Super fun weekend

This stretch of October through December is easily my favorite time of year. Not only is the weather (usually) starting to cool down and the holiday treats are in full swing, but we have football and basketball games to attend, assorted parties and the typical holiday fetes as well. See, so much good stuff!

This weekend was jam-packed with stuff, which left little time for sewing or reading, but was really fun all the same. After a mellow Friday night at home, Saturday had both of us early - Jim was off to play 2 rounds of golf with Dubber while I stayed at home and caught up on some DVR shows, cleaned up the house, did a crapton of laundry and started yet another baby gift. [I know, I know, for someone who doesn't have any kids, I sure do make a bunch of baby stuff. Yes, well, this is what happens when you know close to 20 babies being born in one year. Mmmm hmmmm.] By the time he got home, it was about time to head out for Dubber's surprise birthday party his wife was hosting at their house.

Dubber's wife Girlie is entering her last month of pregnancy and is naturally busy with a bunch of other stuff, but still put together a lovely, low-key get together at their house. The menu of pizza and cake was, as she described it, "a 5 year old birthday party, just with alcohol." Perfect for a Saturday night. A total of 5 couples and one precious 10 month old were there. Once the little one was fed and passed out in the bedroom, the rest of us proceeded to eat, drink and play Taboo, which led to a brouhaha of laughter, screaming, yelling, and general craziness. Seriously, I can't remember when I laughed that hard and for that long. Such a great night!

We both opted to sleep in on Sunday, knowing that our night was going to be very long. After hanging around the house in the morning and early afternoon, we were off to the Rosebowl to see U2! We had received numerous emails to make sure to arrive early as there were close to 100,000 people expected for the event - the largest concert ever held at the Rosebowl. We are such goody toeshoes, so we arrived around 3:30pm (keep in mind, The Black Eyed Peas, who were opening, weren't scheduled to go on until 7:00pm) and had fun milling around the entertainment and food tents. We grabbed some grub and some drinks and enjoyed the scene until it was time to go in.

I knew that we had paid a pretty penny for our seats and was hoping they were decent, but seriously, I didn't realize they were this good! (Please pardon the crappy iphone pictures. I completely forgot my camera and was kicking myself all night!)
The concert was fabulous - The Black Eyed Peas kicked it off with a bang and did a good job of firing up a group of fans that didn't seem to be all that into their music and U2 was really great. Even though attending a concert that large is kinda nutty, there is something really special about being in a stadium with 100,000 other people who are all singing and cheering and swaying along with you. Really powerful stuff.
Once the concert was over, we just sat down and let the 93473947257 billion other people clear out a bit before making it back to our car. I was amazed to see that we still got home at 12:30am - you have no idea how happy I was to live locally that night!

One funny story - so as we're waiting to let everyone clear out, a bunch of young people are crossing through our row and while the seats and rows all around us are completely empty, they still decide to pass right by us so that we have to stand up to let them go. I mean, come one, just walk around us! I roll my eyes and make some comment to Jim and he turns to me and says "Wow, you can sure go from 0 to bitch in about 2 seconds, huh?" Now, if you know my husband, you know this is something so out of character for him to say. I started cracking up and said that while it's completely true, I never in a million years would have ever expected him to say something like that. It's been two days and we're still laughing over it.

This upcoming weekend is going to be pretty mellow - just a work dinner with Jim on Sunday night that is amazingly just up the street from us. And thank goodness because once November starts, it's going to be go go go. :)

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Completely off-topic from the weekend fun, but I've been back at the gym, pounding away for 3 weeks now and can I just tell you, it's effing hard as hell! Whatever stamina and muscle tone I had built up over the summer just up and disappeared while I was sick. I knew it was going to be hard going back, but holy crud - it's really tough! Thankfully, fun instructors and good music makes everything bearable and I can see flickers of my old fitness level coming back. But yeah, I'm pretty much dying 3-4 nights a week. Pertussis - the gift that keeps on giving. :)

Amy Butler Lounge Pants

I became a fan of Amy Butler well before I ever got my sewing machine. I love her printed fabric and I think her patterns are really cute and fun. I happened to browse through her book In Stitches one day and I liked the look of the lounge pants. I did a little more investigation on Pattern Review and I liked the look of the pants based on all the pictures I could find. They are described as a wide-leg lounge pant, which I thought would be great - I tend to gravitate towards wide-leg pants in general to balance out my pear-shaped figure. I selected a pink Amy Butler peony print with a complimentary polka dot fabric for the bottom trim.
The "pattern" that is included with the book is just the start of the pattern. You have to add the leg portion to the pattern pieces that are provided with freezer or parchment paper. When you're finished, the pattern pieces resemble very large rectangles with no curvature for the hips. This should have been my first clue that maybe this wasn't the ideal pattern for me. But no, I forged ahead, cut out the pants and started to sew them up using french seams - a technique that I had just learned in sewing class and that I LOVE! Jim was watching me do all of this and commented that "Those look like clown pants babe." I brushed off his comments and continued onward. I knew that I wanted to do something slightly different for the top of the pants. The directions have you just add a drawstring at the top, but I wanted them to have an elastic waist with a drawstring on the outside, enclosed in a casing from a separate piece of fabric - somthing that is done on a pair of RTW sleep boxers I own and I think is super cute. I figured out the dimensions for adding the drawstring casing at the top of the pants, cut it out, attached it and added the drawstring though it before adding the elastic at the waistband. All of that took some time to figure out and execute, but it turned out great! I then hemmed the pants and added the trim to the bottom. Again, it turned out so very cute!
I finally put on the finished pants and well...gulp... they're clown pants. :/ I love a wide-leg pant, but holy smokes, these are HUGE! For once, I don't think it's me making them too big, either, as they fit comfortably in the waist and hips, but the legs are ginormous. I have a feeling that these are cuter on someone who is much less curvy. So, I think I executed the pants well, but this pattern most definitely doesn't work on my body. So sad. :(
Since they were intended to be around the house pants anyways, it's not a huge loss, but I am a bit bummed that this awesome fabric is now a pair of pants that are just meh, instead of something I love. I have a wide-leg pj pant pattern from Simplicity that I found after making these pants that I intend to make up later this winter. The reviews I've read have been positive and one even mentioned that they are a much more normal wide-leg pant, instead of the "sultan" pants from Amy Butler. I'm hoping that they're right.

Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress

I really love the Oliver + S patterns. I think they have a small, but lovely line of kids patterns all of which have lovely details incorporated into them. I bought the Birthday Party Dress pattern the first month I started sewing after seeing it made up several times on the Oliver + S blog. While we have no kids, I have an abundance of friends with little girls and I knew it would make a great gift for one of them.
I've been a bit obsessed with orange this summer - I love pairing it with teal, pink, purple and especially navy blue. It can really take an outfit and kick it up a notch. After seeing this dress made up in a lovely navy blue silk with yellow accents on the company's blog, I thought I'd use that navy and orange combo I love so much for the dress. Instead of using a plain navy fabric, I found a fun navy and white polka dot quilting cotton that I thought was perfect for a little girl. This pattern is suggested for an intermediate sewist, which means I probably shouldn't have even considered it. But, I'm stubborn and really wanted to make the dress, even though it was obviously for someone more advanced than I. I'm pleased to say that while it was time consuming and I had to really follow the very well written directions, I completed the dress with no major snafus and it turned out so well! I was even surprised to see that the inside was just as nice as the outside. I love this little dress and I swear, if I had a daughter, she'd have a closet full of these by now! I love the tab front detail and the hem-facing, both of which I made in bright orange broadcloth. I used matching bright orange buttons down the back which helps tie all the orange accents together. The polka dot fabric was a bit heavier than was probably called for for the dress, so the pleats in front are in there really well. I think I'll use a lighter weight cotton for the next one so the pleats open up a bit more at the botton of the dress. All that being said, I think this is a great pattern and the dress made a great birthday gift for a very cute little 2 year old. I forsee making many more of these in the future!

Back to good

So, after 2 months of being sick sick sick, I finally returned to the land of the living this weekend. Hallelujah! I'd say I'm about 85%, which is good enough for me. I'm still coughing some, but it's much better than it's been in weeks. Also, my muscle strain? tear?, whatever it was on my left side has mostly resolved itself. I went back to the gym on Saturday and I cannot tell you how good it felt to move and break a sweat. It was also nice to have the owner and several regulars tell me how much I was missed - and really, the feeling was mutual. I've also cleaned the house, washed all the linens in the spare bedroom, aka the sick ward, so that my mom has a clean place to sleep when she comes to visit next month and I've started cooking again. Let's just say that my husband is very happy to have his wife back and goodness knows I'm thrilled to be feeling so normal!

On the flip side, I finally took a looksee at my calendar and oh boy - it's a busy next two and a half months. Eeek! UCLA and Lakers games, a concert, my mom coming to visit, dinner parties, book club meetings, all the holiday hoopla, etc, etc. All fun stuff, but pretty much my weekends, aka my primary sewing hours, between now and the end of the year are packed. I was all pumped to get my LBD all made and entered, but it looks like it's just not gonna happen this month. Blah. I figure I'll scope out the contests for 2010 and find one or two that look fun and plan ahead to make some good and enter it. My goal isn't necessarily to win (although wouldn't that be awesome!), but just to have fun and get a new garment at the end of it. As for that LBD, thank you everyone for chiming in with your thoughts! I still plan on making one sometime after the new year (still undecided on the actual pattern), it will just be for my own enjoyment and not for a contest.

Speaking of sewing stuff, I'm so ridiculously behind on blogging my sewing projects. Oops! I really need to catch up, hopefully this week or over the weekend. Finished stuff includes a baby blanket, several toddler skirts, a toddler dress, a work skirt for me and some lounge pants. Mostly successes with one misstep thrown in for good measure. Ha! Pictures and reviews coming soon.

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying getting back to my regularly scheduled life. I missed it so much and am so very happy to be back in my groove.

LBD contest

Pattern Review hosts monthly sewing contests for members and since I joined this summer, I've been hoping for a contest that would inspire me to enter. October is that month! They are having a Little Black Dress (LBD) contest that starts today and runs through the end of the month. The rules are simple: It should be what you feel is a LBD and it must be styled for day and for night.

For me, the LBD will always be epitomized by that gorgeous sheath dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's - sleek, simple, and somthing that will never go out of style. I've wanted to own a similar, short version of the dress for forever, but my small bust and large booty has made finding one that actually fits near impossible. I think this might be my chance to finally get it. :)

My idea is to make a suiting style sheath out of lightweight black stretch wool that can easily move from the office to an after-work cocktail party with a few makeup and accessory changes. The problem is to narrow down the pattern choices. Here are the front-runners:

McCall's 5799

McCall's 5845

Simplicity 2648

New Look 6643

I'm really torn over which one to tackle. So, what do you think readers? Which one should I choose?

New Look 6722: Surplice Jersey Dress

In between making lots of baby and birthday gifts, I've been trying to figure out what I'd like to make for me. I had planned on jumping right into stuff for fall and winter, but since it's still in the high 90s here and warm weather should stick around for another month or so, I though I'd tackle a knit dress that would be a transition piece from summer to fall. Something that I could pair with flat sandals for summer and tall boots and a sweater for fall. This New Look jersey dress pattern looked like it would be a good option.
I found a poly jersey at Michael Levine that was a nice mix of summer and fall, too - dark brown background with a magenta and purple print that was vaguely tribal. Perfect! I cut it out last weekend and worked on it a little each night for the next few days. Once the bodice was complete, I thought that it might actually be as cute as I was hoping, but once I attached the skirt, I realized that the fit was a bit off. I am still working out my sizing for patterns and I managed to cut this a size too large. Hmph. Instead of being quite snug around the bodice, it was a little loose, which made the skirt larger around my ribcage than I was expecting. Add to that the suggested length for the skirt and it all felt a bit dowdy, especially with sandals.
I really, really didn't want to have another dud on my hands, so I started playing with it, to see what I could do to make it cute. Long story short, I hemmed it to above my knees, paired it with my Whiskey colored riding boots, added some junky jewelry and all of the sudden, it became really cute!

I tend to like the look of loose mini dresses in stores that are paired with funky shoes or boots, but they're always too short or too tight. This dress, on the other hand, gives a similar look but is proportionally more comfortable for me. Even though I still think it looks a bit odd with my flat sandals, I absolutely love it with my boots. LOVE IT! I wore this outfit on Thursday for a 16 hour day and I was incredibly comfortable and felt really confident and current. The look garnered lots of compliments at the office, which is always a nice plus.
I really like how the color of the boots compliments the colors in the dress. I think I'll be rocking this look a few more times before the cooler weather really sets in. :)

As for the boots - yeah, they really are perfect. Like I mentioned, I wore them for a 16 hour day on Thursday and I swear, they were as comfy as my workout shoes. Especially impressive seeing as how it was the first day that I wore them out of the house. I'm sooo getting the Mahogany pair, too. I really am going to live in them this fall and winter. Hehehe.

Weekend Recap

**This is a couple of weeks late, but I'm just not getting around to uploading the appropriate pictures. Oops.**

After last year's Anniversary Dinner Bonanza, this year's celebration was much more subdued. The plan was to celebrate our anniversary with a homemade steak dinner and a bottle of good wine from our Napa Trip on Friday, the 11th. However, things didn't quite work out as planned.

I realized earlier in the week that I had likely either pulled/torn my intercostal muscles or cracked/broken a rib on my left side from all the coughing over the past month. By Friday afternoon, the pain was so bad that I was starting to have trouble taking in a full breath without wincing. Not good. I thought I'd swing by urgent care to try and get some drugs to deal with the pain and maybe see if they could tell me exactly what was going on in there. The front office staff were so sweet, but explained that it'd be an hour wait. No problem. I eventually got ushered back to see the doctor, which is when the crazy began. The nurse taking my information couldn't figure out why I was back in urgent care and not with my primary doctor (um, can't see him for two weeks). She also couldn't seem to understand that I had been diagnosed with pertussis, by the urgent care doctor and that yes, I already had my results, thank you.

By the time the doctor came back I was in a ton of pain and emotionally, I was just spent. Like, no fuel left in the tank. I'm usually very assertive with doctors (it was the only way to get them to test for pertussis in the first place after the doctor told me "adults don't get it unless there is an outbreak" - yeah right), but on Friday I was a little weakling and didn't have it in me to hash it out. The doctor was a total asshat - asked me "well, how did you even get pertussis?" (WTF?! What kind of question is that?!), told me that "young people don't break ribs so an x-ray is just a waste of time!" and barely took two seconds to examine me. He wrote up a quick pain meds prescription and tossed it to me with a minimum of explanation. Thanks a lot jerk! I finally got back out to my car and had a good ugly cry because I was so pissed at being brushed off, at not being my own best advocate and for being in even more pain from the crying. I was a hot mess.

Thankfully, my father-in-law is a pharmacist and between talking to him and the nice lady that filled my prescriptions at my local pharmacy, I calmed down and started to feel a bit better. As for having a nice relaxing dinner? Yeah, it wasn't gonna happen. Instead, we had Baja Fresh and watched football while toasting our anniversary. Nice, but not nearly the night that we had planned. :(

Saturday saw Jim up before dawn to go play golf with Dubber, while I met up with his wife, Girlie, for manis and pedis. I hadn't seen her in a long time so it was good to catch up on everything. In the afternoon, we all met back up at their house to watch the UCLA game and cheer the Bruins on to victory. Yay!

After the game, we headed home to watch more football and finally have that steak dinner I hadn't been able to cook the night before. An unfortunate side effect of still having this cough is that wine currently tastes like battery acid to me. Seriously, it's depressing. So, instead of sharing a bottle from Napa, Jim had some from our cheapy stash while I downed lovely water. For dessert, we had homemade creme brulee made by yours truly. Happy Anniversary to us.

Sunday was a lazy day at home. Jim is beyond thrilled for football to be back and for us to resume our lazy Sundays sitting at home, eating snack foods, him watching the games while doing some work and me keeping one eye on the games while I also read/straighten the house/do laundry/sew, etc. I wanted to make some extra special snacks for the first Sunday of regular NFL games, so I opted for 7 layer dip and Boneless Baked Buffalo Strips. To cap off the day of "healthy" eating, we ended the night with hot dogs and bratwursts. Wheee!


My ribs were starting to feel a bit better, but then I reirritated it this past Sunday night and I feel like I'm about back to square one. I'm alternating between Vicodin at night and extra-strength Ibuprofin during the day, but they don't do much more than take the edge off the pain. I guess I should be glad that it gets rid of the stabbing and burning feeling. Ugh. I'm really frustrated with everything, to say the least. The cough is slowly leaving, but I'm still having enough coughing fits to make getting rid of the rib pain difficult. If anyone is keeping count, it'll be 7 weeks on Monday that I've had this. I really hope that I'm back to normal soon, but my guess is it's going to be another several weeks before I get there.