Serging mania!

Thank you for all of the comments about our big boy Unki! Every time someone comes over they ask, "Has Unki gotten bigger?" We don't overfeed him... in fact, he doesn't eat that much. He's just big from love!

I finally managed to use my Christmas present for the first time... and all I can think is: "What took me so long?"



After fiddling with the thread for a little bit (the serger came pre-threaded) my new serger works like a charm! I used it to help finish a couple of new spring pieces.


This is a pattern from linnet that I bought when I was in Japan. It's a very simple tunic top that I think goes well with the fabric, which I bought from purl way before I started working there. It took about 2 yards of fabric, and was pretty straightforward. I serged the sleeves and the raw ends of the sleeve caps... maybe not the neatest looking project but Rob says it's his favorite of my home-sewn projects.

I also made this wrap skirt, after seeing my boss Jen's great version.

This is a Indygo Junction pattern called "It's a Wrap!". It takes three yards of fabric and is one size fits all. I made a couple of mods, including making the waistband thicker (I cut a 4 inch piece instead of 2.5 inches) and making a hole for the tie to come through. I really like it - it only took me a couple of hours from beginning to end.

Yesterday we took a day off (it was our 4 year anniversary) and had lunch at this restaurant called Clementine. They have a great promotion for National Grilled Cheese Month, where they have little menus that look like voter ballots and each week in April they have 5 different grilled cheese sandwiches.

We had the Philly cheesesteak and the Gruyere with Creamed Spinach and Bacon on country wheat bread - so so so tasty! I wish every month was Grilled Cheese month!

spring is springing!

Can you believe that it's spring? I really feel that it just snuck up on me. But, the flowers are blooming, trees are leafing, and blossoms are blossoming...


... and wonderful fruits and veggies are at the farmer's markets! One of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles is the abundance of local fruit and veggies we get year round. Today I went to the wednesday Santa Monica farmer's market (my favorite!) where I saw Tom Colicchio (I recognized his voice before I saw him) and I bought a few seasonal tasties.


The juiciest mandarins ever!


English peas, which everyone was buying. I've never bought peas, but these are so delicious raw I couldn't believe it. I decided to try to buy one new thing at the farmer's market each week.


Gaviota strawberries... which are so beyond your standard strawberries I can't even describe the taste... yummy!


And a big artichoke... make that a HUGE artichoke! Rob's friends Kieran, Alicia and Brendan came to visit us last week, and they bought two of these that we cooked up. Delicioso!

And... some crafting! Well, old crafting. A while ago, whisperine pine and I did a swap. She sent me the most wonderful silk/cotton fabric that I made into a shirt. Somehow, it got lost in my closet and I never blogged about it - here it is!

I have no statistics about the pattern, other than I remember that it was a knit top pattern that I converted to a non-stretchy top. It's a little hard to get on but once it's on it's super comfy. Thank you Blossom, for the beautiful fabric!

My wrist has gotten much better over the past two weeks, and I managed get some knitting in! The next step is to clean up our craft room / office and get some sewing in. Yay!

Where did December go?

I can't believe how this month's flown by! My intention was to do a post a day in December - ha! I managed to do one so far this month - that's just so sad. I will now give you marirob's month in review, image heavy and chock full of crazy people!

After our attempts at decorating the house, we had the girls Huay and Su over for some delectable pizza, including Rob's combination of our two favorite recipes of the year, ratatouille and pizza.


The next event was Rob's work party, where baby JG made his public debut.


A couple of months ago we had a grilled cheese sandwich competition at our friends' Jared and Karen's house, which was followed up a couple of weeks ago by the epic pancake battle.


Here are Rob's delectable pear pancakes.


And only in California can you have a pancake battle and eat outside in December.

The next day, Sarita and Chris invited us over to decorate gingerbread cookies. We started out with some delicious homemade hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows.


The next two hours were filled with such hilarity that I proceeded to get a headache from all of the laughing and sugar. Here are the only cookies I can share on a g-rated blog.


Sometime during the month Rob brought home a real Christmas tree. This is important because 1. Rob has never had a real Christmas tree and 2. I have not had a tree since I lived with my parents. My biggest fear was that Unki would jump on the tree and bring it down, but it seems that Unki is very fearful of non-human items and has only batted a ornament once or twice.


When Rob brought the tree home, he announced, "We're going to make all of the ornaments!" To date, I have made seven and Rob has made none. Here are two that I whipped together in haste.


I remembered that I had six ornaments that I had brought home from Prague four years ago, so carefully because they were made of eggshells.


I also made a tree skirt from some Nani Iro fabric from work - I just have to bias tape around the edges to finish it.


We had a Secret Santa gift exchange at work. I thought it would take forever to draw names that weren't our own, but it only took four tries. The only stipulation was that the gifts had to be handmade.


Jen made Rickie this incredible colored quilt.


Tracey made Jen this adorable apron.


I made Tracey a scarf from the new Manos Silk Blend in Wildflowers.

I think I got the best gift of all.

A cornucopia of handmade cookies from Rickie! I was stunned when I opened the box. They were even more delicious than they look!

I can't show any of the gifts I have made and given to people because I am still in the process of finishing some gifts. But I can show you one gift that I know won't be seen, it's a scarf for my dad. I don't think he's ever touched a computer in his life.


And it's not a post without parting shots from Unki and Maggie! Maggie was easy to shoot, I just woke her up from her usual spot on the couch.

I had to chase Unki all over the house taking crazy photos.

Of course, when I had despaired of taking any nice photos, Unki settled down to take some very handsome photos.

Merry Christmas!

Full of thanks

Happy day after Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is recovered from the turkey/pumpkin pie/stuffing coma and enjoying their Friday. Taking a note from Marisa's book, I'm listing five things I'm thankful for.

1. A wonderful husband...

... who is in touch with manliness enough to look at a Vogue magazine so studiously.

2. A Thanksgiving feast with family...

... featuring a twenty pound turkey made by the best mama in the world!

3. A job working with the best people...

... who make the most amazing handmade birthday gifts.

4. Cats with "too much personality" (as Mama likes to say)...


... who bring so much joy to our lives.

5. A wonderful blogging community! Thank you everyone for such support over the years. There is no way I would be in such a great place in my life without your supportive comments and friendship. I hope all of you take a minute to be thankful this weekend. Gobble gobble!

Clothing cavalcade

Before I begin the post, I wanted to answer a couple of comments that I wasn't able to return personally.

Jill asked:
I love the monk's bag! Did you follow a pattern, or is it one of those things you just whip up?

Well Jill, first, thank you! Like I said, I love it! I kind of followed a photo of a monk's bag in one of my Japanese bag books, and took the dimensions of the straps, but everything else I made on my own. If anyone is interested in a tutorial (even one person!) I'd happily post one. It's an easy quick bag.

Kelly asked:
Hey, is that the same CK duvet that Carrie Bradshaw has on SATC?

What good eyes you have, Kelly! It is the same duvet. I bought it years and years ago, then I saw the same one on SATC. Isn't it the same old story, the bloggers create the trends and Hollywood copies them! But seriously, this duvet has really held up over the years - I really love the Calvin Klein linens (even though they can be expensive).

Onto the post! This spring and summer, instead of buying my clothes, I've decided to make them. Well, I'll still need to buy things like t-shirts and unmentionables, but here's a start.


Pattern - McCall 'sM5313 View A
Fabric - Amy Butler Slate Morning Glory, 2 yards
The idea behind this jumper was to create something that could have come from Anthropolgie, but it looks more like something from Urban Outfitters. Even though it makes me look four years old, it's a comfy dress that was easy to make. However, the pattern was a little more confusing than it needed to be, and there was a lack of detail that was lacking (e.g. topstiching around the top and straps) that I added myself.


Pattern - Simplicity 4589 View A
Fabric - Cotton Voile from Michael Levine Fabric, One yard
This is another one of those patterns I would never have bought if I didn't see it make on Nikki-Shell's blog. It's a cute simple pattern, a little boxy, but very versatile.

The fabric is from one of my favorite stores in the fashion district downtown, Michael Levine. It can be hit or miss, but they sometimes have great bargains, like this fabric, $2 a yard.


Pattern - Simplicity 4086, View F
Fabric - Re-form Pears from Superbuzzy, 2 yards
This is a home decorating fabric that was perfect for a skirt. The pears ran across both selvedges, so I still have a strip of pears that I can use for a bag or something else. Although I love the skirt, I still have issues with the sizing of skirt patterns. I like to wear my skirts low on my waist, so I made a size 14, but it was still a little high. Who are these women with skinny skinny waists who can wear size 8? I don't think they exist.


Pattern - McCall's M5042, View A
Fabric - Amy Butler Sage Lacework, 2 yards
I'm going to say this up front - I hated making this dress, from beginning to end. It turned out ok in the end, but the pain of making it has prevented me from objectively seeing it. Does that make sense? To me, it's a blur of seam ripping, seam ripping, and more seam ripping.

While I was making this dress, I realized that I'm not only high waisted, but thick waisted. So I wanted to find a pattern that was had a higher waist with a similar feeling. The problems occured when I decided to make the lining (which really didn't need it) and cutting the wide skirt, because it didn't fit onto my pre-shrunk fabric. A sidenote - I think Amy Butler's fabrics from her Lotus line are just fantastic. I know that everybody's using them, but I think they are still original enough to make a unique piece of clothing.

Anyways, I'm not going to bore you with even more details, but I'm glad it's done. How do you celebrate the completion of a dress?

Pizza with the family! This one was with olive oil, basil, garlic, romano and burrata cheeses... yummy...

Anniversary Gluttony

I've sewed some clothes recently, but I haven't found the chance to do a photo shoot with Rob. Here are a couple of non-clothing items that I could take photos of.


I've been thinking about making a monk's bag for a while, and I used the yukata fabric I bought to back my couch quilt. This is the MOST comfortable bag I've ever used. I think it's the combination of the thin (but strong!) fabric and the thick strap. I want to make one out of canvas for a travel bag to take to Japan.


Couple of bed pillows from Kokka Abeille fabric. Don't Henry and the original Unki look happy with the pillows?

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Rob! To celebrate, we cooked one of Rob's favorite dishes (chicken marsala). I also made not one, but two desserts, both recipes from Orangette.


I first made this cake because Rob loves chocolate, but it fell after taking it out of the oven. So I hurriedly whipped together another dessert...

from stuff I had around the house. I have to say, both cakes were delicious!
(By the way, did you notice Unki's feet in both photos? They were taken hours apart and yet he managed to be in both!)

What's the only thing to do after such a decadent meal?

Take a nap with the cats, of course!

in the Mood for Vain Pizza

Sometimes, there are just things that are so great or so weird a special post is in order.

MOOD

For fellow fans of Project Runway, Mood Fabrics is where the designers go to shop for their challenges. I've always been fascinated with those bolts of fabric going all the way up to the ceiling. If only I lived in Manhattan and and have Tim Gunn as my mentor!

Well, Angelenos are in luck. My friend Huay told me that she thought there was a Mood Fabrics on Pico and La Cienega. I went exploring yesterday, and yes, there is! It's definitely a neat place to browse - I didn't buy anything, but the workers were very nice and helped me look at some fabrics. Which I did need help, because those bolts are heavy! All I took out of there was this:

I had to have something from there - a business card is something!

They've only been there 4 weeks so they are still putting up signs. I did look at the cotton prints because I felt that was where I could be most discerning. The prices were from $8-$16 a yard and there were some very lovely fabrics. Next time I go I'll bring a camera and have more info about prices, types of fabrics, etc. Very exciting!

PIZZA

My cooking and baking guru is yaiAnn - if she gives it her seal of approval, I'm off to the market! The other day, she posted about some homemade pizza she made, and I had to try it. Rob was a little worried that the pizza dough wouldn't come out, but it tasted delicious!

Our first pizza (which I sloppily shaped) was a margherita with fresh mozzarella and basil.


Rob took over construction of the next pizza, which was his favorite - homemade meatball and mushroom pizza with mozzarella and parmesan.


Finally, the winner of "prettiest pizza" and my favorite, fresh tomato, mushroom and fresh mozzarella.


The crust was nice and bready and I couldn't believe how great it tasted. I'm inviting some girlfriends over for dinner on Friday night and we're having a pizza making party. I really recommend this recipe - it's so easy and very satisfying.

VAIN

Does anyone out there have a cat that likes to look in the mirror? We do! Unki has done it again. Not only does he play fetch, lay in weird positions, and try to get into every photo, he's become obsessed with looking at himself in the mirror. For the past two weeks, we've caught him looking in the bathroom mirror every chance he gets.

First, he makes sure he's looking good.


If he's not, he'll clean himself.


Then he'll scratch the mirror, just to make sure his reflection's not another cat.


If all is well, he'll settle down and make faces.


The funny part is when he sees Maggie in the mirror. He gets so excited, then jumps down and then goes BEHIND the mirror to find her. Of course, he can't find her, gets back on the counter, sees her again, gets excited, jumps down, goes behind the mirror, can't find her... on and on. I'll try to get video of that someday - luckily Unki's a cat and can't complain to his therapist how his parents used to make so much fun of him!