Favourite Things

10/10: Pink Polka Dot Dress

Guys, I’m going to do a little report on my break from the internet soon, but let’s just say: a) it was not overly successful, but b) it was totally necessary for me to not blog/Facebook/Pinterest for that first week of September, and c) taking that much time away from my blog doesn’t make me feel good.

Do you know what does make me feel good? Conquering an extremely frustrating project.   Let me give you some context on this dress. Before sewing this dress, the extent of the sewing I’d done was cutting out two tubes of fabric and sewing three seams to make this skirt, and practicing seams on scraps of fabric. That’s all.

Turns out, there’s a *ton* of knowledge that one needs to follow a sewing pattern. That includes knowing how to even read the pattern, how to pin pattern pieces to the fabric properly, what all those funny marks on the paper mean, what to do when your sewing machine (inevitably) jams, how to finish seams, etc, etc, etc. And this is all basic stuff! Despite my stubbornness (“I’m going to sew a dress, darn it!”), I had actually chosen a relatively simple pattern – it’s just that there’s still so much I didn’t know how to do.

So how did I manage? I yelled at my pattern a lot (wish I was exaggerating). I would take the pattern one sentence at a time, and sometimes half a sentence. I called my mom about how to cut out fabric. I Googled everything and watched a lot of Youtube videos. I Googled some more. I tentatively followed the steps.

It was a bit of a meditation, actually. I was really eager to be finished the project (as I always am), but I couldn’t really rush this one. Every time I tried to rush, I’d almost mess up, and I’d have to remind myself that I wanted to do a good job, and that I needed to focus. #lifelessons

Trust me, nobody was more amazed (or motivated) than I was when I saw this dress start to take shape. Every time I finished a step it looked slightly more wearable, and it made me giddy. And guess what? Now that it’s finished, it really is wearable – and I’ve actually worn it! Success!

I bought my pattern from Simplicity, it’s called Misses’ Dresses. The one I made is called the Diplomat dress. I think the pattern was good, but I will never again buy a printable pattern – the system was not easy to use to download it, and it was so much extra work to print, cut, and tape together the pattern pieces. I picked out my fabric at Fabricville because it was cotton, and because it was pink polka-dotted.

I have to say that although this was without a doubt the most frustrating of my 10 DIYs this year, it is also probably my favourite. I am really proud to have accomplished it, and opened the door (to myself) to make more sewing patterns. Not that bad once you get the hang of it!

I’ve completed 10 DIY projects this year! To see the others, click here. 

Zucchini Fritters

It’s late, midnight. I just finished work, the leftovers of a bag of SunChips, and am working on a raspberry lime slushee. I’m currently extremely far from any pinnacle of health and/or good eats. I am! It’s true.

But considering that I’m going to see my family tomorrow (today, when you’re reading this!), I’m doing a happy dance, and an “I don’t care” dance. It’s Friday! It’s vacation! It was a hard shift! At the same time, I’m going to see my mama tomorrow, and I gotta prove to her that processed junk isn’t all I eat.

So I give you zucchini fritters. These things are good, good, good. They’re gorgeous too, slightly browned yet bright green, and topped with bright white sour cream. The sour cream makes them irresistible. Just speaking from experience here.

The key to a good zucchini fritter is explained over at Smitten Kitchen: it’s to squeeze out as much zucchini juice/liquid as possible before combining the pulp with the other ingredients. This important process helps them get crispy! I used a cheesecloth, and was thoroughly amused by how much liquid I got out of those zucchini. Zucchinis? Whatever.

These made a perfect lunch, but I bet they’d make a lovely vegetarian brunch option as well!

The recipe is here. Enjoy! I’m off to get my beauty rest. X’s and O’s. Happy day.

Life List: Attend a Diner en Blanc Event

This item is a very recent addition to my life list, and that’s mainly because I only discovered what Diner en Blanc was at the beginning of this summer. Pretty much as soon as I stumbled onto the website, however I knew I needed to join one, at some point in my life. Hence, life list.

Diner en Blanc is, at its core, a fancy picnic that takes place all over the world. Guests provide their own food, alcohol, table, chairs, tablecloth, plates and cutlery – everything must be white, except food of course! The location of the event is kept secret up until you arrive, and to get to it you must meet up with a leader (who you choose when you register) who takes you to the final destination.

There is a huge amount of whimsy and excitement to an event like this. Nobody knows where they’re going, but everyone looks unified and happy in their white outfits. Everyone has packed a beautiful dinner with some wine, has picked out table settings and candles, but nobody can get too uppity because there is no VIP treatment! Everyone has to lug in their things, wait in line to be told where to set up the table, put their table and chairs together and get everything organized to eat. It’s a great equalizer.

And it’s beautiful. Just stunning. As soon as I saw photos on the website, I knew I had to be a part of Diner en Blanc, it is just so gorgeous, and looked terrifically fun, too. It’s such a summer event, everyone in white summery clothes, eating light food like bruschetta and nuts, drinking wine. And there’s something so awe-some about the fact that against all odds, over four thousand people came together, all obeying the same rules, all waiting patiently to get their table set up, all wearing white. It just makes you smile, that all these strangers can work together so well.

After everyone is set up, everyone waves white napkins in the air to signal dinner. During dinner, they pass out balloons, to tie to the backs of your chair. After dinner, they pass out sparklers, and all at once everyone lights their sparklers and waves them and it lights up the entire square and everyone looks beautiful, and you release your balloon into the sky, and it’s just all very breathtaking. And then it’s time for dancing! They provided an awesome DJ, and everyone danced outside until it was time to go home.

If you ever get the chance to attend a Diner en Blanc event, I would thoroughly suggest doing it. Yes, it ended up being a lot of work (and costing more than I expected) to get the right sized table, food, white clothes – but it was all completely worth it. 100%.

Oh, and in case you were wondering – the event this year was held at Place des Arts, an outdoor area in our downtown. We were slightly bummed at first, because Place des Arts was our meetup point with our leader! We had been sure that after meeting him, he would be taking us somewhere in the city we’d never been, but instead everyone in Montreal came to us. Oh well! It was still a ton of fun. And fun to answer all the questions from people not part of the event about what was going on!

I leave you with this blurry, but somehow perfect photo I took from the dance floor. Such a beautiful and fun night.  xo.

9/10: Heart-Shaped Nail Art

I mean no offence to my other DIY projects, but I think I have to say that this one is my favourite. Probably because it’s simple, bright, graphic, and colourful. It makes me smile each time I look at it. And although it was both the most frustrating and most soothing project to create, overall I did enjoy the process.

The frustration came from trying to hammer these itsy-bitsy little nails into a thin sheet of particle board, and it not working, the wood almost cracking, my thumb almost getting smashed. I now have a couple tiny holes in my desk – oops. The soothing part came from painting – something I haven’t done in far too long. There’s something lovely about trying to get even brush strokes, and it is the perfect activity for while I’m watching a movie (I have issues sitting idle and just watching a movie).

Me, painting while watching Howl’s Moving Castle for the first time!

I took inspiration from Elise’s ampersand nail art, which I love. But I wanted to make a more colourful version for my home! I had some bright pink string leftover from my hanging plant DIY, so when I saw the beautiful turquoise paint at the store, I knew it was perfect. I bought the yellow, not intending to use it on this project. But once I put the nail/string board back into its black frame, I knew it wasn’t quite “me” yet. I had to go ahead and paint the frame yellow! I should have just gotten the unpainted frame at the store, but live and learn I guess. Here’s what it looked like before I decided to paint!

Close, but no cigar.

It took me about three coats to get the yellow dark enough over the black frame. It was great fun while watching other movies and Olympic events!

Let’s talk materials. I got my paint and a frame and board set from my local craft store (Deserres). The frame/board cost about $10, and the paints were $2 each. I got the string from my Dollarama. The nails are gold, and came in a “picture hanging kit” that I also found at Dollarama. It ended up taking me two of these kits to have enough nails to create a good heart-shaped outline.

The heart I cut out of regular printer paper. I sketched a heart, then went around with a ruler and made sure that each point of the heart was an inch apart. Then I cut it out, taped the heart to my dry, painted board and then went to town, working up a sweat nailing those little buggers in.

The next step was to carefully wrap and twist the string around the nails in a way that I liked. This is the most fun part! Let your creativity guide you. Once I was happy, I wrapped and tied off the ends. Slipped it into the frame. Nailed another nail into the wall. Hung it up where I can see it and where it’ll always make me smile. :)

Yippee-kai-yay! I’m thrilled at how it turned out, thrilled that it came into being pretty naturally, thrilled that this is project #9. As I write this, I’m glancing around my room, spotting the DIY’s that I’ve made this year. They really have enriched my space, as well as my creativity. I’m very happy I chose to create this goal for 2012.

This makes 9 DIY projects I’ve created this year. To see the others, click here!

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