Off to figure out dinner and what to do with some beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots and zucchini that doesn't require the food processor since it's loud and Mike's sleeping.
~Crys :o(
Publish Post
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Debby downer
Ever have an never ending day when all you want is to look at the clock and have it be 8pm so it can be bedtime? I'm having one and it is the shits. I hate doing it, but can't the impulse to watch each minute slowly creep by. I thought I'd never be a debby downer, but here I am, making another depressing post. Probably because I have no one I can have a real conversation with. Peanut's don't count since he never holds up his end of the conversation.
Off to figure out dinner and what to do with some beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots and zucchini that doesn't require the food processor since it's loud and Mike's sleeping.
~Crys :o(
Off to figure out dinner and what to do with some beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots and zucchini that doesn't require the food processor since it's loud and Mike's sleeping.
~Crys :o(
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday's hate post
I haven't been taking the time to blog lately. It takes spare time that I don't have between my kiddos, the small amounts of time I get with Mike, housework, sewing, and sleep. Tonight's post isn't a super cheery one. In fact, it sucks, big time. I'm in a funk despite being able to sleep in this morning thanks to my rocking husband.
I hate Fridays. Mike has to go back to work and I'm once again back to being the married-single parent for the next 4 days. Times like tonight I hate Mike's job. I hate the guild for taking time away from his limited family time on his weekend. I hate the city job for taking him away from us every weekend night (and day too since he has to sleep). I hate having to bathe and put our kids to bed by myself. And mostly, I hate not having anyone to talk to once the kiddos are asleep. It's shitty and no one really understands how much it's shitty until they have to do it themselves - week after week for the unforeseeable future. I know it's what's best for us right now and it means no daycare is raising our children, but I still hate it. I hate it and stress about it which leads Maemae to being fussy. Peanut hates it because his mind doesn't remember that Daddy has to leave after dinner on Fridays and can't go play in the weeds (aka back yard). It's time like tonight that I try to remember it's how the bills get paid, then I say screw that and rejoin the pity party in progress.
I also hate holidays. Labor day weekend is here and I get to enjoy it with my kiddos while my husband has to sleep in order to work all fracking night long. And Mike knows his winter work schedule now and it blows even harder than the current schedule. We've been telling ourselves it's really not going to be different, but yes, it is. Still working all night only this time he gets to work all the major holidays, including the nights before and the nights after. It's depressing realizations like these that make me wish we stayed in AZ even knowing that I would of had to go back to 40 hours of work a week to make ends meet due to the humongous slowdown in guild work. At least then I would of had my husband at home in the evenings to help with our kids and to spend time with. Instead, I get to talk to myself and occasionally to the cat when she bothers to wake up and meow at me.
Now for the cheery portion of the post. Maemae has 2 bottom front teeth, can pull herself up into a wobbly standing position, and army crawls like she's been in the military for years. Peanut is putting 2-3 word sentences together, can kick a ball like David Beckham, and clearly lets us know what he doesn't want by putting his hands up in front of him and saying NO. And his new favorite movies are Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown.
And few pictures of perfection.
I'm off to join my pretty girl.
TTFN ~Crys
I hate Fridays. Mike has to go back to work and I'm once again back to being the married-single parent for the next 4 days. Times like tonight I hate Mike's job. I hate the guild for taking time away from his limited family time on his weekend. I hate the city job for taking him away from us every weekend night (and day too since he has to sleep). I hate having to bathe and put our kids to bed by myself. And mostly, I hate not having anyone to talk to once the kiddos are asleep. It's shitty and no one really understands how much it's shitty until they have to do it themselves - week after week for the unforeseeable future. I know it's what's best for us right now and it means no daycare is raising our children, but I still hate it. I hate it and stress about it which leads Maemae to being fussy. Peanut hates it because his mind doesn't remember that Daddy has to leave after dinner on Fridays and can't go play in the weeds (aka back yard). It's time like tonight that I try to remember it's how the bills get paid, then I say screw that and rejoin the pity party in progress.
I also hate holidays. Labor day weekend is here and I get to enjoy it with my kiddos while my husband has to sleep in order to work all fracking night long. And Mike knows his winter work schedule now and it blows even harder than the current schedule. We've been telling ourselves it's really not going to be different, but yes, it is. Still working all night only this time he gets to work all the major holidays, including the nights before and the nights after. It's depressing realizations like these that make me wish we stayed in AZ even knowing that I would of had to go back to 40 hours of work a week to make ends meet due to the humongous slowdown in guild work. At least then I would of had my husband at home in the evenings to help with our kids and to spend time with. Instead, I get to talk to myself and occasionally to the cat when she bothers to wake up and meow at me.
Now for the cheery portion of the post. Maemae has 2 bottom front teeth, can pull herself up into a wobbly standing position, and army crawls like she's been in the military for years. Peanut is putting 2-3 word sentences together, can kick a ball like David Beckham, and clearly lets us know what he doesn't want by putting his hands up in front of him and saying NO. And his new favorite movies are Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown.
And few pictures of perfection.
I'm off to join my pretty girl.
TTFN ~Crys
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Challenge+Procrastination=Eventual Satisfaction
Long time no bloggy for Mikey. I'm done with my furniture work for the day, no overtime at BOEC, and no Academy classes that I'm teaching today, Crystal is sewing, Clella is playing with the cats tail (oh boy) and Elliot is sleeping....what's a boy to do? Blog!
So, back in June...yes, June, I went on a particularly costly moving claim out in Hillsborito, a.k.a. Tortilla flats or...as the city planners call it, Hillsboro. For those of you not familiar with the Portland area...its clear out on the west side of town, on the way to the beach, about an hours drive from our house, and thats when you hit no traffic.
The shipper had a small curio cabinet that was made out of Mahogany and had some mirrored backers on 2 shelves and 2 little drawers. Needless to say...the movers destroyed this thing. Not just destroyed, anniliated it!
Obviously not something a little glue, epoxy and color was going to fix. I knew this was going to call for full on replacement of those end pieces. Everything else on the thing was fine, the shelves, the 2 drawers on the bottom and the mirrors. Somehow, all those pieces were fine...not sure how that happened, didn't much care really. So, 2 new tool purchases later (hey, I had to have them to complete the job! :) ), scroll saw and new drill press. I went to the local lumber yard to get me some mahogany that would most closely match up to the existing grain pattern. Needless to say, this thing is old....therefore, it's made of old wood. Wood that was likely sitting in some forest somewhere in the world and cut down and turned into lumber to make furniture. New Mahogany is grown in a controlled area, allowed to get just old enough to be harvested and chopped down. The grain just isn't the same, no matter how hard to search, it just doesn't exist. So, I got the closest thing I could that matched it color wise, that was a lot easier to do.
Got it home, got the new lumber on the bench....and there it sat....for weeks. I just wasn't motivated to get going on it. Well, I shouldn't have waited around, turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I think the reason it went so well however is because I thought about it over and over again in my head about how I was going to go about doing it. So, I was able to glue the 2 old ends together, and they had just enough material on them to produce a good template to use in order to get everything transferred over to the new lumber.
4 hours was all it took to drill and cut out all the shapes and what not. Another 2 hours of sanding making everything baby butt smooth, an hour to color, 3 hours to lacquer, and blam-O! Shes done and put together. Returned it this morning where a more than satisfied customer signed off on my work. Now she has 2 tables she wants me to refinish for her, but told her that aint going to happen til after the move! Here are the after pics.
I have a dresser in the shop now that got one of its legs torn off, hideous thing! It's painted white with green....brush strokes....all over it, it screams vomit. Since it has to get painted to be repaired, the shipper decided to go with a solid sherbert green color....its equally hideous, but at least doesn't make me want to vomit. The leg is fixed, now I have to caulk all the seams and cracks, prime it, and paint it. Want it done before vacation next week, so I gotta get cracking on it!
So, back in June...yes, June, I went on a particularly costly moving claim out in Hillsborito, a.k.a. Tortilla flats or...as the city planners call it, Hillsboro. For those of you not familiar with the Portland area...its clear out on the west side of town, on the way to the beach, about an hours drive from our house, and thats when you hit no traffic.
The shipper had a small curio cabinet that was made out of Mahogany and had some mirrored backers on 2 shelves and 2 little drawers. Needless to say...the movers destroyed this thing. Not just destroyed, anniliated it!
Obviously not something a little glue, epoxy and color was going to fix. I knew this was going to call for full on replacement of those end pieces. Everything else on the thing was fine, the shelves, the 2 drawers on the bottom and the mirrors. Somehow, all those pieces were fine...not sure how that happened, didn't much care really. So, 2 new tool purchases later (hey, I had to have them to complete the job! :) ), scroll saw and new drill press. I went to the local lumber yard to get me some mahogany that would most closely match up to the existing grain pattern. Needless to say, this thing is old....therefore, it's made of old wood. Wood that was likely sitting in some forest somewhere in the world and cut down and turned into lumber to make furniture. New Mahogany is grown in a controlled area, allowed to get just old enough to be harvested and chopped down. The grain just isn't the same, no matter how hard to search, it just doesn't exist. So, I got the closest thing I could that matched it color wise, that was a lot easier to do.
Got it home, got the new lumber on the bench....and there it sat....for weeks. I just wasn't motivated to get going on it. Well, I shouldn't have waited around, turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I think the reason it went so well however is because I thought about it over and over again in my head about how I was going to go about doing it. So, I was able to glue the 2 old ends together, and they had just enough material on them to produce a good template to use in order to get everything transferred over to the new lumber.
4 hours was all it took to drill and cut out all the shapes and what not. Another 2 hours of sanding making everything baby butt smooth, an hour to color, 3 hours to lacquer, and blam-O! Shes done and put together. Returned it this morning where a more than satisfied customer signed off on my work. Now she has 2 tables she wants me to refinish for her, but told her that aint going to happen til after the move! Here are the after pics.
I have a dresser in the shop now that got one of its legs torn off, hideous thing! It's painted white with green....brush strokes....all over it, it screams vomit. Since it has to get painted to be repaired, the shipper decided to go with a solid sherbert green color....its equally hideous, but at least doesn't make me want to vomit. The leg is fixed, now I have to caulk all the seams and cracks, prime it, and paint it. Want it done before vacation next week, so I gotta get cracking on it!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Stupid machine - you suck
My sewing machine sucks tonight. Every one of my tricks, except one, to fix the skipping stitches isn't working. Neither are Mom's tricks or hints I've gathered on the internet. And it was sewing so beautifully a few nights ago with not one skip stitched when I appliqued 6 shirts. And calling it a stupid f-ing thing in my mean snotty voice didn't work.
The JoAnn's ad is downstairs, taunting me to go look at the pretty, shiny, new sewing machines that are on sale and won't skip stitches. Then I remember I don't have a paying job and my frivolous spending account is closed.
Of course I already heat pressed my adorable fabric to the shirts so I can't pull off the fusible web and try a different brand.
Looks like I'm gonna have to load the kiddos up in the morning and go buy a different brand of thread. That's my last trick. Keep your fingers crossed that it works. It should be fun with Peanut - he's old enough that the fabric store is boring to him and he cries "Noooooo" in the parking lot when he realizes he has to go inside with me. Oh goody, fun times.
Stupid machine.
~Crys
The JoAnn's ad is downstairs, taunting me to go look at the pretty, shiny, new sewing machines that are on sale and won't skip stitches. Then I remember I don't have a paying job and my frivolous spending account is closed.
Of course I already heat pressed my adorable fabric to the shirts so I can't pull off the fusible web and try a different brand.
Looks like I'm gonna have to load the kiddos up in the morning and go buy a different brand of thread. That's my last trick. Keep your fingers crossed that it works. It should be fun with Peanut - he's old enough that the fabric store is boring to him and he cries "Noooooo" in the parking lot when he realizes he has to go inside with me. Oh goody, fun times.
Stupid machine.
~Crys
Friday, August 15, 2008
Project for tonight
I love it when I buy fabric AND do something with it in the same day. It's a rare occurrence, but I couldn't let this adorable flannel just sit in my pile waiting to be made into a blanket for my kiddos. It's a fairly quick project. I think the decorative border took longer to sew on than the measuring, cutting and the initial sewing together. Peanut and Maemae will love it for a cuddle blanket.
It's actually lighter than the picture shows, but my camera doesn't do well when there's no natural light around. Or I don't know the right setting to use on it.
And I have to say how much I like my Kenmore sewing machine now. I picked it up today from the shop where the service/repair man dropped it off and for $54.05 Kenny had a tune up, cleaning, and oiling on the inside. It is so much quieter now and runs so smoothly. I looked on the receipt yesterday and it's almost 9 years old. So the $54.05 spent on it's first tuning was money well spent. So if anyone needs a good repair guy, I know of one and he's quick.
Today reminded me of Arizona and one of the few things we miss from being there. It was around 100 here today so we were indoors all day with our little window a/cs and fans going nonstop. I'll keep them on through the night to let the upstairs finish cooling off. I do miss the whole house a/c from there and the tiled floors. As much as I don't like whole house tiling, in the heat it's awesome.
I'm off to bed now.
TTFN ~ Crys
It's actually lighter than the picture shows, but my camera doesn't do well when there's no natural light around. Or I don't know the right setting to use on it.And I have to say how much I like my Kenmore sewing machine now. I picked it up today from the shop where the service/repair man dropped it off and for $54.05 Kenny had a tune up, cleaning, and oiling on the inside. It is so much quieter now and runs so smoothly. I looked on the receipt yesterday and it's almost 9 years old. So the $54.05 spent on it's first tuning was money well spent. So if anyone needs a good repair guy, I know of one and he's quick.
Today reminded me of Arizona and one of the few things we miss from being there. It was around 100 here today so we were indoors all day with our little window a/cs and fans going nonstop. I'll keep them on through the night to let the upstairs finish cooling off. I do miss the whole house a/c from there and the tiled floors. As much as I don't like whole house tiling, in the heat it's awesome.
I'm off to bed now.
TTFN ~ Crys
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tired Mama
I am one tired Mama. Mike has been working a ton and therefore, so have I. We've hardly seen each other over the last 10 days and we're both looking forward to his weekend from the city job. Him to catch up on some sleep and to spend some time with our kiddos and me to sleep. Seriously, I am one very tired Mama. So tired that what sleep I have been getting has been crap and full of weird dreams. And waking up 100 times in 4 hours with only 1 time being because Maemae needed to eat. Or I dream of sewing. I really would love a day or two where I could just sew with occasional breaks to nurse Maemae and refill my drinking cup and snack bowl then hide back at my sewing machine. But for now, I'll take what I can get and be happy when I start and finish a project before being needed by my kiddos.
I love how babies sit up with such a straight back.
We don't need to buy Maemae any toys. Anything that has been touched, kicked, thrown, or just looked at by Peanut is her favorite. Or paper. She LOVES paper and half the time I have no idea where the paper she's chewing on came from. I think some books are going to have Maemae sized bite marks all over the pages. And she HATES me when I fish it out of her mouth and force her fingers open to take it. She has one very loud pissed off shriek that she lets go when I steal her paper.
Peanut's officially a two and a halfer. His half year birthday was last week and just under 6 short months, we'll be having his 3rd (holy crap 3rd!) party.
Umm, let's see what else has been going on. Maemae has 2 teeth now. They popped through last week and now I can feel 2 more gum bumps. Peanut is still not a big talker, but is picking up new words everyday. He says them out of the blue but still is silent despite being asked to say it again 100 million times. Both are the highlight of my life. I really am one of the lucky women who can say I was born to be Mama. Even when I have no energy for anything else after they're in bed, when my house is an embarrassment to look at and all my dishes are dirty, I look forward to the next time they're awake, making me smile and laugh. And tired, so very tired.
TTFN ~Crys
Tonight I re-vamped a bib pattern I had and made this.
And tonight I finished this outfit. Tomorrow is suppose to be warm enough that Maemae can wear it.
Sweet potatoes are yummy!
Peanut doesn't care that our lawn is full of weeds. He loves being outside barefoot. He's going to love being outside at our new place.
I love how babies sit up with such a straight back.
We don't need to buy Maemae any toys. Anything that has been touched, kicked, thrown, or just looked at by Peanut is her favorite. Or paper. She LOVES paper and half the time I have no idea where the paper she's chewing on came from. I think some books are going to have Maemae sized bite marks all over the pages. And she HATES me when I fish it out of her mouth and force her fingers open to take it. She has one very loud pissed off shriek that she lets go when I steal her paper.Umm, let's see what else has been going on. Maemae has 2 teeth now. They popped through last week and now I can feel 2 more gum bumps. Peanut is still not a big talker, but is picking up new words everyday. He says them out of the blue but still is silent despite being asked to say it again 100 million times. Both are the highlight of my life. I really am one of the lucky women who can say I was born to be Mama. Even when I have no energy for anything else after they're in bed, when my house is an embarrassment to look at and all my dishes are dirty, I look forward to the next time they're awake, making me smile and laugh. And tired, so very tired.
TTFN ~Crys
Saturday, August 02, 2008
My new adventure
I've decided to use the sewing talent I have to make some money. Looking for enough to support my habit and buy my kiddos frivolous things to make them happy. And maybe pay a bill or two (or three or four!) Thankfully Peanut loves being my model and doesn't mind that I take his plain boring t-shirts and jazz them up a bit. Heres my first three.
The second was better.
And the third time was a charm (except I ran out of thread and didn't have another in the exact color).
I'm now on the search for good tees in a variety of sizes and colors and some good fabric with things I can appliqué on the front of them. Yippie - another reason to go shopping!
If you have a request, let me know!
TTFN ~ C
#1 - The first wasn't so great but I had to remember how to appliqué with my machine again. The orange tee really isn't this blinding, the flash makes it look neon.
The second was better.And the third time was a charm (except I ran out of thread and didn't have another in the exact color).I'm now on the search for good tees in a variety of sizes and colors and some good fabric with things I can appliqué on the front of them. Yippie - another reason to go shopping!
If you have a request, let me know!
TTFN ~ C
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