Bathroom Redo!

Here are the pics of my latest project: Operation Bathroom Redo! After a year in our house, I have really begun to feel the lack of personalization around my home. With a bridal shower looming on the horizon, I undertook the task of "prettifying" and organizing my bathroom. The plan: a sink skirt to hide the underside of the sink and create an enclosed storage space, a basket liner for the basket on the toilet top, fabric boxes to go on my wall unit to keep daily use items contained, and a small tote to hold my blowdryer and hairbrushes. I worked with the existing tile colors and I'm very happy with the result. Everything has a home now. The basket on the toilet doesn't get overwhelmed with random stuff anymore. The storage under the sink holds my cleaning supplies, a good stash of tp, and the garbage can. The best part is K has not gone poking around in there. Yet. She is a very curious child, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she starts wonder. In the meantime, my bathroom feels good. So much easier to keep it clean!

Bay to Breakers

I've been a busy lady since last I updated here. I completed my pair of pants for my sewing class (photos to come), and I had two lovely weeks of vacation. Nowhere exotic, just Minnesota and Iowa. Yay for the Midwest! Good times with friends in Minneapolis as my oldest, dearest friend graduated with her B.A., relaxing times outside of Cedar Rapids with my dad. Both were great trips in their own ways. Of course, I hit the ground running first thing Tuesday morning when I returned. Back to class and finishing my third and final project: a well-fitting vest. Back to preparation for J's friends' wedding this past Saturday. Back to training for Bay to Breakers in SF. Back to plans for my cousin's bridal shower.

Today is Sunday. I ran 7.46 miles this morning. It's the farthest I've ever run. It's the largest crowd I've been in outside of a concert. I finished in under 2 hours. The official clock said 1 hour, 54 minutes 50 seconds as I passed. I should be getting an updated time soon, as I didn't cross the start line for 13 minutes as the thousands of people ahead of me got their start. I saw lots of naked butts (and a few front parts, too!), lots of hilarious costumes, and lots of people just out for a good time. I had to stop and walk only once as I made the trek up Hayes Street. Overall, I think I walked about a block and a half. Otherwise, it was me, the road, and my Ipod. J and my brother were running, too, but they run much faster than me. I planned to run solo, and it felt good! Making the turn into the final leg of the race was awesome. The ocean came into view, the salt air entered my lungs, and I caught sight of the finish line. I turned on my jets and sprinted for the finish line. Now, my "jets" are nothing compared to most other runners, but I went as fast as my short legs could carry me. What an experience!!! I definitely plan on doing this next year!!

As for my latest work, I am finishing up my vest. I'm still searching for buttons and a buckle, but I'm sure I'll find something good this week. It's turning out really well. I'm also working on a design for a denim quilt for my aunt and uncle using 5 bags of old jeans. I think it's going to turn out very well. In addition to all of that, I'm cutting out quilt squares for a job for my other aunt. I've also got some baby gifts to get together . . . I love making baby things now :) I definitely have some pictures to take next week!

The bridal shower is somewhat under control :) I work best under pressure. 'Nuff said.

For now, my tired little body just wants to rest. I'm hanging out at my mom's. K is running around playing with her uncle and grandma. I've taken a nap. J is at the ball game tonight (crazy man!), so I'll need to pick him up from the train station later. All in all, May has turned out to be a busy, but delightful month:)

The Jean Quilt: 2 years later

After carrying around my old denim from house to house all through college (and afterward!) I finally buckled down and sewed this puppy together in the months before my daughter was born. Here it is, two happy years later and it's looking well loved. Some lessons I learned with this project: 1) you can get a surprising amount of denim out of just a few pairs of jeans, 2) zig-zagging the seam allowances will add increased durability for a really functional quilt, 3) old denim makes a great park blanket!! I backed it with my husband's comforter from college. It was warm and cozy and needed a new purpose. I bound the edges with black twill bias tape, tied the whole thing together with green buttons, and stitched in the ditch in large squares.

"green" drooly bib

Latest prototype!! I repurposed a towel that had started to ravel at the edges and used some leftover fabric from a baby quilt I just finished and voila - new bib for my drooly kid. My applique technique needs a little more practice, but I'm impressed with my first go at it. I used a Ro Gregg quilting fabric for the trim around the edges and the applique. This is the first of many! Coming soon at http://www.patchworkdreamer.etsy.com/

Run Mama Run!

Running is my new drug. Since I quit smoking, quit drinking excessively, and quit certain other activities that shall remain vague and generally vice-like, I needed a new drug. Running works. Monday, during a break in the icky wet weather, I laced up my shoes as quickly as I could and bolted out the door. Yes, J was home with K, so no, I didn't abandon my child. The air was cold on my face, the music was moderately loud in one ear (gotta listen for cars and creepy people!), and I ran. No dramatic time or distance accomoplished this day. Just a good run, part of my training. The best thing about running is the way it clears my head. I work out all kinds of stuff while running (and laughing to myself that I listen to Guns'n'Roses sometimes!). So, here are some bullet points to get stuff out of my head and onto paper, so to speak.

Why I Run

• to lose weight (still working on the post-high school partying/medication weight)
• to be prepared for Bay to Breakers this May (long-time goal of mine)
• to live actively (now, this is a good one, because somewhere along the way, in high school I thought it was cool to not sweat, but now I realize that if I don't sweat at least 4-5 days a week, I'll earn a lovely early grave and lots of other crappy things along the way to that grave. Not to mention, I need to be a healthy role model for K, so I better keep up that active lifestyle, right?!)
• to honor those in my life who frickin' deserve to be honored

Why I wear pink when I run (it's not always a conscious choice, but I almost always don a pink article of clothing)

• My grandmother kicked breast cancer's butt in the late '80s and lived to be almost 80 without a single scary recurrance of the bastard mutant cells.
• J's Aunt Jamie, who is currently kicking breast cancer's butt and looking like the incredibly stylish woman she's always been while doing it.
• I am inspired by the last two winners of the Biggest Loser (both members of the Pink Team, both woman!)

I really do think about that kind of stuff while running. I often ask myself why the hell I am out in the cold, running to no where in particular when I could be home, warm and cozy. But then I think about people who can't walk, let alone run and decide that if I have the ability to do this, I will do it. I am damn lucky to be healthy and in a place where I can run outside in relative safety. I say relative because there are some creepy people who tend to walk on the trail I run, but I know that it's a peaceful place to be, so I can't really say they're creepy. . . just better to be safe than sorry.

Lately, I've been working on forgiving myself for mistakes I've made. And Oh Boy, have I made a lot of mistakes in my life. Now, I generally see mistakes as the opportunity to grow and learn something about myself. That's all fine and dandy. The problem is when my mistakes include other people who don't get to see the growth I experience in the aftermath. They remember me for my mistakes, while I look back and say "Oooh, that sucked, but I really learned something there." See, that's what mistakes are good for. I also have to remind myself that if the people around me are truly my friends, then they will see that I am growing and will allow me the space to do so and still appreciate my friendship. Or, they just like me enough to tolerate the crazy stuff I do and then I can explain myself later on so they get all the cool stuff I learned. So those that have split afterwards have missed out on the opportunity to get to the know the new and improved me thanks to the sometimes painful, sometimes awkward mistakes I've made. I guess it all boils down to this: I have grown A LOT in the last few years, and while I've made some mistakes, I am thankful for the opportunities I've been given to grow and I'm thankful for the friends that have stuck by me in the process. One day, I'll be as wise as Yoda, and seek my wisdom you shall. Heehee, I'm a dork and proud of it!

Moving on.

I think K has another ear infection. Boo. I'm hoping to take her to the doc in the morning to confirm and see what lovely antibiotic they'll prescribe now that she's allergic to amoxocilin. Poor thing is having such a tough time going to sleep. Between the cold and the teeth and now maybe an ear infection, she can't catch a break! Still, she's stinkin' cute and I love more than life itself. Today, she was having sooo much fun playing with her GrandAuntie T and GrandUncle M. Never have I seen my child laugh so much at a kitchen towel. They are two of the most creative people I know and am eternally grateful that they are in my life.

Update on my classwork: Yes, I'm taking beginning clothing construction. I am in the process of making a tee-shirt and it is so fun! So simple, but so enlightening! I did sleeves in class today and I can't wait to do it again! I'll be taking some pics tomorrow to share my first effort at my shirt. J is so supportive and is already talking about me taking more classes next semester . . . :) I love to sew!!!!!! I've also made a nifty quilted cover for my pattern tracing paper and am working on a tool roll based on my cousin's design for all my cool sewing supplies. Will post photos.

If you got this far, know that I appreciate your attention. Sometimes, I just have to purge some thoughts to make room for new ones!

I am annoyed.

There are so many things that are annoying me right now! My PG&E bill went up from Christmas. Way up. Our December bill was high (double!) and I chalked it up to Christmas lights. We were very cautious after Christmas about our energy usage - lowering the thermostats, only using our space heaters when absolutely necessary, turning off lights and powerstrips when not in use, wearing layers, etc, and still, our bill is even higher! Ugh! When I called their customer service line to see if there was anything we could do to reassess our usage or see if there is some kind of drain on our house or anything to further reduce our energy usage, the wait time was over an hour and a half! Hello! I have a family to feed, a sick child to care for, and much more important things to do than sit on hold for 90 minutes. . . grrrr.



We had cable installed today. Ugh! That was a fiasco in and of itself. We bought our first new tv - a decent-size LCD tv that was well-rated with Consumer Reports. We made adjustments in out budget to allow us to get cable in order to enjoy our new tv. The installer came within his alloted 2-hour window. That's good. . . ok. Once he assessed our situation, he told us he'd have to install a new cable. Ok, fine. Then, he peeks under the house and says there's no way he can run the cable under the house, that he'll just have to drill a hole through the exterior wall of the house straight into the living room. Uhhh, how about NO! I'm renting this house from my family. This yahoo was talking about drilling through a wood-panelled wall, that although I dislike, is not mine to be drilling through! After calling my aunt to confirm that I was going to tell this guy he was nuts, I told him no way. He'd just have to go under the house to figure it out or we'd cancel our order and take our business elsewhere. I guess his supervisor told him to quit being a wimp and figure it out, because he came back from his phone call to say he'd need J's help to get the wire through. GRRRRRR . . . all wired, cable worked, no big deal after all.



Now, after having cable for a few hours, we have a static-y picture! Not much better than the picture we had with our rabbit-ears! The technical support person on the phone was completely unhelpful with his "sending signals to the box" stuff. I'm thinking they hire a bunch of charlatan psychics over there. He scheduled a technician to come out to our house Friday afternoon but suggested that we take the box into their office and someone could do something on site. Well, longish story short, we drove our unhappy cable box to the office (just ten minutes from our house) and J got us a new box with an HDMI cable for free. When the cable company hands out $30 cables for free, they score a few points. And somehow (ssssshhhhh) we get more channels than we ordered. Hmmmmmm. . . .

And, so I can record my weirdest night ever. . .

Saturday night I wanted sushi for dinner. J, K, and brother S were all in agreeance that sushi was the thing to eat. So, I picked a local restaurant off of www.yelp.com. There were so many in our downtown area, that we just went with what was closest to the parking garage. We should have left when the head waitress started yelling at the couple in front of us, while waving her arms, no less : "HELLO!!! Two! You two! Over here! Two at the bar right here!" Not kidding. Not exaggerating. I should have dragged us all out of there at that moment, but my intense craving for sushi overrode my common sense. When it was finally our turn to be seated, she gave us the third degree in a very loud voice: "Are you next? Are you sure there was no one ahead of you??" At this point, after waiting 20 minutes, I'm beginning to take it personally. Now, we make our choices quickly and wait for our order to be taken. Little K is very quickly reaching her limit for being out in a restaurant and is getting antsy. I am losing my patience. Here's what puts me over the edge. Not only does she take the orders of the two couples that were seated AFTER us, but then, she begins to bus a table as all of us are looking over at her. It is only when J and I get up to leave with poor, melting-down K that this waitress comes over and asks to take our order. I told her I didn't need to wait that long for sushi and we left. S stayed with his friend A and ordered some rolls to go. It took ONE HOUR to get the rolls and leave. As J and I are walking back to the parking garage, totally floored at the incredibly poor service we just didn't receive, we stop in our favorite burrito place to grab a burrito to split and a baby burrito for our baby. While placing my order, the goober who ordered ahead of me interrupts me to confirm his order one more time. Now, in all fairness, the young woman taking the order did mess it up a bit, but interrupting me, or anyone, is rude. Goober's burrito is no more important than mine and he could have waited 30 seconds more for me to finish my order before jumping in to make sure his steak burrito had extra guac. Besides, there were many orders to be made ahead of ours, so he had plenty of time to double check his order.


Uggh. Not to mention, poor K woke up sick again this morning. We just finished a round of antibiotics for her ear infection from the last cold. I hope we don't go through this cycle again.

A bracelet for Mom

My mom was looking for a rose quartz bracelet, so I offered to make her one. After a few incarnations, here's the final product. The rose quartz is such a beautiful pale pink, and at first, I didn't want to add any other beads for fear they might detracte from the quartz. I looked through my stash and found these little Swarovski rounds in the perfect shade of pink, and some clear Swarovski rounds as well. I also liked the look of the Swarovski pearls, so I found a way to work them in. It's a three-strand bracelet, with the outside strands rose quartz, and the inside strand and beautiful combination of Swarovski rounds, pearls, and rose quartz. I used silver findings and a toggle clasp so Mom can put it on by herself. She's already got a pair of simple drop earrings to match, and I made a fun pendant using the same elements as the bracelet.

Overall, it was a fun project to do. Mom wanted a rose quartz and silver bracelet. So long as my work included those two elements, she'd be happy. Well, I consider my mom a very dynamic woman and I often see her wearing very quiet, understated jewelry. I want to see wearing more fun, youthful pieces! She's still got lots of life to live, and I don't want to see her age herself before her time. My solution: include a little sparkle! A little sparkle never hurt anybody, and in fact, I recommend a daily dose of sparkle to keep the blahs away :) I think she's pretty happy with the set, and I look forward to seeing her wear it!

Sleepytime Magic

Something amazing happened today when I was putting K down for her nap. After half an hour of reading, cuddling, singing lullabies, and swaying together, K was still not ready to cooperate. Since my back was beginning to kill me, I put her down in her pack'n'play. She was very unhappy at first, so I sat next to her on the floor. I kept telling her "Mama stays." Over and over again, I just played with her hair and telling her I wasn't going anywhere until she went to sleep. Eventually, she sat down and started looking at her book, with her bear by her side. She'd look back at me from time to time and touch the side of the p'n'p. I'd meet her hand, and she would go back to reading. I sprawled out on the floor, just waiting to see what she would do. Within ten minutes, she was lying down and closing her eyes. I watched my baby girl fall asleep on her own for the first time in 16 months. It was truly magic. We've really struggled with K's sleeping routines and such. Watching her fall asleep felt like such an honor. And she slept, as previously mentioned, for almost 3 hours!!!!

J and I tried this tactic for bedtime as well. Mission accomplished. This time, J got to watch her fall asleep. We left the room smiling. Minimal fussing, no crying, sleeping baby, happy parents. Maybe she's been experiencing separation anxiety all this time. Since I tried so hard to assure her that I would stay, it was like she was actually comfortable in her bed. I can't wait to try this at home!!

Too much excitement

I'm enjoying a little time out from my everyday life. Hubby and I took the small child and ran away to his parents' house yesterday. I slept in, stayed in my pjs till 1pm, went for a 3.2 mile run, and now I get to debrief the last few days. J, his sisters and their boyfriends, and the MIL are all watching the Eagles-Cardinals game and K is sleeping (almost 2.5 hours . . . ). I'm staring at a coffee table full of fun munchy foods and somehow I'm managing to keep my hands to myself.

Saturday was a really eventful day. We never intended to have such a big day, but such is life. The original plan was to visit the SF Zoo with the parent-in-laws and L, my younger SIL. We were trying to figure out what to do for breakfast and J was playing with K. Suddenly he brought her in the house and she was crying and very clingy. This behavior from her was really random and puzzling. J said he'd been playing with her when he picked her up by the hands and handed her off to his dad. That's when she started crying. We put K down for a short nap, and when she woke up, she wouldn't use her right arm. I called the advice nurse at our pediatrician's office for a little guidance. She said "Can you come in now? Right now?" Thankfully, I wasn't too worried to begin with, so I didn't panic. J and I took K into the doctor's office and our wonderful doctor very gently popped K's elbow back into place. Yes, that's right. She had a dislocated elbow. Just because J picked her up by the hands. It's something we've done before, and needless to say, we'll never do again! Our doc just laughed it off, reminding us how resilient kids are and that this happens to even the most cautious families. J was feeling pretty guilty, but I made sure he knew that I didn't blame him and wasn't upset in the slightest. K seemed just fine the rest of the day. After lunch, I insisted that J and my brother, S, tackle the front fence. See, we live in my mother's family home and the fence is probably 30+ years old. There's two parts to the front gate: the "people gate" and the "car gate". The larger gate is truly big enough to open up and drive a car into the front yard. We tried to open in when we first moved in last April and it didn't cooperate very well. Since then, I've been watching it slowly shift its weight and look unstable. Given the fact that it's the time of year for wind storms, I didn't want to wait for a wind storm to knock it down. So, being that yesterday was beautiful AND J and S were both home, I asked them to get to it. However, life being what it is, it wasn't a simple job of replacing the 2 2x4s that formed the hinge. The hinges were rusted open and the middle hinge was actually broken. There's some dry rot on the ends of the large support beams. Stuff that has to get handled. We bought all the supplies to put a rather large, but industrial strength band-aid in place. Sadly, S started feeling sick. So, the gate is down, the supplies are ready to go, and we'll be putting the gate back together this week. After all the excitement, we hit the road. So here we are.

Here's an update on my running progress: Thursday I ran a total of 55 minutes!! I ran approximately 4.1 miles, which tells me I run slow and need to pick up the speed a bit, but that'll happen in time. Today, I ran 40 minutes, roughly 3.2 miles. So, I need to pick up my speed overall, but that's ok. It'll happen. I'll keep working on it.

The Green Sparklies!

I love these earrings!! They were totally spontaneous and turned out beautifully! I used a few Swarovski bicones and the rest are a mix of different seed beads I've been hanging on to forever. So playful and fun. Lots of movement.

My work

I starting photographing my jewelry today. I've really been dragging my feet on the whole project because I find the whole process daunting. I have never been good at taking pictures. Ever. And now, in order to show my work to the world, I have to take photos of my pieces. Up close. With detail. But I really want to get my work out there, so I bit the bullet today. I took advantage of the beautiful daylight and set up a spot in my studio. I started snapping away. It took some time to adjust my lighting and exposure, white balance, etc. My pieces are so small, and it's tough to get all the details in focus. I took a lot of duds, but I did get a few cool shots. This particular picture is a close-up of a necklace I made with reclaimed beads. Reclaimed: recycled from other jewelry and re-purposed in a new piece. This 18-inch necklace is made with polished, round onyx beads and turquoise and lapis lazuli chips. I'm a fan. . . I can picture someone wearing it with a crisp white button-down shirt and jeans (with heels, of course!).

New Year, New Me

It's so nice to be able to look back on my thoughts from last year to see how far I've come, how much I've grown, and how while so much changes, so much stays the same.

Here I am at the beginning of 2009, hoping to be better at journalling than the year before. Clearly, I didn't get very far in 2008. I'm sure I probably forgot all about the blog I started, lost the password, or some other half-assed excuse for not taking a few minutes to put my thoughts into words. I'm happy to try again, and to keep trying because I know I am a much more calm person when I take all my swirling thoughts and give them a place to go :)

As for big changes in 2008, my little girl started the year as a smiley, squirmy baby and finished the year a smiley hurricane! She's walking, running, climbing, dancing, falling, exploring, and all-around adventurer. It's really rather mind-boggling how much development occurs in one year - and I have a degree in that field!! No big changes in my marriage, and that's the way I like it. Nice and quiet, finding little ways to reconnect and remind each other why we got married in the first place. I'm adjusting to my new life as a wife AND a mother, he's adjusting to his life as a husband AND a father, and we're having fun, too.

As for me, HUGE changes have occurred. Not that most people would notice from the outside, but I know I feel so different! I was treated for post-partum depression in 2008. I feel no sense of shame, guilt or other such weirdness about my diagnosis and treatment plan. Yes, I took medication and thank God for it! Yes, I see a psychologist, and she is an amazing woman who has truly helped me embrace my new life role as a mother and integrate this new role with the rest of my life. And, yes, I'm off my medication now and I feel damn good :) I quietly (and quite accidentally) weaned myself off my meds at the end of December and made it through the holidays feeling like a good version of myself: confident, excited, driven, accepting. I stuck with Weight Watchers all year, through the ups and the downs. I started 2009 by reaching my 25 lb. achievement marker - a huge milestone for me! ALL the baby weight is gone! All of it! Bye bye baby booty!! I fit into my pre-pregnancy pants, and they fit better now than they did before I got pregnant! I attribute this to: running 2-3 days weekly, attending 2 mom/baby exercise classes weekly, strength training 2-4 days weekly and really tracking all my food intake. When you're on a roll, you can't lie to yourself and say "well, I only really ate 1.5 brownies 'cause that first one was small." Nope. I've learned to be painfully honest with myself in many regards because I know that's the only way I'll learn from my mistakes. "Feedback, not failure" is my new mantra for my weightloss achievements.

My goals for 2009 are as follows: Run Bay to Breakers in May, achieve Lifetime Membership status through Weight Watchers, and get pregnant. In that order. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Here's how I plan to get there: I'm following the 13-week training program in The Beginning Runner's Handbook by Ian MacNeill and The Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia. I started back in October because I knew that with weather, a small child, and Murphy's Law would all impact my ability to run. So glad I started early. I start my "ninth" week of training. I have a big run coming up this week. I have to pick a day to run it when hubby will be home because running with Kirsten is so trying these days. She just doesn't like being in the stroller so much anymore, so I need to save my stroller activities for my PowerStroll and Strollerobics classes. Anyway, running this training program has done amazing things for my health and confidence so far. I'm getting the runner's high and I swear it's better than caffeine! I'm on my way to achieving Lifetime . . . I'd like to lose another 25 pounds. . . That should put me just inside the healthy BMI range for my height. And, when all is said and done, we're going to try for a baby this fall. Kirsten will be turning 2 years old in August, and I really feel anytime after her birthday would be a great time to get pregnant again . . .