snowy valentine

Be careful what you ask for. I've been mentioning how much I've missed winter living here, in sunny San Diego. Yesterday, I was rudely faced by the cold weather after a record-breaking warm weekend. Okay, relatively speaking, it was cold...in the 40's, which is a drastic change from the high 70's just two days before.

About an hour East of where we live, Palomar Mountain was covered with snow which stranded drivers and caused many accidents. No snow plows around here, I guess. A good excuse to stay safe and warm at home with your Valentine.

winter morning in la jolla

Surprisingly, I miss the cold weather -- thinking it's a nice day to play broomball when it's zero degrees, rushing into the ice rink to be warm, shoveling myself out of the alley after a snowy night and of course, my favorite, frozen car locks because I insisted on regularly washing my car even when it was below thirty degrees outside.

I have no concept of winter this season. Headed out for Saturday morning breakfast in La Jolla Village this morning wearing shorts and flip flops. It's supposed to be in the 70's today.
My down jacket and shearling boots are still in the boxes they were packed in from my first move in April and won't get any wear for a long time.

Sending warm thoughts to my North Country (and East Coast) friends and a picture from La Jolla Cove to remind you of what unfrozen water looks like.

happy 2008

It seems my crafting has been placed on the back burner, but cooking has been in full swing for the holidays. Spent a week back in the Bay Area during Christmas and learned my mom's version of pancit palabok and igado. I'm not a big fan of liver, but she had me try the igado before adding the liver and it definitely made a difference in the flavor. She skips the other organs in traditional recipes I've seen online (thank goodness!), but adds pimento stuffed olives. It's so good! We made a big pot of it and had leftovers for days. It's one of those dishes which seems to get better each time it's heated up.

Rung in the new year (well, almost...only made it to 11:30 p.m.) with more of my fave choc-oat chip cookies. We brought our last batch to the parents in PV, so we had to replenish our freezer supply. We also tried out a new recipe for chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies from MS. They're a bit too gingery for me, but I'll probably make them again.

Today was my first attempt at char sui bao, Chinese steamed barbecued pork buns, out of the never failing Chef Chu cookbook from my mom/sister. They turned out really, really, really good! I can't believe I've waited this long to try this recipe. I thought it would be a lot of work, but it isn't much more effort than other special dishes I've made. Just have to be patient and wait for the dough to rise. So, it's similar to when we made pizza (another first!) last Friday.

We were planning on visiting Zhen Zhen, the new panda cub at the zoo, but the parking lot was, well, a zoo. So, we closed off the year by playing tourists along the San Diego embarcadero at the Maritime Museum. The Star of India is probably the more popular ship to visit, but I thought the B-39 Soviet submarine was just as interesting to check out. Such cramped quarters next to torpedos! I haven't quite figured out who's on this poster in one of the compartments.

SoCal winter

Yesterday, we drove up to PV to attend a holiday party. It's still not registering in my mind that it's actually winter since we spent the afternoon walking down the Manhattan Beach pier watching surfers catching rolling waves. I caught myself complaining about the "cold" as we walked across the street to the party later that evening. Sorry, Midwestern pals...I'm quickly wimping out and returning to my California roots.
Going back to work has really cut into my sewing adventure. I'm hoping I can start a project soon since I'm taking Christmas week off. This week, I have to try to finish crossing things off my shopping list. Happy Holidays!

not so easy breezy

After my first week back to the grind, I got a chance to try out the Sew What! Skirts book this weekend. I decided to make the Breezy Beach Skirt 'cause it's a wrap skirt. (I don't think I'm ready for zippers yet.)

I started off very optimistic, creating a pattern and sewing the waistband on. I even got through stitching in the ditch (I always wondered how that was done). Unfortunately, the final product was too big in the waist. When I tied it together, I looked like I pulled a sack on and cinched it with a Huck Finn rope belt. I thought I measured well, but I guess I must've miscalculated somewhere along the line. I was bummed 'cause the book and its reviews sounded like it was foolproof. I was bit relieved to read that someone else had the same gaff. Misery loves company...

The overall project took less than a couple of hours, so I'm encouraged to try again. I've been learning a lot about sewing these past few weeks with each project I do. Maybe I'll try to salvage this skirt with darts.

cuffs and covers

Last summer, my hockey pal, Barb, taught me how to hem pants. I don't think she believed that my excitement was genuine when I finished the first pant leg. Being 5'3", I've taken many pairs of pants to the seamstress and at roughly $15 a pop, it sure adds up. Since then, I've hemmed a few more pairs and, today, evolved to adding a tailored cuff to my slacks. It was easier than I expected and added a little flair to otherwise, plain ol' slacks. Today's fun project was a new cover for woobie using the Modern Petal fabric by Westminster Fibers which I've been wanting to use since I brought it home. I was also able to fulfill a promise of an Xbox cover for you know who with a cute outer space motif fabric from Joann.

tray magnifique

After all the unpacking this week, it's finally beginning to look like a livable space again. So, I snuck a quick, fun project in last night while watching a Resident Evil movie. (In prep of Halloween, of course. Plus, those zombies are no match against me and my glue gun.) I picked up an old breakfast tray during one of our early SD hunts, mainly to use as a comfy surface for my laptop. It was dingy and an awful bright yellow. I was able to spray paint it a clean, satin cream during one of my lazy afternoons and it just needed some finishing touches. I glued a striped ribbon around the edges and affixed new foam on the bottom surfaces. Et voila! Just in time to enjoy breakfast in bed on my last day of leisure: my fave matcha steeped with lemongrass and honey, which I got hooked on at Muzi in Vancouver and steel cut oats, which is ready when I wake up and is a perfect batch every time thanks to my fancy, new rice cooker. You can see the pile of books forming on my bedside table. The top is stacked with Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts and Bend-the-Rules Sewing, fresh from the mail box this week.