Sew a girl a dress, she looks great for one party.....

Teach a girl to sew and all the American Girl Dolls in the neighborhood will have little pillows for their heads.  These two beautiful girls are my best friends daughters.  Lulu 9 and Cece 11.  They had an old crusty sewing machine that was given to them and alas it didn't work.  

Lulu sewing away

So for Christmas I gave them my cheapo brother from Target- works great but I just upgraded for more gizmos. 

Lulu pressing her seams open

I took scraps from their gumdrop pillows and cut out squares to make a pillow so I could show them how the machines works.  We also learned the value of pressing.

Cece at the machine sewing her pillow, Lulu pressing

On the table is Nate's pill with the baseballs.  He actually also sewed a bit of his.  What he did was push the pedal and I guided the fabric but he hung in there for most of it.  The hardest part is guiding the fabric straight and pressing the pedal evenly- admittedly the pedal is not easy to control.

Cece finishing up.

All three pillows unstuffed

Three happy new sewists with their little pillows

I'm told that they are working on piecing a quilt.  Our next project is pajama pants.  Part of their gift was a pattern and a trip to Jo Anne's to pick out fabric. Then cutting and sewing the PJs.  I should have take advantage of that warm up sale last weekend but I didn't think of it.  Darnit. 

Farewell 2010...... Hello 2011- the International year of ME!

New Year's Eve; wearing my grandmother's mink coat for the first time.

Well 2010 was a really great year.  I fell in love and then out.  Quit a job and started a new one.  Started sewing again and kept on going.  And, I turned 40.  That's when I decided that this year is the year of ME. Things seem to be going my way and I've hit on some things that make me happier than I've ever been.   One of which is sewing, sharing and wearing my creations.

I noticed that the bloggers out there do a yearly recap but the above is my recap for you.  That was last year.  Here's what's planned for this year.

1. Sell my house in California - renters want to buy it- yippeee.
2. Buy a new computer- mine is limping along and aged.
3. Run the Shamrock 5k again in March- improve time and bring along friends
4. Sew a few jackets- at least 4 are planned- not enough for the jacket a month but that's ok.
5. Enter one contest
6. Join a sew a long- vintage sew a long- check! Found a pattern that I bought in the 80's
7. Finish my sister's dress- this should be #1 or 2 but I just thought of it.
8. Make a few blouses- at least 1 planned w/pattern and fabric purchased
9. Make at least one pair of pants
10. Sew through the stash before buying more fabric
11. Make one coat- one planned w/fabric already purchased.
12. Teach some kids how to sew- already started, see later post.
13.  Go to Paris for vacation.

That's all I'm willing to share at this point.  I've got a few others but let's just say those are more personal.  I will say that my new job has given me a good sense of accomplishment and doing a good job means taking a lot of time to plan and learn etc.  It's taken a lot of my mental capacity these last two months but I know the key to keeping balance is also putting energy into my personal life and that includes doing the above things for myself.  Balance; not easy but necessary.

And now a word about new years.....
I love to dress up.  Love it.  And the dress I picked to wear out to dinner with friends was my favorite sewing project of the year- blogged about here.  I see on Erica's site that it's her favorite too- fitting as she is one of my sewing heros and when she made it, I dug the pattern out and made it asap. Let's just say that dressing up makes me happy.  I had forgotten how much.  And more so when I can wear something I made that is fabulous.

Dinner at Blue Hour with friends wearing the fabulous Guy Laroche dress and fake eyelashes.

Two fabulous girlfriends: Angie and Mollie.  And, I finally learned how to pose in a flattering way.

We had a wonderful time.   There was one altercation (hushed but heated), one marriage proposal (not to me) and a lot of champagne.  Let's just say my couch was my best friend on the first day of 2011 and I caught up on all of Boardwalk Empire.  I should add a goal regarding toning my flabby arms- eeek.

Happy New Year everyone.  

Things that Make me Happy- Hiking in the Gorge

You might get sick of me saying it, but I live in a beautiful place and am lucky to have the fitness and health to enjoy it.  Case in point: Angel's Rest in Bridal Veil, Oregon and the beautiful Columbia Gorge
This is a beautiful and slightly challenging 4.5 mile hike up to the pinnacle of a rock out crop that affords visitors and spectacular view of the gorge, the river and the mountains beyond (OK, we could see the tippy top of Adams in Washington).

View from almost the top looking west over the Columbia River

We left around 2pm and after getting lost by taking the wrong exit (thanks to XBF and his new Droid) I think we hit the trail about 3pm.  It took about an hour at an easy pace to get to the top where we hung out for awhile eating our trail mix and enjoying the view.  Good thing about hiking in the late afternoon, which I almost never do, is that you get that nice dusky light coming across the horizon that makes for a special effect on the water and the hills. 

Taken by random other hikers.   Thank you!!

Some people break up with each other and then never speak again.  XBF and I seem to have come to a place where we can hang out together and enjoy our same activities, which is great because ski season is coming!!!!  After a nice day enjoying the great outdoors we discussed resuming our training to hike Mt. St Helens this fall.  Next week Indian Point, 2800 feet elevation gain, 7.8 miles.  The week after will be Dog Mountain, 3000 feet elevation gain and I can't remember how many miles.

Again, if you've never been here there are many wonderful places to enjoy.  Just don't move here.  We're full and we don't want more people.  Keep Portland WEIRD!!!

Things that make me happy....

People spend so much time talking about what they don't like, I love to tell anyone who will listen, what makes me happy.  It's little things. 

Running on the waterfront in Portland makes me happy.  I've started running this year and I'm REALLY slow, but that doesn't matter.  It matters that you get out there an do it. And it makes me feel great.

I go running on the waterfront along Tom McCall Waterfront park

and do the big 2.5 mil loop across the Steel Bridge,

 along the Vera Katz promenade on the east side,

under the Burnside bridge, under the Morrison bridge and up and over the Hawthorne Bridge back to

the Tom side.

Along the way I pass tons of runners training for the marathon, groups jogging with friends, peeps struggling to keep going like me.   I also pass masses of bikers either training or commuting, tourists out for a morning stroll with some great coffee and homeless people gathering their bedding from a nights sleep in the out of doors.

And all the while I get a fabulous view of the lovely city that I grew up in and came back to.  I'm thankful for my health, that I can attempt to run, that my lungs and legs work, and that the city put in such a nice place to enjoy the out of doors.

If you've never been here, it's as wonderful as they say.  Uh, but don't come here to stay, we're full.
Keep Portland Weird!

Things that make me happy....

It can be said that it's the little things in life that make us happy.  For me that's also true and for some reason those things are usually beauty products.  Now I know that at my age I shouldn't be so giddy over such a thing and that it might be a bit childish but, what can I do? I'm a girl through and through.

I was browsing Shape Magazine ( I got a free three month subscription for some reason that I can't remember) when I came across this advertisement......

....and I thought:  I need that immediately!  So, I rationalized buying it for some girlfriends' birthdays' and threw one into the cart for myself.  Purchased here: http://lippmanncollection.stores.yahoo.net/allproducts.html

Now, the polish is $18.00 plus about $6.00 for shipping so if you are buying one bottle it's a little steep but if you are buying several the shipping is amortized (rationalizing: it's a gift, the rationalizing AND the nail polish).

This polish is AWESOME!  You can't tell from the picture but the chunks are huge and all different shapes. There are even ones that are sliver with a little pink dot in the middle.  The coverage is great and the polish base holds onto the glitter like cement!  Which, is great to keep it on, not great when you want to get it off.  My nieces loved it when we did their annual year end spa day at my house. Ok, they didn't love it as much as I do, for some reason.  I found a fellow nail polish lover, Cidell, and shamelessly copied her application pictured here. Perfect for the 4th of July celebration because it's like fireworks on your fingers.  Like I said, it's the little things....

Yes, I'm gonna sew something else soon, now that I've shaken jet lag and begun my THREE DAY WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!