**Spider Sweater!**

This weekend I made this sweater for patternmaking class. The silhouette is obviously pretty basic, just a raglan that i made oversized (since obviously I like everything xxl!). The fabric however is amazing- super soft and fuzzy felted dark green wool/mohair combo with a tiny but of orangey-red mixed in. In an effort to put off doing my lingerie art project as long as possible, I came up with the bright idea to hand finish the hem with some of that orangey-red. Then, naturally, I thought of a spiders and tried my best at embroidering one of those on there as well. Embroidery is definitely something I want to get better at, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I wore it all day Monday and it was super comfortable and warm! It may or may not sub in for my "Best Dad on Earth" sweatshirt a couple of days a week... no promises though.

Photos courtesy of Angélique. Check out her blog here. She's really good about uploading her awesome sketches all the time. Plus she's just got a great eye for interesting things.

**this was day 2 into my thus far 4 day no sleeping streak. Fashion school is rough.

High Tea in Chicago

On a recent trip to visit my sis at Wheaton, we spent the day in Chicago. After cleaning out the boys department at Ralph Lauren, we collapsed into chairs in the beautiful salon at the Peninsula Hotel for high tea. Somewhere I scribbled down the full (extensive, amazing) menu, but who knows where that is now. As soon as I locate I will add for the full effect.

My Sis, sipping some tea at the Peninsula!!

Marissa pulls off this stuff better than a male model...

First course, sandwiches!! (These were so, so, so delicious... I really wish I could remember exactly what they were!)

Scones with clotted cream, lemon curd and homemade preserves.Surprise! Coconut souffles. (Best. Souffle. Ever.)And of course... the dessert tray. By this point Marissa's RL boyz blazer was feeling a little snug and I was curled up in a ball ready for a nap in the chair next to her. We definitely cabbed it back to the train station...

Cooking With Melly

vintage pic courtesy of our photog on call: MJP

So this week marked a really depressing milestone in my life. My best (and first nyc) boo not only moved out of my apt, but OUT OF THE STATE. I've been wallowing in self-pity all week. Now, not only do I have no one to snuggle with every night, but I have no one around to whip up delicious meals for me when I reach those work-induced points where I haven't consumed anything other than bagels and coffee in days (these times are real, and very scary).

Here are just a couple of the meals she's made for me in the past couple of months:

Melly's a vegetarian, and one night she was craving one of those bean patties they call veggie "burgers". Out of consideration for me, she also picked up some BEEF, plus loads of delicious veggies and toppings.

prepping

which one looks better guys? I whipped up some mini redskins with dijon mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar (we were missing the chives though...) These babies had avocado, cheddar, pickles, field greens, and the best heirloom tomatoes ever from the Union Square farmers market- all on a fresh baguette (!!!!)

A couple of weeks later, I had spent all day waiting for the Time Warner repair man/ trying to finish a huge art project and incidentally hadn't eaten all day. Even though she'd just finished a marathon shift of serving customers with a smile at the 'Bux, she surprised me with this feast:

Taco with scrambled eggs, cheddar, fresh salsa and avocado in whole wheat tortilla.

And a pumpkin ice cream sundae for dessert.

That's true love guys.

It's Fall!

Fall is without a doubt my favorite season. When I first moved to New York I couldn't get over how awesome it was to have four distinct seasons. Now that I've experienced a small taste of Fall in northern Michigan though, I know that what I consider Fall here is a littttle bit lame. That said, I love 50 degree weather in NYC and even though there aren't a lot of colored leaves falling, there are a lot of little dogs in rain coats... almost as cool?!

Of everything I love about Fall, pumpkins are my absolute favorite. Particularly eating pumpkins. Last night I ate pumpkin ravioli...yum! My mom sent me an amazing pumpkin themed care package with a pumpkin loaf pan from William Sonoma. I had been dying to try it out but school has been insane so it took awhile. Finalllly:

It has this pretty little leaf print on top, and I just sprinkled a little powdered sugar.

There was a ton of extra batter so i made muffins also.

Mmmm... I love pumpkin everything! In other news, I had to make a bodysuit this week. Looking back on the extreme unpleasantness of sewing plaid spandex, I don't really know what possessed me to buy it, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with the lumberjack-y feeling that also reminds me of Fall.

I like the final product, but I definitely don't think it looks as complicated as it actually was to construct. I'll credit it to the hours I spent painstakingly matching plaids, but it is really hard to see that the front is actually 9 separate pattern pieces. (Also, the lines you see underneath the mesh are just style tape on the dress form, not part of the design.)

GUEST POST!! Vegan Candied Clementine Cake

Natalie has appointed me as an honorary blogger for this week. My name is Libby Parsons and while I'm not cooking my way through a fashion degree, I do cook for a vegan co-op once a week (but only for a fun challenge, I love meat!) and also happen to be majoring in International Relations. This is my first ever blog and I'm humbled to be blogging about something I don't know much about.

This past weekend, I made a vegan clementine cake that everybody loved and even went as far as to say that it was one in their top ten cakes they had ever tried (however, obviously they haven't tasted one of Natalie's cakes before). This is quite an accomplishment because, I don't know if you have ever tried a vegan cake, but they are usually quite bland. The recipe is easy and, besides candying the clementines, fast.

My friend, Hugh Brown, candied the clementines which entails simmering the clementines in sugar water for 1 to 2 hours. The recipe calls for pureeing the clementines with peels. However, I blended half of the clementines with peels and half without. I think that this made the cake more moist and less bitter.
The cake turned out to be extremely moist, flavorful, and slightly bitter. The citrus-y sweetness of the powdered sugar/clementine juice icing balances out the bitterness of the cake. I suggest this cake to those of you who want to show your friends that a vegan cake can be moist and flavorful!

Recipe! (and picture source)

Fall at Pond Hill Farm

This past weekend I took a spontaneous trip to Harbor Springs to see my mom and experience Fall in Northern Michigan. It was freezing! But really, really gorgeous. The leaves were all changing and the whole town was all decorated... so amazing! My mom and I went bike riding and of course ate a ton, but we ended up spending most of our time at Pond Hill. We had apple cider and apple cider donuts in the cafe, and fed the sheep and goats fresh squash. Endless fun. Seriously, I want to live there.

Dinner with my hometown ladies!

Back before school started, by some miracle, Natalia, Jaqui (and Mat!) and I were able to get together for dinner. Thinking that I wanted to make something light and summery for what would probably be the last little gathering before school started and summer was totally over, I searched epicurious for substantial and meal-worthy salads. I was instantly attracted to the photo accompanying the Grilled Chicken Summer Salad. Despite the incredibly long list of ingredients, I headed off to Whole Foods.

Essentially, the Grilled Chicken Summer Salad is like 7 separate salads all dressed with the same super light vinaigrette and displayed beautifully on one platter. I accidentally forgot to buy green beans, so that salad was out, but I don't think it was missed. Although it was a little time consuming to make, it wasn't difficult, and the end result was totally worth it.

left 2 right: chickpea salad, chicken pesto salad, radish/ cucumber salad, grilled mushroom salad, fresh tomato salad, and a green salad

I don't actually have a platter, but it still looks pretty good on a cookie sheet right?

Since my little window unit a.c. is weeeeaak, I couldn't bear the thought of turning the oven on to bake anything, so instead I went for Caramelized Banana Splits with Hot Chocolate Sauce. Also really delicious and easy to make. I've made this recipe again already and it really is a crowd pleaser and is so simple (with a fairly short ingredient list- always a plus!)

This did not photograph well, but I wasn't really in the mood to mess around with trying to get a pretty shot when I could have been eating it...

Recipes: Grilled Chicken Summer Salad & Caramelized Banana Splits with Hot Chocolate Sauce

both from epicurious.com

Coming soon: Melissa and I's easy and delicious burger night (for vegetarians and meat eaters!)