Weekend Escapades

And it's back to Monday after a whirlwind of a weekend full of surprises and adventure.  It all started Friday night when we rescued a little lost yorkie.  I saw the dog running (or bopping) down the street and sent Andy after it.  I'm not a dog person, but I'd say 85% of my neighbors are and they are always rescuing stray dogs, so I was inspired to help a dog.  In my mind, I was thinking that if the dog had a collar, we'd help him and if not....well....I didn't think that far.  Sure enough when Andy brought him back, he had no collar.  Now we were stuck with the dog since it was too late to take the dog to the shelter....so I had to let the dog into my house (which if you know me, was a big step for me because the thought of a dirty dog in my house really raises irks me).   I compromised and the dog was confined to my utility room.  By a stroke of luck, we looked at our community discussion forum online and saw a posting for a lost yorkie matching the description of ours but said it had no teeth.  We called the owners (several times) and left several messages, but heard nothing from them.  I was getting a bit anxious because the next day we were going up to a friend's lakehouse early in the morning and would be out all day.  Of course the thought of this dog locked in my utility room all day with no way to go outside to do his business was stressing me out.  Then, there was still the question of what we feed a dog with no teeth! In the end, the dog spent the night, we made one more call to the owners early Saturday morning and finally made contact.  So all was well, dog and owner were reunited (turns out the dog was 16 years old!) and we were off to the lake adventure.

At the lake, we got to swim, go boating, ride jet skis, and chow down on some great fish fry.  We had such a blast - I got to take a jet ski out on my own and had so much fun riding the waves.  The water was so bumpy that I nearly made myself sick, but it was definitely worth it.  Here we are, hanging by the lake...Andy's lobster burn is already beginning to show.  Guess he should've spent more time with me in the shade :)

All in all, a super fun weekend.  I think I'll sleep all week to catch up on my energy...

Memorial Day

It's been a week since my last post...I know it's been awhile, things have been a bit busy around here.  I spent the holiday weekend partying it up with the Sliks.  We headed up to Chestertown, MD for a wedding celebration and of course, I took way too many pictures.  So the delay in posting is partially due to busy-ness, and the other due to my procrastination of going through and editing my photos for posting.

We arrived on Saturday, thought about crashing the annual Chestertown Tea Party, but instead headed out to the rehearsal dinner which was held on this beautiful serene farm.  If you've never been to Chestertown, it's beautiful with rolling hills and well-kept farmhouses.  I can't say the same about the local Acme and liquor store where there were some shady characters, but the farmland around the town was definitely beautiful.  Spending the weekend driving around the countryside made me really miss the east coast.  The whole weekend was very laid back, we ate, chatted, and enjoyed the scenery.

Here's the couple-to-be:

Scenes from the rehearsal dinner farmhouse

Since we were in Maryland, of course we had to get us some crab.  So we hit up the local crab shack for some of this:

Take this:

add this:

and get this:

Here's the aftermath: my bro-in-law is showing off his crab crusted hands.

Delicious.

After we de-crabbed ourselves and awoke from our food comas, we headed out for the wedding, which was at a different farm (different from the one we had the rehearsal dinner at).  This one was right by the river, a lovely site, where Tara and Chris got married to the lapping sounds of the water on the shore.  It was pretty sunny, so they provided some fun favors for the guests.  You can't tell from here, but the glasses say Tara & Chris on one side and May 30, 2010 on the other.  Here's my awesome husband modeling them for everyone:

Then the wedding was off:

It was just so simple and beautiful, like the quintessential country wedding.  And then, in true Slik style, it was time to party it up.  We spent the rest of the night tearing up the dance floor. 

And I will leave you with this...

Told you the Sliks are a rowdy bunch!  Gotta love them :-)

All Things Texan

Another week has gone by and I'm in catch up mode.  Got a few orders to work on and am slowly getting there.

I thought I'd dedicate this post to all things wonderful in TX.  This weekend, we had a blast hanging out with friends, introducing fellow Jerseyans to the Texan way of life.  On Saturday, we hit up the crawfish festival here in Old Town Spring and gorged on all sorts of goodies.  This time, I chose not to bring my camera, so that I could get down and dirty eating those crawfish.  So, a picture from a couple years ago will suffice.  We housed a couple of buckets of these crawfish:

The aftermath:

It was my first time trying Boudain - which is basically dirty rice stuffed into a sausage casing and I'm a believer!  It was soooo good.  All in all, it was a fun time hanging out, listening to some Zydeco music, counting pit bulls, and of course, stuffing our faces full of Cajun goodies.

On to some more goodies, last week Andy brought home a treat from his trip to Victoria:

Step aside slim jim and all other imitators....this is the real deal.  The make-you-want-to buy-a-cowboy-hat-and-go-herd-some-cattle kind of jerky.  It's awesome.

Taking another step back into time, last month I got to go to the Championship BBQ Cookoff at the Rodeo.  I never got to post about it, so here are a couple of pics.  First, we got all-you-can-eat BBQ :

Then topped it off with fried oreos.

So, you see, it's no wonder that people in general are bigger down here in TX.  Just look at all this awesome food!  If you find yourself beginning to drool, you really need to come and visit us...or, better yet, you can just move down here!  There's a house across the street for sale :-)

Goodbye Manicure

and good riddance! A week ago, before I got really sick, I was inspired by a burst of spring weather to give myself a manicure and pedicure.  As a rule of thumb, I generally don't do manicures because I'm one of those impatient and clumsy women who cannot make a manicure last more than a couple hours.   But, I was feeling a little under the weather, had nothing to do, and was inspired by the nice weather to make an effort to look a little nicer.  Normally, my manicures last all of a couple hours before they are subject to abuse and clumsiness, which leaves me with an ugly nail job.  However, since I spent the week laid up in bed with no sewing, no cleaning, no gardening, no cooking, no dishwashing....my manicure stayed in tip top shape for a whole whopping week.  This weekend, I made a return to my sewing machine and 30 seconds in...jabbed my nail with a pin.  30 seconds later...got a pen spot on my thumbnail....from there, it was all downhill as I dove back into dish washing....cooking...  I do have to say, I'd trade in my salon perfect manicure for my health back any day!

I haven't done much sewing so I don't have any pictures of recent creations....However, here are a couple of pics taken from my friend's camera when she was in town.  I think she's talked me into buying a new lens for my camera as the only real difference between the pics I took and the ones she took was the lens.  Everything looks better with natural lighting.

Perhaps I need to hire some hand models as well as props for my creations....

Old Friends

Well, it's been a rough weekend/beginning of the week for me.  Somehow I caught a bug and have been running a fever, which means that I've gotten no sewing done and have been sitting around on my bum watching tv all day long.

But, over the weekend, I got to hang out with some college friends.  There's nothing quite like the relationships you build in college...there's this level of intimacy developed by living in close quarters that is hard to find once you're in the real world.

Well, I was showing my friends some of my items and had a brilliant idea.  Being that I do not have children of my own, and therefore have no models for my creations, I had to improvise:

Gotta love that these girls let me do this :-)

Sewing Buddies

There are really two things that make sewing more fun (as if it wasn't fun enough already).  One is sewing with music, the other, sewing with a buddy.  Come to think of it, I don't think I ever sew without some tunes on - they get the creative juice going.  I'll save that conversation for another post.  

Onto the second - sewing with a buddy.  My friend Jaime recently dove into the sewing world with me and it's been a ton of fun.  Being a more seasoned seamstress, I helped her with her first project (the crazy girl took on a huge quilt for her first project.....that's why she's my kind of gal).  

The best part about her?  She's my age ~ She was born in the same decade as me ~ In fact, she even a little bit younger than me!  Awesome, we're going to start a revolution.   Sewing's not just for grandma anymore.  

Most recently, we went fabric shopping, I introduced her to the asian grocery store and to pho, and worked together on a new cushion for her bench (all in one day):

Jaime is like me, just flip-flopped on the outside.  What do I mean?  Well one day we went out to lunch and asked to have half the bill put on our separate credit cards.  Jaime's Caucasian, but her last name is Chong.  I'm Chinese, but my last name is Sokolik.  Well, when the waiter brought back the cards, he gave me the one with Chong on it and gave her the one with Sokolik.  I suppose it makes good sense that her name fits me better and mine her.  

So, I'm overjoyed to have a new sewing friend :) I mean girls really have to do everything in pairs right?  

Lions and Tigers and Bears!

The past few days have just been beautiful out....so I haven't gotten much done in the sewing world.  Gotta take advantage of the nice weather before it gets too hot and the sun gets too strong, and I turn into a hermit.  Went to the zoo with some friends and saw lions and tigers and bears!

Excuse the terrible hat hair....I guess when a 3 year old finds your crazy hat hair hilarious, you wear it around proudly just to bring out that infectious smile.  I just love these kids!  Adorable kids like these are the reason I make what I make.

Andy's been away for the past few days, I'm looking forward to his return and to spending the weekend with family.  I bet all the wildflowers will be out on the drive up to Plano...so lovely.  Well I guess since this is mainly a sewing blog, I should post something related.  Sent this out a little while ago:

Day 7

edit:: I wasn't able to post this until today due to the fact that I could not upload my pictures while I was in Victoria.....so here it is, a few days late.

It's officially day 7 of my Victoria campout.  Yesterday, I was rescued from the hotel by a new friend and did some shopping.  Of course, one of my stops was the fabric shop.   I got some more great prints to add to my collection.  Can't wait to make some cute blankets out of them!

Today I ventured out to the Victoria plant sale.  One of the great things about small town living is that generally, things are cheaper out here.  I got a great little hibiscus plant for $5!  I wish I could've gotten more, but then I'd have to lug them all back to Houston with me. 

Anyway, I've pretty much run out of projects to sew here.  I had planned to work on my dress, but I met an obstacle even before starting...this does not bode well for my project.  When I bought the pattern, I noticed there was one for sizes 6-12 and one for sizes 14-whatever.  Thinking that since I'm roughly a size 6 in women's clothing, I'd have no problem fitting into anything under a 12 right?  WRONG.  Turns out, after measuring myself and comparing with the chart, parts of me are a size 14 and others are a 16!  I don't know whose bright idea it was number their sizes like that...I thought the goal was to flatter women, not make them feel like they should be looking in the plus size department.  Well, I guess I'm going to have to go get the larger sized pattern if I want something that's going to fit me and not the store mannequin.

In the mean time, I've made myself a pair of flannel sleep pants that can double as lounging pants.  I live in my pjs...on days I don't have to go anywhere, I spend all day in my comfortable, loose, pj pants.  However, I am embarrassed to admit that I've been alternating between a pair Pepe Le Pew with candy canes and Scooby Doo with santa hats pj bottoms for the past 5 years....they're both faded and about 4 inches too short for me.  They were passed over to me from my aunt who had gotten them as samples from a friend who worked as a pj designer.  I finally decided it was time to get rid of these pants (as comfortable as they are) and make myself a pair that I wouldn't be embarrassed to answer the door in.  So, now I've been walking around the hotel in these:

I made them slightly flared and more form fitting than regular pj bottoms...I've been living in these all week long here in Victoria.  This way, I can roll out of bed and grab breakfast downstairs, or run down to the business center without having to worry about drawing some weird stares.

Old at Heart

My fears are confirmed, I might really be a 65 year old stuck in a 27 year old body....

Recently, I received a letter in the mail from "The Retirement Pros", which raised my curiosity. So I opened it up and the letter began like this:

"Dear Jennie:

Since you are near or in retirement, you'll benefit from Dr. Shelby Smith's Guide to Social Security....."

Then on the next page was a survey form with questions like

"your current ages is: (circle one) 50-55, 56-60, 61-64, 65-70"
"If already taking Social Security, at what age did you start? (circle one) <62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67..."

Now I may have hobbies like a senior citizen, I may go to bed at the same time, have as many health issues, and I may hang out with a lot of senior citizens, but that doesn't make me a senior citizen! It just so happens that most the women who stay at home during the day are either 1. stay at home moms or 2. retired women. Stay at home moms are generally closer to my age, but they are usually extremely busy entertaining their kids, running them to their activities, and catching a few minutes of shut-eye whenever possible. So, that leaves me with the retired women, who are home, have as much time as I do to "hang out", and do not need to worry about their kids' schedules. That's how I've become friends with so many of them.

Well at least I still have the style tastes of a 27-year-old....

It's been a long time goal of mine to make a dress for myself...so I picked up this pattern a couple of months ago and finally found some stretch fabric that might work for it....we'll see if I can pull this one off or not.

Be Green

Originally, I was going to stick to sewing and crafty posts on this blog, but sooner or later, I'm bound to have a week where I have no updates on my projects...that time has sort of come.  I'm working on a few things, but nothing has been completed in awhile (partly because I am ignoring some problematic projects - see previous posts).  So, in the meantime, I guess I can just write about some notable or random things that are going on in my life.

For the past year or so, I've been trying to help the environment by using my reusable grocery bags.  They're really worth the $1 investment.  They've put an end to my collection of useless grocery bags with holes in them.  You help the environment, and the bags are much stronger and larger than an average grocery bag.

Yesterday, I went to my local Asian food market to do some grocery shopping.  When I was checking out, the manager saw that I brought my own bags, and ran to the back and came back with a handful of these:

He said to me, "These are a present for you because you care about the future."  How thoughtful.  Upon closer inspection, yes, it does say "Full Stainless Rice Cooker - 24 hours keep warm".   Bad grammar aside, why you would want to keep your rice warm for 24 hours, I do not know....but, to get a good idea of the size of the bag, look at this:

Yes, that's me, sitting in the bag....I guess maybe the makers of the rice cooker gave away this bag as a means to make their rice cookers more portable....?  I have no idea what I can use this bag for....by the time you fill up this bag with groceries, it'll be so heavy that you can't even lift it.  Seriously, it's so big that one bag pretty much takes up the entire grocery cart.  Perhaps I should take it with me on my next trip to Walmart just to see what kind of reaction I would get....I'd probably become known as the crazy bag lady....