Okay, I’m deep into this sewing obsession (it won’t last forever, don’t worry) but I don’t want to only blog about things I sew, so I’ll combine it with other stuff I need to blog about.
The boys are now playing soccer, and aren’t taking guitar lessons any longer. Deja vu to two years ago – Linus wanted to sign up for soccer, so I did, happy that he wanted to do it by himself. And the other two went to a game and of course then wanted to play as well. So now all three are playing soccer again. Linus had his first game on Saturday and they won. I took a bunch of pictures, of course.
A while back, Linus and I were on a very short segment on the morning news about a toy (on behalf of the moms blog) and I never blogged about it because there’s no clip of it online (thank god), only terrible photos of the screen my brother posted on social media. Sigh. One such gem:
OKAY NOW CAN I SHOW YOU?
Very simple pajama pants for Oliver (whales again!) and I can tell you now, my next project is two more pairs (in other fabrics.) He was ecstatic. 🙂
It’s mid-February but I think spring is here now. Sigh. I hate spring. Except for this.
There’s a long story behind why I decided to take up a new hobby, and hey, this is my blog, so I’ll tell it now.
I’ve already mentioned the boys’ Pixar obsession. So Oliver wanted an Incredibles pillowcase, but since that movie came out 14 years ago (what?!?) it’s not like you can just buy one. And then, we were at Joann buying stuff for our Mardi Gras costumes and the woman behind the counter was talking about how they have a sewing class for kids where they make a pillowcase. So then I thought, Oliver could make an Incredibles pillowcase! (But of course there isn’t Incredibles fabric so that wouldn’t work but by that point I was down the sewing rabbit hole and in the end I just bought him a pillowcase on eBay.)
I posted on FB for simple sewing machine recs for beginners, and got some great advice, but my mom reminded me that I had her sewing machine, an old Swiss beast from the 70s. I mean, I hadn’t forgotten, but it seemed so complicated and surely it didn’t work anymore, and I’d tried to use it and it was a mess and blah I just want something shiny and new.
But I pulled out the old Elna and dusted it off and plugged it in and, you know, actually read the instructions booklet, and voila! It worked fine.
And man, the memories. My mom used to sew clothes for us, and everything about that machine brought me back to my childhood. Turning on the light. The pedal. How you had to turn the flywheel to bring the thread thingy (need to look at the manual again) up to the top before you raised the foot and pulled out the fabric. The knobs that seemed so mysterious then, but after, you know, reading the manual, kind of make sense. (Another reason I wanted a new machine – all the dials and settings and whatnot on this one terrified me.)
I signed up for a beginner class at Joann in a couple of weeks, but I was getting antsy so I went to Joann and picked out a simple skirt pattern on the advice of some friends. The boys helped me pick out fabric. Going through the aisle buying supplies created another wave of nostalgia. (My mom laying out fabric and patterns on the dining room table, the pads down to protect the surface. Her special left-handed scissors. The little wheel she used to mark the patterns and oh! transfer paper! That’s right!)
Last night, I was itching to get started on my skirt, so I did it! I just did it! I made a skirt! Of course, I screwed up – accidentally sewed the casing for the elastic with half of the wrong side showing, so I had to rip that out and start over. The seams are not quite as straight as they could be. I’m sure the hem is totally catty-whompus. I can’t tell what’s the back and the side of the skirt, and it feels a little backwards or something. But I’m ready to start on my next one already! And what’s next? How about pajama pants? That might be a little ambitious. Hmm.
Project Runway, here I come!
PS Any tips on great websites for patterns and fabric and blogs to read are welcome! Turns out the patterns you buy at Joann aren’t vanity sized and I had to make the largest size in the plus size pattern – I mean come on. I’m not a tiny woman, but seriously?
More pics from Fat Tuesday, plus our neighborhood parade on Saturday, NOMTOC, which was also NORMTOC because Norm just turned 70 so we made shirts.
Norm and his Chicks
Liam marching and embarrassed of us
A lady on a float gave me these! So proud.
All the Chicks!
Oliver’s studded pleather fingerless gloves he caught
Cool Linus
And on Mardi Gras day, we costumed in a Pixar theme (I really should talk about how amazing I am for pulling this together the night before, after going to a million different stores and crafting late into the evening) and walked down to watch St. Anne’s in the Marigny (a walking parade that has most excellent people-watching) and then tried to catch the end of Rex but it was too crowded and we were all exhausted. But it was fun.
Terry’s family’s amazing loteria costumes
Ollie is Dash from The Incredibles
Miles is Miguel from Coco
Linus is Russell from Up
I am Sadness from Inside Out
Sesame Street in drag
South Korean Rockettes
My goal in life is to one day do a group costume with friends that involves a dance we get to perform in the middle of the street, like these people.
Last night was Muses, a woman’s only krewe (sort of like the one I rode in last year but fancier and the original woman’s only krewe and probably no one would like me comparing the two, but, you know, it is what it is.) Oliver and Linus came with me and we met up with a bunch of friends on the route.
Some random pics…
I made a sign ahead of time – just in case I saw the Muse who was at the My Favorite Murder show last month.
And it worked!!! I saw her and got this beautiful shoe!
My friend Jenn works for the founder of Muses, so after the parade, once the kids were tucked in bed, we headed back out and went to the Muses after-party. So fun! Open bar (I only indulged in a couple few, I swear) and food from Jacque-Imos and music by Sheila E and lots of fun people-watching. Didn’t get home until 2am! What a rock star.
I almost forgot today’s picture (gasp!) Between Mardi Gras and three sick children, it just slipped my mind until this evening, when Miles reminded me. So that’s partly why the picture was taken in the living room instead of outside. But I may have changed the location anyway since no one really felt like doing much today anyway.
Look at those rosy cheeks…
As of right this moment, they seem to be on the mend, but after battling vomit, asthma, ear infections, congestion, coughing, headaches, and fever for the last week, I just give up.
I have to post about this because Friday night was the most fun night ever!
Stephanie and I went to a live show at the Orpheum of our favorite podcast, My Favorite Murder. If you like true crime (I mean, I guess I must) and cursing and laughing, you should definitely listen. If you don’t like all three of those things, maybe stick to This American Life.
Back in October, tickets went on sale. I was in London at the time and just finishing up a meeting when the time came for sales to start. I tried and tried and tried and just could not get tickets. Meanwhile, back in the States, Stephanie was also trying. Thank goodness she was able to get a pair for us. Not just any pair – second row, VIP!
VIP meant we’d get a few goodies but best of all, we’d get to meet the hosts, Karen and Georgia after the show! Eeek! For months, Steph and I planned what we were going to wear (I’d make shirts for sure, but what would they say?!?) and what we’d give them. (People often give them a little gift at the meet and greet.) Read More
Ooh, a whole week has gone by without a post. My bad!
Wasn’t the most exciting week, though. Well, let’s see. The boys went to their friend Ian’s house for a sleepover Saturday night, and everyone stayed all night and had a great time, so that was a relief. Also their house is full of IKEA so I felt right at home and now I want to build a loft-like space above their bedroom. And I had poke for dinner after I dropped them off.
The other great thing that came out of it was Ian’s recipe for cheesy popcorn, which we’ve made twice now. I hope he doesn’t mind if I post it here.
IAN’S CHEESY POPCORN
Put one tablespoon of olive oil in a pot big enough for popcorn, turn on medium to medium high heat.
Add 6 tablespoons of popcorn kernels (this is where Linus says, let’s just add a little bit more, so it’s usually more like 7.)
Wait until one of the kernels pop. This takes an eternity. I guess it’s true, watched popcorn never pops.
Put the lid on. If you’re lucky, your pot has a glass lid so you can watch all the popping action.
Shake the pot while it pops. Is it necessary? Maybe not, but it feels right.
When it’s all done, pour the popcorn into a big ol’ bowl.
Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the popcorn and mix it all up.
Shake 6 tablespoons of parmesan cheese on top and mix it all up.
Eat! And then look at all the parmesan cheese at the bottom of the bowl and decide next time to use a bit less.
I hope you enjoy this delicious treat as much as we do!
What else is exciting? Hmm. Well, Steph and I are going to see a live show of My Favorite Murder podcast tonight, which I am very excited about. Not a podcast for the kids, though. Probably obvious from the title. Oh, and Sunday morning, Linus and I will be on the local news for three minutes talking about this little coding robot toy thingy. I’m sure that won’t be completely awkward or anything.
Oooh, my new glittery sneakers got here! Love them.
Brrrrr, it’s gotten cold here! Everyone was excited when this showed up on the weather app:
The ever elusive snowflake icon!!!
And this is what we woke up to:
Okay, it wasn’t really snow, I don’t think. More like tiny ice crystals. But who cares? It looked like snow and it was white and it blanketed the ground, so good enough for us. (Though it would have been nice if it had stuck together for snowmen and snowballs. Alas.)
The boys had a blast, though, and that’s the main thing. School was out yesterday and today. The roads were too icy to drive on yesterday (because, people from the North, we aren’t used to it, and our infrastructure wasn’t designed to deal with it, so stop being snots about it) and I had some friends with burst pipes, which sucked for them. (Again, our houses aren’t built to withstand freezing temps for prolonged periods.)
Pretty much says it all. (Courtesy of my friend Lindsay)
Should warm up in the next couple of days which is a relief because I’m ready for the boys to go back to school!
Oh, and I threw together this post for NOMB the other night. My favorite (because it’s true.)
How is it already mid-January? Yeesh. At least we’ve actually had a winter here. Though freezing temperatures without snow are pointless. So if we could just have a flurry here while I’m home at the same time the boys are, that’d be great. Thanks.
We had a busy weekend – the boys had a sleepover Friday night for a friend’s birthday, then Saturday night one of their friends slept over, then Sunday we went to yet another birthday party. (Fortunately they had Monday to recover.)
Random pictures of kids stuck to a wall from the Sunday birthday party:
I also did some baking over the weekend. Make pizza dough for the boys’ dinner Saturday night, then made a king cake for breakfast the next day.
I used this recipe, but halved the yeast. (In the past, the king cakes I’ve made have tasted too yeasty.) It came out pretty well. I should have baked it at a lower temperature, I think. The outside was getting dark, but the inside was still possibly not cooked as much as I’d have liked (but not raw.) I could just hear Paul and Mary critiquing it. But everyone else liked it, so I’m going to stop pretending I’m on the Great British Bake Off. (I do have some other ideas on how to improve it for next time…)
In other news, I ordered two fun things from Amazon that I’m excited about.
Hair straightening brush. This is magic! My sister has one and I used it when she was in town, so I treated myself for my birthday.
CHECK THIS OUT!!! That’s before – I didn’t touch my hair this morning after washing it. No brushing or anything. That’s totally air dried. And the after is from six minutes of brushing with the magic brush! Insane.
Usually straight hair involves blow drying (pfft no way) and then flat ironing for 15 minutes while I curse the hard to reach hair at the back of my head. This was just brush, brush, brush, avoid ears because last time I burned the crap out of the back of my ear. I mean, this thing gets hot, but as long as you’re careful, it’s fine.
I read 90 books in 2016, so that means I read 38% more books in 2017! Want to see what I read?
(I think that’s only 125 covers, but I remembered another book later that I forgot to record, but it was really a novella so it’s okay. Maybe I should say I read 125.5 books this year?)
In any case, this year I’m going to be more organized and instead of just saving screenshots of the covers (since 99% of the books I read are on my phone) I’ll use Goodreads like I should have all along. (I used Goodreads to generate these graphics, btw.) (You can follow me here, if you like.)
The books are shown in the order I read them in so you can see that sometimes I’ll find an author that I enjoy, and then read the crap out of whatever the library has. Some authors I devoured everything I could get my hands on either because I loved their books (Tana French, Jenny Han) or because I couldn’t find anything better to read (Nancy Thayer, Sarah Morgan.)
I read a lot of YA this year (Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, Geekerella.) I was surprised at how much better The Nightingale was than most of Kristen Hannah‘s other books, though many of them were very enjoyable. But I mean, what, did she take a writing class before writing that?
I also read a surprising (to me, when I look back over the year) numberofmemoirs. Probably the first half of Shrill was my favorite. I spent most of Cat Marnell’s book on edge and feeling very nervous for her.
You can also see that I read a lot of fluff (unapologetically) which probably explains why I can read 126 books in 365 days. I’m also happy to say I think I purchased only one of these books, and it was the aforementioned novella, and the proceeds went to charity. Libraries FTW!
Cutting for Stone (super happy I picked this up again. It was one of the first Kindle books I ever bought, eons ago, and just couldn’t get into it at the time. This time, I adored it.)
Low points:
All the books that I know I read but can’t recall at all.
The two Danielle Steel books that are the books I am ashamed of reading. They were just so terrible. I get these from the library when desperate. But they’re the only two books I’m embarrassed for you to see here. I should have stopped reading three pages in.
The latter of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series that I read. I enjoyed the first one, but my enjoyment lessened the further I got into the series. They were kind of a slog to read, but I was desperate for more dark mysteries after I’d finished the Tana French books.
A book you won’t see listed – Into the Water. I just could not get into it. I hate not finishing books (see Danielle Steel, above), but life’s too short.
Overall, though, it was a good year for reading. On to 2018! I don’t have any quantity goals but I’d be happy to match 2017. I’m currently on book #8, so I’m on my way!
Yesterday was my birthday! (I thought about taking a monthly picture, but no one was home to take it when it was still light outside, but that’d have been funny, eh? Darn, missed opportunity there.)
Anyway, even though this year I was at home and not gallivanting around the world in, say, San Francisco or Barcelona, I had a great birthday. In fact, one of the better ones, I’d say. It wasn’t particularly eventful, but just overall a lovely day. Well, except for the weather. I’d appreciate a sunny birthday more often, but sadly, January is gray and yucky too often to hope for that.
It started out with waking up with the boys and bringing them to the bus stop so I could see Ann Frances (my birthday buddy, you know.) Then I went to Orangetheory and thought at one point in the workout that it might end up that I would last exactly 43 years on this planet, but alas, I survived the workout. Stopped at a neighborhood coffee shop for a hot beverage and a pastry (apple turnover) and then went home to chill for a bit. (I took the day off work.)
January 9 buddies
Kiki had sent me a pile of presents, and I wanted to spread them out throughout the day. So I opened one – a White House Christmas ornament. Earlier I’d opened one that had some face masks and cream in it.
I got on the ferry a little while later and met up with Heather and Steph for a fancy lunch at Antoine’s, one of those old traditional New Orleans restaurants in the French Quarter. (The oldest, in fact, having been around since 1840.) It was lovely, even if the service wasn’t the greatest. Then again, our waiter had been there for 50 years, and so what if he kept bringing me screwdrivers when I asked for martinis? (Part of the lunch special is 25 cent cocktails.) Anyway, I’d have been on the floor if I’d had three martinis, so perhaps he knew best.
After a delicious lunch of oysters, steak, and a meringue dessert, Heather drove me home, and I relaxed for a while until it was time to go get the boys. (I also opened another gift from Kiki – a copy of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook that I’ve been wanting. Yay!) I was going to let George pick them up, but I wanted to get a birthday cake. Kind of pathetic, having to buy my own birthday cake, but if I wanted one, I’d have to buy it. So I went to the grocery store and found a yellow cake/chocolate frosting number, and here’s where it gets even sadder.
I asked them to put “Happy Birthday” on it, but when she asked for a name, I just said, “no name, that’s fine.” I’m sure it seemed odd, but not as pathetic as it would have been if she’d realized Pam was me. What if I went to check out and the cashier noticed the name on the cake was the same as the name on my debit card? I know it’s a long shot, but I didn’t feel like risking it. Usually, that kind of thing doesn’t bother me, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. So my cake remained nameless.
Also my Ron Swanson came in the mail!
When I went to pick up the boys, Miles informed me he’d made me a card!!! This is all I ever want from the boys, and I was thrilled. It was the sweetest card. Ack!
Oliver posted a Happy Birthday on Instagram that morning, which was indescribably sweet. It was a terrrrrrible picture of me, but that’s kind of okay, you know? Like, he doesn’t think it’s a terrible picture. He just sees Mom. So sweet.
(Yeah, nothing from Linus, but I did get plenty of hugs at least.)
When we got home, I opened my gifts from George (another lens for my phone – this one a telephoto) and a glow in the dark cockroach that I gave back to him. Thanks, dear. Ellie called me to say Happy Birthday, too.
Then we ordered dinner (pizza for the boys, pasta for me) and had cake. Later, I went to the pub for a birthday drink with Jenn and Terry and Steph, and came home way too late. So I’m tired today, but it was worth it – a nice day filled with friends and food and presents and love. What more could I ask for?
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