Trip to the Symposium – A restaurant review

January 22, 2012 at 7:00 am | Posted in food, restaurant, review | Leave a comment
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As I stated in my last post, I am going to be talking about a lot of things on this blog, and for this post, I will be reviewing a restaurant that some friends, my husband, and I decided to try. Unfortunately, the fact that we were going was not expressed prior to us heading there, so I didn’t have my camera on me, not even my Ipod, so I have no pictures save what I could find on the restaurant’s website.

I apologize and promise I will be a better blogger next time.

And now onto the review.

We decided to head over to a little restaurant in town called the Symopsium Cafe, and by in town I mean Cambridge, Ontario.

This restaurant is near my work and my hubby and I regularly drive by it. We’ve seen signs outside and were interested to see what they had to offer. From what we’ve seen, it looked like it would be a nice place to go, and on a random whim, my husband decided to drive us there for dinner after we’d spent half an hour with no one wanting to decide on where to eat.

There were four of us to dinner, and we went fairly late, the dinner rush was long over, and we were quite hungry. We were greeted to a very nicely decorated restaurant. Normally when you hear “lounge” you think that there’s a bar area. In this case, there is actually a section that I would call a lounge. Rather than tables, there are comfortable chairs, couches, and small tables all allowing a more intimate setting where you can just sit and chat with your girlfriends, or go out with the guys and watch the game. They do have a bar, but it’s more than that.

The walls are covered with artwork with cracks put through it to make it look aged. The lights are dim, but not so dark that you can’t see. The music was a little loud, but it wasn’t blaring. All told the general atmosphere of the restaurant was quite lovely.

We were quickly seated by a lovely hostess at a corner booth in the back of the restaurant. Our server was very quick to come to our table, and most importantly, when I mentioned my allergies, he was fantastic with double checking everything I asked about. My husband and I ordered teas to drink, our one friend got a rootbeer float, while our other friend got a bottomless pop.

We decided to get a couple of appetizers, the Spinach Dip and the Calamari. The Calamari was fantastic, not too chewy, not oily or greasy. The spinach dip came out different than any I’d had before. It was basically just plain spinach with some cheese melted on top. There was a whole lot of pita on the plate, to the point that we made spinach dip sandwiches. We mentioned our surprise at the spinach to our waiter and within two minutes the manager came over to make sure everything was all right.

For dinner, I ordered the cheeseburger with fries, my hubby had the chicken caesar wrap with caesar salad, and our two friends both had the crab pasta. To start off, the prices were a bit higher than expected, we all chose something a little lighter in price. My husband noticed that they have special days, like Pasta Tuesdays, but after seeing the portion sizes, we may as well go to Boston Pizza. There was enough food for dinner mind you, but for the money, it’s nice to get the left over for lunch the next day. The boys enjoyed their pasta though, and said that the flavouring of it and that they’d have it again. My burger was good, it was quite large and I couldn’t finish it all. The fries came with a delicious mayo pesto and were nice and crispy. Hubby’s caesar salad was average, but he found his wrap dry because the mayo was put in it on one side, and the chicken on the other.

Hubby got dessert and it was quite lovely, they had some great ideas for desserts and fairly good prices for desserts.

All told, we loved the atmosphere and the service, but the food left much to be desired and the pricing was a bit high for our tastes.

Rating this restaurant out of five we averaged a 2.75.

All told I’d go back for a desset and tea, but I wouldn’t likely go back for dinner.

Where do I slot in?

January 21, 2012 at 12:20 pm | Posted in Blog, inspiration, random, Serious | 1 Comment
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In the big wide world of blogging, there are a lot of classifications.

You can be a sewing blog, a knitting blog, a life blog, a religious blog, a review blog, a challenge blog, a mommy blog, a health blog…. the list goes on and on.

I’ve recently been trying to think about what I would call my blog.

When I started blogging it was back in 2004 on blogspot, and I was bound and determined to become the next Yarn Harlot. She knit, she took pictures, she was funny, and she was popular.

I was sure I’d find people who were similar to me, who had the same likes, the same ideas, and, most importantly, would be my friends and make me feel good about myself…. ok, so I have a few self confidence issues.

I tried, I really did, I just didn’t knit pretty stuff, and I wasn’t funny, and I was trying to be someone people would like, and who wasn’t me. So over time, I decided to stop blogging, or rather, just didn’t find the time. My blog lazed about, and I eventually moved it over to BlogDrive, which seemed like a better site. It had prettier templates at least.

After a few stuttering failures at becoming a famous blogger again, I slowed right down. I tried to make my blog also focus on my costumes, as I went back and forth between hobbies, and just couldn’t seem to pick up speed, or readers for that matter.

I eventually moved my entire blog over here to WordPress, and I like it here… that’s not so say I won’t find another place that I enjoy blogging at more, but for now, this is my blog home. Plus I don’t want to have to take 4 months to move all the posts over from this blog.

Since I’ve been here at WordPress, I’ve tried to join challenges, I’ve posted recipes, I’ve shown my costumes, talked about my body issues, review some plays I went to, talked about my religion and my thoughts… and this year, I’ve started sewing my own clothes.

The problem with these blog classifications is that while many people will only write about a certain topic on their blogs, it doesn’t even begin to cover the variety of things that they do and think in their lives.

There’s a reason that I dubbed this blog “Odds and Sods”. I’m a bundle of them, my house is a bundle of them, my life is a bundle of them. I realized recently that when looking and talking to me you can’t slot me into a catagory. Going over in my head all the things that classify me, this is just a short list of the things that came to mind:

Geek
Christian
Friend
Sewer
Knitter
Costume Maker
Cat Lover
Gamer
Dancer
Weirdo
Drama Nerd
Theater Lover(yes they’re different)
Food Critic
Administrator
Writer
Wife
Daughter
Sister
Chef
Baker
Artist
Collector

And I could probably think of 20 more things that could classify me. If I fit into all these things, and I write about the majority of them on my blog, does that put me at odds with the pretty little classification system that the Internet has so wonderfully created? Does this leave me on the sidelines as an oddity that doesn’t work into the system and should therefore be ignored?

I don’t know.

I know I have a few more readers than I did when I started, though the majority of them are friends, coworkers, people I know in real life. It would be nice to have a blog where converstions are held in the comments. I just don’t think I’ll ever write that kind of blog. The nice thing is though, that I can go to those kinds of blogs and participate in the conversation in other comment sections.

I’ve also come to terms that I don’t need to make myself be something else to get more people to like me, which is why I’ve stopped trying to be funny, trying to be interesting and trying to be popular. This blog isn’t for me to get friends, it’s for me to write for me. It’s a place where I can put my thoughts and come back to them in the future.

Right now, I don’t really want to go back to the 2004 posts and see what I wrote, because I know that wasn’t who I really was. That was the insecurities of a 22 year old screaming “SOMEONE LOVE ME!!!!!” and I can’t really compare that to who I am other than to know that what I write now IS me.

There’s no point in trying to impress others by being someone I’m not, eventually the truth will come out.

So rather than being fake… I… just ease into my weirdness. At work I didn’t show all my geekitude and costumes and such for the first few months. Now I have a group of coworkers who ask if anything I’m wearing is handmade, another group that’s coming to a geek gamer party we’re having in February… I just didn’t exactly make my geek hood known right away.

This is my blog… It may not ever be on any lists of favourite blogs, it may not every even be read by more than 5 people in a day, but it’s my little spot to put my thoughts, put my pictures, and have something to come back to and see how my life was at this time. If I get more readers, great, but that’s not why I’m writing.

Not anymore.

Where do you get your inspiration?

January 17, 2012 at 8:03 am | Posted in clothing, fashion, inspiration | Leave a comment
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And in this case I’m referring to fashion inspiriation, since I’m very much an eclectic blogger and could mean many different subjects.

This weekend I was helping my husband organize his card collection (I am the best wife in the world I swear) so I turned on a couple of movies. I have a few that I tend to gravitate towards, and I realized that a lot of it has to do with fashion.

The first one I watched was Julie and Julia. Now to be honest, I don’t really like the Julie story. As much as I love Amy Adams, the real story of Julie Powell is so disheartening that it just doesn’t resonate with me. I read a post on Gertie’s blog where she talks about this movie, and she brought forth the comparison between the two women, how Julia Child was brough closer to her husband due to the struggles she was going through, and Julie Powell alienated her husband, and it’s very true and apparent.

And the fact that her second book was about how the fame of the first caused her to cheat and subsequently the break up of her marriage doesn’t really make me want to really read either book.

Anyway, onto the fashion.

When watching movies I always love the fact that I can both knit and sew, and that was never more apparent than when this little shrug came on the screen at the end.

Now I know it’s part of a sweater set, but seriously, how versatile is that shrug? It can dress up, dress down, go over pretty much any shirt or blouse. I think I need to figure out how to make one of my own in the future.

I absolutely adore the majority of Meryl Streep’s wardrobe in this movie! The dresses, the separates, she just looks fantastic! And the retro styles that Amy Adams wears are lovely too! There’s just so much inspiration in this movie, like colour combinations, or patterns you might not have thought of.

Even the hats are fantastic! I wish I lived in a world where wearing hats was fashionable. Maybe I should just say to  heck with it and start wearing them anyway. Oh, and the suit jacket in the middle is one of my favourites!

I could go on and on, but we’d be here all day. Maybe I’ll make a series of these posts just to get some of my favourite ideas all in one place, so for now I’ll leave you with this and a question. Where do you get your inspiration?

My Love/Hate relationship with Jillian Michaels

January 11, 2012 at 8:11 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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Well, yesterday I decided that I was going to put my nose to the grindstone and start actually working towards my Cuba body. I leave for Cuba on March 1st and have been intending on working out at my local gym for the last 2 months.

I just rarely got there.

So yesterday, I packed some work out clothes, my 30 day shred dvd and a towel and I took it to work. At lunch I went down to the gym and did the 20 minute work out.

And it almost killed me.

I don’t know if it was just that I haven’t really done much of anything in the last 3 weeks, or the fact that I only ate 4 slices of corned beef in the hour prior to exercizing, but I felt like I was either going to pass out or barf for about an hour and a half after exercizing.

I think the main thing was my blood sugar plummetted, so I’m going to be taking some more food today so I have more to eat prior to exercizing.

I’m only doing level one right now, but I’d like to be up to level 2 or 3 by March.

Jillian Michaels is an interesting character. I really respect her in a way because she used to be over weight, took control of her life, and became a huge motivator for others by losing the weight and keeping it off. However, I really don’t agree with how she promotes pills and suppliments as the quickest ways to lose weight.

I understand that in our busy society, people claim to not have the time to eat healthy and exercize, but from experience, pills and suppliments are not the way to go. My mom has health issues that continue from a stint in the 80s when she went on diet pills. Now I know pills have come a long way since then, but still, we don’t know what health realated issues we’re going to get from them yet.

I really like some of what Jillian has to say about diet, healthy living, and exercize, and I do enjoy buying magazines that have stories about her because it is an inspiriation. I just don’t agree with this one area. It’s a bit frustrating for me, because she seems like she’s a decent person, and maybe it’s just because fame and money got to her a bit. I would hope that she at least did her research and knows what she’s endorsing.

I just know I’d never buy it.

The One Day Dress

January 8, 2012 at 11:47 pm | Posted in clothing, Sewing | Leave a comment
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Ok, so technically two, since I cut out the pattern yesterday, but all things considered I could have made this dress from start to finish in one day.

Using this beautiful lycra that my hubby got me long before he was even considered for the position of hubby, and a pattern borrowed from my friend J, I made this:

First picture taken with flash, second picture without, and in NONE of my pictures can you see the beautiful turquoise stripe that’s going down my right side. Hopefully it wil show up when pictures are taken in daylight in Cuba.

So the pattern is Simplicity 3775, view A but with short sleeves. I was worried when I was planning this dress, because my lycra stretches both horizontally and vertically, but to different degrees. I knew I wanted the waist band pattern to be perpendicular to the rest of the dress, but that would mean it would stretch differently.

I took my fabric to a knitting meet up and got opinions, and it all turned out fine. The fabric is a complete static ball though, probably from being in my stash for 6 years.

The dress got rave reviews from hubby and other than the static, I find it well fitting and very comfortable. I’m pondering wearing it to work tomorrow to see what others think. It needs a run under an iron, and a rub with a bounce sheet first though.

Circle Skirt – first FO of 2012

January 4, 2012 at 10:20 pm | Posted in clothing, Present, Sewing | Leave a comment
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Whoot! I love it when a progect is simple and comes together quickly. On Monday I posted about this skirt that was grabbed off my friend’s shelf.

It was beautiful, I loved the fabric, the hard part was done! It was a gorgeous circle skirt, hemmed and everything, all it needed was a waistband.

Problem was, the little circle for the waist was a bit too small for me, so… I cut it a bit bigger… maybe a little too big, but, the great thing about circle skirts is you can just gather them.

There had been a bit of extra fabric found near the skirt, so I had just enough to make a nice interfaced, double sided waist band with hooks and eyes.

Taking pictures of myself with the timer is difficult… but I still think they turn out better than when hubby takes them… I need to get him lessons.

Anyway, this is not a favourite skirt of Hubby’s, it’s just not his style. I got endless amounts of compliments though, and I enjoyed wearing it, and that’s the main thing. I kept catching my reflection in glass or by the elevator at work, and having the song “I feel pretty” pop into my head.

Thanks again to J for letting me rummage and find this! I know that this is going to be a frequent wear (though maybe not with this shirt… I don’t normally wear a lot of pink, so it’s actually a pajama top… no one knew.)

Why Facebook and Crafty Friends are Awesome!

January 2, 2012 at 4:34 pm | Posted in clothing, Costumes, Knitting, Present, Sewing, Socks | Leave a comment
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Today I have a bunch of work yet to do, it is 2:45 and I must empty out our spare room and work on continuing laundry, but before I do that I must explain why Facebook and Crafty Friends are awesome.

This morning, I got up, watched another episode for Gertie’s Bombshell Dress and realized I was itching to sew. I looked through the fabrics that I had on hand and realized that everything that I have is for costumes, and therefore, isn’t really worthy of clothing. It’s basically a lot of Fake Fur and Lycra. So I hopped onto Facebook and lamented my fate, before continuing to read back posts of Gertie’s blog and push more loads of laundry through.

At about 12:40 the phone rang. I figured it was a telemarketer, but picked up anyway. It was one of my knitting friends, J, who has read Facebook, seen my blog and that I was sewing again, and noticed that I was fabricless. She had previously offered me some leather that she had, and was wondering if I wanted to come look at her stash and see if there was any other fabric that I could use.

I was jumping up and down excited, and got ready rather quickly. I took one bag, not wanting to be presumptuous, and excitedly headed over to her house. When I entered, her husband said “did you bring a truck, because that bag won’t get nearly enough out…” So suffice it to say, there was plenty to choose from.

After showing me to her Quilting room, which had a full quilting machine in it!!! We started going through her fabrics. She had so many pretties to choose from! I knew I had to set some rules, especially when she took me down to see her patterns and told me to pick through and feel free to borrow any of them. So the rules were as follows:

1. I was only allowed to take a pattern if it was something I would sew within the next few months, or something I already had fabric for.
2. I was only allowed to take fabric if I had a pattern for it at home, or had just chosen a pattern that would need to be sewn in the next few months.
3. I was not allowed to grab anything just because it was “pretty” nor was I allowed to take anything because “someday” I might find something to do with it.
4. I was not allowed to take more than my bag could hold, period, no exceptions.

So, with those rules in place, here is what I ended up brining home:

The first thing we found as we were digging through was this beautiful circle skirt that is just in need of a waist band. So that will be project number one tonight probably so that I can see about wearing it tomorrow. The waist may  need to be a bit bigger, but the great thing about circle skirts is that it can be accomplished by making the centre circle a little wider. I love the fabric, and the hem is already completed, so it’s a perfect skirt to finish and add to my wardrobe.

Next, as I was looking through her patterns, I found this lovely dress, that is supposed to be made in a 2 way stretch. About 4 years ago, Hubby bought me this beautiful blue fabric, that blends from a light blue in the middle, to a navy blue on the edges. He bought it under the stipulation that it needed to be made into something for me that I could wear. I had not yet found the pattern to make it and had been designing costumes with this in mind but nothing seemed to work. When I saw this pattern I knew exactly what fabric I was going to use it with. I’m hoping to have this done for the first week of March when we go to Cuba. I’m thinking of making View A which doesn’t use any scrunching or ties on the waist band, but I may ask Hubby his opinion on which version he likes best, but I think A is simple and sleek and that he’ll vote for that one too.

These fabrics were found in two different areas of J’s house. The plaid I thought was very nice for a casual shirt, just something to wear in summer, maybe throw a bolero or cardigan over and it would be wearable to work on casual Friday or in the Summer when things are a little more relaxed. The white fabric was found in a drawer with the selvages serged, J said she thought that it was used for a head covering for Mary in a nativity play at her church. I thought it would be a lovely short sleeved blouse. After we’d found these two fabrics, we were searching for a pattern to work with the white fabric, and I think that view B with the short sleeves would be good for the white, and the view A sleeveless version would be good in the plaid, then I could wear the plaid over or under another shirt however it fit.

I love well tailored outfits, there’s just something about them that really hits me. As simple as plain straight lines are to sew, there’s just something about shaping, darts, and tucks that really seem like class to me. So when I saw this Dress Suit and Skirt, I knew I had to give them a go. We weren’t able to find enough fabric to make the full Dress Suit, but with a bit of planning and improvisation, I should have enough of the black pin-stripe denim to make the skirt and the jacket, which with my white blouse would probably be really stunning. The brown and beige fabric will be used for the dress, which won’t be worn with the jacket, from the looks of it, I may just have enough of the floral fabric to make a matching bolero, with some brown trim, I think it would be really cute, and I have the perfect brown suede shoes to wear with it. This dress is another possible outfit for Cuba, the fabric is light enough, and it’s dressy enough that I could wear it out, or casual enough just for during the day.

And now to the leather:

One of the big reasons this all started is because I make costumes and J has a MASSIVE TONNE of leather, seriously, she has a full box! Anyway, one of the things that happens with costume making is you have to have a number of plans. Plan A right now for the next costume I’m making is the Bombshell dress from Gertie’s course. It’s got the right seams, the right shape, and would only need a little bit of altering. However, Plan B is the red corset in the left corner. It’s got the right seams for the bodice part of the dress, and it’s got the structure that I could build the rest of the costume off of it. However it requires leather. So I grabbed enough to make the corset, in a nice enough colour so that if Plan A works, I’ll still have a nice corset that I can wear under a shirt that’s a little sheer, or over a blouse to go out somewhere or something. Plus, I don’t know if you noticed, but I really like that blue.

After all this fabric high, J was going to show me a shawl she just finished knitting, and as she was looking for it, her husband mentioned that the kettle had boiled, and I was offered some tea.

Not just a cup:

But a selection to take home. Which is perfect, because my tea drawer at work was getting pretty low. After J had shown me her shawl, I mentioned that I needed to head to our local knitting store to get some mens sock yarn for more Grandpa socks… well down to the basement we headed again and I added these to my bag:

So that’s 4 more pairs of socks for Grandpa, which I’m hoping to knit like the wind on my bus rides to and from work, and in Cuba, so that he has 4 pairs of new socks when he gets home from Florida in April.

I’ve got a bunch of work ahead of me, and the first step is emptying my sewing room, which is what I’m going to do right now! Once all that’s out, we can start rearranging the house and getting things set up finally.

You don’t realize how messed up everything gets when you have renters until they move back and you try to set everything up again.

 

 

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