New Year, New Resolve

Hello, friends, and Happy New Year!  

Have you ever gotten so wrapped up in things that you just got so ridiculously behind with other things?  Please say yes.  Well, this little blog of mine has become one of those things I didn’t keep up with.  It just set up shop on my to-do list, and went on living there from early August until right about…now.  In true personal fashion, I’m starting out the new year with so many ideas for the future, and I thought I’d share some of them with you today (nothing like a little public accountably, eh?)

1.  Run a marathon

This one seems inevitably unavoidable, since I took the plunge and registered for the Cleveland Marathon in May.  Wish me luck!

2.  Work my way through my unfinished sewing projects before I start any new ones

This goal truly deserves a post of its own, seeing as my “unfinished projects” pile has slowly but certainly been taking over my bedroom annex for the past few months.  One bursting bookshelf turned into two, which promptly turned into many, many, many piles of overflow, which led to me vowing not to buy any more supplies, which turned into complete disorder and chaos.  It’s time for me to dig myself out of this hole!  

3.  Try at least one new recipe a week

Because I love food.  Also, I tend to get into “recipe ruts” where I end up eating the same, weird but convenient foods for all of my meals (read: when I get busy, I eat mostly cereal.)

4.  Go to bed early

This is a back-handed attempt at forcing myself into becoming a morning person; a goal that I set and break just about every year.  This is my year, guys!

5.  Take more pictures with people in them

So I have realized lately that the ratio of pictures in my phone is about 5:1; 5 being pictures of Oliver (of course) and 1 being…everything else.  Instead of trying to take less pictures of my beloved pooch (who are we kidding, anyway) I’m going to try to take more pictures of everything else in my life.  I swear, I do have human friends, too!

6.  No more hiatuses from blogging!

I’m sure you have been expecting this one since this post began, but I’m serious this time…I’m here to stay!

What are you resolving to accomplish this year?

Adventures in Dip-Dyeing

Hello, there!  I've spent the last few days trying my hand at some dip-dyeing, and I'm so excited to share what I came up with!  This recent dyeing experiment came out of a valiant, if vastly unsuccessful attempt to right a pair of my sister's pants that had been quite wronged by some hand sanitizer.  By that, of course, I mean that she tried to remove some tree sap from her pants with hand sanitizer.  While it took out the sap brilliantly, it also seeped through to the front of the pants and caused some massive bleach stains (oopsies!)  Of course, my first response was "don't even worry about it, we can dye them" only to realize that bleach stains don't really want to be any color than white (or really, some gross yellowish variation of actual white.)  After employing many creative (read: ridiculous and very messy, even for an outside project) dyeing techniques, I threw in the towel (or pants: I literally threw the whole pair of pants in my dyeing bucket in an effort to unify the color, to no avail) and moved on to Plan B, which was dying some lace to match the pants, cutting the stains out of the pants, and adding the lace behind the holes.  We'll just have to see what happens with hair-brained scheme #2.

However, the real up-side to this dyeing disaster was that the pants in question are a great coral color, which I matched by mixing two boxes of Rit dye: magenta and orange.  It seemed such a shame to make a whole batch of dye for just a little bitty stain, so I planned a few projects, picked up come unbleached cotton, and had a blast experimenting with dip-dyeing.  For the most part, I just dipped parts of the pieces into the dye, leaving the other portions white.  For a few pieces (once I had some confidence in my dipping skills, really) I folded the fabric to make stripes, which I'm pretty proud to say actually look like stripes.  I've been making my way through the dyed pieces, cutting lining pieces to match and sewing them into little pouches, wallets, and bags, and I have just a few to share with you today.  

These four pouches were the simplest of my planned dip-dyed projects, so I started with them.  I interfaced all of the dyed pieces, cut linings from some great metallic prints I found at JoAnn Fabrics, and just added a 9-inch zipper to each to make some simple pouches.  I have been meaning to try a half-circle pouch for a while, and I love how they came out!  The only thing missing from these little pouches is a great zipper pull.  I'm thinking…tassels?  Maybe a little pull made out of lace?  So many possibilities!

In other news, I'm working up a simple photo tutorial on how to make your very own zippered pouches.  They've really become one of my go-to projects…they're simple, quite quick to whip up, and leave lots of room for customization (the world is your oyster with this kind of simple project template.)  I hope to have that up tomorrow, so stay tuned!

I spent the rest of the weekend doing lots of running, practicing, spending time with my sister, and of course, with this guy.

  I hope your weekends were as lovely and relaxing as mine was.  

Home again, home again

Hello, hello, hello!  I've made it safely back from the land of practicing and hiking (also known as Banff, Alberta, Canada) to the land of practicing and crafting (also known as Pennsylvania.)  Although he's pulled a few naughties since I've been back (he sure does love those trash parties...) I don't think Oliver gave my parents too tough of a time in my absence (or perhaps, compared to their little monsters, his naughties just didn't stack up…)

My little guy's nose and a book, what a little gentleman!

My parents' dog, Ricky, just being weird.

But since I spent so much time away from all things bloggy, I really do have a few things to catch up on.  First and foremost: pies.  It happened like this: the other day, I mentioned to my parents that I wanted to try strawberry rhubarb pie.  My mom wrinkled her nose and offered a non-committal response, and my dad informed me that rhubarb is "hillbilly food."  So, I went to the store and picked some up.  After whipping up Smitten Kitchen's strawberry rhubarb pie recipe, I decided that my parents were undoubtedly and unequivocally wrong about my new best friend rhubarb, and I'm already planning to make another pie in the morning.  I also stopped by the farmer's market in town this morning and picked up some fresh blueberries and peaches, and made them into a pie today, too.  Pies really are something to write home (or online?) about.  

Also, before I left on my long Canadian adventure (pictures to follow, if I ever get around to uploading them onto my computer) I whipped up some packaging for the goodies in my little Etsy shop.  I picked up some tags at JoAnn's (about $1 for 20 tags), tissue paper, butcher's twine, and some stamps, pads, and gold pens.  I made the polka dots using a regular old pencil eraser on a stamp pad (I didn't not feel proud of myself for thinking up that little idea) and now my goodies are all packed up and ready to go!…hint, hint…

Speaking of my Etsy shop, I have some new things in the works, hopefully to be added soon!  I spent the day playing around with some dip-dyeing techniques, and I can't wait to post some pics of the finished products!...Once I get around to finishing them, that is.  Back with more soon, thanks for stopping by!

Bonjour, mes amis

Today was one of those perfect days where the temperature is steadily rising outside but inside we're still holding onto the cool from the past few days.  It was supposed to storm all day, but I've seen nothing but sun.  I had some grand plans to take a dip in the pool today, but after careful consideration (I stuck the big toe on my right foot in) I decided it wasn't a good idea (so so so cold.)  Aside from that little adventure, I've spent the day getting a few projects together: lots of little bags, clutches, pouches, and sacks.  Here are just a couple of sneak peeks of what's coming up soon...  

While this last photo is most certainly not a photographic masterpiece, I feel like it just about sums up this day, and therefore felt obliged to share it.  Oliver was quite a pal today.  I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I do!

I'm baaack!

Hello, world!  I know I've been gone for some time, but the truth is...things just got a little too busy, and a little too crazy, and I took a little hiatus.  Okay, it was an I-dropped-off-the-face-of-the-earth-for-a-few-months-hiatus, but I'm back now and I'm full of ideas!  I spent this lovely Memorial Day in Pennsylvania making some great big plans for the coming weeks, checking out the new fabric store in town, and hanging with the family (and quite a few pugs, of course!)  Here is my day in a nutshell:

 

I jumped in head first with some new projects this afternoon (which, of course, means that I spent the afternoon washing, drying, and pressing the fabric I picked up today) and I just can't wait to get behind my machine tomorrow.  I hope your Memorial Day weekend was as relaxing and family-filled as mine was.  And it's great to be back, I've missed you!

Moving ahead

As intended, I sewed my recent embroidery project into a little clutch.  I used some navy corduroy for the back, and some pretty white cotton for the lining.  So now all that's left are some final decisions: pom-pom zipper pull? Strap?  For now, my little clutch is just that, and I love it.

My plan for now is to avoid these last earth-shattering clutch-related decisions and forge ahead with more projects!  There's nothing like the creative boost that comes with New Year's resolutions and a little (but actually quite long) break from school. 

The rest of my day was spent getting a little work done, sipping coffee, and making pattern pieces for my next project, (drumroll, please...) a dress from the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook.  I got this book for my birthday last August and have since been lusting after the projects within and plucking up the courage to try one.  Since the book is designed to be used with handmade patterns, I have been gradually working up the courage to tackle this seemingly insurmountable task.  I can't say why pattern-making frightened me so, but I came up with one excuse after another to avoid it.  So in light of the recent New-Year momentum, I jumped right in last night, and began drafting the pattern pieces for my dress.  (I had a little help...see below.)  Today I finished them up, cut them out, and went ahead and cut out my fabric pieces.  I'm ready to start sewing tomorrow!  This project will also mark my first invisible zipper, and my first fully-lined dress.  Can't wait to get started!

Happy Monday!

Table fancy

Dearest blog world: I promise I haven't forgotten about you. I know you've heard it all before, but I've just been so busy at school. Not only have I been doing lots of musical things, but I'm officially working my post at the library, as well. That's right, folks, I'm a real, honest-to-goodness reference librarian, complete with thick-framed glasses and a wheeled chair in which to pretend I'm doing actual work.  Life is good!

On the home front, I've been dealing with some minor behavioral "incidents" with Oliver. These have mostly involved raucous trash parties, and some presents of the #2 variety in the living room. I usually call them "incidents" or "on-purposes," because I just know they're not "accidents." But who can stay mad at that face?

I also finally got around to re-upholstering the folding table and chairs in our living room.  This card table and chairs was a wedding present to my parents thirty-something years ago.  I took it with me to Boston when I lived there a few years ago, and my mom helped me re-upholster it then.  While I still love the funky prints we found, they were looking a little worse for wear:

 
I took all of the seats and seat-backs out of the chair frames, and spray painted them gold. This part of the process did not go quite as I had planned, largely because of the plummeting temperatures and blustering winds on my back balcony in Cleveland. I wound up almost completely covered in gold spray paint (as did the back balcony) while the chairs are spotty, at best.  As luck would have it, the set was a golden-beige color to begin with, so I'm hoping I can get away with a shoddy paint job.  Fingers crossed! 

For the upholstery, I used navy blue cotton ($2/yard at Wal-mart) and a sheer pink polyester blend ($1.50/yard at Wal-mart.)  I covered all of the chair pads, as well as the table top, in the navy blue cotton.  For the chairs, I covered the navy with the pink, and I left the table navy.  Cutting out the fabric was simple enough (and I used the previous upholstery pieces as general patterns) but getting the new pieces attached with the staple gun was a battle.  Thank goodness for reliable (and strong-armed) help...I just knew Sean wanted to help me with a project when he visited!  I love the combination of the dark navy, this peachy pink, and the gold frames.  It was just what I had in mind!  Overall, this project was pretty simple: just dissemble the table and chairs, cut out the pieces of fabric to cover the pads, staple them on, and re-assemble!   My favorite part of the new setup is this lacy vinyl overlay that my mom found for me at a local craft store in Pennsylvania.  My original intention was to cut it so that it fit on the table top, but I have yet to do so.  I sort of like the way it looks as a table cloth, so I may try this out for a bit before I snip off the ends.  It sits just under the glass top, and the white lace patterns contrast with the navy table top perfectly.  Since it's vinyl, it wipes clean easily when I (inevitably, and quite often) spill food and/or coffee on it.

Happy Holiday Season, everyone!  I hope you're feeling better than I am today (I'm suffering from my annual "the-semester-ended-so-I'm-immediately-sick" cold.)  But this is giving me some much-needed time to do a little bit of catching up, and Ollie is certainly an adorable sick buddy.  Happy Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

Joy of cooking

As promised, I snapped a few photos of my Pennsylvania adventures, which today consisted of practicing and cooking (pretty crazy, hey?)  Contrary to previous home cooking experiences (I can't even recall the various assortment of "I-just-don't-know-what-happened-I-swear-I-followed-the-recipe" dishes I've served to my family over the years) I spent this afternoon in the kitchen without any major catastrophes.  I made these braised short ribs with this herbed polenta, along with a salad topped with a cumin salad dressing (recipe courtesy of my sister.)  La pièce de résistance (in my humble opinion) was this lovely apple tart.  Mine doesn't look quite as good as hers, but it tasted pretty dang good.  So without further ado, here is a mini recap of my day:

 Okay, technically I took this photo in Cleveland before we embarked on our trip home.  But finding Ollie with his head on a pillow and the rest of him under a blanket (just like a person!) was just too cute to not share.  Just look at that mug!

The view from my morning practice session.  Look at that plant stand my dad whipped up yesterday!

 Mid-afternoon raspberry latte treat made just for me by my lovely sister.

My crowning achievement for the day: apple tart with salted caramel.

 And although he's a bit blurry, nothing says home like a little pug love.  Here, my sister's pug, Abraham, is saying "go to bed and stop trying to take my picture!"  (this was the last of many failed photo attempts.)

With that, I will heed Abe's advice and turn in early for the night.  Happy Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

La maison

Greetings from Cleveland!  My oh my, grad school is busy.  Between practicing, lessons, rehearsals, classes, and homework (what's that again?) I haven't had a lot of time for projects.  But I have been trying to come up with some ways to spruce up the apartment a little bit, and I popped in today to share one.  We don't have much on the walls as of yet, so I hopped onto Google the other day, and sought out some vintage images that I could print and stick on the walls.  Lo and behold, I came across an arsenal of copyright-free vintage advertisements.  (Jackpot!)  I picked out my favorite food-related ads, printed them at the drugstore, and bought some basic black frames at Wal-Mart.  I staggered them diagonally on the wall, along the slope up to the ceiling.

Once all was said and done, each picture cost about $1.25, and the whole set cost about $11.00 Can't beat that!  It was cheap, quick, and easy (right up my alley!) and it really brightened up our little kitchen.

Other than general scholastic busyness, I've been enjoying the beautiful (albeit few and far between) sunny fall days, and finding time to spend with my favorite little buddy, Oliver.  Here is one my favorite photos from this week: Oliver (of course) with two of my favorite fall treats (roasted sweet potatos with cinnamon, and a strong cup of coffee.)

 
It certainly looks like Ollie has an idea about those sweet potatoes!  I've got some more projects up my sleeve for the coming weeks (I'm just itching to get behind my sewing machine again!)  so I hope to be back with more soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

Back in the saddle

After a much needed (and event-filled) hiatus, I'm back at the (computer) keys from a new vantage point (Cleveland) with my same old buddy (see below.)

Although we've made quite a move, and lots of things have changed, many things haven't (including my inclination to parenthetical asides...as I'm sure you've noticed.)  But to recap the last month or so: Sean, Ollie, and I loaded up my little car and drove it all the way from Florida to Pennsylvania.  After a blissful week in Pennsylvania with our families, Sean hopped on a plane back to Florida, and my mom and I packed up my little car (yet again) and drove to my new home in Cleveland, Ohio.  So for now, I'm re-adjusting to the student life, and trying to shake this "Old Lady Complex" that I have going on (which developed as a result of the few years that I squeezed between the completion of my Bachelor's and the beginning of my Master's.)  But I'm having a blast exploring my new city, making new friends, and finding my place in my new school.

In other news, among the other amazing gifts I received for my birthday, I was given a gorgeous new dress form, and a new point-and-shoot camera.  I'll be back to post more details later, but here are just a few sneak peek shots of my gift (with my gift), of my swanky new Little Italy apartment, and of a project that I'll be back to share soon!  Enjoy!

I'll be back with more news shortly, (and I've been stockpiling a few projects that I will share with you soon) but for now: it's a school night, and officially past my bedtime.  Happy Sunday!