Go Phillies Go!

So, unless you've been living under a rock for the past 2 weeks, you realize that my hometown Phightin' Phils are 1 win, yes, 1 WIN away from a World Series Championship tonight. I am so excited (as is the rest of my office) that no one quite knows what to do with themselves.
People have taken the day off of work to prepare (not me) and plan on taking the day off tomorrow to recover (again, not me)but I am still really excited to watch the game tonight and can't wait for the outcome and am hopeful for an awesome parade down Broad Street on Wednesday, yahoo!!!

Now, onto other things...I really figured out how to sew this weekend with the help of my awesome friend E. I got to see her house and meet her pitty pup, Cami, who is SO adorable and the house is fantastic. She and her BF R have done an amazing job sprucing up the house, and they aren't done yet, so I can't wait to see the final product. I learned a lot of things this weekend though, and I might as well tell you here why I was under E's watchful eye for almost 4 hours yesterday!

Sewing with any striped fabric is HARD. Especially when you aren't used to carefully measuring and pinning. E taught me the importance of pins, but I didn't take the stripes into consideration before I started sewing, so my finished product looks a little wonky, but I am still very proud.

Nylon is thicker than you think. E was a trooper and sewed a nylon keychain for me, and most of it was done by hand because we didn't want to hurt the needle on the sewing machine. All that really happened though was that E hurt her fingers, but it looks awesome. I will post pictures tonight if Mr. Pit ever gives me my laptop back. (but, since he needs it for the next 2 years in grad school, probably not so much)

Slower is better. E taught me how to 'hand sew' with the machine, and I can't tell you what a difference this makes. I am not very good with the foot pedal thing, so being able to start the row using my hand and cranking the needle down does amazing things to start the project.

Measure twice, then again, THEN cut. I didn't do this as I was too excited to get to sewing. E told me that over half of the issues with any garment come from NOT measuring correctly and not leaving yourself enough room to actually sew.

I learned a ton and can't wait to work on new projects. JoAnn's was having a huge sale over the weekend, so I will try to get up there another day this week to pick up some more supplies and see if I can start a real live project as opposed to just making them up as I go along. However, I think my first "Jewelry Envelope" as I call it, turned out really well.

Oh, and one more thing, don't forget to iron! This makes a HUGE difference in the look of the final product and makes it look THAT much more professional. Totally awesome!

Thanks again to E, R and Cami for hosting me yesterday!!

Learning to Fly...

...But I ain't got wings... (one of my ALL time fav songs from Tom Petty!)

That is how I feel about learning to sew. I thought it was a HUGE accomplishment that I figured out how to wind a bobbin (not well mind you), put the bobbin in the holder thingy, wind the thread (I LOVE the automatic threader spring!) and then get started...but from there I am lost.

I heard a good rule of thumb from M's god-mother, who said "don't sew unless there is fabric"...unfortuneatly we heard that a little late and had to fish the thread out of the bobbin more than once...though by the end of the night we had sucessfully sewed 2 d-rings onto 1 piece of ribbon. Huzzah!

I, and we, are pretty far from mass producing anything cute, much less worth purchasing, but we're getting there slowly but surely! I plan on practicing a lot this weekend and the goal is to sew grosgrain ribbon onto nylon webbing...wish me luck! I am also gaining a ton of inspiration from Stephanie at Creative Reveries who is awesomely creative and makes tons of clothes and quilts and does all sorts of cute gifts for her adorable niece...love her stuff!

I also found the site Sew Mama Sew and they have some great ideas and lots of forums for people to talk about their projects and problems and show off what they've made...very cool to see and lots to work towards!!

We also have some visitors coming tonight and I am really excited to see them. Mr Pits friend D and his wife L are coming from Chicago for a wedding in NJ, but are nice enough to drive down from Newark this evening and spend the night with us. They have not seen the house since we moved in, and have never met Lil' Pup since we got him last summer and haven't seen them since!

We plan on grilling some steaks, and I am going to make my famous mashed potatoes (well, probably only famous to Mr. Pit and I, but he loves them and I love being able to make something edible, so its a win-win!) as well as open a bottle of champage to celebrate a fun weekend with friends. My favorite champagne is "Sofia" by Coppola and it has sentimental value as its the champagne we toasted with at our wedding, and that I for one did not drink enough of that day! (Besides the fact I didn't eat anything that day besides a cheese sandwich made for me by C's mom, I could have used a glass of champagne or two to calm me down as I almost fainted on the way down the aisle!...I did recover enough to say my vows and not bawl my eyes out, and then I finally relaxed at the reception, phew!)

Anyways...that's what the weekend has in store, I might post again today since it's a bit slow at work. The highest ranking person right now in my department is about the 5th in line of being in charge over all, since the top 4 seem to be mysteriously missing this fabulous fall Friday...but I don't want to take too much advantage of a good thing, so I am going to go grab lunch, finish my work and try to make the 5:05 train home. If it's STILL this quiet later this afternoon maybe I will modify plans and try to hop on the 4:44, but we'll have to play it by ear.

Have a great weekend, enjoy this awesome weather, cheer for the Phillies next week, and if you know how to sew and want to teach me, I can pay you in mashed potatoes, grilled cheese and good conversation!!

Artisinal Cheese and Kitchen Accessories

Afternoon Pit Fans!

I am feeling MUCH better than I was 2 days ago and have lots of news and fun topics for today.

First and foremost though, while I was eating my lunch today I browsed the Williams-Sonoma Catalog we got in the mail last night and I can't tell you how much that catalog motivates me! I am the farthest thing from a cook you could imagine (grilled cheese is my specialty, and my only specialty if you catch my drift) but nevertheless, reading this catalog makes me want to do great things in the kitchen! No, not like that! For goodness sake, get your mind out of the gutter! I mean it makes me want to cook, and by cook, I mean buy all the fun things in their catalog, and THEN cook thier yummy recipes! Even thier china patterns with roosters on them call out to me even though our house is currently without a rooster and I am not sure we need to add any...I still want to order the whole set, 12 please!

Second, the catalog has an entire section of specialty cheeses from the US and abroad, and I swear it is taking all of my strength not to spend $800 for approximately 8 lbs of cheese from all over the world. Everyone knows I am a cheese-aholic and the words 'goat cheese' might as well be the best aphrodisiac ever :) Mr. Pit knows this well and lets me regularly have my way with the cheese selection at Whole Foods (smart man) :)

Anyways, enough with the food talk, even right after lunch I am getting hunger pangs. Plus, it doesn't help that I work 2 blocks from
Tria which has the best wine and cheese menu in all of Philly. YUM.

Third...and this is exciting. I got a sewing machine last night. Got it all set up and didn't sew myself to any fabric yet, so its all good so far! I got tons of scrap fabric to mess around with, and $129 later I had a machine, tons of fun ribbon, webbing, fabric and thread. SO FUN! I did all of my practicing while listening to the debate in the backround, and let me tell you, I was so focused on not breaking the poor machine I hardly listened but knew enough that the headlines who said who 'won' today didn't suprise me.

AND, speaking of winning...YAY PHILLIES!!! World Series here we come!!! I have to admit that I am a known mush (a mush is someone who no matter what, when attending a game or event in person, the team that person wants to win, will lose) so I will not be attending any games though my little brother is flying back from San Diego for a long weekend and is trying to get tickets to whatever home game he can. All I have to say is GO PHILS! I promise I won't even be in the vicinity of Citizens Bank Park, and if you want, I won't even watch it on TV :)

So, thats what I have for today. M is coming over tonight to play with the sewing machine (which means I have to do a super-fast clean when I get home today) but it will be nice to have company :) Plus, Lil' Pup LOVES his Aunt M so he'll be as thrilled to see her as anyone.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Oh wait, I almost forgot...Congratuatlions to Leanne for winning Project Runway last night! Thank goodness it wasn't the whiny Kenley, woo hoo! And I LOVE that Tim Gunn was the guest judge, I love that man :)