Long story short, we've had a new oven sitting on a pallet in the middle of our kitchen for about two and a half years. The oven it was meant to replace was dying and then it died fully and completely about 2 years ago. So we've been living without an oven for 2 years because I couldn't find anyone to install it, and we kept hitting road blocks every time we attempted to move forward with DIYing it. (The huddle that we ran into a year ago was the need to move a gas line for the cooktop above - something I was not going to DIY!)
Anyway, we unexpectedly were able to get the oven installed by someone about a week before Christmas! I finally have the ability to bake things again - this time without a computer brain and with a convection option (which turns out is just the old-fashioned term for "air-fry" ).
Now that the oven on a pallet is out of the way, I've been going through the cabinets and trying to reorganize and "lazy-proof" everything. If I can just find a home for everything, we might actually keep the kitchen from becoming a nightmare.
I don't have an actual pantry, so we bought a metal shelf unit for storing all the big things like water, paper towels, etc that don't fit inside the tiny cabinet openings with fixed shelves and put it in front of the pointless door we never use (see photos 3 & 4). Someday, I might wall off the door and put in an actual pantry in the corner, but that is a long term dream for later.
Lazy-proofing involved setting up an organized coffee station for my husband (the coffee drinker) and pulling all the tea options out of the cabinet for easier access since he now enjoys hot tea with me as well. (It used to be an avalanche of boxes and too many things got buried and forgotten in the mess.) Now we can easily see what we have with the tea caddie shelves on the counter (pic 5).
So my kitchen is still a mess because I have to make a bigger mess before things actually get better, but it's almost there. I got a breadbox and a coffee maker slider with a drawer for pods that I haven't taken photos of yet. I refuse to tackle the spice cabinet until after I get everything off the island. Fingers crossed I can get it all put away nicely this week and be basically finished with it - I'm sick of spending time in the kitchen!
I spent the day priming things for paint and then I remembered to shoot a quick video. #SewingStudioBuild
I started cutting all the edges while Janet was away yesterday morning. When she got back after lunch, she pulled out a roller and started filling in. I'll put a pic below in the comments. #SewingStudioBuild
We broke for lunch and then came back with a portal ac unit plugged in to an extention cord from the house. Can't wait until they finished hooking up all the electrical and we have the mini split cooling the room for us - it was stupid humid today! #SewingStudioBuild
I started working on a new machine project (a peasant-style blouse from the Itch to Stitch Sew Beautiful book), and I had to make a tweak to the sleeves because my fabric was about 3” too short. So I added a crosswise-cut panel. I thought the print would be busy enough to be ok with the direction change, but it does seem a bit odd, so I’m thinking about adding some embellishment to make it more intentional-looking. So I thought I’d get a second opinion before I stitch it down, since the lace I found in my stash is pretty delicate. The first two are the sleeves with and without, and I’m also considering adding it to the front seam. The top will be split for about 3.5” down, but I haven’t done the pressing and finishing to show that yet.
I keep meaning to cut something new out to sew, and keep not having time. But in the meantime, I thought I’d show something I started several weeks ago. About two years ago, a geography project that was in our curriculum was to create an embroidery design, the unit was on Ukraine and this had to do with traditional embroidered garments. So my oldest made this design, and asked if I’d use it in my own sewing sometime. I had to sit on this one for awhile to plot what to do, but I finally started it. Last year’s ice dyeing had this leftover sweatshirt fleece from some shirts I made when the boys were younger, but it only dyed on the back side. So I’m using reverse embroidery to put his design on the front piece of this sweatshirt, so I can also use that piece of fabric in a way that won’t look like my clothes are inside out. I also have a back yoke piece cut, but I’m only getting to work on this around once a week right now, so I’ll need to either speed this up or drop that ...
