Goodbye, Summer 2013

The weather here has cooled off a bit this past week -- a welcome change -- and it reminded me that summer will officially end this weekend (tomorrow, to be exact). I know I haven't been posting very much lately, but the last month of summer didn't go completely undocumented. I spent a lot of time with family (and friends, too, although I don't have many photos with them). Here are some of my favorite shots. SPOILER: Babies and cutie-pie kiddos galore!

My sister-in-law, my mom, and my delicious twin nephews

My kiddo's new trick and new souvenir tee shirt from his maternal grandmother (she went on a Scandinavia/Baltic Sea cruise)

The kiddo beating on a cloud piñata -- go get 'em!!

Delicious nephew napping on his dad, my brother

The twins again -- these two are not identical, but you can DEFINITELY tell that they're brothers.

Part of my growing family at Oxnard State Beach Park. Missing from the photo are myself, my husband, my mom, and my parents-in-law.

My favorite photo of me with not only my godson, who totally killed it with this pose, but also my Doctor Who paraphernalia (see the top of the TARDIS peeking out of my hand and my shirt?) LOL

Playing hilarious water games at my twin second cousins' (twin nieces') birthday party

The lovely bell peppers are from our backyard garden; the rest of the produce is from our CSA box.

A fantastic homemade meal with my mom and older sister: crab cake with tartar sauce, and crab-and-lobster omelet

Paleo chocolate cake with chocolate icing for my dear friend MP's (belated) birthday. We celebrated on Labor Day, and yes, I made this! It was yummy, but I'll note that the icing melts FAST in summer heat. Recipe here. I doubled it to make two layers.

xo, Gladys

Recipe: Bacon Broccoli Casserole

This is a different take on the Breakfast Casserole recipe I've shared before, this time with more veggies and less cheese and also no potatoes. My husband said it's his new favorite way to eat broccoli, but I'll note that it's best eaten hot out of the oven rather than after reheating the next day (however, I personally liked the leftovers). So if you'd like to avoid leftovers, cut the recipe in half and use an 8x8-inch baking dish or similar.

Bacon Broccoli Casserole
Serves 8 (570 calories per serving: 8g carbs, 42g protein, 44g fat)

Ingredients

• 1 pound bacon
• 5 cups broccoli, chopped and steamed lightly
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 tsp ground mustard spice
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 12 oz cheddar cheese, chopped or shredded

Method

Fry bacon until just crispy (or to taste); drain on paper towels. When a little cooled, chop roughly into bite-sized pieces. (You can be lazy like me and use kitchen shears.) While bacon is cooking, steam the chopped broccoli on the stove or in the microwave until bright green but still crunchy. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Whisk eggs, half-and-half, and ground mustard together. At this point you can saute the onion in 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease left in the pan, if desired. To the egg mixture, add the onion, bacon, broccoli, and cheddar cheese. Mix well.

Pour mixture into a lightly-greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Bake 30-40 minutes until cheese is melted and toothpick comes out clean. Check at 30 minutes. Let cool and serve.

Enjoy!

xo, Gladys

Black A-Line

Top: Banana Republic | Skirt: H&M (hand-me-down from my older sister) | Ballet flats: Fluevog Imagine (ON SALE, coral and aqua too)

I wore this to my twin nieces' birthday party a week ago. The full skirt made the outfit a little formal, but I wanted to wear it out. It's a little big -- you know how much I prefer super-cinched waists -- but I liked how it was partly lined in tulle. I should have ironed it, but I always seem to run out of time when getting ready for parties. Anyway, another plus was getting to wear my art-deco Imagine flats. I think these shoes are so lovely. (If you want to get them, they run really small. So go 2 full sizes up!) I was overdressed for the kid party, but, sadly, opportunities to dress up these days are few and far between. I haven't had a ladies' night out in a while, so I was almost desperate to wear something fancy-ish last weekend! No one in my life has been getting married or having fancy birthday celebrations lately. Kinda sad, no? Come on, family and friends, get on it!

xo, Gladys

(Some Literal) Navel Gazing

I've got to admit it: I've been struggling for some time now with blogging. Not really with the why of it, but the how.

Sometime in the past two months -- I'm not sure when exactly it happened -- I stopped reading other blogs regularly so I no longer feel much inspiration to share. Sometimes, it's like I don't even know how to put together a post. But this is probably what happened: I quit sewing temporarily at the start of summer because I needed to make sure the house was always ready for guests during our swim lessons here. Then my regular reading of sewing blogs petered out since I wasn't quite as interested anymore. But because I'm a voracious reader, that reading vacuum was filled by news and political editorials as well as a return to my large TBR piles of genre novels. (And thanks to that, I haven't slept well since June.) I'm not really interested in doing book reviews here, however, nor do I see this as a space to rant and rave on politics.

The end result is that I don't have anything to post about on a regular basis. Sure, you've gotten vacation photos and you know about my Fluevog visits/binges. But nothing regular like when I'd have a sewing project done every couple of weeks. I don't even take outfit photos that much anymore because I don't dress up that much. It's just too hot! (Also, no weddings or new babies this year.) And when I do take photos, it's like I've forgotten how to pose -- not that I ever really knew how, but I used to feel more comfortable in front of the camera.

Now that my kid has started kindergarten, I'd like to get back into sewing a bit. There's so much else to do, though, like going back to my dissertation, volunteering at my kid's classroom, and continuing with yoga. Did I tell you I've been doing yoga for the past month? Just once a week, but so far so good. I do it with friends, which is nice. I stopped singing lessons at the beginning of this month because of the stress of dealing with the fallout of my husband's car accident and of preparing for the beginning of the school year. For me, yoga is way better than singing lessons for de-stressing.

I'm hoping the coming fall season will bring back some inspiration. As a weekly classroom volunteer, I might start wearing some of my dresses to school. My son goes to a uniform-policy school, so all of the teachers wear pretty nice outfits everyday. It would be a good opportunity to dress up. :-)

As for sewing, I have a project that I'd like to start and finish this week. If I manage to complete it, I'll take some pics and blog about it.

Finally, here are a couple of outfits I wore recently.

Romper: Prim I Am via ModCloth | Shoes: TOMS via Zulily

The romper was worn to a ladies' night out; we watched the 1980s film Dirty Dancing -- a little cheesy but truly one of the most romantic movies EVER -- for the local movie theater's Classics Series. I still have that famous last song and dance on the brain, "(I've Had the) Time of My Life." The film depicts the early Sixties with the characters wearing some gorgeous resort wear with a Fifties feel. The high-waisted bottom of my romper was appropriate, but not the loose top, and overall the outfit looks Seventies instead. Oh well. At least I finally wore the romper in public; it's been over a year since I bought it. It's actually quite comfortable, good for lounging around at home, but I'm laughing a little in the photo because I know it looks dorky (and I felt dorky wearing it, plus I didn't like the shoes. Not that comfy. I'm not a TOMS fan, I must say).

Top: Freebird via ModCloth | Skirt: Old Navy | Shoes: Fluevog Amie via Amazon

This brown, beige, and cream outfit is something you may remember from my trip to Hawai'i last October. I wore it again for a kid birthday party in the park, this time with Fluevog flats. It was appropriately loose and comfortable for a warm, humid day in Long Beach. No doubt I was remembering the heat and humidity of Hawai'i when I was putting the outfit together. 100% cotton is always a good choice for that kind of weather.

xo, Gladys

PSA #2: ModCloth Last Hurrah Summer Sale

Oh dear, the 70% off Last Hurrah Sale is on at ModCloth! Um, I may or may not have gotten a couple of things already. Okay fine, I did. I mean, come on, 70% off! I had to at least peek at what was available. But hurry hurry hurry, because things go FAST during these sales. Something got pulled from my online cart while I was still shopping, and I'm still bummed about it (a fun mustard-colored top with a cute ribbon at the nape). Sigh. Happy hunting!

(Do keep in mind that these items are now FINAL SALE, no returns accepted. So please go through the reviews as much as you can.)

Daily Double-Take Dress $13.99 SALE

xo, Gladys