that's my girl

i finally finished the bean's felt brown bag lunch yesterday, but didn't have time to upload any pictures. oh, well. she's now got a whole sandwich, complete with lettuce and cheese, plus a bag of "chips." totally cute and super easy.

as she enjoyed a mini cupcake, i whipped out the flipcam:

and while i was at it, i decided to capture something else:

ah, she's gonna kill me for that one some day. or laugh her ass off. if she's anything like her sister, it'll be the latter.

sewing FAIL, the sequel

okay, so i'd cut out the material to make a little case for my flip videocam a few days ago, right? i'd followed the same tutorial i used to make 10yearstogether's laptop sleeve, figuring that it would basically be the same thing, just smaller. makes sense, right?

but the joke was (again) on me. because it was so small, it was a total pain in the ass to sew - the material kept getting sucked up and stuck in the built-in needle threader, and i struggled with a few of the steps as the sewing areas got smaller and smaller. topstitching was a total bitch, and even trying to turn it right side out (several times) proved to be more difficult than it should've been.

and the worst part? when i finally finished the fucking thing, pressing it out to get it all nice and pretty, it. was. too. small.

it fit inside all snug as a bug in a rug, but somehow i'd miscalculated the length. or something. the end of the flip stuck out and i couldn't close the flap properly. damn.

but i realized it was the perfect size to hold a point-and-shoot, so i pulled mine out and tested it out.

and wouldn't you know it - perfect fit. too bad i already have a neoprene case for it. wah waaaaah.

kind of sucked to be me at that moment. gah!

but i'm an eternal optimist. so, oh, well. on to the next project!

experimenting in the kitchen

during a costco run, i picked up a giant jar of sun-dried tomatoes to throw a little different twist in to a meal or two. well, it IS a giant jar, so it's probably more like "a meal, or twelve."

i scoured the internet for ideas on how to use these things - but with my usual criteria: meatless ideas for the teen, low-cal/low-fat/low-carb for the hub (who's knee-deep in an office "biggest loser" contest with a lot of cash at stake). i found several good recipes and decided to try giada's recipe for sun-dried tomato pesto. it was written with penne pasta in mind, but the teen's all-time favorite is angel hair, so that's what i went with. and for the hub, i just seasoned a chicken breast and tossed it in the oven to bake.

i scooped a crapload of those tomatoes out of the jar and poured some of the olive oil from it into my "food processor" *cough*babyfoodmaker*cough*. after adding some minced garlic, a little salt & pepper, and a handful of dried basil (because i was too lazy/cheap to go and buy the fresh stuff), i gave it a whirl and ended up with this lovely, fragrant pesto.

this is an awful picture, i know it, but it's all i got. by the time i was done cooking (and it actually didn't take very long at all, but i got a late start), i had to hustle to get it all on the table so that my family could actually eat at a fairly decent hour. i'd added some frozen broccoli florets to the pasta as it bubbled on the stovetop, drained it, and tossed it all together with the pesto.

i smeared some on top of the hub's chicken, served it with some steamed veggies, and dinner was served. and i was gratified when they both mumbled their approval - the teen said "OMG mom, this pasta is ah-MAY-zing. it's so good, i want to roll around in it and eat my way out." the hub really liked it as well, although he was slightly less dramatic in his enthusiasm. heh. the best part was how easy it was to put together. a keeper, for sure.

the bean woke up on sunday morning with a mad craving for waffles. and you know i'm always willing to bust out the hello kitty waffle maker. but with no teen home to help eat them and the hub avoiding carbs like the plague, i decided to try out a common housewife/mom/etc. trick. i whipped up a whole batch of waffles, gave the bean a plateful, ate a couple myself, and then let the rest cool completely.

i threw the remaining waffles in a ziploc and put the bag in the freezer. now, i'm not always thrilled with how stuff turns out after i give it a deep freeze, so that's why i was slightly hesitant about doing this to begin with. but i figured it was worth a shot, because it would be lovely to have a couple of these with a drizzle of syrup during the week.

the next morning, i pulled a couple of waffles out, put them in my toaster oven, and set it on low. these come out with a really good, chewy/fluffy texture when fresh, and i was really hopeful that freezing them wouldn't totally fuck 'em up. and when the bell went off, i pulled them out, topped them with some syrup, and took a bite.

and yay! they were perfect. i munched on them on my way to work and was quite a happy camper. poor hello kitty's going to get quite a workout in the weeks to come.

jewels and cookies and bacon, oh my!

okay, so i mentioned last week that i'd pulled the trigger and signed up to be a stella & dot stylist. i'm a stylist! i giggle and snort every time i think about it. but i like it, because it's all girly and cute and shit. what can i say, i'm a dork like that.

i signed up online and a couple of days later, my starter kit arrived in the mail. whee!

i spent the weekend browsing through the catalog and picking out my samples for my "trunk shows," and ended up buying an obscene amount of jewelry - all in the name of business. heh. i thought the hub was gonna flip his shit, but he's super supportive and is helping me brainstorm for creative ways to get it out there. i don't think there's much representation for the company in my area (at least, that's what i'm banking on), and it's going to be fun and fabulous. and i might have added a fun little button on the side ------------------------------->

so yesterday, i met up with politico, one of the ladies in my junior league. she'd read my posts on facebook when i was still waffling about signing up, and mentioned that if i did sign up, she wanted to host a trunk show. yay! and then i realized she was selling girl scout cookies - and i've been craving some of those damn things like mad. so we made a lunch date, during which i hoped we could pick a date for her party. she suggested the market grill, located inside the teeny-tiny monrovia market:

see? super cute.

they managed to squeeze a full kitchen and a small dining area in this space, and make it fun and homey at the same time.

while politico opted for a much healthier B.L.T. and a cup of soup, i went big and had a bacon burger with a side of minted potato salad.

and i might have seen on their facebook page that morning that they had freshly baked bacon chocolate chip cookies available. oh, yes. i've had a recipe bookmarked for those for ages, but i've never made them because i'm the only one in the house who'll eat 'em, and i sure don't need to eat an entire batch of cookies to myself. not even half a batch. so i scooped up a couple of bags:

and enjoyed my big, fat, juicy burger. it was really good, and i made a mental note to take the hub and the teen here one day. there's lots of yummy stuff on the menu that they'd both dig.

i waited until much later to take my first bite of that baconized cookie, and it was worth the wait. they're really good - a yummy chocolate chip cookie with a nice hit of salty goodness from the pieces of bacon mixed in. mmmm.

as for my craft of the day, i found a pattern for a super cute little dress in a knit fabric and decided i wanted to try making one for myself. but then i realized that i couldn't make a move until i'd washed the material first. dang. so i decided to make myself a little case for my flip videocam instead. i only got as far as cutting out the material, so i'm hoping to sew it all together this afternoon.

my life is super fun these days! i love it.

springing forward - sort of

my project for the weekend was a little something for myself. yay!

i'd bookmarked this tutorial for a spring ruffle top a few weeks ago. i read it through several times, not believing that a top that cute was possible without a pattern and could be completed with such simple steps. i even had all the materials i needed already - a cute little olive green & pink print that was one of my first fabric purchases. i actually have quite a nice little stash built up, and it's fun going through patterns and envisioning what i can create with it all.

this top was the perfect project for a rainy saturday. while the hub was off bonding with his buddies for the afternoon, the bean and i hung out at home quite happily. she played and watched some fun videos while i cut out the pieces and attempted to get as much done as i could. it's never a quick process for me to sew anything, because i'm stopping every five minutes or so to get her a snack, start up a new video, give her hugs. it's okay, though - obviously, i don't mind. especially the hugging part.

because of the continuous stop-start-stop, i didn't bother with a step-by-step pictorial of the process. besides, i don't think you want one - it'd be kind of boring, and if you really want to see how to make your own ruffle top, well, go to the source!

i did, however, snap this photo of one of the sleeve ruffles. instead of doing the two rows of stitching and then gathering it by hand, i followed a neat little shortcut i read on one of my favorite sewing blogs (it's the 3rd step in this tutorial for an adorable skirt that i plan to make for the bean soon).

i got through the majority of the sewing by dinnertime, with only the pockets and hemming to complete. because of that, i was able to live up to my vow to do something crafty every day in march - i finished it up last night, with the rest of the house fast asleep. i ironed all of the wrinkles out, snipped off all of the stray threads, and snuck into the bathroom to try it on and take a picture.

like most of my projects, it's not 100% perfect. although i'd tried on the chest band i'd cut out and started sewing (only to find out that it was a smidge too small and ended up having to remeasure and recut), it instead ended up a little too loose. gah! i'd even done the optional arm divots, and the inside of the top was perfect, with smooth seams and errrythang. i ended up biting the bullet and taking it in a little to make it fit better, and i'm sure i'll be glad i did.

as i examined my handwork in the mirror, i did a quick inventory of my wardrobe in my head, trying to think of what i could wear this top with. i have a pair of white shorts that would work pretty well, since the chest band and straps are solid white. and then i remembered something: my friend amber's fantastic denim straight skirt. it would look fantastic with this top, i think, and so i'm going to have to scoop up that pattern the next time i make a joann's run (along with a length of stretchy denim).

hmmm. i wonder what i'll tackle tomorrow. will finishing up the bean's felt food lunch count? maybe i'll add a little more to it, too. i picked up some embroidery needles and colorful thread, and i think i want to make her some doughnuts from this tutorial.

i'm thinking yes.