Halloween and Holiday Outfits

Hard to believe it's already Thursday! It feels like the week has flown by. My son didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday (and Tuesday night was spent waiting on election results), so I guess my Wednesday felt like Monday. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few photos from Halloween last week when we went trick-or-treating with our friends.

The great Batman shirt came from Target; he changed from the black short-sleeved shirt he wore earlier that day because it was actually a little chilly here on Halloween (for the past few years, Halloween has been pretty warm at night). He really enjoyed himself, and so did his friends. Of course, he got way too much candy for one little kid. Thankfully he's already forgotten about the remainder. Hoping to keep it that way and use the rest as sporadic treats through the next year.

Marginally related: I've been looking for a holiday party outfit that will match the soon-to-be-mine Fluevog Elizabeth maryjanes. (I'll have them in my hands by the end of the month!) What could match the style of these?

This outfit that young Sasha Obama wore on Election Night really caught my eye. I could definitely do a black and green two-piece outfit.

Photo from the HuffPost

Sadly, however, that skirt is from a 2010 collection by designer Chris Benz. Highly doubt it was mass-produced. (Plus it was probably several hundred dollars.)

So instead I've been scouring ModCloth for some possibilities. I'm considering maroon and red dresses along with green, and trying to find a party style that's appropriate for my husband's company party: so not too prom, but dressier than the kind of outfit I'd wear to an office job. I wore this last year (terrible photos) and might go for a similar style again, just in green or red. We'll see how it goes when I'm able to try on the items I've ordered at ModCloth. By the way, they're having a 25% off holiday sale right now. It won't match the coming sale in December, but if you're looking for a holiday outfit now, it might be a good time to look there.

xo, Gladys

Polka Dots at Play

Over the weekend, I watched a play in downtown Los Angeles with my mother for her birthday, and this is what I wore.

Dress: Monteau Los Angeles via ModCloth | Cardi: Banana Republic (hand-me-down from my mom) | Tights: GAP | Shoes: Fluevog Qtee (Mini family)

This has to be in my Top 3 favorite outfits this year. From the dress to the cardi to the tights to the shoes ... they all came together just the way I dreamed up the outfit in my head, dressy enough for the Mark Taper Forum but still casual enough for a weekend matinee. (And I had four pockets to work with! Woohoo!) I'm so glad I got to wear my new Coach Tour dress before the weather got too dreary for bright white and polka dots. It was a beautiful sunny day in southern California. The cardi turned out to be too warm for driving, but it was just fine inside the theater.

You probably couldn't tell from the photos above, but (see photo below) my tights had tiny flocked dots as well. Dark pink ones. The lady sitting next to me at the theater said she really liked my tights. And not only did the dots on the tights echo the polka dots of the dress, but their pink color also echoed the burgundy of my beautiful shoes. Pretty sweet, right? ;-)

And oh, the collar of this dress! With the cardigan, the collar looks almost like a scarf from the back. I just love the design of this dress. It's why I have the same dress in three colors/patterns (see here and here; and I am seriously crushing on the "winter" pattern).

Finally, here is a closeup of the Gibson tuck that I tried the last time I wore the shoes. This attempt was much neater, if a little lopsided, and thankfully my bangs have grown long enough in four weeks that they're not so messy and in-my-eyes all the time. I still plan to get a haircut and a trim for my bangs, but until then, I won't need to pin them up constantly.

xo, Gladys

Recipe: Almond Flour Blueberry Waffles

If you have a waffle maker/iron, this is for you. I changed up the basic waffle recipe that came with my Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker and turned it almost paleo by using coconut oil, coconut milk, and honey, and substituting half of the flour for almond flour* ... and it is delicious and just as addicting as a regular waffle. I'm going by how quickly my bread-and-potatoes husband gulps these down. I've been making waffles at least once a week for the past month or so, because my son asks for them all the time. (You can cook these as pancakes as well, but it's not as easy and quick as having the waffle iron do the work for you.)

Almond Flour Blueberry Waffles

(adapted from the Cuisinart Waffle Maker instruction booklet)
Makes 8-10 waffles

Ingredients

• 1 cup bleached almond flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted on low heat
• 14 oz coconut milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen blueberries (you can substitute fresh blueberries, other berries, chocolate chips, or anything else you'd like)

Method

Place melted coconut oil and dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix until well combined. Add coconut milk and eggs and mix until smooth. Lastly, stir in frozen blueberries until evenly combined. Preheat waffle maker.

Pour slightly less than 1/2 cup batter into waffle maker for each waffle, and cook to desired brownness. Use heat-proof spatula to carefully remove baked waffle, and place it on a cooling rack if you want a crisp waffle, or serve immediately. (Butter, maple syrup, more fresh fruit, the works.)

You can freeze any extras, and simply reheat them in a toaster or toaster oven. (Freezing-then-toasting is a good option if you like them nice and crispy.)

* Nota bene: I tried to make these using ALL almond flour, but it did NOT work out at all. There wasn't enough of a binder in the batter so the waffle never cooked in one piece. Instead, the waffle (the only one I tried) stuck to the NON-STICK grid of the waffle maker. :-/ I'm not sure if I should have put in less liquid or added a ripe banana or arrowroot powder ... ? Sadly I don't fully understand the chemistry of foods, and I don't often experiment with food because I hate to waste ingredients if things go wrong. But changing up the basic waffle recipe the way I did above was something I'd successfully done before. Otherwise, I'm not much fun in the kitchen. :-)

xo, Gladys

Happy Snapshots: October

Happy November! (Already???)

October was an almost-overwhelmingly busy month, dominated by a week-long trip to Hawai'i in the middle of it. We spent the first week of October getting ready for the trip (with a dinner out with my friends one Saturday evening), then as soon as we got back, I threw myself into Halloween preparations and costume-making (see the last two posts) so that we could attend an early Halloween party, go to this month's Halloween-themed contra dance, and go trick-or-treating the night of. Then there was a quick visit to the Fluevog store on Melrose and a couple of days helping a friend move sandwiched between all of that.... I'll confess that I still haven't caught up with house-cleaning since we got back from our vacation -- though if you know me at all that's not much of a surprise. :-) Here are some of my favorite snapshots from last month.

Food

One of the best seafood paellas I've ever eaten (George's Inka Grill)

Shoes

Fluevog Believes (Hope family) in Hawai'i

Wearing my new Fluevog Qtees (Mini family) in the house ... just for fun

Cute (but not very comfortable) ballet flats on sale from ModCloth, a brand called Bumper

Family

Love my two guys

First half hour in Hawai'i, all sweaty already

Showing off their Aulani resort bracelets after coming home from Hawai'i

Requisite pumpkin patch photo in October

A different pumpkin patch, out on a field trip with his classmates (btw, that's gum on the left side of his mouth, not a fanged tooth!)

xo, Gladys

Sewing for Halloween: Bat Boy

Happy Halloween 2012!

Bat cape and headpiece: Made by me | Top: Circo via Target | Pants: Toughskins | Shoes: Sperry

At first he wanted to be a pumpkin bat which I thought was a fun idea. But then changed his mind and wanted to be just a bat which was helpful for me since I didn't have to make him a pumpkin costume as well. Anyway, I liked the look of this bat costume at MADE, although I didn't really want the shiny silver or purple lining. Instead of polyester lining, I used black cotton muslin. It's not really a tutorial but I figured out what needed to be done and it didn't take unreasonably long. The most challenging part of the costume was probably attaching the bat ears on the headpiece.

Process notes on the bat cape:

After cutting out your cape and lining pieces (measure your child's arm span then add an extra inch for seam allowances), pin them right sides together. Sandwich the straps between the two fabrics. Here I used four straps -- two for the shoulders and two for the forearms. Measure your child first to figure out where the straps should go.

To finish the straps, use velcro or sew directly on the cape:

For my straps, the only black webbing available at the Jo-Ann's here was a stretchy cotton/nylon webbing. Turns out, if you use stretchy straps, you don't need to use the velcro at all; you simply sew the ends of the straps to the cape lining, which is more secure. I definitely wish I'd figured this out beforehand since it is tedious work to apply iron-on velcro. Instead, I decided to sew the ends of the straps on around the velcro squares, managing to cover up the velcro. That's time I'll never get back again, but oh well, live and learn. And hopefully you won't make the same missteps I did!

xo, Gladys