we moved!

hihi!  still alive, don't worry!  life's been crazy busy the past couple months!  the last make i created was with leather from the factory!

you might recognize the pattern (i've made this 4 times now.  still an all-time fav.)  the kangaroo pocket was made with lamba, this lamb-like leather.  (i kept calling it lambda, you know, like the greek letter in lots of math problems?  eric would bust out in laughter every time i said that, hehe.)

i never wore it out yet, so this is the only pic i could find of it (when i snapped a pic for shirley hehe):

then eric and i moved the leather factory and our home and all the furballs to bozeman, mt!!  turns out the lil fuzz (we actually call him the moofuzz now) loves moving.  so many fun new perches

and new hiding spots!

so much fun that at the end of each day of packing, moo would pass out on the floor, not quite making his blanket hehe.

for us humans, the move included many hitches (unfortunately not literal ones, as his car broke down hauling the trailer shortly after leaving his folks' house, so we had to switch to a big uhaul truck, hehe).  here's all our stuff, shoved in the trailer and his car when leaving brooklyn.  still can't believe it all fit.

the lil moo fuzz sat in my lap on the drive first to westchester.

westchester proved to be great fun, as he found even more hiding nooks in eric's childhood bedroom...

he wasn't so lucky when we switched to the truck, as he could only fit behind eric's driver seat, hehe.  backseat driver, that wabbit!

the drive was very long.  we passed many states i'd never been to!

the truck cabin had eric driving, me in the middle, and mario (our employee who made the move with us!!) in the passenger seat.  cramped quarters, yo.

we drove through several tornado watches, 50+ mph gusts, snow storms.  the hotel pitstops were hilarious.  we def snuck in all 3 animals on a bellhop cart once...

our one sightseeing stop was the badlands in south dakota.  stunning geology!

finalllllllly after 3 days of many hours of driving, we made it!  this greeted us:

the scenery is stunning here.  mountains everywhere.  it's literally my view on my drive to and from work each day.  the first order of business once we found a house to rent?  a garden!  here's a view of the back of my car, the day we went to the nursery to pick up starters:

montana soil is very very dry and not conducive to growing.  we tilled the backyard TWICE.  we figured we'd work with starters this year, mixed with some seeds, and then switch to mostly seeds next year.  About 1/3 of the back yard is our veggie garden.  i calculated 1750 sq ft of growing space!  putting up the fence was a total nightmare (montana soil is HARD!), but we did it!

we're now enjoying the fruits of our hard labor!  rainbow chard and mixed lettuce:

the chard got cooked into stuffed shells!  (omg easily my new fav meal, well after eggplant parm and meatballs of course)

here's a sink full of huge spinach, which eric turned into spanikopita!

eric turned his green thumb on house plants.  he made me a planter with 3 varieties of succulents for my sewing room!  (yes, we live in a house now AND I HAVE MY OWN SEWING ROOM!!!  AHHHHHHHH!!!!!)

the first thing i've sewn in my awesome sewing room was with this splurge of linen from ellen degeneres' line at joann's.  man was it pricy!!  pricier than any clothing fabric i've bought, but then i had a big coupon, wheeeee.

i made curtains for our house!  (here's eric practicing singing for our wedding with his buddy mike)

i also made ties so they could be tied back to capitalize on sun when we wanted it.

food-wise, the last new meal eric cooked back in brooklyn was authentic hot and sour soup!  OMG soooo good.  

i made mint chocolate chip cookies (i'd never seen mint chips before!).  they were so addictive.  

in montana, the first thing i baked was peach pie!  i've been working on my baking presentation...

not bad, right?  made some brownies with natural cane sugar, next.  i think natural cane sugar makes things bake fluffier/more cake-like.  i'm not sure why, but i followed the recipe exactly as i always do and this was just full!  so delicious, yo.

then i made a berry pie from blackberries, blueberries, and cherries.  even better looking, no?

had never put cherries in a pie, but i think i'm a fan!  at least when i make it... hehe.

next post: wedding dresses!

new workman pants

eric got a new pair of work pants for his sept bday in december, hahahhahah.  these came out even better than his navy pair, as the canvas i used, from the factory of course, was much thinner than the navy canvas.

here's the back:

the grey canvas is actually the same as the one i used for my backpack.  i used the same navy garden lining too for the pockets.

when i finished my last pair of pants, i remember thinking, "wow that was easier than expected!  let's do that again!"  while making these pants, i thought, "sewing pant legs IS AWFUL!"  here's what i mean:

how the heck is someone supposed to SEE in that tube?  ugh, so frustrating.  my topstitching along the front of the pants was pretty spot on, except for when i fell off the seam, hahahahha.  pants have a lot of topstitching.  i actually started getting sleepy during this part, hence the slip:

this fly was my best one yet, along with the crotch's seamlines:

this might have happened as well:

oops, i stitched the pocket onto the pant side seam by accident.  sigh.  i found eric a great jean button at botani in nyc's garment district.  the zipper is a swanky one from the factory.  i wish the metals were the same, but oh well.  the zipper is hidden anyway.

everyone complains that all photos of eric omit his head.  here's a pic of him donning his pants when he proposed to me!!

he surprised me with homemade meatballs (omg delicious!) and pasta at the factory.  fancy china and crystal glasses.  we're gonna get married!  eee!!

and the fuzzfeed:
fuzz refuses to be photographed with other bunnies.  "must control the bunny spotlight!"  "only real bunnies allowed!"  "get that phony out of my way!"

yes, that's my hand nudging.  he fought me hard.  i couldn't get the shot.

#idowhatiwant

faye's bday shirt

eric's niece has her bday the day after mine.  well before her bday this year, she put in a request: "helen, i'd like a t-shirt for my bday this year."  hahahhaha, t-shirts are a piece o' cake.  i wanted to make her something a bit more special, since i love to tackle a nice project.  so, i decided to make that cowl neck kangaroo shirt, but 10 year old-sized.  (faye actually turned 11, but she's wee like me.)  on her bday card, i let her pick the studs for the corners of the pocket: peridots (our birthstone!) or stars.  

so it turns out i unintentionally misrepresented the shirt, because i didn't actually have enough of that dark green/grey cotton gauze (remnant from the kenya pants!!).  i found a small piece of grey chambray at eric's factory that he left me use.  man, this chambray was a dream.  much nicer than my cotton gauze for sure, hehe.  i ended up using the grey for the kangaroo pocket and the sleeves.

faye chose the stars.

so darn cute, isn't it!??!?!?

here's the back.  i so wish i could wear this myself, but i literally squeaked all the pieces from both remnants.  nothing left.

now i'm working on this top again for me (bigger, obviously) with a black lamba leather pocket, cut from a remnant eric gave me.  the fabric is from school, remnants from the theater department.  i love that everyone thinks of me when they have fabric scraps!!

for christmas, jimmy flew me to playas del coco in costa rica to vacation with him.  eee!  lil' bro is so generous!  we kayaked in the pacific, snorkeled (me) and scuba'd (him),

scooted around on a scooter (he drove, thank goodness), and hung out at the pool (a nice long lap pool).  when we scooted, we explored all the beaches along the pacific coast near us.  this was my favorite.  playa buena.  required a hike through foliage down to the beach, which was surrounded by steep cliff.  the water was pale aqua and there were lots of big rocks and reef in the water.  it was a bit late to go for a snorkel unfortunately.

and in the world of lil' fuzz, i'm starting to realize that being a white rabbit is a world of fun for him.   he loves to get as dirty as possible.  even when we vacuum the apartment like crazy, he's very able to find the one piece of charcoal left from the fireplace and rub his head all over it.  (actually i think he's been rubbing his face on the poker or the little fireplace shovel.)

it's not ash wednesday yet, silly boy.  miraculously he turns white again by the next day. #magiceraserbunny