Made my own jeans...kind of

I am huge fan of tailor made clothing since I went to Asia last summer and got two wicked suits for work made for $150 each (that included jacket, pant and skirt). I love all the pieces and feel good wearing them. So nice to not have jackets look like they are 3/4 length sleeves, pants not look like capris and skirts not look inappropriately short.

Santa brought me a few magazines in my stocking and one of them was InStyle. It had a great article on ordering tailor made jeans. The author actually tested two different companies; one high end ($100+) and one low end (under $70) to see what they could produced. You pick the style and color of the jeans and then send a number of measurements. Someone in India gets all the information and they make your jeans and mail them off to you.

I decided to test out makeyourownjeans.com and they arrived last week after placing my order in early January. The total cost ended up being $87 with shipping.

The Verdict
A bit too big (was maybe too generous on the measurements) and too long but I can wear them with heels and for a change my jeans don't gape at the waist in the back. Will purchase more.

Home Sweet Home

After a week in Whistler I am happy to be back in my humble abode. As Grand Forks Dunnets and Chicago Dunnet have not seen the place I thought I would post a few pics. The color of my furniture also explains the hesitation to have young Dunnets over. Mum suggested to cover the furniture in bed sheets but that just seemed over the top and a bit anal retentive. Which is actually how I would be described when it comes to my new place. Margo stayed for one night and I had 3 pages of instructions on the place. I feel like I am leasing a nice car and going to get dinged for every scratch on it when I return it.But man did it feel good to walk in the door after the week in Whistler. I was back for one night to put out a few fires at work but it was a pit stop. Have spent most of the day wondering what I do when I am not working. 7 days straight of work does that to you.Notice I have a real bed. Bed frame and everything. Totally legit. Feel like a grown up.

base out

In event mode working in Whistler and boy is it a break from my office job. Unfortunately, my office job continues so after a good 13 hours at the venue I came back to the hotel and spent almost 2 hours answering 'urgent' emails last night. Are they really that urgent if the person didn't call? Flagging something with an exclamation point does not mean it is that urgent. If you make the effort to call I know you need an answer ASAP.

I have spent the day listening to the urgent and non-urgent voices of others. 'I need a spritz from 11 down', 'Crash on 13', 'There is a line up out the door of the workforce break area. Please hold your workforce departing for lunch.' or ' Training will start 25 minutes later than scheduled'.

People urgently needed to know these things. They impacted what they were doing at that exact moment. So someone picked up a radio and passed on a message.

Now wishing we all walked around with radios rather than text messaging and email. You don't even have to be polite on the radio. No 'thank yous'. Just 'over' and 'out'. No 'pardon me'. Just 'say again'. It is all so simple.

Better get back to my urgent work email.

On the road

Today I leave for Whistler for a week of work. This may sound glamourus or fun (if you're a powder hound) but the reality is a 6am start time for the first 4 days and juggling my actual job while working at an event, living out of a hotel and trying to workout everyday. I am looking forward to the break in scenery but not necessarily the break from my new bed.

I am also trying to spend less on eating out, so this week with no kitchen could be a real challenge. Do I make instant soup boiling water in the hotel room coffee maker? Or just bring a ton of larabars and fruit and eat only snacks for 7 days. I predict I will have to hit a restaurant for a meal at least twice but I am bringing my espresso maker with me and can hopefully avoid too many coffee purchases.

Must run. 9:45am pick up time and I still need to do hair, finish packing and pick up fruit and coffee stuff. Thank goodness I live above IGA and across the street from Starbucks.

Only Tuesday?

I feel like the last two days I have dealt with a week's worth of work. Also started a new routine of working out before work in order to not get panicked at 6pm that I need to get home to go to the gym. Day 2 and so far so good. Might be a bit tougher next week when I am in Whistler for work and need to be at the venue at 6am! That would be a 4am gym time. Not going to happen.

Dinner was leftover pork roast, yams and carrots from having a friends over for Sunday dinner. Gave away some of the leftovers so I didn't have to eat it 4 meals in a row. Much more enjoyable. Now on to the turkey chili I made on the weekend and froze.

A week of dining

Wonderful meal last night with the Vancouver sisters and the mumma. We dined at Cobre on the dine out menu. The portions were small but I enjoyed that because it means you get to taste more. Starter, main and dessert for $28. Services was super slow but other than that I think I would go back.

On Monday I tested out Plan B Eatery. I wasn't that impressed. The food was kind of average. We ordered 6 share plates between 3 of us and only 2 of them were really tasty. The others were average. They do have this deal on Monday's where you get 1/2 off a bottle of wine if you order 2 share plates so I could be tempted to go back, order the 2 dishes I enjoyed and drink.

On Tuesday my volunteer organising committee for the Women in Sport Awards had our debrief at Yew at the Four Seasons. So tasty! They had wicked prawns, this duck dish, cheese platter and some lobster rolls. It was all a specialized menu for the group since our event was hosted there. We finished with these chocolate mousse with salted caramel topping. Unbelievable. They were served in tall shot glasses and so decadent. I want to learn how to make it myself.

Luckily I have fit in some workouts around this eating out and will be heading to the gym with Rachel in the next half hour.

No dining out plans for the coming week. Instead I plan on making turkey chili and another pork loin roast to ensure I am eating in all week.

last Sunday

I tried to start a tradition of having a Sunday dinner with Rachel and Chris. I really want to keep the dinner invites flowing from 928 Richards and can finally return a few meals. Those people (aka Rachel) really know how to cook and since they are just a block away I figured it is in my best interest to stay on the good side of my local soup kitchen.

Last week I made my first pork roast and was supposed to have Rachel and Chris over. Chris had to bail because of a family thing (really, I think he was worried I would under cook the meat and give him trichinosis) so Rachel and I tucked into a meat and potatoes meal (on the menu based on Chris' dietary likes) with a great Greek salad as the veggies from Rachel.
Since Chris didn't show I ended up with 4 massive servings of this and had to call it quits on the after having had it for 2 lunches and 2 dinners in a row. I cooked the roast on a bed of carrots and they carrots came out very tasty. Roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes are also pictured. You can also see Rachel having a a dinner roll in the other photo. Red wine and strongbow complemented the meal.

I already scammed free dinner and wine from Rachel last night (a lovely prawn, vegetable and lentil curry along with some white wine) so tonight I am on my own. After a long snowshoe this morning I am not feeling up to making anything. It might end up being a chicken noodle soup evening.

Not that I don't appreciate the compliment of being a 'fierce' snowshoer but Richard was not at her best this morning given the fact that a) she had done two kick ass workouts the morning before (and FYI Rich - we are no longer national team athletes) and b) she went without coffee. She also forgot sunglasses. I think the only thing holding her together was the pride in her new gators and the fact that this was the first sun we've seen all week since this fog landed in Vancouver.