Happy Friday! I've been a busy bee. Once I declare something publicly, due to my powerfully guilty conscience I have a hard time not following through. This means I've been steadily working on my tolerations. Eliminating them, that is. I started out with 108 items (!) after going through each room in the house and other miscellaneous fodder. Currently, I'm down to 93, and rather than doing a blow-by-blow review of everything I accomplished which would surely send you and me both running for the ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
Happy Friday! I'm guest posting over at the KCW blog again today, hooray! You'll get a sneak peak of my winter sewing plans and I've featured some cute outfits I'd like to sew from a couple of new Japanese sewing books I got recently. ************************************************************ A conversation I had with K on the way to school yesterday... K: When I grow up, I want to be an inventor. Me: Oh yeah? K: Yeah, I'm going to invent this cool brush with a tree on the end ... Read more
2014 List
I had my quarterly check-up yesterday for my ongoing health condition and my thyroid hormone numbers are stubbornly stuck at around the same level: almost normal, but not quite. In fact, it was a smidgen worse (holiday stress will do that to me), and I've been evaluating ways to nudge my body into full remission. The last year and a half proved to me that lifestyle changes can have enormously positive effects, but clearly, I'm still falling a little short. Perhaps my love of sugary, fatty foods ... Read more
Happy New Year!
It's here! The new year! I'm a little sad to see 2013 go because despite some tough moments which are inevitable in life, it was so fabulous in innumerable ways. But I sense that 2014 may be even better. We rang in the year quietly with just the four of us: me, K, M and my mom (well, not too quietly since we live near one of the major fireworks site in Seattle), and it was a perfect way to end a rollicking twelve months. I have a propensity around this time to spend hours and hours reflecting ... Read more
Abstention Updates
Okay. I've shipped out all out-of-town gifts, dropped off most of the local gifts and have just a few more odds and ends to finish up before I can consider Christmas 2013 a done deal. At the last minute, I adopted a "semi-homemade" approach this year in the vein of Sandra Lee, with mostly store-bought items embellished with handmade tags, ornaments, accessories, etc. It's reduced my stress-level by a thousand-fold. I have a dirty secret to share: I don't like making the same things over and ... Read more