Comma love

Most people who misuse punctuation marks these days choose to abuse apostrophes. You may have noticed the alarming explosion of misplaced apostrophes currently plaguing all forms writing.

Personally, I prefer to err on the side of commas. I think it’s because commas help me to slow down, give pause, consider: not a full stop, not an exclamation, just a pause for breath. That’s what a comma can do. However I am going to make an effort to use them more judiciously in future and I just removed one from this sentence.

Well begun is half done. Now about those parentheticals…

Gifts

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As I was stirring the filling for Pumpkin Pie this morning, I noted how many of the things I was using had been gifts from loved ones. For instance, the spoon I always use for this task was a wedding gift some thirty-odd years ago from a dear friend, who is still a dear friend to us.

Each time I bake this kind of pie I think of our friend with fondness as I dig in my utensil drawer for this homely wooden utensil with the hole in the center and burn mark on the handle that still does the best job of combining the viscous filling ingredients of this pie filling.

The spoon is showing its age, as we are, but still gets the job done, as we try to do. Over the years of use, its edges have softened so it fits better and better into the curve of the bowl to quickly find each remnant of un-amalgamated pumpkin and gently incorporate it without whipping in bubbles, anathema to Pumpkin Pie filling.

There’s a marriage metaphor in there, somewhere, but mostly gratitude for the many beautiful and useful gifts we’ve been given over the years and the dear people who gave them.

Hammered!

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Many times I’ve seen references to the technique of hammering with a regular carpenter’s hammer on bulky seams that threaten to put your sewing machine in a bind if you try to sew over them, typically in pants/jeans hems. Since the only hammer in my possession was an ancient, rusty and not very trusty hammer (loose head), I had never tried it. Also, I was not convinced it would help much.

Well, count me among the hammer crowd now! Thanks to Angela Wolf’s Craftsy class on Alterations, and the recent acquisition of a clean bookbinding hammer that promises to remain clean, I tried hammering the bulky seam of these softball pants I was altering for a friend. After lots of very empowering whacking at the seams, the cover stitch machine cruised right over those seams! Thanks Angela!