My Big Summer Purchase

I recently embarked on the most fun shopping experience I have had to date—getting a new sewing machine! It was a lot of information to take in and tracking down dealers in my area and doing research to know what questions to ask was a lot of hard work. In the end, I’m glad I did my due diligence and am happy with the machine I chose.

To date, I have been sewing on my great-grandma’s 1950’s Singer. This is truly an extraordinary machine, especially considering it is over 60 years old and I have used it for the past ten years to sew nearly 50 quilts! I’m a little nostalgic about doing my first quilt not using this machine—I have now christened her Old Dorothy because both of her owners were named Dorothy and every good machine needs a name—but I’m super excited to use my new machine for the first time.

So . . . what did I get? We’ll, its on back order, so let’s talk about what I learned first and then I'll post photos of my new machine. Hey, if I have to wait you do too!

When I started this process I did some online searches to see what the best machine was. Most of the feedback was not that helpful as everyone said that the most important thing is support and to make sure it “does what you want it to do”. Ok, so I want it to sew and I want to have someone I can call to help me through issues. That led me to focusing on purchasing from a dealer and not a box store. For me that was the right decision as I am looking to gain new skills and expand my project base. But it still didn’t tell me what brand to get, seeing as I am now brandless since Singers are not the same machines that my grandmother bought.

The next issue I ran into was price range. There are a TON of beautiful, capable machines out there today. But honestly, thinking of going from a 1950’s basic Singer with no digital anything to a deluxe, sensor-equipped smart machine was a bit daunting. Don’t get me wrong, I completely wanted to step into the 21^st century and get a machine with some digital capabilities, but I’m not quite ready to start sewing on a touch screen machine—as my friend said, it would be like going from a model T to a rocket ship. Additionally, my price range was nowhere near what the top of the line beauties cost.

So, what do you get for a nice, basic machine when you are looking to upgrade—somewhat slowly—and have room to learn and grow on a budget? I checked out Bernina, Pfaff, Viking, Elna, Janome and Baby Lock, and looked at machines between $500 and $1,000.

Reviews of each brand, and the big reveal of what I got coming your way soon!

Growing, growing . . .raccoons?

Growing up in rural American we grew a sweet corn patch every year. It was on the edge the field by by grandparents house and was oh, about a quarter of a mile long.  Once the corn was ready we would have two weeks of all you can eat sweet corn at every mea. And then two days of a family corn freezing party--it was a hot sticky mess, but delicious to have home grown corn right out of the freezer in the dead of winter. But first we had to battle the raccoons. I don't know exactly how my grandpa got rid of the raccoons and manged to save some corn -- it might have had something to d with our farm dog . . . but I definitely didn't expect our own raccoon visitors to show up in our garden. Who new?! Raccoons will STILL get in your sweet corn, even if you live in town!

But it happened, one morning we went out to the garden and had several downed ears. The raccoon had clearly been hard at work first nibbling the plants and then shucking the corn. Quite the resourceful little fellow.

Our dog is too little to battle a raccoon, and we don't have an electric fence, so we tried a couple other options. And while we never caught the raccoon, he eventually stopped turning up and destroying our almost ready ears. In the end,we got to enjoy a pretty bountiful harvest.

First corn of the season, YUM!

Gather round — Our new table!

It may be old fashioned, but JT and both grew up eating dinner around the table with the family every night. It was hallmark of our childhoods and is something we still do every night and want to continue to doing well into the future.

Our first dinning room table was a handme down—ok, so all the furniture we had when we got married were handme downs, which was fine, but we finally saved enough to replace it—Yay!!

Then beganthe shopping and learning and comparing. We had replaced other pieces of our furniture before this, but nothing that would be quite so permanent and central to our lives. I mean, we will eventually replace our couches, but this table we will have  for almost the rest of our live AND we will use it every day.

Who knew there were some any choices when picking out a table? I'm a decisive person, but you when throw 10 different wood types, 20 different stains, 30 different chair styles, edge finishes, and too many different table styles to mention you have one overwhelmed girl. Luckily, we took our time, did our research, visited Redekers (those of you in Iowa know that this is THE best furniture store), and came out with the perfect table that will last us forever.

Its a pedestal table which we love because you don't get boxed in with legs, plus the pedestal has supports that remind us of a barn. The top is called a Pioneer top and we chose Hickory as the wood with a medium to dark finish. Add six window-pane style chairs with lumbar support and you have our table. Let the dinner guest arrive!

Hot off the grill - Baby Back Ribs

One of the things I love about having grown up on the farm is the endless supply of home-grown, farm raised pork and beef. Growing up we never really purchased meat at the grocery store, we just went to the basement deep freezer that was always fully stocked. Everyone where I'm from has deep freezer and those deep freezers are always full of beef and pork that either you or your neighbor raised.

For our wedding, my parents gave us a deep freeze full of meat, which was . . . Awesome! . . . except that we lived in a one bedroom apartment. I'm pretty sure we were the only people in our apartment complex with a deep freezer in the dinning room.

But now we have a house with a basement, which is exactly where deep freezers belong and we are putting it to good use. The latest meat I commandeered from my mother's deep freeze stash--she has two freezers--are baby back ribs. That's right, fresh, home-grown baby back ribs, now just to figure out the best way to grill them . . . I'll left the grilling up to JT (its best that way).

 Two hours later, he did a pretty good job and the sweet corn went with it perfectly!

Here's a link to the recipe we used.

Growing, Growing, Gone!

Earlier this spring we put in our first garden--despite my warnings to JT that any plant I touch with die--and thanks to JT's hard work and affection things are looking pretty good.

Well, except for the peas and pepper plan the neighborhood rabbits ate. Darn rabbits.

My mouth is just watering thinking about the delicious sweet corn we will have in another month.

Did you know, that the corn you buy at the store whether it be frozen, canned, fresh on the cob, or however you buy it is NOT the same corn that farmers grow in the fields? The majority of the corn you see farmers planting and harvesting is actually fed to animals. The kind of corn you buy in the store is sweet corn, the same kind we have in our garden, and is related to field corn, but not the same. You can find out more about corn from the Iowa Corn Growers.

The tomatoes are looking pretty good too. Here's hoping they taste as good as they look!