A Whole Day with No Plans

Last Sunday, I woke up with nothing pressing. Nothing that I had to get up and look presentable for, nothing that I needed to prepare for, nothing scheduled. It was a delicious feeling, let me tell you! So, after reading from my current book for a while, I got up and made a list of seven things I wanted to accomplish. I finished six, which in my book, is pretty *%$# good.

1. First on my list to be accomplished was the ironing that had piled up on the ironing board. The fun part was that some of it I had left long enough that it worked the wrinkles out on its own and I could just go ahead and put it away. I do like ironing - it's relaxing, almost a meditative thing. I can get thinking done and it's very rewarding. Things are transformed!

2. After the ironing, I decided to make a card for my friend Leonard, who turned sixty on Friday, and whose surprise birthday party was last night. He is (as I am) a really big Monty Python fan, so this made sense to him, his son, and to me. Everyone else was kinda like, "huh?"

3. The next thing on my list was taking Lillabee for a walk. So, I bundled up and we went on a little explore of the neighborhood. It was a really beautiful day, nearly 50 degrees and the sun was shining. Definitely a good day for a walk.

4. When I got back, I began work on an apron made from charm squares (5" squares of fabric). I combined two charm packs of different Mary Englebreit fabric lines - one is Friends & Flowers and the other is Recipe for Friendship. The pattern is called Kitchen Charm by Indygo Junction. I modified the pattern a little bit to make finishing easier and to help it not to remind me of the Flintstones. My goal was to merely get the squares sewed together, but not to do any of the finishing - and I made it. It's quite cheery, yes?

5. Next I worked on finishing up the dishes. One of my new year's resolutions was to wash the dishes everday and I've been pretty good about it... but not as consistent lately as at first. So, I did the couple that had been hanging around and got a fresh start for the week.

6. Quite a while back I received a bunch of fabric from Firefly that I've deemed perfect for my KitchenAid cozy. (Have I mentioned I love my KitchenAid?) So, my final task for the day was to mock up the cozy, since I have the MONDO BIG KitchenAid and the only pattern I found was for the smaller ones. Turns out I made the cozy WAY too big anyway. (I'm so proud of Madeleine - I overestimate her size, even.) Here she is modelling the oversize cozy made of HIDEOUS $.50/yard fabric. My serger joined in the picture, since really it did all the work.

I do love my serger...

The final thing on my list? Folding the clean laundry. And really, that can wait. Who wants to spend a delicious free day on matching socks and trying to fold fitted sheets?

Monterey, CA - The Place to Be!

The fateful death of my computer happened while on the train to Monterey, CA (via Salinas). I rode Amtrak and it was a beautiful trip. My camera continued to work, so I can share the beautifulness with you.

My vacation began in Olympia, WA where my patient and long-suffering mother missed breakfast to take me to JoAnn Fabrics to buy reading material for the trip. I got Craft Stylish and Paper Crafts. Good stuff. After dropping the sweet little doggies at PetSmart (PetsMart?) for their haircuts, we headed for the train station. The train was right on time. I had a "roomette" on the top level of the sleeping car. I was across from a couple ladies from Alaska and down one from a South African guy. It was pretty cool and I settled in for a good trip. I was sick, though - so I didn't take many pictures on the way down. I didn't even sleep that well, but I did remember to take a picture of the falling asleep. :)

The prettiest part of the way down was south of San Jose - lush green, bright sunshine, etc. I was ready for some sunshine.

Then, I arrived. It was sooo warm and delicious. I walked around Salinas while waiting for Phillip - there is nothing within walking distance of the train station.

In Monterey, I found this:
Sweet beautiful sunshine! I walked around without needing a coat - and it's a good thing, since I left it on the train. (I got it back as I was leaving.)

Friday afternoon I spent sight-seeing while The Bro finished work. Then we high-tailed it to Santa Cruz for a book at Borders that he couldn't find anywhere else and HAD TO HAVE IT NOW. I was happy to see Santa Cruz, and I got a great book for using my serger called Sew U: Home Stretch. It's a really helpful book and I'm planning to make my own underwear (more about that when it actually happens - might be never). Then, it was dinner at the best Thai restaurant around. The sweet and sour was surprisingly good. No red food coloring in sight. Then, because of my sickness and the nyquil I took to battle the sickness, I fell asleep sitting up in Phil's room.

Next day we went to church - a lively fun church, although the guest speaker couldn't seem to get any cohesion to his sermon. He was all over the map, but luckily didn't go on and on. In the afternoon I got to see the Pacific Grove butterfly sanctuary. There were soooo many butterflies. Then! To the beach! Phil and I were both reading really good books, so we found a park bench facing the ocean and sat until the mosquitos showed up. That evening was killer. Pizza, Coldstone, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Need I say more? (The movie was silly, yes, but I enjoyed it.)

Sunday brought a downhill mountain bike race for Phillip and pit crew duty for me! He came in 5th in his class and I nearly burst with pride. Afterward we had some delicious food at a local restaurant where the dessert case nearly killed you just looking at it. HUGE cakes with chocolate and frosting and peanut butter... Mmmm....

Finally it was back to the train station and time to begin my trip back home.

The trip takes 24 hours and on the way back every stop was warm and the Amtrak employees were really friendly. Here's southern Oregon, making me want to move there:

What a fun trip! I recommend it to anyone wanting to relax and get some warmth!

Success!

I sit before you, typing at my much-loved computer once again. Thank you for your well-wishing, prayers, and crossed fingers. The local computer doctor was victorious. Turns out the power supply and the motherboard weren't getting along - okay, their connection was loose. Now that things have been smoothed and tightened, we're in business. It's good (oh so good!) to be back.

Here's a token picture of me and a lovely lady from PT. We sat together at the Fantabulous Follies of 2009. Of course, since I wasn't in the Follies this year, they were lacking in some areas, but I thoroughly enjoyed being in the audience and cheering and laughing.

Also, here's a picture on which I need some feedback. I've laid out these fabrics as a quilt that is totally "merryheathre". It's my self-centered quilt, I suppose. I'm quite excited about it. So, the feedback I'm hoping for is: do these fabrics go okay together? Am I missing something? (I think I'm missing fish and stars before it can be totally "merryheathre") This was all planned around the pink paint by number bird fabric third from the top on the left. It's from Erin Michael's Uptown line. There are two other Erin Michael's fabrics - the one next to the pink fabric, and the circles on the bottom right. I've got pineapples, bees, letters, batik, asian fabrics, and even some egyptian hirogliphs. Once I work in fish and stars, I think I'm in business. What do you think?

Update!

Well, it's been an "interesting" few weeks since I last posted. I went on a fantastic trip to Monterey, CA and soaked up some sun. I rode the train down and back - takes 24 hours each way. It was a really fun way to vacation by myself and I took pictures and read a fantastic book - but sadly, after I watched my first movie of the trip, my much beloved computer took a turn for the worse (okay, dead) and I am currently without computer companionship. It's already been to one doctor who pronounced death and advised purchasing another. I, however, do not take no for an answer, so tomorrow morning my computer will be visiting another doctor. Cross your fingers, pray, chant, send good thoughts, whatever it takes - I want my computer back!

In the meantime, one of my three faithful readers is letting me use her computer so I can spend a little time in blog world.

I promised an update on the diet/exercise thing. In a nutshell: it's going okay. I definitely had a hiccup when I went to Monterey, and since getting back it's been difficult to regain the same momentum. But, I do feel good when I'm eating the whole wheat/no sugar/fruits and vegetables way. And, I think almonds make a great snack. So, I've lost 3 pounds, and my next goal is to get the exercise started again. (Really, I should have been doing it from day one - 30 minutes of walking a day...)

In crafting news, I haven't done much... Before I went to Monterey I made quite a bit of headway on my Egypt scrapbook - but didn't finish it in February like I had hoped. I did the sermon last weekend, then travelled to my parents and cleaned out some boxes from their "attic". I got textbooks to begin studying for my PE exam. Last night I fell asleep to the enthralling discussion of free body diagrams! Yeah baby!

Let's plan on pictures soon - the computer WILL be fixed, I can feel it!

I promised to share the major changes I'm starting today, so here goes! I'm getting healthy. I've read the book You On a Diet and I'm trying what they suggest. I'm eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables - and I'm getting exercise everyday. At the end of 90 days, I hope to be considerably lighter, have a smaller waist, lots of energy, and I'll beat my time from last year on the Rhody Run. I told mom that I didn't want to do anything extreme, she replied that I may have to do something extreme to get the results I want. So, I decided to revise my statement - I want to do things that are sustainable and eat things that are simple. Here goes! (I will post my before picture in two weeks, when I give my first official update. I may bore ya'll with details between now and then, just a warning.)

i did a little checking around and sadly, it turns out that I didn't come up with Bolly-cize, and it's actually Bollyrobics. But, I'm going to have to get the video.

My latest sewing endeavor: A fabric envelope. I made it to hold photos, but if the stack gets too thick they don't fit.

The exterior fabric is by Erin McMorris from the Park Slope collection and the lining is by Amy Butler - Coriander, I think. I used interfacing to give it stiffness, and I think it turned out pretty good. The only difficulty I ran into was the topstitching - there are a lot of layers by the end and it was hard to get the seams started. The feed dogs weren't able to push it through. I'm going to think for a while and come up with a way to make it work better... I ended up starting in the center and sewing to the edges, but then there are thread ends in the middle, and I'm not a fan.

My new aspiration...

Who'd have thought that a Valentine's evening alone, a consolatory movie, and a little imagination would lead me to the next thing I want to do with my life. That is, this:


No, that's not me swooning in white. I'm in red, a Bollywood dancer. Never mind that I'm quite tall, not super fast moving, and really very white - I think it'd be a blast to learn the choreography - and nothing some spray tan and CGI can't fix, right?

Okay, so the movie I watched was Marigold. It is, admittedly, a bit predictable (okay, a lot) and some of the dialogue wasn't as snappy as I would like, but overall a very innocent and enjoyable way to spend a Saturday night. India is a beautiful place according to this movie. I envied the sun on Ali Larter's face (while in the back of my mind I was worrying about sunburn). And, there were a couple really great Hindi dance numbers, which leads us to my newest calling. Okay, if I can't be in a Bollywood film - maybe I could start a fitness craze doing aerobics to hindi dance music. I can see it now: Bolly-cize.

Okay, for something I do know about, here's a picture of the invitation/bookmarks I made last night. A girl that goes to my church/her mom goes to my church had a baby, but declined to have a baby shower, so we're sending her a card shower.


These things were handed out at church and they have instructions to bring a card next week and they'll all be packaged up together. For having purchased the paper, ribbon, and flowers at about 5pm and finishing before bed last night, I think they turned out pretty cute. They have a Bible verse to start out, then the baby's vitals, and finally the instructions.

It's a long weekend (hallelujah!) and I'm planning to do some scrapbooking, as well as making a few major changes in my life. Stay tuned for what those changes are. I also hope to go to a movie - especially Confessions of a Shopoholic. Having loved the books SO MUCH, I'm really not expecting much from the movie, but I did see a ten foot tall shopping bag with rope handles at a movie theater I went to in December, and for some reason that sealed it. I've got to see any movie that advertises using gigantic carrier bags.

Orange-Vanilla Bean Touchdown Dance

Okay, first off, I'd like to thank Firefly's husband, Ben, for deciding to sell his computer for parts money for a new computer. Secondly, I'd like to thank him for listing it on craigslist while I was visiting Firefly. And finally, I'd like to thank him for removing it from craigslist and selling it to me.

So now, my friends, I have a laptop computer complete with hard drive space, wireless capability, functioning battery, functioning keyboard/touchpad interface, and the ability to print! Thank you, Ben, thank you! I'm hoping to never repeat the New Year's Resolution post experience again.

My most recent issue of Martha Stewart Magazine featured cupcakes on the front and a bunch of delicious sounding recipes in the inside, so I decided to try my hand at the best sounding of all - Orange-Vanilla Bean Cupcakes. Here are the results:


You may notice that only one is frosted. Well, the recipe called for a swiss meringue frosting, but I wasn't sure that I wanted meringue, so I decided to try an orange vanilla version of cream cheese frosting. But, when I tasted the combination of frosting and cupcake, I realized that the cream cheese frosting was much too sweet and over powered the delicate flavor of the cupcake - so after a little experimenting I served the cupcakes warm with unsweetened whipped cream that was whipped with some vanilla and orange zest. So delicious!

Do you know how little vanilla beans are? Very tiny. Like bits of dirt. Smaller than sand. I know because I got them all over myself after scraping the pods. In this picture you can see how tiny they are.

Another thing of note about vanilla bean pods - they are expensive. I looked for them at a local grocery store and found them for $17.50 for two, or $10.50 for one, or $7.99 for two and figured "well, Martha can afford to write these recipes, but everday people must just drool over them" when I decided to check the bulk section. 99 cents a piece, folks. I did the touchdown arm gesture before remembering I was in a store. What have we learned from this? Always check bulk spices. It's really the way to go because you can buy only what you need and have fresh so your cooking is at it's tastiest. (Also, don't let merryheathre get too involved in a quest for spices. She talks to herself and does weird little dances of joy when she finds what she was looking for.)

Here's a cute little dog curled up on my couch! I think I'll keep her.