Snow on the beach, food, ice storm pix

So my primary care doctor thinks my strained ab muscle is actually a hernia. I see a surgeon on Wednesday to disprove that theory!

Snow on the beach
I went to Sea Girt last Sunday 1/30/11 to see the snow on the beach.


Seagull line up on the boardwalk:


Looking north up the boardwalk: Left to right:  Sea Girt lighthouse, pavilion, and beach



Ice Storm
On Groundhog Day we had an ice storm; 10am delayed opening!




Food photos:
Chicken pot pie from Eat This, Not That (2010 edition). I made it tonight. I'd say it's the most delicious dish I've made this year!



I made chicken fried rice from Eat This, Not That (2010 edition) again tonight too. The bowls are my new pyrex bowls but I can't get the gray lid on either bowl. Hrm.



From 1/25/11, Chicken Piccata from Now Eat This by Rocco DiSpirito. Until the chicken pot pie, the chicken piccata was the most delicious food I'd made this year. It tastes just like chicken piccata from Bertucci's.


Amy's minestrone from 400 Calorie Fix 1/26/11.  It went much better cooking the sausage the second time.


I'd like to thank Mother Nature for the 40+ degree temperature and abundant sunshine today. I was able to take a nice long walk and hear the snow melting.  Thank you!

Friday night craft. And Wednesday snow.

What do you get when you combine me, a hot glue gun, a grapevine wreath, 50+ fake flowers, an idea I've had since last year, and an hour and a half?  This:


You may have heard, NJ got more snow. We were dismissed at 3pm on Wednesday and the university was closed on Thursday.  Here's my favorite picture I took of the snow on the trees:




My back yard; it's around 30F.  You can see the fresh accumulation on my air conditioning unit.  My neighbor thinks it was 14 inches.  weather.com said "n/a".


Snow covered evergreen in my back yard:


View from my front door:


It's so pretty, but there's no where for the snow to go. The snow is piled so high, I can't see looking left or right driving out of side streets. Crazy.

Ok, have fun! Here's a big kiss for the day:

Vogue 8534 view C: done in navy!

Ok, earlier this evening I saw and heard thundersnow. What is going on???

Two weekends ago I finished Vogue 8534 view C. This shirt (pattern, thread, and a very soft ponte roma double knit) was funded by a Joann's Christmas gift card from my friend and coworker Joe. Thanks Joe!



It has dolman style sleeves: (the top part of the front of the shirt and the sleeves are all one piece)


The bow and sleeve are all one pattern piece. The pattern calls to leave the neck and bow edges raw, but to stitch 5/8 from the edge of the fabric. I wasn't having that.

When I cut out the sleeve/neck/bow piece, I also cut out an additional piece to make the "lining" for the neck/bow:


Then I sewed the edges of the neck/bow, turned it inside out, then stitched (I could have basted, but I sewed it down) the lining shoulder to the real shoulder.


The front neck edge and bow are very nice. This also makes a "full" looking bow compared to bows that were not lined, as I saw looking at other people's versions of this shirt on SPR.

The back neck seam I turned under and sewed down.

The loop for the bow is also supposed to be left with raw edges.
Instead, I cut a square, 4.25 x 4.25.


I folded in half and sewed it together down one edge, turned inside out, "moved" the seam to the center of the loop, then sewed along each long edge. Here's what the "back" of the loop looks like, with the seam (sort of) down the center.

and here's the front of the loop:


Then it gets sewn to the front of the shirt.  Here you can see that nice curved edge of the lower part of the shirt front.


The "bow" is made by putting the "ties" through the loop


After the sort of disastrous size 12 incident, I cut a 16 this time. I probably should have done the 14. I wound up taking a tip from MushyWear and sewing the center back seam in a whopping 1.25 seam, as well as sewing the side seams in closer, for a better fit. Also I cut the A length even though this is the C shirt. I was able to get the shirt out of 2 yards of fabric which is less than the pattern calls for with the 16, and that was even with the lining pieces for the bow/neck.

I cut out the sleeves as long as I could then made a minimal hem. The sleeve and shirt hems are stitched with a stretch twin needle.




Here's the fit on the size 12 that I'm not happy about; it feels too small around the chest. It also has shorter sleeves.


Overall, I love the navy version of this shirt and wore it to work on the only day this week when the temp finally eeked into the high 30F range. One of my coworkers immediately said "you made that didn't you" which I never quite know how to interpret...does it look home sewn?  Well, either way, I really liked wearing it.  I think it has a navy sailor vibe to it, and believe me, if I had my sailor hat from Disney World I would have worn it for the photo shoot.

Here's a sneak peek at my next project: turquoise flannel and daisies.  I like the middle daisy trim the best but I don't have enough of it for what I want to do...unless I get creative...

Hope you're traveling safe no matter what part of the world you inhabit; snowy or not!

ETA at 9:15pm: Just heard more thundersnow!!!