Christmas decor! (part 1)

We have our tree! It isn't decorated yet, but it is standing. Plus, we cut many boughs off of the trunk bottom and the man at the tree farm was kind enough to let me take home some extra boughs. From that point, it was the natural action to bunch them together with found ribbon and hang them on people's doors.

Extra boughs=extra swags!

The work table.

Bryce's swag of terror.

I'll take some pictures of our swag and other stuff tomorrow, hopefully the tree too!

Macarons REQUIRE parchment paper

This is sad, possibly the saddest thing in the world. I wanted to try my hand at good looking macarons. I've made some ugly ones in my time (twice) but I was really going to step it up this time. But after the last bits of powder sugar were sifted and stirred, I realized, "Oh snap, we're out of parchment paper! How did this happen?" Well, surely there must be a way around this.

You might notice how I tried to compensate for the lack of parchment paper by adding another French item to the mix, the silpat sheets. The cookies did look pretty well formed on the sheet, but the sheet was not about to let those cookies go without a fight.

Macarons require parchment paper. There is no way around it.

Fashion "week" re-cap

Fashion week yielded only one new thing for me to wear. No, I didn't take pictures. Why? I can't really tell you that.
But! I did get the new ironing board cover which opened up a whole world of shirts since I could then effectively press them and not look quite as homeless as the look I had been rocking. I finally hemmed the dress into a shirt and have received several compliments on it. I also sewed the basic parts of the ruffle/fuffle shirt (capped sleeves, new neckline, fuffle border), but now I need to tailor the bejeezus out of it as it is baggy in the bust and waist, tight in the hips, and droopy in the sleeves. What a mess! I had to call it quits on that project for the month of December so I could focus on Christmas crafts/gifts.
Oh, and the sister gift theme for this year is "dazzling". Yeah, I'm unsure of where to take that too, there are a lot of viable directions. and my sister is--

Magical holiday times!

So, I'm not really getting much in the line of holiday spirit from my UCD job, but look how pretty the foyer of the COG's building is!

This doesn't really capture how magical the entryway is, imagine more sparkle and light. Since this phone picture was taken in the evening, the glisten has gone to bed for the night.

After leaving the COG, I walked through downtown for some errands and happened upon the wonder of wonders, the ice skating rink!

Between the shimmering of the rink and the hazy fog surrounding the massive moon, midtown was straight up enchanting last night.

*an aside, holiday crafts are forging ahead! I'm not sure which pictures I can post because I wouldn't want to wreck someone's Christmas. Also, we're getting our tree either Thursday or Saturday. EEE!

Timber the glutton

It's raining like the dickens here in Sacramento and I had a long bike ride back from West Sac (where the ole truck is getting fixed), so Chris and I went to get some hot chocolate as my reward. We come back to our sweet dog, Timber. Timber seems to have found some mischief.

Oh, is that his box of chews on the ground? My gosh it is!

He's chewing on two at once!

Is that another one in his waterbowl?

What a glutton! We were only gone about twenty minutes and this is the damage he wreaked.

bike run-ins and the like

On my way to work, I witnessed a near run-in between a Range Rover type thing and a bike. The cyclist was on the through street running through campus and the Rover was turning right onto the street. The driver somehow over-looked the cyclist and started to turn in his (the cyclist's) path, but was stopped by the cyclist's yell. No-one was hurt but I'm sure the cyclist was jarred and the driver apologized. The cyclist then instigated a confrontation and expletives were hurled as the cyclist pedaled alongside the Rover for about 200 yards, taunting and goading the driver.
I've been nearly hit quite a number of times and I've been in the same position as the cyclist this morning. I have no doubt his reaction was largely fear based because what dork on a Specialized wants to take on a Range Rover? But I don't see what good can come from berating a driver to the point where he thinks all cyclists are asses that deserve any accidents they get. Couldn't that behavior easily result in escalating confrontations that end with drivers deliberately harming cyclists, like the Los Angeles physician stopping intentionally and suddenly in front of cyclists? Granted, not everyone will react quite as violently, but for moderate drivers the best thing we as cyclists could do is make our presence known in a good way.
After witnessing this morning's interaction, I hung back on my Nishiki and once the yelling cyclist had passed, I pedalled near the driver and told him that not all cyclists are angry and wished him a good day. It got me thinking, couldn't that be a way to increase the good interactions between cyclists and drivers? What if whenever there was a near run-in with a cyclist, instead of being showered with curses the driver was politely addressed "Hey, I know you didn't see me back there but please be on the look-out for bikes"? Fortunately for me, I don't have too many run-ins with drivers but I witness a number of them. I would like to make a business card with a little message to the effect of "bikes just want safe journey, keep an eye out for us" plus some well wishing and it could have a website with bike information listed. And some cute graphic. You know, to make it look nice. Then, whenever some driver has the near run-in with a cyclist, they could get some helpful information out of it instead of an antipathy towards bikers.
What do you think?

Fashion Week!

This week is fashion week in my apartment, I hope we're all ready!
What it boils down to is that I'm disappointed in my wardrobe and I want to mix it up, but I still don't have the kind of money needed to buy new items. Thusly, I'm going to accomplish some thrift store/found clothes modifications that have been on my list for a while.
Today, I stop by Ace to get a new ironing board foam/cover thing so things I iron won't have chain link marks on them. Tuesday night or tonight (if I'm really with it) I start on the (slightly modified?) ruffle-edged shirt I saw on My Mama Made It.
After that, I'm going to finally hem this shirtdress I have into a shirt. I'm doing this because the shirtdress is a touch short and frumpy looking on me, not to mention how I am un-nerved by its uneven hem.
There is alson an old wool plaid skirt Michelle gave to me. I need to make it shorter and a little smaller on the waist--this task is complicated by the skirt's adorable flare at the bottom, meaning I need to make it shorter from the top instead of just sewing in a new hem. It should be worth it though!
Check out this skirt tutorial, too (from Craft Stylish)! The scalloping on it is too much for me to bear, I wonder if I could pull off trying to modify a thrift store skirt with this idea? Not likely, we'll have to see how successful fashion week is.
*These tasks will not all be accomplished this week because I don't have hours and hours to devote to sewing. But, fashion "week" will continue until I accomplish what I listed. Pictures will follow!