I'm Alive...Barely!

Phew!  So this past week was my second to last week, but half of my final projects were already due.  Between Tuesday - Thursday night I only got 14 hours of sleep!  Glad it's the weekend and I can recover a bit. 

Design

I finally finished my creative design projects :)  All my hard work paid off, I got an A!  These are my final fashion illustrations.  

I also had my final kimono/raglan sleeve blouse due.  I seriously messed up the waistband area, but you can't really tell in the pic.  Since it's got a looser silhouette the design actually fits me (My bust is bigger than the dress forms, so body hugging garments do not fit me!), so perhaps I'll get some  new fabric and resew one for myself.   Not sure if I like how the peplum looks when it's on though. 

Cooking

I made a couple new recipes this week.  The first is Pistachio Crusted Chicken from All Recipes.  I used a cranberry mustard instead of dijon mustard.  

 I was a bit rushed so I could have done a better job crusting the chicken but it was still pretty good.  Served it with baby red potatoes and some rainbow slaw I had left over from the pad thai recipe.  

Last night I made some Tortellini Bake.  Varied the veggies from the recipe; used zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, and canned tomatoes with sweet onions.  Also used half and half instead of cream.  

 It was some seriously good comfort food to have after my week.  Had to serve it with cheesy bread of course :).  

Discover

I woke up quite early this morning for a couple hours to view the lunar eclipse.  We enjoyed a "morning cap" of hot cocoa and Irish cream, yum!

It was a fun experience to watch the eclipse form.  We camped out by our roof top pool with a comforter and music.  Cameras make it look so small :P  much bigger in person.  

Went to school for a bit today, and then went shopping with the roomie since we're headed to Vegas on Friday!

 The Christmas lights everywhere are so pretty.  I love the holidays <3   Can't wait to have a break, go home, and see the snow! 

Off to watch Christmas Vacation with the roomie :)  I have a nasty cold so I'm trying a new cinnamon apple spice tea.  Feels good on the throat.  Having a relaxing evening, then back to work tomorrow to finish up stuff for finals.  Next weekend can't come fast enough!

On Wisconsin!

What an awesome weekend to be a Wisconsin football fan!   First, the badgers win yesterday, taking us to the Rose Bowl for the second year!  Then today the Packers are victorious again, bringing the record to 12 - 0!  

I played a bit of dress up in my new jersey :)  Randall Cobb is of course the Packer's young rookie, but even better our names are practically the same!  So, it was too fitting that I had to get a jersey. 

Design

I finished fabricating my front flats!  They look so good!  I realized they imported into photoshop with different sizing, but luckily I was able to figure out how to resize them to be proportionate to one another again...What a pain that would have been to redo them all...

The backs are going to be scaled a bit smaller, so I don't have to add as much detail.  Happy to have one more section of the project complete :) 

Cooking

 

 I've been wanting to make Pad Thai recently... I tweak this recipe from All Recipes.  Unfortunately I couldn't find the radish, tamarind, or bean sprouts at Ralph's, so it's more of a Pad Thai inspired dish.  I made this a couple years ago while staying at my aunt Trixie's house, and I don't remember where we found the ingredients.  You'd think they'd be easier to find in an LA grocery than Beaver Dam ;)  If you look at the comments I used oyster sauce (or fish sauce) instead of soy sauce, rice vinegar instead of white vinegar, and I used just a dash of chile powder instead of paprika.  I also used chicken instead of tofu. I added an Asian vegetable mix and garnished with rainbow slaw (broccoli, cauliflower, radish, carrot) for a bit of fresh crunch since I was missing the bean sprouts. 

37 Flats Done!

Design

One of my classes this quarter is Creative Design Analysis and Collection Development, which basically is all about developing a theme and turning it into a collection.  My final project is to create a collection with 3 different groups, totaling around 36 pieces all together.  I just finished my technical flats! 

3 groups 12/13 pieces each = 37 flats total front AND back :)  feels great to be done.  Now I still have to fabricate or color them and create 9 fashion figures to show how the looks would be put together...

Cooking

 I was thinking of making pad thai tonight, but I didn't want to miss the Badger game!, or take the time to go look for everything at the store and cook.

So I settled for some thin spaghetti tossed in a bit of alfredo with mushrooms, spinach, and shrimp.  I always neglect the toaster oven so I got some extra crispy french bread as well.

Like I said, lots more to do and I'm hoping to go out for the Packer game tomorrow, so off to work I go. 

Hello Blog World!

So, I've decided to enter the world of blogging.  I thought this could be a fun way to archive my outfits, designs, recipes, and any other fun finds and thoughts I come across.  I created my title image from a variety of rococo themed images found on We Heart It.  I LOVE this site, not only you can search through countless images and save them to your heart and organized sets on the site, but you can add the heart button to your browser and add images you find on any other site as well.  I gather a lot of images and inspiration for projects using We Heart It. 

Decor

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving, and a great start to December.  I decorated our dysfunctional tree today :P

 My mom was nice enough to order us this tree last year from JC Penney.  It was a nightmare to try to put together...the lights were pre-wrapped around the tree and it made it almost impossible to get the tree loose and standing.  We also discovered a piece must be missing from the stand because it likes to inch itself up and tilt over.  Luckily, I have a very large closet and was able to basically store the tree as is on my shelf this past year.  Disaster continued this year as half of the lights didn't work :P  Eventually I got her up and running.  Decorations are all from Target.  It's our own little Charlie Brown tree :)  

Fashion

Some new exciting purchases have joined my closet this past week. 

First off, is a pair of Penny Loves Kenny "Majori" boots.  I scored these $120 beauties for only $40 on a sale at Gilt Groupe

, which is one of several sites I follow that offer brands and labels up to 60% off :)   They're a whopping 5" tall, but far too cute to pass up at such a good price!  Plus, I have high arches, so high heels are ok with me! 

 Usually I'm a silver girl, but lately I've been drawn to more and more gold jewelry.  The first is my Aries ram horns <3  Another deal found at Haute Look.  $42 Danielle Stevens Necklace found for $17.  The second is an elephant I got at the J Crew outlet.  You'll come to find that elephants and horseshoes are my go-to's as far as jewelry, symbols, etc. that I can't pass up! 

Cooking

Wrapped the day up with some pretzel battered cod, baby red potatoes, and italian mixed veggies.  I used a recipe from All Recipes that I've made previously, but I tried adding a little beer to the mix and baked it at 400 degrees with the veggies instead of frying.  

 I didn't make tartar sauce, so instead I placed it all on a thin layer of blue cheese dressing.  I think adding the beer to the egg thinned it out too much and so the pretzel batter didn't adhere as much as I would have liked.  Think I'll stick to the original recipe next time. 

Have 6 of 36 flats left to do for my Creative Design class, hope everyone has a good night!