Thanksgiving 2020

About this most recent blogging break. 

I have Covid. 

Altho -- I am on the other side of it now.  But it's been a full time job trying to KEEP John from getting it.  Which means I've been sleeping in the guest room, and using the guest bathroom...

My sister Ronda also has it, and her husband Dean.  He's been in the hospital for five days -- but (knock on wood) seems to be doing better.  

My cleaning lady, Carrie, had it -- as well as her husband and their children.

My nephew, Toby, and his wife and two boys had it...well -- you get the idea.  

I'm officially out of quarantine today -- but John has to quarantine until Saturday...so, that's actually what's going to happen.  

I've been cooking every day -- and there has been a bit of sewing, too. 

But -- mostly -- THERE IS JUST A LOT OF NAPPING.

Sterling and Wahl Clippers

I learn a lot from my little road trips -- and sometimes -- I have to look things up to understand what I learned. When Rhonda and I visited Sterling, Illinois -- we walked through a little "historical society" building. In the display cases, they featured some Wahl Clippers.

I was vaguely aware of that brand...but, when I came home, I looked them up. YOUZA...

Wahl's international headquarters in Sterling, Illinois.

 I hope you can watch this video. IT IS SO INTERESTING TO ME...I'm sorry we missed the Wahl Clippers headquarters! 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kHEqxtZYaU

Dillon House Mansion

Rhonda had a few days off -- so last Friday -- we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and have one of our "in-between" lunches. (we choose a town halfway between her Illinois home, and my Iowa location).

Rhonda did some research and came up with the Dillon House Mansion in Sterling, Iowa.

The Dillon family made their fortune manufacturing barbed wire.

And the house is completely furnished with all their stuff...

Mrs Crete Dillon was very VERY fond of wallpaper.

In every room, the light switches were papered.

In this room, the lucite doorknobs matched the rose wallpaper.

The wallpaper in the dining room was handpainted.

This is the back of the mansion. Which pretty much sits a block away from the Rock River.

 

Hey -- WHAT A GREAT DAY. Nobody enjoys a good mansion tour as much as I do!! And you learn so many interesting things about the people who used to live in the house. 

And, most of the time -- if you can tour a home of the richest guy in town (circa 1900) -- you can pretty much figure out what that town was all about.

The Dillon family owned the mansion since 1882...They made their fortune via Northwestern Steel and Wire Company.  The Wikipedia entry about the company is very interesting.  At one time, they provided jobs for over 2000 people. 

P.K. Dillon lived in the house until he was 96 years old...and when he died (1980) the family set up a Foundation to pay for the upkeep of the property.  The home, its furnishings and all of its artifacts would be turned over to the Sterling Park District for future generations to enjoy.

Times change...and in 2001, Northwestern Steel declared bankruptcy.  But their Foundation still pays for the upkeep of the mansion.  The family foundation also does many good works throughout the region...

The bankruptcy couldn't have hurt them much...as the Foundation still looks over a tidy sum of $63 million...

Yikes.

My First Every Plate Dinner!!

So, this is my initial report on my first box of EveryPlate. IT WAS AWESOME..!!

The box arrived (Fed Ex) -- and the frozen icy in the bottom of the insulated bag was still hard as a rock.

The recipe cards were easy to understand -- and they were RIGHT ON THE MARK about how long it was going to take (35 minutes for Creamy Chicken Dijon).

The produce was beautiful.

There were a dozen little bags and, bottles and packages of seasonings, mustard, sour cream, little white wine vinegar

I was too busy EATING THE FOOD to take pictures of it!!

My first Every Plate dinner was a huge success.  Even though I have never, in my life, voluntarily bought a zucchini -- I was quite happy to eat every single bite of my entire portion.

So far, so good...

MY EXCITING NEW FOOD PLAN..!!

So -- it's November. Time for me to push my annual "Reset" button. Altho, sadly, there won't be any trips to a luxurious Florida Fat Camp....and we're all too spooked by the virus to even get together for a little weekend "sew-a-long".

Not to mention -- cooking meals has become a real chore. Nothing tastes good to John -- but I have continued to shop for groceries. But then, sadly -- I throw away more food than we eat. The other day, I threw out a 16 ounce container of sour cream (the black mold made it inedible -- right?)...and the lettuce often gets rotten before we get around to eating it.  That bargain 5# bag of potatoes got all rooty...Ugh....

The other problem is -- if I cook something I really like -- OF COURSE, I EAT ALL OF IT...(hello spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread)...

THEN -- last week -- the TMBC had a surprise visit from LP's daughter Whitney. Instead of bringing a "sew and tell"...she brought the menu cards from the meal kit service she's been enjoying. She has done meal kits before -- but this one really hit the mark with her.  

Called EveryPlate -- their menu options are amazing...and they're less than $5 per meal.  WHA???

I asked Whitney to send me the link -- and when she did, she got a $20 credit on her account -- and I GOT $20 OFF MY FIRST WEEK OF MEALS.  Are you kidding me???

It arrives today -- and I'll let you know how it goes. My first three meals (two portions of each) are a chicken dijon (with roasted potatoes), a hamburger (with roasted carrots) and a pork meatball dish.

You can skip any weeks -- and stop at any time. Whitney, who is a very good cook, said they send everything you need -- in the precise amounts...so there's no waste.

So -- this week --I'm gonna start with:

Cherry glazed pork meatballs

Creamy chicken dijon

 I will keep you posted.  I am excited about many aspects of Every Plate. I am delighted that I won't have to think about what I'm cooking for dinner...or did I get the meat out of the freezer...and that the portions are controlled -- and mostly healthy options.

When you're ready to give Every Plate a try --  email me and I'll send you the link that saves you $20 on your first order...  (farrorita@gmail.com)

Next week -- I'll report on my first three meals...

My New Flannel Nightshirt!!

So -- okay -- ONCE AGAIN -- I should have taken more "BEFORE" pictures. But, at the time, I didn't know this project would be "blog-worthy". The magic to this Frankensew is that I started with a man's flannel shirt. 

DUH!! The hard part is already done -- the neckline, shoulder, sleeves, placket....buttons,buttonholes...

I cut the man's shirt about 1" below the breast pocket...

I also cut off the collar -- leaving just the collar stay...

I added the cut-off part of the man's shirt to the bottom of my new nightgown.

The sleeves were too long -- so I cut off the "cuff", made a little casing and added some elastic.

Obviously, I sewed a bunch of random flannel pieces together (including a second flannel shirt) to create the actual nightshirt.  This crappy picture is the best I have of me, wearing my new flannel nightshirt. I AM LOVING IT..!!

 

I have a nice set of red plaid flannel sheets (which I will NEVER put on a bed) -- so I'm thinking I could cut up one of my old sweatshirts, and add a red plaid flannel skirt to make another nightshirt. 

Altho -- how many flannel nightshirts does one woman need.  Really?  I'd best not worry about that.

Cozy Flannel Nightgowns...

When I was looking for this picture the other day -- I realized I needed a NEW FLANNEL NIGHTGOWN...!

All four of us would describe our week at the SEW Retreat as "cozy"...and our flannel nightgowns were fitting attire!!  (we were, after all, in the middle of nowhere...thus, free to wear pajamas all day and into the night if we wanted to...which was, actually, kind of the point of the whole thing).

It's gonna be a loooong winter this year.  And  I BELIEVE THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD BETTER ON A COLD WINTER DAY THAN A COZY FLANNEL NIGHTGOWN.

The year the Sewing and Stitchery Expo experienced an earthquake, my plane had to land in Portland -- and I took a bus to Puyallup.  During that mix-up, I lost my luggage...and when I arrived, Joanne had to take me to the mall to BUY SOME CLOTHES. 

I paid $10 for a red plaid flannel nightgown...

For the next ten years or so, I wore it every winter.  Iowa winters are long...so I am SHOCKED that I don't have a single picture of me in my red plaid flannel nightgown.  Because I LOVED IT.

The first time I made a flannel nightgown as a gift -- I think Lilly was three years old. I made matching nightgowns for her, and her mother Emily, and her dog Sophie. THEY WERE ADORABLE...(pictures lost in some old computer)...ugh...

Hey -- don't get me wrong -- I don't sleep in a flannel nightgown....and I also am not a fan of flannel sheets.  If you were to get into bed made with flannel sheets, wearing a flannel nightgown, your whole night would be a wrestling match.  You would be fighting to roll over,  ripping yourself back and forth on a bed of velcro...

But I have a GREAT idea about how to Frankensew a new flannel nightgown for myself...

Saturday Drive to Balltown

IT'S SATURDAY!!

Last week, Warren didn't come because he was sent home from school on Friday. He had to be tested for Covid -- luckily -- he was negative. But he had diarrhea...and was down for the count for a few days.

So, it was a rare Saturday with just myself and John at the house...

We decided to drive up to Balltown!!

It's our annual Fall road trip -- and there are STUNNING views from this part of Iowa.  That's the Mississippi River way down yonder...

Of course, we had to have lunch at Breitbach's Restaurant.

The OLDEST continuously running restaurant in the State of Iowa.

I'm pretty sure it's been months since many of you have actually SEEN a salad bar!

It's a 90 minute drive to Balltown...and we make this trip every Fall. I'm not sure how many years we've been doing it -- but, often enough to consider it a "tradition". Breitbach's has been featured on several television shows...Alton Brown visited, and talked about their wonderful homemade pies. Oh, yeah...THEY ARE WONDERFUL.

Reliving one Epic Road Trip!!

In 2013, I flew to New York, hooked up with my friend Marion (from Canada), and we drove her Prius down the East Coast...all the way to her winter home in Florida.  We had THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME...in New York City, 700 Sundays with Billy Crystal, Mood Fabrics, Hershey, Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pa., Savannah, Georgia...well -- you get the idea. 

It was an amazing trip -- I often refer to it as our Epic Road Trip.

It doesn't seem possible that it was SEVEN YEARS AGO...yikes.

This blog post was published in March 2014...four months AFTER the ERT...but what I said WAY BACK THEN still applies today.  More than ever, I think...

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Maybe I put off writing this final blog post about our ERT (Epic Road Trip) because I didn't want it to end.  Then, the holidays got in the way...and -- what do you know?  IT'S MARCH ALREADY...

It was such a great trip....and I AM SO GLAD WE DID IT, MARION...

Because here's what I know for sure.  You NEVER know anything for sure. 

Life happens so fast...and the changes can be both instant and permanent. Of course, the older I get, the more clear this is -- which is why this particular trip was so special.

Once we left Savannah, Georgia -- we got on I-95 S. We had pretty much avoided it up to this point -- but who are we kidding?? IT WAS TIME TO MAKE SOME TIME...

The landscape changed very quickly -- and palm trees became a part of the scenery...

It's been such a long, cold, gray winter -- I barely remember what a blue sky looks like...

It was our longest day in the car -- but at the end would be HOME...(for Marion, of course -- not me)

Everything in this part of the world is so lush and green...

I was smitten by the number of beautiful, tropical birds lounging around town...

The vegetation is VERY DIFFERENT from my beloved Iowa cornfields...

Oh, yeah -- Marion's condo is ON THE GOLF COURSE....

The public beaches are accessible and absolutely, 100% stunning. 

Here we are, on our last day together.

Sometimes, it seems like just yesterday Marion and I were headed south, laughing and talking -- with the wind in our hair. But, at other times, it feels like years ago...

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Marion will be making that trip again soon...and I sooo wish I was going with her

My November Reset Button...

November has always been one of my favorite months of the year. The beautiful Fall leaves...all that turkey and pumpkin pie...

And, after my 2016 November Fat Camp experience -- it somehow became my MONTH TO RESET.  Reconsider...rewind...

In 2017, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Florida for a second round...

Then, in 2018, Mary Mulari, Rhonda Pierce and Deanna Springer came to Iowa and we created our own S.E.W Retreat....

At the time, I hoped we were starting a new annual tradition...

But then -- life happened. That "first" SEW Retreat may be our "only" SEW Retreat.

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There were so many wonderful lessons from that Retreat....

1. Spending a whole week with friends is the best medicine in the world.

2. SEWING all day, and then SEWING into the night is the most zen thing I can do.

3. NOT HAVING TO WORRY about what I was going to eat was life-changing.

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#3 on that learning list has been HUGE for me. Until went to Fat Camp in Florida (2016) -- I really had no idea how much time and energy I spent each and every day thinking about, then planning, shopping and cooking food. Not to mention the clean-up afterwards. Ugh.

It is such a luxury to have somebody else worry about what I should eat....and  I loved every single meal I was served at Fat Camp. And, at the 2018 SEW Retreat -- Sister Margaret told us she was not good in the kitchen -- but I enjoyed every meal she served us.

Turkey meatballs over spaghetti squash with navy beans and grapes sounds like something I would never put together.  It was delicious.

So -- here's the thing.  November is my personal month to RESET....and, for reasons beyond my control, there won't be a trip to Florida this year...or any kind of Fat Camp that involves a group of people coming from all parts of the country...or, even a reunion of a small group of friends...It would be impossible for me to be away from home for a week.

Ugh.

But -- NOT TO WORRY.  Because I HAVE A PLAN...and I'm pretty excited about it.

Next Wednesday (November 18) will be the official launch....and the timing is perfect...

Veteran's Day 2020

It's Veteran's Day.

There are many ways to honor our veterans...and I'm sure most of you do that whenever you can.

Here's something you might not have considered. My husband, John, a Navy veteran, wears a baseball cap that has the name of the submarine he served on. (604 -- the Haddo). He is always very happy when somebody notices his hat and says, "thank you for your service". And many people do...

But there have only been two occasions when somebody actually took the time to sit down and ask him about his service. The first time, John was eating alone at Brother's, his favorite breakfast joint. A young man came over, shook his hand, thanked him, and said, "would it be okay if I sat with you?"...and John had a long conversation about his time on submarines.

The second time was two weeks ago -- when we were having breakfast at the Village Inn. The man who came over was a retired Admiral...and John was THRILLED to talk to him about his time in the Navy.

Here's my point. The next time you see an elderly gentleman wearing a baseball cap that proclaims the unit he served on, or the ship he was on -- you should think of that as an invitation to start a conversation. Consider it your good deed for the day...

Of course, we're in the middle of a pandemic, and maybe the old guys aren't getting out and about that much this year...

So -- think about the veteran's you KNOW...who might be sitting at home this year...feeling a little forgotten or left out...Your Grandpa or your Father in Law...an Uncle who lives in another state...

Go old school...CALL THEM ON THE PHONE...and when you thank them for their service, ask them about it.

You might be surprised...and I know your Veteran will be delighted....

Lilly's Green Chiffon

Lilly is 11 years old, and she's developing her own sense of style. Which is kind of an understatement...

For most of the summer, she was quite content to live in a pair of baggy shorts an a NASA t-shirt.

Then, Halloween came around, and she ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE with this long green chiffon dress.  It was $9 at the Goodwill store ($7 over my usual budget)...but she was so adamant -- I let her buy it.  (she usually has her own spending money).

The problem was that IT DIDN'T FIT...

I was thinking it was for Halloween -- so I just cut out the zipper, and added a teal t-shirt,so she could just step into the dress.

 

But, it was a crappy,very noticeable fix.... She wanted to wear the dress...in her normal life? To school? 

I dunno...Anyway -- I needed to improve that alteration..And, with a little Ritaluck -- I found a green knit top that was the PERFECT shade of green. I cut it up, and added a panel all the way down the back of the dress.

It really was an invisible fix.

Lilly dyed her hair green for Halloween.

Yes...now it's perfect.  And I'm pretty sure she'll be the only girl in the 6th grade rocking a chiffon dress...

Sandy's NYC Tunic

Now -- MORE THAN EVER -- it's important to look back on the times we were able to travel. And be grateful. And enjoy those memories. Time spent with friends and family...

Oh -- how lucky we were, eh?

And -- how we took it all for granted!!

More than anything, I need to believe IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN ONE DAY.

But, until then -- I find it very comforting to talk about those Good Old Days...and to bask in the glory of  ''THANK GOD WE DID WHAT WE DID WHEN WE DID IT"...

One of my favorite trips to New York City was with my friend Sandy in 2009.  (along with Evie and Carol). That's when I started calling them the MDF...

Sandy, at Ellen's Stardust Diner!!  Nobody has more fun than this woman...

I had this wonderful dress (size small)

It was a nice french terry fabri -- and the embroidered words were PERFECT.

Although I loved this jacket -- I haven't worn it in 5 years...so I decided it could be sacrificed to create a pocket for Sandy's new NYC tunic.

And the third design element would be this knit dress -- which I could use to make side gussets.

The pocket had to include the Phantom of the Opera (the show we saw.)

I opened up both sides of the dress to add a gusset

My initial plan was to leave it sleeveless.

When Sandy tried it on, the neck was too tight, and she HAD TO HAVE SLEEVES.

So, I cut down the neckline (using more of the striped dress) and added sleeves.

 

I hope whenever Sandy has occasion to wear it, she is snapped back to that wonderful trip...we walked for miles...Macy's, Rockefeller Plaza, Tavern on the Green, Central Park, Phantom of the Opera, Times Square, the Staten Island Ferry...oh, yeah...it's good to have these memories.

And I hope I never take travel and friends for granted.  We were so lucky...