Ham Bone & Bean Day !

Current Mood : Full. 

I love Ham Bone & Bean day ! I get to take a cheap pound bag of dried beans, a picked-mostly-clean ham bone, and a handful of spices and throw ‘em in a pot with water. Two hours later, I have a vat of creamy bean soup with lots of ham chunks – and a bone for DFIL’s dog. Having to soak the beans for 24 – 36 hours really adds to the anticipation ! It’s funny that, not long ago, I didn’t think I could cook like that, I could just reheat most things and fudge it with stuff like Minute Rice and boxed sides and meals. Now I can do real rice, from-potatoes hash browns, chicken-bone soup, from scratch cornbread, chicken and dumplings, and I have such a good recipe I wanna try for Dirty Rice – also from scratch ! – soon. Cooking’s a lot more forgiving that most sewing. Use good ingredients, and most attempts will still taste good, if not ‘right’ !

I kinda pushed m’self through yesterday’s Jackson Jekyll sewing, in hopes that it’d trigger the Want in me to sew more. Instead, it kinda fell on the floor, even though I was fairly happy with yesterday’s efforts. Still not much interested, but it’s starting to spark a bit.

I find that, like Dearest Son, I’m more interested in looking at what I have and wondering where I’m going with it. He saved for a new building-block pirate ship – and ordered it last week ! – because playing with the old ones reminded him of how much fun they are, and how many others he wanted back then. He’s finally figured out that he can like Harry Potter (new) and still love Capt. Jack Sparrow (old) and even combine them. I’ve long known that I can love Barbie and Ghoulia and Timey and Elphie, but they’re kind of hard to combine ! Still, I shouldn’t ignore some things I love in order to be obsessed with one. So you’ll probably start seeing other appearances ‘round here. Hope ya don’t mind.

Right now, my mind is on the Barbie Dream Boat. Bought it at one of the monthly flea markets, out of a pile of random junk, dirty and incomplete, for five bucks. The Skull Shores dolls had just come out, and hints of the video were garnering interest. So, yeah, sucker = me. Plus, I’d turned down one in near perfect shape a decade ago and regretted it…  Anyway. It’s actually in decent shape, cleaned up pretty well, just missing most of the small parts and the big one, the white ‘bridge’ that detaches to store inside. I’m right on the fulcrum of ‘donate it’ and ‘buy the bridge off eBay’, and even playing with it tonight hasn’t completely decided me.

I mean, I love the 70s graphics – so like the Friend Ship and Country Living Home, which I will own ‘til I croak. But, as you can see from today’s photo, it’s kind of hard to use since it’s so small, even shorter MH dolls peek over the top. While I’m not fond of the sofa showing in the background, anything will unless I pin images to a board and prop it up, one more thing to worry about for photos. (sigh) I’ll probably get the bridge after all, and pull it down more often. Maybe let it inspire me to finish that swimsuit/ bodysuit I’ve forgotten about, or a whole line of cruise-wear.

Possibilities are still endless, ya know….