Labor Day Weekend.

Let's just take a moment to reflect on the awesomeness that three day weekends are. I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. The weather in San Francisco has finally turned into days of gorgeous sunshine and perfect temperatures. If this weekend, the traditional first weekend the start of the fall season, is anything to go off of, I am going to be very happy here come, oh mid February. 

This weekend I...

Consumed a LOT of coffee. 

Worked on sewing at home with this guy watching over. A friend sent him to me as a surprise last week and he's so cute and sparkly. Now he just needs a name...

Went a little bit crazy at Papyrus buying notecards. I HAD to. All of mine are back in storage in Indiana and I need cards for #goalsatchoice. Ad they were on sale!

Drooled over this catalog that randomly appeared in my mail slot. I tend to get a lot of random catalogs from previous tenants. Even though I do everything on my phone and ipad i still love looking at paper planner.

Worked on testing the directions for projects in our book!

How was your long weekend?

Christmas Festiveness.

As mentioned previously, this was Christmas decorating weekend in our household. Really, everything on Sunday was part of the "get Laura more into the Christmas spirit" movement. Some progress was made, but the 65 degree weather is definitely not helping me feel very Christmassy. 

A view of the Christmas tree and the marriage tree. We receive this sculpture for our wedding and it was possibly our favorite gift ever. We tend to decorate it with simple decorations for each holiday or season.

This poor little guy was in the box of ornaments. I think the rest of the ornament was originally a spaceship. But it's ok, Marvin's head is on the tree. The N-boy seemed to find this creepy but acquiesced to the inclusion of Marvin. Or at least Marvin's head. 

The brother-in-law and sister-in-law-in-law got these super awesome Christmas Carol rubber duckies for me a couple of years ago. The N-boy set them up on top of the TV (we'll see how long that lasts with the cats) and didn't even realize that Scrooge duck is facing the opposite way as all the others. But really it seems appropriate so we've left it as is.

Our friends gave me this drink container last year and had it filled with Christmas ornaments. I loved the idea so we decided to repeat it for this year's festivities. 

We've got a couple of other decorations up, but nothing too crazy. I have a bag full of obnoxious red bows that I'll probably hang up around the house over the course of the week as the mood strikes me. 

Weekend Recap.

Craft show, with the N-boy in tow. He's such a good sport. 

I finished the test of a revised pattern for a heart shaped bowl (I really want to call this pattern "Heart Shaped Box" but i'm also pretty sure that the Momcat wouldn't get the reference. Daddo would, however, so maybe it's worth a shot?) Let's just say that this pattern is without a doubt my arch nemesis. This is my THIRD attempt at making this blankity blank heart bowl and I finally got it to work. The pattern is significantly more complicated than the other shapes I've worked on, and the pattern needed some serious tweaking for us more novice crafters. At last, however, victory is mine! 

The N-boy purchased Russian food from a somewhat questionable van in a definitely questionable car repair shop. However, the then turned said purchase into these Сырники (sirniki). Basically pan fried farmer's cheese with jelly on top. Yum. Sketchy groceries for the win. 

We decorated for Christmas. More on that later-Christmas decorations definitely deserve a post unto themselves in my book. Let's just say that one of my new goals in life is to have an ENTIRE tree decorated only with flamingo ornaments. Yes, I'm serious. I do have flamingo Christmas lights already in my office, so I'm well on my way. The N-boy was less than impressed by this life goal.  

We escaped the football games on TV and went to a coffee shop to work for a while. The N-boy worked on his dissertation (ok well I assume he was working on his dissertation. Sometimes I don't ask too many questions because then he wafts poetic about cholera in provincial Russia while I'm trying to consume a tasty beverage). Is it weird that I think the foam on cappuccinos taste like the crispy part on a perfectly toasted marshmallow?  Pretty sure that must be a weird thing. 

 And that was our weekend!

Happy December.

Oh December. I'm pretty happy you're here. For the most part. Not that part that realized I turned 30 in exactly 70 days. But since I am a huge fan of Christmas cookies and eggnog, we'll give that a pass for the moment.

Today was a busy day with my one and only craft fair for the season. It wasn't great. Luckly the N-boy came along with me and we talked a lot about what kind of venue (if any) is right for the kind of thing that the Momcat and I are focusing on. Don't worry, Momcat, lots of notes and ideas to discuss with you!

Of course, I did put him to work. You don't just get to sit at my pretty table without hauling boxes and praising my wares to strangers. (Somehow that sounds indecent...I swear it wasn't).

I did let him out for a short break where he ventured out to find the super secret Russian market that appears in Elkhart one Saturday a month. In the bay of a car repair shop. By people who drive a van full of Russian food from New Jersey to Indiana. The sketchiness of this adventure was possibly the highlight of his week.

The N-boy returned with some of his favorite Russian foods including these yummy desserts which are similar to cheesecake bites. And are amazing. I LOVED these when I lived in Russia and was super pumped to eat one.

On the way back from a rather long day we hit the grocery store before returning to the house where we promptly crashed on fluffy furniture. Chinese comfort food take out for dinner, and then the N-boy fell asleep on the couch with CatCat.

I thought this picture was hilarious, but apparently the whole time he was sleeping (or trying to sleep) it was an epic battle with the cat about who got to occupy more space on the couch. CatCat has a tendency to win these battles with her pointy claws.

Tomorrow we're planning on decorating the house for Christmas. I haven't been feeling very festive, so I'm hoping that a day full of festivity-however forced-will help get me into the holiday spirit.

Weekend fun and games.

The N-boy and I had a pretty quiet weekend, following a rather stressful end to the work week.  I love working with students, but sometimes it can be hard. 

Saturday we saw Skyfall, drank a lot of coffee, and watched college football. Let's just throw in a Go Irish! for good luck here. I cannot believe that they're undefeated and ranked number 1. It's absolute craziness.

On Sunday we took pictures of the N-boy with the awesome steel frame bike he received from Grandpa for his birthday. This bike had been hanging in Grandpa's garage for years. He moved into an independent living facility this summer, and the Momcat found the bike when she was helping to clean out the house. N-boy loves his newest bike (this would be bike number four for those keeping count at home), and we wanted to let Grandpa know that.

I also worked on some English paper piecing for a project (more on that project coming Wednesday!)

And we baked sourdough rolls to take to Thanksgiving. Don't worry; we checked and made sure they weren't poisonous before we packed them up. ;)

Our biggest adventure of the weekend was the eviction of an opossum who had taken up residence in the garage. I'd heard something rustling around in the garage earlier this week and had actually called the N-boy on my phone from the garage to come take a look. We couldn't find anything then, but the next day something had gotten into the birdseed and made a mess. The N-boy thought it was just a squirrel or a chipmunk so he blocked the crack under the side door and cleaned up the bird seed. Then today he went out to rake leaves and when he grabbed the big canvas leaf bag found Mr. Possum inside hissing irritably at having been disturbed from his slumber. 

Animal removal is definitely not thing we learned in grad school. We called my parents to see if they had any suggestions (their ideas were leaving the door open so he'd come out, calling animal patrol and something involving dry ice-I didn't ask for details on this last one). Finally we just used a long pole to loop through the bag handles and pull the whole thing outside, shutting the garage door behind it. We went inside to give the poor little guy some space to get out, but a couple of hours later it was obvious that he had no intent of leaving his comfy nest. The N-boy (carefully) used the pole to move the bag into the backyard and gently pushed the bag over until the opossum crawled out. Hopefully this is the last animal adventure we'll have for a while. 

Have you ever had to conduct any animal evictions? 

(long) Weekend Recap.

Wow. What a crazy-busy-festive long weekend we had. I kept forgetting that today was a holiday, and kept being pleasantly surprised when I remembered that I didn't have to get up and go to work this morning! Here are a few of the adventures the N-boy and I got up to this weekend! 

Saturday.

The N-boy decided that carrying a 22 pound watermelon home from the Farmer's Market was a good idea. 

A very hot and humid run outside. 

Bike ride to the library.

Brother in law, Sister in law in law and cutest baby on the planet arrive. 

Baby demands FroYo.

We break open the Maker's Mark that I hand dipped in Kentucky last fall. 

Sunday.

Marshall County Blueberry Festival. 

Lemon Shake Up.

Happy baby.

Balloon glow.

Monday.

Morning baby time before they headed home.

Unpictured from today: buying cat litter, doing laundry and collapsing on the couch to catch up on the interwebs.

Hope everyone is having a festive labor day! 

Salads and smoothies.

Yesterday the N-boy and I were both feeling rather blah about any of our potential at-home dinner options, but we didn't feel like going out either. We ended up combining a trip to the grocery store for groceries with a trip to the grocery store salad bar.

             Not particularly pretty, but tasty.    

                              

We ate our salads while watching an episode of Firefly (we tend to work our way through the whole glorious season at least once a year). After salads the N-boy went into the kitchen and whipped up a couple of smoothies. 

These had: 

• bananas (exciting grocery store discovery: we found bananas that were very ripe packaged together and very reduced in price. Since we were looking for bananas ONLY for use in smoothies so they were going into the freezer right away, this was great. 2.43 pounds of bananas for 70 cents!)
• chocolate chips 
• ice
• coconut milk
• oats
• shredded coconut

Again, not pretty but tasty! 

After dinner the N-boy went up to work on his dissertation chapter on cholera and I watched Empire Records on Netflix and worked on a new sewing project.  A low key Friday night, but also a relaxing start to a three day weekend!

Weekend Recap.

The N-boy and I had a pretty busy, although low key, weekend. We spent some time with friends, some out and about, and some at home.

Saturday.

Art Beat 2012.

Trip to Sonic.

 Prototyping a new crafting idea.

Going to see Magic Mike. Again. 

Sunday.

Processing eggplants from the garden into Eggplant Parmesan. 

Basting hexagons. 

Working on more prototypes. 

Unpictured: a very sweaty six mile walk with the N-boy on Sunday morning, and all the time he logged playing Minecraft with his brothers on his new XBOX 360 that was a birthday and Christmas present from the boys. 

How was your weekend?

Orientation begins.

Orientation has officially begun, which basically means I'm off the grid for anything non-work related until Thursday. I keep checking my work email, fingers crossed that nothing crazy has cropped up. A hopeless cause.

Here is one (of three!) Dove chocolate quotes that coworkers brought to my desk on Friday. Ha!

We're actually at one my favorite points in Orientation-our student leadership program retreat. Two days in Michigan where 30 of our students come together to bond, learn, and prepare to welcome the incoming international students.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure so far-only one day left!