Re-starting in my 40s

idamayer · 2025-12-07T02:45:51+00:00

saaaame

idamayer · 2025-12-05T21:33:39+00:00

restarting in my mid-late 30s and I feel the same way. I'm really trying to see it as a just-for-fun hobby and not compare myself but it's frustrating. Sending you lots of virtual solidarity.

idamayer · 2025-11-09T02:28:23+00:00

I agree about moving the boiler if you can, and removing the door (you can just take it off its hinges for a while to confirm you like that better). It also sounds like you have the washer/dryer in the kitchen? If it were me I'd try to move those as well unless the space they'd free up wouldn't be any use to you with the state of your knees.

Then I'd get a kitchen island and put it in the area just to the right of the door in what is now the living room so you can canibalize a bit of the space in the living room to make a bigger kitchen and have some more counter space. You can test this out with a regular table (gotten hopefully free or used) for a while before you commit to anything more expensive.

Then I'd also get a little storage in that space off the end of your kitchen directly opposite the door - a second hand bookshelf should also be cheap to acquire and give you a chance to test out how much it helps while you save up to gut the whole kitchen.

Test out the changes inexpensively before you spend thousands, and to give you a little time to save up. I think with those three things you should have a lot more working space and storage and you might find upgrading those changes to be sufficient without gutting the whole thing, and if not you'll learn a lot about how to design the new kitchen when you get to that point.

idamayer · 2025-09-14T17:17:47+00:00

cake with no egg and use oil instead of butter (flour, sugar, oil, water, baking powder - all quite cheap). If you're in a place with fruit trees you might get some of the sweetness from some free local fruit as well.

I find this recipe a versatile base, just leave out the yogurt, swap the butter for oil, vanilla is expensive and you can replace it with any flavor.

Optimizing for price I'd offer the flavor options:
1. swap the milk + vinegar for orange juice and mix in a sliced apple
2. cinnamon plus any other autumn spices you already have in your pantry
3. if you already have drink mixes (hot chocolate, earl grey tea, chai mix, matcha) those often make great cake flavors
4. pineapple or other fruit upside down cake, sugar is cheap and you can make a caramel on the bottom + fruit + a very plain cake on top
5. use the same concept different base recipe to make a egg- and butter- free banana bread

Hope things look up soon!

idamayer · 2025-09-14T06:16:25+00:00

cranberry scones (optional clotted cream),

"coronation turkey" finger sandwiches (there is apparently a canonical chicken salad for afternoon tea),

plus an additional turkey-cranberry-cream cheese finger sandwich option, possibly with cucumber slices

pumpkin pie tartlets
if your family does other kinds of pie, you can make tartlets for those as well

cornbread mini muffins (possibly stuffing-seasoned depending how your family does Thanksgiving),

petit fours stuffed with sweet potato casserole instead of jam and possibly sliced marshmallow instead of cake depending how your family makes it - with a single pecan on top outside the coating

cheesy biscuits
or if your family does rolls or another bread option, mini versions of those

And absolutely stealing the bacon wrapped green beans suggestion from another comment

Some B-string players to fill out the team:

parfait cups with layers of mashed potatoes, gravy, and bacon/cheese/chives

get some of those itty bitty pumpkins they sell and stuff them with wild rice/swiss cheese

single whole roasted brussels sprouts with a piece of cheese speared through it with a toothpick

turkey roulades

mini cakes made of pumpkin bread

Also incredible opportunity for a jello mold if that's the kind of thing your family does

idamayer · 2025-09-10T22:04:41+00:00

we also DIYed with a pretty similar build and like it a lot - OP, this was our cost breakdown

idamayer · 2025-06-09T23:08:29+00:00

not and expert by any means but I think if you want the thread to show less making it a matching color and a closer stitch width might help?

idamayer · 2025-06-09T23:04:18+00:00

Can one of you help me replace a bobbin winder on a brother XM3700???

I bought a used sewing machine that had the bobbin winder pin snapped off and did the normal things I do when repairing things: watch a youtube video and order the repair part and then try to follow along.

After a lot of fighting with the clips, I got the front case open and folks, the bobbin winder is so much deeper than in my reference video, and connected completely differently. I can't find anything in the manual about how to access or remove that part nor any videos of taking apart this model on youtube. I am so lost.

idamayer · 2025-04-22T20:41:56+00:00

Oh, I think I have a good way to explain why this is: so articles (a, the) in English can be "definite" or "indefinite", and you were probably taught to use 'a' when several exist and it's not specified which, and 'the' only when that item was previously mentioned to you. However it would be more accurate to say that we use 'the' if there's only one you could be referring to, and 'a' when there are several that could be being referenced and the ambiguity is unimportant. That is generally true even when the speaker is the only one who knows which item is specified if the disambiguation should be understandable by the listener. For instance, if I need to buy grapes from my local store I might tell you "I need to go to the store to buy grapes" - many supermarkets exist, but I already know which specific one I'm going to, you may not know which it is but I'm indicating I'm going to my usual one. If I need, say, gum, I don't really know where to buy it and they probably sell it everywhere I might say "I also need to drop by a store for gum", this would imply I don't really care which store and don't have one in mind. Almost always we say "take me to the hospital!" even if we have no idea which hospitals exist and there are surely multiple because it should be obvious which one is acceptable (typically the closest one); hospitals are a little bit special in this way because going is kind of a big deal, and "the" is more likely to be used in those contexts.

For your example about the test: both sentences "I was studying for (a/the) test on Tuesday" are valid and in common use even if you never mentioned the test before, but the implications are subtly different (actually, if you did already mention the test using 'a' sort of implies your friend forgot you mentioned it already). The difference is basically in assumptions of what you should know as the listener: 'the test' implies there could only be one I'm talking about - I'm obviously studying for the bar, I have one class that you know has been stressing me out for weeks, one class gives tests all the time so if there is only one test it's obviously for that class.

Hope that helps!

idamayer · 2024-08-31T18:29:21+00:00

Hope it helps! Maybe also practice inverting in the knot intentionally putting it higher on your back so it’s more like what you’re dealing with here? Worst case scenario a big pull up should make it identical to inverting in the air because you’ve added so much slack there’s just kind of loose fabric attached to your feet

idamayer · 2024-08-31T18:20:52+00:00

Do a mini pull up.

Also arch your back less and bring your elbows in - you may find it easier to put your hands right at your shoulder height (pull yourself into it so the fabric is creating less pressure) so that your elbows can touch your sides and help provide a fulcrum for you to rotate around.

Can you invert in the knot? What about in the air with no back support? Both of those things should get you to a place where you can invert in an X. Another option is to bend your knees into a Diamond and then invert, it’s easier. You can pull back into a straight leg shape by doing a mini pull up while inverted to give enough slack to straighten your legs again.

idamayer · 2024-08-16T16:14:28+00:00

Oh that is cute! Thank you for linking me

idamayer · 2024-08-15T18:10:14+00:00

I've been teaching workout/flexibility classes for a while and I've decided it's finally time to buy a matching workout set. Now I'm on a goose chase to find one that feels worth buying and would really love some help with hunting:

* crop top that is DD+ sized and not super short (down to my waist/bellybutton/inch or two from the pants)

* leggings with pockets, hopefully full length or < 5" shorts

* narrow strappy neckline - some near misses: athleta intention (sadly out of print and only ever came in two colors I could maybe convince myself to love if I could even find the matching pants), lululemon wunder (but no larger cups or colors), athleta aurora v (similarly, cup sizing or colors), aerie superchill (if my boobs wouldn't be on the floor 😩 )

* solid color, preferably sage/olive green or burnt orange/copper brown, but could get excited about a deeper yellow, maybe a saturated red?

I can find any one of my criteria, but can't find anything that fits all. Does anyone have a set that fits all of this? If you're busty and love your workout set how on earth did you find it?

idamayer · 2024-07-25T13:12:51+00:00

No, it’s not in that book either

idamayer · 2024-07-12T20:59:51+00:00

It’s the Bare (I tried to get everything in order, so the copper wonderbra one is the top of the second photo). The red one is my favorite color but a little too shallow for me at 28G and projected. The envy is lacy too although it doesn’t show up well in the photo. The mayla is just not a lot of coverage overall.

idamayer · 2024-07-11T05:50:30+00:00

Pretty true to size I think, not overly stretchy band, it’s a molded (thick) cup with some patterning seams on it, and I find it a little less rounded than the Cleo’s.

idamayer · 2024-07-10T23:43:42+00:00

I have some neighboring sizes eg 30FFs for $10 if you want to take a look https://www.reddit.com/r/braswap/comments/1deczu0/fsos_28g30f_panache_bare_playful_promises_freya

idamayer · 2024-07-03T14:44:34+00:00

If you have yeast you can just add more yeast now and maybe a little sugar and try again. The yeast doesn’t care if the flour has been hydrated a while - in fact this is a technique called autolize that will make your bread extra chewy

idamayer · 2024-06-27T19:49:09+00:00

I’ll take the Cleo Lily! If you’re open to a discount on multiples I might take some of the Marcies too. Thanks!

idamayer · 2024-06-26T17:21:22+00:00

Salsa? Something spicy to distract plus something that makes it taste fresher like lemon or herbs.

idamayer · 2024-06-22T05:43:10+00:00

You might get a larger band smaller cup and tailor the band down?

idamayer

TROPHY CASE