wedding season!

last month two very good friends got married after 6 years of dating, this month another couple ive been close with since college is getting impromptu married after 7 years of dating.  i think were officially old.  but i digress cos it was a lovely short ceremony on a gorgeous day, followed by delicious food and drinks, dancing, and merriment!

francophone

aka the phone.  and a frank.

rhubarb mac and cookies

but not all together.  cos that would be horrific. 

ridic easy rhubarb bars.. which the roommate and i ate in great quantities, alone on a plate or with froyo. 

flowers, the garden, and death

my karl rosenfield peonies!!  about quadruple the size this year, and such a gorgeous color!  i brought a couple indoors and aside from smelling just slightly sickly sweet, they lasted surprisingly well, until a gusty day brought aaaall the petals into a mass on the floor.  a couple more are sending out a second bud, so a few more weeks of blooms

liz's laundry

only two pics, and on my computer theyre dated from may.  i have rediscovered shorts this year and/or last fall when places were having super clearance sales.  apparently my favorite fast fashion stores [gap/h&m/bass/target] have discovered a 3-5" inseam is much more attractive than the crotch-eating shorts of yore.  thank god.

• shoes: dsw ages ago
• sweatshirt: banana republic outlet
• shorts: bass outlet
• nails: well...they say i did construction for 8 hours before cleaning up in a restaurant bathroom before going to my cousin's recital...

technology versus liz

soooo it has been over a month since i posted.  in that time, i have added a third [sort of] job to my life, in that i am now a prep cook at the restaurant where i wait tables.  i did a month of 50+ hour weeks at el restaurante, with some construction hours at the office were remodeling for the solar company.  now that i have 2 days off during the week, i feel lazy as shit. 

so there's one reason for posting.  tired + lazy = netflix.

another is.. i'm losing the battle to the technology around me.  my car needed another $1k in repairs, my 5+ year old computer is slowly approaching the permacrash, and my barely-over-a-year-old phone crashed during a software update, lost all my pictures, and verizon sent me a new one with the understanding that i'd return my mostly useless continuously crashing and restarting phone.  the new one was free to me, but pics from all 6 months of 2015 are gonzo.  things id posted are all still on fb and the ig, but there were pics i hadn't posted that clearly i needed for... no purpose whatsoever.  regardless, gone forever into the over indulgent ether of selfies and blatant over-documentation of daily life.  also cats.  and food.  goddamnit.

plus side, i was working too much in the past month to really have lost any pictures of good stuff and happenings.

a week after, i decided to buy a kindle fire hd 7, since it was on sale at the same price as the hd6 - $99.  i wanted something not apple white or dell black, so citron it is!  ... and then i figured id pay the $14 to not have sponsored ad screensavers.  welp what the site didnt tell me is that once i clicked that modification, it was out of stock, so the cart automatically reverted me to the hd6 in citron with no screensavers...for the same price.  i purchased it, and went on my merry way.  until i saw the confirmation email, called amazon customer support [surprisingly helpful] who said, "no, it's working fine on my end, i'll purchase it for you."  me "you're sure it didnt change it back to the 6"?"  support "nope, it looks fine.  oh wait.  no, youre right.  ..hmmm" 

so now i have to return a kindle.

pictures of sewing and gardening and flowers and shit will have to wait for another day.  or month. 

merrrrr.

cupcake punks

i were in a gang or a band.. i'd want to be known as the cupcake punks.  but really, this post is about peanut butter steampunk sprinkled cupcakes.  6 of one, half dozen of another, eh?

in $1 spot michael's cupcake liners.  theyre cute and floral and yellow...which blends weirdly with the yellow cake and tan frosting.  its the thought that counts, no?

sewing and some refashions

• fabric: fluffy stretch knit
• pattern: simplicity/new look S0446 
• look: d [plus sleeve and waist ribbing]
• thoughts: def shorter than i thought, hence the ribbing

look at them fancy armscyes!  all angular and stuff.  and the pattern calls for 1 1/4 yards minimum... i managed to eke it out with a poorly cut yard.  i think the fabric was a remnant i bought years ago cos its fluffy on one side and not itchy on the other.  it makes an excellent cropped sweatshirt for the lack of spring this year.  also, all that remains from that yard are the scraps on the floor

completed sewing and a quick refash

to finish start my reupholstery project, i of course had to go to the fabric store.  then i found the knits section and went a little nuts.  but i actually used the fabric i bought instead of hording it away like a little squirrel prepping for the fabricpocalypse.  also $3 patterns.  yesssss.

• fabric: heavy ponte knit
• pattern: simplicity/new look S0446 - apparently doesnt exist anymore
• view: c
• thoughts: very small neck hole, baaarely dress length, good fit across shoulders/back

unfortunately you cant see the painstakingly angled sleeve armscyes here.  they were a bitch.  and they look goooood.  i ended up cutting off the collar after the first pic and widening it a few inches.  now the dress/tunic can actually fit over my head without getting stuck in my ginormous hairs, and it doesnt strangle me.  i have a thing about high necklines.  like a choking panicking crazed thing.  i think its called a feeling.  also, not sure why i look like a suspicious little elf in the last pic.

what i want to buy

an old category i havent used in several years.. and likely why after i allocate the monies in my account to bills, i have about $.45 to my name.  but i digress - things i want to buy.  the fabric edition:

• what: knits
• where: fabric.com
• why: renewed obsession with sewing knits

i have some sewing projects [finished!] to post, but between working and naps, there just isnt enough time in the day.

the upholstery project

first, a little background on my family.  my sister and i love to clothes shop, and i'm a big fan of thrift stores for over-enthusiastic furniture remakes.  our parents, the mums specifically, abhor shopping of any kind that has to be done in person; i think internet shopping was invented for them.  my sister also stand at a towering 4'11.75"... or 5' according to her doctor.  but i digress.  needless to say, regular chairs dwarf her, and her little feet dont touch the ground. 

mums, of all people, found the tiniest chair ever at some kind of estate sale where they live, and brought me the chair to reupholster.  and then it sat in my living room from thanksgiving 2014.  over christmas, my sister and i perused fabric.com for the appropriate fabric, i ordered it, aaand it sat in my sewing room for the next 4 months. 

liz's laundry

the first outfit says... 36 degrees?  whatever winter, were over.  the second outfit i was told "wow, your necklace matches your shirt exactly!"  well.. really what else would you expect?  the third outfit i was told by several people that i looked like a gypsy/zen priestess.  also, the skirt is just a little too long to wear through a wet sloppy dish room.  but lace dries quickly.  ...all over the tops of my feet.

• cardi and shorts: old navy
• tank: h&m
• tights: target

liz's laundry

• tshirt: thinkgeek - this is an xxl mind you.  and i cut off the strangly tight neck. and cropped it
• palazzo pants: target
• awkward cardigan: h&m
• necklace: c&j quarter ring kickstarter

a 5 minute fix for a year long issue [lots of rants herein]

i'm not going to get into bra politics and normative image portrayal or any of the feminist reasoning behind not wearing bras.  i hear you.  i admit ive bought into the ideal that i should wear a bra so my boobies look "right".  i know "the man" has beaten me into submission, and the media has warped my sense of what is normal.  i also know this - i buy cheap bras.  a $12 bra from target does baaasically the exact same thing a $60 bra from victoria's secret does.  just without the angel "fashion" [sexual exploitation] show and all that shite. 

MOVING ON.

i suffer from constant-bra-strap-falling syndrome.  it plagues ladies you know, and ladies you dont.  and maybe even some cross dressing gentlemen you dont know.  but i finally have bested it.  not with the weird bra strap converters you can buy at h&m or old navy.  those are a nice idea but generally... not very functional.  and not with the straight-jacket-esque racer-back hooks already built-into my bras.  the straps are just not friggin long enough and i feel like my bra is about to put me in a stranglehold from behind.  but with the power of scissors and sewing! 

no, i just like the alliteration.  the "holy shit that implement for thread ripping out is sharp as shit and now im bleeding" name that i refer to these items as, is a bit cumbersome.  but i picked out the stitches holding down my bra straps at the back, and moved each side about 3/4" toward the hooks.

a quick sewy sew and a lot of back stitching later, and voila!  bra straps that stay on my shoulders all day. 

and yes, i didn't change the thread color.  i have "nude" [wtf color is that really] bras, green, blue, and turquoise bras.  but theyre all fixed now in white thread.  cos really if youre investigating if the thread color of my bra is consistent all the way through, you probably have some serious other issues to contend with. 

just make sure you havent twisted the bra strap when you reattach it.  its harder to pick out your own slightly non-uniform stitches and backstitches than it is factory [slave sweatshop] stitching. 

guhh.  lots of rants about all the anger.

pickles and the art of productive procrastination

beginning in january, i started an online course in the basics of solar water heating for both domestic hot water and pool heating.  not that thrilling i know.  since then, my penchant for procrastination [and procrastibaking] has come back with a vengeance.  like john mcclain.  die hard 17 - get me out of this fucking nursing home.  i digress.

on to napa cabbage kimchi!

a floral coat? dont mind if i do

back in october, i thrifted a london fog rain/trench coat.  fast forward 6 months... and i finally did something with it besides laundering and storing.  i sewed the weird shoulder tear closed, and then waffled about what kind of belt to sew.  thanks to the democracy that is facebook and instagram, i chose the navy retro floral fabric from my stash and sewed a handy belt and loops.

cross country skiing and allergy adventures

long ago and far away [high school] i was diagnosed with cold urticaria.  believe me when i say, DO NOT GOOGLE IMAGE THAT SHIT.  basically, i break out in hives if its too cold.  fortunately, multiple allergy pills [every goddamn day] help quell the breakouts and allow me to survive in maine.  polar vortex, record snowfall, and all.  buuuuuuut a friend came to town and we went cross country skiing.  an outdoor pasttime i had been interested in for awhile, but had just never tried.  we ventured out on a gorgeously sunny, clear, 10 degree day, and with windchill it was probably well below that. 

liz's laundry

• deer sweater: uniqlo
• scarf and pants: h&m
• tank: forever 21

frank interlude

do not let the cuteness beguile.  beneath that furry face lies a pure unadulterated evil.

liz's laundry

• scarf: bass outlet
• tunic: thrifted - closest i can get to pj's when i work at the restaurant
• leggings: target

s[nooooooo]w

perhaps you've heard new england is experiencing some blizzards.  and by some i mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 feet of snow [as of the 4th] in the portland area, aka moi.

here are some post [first] blizzard pics of the lighthouses of south portland.  only edits have been cropping from cell phone size/ratio.

how not to trim out a window

so the bathroom remodel is still an ongoing thing.  BUT ITS SO CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED.  i just need an uninterrupted day with no homework or restaurant shifts or netflix or friend dates or anything else to feel guilty about.  but last year, the window was sort of nicely trimmed out with poorly painted white and lovely pink and black tile beneath. 

fast forward august through.... january, and the window was naked.  now it sits half finished.  half you say?  weeeell i need to remove the pieces i attached and try, try, again.  feck.

liz's laundry

• scarf: sewn by me
• skirt: nordstrom rack
• leggings: uniqlo
• socks and earrings: target

liz's laundry

• cardigan: target
• skirt: pre-elastic-ed/sequined fabric i sewed into a tube
• scarf: h&m

diy interior storm windows

the temperature this winter has been... confusing, to say the least.  saturday was -2 in the morning, and a whopping 8 by noon.  i was working outside, and can confirm, yes it did not get any friggin warmer.  yesterday was 47 and raining.  but between freezing my ass off trying to climb onto a metal roof and dodging floods in my basement, i built 3 interior storm windows.  only 11 more to go..

left window is as always, right window has interior storm window installed

liz's laundry

• amazing sweaterblankethousecoat: h&m
• pleated skirt: thrifted
• random fuzz all over everything: fuzzy blanket disaster + static
• tights: target

chicken two ways

modified alfredo with artichokes and roasted tomatoes

biryani.

liz's laundry

its taken some time, but i'm finally getting my restaurant style down.  i spent weekends in november and december in dirty torn jeans, ratty sneaks, a carhartt coat [which i purchased with much dismay], and an assortment of gloves, hats, and angry faces.  but i digress.  since its poorly insulated and thus balls cold in the restaurant, i have taken to layering my required work tshirt with pretty much whatever i can find.  and pushing the dress code envelope a bit, but whatever.

• giant scarf: old navy
• cardigan: pac sun [about 12 years ago]
• tank top: h&m
• pants: bass outlet