arctic city/salt city

my summer so far...

2010-07-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

...has consisted of mass amounts of knitting! I don't know why, but I've become obsessed with it. So far I've made a sweater and two monkeys. (I've included a picture of one of the monkeys below) I'm well on my way to finishing a second sweater and a hat. I've picked up two new knitting books, Classic Knits by Erika Knight and Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. In May, my grandmother gave me two enormous boxes of yarn, her needles and all of her patterns. In her patterns, I also found a vintage 1950's book of knitting patterns, which is what I knit the sweater from. I also bought myself a book about knitting sock monkeys, which is where the monkeys came from! Right now, I'm lusting after The Knitted Odd-Bod Bunch by Donna Wilson because it's full of ugly-but-cute creatures to knit...my favorite kind!

Here's one of the monkeys:

Street and Nye

2010-06-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Sunday before last, Kris and I decided to attempt our first trailless together. I had done some trailless peaks before, but this was Kris's first. We read countless trip reports just to make sure we weren't going to be over our heads with this one, and we also studied Kris's adk club book and topo map. It was one of the easier hikes we've done, but I really loved it. The summits didn't provide much of a view. In fact, we couldn't even tell that we were on the summit of street for a while! We also stumbled across the remains of an old logging camp on the side of the trail. Here are some photos!

And, I'm back

2010-06-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry I took a hiatus from blogging, but things have been fairly crazy. Grad school is done for the summer, so I now have some free time! Here's a brief update on the latest happenings...

First, Kris and our friend Jeff and I took a short road trip to Boston to see the Yankees play the Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was Kris's first trip to Fenway and my first time seeing a Sox-Yankees game. Unfortunately, the Red Sox lost 10-3, but I still had a fabulous time.

Unfortunately, the week after my trip to Fenway, my grandmother passed away from cancer. Above is a picture of her when she was in her early 20's.

Last Thursday I dusted off my hiking boots, and Kris and I finally did our first hike of the summer. It felt great to get back on the trails even though I'm sad to say that I'm very, very, VERY out of shape. My friend Bonnie joined us for the hike, and we climbed Wright Peak. The wildlife count for the day: 1 snowshoe hare, 1 frog, 1 beaver, and 43 toads.

At the summit of Wright is wreckage from a plane crash that happened in 1962. A B-47 bomber lost in a storm ran into one side of the summit, scattering parts and pieces all over the place. Above, I'm sitting next to one of the melted, twisted up engines.

So that's the latest news! I'll be back blogging once a week now that things have slowed down here.

ladies and gentlemen of the jury...

2010-04-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

...I give you the FRANKEN-DRESS!

Kris had some sheets with multi-colored polka dots in shades of green and blue that I was in love with! He didn't like them much because he thought they were too feminine, so he gave them to me and I decided to make a dress out of them. I chose to use a Simplicity pattern I have from the 1940's that has adorable little peplums on the hips. The pattern itself was about a size and a half too small for me, but I felt optimistic.

I call this the Franken-Dress because I wound up loosely basing the dress on the pattern I had. In fact, I pieced it together kind of randomly and sort of from other patterns I have to make it my size. The neck hole was WAY, way too small. I went to try on the top of the dress when I thought I had finished it to discover I couldn't get it over my head. I didn't have any hook and eye or snap closures, so I made my own hook and eye style closures out of fabric and some vintage buttons I found in my grandmother's house that are bright red. You can see what I did with them in the very last photo in this post. I also wound up taking out most of the darts I sewed in the bodice because the fit was really strange. I sewed the panels on the skirt together and then measured the waist. It was too small by about four inches, so I cut out some extra panels and tore out the seams on the skirt and sewed the extra panels in back. You can't really tell from the pictures, but the back of the dress now has a little bitty bustle to it. When I sewed the skirt to the top, I couldn't get it over my chest because the zipper opening called for in the pattern was way too short. Luckily, I had a spare white 22-incher laying around in my box of notions, so I trimmed it down a little, tore out the side seam on the skirt and re-sewed it with the longer zipper in a longer opening. Now, obviously, it's wearable, but oh my gosh! This dress was a lot of work! I'd love to make this pattern again, and I think it'll go more smoothly next time...after all of my ripping apart and piecing together. It probably took me twice as long to sew in the long run!

I still have a ton of this fabric left. Kris gave me a top sheet, fitted sheet and pillow case. I have most of the top sheet left, all of the fitted sheet and all of the pillow case. I am trying to figure out if I have enough of this fabric to sew one of the other patterns I have that is for a summer dress with a big flow-y circle skirt. Anyway...I'm pretty pleased with this little number, even if it is a Franken-Dress and a bit loud. :)

a very belated st patrick's day post

2010-03-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

I love soda bread. It's delicious and super easy to make, so I'm not sure why I only make it once a year! This year I made soda bread, and while I usually use wheat flour to make it, I only had all-purpose so my bread came out a little more like a quick sour dough.

Here's the recipe!

3 cups of flour (either wheat, all-purpose, or half of each! you choose...it tastes delicious no matter what)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of milk with one Tbsp of vinegar mixed in to sour it
oats or grains for added texture (a nice touch, but not necessary)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a baking sheet.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and oats. Once these are incorporated, slowly add in the soured milk. Mix until the dough is soft and a bit sticky. Roll into a large, flat ball six or seven inches in diameter. Place the dough on the baking sheet and bake for 40-50 minutes.

Here's my soda bread:

And here's a very happy beer:

Happy (late) St. Patrick's day!

an update on the latest happenings

2010-03-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well...I haven't posted much lately because I have been in the process of moving! It's been a busy time, but now I'm mostly settled in. I still have a few last things to move in, like a desk, and I haven't hung up any of my framed art stuff from home. All in all, though, I'm happy and comfortable! :)

new pattern!

2010-03-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to avoid buying sewing patterns because I still have a few that I haven't made yet, but I really couldn't resist this beauty. I debated over buying it for a while, but I kept going back to the same website it was being sold on to "visit" it, finally deciding to just break down and buy it. After all, it's almost impossible for me to find sewing patterns for bottoms that fit my waist, and this one is my exact size. So...I have this lovely pattern for 1940's culottes!! I can't wait to make them!

spring time!!

2010-03-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Spring is pretty much here already. It snuck up on me this year! Today was so warm, all I needed was a t-shirt outside. Unfortunately, I have been stuck inside doing work, work, and more work, so I didn't get to enjoy the beautiful weather, but it is getting me psyched up for hiking with Kris this summer!

The two of us started on our way to becoming 46-ers last year. For those of you who aren't familiar with the 46-ers, it's a club where the entry requirement is to climb all 46 high peaks in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. I had climbed many peaks prior to last summer since I grew up in the Adirondacks, but I never wrote in about them or kept track. When Kris and I started hiking together last year, he insisted that I start writing in...so we are officially "4-ers." :)

Here are some pictures from our hikes last year:

new dress, and an old dress with a new hat

2010-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

The weather this week has been absolutely crazy! First we got about a foot of snow, then rain that got rid of most of the snow, and today it's like spring outside! I decided to wear a spring-y outfit today since it's so warm out! I figured I could get away with a sleeveless dress (yes, it is that warm!). I paired it with one of my new hats that I just bought recently. I'm still trying to figure out how to attach the damn thing to my head, but I think it looks cute with this dress. It has kind of a 60's feel to it.

Also, like I posted last time, I finally finished that Anne Adams dress. I'm pleased with how it came out for the most part, except my button holes are....interesting. I tried making them by hand first, and after I was stitching for about an hour and hadn't even gotten half of the first one finished, I decided to give up and use my machine. This is the hardest dress I've sewn so far, but I'm pretty pleased with it.

I wore it to a Valentine's day party I went to the other day, but I was bummed today when I put it on and noticed a little rip by the zipper :( I need to do some repair work. I think all of these mistakes just mean I need to make the pattern again! :) Here are some pictures of it!

New posters for my collection!

2010-02-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

I recently splurged and bought myself some posters from the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics from ebay. The guy I bought them from was running this sweet buy-one-get-one-free deal in the spirit of the Vancouver Olympics, and I couldn't refuse!

These posters were designed by Robert R. Whitney for the Lake Placid games, and there's one for each event. The ones I picked were Biathlon, which is my FAVORITE winter event, and Cross-Country Skiing. Here are some pictures of the posters! I can't wait to get them into frames.

hats!

2010-02-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

I just bought myself some new hats that were on sale. I'm pretty excited about them.

The first is this cute little feather fascinator. It's mostly black with some lighter colored feathers coming out of the flower. This isn't quite the best photo of it ever, but you get the idea.

The next is a little cocktail hat. I got it in white which is kind of unusual. I don't really have any cocktail dresses to match it, but I think it would be fine for wearing casually too. It has a large comb inside to attach it to your head, but it also has this crazy elastic chinstrap that kind of reminds me of a birthday hat...so that's kind of weird. But it was so adorable, I had trouble saying no to it.

And lastly, this little mini cloche! It's a fun little hat with some beads on one side. I have like one cloche right now that I wear all the time, so it'll be nice to have two to wear now so that people don't think I'm crazy. "There's that girl with the hat again..."

I also finally finished that Anne Adams dress I had been working on for a month. I'll have to post pictures of that at a later date!

it has been forever

2010-02-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

It really has been forever since I have posted. Things have been busy, busy, busy, busy.

I haven't been sewing a whole lot lately, unfortunately. I have a polka dot dress I made from an Anne Adams pattern that is just waiting on a hem and one last button hole, but I just haven't been able to find the time to finish it! I also have fabric waiting around to be made into a 3-quarter length sleeved shirtwaist dress that I haven't even started yet. The good news is, I got a whooole stash of buttons, zippers and thread from my grandmother. There are some really fun silver buttons that I'm brainstorming about.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited for the Olympics to begin tomorrow. I LOVE the Olympics. I have an obsession with them, and every two years I watch whichever Olympic games are on like they're crack. I often dream about the games returning to Lake Placid, but I really doubt that will ever happen. I feel like the cities bidding for them are just waaaayyyy way too big and too rich for a small town like Lake Placid to ever have a chance at hosting them again, which is really too bad. I think it's kind of lame that professional athletes can be in the Olympics now too. I thought it was way cooler when everyone was an amateur. I don't really understand the reasoning behind changing it.

My mom is lending me this incredible poster from the 1980 games that she had stashed in a closet. I found it one day, and she decided to have it framed, so it now is in my room. It's from the Men's hockey team victory over Russia, aka, Miracle on Ice. It's by far one of my favorite framed pieces that I have up, and I'm hoping that when I move out she'll let me take it with me. I'm just so paranoid that something bad will happen to it when I move it...it would be my luck!

dress three!

2010-01-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

When I bought fabric on Monday, my goal was to finish at least one of the new dresses before I left for school on January 13th. Little did I know, I'd finish a new one by Thursday afternoon! I have had a lot of free time for sewing this week.

I was a little nervous trying one of the three patterns I had purchased fabric for because they are more fitted than the other two patterns I made. The first two dresses were tent dresses so a lot of the flaws could be hidden. I thought the fitted bodice on the dress would come out lumpy and crooked, but surprisingly the most trouble I had was the bias edging on the bottom of the sleeves!! One thing I did discover through making this dress was the older the pattern...the more confusing it is to follow. The instructions took me a long time to decipher, but once I figured out what the heck they were talking about it wasn't too bad. The right sleeve came out weird looking. There is a teal contract edging on the bottom of the sleeves, and the left sleeve came out fine, but when I went to make the right sleeve...well...it didn't go as smoothly. For some reason the fabric bunched in a weird way, and after ripping the seams and re-stitching a bunch of times I gave up and decided that I was okay with the sleeve looking weird. It's not bad for a pattern that was kind of complex, I would say!

Next is one of the shirtwaist dresses!

Here are some pictures of the dress I just finished:

new fabric and patterns!!

2010-01-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a new fabric store down in Glens Falls and spent WAAAYYYY way too much on fabric. I bought enough for three dresses this time, so it should keep me occupied for a while! I also ordered myself two new winter appropriate patterns that I'm pretty darn excited to get working on. The fabric store just had so many bolts and different patterns...ohhhh I didn't even know what to do with myself!

I am very relieved that the holidays are over now! I got a new pair of snow shoes that I am really excited about. I took them out for a test run yesterday, and they are great.

Here is a picture of my two new patterns and the fabrics I bought today:

some post demolition pictures

2009-12-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

I went out and took some photos of the bay without the bridge this morning. It's so strange to look at!

so long, farewell!

2009-12-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

Today the Champlain Bridge was demolished! I can't even believe it!

For a little background information, the bridge was built in 1929. It was closed in October because apparently it was about to collapse at any moment, which made me feel great because I'd driven over it that morning to get to work in Burlington. It was difficult to say good bye to the bridge today, but literally thousands of people and hundreds of businesses rely on the bridge for their every day life so it needed to come down. There will be a new one built in the next couple of years, but probably not soon enough. Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont pressed the detonator button today.

Here's the company's website who did the demolition:
http://www.biggerblast.com/

Here's a video of the demolition from one of the local news stations:
http://capitalnews9.com/capital-region-news-12-content/top_stories/491537/champlain-bridge-demolished

Here's the last picture I have of the bridge and I (and my cousin and Aunt, too!)

and here is my video of the demolition! You can't see much, but about half way through the video you can hear the explosion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR9Ug42DN_Q

dress number two!

2009-12-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

Today I finished another dress made from one of the patterns I bought recently. This pattern was definitely from the 1970's, so it has a big silly collar and super puffy sleeves, but I love it anyway! I bought some pink fabric with tiny white polka dots on it that was a leftover piece...but luckily it was large enough to make this pattern with a lot leftover.

Here's the picture!

my first dress!

2009-12-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

Today I finally finished my first dress. I mean, it's not going to win Project Runway or anything (or even get me an audition haha), but I'm pretty proud of it! I made it from one of the patterns I posted a few weeks ago. For a first try (and for me picking dumb fabric to work with) I think it came out pretty well.

Pardon the silly picture:

pop shop

2009-12-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

I would like to inform you that I officially own two of the coolest tea cups around.

This weekend, Kris and I decided to exchange gifts a little bit early. (It was at his insistence...he was too excited about giving me his gift, and he squeezed my gift and figured out what it was early.) When I opened the box from him, there were two Keith Haring tea cups from his original Pop Shop inside. They are the two best cups in my collection. In fact, I almost want to just throw out the rest of my tea cup collection because these two are just so fantastic. Who would've thought that two of my favorite things, tea cups and Keith Haring, could ever be found in the same place? (And yes, I do collect tea cups. And yes, I have many other old lady habits.)

Here are some pictures:

hat fancy

2009-12-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

Oh dear...it has been ages since I last wrote on this blog. I have been extremely busy with work, applying to graduate schools, holiday shopping, etc etc! Welcome to December, I suppose.

Anyway...This weekend I visited a good friend of mine, and we went thrifting on Saturday at a few different places around the Albany area. At one of the stores, I found a fantastic little pill box hat. I was so upset because it didn't have a tag, but then I noticed that none of the hats in the back of the store had tags but all of the hats in the front of the store did. I went and asked one of the employees about it, and she said she'd pick out a tagged hat at random and sell me the untagged hat at that price. It only cost me a dollar! I was so thrilled, and seriously, what an awesome person. I was afraid when I brought the hat up to the front she'd take it for the do not sell pile.

It's such a fun hat! It's got a small stain on the top toward the front, but I'm thinking I can cover this up with some decoration or a little veil or something.

Peppermint Bark

2009-12-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

This week I have had a really serious chocolate craving, and I have been trying to find some new christmas candy recipes that are a little less labor intensive than making buck eyes (or peanut butter balls) and fudge. I found a recipe for peppermint bark at www.joyofbaking.com that is super easy to make and seemed to have enough chocolate in it to make me happy.

Here's the link:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/candy/PeppermintBark.html

I wanted to try making it yesterday, but I searched everywhere around town and not a single store was selling candy canes. Can you believe that!? IT'S DECEMBER! Anyway, in place of crushed candy canes, I just bought some round red and white peppermint candies and ran them through my food processor. I also used double the semi-sweet chocolate with the amount of white chocolate called for in the recipe simply because I don't like white chocolate very much. The bark came out great, and it tasted delicious! The only thing I found was that the oil called for in the recipe is a little too much. I'd use even half of that if you use any at all, or if you'd prefer to use oil, just add a little bit of baking wax to make the chocolate stiff enough (My bark came out a little...bendy).

Here's a picture! Yum!

vintage=kryptonite

2009-12-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited to say that I have FINALLY fixed one of my favorite vintage purses and it's usable again! This purse is so great! I found it four years ago when I was visiting a friend of mine in Japan. Near her apartment was this tiny shop called Recycle Shop, and I found this little beauty stuffed on a shelf behind a bunch of old appliances. About two years after I got it, the handle broke in two places, and I just haven't been able to fix it since...until today! The cool thing about this bag is that the cover is removable, so if i had other covers I could switch them out to give it different looks. I wish I could find more bags like this one...it's one of my favorites!

I found another purse at a thrift store in Oswego, NY two weeks ago that is pretty fabulous. For me...the uglier the better which makes this purse perfect. Basically it's just a huge, gawdy gold clutch. You can't tell from the photos, but this clutch is actually HUGE. It's about the size of my laptop which has a 17 in. screen. I love it!

Purses, shoes and belts seem to be the only things that I can find in thrift stores. It's so hard to go to a thrift store and find clothes that actually fit me. However, I have been super lucky in finding dresses in my grandmother's house that are my exact size! This fall I found a new one tucked away when I was cleaning out a closet for my Grandma. It's such a lucky find!!

patterns patterns patterns!

2009-11-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

So...my goal for the month of December is to make myself a new holiday dress or two! I bought myself a few vintage patterns from ebay and some thrift stores that I am VERY excited to bust out!! I found two from the 70's, three from the 50's and two from the 40's. The ones from the 40's (in the bottom picture) are my favorite. I love the little hip peplum on the one on the left. I was able to find all of them in my size except for one that's a little bit small. I'm kind of bummed, but I think I'm crafty enough to figure out how to fix it so it will fit. I can't wait to go and pick out some fabric for these this week!

I also found a dress online from the 1950's that is adorable! I'm thinking of trying to makemy own version of this one (pictured below). It's a pretty simple looking dress, and I wouldn't include the stitching detail in the fabric so it would be a little plainer than the one in this photo. The skirt is a basic circle skirt, too. The belt is a long ribbon with roses made out of circles of sheer fabric stitched on to it. It's such a pretty dress!

Anyway...Those are my sewing projects for the rest of the year. I'll post more pictures once I get started on these lovelies :)

thanksgiving baking!

2009-11-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

Today was a full day of baking and cooking for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two favorite holidays when it comes to baking and trying new recipes. There are so many great desserts that I love making for this time of year: pies, fudge, petit fours, buck eyes, and...RED VELVET CAKE! delicious!

Today I threw together a Pumpkin Pie from my favorite Betty Crocker cookbook from my Mom's collection...it's a very old, very wonderful BC book that I use recipes from constantly! I also made the sweet potato portion for a sweet potato casserole for tomorrow. I'll include the recipe at the end of this post for you. It's a great recipe if you like sweet potatoes because it uses half and half instead of heavy cream like most sweet potato casserole recipes I've found, and you can prepare the potatoes easily with a hand mixer a few days ahead of when you want to serve it, and then throw together the topping and bake when ready to serve. I also wanted to try a new recipe for Red Velvet Cake just for fun. I love the color and texture of Red Velvet Cake, though I have never made it myself. The cake came out beautifully! (I had to sneak a piece tonight. I couldn't wait until tomorrow's dinner to eat it.)

The Red Velvet Cake recipe came from one of my favorite websites for baking recipes: www.joyofbaking.com. I try dessert recipes from this site constantly, and they always turn out so well! Here is a link to the recipe which is an adaptation of the famous Waldorf-Astoria's Red Velvet recipe:
http://joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html
This recipe includes another recipe for the cream cheese frosting, but I used my own recipe that is super easy to make. It only requires four ingredients (cream cheese, butter, confectioners suger, and vanilla extract), and it can be whipped up in about ten minutes and stored for up to three days once complete-awesome!

Unfortunately neither of these recipes are vegan friendly, but I'm sure with a few substitutes both could easily become vegan delights. I think the frosting would be delicious with a soy-based homemade vegan cream cheese substitute! (And if anyone has a recipe for this, I would really love to have it.)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 lb. softened cream cheese

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 sticks softened unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese, sugar and butter together until thoroughly mixed. Once mixed, beat the mixture on high for about three minutes. Add the vanilla and continue to beat on high until the frosting becomes somewhat fluffy. Store in the fridge in an air tight container.

Sweet Potato Casserole (Courtesy of Cooking Light magazine)

Potatoes:

2 1/4 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 c half and half

3/4 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp salf

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Cooking spray

Topping:

1 1/2 c miniature marshmallows

1/2 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbs chilled butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 c chopped pecans, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. To prepare potatoes, place potatoes in a Dutch oven and covere with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain, cool slightly.

3. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add half and half, brown sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add eggs, beat well until mixture is thin. Scrape mixture into a 13x9 in baking dish coated with cooking spray.

4. To prepare topping, sprinkle miniature marshmallows over top of casserole. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, level with a knife. Combine flour, brown sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in pecans, and sprinkle over potato mixture and marshmallows. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Here's the cake! (I apologize for the kind of crappy photos...I didn't have enough time to take a nice picture of the cake. Hopefully you believe me that it came out delicious!)

Okay...so I did kind of a shoddy frosting job...but look at how gorgeous it is when it's cut! Yum!