Midnight Snacking

I thought I would eat better this year and hopefully lose some weight. However, in order to do that I need to stop my late night snacking. But it's just sooo good. LOL. I don't think it even matters what I snack on. Is this because I forget to eat breakfast?

Hubby and I have a date this Saturday! We're celebrating Valentine's Day a bit later, since I had to work last week. Thanks to DC Restaurant week. I'm a huge fan of Jose Andres so we're going to have lunch at Cafe Atlantico. Thanks to my sister for making it all possible. Not only did we receive a giftcard from her for his restaurants, she's even babysitting. Oh, check out her new blog and give her some comment love!

My food fantasy would be to eat at Minibar. I've seen so many videos on the cool things he does there. Of course it's incredibly expensive and hard to get reservations. There's only 2 seatings a night and only room for 6 people. You should see Anthony Bourdain's episode of No Reservations with Jose Andres. Check out the video. You'll drool too.

On the crafting point, my new Joann's sales flyer advertised the Yudu by Provo Craft. It looked just like a Gocco. So I had to look it up. Now I so totally want one. I want to see how it compares to the Gocco. Unfortunately I don't have $300 to experiment with it. The advantage of the Yudu it seems is that the screens are reuseable. So supplies might not be as expensive as you don't need to keep buying new screens and bulbs as with the Gocco. The gocco is also discontinued.

I also like that's bigger and specifically designed for fabric applications, mainly tshirts. Based on the video on HSN, it seems to take a bit longer to make a screen. However, you don't need a carbon based ink to make a screen like the Gocco. So far it sounds really good. I need to see one in person.

Anyone need me to review a Yudu? I'm available. :)

Don't forget about my contest! You still have time to enter.
(photo source)

Panties & Yogurt (not at the same time)

My word of the year, focus, is fresh in my mind since I finally chose it. That means, I'm getting some sewing done!

I finally finished the last of the Christmas pj bottoms. The only ones not done by Christmas day was mine and hubby's. All they needed was elastic in the waistband. Of course it took me 2 weeks to do that. But they are done and I'm wearing my comfy flannel pj bottoms as I type this.

My big accomplishment was last night I made my first pair of underwear! No, not your grandma's underwear. (It feels wrong to say panties on my blog.) Since I decided to starting making them at 1am this morning, I accidentally cut 1 size too big. I made them out of some fuchsia cotton knit I got off the clearance rack at Joanns about 3 months ago. I'll spare you the pictures of my underwear.

I used Stretch & Sew F829 (now discontinued I think). The pattern is very easy. 3 pieces. It gave me a chance to use foldover elastic. So the panties (yikes I said it) have a nice, commercial finished looked. I used purple elastic. I bought a huge grab bag of FOE from Kathy's for only $15 with shipping a while back and have been trying to use it every chance I get. You can read some reviews and see some pics of the pattern at Pattern Review.

Am I crazy for making my own panties? Maybe some of the moms in my moms group think it's a little crazy. It just feels good to say you made your own panties. It only took me an hour, from cutting to sewing. Not bad for the first one. Now that I know what I'm doing the rest will go much faster. I think it might be fun to make some and Gocco something cheeky on the backside. I'll save that for another day.

My Easiyo Yogurt Maker arrived from Amazon last week. I've made my second batch of yogurt last night. Yum! It's much easier than I expected. The Easiyo works like a thermos, so no plugging in required. My first batch was a bit runny as Easiyo doesn't provide directions for making your yogurt from scratch (they sell mixes--too expensive and full of sugar). I just googled for some recipes. You don't even need a starter. Just buy some plain yogurt from the grocery store that says "live cultures" on it. I used this recipe, just didn't have any heavy cream, so I left it out. I used 3 cups of 2% milk and 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt.

I had some with honey and granola this morning. I'll have to try Not Exactly Bento's yogurt with frozen blueberries next. While you're there, try the grilled cheese sandwich with apple she talks about. Yum!

Before I leave, I need some fun sayings I could Gocco on the backside of my panties (yet to be made of course). What do you think my butt should say?