Thursday, August 20, 2009

Not a fan of Fruit.....

I have to admit to that (though I am a fan of my friend Becca's blog ) it's not that they have really done anything malicious to me over the years...the problem with them is their inconsistency to taste the same every time. I really need to look at the areas the fruit comes from when I find a fruit I like, then I might start to feel a little friendlier towards them. My family is also a little iffy about them....so I have been "trying" to use them more often.

This week I had an abundance of blueberries...so I tried a blueberry strudel of sorts....and still had a bunch left in the fridge for a few days...and well, for me blueberries scare me. I just can not take their mushy consistency when they start to "fade". So I knew I had to do something with them instead of wasting more moola in the garbage.



So off to my favorite recipe website with Gavyn I went, because that is one of our great pass times together....searching through recipes for things we are going to make down the road....and actually came across a blueberry drop cookie recipe....




and while it was a snap to make....I usually just look at the recipe ingredient list to see if I have everything and just start baking.....lol.....I should have read it a little more carefully....because then I would have known about the 4 hour chill time in the fridge....ooops.....just means that they will last 4 hours longer in my house....hehehe.....



While they turned out great I did substitute the almond extract for vanilla....and add a twitch more lemon for tartness....

I love baking, and I am glad that I am starting to get a little helper in the kitchen as well :)....

now if only I could get him to help clean up the mess as well....heheheh

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

OOAK's and why I do so many of them....

OOAK (one of a kind) is something that I started doing almost right off the bat when I started sewing waaay back in the day on ebay when chenille was the thing to make a baby girls outfit out of. Not only was this fabric expensive, but it at first was hard to come by, especially when you were using the real vintage stuff. So I made a lot of my outfits OOAK....and while the ebay boutique venue grew and more "everyday" fabrics were being used I still got into that make only one kind of vibe....mass reproducing my designs a gazillion times did not appeal to me at all...even if I was getting good money for them. I began to resent my own copy cat customs and started to procrastinate, and then became late at delivering and I probably lost a ton of customers that way. So while I do sometimes offer a custom auction on ebay, or listing on etsy.....it is a rare thing. It is not that I do not want to make something for you...just not something I have done already....:)

Even though I have a closet full of "Ready to Ship" items and could probably get by with not getting behind and continuing to list while sewing a custom it still takes me to my boredom place....I feel very sad for admitting that...but I know that I constantly need to be doing something new....

There are times when I do cut multiple of the same thing though...sometimes different sizes so I get on an assembly line type feeling for that outfit, so it does not feel like I have done the outfit tons of times....it feels like just once....the downside. I may have 4 of the same thing and nobody likes it...lol....

Why this is starting to actually bother me now?? well I realize that the way I buy fabric is probably the wrong way = more expensive. I quite often only buy 2yrds at a time....when in all honesty I should be buying by the bolt. Heck, not only will I not run out for awhile, but it sure does look neater....than say....

this....



and not that I do not like a whole palette of colours thrown together like than. But I just might be a tad more productive if my like was a little more organized...

**GASP**

yup I said it....

But for now, I am sticking to my OOAK's.....it helps me in my creativity. Keeps my UFO's to a maximum too....lol....


but at least my mind is working....






it is.....I swear it is....hehehe

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Holding a FaceBook Garage Sale...

of sorts....Some of the Scrappy Dress's that you see a few post's down are up for grabs...and more

Just "friend me" to see what I have up and ready to go...

or even better...just go to this link if you are a facebook member already...

and you can get to my Facebook album from that to see what I have up....some stuff is already selling and will have the SOLD sign in the description of it...but you can e-mail me and let me know which picture # you want if it is still up for grabs :)

Go check it out :)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

and yes....I have found it.....HOME....sigh....




Yesterday I had the most wonderful opportunity to go....SHOPPING :) and not just any kind of shopping...but NYC SoHo shopping. Stef and the kids stayed home for the day, because really I can not understand them NOT wanting to walk around aimlessly for hours on end with no particular destination....gasp.....so ya...they stayed home and did not get to enjoy my trials and tribs to get lost....literally :)

While I did actually have one destination...I needed to get to PuRL to pick up some fabric and elastic....sure I could have gone just about anywhere for that...lol...but I wanted a good excuse to go into SoHo. It took me about 35 mins to get there via foot and the PATH train which was great timing think. It wasn't hard to find at all as I did a little bit of research before I left and knew I was looking for the light aqua store, and it definitely sprang out on the street. It was small and cosy, and the staff was very friendly and let us know about a future applique class that would be taught there (hmmmmm) only 6 students per class though, the space is that kind of small, so if I was thinking about joining to let them know soon....again....hmmmmmm.....lol....my appliques suck, and I should really try something else other than just straight sewing...

After I picked up my bunches of fabric, I went to tour SoHo....and I was in luck, there were sidewalk and end of summer sales everywhere. I LOVE walking in and out of stores, trying stuff on (I am a huge DVF fan :) and then talking myself out of buying them....lol...cause really who needs a 525$ tank top.....well....not me, but I am sure someone does :) But again it was about the experience. One of my favorite things to do is pick up their "cards"....at just about every store that I could find one I did. If I liked something I wrote on the back what I did, so then I could find them again, cause at that point things were just running on a blurr...so I came home with about 20 cards....and probably went into twice as many stores (I am sure hubby is VERY happy that he did not come...lol)



It comes a time I think in all good shopping experiences, that you really need to stop and refuel. There is an abundance of places to eat....with lovely little Terrasse atmospheres' just about everywhere....and they are all jam packed. Now I am not the type that is afraid to sit and eat alone...doesn't bother me at all...I do dislike being pushed in like sardines though, but I get it...it is NYC and that is what happens here....really how can a resto fail in this area??

But after waundering around a bit to find the perfect place....like a shining beacon...it called out to me.....


Vosges Haut Chocolat......lol....but of course :) Who really needs to eat anything substantial and hearty when you have chocolate....hehehe....actually what drew me in was not only there funky outside purple decor....but the sign on the door that said "Hot and COLD Chocolate"...and yup...they had me. It was friggin hot outside yesterday, and while I love the warmth, I needed a little respite from it, and I went in to try their Cold Chocolate. It looked like most of the servers where busy helping a BrideZilla to be :) with her order, and after looking at their displays of tons of chocolate I went to the cashier to make my order...which was going to be a cup of Cold Chocolate. But when he looked at me and asked what I would be having...I blanked...lol...it happens sometimes to me...words are there...but they do not come out....hehehe....so I asked him what he would recommend??? and he suggested not something in chocolate decadence but something called "Wattleseed IceCream" ...THEY HAVE ICE CREAM TOO!!!!!!(yup, that is it, up at the top)....omg.....yup ladies...I am moving in....lol...not only did they have me with the purple decor, the amazing crystal chandelier, and let us not forget the ever cascading dreams of chocolate, but Ice Cream too...le sigh....Wattleseed Ice cream is made from a wattleseed which is native to Austrailia and macadamia nuts, with a hint of vanilla...it just really hit the spot, and was not heavy at all which it could have been in that heat. I just sat there in the store and enjoyed reading about the founder of the store (Katrina Markoff) and how she came about with the concept of Vosges, and how she made herself successful (I always admire people that start off with an odd idea and make it work)...and listening to the Bride make the very patient staff go a little crazy.....hehehe. I of course after reading about Katrina could not leave without picking up some of her amazing chocolate, and I picked up a few of her bars so I could share with the brood back home (okay maybe not) I ended up buying Black Pearl Bar (wasabi, ginger, black sesame seeds and dark chocolate), Naga Bar ...omgosh you had me at Hello...(Sweet Indian Curry Powder, coconut flakes, deep milk chocolate) and the Red Fire Bar (Mexican ancho y chipotle chillies, Ceylon Cinnamon, dark chocolate) and while I thought I was done picking up an assortment of her varied tastes of bars, she mentioned in one of her articles that she hoped that if you were going to taste at least one of her creations it would be her first one...so I also picked up her Naga truffle (sweet curry, and dark chocolate)....I was so happy to have found this store....and I was so so sad to leave....






but not before trying one of there sampler truffles that they had laid out...yum...if you are an adventerous type with your food...and especially with your chocolate...I highly suggest going in for a visit :)....next time I am picking up the chocolate BACON bar.....yup..she went there...hehehe

yup, there went my diet right there.....lol...but so so worth it.


I think I spend about 5 hours waundering the SoHo streets...and going back and forth amoung the stores....lots of very everyday type stores (American Apparel type blah blah stores) but there were fun boutiquey type that I would never have found unless there...like Olive and Betty's, and Anna Sui, which I was happy to discover...



OH and this....hehehe....because my tiara loving friend also loves cupcakes...I was delighted to find these as part of the sidewalk sales....I picked up two of her red velvet cupcakes...and carried them all the way back home to share with hubby....see I did think of him :)




LOL....me and my parcels....checking out some really great re-done furniture...possible new sewing table?? what do you think?





How can one not have fun in SoHo.....??? But is definitely a place not to bring your hubbies and your kid's if you plan to shop...and seriously shop :)

Friday, August 7, 2009

Easy Come...Easy Go




Sometimes it is so so easy to pc together one of my Scrappy Dress's...I mean literally throw the fabrics together and it works perfectly...in an odd way (because I really do not like to match anything) and I am so surprised at how easy it was. Even the sewing glides along like it is talking to me and telling me which patches go where...

Other times....man....it can take months for a dress to get going. Sure a lot of it has to do with my procrastination. Below dress was a color suggestion from a buyer...she wanted pink and red...and while funnily enough my scrappy dress's really do come from my scraps so I have to wait until I have all the right matching patches to do something with it...and well for whatever reason I have never been a big buyer of the color red??? surprising because to major holidays use that color in the schemes.



So when someone says I would like an aqua, green and yellow scrappy dress sometimes it just maybe impossible for me to do (at the time), but ask me in 6 months and I may have some of those colors lying around in my ruffle or scrap bin and all will be good...and I just may finish it in a lickity split time....lol...


Just to fill you in a bit on what is going on with us in a great big move to the US of A. Recently is seems that we have found a rental that will suit us fine. Nothing grand of spectacular mind you....but it will do. It has 3 bedrooms instead of 4 so Gavyn and Tristen will have to share...it has 2 bathrooms....which is a plus for us coming from a 1 bath house. The basement is USEABLE.....WOOT.....which in a lot of our house hunting it seems that this was a problem. Either it wasn't finished, or it was stinky...but this one we are able to put the TV room on one half, and have a computer room/sewing room for me and hubby....OH....and there is FENCED in backyard for the dogs...so tick, tick and tick off all the boxes and it will be okay (though I am going to completely ignore the fact that my kitchen counters are aqua...sigh)

So I have been checking out the schools that they are required to go to....one of the big differences from Montreal, where they could go to just about any school that you wanted them too...as long as you could get them there...But here it is by street to which school you can go to. Looking up on their schools websites on the weekend and I see that they have "Summer Reading" Books....that they have a list of about 20 per grade and they have to choose 2 books off of it to do a book report/essay questions on. With only a month left I had to take a list from the website and pray that the nearest book store had something...anything....I hit the jackpot with Tristen and I choose 3 books for him and he could choose the 2 that he wanted to do the report on...So he got "The Wednesday Wars", "Heat", and "Things Not Seen"...now I got those 2 days ago....he is finished the first two books already....KYLE on the other hand...I was not so lucky with. I took the whole list in....and all I could find was ONE book, which was okay as they would order another for me. So the book I took home was actually the one that I really wanted for him, and the one that he might get into because it was a true story...it is called "Alive" about a plane crash and the survivor's and how they get through it...it was made into a movie as well. The boy read 2 pages and said he wasn't going to read it...sigh...give it a 100 pages at least before you give up on a book...isn't that the tried and true?? So he bribed me....lol...or I bribed him...not quite sure how it went. But if he read half the book then I would have to make him cookies...hmmmmm....doesn't seem like that bad of a trade off...because I haven't baked anything like that in a few weeks and I was due...and heck, if it would get him to read the book how was I losing??? ...lol...this morning I woke up....and there he was sitting with more than half the book read. Since I know my son...I quizzed him a bit about the book to make sure that he just didn't dog ear a page for presentation, thank goodness I saw the movie and saw a biography about it years ago so I have the jist of it...and yup....apparently cookies is the main persuader for him....(must remember that for the future)

So this afternoon...I made 4 dzn of these....




Now normally these would not last more than I day in our house....but I thought that since I am making them later in the day that this would possibly stretch them out a day and a half....ha....finally going to outsmart them....well kinda, cause I know that Kyle will come down in the middle of the night and steal a few...he's a teen of course he is going to. But that is okay, because I held my end of the bargin, and so did he....

But I did not take into the equation big dumb blond barky bark....who since we have moved in to this place has pretty much been a solid well behaved dog....until now....I went upstairs to go to the bathroom....I came downstairs to make coffee and he looked guilty....like really really guilty....slinking next the the floor as I walked by and he just ran for it....Now dinner was roasted chicken...and I did leave it on the counter as well....the dog did not touch the chicken....not even the laywayed bone was nudged....he went right for the chocolately goodness.....all 3 dzn that were left....LOL....


as you can tell I am personally not upset....

the dog just saved my diet :) and Kyle read the book, and got his cookies

win/win/win

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Yummie Laughter....




They are all downstairs right now whooping it up....laughing, giggling, teasing and running....just like boys should be doing. A few "what the hells!!??" from Gavyn (okay we are trying to break him from that habit) so I know that all is okay.

They usually spend most of their time NOT getting along, that this sounds like bliss at the moment, even if it is a few decibels louder than I would like, how can I stop them...really why would I....what is a little noise amoungst happy sounds :)

Maybe I will call them up for snack soon to munch on the chocolate chip muffins that I just made, I can not believe that they have not sniffed them out yet and claimed that they are starving and haven't eaten it FOREVER.....which means that they truly are getting along....

how odd.....hehehee....I might be able to get used to it.....but then wonder what are they up to really?? Lulling me into a false sense of security is what they do best.....conniving children of mine.....you watch, they have me set up for something....


they are my children after all :) I expect nothing less....they keep me on my toes. Boy do they ever....lol...which is good because if it wasn't for sewing and them...(and possibly the dogs) my brain would go to mush.


But I love love the laughter....makes me light up everytime I hear it...


I listed a few new dress's and put them in my shop today...we are without some pretty spectacular wall colors in the new place....sigh....and hubby is not wanting to paint anything that we are renting. SO I am going to have to get his help in constructing a backdrop for me (oh did I not mention this hubby?? oopps.....yup, I will be bugging you soon about this) because the walls here are just not cutting it and it makes me sad to look at these listings....but I adore the dress's...take a looksie if you have time...



Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Still recovering from the BBQ...lol...





This weekend was the 5th Annual (see I capitalized that) Diva BBQ...now for those of you that do not know what this is....it is the ebay designers event of the year...truly is. We come from all over to taste some of the best food, meet the nicest people and get to know our Hostess with the Mostest :) Lisa has been holding this even for 5 years now and this was my actual first time getting to enjoy it hands on after watching from afar via pictures that get uploaded onto the ebay design boards....and let me tell you I am sitting there all day refreshing just to see what I have missed....glutton for punishment...maybe just a little...lol...This years theme was Hot Pink and Zebra....so you will probably be seeing a bit of that in the pics :)



But since we have moved to the US, it was much much easier to convince hubby to drive 1/2 an hour to the Diva's house, than trekking 7 hours via car from Montreal. I finally get to be involved in all the festivities....and I was not disappointed.

Getting to meet...well...basically my co-workers after all these years was just a gift. I have been designing and selling on ebay for 9 years now, and while I have met a handful of ladies, this is the first time I get to spend all this time with them in this kind of atmoshere....and WOW....hehehe...and you Gals did not disappoint at all.



Lisa had Ziggy the magician again for all the kiddies entertainment (there most have been what??? 50 kids about?? not to mention the ones that came down the block to watch as well) and not only did he enthrall the kiddies...the adults enjoyed him too. The bounce house came in a little later on...as well as a kinda of swinging ride...it was awesome. But what kept my kids going basically all night was the trampoline....Kyle came off that thing just dripping sweat (mind you it was a perfect hot Summer day too)...and for Gavyn it was his first time ever getting on something like that. While it took a little bit to persuade him to at least try (he was afraid that he was to heavy and that he would break it...poor guy) the trampoline, once he got on, he never got off the whole night....something makes me think that I am going to have to try and convince the hubby that we need one of those :)







I of course went on every single ride, bounce house, and trampoline there....hehehe...I was going to get every experience out of this as possible....I was not going to miss a thing....WOOT!!!

She had a CANDY CART too...now I have heard about the infamous Candy Cart for years....but nothing quite prepares you for it except for being there is person. The candy was everywhere...all over the cart, in buckets on the cart, under the cart, beside the cart...you name it...she had that kind of candy. Not only did the kids drop their jaws....I sort of did too. But what was really cool....lol.....was when Lisa said go...all the kids started attacking the cart and dumping it into their little chinese take-out boxes (cute idea)....scavengers I tell...it was literally picked bone dry....(though I am pretty sure that Lisa has a stash hidden somewhere)







Now I won't go into the fact that she also had a cotton candy machine (which my children overdosed on) and caramel apples that are to die for (I have one in my fridge right now...) or that her buffet of food was never ending and OMG delicious at everyturn (the mussels were TDF) but I have not had that much fun in a trillion years, and I completely wish that EVERY weekend was like this....





We had people come in from all over...Cali, NY, NJ, PA, IL, almost got one special lady in from TN (next year right??...please please please??) where else...oh ya FL....hehehe...it was a day to remember.







and because I would like to keep this a nice family friendly blog...the night time was....ummmm....hehehe....interesting, entertaining, and well....unforgettable....hehehee....I love all those ladies, and I really cannot wait until next year (August 7th, 2010, mark your calenders)




Thank you so much Lisa Diva, Mr. Diva, Marielle and Joey for opening your home like that to complete crazy strangers....and even more for always inviting everyone back...

Got Mrs. Diva a little hostess gift of course....and well...if you know where my husband works...hehehe.....you know what kind of purse she got :) I have a feeling Marielle will be borrowing this too :)