Week 5: Goals

the project box for my niece

Here it is, Monday Tuesday and time for my weekly goals! Last week due to an unfortunate turn of events I had to fly to the midwest for a funeral so not much sewing happened. I returned home in the wee hours of Monday morning, so yesterday was also kind of a bust. But today I feel...tired. I would love to say that I feel refreshed and ready to go, but this will be the week of shaking off the lazy bug and digging my hands in. yay. I mean Yay!

Finished: Denim Ginger

Right now I am traveling, so I thought I would be productive with my travel time :) That does mean you will all have to deal with my not-so-hot photos. I wish I could have retaken them, but I didn't have the time. I really only got one good shot! So without further ado:

Week 4: Monday Goals & a little reflection...

Another Monday it is! It seems like this month is flying by. January is a funny month, it is filled with new beginnings and fresh starts, but here outside it is cold and grey which feels like anything but fresh. Last week I succumbed to the grey of the month. You know those days? When you just can't seem to stop reading other people's blogs and get started on your own stuff? Before you know it you have wasted hours of precious free time. That was me last week!

Flea Market Find or Folly: Collins Gauge Conclusion!

Remember the other day, when I was unsure of this hemming gauge? Well...it worked! Yay! I spent $5 on this at the flea market and when I got it home, I thought it would just be another random sewing tool that didn't work, but looked cute. But it did! Can you tell how shocked I am? I had visions of the ruler part splitting as I tried to force tap it in...but, as you can see it is a nice snug fit. Here it is in all its glory:

Flea Market Find or Folly: Collins Hemming Gauge

A couple of months back I went to my first flea market. Well, my first American one. While in Rome we went to Porta Portese, which is kind of crazy. Crazy busy; people pushing and shoving to get to tables laden with cheap pillows, outdated curling irons and new (but old-stock) sneakers. There was some vintage/antique stuff there as well, but furniture and paintings ranging in the thousands of euros. It was either super pricey or super cheap. So I was naturally very curious at what it would be like here.

Week 3: Monday Goals

I can't believe it is Monday already?! This past weekend flew by. I spent the weekend mostly cleaning and cooking, but was able to do a little sewing. It was a relaxing and productive weekend. I made a great chicken dish on Saturday that looked strange when it was pulled from the oven, but was delicious. I must admit that I could have been a bit more productive if I hadn't decided that I needed to watch Downton Abbey (clearly I am not good at avoiding distraction!). I watched the entire second season and now the first two of the third. It is actually surprising when I think about all I did accomplish considering how some of my weekend was spent on the couch!

So I am going to try to keep the momentum going as we head into this third week:

1. Take pictures of my completed Ginger. I finished it on Friday (yay!), but wasn't able to get a good photo shoot. Yet. Hopefully that will happen this week.

2. Start niece's dress. I had said that my next project would be my niece's dress, Simplicity 1787, and instead I sewed up my Ginger. So, that is what I will do next. Although, I have to travel to Texas for my older sister's 40th birthday and I kind of want to make a dress for that. I would have about a month to get it done...

3. Stay focused and sew my niece's dress! :)

This week I will be at the shop a little more, so I won't have as much free time. All the more reason to really adhere to goal two and three! Anyone else have a hard time staying focused? Have a great Monday!

Bridesmaid Bombshell

Here it is! Only eight (crap, really eight?!?) months late. Better late than never, right? Right. As a short recap, I enrolled in Gertie's Craftsy course earlier last year to make myself a bridesmaid dress for my good friend's wedding. I did have a purchased back-up dress waiting in the wings just in case this didn't come together. I was stitching the straps on this dress the day of the wedding :)

A Little Notion

How many times have I been down the notions aisle and just can't remember the right size button, ribbon, or color thread I need? Too many. Instead of waiting and coming back to the store, I just buy two. This is somewhat helpful since usually one of the items is what I need, but instead of returning the other back to the store, it goes into a pile. Take this scenario and multiply by one hundred (and that is grossly underestimating). That is what I have in my sewing room. Too many.

Week 2: Monday Goals

January in New Hampshire is so cold and grey that I thought these flowers would brighten my week

So the first week of 2013 was a pretty productive one. Hopefully this past week was just a teaser for how the rest of the year will go! This coming week I think is going to be a good one too, if I can just stay on course and not get distracted, then all will go well. How productive was I last week, you ask? Let's see what I got accomplished:

Taleggio and Radicchio Lasagna

When I first made this recipe from Epicurious we were living in Rome. I got fresh sheets of pasta from a shop around the corner from our apartment and the radicchio and Taleggio from the market, on Via Ozanam, further up the hill. This time around it was a bit different. As of August I have stopped eating gluten. I am not celiac, but gluten-sensitive, I believe. Lasagna was one of those things that I thought would be difficult to do gluten free. Especially this lasagna with its floury-taleggio-bechemel sauce. Come to find out, it is not forbidden. It was actually *really* delicious. All it just took was a little faith and determination - and five stores later to find gluten free lasagna noodles!

Finished: Vogue 8728

Well, my Gathering Glory (aka Vogue 8728) dress is done! Hooray! Just to warn you there are quite a few photos in this post. And I am in almost all of them! I will hopefully get invited to another fall wedding next year and get to wear it, if I can't find something to wear it to before. Remember that "pride" feeling I was talking about yesterday, this is what it is about, for I am pretty delighted with how it turned out. Although, even with all my planning and muslin-ing it still needs some tweaking. But that is okay, because cardigans will be this dress' best friend. Good thing I own a million of them!

Past & Future

This past year was quite a year. I was not able to blog as much as I wanted, as you probably could tell. The tumbleweed was often seen rolling around these parts of the blog-o-sphere. Not that I physically couldn't blog, I wasn't tied and gagged all year, nor did my fingers go numb every time I tried to write, but life just got in the way. Some of it was great, some was just overwhelming.