INSPIRED

Some Synonyms for INSPIRED are encouraged, influenced, and motivated. Today’s Ultimate Blog Challenge is to write about someone or something that inspires us or can you inspire someone.

Sewing

Looking back 70 years I would have to say my grandmorther inspired me in a few ways. She was a wonderful seamstress and I learned sewing by watching her. My grandparents had 7 children and in 1907 she made a beautiful silk Christening gown, all hand stitched, for her children. It was then passed down to my mother and my two sisters and I wore it. I was blessed to have it turned over to me for safe keeping and our two daughters and three of our grandchildren wore it when Christened. But it didn’t end there, our great granddaughter, Lia Faith wore the gown 112 years later! The silk is still in excellent condition and will be passed down for many more generations.

When I graduated from high school I started sewing and doing alterations for neighbors. It didn’t take long to expand into designing prom gowns and wedding ensembles. The next door opened when my hubby and I added interior decorating projects from window treatments, bed and bath treatments, slipcovers, upholstery and anything else fabric related. My grandmother’s gift of sewing was an inspiration for me to keep the love of sewing going. And going we did…… for 53 years we designed so many beautiful prom and wedding gowns plus window treatments that are too many to count. This is a blog I wrote about my grandmother showing my wedding party gowns she made! http://themarthareview.com/my-grandmother/

Cooking

Being encouraged to sew wasn’t the only thing that my grandmother inspired me to do. Since my parents worked my grandmotther was the one to plan the meals and do the cooking and baking. Once again, I watched her make delicious meals from next to nothing and turn out delicious. She would make a meal on Monday, turn the leftovers into two more meals totally different so we never know we were having leftovers!

Homemade Baked Beans Recipe

One of my favorite meals she made was homemade baked beans. I would help her sort the beans after soaking them and then the molasses and brown sugar went in along with a huge piece of pork.

I’m so glad I kept her recipe because it’s my favorite when I make pulled pork. The only change I made was I had bacon instead of the big chunk of pork. This is my grandmother’s recipe if you want to make some delicious baked beans. http://themarthareview.com/my-grandmothers-baked-beans/ I’m using the same baking pan that my grandmother would bake her beans in!

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake Recipe

My other favorite recipe is my grandmother’s chocolate mayonnaise cake! She would give me a piece of cake with a cold glass of milk for breakfast that didn’t sit too well with my mother. But as my grandmother explained to her, the cake had mayonnaise which has eggs in it and I had a glass of milk so no different than eggs or cereal with milk.

My grandmother always had the right reply! If you want a mouth-watering cake recipe, this is it! http://themarthareview.com/chocolate-mayonnaise-cake/ When you check out this blog, look at the baking pan and the platter the cake is on. Both of these are the SAME ONES my grandmother used!

My grandmother has inspired, encouraged and influenced me in more ways than one. The best thing about being inspired by my grandmother for both sewing and cooking is my now 23 year old granddaughter would watch me since she was very young, the same way I watched my grandmother. But it doesn’t stop there, her daughter, one year old Lia is now watching both her mom and me when we cook or bake and I’m hoping she will be inspired as she gets older to keep baking and keep the six generations of delicious meals and desserts going for many more. I think my grandmother would be proud!