10: Distractions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I6Tj5pLJy0

Today starts 10 months on our journey to a baby.  Weepy, yes.  Completely depressed, not this month.

I wasn’t expecting anything this time, which seemed to really help.  I’ve been trying to focus on other things.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading, including books, articles, and blogs.  I’ve also been pretty busy with our store.  Halloween seems to be our warm up to Christmas season.  I love Christmas season.  It’s the best time of the year.  I love the smell.  I love the clothing.  I love the decorations.  I love making presents for everyone.  I love how happy everyone is.
Much to Jeremy’s dismay, I start celebrating Christmas season on November 1 and it goes through January 1. 🙂   It’s going to be my wonderful distraction over the next couple months.  These next couple months will round off our year of trying and officially put us in the questionable fertility category.  But, Christmas should soften the blow and it should help remind me to be thankful and joyful.

In other news, my last ESL class of the year met yesterday.  We had a mini party with cake and soda.  We’ll meet again in January, but I’ll miss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years with these awesome ladies.   I got a little weepy when the ones we’ve grown closest too hugged us and kissed us good-bye.  They’re such a wonderful group of women and I’m so lucky to have gotten the chance to work with them and get to know them.  I think I’ve learned just as much from them about life and teaching as they’ve learned in English skills. 🙂

Meanwhile, we’re carving pumpkins at my mom’s house tonight.  I don’t love Halloween, but I do love our family tradition of getting together to do things like this.  🙂  Also, I’m drinking a few large glasses of wine… because I can. 😉

Giveaway… Or something…

Our store is having a giveaway this weekend and I’m spreading the news! 😉  Check out our store blog for more info: http://threesassysisters.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/900-sales-giveaway/

But seriously, if you visit the blog, take the 2 minutes to enter.  Our cat and dog products are awesome!

Alice wants you to enter….

 

 

 

 

 

Pollen and Dog Collars… Wait.. What?

Pollen season has begun here in Aurora!  Yesterday boasted a 9.4 out of 12 for the pollen count.  Today is slightly lower, but promises to increase this weekend.  I. Can’t. Breath.  My skin itches.  My eyes itch.  My entire mouth and throat itch.  My head my float away soon.  And I can’t take a single gosh darn dose of medicine…  Why?  It’s bad for the baby I don’t have yet.  Ridiculous.  Would I be so irritated if I was already pregnant?  Probably, but I would keep it to myself.  Now, I’m just angry about it.

On a positive note, I got my first ever positive ovulation stick last week:

❤

After last month, I decided to invest in the ClearBlue digital ovulation sticks.  They’re a little more expensive, but I LOVE them!  They don’t make you interpret line darkness and are super easy to use.  A smiley face means you’ll ovulate within 12 to 36 hours.  A circle means nothing has been detected.  Then a few days later, you can confirm ovulation with a thermal chart shift. =)  So much easier!

It helped us time everything.  We timed it so well that fertilityfriend.com has given our chances of conceiving this month as “high” and gave us an approximate testing date.  Yea right.  I’ll believe it when I see it. 😉

I stopped in to see my dermatologist last week because my breakouts have gotten out of control with my constant hormonal shifts.  She said it’s amazing that humans ever get pregnant since there are so many obstacles to overcome.  I love her.  She gave me some baby friendly meds and told me to keep her updated. 🙂

I haven’t been knitting much this summer.  I think it’s the heat.  I didn’t knit much last summer either.  Until allergy season started and I was stuck inside our air conditioned bedroom.  A couple days ago, I couldn’t get socks out of my head, so I sat down with some fabulous purple variegated sock yarn and started working on Kalajoki Socks:

Love

It’s a fun pattern.  I need to get them done because the knitting group I’ve taken over starts on September 6 and I need samples.  Have I finished the Snow Day socks?  No.  Why?  2 of the needles broke in transit somewhere and I am short one #2 needle.  Boo!  What’s really a bummer is that they have maybe an inch of stockinette and then the ribbing and they’re done.  Note to self:  tiny wooden needles don’t travel well.

In other news, I’ve finally started working on Upcycled Dog Collars for our store.  I’m using old neckties and they’re turning out so cute:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79968444/upcycled-necktie-medium-dog-collar

Our toys are all eco-friendly and it’s been important to me to at least offer an eco-friendly option for collars too.  I’d love to use hemp webbing as that’s far more sustainable, but it’s REALLY expensive.  We may get there eventually, but I’m not going to rush it.  My office can’t really hold many more new materials unless I seriously cut back on my yarn stash.  And that’s not happening.  Plus, we’ve figured out how to make the most out of our serious lack of space if we add a baby into the mix… and more store supplies are just not in the picture.

That’s all for now.  I’m a sewing fool today. 🙂

Loving My Masala Chai Tea

I am a tea enthusiast.  That’s right, I said it.

I was on my way home tonight when 6 very loud teenage girls stepped into my train car.  The whole car collectively let out a not so discrete groan. 😉 Of course.  I pointedly broke my number one train rule and put in my second earbud hoping to drown out the screaming and laughing.  It didn’t work.  Recognizing that I was once an irritating teenager as well (and still am on occasion), I consoled myself with the fact that the chalkboard labels that I ordered from Etsy were sitting in my mailbox waiting for an evening of organizational labeling.

organizing things makes me happy. 🙂

While finally putting order to my loose leaf tea collection, I decided make myself a pot of the Masala Chai tea I bought at Woodman’s a couple months ago.  I hadn’t tried it yet as I don’t normally like Chai tea and have been putting it off.  This one is surprisingly delicious though.  There’s a faint hint of cinnamon and citrus.  It’s not too strong and not at all bitter.  Win.
Not surprisingly, it doesn’t surpass the deliciousness of the new peach oolong that I bought from Special Teas .  It’s full of peach chunks… Mmmm. 🙂

Anywho, I love that picture and thought I’d share. 🙂

Off to Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.”  Yay…. 😉

Burning Out

It’s official.  I’m completely burned out for the semester.  How do I know?  Monday’s Starbucks time feels like Thursday’s night class…
I got great sleep last night, but my brain is fried.  Too much political talk, too much reading, too much (*gasp*) writing.  I haven’t carried my journal with me in over a week…
Jeremy and I sat on the couch last night with a movie on (I have absolutely no idea what we watched) and instead of working on Christmas presents or Etsy stuff, Jeremy and I were working on Snuggles blankets for the Chicago Animal Shelter that we adopted Alice and Bella from…  Why?  Because they’re easy and I really need to destash.  In an effort to avoid my homework yesterday afternoon, I tore my office apart to try and find a place for all that extra yarn that’s been piling up in anticipation of Christmas gifts.  That didn’t happen.  Now I just have piles of yarn that Bella is probably gleefully rolling in now that she’s home alone with it…  ugh…

In other news, I finished my second sweater a couple weeks ago, but have yet to post pictures.  The pattern is called “$5 in Paris” and was written by a fellow blogger.   She’s pretty interesting.  I’ve been following her blog since I found the pattern on Ravelry as she’s got all kinds of neat patterns and just had twin boys that are still in the hospital. 😦
Anywho, here’s my $5 in Chicago….
I’ll make a size smaller next time and maybe add some waist decreases, but for only costing $5 in yarn, I’m happy with it. 😉

My next sweater is a version of an American Eagle sweater that I don’t want to buy…  It’s coming along.  I’ve decided to name it my “Mochalone” and it will be the first sweater pattern I’ve written for myself.  Exciting?  You betcha.
I read somewhere that most sweater knitters knit about 8 sweaters a year.  I’ve finished two adult sizes, 3 baby sizes and am currently working on 2 adults with 3 adults and 1 Calli size in the plans… Looks like I’m becoming an above average sweater knitter. 🙂

I’m thinking about setting up another blog purely for our Etsy store.  Just a little forewarning… 🙂  Extra promoting never hurts, especially now that collar sales have taken off and Becky has those super cute birds listed.

Meanwhile, I’m going to continue on my quest to not lose my mind before Thursday as I have a week without classes coming up.  I’ll be baking, sewing, knitting, cleaning, reading, and writing and I’m looking forward to it more than I’ve ever looked forward to a break before….  Just keep sane, just keep sane…

Books and Words.

When I write anything, I always write it by hand first — taking the time to craft my letters, words, and sentences, and to see the piece take form.  I love the feel of writing and forming letters.  I love the way no one’s handwriting is exactly the same — its like personal art.  I love the way an entire page of writing looks (bonus if its written in fuscia fine tipped markers like mine often are 😉 ).  I love not having a program tell me I misspelled something (as I often do).  Sometimes the way I spell it is far superiour to Webster’s Dictionary… 😛  (In actuality, I just don’t want to be bothered with correcting myself until I’m finished).  My journals are full of line slashed words, boxes, arrows and far too many smiley faces.  I love the act of writing. 🙂  This is probably why I’m so fascinated with other languages, especially languages like Chinese that use entirely different characters than me.

Beijing 2010 - Only the Chinese could write a sign so elegantly.. 😉

And then there’s my love of books.  I use the word “love” lightly here as its really closer to an obsession.  I buy far too many books.  Constantly.  I buy more books than I possibly have time to read (and I read a lot).  Why?  Because they’re beautiful.  My dream office is a tall, open room with double doors.  Directly across from the double doors is a HUGE window.  Sometimes its floor to ceiling, and sometimes it just spans the width of the room.  My big desk sits with its back to the window, facing the double doors and a small, but obscenely comfortable, sitting area.  Lining the remaining walls (I never said the room was square ;-)) are floor to ceiling bookshelves.  They are, obviously, full of books. My desk will most likely have books piled on it, as will the coffee table.  A goldfish tank will be built into one of the walls’ bookshelves (Have I mentioned I love goldfish too?).  The style of furniture and the color schemes are ever changing, but I will always decorate with my books.  They’re as unique as people, as unique as handwriting.  They are also art.

This past spring, I came across a brilliant idea to combine my love of handwriting and books.  An idea that was so simple I should have thought of it long ago:  Recycled Vintage Book Journals.  🙂  Old books that have been (*gasp*) torn apart and made into spiral notebooks.  They’re beautiful and creative.  The first one I bought made me laugh, but alas its pages are unlined and it still hasn’t been used. 😦  Since then though, I’ve been sifting through Etsy looking for the best ones.  I’ve never heard of most of the books I’ve seen, which makes coming up with a story that fits the title all the more interesting.
I will, very shortly, be in dire need of another journal.  I’ve found a seller who makes them exactly the way I want them to be: spiral bound, with LOTS of lined pages.  Simplicity.  She’s got quite a few that I want.  Some of the titles in her stock that I’m dying for include: One Hundred Lessons in Spelling, Assignment in Danger,  Personality Plus, Magnificent Obsession (I think that’s my favorite so far ;-)), Reuel Makes a Decision, Tales for Males, German for Beginners, The New History of America, and Sky Castle.

Hard decision, right?  I’ll keep you updated. 😉

Oh and no bath product today.  Although I did try the lavender scent from that Bath Dough last night.  Also fabulous.

Tequila, eh?

Those bath products I ordered from Etsy earlier this week got here a couple days ago, but I just got around to trying them out today.  LOVE THEM!  I had never heard of “Bath Dough” before, but it sounded interesting, so I thought I’d try it out.  Its actual dough and you rub your hands together under running water and it makes the best bubbles.  Red Leaf makes a bunch of different scents and I couldn’t help myself, so I ordered a few. 🙂  I tried the Pink Grapefruit out and its got the most wonderful, subtle scent.  I’m sure the Lavender and the Black Tea scents will be just as fabulous. 🙂  Definitely recommend.

I’ve been in a weird mood so far this weekend, and as I skimmed my journal for a good blog topic, nothing really struck my fancy.  The topics I had to choose from included: “Dream interpretation”, “Why I believe in the phrase ‘Its not you, its me'”, “When I write the best stories”, “Why I’d be a kick ass single parent”, and “Why I should wear more sunscreen”, among other things.  None of these sounded very promising outside of a journaling context, trust me.
And so, here’s something else for your reading pleasure in honor of the night I desperately need…

The top ten things alcohol has taught me:

10.  Don’t drink an entire bottle (or 2) of any type of liquor.  Its really not worth it.
9.    For God’s sake, stay off of emails, webcams, facebook, and phones if the need to consume that much liquor is that present.
8.     Keep your clothes on.
7.     If you’re sad when you start drinking, you’ll be even more sad once you’ve finished.  Save yourself the trouble and just don’t.
6.     Drunken dancing is not attractive.  Ever.
5.     Some of the best relationships can be forged and maintained over a glass of alcohol.
4.     Pull a Hemingway and get as much writing down as possible.  Later revisions will, of course, be necessary.
3.     I love you.  Even if I hate you.
2.     You will be hugged.  Multiple times.
1.     Clarity. is. gold. (and a few shots of tequila).

Day 1-

In honor of this new bathtub adventure of mine, I hopped over to Etsy and bought some interesting new bath products.  I’ll tell you all about them once they get here and I have a chance to try them out.  Some very interesting flavors are making their way to Chicago from Seattle though. =)

In the meantime, I’m reading Amy Hempel’s Reasons to Live.  I don’t love her.  But as the first story in that collection is the inspiration for this blog, I’ve decided that I must give her a chance.  Don’t love her minimalist approach as I tend to be a little longer winded about things I’m passionate about.  Maybe I need to learn to be like her.  Say more in less words. 😉

Currently using: Philosophy: Candy Cane bubble bath. ❤

–> Be sure to check out the “About My Bathtub” tab….. =)