Salt Lake City, Utah

We are a family that just loves to travel.  While we were planning to have a low key, relaxing winter break at home to catch up on sleep and re-organize the garage, next thing you know, E and I start randomly talking about taking the kids snowboarding.  First, we were thinking Vail and Whistler, and then settled on Park City, UT.  Literally, we planned the trip the day before and next thing you know, we were in Salt Lake City, UT.

Since the kids have never snowboarded, we opted to take them to Brighton as they are well known for their ski/snowboarding school, and it was much more affordable than the ones in Park City.

Brighton was the perfect choice.  The snowboarding instructors were great with kids and little e was able to go down the green slopes after the lesson.  Little c had to opt out of snowboard lessons due to altitude sickness which was such a scary situation.  He literally blacked out when he got out of the car and fell over on the ground flat on his back. Thankfully there was snow underneath and he had on two hats that protected his head.   Then, he was became lethargic and could barely keep his eyes open so I took him straight to the clinic.

This is where I was so impressed.  They had a pediatrician on site!  He was administered oxygen and after about an hour or so, was back to normal.  We still decided to forgo lessons but he had a great time playing in the snow.  The staff reassured us that if his symptoms returned, we could call the ski patrol and they would come to us within 2 minutes and can get him quickly down the mountain if needed.  That was reassuring and allowed us to be at peace while enjoying the snow.  Look how beautiful it was!

Now for some good food places to share.  Whenever I go anywhere, I usually go on the Design Sponge website and GOOP to check out things to see and eat.  Eva was a place recommended by Design Sponge and turned out to be a fun place to eat.  I like small plates and the opportunity to try many different things.  Overall the food was good, though I have to say, nothing really AMAZED us except for the bread which I’ll get into later.

Little e ordered the charcuterie board due to her love of salami and cheese and it was ok. The sliced brussel sprouts were tart and pretty delicious as vegetables come.  In the bowl is a Korean fusion ramen type dish with kalbi.  I have to say that this was not satisfying.  You can’t do small dish noodle soup.  Maybe because we are spoiled with really good Korean food that we just could not get into a fusion version of it, where the broth didn’t quite taste authentic, and the kalbi didn’t seem quite right in a soup base, and I just wanted more noodles.  But apparently, this soup base was award-winning.

 

The waitress highly recommended their pizzas, which I felt tasted ok, and not as good as what I would get at Blaze.  The dish on the upper left was a smoked salmon on top of latkas which was a special that night.  That was very yummy and the salad on top added a nice touch.  We also got their mac and cheese, which was a bit too fancy for the kids.  The description was, “baked greek mac and cheese: three-cheese macaroni, wrapped in phyllo, topped with a PLT salad.”   The greek flavors did seem a bit off for mac and cheese but it was interesting to try.  Lastly, we got eva’s bakery bread with their house butter.  That was so amazing and by far the best dish we had.  I know, it’s just bread.  But it came out hot, with the outside perfectly crispy and the inside soft and warm, with a delicious herb butter.  We were so stuffed already but still ate it.  Little e loves bread and butter so she could probably eat this every day.  Overall, a decent place.

We stayed at the Marriott in City Center and it turned out to be the perfect choice.  The rooms were ok, not amazing, but comfortable but the location was wonderful.  It was about a 20-30 minute drive to Brighton or Park City, and walking distance to a lot of good restaurants including Eva and The Copper Onion  .  The Copper Onion was so busy that we were never able to get reservations before 9PM which was way too late for the kids to eat.  Because of proximity, E just went and picked up to go.  This is the beef stroganoff which was delicious.  The pasta was cooked perfectly and the beef tender and flavorful.  and, this is taken to go.  I got their roasted chicken and it was amazing.  I don’t even like roast chicken that much, but this chicken was so good, I inhaled it, which is why there is no picture to show.  

The kids had no interest in this “fancy” food so we got them nuggets at the Carl’s Junior next door.  All were happy.  But I do wish we were able to eat there because if it’s already so good to go, it must be amazing eaten there.  We are already planning a trip back with a group of friends for next winter.

Another perk of the Marriott was that it had an indoor heated pool and an outdoor ice rink so the kids had a fun packed day.  Morning was snowboarding, afternoon some vintage shopping for me (scored flower vase below) and early evening, indoor swimming, and late night, outdoor ice skating under beautiful Christmas lights.  Perfection.

Next, a day trip to Park City was fun for some shopping and food.  We were craving ramen in the cold weather so we went to Sushi Blue.  Now, this is probably the most over-priced ramen we have ever eaten at $16 per bowl.  This is a half bowl, because they split two bowls for us so that we can each have our own and try other stuff (with $2 split fee).  It did hit the spot, though.  Nothing like good ramen on a cold day.  That seared pork belly was excellent!

Other items were ok.  Nothing to write home about and way too expensive but sometimes, you want what you want.

 

On the way home, we stopped by Tulie Bakery which was really popular and quite busy.

They had simple sandwiches with the star really being the bread.

 

I personally wouldn’t come back for breakfast.  The deserts we took to go were better than the savory sandwiches but an overall decent place with hipster decor

 

 

So that was Salt Lake City in the winter for us.  We plan to be back to visit the canyons and see it when everything is green and lush.  Certainly much more food places to try.

 

 

 

 

Grill Apron and Another Princess Dress

Little e made a grill apron as a Christmas present.  It’s reversible with chambray on one side, and black on the other.  She also used our handy embroidery machine, which has turned out to be quite useful for Christmas presents.  In addition to the grill apron, she has embroidered pouches and (store-bought) pillow cases, making simple and fast Christmas presents for the whole family.

I love how well the apron came out.  It looks very finished as there are no unsightly hems anywhere as we made it double sided.  For her birthday party this year, we are thinking of inviting her friends to a cooking class and making embroidered aprons for each of them. Little e is feeling lazy and not wanting to attempt making these in bulk but I’ll get her to come around to it.  It will be a great way to clear up my fabric stash.  I keep wanting to buy more fabric but need to finish off what I have first!  Some of the “cuter” prints that my cousin gave me from Taiwan would be perfect for these aprons.  We need 11 of them.

Next up is another princess dress I made for little e’s best bud, little a.  She loves pink and her mom loves white, so I decided to use a white double gauze with a pink velvet ribbon.  I didn’t have any pink bias tape for the collar so I had to make do with the baby blue instead. However, it’s on the inside so it’s fine when put on.

 

I’m sure it’s a bit boring to keep looking at the same dress made in different colors over and over again but I’m actually loving the process of this repetition.  When I tried to make cell phone pouches over and over again, I found it terribly frustrating, maybe because I kept getting the fit wrong.  With these dresses, each time I make them, I improve on my technique and finishes a little.  Instead of a serged hem, I made a french hem instead, making the inside of the garment more refined.  It’s down to about 2.5 hours to make and it’s the perfect weekend endeavor to do something stress relieving and make me feel productive at the same time.

My friend has 3 daughters and little a and e each have a dress now.  I can’t leave out little i so she’ll be getting hers soon!  I need to make a new pattern for her so I’m taking one of her old shirts to use as a pattern.

Here is little a looking like a princess in her gown.  The length is perfect.  She wrote me a thank you card saying, “I like that it is long because it covers my feet, keeps them warm, and that it is white with a fuzzy pink empire.  I enjoy holding it up in the front when I walk.”

Here are the two princess sisters in their gowns:

I just finished making little e a new one with longer sleeves for the winter.  I’ve got to go get some more double gauze!

 

Princess Dress #2

As I mentioned previously, I want to develop a line of princess lounge wear that girls can wear around the house comfortably and feel like a princess.  After making one for little e, I’ve been wanting to make these for my friends’ daughters and get some feedback on what they thought.  So, next up, was for my god daughter, also little e, so little e2.  My friend likes blue, so I made a light blue dress with some modifications from the original one I made for my little e:  more flare (as I finally am buying more yardage of fabric now that I’ve learned that 1 yard is not enough) and longer length (little e’s dress did continue to shrink a little bit after repeated washing /drying and is now ankle length rather than the trailing floor length that I envisioned a little princess would love.

I even remembered to sew in my label into the dress.  For some reason, it’s so exciting to see my stamp on the finished product.

Here is a full length picture of it.  I really like the velvet ribbon I put around it.  It adds just enough interest.  The dress reminds me of the nightgown Wendy Darling wears in the Disney version of Peter Pan, minus the puffy sleeves.

I had little e model it for me.  She said it reminds her of Cinderella’s ball gown.

I’m collecting quotes from the girls I make this for and here’s what little e2 says:

“I like it a lot and I’m glad I got it.  It’s pretty.  It’s very comfortable and warm.  I like that it is long so when my feet are cold, I can wrap my feet in it when I’m in bed instead of getting socks.”

Her sister little i (4 years old) said, “I wish I had one.  If I had that dress and you were me, you would be really sad, huh?”

I love that!  Of course I’m going to make one for little i.  Also working on a new one for little e with a 3/4 sleeve for the winter.  To the sewing room right now.