Purse Repair. DIY Sewing. Mom Pursinality Episode 1.

Frugal to the point of recklessness.

I like the bag my in-laws gifted to me a couple Christmas’ ago. Problem is, I’ve been a Mom Purse person since high school (many years before my actual state in life warranted such a title, incidentally). Folks of the Mom Purse mentality understand that paring down what’s carried in the purse is never a good solution, even when shoulder a soar from the sheer weight of the items.

And don’t bother thinking that something that hasn’t been used in a month ought to be tossed aside from the purse. No! It may be used next month. You see, folks with Mom Purses thrive on having EVERYTHING handy. You don’t need EVERYTHING every day. But you do need EVERYTHING, eventually. And if you don’t, surely someone you encounter will need it. For instance, 1 pen is never enough in a purse. This, of course, is because someone will need to borrow one when you are using yours. Hasn’t this happened to you? Let’s stop a moment, assess our lives, and realize that all of us, at some point or other have either been the beneficiary or the benefactor of a spare pen. We all need Mom Pursinalities in our lives.

Wait. We were talking about this specific purse. Sorry. I felt the need to explain Mom Purses. This particular one is lovely, but of very light weight fabric. Ergo, it burst at the seems. Several of them. As in, the weight of the necessary items in my purse caused the fabric to pull away from the seems.

Here’s an example. There’s a big hole that shouldn’t be there. This wouldn’t be a problem for a reasonable person of the Minimalist Pursinality. Like my sister. My brain will never understand this http://wechoosetolivethislife.blogspot.com/2011/06/some-summer-organization.html.

One may think that I should just get a stronger purse to suite my pursinality (oh man, I’m having fun with this pun. Sorry! It’s punny! It just came out, out of nowhere!). A new, stronger purse would that would cost money and time. So I’m going to modify this one to suit my Mom Pursinality.

My goals: repair, add compartments, reduce strain on current seams, preserve exterior appearance while enhancing shape definition.

I’ve gotten as far as repairing the burst seems. Will I ever get to the re-enforcement and enhancement stages? Stay tuned! Time will tell.

Love,
Miss Mary Clare

Chocolate Volcanic Cake

This is a cake. It is also a kitchen malfunction. And a marvelous example of a kitchen malfunction, if I do say so myself. It’s not supposed to be sunken into itself. I need to work on helping my cakes with self esteem and posture.

This is me puzzling over a) how to work the camera (I had it pointed in the wrong direction), and b) how to morph the malfunction into something lovely and fun that would honor our guests.

Marketing geek that I am, I gave it a name – Chocolate Volcanic Cake – to make it at home with it’s sunken-ness. It is not a mistake. It’s an opportunity for creativity.  I would make a fantastic Marine. Assess, adapt, overcome! We inhaled this cake within 24 hours. By we, I mean I did. I had a little help from my family and our good friends, Rose and Chris who brought their toddler.  It tasted delicious, and I think it looked pretty darn good, too.

This volcano has some awesome lava flows.

This is proof that I’m attempting to learn from my mistakes. I mean kitchen malfunctions. I wrote in the cookbook margins the pan size, temperature, and cooking time. Next time, if I need a flat (boring!) cake, I have ideas for what to do. In the mean time, this happy accident provided lots of culinary and creative pleasure.

Love,

MMC