A Living Room to Build a Dream On

sources: sofa and chair, lamps, coffee table, white zigzag side table, pillows, rug, window panels, art, bowl

Lately I've had the urge to nest, so just for fun I've been doing a design concept board for a possible version of my future living room.  I'm finally figuring out how to communicate to Mr Husband Elect what my vision of a space might be - get the whole thing visually pulled together before pointing out individual elements.  It's the most frustrating thing in the world to try and get him to agree to items for our home one by one because he can't envision them in a complete package.  See my solution above.  What do you think?  In the end, I couldn't decide on a table lamp, so I just chose my top five and threw them all in there.  What's your favorite?

List of Things Women Should NEVER Apologize For

As I'm fast approaching thirty, I've been doing some reflecting on the person I've grown into, and the things I want to take with me into the next thirty years. One thing I wish I would have taken to heart as a younger woman is, unless you have really hurt someone, you don't have to apologize for anything you do.  Not everyone is going to be happy with the decisions you make, and not everyone is going to agree with you.  So who cares?  I'm still working on the not caring part, but I do find that as I get older, I require the approval of others less and less - and I like that.  In the spirit of wisdom gained and wisdom shared, here is my list of things a girl should never apologize for:

1. Winning - This includes sports, promotions, and bets, to name a few.  Ladies, if you earned it, you shouldn't be apologetic for your victory.  Take it gracefully and own it.  Do you think a new CEO's first objective is to apologize to everyone else who didn't get the job?

2. Turning Someone Down for a Date - Just because he/she asked, doesn't mean you are expected to say yes.  When you turn a person down, he/she doesn't want your sympathy.  Just say no (kindly) and move on.  You don't owe an explanation on why that person isn't worthy of your company and you certainly don't have to apologize.

3. Having a Difference of Opinion - Not agreeing with a friend or colleague is nothing to be sorry about.  Offer your view (gently, if needed) and let it stand.  Stammering and back-tracking only chips away at how someone perceives the validity of your statement.  If you believe in what you said, stand your ground.

4. Things You Like - Short of having a preference for something truly terrible like child pornography,  there's no reason to say you're sorry about liking something off-beat, strange, or even "too pedestrian."  Example: I am a fan of Mariah Carey and I don't care what people think of me for loving the shit out of her voice.  That woman has a powerhouse set of pipes and you all know it, whether you like her or not.

Longtime Love: Botanical Prints

I really really love botanical prints.  A lot.

image from wisteria.com

image from BrigidsFancy

I'm discovering I'm more drawn to fruits.

image from prints-4-all.com

I do love flower prints too, especially if they include the root structure.

image from Old Maps and Prints

I think when I'm rich I'm going to have a whole wall of large framed botanical prints.  I'll sit and stare at it all day.

One more:

image from Old Maps and Prints

*sigh*

Weekend Sewing: Bricks and Mortar

A couple weeks ago PB gave me two bags of gray and black fabrics to play around with.  I knew instantly that I wanted to pop it by adding in some obnoxiously bright fabric. This is what I sewed over the weekend.  And I'll tell you something: you ain't seen nothin' yet.  My wonderfully patient fiance has let me take over the dining table for this endeavor.  I am giddy over this project for the simple reason that I would never typically choose any of these fabrics, including the bright ones, to work into a quilt and yet here I am.  Feels good to break free from myself a little bit.

Sewing Update: Geisha Block 2

I was able to snap a quick picture of my second block on the Geisha quilt I started over the weekend.  I think the ginkgo s-curve I added in the middle of the block really gives it that interest that the first block didn't have.  Also, my corners line up perfectly, which makes me really happy.  Isn't this gorgeous fabric?  It's hard to tell from this photo, but there are metallic gold details in each of the fabrics except the yellow characters print and ginkgo leaves print.  Very elegant.  Can't wait to show you how it evolves!

A New Way of Sewing

Photo by PB

Saturday I took another class taught by Patricia Belyea called Doodle Quilting.  All the pieces were made using curves.  This was an exciting project for me because I have a good sized stash of Asian inspired fabrics that needed something more than just triangles or rectangles to really do them justice.

Using freezer paper and a whole lot of patience, after several hours I produced my first block in the series.  It laid perfectly flat and I didn't have to rip or resew a single seam.  See how proud I look?

photo by PB

My second block took even longer, but it's more involved and I think I like it better.  When I have the chance I'll snap a photo and show you my progress.

This class opened  an entire world of quilting to me.  I didn't know it was so easy!  I love traditional quilts, but there's something about the challenge of piecing a block of entirely curved seams that makes the accomplishment so much more of a rush.

I highly recommend Patricia's class to any intermediate quilter who's curious about this technique.  She'll guide you through the steps, challenge you, and give you the tools to take this further on your own.  I will never be intimidated by curved seams ever again!

Nothing Like Technicolor Cake...

image source

I had a bit of a bumpy morning yesterday and stormed into the office like a dark cloud.  Insignificant annoyances were inspiring rage, which I had to keep checked for professional conduct reasons, and though every fiber of me wanted to take each dish in the kitchen and smash it on the floor, I decided it would feel even worse to get fired from a place I actually love for my own childish behavior.  Everything was needling me in the worst way with no relief in sight.  So at 9am, I decided to take a little breather and check in on one of my favorite blogs, Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker.

I love this blog. Gesine, the author, is one talented woman.  In addition to creating some of the most amazing cakes I've ever seen, she has a book out and runs marathons, which is something I aspire to do but so far have been too scared... on both counts.  My fiance has had the hots for her sister for years, but I'm more of a fan of this lady.  She's someone I can relate to and look up to at the same time.  In fact, if my best friends and I took each of our best features and combined forces into one awesome woman, she just might be our "Captain Planet."  Ok, enough gushing.  Back to my bad day.

In order to take my mind off everything that was getting to me, I went to take a look at CCMB to see what kind of lovelies she had that day.  Right there smiling back at me was the most glorious rainbow layer cake I've ever seen.  I nearly fell off my chair with joy.  It was a trifecta of happiness: my own longtime love of rainbow cakes, beautiful and innovative execution, and wonderful pictures.  My heart went like this:

And just like that, I lightened up a little bit.  I took a deep breath, found my inner-rainbow, and shook off that bad attitude I'd worked up over the last coupe hours.  It's amazing what a little beauty and creative inspiration can do.

A Lot-a Yukata, Etc

This past weekend my friend Patricia had a trunk show at Fabric Crush featuring her vast collection on vintage Japanese fabrics.  It just so happens that the house I grew up in, where my parents still reside, is three blocks away.

Saturday afternoon I collected my mom and dragged her out to the show.  I knew I was going to at least buy a yard or two, but then something happened... We were talking about the nautical decor in my upcoming wedding (which I know I have promised will not take over my blog) when Patricia got out the bolt of fabric you see her holding in the above photo and oops!  I bought the whole bolt.  She gave me an amazing deal on it because of some areas she saw as flaws in the fabric (whereas I will call them character and not think about it again).

I'm so excited!  Blue and white stripes?  Check.  Artsy waves?  Check.  Helloooo table decor!

Afterward, we wandered over to Fainting Goat on 45th for gelato.  It's the best gelato I've ever had, and I'm not exaggerating.  If you're thinking, "well I went to Italy, and the stuff I had there..." stop right there.  Yep, it's better than that.  I got dark chocolate and salted caramel.  My mom got pistachio and hazelnut.  It was all heavenly.  I was especially impressed with the pistachio, which does not taste like that disappointing spumoni pistachio, but rather the real nut.  Amazing.  Check it:

Adorable logo and delicious product. I am in love.

Crazy Quilting

On Saturday I went to an all day quilting class taught by Patricia Belyea of Okan Arts titled "Counterintuitive Quilting."  In this class we were encouraged to abandon all habits of quilting efficiency and instead scissor-cut each piece, creating one original block at a time.  We went through three stages of blocks, letting each one evolve differently.  Often I found myself sewing together a block, slicing through it with my scissors, and then changing it completely.  I felt a little out of my element at first, but once I got going I really enjoyed the process.  I pushed my limits and, with a little gentle guidance from Patricia, created something I wouldn't have done otherwise.  It was really great fun and it felt good to get back behind my sewing machine for the first time in what feels like months.

Quilting!

Okay, so I haven't actually sewn a stitch, but I did get all my pieces cut out for my patriotic / nautical quilt(s).  Hundreds and hundreds of half-square triangles.  I usually gravitate toward a quilting style that evolves as I go, but I'm trying something new: traditional planned quilting!  I actually cut everything out ahead of time and (loosely) counted my pieces.

See?

I love the navy/white stripe fabric best.  It is actually an old sheet I bought at Good Will during Katie's visit.

Then, I auditioned various layouts before sewing.
1)

 alternating red and blue

 (the rest were taken with the camera phone to text to abby in real-time brainstorming. Please excuse the graininess and coloring.)

2) 

thick diagonal stripes of three, alternating

3)

red and blue horizontal layout

4) winner #1:

red with a random smattering of blue

5) winner # 2 (my personal favorite):

blue with a random smattering of red

I'm pretty sure I have enough for two coordinating twin bed sized quilts.I'm really liking the freshness of the blue and white with little red surprises.

Food.

I like to cook.  A lot.  Monday night I made one of the more delicious dinners I've had in a long time.  The pasta dish was inspired by a recipe I'd seen on Smitten Kitchen for asparagus, goat cheese and lemon pasta, but I simplified it for my own ingredients, using peas instead of asparagus, and leaving out the tarragon.  The peas were actually really nice in the dish because it offered a subtle sweetness rather than the subtle bitterness asparagus has.

The herbed cucumber salad was inspired by a dish I saw in my latest issue of Food & Wine Magazine.  I didn't actually go look at the recipe; I just gawked at the picture with its chunks of cucumber tossed in fresh herbs, and thought, I could do that.  I just peeled a hothouse cucumber, sliced it, and tossed it in the Splendid Table's Basic Vinaigrette, and snipped some fresh dill and fresh mint I had on hand.  I lightly salted and peppered it before serving.  It was fresh and delicious.

It is the pork chop I'm most proud of.  Safeway was having a 30% off special on thin-cut pork chops, so I snagged a package of three.  I rinsed the chops under cold water, patted them dry, let them sit at room temp for about 30 minutes and rubbed them with Montreal steak seasoning before putting them on a pan to sear them.  Andrew always gives me a face when I suggest pork, probably because of a bad past experience he had with over-cooked dry pork.  One bad experience and he tends to write off an entire food.  Same thing happened with an over-garlicy lamb burger (not mine), but I've done lamb he said was delicious, so I take his protests with a grain of salt and as a challenge to prove there's a delicious way to prepare all food, and it doesn't have to be masked in butter and cheese.

I've been doing a lot of reading on the proper way to cook meat, and I think I've got it down: pat it dry, rub it with seasoning, place on medium-high heat and don't touch it until it's ready to flip.  It's also a cardinal sin to stab your meat with a fork in order to pick it up and flip it - I got myself some silicone-coated tongs to turn meat, and they work great.  Above all, don't over-cook it!  I allowed the meat to rest for a couple minutes after taking it off the heat and it ended up being super flavorful and juicy.  Andrew said a couple times how delicious it was.  See, Andrew?  Pork is delicious if you do it right.

The best part?  There were leftovers, and I get to have them for lunch today.  Yessssss.

[update: the pasta does not reheat well, but it tastes great cold!]

Learning to Fly

Dream interpreters often say that if you fly in your dream, it is a signal your psyche is embarking on a change.  I’ve always been fascinated by dreams and their interpretations because I believe dreams are a window into a person’s own subconscious fears and desires.  I’m not big on universal symbols, such as a house representing self or a dog representing loyalty, but I do believe that the emotions and roles a person plays in her dreams tell a lot about how she actually feels about something, versus what she thinks people expect her to feel.  I, for one, have often found that things I insist don’t bother me will rear their ugly faces in my dreams.  Fears I claim I’ve conquered come out in full force in the dramas played out behind my eyelids at night.  Sometimes they are tragic, usually they err on absurd, and nearly always I wake up with a new perspective on what my waking feelings on certain issues really are.

Last night I dreamed I had become a person I wasn’t proud of.  In this dream, I treated a rival character in a way that shocked me, even in my dream state.  She had something I wished I had and probably felt she didn’t deserve.  In this dream, I lashed out at her and I behaved the way a person does when she doesn’t yet know who she is, when she’s insecure with her place in the world.  I was spiteful, petty, self-righteous, and let my jealous heart triumph over my better judgment.  The tantrum I threw in her face as an attempt to tear her down was unsuccessful, and really only resulted in alienating any possible camaraderie between us.  The people I had expected to be my allies looked at me with disbelief and disappointment, and in that moment of the dream I realized I didn’t want to be that person.  I didn’t want to be the person with selfish ugly intentions.  I didn’t want to feel the weight that comes with treating people that way.

I walked to the edge of the second floor deck where I had this epiphany, and looked down on a barren concrete parking lot.  I wanted to leave and not look back.  Start over.  Be someone else.  The sun was setting, and as I stood there feeling truly defeated, my best friend came up behind me and offered to drive me home.  It was the olive branch I needed to regain confidence in my character.

There was no staircase to get down from the place we stood, and I confided in my friend I knew how to fly.  I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to fly, but I’d done it before and that moment was the test.  She took my hand and climbed onto the handrail of the deck.  We stood there for a moment, and then with sheer will, I lifted us into the air and slowly down to the pavement.   I’d flown.  It wasn’t a leap off a building or a jump up into the sky; I’d done it slowly, determined, out of a will to change, to move forward.

I woke this morning with a different perspective.  I’m going to pay more attention to making sure I’m the person I want to be.  I’m going to take an active role.  I’m not going to complain why things don’t happen;   I’m just going to get it done.  I’m not going to say, “That’s someone else’s responsibility,” just to let another week go by while it sits on the to-do list.  I’m going to be positive and grateful for the good things in my life.  I’m going to work to turn around the things I don’t like so much.  I’m done waiting for someone else to fix it.

A Little Inspiration

I haven't had much time for my creative outlets lately.  I've been doing a lot of other great stuff, but I know I can't do it all, so my sewing machine has gone untouched for a while and that's ok.

However, I am still collecting inspiration wherever I can.  I work for an architecture / interior design firm and in my research today I decided to explore a little further into the world of Kyle Bunting.  Hide rugs, folks.  So much texture!  His stuff is really great and truly inspiring.

I took a few screenshots from his website to give you a flavor of what's got me in a tizzy.

Pretty fantastic stuff, huh?  I think I'd be more inclined to hang it on the wall than use it as a rug, just because I wouldn't want anyone stepping on it.