Wednesday, February 27

Oh Yeah!

I opened up my blog because I was finally settling down to finish my Project Life layouts for April of 2012 and then I remembered it was Wednesday. Hooray! I had remembered all day long and let my brain go to mush the moment I got home. Wonderful.

But, I'm here!

Monday: Uh, I think I was just getting into the swing of things and happy that I made it through the first day back after a long weekend.

 Little Mister has loved his new trick of asking for help to get under the covers. I uncovered him from this warm pile of fuzzy pink robe.

Tuesday: We ran a few errands today and I wasn't in the greatest of moods (while forgetting my bits and pieces all over the place), but I took that bug that the SO somewhat planted and wanted to cook something new.

After being distracted by the internet, I decided on a pan-seared steak because I really wanted a steak. We've been discussing my strong desire to get a little grill. I miss grilled food so much from my mom and the SO is great at it but we haven't had access to a grill in over a year. I'm a meat-lover, need I explain more?

 
 I bought two steaks, but I ended up having enough to chop it into three bits and shared some with FMIL too.
 This was supposed to be a shallot and parsley butter sauce and it ended up being red onion and chives because that's what we had. Plus butter and a hint of lemon juice. I tried it on its own and was super skeptical, but drizzling a bit on each piece of steak was quite pleasant!

Now, I feel like I can passably cook steak. Whoa. There's still a whole 'nother one waiting in the fridge. I'm hoping to save it for Friday or the weekend as a reward for making it through the week. :D

Wednesday:
My baby brother is turning 21 years old tomorrow and I'm having a mild freak out. It's not that I feel as if he's not going to be responsible, he's much more level-headed and calmer than I am and we both don't enjoy partying, I just can barely process that he's pretty much a grown-up. I stopped counting how old I was after 19 and he's perpetually between the ages of 9-12 for me.

Talk to my mom for a bit tonight and we're still hashing out the details of what's happening for the rest of the year in terms of travel. 

I will be working on Project Life this week! Rawr! Been catching up on YouTube, still weaning myself off of the social networking marketing I was working on, and have been reading my friend's book.

Also, I've been obsessed with this concept and being brave enough to dance a happy fool in public. This playlist has made be laugh hysterically despite being so cranky lately.


Sunday, February 24

I'm Here!

I made it and on the right day. BAM!

The Oscars are going on tonight but I'm getting all the news I need from it via the book of faces. I spent the night helping moderate a chat and working on social media networking for a friend instead. However, I bowed out earlier tonight than the past few because of heading back to work tomorrow. It'll be super hard to wake up in the morning after this great long weekend.

Well, that and I'm naturally a night owl. Gonna miss spending time cuddling up to kitty and with the SO. Sigh.

Planning on seriously getting back to Project Life soon, sorting out my piles of paper work, and planning out ideas for things to do when the in-laws get here next month!

Saturday: I found my camera! It was under somewhat shady circumstances (the reappearance, not my methods of looking) but I'll ignore that right now because I am so happy to have it back! That was motivation enough for me to get out and do some gardening.

Here are some pictures that I've missed posting while my camera was MIA.

 
The SO and I helped a friend move around some furniture and I also refilled their cleaned guinea pig cage. Look who came to supervise!

 
The snails in the front office at work got a bouquet of spring flowers. So cute!

 I call them all "Gary", like Spongebob's pet snail because it's easy for me, the kids, and everyone else to remember. Lol.

Then, I lost a bit of mojo after discovering one of my gloves and my favorite hand shovel has been misplaced. Losing things drives me nuts, especially when I have been working so hard to stop that "habit" that's been plaguing me all my life. Grr rabble rabble. I did manage to do some planting.

 Remember when I said I didn't want to do anything but keep Hogwarts alive, as in not try anything new? Yeah, plans changed. :P I planted some seeds from my first harvest of Bird's Eye Chillies and there is garlic, cantouloupe, and peanuts planted on the left side.
 Found two bulbs of garlic that were starting to sprout in the fridge, so I planted those!
  Finally found some raw peanuts, so I planted some of those after my mom's recommendation.
 This is the right side.
This is the surviving pea plant from the seedlings I started a few weeks ago indoors. I planted new pea seeds around it and this was gobbled up by birds early this morning. :(
 
I found what I'm pretty sure are cherry tomato seedlings in the pea pot, so I transplanted each into its own pot with some seeds. I also have coriander with the first, lettuce with the second, and parsley with the last.
I found these from old fruit I had harvested from the Jalapenos (I cut the frozen dead ones and Serranos down too).
 I transplanted them into a pot too but kept them in bunches. They are just too cute and I'll thin them out later on.
 This strawberry plant is hanging in there still and I read that they do well playing with peas, so there are some seeds around it now.


I hope these new little experiments go well. Can't wait to update you on their progress! Guess it's time to add a new "Gardening 2013" tab now. Just when I thought I was going to get away with refraining this year... Lol.

Friday, February 22

Dangit

My timer is just all out of whack this week. What the heck, body-brain? There really isn't any excuse. I'm running on about four hours of sleep now for no good reason as well.

Tuesday: I don't remember too much from this day other than being pretty tired and reminding myself that the next day was going to be my Wednesday-Friday. I haven't scrapbook, organized, or kept up with anything. This was probably the last day that I remember for 100% having my little digital camera.

Yes, I turned the house upside-down, am praying that I didn't lose it at school, and am still freaking out. It is only about three years old, I had some video clips of school stuff and not a ton of pictures on there (I've been pretty good at uploading them to my computer every three days) but I'm in no place to get a new one right now. It especially stings because I've had a renewed passion to document life (even the cruddy parts) now. Hope it turns up soon.

Wednesday: Since it's been a short work week due to the Rodeo being in town, I dressed up for the last day. I had my cowboy hat that I got from my first trip to the event two years ago and wore boots with a western-style shirt a friend gave to me before she moved out of state. We've not done much of our official work in class and today was no exception. At the end of the day, we ended up making Ooobleck Slime (corn starch and water)! To really cinch how memorable the day was- it SNOWED!

We had warnings that there was going to be a blizzard in town and it hasn't really snowed in town in a few years. We got about two inches even though it would melt significantly every few hours. I frolicked when I got home. It was so pretty and just enough for small snowballs. That also killed me not to have my camera to record. Sigh. I did beg the SO for his cell phone to take pictures!

 The SO took this while I was at school still. It had been snowing for about an hour.
 I may have called him and begged him to take pictures while my hands were covered in slime.
 I took this one of my garden after coming home. Yeah, it's been this sad even before the snow.
 The desert is white! It doesn't take much with me, lol.
It had started to melt but then began snowing again when we went to bed. This is what it looked like early the next morning. By late afternoon, it had all melted.

All I wanted to do was catch up on sleep, but I was way too excited and just hung out with the SO and friends online.

Thursday: Was able to sleep in a ton and did some freelance social media management for a friend. I actually a few days ago. My friend's book came in the mail a day early and I was so excited! That pretty much sums that up.

Friday: Still dying a little inside for my camera. I'm fretting quite a bit. I hope to start learning to cook again soon. More social media management work is heading my way today. Hopefully, I get to reap some benefits of my labor and play soon.

I still hope to do some gardening this weekend. I'm going back and forth on wanting to scrapbook, just feel like a part of me is missing (sad, I know) without my little friend to help me remember the everyday moments.

Monday, February 18

Really Now? Really?

Twice in one week I forget to post on the proper day. *head-desk* All I've wanted to do is sleep whenever I get home. I'm getting enough, maybe not restful with the cold front that came back.

Friday: There was the meteorite wreaking havoc in Russia. The SO and I spent a few days helping a friend move and rearrange some furniture. We ran a few errands and I ended up picking up a few new seeds. I think I know what I'll be up to this upcoming long weekend!

Saturday: I spent some time with old virtual friends by accident but it was nice to be in familiar settings. Honestly, I slept a lot of this weekend. The SO did too and his head cold is almost gone. Our kitty is acting a bit out of character, almost as if his body is making him uncomfortable. We're keeping a worried and watchful eye on him.

Sunday: I chatted with my momma today after half a week of us playing phone tag again. Dad's back at work, her car is back from three weeks in the shop, and... *drum roll* one of my best friends published his book- The Sacred Texts: The Book of Azrael (v.1)! Squee! You can click on the image below for an enlargement and to read the back cover!


This is the project that I've hinted at helping out with for more than a year now. Here's the Facebook Fanpage and the Amazon page! It's available in paperback and on e-readers and will come soon to Barnes & Noble. I'm getting my copy signed when I visit this summer. Cannot wait! Gotta go finish up laundry. Oh, laundry.

Thursday, February 14

Appreciating Friendships

So.

I'm the butthead that just checked out yesterday from the moment that I woke up and for twenty-four hours after.

Yesterday was Pajama Day at school and that's one of my favorite days of the year and I completely forgot. I was even gushing about it the evening before and still blanked out when I picked out my clothes for the morning. Sigh. So many kids participated and it was adorable. We tied it into the "Love of Reading" week by inviting family members to come in and read with their students in the afternoon all snuggled up with small stuffed animals and their pj's.

Uh, the Pope retired. Didn't know that that was a thing. A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi after huge tornado ripped through and that is so tragic. Closer to home, we have some good news: it's about one month until I get to meet the SO's grandmother and some of this other relatives- in person! There are so many italics going on in this post. There's going to be a lot of media too. I'm trying to make up for yesterday.

Happy Valentine's Day, by the way. Here are two related and sweet pictures:
 
This is a big red velvet cupcake that FMIL got for me. Not the best picture of it, but I'm saving it for the end of the work week tomorrow. There is fine edible glitter sprinkled on top. Yep, it's that pretty.
 This is such a sweet story I saw on FB and shared. Made me tear up and a few of my guy friends too because I have some of the greatest friends.
- - - - -
Part II of this post is showing you what previous hobby I'm starting to delve into again- friendship bracelets. Yeah, it's been about what... two years now? I brought my collection in for my friends at work to choose from. Nothing like a friendship bracelet to show that I appreciate their friendships on Valentine's Day! :D Well, that was my line of thinking anyways. I have so many crafting hobbies, my coworkers have trouble keeping up.

I want to share my crafty collections on the blog, so here's the first installment! I realized that I never showed how I ended up reorganizing my strings after talking about hunting down the "perfect" storage solution. Cue the V8 smack to the forehead.

 Found this stackable and lockable container at a big box craft store. Was looking for one of those clear tall pails but this has worked out so well for me.
I sort many things by color and stocked up on the floss holders which have been so good to me. There are a ton of pinks because of my Breast Cancer Awareness promotion-line.
 I used to keep a cheat sheet note card in an envelope for each pattern I used to sell in my old Etsy shop.
 I have a bunch of bracelets that I deemed "Unusable" set aside for ones that were an odd length or from when I was figuring out what was the best way to fasten the bracelets.
  Sometimes, I'm determined to break out of a color rut and blindly grab the needed number to see what comes out. Often, it's not my cup of tea, but a customer would just fall in love with the hues.
 I have so many of these because I made a ton as part of a promotion-campaign thing for a previous Valentine's Day. Kind of a pain to make, but they always look so sweet.
One of the newer patterns that I incorporated into my main line.
 This is my favorite pattern. It looks so good from the front and the back.
 I ended up making one for myself using colors that would remind me of the lessons I should focusing on learning this year. I don't know if this was the right color scheme, but am wearing it on my ankle now. The orange and white are my favorite part because it looks like a fox tail. More about that at a later date.
 
Not quite macrame, but I like to use my scraps to make these.
 My two latest additions to the main line. I call the first one Waterfall and the latter Blaze. They require much more forethought and attention to get into the rhythm of making.
 My Awareness Ribbon pattern that included a donation to related causes. *Note* I do not claim that any of these patterns are my own.
This is one of most popular patterns, especially once people see it in person. I've made and remade (once they have fallen off and been lost) so many of these.
 
These are a few patterns that I was testing out. That middle lime one is an outline of a butterfly.
 Older patterns that I had completed from a book but decided not to sell. I'll make them if someone really loves them.
 More patterns that I had considered selling once I stocked up a few.
This is the collection of it all after sorting out the jumbled mess I had ended up with when I shut down my store.

Right after taking that last picture, I sought a better way of keeping the finished bracelets organized. Now, they are all on their respective paper clip and the clips are on a d-ring. Hopefully, it made it easier for the ladies to sort through them all to find one that they liked today.

I can show my colors of embroidery floss in another post, but that collection of colors changes so often. I seek certain shades when requested, but I often just oogle the selection and grab colors that I find are gorgeous at the time. I started getting into seasonal collections and that was tons of fun to shop for. I would love some outside inspiration for new color combinations now that I'm dabbling in this again.

Sigh, someone needs to take some of these off of my hands, lol. As long as they go do a decent home, I don't mind it at all.

Sunday, February 10

Round Two

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Happy New Year (of the Water Snake)!

It's been the second round of a head cold for the SO and I, so we've been pretty pathetic in our room. Well, in retrospect it seems a tad sad, but we did what we could to take care of one another. Especially me returning the favor after a solid month of being almost out of commission.

We were able to get some errands done yesterday. There are new sheets on the bed after our old ones suddenly tore down the middle. They are now the wrong color for the rest of the bedding (whoops) and a heavyweight flannel which was so good to burrow into last night. It kept the warmth so well and that's been great on our joints in this recent cold front.

The Northeast got quite a bit of snow over the past few days, but with a bit of preparation, it seems that most people are sitting tight until the shovels finish their work.

The SO and I have been snuggling up with our tissues, watching some shows online, and I've played on his computers while he's been resting up. Oh, we also got kitty some new grass, a test kit of four types of cereal grass seeds, and some new turkey-flavored treats. He's been kind of spunky and cuddly lately. This has distracted me from working on anything else.

His cat-cousin is back to living at this household again. That makes three cats now that should be kept separate and let out to roam the house at different times or in shifts. Sigh. More and more company keep coming.

It's been half-days, but I've ended up working longer hours than usual, but it was broken up by an impromptu lunch date and SIL's Ladies' Happy Hour that was just us at a local place with great food. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it, but the stars aligned and I'm grateful for that time.

Like I said earlier, it's the Lunar New Year but we're continuing on our streak of toning down and scaling back on the celebrations. We ordered some takeout and barely made a dent with all of our hacking, lol. I may do something with the kids at school this week, but probably not go all out like I had last year with my dressing-up and doing presentations for all of the classrooms what with my hours this year.

I want to believe that this will be "our year" but am finding it very hard to keep that faith, mostly within myself. Maybe if enough of that builds up, I'll react by pushing it aside and making something better and towards the life we want to live for ourselves. Kind of feel like Eeyore with that raincloud that bores down always with all of this heavy and serious hovering above my shoulders.

Wednesday, February 6

All The Food

The day started off with a slightly surprising discovery: my coffee tasted terrible. I could taste the fact that I hadn't bothered putting in any milk or cream this past week! It's the first time in a while that I could taste anything and I was so excited.

The sense of smell and taste are not quite there, but they are starting to come back and that really carried my spirits today. Last night was also the first night that I didn't wake up in the middle of the night hacking or sneezing violently. I've been doing some breathing treatments and it's been breaking up the gunk deep down in my lungs so it can finally leave my body in whatever way it pleases. I don't care, it just needs to be gone.

With my reclaimed senses, I started to eat everything in sight the moment that I got home from a long day at work. All in celebration.

I almost have enough energy to get going again. Mentally, I'm plotting and raring to go. Sometimes I make the mistake of trying to tackle something with gusto and then suddenly reminded by my knees giving out or the rush of light-headed-ness to just rest already. Fine.

The SO's birthday was this past Monday and we spent a quiet night at home but plan to go out to celebrate that and the Lunar New Year this weekend when I'm feeling better.

Chatted with my mom today and my family is recovering well. With each passing week, they are reaching little milestones back towards normalcy. Erm, as normal as it's going to get for the next year or so. Long-term health issues are scary.

In better news, I've finished with March 2012 and am perusing my photos and notes for April! Still maintaining excitement for Project Life.

Sunday, February 3

"Super" Sunday

It's the day of that big football game (49ers versus Ravens) and Beyoncé concert. My typical tradition as established my my college years is to have a ton of finger foods and snacks around and watch the game, commercials, and play Mario Party whenever we get bored.

Instead, I'm somewhat miserable in bed nursing this head cold. I'm tired of being sick. My cat has been giving me so much guff about this illness. Every time I sniffle, sneeze, or cough, he's chatting at me and giving the stink eye.

Needless to say, I haven't had much energy to get much done this weekend. We've gotten the minimum of errands done, laundry should get done but probably won't this weekend, and tackling clean-up and organization is put onto hold until I can taste food again or breathe through my nose.

The SO has been helping me out, but he's tired of me being sick too. So many tissues and bouts of hacking coughs in the middle of the night. We've played some video games together, watched some shows, and I'm nearly done with March '12 in Project Life. Haven't taken much pictures lately. Hm.

The garden looks so despondent. There are some baby plants but I'm not convinced that their not weeds. Haven't gotten rid of those in over a month and there are so many now with the random light rains we've had in the past two weeks. Well, so many for the desert, I guess. I think I'll take pictures of that soon.

I guess the only other thing to report is that I finally fixed my blog signature so that it's relevant again! Hooray! Hopefully, I'll be much healthier with more things to report later this week.
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