Family Ties

From sewing

I just googled about the 80s show Family Ties hoping that it would ring some bells and I would start this blog post with a witty line. I have to admit, besides the fact that Michael J Fox was in it, I remember nothing else.

From the pictures and clips I saw, only Michael J Fox's character was sporting the occasional tie.

Let's talk about ties.

About a month ago, I took a class at the workroom with Emily and learned how to sew a tie. A tie that Dustin wore to his conference in San Francisco this past week. (Funny story: while Dustin was humbly boasting about the tie I made him, his colleague Mike was humbly showing off the cufflinks that his wife, Danielle, made him. Both Danielle and I are engineers in jobs that are a means to an end...)

The class was really so much fun. It's one of the easier things to sew, once you have a pattern and some quick instruction from Karyn. And although a cotton tie doesn't sound like it could be formal enough to wear at formal functions, I think it's all in the choice of fabric pattern.

I chose a sunny yellow with fine blue and green lines.

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Coocookiekie

Jenn wrote a blog post about a cookie. A super awesome cookie. Because it was stuffed with another cookie. A cookie within a cookie. A coocookiekie. It's like the sequel to Inception where we have to try and do a third layer of cookie to plant the fat and calories so we don't actually think that we consumed it.

I decided to make these coocookiekies for Paula's birthday. They were a huge hit; we wished we had a video camera to capture everyone's reaction upon discovering an oreo cookie inside of the chocolate chip cookie.

Jenn's originally recipe came from this blog post. But I decided to wing it and use my usual whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. Next time, I will cut back on the chocolate chips in the cookie recipe since the Oreo adds so much extra sweetness anyway.

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Tuscany on a cloudy day

I'm so behind on my blog posts. I'm hoping to do some catch-up this week, so remember to check back often!

When I had my fantastic crafty cottage weekend, I worked on a birdie sling for my friend, Helen. She loves to travel; she even blogs about it. So when I asked her about colour or style of fabric for the bag, she told me "Tuscany".

The original thought was maybe some rusty browns and earthy greens. But after staring at the beautiful fabric wall at the workroom, I was drawn to a slightly different colour scheme.

Here's a beautiful picture of Sorano (Tuscany, Italy) taken by Roland Gerth.

The buildings are just so beautifully aged, with a splash of rusty rooftop. I decided to forgo the earthy landscape and stick with the darker feel of the houses. Tuscany on a cloudy day.

(And a cute little surprise wine bottle fabric for the lining!)

From sewing

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Simply Mad

I mentioned in a previous post about an event I was attending that supports microfinancing. The money went towards financial services (i.e. microloans) for people in Ecuador to alleviate poverty. Very similar to Kiva.

I think it's such a great concept; Dustin and I have a loan through Kiva to help someone in Nicaragua buy new tires for his taxi. He's already started repaying the loan, so we can now lend that money to someone else.

The other great thing about this event was the theme: Mad Men. Dressing up is always fun. Dressing up in 1960s clothing? Super extra fun! What a great fashion era.

Let's pretend for a little bit that I didn't have a full time job.

I would have ordered this pattern:

and purchased this fabric:

and then sewn myself a super cute dress for the occasion so I could humbly boast about how I made it myself.

But I had zero time to do all those things. I was destined for this: (which I would have copied, printed, and ironed onto an old tshirt.)

Thanks to my housemate, I had a pretty dress to wear because she picked up an extra dress from Kensington Market. Ain't she sweet?!

The event was so much fun! Thanks to Jenn and friends for organizing!

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A quilted concerto

I play the piano. Not as well as I used to, but I still manage a song every now and then.

One early November morning, on the opening day of the 7th Harry Potter movie, I hammered out a butchered, although recognizable, version of Harry's Wondrous World on the piano.

I was rusty. I was half asleep (it was 6:30am). But I had a huge grin on my face because I knew I was waking Dustin up with a rush of excitement at the thought of watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows later that night. Nothing sends a chill through your body like hearing a faint melody of awesomeness, although riddled with mistakes.

I have my mother to thank. I was never great at the piano. I lacked skill, and discipline. I lacked the ability to keep my finger nails short. But I still love the piano. My mother is a beautiful pianist. Her love of the piano encouraged me to practice, and although she probably doesn't know who Harry Potter is, I hope that story made her proud.

I thought it would be appropriate to sew her a quilt inspired by the concert piano. I love the colours of a piano concert hall: red velvet chairs, a jet black piano, a shimmery chandelier, deep brown walls. This picture even has a punch of tangerine in the flooring (I found the picture on the internet but there was not credit! Thank you Anonymous Piano Artist).

This week I will be in Ottawa babysitting my nephew, Max. My sister and brother-in-law are enjoying a well deserved vacation in Florida. Between diaper changes, I hope to be working on a double wedding ring quilt for my parents.

The double wedding ring pattern is a classic, and looks truly, truly gorgeous. Here are some of my faves (all from a class at the workroom):

The colours I chose were pulled from the piano concert hall picture. The border fabric is a light brown, with small leaves of red and dark browns. The rings will be made up of some black fabrics, dark browns, reds, shimmery gold, and a punch of tangerine. You like?

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And the winner is...

Thanks everyone for sharing about all your favourite charities and good-causes.

We've got some sponsor children, Kiva, Power to Change, Opportunity International Canada, local churches, Canadian Blood Services, WWF, retirement homes, the homeless: you guys are awesome!!!

And the winner is:

Comment #6 is Mrs Niles!!!! My brother, Kirk, played witness.

Thanks so much for all the great comments! Hope you like the bag, Mrs Niles. You sound like someone who would like crafty bags!

Shoot me an email at donewellblog[at]gmail.com and I'll mail you your brand new quilted make up bag!

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Using your noodle

My friend, Paula, and I love to cook up a storm. And Storm with be the appropriate word because it's always a little organized chaos. We don't like to follow recipes, we like to multitask as much as possible to get the impossible done in minimal time, and, let's face it, the kitchen looks like a natural disaster has struck.

The end result, however, is rarely a disaster. Our Chinese-Italian culinary training has always pulled through to give us delicious results every time.

Last weekend, we decided to make lasagna. From scratch. We started at around 1pm, and by 7pm, we were sitting down to a delicious freshly made lasagna dinner with lots of extra lasagnas for our freezer. Lasagna freezes so well; some would argue that it tastes even better the 2nd time around.

From Food

We started with the dough. We used Paula's mom's recipe. Which, of course, is not a recipe. "Just add enough until it feels right" is probably what she would say. (See below for a list of suggested recipes.)

Kneading the dough was quite the workout. Paula was a prostar; I was a prostar after we made 6 balls of dough.

Apparently the "resting" step for pasta dough is essential. Do not skip this step!

The sheets of pasta were soft and silky by the time we cranked it through 3 or 4 times to our desired thickness. You can always opt to buy fresh lasagna sheets. Or even use the dried kind. After I lived with Paula for 2 years, this "made from scratch" kind holds a special place in my heart.

The tomato sauce we made is a lot like Jamie Oliver's recipe from his "Jamie at Home" cookbook (thanks Rebecca!) When Paula makes it, we call it "lip gloss sauce" cuz there's so much delicious olive oil that it leaves you with a nice coating of lip gloss. Delicious.

Each ball of dough got us about 2 big lasagnas or 5 small lasagnas; after 4 balls of dough, we ran out of cheese, sauce and heart. We turned the remaining two balls of dough into spaghetti, which we froze for a rainy day.

Assembly was definitely organized chaos. Since we didn't have room in my kitchen to lay out more than one dough's worth of noodles, we had to go back and forth between boiling the noodles (my job), assembling the layers of lasagna (Paula's job), and then hand cranking more dough (whoever was done their job first.)

I really love how simple this lasagna is. Noodles, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese (we used the kind you buy in a ball, no more than 15% MF). I'm sure you can add whatever meat, veggies, other cheeses you like, but the simplicity of this lasagna really lets the pasta shine. Bottom layer is sauce, then: noodle, sauce, cheese; noodle sauce cheese; noodle sauce cheese... etc. The sauce and cheese is added sparingly since there are so many layers. You can always adjust to you liking.

Bake at 375 degrees F until the top is golden and sauce is bubbly (about 45 mins).

Making lasagna from scratch will always take a few hours. It's quite time consuming. Paula and I decided that if we were going to dedicate our Saturday afternoon to making a fresh lasagna, we might as well make lots. "Lots" turned into 13 lasagnas: 10 small and 3 large. One large for dinner, and the rest for our freezer! We cooked them through and popped them in our freezer after they cooled. Now, if we have a craving for delicious lasagna, we can pop one in our oven and bake until warmed through! So simple! That's called using your noodle!

If you'd like to try making lasagna from scratch, I recommend the following recipes:

Dough: Mario Batali's recipe, Martha Stewart's recipe

Sauce: Jamie Oliver (plain tomato), Massimo Capra (bolognese),

Assembly: Martha Stewart has a simple explanation of assembly.

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Give it up!

Happy Tuesday! How's your day so far? My day started terribly: it took me one hour to travel 5 km of HWY 401. Not fun. So now I'm blogging to brighten my day, and maybe yours, too!!!

Today I will host my very first giveaway! I know, there are maybe 5 of you that read this blog on a regular basis, but you're the ones that I want to win anyway ;)

Let me start by telling you about my most recent birdie sling. While I was at the crafty cottage getaway, Isabelle asked if I would be interested in donating one of my birdie slings for a silent auction fundraiser. Most of you know that I have a special place in my heart for theatre (especially musical theatre), so when I found out that this was a fundraiser to support Theatre Smash (a Toronto-based independent theatre company) I was thrilled to be a part of it.

Picking the fabrics for this bag was especially exciting because I had zero criteria. I just waited for something to catch my eye and went from there! the workroom had just received a bunch of new fabric, including Sew Chick! for Bernartex. I paired it with Alexander Henry's Haunted House in green, and a funky coffee cups pattern by Suzy Ultman for the lining.

I can't attend the event, but if you're looking for something to do on Sunday evening, the Theatre Smash Bash is happening in downtown Toronto. You can bid on my birdie sling!

Now the exciting part. With the leftover fabric, I made a cute little makeup bag and will give it away to one of my readers! (That's you!)

The contest is simple. Leave me a comment about a good cause that you've supported recently, in the near future, or something that's ongoing. I've already blogged about a few things I'm involved with: The Hair Dare, my community church, Canadian Blood Services, and now Theatre Smash. I'm also attending another fundraiser this Friday to support a microfinance charity (more on that later!).

What kinds of things do you support? I'll select a winner at random and then announce it on Monday, February 14th [contest closed: see winner here].

Just a small thank you to acknowledge nice things that people do. And boys: Valentine's Day is coming, so don't think this isn't a great prize for you, too!

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So Long, Farewell

It's winter. It's cold and dry. I wear a scarf. I wear lipgloss.

My hair has gotten so long, it strangles me when I try to put on a scarf.

My hair has gotten so long, some of it always manages to stick to my lipgloss.

My winter mornings leave me strangled, with a mouthful of hair for breakfast.

Do not fret! (I remind myself.) It is for a good cause! I have taken The Hair Dare.

On March 14th, I will donate at least 10 inches of hair to be made into wigs for children. It's sad when kids have conditions that cause hair loss (some or all) and it would make me so happy to say farewell to my long, long hair, knowing it will go to such a great cause.

My friend, Grace, is organizing this wonderful event; she's even secured a location for the after-party where friends and family can come and see the reveal!

What 'do will I sport? I'll probably go back to my early years. circa 1983. Barrettes are making a comeback.

If you are interested in being a fellow Hair Dare Devil please contact Grace via the website!

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