About Becky

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Holiday Gift Guide for Her

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Becky

Gift guide on November 12th? Why not. I tend to find myself in the situation around the holidays where I’m buying gifts at the last minute. This year I thought I’d start early so I can buy more of “the perfect gift” for someone, rather than buying something just to buy it.

1. I like you by Amy Sedaris. It’s a hilarious coffee table book (picture: Amy Sedaris wearing pantyhose and covered in sprinkles), but also has some legit recipes. (The meatball recipe is insane.)

2. Erasable pens. I swear to you, these have changed my professional life. No. More. Whiteout. I use them at work to take notes, sketch, write things in my calendar, etc. They are nothing like those lame “erasable pens” from the 90′s that actually just rubbed the ink further into the paper. (The commercial would have you thinking otherwise though.)

3. Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen happens to be my all time favorite author, but you can pick from various cloth-bound Penguin Classics.

4. A sewing machine! Get your special lady friend a sewing machine! (A great follow up gift would be some sewing lessons if she’s a beginner.) This one happens to be an inexpensive Brother sewing machine, but I would recommend Singer or Pfaff as well. If you’re a beginner, you don’t need to spend more than $200 – and make sure to pay attention to the reviews.

5. A cute umbrella. You never know when you’re going to need one, especially in Seattle, so you may as well cover yourself head in style.

6. Hunter rain boots. I actually own this pair and love them. They’re water proof, but have a retro vibe that strangers literally stop to ask me about.

7. Emergency car kit. I think everyone should have one of these in their car. You just never know, you know?

8. A magazine subscription. Other than Vogue and Lucky, I get the most excited when Real Simple arrives. Decorating ideas, recipes and pretty pictures. How can you go wrong?

9. Every woman should own a pair of cashmere socks, but few would buy them for herself.

Quinoa

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Becky

I recently made some vegetable quinoa that has turned out to be one of our go-to meals. It is really tasty, quick to make, and is very healthy and hearty – perfect for these cold, dark Fall nights. I got inspiration for the recipe from Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven cookbook, but adapted it to use whatever we had around the house.

Side note: for the record – we did not choose the pink window trim in the photo below. Judge me for other things, but not for that.

Thanksgiving Plasticware Holders

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Becky

While perusing Pinterest the night before our first annual Friends Thanksgiving, I came across this idea for some subtle (and useful) table decor. It took me all of 30 minutes, and I was able to use supplies I had around the house. A huge win if you ask me.

I decided to go with white velum because it wouldn’t conflict with the colorful turkey table cloths, and because it’s something I already had. I chose the font I wanted and printed 15 sheets of paper with “Be Thankful” x2 on each one (for a total of 30 guests). (Click here to see/print the jpg I created.) I cut each sheet in half vertically, then folded each of those sheets in half. When I sewed the sides up at 1/4″, I didn’t take the time to cut after each one, but waited until the end to save a few minutes.

Table cloth and napkins purchased from Joann Fabric and Crafts.

Friends Thanksgiving

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Becky

Our basement is unfinished. When we first moved in I would sprint from the stairs to the washer/dryer and sprint back again in case it was haunted or the furnace started talking to me a la Home Alone. In a nutshell, it was creepy. We’ve moved some things around and made it as un-creepy as possible while still being an unfinished basement. (For the record, I can say with confidence that it’s not haunted. Phew.) It’s sad that it’s mostly unused space down there, but finishing a basement costs a lot of dollars. It will happen eventually, but for right now we’ll just have take up rollerblading or take advantage of the darkness and learn to cure meat, as my brother suggested. The good news is that I had a genius idea recently, probably one of my best, to host a Friends Thanksgiving. The basement ended up being perfect because there was more than enough space, and if anything spilled it didn’t matter.

This is the basement before we moved in. Eek.

This is what it looks like as a magical Fall wonderland.

I mean it’s soooort of like putting lipstick on a pig since the walls are still yellow, and the cement floors are still exposed, but it’s a vast improvement if you ask me. And those twinkle lights are definitely staying up until we remodel the whole thing.

“Be Thankful” plasticware holder idea taken from here (tutorial on them tomorrow).

Candles, napkins and table cloths purchased from Joann Fabric & Crafts (40% off, with an additional 25% off my entire purchase! Love that place.).

Old Fashioned Recipe taken from here.

Jackson, my second favorite guy in the whole world after 9 days of owning him (Steve’s #1, obvi.), gets MVP for the night. With 30 people in the house, food everywhere, kids running around, he was calm the entire time. Steve and I had no idea what to expect, but we know now that we got really lucky to adopt such a great dog. In the photo below he’s staring intently at everyone’s plates in the garbage. He knew he wanted to get in there, but also knew he wasn’t allowed. that’sagoodboyyesitisthat’sagoodboy.

Handmade bow ties

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Becky

In addition to the pocket squares I made for my brother-in-law’s wedding, I also made the bow ties for the groomsmen and the groom. Again, the bride created a plaid, had it printed on fabric and then sent me the fabric. The groom sent me a J.Crew bow tie (like this one), so I knew what shape and size he wanted, then I used that bow tie to create a pattern.

I sewed their initials onto the back so they could tell them apart.

Since not everybody wants their face on the world wide web, you’ll have to settle for a blurry cropped photo. But you can see how fantastic they looked with the grey suits and yellow boutonnieres. Nice work, Mike & Anne. Nice work.

DIY Pocket Squares

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Becky

My brother-in-law got married two weeks ago and I was asked to make the pocket squares for the ushers. (His now-wife made the cake at our wedding – see that here, so I owed them a little.) This was by far the most fun and creative wedding I’ve ever been to, so I wasn’t just sent a yard of fabric to create the pockets squares from – the bride created a stripe, had it printed on silk and then they sent it to me. (Which of course meant the pressure was on to not mess up.) Pockets squares are really easy to make, but they’re also really easy to make look sloppy. Here’s a quick tutorial on how I made them.

Step 1: Cut the fabric 1″ bigger on each side than what you want. (I wanted them to be 12″ x 12″ when finished, so I cut each one 13″ x 13″.)
Step 2: Iron 1/2″ down on all sides.
Step 3: Fold that 1/2″ in half, so you’re left with a double-turned 1/4″ hem on all four sides.

Step 4: Pin each corner so it makes a crisp 45 degree angle.

Step 5: Starting in the middle of one of the sides, sew all the way around. Before you get to each corner, thread a hand sewing needle with contrast thread and put one stitch through each corner. Then when you need to get the sewing machine foot over the awkward bump of the corner, you have some leverage. Once you’ve turned the corner, pull the threaded needle all the way out to use on the next corner.

Step 6: Press

Meet: Jackson

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Becky

We got a dog! What you need to know: He’s a husky-Australian shepherd mix (with some other breeds in there), we rescued him from the Seattle Humane Society, and he’s between 7 and 12 months old (the humane society said 7 months, the Vet told us probably closer to 12 months). We’ve had him for a good solid 72 hours, and he gets 4 out of 5 stars so far. He’s a really good, sweet dog but whoever had him before us obviously didn’t take the time to train him well, so we’re trying to undo some bad habits. Like bolting into the street while I’m holding his leash. Overall though, I am so excited to have him. We’ve been very casually looking for a dog for about 6 months and knew we had to jump at the chance of adopting Jackson when we discovered he fit all of our criteria. Steve wanted a husky, I wanted an Australian shepherd, we wanted to rescue a dog, and we didn’t want a baby puppy (I mean do I look crazy?).

Welcome to the family, Jackson.

New York

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Becky

Three years ago, almost to the day, I was living in New York decorating Halloween sugar cookies and carving pumpkins. Visual:

The people I was decorating these cookies with were my boyfriend’s brother and his girlfriend. Fast forward 3 years and they are now my husband’s brother and his soon to be wife. You follow? In a nutshell, a lot has changed. As we speak, so to speak, I am in route to NYC for their wedding for the first time since I moved back here in 2010 and I am unbelievably excited. First thing on the agenda? SHAKE SHACK.

Here’s what Central Park looked like in October 2009. Photo was taken by my roommate at the time Melinda.

Halloween!

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Becky

Halloween is my favorite holiday. As far as I can remember, it always has been. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think it has something to do with the lack of stress. No pressure, no over thinking it – it just is what it is, you know? This year I haven’t had quite enough time to do all the Halloween-related festivities I’d like (fingers crossed I can make it to a pumpkin patch), but I was able to make some Halloween sugar cookies last night. It was a new recipe that I would give two thumbs up. They have nutmeg in them, so they’re definitely not your traditional sugar cookies…even if the recipe is called “Traditional Sugar Cookies”. I won’t waste too much time pondering that.

The recipe can be found in this cookie cookbook.

1. Rainbow sprinkles make coffins and such seem less scary.
2. Mostly though, I couldn’t find my collection of sprinkles. Add it to the list of M.I.A. items since we moved 6 months ago.

Chicken Soup with Dumplings

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Becky

Sunday night Steve and I made chicken soup with dumplings. It will now go down in history as one of my favorite home cooked meals we’ve ever made. It was time consuming to make, but was so delicious and perfect for the rainy weather we’ve been getting lately. Fall, it is upon us.

The recipe can be found in this fancy cookbook.

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