Vacation

Billy and I have been having so much fun during his time off! In addition to getting a bunch of errands done last weekend we also we're able to take a day trip to Hermann, MO on Monday. It was established by German settlers around 150 years ago and still holds onto its European charm. I guess they get a lot of tourists in October because of their events celebrating October Fest but we had a lot of fun checking out wineries and this little meat shop that specialized in Bratwurst and had free tasting.
We toured Stonehill Winery and even though it was freezing, the cellers we're really amazing.

Billy's pre-tour snack-- sausage, cheese and crackers :)

 

Other than that we've had a lot of time to read, play Call of Duty and have Harry Potter movie marathons :) I'm not ready for Billy to go back to work on Friday!

Billy Has a Week Off!

I came down with a cold a few days ago, and it's been a nightmare to get rid of. I keep going to bed thinking I'll wake up better but that's not how things have been working out. However, we had some good news yesterday when Billy got to come home at 10 because of the snow! Today he got back around 1, and then was told that he has the next week off! I'm so excited to spend some time with him around St. Louis! So far on our agenda is taking a tour of a winery outside the city, checking out a bookstore and hopefully finding a place with some good live music one evening. Life is good... in between sniffles :)

Cod & Cask Festival, Olive's Newest Conquests and More Sewing!

Last Friday we went to the Cod and Cask Festival at The Schlafley Taproom here in St. Louis and had so much fun! They had really great live music and I tried beer out of the cask for the first time. I also had the most amazing non-vegan meal of ale steamed mussels and chips... delicious.

Olive is getting HUGE! She is climbing and jumping to new places all over the trailer!

And the past few days I've been sewing like crazy! I'm so much more comfortable now and am having so much fun deciding on things to create! I wanted to try a few things that might be better for a beginner before finishing my skirt so I made a couple bags, a cushion and a kitty tunnel for olive (which she currently has no interest in other than playing with the drawstrings).

The skirt has a couple flaws and I made it just a little too small so I probably won't actually be wearing it, but I love the pattern so much I'm planning on making another version soon!

A Sewing Project and Valentines Day

I've been having so much fun sewing! I feel really sloppy but hopefully that will get better with practice. This is the skirt I'm working on:

The invisible zipper was so hard! You can see toward the bottom/middle of the picture where I kind of messed up. I bought an invisible zipper foot which is supposed to make putting them in a breeze but I couldn't figure out how to assemble it on my sewing machine! I must've redone it at least 3 times and I'm still debating whether I should try to fix that last little flaw. 

The other person that loves my new hobby? Olive. She goes crazy every time I iron or lay out fabric on the floor and she had a field day when I used the patterns.

Driving me crazy can be very tiring. 

And for Valentines day? I made Pizza! 

Billy's turned out really good... and really huge:

My cauliflower pizza stuck to the pan and just turned into a giant mess. But it still tasted delicious :)

We decided against going out last night because of the crowds and the difficulty of getting a good seat and a nice restaurant with a short wait time and because there's a Cod and Cask Festival at The Schlafly Tap Room this weekend that I really wanted to check out. I often hesitate at calling myself a vegan because once every few months I make a calculated deviation. I've only eaten fish and goats cheese on these occasions but if there's one thing I can't resist it's good beer and fried fish :) Hopefully my expectations are more than met!

Birthday Celebration!

I turned 23 on Saturday and had an amazing birthday! We started the day by having lovely friends over for mimosas and breakfast (made by sweet Billy) and then we spent the afternoon at a brewery and checking out the arch in St. Louis before eating dinner at an eclectic restaurant: Frazer's. Then Billy and I watched a Woody Allen movie and had vegan Tiramisu :) It was perfect. And I got the best presents! A sewing machine from my better half which I cannot wait to start using! And dresses from Anthropologie from my loving mom!

The tiramisu turned out much better than I thought. Here's the recipe I used: http://vegancomfort.blogspot.com/2010/01/best-tiramisu-ever-and-it-vegan.html It only called for 1 cup of coconut cream and I used almost double that and thought it could still use a lot more. But it was really good anyway. 

Yesterday I bought a book called The Colette Sewing Handbook by Sarai Mitnick to help teach me to sew. I love the way it's setup. There's an introductory chapter and then every subsequent chapter discusses a new technique and gives you a project with a pattern at the end to practice. The first project is a really simple skirt with a scalloped hem. I bought some pretty green fabric with white polka dots to try it out. Hopefully it's not too tricky!

Lazy Days

Billy and I have had a pretty good week, aside from the 49ers losing the Super Bowl of course :(. He's been getting off much earlier and has been having more frequent days off (Yay!!)!! And it's most likely going to be a long lasting change. I guess his crew got so much work done this summer and fall, the departments at Union Pacific are having a hard time keeping up with them so they're forced to slow down. Which means Billy's not only had a lot of time to hang out with me, but to get quite a few applications turned in! These applications are not normal job applications. They remind me of college applications. You have to have transcripts sent out, copies of a bunch of different certificates and cards, physicals and there's usually even a fee! Which of course can't be paid with cash or check, but a money order. He's applying to places all over the country, so this summer he could be flying all over the place for interviews. We are praying he will get called out for an awesome apprenticeship in a few months :) Other than all of that work, we've had a lot of time lately for relaxing and hanging out with friends and getting odd jobs and overdue errands done. And we've also been having a lot of fun hanging out with Olive who loves to cuddle and nuzzle your neck, sleep, play with toy mice and try to get the mouse (and everything else that moves) on our laptop screen. She's gotten very comfortable in her new home :)

The weather has also been much nicer here lately, although to me nice weather now is any temperature above freezing. 

Tomorrow we're planning on moving to Fenton, MO which is a suburb of St Louis. Which means we'll be there for my birthday on Saturday! And even better... Billy will have the whole day off! I can't wait! It's going to be a wonderful day. There have already been a couple of packages arrive for me... one I haven't been able to open yet because it's from Billy so he's forcing me to wait until Saturday but I did open this:

It's from my very sweet mother-in-law :) And a few really really good smelling candles came with it! Our trailer just got a little better looking and smelling thanks to her :)