I think more than the shift in work is the incredible class that I recently took. A little, silly, introduction to the fashion industry course. Over 5 Fridays and 3 Saturdays our class met with 25 people from the Bay Area to discuss their various roles in the fashion industry, and how things are changing, or remaining the same. Very interesting indeed. I am still processing the information.

Here are a few photos of the past month’s antics.

A brief getaway.

Flowers from my honey.

A horizontal wine tasting party of the 2003 Stag’s Leap District. I didn’t make it very far–there were just too many to taste! I think each place setting had 15 or so tastes!

Tasting the oldest wine, I’ve ever had. An 1850 Madeira fortified with Brandy. Wowzas!

Dressing up for “Crazy Day” at school. I went as Eric.

Peace,

^-^

A friend, a fellow survivor, relapsed. What do you do? What do you say? What if it is Eric next? What if it isn’t okay? What if treatment doesn’t work? What if treatment does work, but causes other issues. Okay this what-if game isn’t fun. There are unlimited “what if’s.” The only  thing I’m certain of is we can take this journey with him and love him as much as we are capable.

Peace,

^-^

Her dogs are awfully cute.

Carol is the quilter, as you can see by her footstool and the chest full of quilts in the background. She was reminding me what the knitting stitch SSK meant, because it had been a while since I picked up my knitting. I’m about to finish–gasp–my first sock. I’ve only been working on it since last December. Hopefully sock number 2 won’t take as long.

Peace,

^_^

Obviously some of my craftiness comes from her. She cut out large squares of a sheer material and covered the vases. One rubber band around the neck of the vase held the material in, then they tucked in the excess to make it bubbly–super chic.

My parents were lovely too. I was trying very hard to avoid the maximum occupancy sign to the right of my mom’s head, and ended up taking this skewed shot. Fun times. Unfortunately no photos were taken at the wedding besides these. I guess I just got into the festivities and forgot to take photos.

Peace,

^_^

We had sooooo much food. I learned leftovers are good, but there can be too much of a good thing sometimes.

I loved setting the table. So glad I made those darned cloth napkins earlier this year. They came in super handy. And the tablecloth is something I bought in St. Louis–it was going to be a new bedspread. I think I prefer it as a table cloth.

We had a last minute addition of 2 and 2 halves and were able to squeeze everyone in by pushing the couch up to the table on the end. The other random seats we used included our plastic patio chairs. It was fun and I’m pretty sure no one minded. At least they didn’t say if they did.

I think I’ll amend the previous assertion of too many left overs being bad. You can never have too many left over potatoes. I made potato cakes with the leftovers until we ran out. Not as good as when my mom makes them for me, but still pretty darn tasty.

I am amazed at how effortlessly our kitchen cleaned up after the feast. It did take 3 very full dishwasher loads to clean all of the dishes, but it was such a breeze. Thank goodness for everyone pitching in–it makes things much easier and more fun!

And our friends came over early to bring us a huge sandwich to share–who thinks of this?? and dress their cupcakes. They painted chocolate on leaves they found and then removed the leaves when the chocolate hardened. They made the acorns by rolling carmel squares and dipping them in chocolate and then chocolate sprinkles. It was the most amazing dessert I’ve ever seen. And it was quite tasty too! We also got some Super Mario time in on the Wii.

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving surrounded by people you love.

^_^

And yes, the space heater was on-warming his toes. Silliness.

Peace,

^_^

Such a harmless treat, double ginger candy. And yet, this is the only photo I captured to remember our 4 hour whale watching tour. Instead of snapping photos of dolphins, I was leaning over the rail green with seasickness. My body didn’t stop rocking for at least 3 days after the event–whoops! Guess who thought whale watching sounded like an amazing idea–yep, me. Eric had a blast with some new friends he met on the boat and since we didn’t actually see any whales–we got passes to return. Thankfully mine is transferrable!

Peace,

^_^

In no particular order, here’s a quick look into what I’ve been doing. I played tourist in San Francisco with my buddy.

I’m not sure I realized the Full House exterior was from San Francisco. Such a cool park is across the street.

I signed up for some classes at the local community college in Fashion Design. I’m re-taking Advanced Flat Pattern as a refresher and just to get to know some new people. It is way fun. My first garment is due at the end of October and will come from this board.

Here’s a close-up.

A lot of the designs are from Pattern Magic. I’m so excited to finally get to working from that book. I am also working hard to get a block that fits me so I can actually wear these designs. I’ll keep you posted!

I’m also taking Draping. There was a bit of a learning curve, but I’m loving it too.

For a design competition I got to repurpose some articles of clothing. I used this dress.

And this shirt.

And made this dress.

I didn’t win any prizes, but I have a fabulous new dress to wear out of things that were otherwise going to be taken to a charity.

I’ve been enjoying the bursts of cool weather with cafe viennois and hot teas. Yum. I recently heard someone talking about cherry cocoa, so I may have to try that out too.

I’ve also branched out my baking and have learned to make rather tasty pizza dough–I love 101 cookbooks recipes, and wheat baguettes (with a recipe from French Women Don’t Get Fat). Yum!

I get to celebrate my birthday and Eric’s 4th anniversary of his cancer diagnosis today. Always a bit bittersweet and emotional. Glad he is doing well.

We finished our triathlon at the beginning of September and I made this thank you card for the people that made donations. I really enjoyed making the card, and got lots of rave reviews on it, so I will probably be working on more fun photo/word collages soon! The triathlon was fun and we had a ton of support!

For a birthday gift, I’m enjoying a subscription to WWD. Love it! I hope I can keep them read as I get a new one daily!

And I got my very own French Press coffee maker. I can’t wait to use it!

Peace,

^_^

We’ve had some doozy years–like the year after your ankle healed from the break, then the tire shredded while I was following you and my mom in the moving truck because we were moving to a new state for grad school, and you got leukemia, and it took me 2 months to find a job, and our kitty died even though you were pumping her little chest, and a relative committed suicide, and your grandpa passed, and the nasty car wreck, and you were in the hospital for my birthday two years in a row. Yeah, that was fun, wasn’t it? Somehow we’ve managed to make it through and laugh about it–sometimes soon, and sometimes WAY after the fact.

So when I woke up and flossed my teeth this morning–like I only do the few weeks before a dentist appointment (everyone has a vice, no?), and I managed to pop the bridge out of my mouth, and then I talked with a bit of lisffff. And you made fun of some word I said silly like hafffff instead of half because I had a hole the size of California in my mouth–and we could laugh about it. That was fun, and something I could share with few other people in this world.

Happy anniversary babe, here’s to many more years to come!

Peace!

Now I’m thinking about sewing for myself. Since a lot of Eric’s family will be in town for the event, we’re going to take some family photos. I’ve asked everyone to wear a white shirt and denim or khaki bottoms to a party being hosted on Saturday evening. Ordination is on Sunday. Since my denim skirt is all but sewn, I’ve got bottoms and am thinking I might be able to make a top out of this Italian shirting I bought a while back. I’m debating if it is has too much color, but since I made the photo “rules” up, I can break them, right?

Here’s my sketch. I’m still undecided on sleeves. and how tight this will be–i.e. if it will slip over my head or need a closure.

I hope to knock this out this weekend so I can get started on the dress I will wear next week. Here’s the material I hope to use on the dress. The lace is from Paris! I’ve been hanging onto it to use on something special. It was 50-100 Euro a meter! My mom and I picked it out when I was there in 2003.

Sake decided to sit on the fabric this morning. Lovely, and such smugness. I gently removed her and draped the fabric over the chair. The last thing I need is a snag caused by cat toe-nails.

Scotch wanted his photo taken too. It is only fair, right? He is enjoying the gorgeous day and our opened door.  I’m still working on ideas for the dress. I may use the lace as an accent or as a sheer top over the dress. We’ll see. Here’s where my sketching has taken me so far. I’m not really loving anything, but know it is a start.

In other news, I picked up the most recent edition of Stitch. It is not as good as the first edition. The dress patterns they share are okay at best and one photo/dress looks downright awful in the magazine styling. Ew!

I’m still feeling off today, but have heard the 24-hour flu is making its rounds at our school. Yippee. I don’t feel THAT bad, just off. I think my three-hour afternoon nap today is helping head in the right direction.

Peace!

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