Girlfriends Weekend

 

Three day weekend!  And my best girl Lara is visiting from Seattle.  What could be better? Not much.  Lara and I have been friends since middle school.  She's one of those friends that has crossed over the border into family territory.  Here we are doing our best impressions of very sad muppets.  Every time I look at this picture I can't help but smile, maybe you had to be there.

Lara recently got engaged to the charming and delightful Rob, so we are having a girl's weekend of wedding planning.  We stayed up entirely too late last night toasting with sparkling rose, looking at flowers online, and making silly wedding to-do lists.  I have the very special task of making her wedding dress (awesome!) so today we are going to look at patterns and fabrics to get the process started.   If Rob promises not to peek, maybe I can share some of the process with you.

Before and After: Alterations

So a few weekends back I set the goal of making a dent in my big pile of alterations.  Full disclosure: I don't like doing alterations.  I am constantly buying things on sale or in vintage shops that would be so great if only...  But when they come home, into the pile they go.  There are just too many things that are more exciting to work on.  So after my big weekend push, I am two dresses closer to finishing my pile.

I got this dress on sale for almost nothing at Old Navy a few years back.  I loved the green and I loved the tuxedo ruffles, but those sleeves are awful and the collar is not me.  This is my favorite kind of alteration because the way the sleeves and collar were constructed, I just had to chop them off.  No sewing required.  It still took me over a year to get the job done, but now I have a jaunty green dress for the coming warm months.

I picked this beauty up at Pretty Penny, a vintage store I love in Oakland.  The purple floral is gorgeous (you may recognize it as I used the tie for my favorite new headband).  However, those sleeves and the blousy top are a little too hipster meets the Golden Girls for me to pull off.  So I took off the sleeves and added an extra pleat at the shoulder to keep a nice drape at the bust.  I also took in an inch or so of the bodice sides to reduce the frumpy factor a little.  Finally I repaired a falling hemline and now I have a perfect dress for spring.

The purple dress took a little longer, but in all I probably put in  less than an hour's work for both of these projects.  Now I have two "new" dresses.  Even though they're not my favorite, doing alterations is definitely worth it.

Abstract Embroidery

Last week I shared some inspiration from my pinterest boards.  I've been feeling stuck in a representational rut lately.  I think it's time for me to go back to something more expressive and more feeling, rather than thing, oriented.  This was one of my first big embroidery pieces.  It was one of those projects that seemed to go on forever.  Each time I thought I was finished, I couldn't help to add just one more layer.  I finally had to force myself to put it down and declare it done.

I love doing this kind of work.  Work where there is space for any clear plan I had at the onset to get tossed out the window, where I can fully follow my intuition and see where the piece takes me.

Eating: Sweet and Smokey Tuna Salad

I love tuna.  I love tuna all kinds of ways.  I love it the way my mom used to make it with diced carrots and celery, I love it with yogurt and fresh herbs, I love it plain in a tuna melt (side note: I ate so many tuna melts my last semester of collage the lady at the cafe warned me about mercury poisoning).  I especially love that a can of tuna can sit in my cupboard for months, waiting for the right moment to be enjoyed.  There's no pressure to tuna, no advance planning or special trips to the market necessary.  Which is why when the first of the month is drawing near, and my bank accounts are running low, and I'm trying to be creative with what's on-hand, I am always happy to see a can of tuna.  Today I tossed together this trusty standby with bits from my pantry.  Keep reading for my easy recipe...

Happy Birthday

Today is the first day of Nathan's new year.  We celebrated all weekend long with a lot of food, a lot of drinks, and not enough naps.  As predicted, no work was done by either of us.  Happy Birthday!

Im Working On : Nathan's Birthday!

 

It's Nathan's birthday weekend! I don't plan to work on much of anything besides eating, drinking, and making merry.  He has not been too excited about his birthday this year, so I'm taking it upon myself to be excited enough for the both of us.  It's a tradition for me to illustrate his presents for birthdays, they are usually a joke about getting old, something to do with pirates or bicycles (two of his favorite things), or a hint at what's inside.  However, his presents arrived a little late this year.  I only had about 15 minutes between the mail lady dropping them off and him walking up the front steps.  I made it just in time but they are a little rushed.  I told him they were late and he might not get them in time, so I think the surprise will be nice.  Here's hoping we're too busy this weekend for him to read my blog and let the cat out of the bag.  And now we're off to the first celebration of the weekend: happy hour Mai Tais at the Conga Lounge in Oakland.  Delicious!

How To: Vintage Headband

I was working on a few basic alterations this weekend and one of the dresses came with a sash at the waist.  I'm not a fan of the matching fabric sash, if I want to cinch the waist I'd much rather use a belt.  I have a bunch of these hanging in my closet and never know what to do with them.  It seems silly to donate them, wasteful to throw them out, and pointless to hang on to them.  So I turned this one into a fun new headband.  The whole project took about fifteen minutes.

Pinspiration: Abstract Embroidery

I'm in the home stretch on my latest embroidery, which means it's time to start thinking of what to do next.  I hate being with out a project, so I always start sketching and dying materials before I need them to aid in a seamless transition.  I've been doing my feathers in different variations for a while now and think I am ready for something different.  I looked to pinterest to get a little inspiration, and these abstract embroideries by Erin Endicott, Gunnel Svensson, and Rita Smirna were really speaking to me.  I've played with this style of embroidery before and I think it might be a refreshing break of all of this representational work.  Lovely aren't they? 

Eating: Beer Bread

Nathan and I have made a tradition of making a special St. Patrick's Day dinner.  He makes an awesome corned beef and I whip up a tasty colcannon.  This year I wanted to add a bread to the meal.  I looked at soda bread recipes and brown bread recipes but I settled on making a beer bread.  I had never made one before, I don't eat much bread as I try to avoid processed grains, and I was shocked at how simple it was.  I adapted this recipe from several I found on the web and I think it turned out great.  So great that I made it again today, twice in one week is the mark of a good recipe.

Flying Kites

This weekend we made a fantastic St. Pat's dinner for friends, Nathan helped me patch up my car, and I worked on what felt like a million different projects, but not the ones I was supposed to work on.   Yet the highlight may have been flying kites in the parking lot down the street from our apartment.  After a full week of rain, the sun was out and gusty winds were blowing.  It turned into a pretty adventurous day for our kites. Both of our kites got stuck in a tree and on the roofs of all three buildings that border the lot.  We got our kites with a Groupon for my birthday this year.  It was the first time I had ever flown a kite, odd I know.  Now at the first sign of wind, Nathan and I are grabbing out kites and running over to the lot to fly.

I'm Working On: Alterations

It's amazing how much a simple alteration can improve a garment.  I'm lucky enough to be able to hold on to my loaner sewing machine for a few more weeks, and I need to take advantage of it.  I've got piles and piles of clothes waiting for minor, and a few major, alterations.  Changing a hem here, removing a sleeve there, and a few carefully placed darts.  To get started I sorted my piles into alterations I can make in less than 15 minutes, alterations that might take half an hour, and big projects that could take an hour or more.  I'm starting with the quick ones.  I hope I'll be so encouraged that I keep on going to tackle some of the more daunting tasks.  Wish me luck!

Dead Car

Well at least it's not so bad as this image implies, but my car has finally died.  I could have it towed and pay a mechanic multiple hundreds of dollars to patch it up.  But I've done that so many times it just seems like a lost cause.  To keep a positive spin, I will be helping the environment by carpooling in a friend's Prius this week, and I will get to go new car shopping this weekend.  That last bit actually sounds kind of terrifying.  Any advice?

Image source: abcdz2000 via sxc

Rainy Day

Yesterday was rainy.  Today was rainy.  Tomorrow will be rainy.  The next day will be rainy.  I guess spring decided to hold off after all.  I'm already feeling a little sick of being cooped up inside.  So I decided to enjoy it with a long walk and some splashing around in the biggest puddles I could find.  Technically, these are snow boots.  Sorels I got on super sale as a birthday present to myself last year.  But I don't have rain boots, and if I'm going to go splashing, I don't want to worry about wet toes.  I splashed, I swished, I kicked, I stomped, through it all my feet were almost too cozy.

So I came home for a cup of hot cocoa and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  Rainy days can be great.

Eating: Meaty Cheesy Vegetable Dinner

In our house, Nathan tends to take on the more adventurous cooking projects while my specialty is quick and easy.  This is one of my favorite quick and easy dinners that has evolved over the years.  I love macaroni and cheese, and one of my favorite ways to make it is to add onions, sausage, and kale or other greens to make it a more complete meal.  When I started trying to avoid wheat and other grain flours, I began to substitute cauliflower for the pasta and I was surprised at how good it turned out.

DIY Dollhouse Suitcase

 

I don't have kids.  But if I did, I would be making this right now.  Check out the tutorial by Stacy at Hart + Sew.  It seems like a perfect travel toy.

I love the detail  in each of the interchangeable backgrounds.  I love that the floor lifts up to provide storage for doll clothes underneath.  I think it's perfect for a little girl, but I think it would be pretty easy to adapt this for a boy as well.   Perhaps interchangeable floors with different race tracks for toy cars.  Maybe different jungle and desert backgrounds for dinosaurs to battle it out in.  OK friends, someone needs to start with the baby making pronto so I can start making one of these things.

I'm Working On: Feathers No. 3

Still working on this one.  Did I mention my embroideries can take months to finish?  And to be honest I'm feeling a bit stuck.  I know that it is important to put forward a professional facade, but I also think it's important to show the struggles that we all face as artists.  No artist makes a perfect piece every time.  We all face set-backs and do-overs when trying to realize a vision.  Sometimes I face throw-it-in-the-trash-and-never-think-of-it-agains as well.  So here's what I'm thinking about this piece...

Pinspiration: Doily Rugs

Pinterest is such a source of inspiration for me, I wanted to share some of that inspiration with you.  I pinned these a while back, but when looking at my Lace pin board after my awesome doily haul, I fell in love again.  I wonder how hard it would be to make one of these?  Ladies & Gentlemen makes similar rugs and sells them for obscene prices on Etsy.  Maybe I have a new project to add to my to do list.

Eating: Spring Vegetable Stew

My love of making extends to pretty much every part of my life, my food included.  I wanted to make a space for making food here on my blog.  I hate the word foodie, it is so filled with pretention, but there is no point in denying that Nathan and I love our food.  We love to eat and we love to cook.  We love to follow recipes, we love to try and copy our favorites from restaurants, and we love to make up our own creations.

This week Nathan has had a cold, and I have been binging on the shipment of girl scout cookies I ordered months ago (what was I thinking?).  We both are in need of a good healthy soup.  Which brings me to one of my favorite springtime recipes.  I don't know where this recipe came from (if it came from you please let me know so I can properly credit you), but it is magic.  It feels like health being shot directly into your veins, and it is unbelievably tasty.  I made it for dinner last night and dished up two enormous bowls.  I was second guessing my large portions before I remember that it is all vegetables, and added a little more.  Keep reading for the recipe.

How to: Mobius Cowl

Cowl's are big this year and I'm happy about it.  After having such fun knitting the Herringbone Cowl from Purl Bee, I wanted a lighter weight cowl more appropriate for a milder climate.  I used the beautifully soft un-dyed Eco-Alpaca from Cascade yarns.  I knit in the round using a seed stitch, my favorite stitch for knitting in the round, and twisted my cast-on before joining up to create the mobius twist. 

 My favorite thing about this cowl is that it is long enough to pull up like a hood when the weather gets a little too chilly.  Pattern follows after the jump...

White Elephant Sale

 

This weekend was the annual White Elephant Sale here in Oakland.  For those who have not experienced the insanity, it is a giant rummage sale held to benefit the Oakland Museum.  The sale takes up an entire enormous warehouse and has departments for clothing, housewares, furniture, books, art, jewelry, and linens (my favorite) just to name a few.  This year I had a mission: doilies.  I need doilies for a few upcoming projects and good quality vintage doilies are getting harder and harder to come by as more and more doily projects show up on pinterest.  Last year I brought home a few lovely pieces for my doily collection, but this year I needed quantity. 

The Feathers no.3, Part 2

For this project I wanted three different feather patterns.  Each feather is a different color muslin, and will be stitched with a different color thread.  I didn't want to bring in any more colors into the mix.  I needed something monochromatic, a pattern that would be all in the stitching.  I came up with these three simple patterns.

I struggled a bit with which stitch to use for the hairy bits on the feather (what are those called?).  I started out using a stem stitch, but I hated it immediately.  I tried out a few different stitches before settling on a simple back stitch.  If I were a more patient person I would have stopped and taken a picture of this process for you.  I'm not usually a fan of the texture of the back stitch, but somehow I think it works on this piece.  What do you think?  After a few day stitching here's how far I've come.

*Note: The tissue paper is to keep from getting a greasy dirt ring around the edge of the hoop.  I learned this necessity of this the hard way.  It is essential for larger projects where I am not moving the hoop often.

Herringbone Cowl

Today: was rainy.  My house: is cold.  I: am grumpy.  It seems that today is just one of those days that can't go right.  It's Megan and the terrible horrible no good very bad day over here.  So I'm waving the white flag.  I'm settling into the couch with a box of girl scout cookies, my embroidery, and my new audiobook.  I'm doing it in my favorite, warmest, coziest cowl.  I made it last October from a modified version of the Purl Bee pattern.  I love the herringbone stitch and in such a chunky wool it knit up quick.  I wear this out as often as I wear it around the house, and I always get a compliment.  I'm trying to wear it as much as possible this winter because it's almost too warm for the mild season we've been having, but right now it is perfect.  I can't help but feel a little less grumpy with such a cozy cowl.