This blog post is really just to keep me honest! I have WAY too many unfinished projects.
Baby Girl Cardigan:
A few weeks back I decided I was going to try a new project. I grabbed some baby yarn that Paul had picked out and got to work following this pattern - Swing Set Cardigan. You need to have a Lion Brand account to view it. Sign up, it's free!
I finally got all the pieces done and put it together. Aside from one sleeve being a bit wider than the other, I think it turned out pretty good for the 1st time. I still have to sew on a cute button & weave in the tails. (I hate that part the most). I'll be sure to update you with photos!
Face Cloths turned Facial Pads:
I had some cute Red Heart Eco-Cotton Yarn in Candy Marl. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I began making a face cloth by following a pattern for a granny square with a rounded center. I thought it would be an easy project to do on the road since it's small, compact & easy. As soon as I got home, I changed my mind. I have a bunch of terry face cloths now and I hardly use those. What is the sense in making more. What I could use more of is cotton balls or cotton pads to apply Lavendar Witch Hazel Toner to my face. I recently had to purchase another package of cotton. And being tha I want to limit single use items in our home, why not make some facial pads with my cotton yarn. I think they'd make great scrubbies too for make up removal & exfoliating. I plan on following the following patterns 1 & 2 ... or just making a simple 2-3 inch round. Now I'll just need to find my mesh bag for delicates. I'm sure it's somewhere.
I also plan on sewing some square flannel cloths of about the same size. I think the flannel may end up better for toner application and the scrubbies better for face washing. I won't know until I test them out.
I believe that will limit my cotton use to nail polish remover only. Not too shabby.
Sewing Update:
I haven't picked up my machine in forever, but I seriously need to get onto tailoring a few things or I'll have these stacks of clothes sitting in the sewing basket FOREVER.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Cloth Pads - TMI
Hi folks - As I've written many a time - I use a Diva Cup. You can read about my adventures using a Diva Cup here & here.
I still use panty liners & sometimes a pad during heavy nights with my Diva Cup. I fear leaking if I am bleeding heavily. I realized that there are so many cloth pads out there - it seems silly to go 1/2 way in regards to my cycle & female health.
I logged onto Etsy.com this morning and found Muffies! I'm so excited! They have good reviews & they are cute & pretty and they look like they will work perfectly. They also are said to be of great quality which means I can use them for years - thus saving money!
I hope to receive them in a week or 2 and I'm almost excited for my period to come ... just so I can tell you about them.
I ordered a sample of 3 - 1 overnight pad, 1 regular pad & 1 liner. They totaled ~$25 which shipping. My hope is that I'll find the size that feels right for me and can order more of that particular size.
I'll be sure to update you in about a month!
& Check out Pleat if you are interested in purchasing some of your own! http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pleat?ref=seller_info
I still use panty liners & sometimes a pad during heavy nights with my Diva Cup. I fear leaking if I am bleeding heavily. I realized that there are so many cloth pads out there - it seems silly to go 1/2 way in regards to my cycle & female health.
I logged onto Etsy.com this morning and found Muffies! I'm so excited! They have good reviews & they are cute & pretty and they look like they will work perfectly. They also are said to be of great quality which means I can use them for years - thus saving money!
I hope to receive them in a week or 2 and I'm almost excited for my period to come ... just so I can tell you about them.
I ordered a sample of 3 - 1 overnight pad, 1 regular pad & 1 liner. They totaled ~$25 which shipping. My hope is that I'll find the size that feels right for me and can order more of that particular size.
I'll be sure to update you in about a month!
& Check out Pleat if you are interested in purchasing some of your own! http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pleat?ref=seller_info
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Finally Out of a Hairy Situation
My hair has been down to my waist for quite some time. I can't say that I loved it that long, but I did feel an attachment to it. I've also felt proud... not everyone can grow their hair nor does everyone have the patience. But it was long, boring and drab. It layed heavy and flat and often caused me headaches because of the weight. My husband was a huge fan as was his family and that probably helped me stick it out for this long... but no more.
I decided to make an appointment and hack it all off ... for a good cause of course. I'll be donating my hair to make wigs for women who have suffered hair loss due to cancer & it's treatements.
I decided to make an appointment and hack it all off ... for a good cause of course. I'll be donating my hair to make wigs for women who have suffered hair loss due to cancer & it's treatements.
As you can see in this photo - I wore my hair down to work. It was sort of like me saying goodbye.
In the chair getting my hair seperated and tied so that they could be cut off.
I decided to cut off a foot... I think he cut off a little more! No matter....
I still have a decent amount of hair and I love my lighter shorter do.
I'll be sending my hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. They accept hair at 8 inches or more. I'll be sending them closer to 12. Though Locks of Love is a popular place to send your hair (and I have sent hair there in the past), I have recently heard that much hair goes to waste there in the wig making process & I've also heard that they turn around and often times sell the wigs on a sliding scale based on financial need. Though this may be a rumor, this didn't bode well with me. Research I've done has shown it to be a mixed bag ... going in both directions. Also their mission is to provide hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Pantene's Beautiful Lengths is a partnership with the American Cancer Society (ACS), a large not for profit agency. They accept monetary & hair donations, make wigs that are then turned over to ACS' wig banks, which distribute wigs accross the country.
I feel a bit more confident donating my hair to Pantene. And that is where my hair will go.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Remembering 11 Years Ago
I'm sure most of the readers of this blog will remember where they were 11 years ago. It was a day many of us will never be able to forget. For some, it may be a day they try and forget... only for the ability to move on while for others it is their mission to always remember.
11 Years ago I sat in my BCS Class at my computer. I walked into the coffee shop and saw the news. A plane? The WTC? How is that possible? I immediately thought it must be one of those helicopter tours gone awry. I turned on my computer and ignored my teachers constant lecturing of this and that and read what actually was happening... at that very moment. As a class we watched in horror as the events played on the news in the cafe & on our screens. One classmates father was flying to NY from Boston that day. She couldn't help the tears that ran down her cheeks, yet our teacher did not dismiss us. She said that we'd go on... and she did. But the students of that class were mentally checked out - we were reading feverishly for news of what was happening... until we got up and left. (Yes this teacher was beyong crazy!)
Our next class... and those after did not occur. Teachers couldn't get to school from their Manhattan homes, people needed to contact family members, and people needed to mourn. I walked into my dorm room and called home. My Uncle was missing. He worked for the FDNY... driving a wrecker. After the 1st tower fell, many many vehicles were disabled ... many fire trucks among them. He had to remove them to allow other responders to get to the victims. That day I worried and I cried not knowing if he was near the building as it fell.
Through the ashes of that day, something interesting happened. I made my 1st friends in college. It only took me an entire year. I received hugs, cell phones to borrow, support, and ... on that day none of our doors closed. They were left open. If only to show that we would be there for each other no matter how difficult that may be.
We ran to the top floor and looked out the window to peer at the dust and smoke that replaced the space on the skyline that the towers once stood.
Later that night my grandma called... My Uncle called his girlfriend who called my grandma. He was alive. He was safe. He was tired & sweaty... but he would work on until there was no more for him to do.
Friends lost friends & family that day. We prayed for them.
My family... we were still physically whole... but we still prayed for us.
I still pray for those affected by 9/11. Not just the ones lost, but not forgotten. Not just NY & her inhabitants.... but also those in Boston whose Mothers, Fathers & Children were on that plane. Also for those in this country that felt our pain even though they could do little to help it. Even for those whose compassion brought them to their knees and prayed ... prayed for strangers they will never know and never meet. I pray for all those people. I pray that we always remember the solidarity that came from that horrific day. I pray that those who lost their lives did not lose them for nothing. That through their loss we can build a foundation of love and support that we have for fellow man... not just fellow American.
So yes - on 9/11... I pray.
11 Years ago I sat in my BCS Class at my computer. I walked into the coffee shop and saw the news. A plane? The WTC? How is that possible? I immediately thought it must be one of those helicopter tours gone awry. I turned on my computer and ignored my teachers constant lecturing of this and that and read what actually was happening... at that very moment. As a class we watched in horror as the events played on the news in the cafe & on our screens. One classmates father was flying to NY from Boston that day. She couldn't help the tears that ran down her cheeks, yet our teacher did not dismiss us. She said that we'd go on... and she did. But the students of that class were mentally checked out - we were reading feverishly for news of what was happening... until we got up and left. (Yes this teacher was beyong crazy!)
Our next class... and those after did not occur. Teachers couldn't get to school from their Manhattan homes, people needed to contact family members, and people needed to mourn. I walked into my dorm room and called home. My Uncle was missing. He worked for the FDNY... driving a wrecker. After the 1st tower fell, many many vehicles were disabled ... many fire trucks among them. He had to remove them to allow other responders to get to the victims. That day I worried and I cried not knowing if he was near the building as it fell.
Through the ashes of that day, something interesting happened. I made my 1st friends in college. It only took me an entire year. I received hugs, cell phones to borrow, support, and ... on that day none of our doors closed. They were left open. If only to show that we would be there for each other no matter how difficult that may be.
We ran to the top floor and looked out the window to peer at the dust and smoke that replaced the space on the skyline that the towers once stood.
Later that night my grandma called... My Uncle called his girlfriend who called my grandma. He was alive. He was safe. He was tired & sweaty... but he would work on until there was no more for him to do.
Friends lost friends & family that day. We prayed for them.
My family... we were still physically whole... but we still prayed for us.
I still pray for those affected by 9/11. Not just the ones lost, but not forgotten. Not just NY & her inhabitants.... but also those in Boston whose Mothers, Fathers & Children were on that plane. Also for those in this country that felt our pain even though they could do little to help it. Even for those whose compassion brought them to their knees and prayed ... prayed for strangers they will never know and never meet. I pray for all those people. I pray that we always remember the solidarity that came from that horrific day. I pray that those who lost their lives did not lose them for nothing. That through their loss we can build a foundation of love and support that we have for fellow man... not just fellow American.
So yes - on 9/11... I pray.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Family Camping Trip
So every year we head out into the woods and go camping as a family. This year proved to be a bit more difficult. Since moving to Boston, it's been hard to coordinate schedules... add in my sister taking summer classes and our trip to Argentina and it left us with only 1 available weekend to make this happen.
Many couldn't come and it ended up being my baby brother and sister, Paul & myself, and 2 of my cousins. We still had fun and made the best of it.... but we had many hiccups along the way.
Getting out of Boston by 3 still didn't help us avoid that Friday traffic. We didn't get to my Mom's until 6:30. My cousins arrived closer to 7, leaving late themselves. We now weren't expecting to arrive till 9:15. Driving to the site, my cousin missed the exit, putting us back another 30 mintues. We arrived at 9:45.
Pitching the tent in the dark wasn't easy. It never is... but when you don't know if you are setting up on poision ivy or a big rock, it makes it all the more difficult. Even with a tarp for extra protection, my cousin's tent got a hole in it from an annoying little branch sticking up out of the ground. How frustrating. We stayed up till 1AM chatting by the fire eating pretzles and snacks.
Little K & I woke up pretty early and took a mini exploration hike down to the brook. We sat and chatted and climbed rocks. My brother was super pumped to be on a site all alone in the woods with no other campers for at least a mile. I have to admit, I get pretty excited when Little K & A get just as excited as I am about this kind of thing. We ate breakfast burritos after everyone else woke up and quickly got stared making sandwiches to bring on our rafting trip.
Shortly after the conversation turned into this:
Paolo: Hey, Lilia, what kind of animals do you have out here?
Lilia: Black bears, white tail deer, raccoons, possums, skunks.... a lot!
Paolo: Bears ... nooo? I want to see a bear!
2 minutes later....
Jomel: Is that a bear?
Many couldn't come and it ended up being my baby brother and sister, Paul & myself, and 2 of my cousins. We still had fun and made the best of it.... but we had many hiccups along the way.
Getting out of Boston by 3 still didn't help us avoid that Friday traffic. We didn't get to my Mom's until 6:30. My cousins arrived closer to 7, leaving late themselves. We now weren't expecting to arrive till 9:15. Driving to the site, my cousin missed the exit, putting us back another 30 mintues. We arrived at 9:45.
Pitching the tent in the dark wasn't easy. It never is... but when you don't know if you are setting up on poision ivy or a big rock, it makes it all the more difficult. Even with a tarp for extra protection, my cousin's tent got a hole in it from an annoying little branch sticking up out of the ground. How frustrating. We stayed up till 1AM chatting by the fire eating pretzles and snacks.
Little K & I woke up pretty early and took a mini exploration hike down to the brook. We sat and chatted and climbed rocks. My brother was super pumped to be on a site all alone in the woods with no other campers for at least a mile. I have to admit, I get pretty excited when Little K & A get just as excited as I am about this kind of thing. We ate breakfast burritos after everyone else woke up and quickly got stared making sandwiches to bring on our rafting trip.
Shortly after the conversation turned into this:
Paolo: Hey, Lilia, what kind of animals do you have out here?
Lilia: Black bears, white tail deer, raccoons, possums, skunks.... a lot!
Paolo: Bears ... nooo? I want to see a bear!
2 minutes later....
Jomel: Is that a bear?
Yeah - it was a bear. A big black bear. Paul said to go to the car... I screamed to get to the car. We ran to the cars. Paul had to run back into the tent to get the keys... I was super scared that the bear may charge while he was helpless and back turned inside the tent. Thankfully the bear just seemed curious and just as shocked to see us as we were to see him. Paolo got a quick picture in as the bear was walking away. What scared me the most was the yelling, honking, car alarm, and all other noise didn't seem to scare or startle this big guy one bit. At the same time... I left those sandwich fixings on the table... hey, my life comes before my lunch... and he didnt go for it at all.
In the end we were fine, the bear went on his way, and we enjoyed a gruling 5 hour rafting trip and low river depths. Oh did we get stuck a lot. But we swam a lot too. We spotted an eagle, a craine, many eel and fish. We threw each other off the raft, we goofed off and we exhausted ourselves. I'd share pictures with you... but I managed to drop my camera in the water in the 1st 5 minutes of the trip. It's sucky, but it is what it is. And if it's between being bear meat or losing my camera- I'd pick the camera every time.
K & I went to bed at 8:30 that night after a chicken and veggie dinner while the others stayed up on bear patrol playing Uno ... until 10:30. We all got a good nights sleep... sorta. I for 1 was waking at every little crack outside. Not that I could do too much to protect my family from bear attack, but I damn well was gonna try!
Sunday morning we had some cereal and K & A took their 1st "river bath". K thought this was great! Boy is he our little outdoor lover! We had lunch... one last game of super competative Uno and hit the road.
Unfrotunately before we could get all the way home, Jomel's car decided to start making some weird noises. He ended up staying at my Mom's for the night. Better safe than sorry. We continued on to Boston. Unpacking the car and the coolers - but boy do we have a cleanup ahead of us.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Kids...
Are hilarious! They are so innocent and funny.... and I wanted to make sure I jotted these down before I forgot them!
"Tobacco Free Zone"
My brother (8 years old) excitedly told me all about his summer baseball camp. How he worked on his fielding and is much better now. Batting is still his favorite. But then he exclaimed "Can you believe it? They had a sign at the field that said 'Tobacco Free Zone'. Hello, there are kids everywhere. It's at a field for kids!" He was seriously appalled they would go handing out tobacco... for free no less! I started laughing. I explained to him that the sign meant this zone is to be FREE OF TOBACCO. He laughed at himself. He felt a bit silly but ... I thought it wasn't a bad assessment. I mean, who thought of the language behind that sign. As an 8 year old, I'm sure I thought that they were handing out free dip. It was a baseball field after all.
"Elbow Grease"
Driving from NYC to Boston takes about 3 hours. Driving from NYC to Boston with my brother and sister in the back seat feels like 5 hours. But then you talk and you hear things that are gems! I was telling Paul that I don't like the Armorall the car wash place used on the seats. It was shiny and oily and felt a bit slimy. My little brother asked, "Why do you get car washes? Why don't you just do it yourself? Or why not let the rain just clean your car!? " My response was simple, "The car was really dirty. It was even dirty on the inside. They really needed a lot of elbow grease to clean this thing!" He immediately shrieked and said, "EWWWWW, that's what this stuff is? Elbow Grease?".
Yes folks, my brother thought that they took the sweaty grease right from their elbows and polished up our seats. Haha I love a child's innocence.
"That's Not My Name"
Today while chatting over IM with my little sister we were discussing our upcoming camping trip. Read below:
Sister: kk thank you(:
me: no prob bob
Sister: my name isent bob....
me: isent is also not a word so I guess we are even steven
Sister: -__-
I may refer to my sister as Bob or Steven until the end of our camping trip =)
"Tobacco Free Zone"
My brother (8 years old) excitedly told me all about his summer baseball camp. How he worked on his fielding and is much better now. Batting is still his favorite. But then he exclaimed "Can you believe it? They had a sign at the field that said 'Tobacco Free Zone'. Hello, there are kids everywhere. It's at a field for kids!" He was seriously appalled they would go handing out tobacco... for free no less! I started laughing. I explained to him that the sign meant this zone is to be FREE OF TOBACCO. He laughed at himself. He felt a bit silly but ... I thought it wasn't a bad assessment. I mean, who thought of the language behind that sign. As an 8 year old, I'm sure I thought that they were handing out free dip. It was a baseball field after all.
"Elbow Grease"
Driving from NYC to Boston takes about 3 hours. Driving from NYC to Boston with my brother and sister in the back seat feels like 5 hours. But then you talk and you hear things that are gems! I was telling Paul that I don't like the Armorall the car wash place used on the seats. It was shiny and oily and felt a bit slimy. My little brother asked, "Why do you get car washes? Why don't you just do it yourself? Or why not let the rain just clean your car!? " My response was simple, "The car was really dirty. It was even dirty on the inside. They really needed a lot of elbow grease to clean this thing!" He immediately shrieked and said, "EWWWWW, that's what this stuff is? Elbow Grease?".
Yes folks, my brother thought that they took the sweaty grease right from their elbows and polished up our seats. Haha I love a child's innocence.
"That's Not My Name"
Today while chatting over IM with my little sister we were discussing our upcoming camping trip. Read below:
Sister: kk thank you(:
me: no prob bob
Sister: my name isent bob....
me: isent is also not a word so I guess we are even steven
Sister: -__-
I may refer to my sister as Bob or Steven until the end of our camping trip =)
Monday, August 20, 2012
Your Eyes My Nose
I started a new blog to kind of take me through this next chapter of life....
Starting a Family and laying down real roots in MA.
Check it out at http://youreyesmynose.blogspot.com/
It's a work in progress but I'll get there with it
Starting a Family and laying down real roots in MA.
Check it out at http://youreyesmynose.blogspot.com/
It's a work in progress but I'll get there with it
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