Baby Blocks!

I spent Saturday/Sunday in Santa Barbara for my friend Marina's "baby warming" - she is about 4 months along, and as this kid should grow up calling me Aunt Roya...I wanted to make sure I made a near-to-my-heart sort of present.

I agonized a little bit, actually - no idea what to make. I wanted to make sure I made something gender neutral (for practical and philosophical reasons), and I didn't want to make anything other people would make either...

So I started by finding my favorite book covers from when I was little - and I printed them on iron-on-transfer paper. My idea was to make a quilt using these book covers and yellow fuzzy fleece backing! Well...I accidentally ironed on a book cover that while it LOOKED like a Dr. Suess book, it was actually a spoof and not exactly baby-blanket appropriate.

So I decided to make "baby blocks" instead. They are each hand-sewn, with the book covers cut up into 3 inch squares, and that yellow fleece as the supplemental material. I stuffed them with hypo-allergenic batting, and put a bell in each one so it would make baby-attracting noise!

I also made a box for them to go in, using more book covers!

This was a super fun project, and I can think of about 8000 variations I'd like to make. Can't wait to do more :)

stuff n stuff

toooday, had crazy dreams, woke up and went to the gym with adam. he went to work from there, I did 25 minutes of biking and 20 of elliptical and then walked home. made ww smoothie, did a little bit of laundry. swasthi came over and we went to return all of my xmas gifts - went to joanne's, ross, wallmart and the mall, where we succumbed to the sampling of wetzel's and split a cinnamon pretzel. Back home now, laundry in dryer, chicken in oven. Going to do dishes, make lunches for the next few days, and fold laundry, then get my stuff ready to go to R's (a supported living client) for my shift tonight. Stuff I need to get ready includes: phone charger, new Sparkpeople book (!!!), toothbrush, razor, clothes for work tomorrow.

Go straight from R's to work in the morning (my shift is tonight 10pm til tomorrow 8am). Maybe exchange costco gift on lunch break and buy dogfood. Work, go home, get sleep/work stuff ready, go to gym at 8pm, head to R's for 2nd shift at 9pm. Go to work in the morning from there.

Adam and Chris are going snowboarding over New Years, so today when I said goodbye to Adam at the gym is the last time I'll see him til the new year! Augh. Sad. I am feeling co-dependent. Trying to decide the best way to celebrate my solitary new years. Have Office marathon? Eat Thai food? Start a new quilting project and spread it out all over the living room?

There were 88gajillion people at the gym today. I wish they had preferred treadmill seating for those of us who are NOT on a new years resolution kick that will only last three weeks. harumph.

According to my self-weigh in today, I've lost my holiday weight. We shall see!

marriage and xmas and stuff

It's been so cold here lately, I've been finding myself just *tired* and worn out from it. Craving somewhere warm. I want sunshine that toasts and bakes and gets down to my boooonnees. Our bathroom door doesn't close all the way, so showers are chilly. the next free day Adam and I both have I need to remember to get him to help me fix it.

My ring is still sparkly, and I want to get back into the wedding-planning rush, but everyone is consumed with finals and Christmas. I supppppose I can wait until after xmas, when I will go buy tons of twinkle lights and gold ribbon, and start collecting. I will feel calmer when we have a date set.

I have been exercising a lot this week - feels good. Yesterday was the 4th day in a row. I went online and found a Sprint Triathlon training schedule, and am following that. So every day I do a minimum of 20 minutes of varying amounts of swimming, running, and biking. To meet my goal of 600 fitness minutes this month, I am also adding in random 10 minutes on the elliptical here and there. Today I am going to do 16 minutes of running, 11 minutes of elliptical, and then my interval-walking, which will equal about 16 minutes also. This bumps me up to 45 minutes which gets me 2 activity points for weight watchers instead of just 1 if I left it at 44. ;o)

Defrosting ground beef, tonight I'll make taco salad. Made enchiladas two ways this week. Trying to get better at normal-everyday cooking, rather than huge-production meals like I usually do. Also trying to make a whole week's worth of meals using the same flavor-profile so I can use the same ingredients.... so I don't buy a bunch of cilantro, use it once, and waste it, for example.

Juno is my favorite thing on this planet right now. She is so freaking beautiful that I can just stare at her for hours. I gave her a very thorough bath last week and now she is all clean and fluffy and soft and fantastic. Adam's been working super late this week, and falls asleep on the couch so he doesn't wake me up, and so Juno's been jumping up into bed with me. She's been so good - hasn't destroyed anything for weeks! She sure seems like she's growing up all of a sudden. Man I love that dog.

Adam's job is going really well, though it feels like I haven't seen him in weeks. He's right at the point where he is both getting off probation and getting qualified to be on his own at the park. It's an exciting week for him.

I bought all of my Christmas presents online this year - SUCH a good idea. I love not having to go shopping. I'm excited about them too, and I'm just waiting for this to start arriving so I can start the wrapping! Adam has to work this Christmas, so we are doing our thing Christmas Eve, and will see if his aunt is available for breakfast that morning. I'm going to at least stop by his aunt's house on Christmas, because we didn't go to Thanksgiving since he had to work, and now that we're engaged, I feel different now...I can go to his family's celebration in my own right, not just attached to him. I am really enjoying these subtle little changes in my role as we plan on getting married.