Domestic duties...

I just got back from dropping my truck off at the Autoport and walking back home. I thought it was 1-1.5 miles but it turns out that its 2.5 miles! It ended up being a beautiful 45-60 min brisk walk. My ears got cold though and that dampened my spirits a bit. I think I may even walk back to pick it up in the morning. It really puts in perspective what a sedentary society we live. Even though I work out I cannot imagine living in a world where I had to walk everywhere instead of drive. Luckily I have the option!
I have domestic duties to do today--make bread, do all the laundry, clean the house, clean the fish tank, blah blah blah. I just hope my patterns come in the mail. I hope to pick out what fabric I want for them today too.
I watched Bankok Dangerous last night with Nicholas Cage and it was "eehh", not great but not bad either. I also caught up on The Biggest Loser. I love it! I can't stop wondering though how the pregnant host of the show, Allison, is not boohoo bawling at LEAST during every elimation. I mean everybody is crying and I know when I was pregnant I would cry during TV commercials! Maybe she does cry but they clean her up during takes or something. Anyone else's take on this? Okay well I'm off to start my day officially.

BOOOOOOOORing...

I am so excited to report that the tank has entered its second stage of cycling. The ammonia levels were 0.0 today so that means that the new bacteria is converting the ammonia into nitrite and sure enough the nitrite levels have risen to 0.5. Wow do I ever sound like a nerd!
I'm taking my truck in to get fixed early tomorrow morning and I may walk the 1-1.5 miles back to our house. It sounds peaceful and practical, for if I do it at a brisk pace I may be able to get in about 30 minutes of cardio. I hate paying the money to get my old clunker fixed but I am going crazy just sitting in the house with my little monster so I will do what I have to do and I am thankful that we have the money to do it.
I started two photo albums last night--one for me and one for Rice--that contain pics of our lives before we met. They have spaces next to each photo to write something and I think it will be cool to look back on the stories of the pics. We also have a ton of pics of us together before we had Taison so I think I might make that into an album too. Our kid(s) can see someday that we did actually have a life before them!
Well Taison is up from his nap now so I am leaving. If I have anything else to say I will make another post tonight. BYE!!

Pattern review for New Look 6854

Pattern Photo:	New Look Pattern Info
Pattern Rating:	Easy & Great for Beginners
Fabric:	Denim [See other projects in this fabric]
Pattern Description: Five different skirts. I made View D here are the back and side views Pattern Sizing:Size A 8-18 I made an 8. Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?Yes Were the instructions easy to follow?Yes very What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?The liked that the pattern was very easy and not very many steps. Fabric Used:100% cotton denim(thicker) for the final skirt. I first made the skirt using 100% cotton plaid (thinner) to practice. Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: I originally wanted to make View E but according to the final measurements on the back of the pattern it would have been well above my knee as I am tall so I made View D and took the hem up 5 inches instead. Also I made the hem 1/2" longer in the back than in the front so that it would appear more even. I extended the front darts down another 3 1/4" beyond what the pattern calls for because on the practice skirt I made there seemed to be too much excess fabric there for my body. This helped but it still didn't "cure" the problem. I have never tried any alterations before so these were all just trial and error for me. The lady at Joanns said to use an invisible zipper instead of the regular zipper the pattern called for so I did and I used basting glue on the zipper instead of machine basting it in and that was a lot easier for me except when I got done I realized that I had put the zipper in facing the WRONG way! Next time I will check an extra 14 times before I do anything. Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?I may sew this again but I will definitely use a lighter weight, stretchier fabric. I was looking for something a little more casual so I will probably make another view from this pattern soon. I would recommend this pattern to others, just to use a lighter weight fabric than I did. Conclusion: Bottom line--basic, classic, easy, pencil skirt, great staple for any wardrobe and easy to make.

Lazy Saturday...it is Saturday right?!

Well my "modified" shorts project is done. Here are the pics...
started with these...












and then BAM!! Ended with these. I still need to wash them so that the markings around the cuffs will go away. Can't wait to make some summer tanks and tops to wear with them.













Remember our foster kitten Levi? Well I am happy to report that he is finally well, thriving, and honestly is starting to be seen as another toddler running around. I hear strange noises in the night and hope that I don't wake up to find something utterly destroyed, thinks anything and everything is a toy--for him, he certainly rivals Taison in vying for my attention these days which is a little suffocating, he eats like a horse, stays up all night, and poops A LOT! We take him back to the Jacksonville Humane Society on Monday and hopefully he finds his forever home with a loving family soon.









I am yet to check the ammonia levels in the fish tank yet but we did have another floater today--RIP--so I will report on that tomorrow. As for the rest of the day, I am making bread, going to the grocery store, working out, and hanging out at home with the fam. What are you doing this weekend?!

In the works...

Fish tank is in a lull. The ammonia level has been stuck at 1.00 for 3 days now and we lose an average of 3 fish a day.
I finished my denim pencil skirt last night. I will be writing a review of the pattern complete with pics here and I will post my review here as well so stay tuned for that. I am currently working on recycling some of last summers Bermuda shorts that are too big into a shorter version that fits. I am taking pics as I go so I will post more on that when I finish. I have two other pairs of Bermuda shorts that I might make into casual skirts. I ordered this pattern for the View A purse and this pattern for the View B and C shirts today. This will be my first time making a purse, tops, and working with knit fabric. Wish me luck!
Rice and I went on a lunch date today at Okinawa Japanese Grill and Sushi Bar. It was our first time eating Japanese. We sat at a group table where the chef prepared our meal in front of us and we both tried sushi for the first time. I loved it! I had a blast and it was refreshing to go out just as a couple and not as "Mommy" and "Daddy".
I received my free giveaway Tracy Anderson Post-Pregnancy Workout DVD in the mail today from my favorite blog Fit Bottomed Girls. Even though it is a post-pregnancy workout I am excited to try it out and see what it is all about. I just watched Rice do his P90X workout--I am SOOO proud of him-- and now it is my turn to workout so...catch ya lata!

Quickie Post

Five more casualties in the fish tank...
Ammonia levels up to 0.50...
Still working on my skirt...
I finished the zipper tonight...
It's still not "professional" looking but I did a lot better with this one than the last one...
I am putting some weight back on thanks to my Mass XXX...
Been working out hard again and now that I am eating enough it is finally starting to show...
Here I come bikini season...
WooHoo!

Blah day...

Went to Joann's today and got the stuff for my final skirt. I'm so nervous I am going to mess it up I avoided it all day.
Rice and I cooked all evening. He starts the P90X program in the morning and we had to cook up a lot of the meals he will be eating all week. I am so proud of him...mush mush. He is going to be blogging about his experience here so check it out if you are interested in getting the "Average Joe's" perspective of the program!
We have had two goldfish casualties so far. One died in the bag before we got them in the tank yesterday and today there was a freak accident involving the intake valve on the filter. The poor little guy just couldn't get away from the suction I guess. So we are down to 18 goldfish now. I tested for ammonia today and it was at .25 so it is rising. YAY! Cycling has officially begun. I will be keeping a record of this sort of thing here so I know where we are at.
It was kind of a blah day...
This is the first image that came up when I googled "blah". I think it is a pretty good representation. Good night.

Valentine's Day

Got up and made a huge breakfast of banana pancakes, sausage and orange juice. Then we went out to gather all of the materials to get our 75 gallon tank set up again (we decided a couple weeks ago that this would be our gift to each other).We are using sand as our substrate this time around and it is so pretty already. I can't wait to get some new decorations. We have to cycle the tank from scratch this time so it will be about a month before we get our big fish. We put 20 goldfish in there to poop the place up so we can get the good bacteria started. I hope that none die but that is highly unlikely!

I finished my "practice" pencil skirt today. It took me FOREVER to get the right length for the hem and I had to do a slight alteration on the front darts--my first alteration ever!! It's definitely not perfect but I think it will totally be wearable. I'm going to get the denim fabric tomorrow for the "official" skirt. I will post a pic when I finish that.






After that I worked out, ate dinner, and took a bath. I am SOOOOO ready for bed! I had a great Valentine's Day. How was yours?

Written as myself

It started on the way home from the humane society. I was listening to Beyonce's new CD and I came upon a song called "Hello" and it hit me within 10 seconds of the start of the song. A small ball of nerves in my stomach, growing, growing. Moving upwards into my chest. Making me feel like my body is physically hurting. My throat tightens. The song ends but I need to hear it just one more time so I play it again. I have to feel this more, longer, my realest, truest self, the most beautiful and ugliest part of me. It has been awhile. The tears start to well up in my eyes, forming heavy tears that start to fall. I start to grip the steering wheel. I feel a sense of pride, anger, rage and strength wash over my body. I have harnessed the anger I keep inside and unlocked the strength mentally and physically that I feel would enable me to kill another human being. I yearn for a release. I fantasize of violence and destruction. I want to hurt everyone that has ever hurt me. This feels so good, thrilling and at the same time terrifying and terrible. I have so much love for this person inside. No one can EVER fucking touch me again. Where would I be in life without my anger. It drives me everyday to strive, succeed and do the things that scare me. So I put the song on repeat, curl up in a ball, clinch my fists, grind my teeth, tense my whole body, scream, moan, cry and experience these feelings. I am home now and Rice and Taison are on the way home right now so I know I don't have much longer. As soon as they pull in this will leave...until I am alone again. Goodbye.

Randomness

Hmmmm, I barely remember the last couple of days. I barely slept for three days in a row due to insomnia. It was terrible but I was able to take a four hour nap today and I feel better now. I hope I am able to sleep tonight.
My Mass XXX weight gainer seems to be working so far as I have been able to get in three hardcore workouts over the last three days--that I know burned a ton of calories-- and I don't seem to be losing any more weight.
I got a new pattern today for different skirts. It looks like it will be even easier than my first pattern so I am excited. I am going to be making a denim pencil skirt. I have never had a pencil skirt but have always wanted one and I have been told that every woman should have at least one soooooooo I'm going to make one! I decided to do a practice run first however on this 100% cotton plaid clearance fabric that I got for $2.00 to practice matching up prints/patterns (for future fabrics), and adjusting the fit if needed before I go drop money on the denim fabric.












I get to learn how to do darts and fusible interfacing on this pattern so I am pretty excited.
My brother Branch introduced me to a Firefox add-on called Stumble! a few weeks ago that enables you to effortlessly "stumble" around the web, landing on random pages linked to your interests. I love it!! I have seen some of the weirdest and coolest things since I became a stumbler. I stumbled onto this website almost immediately and have continued to go back since. It is a website for a band called The Cook Trio and showcases a play-list of what they call "Gypsy Jazz". I would never have guessed that I would get into this type of music but Taison and I love it and we have danced around our living room to this numerous times so far. Check it out!
Well I guess that is enough of my randomness for today. What random things have you been up to lately?

My weight gain goal continues...

On another note I am super excited about my new weight gainer. I got my body fat % taken the other day through the Navy and it was 15.4%. It is in the same category as guy having between 5 and 8%. If I get below 15% I am in the risky zone where health problems can start. Bottom line is even though I have been trying for months, I am not consistently getting enough calories everyday to support working out, breastfeeding, and having a SUPER high metabolism. So I broke down and got the weight gainer to supplement my diet. All I have to do now is eat about 2000 calories a day and the weight gainer shakes will give me the extra I need to get to 3000 (which is about what I seem to need right now) without feeling like my stomach is going to blow up or feeling like I am going to hurl if I look at any more food. I was beyond getting worried about my health as I was slowly starving and I was seriously starting to get some body image issues from being so skinny. I worked out hardcore today and I will now be able to get back in the swing of things so hopefully I can put on about 10lbs by this summer. Wish me luck!

It's done! It's done!!

I finally finished my dress and I actually think it might be wearable...YAY!! The only sucky thing about it is that I got a white zipper for it and it shows up REALLY bad so I might have to wear a little jacket over it if I go out and it is not the most figure flattering but it is SOOOOO comfy and the fabric is 100% cotton batiste so its going to be great for staying cool this summer. I learned so much stuff and I cannot wait to start on my next project which I think is going to either be a spring/summer top, a purse, or some lingerie. Okay now I am going to put on my lovely modeling shots. * HA! *

Had to start with the boring old full frontal lol

Somehow the fabric got stuck on my butt and it is making the zipper seem crooked but its not. It is SUPER noticeable though being WHITE. I'm such a tard.

And now I get a little saucier!! lol

Project #1 completed for $25. Stay tuned for more.

A day in the life of Aberiah

We got a free sample of this cereal in the mail this morning and I gobbled it up. I was so glad it came because I was thinking I couldn't handle another consecutive day of oatmeal with blueberries! It was pretty good and the only bad thing I can say about it was that every few bites I hit something yucky. It had nuts in it so I am guessing maybe there were some rancid nuts in there. The expiration date was March '09 so I have no idea how fresh it was. Definately check it out though even if it is just for something different.





Got ready some time this morning and went to Joann's with Taison. Got the fabric and notions for my dress. There were literally only nine different colors of the fabric I wanted and they were all plain so I just had to go with it. I do like the colors I got though...hopefully they look good as a dress! When we got home Taison and I went for a walk and hit up the playground for a few minutes. It was WAY too cold though so we came back inside. While Taison was taking his nap I worked on getting my fabric ready: preshrinking, truing, ironing. Stay tuned for the next step on that.













After Taison woke up I decided to get my workout on. I chose one out of an old Oxygen magazine I had, put on a great hip-hop playlist on YouTube, and got to sweating!












Taison did it with me for a little while but got bored so I had to turn on some Barney for him while I finished dying! It was intense and was super hard for my butt muscles. They need all the work they can get so I was pretty excited about that. This is us after the workout in the kitchen making our protein shake--YUM!


















Rice is home now and I am making some whole wheat bread. It has been a great day! How was your day? What is a day in your life like??

projects

I finally finished one of my projects the other day. I have been working on refinishing my thrift store kitchen table find. It was my first time refinishing anything and it was A LOT of work. My $20 table became a $70 table by the time it was all over with but it was totally worth it. I had a huge sense of accomplishment when I finished it. There was a huge scratch and what seems to be some kind of acid spill in the middle that I was not able to sand out all of the way but in my biased opinion it just adds character.
Rice and I decided to start fostering animals at the Jacksonville Humane Society so we went over and signed up. I got a call a few days ago and we got our first foster. Meet Levi!
He is a 3 month old boy kitten. I have never met a cat like this before and fostering--so far--is completely different then what I had in my mind. Levi is super sweet and will start purring if you even look at him but he is absolutely terrified. He won't come out of his crate during the day except for eating and using the litter box. He never plays and I have never seen a kitten who will not play. I have to lay on the floor and pet him in the crate most of the time. He is terrified of Taison (who wouldn't be) so Taison cannot enjoy him at all. On top of that this little guy has a cold so I have to give him medication every day. It makes me sad to think of the life that this little guy may have had so far and it makes what we are doing seem all the more important. All this guy needs is a quiet home with a lot of love.

My next project is making myself a spring/summer dress! This will be my first official garment for myself and I hope hope hope it is wearable. I picked an easy pattern that may not be the most flattering but looked super simple. I think with a cropped jean jacket and some sandals it could look okay...hopefully.So stay tuned for updates. What projects are you working on?