One can never have too many earrings

I made a decision to only blog my jewellery makes in groups of 4 or so because I never have a whole lot to day abut them. As a result, you are getting over a year's worth of jewellery (minus the wedding earrings) in one fell swoop.

Pancake of the Month: Eggnog

Wait, didn't I already do eggnog pancakes? Like, last year? Well, yes, I must have since there's a blog post and everything, but last year's pancakes were somewhat disappointing and flat, although the syrup was fabulous. This recipe from Cooking Classy promises fluffiness (the blog author is surprised by how fluffy they are, but 4 teaspoons of baking powder should have been a big clue) and extra nog flavour with 2 cups of eggnog.

The result?

The sailing may be smooth; the swivels need some work

Earlier this year I pledged -- at least, I thought I pledged; my comment seems to have been eaten -- to make two vintage items: the Wearing History Smooth Sailing 1930s-style trousers and a dress from a pattern I bought in the 1980s. It's extremely unlikely I'll get around to making the dress before the end of the year, but these trousers have been on my wish list for a long time. I tried to kickstart them by including them on my FESA15 list, but life intervened and I never got around to buying the fabric.

Jenna, Jenna, who can I turn to?

Hey, remember how I've been wishing for a merino fairy-godmother? Well, bibbidi bobbidi boo because Kat from Muse Patterns is having a super generous contest where she is giving away a tonne of merino wool. What a perfect opportunity to let the Jenna cardigan jump the stalled sewing queue.

When Jenna first came out last year, I loved it immediately for its vintage styling. As usual, I forced myself to wait out the crush, but I finally succumbed a few months ago. Even then, I wasn't planning on making it until sometime next year. But I also really like merino wool and I'm jealous of you New Zealanders having easy access to it. Enter merino fairy-godmother and PhysicsGirl's first Jenna. *Bats lashes hopefully and hopes that she gets this in before she turns into a pumpkin*

FESA15 final report card -- sort of

At this time of year, I'm usually pulling together report cards for first term. I'm not exactly missing that piece of fun, but it does seem fitting to grade myself on my FESA15 plan and execution. Marks are awarded for finishing on time and the quality of the final product; process mistakes don't count if I've fixed them. Items that were already cut out are scored only out of 10 since that part usually takes me as long as the rest of it.

But before I get into details, here's the thing: I haven't sewn anything since the middle of October. My childhood home is on the market, and helping Aged P sort out 53 years' worth of house has been more exhausting than I anticipated. Days where I didn't help her were pretty much spent in my jammies catching up on my 50 book pledge.

I am even missing blog posts for things I did complete but haven't finished writing up *cough*wedding dress*cough*. I decided to go ahead and post this anyway (timey-wimey-wise) and rescue the others from draft when I have time and pictures.

On with the report card!

Pancake of the Month: Pumpkin with Bourbon Vanilla Maple Syrup

I've been quietly posting past PotM posts timely-wimely. You can see them here, here, and here.


I've been rather tired lately because I've been spending my days helping Aged P sort through 50 years' worth of papers and photos and stuff. So I come home and collapse on the sofa while the DC brings me tea and I fail to get up the energy to go grocery shopping.

This is why I don't have buttermilk and only one egg.

The recipe I was planning for today calls for buttermilk, and the other one I thought of making needs two eggs. I know the milk + vinegar/lemon juice trick, and I've just learned about egg substitutes, but I'm trying to avoid making unnecessary substitutions if I can. Pinterest to the rescue! This recipe from Spicy Southern Kitchen calls for milk and vinegar and only one egg. Perfect! And bourbon. Which I don't have. *Sigh*


But! It's a pumpkin recipe, which is appropriate to the season and the bourbon is only in the syrup, so I don't feel too bad about substituting Canadian whiskey and extra vanilla extract.

The result?

Drinking wine and solving crime

I have been watching a lot of Forensic Files on YouTube lately and felt the need to make a drinking game. Because obviously. Shots when they say/do the following:

1. "gruesome/grisly discovery"
   
2. use of lumniol
   
3. use of mitochondrial DNA
   
4. "cold-blooded"
   
5. commercial interruption mid-sentence (this is a fun YouTube phenomenon)
   
6. explanation of GPS/"Global Positioning System"
   
7. Some variant on "What they found surprised/shocked/amazed everybody."
   
8. "We couldn't have done this without the forensics."

Cheers!

Pancake of the Month: Lemon Ricotta

I really resumed PotM in August with two recipes, but since I've only just now posted them in timey-wimey fashion, I'm not surprised you missed them. In fact, since I'm posting this in a timey-wimey fashion, you may have missed this too.

I picked up the rebar cookbook from a used bookstore in Montreal (thank you very much Heather for the suggestion) and I've been meaning to cook my way through all the pancake recipes. I've had this planned for over a month, lemons and everything, but it's a bit of an intensive procedure so it's taken me a while to get around to it.^*

The result?

The post you've all been waiting for

Image credit: Rabbat photography. Posted with permission.

Sorry for the barrage of posts the past few days, but I wanted to get them in before the big reveal. Our photographer Danielle has worked like the Flash to go through and post some our wedding photos on her blog, so now you can see the dress itself in all its glory. Or something.

I'll do a more detailed post about the dress next week. For now, enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

PS: Who knew I had a "5?" Cool!

Wedding bling

Okay, I promise this is the last of my wedding kit posts (before the actual wedding dress post that is). Sorry to overload you, but I'm getting them out before Danielle posts about my wedding (she is super fast!). So sit back, I'm about to get all sparkly on your... ears.

I'll get to my jewellery in a bit, but first I'll show you the earrings I made as a thank you gift for Aged P, the DC's mom (aka MOG hee), my Aunt R, and my Best Lady/cousin J. I sent them a bunch of pictures and said "Tell me what style and what colours you want or what colours you're wearing." Three of them chose the same style, which made it very easy for me! All the earrings are made with 18 gauge sterling silver wire.

Something borrowed

A week before my wedding, I still didn't have a something borrowed. Everything else was covered: old, new, blue. I mentioned it to my Aunt R the day of the shower, and she came up trumps.

Festive florals: fake and fresh

Not that I want it to be all wedding, all the time here, but since I DIYd most of my wedding kit, I thought I'd do a few separate posts of how I made it. Today: my hair flower, my bouquet, and the DC's boutonierre.

In which PhysicsGirl decides she likes her own dress best

I have been getting quite a few requests for pictures of my wedding dress. I'm waiting for the professional shots, so you'll just have to be patient for a bit. But here are some pictures of me wearing somebody's wedding dresses. Just not mine. Warning: lots of tulle and lace and beading ahead.

Even though I knew I was going to make my dress pretty much from the get-go, I still wanted to have the experience of trying on wedding dresses while someone oohs and ahhs. My friends encouraged me to do it anyway, so I booked an appointment at Kleinfeld at the Bay Queen Street, and my Best Lady J and I went for lunch and then to gawk at tulle.

Go big or go home.

Fashionably late, but still dressed to the nines (updated)

Update: I entered this as part of the Dressed to the Nines contest. Vote for me by clicking the link and then clicking on the little heart on my picture.

I really, really like Lauren's Sugar Plum. I mean, I want to copy most of her outfits, but that dress really had visions of my own Sugar Plum dancing in my head. Fortunately, I came across this awesome polyester green/blue/cream/brown print at Downtown Fabrics that I thought would be the perfect top. I knew I wanted brown ponte for the skirt, but I couldn't find any locally. I finally bit the bullet and bought some online when I bought the Snug Hug for my wedding dress -- although I wound up not using it and you'll just have to wait for that story. Patience grasshopper.

Where it began...: Coffeeneuring #1

I married my favourite person in the world today. It was really lovely, and I'll write a blog post about it when I get the pictures back, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to coffeeneur. And post some teaser pics.

We rented the tandem, which the DC decorated; I feel we got the true @Coffeeneur experience. Just a short jaunt around City Hall, then to the restaurant, then to Grange Park to shiver while we had some photos taken. People along the way kept congratulating us.

Must have been the flowers.

After we returned the bike, we crossed the street to the Red Room, where we had our first date. We even sat at the same table. I had a very large, very welcome hot chocolate. Plus they gave us free wine!



So this year's coffee bikeventure started off on a really high note.

Mileage: 3.2 km/2 miles (or thereabouts, but cut me some slack cuz I'm the bride.)

Architecture of a wedding gown

I've nearly finished turing my mother's wedding dress into mine. All that's left to do now is the embroidery and some hand-sewing (the hem is done, but I have to redo the sleeves, hand-finish some seams, tack the facings, and sew on a button, which feels like it will take as much time as sewing the rest of the dress). I'm really pleased with how it looks so far, but obviously you'll have to wait for the final reveal because we brides are jerks that way.

In the meantime, I will give you some wedding dress pictures to look at. Before I took several very deep breaths and cut into it, I took a whole whack of pictures of the dress itself, inside and out. I thought I'd share some of them with you. I put a few of them in a previous post, but there are a lot more here. Emphasis on a lot. This is a very picture-heavy post. I usually do mouse-over commentary on pictures, but not so much for this post.

September showers

Posted in a slightly timey-wimey fashion because I just didn't have time to take pix of me wearing it before the wedding. You can tell I took the outfit shots after the wedding because of the massive bandage from being attacked by my brand new mandolin slicer. 

My wonderful aunt R threw me a shower. It was hosted at my cousin/maid-of-honour/Best Woman's apartment, and it was a lovely afternoon filled with good friends, good food, and good cheer. Also? Chocolate fountain!

The fourth time's the charm...

As a slight change of pace from all this sewing and stuff, it is time again for...

The last time I managed to complete a Coffeeneuring challenge was four years ago. This time? It's on.

Coffeeneuring is basically riding a bike and drinking coffee (or coffee-like drinks), with rules. This year there is a theme within a theme... theme, which is to add an additional theme as you see fit, such as ride all the bikes you own. I've been doing this unofficially for years, which is to go to new-to-me coffee shops and have a different drink each time. I will have more success than in past years because a) I plan to not get sick and b) I can go any day of the week!

It starts the day of my wedding, and how nice of everybody (including the City) to go all out and celebrate little old us.

Take better pictures? Hire a professional!

Image credit: Rabbat Photography. Posted with permission.

I'm trying to catch up on the backlog of sewing (and I'll just say that I'm more-or-less on track with that aside from a snafu I managed to create this morning) and blogging, but I thought I'd post this quickie. Our fabulous wedding photographer Danielle of Rabbat Photography posted some of our engagement photos on her blog and they're quite fun.

16 more sleeps!

Jeans (skirt) and a (breton) t-shirt

Look at this! We're a mere five days into the Fall Essentials Sew-Along and I've already got two pieces (plus most of two other items) done! I really like this having a definite event deadline thing. I had them finished by Sunday, but waited until today to take photos. And once again, I took crappy photos. Which is sort of ironic, given that I'm supposed to be participating in Gillian's Better Pictures Project. 0/2 this month.

Accidentally on purpose: another Bronte

When I bought the fabric for the lacy blue Swoon cardi, I was going to be good and only get the yard and a half needed for the short version. Alas for me, there were just over 2 and a half yards left on the bolt, so I had to take it all. Which meant that I had to make a top out of what was left, right? Can't waste fabric!

Essentially fall: So what are you doing on your leave year? (updated)

School started today. I'm not there, because today is the official start of my leave. I've already done one of the first things I did the last time I was on leave, which is catch up on Girl Genius. But when people ask me what I plan to do, I need rather more to say than "Find the other end of the internet."^* Therefore, some planning is in order.

I'm getting married October 3. It's going to be a quiet wedding, and all the planning is already done. Coffeeneuring starts the same week and I am determined I will finish this year. I've got a lot of crap to clear out of my office, a bunch of books to read, and some teaching videos to film.

Oh. And crosswords. There will be many crosswords.

And of course there are a bunch of things I want to make. This is where the Fall Essentials Sew-Along, hosted by Rhinestones and Telephones (she of #sewDollyClackett fame), comes in.

Requiem for a wedding gown

Fifty-nine years ago today, my parents got married. In four weeks, it will be my turn. The wedding will be pretty low-key, but I've put a lot of thought into the dress. This is the beginning of its story.

As a young lass, when I imagined my wedding, I always pictured myself wearing Aged P's dress. It's a dream couture gown: heavy cream silk, very classic style, close-fitting bodice, long full skirt. Train. Portrait neckline. Custom-fit self-bustier. My great-uncle Arthur Banks was a British designer and would occasionally be brought to Canada by some of the department stores; on one of his trips to Toronto he told my mother that when she got married, he'd design her dress. She didn't really take him seriously, but sure enough when she announced her engagement, he told her to send him her measurements. A week before the wedding, it arrived, which just goes to show that getting things done at the last minute is a family trait.

When I announced my engagement, Aged P and I went to look at her dress. It's been in the box for nearly sixty years and I was a little worried it wouldn't be in good condition, but it looked fabulous. Seeing it up close for the first time, there were details I didn't know about. The waist is a thing of beauty, with this amazing seaming.

And they gave my mother something blue.

But as much as I love this dress, I can't wear it. For one thing, I don't even begin to fill out that bodice. For another, I am marrying the Dapper Cyclist and well, you just can't bike in this dress. For a third, my ideal wedding, and therefore my ideal wedding dress, has changed a lot since I was a girl. And frankly, it's a nightmare to get into or out of.

But I hated to let the dream die.

There's an awful lot of fabric in that skirt. I'm going to use it to make my dress. So I am going to wearing a part of my mother's dress after all.

Something old, something new.

Pancake of the Month #2: The Single Pancake

Not to be confused with the Single Lady pancake, also from Joy the Baker. Which pancake I still love to make, although I do split it into two flippable cakes. And, you know, read the recipe properly (2 tsp <> 2 tbsp!).

This is a very similar recipe, with blueberries instead of bananas and no pecans.



The result? Well, it's still tasty. This recipe is good for weekday pancakes, because you're not stuck making a dozen. I'd love to make up a bunch of packets of the dry ingredients so I can save the time measuring out the ingredients. (The other way is to make up a batch of pancakes on the weekend and freeze any extras which can be reheated on a weekday; the problem with this system is you need leftover pancakes, which doesn't happen much around here anymore.)

Strutting loud in pyjamas

Timey-wimey pyjamas!


I've made more three more pairs of Sewaholic Tofinos. I finally made the blue plaid flannel pair made at the end of June, just in time for the heat to ramp up, naturally, but I'm going to hold off on blogging them until I finish the DC's matching pair. Noteworthy: the print-matching, the satin piping along the seams, and using a poly satin for the belt.

Pancake of the Month #1: Sweet Peach

It's been a while since I've made a new pancake recipe, so PotM has a lot of catching up to do! Fortunately, there is The Beach.


My friends E & L invite us to their cottage on Lake Huron every year. The only rules are 1) tell them when you're coming and 2) bring food. I always make pancakes, because obviously, so it seemed like a good time to reboot the challenge.^* I made Sweet Peach Pancakes from myrecipes.com because a) I like peaches and b) I really like cornmeal in my pancakes. I doubled the recipe because I was cooking for 9.5 people^** and used canned sliced peaches because of what I learned last time.


The verdict?

Ersatz tiki

Blogged timey-wimey almost a year later.

R and C had a tiki party last weekend, and I thought this would be the perfect excuse to copy Heather's tiki dress and finally make an Oona-worthy maxi Anna. Alas, the only fabric I could find that I really liked that was... colourful... was this pink paisley polyester.

In which PhysicsGirl is on the loose... again

In May 2009, I started this blog to document ramblings on my leave year. Six years later, I'm still at it. And as of today, I'm on leave again. I don't have a major trip planned this time, but I do have plans. I'm getting married... sometime in the fall. We have planned nothing yet. I'm going to help Aged P get her house ready to sell. I'm going to get my own apartment organized. I'm going to make stuff and read all the books and drink all the tea.

And what I really like to do is write all the blog posts that are waiting, patiently, in my draft folder. It's going to be all timey-wimey up in here.

A sphere for Tau Day

Vi Hart, warrior for tau, has appropriately put together a spherical video for Tau Day. You'll need to watch it on Chrome (there are possibly other browsers that would work, but I don't know what they are).


If you try to watch it on Firefox, say, you'll get something that looks like this:


...which is actually pretty cool.

On Chrome, it looks more like this:

and you can swing the camera around to look in different directions.

In which PhysicsGirl repeats herself

Rescuing this post from the draft folder and posting timey-wimey-wise.

I've been promising a post about this sweater and top for over a month. This is that post.

Blue sweater and white tee. We've seen this before, and not just because I used this picture for MMM. What can I say; I'm not terribly original. #sorrynotsorry

MMM15 wrap-up and near-future plans

Posted timey-wimey-wise.

Exams have been marked, grades are in, and for once I don't have exams on the final days, so here I am reflecting on my Me-Made May and making future plans. This post is not as stupid long as last year's. You're welcome.

Previously on PGOTLMMM15:





My pledge was to wear at least two me-made or refashioned items each day without planning ahead and to finish all my UFOs. Obviously, that UFO idea was totally crazy; I don't know why I thought that I would find time in what is possibly my busiest month to plow through them. I did manage to fix the waist of my Koi is coy skirt in such a way that it is now a genuinely finished object. The other things... gah. Some of the items I thought were finished turned out not to be. Including one of the two new items I made^*. Which is a little frustrating.

Monthly total: Me-mades: 29/31; Refashioned: 3/31 Sewing: 49; Crochet: 0; Earrings/Jewellery: 16; UFOs f'd: ?/20

Most worn
sewn: tie between the cream and long blue Swoon cardis; runner-up is the Lekala skirt. No surprises there. Except for it being cold enough for the long blue cardigan so late in the month.
crocheted: Nothing! I wore nothing I crocheted, not even the scarves.
jewellery: tie between the bruised candy apple and cherry blossom earrings

What to take away from this? Aside from the UFO thing, I met my goals for this year's MMM. Sort of. On average, I wore two me-mades every day; the no-planning thing meant there were days where grabbing a cardigan was the only thing that fulfilled the pledge, and others (mostly jammie-only days) where it just didn't happen. On the plus side, I didn't realize I had made or refashioned so many tops - I wore tops max twice, most only once, and I didn't wear every top I've made; and yet I wore a me-made top 23 times in May. I didn't wear as many dresses as I have done in past MMMs, which I was expecting because I'd rather go for a knit dress for work, and I've only made one of those^**. I will continue focusing on sewing separates and maybe making more knit dresses.

On to the irregular wrap-up. Since January, I've sewn on average about one thing per month: a pair of ecru flannel Tofinos; a Marfy blouse; two more Swoon scarf-neck cardigans: the long blue and the yet-to-be-blogged lacy blue; white tees (Cake and Bonny, although these are currently in the UFO pile); and a breton Bronte.

Crochet-wise, I finished the Rosemary and Wine sweater I started last December and made a chunky rib-knit cowl, but did not finish my Spring Steppes cardigan. Jewellery-wise, I made a long-awaited pair of Eva earrings in aquamarine and a pair of bronze block chandeliers, which I will blog at some point.

So, onto my future plans. And by future, I mean until the end of June.

I need to take advantage of the lab benches to get as much cut out as I can. I've been sewing-dared by Gillian to sew something by a non-Sewaholic Canadian designer and/or to make a pair of wide-legged trousers. This is the impetus I need to finally trace and cut my Jalie jeans pattern and make the Wearing History Smooth Sailing trousers. This last will also be part of my Vintage Pledge. July is Lingerie month with the Sewcialists, so I could try out to sort out my fitting issues with the Measure Twice Cut Once Mary knickers and make some Tofinos -- I've had a plaid flannel pair cut out for ages, and even though it's far too hot to wear, I started sewing them up so I can use them to see how to modify the pattern for the DC's pair.


But that's just stuff to cut out at school. My real plan is to finish my UFOs before I do any new sewing. For starters, I'm going to fix the gaping neckline on my LGRAB Anna to wear to commencement, and deal with the issues on the Bonny tee.

And then? I will finish that cardigan!

^*Yes, I am aware of the irony of sewing new items but not having enough time to finish old ones.

^**For day use, anyway.