We made it through a full month of social distancing and virtual happy hours. I can’t believe it’s only been a little over a month since Washington started its stay at home orders; it feels like it’s been forever. Here is my monthly wrap up of some of the things I’ve watched, eaten or drank, or just loved for the month of April.
What I’m watching:
I just binge-watched Making the Cut on Amazon Prime. I had been missing Project Runway since I don’t have cable or any of the subscription services that you can stream it from. I used to watch it on Bravo’s website but they changed their streaming options and now you have to sign in with a cable provider, which I don’t have. But really, I was missing Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. I adore Tim Gunn. His mannerisms and all his sayings just make me smile (although I was bummed that he did not utter his Project Runway catch-phrase “Make it work”).
Heidi and Tim’s show Making the Cut is basically Project Runway, but instead of looking for someone to be a fashion designer, the show is looking for someone to launch a fashion brand. The format is the same – each episode there is a new challenge where the designers have to design outfits, and then there’s a winner and someone is eliminated. The show is based in both Paris and Tokyo and the runway shows for each episode are at a different spot in each city,
Because the show is sponsored by Amazon, for each challenge the designers must design a runway or couture outfit, and then they also have to design an “accessible” outfit. The winner of each episode gets to have their accessible outfit sold on the Making the Cut store on Amazon. To be honest, while I liked some of the winning accessible looks, I can’t say that I would wear or buy any of them. I did like that this show had some male and “plus-size” models (although the plus-size models were really just regular people sized models). What I also thought was interesting was that the designers did not sew all their own clothes. At the end of each day, the designers get their outfits ready with instructions for a seamstress and the seamstresses come in at night and do the bulk of sewing and leave the finished outfit for the designers. There was one designer that didn’t know how to sew which struck me as odd.
In between shots of the designers working, we get little vignettes of Heidi and Tim as they go around the cities and go to the Moulin Rouge, or get caricatures, or drink sake. It was clear that there was much more emphasis on Heidi and Tim in this show. The music budget for this show also must be enormous. There was so much music. That being said, I liked the show. I found it entertaining and it has all the things I like about Project Runway.
What I’m eating:
One of my favorite snacks is sunflower seeds. I love these nutty little seeds. They are very filling and I feel like you can eat a lot of them but if you were to actually measure the amount you ate, it would turn out to be not a lot. I also like these seeds because they are somewhat healthy. At least, that’s what I tell myself when I reach for them instead of ice cream. Even though they are not nuts, sunflower seeds always satisfy my salt and nut cravings.
What I’m loving:
I’ve been taking a lot of walks lately, with everything that’s going on. Since I’m working from home, walks are basically the only way I get out of my apartment and get some fresh air and exercise. So, I’ve been trying to get outside every day. Alli from the On the Trip Side blog introduced me to the Strava app. The Strava app is a free workout app (although you can sign up and pay to get extra features) that helps you stay motivated by tracking your walks and runs and biking and just all of the exercise. I love it. You hook it up to the GPS on your phone and then you can see on a little map where and how far and for how long you ran or walked. You can also sign up for challenges – I did an April walking challenge where I walked for 15 hours this month and an April SOLOdarity challenge where I was active for 10 hours this month. I can’t wait to see what I do in May.
See you next month!
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