new room set up

It's so nice to make things and have people genuinely enjoy them. I have to say - that was one of the best parts about the Patchwork show was just seeing people look at my earrings, and hearing how adorable they are. I work hard, ya know? It's nice when they are appreciated.

It's especially nice when someone goes above and beyond to take the time to appreciate them - they were mentioned in a blog! Blithe and Bliss bought a pair of the tie-dye earrings and then posted about them. Talk about warm and fuzzy feelings.

Yesterday I didn't have school or work, just one big long lazy day. I read a few chapters for my final on Thursday, did some crocheting, and then MOVED FURNITURE. I wish I had taken before photos, but you'll have to settle for these after ones.

I am super stoked - my husband and I live with one of our best friends in a 3 bedroom house in Los Alamitos. We have the master bedroom, The Guy has a smaller room, and then the 3 of us were supposed to share the 3rd for an "office." All 3 of us had computers in there, and I got the closet for my art supplies.

Well, DH and The Guy are super, super, super, crazy, ridiculously, obsessively involved with computer games. They play them constantly - it is a team game, so their brothers, friends, and friends' brothers are also playing. All day long I hear the voices coming through their speakers and headphones. They are about 1.5 hour long games, with you can usually tell when the end is near because they get louder and further away from a G rating.

DH and TG have their desks next to each other, and then I had mine in there as well. It has my school books and notebooks and filing box. It also has my business cards, envelopes, and stuff I have for mailing out my handmade items. It is a useless piece of furniture - because the boys are ALWAYS in that room and I need a little more quiet and a little less explosion to study. Also, we frequently have friends over who use my desk to, you guessed it, play the same computer game.

I've sort of relinquished that space, but realized I needed my own. So yesterday I moved all the furniture around in our bedroom to make room for my desk! I brought that in, and organized my earrings and the whole set up. I am so excited to have my own space!!

I am very excited - it has room for my textbooks up on top, my embroidery floss hanger, my earring holders, and even has actual desk space to work on.



Now the guys can have their gaming room, I have my craft/study room, and we can meet in the middle in the living room. hehe.

clusters of crocus...silver and gold...

Today I am feeling like I am wasting my time a little bit being here at work. There are so many other things I'd like to be doing -

I want to sit and watch my bulbs grow. Yes, I do. I want to sit in the front yard, on the cement that's always covered in dusty dogprints and watch the hyacinth and freesia grow. Every morning when I pull the stuck and stubborn front door open, and trip down the three steps in my high heels to get to the car, it's like a whole new thing. They are growing so fast. I want to watch them.

I want to clean the fridge and chop vegetables for soups and stews and crockpot concoctions.

I want to hang out with my dog, for hours and hours. I want to use that weird red rubber brush that gets all the top hairs, and brush her for an hour, so I can let her romp all over the house and climb up on the couch and watch American Idol with me while I knit socks and cat-hats. Juno grew up lately - her legs got longer, and she looks more dog like and not so puppy like. She's got the most energy I've ever seen in an animal. I've been working on the concept of fetch - rather than the concept of grab-and-destroy, which she is familiar with already - and each one of these stupid dark days I leave too early and get home and it's cold and dark and I want SUMMER and now I am just whining. Whoops.

Yesterday I got a pedicure with my future sister-in-law, hate the color, but it was really fun to sit there and relax and just talk and talk. To be honest, I was a little nervous to hang out with her without a buffer, afraid we'd run out of conversation, but I shouldn't have worried. She is nice, and I can be sometimes too.

She loaned me her snake-thing for clogged drains, and Chris spent a while last night fixing our shower. It was such a pleasure to take one this morning, all clean and nice, instead of gross. He also fixed the short in the bathroom light switch! Now we just have to re-hang the door on the hinges, and the bathroom will actually be functional again.

We're holding a superbowl party at our house on Sunday, so the three of us have a cleaning date for Saturday. I miss Adam like crazy. It'll be nice to do housestuff with him. I feel like I haven't seen him in a week.

I bought new shoes last night, and now I need an occasion to wear them to, and an outfit to wear them with. Silly shoes. I love them.

she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from china

Cookbooks at the weight watchers meeting today were 1/2 off...so naturally I bought two of them. They're so pretty, I can't decide what I want to cook first. I need some serious grocery shopping time today - in the 9 days I was gone and the 4 I've been sick for, the contents of our fridge have dwindled down to a little bit of non-fat milk, 12 containers of laughing cow cheese, and aloe vera. Time for shopping!

Tonight I think I will make 3 ww recipes - 1: Winter squash soup with butternut squash, onions, carrots and parsnips, 2: lamb kabobs with mushrooms and red peppers, and 3: balsamic vinegar chicken. I will also be buying salad stuff to go with it - and maybe it's time for some new rice as well.

I don't feel as awful as I did, but I still feel run down. I would like to go home and go to sleeeeep. 14 days til the Turkey Trot, so I need to start training for a 5k all over again too. My house is CLEAN and wonderful - trying so hard not to leave those piles. I made curtains which makes a HUGE difference in the livability of the living room/kitchen. Today I have a very small pile of dishes to do, some light maintained-dusting, and I will clean the kitchen floor. It doesn't feel like Friday, it feels like Monday, since I haven't been to work all week - and I keep forgetting that I have the weekend! I have no idea what I am going to do this weekend, none, at all.

Watched Say Anything on VHS last night with Adam - remembered how much I adore John Cusack - especially young John Cusack, but really, all John Cusack. Had weird dreams of crooked fathers and Adam buying multicolored suits. Woke up before my alarm this morning, and despite taking time out to fold a whole load of laundry, was 15 minutes early to work.

WW meeting we talked about forming new traditions, especially activity based ones, around the holidays. Will remember this Thanksgiving to get up and MOVE. I would like to lose this extra 5 pounds in the next 2 weeks. I think I can, I really think I can - I just need to stick to my food/exercise. Today I had ww oatmeal for breakfast (2 pts), and a subway salad with olive oil/chicken (5 points). I am full feeling - with many, many points left for the day.

Got out one of my Alaskan cross-stitch patterns yesterday too - looking forward to working on that later tonight when I am done with dishes/cooking/etc. I want my house. I want my home. I am super-nesting-girl right now. When did I turn so agoraphobic? There is nothing nicer to me than my own living room.

Yesterday I drank tea while eating tangerines from my tree singing leonard cohen to myself, giggling quietly with satisfaction. I have it. It is mine!

etsy!

I have been wanting to revamp my etsy shop for some time - so today I've been poking around the shop a little bit, cleaning up some things. I'm not quite ready to make a whole new banner or anything - I do like the one I have, and it's going to have to wait until I decide which of my pieces I'd really like to focus on.

Today I put some of my older pieces into a SALE section - with the hopes that if those get sold, I will bring out the new items!!! So go check out my shop and look at the sales! (If I do say so myself, they are awesome sales. $15 for a crocheted handbag that usually goes for $25, for example...)

Today for the first time in weeks I don't have anywhere I HAVE to be tonight, and Adam will be working, so I can putter around on my own. I'd like to take Juno for a jog, tackle laundry and dishes, make pesto with the basil from my garden, water the garden and grass, straighten up the house, breath the smell of tomato plants, set up my computer, upload photos of marina's wedding, and get out my etsy sale pieces, organize and take new photos of them.

I've heard people say that something that makes an etsy shop successful is having it narrowed down to one item or type of item. That shops that focus on Aprons, for example, do better than shops that sell aprons and beanies and socks and necklaces. In my small amount of research, it does seem that the shops that do really well at least have a common theme or material in all of their pieces. I am debating what I want to focus on, then. I really do love my crocheted handbags, and I am thinking that between those, the felted bowls, and coin purses, that would make an excellent shop. Maybe somewhere down the line I can open another shop to sell ceramics and magnets, etc.

So anyhoo - I am excited about etsy again, and am looking forward to when my sister's boyfriend can come over and set my computer up in the office, with Adam and Chris' computers, where I can look out into the backyard and the lemon tree while I fool around on etsy.

4th of july photos

hello world!

Today I am in wedding mode! I have so much to do for Marina's wedding... it's time it's time! I wish I lived closer... this trying to figure out what to get now and what to get then is annoying.

Today my goal is to
1. Finish the shower favors, this involves
a. finish the ribboning
b. buying the c's and attaching the l's
c. printing the l's

2. Decide on a design for the bparty favors, start those

3. Get paper for the shower B, sketch design

Wednesday I will have very little time, and then Thursday, Ethan visits and I will do stuff like get my dress, get presents, work on TS, etc.

Sorry for the lack of details, but I'm not sure if Marina actually reads this thing. ;)

This is my garden as of the 4th of July! As of today, the zucchini's actually have blossoms!!! Yay! Very pleased.



this is my amazing jumping dog. Juno gets AIR. It's amazing. Also in the photo is roommate, Chris.



We borrowed the ping pong table from my folks, spent 2 hours setting it up, and here I am...getting whomped royally by my father. He's a ping pong master. I think he beat everyone that day.



Some of the potluck food, including an amazing homemade Apple pie. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM.



Chris and Marco playing the bean bag game. This game is awesome. Marco brings it everywhere, and it never fails to be a hit. Also, I never fail to suck spectacularly at it. It's truly a remarkable phenomenon how bad I am at throwing a damn bean bag.




Boggle turned out to be a big hit for the night, also. Roxana, obviously, kicked some serious butt. My cousin Becky wins points for persistence. I think Alex and Glen get runners ups. I, of course, did not have the attention span to sit and play for any length of time. We also played blokus, which I won, every time, thank you very much.



We had a bonfire once it got dark, here we have my Cousin Zac and his wife, Abi, sitting around the fire.


We sat in the front yard and watched the fireworks. Rommel didn't like the noise, so he got up and went inside. We found him in the office where we had really loud music playing. Juno looked up once, then put her head down and closed her eyes. I thought she was sleeping, except every time there was a bang, her ears twitched in that direction.Behind us there was a kid that said "wowowowowWOW" every time a firework went off.




The 4th of July was awesome. Everything in my life is awesome, except for the headaches. Since I want everything to be awesome, I will finally make a doctor's appt. sheesh.

the house that Roya wants

Since Adam was about 11 years old, he lived next door to Chris and David. As they got older, he has lived with or next door to at least one of them - with the ONLY break from that being the 4 months he lived with ME in Alaska, and a couple of months ONE street over from them when we got back. As soon as possible we moved into the house in back of theirs. We call Chris "Uncle Chris" because he is Joey to our Chandler/Monica - he is already Uncle Chris to our dogs, and one day when we get married and have kids, he'll have a Joey room in our house and will be Uncle Chris for real. For the last year we've enjoyed an excellent living situation - bbq's between the houses, dessert sharing, movie watching, brunch-going, etc. It's been so nice to have our really close friends as our closest neighbors.

Then David decided to move. He'll be living about 1.5 hours northeast of us as of next week. Chris suddenly can't afford the double rent, so he was thinking of moving too. Our situation will be drastically uncool as soon as neighbors move into our front house. The driveway is tight. It was okay with friends...not so great with strangers.

I almost cried when Adam told me, and as he put it, he was "seriously bummed out." He really has lived with one or both of them for most of his life. Chris is pretty damn introverted also and I couldn't see him spending too much of his time out of his home, whever he moved to.

We decided then to start looking for a new place - Adam will be working far away, we could split the difference, maybe find something cheap to save money, etc. I don't remember who suggested it, but we jokingly said Chris should just move in with us. Then we "joked" about it with Chris, and Sunday the three of us spent a good portion of the day driving around looking at houses.

We found the house I want. It's a 3 bedroom, right between the two freeways the three of us need. It has a HUMONGOUS backyard - HUGE HUGE HUGE, with fruit trees and a work-in-able two car garage and a covered patio and tons of grass and a big giant garden plot already created with grape vines!

And - it's one street over from my family!!! I want it. I want it so badly. I have managed to talk Adam and Chris into the merits of this house, and tonight we go to meet with the rental company and...it is now time to start crossing fingers.

It's such a family house. It's in the neighborhood I grew up in, for crying out loud. It's a house we could stay at for a long time to come. Chris could really be Uncle Chris. Hell, there's even a shed he could have. ;)

Anyways. That's tonight. So I'm hoping and wishing, etc.

In other news - I went to CSULB for the Human Services graduation today... yay Cousin Becky and Intern Nancy and Friends Karen, Dawn, Kristin, Sophia and more! Yay for seeing KJ and Susan and go Beach!

I finished 1 of the Pippi kneestockings and it fits Rosie! I'm 3 stripes in on the second one! Here's to finishing a project!

looking forward to a domestic night tonight. First, running on the river trail, then picking up dry cleaning, then grocery shopping, then home for laundry, playing with dogs, feeding fish, doing dishes, making dinner, making lunches, doing strength exercises, and cross stitching! sounds good to me. I like those days every once in a while. My friend Rebecca calls it "nesting" - when you want to stay close to home and putter and put things right.

I bought workout pants that make me feel really cute, which is the main force behind getting me to go run these days. It's great!

Tomorrow I plan on going to a running store and researching new shoes. The shoes I run in now my dad bought me when I was 18 years old. 6 years later... time to get new shoes.

Today I've felt pretty good. Happy, productive, peaceful, glad. I feel the way an icelandic poppy looks. I love the sunshine. I am so happy that it's spring. I am ignoring the fact that it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow - gray and gloominess right in the midst of sunshine tends to put me in a bad mood, but instead I will revel in the fact that the rain will water my freesia bulbs that I keep forgetting to water, and then I won't have to wash my car. Then it will be sunshine again!

this weekend

I am surviving puppy-motherhood...she is asleep under my desk. My favorite times with her are when Adam gets home and we sit outside in white plastic chairs and watch the puppy and Rommel play tug o war with the chew toys, and watch as she bounces as high as she can t0 bite him the the face and then gets nervous and runs back to us and then goes to attack him again. There is also a pattern of her slowing down a little bit around 10pm while I am in the kitchen doing dishes and she comes and lays on my feet and chews on a treat while I make lunches and clean up.

Tomorrow I am working at a transition fair in the morning, and then I am working allll day long and then I have a staff meeting tomorrow night with my staff who are going on the Hollywood Trip with me. Wednesday I have the meeting with the clients who are going on that trip. It's going to be a very busy April for me...

but in any case, It's past 5 and I want to get home and get some bread started in my new bread machine! I also want to get the entertainment center my aunt Julie is giving me - because my house is beautimous right now. I made green and white curtains for the bedroom and bought a bedspread set that has green branches with flower blossoms all over it, and my room is one step closer to being like sleeping in a tree.

I have a bunch of tree branches in my trunk, which I will spray paint and use as curtain rods once I have time for that project. And I also plan on painting two of the walls a light green, and then buying some vinyl decorations from etsy.com - a tree sillouhette over the tv/dressers. ahhhhh yes. I love my bedroom. For a long time it had a "weird unliveable vibe" as Adam put it last night, and now it feels homey!

I am excited about speaking at the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference in San Diego. I haven't been around a whole group of unschoolers for quite some time. Rosie's birthday party doesn't quite count. ;)

Oh, really quickly - since I last wrote, I made new friends, ate huge calzones, sang loud karaoke, watched the production of Little Shop of Horrors that Roxana asst. directed, saw I Love You Man with said friends, had an A2A event (edison dance), and celebrated Naw Ruz with my family, had long and wonderful discussions with Adam, started watching a new tv show (East Bound and Down...?) made a casserole, scrubbed the bathroom, did 6 loads of laundry - actually, this is not "since I last wrote" but "what I did this weekend."

At some point I'd love to follow up with a friend's post that is titled "I can bake my cake and eat it too" about falling into gender roles, nurturing, doing domestic/household things and being thrilled to death by it, and what our fore-mothers think, etc.
But the time is not now.
Tonight I am going grocery shopping to get bread baking stuff, and going out to eat with Xp and Swasthi and picking up the entertainment center! woohoo!

it started out tired and ended up inspired

Oh man oh man oh man. I just keep getting more tired. Last night, despite the best of intentions, I didn't make it to bed til 11pm. Adam had so much stuff he had to do - I don't know how any of the other police cadettes can make it through the academy without at least one other person helping them. I spent the night hemming his tshirts and cutting all the "Irish Pendants" (little hanging strings) off his uniform.

Amber and Chris also came over and brought Amber's computer desk for me! YAY! Now I have a real computer desk, our dining room table is back in the main room, and I am that much closer to an organized art space. I really, seriously, desperately want to sell the calking mattress so I can get a new bed. All of my plans hinge on having a queen sized bed!!!

Anyways, yesterday I made lunches, made dinner, did dishes, fed fish and dog, took out trash, watered garden, cleaned the bookshelves, organized some of the boxes in my art room, hemmed one of adam's shirts, cleaned the threads off of one of his shirts, and did an ab video.

Tonight the plan is work - decorate my coworker's office for her bday, go to Julie's and paint chairs, go to karate, then pick up coworker's gift certificate, put laundry in dryer, fold laundry, make lunches, cut up little soaps, bring in the trashcans, water the garden, wash and put away the dishes.

This blog has turned into my giant grocery list of to-do - which I apologize for. I am sure you are interested in my thoughts and opinions and ideas and stuff... but I am SUCH a mess at my own organization that I need to use every tool possible to help KEEP me organized. The inside of my head pretty much looks like these blog posts lately anyway. Lists and lists and lists and lists.

I feel - successful, I guess. A little on the tired side, but successful - not creative, successful. It's a strange feeling. Waking up early to do the things I need to get done - no time to stay up late and paint, but, when I get enough sleep I don't need that outlet anyway. I am watching less TV also, actually, which I am really happy about. I am getting pleasure out of the small things - books in a row and the sound of the fishtank and of course my doggydog following me around the house while I put things away. I am enjoying my home. I am enjoying being there for someone else without thought of what I am getting out of it. I am enjoying cooking tremendously - nothing gourmet, just making something filling and healthy out of raw ingredients has been filling me to the brim with satisfaction and joy. Feeding Amber and Adam my split pea soup the other night was blissful.

Other things I am excited about are getting my internship/volunteer program at work off the ground. I work for a nonprofit, and see HUGE potential for our internship program - and I finally have the interns to do it. I am so excited. I've been spending a lot of my time at work redoing the old material, interviewing, going to internship fairs, etc. Based on the interviews I've conducted this week, it does seem to have paid off.

Let's see - all my idealistic interns have me excited about THE NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE - January 19th, which I will definitely be participating in!!! I can't even tell you the thrill I felt when I saw the email subject in my inbox "Your call to service." THAT my friends, is what patriotism feels like! If you haven't heard about it - go to USAService.org to find out more. Or if you email me, I will forward you Michelle Obama's video. Anyways - I will be at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands on January 19th from 9am-12pm helping to clean up and do my part for our country! YAY VOLUNTEERING! YAY!!!

That is truly amazing to me - yet another reason why I voted for the Obamas and why I am still so thankful that they won that I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it. They rallied a country together for the election, with massive donations and people coming out of the woodwork all over. We all marveled at how they were catalysts. Here's proof - they are using their amazing cat-herding momentum for the good of our planet. I am in love with our presidential family, love that they serve, volunteer, and are so connected to community. I love that they are providing the tools, resources, and drive for other people to do the same thing. The president should be a damn near perfect human being, and the presedential family should be exemplary as well. I finally, finally feel like we found people I want to model in behavior, actions, and ideals.

So go serve. January 19th, the day before the inauguration and MLK day. It's going to be a good day.

saturday saturday saturday

Today has been going in strange fits and bursts. Slept in til 9am, which was nice... had a very leisurely morning. Then went out for sushi with Adam, and got home and have been cleaning up and organizing my art supply room ever since.

Organizing my art supply room is an incredible challenge. I've been reading a bunch of de-clutter, organizing books in preparation... so I decided that I need to do it in small stages. Today I took two trash bags - one was trash and one was giveaways, and went through the room to get rid of either of those two things. I did a pretty good job - emptied a drawer and a bunch of plastic tubs. There's some actual counter space! I think the next big job is going to involve buying a few larger bookshelves to store everything, so they aren't in cardboard boxes all over the floor.

Have I mentioned that I have discovered cooking grains and legumes? I am addicted. I love boiling up a pot of barley or lentils, and adding something else to it and having that for a very filling, healthisome meal. I was reading a message board on sparkpeople.com about cutting costs, and I was realizing that decreasing the meat intake by using grains and legumes like that is actually a good way to save money. I've been getting WAY better at just buying ONE zucchini and ONE squash which we will *definitely* eat, rather than buying 4 and having 2 of them go bad. For the last week and a half I have always had a big pan of roasted veggies cooked, with some grains, and I grilled some chicken and have some ham so Adam can add meat to it also. I am sure I will get tired of that same grilled veggie taste, but right now I'm a fan. Last week the main herb was rosemary, this week I did thyme.

I am loving being involved with sparkpeople. I set it as my homepage so any time I get online I am reminded about the different little goals I've set for myself.
I posted an add for the calking mattress we're trying to sell on craigslist, again... this is driving me crazy. It's a GOOD mattress - we've had it less than a year. It's just to damn big for our house, and I want to get rid of it so I can get a smaller bed, but nooo one is buying it. Geez. Only 350 for a calking here people!

As soon as I get rid of that bed, I can get a queen and actually make blankets and quilts and even put the round chair in the bedroom which will clear up more space in the art supply room, and we can work on getting a new couch and coffee table and a puppy and.....
So many projects. So not enough time. Or money. And now I am rambling.
Time to get out some crocheting.