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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Look Out, Coco Chanel...


I finally completed my first wearable item, this cute little skirt. I started with this style from my new skirt sewing book as it seemed fairly simple. No zippers were involved and the drawstring opening let me test out the buttonhole feature of my sewing machine. The original design had a pocket and used rickrack on the hem, but I adjusted it to my own taste. I'm loving the cranberry corduroy! You can count on me proudly wearing my skirt to work tomorrow. I hope the seams are sturdy as it would be more than a little embarrassing for my clothing to fall apart in front of my students!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

His and Hers Pajamas

I am celebrating the completion of not one but TWO pairs of flannel pajama pants - and they're actually wearable! Above is Craig's pair (my first attempt). Up close there are some minor issues, but overall they turned out pretty cool. Below is my pair, which also turned out well, but somehow I managed to sew the elastic waist all twisted. Even still, they're pretty damn cute!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

It's a Party, Honey!


Last weekend one of my friends from work hosted a girls-only honey tasting party. There were 14 different types of honey to try and tons of tasty treats to try with them, including muffins, scones, cheeses and fruit. It was delicious fun! Anne, our hostess, did such a fabulous job with the food and decor, I wanted to share some photos of the event.



The place settings included beeswax soap, honey straws, and a hand-crafted note card for jotting down impressions of each honey. How sweet is that?
The last picture is all of us toasting with a little honey mead wine made right in Sultan, WA where I grew up. From left to right: Anne, Jennilyn, yours truly, Michelle and Leah. Cheers!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Bag Making 101


As promised, I have been diligently working from my bag sewing book and have successfully completed two little tote bags thus far. They are not fancy, but I'm quite proud of myself. The most challenging part was mastering the handles. The technique in the book was to do some folding over and edge stitching. It sounds simple, and no doubt one day it will be, but it took a lot of time and patience. (And a seam ripper.)



Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Power Cooking Fiasco

Whoever said "Mother knows best" has obviously never been roped into one of my mother's brilliant ideas. A couple of months ago, my mom signed the two of us up for Power Cook, a cooking class on the methods of cooking in bulk. I have to admit, it did sound like a great idea, but we should have known we were in over our heads when the instructor explained that the idea was to cook and freeze 30 meals all in one day. Lured by the healthy recipes and the thought of how convenient it would be to pull out a precooked, homemade meal on a busy weeknight, we decided to give it a go. What the hell were we thinking?

As it turns out, cooking 30 meals in one day is every bit as laborious and time consuming as it sounds. We spent 9 hours chopping, peeling, measuring, stirring...well, you get the idea. It was INSANE. This first picture is in the midst of chopping something like 10 onions. Even though the tears were induced, I think this depicts my feelings about power cooking.

After all was said and done (so very, very done...), we had a counter full of meals neatly packed in freezer bags, which makes it look like a big heap of plastic instead of an exhausting day's work. And don't be fooled - the smiles on our faces reflect relief that we survived, NOT a hint of enthusiasm to ever attempt this again.