Yesterday, I attended the grand opening of Uptown Birmingham as a B-Metro Blogger!  It's located in downtown Birmingham at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.  It was a magnificent event!

Birmingham's illustrious mayor - Honorable William A. Bell, Sr. was there for the ribbon cutting.

After that, all of the special invited guest and dignitaries continued on in the VIP area.  And the tasting of all 7 fabulous restaurants began!

This event sold out so quickly that it made my head spin.  The opportunity to get out and sample the regular menu items at all of the restaurants was amazing.

The first restaurant I had to try was Cantina Laredo.  Their menu items were:  Crispy Tortilla Chips Served with Roasted Tomato Salsa with Top Shelf Guacamole- Chicken Quesadillas de Laredo with Pico de Gallo and Sour Cream- Mini Chocolate Brownies with Pecans - Mango Tres Leches with Mango Cream Sauce.  They have some of the best guacamole I've ever tasted. They open on August 19th and I can't wait!

Next was Todd English P.U.B.  Yes, celebrity chef Todd English has a restaurant in Birmingham, AL!  On their menu was Ahi Tuna “Tar Tare” Hawaiian blue fin tuna, crispy fried wonton crackers, seaweed salad, gingered sesame vinaigrettte, toasted macadamia nuts- Hickory Smoked Pork Riblets House smoked riblets with TE BBQ sauce.  Let me tell y'all about the Tuna Tar Tare!  I could've eatened my weight in it!  

And last for me was The Southern Kitchen & Bar.  Their menu sample selections were the most substantial.  It was literally a full meal!  This is what they served:  Cajun Angels...bacon wrapped blackened shrimp served with a New Orleans BBQ sauce. - The Jefferson... Spiced turnip greens and Smoked Alabama Gouda Grits toppedwith rotisserie fried chicken and a hint of a homemade hit sauce.  This was like a traditional Sunday dinner!  I like to call this "Upscale Country Cooking"!

There were also fabulous giveaway items!

All in all, the evening was a success with a great turnout.  Uptown is my new favorite place to hang in Birmingham.  And if you live here or plan to visit, this is where you definitely need to go.  There's something for every taste!

What I wore:  My favorite white blazer: Simplicity 2250. And since it was a party, I wore great party pants!  My sequined version of Vogue 8909.

I'm sure you all noticed that prior to this week, it had been kind of quiet around these parts.  That's because I was getting my life back together!

With the holidays and the vicious winter we're all trying to recover from, I gained a good deal of hibernation weight!  Not wanting to venture out, the comfort foods and libations damn near did me in.

You can fight your way into a pair of Spanx and angle your body into the mirror and lie to yourself all you like.  But the camera does not lie.  Mine is brutally honest.  And if you take as many pictures as I do from all angles, it's a harsh reality that I had to face.  My ass had gotten fat!  

And I was feeling terrible -- physically terrible.  My knees had started to ache and swell often.  And I was constantly feeling bloated.  And my energy level was completely depleted.  At 43 years old, I should NOT be winded walking up stairs.  So I had to get busy.

So, I had a pity party for all of five minutes and then I bought myself a brand new gym membership and downloaded the My Fitness Pal app and got busy!  If you follow me on my Instagram: @ericabunker, you've seen my progress.  I've turned into a total gym rat.  I'm serious about getting in my 4-5 day a week workouts, which include an hour of elliptical cardio (I'm a beast on that thing!  I average around 700+ calories burned.)  And strength training which is excellent for women my age.  Especially those of us experiencing perimenopausal symptoms.  Yes, I'm starting to night sweat and I'm pretty sure this also contributed to weight collecting in my middle.  So I'm pretty much in the fight of my life.

But that's okay, because I'm winning!  A couple of months ago, I couldn't even almost fasten these pants.  Now they slid on and fastened with the greatest of ease!  Now why have I decided to share all of this?  For accountability.  Now that I've put it out there, I have an image to uphold! LOL

Wearing:  Jacket: Simplicity 2250; crepe de chine blouse: Vogue 8907; yellow pants: Simplicity 2562.

I had errands to run on yesterday, along with Isabella's doctors appointment.  She's 18 mos. old, weighing in at 27 lbs and she's 33" tall!  She's in the 84th percentile and probably about the size of a 2 1/2 year old.  She clearly gets the height from her "Mimi"!

What I like about this romper that I made last year is that all I had to do was throw on this blazer and it gave it a polished looked. 

And with all of my running around, I added flat sandals.  I do believe in taking care of my feet!

Wearing: blazer: Simplicity 2250; romper: Vogue 1308; sandals: Shoe Dazzle.com; purse: vintage Chanel.

I've been so busy in the last week that I haven't had time to do proper "What I'm Wearing" posts.  I really, really hate doing "look at me" wordless pictures only posts (even though that formula works for some bloggers quite successfully).  I personally feel that MY blog posts should be accompanied by some sort of text.  I owe you faithful readers that much!  I like to leave the quick and dirtiness to Instagram!

So, let's get started...

My favorite blue nail polish!  Butter London "Blagger".

Again wearing the black peplum top.  This top has the versatility of a t-shirt.  Probably why I love it so much.  And my Vogue 1039 red cigarette pants.  

My house is pretty empty and quiet this week because of Spring Break.  And I'm pretty happy that it'll be a rainy weekend so I can hideout in my sewing room!

For my Saturday look, I pulled inspiration from my favorite place -- Pinterest.

Inspired by Pinterest

From my Fashion board.

White, in the middle of January?  Hmmm...

It was sunny and the temps were mild, so this equals a fun fashion day and I took full advantage.

I'm wearing my "most worn garment of 2012", Simplicity 2250.

Worn with a DKNY chambray shirt, Gap jeans and cobalt blue wedges..

I hope the rest of your weekend is great!

In case you didn't know, color and I mean gorgeous happy colors will still be trending for Fall 2012.  Check out the Pantone Fashion Color Report for Fall 2012.

I'd been wanting to make more colorful pants for fall.  But finding a pants pattern I really like is always a challenge.  You can have a particular silhouette in mind, but finding a commercial pattern that fills the requirement is always difficult to me.  This is what I wanted in a pair of trousers:  A midrise; flat front with darts; darts in the back; fitted through the hip and thighs; flaring at the knee; a leg opening wide enough to cover my shoes while sweeping the ground.  You'd be surprised at how difficult that is to find.  Most commercial pants patterns with wide legs are usually wide from the hip down.  Now what I've discovered about myself is that I look best in the least amount of fabric.  And those pants with all of that fabric falling from the hip line just make me look bigger and wider than I am.  It's the same reason I prefer sheath dresses to those with full skirts.   

I've had Vogue 1143 by Guy Laroche in my pattern collection since it was released.  I don't know why I'd never noticed the cut of these pants before.  I guess it's because the style of the jacket was stealing the limelight.

If you've made pants before, these are pretty standard -- so I won't go into great detail.  However, I cut the size 16, in a stretch twill and added 6 inches to the length.  I wear heels and I wanted my pants long.  I ended up with a 36" inseam, which is really hard to find in RTW in really nice pants.  I used a 2" hem and followed Mimi's great tip on "Weighing Down Hems".    

And over the weekend while shopping with my daughters in Forever 21, I came across this really cute collar necklace and it begged to come home with me!  Check out this trend:

Wearing:  blazer: Simplicity 2250; top & belt: TJ Maxx; clutch: Vintage; necklace: Forever 21.

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day.  We did!  My husband, "The Grillmaster" made his world famous baby back ribs!  Delish!  And we had a great family day.

I wanted to make a festive 4th of July ensemble and I'd remember this really cute denim fabric with embroidered stars that I'd seen at Jo-Ann's and decided to make a pair of shorts.  

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE STAR TREND

I picked New Look 6100, view A -- sans the belt.  This is a really straight forward pattern that is easy enough to sew in a few hours.  I basically sewed it straight out of the envelope with no alterations.  This view had a hem facing because the were supposed to have a cuff.  I left that off and just hemmed them.  When I buy RTW shorts, I usually get a 5" inseam and that's the finished measurement on these.  The only thing I didn't like is the side zipper and this is only a preference.  Even though I don't like them, I seem to be drawn to them.  Go figure...  But I'd love to sew view B in a flowy silk fabric.

Wearing: blazer: Simplicity 2250; tank: TJ Maxx; shoes: Tahari; clutch: vintage; belt: The Limited.

This is a maxi dress that I made from Mimi's tutorial.  This quick little project obviously inspired by these RTW styles are great spring/summer wardrobe additions.

Soft Joie Maxi Dress - $158; Splendid Maxi Dress - $110; and Joie Maxi Dress - $198

Wearing:  maxi dress: DIY (see above); jacket: Simplicity 2250; purse: Urban Outfitters; sandals: Sam Edelman; fedora: Target; bangles:  Amrita Singh.