McCall's 5353

I fell like I haven't sewed in soooooo (seeeewwwww?) long! My niece turned one in May and good aunt that I am, I never got around to making her birthday present. Since I will be seeing her next weekend, I thought I better step it up!

Here is the the first piece of the three-piece ensemble. In addition to the dress, there will be a floppy hat and panties to go under the dress. I had planned on trimming all the way around in rick rack but decided it would be too much. Both fabrics are embossed cotton from Hancock. The pattern is McCalls 5353.

Hmmm, is it me or do those pockets look crooked? WAIT!!! Don't tell me if they are. I'm not moving 'em. And this way, I can just pretend it's the angle.

Summer of the UFO - Join me!

It's funny that I started this blog a couple years ago as a place to highlight knitting projects. But based on a myriad of events, my knitting is all but non-existent these days. Over the last few weeks I have been thinking that I need to re-organize my knitting and get some projects underway and finally last night, I sat now and assessed the existing projects, the contemplated projects and the stash to get a few ideas for next steps. Well, lo and behold, I woke up this morning to an invitation to the Summer of the UFO blog started by Ms. Allison herself!

Here is a synopsis of the "rules":

Sign ups for Summer of the UFO will be open throughout the summer. To sign-up just send an e-mail to UFOknitATgmailDOTcom and let us know your e-mail address. You will then receive an e-mail invitation to join. So here are the rules. This KAL is meant for us to support one another in finishing our UFO's so you are invited to do the following:

1. Post a list of your UFO's on your blog (requested but not required)

2. Post photos of your UFO's that you are now working on and let us know how you're doing.

3. Leave comments and encourage others to finish their UFO's.

It's that simple! We hope you will join us!

Wanna join in? I personally can use the encouragement!

Chocolate PB Smoothie

As I was cleaning out the fridge this morning, I came across the Chocolate Soy Milk that I wasn't fond of. I was going to dump it was hating to waste, I tried to think of something to do with it and remembered a smoothie Jennifer posted a while back . I couldn't find it again on her blog but I think it included peanut butter and chocolate milk. Here is my version:

1 frozen banana
4-6 ice cubes
1 cup chocolate milk (soy in this case!)
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 T peanut butter

Blend until smooth. Drink with a straw. Feel smug that you're drinking something relatively healthy that tastes so darn good!!

Skirt Detail

Thanks for the feedback on melatonin. I took it two nights in a row and it worked wonderfully. I skipped it last night and ended up sleeping through the night. Woo Hoo. Hopefully, that means my sleep is back on track!

In spite of an absence of sewing on my blog lately, this post is sort of related to sewing. I saw this Banana Republic ad in a magazine and think the skirt is adorable. Just a simple pencil skirt but with some additional detail on the waistband that I like a lot. It looks like a little band that is buttoned on. I am going to see if I can find a pattern that has something similar. Or else, it would be easy enough to recreate, I suppose. I will make my skirt a wee bit longer! That model has some seriously LONG LEGS!!

Melatonin and Soy Milk

Between the neck / arm pain I've been experiencing since January, a bit of personal stress and the excessive travel I've experienced lately, I have gone from sleeping soundly every single night to very bad sleep. I would estimate that since January, I have probably only slept through the night 5% of the time. That's not good.

After being awake almost 31 hours (not counting a two hour cat nap on the plane back), I figured I would easily sleep through the night last Friday. NOPE. Two hours asleep and then wide awake for another two. Dozed off and on for another two 0r three before giving up and getting up. Same thing happened Saturday night. Weird! I mentioned it to a friend yesterday and she recommended melatonin. she specifically likes Trader Joe's version. So I bought some and VOILA!! Fell asleep at 10:30 and slept all the way through until my alarm went off at 5:30. WOO HOO! SEVEN HOURS, PEOPLE!!!

Has anyone else ever tried this stuff? My mom isn't keen, "Bon, you know those things are unregulated. Never know what it's going to do to your body." I do know that but I'm more concerned with what I might do to the people around me if I DON'T get some sleep. Wound tight as a drum - that's me!

In another health related issue, I tried some chocolate soy milk. I hate cow milk and really, really need more calcium in my diet. I tried the Silk Light Chocolate. Ummm.... EWWWW!!! "Nuf said.

Cincinnati Cicadas... Revisited

Like a bad horror movie, back in 2004 in Cincinnati, all we heard about from January to the beginning of May was the I N V A S I O N O F T H E C I C A D A S!!!!! (If I could play ominous music in this post, I would.) From the Cincinnati Enquirer: In 2004, 5 to 7 billion members of Brood X swarmed mostly to the west of Interstate 71.

In spite of months and months of warning; disclaimers of liability on potentially cancelled outdoor weddings, graduation parties, etc. due to cicada invasions; landscapers making a mint off of wrapping trees, shrubs, etc. to protect them; warnings from vets about household pets; when the cicadas finally emerged right around May 5th, it was like 'what-eva'. Very anti-climactic, in my never-so-humble-opinion. Except for my friend's "Cicada de Mayo" party (hilarious and very fun!), the cicadas were a non-event.

Fast forward to mid-May 2008... I overhear someone in Kroger talking about cicadas. Next day, I overhear someone at my son's school talking about cicadas. I decide to Google it and finally read that Brood XIV (only 2-3 billion in this brood) is fixing to invade our lovely city again! Talk about caught by surprise! Me, the chick who is online most waking hours in addition to reading the newspaper everyday. How did this slip by me??

Anyhoo... in my part of town this cicada emergence is HUGE!!! The sound is literally deafening in mid-late afternoon. A radio station played the "song of the cicadas" over the radio and it was LOUD. For people spooked by bugs, it is a scary time to live in the northeast section of the city, but for me, I kinda like them. I love that sound. Surreal, almost. My dogs have definitely been eating them but so far, no ummm, regurgitation. Just some minor coughing. The biggest downside is sweeping them off your sidewalk / patio / driveway. You DON'T want to see that!

Where .... in the World.... is.... Bonnie Sandiego

I just returned from seven days on the island of Saipan, which is in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI). Remember that show from about ten years ago? Maybe fifteen... Where is the World is Carmen Sandiego? I think it started as a computer game and turned into a tv show. Or maybe vice versa. Anyhoo... that always pops into my head when I return from Saipan because everyone always says, "Where is that?" when I tell them where I've been. The red arrow on the map above (from Geocities) points to the location of CNMI.

It's not that easy to get to, let me tell ya! Approximately, 26 hours travel time. For those of you who live on the East coast who have taken a trip to Hawaii. Long flight, right? Well, it's the halfway point to Saipan. LOL.

Based on the questions I frequently get asked, here are a few interesting facts about Saipan (excerpted from Wikipedia):

Saipan is the largest island and capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of 115.39 km² (44.55 sq mi). The 2000 census population was 62,392.

Located at latitude of 15.25° north and longitude of 145.75° east, about 200 km (120 mi) north of Guam, Saipan is about 20 km (12.5 mi) long and 9 km (5.5 mi) wide. It is a popular tourist destination in the Pacific.

Besides English, the indigenous Chamorro language is spoken by approximately 19 percent of the inhabitants. The island also has many other large, strongly defined lingual and ethnic groups because of the large percentage of contract workers (60% of total population, as of 2001 from China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In addition, a large percentage of the island's population includes first-generation immigrants from Japan, China, and Korea, and immigrants from many of the other Micronesian islands.

It is interesting that CNMI is a US Commonwealth but almost no Americans (myself included until I went there) have ever heard of it, let alone know it's part of the US. The residents are US citizens (similar to Puerto Rico and Guam although they are Territories not Commonwealths - don't ask me what the distinction is!) The islands played a big role for the US in WWII. The Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, departed from the island of Tinian. More WWII history here if you like that kind of thing.

So enough babbling... I didn't take very many pictures but here are a few:

Excuse the wrinkled dress and stupid pose (my colleagues made me pose like that. Seriously!) This was taken at a lovely golf course on the east (I think) side of the island, atop a huge cliff.




And speaking of lunch.... Japanese food is very popular on Saipan and I just think the Bento boxes are so pretty. LOL! Almost looks like play food, doesn't it?



This very unflattering shot of me (could I look any more huge??? and whatup with that hair?) was taken at a little beach restaurant that my clients took me to one evening to enjoy a sunset Happy Hour. We shared some beers and I sampled one of their favorite dishes - Chicken Kelaguen (some Chamorro recipes found here). It's a very simple dish but so delish! On the morning I left, my client was so sweet - she stopped at the market and purchased some hot peppers and island-made hot sauce so I could make it authentically once I got back home!



Although I always enjoy visiting Saipan (I can't say enough about how friendly every single person I encounter has been on each trip), it is nice to be back home. I missed my kids, my dogs, and my sewing machines a lot.

A couple of quickies

Wanna win an apron perfect for those Fourth of July parties? Go check out the Apronista's latest contest!

I posted a recipe for Strawberry Cream Pie on my other blog. It's a recipe that takes advantage of the delicious strawberries floating around

To you smart bloggers

As evident to anyone who has stopped by my blog once or twice, I am a novice blogger. I don't have any interest in learning html or designing my own blog. I love that Blogger exists for a lazy blogger-wannabe like me. But I have a question, why is my blog so skinny? Is that just the format Blogger allows? Or did I somehow make it that skinny? And can I change it without doing anything drastic? (in other words, taking no more than 30 seconds to make the change.)

Bookshelf Widget - How fun is this?

Check out the cute little bookshelf sitting on the right side of my blog! Marji pointed it out to me and it looks like a fun way to keep track of books I've read or maybe want to read. I don't have time at the moment to populate it but it only took 2 minutes to set up (no exaggeration). If you're a reader, click on the "Get Your Own Shelf" button and add one to your own blog.

I've also updated my blog list on the sidebar. Ther are some FABULOUS blogs listed over there. Incredible knitters and sewers but more importantly, some overall wonderful women! Go check them out. It is only a partial list of those to which I subscribe via Bloglines. If I missed you, drop me an email and I'll add your blog.

S3711

I made the second of the four bathrobes just in time for yesterday's baby shower. The pattern is Simplicity 3711. I made the matching booties from the pattern but didn't like how they turned out so I threw them away.




Here is a better picture of the first one, which I made one size bigger.

Getting to know you... I mean me!

Makes me think of that show tune from The King and I! Anyhoo, the lovely Allison tagged me with the latest meme making the rounds so here goes:

1) What was I doing 10 years ago? My kids were 11, 7 and 3 and I was heavily involved in PTA, Coaching and Girl Scouts when I wasn't working. I had been with my current company for just two years at that time and was getting ready to go to Saipan for the first time. The thought of being away from my kids for more than a week, halfway around the world was heart wrenching to me! I will be headed back to Saipan for my fourth visit in a few weeks.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

• Go to my son's last choir concert
• Pay bills
• Schedule staff time for work
• Book trip to Fort Myers
• Confirm that I am chaperoning Eighth Grade Dance tomorrow night I just got the call.
  

3) Snacks I enjoy:

• homemade cookies (or really any home baked goods)
  
• pretzels
• Cheese-Its
• popcorn
• chips and salsa
  
• watermelon, raspberries, strawberries
  

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Take Allison and me on a knitting retreat
  
• Hire a driver to take me wherever I want to go (I hate driving!)
  
• Hire someone to finish all the partially completed home improvement projects my ex-husband left me with
  
• Buy my daughter a car
• Buy a home in in the mountains and one on the SC shore
• Take a six month leave of absence from my job to catch up on life in general
• Charitable efforts would focus on inner city kids in my community
  

5) Places I have lived:

• Delaware
• Ohio
• England
• Montreal, Quebec

6) Jobs I have had:

• babysitter
• newspaper carrier
• day care center helper
• insurance admin assistant (intern)
• waitress
• accountant
• financial analyst
• aviation consultant
• Mama
  

7) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:

First is Ande who is funny as h*ll. (Didn't realize there were people as sarcastic as Allison and me out there!) Knit in the City
Then Lindsay with whom I share a cheerleading bond (our daughters, not us! But I'm sure Lindsay and I would be awesome, too.) Lindsay T Sews (Again)
Mimi who might just be the most prolific sewer I've ever encountered! MYRAIDA

And then the following bloggers whose blogs I've come across recently:

Sew Spicee
Sewing is like Chocolate ... highly addictive
Sew Uptight

Hello. My Name is Bonnie. And I haven't bought a pattern in two days.

Yes, we all talk about buying too much yarn... buying too much fabric... buying too many patterns. I am definitely guilty of all of the above. I fell off the pattern wagon this past weekend and I wasn't going to admit it until I kept reading about all the other pattern-obsessed bloggers who also succumbed to the Hancock and JoAnn Memorial Day sales. So here is my damage:

Butteick:	McCalls:	New Look:	Simplicity:	Vogue:
5206	5522	6806	2927	8480
2326	2213	6799	3523	8470
5187			3711	2907

So I have to ask... Who else fell off the wagon?

A great weekend and a Baby Boomlet

What a wonderful weekend it has been. The weather has been glorious (except for some clouds and sprinkles this afternoon) and the weekend has been a nice mix of downtime and get-togethers. My daughter's best friend graduates on Tuesday and her party was last night. We had a terrific time and she loved her bulletin board. My daughter also made an adorable picture collage that contained a picture of the two girls four years ago and a picture of the girls in a similar pose that was taken last month.



All of a sudden, I am surrounded by people having babies! Most of these babies are boys and it's hard to think of "cute" things for baby boys. But I happened across Simplicity 3711 which has an adorable reversible bathrobe pattern in it. When my oldest child was born (Good Lord, that was 21 freakin' years ago!!!!), my two favorite gifts were a infant size bathing suit and a little bathrobe. Voila! Gift idea solved. In addition to the pattern, I picked up some flannel and broadcloth to make robes for all these babies. I tackled the one for my co-worker's son first. Since we are in the aviation business, I found a cute flannel with airplanes on it. This is my last project for the weekend (dedicated to Miss Ande, hee, hee. You didn't believe I would crank out one more thing, did you?) The actual color of the solid fabric doesn't look like either of the two following photos - I used flash on one, and no flash on the other. The true blue is somewhere in between.

Simplicity 3624 - Take Two

I made the Simplicity 3624 top a few weeks ago and have worn it several times since. It is so comfortable and I've received some nice compliments on it. I realized when I made the top it would also make a nice dress so I whipped one up last night. In total, the project took 2 1/2 hours. (Maybe 3 hours but I was drinking a martini and although way more fun, I seem to sew more slowly. Ha ha.) Anyhoo, I think I purchased the fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics (not positive) last year. I wore it to church today and will wear it to a graduation open house this afternoon. So comfortable! This will definitely be a dress I wear a lot for just hanging out.

Full review here at PR if you're interested.

On another note, Costco had the most beautiful, delicious raspberries yesterday. I had to make a batch of granola to go with the yogurt and berries.

Getting my Crafty Groove on!

After an exhausting couple of weeks with no sewing, knitting or crafting of any sort, I have most of the weekend free. After two trips to JoAnn's and one trip to Hancock's, I have enough "supplies" to keep me busy for awhile. The first project was bulletin boards with pockets for two high school graduates. My two daughters each picked the fabric for one of the boards. As you can tell, they have very similar tastes. In spite of me saying, "How 'bout this? How 'bout this? How 'bout this?" as I held up many different fabric combos, they stuck with their very first choices. Are these girls related to me? The queen of considering each and every single fabric combination before deciding? Oh well, they DID turn out cute.

Next up... A dress for me to wear to a graduation party... TOMORROW!

Auf Wiedersehen! And Welcome Home!

I'm back [waving to all]. We spent 3 days in Copenhagen, 1 day in Brussels and 2 days in Frankfurt before returning home last night. Although I was utterly exhausted by the time I returned (I don't think we had more than 5 hours sleep any night), what an fun and exciting week it was! The purpose of the trip was to tour some facilities in Europe who already engage in some of the initiatives my client is considering undertaking. As a consultant, I am usually on the "selling" side so it was great fun to be on the receiving end and have people take such good care of us. We were definitely wined and dined and got to see some very fun things. We stayed in three different luxurious hotels.

We started off with a canal cruise in Copenhagen - beautiful city!! - and spent an hour or two walking around the lovely downtown area.

Then took the train over to Malmo, Sweden for dinner. The restaurant was in a beautiful old building in the cellar.

Next, we flew to Brussels. We only had one day there (bad planning!) but we made the most of it. After a full day of meetings and tours, we spent a lovely evening in the downtown area. We started off with drinks at one of the little touristy cafes right on Grand Place and then headed to dinner at a fabulous French restaurant. As we walked to the restaurant, we passed by many other restaurants where the employees stood outside attempting to entice customers to dine at their establishments. It was quite amusing and one of the waiters stopped me and asked if he might "please have a hug from the beautiful American woman." LOL. My fellow travelers thought this was quite amusing. [note: I declined his request.]

My favorite was the three-hour boat cruise on the Rhine River followed by dinner at Johannisburg Castle. Gorgeous is all I can say!! Unfortunately, my camera battery died shortly after arriving in Frankfurt so I have no photos of the spectacular countryside. Dinner at the castle was very fun - typical German food and we spent a wonderful few hours laughing with each other. I felt like I was leaving friends when we departed.

Although this one was taken at an elegant lunch in Frankfurt, it represents how I felt when I walked in my door last night.

TTFN!

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning for my trip to Europe. Hope everyone has a great week. I leave you with a visit from the pups. My daughter had just given Martini (the black one) a bath and apparently didn't do a very good job drying her off. Herschel decided he did not want to miss out on the fun.

New Buttericks and some Research

The summer Butterick patterns are up (Thanks, Mimi). I was sort of "ehhh" about the whole collection. I like 5206, 5209, 5214, 5218, 5223 but the rest are rather boring or repeats of patterns already out there. I had to laugh at the See & Sew Pattern # 5202. Look at the line drawing:



Look familiar? How about Vogue's 8351. Here is that line drawing:
BTW, if you make View A of this dress, it is an adorable dress and I get many compliments on mine. But be forewarned, the neckline is VERY low. I raised it by an inch and I'm still a little uncomfortable with it for business (bra straps tend to pop out.)


In response to my previous post, Cidell had an excellent point. I need to do some research.

Translation for the word "fabric":
Danish - vævning
French - tissu
Dutch - stof
German - stoff

And because Allison will want me know this...

Translation for the word "yarn":
Danish - garn
French - fil
Dutch - garen
German - garn

"Didn't she used to sew / knit?"

No sewing going on for me nor will there be anytime soon. Last weekend was World Cheerleading Competitions, held in Orlando, FL. It's the top competition for competitive cheerleading and my daughter's team received a bid to attend for the second year in a row. They had 57 teams in their division and did well enough to make it to finals on Day 2. They placed either 13th or 15th depending on which coach you ask. (They only announced top ten at the competition but they do give all scores to the coaches.) We were very proud of the girls' performance - probably their best performance all season. It was an amazing competition with some incredible talent out there. I didn't get any good competition pictures but here is a picture of my daughter (on the right), her best friend and one of their coaches (known as Big Dog, no kidding.)

From Orlando, I headed directly to Denver for a conference. My first time in that area of the country and I am IN LOVE - especially with Boulder. OMG, you people who live in that part of the country are incredibly blessed for the natural resources. I spent some time hiking in Chautauqua Park and it was beautiful (in spite of realizing how out of shape I really am!) I forgot to take pictures.

Then, I received a call from a client two days ago - "Bonnie, we think it would be a good idea for you to accompany us on our trip to Copenhagen, Brussels and Frankfurt.... We leave next Sunday. Can you fit it in your schedule?" My head is still spinning as I make all the arrangements but I am very excited - I've never been to Copenhagen or Frankfurt.

Finally, meet my rocker son. LOL. I am quite proud of him as he saved up money to buy this drum set all on his own. We picked it up Thursday night. But peeps, ummm, drums are loud, even sequestered in the basement. Who knew?