absence

I've been absent. Just a little too long.

 September was a busy month and therefore I was a busy bee. I have a lot to tell, but for now:

 I am excited to be re-entering the blogosphere. 

I've missed you. 

(if that's physically possible).

(i think it is).

the Ws: my mamma made it

With my old/new found love of sewing, I was extremely excited when I found out my friend Alyssa took up sewing recently. Which means, another sewer to share resources with (although I'm not really sure what I've shared with her, except excitement.) Well, to make this a shorter story, she blogged about the blog "My Mamma Made it!"  and I love it! Voici this week's W! 

What I love about the author, Alexis, of the blog and the blog itself , is though she has quite a few readers and does custom orders, the blog is not a business or for publicity, it is just a really great resource that she has created. A resource for other sewers - people like me, who don't exactly know what they're doing yet or just want fun ideas. 

A portion of her blog is new designs she has created, however, a large portion is posts on "refashions." In other words, she takes old clothes she already owns and then adds or tailors them into new fashionable pieces. Can you say fabulous? 

One of the best things about the blog is that she loves Anthropologie, which means lots of cute clothes with Anthro inspired style, which means my kind of clothes. If you don't like sewing, at least check out how amazing some of her ideas are and be inspired to do something else crafty! 

Sew fun! 

french...check!?!

In Junior High, at the start of each trimester we would turn in our top three choices for electives and then the school would choose which class we took. My top three choices were French, Industrial Tech., and then Spanish. Spanish was my last choice. It was more to make my parents happy if anything, since as they said, it was useful. 

So of course, first semester, I did my time. I was placed in Spanish class. You would have thought it was the death of me at the time. I had an entire three to four months of Spanish, but I think I remember maybe two words from the class — the ones I knew before I took the course. 

The next semester I was placed in Industrial Tech. Although I loved the course, I was starting to fear I would never be able to take Intro. to French, meaning I wouldn't be able to spend the next full year in French 1, losing my chances of taking French 2 freshman year of high school. Well, to my avail after a fun few months of "playing with the boys" in Industrial Tech., I finally met my destiny third trimester.  

To my relief, I went on to take French 1 in eighth grade and French 2 my freshman year of high school, continuing to French 4 my junior year. Well, here I am, ten years later, and I'm still placing "French" as one of "my options." 

I made it to France my junior year through Biola's art department after years of wondering if I'd ever make it. Now, I'm wondering when I'll make it back. I keep selecting France as one of my options. I looked for jobs in Paris after college to no avail. And now, I'm starting Grad. School, which again closes the French doors for a while longer. But one day, I really hope, I'll be able to check France off as a place I've lived. For now, I'd like to take sewing, arts & crafts, and oh yes, French please! 

the Ws: sunset

So I completely missed the Ws last week, so in an effort to make up for the mishap, here is a "W" on a Monday. Although, today's website isn't necessarily something you have never heard of, I think it may be overlooked. And it highlighted my last week, lots. 

Without further ado, I welcome you to explore Sunset magazine's website: Sunset. Although, you may already read the magazine, you can find most of the same content online, and look forward to new content daily. If you don't read the magazine, here is a little taste. The magazine outlines "how to live in the West." Think coastal vacations, beach side meals and outdoor party ideas — a.k.a. delicious. 

So if you live in the "East," this may not sound like the best W for you, but it is chock-full of delicious recipes, places to travel and other things you can obviously still do in the East, like decorate.  

And of course, what you can do everywhere: cook. (which is the part that highlighted most of my last week.) Although, I was extremely busy, I was on a cooking kick. So I printed off some of Sunset's most recent recipes and started cooking. Sunset has easy, delicious recipes that are perfect for the end of summer right now. I would suggest trying their marinated, heirloom tomato salad and their huckleberry cobbler.

I love their travel section since it is geared towards the West,obviously, it is a great resource if you want a vacation, but don't have the resources for a full week's vaca. I've never been to Yosemite, so I'm hoping to use their one-day Yosemite guide soon and I'm actually going to their number one hideaway by the sea in a month's time. 

Also, I plan on using their 4 foot veggie guide to make myself a veggie garden as well. So if you are like me and don't have a lot of space, this may be your perfect quench to gardening in a small space. 

So with that, this week's W is delightful in multiple ways and the perfect companion if you are a Westerner...or want to be one. 

Go Explore!