Susie Homemaker Strikes Again

When I was pregnant with my oldest 24 years ago, my friend Eve was pregnant with her second. She needed to get rid of a couch to make room in her apartment for her second baby. It was a grey cotton couch. It was the perfect couch for us, about to become parents, because it came pre-stained with baby Tylenol. After many years we got a new couch and tried to get rid of Eve’s couch. Housingworks sent two men to pick up the couch. They refused to take it. They said that it was to worn out for them to sell in their thrift store. We kept the couch.

After several more years I recovered the couch with a mix of marked down upholstery fabrics in colors and patterns that looked good together. Eventually, the new couch began to look shabby. I have been slowly recovering that couch as well. I still haven’t done the back cushions, but I have done all of the seat cushions

Last night I noticed that the old arm protectors had gotten really shabby. I made new ones today. I also noticed that one of the pillows that came with the couch was also decrepit looking. I made a new cover for the pillow.

The photo shows the new pillow, the new arm protector, the teal of the original couch and the maroon and teal re-covered couch cushion.

I like that my slap dash method lets me complete work as I see fit. I also like that it’s a fairly thrifty way to get the sofas looking nice. From time to time I purchase more upholstery fabric that works in the mix. my couches keep evolving as time marches on.

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Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

sarah in nyc

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