An American in Leeds

Don't forget to give the servants the day off! Originally, I was going to go away for Christmas like I did last year. But then the weather started acting wacky. And then I kept getting sick with one cold after another. In the end, I decided to stay put. I roasted a chicken, using Julia Child's recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking . It turned out amazing, probably because, like all of Julia Child's recipes, it requires a ton of butter. She should have titled her book Screw It: Use the Damn Butter, You'll Thank Me Later. I also worked on sewing up a skirt. I got all but the finishing details done yesterday. I did the belt loops and buttons today to finish it up: Sorry for the bad picture- I finished it after the sun went down, so no natural sunlight. The pattern is Beignet from Colette Patterns. Grey gabardine with cotton/ synthetic floral lining and purple plastic buttons. I've made this skirt before , although I don't remember the belt loops being as t...

I finally finished my Lady Grey coat! Only nearly two months late for the Sew-A-Long. Better late than never. Or better late than pregnant, as Blanche from The Golden Girls would say. Eventually I'll get a picture of me wearing it, but right now I am vain and my skin is a mess. This sucker is a lot warmer than I originally thought it was going to be, so perhaps it's for the best that I didn't finish it for the fall. I would have roasted. As it is, with temps in the 20s (Fahrenheit) right now, it's nice and cozy. I'm still working on the rest of my Fall 2010 collection . I finished a dress and two blouses (no pictures of those yet, argh). I have a skirt and another dress to finish. I was going to do two slips as well, but my sewing machine HATES slippy fabric, and the stitches are awful on the one I attempted. I added a giant scarf to the collection. It is my current obsession to get done: It's grown by a couple repeats since I took that picture. It will be 7....

The big news around these parts: the snow: We got quite a bit of it. What happened to the month of November? Oh, right, I was busy writing a novel. I did NaNoWriMo this year, after a three year hiatus. I didn't think I was going to make the 50k word goal, but I did: 50,012. I found it tougher this year than in the past. My inner editor has gotten a lot stronger over the years, and I think she makes it difficult to just sit down and write. The good thing about NaNoWriMo is that it has given me the urge to keep a journal again. I kept one faithfully from the age of 14 until I was 20. I remember being so proud of myself when I filled the first one- a spiral bound number with a crushed blue velvet cover (shut up, it was the 90's, crushed velvet was HOT). I filled about half of the second one before I stopped for some reason. Now I want to keep a journal again, just to learn to turn off that inner editor. I bought a cheap bright blue one yesterday, and forced myself to write a coupl...