Maia and I participated in a kid's flip flop swap. the 'rules' of the swap were to send one pair of kid's flip flops to your partner's child and also one beach item. maia and i finished our package and mailed it out yesterday and today maia got hers in the mail. she was so excited. barbara and her child sent maia a fantastic package. not only did it include the flops and a beach item but some other items as well. each one was carefully wrapped and a good part of the fun was opening the box and then getting to unwrap each item.
A beach ball--just what maia has been wanting for the pool--was the 'beach item' in this swap.
The flip flops were a pink--maia's favorite color (purple is second) and had pretty beads that made maia gasp and say 'oooh mummy lookie!' (that is a tiny blue sticker on her right leg--she's a little sticker crazy)
this is my favorite picture of the bunch. one of the extras included in the package was a bottle of bubbles that was cleverly shaped like an ice cream cone.
we both had so much fun participating in this swap that i hope there are more kid friendly swaps like this one. =)
Yesterday was one of the wednesdays i go over my grandmother's house to do some things around the house for her. for those of you who know me here is a reference to how clean my grandmother's place already is: as 'clean' as you might think my house is, her house is twice as good. maybe 3 times as good. not a thing is out of place. what this translates too is basically i end up dusting, sweeping or washing windows.
in this case, i washed the inside and outside of her side door and screen door and made sure the windows were perfectly streak free (she will gently ask me the next time i see her if i could get just one more wee corner if i miss a spot the last time). then we moved onto her linen closet. the top two shelves she can't reach at all and she had me remove every item and show it to her. she then decided if she wanted to keep it or throw it away. if she was throwing it away, it was up for grabs. i scored this antique oil lamp:
afterwards, i dusted everything--and meticulously put everything back. i only paused once or twice to drool over a few other things she had in there but wasn't ready to throw out--especially pile of vintage embrodiery patterns i saw in her sewing box!
or at least for a very long time.
my sewing machine is awful. and my skill is next to awful. when you combine the two, you get something that is just barely pasable. it's pasable from far away like this:
but if you look close, you will see where i gave up quilting it and instead just knotted it. you will see where the thread tension was wonky so the top stitches are super tight and the back stitches have a few loops and i got too frustrated trying to rip them back out.
the only part of my skill that has improved is that i a LITTLE bit better at matching my points. at least 50% are matched perfectly..the other half are just a wee bit off. not enough to bother me...unless i was giving it to someone else. which i wouldn't because there are just way too many errors overall.
i think i've come to realize and accept that i'm not very good at making quilts and i need to just suck it up and actually BUY a really nice handmade quilt sometime instead of always trying to make them and botching things horribly. =(
Today we had a fantastic Memorial Day picnic with friends. I can honestly say this is the first time i have actually enjoyed a memorial day picnic!
aside from the usual eat picnic food outside, we filled up the wading pool for the kids and the big bouncy castle as well. this is just like those big rental moonwalk things, but of course much smaller. it really kept the kids occupied. sure there was the occasional bump, arugument or stray splash but all in all the kids got along really well together. not only did
our new(er) next door neighbors came over for awhile too and it was really nice to finally get to talk to them. they both seem like such nice people and i hope we continue getting to know them.
there was only one minor annoyance, (grump, grump) but really i expected it. =P sigh.
oh and maybe perhaps, the kids and i might have something fun to do this weekend!
last and definitely NOT least, my dog riley:
www.girasolepgh.com
rick and i had dinner at girasole in shadyside tonight. this was our second attempt to go there and our first time eating here together. we tried going last fall and the place was crammed full of people and spilling up and out onto the sidewalk. the gentleman who does all the seating took our name and told us he should be able to squeeze us in about 15 minutes since we were only two. (the restaurant is tiny) after 20 minutes of waiting and still not being called we approached him again. he promised five more minutes and took our cell number. he called us 3 hours later!
2 hours, 30 mins after we had gotten disgusted and left.
1 hour, 30 mins after we had eaten at a nearby restaurant.
30 mins after we had left shadyside all togther.
anyways, it wasn't so crowded this time. it had a nice atmosphere and fantastic service but the food was only slightly above average. not sure what the hype is about, but i'm glad a small local place is so routinely crowded anyhow.
we stopped for coffee afterwards, relaxed and talked. walked around shadyside a little bit too, looking through shop windows and just enjoying the nice weather. afterwards, we headed home, took the dogs to the field and tossed a frisbee first for the dogs and then back and forth between us. i'm really awful at frisbee. i've got way too much curve in my throw. =(
a few days to update...
thursday night...bellydancing class went well. not sore at all.
friday...maia and i didn't do much of anything most of the morning. this was the first day in about 2 weeks that i didn't have at least one thing that was planned and needed to be done. eventually talked to and she invited us up to her house so the kids could play and in the wading pool. brought her two children over too. here you can see liam, persephone and maia jumping into the pool:
unfortunately i didn't have my real camera with me and only had my cell phone camera. that's really two bad because i think this would have made a fantastic picture to have printed and framed.
havoc and i went and got tristyn and then everyone continued playing. tristyn got a bit out of hand so we ended our visit a bit early and came home. poor tristyn. it seems one his friends at school isn't being much of a friend lately and i *think* this is causing him to act out. we had a long talk and i think he feels a bit better.
later that night, (this is missy everyone, she signed up to read my LJ but doesn't post--help me to get her to post!!!!!) and i went to see a movie. it was decent but had entirely too many not hot men crying in it. yes, crying in it...and it was not a chick flick either!!!
saturday: i took maia to dance and it didn't go smoothly. her shoes are too tight and she basically flatly refused to dance. since her and i have the same general foot shape, i knew that when she says 'too tight' she doesn't just mean in the toe. there was no point in making a big fuss about it (especially since maia loves attention of any sort, lol) so we instead watched the class quietly together instead.
afterwards we drove down to the strip to 'the dancer's pointe' to go pick up some new shoes. the answering machine said they opened at 10 am when i called at 10:02. i figured they hadn't turned on their phone lines yet, but when we got down there turned out they weren't open due to memorial day weekend. i was mildly annoyed, because she does need shoes and she has to try them on--meaning i can't order them online. i learned a new way home from the strip so at least some benefit came of it.
later that day, i went to lunch with some friends at mad mex (rating a thumbs sideways--not a big mexican food eater) but had a good time nonetheless. and i went shopping for shoes afterwards. really it was supposed to be HER shopping for shoes, but i picked these up:
they look way better in person (shoe?) especially since you can see their color better. my skill at taking pictures is next to nil. anyways, i wore them with pink blouse of the same color and a pretty brown lace skirt.
came home to find rick was still at the park running with the dogs. i signed online with the intention of updating my LJ, but got caught up reading other people's updates and never got to mine because rick came home. we went outside and relaxed on the deck for awhile (a common thing now that we got the new patio set that does not have a shaky table) and talked about what we wanted to do later that evening. we elected to keep it simple, dinner and a movie and went inside to get ready.
after getting ready and a lot of ....... we finally made it out of the house! we went to india garden where i had chicken tikka masala and rick had some salad with tandoori chicken on it. rick finally found something he can eat there without it being too hot. he also had these crab cakes kebob things and he asked me to taste them and tell them how spicy they were. they were less spicy than what i had ordered at a five and i told him i dunno..somewhere between mild and medium? like a 3? rick didn't believe me; he thought they were much spicier. i think his taste buds that handle the spicy stuff are overly sensitive (don't know and don't care what the proper way to explain what it is, is)
then we headed to the waterfront to see pirates of the caribbean 3. yawn. Yawn. YAWN. it was entirely too long. 45 mins could have been cut from it easily and that would have made it a great deal better. the fight scenes were just a bit too long, especially the one (i fell asleep for about 5 mins rick said during the one), and there was a lot of double dealing going on that sometimes was hard to follow (due to the one character's accent --and i'm usually quite good at understanding people through accents! i felt bad for people who normally have a difficult time understanding people with accents). it seemed a little more in your face violent too. (such as when they showed a woman being shot in the head). a great deal of the humour that was in the first two was missing from this one too. =(
knowing what i know now, i wouldn't have paid to see it at the movie theatre. i would have waited for it to come out on hbo.
sunday: haven't been up very long yet!!! i slept in for the first time in quite a while!!! yay!!!
The ladybugs arrived courtesty of the DHL guy yesterday around lunchtime.
they can't be released in the heat of the day/when the sun is shining on the spot where they are to go so i had to store them overnight.
in the refrigerator! ick!
luckily they were too well packaged to get out.
this morning, armed with camera i took the ladybugs outside to release them. it was hard trying to put a slit in the bag without cutting one or more of them because as they warmed up they started moving much more. i had to shake them down several times before i managed to use a knife to slit open the bag
once they started coming out they came out at an alarming rate. i couldn't shake them out quick enough and they kept trying to crawl up my arm and launch off. i ended up placing the bag down in each spot i wanted them to go and then flicking a few off on top of the plants so i could pick the bag up and move it.
They wasted no time AT ALL. check it out:
today is going to be a day of lots of different activities. this morning i finished up a few swaps that needed to be mailed off. the ATC swaps got handmade envelopes:
you'll need this picture for the next post i make:
i couldn't get too close to take the picture because i was too squicked out, but if YOU get closer to the screen you can see the little @#@#$#@$ eating my new roses!
i will be commanding my army to attack this evening. i am not as confident as Leonidas so i shall have 1500 instead of 300.
right after tristyn's piano lesson.
right before my bellydancing lesson.
DEATH TO THE PERSIANS!!! er..i mean aphids... =P
Here are the rules:
- Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
- People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
- At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
- Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog
i've been tagged...and i don't know how to do anything fancy like make direct links to users (is it the same as on lj?? help??) plus, i'm not even sure i know 8 people on vox yet!!! anyways, here goes, my 8 random facts/habits about me:
1. i was in the air force for a few years as a cryptological linguist. i get a kick out of telling people who aren't impressed that i'm a stay at home mom and hearing them go uh, uh..a crypto whato??
2. i hate to plan things out (exception of things you need to purchase tickets for, ie airline tickets, broadway shows, travel to see far away friends). this annoying habit is so prevalent that if a friend asks me to see a movie on friday when it's monday right now, it's likely i won't want to go by friday 'just because it was planned that far out.' but if they asked me on friday to see a movie that night then i'd go!
3. when i go shopping i like to touch lots of things. feel the fabric, feel the smoothness of a plate, the roughness of a welcome mat, etc. (i also smell everything before i taste or drink it if i've never had it before)
4. i like to bake a LOT. that part isn't the 'weird' part =P the weird part is the things i'm best at baking: pies, cookies, cupcakes, various desserts i don't particularly care to eat (they taste good, just not my thing). but the things i LOVE to eat bread (baguettes, italian bread, ciabatta, etc) i'm not very good at baking. YET. =D i think that's a good thing for my waistline.
5. though my house is never at the level of cleanliness i would prefer, i cannot stand clutter. it renders me almost useless in doing some of the things i like to do (and would rather do). even when i have my own household mess and clutter under control, i think about other people's mess and clutter and it bothers me. i think i channel monica from friends sometimes.
6. i do not like mismatched things. my own things or other people's things. this extends to and includes things like socks, shoes, clothes, household items, and even skin tone and hair color. (ie people with olive complexions cannot and should not have blond hair) it's so bad that i cannot leave my house if i'm wearing an outfit that requires brown shoes to match and my jacket is black. i will wear an inappropriate for the weather jacket just to make sure it matches.
7. procrastination drives me nuts. i'm a 'the thought has entered my mind and i decided it was a good idea..so let's do it NOW' sort of person. i would always rather get something done right away and then not have it in the back of my mind nagging me then wait. i understand people are not like this and i can't expect everyone to be like me, but i cannot understand how waiting until the last minute does not nag them.
8. i really like old fashioned things. if i could go back in time and live 50 or more years ago (at a good income level) i'd be happy. as much as i love my computer and cell phone, i'd give them up to live in a different time.
i don't really know how to tag anyone/and not sure who has been tagged before, but if you read this and want to give it a go, i'd be pretty happy!
it also occurs to me that most of the things i listed are negative traits of myself! ugh... =(
Coconut macaroons....
nothing is worse than dried up coconut so when i buy some i like to use it right away so it's consumed while still fresh. today, the cookie jar contained only one cookie so i decided to make coconut macaroons to fill up the jar and use up the rest of the coconut from yesterday. after this, we should all be tired of coconut for a month at least!
