Day 33 of 365

I love my red KitchenAid stand mixer. I've had one for almost 25 years now and would never go back to any other mixer. The best part is I can add ingredients, turn it on, and let it be. No standing over the mixer, no kneading, just let the mixer's motor do all the work. I recently got a more powerful, bigger one (red again) and love this one even more. I use it all the time. Like today.

It was another cloudy, windy day and I had some baking to do. My husband needed some sugar cookies for a meeting later this week so I mixed up a double batch of dough in the mixer. We're having homemade pizza for dinner so I mixed up a batch of pizza dough.

And as I was reading this month's Food Network Magazine this morning, I came across a recipe for Almost-Famous Rosemary Bread. It's a recipe that is supposed to be like Macaroni Grill's Rosemary Peasant Bread. (And I'm a sucker for a recipe that replicates a restaurant one.) Now, I've never been to Macaroni Grill and have no idea what their bread tastes like, but the picture in the magazine sure looked good. And since I just planted rosemary and should have plenty on hand later in the summer (fingers crossed), I figured today was as good a time as any to try out a new rosemary recipe.

If you like bread and you like rosemary, this is a recipe for you. Yum!

Day 32 of 365

Some days I just don't want to get out of bed.

Just too many things hurt.  My shoulders, my hands, my knees, my hips, and my back. Today was one of those days where everything ached. But I forced myself out of bed and took it easy for a while. Usually when I have really bad days, I do some type of organizing where I can sit in a chair and do something. I enjoy straightening shelves, organizing drawers, color coding fabric - something that is easy for me, that I get pleasure from, that doesn't tax my system, yet takes my mind off of hurting.

Most of today was just too much for even that. So I sat in the chair for a while, had some breakfast, read Readers Digest for a while, watched some NASCAR with hubby, and then finally got around to do some organizing. Actually, it was more of a straightening up project.

I've been working on several small sewing projects. I haven't finished any of them, but am getting close. Usually when I sew I pull out the fabrics I'm using and keep them nearby on the table in case I need them again before I'm done. Being I have three or four projects nearing the end right now, I have quite a few fabrics and bindings sitting out. I keep all my fabrics wrapped on boards and organized on the shelves by color, so it's been driving me crazy to have fabrics out loose.

So when I felt a bit better this afternoon, I got to work folding and wrapping my bindings and fabrics and putting them back on my shelves. I picked up scraps, refilled my iron with water, covered my sewing machine, and put my unfinished projects in a neat pile.

All projects except one.

I'm making my daughter a make up bag. We have the fabric, I have a pattern printed from the internet, and I have the zipper. I haven't started it yet, but I wanted to put it with the other projects. But I couldn't get to that project. It was temporarily unavailable. It was being used as a napping place.

It seems I'm not the only one needing to take it a little easy today.