My New Favorite Outfit

I am excited:

Why am I excited? Because I made this entire outfit myself.

Remember back in the day when I said I have this dream of hand-making my entire wardrobe? Well, I just got one new favorite outfit closer.

Seriously, I love this outfit, like the time between washings is too long and I find myself sneaking the shirt out of the laundry basket in the morning before shamefully slipping it back in, because it does, in fact need to be washed.

I made the shorts right when ye olde camera died a few weeks back, and the shirt shortly following that. 

These are my first pants/shorts I've ever made ever (as in I skipped that whole making a drawstring pajama pants step). The pattern is Ruby from burdastyle. 

The great thing about the pattern is that is was free, the bad thing was that I had to print out and tape the pattern together.

Also, not always the clearest instructions. I couldn't figure out one part in particular, so my front welt pocket, well, sucks. I kinda knew if would going in and briefly considered leaving it off, but I decided I wanted to challenge myself. 

I know they're wrinkly, I took the picture after wearing them. Same with the shirt below.

The shorts are pretty basic - a lightweight blue woven material I got one sale, which I really like, but does stretch out after a few wears and needs to go through the dryer to regain its shape. I made the pocket out of some yellow gingham for a bit of fun and as not great-looking as the pocket is, it is a great place to hold my lens cap. My favorite bit though, is the buttons.

I think buttons are such a great way to add flair to something, and I think that without the button on these shorts (not to mention the teal ones on the shorts) I wouldn't like either of these pieces quite as much.

Shirt is pretty basic. The body of the shirt was from the pattern included in Sew U, the sleeves were made following the cap sleeve tutorial (just not gathered) on Wikstenmade. I was a pretty quick sew, though I am still having some trouble with the collar stand/band. If anybody has some hints for that, I'd love to hear em.

So the collars a bit funky, and some of the inside seams didn't finish as nicely as I'd like, but I still really like this shirt and plan to make a number more of them, as soon as I finish some of the other projects I have cut out, and then I'll have a new even favoriter outfit. ;)

p.s. -later this week, an apron tutorial!

Can't Say It Wasn't Memorable

Okay, so this weekend was so chock-full of wonderfullness, that I'm going to have to break it down into several posts over the next couple of days. We'll do it chronologically, starting with Thursday.

July 3 :

Mr. Cleaver's birthday.

The day dawned and I did NOT want to get out of bed, I was so groggy that I was the worst wife ever and forgot to say Happy Birthday to Mr.Cleaver - who after about 10 minutes decided to jog my memory. Oops!That said, as embarrassed as I was, this ended up low on the totem pole of things to go wrong that day.

As I headed off to work, Mr. Cleaver was hunkering down to watch Wimbleton on the laptop, only to discover that our internet wasn't worked, only to call our service provider and discover that the phone wasn't working wither (same company). Mr. Cleaver is probably the first to admit that he's not the world's most techno-savvy guy, and was quickly frustrated, especially when it looked like neither phone nor DSL would be repaired for a few days.

Fortunately, I was able to come home a little early from work, due to a co-worker's going-away party. So I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some ingredients for the birthday cake and the manliest looking flowers I could find for my guy.

Well, the flowers perked him up and so did my present. We also decided to go to our favorite fancy restaurant to dinner, so things were looking up. I started working on the cake, and frosting so it could cool while we were out to eat.

The cake fell a little in the center, but otherwise, seemed to be fine. We walked up the street to the restaurant only to find it boarded up and smelling of smoke. Yes, our favorite restaurant had burned down. At this point, really, we just had to laugh. And eat Chinese, which was nearby and also very good.

When we got home the internet seemed to be momentarily working and we discovered that the restaurant had caught fire in May and didn't look to be re-opening anytime soon.

I set to assembling the cake and it seemed - well -dry. I did a quick check of the reviews on epicurious and discovered I had forgotten to include 1 cup of water.

[wp_caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="How Many Candles?"][/wp_caption]

Well, this was just perfect. Again, we could do nothing but laugh, and despite the dryness, enjoy the cake. I can't say anything about the cake itself, having not made it right, but Mr.Cleaver and I both think the frosting is to die for, so it came out all right. (It also didn't stop us from finishing off the whole thing by the end of the weekend - fresh raspberries help cover a multitude of sins).

In the eveing we headed down to the lakefront to try and see if we could catch any of the City of Chicago fireworks (they always do them on the 3rd, more on that in the next post).

Not exactly what I would have wished for my husband's birthday, but you can't say it wasn't memorable.

My New Go-To Chocolate Frosting from Nana Edie's Devil's Food Cake

• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring sugar and cream to a boil in a heavy saucepan, stirring constantly, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add chocolate, butter, and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Chill frosting, stirring frequently, until thickened and spreadable.

I can't post pictures of my own...

So my new camera has arrived, but unfortunately, the memory card was shipped separately, so it is for now unusable and I am at the mercy of the United States Postal Service - hopefully it'll get here by the end of the week and then my blog can have new photos again!

Speaking of photos, I would encourage those of my readers with an interest in photography to sign up for the "Scent of Water" photo-swap. I have participated in the first two rounds and have received lovely photos like this one:

from SleepyNeko for the "Simplicity" swap.

and this one:

from ferry girl for the  "Reflections" swap.

This round's theme is "In Motion," suggested by yours truly! (So I'll have to come up with something good).

To see some more of the talent in these swaps, check out our flickr group, where you can also find instructions for joining the swap - and don't procrastinate - sign-ups close on July 7th!

If you have any questions about the swap or have decided to sign-up, let me know!

Camera Down!

So I finished both of those projects I teased in my last post and then in the midst of photographing them, the image sensor in my camera died. So it's shipping off to Canon tonight for a possibly free repair and I'll get it back in 7-10 business days after arrival at the Canon repair place. Until then I'm pretty much working camera-less, except for the one on my laptop.

However, the US Goverment did decided to send me a little check, with which I may be purchasing a digital SLR...

Quick Catch Up

I try to be a good blogger and post at least once a week, twice on a good week - but last week that just didn't happen. 

So here's a quick catch up on what I've been up to since last we met:

• I've watched two more documentaries on Everest (for a total of three) and am starting my fifth book on the subject.
• I went to a REM concert at the United Center.

(photo via marcusglimer)

• I went to the Printer's Row Book Fair and saw a recent library science grad win the Define-A-Thon

(photo via pantagrapher)

• I went to the sale at Vogue Fabrics and am stashed up for at least five projects. 
• I went to my knitting circle and continued working on the pattern I'm devising. 



• My  knitting circle decided (jokingly?) that it would be a great idea to make a calendar of knitted bikini's that we each designed. I started a Ravelry group for it - and started sketching some designs, because I think it's fun - even if no one else intends to do it.
• I cut out one sewing project...



• and started putting it together. 



• I worked a rental with nearly 800 patrons on three floors with three front of house staff (not fun).
• I watched Chicago do really well at the Tonys
• I helped strike a set.
• I spent 7 hours in meetings.

And that's about it - I mean, I ate and slept and went to work in the midst of all that, which was a crazy, yet really fun week and half. So I hope you'll forgive me for not posting!

Prize Coffee Cake

One of my goals in life is to win a blue ribbon at a county fair. Dead serious.

I have no experience with State Fairs aside from the Rogers and Hamerstein movie, so they don't particularly interest me. But as a kid I lived in the county seat - so I had to go to the fair a lot. I'm sure this isn't actually the case, but it seemed as though we had three or so major fairs at the Napa Valley Expo center a year and I was at pretty much every one.

First there were the educational fairs. There was the one my modeling clay mission was displayed at amoungst the hundreds of other missions of the pasta, cardboard, and/or lego varieties. There was the fair that they had the city-wide science fair at: my experiment on the water purifying abilities of the sun didn't even place. There was the year I volunteered to do an anti-drug puppet show at, only to find upon arrival that the "booth" contained no puppet stage and I spent several hours sitting under a table teaching kids to "Just Say No," while the woman at the next table urged people to vote no on proposition 9.

And then there was the Town and Country fair where the 4-H kids strutted their hogs and the quilts and jams were on proud display. There were games: a friend once won a guppie and then passed it off on a happy little girl and her less than happy parents; there was food: corn dogs and funnel galore! There were the rides that only one year I was allowed to ride, which included a fun house/maze that I raced though only to be incredibly disappointed when I came out the other side that I hadn't spent more time.

But missions and guppies aside, the real reason I went to fair after fair was to dance.

Not at the Fair, but you get the idea. (That's me in the far right, front row)

From approximately 1988 to 2001 I was made to put on my tutu and blue eye shadow and dance with my classes in tap, jazz or ballet. The stage was unforgiving concrete and it was always devilishly hot. One year my teacher told us not to bother with wearing foundation, it'd just melt it off. I love dancing, but I hated dancing at the fair, it was uncomfortable and there was a good chance someone I did not want seeing me in a leotard would stroll by during my performance (and several have).

Spandex and sequin trauma aside, I always like the craft, food, and animal displays and I still hope to win a ribbon of my own some day.

This particular recipe won a ribbon for my family once upon a time (though the recipe card always said "prize" so I have no idea which prize it won - but if anyone in the family wants to clarify that'd be great) and so after that long introduction, I give you:

Prize Coffee Cake:

• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter or shortening
• 1 egg
• 1½ flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup milk

Topping:

• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbl melted butter
• 2 Tbl flour
• 2 TBl cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour a 9"x9" pan. 

Mix together sugar, butter, and egg to make butter cream. It may look good, but do not sample - it tastes terrible as a college roommate of mine discovered. Add milk and mix.

In a separate bowl, blend flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry mix to butter cream. Pour into pan.

Mix together topping ingredients. If necessary add a little more melted butter until it clumps, but we wary- too much butter will cause the topping to turn molten and sink into the batter instead of staying nice and crispy on top.  Sprinkle topping on top of the batter.

Bake 25-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Recipe doubles well, just add 5-10 minutes cooking time for a 9"x18" pan. 

Surprise sleepy folks with coffee cake, eat all the crumbs.

Sweater #3 - Learning Patience

So I have a backlog of stuff to blog about, and now that MacB has closed, it seems more likely that it will appear on theses pages soon.

I finished this sweater about two weeks ago - the pattern is Dahlia from Knitty. The pattern was designed by a freshman in high school. This puts me to shame, so I decided to design my next sweater myself to show those uppity high schoolers. 

I partly chose this sweater because I though on size 8 needles, it would be a quick knit. Famous last words.

While I did finish the sweater in under 6 weeks, I had to restart this thing 5 times.

Why, you may ask - well first the raglan was an ill-explained Right Lifted Increase/Left Lifted increase. Which when I finally figured out with the help of my knitting circle (hint: when doing the left lifting increase - don't grab the stitch you just made) makes a very very pretty raglan increase line - so it was worth the trouble - but this was an exercise in patience. 

I also ignored the cries of "the thing's too big!" on Ravelry and cast on in my designated size, which by the time I hit the chest portion I realized was huge even though my gauge matched perfectly, so it got unwound for the 5th and final time.I also decided to move up the neckline an inch or so - because it was a tad low for me. After that point, though, the thing was a breeze and I enjoyed teaching myself to do the cables without a needle.

I totally have no patience when it comes to wearing stuff I make, so these photos are all of the unblocked (gasp!) sweater. And perhaps in punishment for my impatience - the blocked version looks about 20% better than it does in the above pictures. Another lesson learned. 

I'd like to say it's too warm to wear it now, it being after Memorial Day and all, but alas it is currently 49°F in Chicago. Le sigh...

S'more Pie: Take One

So I'm going to bad here, and post something I baked today sans recipe. I'm doing this because the recipe isn't ready yet, but when it is, it'll be here.

I came up with the idea for the S'more pie sometime shortly after watching Waitress, a little film that is well worth renting, especially if you like pie. As often happens, life intervened and I never got around to making this pie until today.

The basic idea is this: graham cracker crust, flourless chocolate cake filling, topped with perfectly browned mini-marshmellow. A s'more in a pie!

This was a good start. There are some issues that need addressing, the crust isn't quite right and got a little too crispy, the filling wasn't chocolately enough for me and the marshmellow is a little overwhelming, but like I said, a good start.

I also tasted it just out of the oven to capture the meltiness of marshmellow, but I'm interested to see if the flavors meld more when cooled. It'll probably be a while before I get another shot at this one, but I'll let you all know when I do.

On a completely unrelated note:

I chopped off all my hair in preparation for summer weather.

(Sorry Mom).

The Slippery Stash Slope

For the first 2½ years of my knitting life, I managed to avoid accumulating a stash, even prided myself on it.

I only had yarn for my current project and you'd be hard-pressed to get me to select a yarn without a specific project mind (though it did occasionally happen - leading, for instance to the Honeymoon Mini-Cardi, but in full disclosure I probably made my brand-new husband nuts in my indecision to purchase that yarn while on our honeymoon). I even was obsessive about using up the leftovers of the yarn I had.

And then it happened.

I went into my local yarn shop to pick up some sock yarn and "lo-and-behold!" all the yarn in the bins on the floor was only a dollar. Even I couldn't resist that bargain and so I grabbed these five balls of silk.

What am I going to make with it? Who knows! Though Ravelry has provided some intriguing options, namely this and this.

Not too long after I purchased the silk, I went back to the same store to buy some stitch markers for a sweater I'm knitting up and came out with these:

Granted, this is for a specific project, but one I likely won't start for some time.

And then that same old yarn shop, in honor of Mother's Day and Government Rebate checks decided to have a 25% off of everything sale. So I got this sock yarn that I was ogling when I bought the last sock yarn.

Now, I'm sure some hard-cord yarn collectors will scoff at my measly 9 skeins, but it's a slippery slope I say! A very slippery slope.

At least I'm using some of my yarn...

But I'm fairly certain I'm going to have a ball leftover.

I think I'll make it into a hippo. 

Busy Bee!

A few weeks ago somebody asked me if I really liked yellow. 

At the time I was a little confused, "Why do you ask?" I said.

"Every time I see you you're wearing yellow," she said.

At the time I passed it off as a good combo for the green I often consciously wear, but as I though about itI saw she was right  - yellow is creeping more and more into my wardrobe. Nor is it the first time. The first pair of shoes I ever really got excited about was a pair of bright yellow Adidas with blue stripes I had in high school  (the school colors at that!). 

Another case in point this apron:

This apron's life started shortly after Christmas when a co-working, hearing I had made an apron for a Christmas gift, asked me to make her one before the summer was out. Being as this co-worker is the #1 best thing about my current job and I was given a long lead time, I happily agreed. Fast-forward several months later and I'm in my favorite fabric store where I discover this fabulous section I'd never looked in before: Ribbon. Spools upon spools of fantastic ribbon!

First, I spotted some lovely cherry ribbon, which I snagged a few yards of, then I saw this bee ribbon and it was all over for me. I practically had to run out of the store to prevent coming home with a car load of ribbon, it was all so wonderful. Of course I knew bees and cherries would make perfect adornments for that apron I had agreed to make and so I picked out the blue and yellow gingham you see above to complete the project. 

I will admit that when I started making this apron I fully intended to give it away, but being as this was my first designed-from-scratch piece, I made allotments for the seams, but not the hemming/edging, so my apron ended up being a little smaller than planned, so this one works as a lesson learned (and a little something pretty for my apron collection.)

The good news is that this apron only took me a weekend to complete (including finishing every seam so there are no raw edges - as inspired by Bitter Betty), so I should be able to make a new one fairly soon, though it'll likely be a variation on this one, just to keep things interesting. :)