Happy Holidays!

I hope all is well with others in the world. Life is pretty good here, even though I still don't have a job. Last week I was scheduled to have an interview with the local university for an Administrative Clerk position but it was canceled due to the weather (the university closed). The following day, the university made an announcement that they were instituting a hiring freeze effective immediately. Got the dreaded call, "Sorry, we've decided not to hire at this time." Well, I hope I can hold out for this hiring freeze because I would LOVE to have this job. Of all the jobs I've applied for, this is the one that interests me the most, the hours are great (7a to 3 p), it's not far from home, the benefits (drool...), also the department sounds very interesting.

Well, in the mean time, I have been able to get my sewing room back in order and do a few small projects. Halloween came around and my daughter and I decided that she would make a great Alice In Wonderland. I love sewing under pressure so I finished her dress about 1/2 hour before we went out. She looked so cute.



My daughter loves to color. Every time we went out to eat we end up bringing a tote bag with her big pencil box full of crayons with coloring books. Needless to say, the table is over-run by her "stuff". I found a pattern on Electric Quilt's website called the "Ellie's on-the-go Art Tote" and thought it would be perfect for her. After a few adjustments, here's the end result.




I can't wait till she opens it for Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow... craziness

Life has been crazy. Well, I had my sewing room about 75% set the way I wanted it, starting to put things in their place. In the middle of May our dishwasher decided to malfunction and leaked water under the floor in the kitchen and down into my sewing room. GASP! Luckily it wasn't too much damage to my room and insurance is paying for the fixes. But, in order for the room to be fixed, everything has to be moved out. UGH! So, for the last month, my whole room has been moved to the downstairs family room. The flooring we've ordered is on back order so those two rooms are still out of commission.

We have laminate floor in the kitchen and dining room, as well as the stairwell landing and downstairs hallway. Insurance is paying for the kitchen and dining room to be replaced, so we've decided to get all the laminate replaced. I'm so excited! We choose something called palmwood (http://www.greenchoiceflooring.com/Products/StrandWovenPalmwood.aspx). It's made up of old palm trees that are no longer baring coconuts. Instead of burning the trees to get rid of them, they are shredding them and making a composite type flooring. Trying our part to "green" up our house.

Speaking of going "green", I've been really focused on changing some of our cleaning products and even personal hygiene products to be more "green"/natural/organic. I've attempted in making my own laundry detergent with much success! I can't believe how easy it is and cheap too! There are many different recipes out there you can Google.

The recipe I use is:
* 1 bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap grated (either use food processor or cheese grater)
* 1 cup Borax
* 1 cup washing soda (e.g., Arm & Hammer washing soda - baking soda works okay but not as effective)

Mix all ingredients together in food processor. Put into a container and you're all set! Use 1 tablespoon per load. I also use 1/2 cup vinegar in my fabric softener dispenser instead of liquid fabric softener (or using the sheets in the dryer). You do not smell the vinegar on the clothes once they are dried.

ETA: I recently came across information that Fels Naptha has ingredients from petroleum products. I will be researching other, more natural soaps to use.

One of my problems with going "green" is that many of the personal cleaning products out there contain coconut oils. As many of you know from reading my previous blog postings, my daughter has peanut and tree nut allergies. At this time, coconut is not considered part of the tree nut family according to FAAN; however, my daughter does have an allergic reaction to this. Fortunately for us, it's not anaphylactic, "only" mild hives and itching. I did find a soap for my daughter from a brand called Kiss My Face that is olive oil and aloe that seems to be treating her skin well.

Last but not least, I lost my job. Yup, that sucked. However, I'm now happier than I have been in the last year. No more tension headaches. Yeah! Now I'm on to bigger and better things. We're in a good place financially so staying home is not quite out of the picture, but I am still looking for full or part time work. In the meantime, this leaves me time to create! So, I'm laying out all my options and see what I can come up with as far as crafty things. I might even open an Etsy store. That might be a little ways down the road but keep your fingers crossed for me!

Before Picture

Here you go! You get to see my messy office. "I'm an Organizing Junkie" is having a 28 day organizing challenge on any room in your home. My goal is to tackle that crazy office I've been avoiding since we moved in 3 years ago. It's not only my office but my quilting/sewing space. As you can tell, I haven't gotten many quilts done recently. Hummm... I wonder why... Wish me luck!

D & C Follow-up

On Tuesday I went for my 2 week D & C follow-up. The Dr had some results already but is still waiting for a little more for conformation. However, what he did tell me is that it looks like the miscarriage was not caused by my blood clotting, nor was it a genetic problem passed on from my husband or myself. There were abnormal genes though. Apparently I had what is called a "partial molar" pregnancy. This link from the Cleveland Clinic explains it pretty well. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/molar_pregnancy/hic_partial_molar_pregnancy.aspx

Because of the type of pregnancy it was and the concern with cancer associated with it (curable I'm told), I have to be monitored for 6 months and we cannot get pregnant during that time either. That really sucks. While I was there, they took the first blood test. If the results come back at zero, I don't have to go back for a month. If it's raised above zero, I have to go back in 2 weeks. Well, it was 46. That means that there is still more tissue in there. Yuck.

In the mean time, I've been cleaning my office/sewing room. One of my quilt friends is collecting fabric and sewing machines for a group of immigrants (I forget where they are from). I have a couple bins of fabric that I think I'm able to give her. We'll see. I'm still buried under mounds of stuff right now. I'll try posting pics but unfortunately I'm having trouble with Blogger.

Trying to Catch-up on My Life

A dear friend of mine has been bugging me about writing in my blog. I didn't realize how long it's been. Well, let's get this started.

In May, my husband and I went to Hawaii. Don't get too excited, we had to work. We had a trade show to work for 4 days, so we only were able to take 2 extra days for vacation. If it wasn't for the company paying for our travel, lodging and food for 4 days, we probably wouldn't have gone for about another 10 years. It's so expensive for us. What we did see was beautiful. One of our favorite parts of the trip was taking a sea plane tour of the island. It was amazing to look to one side of the plane and see mountains and then ocean on the other side. It's just a gorgeous place. We were on the island of Oahu in Honolulu. If we had more time, we would have loved to explore more and other islands. We also did a luau but it was not on the beach (which it seems as everyone else has done one on the beach) but on a roof top. It was neat. The food however, was not quite right. LOL! We're not seafood folk so many of the items weren't on our plates. Along with some pork, we did take some rice that had some veggies however after a couple bites, I noticed tentacles. YUCK! I was done eating after that. As a souvenir, we bought a pineapple. It was one of the best pineapples I had ever eaten. We did a search online and found a site that showed how to grow a pineapple plant from the top of the pineapple. We don't plan on growing pineapples but just to have the plant as a memory is nice. We have a nice green planted pineapple top sitting in our dining room now.

In July, Hubby had another conference, this time in Boston. We decided to make it a family trip and brought our daughter along too. This was a short weekend excursion for us. The highlight of this trip was whale watching. It was the most moving experience to be that close to such a magnificent animal. We were on a New England Aquarium Whale Watch, here's a link to our actual outing... http://www.neaq.org/visit_planning/whale_watch/log/2009/07/july-16th-am.php

In the fall we decided to change our daughter's preschool. It was a hard decision to make but well worth it in the end. She has grown so much since we switch schools. She started writing her name at the new school, which really shocked me. She was a little over 3 1/2 and she was already writing her name. She is spelling out many words that she sees and even trying to sound words out. The school is much smaller than her previous school so there is more focused attention. I think this is fantastic! Now, don't get me wrong, I am not pushing her by any means to do any of this, she wants to learn all by herself. I just go along with the flow. Her little mind keeps me in awe. Yesterday she turned 4. I can't believe my baby is 4 already! She will be in Kindergarten before we know it. Wow.

Thanksgiving was very nice. My grandparents came along with my parents and brother. It was nice to have all of that family around. My grandmother cracks me up. She is a very dramatic person and I love everything about it! LOL! We had them playing the Wii and laughed the whole time. I hope I'm that active when I'm in my 80's.

About a week after Thanksgiving, I found out I was pregnant. Yeah! I started taking my Lovenox shots faithfully every night. The OB had my blood levels checked to make sure everything was progressing as it should. At the end of December, we went in for my ultrasound. We actually saw everything that we were supposed to this time, the only thing we didn't see was a heartbeat. :( The doctor decided to wait one more week and do another ultrasound. When we went back, the fetus didn't grow and there still wasn't a heartbeat. The doctor took another blood sample just to make sure and saw that my levels were high enough that there should have been a heartbeat. Two days later I had a D & C. I go back in a week for a follow-up. I'm not sure what to do now. Do we keep trying for another baby? I told my husband that I think I can do this one more time but after that, I'm done. It just hurts too much. We'll just sit back and see what happens.

Looking forward to this year. I will be going on the quilt retreat again this year with one of my guilds. A week later, we will be taking my parents to Niagara Falls for a mini vacation. Other than that, nothing else is planned.

My goals for the year:

1. Organize my sewing room / office
2. Organize my family room utilizing the new cabinets my parents built and the shelves that I built
3. Finish 3 quilts
4. Work on a having a healthier life style by eating right and working out
   
5. (this one's a wish) To have another baby just as wonderful as our daughter

I don't believe these are too difficult. Let's see where this year leads us.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have many wonderful experiences.

Robin