Baby, it's cold outside

Yeah, it's cold out. So cold that it's cold inside the house. At least, it's cold in the first floor and that's where my sewing room is. Oh yeah - I chose to put my sewing area next to a big window, 'cause I thought that having lots of light would be great. It is, except when there's a snowdrift on the other side (before Christmas) or when the wind decides to whistle past and rattle the pane. Add to that the fact that my husband broke the damper on the fireplace so that it remains open and lets the cold in from outside and I don't want to be in the sewing room.

I could feel that I'm justified in not going down there because I've brought my regular machine up to the dining room so that I can finish some jeans for Maeve but my serger is still down there and I'm not bringing it up, even though I need to use it. I can say that I'm getting exercise by going up and down the stairs to use it. Yeah, that's right.

The jeans are almost finished, though, and I'm really excited about how they're turning out, although I should have used a thicker thread for the topstitching. I didn't think about it when I started and I didn't want to change in the middle or rip out what I'd already done. The unfortunate part is that the topstitching is turning out really great but it's not noticeable because the thread is the same color as the denim and being a normal thickness, it blends in. Note to self - next time I do jeans make sure that I have an extra machine available for topstitching only so that I don't have to keep changing needles and thread on the one machine.

I did have one momentary problem that could have been major but was remedied by Scott. I had finished the zipper and fly portion of the pants and I wanted to check where the waistband would sit on Maeve. The waistband wasn't attached and the outer leg seams hadn't been sewn yet so I had her just hold them up on either side of the zipper, specifically telling her not to touch the zipper, as I'd had to shorten it and there was no stopper at the top to keep it from coming off. Either she was experiencing temporary deafness or she just forgot as soon as I'd told her because she zipped the zipper up and off the pants.

I freaked. In my defense I had already not gotten a lot of sleep because I'd been working on these jeans, taking my time so that I didn't have to go back and redo seams or pick out stitching. I yelled. I almost cried. Daddy to the rescue. He managed to get the zipper pull back onto the zipper without damaging any of it and the zipper works once more. Phew!

Since the sewing has been on hold slightly, I have been trying to catch up on baking. A bit difficult with my husband off in Hawaii for the next 6 weeks. Ugh. How did he get so lucky? More to the point, how did I get so unlucky? Trying to bake cookies while simultaneously entertaining my 8 month-old son and keeping his fearless 3 year-old sister from hurting herself as she leaps from the furniture is somewhat challenging. I just have one more kind of cookie on my list: chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies. Yes, a Martha Stewart recipe but really they're my favorites. Maybe this weekend I'll find the time to get to them. And, since my children don't really like gingerbread and Scott is gone I may have to eat them all myself. Or maybe share with the neighbors.