it's been over a year

I feel like I should start with my usual... "I'm really bad at updating this blog." Since my last post I...

• quit my job
• got a new (better!) job
• bought a house
• moved
• got married

We moved to NH last September - for me, I'm in the next town over from where I grew up so its a very familiar area. For Ryan, he's always lived in the same town in MA (we lived there after we graduated from school) so NH was somewhat new to him aside from the visits to my parents house.

We're still slowly unpacking - I think the only thing we (I) really have left to unpack is my sewing stuff. We're painting every room in the house so we didn't want to unpack everything and then have to move it out of the way to paint. The office/sewing room has been completely painted, so I really just need to set aside time to get in there and organize everything. I've been wanting to sew something (anything) so as the urge gets stronger, I'll get everything unpacked.

The new house!

While we were in the house-buying and moving process, we were also planning/getting ready for our wedding. We got married at Sugarbush Ski Resort in Warren, VT. So now Ryan's really stuck with me. :P

We did what we could for the wedding - we made centerpieces, my mom whipped up the table runners for me, I bought all the candles that went on the tables, did the table numbers, the guest Mad Libs sheets, the card box, the favors, the decor we placed around the room, my mom made the cake... We had an amazing photographer, Caroline (www.birkephoto.com) and an amazing florist, Randi (www.silvertoad.com) to help us with those details that we couldn't do on our own. We kept the guest list small and limited it to mostly family and close friends. We had a great time and it seemed like everyone else did too. :)

Reluctant (Lazy?) Bride

Wow, I'm still really bad at this blogging thing. I wanted to actually update it on a regular basis. Truth is, I haven't been doing much sewing.

Anywhooo - R and I have been officially engaged for almost a year now. How much wedding planning have we done? .... zip. zero. nil. It's not that either of us want to get married to each other - we are fully committed to putting up with each other for the rest of our lives (or at least until next week). It's just that we don't have much interest in actually planning a wedding.

Maybe it's because we know we don't want a traditional wedding - we'd rather just have people over for a BBQ. Not to mention my dislike for wearing makeup and R's dislike for getting really dressed up. So since we aren't going to do the traditional church ceremony and have a registry full of the things we need to start a life together (ha), maybe that's why we're stuck. There aren't blogs and magazines and books about planning a non-wedding wedding.

There's also the part about not wanting to spend a ton of money on ... whatever it is we end up doing. And if we are going to spend a significant chunk of money, we'd rather have it go towards the honeymoon - we're thinking at least 3 weeks away from work, stress, life in general.

So looks like BBQ in the backyard... and signing up on this site (http://thebigday.com/) or a similar one. Unless someone wants to volunteer to plan everything... for free. ;D

going gluten free

last week we made the decision to go gluten free.

for those of you who don't know, Ryan has Chron's Disease. a while ago, his GI doctor suggested he try the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. which to us, seemed a bit extreme since it doesn't allow glutens, starches, or sugars. Ryan is a typical Irish guy - his diet consists mostly of meat and potatoes. how on earth was he (and I, since I live with him) going to be able to do this diet?

we never really pursued the SCD. I think it was just too overwhelming and we didn't know where to start. the only thing that we cut out of our diets at that point was anything heavily processed or containing HFCS (which Ryan still can't stay away from - Moxie doesn't come in a natural sugar version)...

lately I've had more and more (online and real life) acquaintances switch to a gluten free diet. I did some research and the benefits for Ryan would include some possible relief of the digestive issues he has from the Chron's. benefits for both of us would be gaining more energy and potential weight loss. gaining energy would be a huge help - the Chron's disease makes Ryan feel tired, and my stupid job makes me feel tired.

so after talking about it, we figured why not? can't hurt and the outcomes could really help both of us (but I'm hoping it'll help him a lot more than me).

today was my first baking venture into the GF world. I made cupcakes from a mix that we bought at our local grocery store (we'll probably make our own from here on out, but the xanthan gum we ordered online won't arrive for a few more days).

batter taste: cornmeal-y texture. didn't taste chocolatey. got a slight zing from the aftertaste due to the cayenne.

batter viscosity: once it was mixed, it looked, stirred, and poured like a normal cake mix would.

cupcake taste (the important part!): not too bad. I was still getting a cornmeal-ish texture. I mentioned it to Ryan and he said he wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out. I think next time if we buy a mix again, I'd get the one without cayenne in it.

crankypants

Anyone who has made their own clothing before knows that most of the patterns you can purchase require some, if not a lot, of altering to fit your own body shape.

The same goes for the dress dummies/dressforms you can buy.

I have this one:

And of course the measurements for when you buy one of these do not always line up with your actual measurements. Just like patterns. Hooray! /sarcasm

So I went to re-adjust mine today after re-measuring my plumpish body.

And I broke mine.

Apparently when you have the hips on one of the smaller sizes, you cannot put the waist on one of the larger sizes. So apple-shaped sewers - stay away from this dressform.

Quick post

After the craft fair letdown (see last post), I decided to focus on making things for ME (acting very much like The Selfish Seamstress) and not worry about trying to make things to sell/make things that people want to buy.

But then the other day on Twitter, Tia (of http://christopherandtia.blogspot.com/) said she was looking for someone to make some binky (pacifier) leashes for her ADORABLE kids. (Yes, adorable needed to be in caps.) I said I could make them for her and for a low cost (mostly because I need a morale boost over here and because I have a huuuuge fabric stash that I need to start paring down).

She choose 7 different fabrics from my stash and I whipped them up yesterday: