And Sew On

Smooching on Bloor St.

On Monday night we went out for Q's 35th birthday. We had dinner at a restaurant in Yorkville, where I ordered my new very favourite appetizer: Avocado Frites. That's thick slices of avocado dipped in panko crumbs and deep fried. Yum.

The birthday boy was looking handsome:

and I enjoyed a glass of Gamay while we waited for the entrees:

The restaurant was sandwiched between Bloor St. and the U of T campus, so we got a few shots with the ivy covered buildings:

...then headed up to Bloor St. for a little window shopping. Q didn't want me to bother a complete stranger to take a photo of us, so I embarked on some self portraits:

Take one: blurry

 Take two: blurry, but kinda cool.

 Take three: Q saw this store window and suggested we try that...

Take four: I took the same idea but made it a little more romantic. ;)

Then between shows yesterday I took the new Studio Calico "Boardwalk" kit, which I just LOVE, and created this layout:

I printed the photo off in 6x8, which is only .39 at my local photo developer. Such a great deal!

 I then intertwined the twine with brads around the page. It's fun to see what you can come up with when you're scrapping away from home and don't have all your regular tools about.

It's no secret that I love alphas, and between the main kit and the on add-on there were four alphas! Wee!

Silk Skirt to Top Refashion Tutorial

If you read this weekend's post, you know that I went to some garage sales on Saturday with the girls and finally started sewing a few things for myself. I feel so much less pressure when something is a refashion-- because I'm not putting $$$ of fabric at risk! Case in point:

I bought this Tommy Hilfiger 100% silk skirt at a garage sale for 75 cents. It still had the tags on-- it was originally $120! In the past I would have overlooked it, being several sizes too big for me and not a great cut:

This time, though, I knew I could somehow make it great. I remembered seeing a blog post not too long ago that featured a skirt-to-top refashion, and sure enough I found this tutorial lickety split through Google. (It's in french. Put the blog address into google translate and you can read any blog, in its original format, in your chosen language. Amazing.)

The basic idea is to flip the skirt upside down so the waistband of the skirt becomes the waistband of the top. (I know, weird, right?) I'll give you a quick step-by-step, but here is the after:

I have been pinning all sorts of stripes and chevron patterns to my Pinterest board recently, so this fits right in! It's sort of a sassy top-- quite loose fitting, slides off the shoulder sometimes, so I'm wearing a cami underneath.

Here's the back:

There's the zipper peaking out the bottom. Rather than cut out armholes, I just created fold over peekaboo sleeves:

 I made up a quick pictorial of how I made this top, just in case you want to give it a shot! Feel free to take this image and adapt it to your liking. Link me up if you make a skirt top of your own. :)

Hubby took the photos again this time-- he always makes me laugh. A husband should always make you laugh.

 

Best. Husband. Ever.

The other day I had an audition downtown. I dropped Q and the girls off at ballet, then drove down to the theatre and parked for a bit while I went over my material. When it was almost time for the audition I went to turn on the car to move it from "stopping only" zone to a paid parking zone. Except the car wouldn't start. No matter how hard I tried.

I have a Prius, which I LOVE. It is so reliable. To turn it on you press a power button, just like on a laptop. (I know. Weird.) On this day, when I pressed the power button, all the lights on the dashboard flashed at me at once...and then the check engine light stayed on. I freaked. If the car ever needed to be boosted in the past, no light came on at all, so I didn't think it was that. On top of it all, my cell phone wasn't recharged, so I had to go across the street to an office building to call CAA.

The most pressing thing on my mind was that I was late on my yearly maintenance. Like, 5 months late. I had actually planned to take it in two days later-- the snow tires were even sitting in my entrance way. I was convinced that I had killed my car because I was negligent in getting the car serviced. Also the oil...hadn't done that in a while either. As my husband doesn't drive, I am responsible for car stuff...and I hadn't done it. Since I didn't want to get a ticket in that "no parking" zone, I sat in my freezing cold car for over an hour-- beating myself up for not taking better care of my car, and worrying that my husband would be really angry that I killed our not-quite-four-year-old car due to negligence.

The tow truck finally arrived and took us to the dealership. From there I called Q, steeling myself to his response. All he said was, "That sucks, but there's nothing you can do about it now. Don't worry about it."

I was still scared I had killed the car, but his understanding made it all a lot easier. When the dealership drove me home, I found this waiting for me in the entrance way:

Best. Husband. Ever.

(P.S. I did not kill my car. It was a failing battery that needed to be replaced. Whew! Q said, "Well, that's one way to get the car serviced-- and they even picked it up for us!")

Ah, Marriage

Me: (sip of coffee.)

Q: Did you sleep okay? Your face is all swollen.

Me: *snort* Why would you say that?

Q: I just thought maybe you were sick, or didn't sleep well or something, cause your head's, like, twice the size of normal.

Me: (sip of coffee.)

 

******

Sorry i've been a bit MIA of late-- busy with Scrapfest, deadlines, and the like. Next week things will start to open up, and I'm planning to do my December Daily Album. I will be using the Everybody Loves Christmas line from Echo Park-- so cute!

If you'd like to see my album from last year, it's right here

This Past Week

Sorry for the break in blogging. This was a doozy of a week-- both good and bad. Let's see if I can sum up in a few lines:

There's stomach virus going around the city, and it hit us last week. Audrey got the worst of it on Thursday night, but luckily it didn't last too long. Unforunately, she tossed her cookies while sleeping in our bed, which made for quite the mess and lots of laundry.

By Saturday, with no one else sick, we thought we had escaped unscathed. I taught my class at Scrapbooks By Design, which was such fun. (Thank you, Ladies, for braving the -14C weather!) The night before I finished up the last layout I was using for the class, using a FREE digital template from Oscraps and Paislee Press:

 

A quick, simple layout using 12 photos of Audrey from 2007. I was glad to finally find a use for this fabulous Sassafras paper.

Later that day Q and I left on an overnight date that he planned start to finish. (We will spend Valentine's Day on a plane with two kids bound to Vancouver-- not very romantic!)  We checked into a beautiful hotel, had burritos for dinner, then headed to the hockey game. Q's team is the Canucks, and I was suprised to see how many Canucks fans were there. I wore a jersey, like a good hockey fan should.

 

And I think our choice of beverages is about as Canadian as you can get:

 

A Timmie's for me, a beer for Q.

The Canucks won 5-3, so there was a happy husband. Unfortunately, it was overnight that I came down with the stomach flu-- at least we got to enjoy the evening first! The next day Q felt sick, and Lily, too, so we all settled in at home to recuperate.

On Monday, I scrapped with Sonya. In my continued scrap therapy to accept that I will have no more babies, I did these two layouts:

(Super froufy this one. All bling and glitter. Ah well, i have to get it out sometimes!)

 

(More simple below. I loved using up some of those Making Memories sparkle letters.)

Last night, I unexpectedly relapsed with the flu, so today was a quiet day with Frick and Frack:

I'm also finishing up four layouts for the Spring issue of SACT. I wish I could share them now, because I love them all!

Okay, there's the update. I am off to put the girls to bed and (please, please, please) get a good night's sleep!

Adjusting

It's been a few days, and I'm adjusting to being home full time again. It's funny when a show ends. For the first few nights afterward your heart leaps at around 7:30pm-- thinking you should be somewhere. But no, we're closed, and I'm enjoying quiet evenings at home.

I've been planning some of my upcoming projects,  but hadn't actually scrapped anything until tonight.

Me: Babe.

Q: Yeah.

Me: The muse is here.

Q: The muse?

Me: Yes. The scrap muse.

Q: Ah. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then. Don't scrap too hard, and don't stay up too late.

Scrapping is always most satisying when the muse visits and shows you what to choose and where to put it.

While waiting for the muse to arrive, I had been surfing the net a lot, bookmarking inspiration and recipes. Here are a few things to share:

Betty Crocker's Mac and Cheese Recipe

             I have tried dozens of mac and cheese recipes and this is the classic, best tasting recipe. Try it. (note: not low fat. so worth it.)

Write.click.scrapbook    If you are a scrapbooker and this is not a daily read for you, then you need to start. There is always a ton of inspiration to be had.

teuxdeux   A very cool on line To Do list. (Get it? Teux deux. To do.) Check something off when you finish it. If you don't check it off, the program automatically moves it over to the next day. Love this.

Kristen Cook   One of my very favourite baby/wedding photographers. She's currently doing a photo-a-day month of her two kids. I wish I could take photos like her!

ohdeedoh   A family blog-- great ideas for kids, and design, too. Part of "Apartment Therapy"

That should get you started--- more to come!