It's (almost) the Freakin' Weekend and Baby I'm About to Have Me Some Fun

Looking forward to a sunny, 70-degree weekend with horses, family (especially Emma on her First Communion), old friends and I'm sure what will become new friends!

I need to pop into F21 or Targ or somewhere to find a hat for the races on Saturday, but here's what I'll be wearing, likely with my Jack Rogers, a spring jacket and rocking an arm party.

Although I sort of wish I were wearing something like this...

Just decided this will be the next dress I'll make -- maybe in navy or grey though.

One final, happy thing to leave you with before the weekend: THESE.

Ugh...why, oh why are they so pricey.

For now, I'll just drool and dream.

The First Cut of Fabric is the Hardest

After years of a lot of talk, I finally decided to do something about my interest in clothes -- I actually started sewing.

I've been volunteering at a sewing studio in DC since October of last year and every time I go, I am just thrilled to be around people interested in being creative and productive.  It is really remarkable to think that you start with a piece of fabric, and create something -- anything really.  I love the feeling it gives you and I am determined to make (at least some) clothing.

So after literally three hours at the fabric store with Mami and Alina, we walked out with a pattern, all the related fabric and notions.  I was so anxious to get started!

Here's the pattern we decided to go with.

It is a fairly straight forward dress, but it has pockets and is lined, and given that the skirt is pencil, it needs to be more precise than a full skirt -- something I am actually looking forward to working on rather than it looking right, but being sewn incorrectly, as can happen when you add volume.

So I took the fabric home, washed it and was ready to go for the Working with Patterns class at Bits of Thread, which gave me the confidence to get started.

There were a few hiccups, aka the pattern listed too small an amount of fabric, I had to go buy more fabric which I then forgot to wash (and more importantly pre-shrink) but was too hasty to stop working so am just never going to be able to dry the damn dress...but at this stage, all the fabric is cut and I am ready to start sewing!

 Start here.  And remember to just keep breathing...

Lay all the pieces out according to the directions.  Of course this isn't as "simple" as it sounds.  You have to ensure you are cutting on the correct size line, that you marked/noted where all the dart or other indicators are, that the grain line is straight--which is important because it affects the way your fabric (and therefore garment) can stretch, that things are pinned (or not) to your satisfaction.  It's not difficult by any means, but it is important to remember all these small items (and to know how to read them -- thank you Working with Patterns class!)

Like I said, the first cut is the hardest (at least it was for me), so I was too busy just trying to stay calm to remember to take a photo.  But here are both top pieces and one of the skirt pieces pinned to the folded fabric.  (Of note, I was also so hasty to get started that I actually laid out of the fabric wrong sides together, which is not what the pattern calls for.  Not good.  But I asked the instructor to check, and all was fine so long as I marked on the wrong side of the fabric with the chalk.  Whoops.

Here are all the external pieces cut out.

Here's a close up which shows you all the little markings/details to watch out for.  There are various ways in which to mark them, but I wanted to use tailor tacks, as it is the most traditional way.

So you find some thread that is colorful/different than your fabric so you can see it...

Then you sew through the markings you need to remember, leaving four loops.

Once they are all done, you take scissors and cut the tops of the loops.

Here is what is looks like with all of the loops cut.  Note: I used a good amount of thread for each loop on the tailor tack so that the next step would be easier.

Then you carefully/slowly start to pull apart the fabric, just enough so that you can stick some scissors in there and cut the thread in between the folded fabric.  That way, thread remains on both sides once it is unfolded.

After the outer pieces were ready to go, I cut all the lining and contrast pieces so that once I started sewing, I wouldn't have to stop to cut fabric again.

And that's where I am at this stage!

Given that the dress is red, white and blue, I decided to try and finish this dress by the Fourth of July so I can wear it then.  Always good to have a deadline!  In the meantime, I'll be working on fixing or reconstructing existing clothing items, but this is will be the first piece of clothing I'll have ever made from scratch!  Exciting!!

Game Changer: Eggs Cooked in a Muffin Tin

I recently saw something on Pinterest about cooking eggs in a muffin tin to have eggs benedict ready for a large group all at the same time.  ?!?!?

Given that eggs are my favorite food on the planet, I had to give it a go.  And a quiet weekend at Camp with my folks a few weeks ago seemed like the perfect chance.

We decided to try two different types.  For the scrambled egg version, we chopped up some leftover red onion.  I had used most of the veggies the night before for salads, so this was pretty much all that was left, otherwise we would have added other veggies to that mix.  I thought we might add the leftover steak Johnny had made, but alas, we snacked on that cold while the food was being prepared.

Scrambled up some eggs, added the onion, and then dropped some plain, whole eggs into the individual cups of the tin.  Salt and pepper and put them in a 350 degree oven for ~10 minutes.  They looked far too runny then so I left them in for a few minutes longer.

We only had a silicon muffin tin, which I do NOT recommend using, mostly because you can't move it or the eggs will spill out.  We put a metal baking sheet underneath of stability.

I think the baking sheet changed the amount of time needed to cook them, so in the end, they were overdone -- a bummer, because who doesn't want a little runny yoke on their breakfast sandwich?  Plus, I didn't really take into account that the eggs would probably keep cooking for another minute once out of the oven.  Just a few minutes less and they would have been perfect.

Meanwhile, we cooked the sausage, made another batch of coffee, and....wah lah!

Aside from being a bit overdone, they were tasty!  I can see us making them often in the summer, especially when all the little kids are down.  Everyone can have their own, special made egg, and then they can all eat at the same time too!

See....game changer!

drum roll please...

i'm back!  and am feeling better than ever.

here's a quick photo recap of some of the things i've done over the last two months:

megan and i visited katie and her family in bristol.

yeah, that half marathon i'd been training for?  DONE!

this is the before picture -- hence why i am all smiles.

katie's father was diagnosed with ALS last year.  he ran many a marathon back when his legs were good, so when he gave us some Team Timp swag, i promised him i would wear the shirt during my run.

marc ran too.  and megs was a trooper to come out so early to meet us at the start. will (aka whiskey mike) met me at mile 7 and then megan came again to mile 10 and the finish line!  it was so incredible to have support along the way.

this one's at the end -- obvious from the medal around my neck.  also probably obvious because i look like i could fall asleep right then and there.  exhausted!

went straight from the race to geeg's wedding!  she looked beautiful!

tory and josiah came to dc for easter weekend, and we had a blast dancing the night away.

then some productive weekends in between (those pictures will come soon), but yesterday i just got back from visit matt in London!!  it was an absolute blast (again more pictures and stories to come), but a big highlight was being able to see my cousin jack and his lovely lady, anna.

 looking forward to getting back to blogging!

xo

Lucky Leo

Who wouldn't like their Valentine's Day horoscope to begin with the following words:

"Your charm is bubbling out of you like vintage champagne today..."

Cheers to love, friendship and happiness!

85

A bit late, but the happiest birthday to literally the greatest woman I know, perhaps the greatest on the planet.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my grandparents.  It was their honeymoon sendoff, and it looks like a Norman Rockwell painting.  I adore it.

Everyone loves their grandmother, but it speaks volumes when others love her just as much as her family does.

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

Washington DC International Food and Wine Festival 2013

Would you turn down a free tickets to the local wine festival?  Yeah, me neither.

After becoming buddies with Ryan, Megan and Marc's wedding planner, over their wedding weekend, he took down my email and said he'd send me info on events he helps put on.  Well, lo and behold, an email came in from him last week about a Food and Wine festival at the Ronald Reagan Building here in DC, and that there email contained a 100% off coupon code for special guests like me.  Amazing.

So after work, I biked on down Pennsylvania Avenue to meet a few girlfriends for the Second Annual. Sommelier Showdown event.

Honestly, I have no idea how these Sommeliers did it.  They were given nine glasses of red wines and piece of paper that listed different types (whether or not there were nine listed or more than nine was a question that I don't think was ever answered).  While being timed, they tasted each wine and had to match it to it's type on the page.  First one to get all nine correct won.

Now I am not even close to a wine snob, but I had heard previously that Leah Cheston from Ris was very good.  And to whoever told me that before: thank you for the wonderful conversation starter during their tasting. She's the brunette, second from the end on the left.  Well, she took home the win!  I heard a few of them later say that there were four wines made from the same grapes all from Northern California, and so that made it pretty difficult.  Um...yeah.  I'm telling you, no clue how she ever got them all paired up.


The spread at this event was amazing.  Oysters on the half shell, clams on the half shell.  Three types of macaroni and cheese (with mushrooms, with lobster and something else.  I stopped looking when I saw with lobster).  Three types of risotto (with winter vegetables, with duck and red wine, with truffles).  Tons of cheeses and baguettes.

And then there was all that great wine.

I didn't take photos of too many of the wines really, but I got a couple.

Here's Maggie trying one of my favorite wines of the night.  Bottle pictured below.

Maggie and Megan noshing on some of that aforementioned Mac N' Cheese.

And here's the whole team.

Lots of comments on my outfit last night, to which of course I told everyone that I felt like Blair Waldorf.  Really needed to do more with my hair, but alas, no time.

Also just found out Blair and Dan get together in Season 6 ("Dair")?!?!  What?!?!  On a related note, I really need to get to the end of this show so I can stop talking about it.  Really not a cool topic for a 28 year old lady to be discussing at a classy DC wine event.  Seriously.