March 2010 Archives

I am attempting to upgrade my Movable Type and if past experience is anything to go by, it will take me weeks before I get this right. For the interim, we are back to the generic banner and I am hoping the newest version of MT will make updating things way easier.

Aside from my technical inadequacies, things are great. We are in the midst of spring break and K is flitting about from one fun activity to another. She started gymnastics a couple of weeks ago and LOVES it. Her birthday is coming up in four months, and she spends every day planning it. Were she to have her way, the entire party will be one huge sugar-fest. Anytime she sees anything delectably sweet, she insists that I make it for her birthday.

"Flitting" is the perfect word for her. She loves to don her wings and dance about, making up little songs along the way:

Though there have been a few teary moments for our little preschooler (due to too much treats, I suspect) it's been mostly happy happy joy joy around here. I have to say, I really enjoy this age.

As for me, I have had the most unproductive month of reading altogether too many mystery novels. I'm discovering that I really like the mind benders despite the unsavory nature of most mysteries. Terribly, terribly addictive. Why did Michael Connelly have to write so many books?? And did you hear? The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is coming out in two months. Definitely going on my birthday list.

Fortunately, our lives are nothing like the books I read, and our days are wonderfully predictable and uneventful.

Side note: The husband has announced that my days as a woman of leisure (though I use that term loosely -- how leisurely can it be taking care of a three-year-old??) are numbered. I am to report to full-time employment once K starts kindergarten. This means that I have about 500 days as a stay-at-home-mom left...UNLESS I can bring in an acceptable income doing my own thing. And let's face it, though I've had some lovely illustration projects and a few art shows, I am nowhere near bringing home the bacon and we are in one of the worst recessions... Is it possible to kick start a crafty career in less than 600 days? Do I stand a chance at carving out a "real job" doing something I love that doesn't require kowtowing to big brother? Is it all just dandelion-blowin' wishful thinking and pipe dreams? Let's find out.

I cracked open my watercolor set for the first time in nearly 8 months, and it was so fun to paint without worrying about deadlines or expectations! I'm taking little steps to incorporate the things I enjoy into the day to day -- it helps keep the crankiness at bay.

I sense a sewing project in the very near future...

Sometimes blurry images can be so lovely...

Back in early March, K's school held an auction to raise funds for the co-op. The auction generated over $40,000, which is pretty awesome. Every year, each co-op member is required to donate an item or garner a donation from a local business. There were some cool items auctioned: a trip to Mexico, Mariner's baseball tickets, gift certificates to classy restaurants, wine-tasting expeditions, etc.

My humble contribution was a customized placemat for K's class. I designed and illustrated it, and a capable team of moms got them printed, laminated and found sets of dry erase markers (low odor, even!) to go with the placemats. We raised over $700. Not bad, right?

To maintain privacy, I blurred out the children's faces. I've been told that the kids love it, and Kumi's been pretty into it too. She likes to add fairy wings and weird objects on all her friends' heads. The key point of the outfits is that each child is depicted with the costume he/she usually wears during dress-up time at school. I had so much fun with this! Perhaps this could be an offering in my Etsy shop that still has not materialized...

I am in love. In the last week, I've made these granola bars THREE times. And I ate almost all of them myself. Each batch yields a lot of granola bars, so you can imagine how much my waist has expanded in seven short days.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and these hefty, nutritious and yum-studded granola bars are to die for.

The recipe is quite versatile and Deb doesn't dictate the fruit/nut combo, though she gives gentle recommendations. I've been using pretty much every dried fruit and nuts in my pantry: cherries, prunes, raisins (golden and thompson), cranberries, mango, almonds, cashews, walnuts...you name it, I put it in. I even tossed in a handful of mini chocolate chips. Divine.

The result is a complex and wholly satisfying mix of sweet and salty. Plus it's easy to whip up and makes my heart go pitter patter -- in fact, I just finished off the last bar last night. I think it's time to go for batch number four. I hope I can find a pair of jeans that still fits.

Oh, and my reference to jumping into something new? It's nothing fancy or exciting. It's just a new sense of determination to make and surround myself with things I adore. I am a design/craft blog junkie and spend countless hours oohing and aahing over other peoples beautiful finds, homes and creative talents. Though there's nothing inherently wrong with that, I feel that I've been living too much in other people's virtual worlds and not doing so much in my own world. I haven't sewn or drawn (for myself) in months. Though I've baked some, I've fallen into a routine of cooking the same seven recipes every week. It's time to shake things up a bit.

I'll tell you more soon.

...and here I am, bringing you Valentine's Day cookies. I don't even know how many monthly Kumi updates I've missed.

That bit about things slowing down that I mentioned? Total lie. Things have been crazier than usual. I even got a job.

Before I launch into that, I need to show you more v-day cookies. These were really scrumptious. I made a ton -- some for Kumi's friends, some for MF, some just because. It's your basic butter cookie recipe with an outrageously yummy cream cheese frosting. Dangerously good.

And I need to show you the cool potato stamp Kumi and I used for our Valentine's this year. We punched holes in them and made them into necklaces.

The job is still not fully finalized, but apparently I am now a photo editor. I'm actually still kind of reeling from the speed of this new development. One minute I'm sipping coffee in my favorite coffee shop, the next minute I'm chatting with an ex-co-worker who's started a company and was interviewing a candidate in that very same coffee shop. Had my name not been called out by the barista at the very moment when my friend happened to step into the coffee shop, I would not have a job that I didn't even know I wanted. Weird, right?

It reminded me that my life has been propelled forward with these kinds of coincidences. And these coincidences seem to happen frequently in coffee shops. In my senior year in college, I had a brief chat with a friend in the campus coffee shop; she told me about the JET program -- this led me to apply for the program a year later and I found myself in a small rural town in Japan, teaching English to high school students.

I met my husband in a San Francisco coffee shop. Caffe Trieste: what a great place. The only reason I met him was because I sat next to a couple who had been watching his computer while he made a phone call outside. The couple had to leave and asked me to watch the computer instead. Ten years later, we have a child and live in a city dominated by coffee shops.

Kumi is already groomed as a coffee shop connoisseur. She knows which cafe has the best sprinkles for her steamers, and most of the baristas in the area greet her by name. I imagine her future will be filled with serendipitous events filled with the aroma of espresso beans.

I'm not quite sure what month we're on now, but Kumi seems to have gotten over the extreme tantrum phase. Thank goodness. We spend a lot of time making up stories together and she is turning out to be quite the artist. Her favorite stories involve mean witches and princesses. She is much more independent and sometimes barely notices me when I have my preschool work days and stay with her in the classroom. When she imitates me, she uses a screechy falsetto and it makes me laugh and laugh. She is WAY into butt jokes, which is so incongruous with her tiara-wearing, princess outfit-clad appearance. She adores her friends. And they adore her. It's a wondrous thing to see three and four-year-olds hugging each other hello and goodbye, unprompted.

She revels in life. (That's a lollipop stick in her mouth, not a cigarette).