Merry Merry

I hope everyone had a very merry end of the week. While our Christmas plans encountered a few snafus, we still had a really lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My mom had been planning to come down and spend most of the week with us, but her back decided to go out on her the Saturday before Christmas. Oy. Multiple trips to the chiropractor didn't seem to help much and the decision was finally made to put her on muscle relaxers to help the back spasms. This basically meant she was at home for the rest of the week as even without the pills that made her sleepy, driving wasn't really an option. :( My brother and I decided to skip our plans to get together for Christmas Eve since my mom wouldn't be there to join us and his work schedule made it easier to just meet up on Christmas for dinner.

This left Jim and I at home, with a very mellow Christmas Eve day and night - something that both of us really enjoyed. We drove around to look at lights as soon as it got dark and then headed home to make our normal Friday night dinner of steak and potatoes. Add a bottle of red wine and we were ready to tuck in for a quiet night at home.

After dinner we opened our gifts to each other - something that we always do just the two of us. I got some awesome kitchen goodies inspired by Thomas Keller, some CDs (Glee Vol. 2 baby!!) and a beautiful necklace that was a total surprise. He did good! Jim got some new sports binoculars, assorted tee shirts (his favorite being the Three Sheets Drunken Monkey shirt) and new golf stuff. Needless to say, we both felt very spoiled. The next morning had us up early to head out to my in-laws house for breakfast and to celebrate Christmas with them. This is a tradition we've had going for several years now and I love it. It's loud and chaotic, but it feels like something out of a movie. The food was awesome, as always, and the company was even better. After breakfast, it was time to open (more) presents. I got some cute clothes (including a really adorable retro print lady coat), a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble and some more fun kitchen stuff. Jim made out with more golf stuff and some assorted clothing. Hilarity ensued with he opened two sweaters back to back and they were practically identical. His mom had completely forgotten what she had bought earlier in the month and accidently bought a twin to the original sweater. Too funny. A flurry of other gifts were exchanged and everyone was very happy by the time the tree was bare. It was then a mad dash to shower and get ready to head down to Orange County for Christmas Dinner with the big 'ol extended family - approximately 40 people this year, kinda on the small side actually. :)

Dinner was a loud and chaotic and full of food and booze. Basically, a great night. I was really happy that my brother was able to make it down to dinner - it was nice to spend Christmas with him and catch up a bit on what he's been up to recently. I also got to finally meet Patty, Jim's uncle's Glen of Imaal terrier. OMG! She is just too freaking cute! Such a sweet little pup. Instead of exchanging gifts with everyone, the family does a men's and a women's grab-bag. Folks put in a gift around $25 and then we use similar rules to a White Elephant exchange to determine how the gifts are passed out. The women's side is always very tame and gifts are typically clothing giftcards, scarfs, CDs, etc. The men's side, however, is just crazy! Almost every gift includes booze of some sort and each family trys to work together to hoard the good stuff. It's hard to explain, but absolutely hilarious to watch. This year Jim put in a Snuggie with a bottle of Maker's Mark in the bottom of the box. My brother ultimately got it and was very pleased with his win as you can see. :)
At the end of the evening, we took Jim's youngest brother back with us to my in-laws house and had a traffic-free ride back, filled with lots of chit chat. The next day found Jim and I at Disneyland. It was crowded, but we've definitely been there on far crazier days. We missed our annual holiday trip to the park last year, so it was nice to squeeze a trip in this year.

As you can probably tell, we really had a great Christmas this year aside from my mom not being able to join us for the festivities. I'm very lucky to be have married into such a warm family and that I've been able to meld my family with my husband's big old extended one. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well and that it was filled with food, family and love.

A good hair day everyday

I'm ashamed to admit that after I had my hair chopped into a short bob earlier this year, I just never got back to the salon to get it trimmed. So it kept growing and growing until it was past my shoulders. And there it's been, hanging limp and one length for several months. I finally got sufficiently annoyed with it and made an appointment with my regular stylist. She had been out on maternity leave and then working really short hours so I'd been seeing a sub, who I like, but it was nice to work with my regular gal again.

I'm not usually one to jump on the celebrity cut bandwagon. The cuts either wouldn't work with my hair or they're too trendy for me. However, after seeing Katie Holmes' new 'do on the October cover of Elle magazine, I sort of fell in love with it. And most importantly, I thought that it would actually work with my hair. My stylist hadn't seen the cover when it was first released, but after perusing it for a minute she declared that it would be a great cut for me. And added "Your hair is so boring right now, this will definitely pep it up!"

She chopped the hell out of it, but when it was done, I was in love. LOVE! The front has a ton of short and long layers right around my face. The back is stacked with a ton of layers cut into the rest of the hair. I have to use a thickening spray on it to give it a bit of body and for the hair to look styled, but that's a small price to pay for a cut I love this much. She also taught me how to use a flat iron to curl my hair. I have poker straight hair, so the idea of buying a flat iron is still hilarious to me, but it curls my hair better than any curling iron ever has.

I think my favorite thing about this cut is that it can be styled so many different ways - straight and spikey, turned under, flipped out and curled. I've never had this versatile of hairstyle - it's so fun!

I already have my trim appointment on my calendar. I forsee keeping this style for a long time!

I love free stuff!

Especially free stuff that I was considering actually spending money on, in the first place. :) At the end of October, one of my favorite sewing bloggers, Lindsey T, was hosting a giveaway for Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I've been hemming and hawing over this book since I started sewing, so it was a no-brainer to enter. She has a huge following and I knew that lots of people would enter, so I pretty much didn't think about it after throwing my name in the hat.

So I was SHOCKED when I was reading her blog the next month and saw that I won! I WON!! I totally did a happy dance at work and my CWs just shook their heads in amusement. A couple of weeks later, this little gal showed up on my door:

I've quickly flipped through it and I have my eye on the wrap skirt and overnight bag. Thank you so much Lindsey and I can't wait to make some fun projects after the new year! :)

Vogue 1151 - Hot Vegas dress!

When the Winter 2009 Vogue patterns were released a few months ago, I absolutely fell in love with 1151, a fitted knit dress from Cynthia Steffe. I loved the fabric, the style lines and that exposed zipper. Erica B recently made it up and her dress was beautiful, which made me want my own version even more. However, I've been preoccupied with baby gifts and such so it got pushed to the back burner.
Skip to the beginning of December. Jim and I decided last minute to go to Vegas this past weekend to help his brother celebrate his birthday. Jim has complained in the past that when we do Vegas in colder months that I "tend to dress like a nun." Hmph! My answer has always been that I'm way too old to run around in a skimpy dress when it's 40 degrees outside. But, it did make me think that maybe I should put a bit more effort into dressing more vegas glitz and less nunnery chic for this trip. And I immediately thought of that Cynthia Steffe dress. It would be a perfect!

This dress was done on a total time crunch and while I was recovering from a nasty URI and sinus infection. Thankfully, I had already purchased some beautiful aubergine rayon poly lycra doubleknit fabric from Fashion Fabrics Club (sold out now) earlier in the summer without any specific plans for it, just that I had fallen in love with the fabric after purchasing a RTW dress that was made in a similar fabric. Really, this stuff isn't your grandma's doubleknit. It's nice and stable, but is much softer than traditional doubleknit and looks a bit more luxe. The interfacing and thread were easy to pick up, although the zipper took longer than it should have to find locally.

I cut a smaller size on top than the bottom to accomodate my very pear shaped figure, but after I put together most of the dress, I realized it was all too big. Grrrr. Thankfully, I have been to enough tailors in my years that I had a good idea of how to fit the dress. I grabbed a box of pins and went to town on it. I pulled several inches off the top and about an inch off the skirt. By the time I was done with it, things were looking great! The collar and arm facings needed a few alterations, too, but I was really proud of myself for being able to identify the problems early and fix them without hassle.

As for the finished dress? I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this dress!!! LOVE IT! It looks chic and rich and is so very comfortable. I think this might be the most on-trend I've been for a night out in Vegas in years. The dress itself is hot, but paired with patterned black tights, booties and my new fancy hair style, I felt like a million bucks.
I think this is my favorite thing I've made so far. Not only because it turned out so well, but because it opened my eyes to the world of fitted dresses again. I haven't bought a RTW fitted dress in years because to get one that fits my hips, it requires too much expensive tailoring to fit my bust. Just not worth it. Instead, I've stuck to dresses that are fitted up top and full through the hips and thighs. A good style for me, sure, but one that gets old when you've been wearing it for years and years. I love having this whole world of fitted dresses opened up to me. I've been dreaming of tailored work sheaths and fitted cocktail dresses since I finished this little number. Oh, next year's sewing projects are going to be so much fun!

Lastly, I loved that I was able to have a designer dress for a fraction of the cost. This dress pattern is a pretty exact copy of the Cynthia Steffe Lia dress, which retails for $258.

My version - $35, including fabric, pattern and notions. Mmmm hmmmm. Pretty substanstial cost difference, eh? ;) Not to mention that the original would have never fit me off the rack. I just keep liking my version more and more.

A Year

November 20, 2008 was the date that we found out my father had passed away. I can't believe it's already been a year. I think that most of the anger is gone, but I'm not sure that I've really dealt with the situation. My M.O. this year was to just bury it all and move on with life. Healthy? Eh, probably not. But, it seemed to be the only way I could really function. After getting through the holidays in 2008, I pretty much made like a hermit crab and just took a lot of "me time" over January and February. My nights revolved around coming home, eating comfort food and losing myself in a book. I guess you could say it was therapy of sorts, except that I just remember feeling incredibly numb. I had a couple of epic breakdowns during that time, but after the tears were over, the rest of the emotions just got reburied. I still have moments when I'm driving or cooking or some other mundane task, when I suddenly remember he is gone and will find myself close to tears. I'm still so sad that things ended the way they did. That he died the way he did. That I had severed communication months beforehand. That I couldn't have the relationship with him that I wanted. That he couldn't change to be what my brother and I needed him to be. That things weren't better before they abruptly ended. Things we saw in his house after the fact still haunt me. I think this is why I've just buried the whole lot of it and have tried to move on. It's just too painful to sift through everything and really deal with it.

Surprisingly, the anniversary actually passed without any tears or even much conscious acknowledgment of the day. I think my brother had a different experience for the day, but we process things very differently, so that is to be expected. I wonder what this year will bring. If I'll feel ready to confront some of the sticky emotions or if I'll just be content to leave them buried for the time being. Time will tell.

Putting a smile on my face

My new Ferragamo flats (70% off at the company store in Carlsbad - woot!)

A huge apple-cinnamon muffin

A cup of tea in my new Selfish Seamstress mug (and yes, of course it's pink!)

Plans to start reading this book tonight

Calling my doctor for an appointment yesterday and being squeezed in this afternoon, before the weekend.

That it's FriYAY!

What's making you happy today?

Quickie Post

So many fun things have been going on that I'd like to chat about. I even have some pictures to share. Unfortunately, I'm a)sick sick sick again and b)am frantically trying to finish up a few Christmas gifts for the first holiday gtg of the year that is this Sunday. 3 items down, 9 to go. Can't say what they are here because almost all of the recipients read the blog. :)

Hope to get caught up on the bloggy blog this weekend. In the meantime, if you're looking for a killer chicken soup recipe, please use this one. Made it last night for dinner and it rocked my world. I'm not sure if it's because I was craving something hearty, yet light to make me feel better or because this soup just kicks ass. Either way, it was delicious and I can't wait to have the leftovers tonight.

On that note, Happy Hump day folks!