have been washing it in hot soapy water for years. I had no idea why. Now I do. Cast iron is one of my favorite ways to cook nothing compares to the texture and flavor it imparts to food. And a healthy dose of iron to boot. Check this forum post out for details. What you are looking for in that thread is all posts by danab_z9_la.

I'm Finally Here

I have been so inspired since discovering this community of blogging women who create amazing things for family and home in fiber arts and crafts that I had to have a place of my own. I grew up at my mom and grandma's knees watching them handsew and machine sew and that inner 'movie' that guides me through my work is delightful and like a warm hug from them and rememberance of happier times. A comforting shawl of generational tradition and passion. A heritage being worked stitch by stitch. Until we lived in Alaska I never took up sewing. Before that I had sewn countless seams in my Mom's business and watched her design and create wonderous gowns and suits out of piles of fabric. But I was never interested. I would rather be with the horses and other animals. Outside exploring and free. Alone, far from family as a USAF wife in the dark months of winter in interior Alaska I finally picked up the needle. And now I am here. Sewing and creating for my long awaited blessing of a daughter Eliana Lucinda who is now almost 2, and for home and friends and family. Sewfull Joy: as in soulful full joy, what I have found in creating.