CrissyGirl

Blogtoberfest day 26 - Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

blogtoberfest day 23 - sewing circle

2011-10-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Did your mothers or grandmothers ever talk about being in a sewing circle when they were younger? Does it seem like a foreign concept to you - sitting around with other women, sewing, working on projects, talking to the other people in the room without the interference of a television or the internet or, in an ideal world, cell phones? Well, I gotta tell you, there's something about it that brings contentment and joy to the soul. Sometimes just sitting with only the sound of someone's sewing machine as background music brings about a contented sigh right out of you. Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment you feel at the end of the day when you look at the pile of things you've gotten done. Like this...

I mean, really! Look at all that flowery goodness! Done with my own two little hands. Totally feeling accomplished and productive today!

I'm making these for the upcoming Christmas Boutique/Craft Fair season (we're doing 4 in 5 weeks during November and December). So the sewing circle is coming in handy in keeping me motivated and on top of things. Thanks ladies!!

blogtoberfest day 22 - technical difficulties and 2 winners!

2011-10-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry for missing yesterday!!! I was having some trouble getting online. As long as it wasn't the today when I had to do the drawings for my giveaway, right?!

Anyhooooo, without further ado, the winners are (drum roll) from the US - The Creative Beast!

And from the elsewheres (more drum roll) - Janet from up yonder in Canada!

Congrats to both of you!! I'll be getting in contact with you about all the specifics and necessary info, etc.

blogtoberfest day 21 version 2.0 - a short commercial

2011-10-22T02:24:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give a shout out to The Diamond Trail. They're hosting a giveaway for an Etsy shop called Bagged and Loaded. Bagged and Loaded's shop is full of cute totes with fun designs. Check them out on Etsy then go and enter the giveaway!!!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

blogtoberfest day 21 - Flickr Faves Friday

2011-10-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

I used to do this every Friday but stopped when the blogging became a bit tedious a couple years ago. I thought, though, in honor of Blogtoberfest I'd revive it. I've been meaning to redecorate my bedroom, or rather, decorate my bedroom and have bought the paint and everything already. I've just been waiting for the motivation to get going on it. I'm hoping these bedrooms will help. I'm loving grey and have bought a plummy grey color for my wall (s) so these are similar to what I'm thinking, at least for the color. Most of these look like hotel rooms, sorta impersonal so ignore that fact. Anyway, here are my Flickr Faves this Friday...

1. Purple White and Grey Bedroom, 2. Mirage Maple Charcoal, 3. Gray + white + yellow bedroom: Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint + ikat duvet, 4. Brian Bedside, 5. The sleep room, 6. New Inspiration: Elegant Bedroom Design by Mobil Fresno, 7. bedroom / nightstands, 8. Luxury Bedrooms at The River Lee Hotel, 9. black and white bedrooms, 10. Bedroom from Domino, 11. Bedroom finished, 12. gray bedroom

Mosaic made with fb labs

Oh...ps...one more day till my giveaway, don't forget to enter!!

blogtoberfest day 19 - wordless wednesday

2011-10-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

Blogtoberfest Giveaway!

2011-10-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

For this give away I'm giving away 2 items. The first is for the folks in the US. It is any item from my shop so please go peruse (and order if you feel so led). If you win and you have nut allergies please let me know and I can send you an alternative. For anyone outside the US that enters I'm giving away a goody bag of sewn items (included are 1 set of flower hair pins, one infinity scarf, one knitted beenie, and one coffee cup cozy). To enter leave me a comment on this post and if you're from the US let me know which item you'd like, if you're from elsewhere let me know your favorite color.

Thanks, and good luck!!

blogtoberfest day 18 - Sometimes you just have no choice

2011-10-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

I've been unemployed now for a year and 5 months and at first I was thinking that having all this time to myself is great, then the savings dwindled and the 401k was cashed out (not that there was much in there) and then that ran out. It's funny how when you're first laid off you think it should be no problem getting a job doing exactly what I was doing, I'd been doing it for x amount of years after all and I'm practically an expert. So you send out resume after resume and nothing happens so you start to widen your parameters. I've done retail before, you think to yourself, so lets start adding that. Still nothing. Next you add anything you might remotely be qualified for, or if you're not qualified for it you know you can learn it quickly. Warehouse picker...sure I can do that. Nada. Finally, you add part-time and temp positions, hoping that, if nothing else, you'll get to have some money for Christmas presents. Still, no nibbles. That's when you decide, screw this, I'm going to start my own business, I have no choice. If no one is going to hire me, I'll hire myself. And of course, you're terrified. Scared it's going to fail, even more scared it's going to succeed and you won't have what it takes to keep it up. But, really, you have no choice but to go forward with it because you know that after all this time not working no one wants to hire you and the government money isn't going to last forever and you know that the only way you truly fail is if you don't at least try. And you know you have to get this business up and running in a matter of months or you're going to be in real trouble.
That's where I'm at. It's scary starting your own business. I have days when I don't work on it at all because all I want to do is hide in bed and hope that when I do come out of my little cave it's going to be there, up and running without me having had to do the hard stuff. Then I snap out of it and take a deep breath and dive in again. Here's to hoping I'm not in over my head!

Blogtoberfest day 16 - I'm Back

2011-10-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry for missing the last few days. I was on a retreat up in the mountains and had no internet access or any communications with the outside world, really. It was wonderful!! Beautiful pines with pine cones as big as your arm, a gorgeous blue lake, a quaint village...just the right thing for what ails you.

I'm back, tho, and I'm in full production mode. I just sent a box of 30 samples from my shop off to Traci of Sampler Village on Etsy for the Diva's Delights boxes this month, I'm sewing gads and gads of things for an upcoming fair, I'm working on developing new recipes and products and I'm helping coordinate a wedding. It's nice being a bit busy.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!!

Blogtoberfest day 12 - Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

Blogtoberfest day 11 - Antoni Gaudi

2011-10-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

Barcelona is a city full of great architecture. But probably it's most well known for the buildings by Antoni Gaudi. They're all very unique quite fascinating. Unfortunately, we were in Barcelona for such a short time that we didn't get to go inside any of them because of time constraints so I only have photos of the outsides.

Sagrada Familia (or technically Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família)...probably the most iconic of all his works. Gaudi took over the building of it in 1883 and it still is unfinished. It is Huge and very striking.

La Padrera Apartments. We didn't even stop at this one but it's still photo worthy.

Park Guell. Originally, Gaudi was commissioned to build a community of homes and was given a bunch of land for them but there was no interest from home buyers at the time so they turned it into a park.

Casa Batllo....this is by far my favorite of all his buildings. I'm a big fan of curvy. as opposed to boxy and this building has curvy everywhere. I love the tiles and the windows and pretty much everything about it

So that was our short stay in Barcelona. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Blogtoberfest Day 10 - Barcelona

2011-10-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry for missing a day!! I don't know what happened but somehow I just completely forgot to post yesterday.

Ok, Barcelona...

I don't normally take photos from the plane (the windows are usually so foggy or they distort), in fact, I didn't take this one but I love the circularness of this. Los Angeles is completely not this way!

I have to confess that about 90% of my pictures are of architecture or art or in some cases both. I loved these small little streets. I absolutely loved that in the 16 days we were there I saw all of 1 SUV (a Hummer). These old buildings are so picturesque with their little wrought iron railings and the lights that look like earrings.

So, a little history (at least the way it was told to me by a tour guide)...Barcelona, for centuries, used to be a walled city, built by the Romans. Then the Industrial Revolution came around and the citizens of the city started getting sick and dying from all the bad air. So they started building outside the wall but never tore down the wall. So, as you're walking around the old part of the city you'll come across parts of the old Roman wall. By the way, some parts of the wall date back to the first century BC...I can't even wrap my head around that!

Christopher Columbus Monument. There's actually a teeny tiny elevator that takes you to the top to a teeny tiny observation deck where you can see the whole city.

This is part of the view from the observation deck.

Barcelonetta beach

We were very excited to put our feet into the Mediterranean

We took a hop on hop off bus tour and it poured on us.

Tomorrow is all about Antoni Gaudi.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blogtoberfest Day 8 - A day of fun

2011-10-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I said I'd post pics of Barcelona but I'm not feelin it. Instead I thought I'd just post about my fun day today. I attend a Saturday morning Bible study and this morning I really wanted to go to this local farm, Amy's Farm, and buy some veggies so I invited a friend from the Bible study to go along with my sister and I and we all packed in the car and went out for lunch and then to the farm. The farm is all about educating people about preserving the land while growing organic produce and raising livestock in a very humane way. We went out meaning to buy produce but most of it was already gone at that point but we did buy 3 perfect little sugar pumpkins that will eventually make it into some yummy breads and pies and soup and...

After visiting with the goats and turkeys we left the farm and stopped at Cost Plus World Market (a particular favorite of mine) and then to get some frozen yogurt. It's always nice to find some no sugar added froyo in flavors other than vanilla! jFinally we ended the day making dinner at my friend's house and watching a movie...just the perfect laid back saturday in the sun with friends.

Here's a little fun we had while at Cost Plus...

Hope you all had a good Saturday!

Blogtoberfest day 7 - Sintra, Estoril & Cascais

2011-10-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

While we were in Portugal we decided we wanted to take a bus tour to see Pena Palace and the Atlantic coast. And it was worth every penny (about 17 Euros). I would do it again but instead of a four hour tour I'd do an all day one. The countryside outside of Lisbon is so beautiful! Unfortunately I didn't get a whole lot of pictures because we were on a moving bus but here's what I did get...

These are all of Pena Palace. It has a very surreal sea life meets the shore motif.

These are Cabo Da Roca. The western most point of continental Europe. The drive here was filled with adorable little villages, any of which I'd love to have my vacation house in.

These are of the beaches of Cascais (pronounced cashkesh). *sigh*

These are of Estoril. According to rumor, Ian Fleming got the idea for Casino Royale here because Europe's biggest casino is here (not in Monaco).

And that, in a nutshell was our tour. It was a 4 hour tour that felt like 30 minutes. I strongly recommend, if anyone is planning on taking a trip to Portugal to take this tour (or a longer one). You won't regret a single moment.

Tomorrow...Barcelona!

Blogtoberfest Day 6 -Portugal

2011-10-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Week 2 of our trip was spent in Portugal (and Barcelona for a day). It was my favorite part of the trip for sure. We stayed in Lisbon at the Hotel Turim Alameda which I highly recommend because it is super comfortable, modern and Joao at the front desk is a gem. The hotel is a bit far from the action of the old part of town but there's a subway stop right arond the corner so it's super easy to get around. Everyone we came in contact with in Lisbon was super friendly and didn't mind that we didn't speak the language. Anyhoo, here are some pics of our time in Lisbon...

The view from the plane

This park was around the corner from our hotel and is where the our metro station was located.

Cafe where we ate our first meal in Lisbon

Rua Augusta, a pedestrian only street with TONS of shopping.

Santa Justa Elevator

Street performer with a very well trained dog

Rossio Square

Miguel, our tour guide. We took a Lisbon by night tour that turned out to be free (long story). Miguel was an awesome tour guide, very knowledgeable.

Edward VII Park

Lisbon at sunset

Fado Tavern...great pork stew, rude server, awesome singers

Jeronimo's Monestery

Tower of Belem

Placa do Commercio

Hard Rock Lisbon. I know they're pretty much all the same menu wise but it's still a goal of mine to visit as many of them as I can.

That was part of our Lisbon stay in a nutshell. Tomorrow I'll post some pics of our tour to Sintra, Estroil and Cascais.

Be sure to check out more Blogtoberfesters. You can find the master list here.

Day 4 - culinary tour of Xativa

2011-10-04T22:50:00.001-07:00

Spain and Portugal are an eater's dream. They are really big on the three main food groups...meat, bread and cheese. With a few veggies thrown in for good measure. There are also tons of ice cream shops everywhere. Almost every other storefront sells ice cream of some sort. I've always thought of France and Italy as foodie heaven but Spain and Portugal are right up there at the top for me.

On our first day there there was a huge get together at the church and this was our dinner. This photo is missing the chorizo cuz it was just so good it didn't last long enough for the photo. The other items are pork sausages, blood sausage and pork something else, not sure what part of the pig.

This was our dinner on our second day there...Paella. Home made and Delicious! We had paella about three times that first week and I loved each kind.

Ok, I am not an olive fan at all, not even these, from what I'm told, amazing Spanish olives. This pic is to show you what I call onions fantastico. These little onions are pickled in red wine and are just plain yummy.

And this is coca. It's sort of a cross between a quiche and pizza. It is addictive so beware if you ever have any. I think I ate 16 or 23 pieces, I'm not sure, I just know I was in a food coma for a long time afterward. The crust really makes it go from good to great. It basically has 3 ingredients...beer, flour and baking soda. *sigh*

Blogtoberfest day 3

2011-10-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

I think it's time I posted pics of our trip this summer...it's been 3 months, after all. We had such a blast. I gotta tell you, Spain was really nice but Portugal beats it by a mile. The city of Lisbon is beautiful, as is the country side and the beaches. And the people are SO NICE!!!! I would go back in a heartbeat! Anyway, here are a few pics from the first week we were there, in Xativa, Spain...

This is Madrid Barajas Airport...It's HUGE!!!! If you ever have to catch a connecting flight here make sure you leave yourself plenty of time!

This is the view we had every morning from our room in Xativa.

This is the street the church we stayed at was on. It's a really cute little town.

In fact some of the streets are tiled with marble!!! I mean, really!

Downtown Xativa...perty!

Me and my sister and two friends outside the tourist bureau.

This fountain has 29 spigots. The water comes from natural springs via Roman aqueduct and is very clean and very fresh tasting.

This castle sits on a big hill overlooking Xativa. It was built by the Moors back in the 1100's or so and is a nice uphill hike (by nice I really mean gruelling but that's just my lazy butt opinion).

Another view of the castle

This is Gaby and Alyse...goobers both of them decided to try out the potties.

Ok, more pics tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed these, thanks for stopping by!

2011-10-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Day one of Blogtoberfest...Hmmm what to write about? Well, I've been trying to start this little business of mine and I'm finding that old saying, "you need to spend money to make money" very true. The difficult part, of course, being that living off of my meager unemployment check does not really leave a whole lot left over for supplies, insurance, certificates, business license and all the other nonsense the lovely state of California requires. Frustrating! But I'm determined and it will happen even if it's at a snail's pace. It will be interesting to see next blogtoberfest where I'm at with it, don't you think?

2011-09-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

Blogtoberfest is upon us!!! It's been a while since I participated but I figure it can't hurt to get back into the swing of things, blog-wise. Since almost everyday trying to start a new business is an adventure, it'll help me work things out by writing about them. So, get ready for some bloggy goodness, giveaways and maybe even some giggles!

Go Car Tours

2011-08-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our Spain/Portugal trip and I need to tell you about one of the tours we took. It's called GoCars and they have them in a bunch of cities but we did ours in Lisbon. It was a blast!!! After you get over the hair net and helmet you'll have so much fun!

I must warn you, though, be prepared for a bumpy ride! The streets of Lisbon are, for the most part, cobblestone. Also make sure you take someone with you that work a camera quickly. There isn't always a place to pull over to snap a photo. Here's some of what my passenger/photographer got...

If you are in Lisbon or even another one of the cities that has Go Cars I would highly recommend that you do it! It's a really unique way to do some sightseeing and I guarantee you you won't ever forget the experience.

Women in Spain

2011-07-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

ok, two things about young women in Spain...1. They are very styish and completely unself-conscious and 2. They're disturbingly good looking. By young I mean under 45 (I know this doesn't fall into the young category for some). I would never be able to live here becaue I'd quickly develop a HUGE complex!

Anyway, here's a picture of the city...no women just the city. :)

Less than a fortnight!

2011-07-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

In exactly 12 days I'll be on a plane to Spain!!!! Sorry for the rhyming! I'm almost all packed which never happens, usually I wait until the night before and, inevitably, I forget something. Well, I'm taking no chances this time. My sister who is going on the trip also has been making fun of my packing list because I list exactly which shirt, pants, dress, etc. that I will be taking. I don't think this is so unusual do you? Those of us out there that are a little more anal, or as I like to say, organized than others need specifics otherwise we end up going on a 16 day trip with no underwear.

So, as the day of departure gets closer the less I can sleep because I am so excited my head is just spinning. Mostly, I'm thinking abbout the days after we finish working and we get to play. 6 of us are heading off to Lisbon then to Barcelona where I imagine a glamorous night on the town. If any of you should have any suggestions on where to go while in either place whether it be restaurant/cafe or sightseeing let me know!!

New Venture

2011-06-19T15:35:00.001-07:00

This is for all of you out there that are not my friend on Facebook. Mostly cuz I've already posted this all over Facebook and they're probably sick of hearing about it.

I've started a new venture. A new path that I'm hoping will not only be lucrative (or at least will be able to float me enough to pay some bills and buy some groceries) but also satisfying.

It's called Maple Leaf Confections. I love to cook and bake (and eat) and finding new ways to make sweets that don't have any processed sugars. In my tweeking of recipes and such I found that I absolutely love pure maple syrup and have started really getting into making things with it. I started with granola and have come up with a few original recipes of my own and have sold some and given away alot. Then I came up with these maple pralines that are dangerously addictive and absolutely to die for (not to blow my own horn or anything :)). And then there's the nuts. Candied nuts with no added sugar...are you kidding me?!

So I got this crazy idea that I might try to make some money off of it and have started a shop on Etsy. Which hasn't made me a penny...yet. That's where you all come in. Please please please check out my shop and if you can't buy anything tell a friend. Tell a co-worker. Tell anybody & everybody. So far I have only posted the granola and the pralines but will hopefully post the nuts this week. Anyway, I could really use your help blog friends.

Thanks so much!!!

Job Hunting

2011-06-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

On the docket today:

Job hunt
Meeting about upcoming Spain trip
Root Canal
Job hunt some more

Fun day!!!!

Europe bound

2011-06-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

Have I told you I'm going to Europe this summer? NO?? I am, it's true. This will be my first trip there. I'm actually going on a mission trip to Xativa, Spain with my church and will be staying an extra week and visiting Lisbon and Barcelona. I don't really know much about Spain but have heard many good things from my friends that have been there. I don't think I know anyone who has been to Portugal so I know even less about Lisbon. I am soooo excited I can barely contain it. People keep talking to me about silly things like current events and I just want to shake them and say "Don't you know I'm going on a trip on the other side of the planet???!! Let's talk about that instead!!!!" But I know not everything is about me (for the most part) so I suck it up and talk about other things...sigh.

Anywhoo, if any of you in blog town have been to Lisbon and have any suggestions on where to go, please share! I'm really open to any ideas. So far we (the three others and myself that are going to be traipsing about) have found these GoCar Tours that look like they could be a lot of fun. And we know we need to visit St. George's Castle and have coffee at the Cafe de Brasileira but other than that we're clueless. So, really, if you have any suggestions please let me know, don't be shy!

The Art of Listening

2011-05-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

I must warn you, the following is a bit of a rant, my soapbox, if you will.

Have you ever had a friend who expects your full attention when they have something to say but does not reciprocate? I used to say this was one of my biggest pet peeves but I've recently come to the conclusion that it's an epidemic and happens way more often then not. Sadly, I expect it now from people and will be shocked if ever I come across someone who doesn't act this way.

I truly believe that listening has become an art. People are always in a hurry these days so slowing down their own thoughts long enough to listen to what someone else has to say just doesn't happen.

There's a look that comes over one's face...eyes glaze over, they break eye contact then bang you can almost see the moment they go from hearing what you have to say to hearing whatever is happening in their head. You know that moment, when you could say absolutely anything and they'd just say "Uh huh" thinking they're contributing to the conversation. Then, if you're lucky, they continue on in their oblivion and the conversation ends.

However, if you happen to know the other kind of convo offender you know that that look on their face will immediately give way to an interruption. You might as well just stop talking when you see that look cuz you know that they're about to spout out some nonsense that has nothing to do with the conversation. Usually something completely inconsequential but they feel they have to blurt it out anyway. For example: You're telling them about your day and how you got a big promotion at work when in the middle of your sentence you see the look and they blurt out how their coffee isn't hot enough and they're gonna go back and have the barrista redo it. FAIL

If you've got two people who are like that in your lives, I'm so sorry and I feel your pain. When they get together forget about it. You might as well just sit back and shut up.

Now really folks, how hard is it to listen to one another? I pay attention to my friends not because what they have to say in and of itself is of huge import but what they're saying is important because they're the ones saying it. If you call yourself someone's friend, let alone a best friend, don't be constantly thinking of what you're going to say next or what the score of the big game might be or whatever. Instead, open your mind to what they're saying, listen to them ask them questions to show you're listening and don't interrupt them. Your friendships will deepen, your friends will thank you and you might just learn a thing or two about the person on the other end of the conversation.

Hi

2011-03-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hello blog world! How have you been? I hope all is well with all of you. My back is almost 100% better, just a twinge every now and then. I just got over the flu and am determined to stay healthy!

Speaking of healthy, I belong to this Saturday morning Bible study/ weight loss group and a bunch of us decided to do the Daniel fast for the duration of lent. What, you ask is the Daniel fast. Well basically it's eating only things that are grown from a seed and no sweeteners or processed foods. So no meat, dairy, sweets, or white flour products.

We just finished week two and I am grumpy! Hungry? Yes, of course. But not being ablle to eat cheese and chicken is making me really grumpy. The problem today was we hadn't gone grocery shopping for dinners yet this week so we decided we were going to go out to eat. And of course we start off with the "Where do you wanna eat?" Conversation. You know, the one where neither person knows what or where they want to go so there's a whole lot of I dunno you decides thrown around. FRUSTRATING!!! So we decide on Pick Up Stix. Only all their sauces have some form of sugar in them. GRRR!! I walked out on the verge of tears. Really, I'm not kidding. We ended up at a salad bar...totally unsatisfying.

The point behind a fast is spiritual and sometimes I forget that. Depriving myself is not easy for me. I'm your typical western minded American. I want what I want when I want it. You would think that after doing this fast last year and giving up sugar in August I'd be over it by now but I'm obviously not. It's a tough lesson to learn but I'm working on it.

I will tell you that I am very much looking forward to Easter when I can have some animal protein!

This Must Be What Labor Feels Like!

2011-01-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Have any of you ever thrown your back out? I mean really thrown it out? Well, let me tell you, it ain't no picnic, sister! Let me paint a picture for those of you who've never felt this particular pain. Think of the pointiest metal thing you can imagine...spear, javelin, fireplace poker, whatever. Now imagine live jumper cables attached to said pointy metal object. Finally, imagine jabbing it into your left (or right) butt cheek with all the force you can muster. Now you're starting to get it.

It happened Sunday at a friend's house. I was minding my own business and went to go sit on her couch (yes, I threw my back out by sitting. You can stop sniggering now) and BAM! Or rather it was more like a 'poof'. I didn't realize her couch was as low as it was and kinda fell onto it. Didn't think anything of it at the time but about a half hour later I felt the first twinge, more discomfort than pain really. Still didn't think anything of it. The next morning I was sore, eh...no big deal. Then by Monday evening I was in real pain. Tuesday...forget about it! I couldn't even get out of bed. So I languished. At least until 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon when I just got plain tired of being laid up in bed. I thought to myself, "Self, suck it up! It can't be that bad." In the history of me being wrong, this was the wrongest! I got out of bed (it took at least 5 minutes to just get my bum off the darn bed) gathered my phone, robe and book, figured out a way to get Bubby off the bed without bending over or dropping him (he's too scared to jump down by himself, of course) and headed into the living room.

I have this awesome, comfy wingback chair and a little ottoman that I like to sit in so I headed to it. I gingerly eased my (ahem) bulk onto the chair and instantly felt the electric spear from hell. I must tell you at this point that I normally like to think of myself as having a high threshold for pain but, really, I shamed myself and totally screamed (and cried a little - ok, a lot). I tried to lean onto my right but it didn't help. So I ended up rolling off the chair onto the floor on my hands and knees with my little ottoman under my torso.

That's when I thought it, "This must be what labor feels like" if you were to give birth out of your left butt cheek. My next and most embarrassing thought was, "Dear God, I've fallen and I can't get up!" Which, of course made me laugh (more pain) then finally I flashed onto the episode of Sex and the City where Miranda, fresh out of the shower throws her back (or neck, I can't remember) out and is laying face down butt naked on the floor. She, of course, calls Carrie who sends over her beau, Aiden to help, not knowing that Miranda is naked. And hilarity ensues.

Well, there I was pulling a Miranda on my living room floor. Only two things were different 1) I, thank God, was fully clothed and b) I have about 1000 pounds on her. There was no way I was calling anybody to help me up off my own floor. So, I set my jaw, pulled my feet up under me and got up with, miracle of all miracles, barely any pain. At least until I got fully upright and tried to walk away.

Now, I've been in bed the last two days and am on the mend. Ibuprofen has helped immensely!

So, the moral? If/when you throw your back out you'll get all kinds of people telling you that bed rest is the best thing for it. Listen to them cuz THEY AIN'T LYING!!!

P.S. Before you ask, yes, everything, every situation in life reminds me of a movie or tv show I've seen. It's an annoying but usually amusing habit that I usually try and keep to myself.

A New Year, New Directions?

2011-01-04T23:51:00.000-08:00

Notice the "?" after the title of this post. It basically sums up my state of mind so far this year (all four days of it). I'm facing a financial dilemma. After being laid off last May, no employers have shown much interest in me (not so good for my ego!) and my savings is completely gone. Yesterday, I got my last check from unemployment for the 2010 year with a letter stating basically that's that. They're gonna let me know by snail mail if I qualify for an extension which, I must say, is proving to be a test of my patience and sanity. I don't like the not knowing. I also don't like that I don't have a single job prospect lined up. I'm diligently sending out the resume and applying but so far, nada.

Soooo, until I get something (and I mean anything really), I'm working on an assembly line of sorts for stuff for the shop. There are a few things that really only take me a few minutes to make, if I have all the supplies. So I'm churning them out, or trying to anyway, as fast as I can. There are other things (like baby blankets and such) that take a bit longer to make and I don't usually have all the supplies on hand so those will have to wait. What I'd really love, and I mean LOVE, is for the crafting to become at least a semi-full time gig. I've had some requests for things from friends and lots of "ooh, you made that, I'd buy it!" from others, so that's encouraging.

My worry is inconsistency. Not mine (though that can be an issue at times, to tell you the truth) but with people buying my stuff. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to try out some local street fairs and farmer's/craft markets to see what's selling and what isn't. And it seems like a good way to get some instant feedback. (If any of you regular market sellers out there have any advice, I'm all ears!)

So that's my new direction for 2011. Do what I love, love what I do. And probably get a part-time job to supplement the income. I think life is too short to be stuck in a job that just sucks the life and energy out of you. I learned this the hard way. I wish someone had pulled me aside when I was 25 and told me the type of work I'm ideally suited to. Which I do know now, at 37, and am very grateful that it didn't take me til 47 or 57 to learn.

Projects...

2010-12-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Being unemployed is great for getting the creative juices flowing, bet ya didn't know that.

A. You have tons of time on your hands to indulge in any creative pursuit you want.
2. Since there's no cash flow you're basically forced to make any and all Christmas gifts.

So, I've been working on a few Christmas gifts lately and just a few projects in general. I won't bore you with the details of the gifts (cuz you never know who just might read this). But I've been working on items for the shop. I'm at an impasse. My interests are diverse, to say the least, and I don't want the shop to look like it has A.D.D. so I'm thinking of opening a second shop or maybe dividing the existing shop into different sections. If any of you out there have any suggestions please do not hesitate to comment!

Basically, it boils down to sewn items, knitted/crocheted items, painted items, and ceramic items. Is it possible on Etsy to divide your shop into 4 sections?? Help!

What no photos?

2010-11-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

If you've been blogging and following other people's blogs then you, no doubt, have what I call "blog friends". You know, those bloggers that you follow and make comments to and they, in turn, make comments on your blog and so you sort of have this cyber repartee going. For instance, I try to read this blog and this blog as faithfully as possible and I comment now and then and they comment every now and then on this blog. They are my blog friends.

Then there are friends with blogs. When I first started blogging I started on Yahoo and only one person ever read anything I wrote and that was only because I told him, "Hey I started a blog, read it." And he had a blog that he told me to read. He and I were the only people I personally knew that even knew what blogging was and I felt alone in my little blog bubble. Then I moved over here to blogger and discovered a whole different world going on that I could identify with. However, I still didn't know if any of my personal friends/family had their own blogs. And really I was content to think I had one up on my circle of friends (however untrue that really was).

Well, I am no longer content. I find I am coming to the realization that I want to know what my friends and family are putting out there or even if they are putting anything out there into cyber space.

So having said that (and that's not at all what I had planned to write!) here are a few friends' blogs that I want to tell you about...

Laura's Speech Therapy Blog - Laura and I often talk about how she thinks she is not a creative type but I insist it's in there begging to be let out. So judging by the name of her new blog she scores a point but if you read her posts (all of three that's how new it is) you'll see glimpses of a creative mind in between all the intellectual brilliance.
Lovely Lemondrops - This is Esther's blog. She's an old hand at blogging even though she's only 20 or so. At the moment she's having a fabulous time studying abroad in Merry Old England and her photos show it.
James Laing's Blog - James is an associate pastor at my church and an awesome worship leader. He writes about life in general like most of us do but from a really strong Christian POV.

So there are three. I posted on Facebook that I was curious if any of my friends had blogs so we'll se if any of them trust me or like me enough to let me read what they're writing.

Update

2010-11-11T00:26:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give you a quick update that I am adding things to the shop everyday. Tomorrow I think there will be a bunch. I just have to do some photo taking and that should do it. So go browse, go buy.

2010-11-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

I feel I've been productive. Ten placemats are finished and I've finally started taking pictures of some things for my shop...you know, the one that hasn't had anything listed for more than 2 years. Ahhhh, yes, now you remember. I figured that since no one seems to want to hire me and my savings is almost completely gone, it's about timeI got serious with the shop. I'm going to be feverishly sewing for the next couple weeks so's I can have stuff ready for the gift giving season. And really, I'm not too proud to say that pity purchases are welcome, even encouraged. ;)

Avoidance

2010-10-15T11:28:00.001-07:00

Instead of starting any of the projects I named before, I decided to decorate a little. I am the queen of avoidance and procrastination! However, I am starting on the placemats today and I think I'm scrapping the costumes...I'm just not feeling it. This Halloween is going to be store bought I think.

I also am making 10 Fimo red and white whirly lollipops. Sorta like this...

Fun!!

Upcoming projects

2010-10-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the short list of some upcoming projects (some sooner than I'd like)...
4 costumes for Halloween - 2 human, 2 canine
a giant floor sized Candyland game board
6 giant styrofoam lollipops
10 placemats
2 cardboard banners
2 beaded bookmarkers
1 glam baby blanket
approximately 10 Christmas presents
And I want to throw in some stuff to put in my poor neglected etsy shop as well...guess I bettr get started!

Autumn!!!

2010-10-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year! I love the colors, the change in weather, the potential for wearing sweaters, my birthday! For me the holiday season starts on my birthday (Sept 20) so of course I love this season!! Anywho, I just wanted to say happy Autumn to everybody!

Who gets the punishment?

2010-06-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

I came home yesterday and put my purse in its normal place (dining chair). When I picked it up again and put it on (it's an across the body type of thing) I reach down and there's a stickiness, with which I'm unfamiliar. I look at the dining table where the chair is stationed and there's this trail of honey leading from an overturned, open and empty container. Said container had previously been full (approximately 16 fluid ounces). The honey was all over the table, the chair, the floor, my purse and me. Not coincidentally it is also on my cat. GRRRR! I have a feeling I'm going to be finding sticky spots for quite a while.

Now my dilemma is do I blame it on the cat who is just being her normal cat self or do I blame it on the adult sister who left the honey out on the table in the first place?

Gratuitous Sasha pic

Cactus Flowers

2010-06-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

I knew, in the far reaches of my mind that cacti flower...a cactus can flower...there are such things as cactus flowers...whatever. But I've never actually seen one. And truth be told, I hate cactus! And I especially hate our cactus...

See there, right where the fence gets taller.

Well, about a week and a half ago we noticed these little thingies on it....

They were sorta fuzzy and wierd looking like the cactus coughed up a hairball or something. then they started growing these sorta pod looking things out of them....

Then they opened and turned into this...

The day I took the above picture, right afterwards I went to dinner. I was gone maybe 2 hours and when I came back, the flowers had gone from that to this...

They really are beautiful...coming from this awful, prickly, ugly plant. Amazing!

Free Time

2010-05-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

One week ago today the owner of my company called me into his office and told me to clear out...sayonara...don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya...etc. Ok, he said it in a much nicer way but, really, when you get the boot, no matter how nicely they say it, it still feels like they just told you to shove off. So, after being there for 12 years and being constantly working for the last 20 years (with the exception of about 3 months when I moved back home from Seattle) I don't know what to do with myself. I really hate job hunting...never really had to do it before. Most of the jobs I've had I got because someone said, hey, we're hiring, want a job? So, starting from scratch is new to me. And really, I just don't feel like doing it...I know, I know, as a responsible adult I need to, but I'm just not into it right now. Once the money really thins out I'm sure this will change, right?

Fundraiser tonight

2010-04-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

For any of you out there in SoCal, my team (those of us going to Thailand in July) and I are having a fundraiser at Chili's in Glendora (the one by Best Buy and Barnes and Noble). In order for us to get our 15% you need to print out this flyer and take it in with you. Thanks so much!!!!

click image to enlarge

Update on things

2010-04-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a ruff few months. My dad past away last month and I am, as I type this, at my aunt's house in Kingman, AZ because we came out to bury my dad's ashes with my grandparents in this little ghost town called Chloride. I was fine with it until it was time to actually put him in the little hole that was dug for him. I couldn't do it even though I had been unofficially elected as the family member to do the deed. The nice guy at the little cemetary saw my distress as everybody else was talking and offered to do it for me. I didn't think it would have been that big of a deal but for some reason it was.
Anyway, now we're getting ready to go back home and I thought I'd take advantage of my aunt's wifi. :) I haven't had much of a chance to do anything crafty lately, I've been busy with, well, just life. However, I've been reacquainting myself with some favorite blogs and I'm inspired, to say the least. So don't be surprised if you see some stuff posted in the near future.

I give up!

2010-01-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

I've given up on the internet because the internet has given up on me. Not having a connection at home has reminded me how things were pre-world wide web. Simpler, more stuff got done around the house, more crafting got done, etc (read more tv was watched). So until we can afford to get a proper connection at the house I'm taking time off from my little blog, facebook, ebay, and all my other online activities.
However, as soon as that reconnection is made expect a full update on everything from our tea in my last post to my precious Jasper to any crafting that might be taking place.
By for now,
CrissyGirl

Our Annual Tea

2009-11-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

Our church's annual Christmas tea is coming up in a couple of weeks. Last year I had taken my inspiration from a spread in a magazine and it turned out pretty nice, I think (see the post here).

This year I don't have any tangible inspiration just an idea in my head. I'm thinking teas around the world with a sort of vintage travel motif. So I've started gathering items to decorate the table with but I feel like I'm missing something.

So far, I have this little globe...

It's going to sit on top of three cigar boxes that I'm going to paint to look like vintage suitcases. That will be the centerpiece with a wreath around them with misc travel ornaments we've collected over the years.

We've bought tea from a bunch of different countries (ie rooibos from South Africa, green tea from China, Spiced Chai from India, etc) and the placemats will be flags that correspond to each country.

And that's all I got. I feel like we need something else, maybe a travel themed table cloth and/ or napkins, I dunno. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know.

Our Dining Room

2009-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday marked a year since we've been in our house. During that year our dining room has had many roles...sewing room, storage room, buffet room...but it was never really a dining room until now. I was lucky enough to grab a really great table off free cycle that sits about 8 comfortably and I scour the thrift shops on a regular basis for dining chairs (wicker back preferably) and do a bunch of bargain shopping for the table accessories. So far here's what we have...

I put up the two pics because only one has the chair in it. I know there are people out there that think it's crazy to paint over perfectly good wood but I can't help myself, I love white furniture so I pretty much paint everything white. So the white chair at the end of the table was unpainted when I bought it (and it's partner) at Goodwill, but like I said, I can't help myself.

At the moment this is what is at each place setting. Our cat hasn't learned that the table is off limits yet so there's no table cloth (much too tempting!) and no plates or any type of breakables. Just these place mats and napkins.

I found this candle holder at a local thrift shop and loved it instantly. Mostly because if you look at it closely you can see that it is handmade. Unfortunately, the weld joints don't really show up in my photos, but take my word for it, they're there.

Finally I put this up...

Remember from my last post? This is what that turned into.

So, now, we have a proper dining room...Yay!

I survived!

2009-11-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

So I survived the chaos that is the Harvest Festival at my church. We had somewhere near 3000 people attend. It seems more like 10,000 when all you do is hand out candy for 2 1/2 hours. It was a lot of fun tho. This year Halloween just kind of snuck up on me so the decorations for the car were, let's just say minimal. Here's my sister and the car...

I must say that this year's costume was more easily recognized than the last one...

I was dressed as Peach from Finding Nemo. Most people thought I was Patrick from Sponge Bob, at least he's also a starfish, but one guy thought I was a tongue...makes me wonder about the things floating around in that guy's head!

Anywho, the M&M's went over well and we had a lot of fun.

***

To remind myself that this is indeed fall (even tho it feels like summer) I'm working on a few projects for the house. Just some small decorations to put up here and there. See if you can guess what this one is...

OOOOhhhh 2 posts in 1 day!

2009-10-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I missed Blogtoberfest this year cuz of my dumb butt computer and I really almost kinda felt like I shouldn't participate in any of the give aways since I wasn't doing any of the rest of it. But then I came to my senses!! So, my first give away that I entered was over at Kimono Reincarnate. Here's the goods she'll be sending the lucky winner (namely me)...

And she has a BUNCH of ways to get multiple entries so go, go now! Don't dilly dally cuz the give away ends on November 1!

I love this time of year!

2009-10-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

This is one of my most favorite times of the year. Here in SoCal we get the Santa Ana winds whipping around scattering the fall leaves (and yes, we do actually have leaves that turn color and fall - you just have to go to the right neighborhoods) and there's a certain smell in the air. I've been told it's called "fresh air" since the winds blow all the smog away but I choose to call it "Autumn". And then there's the gear up to all the coming holidays. Halloween is a good kick off to it all. Dressing up, giving out candy, getting candy - I love it!

This year we - my sister, my dog, my car and I - are going to be M&M's. I guess that needs some explanation, right? Every year (except for last year when we were moving) my sister and I participate in the Halloween festivities at our church (we call it Harvest, not Halloween) where they have a section called "Trunk or Treat" most people (you know, the cool people) dress up and decorate their cars and there's a contest for best decorations. We all line up around the church parking lot, trunk sides in, and we all hand out candy from our trunks, or in my case hatch back. Despite the fact that I've never won the decorating contest I feel my car has been the best each year - they just don't appreciate my perspective, yeah that's it. I've shown this before but here's the car from two years ago when we all dressed up as different Disney sea creatures...

The car was Monstro from Pinocchio.

So that's happening this Saturday and I haven't even started on our costumes yet. I'm making my sister's, mine and the car's. The dog's is a sweater I bought at M&M world in Times Square so I don't have to worry about him.

Anywho, I really do love this time of year. There's nothing like it!

Disconnected

2009-10-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

I really hate not having a reliable computer and an even worse internet connection! Since about June or so my time on the internet has been sparse, very sparse. It's one of those situations that is dependent on $$$, of which I have none! This whole "economic downturn" business is really starting to get on my nerves!

Any suggestions?

2009-09-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

After writing each post I usually click "view blog" and read my post in the form other people would. Just to see if the formatting is good or if there are any typos or weirdness of any sort. So after my last post I did this and realized how much of a downer my blog has become lately. My last three posts are so depressing!!!

So, to lighten things up I'm asking for suggestions. "On what?", you're asking your screen. On practical jokes. I love pulling practical jokes - nothing destructive or mean - and I love it when they get pulled on me - again nothing destructive or mean.

Let me give you two examples...

1) Once, with the help of one of the girls in our office, after everybody had gone home, we went and turned everything upside down in a co-worker's cubicle. And I mean everything (except his desk cuz it was bolted). All his pictures (most of them of himself), his computer, monitor, printer, his chair...everything. When he came in the next day he was none too happy but everybody else got a kick out of it.

2) You know those co-workers that love having little tchochkies all over their desks? We have one who likes little figurines. She has a Snoopy, a couple of M&M guys, etc. So I stole her McDonald's Hamburgler for a week and photoshopped him into pictures of things like St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Eifel tower and a bunch of other places...sorta how in Amelie she sends her dad's lawn gnome out to fabulous destinations...then returned him none the worse for wear. To this day my co-worker doesn't know I'm the one who did it.

Well, it's been a while since I've pulled any kind of prank and I'm really hankering to do one so if anybody has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Again, nothing destructive or mean, just funny. I'm not afraid of spending extra time or effort to pull off a good prank...the best ones sometimes require that.

Sadness

2009-09-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

I found out yesterday that one of my friends lost her husband yesterday. I'm so stunned and sad. She and I went to school together and I met Brian briefly before going off to college then we lost touch with each other. Now, 18 years later we had all reconnected via facebook and were just settling into knowing each other again. I don't know exactly how he passed but it always seems more tragic when someone dies at such a young age (he was only a couple years older than me). It's like they haven't really had a chance to live a complete life yet.
There's also their two small kids who now no longer have their father with them. My heart is just aching for them and for my friend who lost the love of her life.
It's such an unfortunate reminder to make the most of the time you spend with your loved ones. Tell them you love them as often as possible!

Fire season is upon us

2009-09-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

This morning when I got into my car to go to work there was a layer of ash blanketing my car. Fire season has started early this year thanks to a very very dry winter/spring. Normally, around October we start seeing the firebugs going crazy, lighting fires everywhere. This year we got a two month head start. My prayers go out to the people whose homes have burned and those whose homes are in danger.

Photo credits:
1 - 4 Anthony Citrano
5 NASA
6 M&C Website

A Traumatic Experience

2009-08-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a blog break lately mostly because I just haven't had the energy or whatever it is to do any posts since I've been given my new job duties. It pretty much drains me and all I have in me at the end of the day is to take a nap and veg in front of the TV. However, I am finally getting used to it and getting in the swing of things.

During my short blog sabbatical there was an incident involving my little dog and a big nasty Doberman. We had been taking the dogs semi-regularly to the dog park and despite the fact that the little dog is anti-social and the bigger dog is a big chicken they both get so excited when they know we are going to the park. So one bright Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Molly's Super in Upland where not only do they allow dogs on their patio, they cater to them with a for-dogs-only menu and a little play area. At the next table was a couple who own Skipper - the only dog our Tramp has ever played with at the dog park. We got to talking and the told us they were going to the Upland dog park just for a change of scenery. Sounded good so we decided to join them.

We get there and there's a teeny tiny little space for small/shy dogs and a HUGE area for the bigger/ more social dogs. Never having had a problem with entering the "big dog" area at our normal park and seeing that there were a bunch of little dogs roaming that area I ignored my initial thought to go to the small dog area first.

Normally, Jasper stands his ground when any dog, big or small, comes sniffing around but something spooked him and he took off running not 30 seconds after we entered the park. Maybe it was the unfamiliar surroundings or maybe it was the unfamiliar dogs, I don't know. Whatever it was it sent him into a panic and he ended up getting rolled by a couple of big dogs. This would have been fine, he would have been traumatized for a few minutes but he would have shaken it off.

The trouble came in the form of Foxy, a HUGE Doberman Pinscher who picked Jasper up and shook him like he was a little squeaky toy. She tried to go for a second round with him but didn't get a chance as my sister and I and a bunch of other owners were all over her at that point. Unfortunately, none of the other owners was Foxy's owner. She chose to sit back and watch the whole episode from a distance. Then not only did she brush it off as if this was just the normal Saturday morning hi jinx at the dog park she went back to her group of friends loudly proclaiming that things like this wouldn't happen if the small dog (my small dog) had been in the small dog area where he belonged.

And as true as that statement is I'm still irked 3 weeks later that she didn't have the decency to apologize for what happened or to ask if Jasper was ok. We left the park as soon as I saw blood and rushed him to the vet who, thankfully, told me nothing major was punctured and no bones were broken but he needed to have surgery for the one puncture wound that he did have. So that Saturday was spent first at our normal vet then at the emergency pet clinic after our vet closed so he could be under observation while waking up from the anesthetic. Here's what he looked like when we brought him home that night...

Needless to say, I was a total basket case the whole day but he came through like a champ and now, three weeks later is completely back to normal...no more cone, no more stitches He's not even jumping every time he sees Tramp (who is black like Foxy) out of the corner of his eye. He does need a trip to the groomer cuz his haircut keeps bringing looks from people like "You crazy lady, why would you cut your dogs fur like that?!"

I haven't taken any pictures of him since that one so let me leave you with this one, a much happier pic of my Bubby...

Landscaping

2009-07-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend my sister, a friend and I got down to business and laid sod in our front yard and the little patch of land between the sidewalk and the curb. It was HOT and I really hate sweating but overall it was fun and educational. I learned a whole lot more than I ever wanted to know about manure! Here's a few shots of the yard before we got started...

This is how it has looked for the last few weeks. Just dirt and a butt load of leaves that we had to rake (I use the word we loosely cuz our friend that was helping us, Ruth, did most of the raking).

This after Ruth raked and after we manured the lawn and tilled it.

Our first couple rows.

Ruth cutting the curve.

The section out by the street with our little crepe myrtle tree.

The other side of the lawn.

Here, in the front section we are planting native plants and grasses. Since we are in the middle of a drought we thought it wise to plant things that take minimal amounts of water. We also have some rubber mulch to lay in that section. Rubber mulch is a wonderful invention! It's made from recycled tires and since it is rubber you only need to mulch once instead of every year. Plus it won't get moldy or hold in any bacteria which is a blessing for dog owners!

A couple of the plants we're planting. That's about it for the front, at least for now.

In case you were wondering, in the back of the house, my tomatoes are really starting to make me happy!

The one on the bottom is my original tomato plant. It's just now starting to ripen...I can taste the salsa already! The one on top I got from someone on Freecycle. The tomatoes are teeny tiny. I think they're grape tomatoes or something like that. They're smaller than cherry tomatoes. These are all being given away as they ripen because they're not exactly salsa material and neither my sister nor I actually eat tomatoes in any other way other than salsa or pasta sauce.

So, my foray into the world of gardening isn't going as bad as I thought it would even though our grass is already struggling to stay green. All thanks to the help of good friends and one very green thumbed mother.

Scrapbooking

2009-07-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

A week ago Saturday (that's how behind I am on my posts) I attended a 12 hour marathon scrap booking event. A friend of ours is a consultant for Creative Memories and she and another gal hosted this shindig at the Azusa Library. It was a fun day filled with chatter and laughter and lots and lots of romantic comedies - there was a movie theme with red carpet and "paparazzi".

It's amazing how little you can get done in 12 hours! I didn't even do a page an hour - I think this is due to the fact that scrap booking is not my first craft of choice. I have this annoying need for symmetry that does not lend itself to successful scrapping. Therefore, I work very hard to arrange things asymmetrical enough to look like I'm not OCD but also in such a way that doesn't have me tearing it apart to rearrange it. That's what takes me so long, I think.

Anyhoo, enough about my neuroses. Here are the seven pages I actually did get done...

The top three are from a visit to New York a couple of years (yes years) ago. We went to Tarrytown where author Washington Irving lived, wrote and is buried. It was very cool, if you're into his work, we went to the Old Dutch Church and the Cemetery there that was his inspiration for the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We also went to his cottage where they give tours. If you're a history and/or literature buff I recommend it. The bottom four are from my book about, well, me. It's not nearly as narcissistic as it sounds. It's mostly filled with pictures of family and friends, only a very few of me. :) And that's all I got done...in 12 hours! Having movies on in the background really does not help my productivity since I'm addicted to the darn things. It was all about the Chick Flicks...Mamma Mia, Legally Blond, 13 Going on 30, Grease, 27 Dresses, I think that's it. Fun!

Here are some shots of some of the ladies that were there...

All in all, it was a fun, productive day in an air conditioned room away from the summer heat.

I'm already feeling it!

2009-07-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

I think I just did something I might regret later...I deleted my Google Reader. I immediately got a cold sweat and wanted it back as soon as I hit delete! Is there some sort of 12 step program for people like me?

I became so dependent on my reader that I stopped going to the individual blogs themselves consequently not leaving very many comments at all. And aren't the comments a huge part of why we blog? And aren't my lovely comments another huge part some of you continue to blog? :) Ok, maybe not but I figure this is why I'm feeling a little less "connected" than I used to. So, NO MORE READER! Now if I can just bring myself to delete that other thing that takes up all my time and keeps me from visiting other people's blogs...my facebook account!

Restaurant review - Tamarind

2009-07-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

My sister and I were searching for someplace to eat tonight and came across this place at the Chino Spectrum...

As the sign says, it's Pakistani and Indian Cuisine, which I am a HUGE fan of. So, I pull into the parking lot, practically on two tires that's how hungry and excited I was. And I gotta tell you, it's unfortunate that this little gem is where it is. It's a bit hidden at the far end of the shopping center between a vitamin shop and a sushi place so it didn't get much traffic when we were there. In fact, we were the only ones there during our whole meal.

The interior is trendy and comfortable...

And the food....YUM!!! We shared the Tandoori combo platter, samosas and garlic naan. With the samosas (which were the only disappointing part of the meal because they were so small) our server brought two sauces. One was a little bit sweet while the other was not, it was spicy and good enough to drink from the little tiny bowl it was served in. (Rest assured I did not do this even though I thought about it more than once) Here's a pic of it after I, uh, I mean we finished with it...

Sorry for all the blurry pics - it's the only kind my little phone knows how to take. Anyway, I loved this stuff (I have no idea what it's called) so much that I asked our server if it was possible to buy a pint of it to take home. She was so sweet - she gave us a bunch to take with us without charging us.

So, if you're ever in the vicinity of the Chino Spectrum you have to go to Tamarind! Also, if you're lucky enough to be there when the owner is there, well, let's just he's easy on the eyes!

Ireland here I come!

2009-06-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

In dealing with bills, bill collectors and an ever-shrinking paycheck due to our sucky economy, I decided I want to join a commune. Or maybe start one, I'm not sure yet. So, like always, I start the necessary research and let me tell you, there are some really freaky people out there. But then I came upon The Village. It's a planned eco-village...in Ireland! I think I could handle that. Here's a list of some of their features...

A thriving community closely integrated with the town of Cloughjordan
130 low energy homes
A solar- and wood- powered community heating system
Pedestrian pathways lined with fruit and nut trees, and a streamside walkway
An enterprise centre and broadband
50 acres of land for allotments, farming and woodland
A centre of education for sustainable living
A hostel for visitors
A nearby train station and local car-sharing scheme

Considering that one of the bills I'm having trouble with is my car payment, that last feature sounds like it's right up my alley.

Anywho, here are some pics from their photo gallery...

The land - who wouldn't want to live here?!

Local pub - very important to know the where abouts of the local establishments!

Store who's name I can not read nor pronounce - anybody want to teach me Gaelic?

Fairymount Farm - I'm thinking this is the acreage they have set aside for members to plant and tend. Doesn't really matter, it's called Fairymount for crying out loud! I'm buying my plane ticket today!

Where did the sun go?

2009-06-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

We have been having the strangest weather here! We normally have our daily dose of June Gloom that burns off around noon or late morning then it's bright and sunny and HOT. So far this month there's been 1, one, uno, un, ein, ichi day of sun. That was yesterday and it wasn't hot it was, well, balmy. A bit warm with a breeze, the perfect temperature for me (probably around 75 degrees). But today it's back to this...

GLOOOOOOMY!!

Yoohoo, Sun, where did you go?!

Happy Hump Day!!!

2009-06-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

2009-06-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

Just an update on the gardening venture...

My Oregano, which I started from seed, is actually starting to show itself

My cilantro, after the initial plant being picked over, started to grow this weirdness. The lower leaves are the normal cilantro type leaves but this stuff on top is just strange.

Mmmmmm...chives! Flourishing - yay!

And rosemary is doing quite well, I think some Gouda and Garlic stuffed rosemary chicken is in order!

My tomato plants (I now have 2) are also doing quite well. Unfortunately I have no current pics but the first plant is about chest height now with lots of flower, just no actual tomatoes yet. My pepper plants are getting taller but are also getting eaten by little buggies. I've been using this spray from Scott's EcoSense line that is called "Insecticidal Soap". It's slowing the bugs down but not actually keeping them away. I'm gonna have to figure something else out for that.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to get rid of the little pests in nontoxic way leave a comment please.

Baby Blanket

2009-06-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

I know my last post was a bit, shall we say, melodramatic. I think my problem is/was that I didn't have any of my stuff/stash/craft supplies around me. They were all still packed up after having our floors done. I get alot of inspiration just from looking at all the different fabrics and supplies so since my muse was boxed up so was my creativity.

Anyhoo, a friend of mine had a baby shower this weekend so I whipped this little blankie up for the baby girl that is on her way...

Sasha was my helper all evening...

And here she is showing off the backing of the blankie (such a good little helper!)...

Now if I could just get her to do the dishes...

Reward!

2009-06-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

ATTENTION: LOST!

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

Goes by the name 'Creativity'. Has been missing since approximately the middle of April.

There is a reward for anybody who can provide information that results in the reunion of me and my precious Creativity!

A give away

2009-05-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

The ever fabulous edward and lilly is having a give away. For all you crafty types out there, go check it out but do not, I repeat, DO NOT leave a comment...if you do, my chances of winning go down and, well, I'd like to win. I guess if you must, you must but just know that I won't be happy about it.

I LOVE those fabrics!

flickr favs friday

2009-05-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

I used to do this, rembember? I had pretty much forgotten about it until this mom-to-be's post reminded me all about it. So, since I have been struggling to keep my few meager vegetable plants alive, have been fairly obsessing about it, actually, I decided this would be the perfect subject to start this meme up again. So here is a mosaic of some veggie gardens my 1' x 3' plot of dirt aspires to be...

1. spring vegetable garden, 2. Vegetable Garden, 3. Vegetable Garden Overview, 4. THE vegetable garden, 5. 2006 Garden Vegetable Beds, 6. Vegetable Garden Full Grown and producing, 7. Vegetable Garden, 8. winter vegetable garden, 9. Vegetable Garden

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Petra Haden

2009-05-14T22:31:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this amazing commercial?

I love it so much that I just had to find out the artist who is singing this version of Let the Love Flow. Her name is Petra Haden. All the "instrumentals" you hear are actually aren't instruments but man made sounds (or woman made actually). She's pretty awesome.

A thumb not so black

2009-05-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks everybody who sent me well wishes and commiserated with my migraine woes. It's nice to know we're not alone on our off days, isn't it?

Anyway, remember my little garden that I told you about? And my apprehension about killing the poor hapless plants? Well, good news...my tomato plant, this tomato plant...

is now this humongous tomato plant...

It's up to my hip, which ain't no small thing being 5'9 and my hip being pretty far off the ground. So my thumb is not quite so black, maybe just a dark shade of gray-green. The other plants are... well, it's about a 50% mortality rate around here and that's ok with me

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I luv ya, tomorrow...

2009-05-12T09:30:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had a day when you just wish you could take a break from being you? That's me today. I woke up with a slight headache that is turning into a migraine and I think I broke my chi. Is that possible? I dunno, but it feels broken. Things are off kilter today and I'm just wishing it would hurry up and be tomorrow.

What is going on?

2009-05-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

I am a bad blogger! Yep, you heard it, bad blogger, bad! First, I've only done 6 (6!!) blog posts in the last month. Then, I have gotten sooooo lazy that I've relied strictly on my Google reader which means I've only read 5 blogs or so for the last few months and the ones I have read I've left only a handful of comments. Terrible! And the last offense, the worst offense in my opinion, I've abandoned my camera! I haven't taken a single picture in at least 2 weeks. And today, I'm really regretting it. Today is Mother's Day and I have no pictures of our outing with our lovely mother. Not only am I a bad blogger, I'm a bad daughter! Sheesh!

And it was such a nice outing. Lunch at a local Mediterranean restaurant then a quick trip to Dogwoods a Mediterranean deli and grocery store. I guess there was a bit of a theme. My poor mom doesn't get to eat any type of "different" foods when it's just her and my dad, he's stricly a meat and potatoes kind of guy. So we had a Mediterranean day of it.

Since I didn't get any photos today, I leave you with my favorite of my mom which I've posted before but it's such cute picture I can't resist posting it again...

Happy Mother's Day!

I do not recommend this!

2009-05-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching 3 hours of Grey's Anatomy...straight through. Big mistake! I should have known that I'd be ablubbering fool by the end of the first episode, forget about all the way through to the last. I mean really, I cry at everything...why did I think I could watch 3 whole episodes of Grey's?! I'm not gonna give anything away as far as story lines if someone out there hasn't watched the last 3 weeks worth yet but jeez! They really put us through the ringer emotionally. So if you're a cryer like me, do not, I repeat, do not watch more than one episode at a time!

Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Card Tops

2009-04-29T10:33:00.001-07:00

Here's another round of time card tops. I posted some a while back with the This is... meme and just felt like posting some more.

What I draw depends on a lot of things...the season, things that are happening in my personal life, my level of inspiration at the time, etc. For instance, the top two were done when nothing was going on. The one that looks hot pink but is supposed to be red was done the week of Valentine's Day. The one next to that and the two below it were inspired by the onset of Spring. The one with the dandelions is depicting my front lawn at the moment. The last one, well, that was drawn for no reason, I just felt like it.

I feel that this little bitty bit of creativity is therapeutic in my bland and beige work world.

2009-04-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Has it only been a week since my last post?! It feels longer than that, a lot longer. I found out on Thursday evening that my general manager passed away that afternoon. He was not only my boss but also a friend. He was like that grumpy, cranky uncle that is actually a teddy bear deep down inside. Yeah, that was Tony.

He walked around the office (coffee cup in hand) with a perpetual frown on his face but his laugh came easily. And as much as we all complained about his triftyness (he was in charge of the company's financials) and grumpitude we are all going to miss him a lot.

I learned that he died sitting by his pool with his dog next to him with a smile on his face. That sounds about right. I think the only place he'd be happier would be on the golf course.

It's been very draining and difficult coming back to work this morning. We are all grieving and trying to work at the same time. Needless to say, I don't feel much like working.

A new adventure

2009-04-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I took the week off from work...a staycation, if you will. My sister was on her spring break so we decided to get stuff done around the house. Now, if you know me, that's pretty much saying devote about 1/2 an hour a day to doing stuff around the house just so I can say that, yes, I did get some stuff done. Mostly, what I worked on was planting a teeny tiny veggie garden.

I originally had these grand plans for a raised flower bed and rows of little veggie plants but being a lazy wench, I ended up buying a few plants and getting some seedlings from a friend. So, now, I have 1 tomato plant, 1 green bell pepper plant, 1 jalapeno plant (that doesn't look like it's going to make it), 1 Santa Fe Grande pepper plant, 1 sweet basil, 3 cucumber, 1 purple bean, 2 broccoli, 2 spinach (the last 4 are still just itty bitty seedlings that are struggling to survive).

I've been inundated with signs telling me I should do this. The first was an article in Better Homes and Gardens about raised beds and planting veggies specifically for certain things (like salsa or Italian foods), then the seedlings being offered to me, then two different friends who don't know each other telling me that they're both doing raised beds and planting and then some blog posts that mention it (and here's one I actually found when doing a little research). I figure I really don't need to be beat over the head that much to catch on...so I planted.

There are 2 obstacles that I'm going to have to hurdle...1) I don't really like very many veggies. My sister is a veggie fan so I planted some that are her favorites (broccoli & cucumber - gross!) and 2) I've never kept a plant alive that wasn't in the cactus family. I'm relying heavily on my mother to get me through this one. I'm usually the kind of person that needs all the information before I start something like this. Normally, I'd read piles of books and magazine articles in order to garner the best way to do things but since time really won't allow that (this much I know about planting, it has to be done at certain times... I think) and since my mother has never killed a plant or met a plant that didn't flourish under her bright green thumb, I figure she's all the reference I need. And so far so good (I know it's only been a week but I've killed plants in a lot less time).

Really what I'm looking forward to are the peppers. Neither my sister nor I like tomatoes in their fresh raw state, so why, you might ask, do I have a tomato plant? Well, I'm a big fan of salsa and we both love things like marinara sauce, etc. But the peppers, they're really what this is all about for me. I can't wait! I think my next step will be to plant a couple of herb pots. They seem a little more delicate and easy to kill. Of course, I don't really know this, but that's what it seems like. I guess I gotta make a call to my mom again.

Just as a side note, over the weekend, my sister decided to put her bed together (it's an Ikea bed). The bed we bought her 3 years ago for her birthday. Procrastination runs in the family.

Happy Easter, a day late

2009-04-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after we got back from church we planted petunias, see...

Then, we decided to decorate a few eggs, we're kids at heart, really. I was unsuccessful at creating any photo worthy eggs, plus we pretty much ate them as soon as we were done.

And, since we only boiled six eggs, 3 a piece, I got bored (in typical me fashion) and decided to tie dye my washcloth that I was using to wipe up any spills.

That was my Easter. It was a beautiful day outside and I regret that I didn't have the forethought to take any pictures, but take my word for it, it was gorgeous.

Today, was not so gorgeous, a bit overcast and humid and I had to take Sasha in for some shots...boy was she pissed! She spent 8 hours after I brought her home hiding under my bed. Now the poor girl is super sore and keeps rubbing her shoulders on our not quite finished floors. She's super miserable, poor baby.

I love surprises!

2009-04-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend was, after a rocky start, a really lovely weekend. For the most part, it was spent doing things like laundry and a little bit of yard work/gardening. Saturday, after my brief bit of discomfort, I went out and decided to pull up this stuff from the flowerbed in the front of the house (it's the stuff right up against the house)...

I don't know what it's called but it was all over the place and hiding a couple of very pleasant surprises...

I had noticed the big leaves a few days back but, not being a plant person, I didn't know what kind of plant it was. Then I noticed this little gem peeking out of the jungle...

and decided right then this stuff had to go. If for no other reason but to see the full beauty of the lily.

I must say that it was so nice to see that lone flower struggling to get through all that mess. It brought to mind some wayward metaphor for life that I won't bore you with but it really made me smile. Now, if I can just keep from killing the poor thing like I do most other plants, I'll be very happy.

Ahhhh Spring!

2009-04-04T14:51:00.001-07:00

It's a beautiful Spring day outside and for the most part, I've been stuck inside. I was supposed to go to the Sustainability Seminar and it is a perfect day for it. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a rumble in the jungle, if you know what I mean. I did start feeling better around 1 so I decided to take the boys on a walk around the neighborhood just to get out of the house because this is the chaos that is our house right now...

I love the signs of springtime! Here are a few of the little beauties in the neighborhood...

and my personal favorite...

I love ranunculus, they're like roses on steroids.

And now the boys are tired, they're plum tuckered out...

Sustainablility Seminar

2009-04-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

A friend from high school that I recently reconnected with via facebook put my onto this organization called the Regen Co-op. Among a long list of other things, once a year they hold a sustainability seminar (happening this Saturday). It happens to come at just the right time, at least for me. I have been mulling over (and over and over) the thought of my own little Victory Garden and being more self sufficient as far as growing our own veggies and such.

The co-op's seminar this year has quite a few sessions that I'm interested in.

Natural Building, Good Soil, Good Irrigation, and Greywater Recycling have really piqued my interest. I'm also really interested in seeing the urban garden. I've driven by it everyday since we moved in and everytime I saw it I wondered whose it was, who tends it, etc. Now I know.

It's amazing how this is all going on in my immediate neighborhood and I never would have known about it if my friend hadn't mentioned it. I mean the co-op is literally down the street from me.

Anyway, if anybody reading this is in the SoCal area and is interested, as the flyer says, it's free and open to the public.

Also, if you're interested in starting your own veggie garden and would like a sure fire way (at least I've been told it's sure fire, don't know yet, but I'll let you know soon) to have a thriving veggie garden, check out this site. I'm giving it a try and will update you on how it goes.

Love...Tuesdays?

2009-03-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

Don't you love life's serendipitous moments? Having been ill all weekend, I didn't have time to go do any shopping (just normal stuff like shampoo, toothbrush, etc). So I decided to do it after work today. I normally would go to store A but decided instead to go to store B, slightly out of the way but I just like going there more. So on the way home, I'm driving along this road and lo' & behold...a yard sale on a Tuesday, weird, I know. And it is HUGE!!! So hearing the siren call of other people's cast offs, I stop and dive right in. Seeing as how I had just come from shopping, I didn't have much cash on me so I went straight for the books, you can never go wrong with the books. And I found me some lovely treasures

The first were these...

There's actually four books there, 2 sets of 2. They were a bit pricey at $3 a pair but considering they're still wrapped I figured it was all right. And I'm sure Little Chestnut is going to love them.

Then I got two for me...

I love Dr. Seuss and the Edna Ferber, well, I couldn't resist it. So, that's why I'm loving this Tuesday. If I hadn't been sick I would never have come across this awesome yard sale. Serendipitous, no?

P.s. I just might have to go back (they said they'd be there till Saturday), it was so big I only got to go through about a 1/4 of the stuff.

I need this!

2009-03-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

I hate being sick on my day off! I spent the day in bed hacking and coughing while watching a bunch of dvd's. Today's watch list:

Mamma Mia

Wanted

Da Vinci Code

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

That last one reminded me that I want to track down a piece of their costuming, this piece...

I want to get my hands on it and turn it into a pillow, it looks like it's half way there, just needs to be sewn shut, right? Or maybe a tea cozy, I mean it needs to have a function other than being an atrocity, cuz as a hat it sure isn't making it.

It's so hideous that I feel I need to have it. I will not, however, be looking for any collector cat plates.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!

2009-03-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

I gotta tell you, I don't have many items of clothing that are green. It basically boils down to two different pairs of khaki green cargo pants, both in the laundry. So finding something to wear today was a challenge. Hmmm, green ribbon in my hair, nah, they never stay in. Hunter green parka, nope too hot. Ahhhh, yes, green gauzy scarf, perfect. So that was my green today, see...

Oh, and these...

just to add some class. Actually, I only wore them long enough to snap a picture. My boss wore them all day...hee hee!!

I need some help...

2009-03-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

Does anyone out there know who this fabric is made by and /or where/if I can buy some more? Anyone, Anyone?

This piece came in a bag of scraps I bought and I LOVE it. I want bolts of it but I have yet to find any out there. For all I know it could be decades old. If anybody out there knows, please tell me. PLEASE!?

My Band(s)

2009-03-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

I've seen this meme or as I like to call it, exercise in time wasting, on a couple of blogs and all over Facebook. I starte doing it and couldn't stop. So, first, here are the rules of the game then all the "bands" I came up with...

Here are the rules.
1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”or click this. The FIRST random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to "Random quotations"or click this. The last FOUR or FIVE words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click this. THIRD picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

This one came out a little hard to read but the title is "Unless We Fail To Try" by Pargny-sous Mureau.

I told you I couldn't stop. There's something wrong with me.

Two weeks down

2009-03-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

and it is killing me!!! My addiction to sugar was a lot stronger than I thought it was! And there's still a month left until I can eat any sweets. Somebody better give me a HUGE Easter basket full of goodies! For now, I leave you with what I miss the most...

Love Fridays

2009-03-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

This week has gone by so fast I didn't realize I hadn't posted anything since last Friday. That's all right, it may have been a fast week but it was also uneventful.

I'm loving this Friday because of the awesome weather the last two days. It's been beautiful...in the low 70's and sunny...my favorite kind of day.

This is the view from work, ignore all the ugly power lines and industrial buildings but look at that green and blue. I love it!

Normally it's brown and, well, brown. Brown dried up grass and brown smoggy sky. But there are days, two times a year (during spring and fall) when the days are like this. It reminds me that living here is a privilege and I should take full advantage.

I also got a couple of projects done today. The first is another pencil roll, another very late Christmas gift for L.

L. reads my blog but it's ok, she already knows it's coming. Now she'll see how awesome it is and she'll maybe come over to get it and we can go see a movie...maybe Watchman. Just a suggestion.

Anyway, here's some more detail of the pencil roll...

All rolled up and ready to go.

Open.

I made (from left to right) a few pockets for normal pens and pencils, pockets for a 6 pack of highlighters (all my highlighters are at work so let's pretend that the pens and batteries in the pockets are highlighters), 2 miscellaneous pockets and one flapped pocket for milk money.

Here's the pocket up close. No, I'm not giving her that milk money (it's actually my phone bill money).

The other project was another zippered pouch, slightly different in design, slightly better made than the first. This pouch was actually designed to be long enough to be used as a pencil case. I made it from more vintage sheets in my favorite color...purple.

For more reasons to love Fridays, visit Tinnigirl and check the list. Oh, and be sure to wish her luck on her craft fair stall.

Love Fridays

2009-02-28T01:05:00.000-08:00

I'm really loving this Friday cuz I actually got stuff done. Normally, I wake up on Fridays telling myself that since this is my day off I'm going to work on some projects, get some stuff done. 6 out of 10 times it doesn't happen. There's all sorts of reasons why, the biggest one being that I'm LAZY.

Today, though, I got a bunch of projects done. The only one I took pictures of, so far, was my felt Make-Along project....

It's a bag for taking aand bringing home the Valentines that kids pass out at school. It didn't start out as that. It actually didn't start out as anything. I started cutting up the pink felt and this is what it told me it wanted to be. Now I have to find a child to give it to.

If you want to see all the very amazing things people have been making with felt this month, check out the flickr group. And if you want more reasons to love Fridays, go over to Tinniegirl and check 'em out.

Lent

2009-02-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of year again…Lent. Technically, Lent (or Lenten) is a Catholic practice, and I, though not Catholic, think that fundamentally, Lent is a worthy practice. I say fundamentally because the form of observance that the Catholic church has officially chosen, I have some issue with. Here’s a snippet from the American Catholic Church’s website about Lent…

”Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. In addition, all Catholics 14 years old and older must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent.

Fasting as explained by the U.S. bishops means partaking of only one full meal. Some food (not equaling another full meal) is permitted at breakfast and around midday or in the evening—depending on when a person chooses to eat the main or full meal.”

To me this seems a bit tame or wishy washy, even. They say fast on those two important days but here’s our definition of “fasting”, some food is ok, just not too much. And then abstain from meat, but only on Fridays. It’s contradictory to me. Here’s another snippet from the same website about the reason behind giving things up for Lent…

“Lent is about conversion, turning our lives more completely over to Christ and his way of life. That always involves giving up sin in some form. The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever. Conversion means leaving behind an old way of living and acting in order to embrace new life in Christ. For catechumens, Lent is a period intended to bring their initial conversion to completion.”

So, if that’s the case, why give up meat only on one day a week? That’s not exactly “rooting” something out.

My view of Lent, and please remember it’s strictly my view and I’m not Catholic, is that it should be about sacrifice. The Bible tells us that Jesus fasted and was tempted but didn’t take the bait and that He is the ultimate sacrifice, having given his life. So asking people to give up meat once a week seems very pale in comparison.

Having said all this, I come to my point. I do practice Lent (everyday not one day a week) because I believe that sacrifice is a very good way to not only “root” out certain behaviors or bad habits but it’s also a way to instill good behaviors and habits. Last year I went veggie for all of Lent and that introduced me to a lot of different foods and recipes that I normally wouldn’t ever try that I still eat now. About 3 years ago I gave up French fries because I ate them with at least one meal a day and up until about 6 months ago I ate French fries maybe once every 3 or 4 months. In the last 6 months, though, I’ve had a huge fry fixation.

Soooo, for this Lent, fries are on the list of sacrifices along with breakfast on the run, ignoring my household chore duties, Starbucks and places like it and buying fabric for no reason. But the biggie is sugar. I once tried to give up sugar completely for Lent but everything has sugar in it when it’s the thing you’re giving up. So, I’m giving up sweets and adding sugar to things (like coffee). Let me tell ya, that is huge for me cuz I have THE biggest sweet tooth. But I’m also Ms. Wilhelmina Power so I know I can do it.

I'm a lucky girl!

2009-02-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

I recently participated in an apron swap on swap-bot. The requirements were a) half apron, b) tea themed 3) throw in a couple of bags of tea. Here’s what my partner sent me…

How freakin’ lucky am I? My partner, LibrarianLee, sent me a full apron, a super cute full apron, a teabag holder, a small zippered pouch and a credit card holder. Then I got a card in the mail yesterday and she apologized (apologized!) for making the wrong type of apron and said she’d make another (the half apron it was supposed to be) if I wanted. I was so tempted to email her and say yes but that would just be wrong. (she says, trying to convince herself) I just feel very lucky to have been her partner. I mean, really, look at the pocket…

You probably can’t tell from the picture but the little polka dotty fabric is actually not dots at all, they’re little hearts!!! Have I mentioned that I LOVE this apron…I wasn’t sure if you picked up on that or not.

p.s....

I’ve finished the blanket from the last post. I am in love with the colors and am tempted to make one for myself even though it wouldn’t match anything. There are a couple of wonky spot but as far as I’m concerned they just add character. Anyway, here’s the finished product…

And the back of it…

I’m really not good at the whole pricing thing. Whenever we have a yard sale or do a booth at a craft fair I’m constantly underpricing things, at least according to friends and family. So before this little blanky is in the shop, I’ve gotta do some research on how much to charge. If anybody out there has any formulas for that kind of thing, please let me know.

quilt top

2009-02-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

More than likely it's a "blanket top" cuz I don't know how to actually quilt other than by hand and that's just too much for me right now. But this is the first of some blankets I'm making for the shop that has been neglected for way too long. I'll let you know when the items get posted, I like to do them all at once rather than one at a time, makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

new addition / Love Fridays

2009-02-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

On Friday, we brought home a new family member. He has brown eyes and gray hair. He's very sweet, hardly ever speaks. He's not too tall, let's say medium, yeah, he's of medium build.

Here's a picture of the little guy...

Isn't he cute? My sister has been wanting a dog of her own so when Petsmart announced their adoption weekend we decided to go. We both fell in love with this little mutt (part Schnauser, part who knows) instantly. He was so calm and quiet among all the chaos of other dogs barking and jumping and when we took him by the cats there was nary a peep outta him. So we adopted him right then and there. I'm guessing they thought he looks like the dog from Lady and the Tramp cuz they named him Tramp, plus they found him wandering the streets. It doesn't really flow off the tongue for me so I keep calling him Champ, which I like much better anyway.

He's super sweet and curious but has a propensity for chewing on power cords, which we're trying to train him out of. Since he was a stray he's not trained at all. He's managed to go...ahem...#2, exactly once outside. All other times have been in the house. But he has managed, each time, to make it on whatever we've put down as our "just in case" measure. So he actually has my dog beat. My dog who is too phobic to use a doggy door by himself and who can not seem to keep his little butt on the puppy pads I put down.

(gratuitous Jasper shot...)

Speaking of...I think Jasper is liking his new playpal but as soon as I'm home he's all "I'm too good for that mutt." and "How dare he think he can just play with me!" My dog is such a snob.

Sasha is not having anything to do with him, she's been holed up in a corner and only comes out when she knows for sure he's not in the room.

and tentatively at that. Poor girl.

Is this your sparkling moment?

2009-02-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

I have something to tell you. I’ve been keeping it to myself because first I wanted to savor it then I felt there were more important things going on so I waited until now to tell you that I won something. I won a book from Alicia Paulson’s blog, Posie Gets Cozy. She had 4 books to give away, three titled Roots and Recollections: A Century of Rockywold-Deephaven Camps by Megan Thorn and one called Ordinary Sparkling Moments by Christine Mason Miller. I won the latter.

It just came today in the mail and, really, it's a beautiful book. Sorry about not having any pictures of the beautiful pages but here's the cover...

I was flipping through the pages, and one page really caught my attention. It had this paragraph that seemed to just sum up alot of what I've been thinking lately...

"There are times in life when we are called upon to give, and times when the world needs us to receive! We must offer ourselves in both arenas, knowing they each feed and inspire the world. We give. We take. We ask. We receive. And in all of these exchanges, we contribute."

There are so many Australian families in desperate need and ready to receive. Are you ready to give, to contribute? If you are, you can go here and find out the way to contribute that best fits you.

Australian Bush Fires and a Winner!

2009-02-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

Have you heard about the terrible fires that are tearing through Southern Australia? They're being called the worst bush fires in Australia's history. The death toll, at last update, was nearing 200. The news here had a 15 second blurb about the fires yesterday morning and I haven't really seen much else about them on our local news. Living in a state that is super prone to brush fires I would think that we'd be hearing more about these fires, but no. I did a quick search for how much land has been burned because here in California, whenever there are fires that's basically what they focus on, but with these fires, the number of lives lost is just devastating and unfathomable.

There is a way you can help. Actually, many ways. If you go on over to the Meet Me at Mikes blog and read her last 6 or so posts she has so much information on ways to help that I'm not going to repeat it here. But, really, there are tons of ways we can help from an ocean away. So please, pick one or ten and just do it. And for any of you Australian's that might read this, I'm praying hard for those who've lost homes and loved ones to these fires.

Now, for the winner of my little give away...

So, my dear, if you'll email me at snnglbuny2 (at) gmail (dot) com with your address and color preferences I'll get it to you tout de suite!

Have a heart

2009-02-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

Quite a while ago, almost a year ago, I entered my first swap. It was for handmade hearts. The swap coordinator, Sheri, who no longer has a blog, made the deadline sometime in the beginning of december but the date got moved to the end of January. So, in my typical fashion, I procrastinated and put things off and finally got them done. That's what my daily projects were for Friday night and Saturday. I only had to make 14 so it wasn't a huge project just slightly tedious and a bit difficult to come up with 14 different ones.

Anyway, here they are...

and now they're off to the post office.

Love Fridays

2009-02-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

One of these weeks I'm going to make this post on a Friday. Oh how I loved this Friday!! A friend and I decided that we are going to start visiting local museums because neither of us really ever have so yesterday we visited the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena. The museum doesn't actually open til noon so we made plans for lunch first. We picked Daisy Mint. A very cute little Thai bistro. My Chilies, Basil and Beef hit the spot. Doesn't it look yummy?! (mine is the one on the left, L's Green Curry on the right)

So, on to the museum...I remember the commercials for this museum from when I was a kid. It featured a very young Candace Bergen and flashes of lots of Degas sculptures. At least thats how I remember them. I've never been to it...after living in SoCal for 35 years this was my first time. It was amazing! I love art museums in general. To quote my friend, they make me feel so educated and cultured. This one, for such a small museum, has a collection that spans about 800 years. And the numbr of sculptures is astounding. I think my favorite pieces were Bird In Space by Brancusi and Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Degas. But my favorite part of the museum was out back...

It was raining so their sculpture garden was actually closed so this is all we got to see which was our view from out cafe table where we had coffee and dessert.

I really wish the garden was open cuz I wanted to get a better look at the scultpures. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back for a better look.

You should definitely go over to Tinnigirl and check out all the other reasons to Love Fridays.
Only two more days left for the give away!

Paper craft and Little pouch

2009-02-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

I said that I needed to find a non-sewing project which was fine. I came up with all sorts of things. One problem...I can't find any of my craft supplies. They're all in boxes somewhere. So I sat down and started tearing into a couple of magazines and made this little scene...

Which I'm not all that pleased with. I don't know if it's the fact that it's not what I wanted to be doing or because I'm just not happy how it turned out. Either way, it'll go in the drawer until I can come back to it.

Luckily, when my brilliant sister came home she reminded me to look in the little compartment in the sewing machine for extra needles....duh! And they were there, of course. So I got back to work on my little pouch. I thought it was turning out so well but once I started to work on the zipper, I figured there were a couple things I did wrong but this being a first time, that's alright. It's all about learning as I go. So here's how it turned out...

Cute, no? I'm having issues with finding things, as I've mentioned, white thread included. But no biggie. The fabric that I used is part of a fat quarter from a vintage sheet that was part of a vintage sheet fat quarter exchange I participated in a while back. The lining is from the same swap. I actually don't really like the lining fabric but the colors matched perfectly with the other fabric so I couldn't not use it.

The best part of the whole thing, I think, is the strap...

I'm really good at making straps and handles for some reason.

So, next time there are a few things that will be done differently but for the most part, I like it. Now what should I make tomorrow?

Don't forget five more days till the give away!

I'm in the crafting groove

2009-02-04T09:37:00.001-08:00

Since I went so long without a sewing machine (from the end of August to the middle of January) I have been going a little crazy and coming up with all sorts of things that I want to try and make. I’ve been finding all sorts of tutorials all over the place and bookmarking them or I’ve downloaded the pdf versions of them and saved them in my “Projects to try” folder. Basically, I’ve been hording ideas like a mad woman.

So, now that I’ve got this borrowed machine I’m trying to do some of those projects. The lunch bag was one of them.

Then came the pencil roll. Actually, this was supposed to be a Christmas present for someone, but better late than never, right?

Notice there are no close up shots of the inside. This is very much on purpose because to be quite frank, I can not sew a straight line to save my life. So all those little pencil pockets are a little wobbly but they get the job done.

Then last night I started on a small zippered pouch. This was to be my first zipper ever, that is until I broke the needle on the sewing machine right at the point where I was ready to put the zipper in. Oops! And it was going so well too. I refused to take pictures until it was finished so there’s nothing to show of it but rest assured it was coming out better than I thought it would. When I’m able to go get new needles, probably tomorrow, I’ll finish it and show it to you.

Anyway, I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do a project a day this week just to get myself back into the crafty swing of things. I guess tonight’s project will have to be a non-sewing one. Anybody got any ideas? All my horded ideas seem to have all been sewing projects. Guess I’m going to have to do some more digging. Off I go…

Don't forget to sign up for the give away if you haven't done so already!!

Eye-spy, a blogaversary and a give away

2009-02-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

Eye-spy:
I struggled with this one for some reason. We don’t have a whole lot of small things around the house. Mostly cuz one of the critters with chew it up and leave the remains all over the house. So I decided to pick something from work…

My sister and I made these a while back for a craft fair booth and I really liked the lady-bugishness of this one. It’s made from a terracotta pot that is only 2” high and about 2” wide. It holds photos of Jasper and Sasha and my friend Gloria’s pets - Joshe, the cat, and Bear, a HUGE black lab. (Just a piece of trivia for you…three out of the four animals were brought home because they were strays or abandoned and showed up at our office. Bear is the only non-rescue)
For more small things, visit BugandPop and check out the players.

Part deux:
I was reading up on some favorite blogs when I came across CurlyPops’ Blogaversary post. She’s reached her one year mark and the dinger in my head went off cuz CurlyPops was one of the first blogs I came across after starting mine and I had noticed that she had just started hers too. So, not knowing the exact date I started blogging off the top of my head, I looked. Lo and behold it was the 28th of January 2008. That was this past Wednesday. I also have past my 200th post (I’m at 208 with this one). And, if you’ll remember I had talked about a give away way back at my 100th but never got around to it because of the Big Move. So what better time than this post to have a give away?!

I’ve been obsessing over lunch bags lately and have decided to finally make one for myself. My normal lunch bag is whichever plastic grocery bag I can find, not stylish, I know but very handy. After trying very hard to go green and take re-usable shopping bags to the grocery store, I’ve found that I’m plastic bag deficient. So making my own lunch tote just makes sense. I had bought one from a market stall a few years back but the handles started coming undone. I took it apart and used it as my basic starting point but with a few tweaks and twists to make it my own.

So for my give away, one special person will receive one of these lunch totes…

This one is made from fabric I got in my tin from Tinniegirl (thank you, you’re awesome!). They come in 2 sizes. This one is the small size, just big enough for maybe a sandwich and a yogurt and has little pockets inside for knife spoon and fork. The other size can hold one of those throwaway type left-overs containers, has the little pockets, and comes with a placemat. It will be filled with various bits and bobs, not sure what yet.

I’ll leave it open for one week from today. Just leave a comment telling me the size you want and your favorite color. Oh, and tell all your friends who, like me, are completely unstylish and take a plastic grocery bag to work for their lunch, that here is the perfect opportunity to gain some style street cred.

Love Fridays on a Saturday and an award.

2009-01-31T20:42:00.000-08:00

I. I've become so slack in my meme responsibilities! Mostly, due to the fact that I've become EXTREMELY lazy in the last couple of months. That's also why my Friday was spent just like this...

I think I was awake maybe 3 hours during the daylight hours. Which of course means that I was awake into the wee hours of the night. Just another reason to love Fridays...SLEEP.

II. I was completely tickled and excited and quite touched that I received an award. This award...

from the very kind Tinniegirl.

The Proximidade is described as follows:'This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!'This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog.

I started this blog for a couple of reasons. Mostly to see if I could actually keep it up, having been terrible at keeping a diary when I was younger, and to get things off my chest. It quickly changed directions and became an avenue for making friends, finding inspiration, becoming connected to someone, anyone out there that felt, thought and was interested in the same things I am. And I must tell you, there are blogs out there for everybody. I really feel I've found my bloggy niche. So, the following 8 blogs are ones that I feel that connection with or get inspiration from or both. (Just for the record, I would re-award Tinniegirl, but I don't think that's how it supposed to go)
Area Thrifty One
Kimono Reincarnate
Miscellany of Me
Strickerin
Edward and Lilly
(fossil compass) erin kobie
CurlyPops
One Little Acorn

If anybody reading this has not read any of these lovely blogs, I heartily encourage you to do so!

The cake will not win!!

2009-01-28T10:19:00.000-08:00

One of my coworkers and I put ourselves in charge of buying a cake each month for all the employees who have birthdays in that month. So last night I picked up the cake and this morning it's sitting on my desk right next to me.

It seems to be willing me to open its container and take a swipe at its frosting. I can almost hear it whispering, "Come on, you know you want to...no one will even notice."

It's an evil cake. With an evil little whispery voice and evil mind manipulating powers. You can hear its little evil song, too, can't you?

But it doesn't know that I am a super hero. This receptionist gig is just my mild mannered alter ego. I'm really Ms. Power, Ms. Willhelmina Power, Will for short. That's right folks, Will Power is here to save the day. I, with my cape billowing in the breeze, will stop that evil cake!

Take that, evil little cake!!

*no actual cakes were harmed in the making of this post.

Eye spy...something that starts with J.

2009-01-26T08:41:00.001-08:00

My first and most obvious choice would be, of course, Jasper…

I mean who wouldn’t think of that cute little face first? I think he must have some kind of hold on me…almost like I’ve been hypnotized. (*shakes head to clear the fog*)

But really, what I spy is January. So far, this January has been very strange. The first week or so was very chilly. So chilly I was sleeping in, not only my pj’s, but also a sweater on top of them and about 7 blankets. Then it got really warm, in the 80”s type of warm. Then we got a couple of days of drizzle. Then, last night, hail, thunderstorms, wind, the whole shebang. Today, sunny…

Weird, I tell ya.

For more J things, go here and check 'em out.

This weekend's project.

2009-01-18T22:33:00.001-08:00

Because we have a very very far way to go to get the house where we want it I've got a list of projects that will take approximately one weekend to get finished. This weekend's project got put at the top of the list because we are having a candle party (think Tupperware but with candles and candle holders) and we have very limited seating. So, I decided I'd finally make cushions for this chair...

My family has had this chair since I was a kid, when my dad brought it home from somewhere. I always sat in this one (he brought home 2, this one and one with arms that are arch shaped) reading or watching TV, usually with my feet in the air and my head hanging over the edge of the seat. It's really a huge chair if you can't tell from the photo. For the last 8 years I've had it in my possession in this poor state. No cushion, paint peeling, etc. I kept telling myself I'd get to it but never did. Finally, though, due to necessity, I have. I spent the weekend making these cushions...

The seat cushion was made from scratch but the big pillow is a pillow form that I bought and I just made a sham. I love that Alexander Henry fabric on the seat cushion. There's something about the black and white combo that really speaks to me.

Eventually, the frame will be painted white and the arms black but for the party, this is ok. The back of the big pillow looks like this...

I was originally going to put buttons with loop closures on it but I just thought it would be too much. I'm a minimalist at heart.

I've made pillows and pillow covers before but the big cushion is a first for me. It was a challenge. I've never done anything box like. Making sure corners all meet up was an interesting experience.

How did you spend your weekend?