projects (3)

 

MIL has a beautiful apricot tree in her back yard. i was fortunate enough to yoink a few pounds of those little beauties and turn them in to several jars of terrifically tart apricot preserves.

 

upcoming doodling class LO.

 

i made a purse for myself. amy butler, frenchy bag. over all an ok pattern.

 

this is the lining of said purse. isnt it awesome?

projects (2)

party invites. its a dinosaur hot dog party, FYI.

an unfinished LO using basicgrey's Mellow. trying to use my stash and document the boogerbear's language at the same time. the 2nd page of this LO will be a list of the words we know he says/understands. little cloud bubbles just dont do his language justice. will post again when complete.

check out my leet gardening skillz. i made parsley GROW!


here is a LO i think i "fixed". i much happier with the blue glittery paper as the background.

Before:




After:

projects (1)

my mom thinks i need "texas" paraphernalia all over our house. i think she's right, but it just needs more glitter so i took this... lovely FAKE cow skull and glittered it! it now hangs in our upstairs bathroom.

NEW SEWING MACHINE! I LOVES IT!!!

started working on christmas gifts already. i know, its july. but i plan on making everyone's gifts this year, so i think i better get crackin. i just liked how these spent paint brushed looked after i finished working on my BIL's gift, thus the photo.

"streamers" for the boogerbear and his auntie KT's bday party. they're super cute, will look way better than the paper/plastic alternative, are reusable, perfectly match the papergoods and invites for the party, and cost the same as the paper junk. i win!

once we returned home,

we went to the park.

 

while in houston, we went

to the houston zoo.

 

 

 

it was hot.

while in houston, i learned

 

tyler likes cheese dip.

maybe tuesday i will take a moment to breathe.

so we're back from the big T. it was a nice visit. it was an unwanted & unexpected, yet tolerable overnight stay in denver on the way home. but, we were thrilled to be back. i havent had time to slow down from traveling yet though. here's approximately what i've been through in the past few days:

we finally made it back home on thursday afternoon.
it was time to do laundry and make a shopping list.
GO TO BED EARLY.
asleep by 10pm. (a new record for early holly* bedtime i believe.)
friday.
factory installed, toddler alarm clock buzzes at me at 7:30 am.
commence AM routine.
procede to costco.
drive over "the hill" (yes, that hill) to pick up class materials for sunday's classes.
return home.
hit the park.
start precutting materials for class kits.
visit MIL & FIL.
take child to dinner with FIL.
return home.
finish kits.
SLEEP! (out by 10:30 this time around)
saturday.
CLEAN.
apply for hambly DT. (fingers crossed!!!)
touch base with SIL about suprise bday party for MIL to go down on sunday.
make shopping list.
hit the park.
grocery store visit.
pick up tart at MIL's favorite bakery.
return home.
make birthday pie.
continue cleaning.
SIL stops by.
decide we need to go to target and have burittos.
return home.
clean.
SLEEP!
sunday.
internal alarm clock wont let me sleep past 8am.
take quick shower and throw clothes on.
wake up child for "breakfast".
set out MIL's "day #1 of her bday week breakfast/dessert fruit tart"
really get dressed and head out the door for classes.
teach classes from 11am to 4pm.
head home.
"SUPRISE" MIL.
immediately prepare dinner.
mashed potatoes (with black truffle oil), corn on the cob, and salad (mixed greens, thinly sliced apples, walnuts, blue cheese, and a holly* citrus vinagerette. aka. me throwing shit that taste good in a salad dressing container thing and forcing it on others. it turned out good...)
FIL grilled steaks.
let SIL do 1st load of dinner dishes.
lay lifelessly on the couch.
bathe child.
put said child to sleep.
finish a quick LO for an upcoming class.
bathe.
blog.
bed.

now, toss in the antics and alterior motives of a toddler and there you have it. tomorrow i have a playdate, a need to drop off some stuff at the SB store, and something else that i've already forgotten. i wish husband would return home. i seem to slow down a whole lot when he's around. lazy bastard...

anywho, photos will be updated soon. projects will be updated soon. i might be a sane person soon, but dont count on any of it...

ok, i'm back. i think. i hope. i dont even know where to start. when did i even blog last???

from a frantic memory (today proablly isnt the best day for this,) here goes some highlights from the past couple months:

tyler started walking!!! and can say "crack-ah!" like, he carries around an empty box of crackers and says it. apparently that means he wants crackers. if he's just hungry he says "mamamamamamamama." i see where his loyalties are.
mom had a good visit. she's relatively sane as of late. her divorce is final. she's offically miss kaluza again. she's also back to teaching. it seems that this batch of kiddies are a little better. and she called me at 1am (my time, 3am her's) to tell me she had a party and made out with an old highschool boyfriend. the only thing i could ask was "is he married?" no, thank goodness. but she's a wild one. i wonder if i should give her a cerfew? make her call me? check in, ya know?
computers died. thus the neglect to my lovely blog and stress outlet. husband finally got them back up and running. well the desktop. my laptop is totally gone. but the hubby did get the data off it. yay hubby!
my "bestfriend" came for a visit. the same best friend that i was so mad at for not even thanking me for her bridal shower/bachelorette party and everything else i pulled together for her wedding. she's pregnant. its going well so far. i feel better about our relationship after her visit. i alluded to not enjoying the company of people who didnt appreciate my efforts and i think she kinda got it. i also made a deal with myself not to bend over backwards for her. i'm here for her, but im not laying all my effort and emotion out for her to take.
the dreaded BIL's girlfriend is banned from the family. i dont know if she gets it, but it sure is nice not dealing with her face to face. sounds mean, but i'm so beyond pretending on that front. oh yea, she didnt show up for the boogerbear's 1st bday party. thinking back on it, we're way glad they weren't there, but its um only RUDE! so thats what finally finished her in my book. so much for building strong family bonds huh? (i'm sure this will be something i elaborate on later)
i freaking hate the stupid depo shot! its making me nuts. any recommendations on a good, effective BC? please! i'm desperate! i've been on the shot a year and each month when i'm supposed to bleed (ew) i'm nuttier than squirrel poo... seriously. i have a well woman exam coming up in a week. i'm definately going to talk to my ob/gyn about it then. we're not ready for another baby, but i cant stand another hormone high beginging of the month!!!
the boogerbear and i are heading to houston for my mom's bday and a cousin's wedding in a couple weeks. im looking forward to the trip just not the traveling. any recommendations on a good, effective baby sedative??? please! i'm desperate!!!

i think thats the big things. i have a lovely story for today. so tyler is yet again battling his infamous diaper rash. its pretty bad today and i had to start using the steroid (poop) cream last night. (we had been using the diaper ointment by burt's bee's. that stuff worked wonders where nothing else would work at all. i highly recommend for the ultrasensitive baby butts) well, to continue the story, he pooped (for the 4th time today. ugh!) and i changed him. i had plans of drawing a cool bath for him so i put a diaper on him so i could get the bath ready. well, before i could pick him up off the couch (where i changed him, so luckily the area was well covered) a gusher of puke launched into the air. and down again. what do you know? gravity works... before i can get him out of it he rolls around in it a little. well, at that point i just picked him up and ran to the bathroom. on the way he puked (a lot) again on the wool run and toy box. i finally get him in the bathtub where he pukes a little more and finally starts to calm down. right about the time i was washing the puke out of his hair, i start puking. i have a really weak gag reflex. lame. oh well, all is well now. he's sleeping and i'm showered. now all i have to do is to figure out how to get the curtled milk smell out of the rug. ARGH!!!

Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.

We got back from San Diego last night. We can most definitely claim we had a good time. Our activities included but were not limited to:

the Del Mar Fair {a day filled with fried food, animal smells, and fun}



the San Diego Zoo {5 hours of baby backpacking, animal sniffing, and walking entertainment}






the Del Mar Dog Beach {toddlers at the beach are something to be careful about}



Stone Brewery {my new favorite brewery just out of principle! Yes, I said principle as I made reference to a beer.}





All in all the trip was fun, but not so much a “vacation”. The next vacation we will be having will either include leaving the boogerbear with a grandma or the boogerbear being 30…

i enjoy events involving paper bracelets.

This weekend ZOOMED by! Friday night I toiled in the kitchen making 5dozen chocolate chip cookies for a party for my nephews and niece. Then first thing Saturday morning the husband, baby and I headed over to a local park for said party. It was a nice sunny day that left me burnt due to expired sunscreen. Did you know sunscreen really expired? Well, it does. The whole family was there pretty much and the kids had a really good time all costumed up. After hanging out with them for a while we took a drive up into the Santa Cruz Mountains for a bit to let Tyler sleep and headed to the Tyrolean Inn where we participated in the Maifest. It was super fun and I got great photos. As I soaked in the atmosphere, I decided that I enjoy events that involved paper bracelets.

Sunday we went to the Maker Faire. I really wanted to go because of Bazaar Bizarre which was super neat, which was basically a few rows of tables set up where crafters set up their goods. It was all awesome and provided me with tons of inspiration. I walked away with some YUMMY soaps from Estrella Soap and a new school bus bag from Fred Flare. Despite mostly going for the crafts, I found the whole event to be tons of fun! There was so much going on, so much creativity, so much inventiveness, so much enthusiasm, that I forgot to take a ton of photos even. Nuts.

I have a ton of energy today. So does Tyler. Not sure if that’s good or bad, but hopefully I get at the bare minimum get a thorough “to do” list made out (yea, I’m one of those list people) and get a few things crossed out. Maybe I can even get some of my craft projects off my plate today too!!!

for pictures of these events and for future reference, check out my FLICKR!

mia much?

ok. so i've been gone. i have reasons. first, i gave myself a lovely 2nd degree burn covering 3/4 of my left hand a couple weeks ago. it healed quite nicely, but was a pain in the ass for the first week. During that first week of healing, something horrible happened to my laptop so im stuck using husband's desktop, which IS NOT CONVEINENT. then my grandma showed up. so i dont have a lot of time to blog now, or a lot of time later. so it will come in waves. hopefully while my grandma is down i can get a lot of the projects i have going on completed and get some photos posted.

note to self: i need a new toaster and salad spinner.

Blogging from Blackout

Well, first of all, I’m in Houston. I’ve been here since Sunday (3.10). It was a very last minute decision made last Saturday (3.9) and I’m here. Last Saturday(3.9), Katie (my SIL) and I found an awesome fabric outlet that I heard about in San Francisco. On the way there, my mom called me in tears begging me to come home ASAP. Long story short, she’s in the middle of some kind of break down that I will explain later in this post. Anywho, I can’t wait to get back home and check out that fabric store again!!! When we were in there, I think I was too overwhelmed by the selection and prices (CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! ) and the shock of having to head to Houston THE NEXT DAY that I lost my fabric mojo. Sunday I spent packing and traveling. I was so tired. Monday (3.11) I spent at my grandma’s going through and organizing her old notions and I hit the jackpot. She’s sending me home with tons of thread (I tested it to make sure it wasn’t too old and decayed), ribbons, snaps, vintage BUTTONS, etc… Yay! That evening I went to visit my dad and step-mom who just happen to be in town. That went well. I actually was kinda feeling bad that they weren’t more involved in tyler’s life, but then I asked my dad if he had any other grandkids. (I have 2 half siblings that I’ve never met. They are both approx. 15-20 years older than me) He apparently does have 2 other grandkids by his own bloodline. Two girls that he’s never met. I don’t feel quite so bad anymore. I at least call them, send them pictures, and they have seen him a couple times. Not that its any consolation, but my step-brother actually has two boys (13 and 15) and they’re very close to my dad. He has a family.

THE BREAKDOWN
So, my mom is nuts. Really. But, its ok. It’s a result of her loosing control of things in her life that she doesn’t feel she should loose control over, i.e. me, her classroom, her weight, etc… everything added together has resulted in some nasty depression and the shit finally hit the fan last Wednesday (3.7). There was an incident with her at school that resulted in her having to take a couple days of administrative leave (with her spring break to follow) and a few mandatory therapy sessions (yay! You have no idea how long I’ve tried to get this woman to go to a therapist). She was kinda handling this ok until Saturday when she was in wal-mart and on of her students came up to here and said “Mrs. Macha, I heard you got fired”. She lost it. There is a lot more to the story, but it will all come out in due time. Right now, that’s all that’s important about the story. ATM she’s ok, but I think her nerves are getting the best of her.

THE BAG!
Tuesday (3.12) Moomoo and I started to cut out and piece the Amy Butler patternthat I got, but not out of the fabric I originally bought for it. Instead we used some random fabric that was bought for some random project at least 10 years ago that never got made. It was dispensable. We did not trust this pattern. It was by far the most complicated instruction for a very simple bag that I’ve ever encountered. But, then again, I haven’t exactly followed too many patterns that closely lately. Wednesday (3.13) was more of the same. I made a JoAnn’s and Hancock’s run for the rest of the materials we needed for the purse. I was very tempted by some shiny metallic fabric (Ooooooh, shiny….) that they had on sale, but I was a good girl and left it there. Poop. Thursday (3.14) I finished the bag!!! I’m pleased with it. I almost even like the tacky fabric. It is much larger than I envisioned and I already have tons of things I want to change when I start the 2nd one. (yes, I do plan on attempting this thing again. And soon at that.) I think I’m going to make a whole new bag but LOOSELY based on this pattern. Straight sides and more (smaller) pockets. This bag has something called “portfolio” pockets, which were confusing as hell to visualize when reading the instructions, but they turned out to be giant pockets on both sides of the lining of the bag. Not a bad idea, I just think MORE and SMALLER pockets are more practical. Regardless, I’m proud of the result of me following instructions. Yay me!!! [PICTURES WILL BE INSERTED HERE LATER]

So, now its after 2am (3.16) and I’m sitting in my old bedroom in my parents’ house watching “earth girls are easy”. (I love that movie! The food scene and makeover parts are the BEST!) I’m tired and so tempted by every lunista commercial I see. I was finally getting back into a good sleep routine at home. I contribute most of that to the daily workouts I was actually doing on that dumb machine of which I am NOT doing here. Oh well, I’ll be back next Wednesday. I’m not really sure what I will do until then. I think I’m gong to visit my godmother at some point. My mom’s cousin/best friend and her girls wanted to do dinner. Saturday (3.17) we were planning on having lunch with my aunt. Saturday night is Jen’s PROM THEMED birthday party that I am SOOOO STOKED that I get to attend. I always seem to miss her parties. I also just happen to have left my bridesmaid dress from Erican’s wedding
here, so I even have something to wear.

PS> more updates:
Mom went back to school Monday (3.19); everything is fine.

LUNCH WITH KELLY (3.20)
I got an hour away from that baby to do lunch with Kelly. Its always nice to have some grown-up time with not only a grown-up in a similar station in life as you, but with one who shares a lot of the same view points as you. ALSO, I got her little boy a cranky the crane toy which HE DIDN’T HAVE!!! I love picking that perfect gift!

So I’m going home tomorrow (3.21). YAY! I miss home. I miss Ben. I’m ready to head back. I’m sure I will update this ASAP when I get back into the land of technology, aka. Home w/ and internet connection.