Thank you, Gramma!

Dear Gramma,
Thank you soooooo much for the scissors! I love them. They’re beautiful. I will treat them with care, as they have been so obviously cared for. It means so much to me that you have given them to me. I really do appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Love you,
Vanessa

p.s. I’ll be sending a real thank-you card in the mail when I get back into town next week!

Sew crazy!

I went a little crazy with the sewing yesterday. It was my “last day of work” but they didn’t make us work, and I just wanted to lose myself in some sewing. (Plus, the weather looked like this…)

The view from Richmond Beach Saltwater Park

I finished up this skirt I was making, even though I knew I wasn’t going to LOVE it. I just don’t want to start leaving WIP’s around,  otherwise I’ll NEVER finish them. Plus, I’m still new at sewing, so I really need the practice.

This is a modified Burda 8090. I tried it on halfway through and realized the butt pleats were AWFUL (and it wasn’t fitting at all) so I ripped out the back pleats and trimmed down the back piece to match the A-Line skirt pattern from Built By Wendy, sewed in some darts, and sewed it back to the front. I then had to create my own facing piece for the back, and it turned out all kinds of awesome.

I got really lazy with the finishing, though, because I knew I wasn’t going to be wearing it much.

Used pinking shears instead of tucking in 1/4" and sewing

Once I was done with that I STILL wanted to sew, so I made some lunge pants from Amy Butler’s “In Stitches.” This is the 3rd time I’ve made them, and I think all that practice has finally paid off. I sewed them up in a few hours and was able to wear them to bed that night!

Run, Fat Cat, Run!!!

Mixed berry sorbet

Based on this recipe. Makes approx 1.5 quarts.

* 1 3/4 cups water
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup fresh blueberries
* 1 cup fresh strawberries
* 1 cup fresh raspberries
* 1 cup Newman’s Own Lime-Aid

1. In a medium saucepan bring water, sugar, and the blueberries to boiling.
2. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved and blueberries are tender (1 to 2 minutes).
3. Remove from heat.
4. Drain blueberries, reserving liquid; set aside to cool.
5. Meanwhile, in a food processor bowl or blender container combine strawberries and raspberries.
6. Cover and process or blend until smooth.
7. Press pureed berries through fine-mesh sieve; discard seeds.
8. Place the blueberries and 1/3 cup of the reserved cooking liquid (do not discard remaining liquid) in food processor bowl or blender container.
9. Cover and process or blend until almost smooth.
10. Press blueberry mixture through the fine-mesh sieve; discard skins.
11. In a large bowl combine the pureed mixtures, remaining cooking liquid, and Lime-Aid.
12. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until mixture is completely chilled.
13. Freeze mixture in a 4- or 5-quart ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions.
14. Ripen 4 hours.
15. Use within 2 days.
16. Serve individual scoops of sorbet with fresh berries and mint, if desired.

Road shrimp!

(Before I go any further, please know that the title of this post won’t make any sense until you see the “Road Trip” clip from Tim and Eric Awesome Show Good Job. It is sporadically available on the internet. Go watch it. Now.)

T and I took advantage of having last week off together to go on a little road trip of Oregon. It didn’t exactly work out as planned, but we made the best of it. Here are a few highlights.

Day 1. We stayed at the Oregon Caves Chateau. I’d been wanting to check this place for years. Years. YEARS. I saw a piece about it on PBS before I even moved out to Seattle I think. I mentioned it to T when I first met him and he remembered more about it than me! When we realized it was the Chateau at the Oregon Caves, we booked a room and included it on our road trip! (Road shrimp!)

Oregon Caves Chateau

Day 2. The Chateau is located right next to the Oregon caves. The cave (caves?) is (are?) amazingly complex, long, windy, and so incredibly cool. I would highly highly recommend checking it out. I took some photos, but NONE of them do it justice. It’s so HUGE inside.

My favorite room - Paradise Lost

That night we “camped” at an RV park. Awesome.

They put us ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way at the end.

Day 3. After checking out 5 different campgrounds, we ended up going back to the first one we checked out. And by then the campsite we had wanted was taken. So we set up camp at the next best one. A couple hours later, we toured the campsite and discovered the one we’d wanted was now available. So we packed up and moved.

Yes we bring an air mattress camping. Got a problem with that?!

We moved the tent too.

Day 4. We slept.

Day 5. We checked out Crater Lake. Stunningly beautiful. Crystal blue water. Serene surroundings. But I was hot and tired, so I didn’t take too many photos.

The view from the Lodge. (Which we didn't stay in.)

Kissy kissy

Day 6. Leaving camp. Did I mention it was buggy???

Too sweet for Deet

We also checked out the Lava River Cave (we are all about caves lately!!!), which is the longest known uncollapsed lava tube in the world. And when I say long, I mean looooooooong. It was a mile long. And completely pitch black.

They had lanterns available for rent for $4 at the entrance. I’m actually surprised they didn’t charge more. Because you NEEDED one in the cave.

We then checked into our second and last hotel, St Francis School in Bend, OR. I cannot rave about this place enough! They have a microbrewery, pool hall, whiskey bar, soaking tubs, movie theatre, and COFFEE ROASTERY on site. And delivery fresh grounds to you every morning. I am daydreaming about opening my own someday…

Day 7 (last day). We putzed around the Mt Bachelor area for a bit before heading back to the hotel for beers and 4th of July fireworks. I think both of us were a little road weary at this point.

Clink!

Us

We took this in a random bookstore photobooth yesterday after our last company picnic.

I kinda can’t wait to be funemployed with this guy.

Summery

I am totally obsessed with sewing. I made this (rather ill fitting) little dress last weekend (which knew I had to make immediately after seeing Carrieoke’s version on Flickr), and despite its flaws, I love it so. It’s just so… summery!

First, the good points:

- The fabric was cheap! I got it for $6.50/yd on Etsy (it’s Tina Givens). I know I shouldn’t love something because of its price (a lesson I have learned the hard way after my years of shopping at thrift stores) but it was nice to be able to experiment with cheap fabric that is still kind of cute.

- The length is perfect. At first I wasn’t so sure about having a tea-length dress, but now I love it.

- It has poooooooockets!!! I was so! intimidated! by the pockets when I first saw the pattern and had considered omitting them completely, but I decided to face the challenge head on and – once again, they were way easier than I had thought they’d be. But! The pockets also weigh down the dress a bit, which brings me to the bad points….

- It keeps slipping! I’ve been told I can fix this by adding some spaghetti straps, and while I was originally against that, I’m starting to think those are the only things that will make this thing wearable!

- And also? It’s HUGE (which is admittedly the style of the dress) but the back is sooooooo unflattering. I have some ideas on how to bring this in, and again, the fabric was pretty cheap so I can afford to mess around with it, but I was really hoping this wouldn’t look like a mumu on me. And it kind of does.

But like I said, despite all this flaws, I’m still wearing it! And I even plan to make another one, which will hopefully fit a bit better next time.

Oh, and regarding the pattern, I totally forgot to mention it’s Heather Ross’s Mendocino Summer Dress, which is available for free on her web site. If you’re a newbie sewer, I definitely suggest you watch the video of Heather Ross making the little-girl version of this dress on the Martha Stewart show, AND check out Carolyn’s comments on this pattern on her Flickr page. I completely agree w/ her assessment!

FO: Lace Ribbon Scarf

I have a knitting FO to show off! I finished the Lace Ribbon scarf last week! Things were touch-and-go there for a while with this scarf, because it was knitting up way too thick the first time around. I ended up frogging it once I was several inches in, and I was able to knit back up to where I was within a weekend. Turns out it was way faster to knit with fewer repeats! : )

I just love how it turned out.

It’s so light and drapey.

Soft and shimmery.

Perfect for a Texas winter.

BOATING!!!!

(Not really.)

We took our little boat out on the (big!) lake yesterday with hilariously disastrous results. It was the first time we’d taken it out (T has been fixing on it for years now) so this was more of a water test, to see if it would even float. We get it in the water and T starts the motor (which takes 2-cycle (!!! like a lawnmower!)) and it immediately starts coughing blue smoke. “Um, is that normal?” “Yah, it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Then we’re out on the water for like 20 minutes and it starts tooootally smoking. So we turn back to the boat ramp and there are all these people unloading their boats into the water. So we circle and circle and circle and I’m starting to pester T about being more AGGRESSIVE and then finally the motor just totally dies. So T has to ROW US TO LAND using some oars he thankfully (!!!) put in the boat before we left. Then some homeless guy runs out on the dock and yells “Throw me your bow line!” and tows us in. Then when T was lifting the motor up onto the boat, the strap totally broke! So, again, the homeless guy (his words, btw, not mine!) totally saved us by helping T to heft the thing up so we could tow it up the boat ramp. Yowza. We are cursed with boats, I tell you.

I have perfected hummus

After 5 batches of hummus in the past few weeks, I think I finally have it down. I use this recipe, but with less tahini, more olive oil, and I add paprika, roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, and Penzey’s garlic powder. NOM.

Stacy’s® Original Hummus:

Ingredients:

* 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
* 1 garlic clove
* juice of 1 lemon
* 1 tablespoon tahini
* Extra Virgin olive oil
* salt to taste

Instructions:

In a food processor, blend chick peas and garlic. Add lemon juice and tahini. Thin mixture by slowly adding olive oil until the hummus reaches desired consistency. Add salt to taste. Serve with Stacy’s® Simply Naked Pita Chips and booze.

Camping at Cedar Springs, Part II

As promised, here are photos of our spelunking adventures! (Granted the whole trek only took about 5 minutes, but it was still fun to check out and the hike out to the cave was lovely.)

OK so here we are at the entrance. This part was actually impressive. It was HUGE!

Now we're in the cave, looking out.

Here's a shot of the river rushing through the cave, which I think helped form it? (I included the trash on the left for scale.)

Right about now I decide it's a good time to turn on my head lamp. It's about to get DARK.

REALLY DARK!!!

But after a mild panic attack, we were finally at the exit.

Just outside the cave - no worse for the wear. (Will someone please schedule a haircut for me? Please?!)

One last look at the end of the cave.

Aaaaaaaand there you have it! That’s Boulder Cave!