Must. Resist.

This adorable little creature is a Singer 185J - which is, basically, a Singer 99 in new clothes. It's a 3/4-size machine, although not anything you'd call "lightweight." The "J" in the model number on this one just indicates that this machine was manufactured at Singer's factory in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in Québec. Possibly the cutest detail? Even the bobbin winder tire and belt are green. Alas, the belt is shot, and i'm doubtful i'll be able to find another green one to replace it with...

I'm tempted to adopt it, of course, but i do have a 3/4-size machine already - a little Pfaff 30 i bought in a mad sewing machine binge at the favorite flea market (came home with four machines that day... luckily, that doesn't happen often, and none of them were in cabinets). So once i've replaced the missing bits and made sure everything is clean and working properly, i'm determined that it should go to the shop.

Really.

Determined.

A little embroidery

...or, "i can't leave well enough alone."

I had to make something to bring to Easter breakfast at meeting, and time was getting short for baking. I scratched my head a bit, and thought okay, they'll have the eggs, sausage, and ham covered, so if baking's out, that leaves fruity things... and i'd just impulse bought a giant box of medjool dates on the last trip to buy provisions. Now, when i was a kid, we used to snack on dates stuffed with peanut butter or cream cheese, but i'm not the biggest peanut butter fan, and cream cheese seemed a little dull. Thought about what was on hand and what might jazz it up a bit, scanned a couple recipes to see if similar things had worked, and ended up with a filling that involved cream cheese, a bit of orange peel, the juice from a tangerine, a little ginger, and a goodly dollop of a cinnamon creamed honey (it would be just as easy to use plain honey and add the cinnamon separately...).

They've been pretty popular. Made a few more for myself and the spouse this morning, since i had a little bit of the filling left over. The picture is lousy, but it'll have to do for now, because, well, i've already eaten them.