project roundup, or where in the world have i been?

...which is kind of like playing where in the world is carmen sandiego?, only not nearly as fun.

i have a toddler now [holy moly, she is a toddler!] which means i'm basically working 24/7 and just not getting paid for it - except in kisses and cuddles, which makes up for it emotionally but does not buy groceries. my etsy shop is also not really buying groceries, because i'm not getting nearly that many sales - but i'm getting enough to keep me busy in the meantime. i've also become addicted to pinterest, which is becoming my new source of inspiration. one of my favorite pins is a blurb that says MORE IDEAS THAN TIME which has always been my life but is even more so now that i have pinterest. i built a second garden bed and planted it all up and now my kiddo steals strawberries whenever she has a chance. i'm also an occasional guest blogger over at public service beauty.

i made a quilt last fall for a friend's wedding, another log cabin quilt. this time i set it in a chevron pattern that i thought *i* would not really like (but hey, it's not about me) but surprisingly, i loved it.


then we came into a king-size box spring for free, so i found a bedframe on freecycle and rebuilt our bed. we had always had a slat-frame bed from ikea (no box spring needed), but i realized a year or so ago that ikea only sells eastern king-size beds... and we have a cal king mattress. no wonder the mattress was always tight and didn't quite fit perfectly. we didn't want to ditch the footboard and the mattress was 14 inches higher than it had been thanks to the extra-deep box spring... so i took it apart and "salvaged" what i could. i needed to mount the footboard onto the mounting brackets on the bedframe, which meant the headboard had to stand alone somehow - so i mounted it to the wall, with a couple 2x4s behind it so it wouldn't be set right up against the wall and look hotel-y. then, because we no longer had siderails on the bed, the comforter didn't come down far enough to conceal the sheets, so i made a new quilt.


hannah's gotten some new clothes, although i haven't done much sewing for myself lately. it's just so fun to sew kiddo things. i did make my dress for my sister's wedding last fall - i was the maid of honor and we wore dresses in the same color but all got to choose our own style. i couldn't find a dress i liked, so i designed one myself, drafted the pattern, and sewed it up... only to be told that it was slightly the wrong color (natural/ecru instead of champagne/blush). i was set to make another dress in fabric the correct color (i could have sworn i had the right color the first time, but i guess not) but thought i'd make a last-ditch effort and dye it. i'd never dyed anything before - but thank the good Lord, it worked beautifully and perfectly.


i used a polyester shantung, which i was concerned about being too sticky and hot so i lined it with unbleached muslin. i love muslin for just about everything, especially lining - it just washes up so soft and light and comfortable and is so inexpensive. [if i had known in the first place that i was getting the wrong color fabric, i would have gone with a silk duipioni, but oh well.] the muslin gave the shantung some needed body - without it, it would have just hung unflatteringly and shown every little lump and bump, and even two years post-baby there are still quite a few, unfortunately. the muslin provided a little bit of structure, and the empire waist and a-line skirt camoflaged other imperfections. i ended up making my own piping for under the bodice as well - ridiculously simple and such a nice touch. the neckline came out a bit low for my taste, but ohh well - i didn't feel like redoing it and it wasn't scandalous, SO.

i promise to be better about blogging from here on out! i have a fun tutorial up my sleeve too, courtesy of clothkeeper fabrics - you should definitely check out her shop! (rachel happens to be married to a high school friend, but still - gorgeous designer fabrics!) i'm pretty excited because i don't know that i've actually ever sewn with designer fabric, and what i'll be making will be SUPER cute, easy, and perfect for summer. AND, it's a big-girl thing - not for kiddos (unless your kiddos are big, of course) - so i can be a little selfish! yay!

2010 to-do list: in progress

i have been a bad blogger lately. i'm sorry. often i feel that there is not much interesting going on around here. we have been getting our farm boxes, and i love them still. and i am trying to make some very positive changes in my life.

one of the biggest changes i am trying to make is to be more disciplined. since that is kind of a vague goal, i defined it somewhat in my 2010 to-do list (aka new year's resolutions). specifically, i said i wanted to create and maintain a household management schedule and plan meals weekly and keep our grocery bill down. (i know "down" sounds kind of nebulous too, but trust me, there is a dollar amount attached to it as well.) so far i have been succeeding at both though i am hesitant to cross them off the list as "done" just yet. it's still early in the year.

my household management schedule was pretty simple. i am basically an overgrown five-year-old, and i like getting gold stars when i do things. so i made myself a chore chart and broke it down by day. this is what my week looks like:

monday: indoor chores
- wash sheets
- sweep tile
- mop tile
- vacuum
- clean toilets
- clean bathroom sinks
- clean upstairs shower (the others get used very rarely)
- dust
- bring in garbage cans
- water plants

tuesday: outdoor chores
- mow lawns
- trim roses
- pull weeds
- edge lawns
- sweep front porch
- sweep garage
- spa chemicals

wednesday:
- laundry
- iron brian's work shirts
- menu-planning/grocery list
- pick up csa box

thursday:
- grocery shopping

it became a lot more manageable when i realized that "running" the house is really just a lot of little tiny chores. cleaning the house is this huge big thing and where do you even start, but how long does scrubbing a toilet really take. i pull a bucketful of weeds each week, and they stay under control and i don't break my back. this way i also have three days "off" at the end of the week, when my chores are all done, though lately i've been doing my grocery shopping on wednesdays while we're out getting the csa box, so i've been getting four off days, which came in handy when the lawn was too wet to mow last tuesday.

getting the csa box is also forcing me to be more disciplined. we are eating healthier and i am forced to plan meals and shop with a grocery list, which is keeping our grocery bill down. it's still not under my target budget, but i'm working on that. i feel guilty letting all that good food go to waste (although we have gotten butternut squash four weeks in a row and while i like it, i'm getting kind of tired of it), so i have to plan for it. otherwise what would i have done with the turnips that were in last week's box, because we don't eat turnips on a regular basis. i have to plan for something to do with them.

so that is how i am doing on my new year's resolutions, so far. one of my other resolutions, to plant a garden, is coming along quite nicely and i will have pictures to share soon. i'm pretty excited about it. how are your new year's resolutions panning out?

yumyumgeekyum

i think i'm kind of geeking out on the whole farm box thing. i love it more than words can say. it's kind of ridiculous. wednesdays are now one of my favorite days of the week, because we go get the farm box that day. tuesdays are also exciting because i get to find out what will be in the farm box that day. kind of lame, i know, but that's me.


this week we got collard greens, dumpling squash, broccoli, leeks, potatoes, a celery root, and navel oranges. we were also supposed to get some cayenne peppers, but there were none in our box. i looked in one of the other boxes and they were in a small bag, so i guess i could have taken a different box and gotten some, but i am a total wuss don't eat spicy stuff so it wasn't really a loss to me. i wouldn't really know what to do with them anyway, because apparently according to the scoville scale they're pretty hot, only a step or two down from habaneros, and what do you do with a pepper that hot?

the collards got braised with bacon and were so. good. i just love collards, and pretty much any green. (i have not yet developed a taste for kale though i have tried hard because i know it is so good for you, sigh.) there is also potato-leek soup in our future, of course. i'm such a foodie, i know. it's ridiculous.

in other news, i got all my chores done this week, every single last one of them! crazy, but this is an accomplishment for me. generally there are one or two things i let go until the next week, or the week after that, or... . this week, i did everything. this is part of my goals for this year. it's kind of silly how i made myself do it, i'll yap about that later, but the important thing is I DID IT. i'm going to go give myself a treat now.

2010 to-do list

i did not get a fish for christmas. (YET.) but we did have a lovely wonderful week with visiting family, yummy food, sparkly lights, and lots of love. and i did get two new books that i have been dying to read. books always make me happy. one can never go wrong with books.

i sewed a bunch of reusable produce bags for christmas gifts this year. stupidly, i did not take photos of them before i boxed them up and gave them as gifts. i hope everyone loves them as much as i do. i did regular muslin bags for dry produce and a mesh bag for small things like green beans, snap peas, or cherries. they were made out of a polyester athletic mesh so one can rinse the produce through the bag. i also made wet bags out of a silicone-impregnated ripstop nylon. that stuff was a bear to sew on. it was practically lighter than air (each bag ended up weighing just over half an ounce after the tie at the top was threaded in) and slippery as all get-out. ripstop is slippery anyways, but the silicone made it even more so. and i did not want to stick pins in it for fear of making holes. oy.

as 2009 comes to a close i have been reflecting a bit on the past twelve months. it has been a good year, and in some ways a not good one. i did not accomplish everything on my to-do list nor did i make a sizeable enough dent in it to be able to feel proud of what i did. namely, i have struggled with enjoying being a mother and that disappoints me. on the other hand, if i did not tick off even half of everything on my list, it is partly because i have been using my time to raise a happy, healthy, beautiful daughter whom i do adore.

in 2010 i will be making changes in my life. big ones, i hope. i need to be learning to not take on too much, to be content with what i have been given, to be kinder to those i love when i am not feeling kind. currently the etsy shop is closed, and it will remain closed for the time being until i can figure out how to manage the shop without allowing it to take over my spare time. until then, i am creating a new to-do list for 2010, one that will be printed out and posted where i can see it daily to remind myself of my goals for this year:

- create and maintain a household management schedule
- fill the planter box with dirt and plant a garden
- manage the etsy shop without allowing it to take over my life
- create and maintain a system for dealing with the paper/mail/crap that comes into the house and collects in the kitchen (yeah, this one didn't get done last year)
- sew buttonholes into the guest room comforter and ties for the duvet
- hang "artwork" in the guest room
- finish the quilt for the master bedroom
- start (and finish!) kerry's quilt
- take swim classes with hannah this summer
- replace the toilet seat in the upstairs bathroom
- find a good church and start going regularly again
- give myself regular pedicures
- finish out the door frame in the upstairs bathroom
- move the "decor store" to the unused cabinet above the fridge
- create and maintain a healthy, reasonable exercise routine (yeah, this one didn't get done last year either)
- get hannah baptized/christened/dedicated
- plan meals weekly and keep our grocery bill down
- take the pacific northwest road trip with my husband and daughter
- support, encourage, and love my husband
- enjoy being a mother

the one thing notably missing from my 2010 to-do list is one that i have not yet decided on. kerry wants me to run a half-marathon with her in march. i am not a runner and have not run since about high school when i was required to for pe class. i detest running, so training for this half-marathon would be a tremedous undertaking on my part. i want to do it, partly as a point of pride. i would like to be able to say i did it, and maybe i would come to enjoy it. stranger things have happened. on the other hand, i don't know if it is reasonable to commit to training for a half-marathon with an almost-8-month-old baby. i know others do, but on the other hand others are not necessarily starting from scratch in the running department along with everything else. thoughts?

check me out!

finally, at long last, i've set myself up an etsy shop! it's something i've been meaning to do, and i'm so excited now that i have. there's only a couple things up right now, more to come, but head on over to hannah's toybox and check me out!

did not fall off the face of the earth

instead, had a baby. said baby takes a lot of energy that could otherwise be devoted to blogging.

this month has been a bit of a busy one so far. the kiddo had her first overnight stay with nana while brian and i celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary, and she and i took her first big trip away when we went to san diego for a week to marry off my best friend. we're refinancing our house and i start back to work on september 1, so we have all the day care paperwork to deal with and i'm trying to enjoy my last days of freedom (and clean the house while i actually have the time). i will blog again, i promise.

may be jinxing it

this week i am thankful for:

1. sleep, glorious sleep! we (finally) borrowed a bassinet from a friend, picked it up on sunday. and the kiddo has been going through a growth spurt and eating like nobody's business. i don't know if it is the bassinet, or that she is so tired from growing, or that she is tanking up so much at night and doesn't need to feed as often in the wee hours, but since sunday she has slept through the night. six to eight hours straight each night. maybe it's a combination of the three. maybe i'm jinxing it by mentioning it, but i have felt amazing this week and hope this continues.

2. mommy + me group. such a neat group of women and the cutest kiddos ever.

3. being a good citizen and paying my taxes, because now the government is sending me disability checks, which are really helping me stay home with the kiddo. i paid in to the system and now it is paying back to me. nice.

summer in the city

this week i am thankful for:

1. a lovely afternoon spent with my sister in the city, even though the kiddo decided to be a bit fussy. i wish we lived closer to that girl.

2. blue cheese, which i had not had in... 10 months? it was divine.

3. gorgeous weather, which makes the city even prettier. as soon as i saw the city skyline from the freeway in albany, i remembered how much i love san francisco and how much i miss living in the bay area. sf is even more fabulous on a beautiful day and today did not disappoint.

did they ever get us good

because we knew brian's leave was ending soon, we decided to take a trip over to the jelly belly factory in fairfield. it's no secret that jelly bellies are my favorite candy ever and i've been wanting to take a tour of the factory in the worst way for the longest time.


we got there just in time to browse the lobby a bit and get in for the last tour of the day. we're not moving very quickly these days with the kiddo and all. there was a ton of ronald reagan memorabilia (he famously loved jelly bellies also!) as well as jelly belly art, "mosaics" made with jelly bellies.


then we took the tour. unfortunately photography is not allowed on the tour but let me tell you how neat it was! i love seeing how things are made and this did not disappoint. there was a room full of huge kettles for melting sugar, right across from stacked pallets of sugar and 2,000-pound bags of cornstarch.


we saw the huge machines sorting out the beans that were too small and too large, and other irregular beans. these are called belly flops. i love that. the factory goes through 85,000 pounds of sugar in an 8-hour period, by the way. c&h comes by every morning to refill two huge silos outside. they also use real oils and flavors in the beans. for example, the chocolate beans are made with real dark chocolate, and the jalapeño ones have real pepper oil. also, the flavor is in the bean itself, not just the hard shell, unlike most other jelly beans.


after the tour of course we browsed in the shop. they sell each individual flavor in bulk which i like because then i can make myself a mixed bag without the yucky flavors like licorice. (that's how we were able to do jelly bellies in only our wedding colors as our wedding favors.) this is where they get you: the tour itself is free, and they even give you a free bag of jelly bellies at the end. we spent way too much money in that shop. man do i love those jelly bellies.

the factory also makes much more than just jelly bellies. chocolate and gummies are two we saw loads of. if you're ever in the bay area, the factory tour is a fun way to spend an afternoon.

hannah's birth story

hannah is probably the absolute most beautiful thing i have ever seen. aside from a bit of conehead that is going away, i think i am not biased when i say that. she is just a pretty girl in her mama's eyes.


monday was obviously a very rough day. (as the doctor pointed out, i now know what a "10" is on the 0-10 pain scale!) i had my first contraction at 4a and by 6a they were about 10 minutes apart. i got in the shower around 745a and my water broke at 830a, conveniently just as i had turned off the water but was still in the shower. so we went to the hospital; brian was very anxious that we were not going soon enough. it's a 20-minute drive and i remember brian was more stressed than i was at that point; i had to remind him where to get off the freeway and where to turn. by about 930a when we got there the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, 45-60 seconds long, and i was dilated to 4 centimeters. btw that 2-3 minutes apart is NOT from the end of one to the start of the next, oh no. that would be too much rest. the way you time a contraction is from the start of one to the start of the next. (i did not know this until our childbirth class.) so really only like 1-2 minutes rest. and you would not believe the words and noises that come out of your body during a contraction. they had told us the (private, thank heaven) birthing rooms were soundproof but according to mil, she could hear me screaming and swearing and moaning through each contraction.


in the incubator at the nursery with daddy (and mil behind him), waiting for mommy to come out of recovery

i transitioned around noon. i had previously wondered how women in labor magically knew when they were at 7+ centimeters and in transition. now i know. in my case it was because i got the shakes. this was either never mentioned in any of the pregnancy/labor/childbirth classes or books that i took/read or else it somehow slipped by me every single time. (i remember the part about shivering/shaking afterwards, because your body goes into shock somewhat - but not during.) my entire body started trembling violently and i had no idea what was happening. i asked the nurse if i was okay and she said oh yes, you have the adrenaline shakes. that means you're in transition. you're perfectly normal. huh.

by about 230p i was 10 centimeters dilated and ready to start pushing. they gave me fentanyl also at about 9 centimeters, an iv drug to take the edge off. i wanted to try to do the whole thing 100% natural but it just did not happen. the contractions still hurt like a mother after the fentanyl but were no longer pass-out pain is all. brian was such an awesome coach, i could not have done it without him. i pushed for about 2+ hrs and she was just not coming. "failure to progress" is what they called it. so they put a vacuum cup on her head to try to help. hence the conehead, and she also has some scabby scratches on the top of her head from the vacuum cup. they also had to catheterize me just before because i had not peed all day and a full bladder can hinder the vacuum apparently. that was about the worst thing ever, it hurt so bad. brian kept me focused on him but he said the look on my face broke his heart. he also said he could tell how much it hurt and that he did not realize until then how tough i was. (i generally have a relatively low pain tolerance.) apparently he has much more appreciation and respect for me now! i was begging the doctor not to catheterize me but they had to. then they also gave me two shots, one on either side, for the pudendal block. the doctor said to ease the pain as she came out on the vacuum, i guess it hurts more. i do remember at one point the vacuum popped off her head. i remember the doctor pulling hard as i was pushing too but nothing happened. she and i just failed to progress.


apparently life on the outside isn't all it's cracked up to be

i think i pushed about 30-45 minutes with the vacuum but she was just not coming so the doctor said they needed to get me in for an emergency cesarean. i was tired and the baby was tired and nothing was happening. her heart rate was dropping during contractions, not dangerously so thank the Lord, but her oxygen levels were dropping also and the doctor was concerned. i asked brian afterwards if he could even see anything when i was pushing (like the top of her head) and he said no. i was actually kind of relieved about the cesarean because i just wanted the whole thing done with at that point. so they wheeled me away to do a spinal block (faster than an epidural) while brian got suited up.


they poked my back for about 15 minutes but it was not taking, i was not getting any pain relief. i counted at least seven poke bruises on my spine yesterday. in the meantime i was having contractions and curled on my side, as much as i could be with a baby between my legs and the doctor is saying hold still so i can do this. what?! a man of course. (i also had to sign a consent form in the same position on the or table, while being poked and having a contraction. why can't you consent to things ahead of time?) they also tried to put in an epidural but it did not take either. after about 20 minutes i said, PLEASE can you just do general (which they don't like as much because it is more risk to the baby). but they did. they had to catheterize me again for the cesarean, but it was a different kind of catheter so did not hurt as bad as before THANK THE LORD. i said, can you PLEASE catheterize me after you put me under, and they said, i'm sorry but no, as soon as you are under we have to get the baby out.


they had to strap my legs down, i guess so i wouldn't go flopping everywhere in the middle of a contraction while i was under anesthesia. that was VERY scary, especially when i had a contraction before the anesthesia kicked in. no one told me they strap your legs down. none of the books mention this. they don't talk about it in the childbirth classes. the worst part was, brian could not be there with me under general anesthesia, so i was alone with all those nurses and doctors the whole time i was in the operating room, and all i wanted was him.


she has this crinkly lower lip just like her daddy's, and sometimes likes to squinch it sideways when she sleeps

they also had to intubate me with the general anesthesia so my voice is scratchy and my throat hurts even four days later. brian calls it sexy voice, even though the last thing i feel these days is sexy. i think they put me under about 545p (i know they wheeled me into the or about 5p) and hannah was born at 6p on the dot. 8 pounds 0 ounces, and 20 inches long. brian saw her pretty much as soon as she got out, they cut her cord and then took her away to get a bath and such while they stitched me up. she is all red and wailing in those first pictures he took. he said she just wanted her mom and to feed. i started coming around about 7p and i think they brought her to me around 730p and she just went to town breastfeeding. i remember the first thing i asked was if she was okay, and the nurses told me she was fine, healthy and beautiful. i remember the next thing i asked was if she was still a girl; the ultrasound tech had been almost 100% positive on her sex but that almost had bothered us ever since. we had all these girl things, and a pink and purple nursery, a girl name (we could not agree on a boy name), and we couldn't agree on whether to circumsize or not. what if she was a boy?


so that is where we are right now, we got home yesterday afternoon after three days (including labor) in the hospital. i have not slept much of course and my abdomen hurts of course, to be expected when they cut it open to remove an 8 pound baby, but still. she has her days and nights reversed right now so sleeps too much during the day and feeds too much at night. i guess most babies are like that at first. she also has so far lost too much weight, 14 ounces in 4 days which is definitely more than the maximum 7% body weight loss that they prefer to see, so we have to supplement with formula for the next few days until my milk comes in and she is getting enough nutrition from me. otherwise she would have to be admitted and apart from us. fortunately that is the only thing "wrong" with her. her bilirubin levels are great, no jaundice, and all her scores and vitals have otherwise been fabulous.


all strapped in and ready to go home, swimming in her sleeper

we are so in love with her. i never thought i could be so happy about being "replaced" in my husband's heart, but i am just over the moon that brian is so starry-eyed over her. i never thought i could so love this little person who is making such demands on my time, energy, and body. and i never realized how much i could trust and appreciate the man who got me through this whole thing - pregnancy, labor, delivery, who is taking such good care of me right now as i'm recovering not only from a (mostly) regular birth but also from major abdominal surgery. i never thought i could love brian more than i did before this experience. he saw me go through things, say and do things that a husband should not have to see and hear and experience from his wife, and i should be ashamed and embarrassed, and i'm not. he's my husband and he loves me. i can't imagine having done this whole thing with anyone else, and i wouldn't want to.

cross-posted at baby stenz

it's 3:30 am, do you know where your cat is?

don't forget to enter my green birthday giveaway! you have until 8pm pdt on wednesday, april 29, 2009. it's awesome, and who doesn't like free?

i know where mine was:


this, of course, was about 20 minutes after he had decided to vomit in the middle of the carpet.

on the one hand, i guess it's good practice for having kids. and that spathophyllum was slowly dying so needed to be replaced soon anyway. on the other hand, the [human] toddler that would generally get into this kind of trouble would also usually sleep through the night, right?

easter thankfulness

this week i am thankful:

1. for a supportive, encouraging husband, even and especially when he is having a rough time himself.

2. that i am forgiven.

3. that as a society we have access to and encourage all kinds of education and knowledge. we have had pregnancy classes out the kazoo the past two months and more support scheduled for after the kiddo. my health insurance plan encourages it. a lot is "review" from stuff we have learned in from reading all the pregnancy books, but since we've never done this parenting thing before, we figure on getting all the help we can get.

one is silver and the other gold

this week i am thankful for:

1. my best girl alice. we've been friends for almost 17 years now which just blows my mind. i mean, 17 years! that's more than half my life. she is so wonderful and generous and fabulous and threw me (and the kiddo) the nicest baby shower this past weekend. AND, she's getting married this summer! so i cannot wait to return the favor.

2. the fabulous ladies who came to my baby shower. not only were they more than generous (oh my heaven) but they are all SO MUCH FUN and i love each and every one to pieces. most of them i don't get to see that often, so it was AWESOME to get to see everyone and just have a nice afternoon together. (that was the best part, really.)

update: photos posted here if you're interested.

3. this "community" of blogging/internet ladies that i have gotten to know over the past year that i've been blogging. i never in my wildest dreams expected to get to know such interesting people. i know i have a very minute readership. it's a good day when i get 3-4 comments on a post. i have no desire to be as huge as dooce or anything, but i'm thankful for the little bit that i have. some of you i know or have connections to in real life, others i hope i get to meet sometime for a cup of coffee or lunch. so thank you to jessika, kelly, jaimey, nancy, tabitha, jenna, sarah, jenny, elizabeth, and jaye. my sister has been rather absent lately but is a riot. anyone else i might be forgetting, i'm sorry if i did but i still appreciate you. you ladies encourage me and make me laugh and make me think and i appreciate it.

family

i went south this past weekend to visit my mother, so this week i am thankful for:

1. fun times visiting my family and friends. i got to spend time with my best girl alice and my girlfriend krista, which was really nice because i don't see krista often and alice is great fun. my family is fun too, and my mother's brother and his wife were down from seattle as well as my grandparents and my sister. we ate good food and played cards, which is what my family does. everyone was down for my mom's birthday, the big 6-0.


my sweet grandparents have been married for 61 years!


i have not seen my uncle harry and his wife mary since brian and i got married. harry is hiding behind mary, who is a whole lot of fun. it was really great to get to see them and spend time with them.


i learned a new game called golf (not solitaire golf), which is insanely easy and pretty fun. my grandma, who swears - whether we play cribbage, rummy, or anything else - that she hasn't gotten good cards in ten years, of course won. she is a sneaky one, that lady.

2. generous moms. i had made another one of this blouse, this time in a plain white batiste. heaven knows a basic white blouse is a wardrobe staple. at least it is in my wardrobe. i wanted to jazz it up some and my mother's machine does fancy embroidery stitches that mine does not. i also put some fancy (for me) buttons on. it is still a basic white blouse, but now with this:


it is kind of hard to tell i think, but the embroidery stitch is little leaves on a vine. i did it in white sulky embroidery thread, which is 100% rayon and shiny so the tone-on-tone embroidery stands out. i had never used sulky thread before and i am not sure i love it. the thread kept breaking and i don't know if it was the tension or the machine or the stitch or what. maybe i was doing something wrong and i didn't know it. the embroidery turned out very pretty though and i really like it. that is basically why i love sewing, because i can make something like a basic white blouse and put my own special little touch on it, just for me.

3. safe driving and nice weather. even though we are a bit farther north now than we were in marin county, the drive is actually 30 miles and 30 minutes shorter. it was a beautiful sunny day both on the way down and the way home. i was very surprised to see some snow still, at the very tips of the san bernardino mountains:


every time we drive down together, brian gets excited when we get to san dimas, because of bill & ted's excellent adventure. (i get excited because it means the end is near[ish].) so i had to call him and tell him how EXcellent it was that i was in san dimas.


pyramid lake (in the angeles national forest, near the grapevine) looked pretty good to me. i have never stopped there but i always want to. i really like mountain lakes like that. someday...


these signs always crack me up. what, you thought sacramento and san francisco were like 100 miles apart? nope, they're right next to each other. no, really! also, i have a bridge for sale if you're interested.


* yes, i understand the sign. they still make me smile.

brian recaptures his youth

yesterday we drove to roseville so brian could introduce me to sonic burger, a drive-in he "discovered" while in college in texas and oklahoma. what he really wanted to introduce me to was whataburger and rib crib, but neither of those are in california, so he had to settle for sonic.

brian often criticizes california for being insular and self-important, and i don't think he's always wrong in that. though i've lived here my entire life and love it, i know my state has it's fair share of cultural awareness issues. because i've never lived anywhere else, i sometimes am [unjustly] accused by my husband of not understanding what the rest of the country is like. generally this happens when we discuss food and restaurants. brian feels there is no decent fast food in california and "settles" for jack in the box. i adore in-n-out. he says the only reason i like in-n-out is because it's a california thing and i don't know any better fast food like "they" have in the rest of the country.

saturday i was craving in-n-out, so we went to burger king first so brian's mouth would be full while we were in the drive-thru at in-n-out and i wouldn't have to listen to him whine about the bad taste of california people. but apparently he had never actually had a double-double (animal style, oh yummm)? because he wanted a bite of mine to see how it was. and here he was moaning and groaning about it the whole time and he had never tasted such heaven? he said it wasn't too bad, for a basic burger (what was he expecting? confetti and mushrooms?), but i think he secretly loved it and just didn't want to let on. i think he would have eaten the whole thing if i hadn't fussed at him. score one point for me.

yesterday we drove 25 miles to the second-closest sonic burger to our house - the closest was in woodland, 23 miles away. i wanted to go there but he said no, it's easier to go to roseville. whatever. we printed out directions and off we went so i could experience my first drive-in. he couldn't take me to whataburger for their amazing ketchup but at least he could take me for a damn good burger served in my car by a girl on roller skates, just like old times. he could be bitter about california's dearth of fine fast food establishments but by golly at least he got to take his wife to a sonic.

i spotted it first, right next to a gas station. we turned in and lo - the sonic was in the gas station. i kid you not. brian just about shot himself on the spot. we went in and ordered and sat at a small table inside the gas station for lunch. brian moaned and groaned about being bitter and this is what the world is coming to and HIS WIFE JUST LAUGHS, SHE CANNOT STOP LAUGHING AT HIS MISERY, WHY ME GOD. i think i laughed for about five minutes straight, he was so bitter and hysterical.

some days i want to fill up the bathtub and hold his head underwater, because he is such a MAN and doesn't listen and doesn't do things right (read: my way) and isn't like me, and i get so frustrated that marriage is such work - and then we have an afternoon like yesterday, and i am so thankful that he is such a man and not like me.

because, me? i would have looked at the street view on google maps to know what i was looking for and known we were going to a gas station and opted to go to the one in woodland instead, the one he pooh-poohed, because that one is actually a drive-in like it is supposed to be. at least, it looks like it on google maps.

and the burger? not bad, but not nearly as good as in-in-out.

2009 to-do list

2008's year of living gently will continue into 2009. i think it is not a bad theme for one's life instead of just one year. for 2009 i am giving myself a concrete, finite list of things to focus on.

- build a planter box or two (raised beds) outside and plant a vegetable garden and an herb garden.
- paint the downstairs bedroom.
- breathe once in a while.
- get a pedicure before baby arrives. can't have icky toes in the delivery room!
- send one card a week to a friend.
- create and maintain a system for dealing with the paper/mail/crap that comes into my house and collects in my kitchen.
- learn to manage roses.
- learn to enjoy being pregnant and being a mother.
- create and maintain a healthy exercise routine.
- let go once in a while.
- speak and act kindly and generously, even (epecially) when i do not feel kind or generous.
- cut our grocery bill by at least $50 per month.
- decorate our master bedroom.
- paint the family room wall.

t.g.i.f.

this has been the week from h3ll. why oh why are there weeks like that? why me? why us? we have been slogging on through the messes and all i can think is thank heaven i get to sleep in tomorrow.

monday night the bank deposited my paycheck into the wrong account. we did not discover it until tuesday when i checked online and found my account $330 overdrawn.

wednesday evening we came home from work to find water all over the kitchen floor, apparently from the dishwasher having been run earlier in the day.

brian has had a h3llish week at work, even more stress than usual.

last night, at 10pm, a server/processor banged (not knocked - banged) on our front door to serve us a summons for a bad debt. only, they didn't want to serve us but rather the previous owners, who have not lived in our house since at least early march. these debt collectors have harassed us before and apparently do not understand that these people don't live here anymore. they also don't like to do their homework, as we have advised them numerous times that if they check the county records they will see that the house was sold to us and we have an owner-occupied property tax exemption because we're not renting our house to the previous owners. the repo man has showed up a couple of times to repossess their car, even though we continue to tell them that the people they are looking for are not here and we don't know who they are or where they might be. (obviously, these people were not good at paying their bills, since their house was foreclosed on.) last night the processor actually left the summons on our doorstep because he was apparently "required" to leave it at the house. i want to mail it back to the collection agency it came from but i don't want to pay for it. how do you send something c.o.d.? and why does my husband have to deal with this at 10pm??

(because he is my wonderful hero and tries to protect me, and doesn't want me dealing with strangers at our house at night - not that i blame him!)

i am so thankful that we will be here this weekend. we are spending the weekend away with mil for her birthday, and i think after this week we could really use a change of scenery.

introducing vinegar

this weekend when my sister came to visit she also brought her laundry to wash in our washer instead of paying to take it to the laundromat. brian grumbled a little when i first told him this would happen, but i reminded him of all the times his mother had let us bring laundry over, and all the times we had been sure to do laundry before leaving my mom's house, so we wouldn't have to pay for it at the laundromat. i figured letting my sister do laundry at our house was like good karma. good laundry karma.

i also introduced her to vinegar in her wash. to be fair, i only discovered this trick about two months ago but i am already in love with it. conveniently, i found out about it approximately six days after i bought the costco-sized pack of dryer sheets. so if anyone needs or wants dryer sheets i will gladly pass them on to you. otherwise i have dryer sheets to last the rest of my life and then some. vinegar cuts the detergent residue from your clothes and leaves them very fresh-smelling (but not vinegar-smelling). distilled white vinegar is the only kind you should use, which is nice because it is also the cheapest kind. i got two gallons at costco last week for $3.57. you just do your wash like usual and the vinegar goes in the fabric softener dispenser in the washing machine. if you don't have a dispenser, i have read that a downy ball works great also. it only takes about ¼ - ½ cup; i just pour it in to the line in the dispenser.

that little conversation with my sister got me to thinking about how i do my laundry and care for my clothes. (also a conversation with her boyfriend in which we educated him on the properties of lint.) i would like to think i do a pretty good job on my clothes, since they look nice and wear well for a long time. many of my clothes i have had for years but they don't look it. a girl i used to work with would often comment on what a cute new sweater i was wearing, when in fact the sweater was years old and i just hadn't worn it lately. so, here is how i do laundry:

1. i very rarely hand-wash anything. sacrilege, my sister says! (she hand-washes a lot of her stuff, even her cashmere.) i have nothing against hand-washing, in fact i admire people who make that effort. i just am not one of those people. 99% of my stuff is washable in the washing machine.

2. i very rarely dry clean my clothes either. dry cleaning is not environmentally friendly and i don't like bringing those chemicals into my car and my home. (the rare occasions i have to go to the cleaners, i always air my clothes for 24-48 hours afterwards.) again, 99% of my stuff is washable so it is usually not an issue. when i do have to dry clean my clothes, i usually use dryel. it's cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and more people-friendly. i will usually "clean" clothes with dryel 3-4 times and then they go to the dry cleaners.

3. on the subject of dry cleaning: almost every fabric can be washed - 99% of the clothes you buy that say "dry clean only" don't desperately need to be dry cleaned. granted, some things are insanely easier to clean that way (brian's suits all go to the cleaners). wool can be washed and dried - just carefully, because it shrinks. silk can also be washed, gently; silk charmeuse (the lightweight shiny silk) needs a little extra care so it doesn't get "scuffed." most synthetic fabrics can be washed and often just need a gentle cycle. imho that "dry clean only" label is there to cover the manufacturer in case you royally screw up and destroy your clothes.

4. sort, sort, sort! pretty much everyone knows to sort by color, but less people realize that clothes also need to be sorted by fabric weight. you don't want your jeans bashing up your lightweight tees. we do five loads each week at my house: whites, lightweight darks, heavy darks (jeans, sweats, khakis, etc), light delicates, and dark delicates.

5. as far as delicates go, i throw a lot of stuff in there that my mother and sister don't worry about. all my underwear, even the cotton ones, go in delicates. so do all my socks and brian's dress socks. sweaters, of course. even brian's nylon track shorts go in delicates. the general rule in our house about clothes (excluding undergarments) is that if it is 100% synthetic, it goes in delicates; if it has cotton, it goes in whites or darks.

6. i also don't use a mesh bag for my delicates. some people would faint at this i think but it works fine for me. i hook my bras together at the back strap instead of leaving them unhooked, and they stay like that when washed, so they don't get tangled into an awful knot and the hooks don't catch into anything.

7. smaller loads are better - don't overfill your washer. about 2/3 full is a good rule of thumb for both front- and top-loading washers. your clothes need space to move around in the water in order to get clean. also, if they have space to move around, they aren't forced to be rubbed up against each other for the whole cycle, which breaks down the fibers. fabric fibers are weakest when wet.

8. cooler water is also better. i wash "regular" clothes in warm water and delicates in cold, and my washer (the whirlpool duet sport) does only cold water washes. the only things i wash in hot water are towels and sheets. cooler water is gentler on your clothes.

9. my washer also allows me to choose the spin speed. regular loads get a high spin speed, because cotton is very absorbent and so i feel like that high spin speed is necessary to get the water out. delicates get a medium or low spin speed, because i feel like the synthetics don't hold as much water, and it's gentler on the clothes.

10. i generally line-dry my delicates. most of them are synthetics which dry pretty quickly. i hung a couple lines in our laundry room so i can line-dry even in the winter. i would line dry a lot more of our laundry but brian complains about the "crinkly" stiff feeling in his shirts, and i don't have that much line space anyways.

11. like washing, drying on a slightly lower heat setting is better, i think, even if you have to run the dryer for longer. the only things i do on higher heat are towels and sheets, because those would take forever otherwise. remember, that lint that you clean out of the trap is pieces of your clothes. the goal is to minimize your clothes from falling apart.

12. also, i don't use dryer sheets anymore because of the vinegar. if i have to tumble dry my delicates i will throw in a half a dryer sheet to prevent static cling, and sometimes i will put a half a sheet in with the whites (where most of brian's poly/cotton work shirts get washed, and they can get a little static-y). vinegar is cheaper than dryer sheets and better for our skin and the environment in the long run anyways.

yeah, that was long. sorry. i tend to ramble. how do you do keep your clothes nice?

random things that are making me happy lately

- a warm cup of tea and my new pink cardigan.

- my cat, who randomly woke up hissing and spitting on saturday evening while we were watching a movie. i was sitting 5 feet away from him, so brian could not accuse me of tormenting the cat. must have been a nightmare, i guess. it was just so cute and funny, and then he blinked and looked around at us like he was a bit embarassed to realize he was safe at home in front of the fireplace instead of out defending his territory against marauders or something.

- who also feels the need to keep me company on the bathroom counter while i put on my makeup and do my hair in the morning, who inspects my makeup brushes and tolerates hairspray but runs away at the sound of the hairdryer.

- the blue icicle lights we put on the front of our house.

- the cherry betty boop chapstick that bonnie gave me last year for valentine's day that is mysteriously tinted the perfect shade of pink. though i have to be careful not to just smear it on like regular chapstick, which is what i did this morning not knowing any better, and ended up with a ring around my mouth as if i was 3 years old and didn't know how to eat a popsicle.

- my husband, who discovered four inches of standing water in the front gutter, and i said SEE NOW this is why i have been getting after you to clean out the gutters, you ought to listen to me more often.

- my christmas gifts, which i (mostly) finished yesterday, and i would post pictures except that certain recipients also read this. i'll post photos after christmas. suffice to say that i would like to get one from me. i think this will rank right up with the year i made the jam.

- cozy flannel sheets, which are going on my bed tonight.

- fuzzy new sweatpants fresh and warm from the dryer.

- split pea soup, and picking fresh rosemary from my front yard whenever i want some. and why can't i find any split pea soup recipes that call for rosemary? i always put it in my soup, i think the earthiness of the peas and ham goes quite nicely with rosemary.

- twinkly lights on my christmas tree, even though there is one strand that i can't seem to prevent from going spastic. all i want is for that strand to twinkle, and it keeps going all schizo on me no matter how i play with the controller. strange.

- that there are only 6 more days (5 not counting today) until cookie-making weekend with my sister starts!

lesson learned

don't leave a little dish of catnip near kitty's food bowl overnight. it's cute in the evening when he gets all nuts before bedtime, but then he goes downstairs for a snack at 230a and discovers the catnip, and then he's nuts all night long while you try to sleep.