I’m trying to take in spring and this gorgeous change of weather. I hope your week is off to a great start!
Peace!
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Eric has practice weekend for his triathlon. Which left me car-less and home alone for the weekend. Friday afternoon, I set up a pedicure date with a friend. A few more people decided to come and then we went browsing at the local Home Goods/TJ Maxx. It was a lot of fun. I got home and worked on ripping up some thrifted T-shirts. It only took a year, but I’m finally delving into my Alabama Stitch book projects! That and I am overdue on several baby gifts. Pun not intended, but then lefted left because it is pretty cute. 
As in I have ten babies to get something too!! Thankfully, three are due in May or after. But five of them are from seminary friends, and I’d like to get those wrapped up before we head up to St. Louis!!
I’m also trying to get that darned denim skirt finished. Which I am super excited about, but I always get wrapped up in the next project before finishing the first one. Can any of you relate?? Lastly, I’m working on Eric’s stole for his ordination. I think it is a bit odd that I work on multiple things at once, but realize I do that in a lot of areas–books I read, projects for work, etc.
Here are some stole examples from the church,
and my material laid out.
So in keeping up with my multiple project routine, I’ve been working on other things this morning too, like Finny and Donk’s Craft-a-long. I’ve never participated before, but was very interested in finding a good pizza dough recipe. I’ve tried one other recipe and it was not good.
Here’s my dough rising.
Since I was in the kitchen anyways and had tomatoes that were rapidly expiring, I also decided to try my hand at this tomato sauce. I switched it up a bit by roasting onions too, and adding minced garlic to the tomato tops. I didn’t have any basil either, but it was still REALLY good.
Roasting in the oven.
The sauce mixed. I improvised with a blender.
Makes me wonder how much food dye is in the sauces I buy!
So after a bit of waiting for the dough to finish rising, here’s my pizza cooking. I added some frozen veggies–I love the Hodge Podge mix from Trader Joe’s and a bit of shaved parmesan and fat free feta in addition to some cheddar jack cheese.
All finished and out of the oven!
Finally dished up! The crust was so crunchy compared to our usual pizza dough. Very good indeed!
This was only a quarter of the dough. So I froze half and am saving the other quarter for post-church pizza tomorrow!
In other news, I went to run club yesterday morning. I was supposed to meet a friend there, but she had to cancel last minute because her daughter kept her up most of the night. We ran 2 miles, did drills mostly involving sprints for about 20 minutes and ran back. My legs started to feel it last night. That continued into today. I was going to get up and walk to the gym (a mere 2 miles each way) for a 7:30 am Group Power class, but because of Scotch’s night time antics and my legs feeling like they might fall off, I skipped out. Do you have any weight lifting resources that you like to use? I like the Group Power class, but the timing is so inconvenient for me.
Here are my gorgeous flowers, still happily blooming even after Scotch’s loving.
Peace!
Here are a few photos my sewing project from last fall. Here’s the serious photo..
And here is me goofing off.
I made the top and skirt. Nothing fancy, but I love the color.
Peace!
I was working in the study/sewing room today. Before I had a chance to get to anything, Scotch demanded some attention. I was absentmindedly petting him and daydreaming. The view out the window is pretty cool. A lot of the calla lilies are blooming. See what I mean?
So I continued petting Scotch. Then I noticed this on his neck!! At first I thought I was just seeing things, but no. I went and checked the bouquet on our table. Yep, all of the easter lilies had opened. Though none of the stamens had any pollen. Wonder why? Look at this!!
I had a bit of fun in Photoshop. Silly cat. By this time, Sake decided she wanted some attention. She’s sitting on my lap here.
Look at the mess on my shirt after all this kitty love!
Um, ew!! And you’ll notice that I was wearing a red shirt and khakis. An outfit similar to the uniform that Target employees wear? Of course I ended up at Target in this outfit before I realized it. Silly-ness. But I did manage to snagged a chaise lounge on sale so we can enjoy our back patio some more!!
Maybe now I can get back to sewing some fun stuff! I have several items that I’m wrapping up! I realize that I always talk about sewing, but I do actually do it too! If you are wondering part of why it takes so long, re-read this post. Also, check out Kathleen’s recent Fashion-Incubator article. There are a lot of steps in the process!
Peace!
This weekend Eric’s grandparents came up to visit. They live in Southern California. They were florists, so they came to see a local flower show and Filoli. We had lots of fun hanging out with them, and teasing each other. Spring is definitely really in the air!
Filoli was gorgeous. I didn’t know this was in our “backyard.” It made me think of Versailles in the fact that it is serene and restful. Well that, and the fact that there is pretty impressive home and garden. I was disappointed they don’t allow picnics, as it would be the perfect setting. Especially in the field of wild daffodils. Here are some of the flowers we saw.
We are the proud owners of two pots of ranunculus-es (?), and an artichoke plant. Our little garden continues to expand.
This afternoon is slated for sewing and creating. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Peace!
Inspired by this post on CNN, I wanted to share my opinions. St. Louis has definitely been on my mind lately since we’ll be heading there in April for Eric’s Call Day at the seminary. We are looking forward to catching up with friends and eating our weight in great food!
First off, the Garment District is underwhelming. It is downtown and most of the buildings were empty when we lived there a year ago. The legacy, however, is pretty awesome. Levine hats still has a store on Washington Street. May Company headquarters used to be there. From what I saw during my brief interview there, the building was fabulous. Too bad it was already being sold to Macy’s before we got to town. On the Hill–the Italian neighborhood–is Skif. A fellow classmate of mine works there. They are probably most widely recognized as designing the sweaters in Matrix 2. Gorgeous works indeed! Another nod to a Baylor alum, would be Lori Coulter. She uses body scanning technology to help make swimsuit shopping a pleasurable experience. Awesome idea, and their location on the edge of the Loop seems more savvy than the empty Garment District area.
As far as restaurants, you cannot find much better food or beer than Schlafly’s. They use local foods and have a farmer’s market every Wednesday evening in the summer at their bottle works facility. My favorite beer is probably the cider. I’m obsessed with the vanilla vinaigrette dressing and their bison nachos! I’ve enjoyed every item I’ve tried on their menu. The downtown location, the Tap Room, is a bit more gritty, as they allow smoking in the bar. There are several more beer options available at the Tap Room as well. I highly recommend the Sticky Toffee Pudding. The link will take you to the recipe. It is out of this world yummy. I might be a bit biased because we went to Schlafly’s Bottle Works at least weekly when we lived there.
I’m still a bit Jilly’s fan. Every time Eric and I get a cupcake, which isn’t too often, we compare the taste to Jilly’s. The owner is super nice and their generously-size cupcakes were fabulous. My favorite was the Missy-Licious.
There are several other wonderful restaurants in the city. My suggestion is to ask a local as you walk down the street. Each neighborhood has plenty to choose from.
As far as shopping, I must admit I didn’t do much when I lived in St. Louis. There are plenty of places to look around though. I loved visiting Soulard for the Farmer’s Market–awesome colorful photo opportunities and the University City Loop.
Peace.
So, yesterday was an inservice day. I had the entire day to do as I pleased. Yet, somehow my body decided to get up at freaking 5 am. Wide awake. **sigh** I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic with a friend. It was too cute. I laughed at just about every line. The clothes were awfully fun too. I especially liked one of her black and white coats.
Then we wondered down the street to Cost Plus World Market, because I’ve been craving some vanilla tea. I got the tea, and some peppermint tea, and some beers for Eric. They were giving them away at four dollars and some change for 8 of them! And I got an apron!
Isn’t it pretty? The apron is the print. It came with the solid pink and striped dishtowels and a hot pad. I’m loving the happy colors!
So, this afternoon when I got off work, I realized I didn’t have keys. This was awfully unfortunate because Eric was out at Winkle and I had no idea when he’d get home. Thankfully, he was almost done and made it home about 30 minutes after me. So to amuse myself, after trying all our doors to make sure they were really locked, I took a bunch of photos in the back yard. Enjoy!
Peace,
Katy ^_^
The day before my interview, I went to the deYoung in San Francisco. They have an exhibit on YSL running through the beginning of April. We went the first Tuesday of the month, so the museum was free, the exhibit was $10. I definitely enjoyed myself, but was a little underwhelmed at the same time.
It seemed like I’d seen a lot of it before. And I have seen a few of the pieces previously in other exhibits. I was able to actually examine a Mondrian gown at FIT back in 2004 as I was working on my thesis. I’d link to the thesis, but I no longer have an electronic copy as it was one of those files that has been misplaced since we seem to constantly be updating our computers. Definitely, one of the potential downfalls of living with a computer nerd. But there is way more benefit than consequence, trust me! That and I definitely rushed at the end of my thesis and my illustrations were pretty awful, and I never created the outfits, though I had designed several. Hrm… Let’s just say I got a little boy crazy, since Eric and I started dating in November, were engaged by March and planning a wedding for July. Some of my senior projects suffered a bit. Definitely not one of my finest moments.
Back to the YSL exhibit. I was definitely underwhelmed, but I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because my favorite garment was a very classic black tunic, circa 1960. No one else seemed moved by it, but boy was I. The cut was spectacular. Maybe it is because my aesthetic has become much more simple. I definitely appreciated the sewmanship, is that a word? I appreciated the accessorizing and seeing some garments I’d never seen before. I appreciated YSL’s avant garde approach–I can’t imagine a world where a woman in trousers would be considered appalling. But beyond that, I still left being underwhelmed.
Hrm..
Peace,
Katy
Hold on to your seats, this is going to be one long post.
Since I last wrote a lot has been going on. First thing is I interviewed for a summer camp position teaching Fashion Design. It was my second interview with this organization. It was also a group interview. Let’s just say I had lots of clammy palm filled flash-backs to my bombed Teach for America interview over 3 years ago. With the Teach for America gig, I guess most people don’t have near the problem I did with French pronunciation. And you can only rhyme so many French words with Pierre Cardin. If I’d show up on fire, the interview would have gone better.
Back to my most recent endeavor. The interview part was first and I thought it was awesome. Next I had the teaching portion. Apparently it wasn’t a “competition” interview, but since there were three of us with Fashion Design experience for the one position, it was hard not to believe that. I taught some brief info on fashion sketching. I thought the whole thing went well, but when I went up to the person in charge afterwards to ask a few questions, she gave off the vibe that they were not interested. I’m pretty sure that the fact I could attend only one of the two training days didn’t play into my favor. But I was not about to miss Eric’s ordination day for anything. We’ve been in school for this for almost 5 years now!! **Sigh** Needless to say I got a, “No Thank You,” note 3 days into my two-week notification window. **sigh**
I will be teaching an art curriculum at the school I aide at for part of the summer, and have the freedom to create and teach any other class I want. So, I need to find the discipline to sit down and work on that. But, so far that discipline is fleeting. I know I can wrangle it up somehow.
Next up, my parents came to visit. It was a lot of fun. Here are some goofy pictures of the weekend.
Here we are with our goofy hard hats on the Behind the Scenes tour of the Winchester Mystery House. I loved it, my dad loved it, and my mom couldn’t get over how creepy it was.
On Saturday we wandered south down the 101. Our first stop was Mission San Juan Bautista. It was so tranquil. We walked across town and enjoyed a few treats at the town bakery!
I managed to be pretty good. I’m still working on those pesky 10 pounds the doctor told me to lose in October! I’m down about 5, but it was definitely difficult to resist all that sugar!
After San Juan Bautista we continued south to Pebble Beach. We drove around the 17-mile drive then ate a late lunch in the clubhouse overlooking the 18th green. Here are my parents enjoying the gorgeousness that is Pebble Beach.
The rest of the trip went by way too quickly. We played quite a few rounds of cribbage, I knitted a bit with my mom. The cats were especially cute too. Scotch always camped out on my dad’s lap at night, and Sake made out with two hand-knitted toy worms from my mom.
The school-week flew by. On Friday, I “subbed” for the third grade teacher. She was in and out, but I was in charge for most of the day. I think I lucked out a bit because there were 5 kids out!! We’ve never had 5 kids out in a day, but it definitely is easier to manage 17 kiddos, rather than 22 solo.
The reason the main teacher was out was she was getting ready for Round Ball Weekend. Our school hosts a junior high boys basketball and cheerleading tournament. The main teacher is the cheerleading coach. So we spent a lot of the weekend cheering on our teams. Our boys fought hard, but didn’t place in the tournament. The girls were able to successfully defend their cheerleading championship! It was so high-energy to watch. It was lots of fun.
I suppose that catches you up. Much love and have an awesome week!
Peace,
Katy ^_^