pumpkin carving and other projects

*Sigh* This weekend was perfect. It had potential to be pretty lame because it was snow/sleeting both days and the temperatures really took a nosedive, but because K and I didn't have any big plans, we just holed up in our little apartment and got cozy and crafty. On Friday night my parents took us out to dinner at Toscano, a nice local Italian restaurant with an unbelieveable menu. I had a terrible time making up my mind about what to order, but ended up settling on the porcini mushroom ravioli in a rich creamy cheese sauce. My first choice was the goat cheese ravioli, but K ordered that so I just had a taste of his--also delicious! It was a lovely dinner, bookended by fresh green salads and raspberry bread pudding (with a couple of bottles of pinot noir fueling us steadily from start to finish). Thanks, mom&dad!

On Saturday we got out of the house to do a little shopping (I scored at Goodwill) and to see a matinee of Catfish, a freakfest documentary that really solidified all of my misgivings about our internet generation and is an absolute must-see for anyone involved in social media. I don't want to give too much away here because the intensity builds as the film unfolds and I don't want to ruin the effect for anyone who might see it, but the basic premise is that a young NYC photographer strikes up a long-distance Facebook friendship with an eight-year-old painting prodigy, becomes close with the rest of her creatively-inclined family, and realizes as time goes on that they might not be quite what they seem. It's a really fascinating look at the way we present ourselves and the way we are perceived in the digital age, and managed to be simultaneously tragic, funny, and frightening. I think one of the most compelling aspects of the film is its spontaneity--the filmmakers just stumbled upon the story because they happen to record everything that they do on a daily basis, and they only committed to a full-length film when the strangeness of this situation became clear. (If you've seen the film, here is an interesting interview with the fellows--but beware, spoilers galore!) Their approach to filmmaking is remniscent of the cinéma vérité pioneer D.A. Pennebaker, who also lived his life with a camera as his constant companion.

Anyway, enough about that. Just go see the movie. Saturday night K watched the baseball game and I started a sewing project!! I'm totally excited about it. Basically, I was going back and forth about whether I should just exactly follow a dress pattern I had bought many moons ago or if I should try to alter it to be more like the sort of dress I envisioned for the pattern I picked out. As it turns out, I had bought entirely the wrong pattern size, so it was a no-brainer. In the end I went completely off-pattern and dreamt up a design of my very own, cutting the fabric based loosely on other dresses that I already own. So far it's turned out really well and I'm excited to show it to you guys--for my first sewing project ever (pillowcases in Home Ec don't count), I'm pretty pleased with myself.

We spent Halloween hibernating in a haze of glorious cooking smells (K made banana-chocolatechip-cinnamon pancakes for breakfast, then a pumpkin pie--from scratch! It was incredible--and roasted pumpkin seeds), watching not-so-scary movies (The Craft, Carrie), working on my dress, and finally--carving our pumpkin!

He's a gentleman pumpkin--and no, he is not crying. He's wearing a monocle and the chain is hanging down :) We get a little too creative sometimes with our carving and it just ends up looking confusing! But that's the fun of it :)

I also carved this mini-gourd into a pet for him:

Happy Halloween!