It's been quite awhile.

I decided, at the end of 2013, that one of my resolutions was to make more - to schedule time to sew and knit and to learn to weave. I bought a new work dress on one of the last days of the year, but my next new dress will be one I make.

My options, based on patterns I already own, are as follows:

A Kay Unger pattern for another work dress.

A Rachel Comey pattern for a non-work dress.

A Lisette pattern for a non-work dress (view B).

Another of my resolutions was to train for another marathon, so I may find myself in the same spot at the beginning of January 2015 that I find myself in today...

Clearly, BA's photo of this soup is better in all objective ways than my own, but I've made the egg drop soup recipe in the current issue twice this weekend and enjoyed it both times and something needs to be said for that. So, I recommend taking something resembling the Bon Appetit recipe to the local grocer. Low stakes. High return.

My sister is allergic to grapes, so oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies were out. But, I dig dried fruit, so I substituted apricots for raisins, added chocolate chips to the mix, and there you go, Joy of Cooking cookies, 2.0.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix:

1 3/4 c flour;
3/4 tsp baking soda;
3/4 tsp baking powder;
1/2 tsp salt;
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Beat in a large bowl:

1 c softened butter;
1/4 c granulated sugar;
1 1/2 c packed brown sugar;
2 eggs;
2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Stir in flour mixture, then add:

1 c dried fruit (raisins, apricots, cranberries);
3 1/2 c rolled oats;
3/4 c chocolate chips

Shape dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets. Flatten balls to 1/2 inch thick. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let stand for two minutes, then cook on rack.

To be shared with friends and neighbours.

{happy valentine's}

Knitting is slow-going these days, but I finished the Brooklyn Tweed Irving toque this past weekend. It's a belated Christmas gift for my dad.

{I asked Greg to wear it for the photo. He gave two thumbs up for the Kathmandu tweed I found at Romni Wools to use as a substitute for BT Shelter.}

I've been busy lately with work and with running and visiting with my family and with not much else.

{...the scene on Sunday morning at the Sunnyside swimming pool, two days after a major winter storm...}

My first trip to New York City in twenty years was a three day walking tour (from W 101st to Broome Street and back on the first day alone) and search for the perfect New York Style pizza.

My top three were the Highline, an off-Broadway show, and running in Central Park:

I am a big fan of public spaces, parks in particular, so the Highline was a major major highlight for me.

{To be sure, so was Central Park. But I didn't bring my camera on my run and I was too busy eating a Magnolia cupcake when we went back for our last hour in the city.}

Theresa and I also visited MoMA, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on our way to Williamsburg (buck a shuck oysters from Long Island!), and checked out the shops in the East Village.

NYC, I heart you!

Greg and I spent Sunday afternoon canning. We found a few recipes on the Bernardin website; bought Bernardin mason jars, vegetables, pickling spices, and vinegar; carved out a few hours (halfway through, we realised we had to cancel other plans; pickling takes a long time), and, went to town.

We pickled green beans, fennel, carrots, beets, cucumbers, and (I have no idea why we did this, except that we had so much left after pickling the other veg) garlic.

And now, we wait.

I have to mention, I have never seen Greg as excited about a food prep project as I did this one. He wanted to talk about pickling and watch home canning youtube videos for days beforehand...

I have made chocolate chip cookies from the for me for you recipe easily a dozen times this summer, most recently for a Labour Day weekend cottage trip.

This is hands down the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever found, but you need to let the dough sit for a day, which means you can't whip them up at the last minute. Well, actually, by speeding through the dough-waiting time (I let it sit maybe 5 hours?), I sort of just did.

A year ago my sister gave me some fabrics and asked me to make her pillows. The fabric didn't all match, so it took some time to find pieces for the backs. A year on, I've managed to sew a single pillow and two pair (the sumo print pillow has a match, too).

I have no idea where the print fabrics came from, but when I went to find a match for it (chocolate linen), the ladies at the fabric store went crazy for the sumo wrestlers.

I used Kwiksew 3844 (a pattern meant for knits), and the Grainline tutorial for flat bias necklines, to make, not one, but three tank tops.

The fabrics I used were a left-over purple silk, a funny stretch satin print, and an orange chiffon.

Sometimes you just need a night in with your girls, y'know?

tie-dye and batik cottons

(I happened across the end of summer sale at a local fabric store.)

So, Spain:

Claire and I spent 8 days visiting Barcelona, with day trips to Figueres (Dali museum!) and Sitges (oh la, the Mediterranean!!!!!).

Top three favourite travel moments:

1) The bike tour we took with Fat Tire Bike Tours our first full day there;

2) A day in Sitges (one day on the beach and I am so tanned);

3) The pintxos we ate, the cider and rosado we drank, the hilarious British couple we met, all at a fantastic Basque-style tapas bar we found in the El Born district.

Books I Read on Vacation

I've recently spent a week in North-eastern Spain.

In addition to Girls Like Us, which I had started long before we left and which I finished on a train ride from Figueres, I packed Your Voice in my Head (Emma Forrest, 2011) and Babette's Feast (Isak Dinesen, published as a short story in 1958).

I read Your Voice in my Head on the beach in Sitges, lying on a lounge chair, facing the sea, trying to stay hydrated with bottle after bottle of water. It is not a typical beach read, but in a way, reading it under the most brilliant white sun was the best way to read it.

My travel companion, Claire, and I had planned a second trip to Sitges before our flight home the following day. I read Babette's Feast in a Starbucks in Barcelona, where we took cover from the rain, trying to save the day with a latte and free Wi-Fi. Babette's Feast is a lovely short story (turned movie), which I finished before I finished my drink.

The Last Five Books I've Read

The last five books I've read, in order:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (2010); The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith (2002); Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (2010); Nights Below Station Street by David Adams Richards (1988); and Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller (2008).

Girls Like Us was the second 1970's music scene biography I read this summer. I began it a few weeks ago and just finished it on a train ride last week, breaking up the reading with many magazine and newspaper articles in the interim. It inspired me to buy a copy of Carole King's Tapestry at the record store yesterday, an album which topped charts for more than six years and won four Grammy's in 1972. Carole King was the first solo female artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and the first female to win the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Tapestry is still one of the best selling albums of all time.

Unwearable Muslin

I sewed a pair of shorts:

I seem to have cut the pattern for Simplicity 1887 View C,too small, as I cannot get them over my butt. Disappointing, but I suppose my sewing strategy is to make wearable muslins. As such, I shall take this to be the risk that comes with sewing that we mitigate by making a muslin first (which I generally think is wasteful, which is why I make wearable muslins). Thankfully I tested this pattern with inexpensive fabric first, as opposed to the $19/m fabric I'd wanted to buy.

I suspect they would fit someone with 34 inch hips, which mine decidedly aren't, and I am shipping them to someone they may fit.

Up North

I was lucky to be invited to spend this past weekend on Georgian Bay, and, it was glorious.

My top three favourite weekend moments were: roasting s'mores over a bonfire on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night; finally having sufficient courage to climb to the top of an abandoned lighthouse I'd been too chicken to visit on an earlier trip; and, cliff jumping into the lake.

I Made a Skirt

I sewed a skirt this past weekend:

The shape is based on Badgley Mischka pattern from Vogue, V1127, but I added an extra inch at the waist, and a waistband.

And I wore it to the Smut Soiree:

{Because I love Hollywood gossip.}

Favourite Things

Early mornings are one of my favourite things in life, and though I could enjoy them often, I don't. I did this morning, though.

Here is the view from 6am: