mynagirl

I just love my little rust-colored garden buddha hidden in the jasmine vines; he just makes me smile when I walk past him.

My husband was going in for surgery and I needed something to occupy my time that wasn’t mental—you know, something other than reading, Sudoku, etc.

I taught myself to knit from a site on the web and I’ve already made two really cool scarves (after several “start-learn-then-unravel” mini-training sessions) and I’m working on a REALLY awesome “open-work” shrug to wear.

TOTALLY fun! Very calming, very addictive!!

Focusing on css, javascript, and .NET for now.

How cool! I was drifting off to sleep a few weeks ago and lyrics started going through my head. So I sat up and wrong the song down. And sung it to my husband.

Never done anything like that before. How cool is that?!

And it’s not a bad song, if I do say so myself.

Had to go straight to book 7 the day it came out. It was still totally worth it!!!

Beat my husband AND my daughter this past week. Time will tell if it’s a fluke or not.

Didn’t bloom a bunch at one time but it was a steady bloomer and it smelled FABULOUS. I even took three blooms and put it in the bathwater one day. Heavenly!

All the diagnostics found no leaks. We thought maybe low cortisol but turns out high aldosterone. So more blood work (5 vials drawn yesterday!) and I find out in 2 weeks where we go from here.

In the meantime I just “crash” out exhausted every afternoon and either nap or try not to nap. It sucks.

Three butterflies over jasmine greenery. Just gorgeous. My daughter’s on her torso, my husband’s on his chest, mine on my hip. Unbelievable!!!

Finally realized Windows Vista has this BUILT IN!! It rocks. I love love love it and could waste days with it. I want a real set now… because that’s what this tiny house with so many cats and dogs needs, is a game with lots of tiny pieces that get lost or swallowed.

Mayo clinic has a 6-9 month wait. Bummer!

Did a bunch of tests last week at Houston Methodist (fabulous people!) but no results. Or rather, they didn’t find the leak.

There’s nothing like Sonic. Lime slush, baby. It’s all Texas. I know they exist in other states but the true ones are Texan… Sonic is the best!! Try the Chili Cheese Wrap and Tots!

One for husband, one for me, one for daughter

I so want to re-do it but there is so much other client stuff to be done. Sigh!!

http://www.cleverdonkey.com

Someday! I have so many ideas!

She will be here soon yay.

I would do it all the time if I had the time or space in TinyCottage. But it is the coolest thing to take something essentially 2 dimensional (fabric) and create something 3-dimensional out of it. There’s a cool engineering joy in it and then combine that with fashion… I’m in girl geek heaven.

Of course I have tons of unfinished projects (reams of sumptuous british wool and yards of lighter than spiderweb ombre silk that haven’t materialized yet—the silk (a gorgeous apple green) was for a REALLY complicated Christian Dior bias-cut pattern that I did THREE TIMES in cheap rayon (you know, to test it out before cutting into the silk) before I gave up and decided the pattern was not made for ladies with breasts. That green silk is STILL begging to be something. If I’m ever desperate for a formal gown I’m going to lettuce-edge the entire length of it and tie it like a towel. If you wear it with killer heels and huge earrings it will totally look on puspose. (My husband is not a fan of this plan as one untie undoes the whole outfit, but there are sacrifices to be made for fashion).

So definitely start out easy (BELIEVE when the patterns tell you how easy or hard they are), but I made ALL KINDS of fun stuff when I was in high school and college - cute little tank tops, shorts, skirts, pants, vests… so much fun. Start with non-stretchy materials first even though the stuff you make from them isn’t as much fun - stretchy stuff can get the better of your sewing machine when you’re learning.

And definitely avoid stripes or plaids for the first project—matching those is an art you don’t want to have to master while you’re still getting the hang of sewing in general.

And start with ONE project first. You’ll get overwhelmed if you buy fabric + stuff for more than one. Unless you’re more than 50 miles from the fabric store, start small and then go back flush with victory (and experience) after job #1!!!

Go! Sew!! Win!!

We love our wedding bands, but we got a second set of titanium ones for vacations ($20 on ebay, can’t beat it—vacation rings so you don’t lose your real ones snorkeling, etc) so we started looking around again randomly before our next vacation (you know, maybe to upgrade our vacation set) and found this guy’s site:

http://www.mokume-gane.com/

Someday when we have more money than we know what to do with, we’ll get ourselves a set from this guy. They’re so beautiful they … make my soul happy. Sounds stupid but I think of the craftmanship that went into them and I’m happy he exists.

First of all, it’s cool. Very Steve McQueen. Second of all, you never know when there’s an emergency and you need to move or drive a car that’s a stick. Third of all, they’re fun! My husband would argue with me, as they can be a drag in stop-and-go traffic, but my dad has never once in his whole life owned an Automatic and his cars are ALWAYS fun to drive. You’re actually like… piloting… the vehicle instead of just… driving. Very fun. Worth doing.

Always trust a tuna-ready tabby to wake you up at 7:22. Works every time.

And she’s visited me but I haven’t gone to see her yet. I need to go visit her!