my pink life, mi vida rosada

Part 10!!! I feel like part 10 should merit a celebration -- here we are at the end of March, and I am actually still sticking to my resolution to get things done! Yes, some weeks have been more productive than others.  Yes, I still have to constantly remind myself of the "rules" and to put the phone down....but overall, I know I am accomplishing a lot more in my project room, and I'm feeling really good about being able to continue to make progress, even after the kids are out of school for the summer and I go back to work in the fall. Will the progress slow down?  Of course.  But the backlog is getting cleared out, and the new projects will hopefully be fun, inspired, and timely (or time sensitive!) -- to keep me progressing. So, part 10: 1. More mending.  I believe as soon as I clear out the mending pile, the clothes and the things conspire to make this a never-ending process. I mended the "Anna" dress, a play silk, the dining room rug, and the hem of...

The first of the two yellow chairs is in progress.  It is going more slowly than I had hoped, mostly due to my husband and I taking turns being out of the house at night (book club!  supper club!  mom's night out!  guys night away!  choir practice and yoga class! and on and on and on!) and also him suffering from ALL THE POLLEN and wanting to go to bed very early most nights.... So we have stapled a few parts, but not as many as need to be stapled, and I have sewn all the parts I can sew (on the first chair -- though they are identical, I don't want to start the second chair until I have finished the first, so I can see what I need to cut out/sew differently the second time around). I am currently feeling discouraged about covering the buttons for the tufting of this chair....Should you happen to have a favorite trick for using a thick fabric (upholstery velvet!) with the buttons you can cover yourself, I would love to know what you do to be successful....

So the flu made its rounds through my whole family....Fortunately, mild cases for all. The wonders of modern medicine are appreciated greatly in my home. I've gotten less good about putting the phone down and getting the real things done....But here are a few more tiny bits of progress: 1. Tooth fairy pillow. My oldest is five, and she is eagerly anticipating losing a tooth.  She will tell you that her tooth is "really loose, for real it is" and choose a random tooth in her mouth to try to wiggle for you -- it is not loose.  But one day, it will be, and we will be ready. 2. Baby gifts.  My current standard gift is a set of terry/flannel burp cloths.  My cousin gifted a set to me before my oldest was born.  They are so well loved that she still sleeps with them at night.  A new set was created for Miss Middle, and when he came along, the "baby" got a set of his own, too.  They all snuggle with them at night and naps, and as a baby gift -- homem...

The flu has cosmically derailed all attempts at big progress this week.  Also, all attempts at small progress this week. (Yes, we did all get our flu shots. Yes, I do think they are important to get.  Yes, I do think they help my family stay well.  Yes, I do think they help shorten the course of the flu, even if they don't prevent it.) Friday afternoon, the same day as the not-so-great-non-teaching-interview, I started feeling sick.  Just a little cough, a little scratchy throat, a little bit achy....But we had little friends coming over to spend the night so that their parents could have their first whole night off in four years, and I wasn't about to cancel that just because I was feeling sad about the job situation. The friends came, had a fun time, slept a little bit (a very little bit....do they ever learn to sleep at a sleepover?), played hard, and went home on Saturday about lunchtime.  We ate our lunch and all of lay down for naps. My cough was f...

So I had an interview for a non-teaching job yesterday.  Yesterday was also the last day for me to accept a particular teaching job.  The interview did not go great, in my opinion.  I don't have the skill set that the company was looking for, I wasn't feeling 100%, and I really didn't sell myself well.  I tried to emphasize that I'm good at learning, very organized, my strengths, while also being honest that I really don't have the skill set they are looking for -- but that I think what they are looking for can be learned.  I didn't go home feeling great about it. I have been looking at all sorts of job descriptions online, hoping that almost anything other than teaching would jump out at me as a great choice, a fantastic career move, the right job to bridge my teaching skills and expertise in the education world with a financially more lucrative career.  Though a few jobs at the state department of education looked intriguing to me, I didn't sell mysel...

The stars quilt is done! This feels like a monumental accomplishment.  When I first began to dabble in quilting, I was a junior in college.  My aunt, who has been more than dabbling in quilting for a long time, sent me a book about quilting and a set of fat quarters.  I used some of the information from the book and decided to make up my own design; I cut out some stars and appliqued them onto a black background.  I began hand quilting one star at a time -- around the edges, echoing the shape round and round until the center became a spiral, using a variegated thread.  After completing all of the stars, I started quilting circular spirals in the empty black areas.  In the beginning, the placement was totally random; most recently, I started working on one quadrant and then another, filling in all of the empty spaces in a slightly more regular way, trying to move from one section to another in a visible display of progress. Here are some pictures: ...