I haven't even thought about updating this blog in a while - things have just been so busy. But when I created my item of the week listing, I thought I'd better update on what's happening, especially since the last post had no closure (about the water in the basement).
The water is gone. We had a sump pump installed, and that's doing a bang-up job of keeping the workroom dry. Things are still moved around down there, and there's still a huge pile of things in the garage. My tablecloths and dressmaking mannequin probably all smell like gasoline because the generator (in the garage) had a gas line leak the other day. But, c'est la vie. I'll run things (that I can) through the washing machine to take the stink out.
Actually, moving some of my stuff back into the basement is on my list of things to do. I just can't seem to get motivated to do them. Stupid Facebook has become my new obsession. Not Facebook in general, but a few of the games. *sigh* If only real money poured in at the rate of $10 million an hour, like my imaginary mafia money. But anyway, I'll have a chance to go through some things when I reorganize the basement and maybe put together an actual crafty area where I can work on things and see what I have at a glance. I couldn't believe the pattern/idea books that I had (past tense) that were just lying on the floor down there. If I make a real effort to keep things on shelves and organized, then I can track what resources I have and be more efficient when I work on things for my Etsy shop.
Speaking of Etsy, I found a couple of great sites that are a must for any Etsian looking to streamline a bit. They were featured recently in a "Sellers Helping Sellers" email, but I found them a while back. And of course, I meant to blog about them... before they were famous. One is Craftcult*. Their site tracks shop and item hearts, as well as front page, Storque and gift guides, so you can see how much love you're getting from the Etsy community. My favorite part is the item hearts. I used to go through every listing in my shop to see if they had any hearts. Now I can see them all at once.
The other must-see site for Etsyians is Etsyhacks. The site itself, while clean and easy to navigate, doesn't seem that interesting. But it's the brainchild of an Etsy spouse, who has created little programs that streamline many common Etsy tasks. They work in the Firefox browser, using an add-on called Greasemonkey, and they're wicked awesome! My favorites right now include "Copy listing" that allows me to create a new listing by copying another one. Then I just change the applicable text, upload new pictures, and submit. SOOOO much faster than doing it from scratch! The other one I think is super-slick is the Printable Receipt Enhancer. It uses style sheets to change the standard Etsy invoice, so that I can make it match my other materials and branding - and print on a single page instead of the 2 that the standard format needed (save my paper and postage money). Ian at Etsyhacks is also super-helpful - I'm having an issue with one of the hacks, and he's been great about keeping me updated.
Well, I guess that's enough rambling on for now. Enjoy Spring - and go out and play!
* Fixing the link colors in this layout is another thing on my to-do list. The issue is that I need light links on the side columns, and dark ones in the center. And I just haven't felt like CSS-diving to update the colors.
This week's item, (and, yes, I know it's more like "this month's item") is a sparkly yet restrained crystal jewelry set. There's a necklace and matching earrings. They're made from Swarovski crystals, in a relatively new color called Cantaloupe. And this color is gorgeous, because it changes in different light, going from grey in natural light to pink to green. Grey sounds boring, but it has a little bit of peach to it, as if the crystals want you to know that they're complex.
The necklace is about 17", and falls right at the collarbones. Round crystals, in graduated sizes, create the main strand, with tiny round and cube-shaped crystals dangling. The earrings are comprised of multiple round crystals forming a drop. Everything is accented by silver wire and findings.
The color and elegance make this a perfect set for prom or bridal wear.
You can view more details about this item at its listing. Check out the rest of my shop while you're at it. I'm in the middle of a 30 listings in 30 days challenge, so there are a lot of new things.
But not "on" in the traditional lakeside property sense of "next to" or "shore side." "On" as in "immediately above," "stacked," or "vertically adjacent."
And not technically a real lake. It's just the nickname I've given the basement this week.
It's been a very snowy winter, in case you hadn't noticed. In drier climes, like Colorado, the snow sublimates - it evaporates into the air instead of melting. In Michigan the humidity, even in the winter, is too high for the snow to do that. So the only way the snow goes away is by melting. And the water has to go someplace, usually into streams, lakes and the ground.
But when it's also been very cold all season and the ground is still frozen (maybe not at the surface, but deep down it still is), the water runs out of places to go. Add 3 days of rain on top of that, and nature is just looking for outlets for the water.
Like the floor drains in a 75 year old home's basement, that appear to be connected to drainage systems instead of sewer.
Wednesday morning, after 3 days of rain, I emptied the drip bowls in the dining room (we've a leak where an upstairs dormer meets the roof), noting that there sure was a lot since the previous day. As I was making Car Guy's lunch, I used the last plastic baggie so I went to the basement to get a new box of them. There was about 3/4 of an inch of water on the floor in the workroom. Great. I headed back upstairs and told Car Guy. He carried the shop vac into the basement and filled it pretty quickly, but there was little difference in the room. He headed off to work, after we lifted the full vac over the 3" high threshold of the room and rolled it over to the utility sink. Once he was gone, I bailed out the vac (there was no way on earth I was going to be able to pick up 160 pounds to dump it in the sink) and went back in the workroom. I sucked up 9 more vacs full that morning, and it was looking pretty good, so I headed off to run my errands for the day.
The water wasn't done coming. I left the house at noon. By the time Car Guy got home from work at 4:30, the workroom was up to 1 inch or more, and there was water on the floor in the laundry area, too. And in the other section of the basement that's a storage area/craft room. Where very little is stored in plastic. Or on shelves.
So far, we've had 2 plumbers over to check out the drains. We still don't know what's the story with them, and are still pumping water out. All the cabinets we had stored in the workroom for our eventual kitchen remodel are ruined. I haven't even started going through the craft area yet. I know there is fabric and yarn that will have to be pitched. Car Guy mentioned a cleanup company coming, but we don't know when they'll be here. The good thing is that the water is clean - it's rain water and melt from the winter, not back-up from the sewer system. So at least it doesn't stink or have nasty parasites living in it.
I really hate thinking of things to serve for dinner. Not that I don't have some great recipes at my disposal, but the whole process of planning, shopping, prepping... and then not being in the mood for whatever it was I planned. And on top of that, dinners have to generate reheatable leftovers for Car Guy's lunch. We're trying to save some money, so I'm currently trying to cook from the pantry, instead of going to the grocery store.
Sunday night I had a simple dinner of chicken and stuffing planned. Not because we love it (although I think stuffing and cranberry sauce are my favorite parts of turkey dinner), but because I have a couple of boxes of Stove Top in the pantry from just before the holidays - it was on sale and I had a coupon. While getting the box out, I glanced at the recipe on the back. Sounded pretty good, and I had all the ingredients. Oh, my gosh! Delish!
It's probably on everybody else's standard dinner rotation, but I hadn't made the chicken and stuffing casserole before. I did make a couple of changes. Well, actually I hybridized the 2 recipes that were on the box. One had cheese and sour cream, one had milk. I didn't have sour cream in the house, but I did have cheese and milk. See where I'm going? And I used fresh broccoli instead of frozen. The only complaint I had is that the instructions called for cut up chicken breasts, and didn't indicate that they needed to be already cooked. But the pieces in the middle of the casserole weren't cooked through when the casserole was done (and at that point the stuffing on the top was getting really crispy and dark). So next time I make it, I'll either pre-cook the chicken a little, or cook the chicken mixture for 10 minutes before I put the stuffing on the top.
Car Guy said the leftovers reheated well for lunch. I figure that the almost-burnt stuffing on top (I put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes after I figured out that the chicken was super-rare) would soften with reheating. So this recipe is going on the "OK to make again" list. But I think next time I'll jazz it up a little: add some sauteed onions and celery to the stuffing, or maybe some chopped apple. I think I'll also try it with cut up pork tenderloin or chops and mushroom soup instead of the chicken and cream of chicken soup.
What are your fall-back dinners that you don't have to think about and always seem to have ingredients on hand?
