Bliss

Today has been a good day.  No, a great day.

The high was 72.  DS stayed home with me this morning since we had an OB appt at 8:45am.  I wore some of my new clothes from Mom.  The OB appt went great, which was really nice considering I left the last one crying because that doctor kept telling me I had gained way too much weight.  This guy didn't even mention it.  I got a prescription for my heartburn, and haven't had a problem all day.  This is amazing.

This afternoon I met Sarah and her little friend at the park.  I enjoyed my free Pumpkin Spiced Latte from Starbucks for my birthday.  I talked to another mom.  Everyone had good times.

When I got home, the giant box from my mom had arrived, along with my new knitting needles (sizes 1-14!) that I got with my birthday money.  The windows were still open and the house feels great.  I mapped out the day and discovered I walked 3.79 miles today.  I'm having homemade soup for dinner.

<3 p="p">

2012 Snowboarding Trip

I CAN SNOWBOARD!  WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Hahahaha, okay.  That was a bit much.  But seriously, I was so excited to actually be able to make it down a hill without going flying and knocking all the air out of me and then crying in the snow for 20 minutes.  (seriously, my first experience was pretty horrible)  Am I good?  God no.  I still pretty much suck.  But I've definitely graduated from "couldn't possibly be any worse" to "well, she has the basics down."

The first day we were at Park City, and I never even left the First Time hill.  You'll probably have trouble finding it on that map I linked, because it's TINY.  I didn't realize how much of a wuss I was being until I saw that map at the end of the day.  But I was really happy to figure out how to ride my heel edge and "snowflake" down the hill without falling.  Also, I was with Samantha all afternoon, and we had dinner with all our Santa Barbara people, which was amazing.

So on Monday, Day 2, I made it my goal to make it down at least one "real" run.  This time we were at Solitude, which is a bit harder of a place since it has mostly harder runs and even the green ones are fairly steep.  I also really wanted to figure out how to ride my toe edge, which was still giving me a lot of trouble and causing me to wipe out.  You can't really do much with just your heel edge.  Some would argue it's not snowboarding at all.  DS and I spent a couple of runs on Easy Street attempting to get my courage up, and then we tried Little Dollie.  Man.  That thing was crazy steep.  I was terrified.  But I made it down!  On my heel edge!  Slowly!

DS left me for a while to do "fun" runs, and I hung out with the other newbie, Jaime's boyfriend Jonathan for a bit back on Easy Street.  Then there was lunch, which was insane, as any gathering of the SC crowd tends to be.  And then I was back on Easy Street working hard on my toe edge.  Which is when I took a bad fall, flew threw the air, and landed really hard on my lower back and slamming my head into the ground.  Good thing I had my new helmet on.  After that debacle, it was time for hot cocoa and some chill time with Sam while we waited for the rest of the gang to finish their blues and blacks.  That night we had dinner at the Red Iguana, which is probably the best Mexican food place I've ever been to.

Tuesday, Day 3, we decided to lay low and rock climb with Nell and Brian at Momentum.  That gym was so much easier than the one we go to here in Philly.  I on-sighted a 5.10b, and felt much better knowing that I'm truly better than a 5.6 climber.  It was a pretty cool gym.  They set so that each route uses a uniform color for the holds instead of marking the holds with tape.  They also had crack routes, which was awesome.  I'd never seen that before in a gym.

Wednesday, Day 4, we went back to Park City with the SB folk.  This was where DS realized that the reason I could ride my toe edge was because my bindings were entirely too loose.  Whoops.  Once he showed me how tight they needed to be, I picked it up in no time.  Hooray!  And then we rode to the top of the Crescent lift.  I could feel the temperature dropping as we went up, and I thought it would go on forever.  It was also a really tall lift, and I was a bit terrified of the height.  My goal was to ride all of the Home Run route, so we went down Claim Jumper to the Silverlode lift.  Now we were at the top!  DS left to ride some blacks, and I took some time to think about what I was doing.  Home Run is 3.5 miles long, and we were really high up.  Nearly 10,000 ft up, if their map is accurate.

The Park City map, via www.parkcitymountain.com.  For a larger version, click the Park City link above.

It took me something like an hour and a half to get down, but I did it.  I did it riding both edges, and only falling a couple of times.  Those were minor falls too.  Though I did stop several times to rest, because my legs just weren't used to this type of exercise.  Juliana caught up with me at some point, and we went down part of the way together.  But she's better than me, and left me for some blues.

In the end, this was an excellent trip.  It took a good week or two for me to be able to sit on the floor without being careful of the tender spot from Monday's fall, but that was the only real problem.  I learned to snowboard!  I had really excellent food.  We played multiple rounds of Zombie Fluxx!  I got to see people we almost never see anymore that I love dearly.  I climbed a 5.10b!  Also, the mountains around Salt Lake City are just awesome.  These photos don't do them justice.

If you see this note, be sure to visit http://sleepgoblin.blogspot.com with Flash to see the images. Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Like a Glove

DS left for his conference today.  I figured while I was out with the car, I might as well go shopping.  Less so I can spend money, and more so I can just look at things.  Sometimes it's nice to do that.  I picked up a couple of things for the cats, found no shoes I liked, and got groceries.

Then I did one of the best parallel parking jobs of my life.  Behold!

Less than foot of space on either side.  And on our actual street!

The mice we normally get for Winston are a specific kind.  We've found, to our monetary sadness, that he is very particular.  We had been getting the Hartz ones that come in super bright colors and have real rabbit fur.  He went nuts for them, and would play fetch multiple times a day.  He was overly particular to the blues ones.  However, they've recently make them NOT rabbit fur, and he has no interest whatsoever in toys that are made out of anything else.  We know.  We've tried.  (Please note that despite the image their site and Amazon shows for the product, they no longer really look like that.  The reviews, and my own trips to the grocery to get them, attest to this.)

Anyway, I found a different brand at PetSmart today that used real fur.  I wasn't sure how he'd feel about them, since the crazy dye was missing and they're a bit lighter in weight (he prefers a certain weightiness, which helps them fly better when thrown, and they make a nice thunk when they hit which he seems to like for fetch purposes).  However, after giving him one and leaving the rest on the table, I later found him claiming them.  So... let's hope this is a success!

Winston claims the extra mice.  Also, a woven paper ring toy I thought Felix would enjoy batting around.

 We also haven't had a real cat bed for ages, because Winston had a tendency to use them as a litterbox.  I got tired of washing them and throwing away money, so I stopped getting them.  It's been a couple of years though, and Felix really loves them.  So when I found one on clearance today, I thought I'd give it a shot.  I'm testing it on the couch first, since I'm hoping that will impress upon Winston that it is not a toilet.  Felix took to it almost immediately.

"I don't even care if the tag's still attached."

 Despite missing DS already, I'd say today was a success.

Busy Day

This morning I was awoken by a screaming neighbor.  I don't think that quite gets across what I experienced.  It was a S C R E A M I N G neighbor.  Well, the neighbor part might be a lie.  It was either the neighbor's babysitter (which would be really weird), or the person who lives under them.  At any rate, apparently this young lady was very irate with her (now) ex-boyfriend for waking her up during her very limited sleeping time.  Also, he was a selfish in the way he loved her.  And he didn't get rid of his cat.  Mark, how many times does she have to tell you, this is all your fault?*

So there was that.  At least I woke up in a decent mood and found it more amusing than annoying.  It was early for me, so I read Shades of Grey until I fell back asleep and had a little nap.

On to the busy part.  After waking for real, I made my way to the post office to mail an SGC order to the Netherlands.  I did a lot of laundry.  Okay, that's not very exciting.  I made brandied cranberries, which are delicious and made from our CSA cranberry batch.  Then I made butternut squash soup**, also from our CSA stuff.  I've really been into making soups lately.  I worked out, including 4.5 for real pull ups.***  Currently, the dining room table is set up as a mini photo studio, and I'm wading through 144 new product photos.  (Not 144 new products...)

Copper and Crystal Hoop Earrings by Sleep Goblin Crafts

I'm trying to spice up my product photos.  My stuff never gets picked to be in Treasuries or the Etsy Finds e-mails, and I just don't see where the items themselves aren't good enough.  That leaves the photography.  I'm happier with this new set, but it's still not amazing.  I have photo lights on my wish list, and that should help.  What do you think?  Give me some feedback!

Button Pearl and Garnet Earrings by Sleep Goblin Crafts

===========================

*I lost count around 15.


**I just realized I forgot the butter in that soup.  Eh, I added a bunch of spices, and I really like how it turned out anyway.


***Not all at once.  Though the first round was two, which is a new record for me!

Behind the Scenes of a Mobile Commission

Last November, a friend commissioned me to make a custom hanging mobile for their yet-to-be-born child's room.  I was given a photo of the crib set, which was "jungle" themed (with the exception of a giraffe).  Other than that, I was given free reign.

The thing with the giraffe is that I have problems with these themed sets that like to combine animals that don't really make sense.  I'd be fine with it if they didn't say it was a jungle theme.  Giraffes live in the savannah.  But this eventually got me thinking that I had an opportunity to make the mobile both awesome to display and educational.

I was told the child was expected in May, so I had "plenty of time."  However, inspiration was slow.  Very slow.  A whole year slow.  I worked on it in spurts, creating an animal here and there with months in between as I struggled with what to make next.  I probably could have worked much faster if someone had said, "I really love X, please make me something with these items in it."  Coming up with it on my own, I just have to wait until it feels right.

So it's about 5 months late, but in the end, I am glad I waited until I had something worth sending.  I decided to stick with the jungle theme, but make sure that all animals included would be something actually found in a tropical, wooded climate.  Not all of the animals would have to be from the same jungle, just so long as they had similar habitats.  I also wanted them to be animals you'd be likely to encounter at a zoo, but not necessarily the most famous ones.  And I wanted the animals to be removable for some kind of interaction.  My thought was that they could be used in story time, or something along those lines, with the idea being that the child would get to know the names of these animals and what they looked like.  Then visits to the zoo would be more exciting, and hopefully with less mindless screaming and banging on enclosure glass...

I ended up making the three larger animals first, and they were also the most spaced out.  Hand-embroidering the tiger stripes was probably not my best idea in terms of feasibility.  The final structure came recently, when I decided to hang the bigger animals as if they were walking around the base of a tree, with smaller animals hung higher as if they were in the canopy.  This idea was what finally triggered the creative juices, and it was mostly downhill from there.  I believe the last three animals and the tree all came together in about 5 days.

Each animal is roughly to scale with the others; the elephant is a tad small, but I made it as big as my single sheet of felt would allow.  They are all made of felt, hand-sewn and embroidered.  The smaller ones have a touch of marker for shading, since the stitches were pulling through the felt once the pieces passed a certain size.  There are wires in the leaves of the three, with loops for hanging.  To keep it light, the tree trunk is made of straws that are wired together, wrapped in paper, and then covered in felt.  I've never done anything like this before, so I just sort of made it up as I went along.

Because it was so late, and we hadn't talked about it in so long, I packaged everything up and quietly sent it along for my friend's birthday.  I included a little packet that said how to put it together, as the tree is actually two pieces, and the animals can be hung from various points depending on what looks good.  The packet also gave mini-bios, with pictures of live animals, for each of the animals included.

Now that the package is safely delivered, I can share the photos with you.  Soon I should have photos of it hung in the baby's room, but for now, here are the ones I took before shipping.

If you can't see this, visit my actual blog or get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Show at World Cafe Live

Here's video from the song DS and I helped out with at the show on June 17th at World Cafe Live.  Sometimes the sound doesn't match up just right, but you'll get the idea.  It was so much fun, and I hope that we get more chances to do fun things like this in the future.

If you like the music, be sure to check out the band's website for more info.

Green Thumb

Despite having only a hanging planter in a window that gets less than 6 hours of sun a day, and two cats that seem to love eating things that make them sick, I've managed to keep my pepper plants and basil flourishing this summer.  Four of my six pepper plants are producing, and the other two are on their way.  I just need to keep Felix away from them for a bit longer.  Twice the basil has gotten so huge we've had to have basil pesto just to have a reason to cull a ton of it.  Which, by the way, is SO GOOD made with just picked basil.

Now if I just knew what those peppers were....

If you see this message, either visit the blog, or get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Multiple Successes and Random Updates

After more than a year of periodically going to Goleta Beach looking for sea glass, Samantha makes me go to Arroyo Beach and we find a crap load.  Neither of us had been to that one before, and we were so surprised.  The beach is really rocky along the shore, then turns to sand, and then giant cliffs with uber fancy houses on top.  We made the mistake of walking it barefoot.  It probably would have been nice in the sand, but once we realized that sea glass was abundant, we stayed in the rocks.  Ouch.

Sore feet is a small price to pay for this megaload of sea glass though!  We even found two small cobalt blue pieces.  Most are white and green, and there's a fair amount of brown.

Double Success:  I bought a diamond tipped drill bit for my Proxxon today, and managed to get a nice little whole in my practice piece.  That means I can start making real sea glass jewelry now!!

Speaking of successes, I purchased one of those "as seen on tv" planters that grows vegetables upside down.  This particular one is meant for pepper plants, and I got a "six alarm combo pack" of peppers to go in it.  And then, because I don't like peppers, I got myself basil and rosemary.  I hope it actually works.  Though I'm a little nervous about our sunlight situation.  And also the cats.

While I was at it, I re-potted all of my plants, finally getting rid of some dead ones that had been languishing on the porch for six months.  My aloe and catnip are doing excellent, so if you want some... let me know.  Also, the porch has been cleaned finally!  (it's coated in some kind of high gloss paint, and is always covered a thick layer of dirt due to lack of rain, dust, and occasional fires)  We'll see how long that lasts.

DS is having success as well.  We'll be in Chapel Hill from April 8-12 to see if we want to live there.  Anyone going to be around there then?  Any suggestions for things to do/see that might entice us?  Would you recommend it?

Also, it looks like we'll be in the DC area the weekend of May 22 for a wedding.  I've never been there.  Not sure we'll have much spare time, but just in case, feel free to send me suggestions for awesome things there as well.

UofL Scarf Finished!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

I finished my brother's scarf! I feel safe posting it here, because I can't imagine he's ever been here. I doubt he would even know where to find me. Regardless, it's late, so I guess it doesn't hurt if he does see it here first.

Happy 25th Birthday Brother!

Conversation with the Plumber*

Plumber: So Sleep, are the kids at school?

Me: *confused* I don't have any kids..

Plumber: Really? Then who do the toys all over the place belong to?

Me: *looking around frantically* Toys?! I have toys? Where?!

Plumber: You know, the drumset and other things in the living room.

Me: Those belong to us.

Plumber: Oh! Are you a musician?

Me: Um, sort of? *looks at the piano* But the drums are for the game Rock Band.

Plumber: *confused, maybe slightly embarrassed* Oh. *perking up* Well, if you need to practice.. *grin*

Me: No really, it's okay.

------------------------------------------
*Plumber came yesterday to snake the kitchen drain. Stupid thing just stopped draining. No slowing down first, no warning. Just BAM! You can no longer use the kitchen sink or dishwasher! My downstairs neighbor works in construction, and was kind enough to help me the night before, but we only managed to make a mess. As it turns out, our pipes are old and nasty enough to be disintegrating, so all we managed to do was extract a lot of oil black water that I was informed was rotten pipe. It was disgusting, to say the least.

The whole toy conversation really threw me. I had no idea what he could be talking about when he said there were toys all over the place. My first thought went to the set of wind up tub toys I have (because I really like wind up toys, and who could resist a submarine that says "deep seeker" on the side??). But no, he meant our video games. No one has ever assumed I was old enough to have children big enough to play with something the size of Rock Band instruments. I mean really, they're not exactly small. I'm thinking a kid would need to be at least, what, six? I'm still carded for alcohol and given suspicious looks from time to time for crying out loud. What would I be doing with a six year old?

Originally, this encounter had me slightly embarrassed at the lack of order in my apartment. The more I think about it, the more it just makes me feel old. Maybe this guy is just so out of touch with technology that the only scenario he could come up with is that I must have children? But he wasn't all that old either, 40 at the most. And my parents are in their 40's and know about video games...

Whatever. Screw this, I am not old! Even if I will be 28 tomorrow, that is young baby! And I will play video games until the day I die, so there!

Found Treasures

I don't know why I never knew about this, probably my general lack of awareness of the world at large.. but the person I bought the tiles from for my table around a year ago posted a photo of it on their flickr account. That was nice! But more to the point, people commented, and I am touched. They say I have talent!!

I should think about doing mosaics more.. I really enjoyed it, and I still get compliments on the table. *le sigh*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cocomomosaics/2313739124/

If you want to try your own mosaic work, but don't like those boring squares at the craft store, then I highly recommend CoCoMo.

busy

Things I've been up to:

1. learning to quilt with my sewing machine (thanks again mom!!)
2. reading the chabon book i got from the library
3. experimenting with needle felting wool roving into decorated coffee cup sleeves
4. making a bunch of jewelry for various birthday presents
5. finishing a plaid scarf on my loom
6. sketching the beginnings of my first painting in years
7. making mother's day gifts
8. seeing the new wolverine movie at the matinee (pretty good!)
9. watching LOTS of streaming netflix while doing 1-7
10. game nights with friends (photos of my catan cookies if i ever get around to it)
11. exploring ventura (photos from that too.. again, if i get around to it)

1-8 have all been within the last 4 days.  i've been inspired, and it's wonderful.  i wish i felt this productive all the time.

also, we've had 3 japanese classes now.  the 4th is tomorrow.  i can count to 99 in japanese!!  it's pretty sweet.  ds can tell you all about it.  because i demonstrated for him.  out loud.  while walking back from class.  he loved it.

On a Roll!!

Man, selling things is AWESOME! I always thought that I would love living an artist's live, and now I know for sure!

This morning I had a special request to ship to Canada, and now I am happy to say that I've made my 3rd "stranger" sale. Woo-HOO!!! That's two in a row! I feel like, just maybe, I can actually do this when DS gets a teaching job.

I can't really explain what it's like to put your time and love into making something, and then have someone say, "wow, that's really cool, and i'll pay MONEY for it!". Sometimes it's hard to let the thing go, but I know that if I really want to keep it, I can make another. It's such a gratifying experience. I can definitely see why people opt to make things rather than go out and work for the man. :)