Lace butterflies in place

 Hello, everyone.

The lace butterflies have been wired into place. 

They are decorating a lace skirt on a pot. (Assumed riser for pot is about 14".) The pot itself is only on loan for the holyday, the skirt and butterflies are going to stay there. 

The butterflies are removable with care. They decorate only the front side of the pot...nobody is going to notice the back side after all.

The lace skirt has a taffeta underskirt so the pot won't show through.

The lace was part of another lady's stash, and the taffeta is from mine. The butterflies were made on my Janome 500e embroidery machine. There is another post about their construction. I attached them with a beaded wire, using my awesome skilz of making wire-twist hair ornaments from DD2's wedding a couple of years back.

Another installment in healthy meals

 Hello, everyone.

The other day we had another lo carb breakfast.

2 slices (halved) bacon, 2 eggs, 1/4 avocado

First cooked the bacon slices, then cooked the eggs over-medium. (That means the whites are not runny.) Sliced the avocado half while cooking the other food.

Garnished with parsley and Chinese garlic chives from garden. Drizzled with a little Cholula sauce for extra seasoning.

Getting ready for Easter

 Hello, everyone.

Easter decorations are beginning to be assembled. Butterflies, besides being emblematic of the return of flowers and sunshine, are also symbols of the Resurrection: from a dead-looking cocoon comes a beautiful flying insect. Very poetic!

This is, I think, an OESD free standing lace pattern. It fits twice in the 5x7 hoop, as y'all can see, and in the next photo the Mylar will show better than in this one. (I am currently in a phase of liking the look of a Mylar layer in free standing lace. The opal colored Mylar reflects light without looking heavy.) 

 

Here is the whole flock of butterflies. I am currently thinking of adding them to a lacey cover, possibly by using beads along the butterfly's body covering a piece of wire that goes through to the back and through the substrate fabric and is twisted to hold in place. The beads will of course have to be lightweight...gold? iridescent ivory? we shall see what works.

Signs of hope

 Hello, everyone.

As y'all are no doubt aware, Texas had a terrible freezing spell a few weeks back. When the weather improved, we went out into our yard and discovered that it looked like a bomb had gone off. Dead shrubs all over! At least, they looked dead.

But not all was as it appeared.

The jasmine shrubs took a hard hit, but they're coming back. A few, tiny flower buds are already appearing.

The bulb tops died off, but the bases are coming back. This pot put out an impressive flush of blooms, and the other two pots are following along behind it. The succulent pot behind it is blooming in pale-yellow blossoms as well.

The vine that had been climbing on the pergola, a yellow allamanda that was here when we moved in, froze to the ground. We decided to replace it with a native vine that is hardier and more popular with hummingbirds.

The native honeysuckle is a strong grower (don't let it climb on wood siding!) but it will happily accept training to the pergola and bloom with abandon. 

We're hoping to replace the frozen-out tropicals with sturdier plants. Natives by preference, but hardy will do.

Another Sewing Club Project

 Hello, everyone.

I was looking at various things made lately and noticed that last month's sewing club project had not been blogged on. (There actually are others, too, that I will Get Around To. I hope.)

Our sewing club members all having embroidery machines of one kind or another, we did an in-the-hoop project last month. It's another one of the John Deer patterns, one which they have also made a lovely Youtube video to show the method.

This is a coaster. Though I think it could be a flower on a headband, or stuck onto the center of a ribbon bow.

It went together very nicely. And I acquired a new gadget, too! A stencil cutter, to trim the organza just outside the stitching on the petals.

The people at John Deer's shop recommended using rayon thread, not polyester, to sew this as it's basically a free standing lace kind of project. 

Sewing club project

 Hello, everyone.

The sewing club meets once a month and we usually do a project, or start a project, at our meeting.

This month, our project was a fabric box.

We had instructions of what supplies to bring, and parameters for any embroidery we wanted to do on the fabric for the project. This is a mod-psychedelic floral design from John Deer's web store. I coordinated the thread colors to the lining fabric so the piece would look like it belongs together.

The shape is created by the Peltex interfacing. The design is done in rayon embroidery threads. The lining is quilting cotton left over from a baby quilt some years back, and the outside fabric is a fake-linen that was lying around in the fabric box. All are from stash.

More healthy food

 Hello, everyone.

To keep encouraged and "at it" here are some more healthy meals.

This was dinner: panfried chicken breast with cauliflower "risotto" and green salad. The chicken piece was too big. (Dog cashed in!) The risotto was a hit.

This was lunch: the leftover wedge of a "quiche"--actually more of a frittata--that had mushrooms and some Italian 3 cheese shreds (hard cheeses, I think Romano, Parmesan, and Asiago) plus a few bits of shredded carrot and zucchini in it. I baked it in a pie plate instead of a casserole dish as the recipe called for. The frittata was a hit the first time and the last bits were not rejected either.

(Edited for spelling.)

Another installment in the healthy meals

 Hello, everyone.

The "healthy meals" is also known as "turning over a new leaf." ;-)

This is Friday breakfast. As y'all know, this particular Friday falls in Lent and is meatless. 

Breakfast for 2: Per person, 2 eggs and a splash of heavy cream, and about 2.5 slices of yellow squash cubed and browned in butter in the skillet. The eggs and cream, lightly beaten with a fork, went into the pan with the browned squash cubes and were scrambled. Then at the end the Italian 3 Cheese shreds were added and stirred in to melt.

Plating: half of the egg scramble to each plate, some bits of chopped fresh parsley--parsley was not damaged in the Big Freeze a couple of weeks ago, thank heavens--and some wedges of tomato.

Teapot in back has "Ambrosia" tea from Maggie's Farm in Memphis. ( This was a Christmas gift from DD1.) The teapot is our Turkish style teapot, which we call the "forever teapot" as with water refills it can last all day.

No bread, no rice, no oats or farina cereal, no sugar added to the eggs, just tasty goodness.

Another new dinner idea

 Hello, everyone.

This is another in what may become a series of low-carb dinner posts.

This is chicken liver, with bacon crumbles, yellow squash, and tomato quarters.

The bacon bits were put into the skillet first, with some olive oil, and then the livers were added. A sprinkle of curry powder for seasoning. These cooked in the skillet together, part of the time covered. In a separate skillet, some butter was melted. Slices of yellow squash were placed in a layer one slice thick and cooked gently until tender-crisp. The tomato was washed and quartered.

Plating: first the livers were laid in a crescent. Then the bacon pieces were piled inside the curve. The vegetables were then placed on the remaining space.

Because the meal was so satisfying, no dessert was required.