Sewing project: Seamwork Camden

Apparently I’m really into sewing outerwear this year.

See, when I was planning to make a coat, I wanted to make it out of teal wool. But I couldn’t find any teal wool that wouldn’t have cost an absolute fortune. So I went ahead and made it out of a cotton flannel, and I love it! BUT THEN. I was perusing the Blackbird Fabrics website in September and LO AND BEHOLD they had teal wool coating fabric! It was even reasonably priced! (Thank you Canadian dollar.) So I ordered three meters and waited for it to arrive. I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally in mid-November, after an investigation from Canada post, the fabric store sent me a new bundle of wool. (They have amazing customer service and beautiful fabrics, I highly recommend shopping from them.)

(And then the other fabric showed up after two months! And I got to keep it!)

I still didn’t know what to do with it. I debated between making a lined Pona jacket and a cape. Why a cape? Who knows. Why not? I found the Seamwork Camden pattern and ultimately chose that. Then I had to wait to get it printed on large format paper because I was not about to stick together 60 sheets of letter size paper together.

Meanwhile, I went to Chateau Sew & Sew (my favorite local fabric store) and picked out the lining. I wanted something colorful and fun, and ultimately went with a geometric pattern.

And then…I sewed it up. I mean, it was pretty simple, really. No major roadblocks (shockingly). I did debate for a little while on doing bound buttonholes vs sewn buttonholes, but in the end, I went with the sewn. I used my grandmother’s buttonholer, which made really lovely buttonholes and how many times can I say “buttonhole”? BUTTONHOLE.

And here’s the finished project! (I noticed after I took the pictures that the top wasn’t laying flat, so then I took some more on the other side of the yard so you could see that it’s really fine.)

Five years of Ziggy!

Five years ago, a coworker dropped off this dog at our house and our family became complete.

Some pics from just the last few months of our sweet Zig Zig, who is loving quarantine.

Teenagers.

They were very excited to get their gifts this morning. I promised not to post the whole video, but what we did (this was my friend Stephanie’s suggestion) was fill a box with boring things like socks and underwear and Axe deodorant (I couldn’t bring myself to get the body spray) and call it their “Teenager Survival Kit” or something, but hidden at the bottom was an iPhone.

Here’s a gif of Oliver’s reaction (LOM):

Obviously I’m sad we can’t celebrate like we normally would, but let’s face it, they just want to be on their new phones anyway.

The back half of November

My sweet boys at the bus stop.

An exquisite loaf of sourdough bread that I made for Thanksgiving. Recipe here.

Grandee and Larry came for Thanksgiving. We had zero vegetables.

Ziggy has been cute, as usual. We got our Christmas tree up!

Random leftover photos. Finally got the fabric for my cape! I was going to make it over Thanksgiving break, but I didn’t have the pattern yet. But it’s coming soon! Also the delicious beet salad I made. I like making things that are yummy.

Now it’s December 2 and the boys will be 13 in two days and I cannot believe it.

It’s a good day

First, it’s our 15th anniversary. That’s a big deal, yeah? Multiple of 5?

George got me a new Apple Watch, which is very exciting since my last one broke in January. And he got Apple Care on it so if it happens again I can get it fixed! 😀

Look how pretty! The only problem is now my steps are being counted again. I mean, there wasn’t any point in doing them if they weren’t being counted, right?

I can’t tell you what I got George but I will tell you tomorrow. And I can guarantee he will like it. Maybe.

The other good thing about today is that the boys went back to school. Of course it’s also a little bit anxiety inducing, but I just hope everyone stays healthy. At least they’ll get to see some friends for a little bit. That’s good for them.

And of course they didn’t even try on their uniforms until yesterday (even though I’ve been asking them to for weeks) and I now have a pile of about 12 pairs of shorts and 12 shirts that no longer fit, some of which I bought in February. Sigh. So I will now be doing laundry every night until the uniforms I ordered last night get here.

PS The Zyia activewear party I’m hosting is still active! You can order here or join it on FB.

Schitt’s Creek and stretchy clothes

For the past few months, my friend Mary Catherine has been selling these workout clothes as a little side gig. I like to support my friends (and I like new leggings for riding my Peloton) so I agreed to host a Zyia party over on Facebook. But my condition was that of course it had to be Schitt’s Creek themed.

There are actually a lot of gifs that work for this, it was fun finding them.

Alexis running…
David doing squats…
Patrick and Stevie dancing…
And some hiking!

So if you’re interested in checking it out, join us over on Facebook!

And if you just want to peruse the catalog and skip all the fun gifs (and Facebook), you can go straight to the source and just shop from the Zyia website.

P.S. I have a pair of the leggings and they really are very soft and high waisted (which I like) and comfy.

Yet another butternut squash recipe

I don’t post a lot of recipes, but you can bet if I do, it’s going to involve butternut squash. (See here, here, and here.)

A few years ago, I went to Meril for lunch with some work people, and I had this amazing salad. I think they called it a salad. I don’t know if I would call it a salad. But I’m not going to get into some weird argument about what makes a salad. Let’s just call it a bowl, okay?

Anyway, it was so delicious that I recreated it at home the very next day, posted about it on Instagram, and them promptly forgot about it.

A couple of days ago I suddenly remembered it, and I decided yesterday it was the perfect comfort food for a distressing, anxiety-filled day. And I wasn’t wrong.

Roasted Veggie and Other Stuff Salad or Bowl

There. That’s a descriptive name. Also catchy.

Ingredients:

  • Butternut squash (like, say, a medium one. The one I got was GINORMOUS and I only used about 2/3 of it.)
  • Brussels sprouts (like, a pound, maybe? Or more? I wish I’d had more.)
  • Olive oil, salt, pepper for roasting
  • Chopped walnuts (maybe half a cup?)
  • Blue cheese (just get a small chunk. a little goes a long way.)
  • Green grapes (probably a cup or so would do. get those really nice firm seedless ones.)
  • Steen’s Cane Vinaigrette (recipe here)

I recognize that if you don’t live in Louisiana, perhaps Steen’s Cane Vinegar isn’t as easy to procure as it was for me. I’ll bet if you used balsamic vinegar instead you’d be fine. The recipe makes two cups. I used about half in the salad, so you can make this delicious meal again next week!

Directions:

  1. Look, I’m not going to tell you how to roast butternut squash and brussels sprouts. Cut the squash into 1″ cubes (or better yet, buy them already cut) and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast at 400 for 45 minutes or so. Do the same with the sprouts, but cut them in half after you cut off the bit at the bottom, but I don’t know, maybe that’s optional, but I always cut it off. The sprouts definitely cook faster, I think they came out after 30 minutes? I dunno. Make sure they’re cooked through but not burned. I shouldn’t have to tell you this. (I put them on two cookie sheets but cooked them together.)
  2. Make the dressing while the roasting is happening.
  3. Toast the walnuts in a hot pan (just a few minutes, you don’t want to burn them!)
  4. Put the warm veggies in a big bowl, and top them with the dressing. Cover the bowl and let it all sit together for a while to soak up everything and cool off a bit.
  5. Throw in the walnuts whenever.
  6. Wait til everything is closer to room temp before you crumble the blue cheese over it. You don’t want it melting.
  7. Quarter the grapes and toss ’em in.

The end! I mean, it’s easy, but not quick, really. But soooo worth it. This would be a fabulous side for Thanksgiving.

Here’s the bowl I had for dinner last night. Tastes better than it looks, I promise!

Good stuff.

Good things

My sourdough starter is thriving. I decided it was time to name it. Introducing…

Moira Doughs

Well, you just have to wait for me to bake something. I made popovers last night.

Sleep meditations

I have a hard time falling asleep. Or I did, until I started doing sleep meditations at bedtime. It’s magic, I swear! Instead of my mind racing, I actually fall asleep, usually before the 5 or 10 minute meditation is over. I use the meditations from the Peloton app as well as the Ten Percent app (which my company pays for, which is extremely generous of them.)

Talented friends

My friend Zandy is doing this Inktober thing where she has a prompt every day to draw something. Last week, she drew Ziggy! (The inspiration pic is here.)

https://zingring.tumblr.com/post/631557494632792064/inktober-day-9-the-prompt-is-throw-please

Making everyone I know watch Schitt’s Creek

I’ve forced strongly recommended that my coworkers watch it, and at least one was very skeptical and by the end he was, and I quote, “chopping onions.” I am here to spread the joy! Look, I get it. It took me like six months to watch the first season. But then I powered through season 2, and by season 3 I was all in. And now I have these.

If you haven’t watched it yet, and you like to laugh, and you like to have some joy in your life, just do yourself a favor and watch it already. You won’t regret it. It’s exactly what you need in these trying times. All six seasons are on Netflix, you really have no excuse.

Well this won’t do

Over two weeks since my last post. So this will be a random collection of thoughts and whatnot.

I still can’t watch anything but Schitt’s Creek. Well, okay, I watched the Emmys last night, but only the first hour, after SC won everything. That was delightful.

We evacuated to my mom’s for a non-hurricane. I think packing up all our stuff for a few days was enough to throw Sally off course. But on the bright side, we got some Grandee and Larry time! (Or Grandee and Larry got some us time!)

I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of a new dishwasher. Did we need a new dishwasher? I mean, our current one works, but it sucks. I am very excited about a third rack. It is definitely not Samsung.

Ziggy is still really cute.

I splurged on the fabric I really wanted for my coat, so I guess I’m making another one! Well, not the same pattern. And I think I’m really going to make a cape.

This made me giggle,

and then this did too.

Work is good. We’re hiring Happiness Engineers again, which means lots of work for me, but that’s not a bad thing, especially since I have more people to help me now. I am very grateful for my team at work and everyone I work with. But a few more hours in the day wouldn’t hurt.

I have been stress shopping a bit. Got a Vabroom, which is fun but naturally not as useful as one might hope.

I have also been dreaming about remodeling downstairs, but that’s just because a friend of mine is getting a new kitchen. Well. A girl can dream, right?

This might have been the most boring post I have ever written. Officially. My bad.