September Projects

September is almost over and I don't even know how that happened. It's not been Miles' best month, to put it mildly, he's been a bit of a tyrant through his cold, growing pains, and teething. There are some clues left behind from the rubble of Hurricane Little -- piles of clothes soiled with snot and drool, chewed up books, miscellaneous kitchen gadgets in various states of disrepair, and some dried up raisins and frittata ground into the carpet. Somehow in the chaos, I managed to start a couple of cooking and sewing projects on the weekend and in between naps, work, and fluctuating nanny schedules. 


My first project involved breaking out my Bread Baker's Apprentice book and doing two things that I've been meaning to try for a while: pizza dough and sourdough bread. The pizza dough was a success. I made six dough crusts and froze them for later use. The other night we decided to give them a try and they were wonderfully delicate and stretchy and when coupled with my baking stone, we made pizza that rivals our favorite pizzeria. Dough win.

The sourdough has been more of a challenge. I embarked on making my own starter over a week ago and still have yet to make a sourdough loaf. I feel like I've spent more quality time with the seed and barm than I have with my own child. Maybe if Miles smelled like rye flour and pineapple juice, I'd love him more. The process is easy enough. It starts out with dark rye flour and some liquid (pineapple juice for the first two days) and goes something like this: mix, cover, ferment, uncover, mix, throw out half of your bubbly (stinky) concoction, mix, cover, ferment, mix some more, throw out some more, uncover (shielding your eyes from the fumes), refrigerate, wait wait wait, warm up, mix, cool off, rise, wait wait wait, flip yet another page to find a list of 12 more steps to go. I think you get the point. 

So here I started, with a weeks worth of variations on the starter in my Pyrex measuring cup, and am today, finally at the bread making step. I was so excited to have a fresh baked sourdough loaf on the table for dinner, but after reading through each step carefully, I realized that the bread won't be finished until about 9pm. Bummer. I should have started the process when I woke up this morning! Well, lesson learned for next time. And there will be a next time, because I have a bowl full of barm in the fridge that needs to be fed, rocked, and snuggled (I kid). J and I have made a pact to bake at least three batches before giving up, then I'll freeze the starter for later so I don't have to start the process again. 

The other project was making Miles a chair. I've been searching around for a mini upholstered chair for Miles to climb on and relax in, but they're either all terribly ugly or insanely expensive. So, I spent one evening on the internet and found a lady on Etsy who made a pattern for a plush kid's chair. I purchased the pattern on Tuesday and with great restraint, waited all the way until Saturday to get the supplies. J watched Little all afternoon while I went on an epic run to JoAnn's and Fabric Depot. Little took stock of the foam and batting and determined it was a worthy project. I had all of the pieces cut out by Saturday night and spent Sunday in my sweatshop pumping out the slipcover. The instructions were pretty good (not outstanding though) and I had to scratch my head and dig deep into my brain's sewing chest to figure out how to get it all put together. 

In the end I'm pretty happy with the results. Would I do it again? No. It was only slightly less expensive than just buying a stuffed chair from Pottery Barn, and was kind of a pain to sew. However, it looks adorable in our living room and Little loves it, so totally worth the mild annoyance. I have to go back and fix the arms (they need more stuffing) and I goofed when putting in the zipper, so there's a slight pucker on the right side (this may never get fixed though, since removing a zipper is high on my list of things never to do). I don't think Little will care though, because he now has his own piece of furniture to love and jump on.