Thanksgiving/birthday weekend

This week has been very, very full. So full I haven't had two seconds to process, much less write on here. Thursday, Thanksgiving, we went to my mom's with my extended family, then to Adam's aunt's with his family, then back to my mom's and then bowling with my family again. I was really proud of Adam and I. Typically, holidays come with a fair amount of stress - from everything from just sharing the mirror to figuring out timing of when we leave one family to go to the other, to feeling neglected or left out at the other person's family, etc. But last year I made some resolutions about getting through what is supposed to be a happy day of thankfulness and family, and I am so thrilled to say it was perfect.

Part of what made it better is that Adam is getting more comfortable with my family, so that helps tremendously. Also, I made a point to not be touchy or sensitive about ANYTHING, no matter how stressed I might be. It felt good feeling almost like I was...outsmarting him. Does that make sense? I don't mean it maliciously, I just mean - it was nice to feel like I had control over how pleasant the day was. I could look beyond my own petty wants, and make everything fun.

Friday was my birthday - I did absolutely nothing all day, then went out shopping with my sister/mom, went to my sister's soccer tournament, and then went out for dinner with Amber, Adam, Daniel and family. It was really nice, really fun and low key - Amber, Rosie, and Roxana got me YARN gift certificates, Adam got me diamond earrings and a BIKE, and my family got me the game Hive, and the coolest blender ever (yes, a blender, hush, I am thrilled). Oh, also Roxana made me the coolest CD of "shower songs."

Then yessstterrrday...I spent all day studying for my psychology test, took that, and then went to the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company and knitted there for a while. I got a needle felting kit, which will be fun to use, and some manos del uruguay and lamb's pride wool/mohair. Very very yummy. After that I went running for a while in Seal Beach, then went home and got ready to go see Tom Russell at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Adam and I met Linda and John Wilson, and Tracy and Matt there (all the director/co director of the daycare I used to work at and their husbands) at a mexican restaurant, then we went and listened to the absolutely wonderful southwestern crooning of Mr. Russell.

Today I did dishes, half a load of laundry, grocery shopping, finished a scarf and a pair of socks, and am roasting a whole turkey! It's crazy. I've never cooked a whole animal before. :P It smells really good - I hope I don't screw it up. It's got an hour and a half left to cook and I am resisting the temptation of opening up the oven to look at it.

The rest of the day holds finishing laundry, eating turkey, going bike riding or running, maybe going to my sister's soccer game, maybe going shopping with my mom, and then Sunday night tv with the boyfriend. Tomorrow it's back to work as usual.

I've of course been taking photos of all of this - so as soon as I can I will put up the illustrations. :)

photos from this week

Hi kids, it's time for a photo update.
In no apparent order, we have...yours truly, going camera-happy and taking self portraits. There's plenty m0re where that came from...

Then there is my little sister and our friend Nadine (who will now forever be known as Nadizzle). They were enjoying a photo shoot for my bags a little too much.

Following that photos it's my little sister with her boyfriend at the karate studio car wash. I am sure they had been busy earlier washing cars...but note that they were not busy at the moment.

Then we have what I thought was a kinda cool photo of some of the larger bags that I have made. The middle one (the bright yellow/orange one) has been on reserve for someone at work for a while, and I finally wrapped it up and delivered it today.

I spent the last two saturdays doing ceramics at the Irvine Fine Arts Center with my friend Amber, so she took a photo of me throwing, and I took some of my works in progress.

The last photo is totally random - I was closing the screen door and realized there was a lizard on it. I decided that was a perfect chance to mess around with the close-up settings on my new camera, so mess around I did. I also used the chance to get a sneaky photo of Adam while he was unsuspecting. Mwhahaha.

photo time

Hi folks! I have had such a nice few days. But I don't have much time right now, so here is a photo blog... The f irst few photos are Dr. Horrible induced...also my excitement at Daniel bringing me a new card for my camera! I can now store the technical ammount of "two gajillion" photos.

The next photos are my two sisters and I, outside of the theater where Roxana performed admirably in And Then There Were None - the Agatha Christie. It was hard to get scared with Rosie and Daniel next to me whispering "that's what she said" after every other line.

Then, at dinner (fine dining of Subway) - they decided to neither speak, see, or hear...hardeeharhar.



This is my dad in his kitchen! I don't get to see him nearly often enough - the other night I went over there and we watched Top Chef together and had a heart to heart, which was really nice. He's always busy working (data analyst for Edison International) or coaching soccer, so it's always good to get to go watch movies or talk with him.

Andrea's Scarf!

This is the scarf that has been occupying my life for the last few weeks. I can't believe it's done. What will I do without it? Oh, I know...everything I haven't been doing!

My cousin ordered this custom scarf for a friend of his. It was supposed to match a hat she has - he took a stealth photo of this hat with his cell phone, and that's what I went off of.

She wanted "easter colors," for it to be "flat, but not ribbed," "soft but not fluffy" and with no fringe. I did my best! I ended up doing seed stitch to keep it flat without the ribbing, and I laboriously taught myself how to do intarsia to get the sort-of-almost plaid look that her hat has.

My cousin is giving her the scarf today - I don't think I've ever been so nervous about a custom order in my life. :)

The first photo is me with the scarf covering my face, the second photo is my little sister, and the last photo is my sister with her boyfriend. I kidnapped them last night after karate and made them watch the WoW SouthPark episode, then we watched The Office until I fell asleep.

I am so looking forward to working on my other projects now that this scarf is done. I need to totally finish JW's bag, which means I need to sew the lining, and then I can start listing the things I've been neglecting!

This Saturday I will be going to the Irvine FAC so I can do ceramics - I want to include some of my pieces in a corporate gift basket that AbbeyLane is putting together.