I’m Loving…

April 20, 2011 in Musings | No comments

…that my sewing room doesn’t look like this.

…Whole Foods salad bar. It makes eating healthy super-easy, though expensive.

…the gentle rain at noon that waters our growing garden.

…sparkling water in champagne flutes and seeing a classic movie, The Graduate, for the first time.

…finding a dive bar that friends play at and realizing a horse is tied to a tree outside of it when we leave.

…pushing myself to get back on my bike and going for a long, challenging ride.

…an impromptu dinner party.

…finding the perfect present for a love one, more than once!

…celebrating a friend’s transition from contract to full-time employee–it has been a year in coming.

…Eric’s new recliner. He’s wanted a recliner for years now. This was one someone purchased and decided they didn’t like. It has heated back, heated seat, massage, and a remote for going back and pushing you up to standing. It is major overkill, but Eric loves it.

I’m not loving…

…seeing friends very sick and close to death.

…figuring out internet and phone plans.

…the incredible amount our cats are shedding.

What about you?

 

Hitting the Wall

April 19, 2011 in creating | No comments

I took this,

and these,

and now I have this.

How would you finish the seams on the inside? I am looking to use a woven, but may switch to knit just because it doesn’t ravel. The fit is getting there, the design is getting there–but I’m just not sure what to do on the execution.

I tried bias binding and it is okay, but not ideal. The bias binding feels too stiff and too rigid for the rest of the garment. I have to clip a lot of the curves so rolling it over or self-encasing the seam doesn’t work either. My other thoughts include a skinny 2-thread overlock or zig zag. Can you think of any other options?

Utility Sewing

April 18, 2011 in creating | No comments

I recently made a new make up bag. My previous bag was a disaster–too small, no organization, and it was impossible to find what I wanted. Here’s the new coordinated set.

I love the grey and purple fabric. The main bag is like a men’s shaving kit with a huge opening so I can find everything super-easily.

Here’s the case for brushes.

Here is the case for eyeliners and mascara.

Here is one of the smaller cases closed. I just have to flip the top back to open it.

I love that both cases are super easy to find things and secure when not in use. My previous cases were roll-up cases like those for crayons. My brushes and eyeliners kept falling out and getting mixed up.

Scotch has decided the old case makes a pretty good cat toy. He is obsessed with anything long and ribbon-like. I’ve seen him dragging an ipod around the house by the ear buds before. It is as funny as it sounds.

I love the new case. It is ironic my usual make-up routine includes some lip gloss and that is pretty much it.

Planning Easter

April 17, 2011 in cooking | No comments

These flowers and a sweet note were waiting for me Easter morning a few years ago. They were freshly cut from our yard. I don’t expect the same this year due to an unfortunate hail storm that destroyed our lilies. That and one of our cats has taken to eating flowers, which in turn makes him barf everywhere. So no live flowers in our house.

Here’s our yard five hours after the hail fell.

I have never seen hail this size. When it was falling it sounded like our windows were going to crash in. Thankfully, nothing but the flowers were damaged.

Now, getting back to Easter–this lent season has been really weird for me. First, Eric has grown this really gnarly beard. He is almost unrecognizable. Second, Eric has been battling a mysterious illness and I worry. I worry that the chemo drug he is on isn’t working. For now, there is only one other drug option–then bone marrow transplant.

At his most recent oncologist’s visit we learned some really good news. They don’t think the illness is necessarily related to his chemo. At any rate, anyone who has received the level of remission Eric has on his current drug, hasn’t relapse.

NO ONE!

Also, two new drugs are currently in clinical trials. This news is beyond comforting to me. I am looking forward to Easter with a renewed sense of anticipation and joy. I’m certain it is mostly selfish, though. For during the season of Lent, I lose my husband. His workload increases threefold. After Easter, a lot of his obligations cease or significantly slow down. It is a time of much celebration and fun for us. To celebrate, I am hosting an Easter dinner for six of us. Here’s my working menu.

Yum. Nothing better than a long, lazy meal spent with people you love. Do you host a special Easter meal?

Waiting

April 16, 2011 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Historically we have been terrible gardeners. Perhaps our first attempt to plant from seeds was overly ambitious. This time we tried from seedlings. Our mix of vegetables and fruits is eclectic, but totally us: artichokes, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, beets, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, lemon grass, cucumbers, a red lettuce, okra, sweet peas, catnip, and lavender. I’m thinking we might have planted things a little close to each other, but have plenty of room to transplant if things get crowded. I can’t wait to see how it continues to grow.

Some of our potted plants–most of these actually got replanted into the ground. We’re still hoping to see some growth from some really old lavender seeds, but I’m not holding my breath. We were gifted a lavender plant from someone else’s garden, but it isn’t growing well either. Perhaps our yard isn’t the best environment for lavender. On the other hand, we have tons of growth from equally old beet seeds. Funny what you can’t stop from growing verses what you couldn’t even pay to grow.

Eric built this raised bed. I feel like a totally lazy gardener not having to bend over to check on everything. The raised bed is equally awesome for protecting the catnip we planted. When the catnip plant was on the ground (cat-level), a neighborhood kitty pulled it out and rubbed it to smithereens. Now that it is up in the bed, it has had a chance to revive.

Some of my favorite times are when I go out to water. I love the quietness. What is in your garden?

Fairy Tales Continued

April 15, 2011 in creating | 3 comments

Remember that story about the beautiful princess? The one that was “to be continued?” Let me share a little more. The familiar beautiful fabric wasn’t all used up in the pant pattern the princess created. There was just a smidge left. No plans were made about what it could be used for, but it was held onto.

You never know.

Then an amazing opportunity presented itself. The princess and her prince were to go on a quest to a treacherous land. A land covered in snow in the winter. Being from the Bay area this princess and prince were a little concerned to spend a few days without their sunshine. They decided they would have to risk it as the quest was too important. It was too special.

In preparation for the quest the fabric was resurrected. The princess amazed herself with her designing ability and just like a Disney princess eyeballed and cut out a pattern straight on the fabric. There were not any chirping birds pulling threaded needles through the fabric, but there were kitties. Two orange kitties supervised the entire project.

It turned out pretty cute, though there was concern the little man the little suit was intended for, was growing too quickly. Thankfully it wasn’t ultimately an issue.

So the princess and prince packed up the little suit and their things and travelled a long, long, long ways into the snowy, wintery kingdom of Iowa. There, they reunited with some of their dearest and bestest buddies they hadn’t seen in over two years!

The weekend flew by so fast. The quest on their journey was completed swiftly and victorious without problem–though the unfamiliar substance did fall from the sky and was quite perplexing to the prince and his princess.

The little man was baptized with zest by the prince, yet he didn’t cry and was very brave. The gang was reunited and much fun was had.

The little man had an equally adorable older sister, a little princess, but so much fun was had by the prince and princess that not a photo was taken of her. The little princess was generous and covered her mom, dad, little brother, the prince, and the princess with stickers. Two of the stickers ended up in our suitcase and now we think of the little man and his little princess sister daily.

Appropriately the sticker was of another princess. Are you getting confused yet?

Since the prince likes to make all stories about him, he decided to get very, very ill a few hours before the princess and he journeyed back to California. He was so ill it took all the kings horses and all the kings men three bags of saline before he was remotely hydrated again. It was not a fun time at all for the worrisome princess.

Here is the prince with one of the two very coveted ice pops he consumed that day. Notice the bin on his knees in case his body decided to reject the ice pop. Thankfully the potentency of his anti-nausea medicine was stronger than his body’s nasty virus and the bin wasn’t needed.

Unfortunately the prince has not been feeling well ever since and the worrisome princess continues to worry. Thankfully, the most recent news out of all of the kings horses and all of the kings mens’ mouths is positive and the prince should live a long life.

The End.

Thirty

April 14, 2011 in 30 Before 30 | 2 comments

Wow, today I am half a year away from being thirty years old. I’m planning some fun things to celebrate these last months in my twenties.

What do you do to celebrate milestones?

New Show!!

April 13, 2011 in creating | No comments

Okay, by now it is a kind of old show, but new to me=new show.

Have you heard about this show “All on the Line?”

http://www.sundancechannel.com/all-on-the-line/

I found the best write-ups from here.

http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-on-line-kara-janx.html

http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2011/03/all-on-line-e1-radenroro.html

Looks like I’m going to have to make dinner for a friend with cable tv so I can watch–or else I can buy episodes for $2.99 on iTunes. Have you watched? What do you think?

Daylight Savings Doesn’t Work for Me.

March 18, 2011 in Musings | 1 comment


Wow, what a week. So far, I’ve…

  • Made a large pot of coffee but forgot to put the grounds in the filter and instead put them directly in the coffee maker.
  • Forgot about the hole in my pocket and had my cell phone fall through my pants and bash my big toe. [I went back and forth between "whole" and "hole" way too many times.]
  • Been a tad bit late to work just about every day.
  • Gained a 1.2 pounds, while attempting to eat well.
  • Laughed a ton.

I don’t do well with the time change. However, it is nice to see these situations as things that I can laugh about. I haven’t always been this way. Maybe I’m losing some of my “seriousness” after all. It’s only taken 29 and a half years to get here.

Peace,

^-^

What to Do with an Old T-Shirt

January 26, 2011 in creating | No comments

This isn’t an original idea, but one worth sharing none-the-less.

Step One: Lay out T-Shirt on a cutting mat and cut strips with a rotary cutter. My T-shirt had no side seams, so I didn’t have to tie the stripes in a loop–if you have side seams, you’d need to do this.

Step Two: Remove strips one by one and stretch out so they roll up.

Step Three: Tie strips into bundles as large or small as you desire with a smaller strip. If you had to the tie them in loops to begin with you can wrap the small strip over the knot to hide it.

Step Four: Wear with pride.

This is actually quite a cute alternative to the ever popular scarf trend. At least I still wear scarves like they aren’t going out of style. I never claimed to be a trendsetter, though.

Peace,

^-^

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