Tutu Time

I finished up the tutu yesterday. It was a really fun project, and I am rather pleased with how it turned out. I look all over the web for different tutu tutorials (I love that phrase)and found that I really liked the one made by Plumtickled. I decided that Claudia is old enough to not untie all the tulle and she is also old enough to use an elastic banded one with out incident. Hopefully my judgments were all sound. I ended up picking up two rolls of 6" tulle for this project, one in pink and one in purple, because those are Claudia's favorite colors. She seemed to wear them a lot when I was out in Delaware to visit. I also found a great matching ribbon in the sale bin for a pretty bow on the back. I cannot wait to pack it up and send it off to the birthday girl. Here are some pictures of the finished piece.




I hope the future ballerina enjoys her first tutu. I also hope her parents don't kill me for it! :)

For today, I want to take things a bit easy. I have lots of promos to make and send out by the end of the week, so it looks like I have a date with some felt and a circle cutter. I hope to get my usual fortune cookies made and out the door by Friday. My goal is 350, but I will be happy with 200. I just hope I have a box somewhere that they will all fit in.

Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday was more productive than I thought it was going to go. As soon as I had finished up my "rah-rah" posting yesterday about all that I was going to accomplish, Erik wrote to ask if I wanted to get lunch. I, of course, can never turn down the opportunity to get lunch with someone. I figure he will be back to work again soon, and my fun lunch dates will go away again. I quickly went down to the gym and got my two miles in and then got ready for the day. We went out for a really nice burger in Emeryville. I was worried about getting the tutu materials and the housewares run done, but Erik came though. We went to the craft store and got me the tutu materials. I worked on that yesterday, and I am close to completing that today.

I ended up doing the housewares run today. I also treated myself to some of the herb plants that I am missing from the great scorched earth war against the fungus from a few months ago. I have the plants currently in quarantine to prevent any white flies or anything getting into the good plants. I learned my lesson on bringing in new plants with out treating them for issues first. Here they are after a good dosage of fungicide and pest soap.



I purchased mint, oregano, thyme, and a dill plant to join the sage, parsley, and chives in the box. The basil is doing well, but I need to take off some leaves that are not looking so hot. Hopefully that will also make the plants grow better with bigger leaves as well. I have really enjoyed this small box gardening, and it is always nice to go to the window and just cut what I need when I need it rather than having to buy it. I hope to plant the new plants into the box tomorrow.

I am also working on my sourdough bread experiments today. After some great beginner's luck, I have hit quite a bumpy road with this baking. I first started out with the Joy of Cooking and her recommendation of making a starter with commercial yeast. That worked for the first couple of time until my starter collapsed due to a war with the very strong natural yeast we have in the Bay Area. I started a natural starter, a rather scary process for me, and then used the Cook's Magazine recipe for sourdough. I had really consistent results for bread with their recipe, but I ended up with loaves that tasted more like white bread than sourdough. I am now working on a little booklet Dan found on the internet, but I seem to have my technique off, so the loaves taste a bit better, when they actually bake up. Today I am working on just going back to rustic hand formed loaves and will work on the bread more before trying to put it into pans again.

So for the rest of the day my goals are the tutu and more work on the belt. I also want to work on some of the gimp graphics I started last night for a new on line project to be launched soon. I will fill in the details when that is all finished up. Housecleaning is also something I would love to accomplish, but it may be a bonus for today and pushed off for something to do tomorrow. Remember I am trying to be more realistic with these goals.

Hoping for A Productive Week

Now that the newness of the big tv has worn off a bit, and I mean just a bit, I am trying to get down to work this week. I really want to be productive. I am going to shut off the tv for more hours of the day and crank up the music. This has worked in the past for making me more productive, and I hope it works again. This weekend ended up being a little less productive, but I got in some good relaxation time and some good ideas floating through my brain.

Today, I am going to head down to they gym and get my two mile jog in, and I need to. The Vegas trip is coming up, and I know I will have to wear a bathing suit. Any last minute pound shedding will be wanted. I am then going to get ready to go out of the house and head to BART. Then I am off to the craft store for some tulle and to Target to pick up some new herb plants for the window box. Then I am going to come home, get lunch, and work on my sister's pants hemming and Claudia's birthday present. I want to get all those projects done today, no excuses. Then I am going to work on learning some gimp and work on cutting wires for more fortune cookies promotions. Those are the goals for today. I am trying to make things more realistic so I actually accomplish them, and I think this is pretty realistic. I am also hoping to work on some belt items while on BART. That is just bonus though. Well perhaps I will have pictures of Claudia's gift up tomorrow. We will see if the goals are actually met.

Friday?! Really?!

I am not quite sure where this week went. There were lots of things to do, and some of them were accomplished. Today is a laundry Friday as well as work on the belt day. Here are a few pictures of some of the designs. One is a flower and the other is an elephant that does not have the shisha yet.





I am planning on working on some sewing machine covers this weekend as well as learning to use Gimp better. I have dance at Fat Chance tonight as well. I guess there is not too much to report, so a short and sweet entry today. More on Monday. I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Sunshowers

Today is one of those interesting days that we seem to get here in Oakland where it goes from being rainy and awful looking to a beautiful blue and fluffy cloud filled sky with the sun shining. Then it will turn cloudy and nasty again. The best part about all this is being able to watch it though our huge windows that overlook Alameda and the bay. The rain will come up over the hills on the peninsula and swallow them up. Then it comes across the bay as a gigantic grey colored curtain and swallows up the island. Finally, the rain will hit the windows and fill the courtyard.

Yesterday was filled with hand work on the belt as well as watching the American Experience series "Eyes on the Prize." It is an amazing series, and I have learned so much from it. I have no pictures of the belt pieces yet because they are still rather rough. Hopefully tomorrow will bring them. I am also debating what I want to do about today's jog. I am having some pain in my ankles, so I may just resort to the bike today instead of a treadmill. These kinds of things were why I ended up being a goalkeeper in soccer instead of a field player. I have just too many odd aches and pains. Today I really need to clean up the house. I am going to turn off the TV, and I am going to turn up the music and clean like a mad woman!I guess that is all the musings for today. Short and sweet, but still a lot to actually do. Pictures tomorrow? I will try my best!

Late Entry

I always try to post in the morning, and I find that it helps me set up what I am going to do for the day and reflect on what I did the day before. Yesterday was rather successful. I ended up on the treadmill and ran/walked a total of 2 miles. I was rather proud of myself. I know the pace was not that fast, but I still did it. I also got the banana bread made and the cookies made as well. Here is one of the sets of cookies fresh out of the oven:



I am late today with the posting because I received a call from my friend Erik to go out to lunch. I of course accepted seeing as it is always nice to have a person to talk with over lunch. It is pouring rain today, so it was also a very welcome thing to get out of the house. Erik also took me over to another hardware store to see if they had canning jars. Leave it to ACE to have exactly what I needed at lower prices than the internet. I bought two of the three flats of half pint jars. I cannot wait to get some oranges and start the marmalade process. Perhaps this weekend it will be clear enough to get out to the farmer's market and get some oranges.

Today, I am doing more hand work on that belt as well as trying to get to some house cleaning. I am currently watching some of the PBS series "Eyes on the Prize" that I taped a few weeks ago. I have always wanted to get to watch this, and now I have some time to do so. It is very interesting to watch, but also rather heartbreaking. Well hopefully I can get some things done on the belt, so I can photograph it for you all. Now, I am off for some sewing and television watching.

Unmotivated Monday

So I am totally unmotivated today. I think I am going to blame it on the new arrival into the household, our new tv. It is a large tv and it is like a small movie theater screen in our small apartment. I love it, but it takes the motivation to do things right out of me. I suppose the numerous messes left behind by our new bundle of joy are not helping matters either. The apartment is kind of hard to navigate, and the new boxes to the box piles are a bit disappointing since we were getting so close to being "box free." Needless to say, I took the opportunity to take the weekend off and do things like lazing around and watching the big tv. (Do you see a trend yet?) I did also do some good and productive things. I finished off the special order last week, which took a load off my shoulders. Now I am just going though my normal anxiety of wondering if the pieces I made are going to fit correctly. I measured many times and cut once, so hopefully Norm's steadfast advice will come though again.

I did do some productive things over the time since my last entry. On Wednesday, I spent the day with a friend. I meant to get the sewing totally finished on that day, but it was great to see Erik and hang out. Being over at his place is always an adventure, and I am never sure what projects we will end up doing, but they are always fun. This time, hydroponics. I think he was inspired by my window and Aerogarden the last time he was over and wants in on some of the home gardening fun. He, though, admitted that he is not good at remembering to water plants, so hydroponics seemed like the logical conclusion for his engineering mind. Engineers, you gotta love them! We, read he with my moral support, also built a soil moisture detector. It was amazing to watch him just put it together out of his imagination and a little internet help.

Thursday was my usual try to get things done in the morning with tutoring in the afternoon. I ended up getting all the cutting and a bit of sewing on the custom order done that day. Friday was the frantic, "This needs to get out the mail TODAY!" sewing session. I am proud to say that it got finished. I just wished my need for pressure to get anything accomplished habit would change. I guess I have always been a pressure person, so it may be a long time coming. I also went to Fat Chance for dance on Friday night instead of Tuesday. I just did not feel up to going on Tuesday, and it was nice to have the option of going on another night if I wanted to go but not on the particular night I was used to going. Options are great.

Today, I am hoping to get myself off the couch after writing this and into the gym. We will see how this works out. Big tv is pretty neat and also may be lonely if I leave the apartment. I also wanted to get a ton of baking done. Hopefully I can get some banana bread going after jogging and some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies accomplished today. English muffins may have to wait for tomorrow. I also want to get my sister's pants hemmed and Claudia's birthday present planned and the list of items needed for it written out. Once all that is done, I am going to settle in for some tv viewing and some hand sewing on that cross stitch belt that I mentioned months ago. Yes, it got put down again and forgotten. I would really like to get the embroidery done on that and get the belt finished this week if at all possible. The weather, being like it is, will actually help, since I find my best hand sewing occurs on rainy days. This week is supposed to be all rain. Pictures of baked goods to come tomorrow. Till then, I plan to stay dry and cozy with a cup of tea. Off to the gym for me now though!