sewin' and cookin' and Martha

One day late in August, Thing 2 finished up two projects in a fit of productivity right before school started. (She's a freshman this year. A fact that is causing me loads of anxiety because I literally don't know how this is possible since she was riding in a car seat only last week...)

First finish was this bright and funky table runner for her bedroom. She was smitten with the pink floral Alexander Henry prints the moment we walked into an LQS, and carried a bolt around with her until finding the perfect pattern. The front of the table runner has the focus fabric paired with some coordinating AH and other prints:

The back is one solid piece of a striped AH print. She stitched the binding on entirely by machine (her first try at this technique) and likes it so much better than hand-sewing it to the back.

The pattern she used:

Immediately after the table runner finish, she brought out an apron that was already cut out - only the assembly steps to go! We purchased this fabric from our local JoAnn's store, but it feels like pretty good quality stuff. The pattern she used is Simplicity 2691.

The perfect baking apron!

I may have mentioned before that our family loves, loves, loves desserts. In fact, we have two 3" binders dedicated to recipes in our kitchen. The first binder is tab-divided into categories like Salads, Veggies, Chicken, Seafood, Pasta - all that stuff you've got to eat to stay alive and healthy. The other binder is tab-divided into Coffeecakes, Brownies & Cookies, Cakes, Pies & Tarts, Cheesecakes, Ice Cream & Custards - all the foods that make eating fun!!

Now here's where Martha comes in... Last week while eating dinner, we were lamenting the fact that we had had no dessert in the house for three nights and hatched a plan. We would cook our way through Martha Stewart's three dessert cookbooks à la "Julie and Julia"! Due to work and school time constraints (and our mutual desire to avoid obesity) we will not have a one-year deadline for this challenge. Rather we will choose 1-2 desserts to bake, evaluate, and share with friends each week. And we won't be baking everything in the books - certainly nothing with "Prune" in the title.

First up for this weekend: Berries and Cream Tartlets on page 33 of Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts. Other cookbooks we'll be using are Martha Stewart's Cupcakes and Martha Stewart's Cookies.

Stay tuned for updates on our dessert-a-palooza! It needs a better name, though. Any ideas?