garden fresh salad

 

made entirely from produce out of my garden!  and with a lovely package of raw chicken as a background. 

subpar lasagna

low fat bechamel sauce: blend cheap-o parm [from the green plastic cylindrical container], 1/4 C flour, 2-3 C soy milk, salt, pepper, and a couple cloves of garlic with an immersion blender.  heat until bubbling, stir to avoid clumping and burning.  once hot, stir in 2/3 C low fat sour cream and 1 C grated mozzarella. 

moderately tasty meat sauce: saute 3 cloves garlic and several sprigs of fresh basil until pungent.  add 1-2 pounds ground beef and cook until no longer pink.  add can of fire roasted tomatoes, more basil, salt, pepper, and some sugar to taste.  boil the shit out of the sauce for atleast 45 minutes.

assembly:  layer 3 noodles in a greased 9x13 pan

add 1/3 bechamel sauce

add half meat sauce.  repeat noodle and sauce layers again. 

top with 1/2 C mozzarella.  bake @350 for 40 minutes or until bubbly and golden

be somewhat disappointed with lasagna ..and freeze vast majority.  then bake cookies.

these again but with peppermint chips instead of andes mint chips.  and i didnt have brown sugar so i googled substitutes..and used 1 C white sugar + 1 1/2 teaspoons molasses.

close up.

another canvas print

i gave in and bought the canvas on demand creepy barbed-wire honduras pic that i had posted awhile ago ...but i have another print to use from cafe press.  it was cheaper than the COD one so i hope its the same quality.  here are some different pics i am considering.  please leave a comment as to your preference.

sumner beach [now destroyed by earthquake]

outside waitomo caves

banks penninsula

plumeria in broome

turquoise bay

karijini national park

blue check square skirt

this is piece 3/4 of the SONP challenge

i took a light blue/brown/white checker cotton and cut rectangles.  then i overcomplicated things and cut both pieces at about a 45 degree angle [twice] to make the front piece and two smaller right triangles for the sides.  then i cruelly stabbed everything into my life-size mannequin with extra long quilting pins.

when i was somewhat satisfied with that, i serged the sides together, evened the top edge, and added a zipper.  somewhat successfully even!

granted, i need to add a hook and eye at the top, for ease of wearing, instead of the usual problem that the zipper falls down spontaneously.  there is a bit of a pucker around the zipper, but the rest of the skirt is full enough i dont think it will be a problem.

i added a waistband and hemmed the bottom.  it turned out a bit like my halloween costume last fall [and i realize i never posted pics of the final outfit..], but hopefully a bit more subtle than shiny metallic gingham. 

le fin

pillowcase dress

i am attempting hideous!dreadful!stinky!'s summer of no pants challenge.  this is dress 2/4.  the first turned ok...ish.  it will be posted later.  maybe.  but its on flickr.  just perhaps not worthy of a real post

after seeing "the sassy pillowcase dress" on my google reader and realizing... welp it only fits a size small i thought.. i can make a pillowcase dress.  and i have two matching 70's [or older] pillow cases. 

and then i saw this pintuck instructional and thought... umm i can modify that.  sort of. 

after stitching each little pleat i thought..oh yea.  i suck at zippers.  soooo elastic.  but as it turns out..i was short on wide white elastic.  and any trip to joann's ends in certain death for my credit card and my attempts at reducing my fabric stash are quickly dashed.  so i only put elastic in the back half.  and then didnt take any pics of it.  oh well.

dont ask why i cut off my head. 

and belted cos thats probably how ill wear it.

and yes a lot of puzzled thinking and ellipses go into my sewing.  im ok with that.