Fly Lady! Fly!

Everyone’s talking about it: the new year. I think what I’m going to talk about is purely coincidence that it coincided with the new year. I don’t make resolutions because if you can’t make one on June the 16th or August the 29th and keep it, you’re not going to keep it when you make it on January the 1st. Anyway, I spent quite a bit of the holidays at my parents house. They have a nice big house and everything has a place. Here in our apartment we are outgrowing our space. I spent so long at my parents house that when I finally came back to this apartment I was very depressed at how everything seemed like it was caving in on me. I all the sudden felt like one of those people that is a collector of things and can’t throw anything away. They get so bad they get kicked out of apartments for violating health codes and fire saftey codes. OK, we are not even remotely that bad but still, a lot of things don’t have a place or a home and I’m sick of it. So, I signed up for Flylady. Tina had told me about this many years ago and I didn’t think too much about it then but wow, I’m totally digging this now. My laundry is caught up, my kitchen is spotless (mostly) when I’m not using it and I have the comfort of knowing that the fan in the living room will get cleaned off one of these days soon. I keep saying that I’m a follower and not a leader: just tell me what to clean and when and I’ll do it but I have a hard time making a schedule or a plan for myself. Anyway, here’s a shot of my shined kitchen faucet. It’s amazing how every time I use that sink now I make sure to dry all the water off of it so it’s shiney all day long. What a relief. My kitchen is like a haven away from the relative chaos that still exists in much of the house.

I started making T-shirt dresses for the girls. It’s been a frustrating process for something I thought would be very easy. Several things I’ve learned are: 1) you must be careful about they type of knit T-shirt you pick out to use for one of these. If you get one that’s too stretchy it won’t look good. 2) you must cut off the bottom of the shirt to where you’d like the skirt to attach to the shirt before you sew it! I know you will want to save all that extra fabric “just in case” but forget it, just save yourself the headache and cut it off. Your seam line will be nice and straight instead of wavy. And use a rotary cutter, not scissors. 3) use a serger or if you don’t have one (like me) use a walking foot AKA even-feed foot. If you don’t have a serger make sure you zigzag the edges! I hand embellished these shirts for the girls. Aren’t they so cute!?

Here is a yummy recipe for cranberry orange muffins! Yummy!