Cleanup Weekend

Busy weekend, although very little crafting. I sat down to craft on Saturday afternoon, thinking I would finally make my husband a birthday card (his bday was Sunday). But my craft table just seemed such a mess that I couldn’t get started, plus I had picked up some new goodies at AC Moore on my way home from work on Friday and I wanted to play and find a home for them.

Highlights of my purchases: the Fiskars scallop sentiment and upper crest border punches, which I have been wanting forever! Well the scallop sentiment at least. I have the threading (or treading, I’ve seen it both ways) water punch and I love it but wanted one without the holes. I would have actually like one with a little bit bigger of a scallop and I think possibly the Stampin’ Up one may be, but the Fiskars one was right there at the store with no waiting, no shipping charge, and at 40% off, so it is now mine (I think I paid about $9.50 each?). I can use my Fiskars Cloud scissors for larger scallops anyway, which I have finally mastered now that I realize I need to draw a pencil line to follow to exactly line up the cuts. Eye-balling it just doesn’t cut it.

I also got some Basic Gray patterned papers off the clearance rack, 25 cents apiece. I really love their papers but the collections are so expensive! One day I’ll use a 50% off coupon and get a whole set, but for now I am happy to combine bits of the patterned papers with cardstock I already have.

Another purchase was that Ranger Teflon craft mat. Not really sure I needed it and I am positive that I had bought almost the same thing to use with my Melting Pot, which I haven’t used in, well, so long I can’t remember. But I can’t find that other mat anywhere and this one is much bigger anyway. What I am really hoping I can do is heat emboss right on top of it without melting my cutting mat underneath. There’s already a bendy spot on my cutting mat from an earlier unfortunate incident with the heat gun (and a melted spot on the carpet) so I am a little nervous about trying this but the instructions say it can be done with no adverse effects to your work surface. We shall see.
Update: I tried this and it seemed OK. Yay!

I had rearranged my punches last week, moving my giant scalloped circles from a tray on my desk to one of the large drawer in the Iris cart next to my desk that my Ribbon Ring allowed me to free up. Really don’t know what I was thinking, filling that drawer with rolls of ribbon, what a waste! (If you haven’t yet seen the Ribbon Ring, check it out! Love mine). I also moved my large circle punches, large scalloped circles and miscellaneous large punches (like the EK Success Whale of a Punch ones) into the same drawer, freeing up the top drawer of the Iris cart. I’ve decided to treat is sort of as a junk drawer but with little containers that I had picked up at Target storing various embellishments by color. These are mostly one-off embellishments that I made and had no other home.

Now my back-up Fiskars trimmer that I mostly use for scoring these days after getting my Making Memories cutter can no longer fit in the top drawer. Right now I have it on top of the MM trimmer which is on top of a large file box full of letter stickers underneath my desk. Not sure if this is going to work out but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put it. It seems too large in the center of my Making Memories carousel organizer. I did move one of my rulers there, the 12 inch metal one, and put a push pin into the window frame to hold the 15 inch one. I also cleaned my entire craft table, sorting the scraps (for the most part) and putting everything back in its home. All of this so I could lay down the Teflon mat.

I never did make my husband a birthday card. I think he had a nice birthday though. On Saturday night I took him to a Polish restaurant we had never been to. He has this thing for goulash and has been talking about it forever so even though it seems like winter food, we decided to try out this new place.

YUM! If you are ever in Boston, try Café Polonia in South Boston! It’s right on the Dorchester line. I wasn’t sure about the neighborhood so was happy it will still light when we go there, but it seemed fine, and parking was easy, with plenty of resident spots that non-residents can park in for two hours. Mike started with beet soup and I had soup pickle-cabbage soup which was unexpectedly delicious. Then he had goulash with potato pancakes and I had the Polish platter, which was three pierogies (I had cheese, cheese and potato, and cabbage. The cabbage was so good!), kielbasa, Hunter’s stew (cabbage and meat, and surprisingly good!) and stuffed cabbage (not like mine or my mom’s, but still enjoyable).

Funny, I had bought a head of cabbage and 3 lbs. of ground turkey at the supermarket on Friday and was thinking about making stuffed cabbage. I think now I’m going to make unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot this week. Tonight we are having roasted chicken with vegetables. So easy and yummy! And cost-effective. It’s a big 6 pounder and was on sale for 79 cents/lb. We’ll have plenty of leftovers for sandwiches and such and I will probably make chicken broth/soup with the carcass. It’s probably a little warm for matzo ball soup but I am betting I can still tempt Mike with it. Mmm, the chicken is smelling so good, I can’t wait until it’s done!

On Sunday Mike and I went up to his parents house in NH and had a big lobster dinner. Well his mom and I had salmon but Mike and his dad are allergic to it. I also had two lobster tails. This is turning into the summer of lobster! I think it’s the fourth time we’ve had it. The best was when Mike cooked the giant 4 lb. lobster a few weeks ago. So good, although I’m still finding bits of lobster shell around the house!