Sewing projects for Christmas

I started sewing for Christmas in early November and I could not post my projects until after Christmas as I did not want to spoil the surprise for the recipients. So now that Christmas is over I can share.

I made some hats for the grandkids. Mr. Bear got the privilege of modeling the hats and then I got pictures of the grandkids with their hats.

        

Zeke had 2 hats, a mohawk fleece hat and a "ninja" fleece hat. He loved both of them. Fleece hats are easy to make but the added mohawk would have been a challenge for my old machine. I still have it, it's an old Kenmore that I bought in the '80's. My new machine, a Juki, handles lots of layers with no problems. My Juki is an industrial machine, it only does a straight stitch and does it really well. With the mohawk seam I ended up sewing thru 6 layers of fabric. The "ninja" hat is just like a ski mask. It has a trim around the face opening and bottom that is "Fold-Over Elastic". I found that I love working with this elastic. It has a (for lack of better words) line down the middle of it that makes it really easy to fold over the edges of something. I used my Kenmore to sew this part. I needed a very small zig-zag stitch and my Juki couldn't do that one. In fact I could not use the regular zig-zag stitch on my Kenmore. I ended up using part of the button hole stitch in order to get a very small zig-zag. The face part can be pulled down from the nose to sit under the chin in case someone wants to eat or drink something.

      

Again Mr. Bear was my model for this hat before Christmas. It is Micaela's favorite color lately. And I made her a t-shirt dress. I had left over material from her rabbit purse that I made her for her birthday. It worked great for this t-shirt dress. T-shirt dresses are easy to make, the shirt was a $4.47 Walmart purchase and went really well with the rabbit material-and it's her favorite color. Both of these projects were done on my Juki.

One of my projects was a challenge. There was no pattern, only an old tool roll from a 1969 Land Cruiser. When I was in California for Thanksgiving I got a chance to take measurements of the old one in order to make a new one for my son-in-law, Ryan. The old one was in fragile condition and Dani had some fabric and trim for me to use.




The fabric is waxed canvas. I'd never sewn on waxed canvas before. Ryan likes vintage items and this item seemed like it was from WWII. They had bought the fabric and trim from an army supply store but Dani's machine was not able to sew on it, too thick. It wasn't too thick for my Juki tho. The thickest part was 6 layers thick counting the trim. I put some tools in it just to make sure it could hold them okay. I was not able to find a buckle like the old one but had a wider one in my stash and a vinyl strap that worked to finish it off. I was surprised at how well it came out and the project got me to thinking about sewing more tool rolls for these types of projects and other occupations as well.

I got to sew a new bag for Dani.



I started out making her a lunch bag, but my original lunch bag was too small. I made one that looked just like a paper bag, it was cute but not good for a lunch-maybe a snack. Anyway I pulled out a book  that Dani let me borrow and made this for her. I had not sewn with zippers in ages but the directions in this book made it easy. I picked up this fabric at the thrift store. It was curtains that were in great shape. It had contrasting fabric plus an off white lining that I used for the inside of this bag. I'm pretty sure she can fit her lunch or whatever she wants in this one.

And I had more than enough curtain fabric to make another purse, this one for Jeni.



I had made Jeni one of these over the shoulder purses before and she still uses it but it is falling apart. The fabric is worn thru and it has holes in it. So I thought a new one was in order. It's a great purse to use when your hands are full with a couple of kids and all their "stuff". For this project I used the same fabric for the outside and the lining. It does have the contrasting stripe across the front and it has a 3 section pocket inside. Both Dani and Jeni's projects were sewn on my Juki.

I had great fun sewing for Christmas. I was very glad to have my Juki and I had taken some thread and needle classes at the sewing store. The information I learned was very helpful with all of these projects. I'm looking forward to sewing more in the future. Keep you all posted on future projects.

Whole-food plant-based diet/vegan 98%

My diet has changed to whole-food plant-based diet/vegan.

How did I get here, what made me want to change? It all started with my cholesterol levels. In 2015 it was 225, in 2016 it was 236. My health care provider in CA didn't get upset at those numbers-they get excited when it gets above 240. I thought that was odd because I thought the "magic" number to stay below was 200. So here is it 2017 and I'm sure that if I don't change anything my numbers will be above 240. And now that I have a different health care provider, I'm sure the normal number will be closer to 200. What to do...change my diet. My decision to become vegan is based on my health. I didn't want to take medication to control my cholesterol so I decided to change my diet. For me, being a vegan is a dietary decision, I'm not out to make an ethical or environmental statement. I'm just trying to eat healthy for me. About 98% of the time I eat vegan. I find when I eat out, especially at a restaurant, it is harder to stay vegan.

Every November I get my blood work done so I wanted to start on this diet at least 2 months before my lab appointment. In August I started changing over my breakfasts. That wasn't very hard because I usually have just oatmeal for breakfast. Then I started on my lunches. That wasn't too hard either. Dinners were more of a challenge. It has been a fun challenge. My resources have been plentiful: blogs and cookbooks. It doesn't sound like much but there is so much information out there. Some of my books are Forks Over Knives and America's Test Kitchen's Vegetarian Cookbook. Blogs include kitchentreaty.com, cearaskitchen.com. Now I know that in this paragraph I've mentioned 3 different diets, vegan, vegetarian, and whole-food plant-based diet. My aim is whole-food plant-based diet. Every once in a while I'll use oil in something or butter or put a sprinkle of cheese on something. But for the most part I stay away from dairy, oils and processed foods.

My cholesterol numbers for this November's blood work came back with better numbers. It was 219-on it's way down!!! And I feel better too. I don't have that "bloaty" feeling, my head is clearer, my arthritis in my hands is better. In addition to changing my diet I need to keep up on my physical activities. The combination is important to keeping the cholesterol numbers down. I find that I need to plan my physical activity more now that I'm retired. So I'm working on that too...subject for another blog. In 2+ months my cholesterol numbers were down, next year with a whole years worth of dietary change and workouts I'm hoping that my numbers will be below 200. By the way, my protein numbers and calcium numbers were more that fine.

I'm sure some of you are wondering how Mr WAU is handling this. He has been a very supportive spouse. He eats what he wants for breakfast and lunch. Dinners are meatless. We like to try new recipes a few times a week. Some of them are so-so, only a few have been bad. Most of them are pretty good. There are times that I just have to break out the chicken for him, but he bravely tries all that I set before him. We now have our favorite recipes. I'm getting more confident in my abilities and are willing to share with family and friends now.

So if you have any favorite sites for recipes let me know and I'm sure I'll be sharing more here as time goes on.

Tualatin Wildlife Refuge

The Tualatin Wildlife Refuge is only 4.5 miles away from our house, it takes about 10 minutes to get there. We started going there when we first moved to Oregon, when we were living with my daughter and son-in-law and grandkids. It's even closer to their house. It's one of 10 urban refuges in the USA. It is 1,856 acres of wetlands and lowland sanctuary or about 200 bird species and more than 70 other animal species. Five miles of trails enable you to see many different animals. I'm not very good at identifying my birds, but I'm learning to get better. On this day there were a bunch of Cackling Geese, these are smaller than the Canadian Goose. We also saw 2 Bald Eagles, a mating pair that has lived at the refuge for many years.

   This is the wetlands, so many birds use this place.


This is at the far end of the trail where you can look out over the wetlands.

   We found a tree frog.

 Some of the trails        

   A poor picture of a raccoon from the viewing platform on the Tualatin River

   A view of the viewing platform over the river when we were kayaking last summer

  Park Rangers are more that happy to show you the "critters" living in the water.

This is a good place to go to get away from the hustle of the city, the trails are easy, the grandkids can do it, and it doesn't take all day.

Christmas Decorating

We came home from our Thanksgiving visit to California and started decorating for Christmas. That is usually early for me but I knew that it would take time to put everything where I wanted it. Being in a new house means everything, including Christmas decorations, get to find a new home.

  It was nice to be able to use the red hutch for decorating this year. Previously the hutch lived in my bedroom and there was no sense in decorating it there. So now it makes a nice place to put up our nativity set. And it's at eye level for the grandkids to see.

   We weren't sure where we wanted to put the tree. For this year it will sit here and as time goes on I'm getting used to it. I love putting up the tree. Each ornament has a story connected with it so it's a good reminder of past experiences. Some of the ornaments have a joyous remembrance and some of them are more melancholy. I continue to put them all up there because for me one of the things about Christmas is celebrating how God redeems things. Those ornaments that make me think of past sadness reminds me to leave the person or situation in God's hands and that brings a peace to me. And peace is one of the things this season is about.

   We have a tradition that we hide these little elves in the main room(s) of the house. There are 10 of them. I let the grandkids hide most of them while Grandpa is out of the room. They have so much fun watching Grandpa trying to find all 10 of them. And I get to hide 1 of them and they all have to find it. This tradition started when I was a little girl. In grade school we would have Christmas parties and every year there would be cupcakes and on the top of the cupcakes was a small Christmas decoration. Some years it was a snowman, a present, a Santa, etc. Well my mom saved them and my dad started hiding them in the main room of the house every Christmas. Every year it was a challenge trying to find all of them. Fast forward to when my kids were little and my dad bought me a set of these little elves to continue the tradition. So now we hide them with the grandkids.

   We've started a new tradition, Gingerbread Pancakes. They were so good. The recipe can be found at kitchentreaty.com  And yes, in the background is our Gingerbread house that I do with the grandkids every year. It's in "progress", put on hold due to the flu. So a post will be coming with that decorating adventure.

I hope your Christmas is full of peace and that you all have a grand new year.