making, learning & sharing a crafty life
I’m posting this mostly because I NEVER remember when Gossip Girl is on and I do like to watch it ‘live’ once in a while. I ventured out into the world outside the workroom on Monday – Pages (stack of magazines), Get Outside (winter boots), King Textiles (stack of fabric) & Lee Valley (legs for my cube)…
I’m not ready for the holidays even though I’ve been spending my days getting everyone else ready for the holidays.
I’ve missed you!
I’ve been busying myself this week with many things, including a fall cleaning at the workroom and a coat room makeover. Next week, I promise you lots of photos and completed projects.
I also got a new camera. (As the ever observant Melissa noticed) I just LOVE it! My degree is in Media Arts from Ryerson and my major was photography. Having the workroom and a flickr account has re-ignited my love of the camera. I’ve been using a little Olympus point and shoot, which takes great photos but has some serious limitations. (mostly silly rechargeable batteries that last for 5 photos) I’ve been saving up for months to upgrade to an DSLR. I did tons of research and read everything I could, but I was pretty set on something in the Nikon D-range. In the end I chose the Nikon D40 rather than one of the new models and got myself a plush lens, a Sigma 17-70mm. The lens does macro, since I never tire of getting in close on the tiny details of things. As you can see, Maisy is already bored with me taking photos of her every move.
Laural and Jen from goodEGG Industries did a lovely Toronto City Guide on Poppy Talk that you should check out. It covers Queen East and Queen West and mentions the workroom. Thanks Jen!
Lastly, I watched the latest episode of Gossip Girl last night. Can we dish about Jenny’s makeover? the Blair & Chuck saga? the artist love interest for Serena? Blair’s huge collection of lingerie?
Have a scary, fun weekend! Don’t forget about Daylight savings on Saturday night. I always do and end up being late or early the day after.
A miraculous thing happened last week, I had lunch. Not only that, I had lunch outside the shop! Jen came by and took me out for a bite to eat at The Beaver. I’ve been dying to try the food there and it did not disappoint. We both had salads. That seems really ‘girlie cliche’, but I really just needed some greens. I don’t get enough with all the pie and cake and cannolis that I eat. I had the prosciutto salad and Jen had the smoked salmon salad. Yummy. Also, Jen always has THE best earrings. It’s jealousy-making.
For my fellow Gossip Girl pals, please check out this hilarious article in New York magazine…I haven’t even seen the episode they’re talking about, but I LOVE the assignment of points for every little detail and the +240 comments that follow. Also, reading the comments I discovered the I Am Chuck Bass blog. AND the Chuck Bass Womanizer commercial. That should keep you busy for a while!
What a gorgeous fall/birthday weekend! Saturday night Andrew took me to Le Select Bistro for my favourite meal, steak frites. Everything was incredible; the wine, the crispy fries, the perfectly cooked steak and the yummy creme brule. I LOVE french bistro and this was everything I love about french bistro. Delicious and luxurious!
On Sunday we drove out to the Halton region to hike on the Niagara Escarpment with Maisy. It’s one of our favourite excursions, no matter what the season. With the changing leaves right now, the landscape is especially brilliant. The woodland scenery is filled with mossy rocks, ferns, chipmunks and large mushrooms, so I was endlessly mesmerized by it all. I lifted two tiny little plants for my terrarium and wished that I could have taken home a few mossy logs and rocks.
Sunday night I finished dress 13, which has a bit of a woodland theme. I wore it last night at the workroom’s birthday party, so I’ll be posting it tomorrow. This was definitely the best birthday I’ve had yet!
I threw dress 12 together in a hurry when I realized we had tickets to the closing night of the Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thompson Hall. They used the word ‘gala’ on the ticket and when I looked at all my new dresses, none of them said ‘red carpet’ to me. I had never been to see any films at TIFF before, so I decided a new fancy dress was in order.
Over the years, I have rescued various textiles and threads, not ever knowing what I would do with them. I only knew that they couldn’t be thrown away. I have a box of vintage custom-dyed charmeuse silk remnants. The colours are gorgeous and the fabric is super luxurious. One side of charmeuse is glossy and smooth, while the other side is quite matte. I always imagined they would make lovely fancy dresses, if only I had fancy dress occasions.
I went through the pile of silks and chose a ‘film strip’ grey called, ‘Smoke’. I folded the fabric in half unevenly, to create two layers of fabric. The top shiny side was shorter, revealing the matte side along the bottom. I serged a rolled hem along the top fold with light pink embroidery thread and did the same on the two bottom hems. I sewed a quick seam up the length of the fabric to make a ‘tube’. I think you know what’s coming next – shirring. Three sets of three closely spaced lines of shirring and my dress was done! I had thoughts of doing a dress more complicated or even just cut on the bias, but it was Friday night and the film was on Saturday. Plus, I wanted to watch episode 2 of Gossip Girl. My girl crush on Blair is growing. She is by far the most interesting girl on that show.
I wore my Chie Mihara grey shoes with the dress. They are one of my prized shoe possessions and they were a perfect match to the grey silk dress.
The movie, “Stone of Destiny”, is based on a true story about four university students who plan a heist to steal back the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey in England and return it to Scotland. It’s a sweet, feel good movie and I enjoyed watching it all dressed up in my fancy new dress.
ONE MORE DRESS TO GO! Dress 13 has no shirring, I promise. I’m super excited, as it uses cute Japanese fabric and will be the perfect ‘fall transition’ dress. Perhaps worn with coloured tights? If I can pull that off.
There have been many teen dramas in my life – Party of Five, Roswell, Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls and Felicity, to name a handful.
I tried really hard to resist watching Gossip Girl when it came out. I hardly have time to make that kind of a regular commitment to television anymore. But curiosity won out partway through the first season and now I’m hooked.
Last night I watched the season premiere for Season Two on my laptop. (I downloaded a copy since I missed the day that that it aired) I greedily enjoyed every minute of it and simultaneously scarfed down three freshly baked Pilsbury Cinnamon Buns. (If I’m confessing, then I might as well be completely honest).
If you don’t already watch, maybe you’ll be intrigued by the following:
1. bitchy rich girls (that you love to hate, but secretly love)
2. wicked fashion and styling (where can i find that cute green jacket?)
3. it’s shot on location in New York City (love love love)
4. it’s trashy and girly and completely fluffy
5. little ‘J’ (Jenny) is an aspiring fashion designer, so there is some minor crafty content
The best thing about this kind of guilty pleasure is the guilty gossip afterwards. Totally dissecting ‘who wore what’ and ‘kissed who’ and ‘what do you think will happen next week’. The problem is that I don’t know anyone else who watches it, or do I? I’m looking for at least one person out there who will admit to watching the show, so that we can indulge in some necessary gossip girl talk.
Did you see Blair’s white rick rack dress in the season premiere? I love this idea, maxing out on the rick rack. I see a future skirt/dress idea there for sure.
One last thing – headbands? I like the look, but I don’t think I can pull it off. Is anyone out there rocking the headband these days?
xoxo
p.s. please don’t hold this against me.
a
