Owlishly

Go Dad!

Just a quick "Hooray, my Dad won!" shout out to all my real life friends and family who read my blog.

I'm really proud of my Dad, he took the high road and campaigned on issues instead of smearing the incumbent (who sent out some pretty slimy and completely untrue mailers by the way!), he definitely deserved the win and has years of education and experience that should really benefit the city.

Good job!

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Back to crafty stuff soon, including some giveaways- I've cleared out my books and tools!

My favorites folder 11.4.10

My favorites file is overflowing onto my computer's desktop right now, being online and clicking from one link to another is always fun in a serendipitous kind of way.  Not everything in the wish list is for me though, most of it ends up being for my kids, though I do have to add a thing or two for me regularly.

To buy:

• I think these plates would be a super fun for my little ones, I think they'd get a big kick out of eating off of their faces.

• My daughter loves rabbits, for the longest time she thought when she grows up she'd marry one.  Thankfully she's outgrown that line of thinking, but she'd love to have one- I think this might be the next best thing, though I'm wondering if 4 is still too young for a necklace of any kind.

• I don't know if I'd buy this desktop dodgeball for my kids or myself- I think either of us would spend quite some time playing with it.

• This would make my son's day and his birthday's coming up in December, but I don't know if this might be more his speed, or if he'd think that it was too babyish.  Heaven forbid a soon to be 7 year old get something a bit young, and since he broke his arm and had to go to regular appointments with his orthopedic surgeon and pass (and touch!) a full sized skeleton each time the former may indeed be the best choice.

• I on the other hand am really digging this necklace, it would eliminate my constant desire to see the longest shaving I can get whenever I sharpen pencils. 

To make:

• This doll quilt looks like it's a doable holiday project, eventually I'd like to make one for our king size bed, but I think I need to start my foray into quilting with something more manageable and work my way up. Although it might be a while, these might be too tempting!

• We've also recently adopted a dachshund named Chloe and I've been itching to make her some sweaters.  I'm still undecided, but here are some free patterns to try, even though I already bought the wurstwarmer pattern the day she came home with us.

To contemplate:

• I've been thinking about our home, and how I keep it a lot lately too- this seems to hit the nail on the head for me.

Now thankfully, I can close a bunch of open tabs and go listen to some Pride and Prejudice (via craftlit) while I was dishes, Jane Austen never ceases to lift my spirits!

Halloween 2010

I made my daughter's costume last year, and happily she wanted to wear it again this year, does it look familiar? Thankfully in this picture you can't really see where she decided to cut chunks out of her hair, she did it on Saturday night when I went to a movie with my sisters.  Then Sunday morning I was walking past her and noticed all of a sudden she had bangs, then I moved her hair and it was cut almost to the scalp above her left eyebrow.  Yeah add to that the ruined $26 Dior lipstick that I found in the bathroom when I got home too, isn't it so nice what happens when my husband is in charge!?

My son on the other hand couldn't decide what he wanted to be, he was being super wishy washy and since I was book fair mom for the week before Halloween I knew I didn't have time to make him a costume. Conveniently, he finally decided on Indiana Jones, we had almost everything in their closets to make his costume except the whip.  A friend offered to lend him on from an adventure party she threw her own son, and then I'd found a tutorial to make one that looked pretty good, but in the end I decided that a whip and my son were not a good match- he's a maniac!  He seemed to be pretty pleased with his costume, especially his stubble and was only slightly crestfallen when he was mistaken by one woman as a hobo :)

Exercising the Nineteenth Amendment

I did this morning, have you?

The funny thing is that I haven't switched from an absentee voter, but I always take my ballot in on the election day.  I like the sticker :) 

Something else that's kinda neat is that I voted in my second grade classroom.  My family and I live in the house I grew up in and our polling place is the elementary school I went to.  You can find your polling place here :)

Hello November...

You're my favorite month; I know it should be a different month since both of my kids were born in different months, and my anniversary is in the summer, but I love November.  My birthday being at the end of the month probably has something to do with it, but it's probably because for the first 25 years of my life I could be completely selfish about not thinking about anyone else's special days :)  But to counter with something unselfish, I really do love Thanksgiving.  Not necessarily in the pilgrims and natives sense, but in the being thankful that I have all that I have and I love so many people who love me right back!

Unfortunately it's been a while since I was able to put any thoughts down in this journal of sorts- it's been nonstop busy for us here.  We dealt with preschool and first grade starting, and with the time my children were in school I thought I'd have more time to do fun stuff, that completely didn't happen.  Or at least in the sense that I anticipated. 

My little boy broke his arm (hello extremely undesireable first and hopefully only broken limb experience) and I was so thankful that his daddy had firsthand knowledge about what to do since I was completely dumbfounded.  We have both of our little ones in soccer this year, and our Midnight Striker and Little Mermaid are having a blast with that. 

We had a visit from some out of state family- Iowa and Texas representing!  Then my dad is running for mayor in a neighboring city, my husband was hard at work with his volunteering on both my dad's campaign and a measure that will hopefully pass in our own city.  In addition to all the fun stuff that comes along with him finishing up his masters degree and the weeks of studying for his comprehensive exam (we found out he passed today!).  Not to mention that he's in the military and on the 8th will be leaving for a while. 

I've also done my part to add to the ridiculous calendar that my family keeps.  I had issues with the way some of the things were done in our PTO last year, so guess who decided that being PTO secretary, in addition to heading the library committee, was a good idea. *Raising hand* yeah me, that's who :)  And since our school is a charter school (an excellent one I might add;), and since the economy is the way it is, I've been very committed to finding and participating in a lot of fund raising discussions and events.  I just finished a week of being the book fair chairperson and having to be at the school even more than I already am, but it's all for a super good cause- the library needs books, and how can the librarian in me refuse?

Anyhoo, I just wanted to check in and say hi! I'm really not neglecting you on purpose, I really want to spend time crafting and finishing that dang hula girl pattern- it shouldn't take me as long as it has!  But I do want to say that I'll try to be back a lot more often than I have in the past couple of months, I do miss this space and the creativity shared.

Geez.

I just completely missed July didn't I? Sorry about that.  Well my dining/craft room still resembles this mess-

Which is just a tiny bit of the mess in there and I'm just nowhere near motivated enough to organize it.  I've worked on other rooms and picked up a sweater that I'd started last winter for my daughter to finish that while she still wears a 4/5.  Good thing I went up a size on that one :)

Unfortunately I hit a wall with the plumeria design- I think the thing is with this stuff is that I find myself at an impasse because I struggle with writing a useable pattern, but also wanting to make something that I find inspiring.  That doesn't always mesh, and I love writing patterns that people can make, and want to make. You know?

I'm also feeling guilty everytime I think about email or this blog, because I just really don't have the time that I used to to answer questions.  Maybe I should just have a FAQ's section where I answer the most common questions I get, and then refer inquiries there? I don't know.  I just feel like I get only so much time to spend doing crafty things, and I feel frustrated because my time is going towards responding towards questions or explaining how to sc2tog instead of being able to make the zillions of dolls that are on my design list and then write out the patterns.

Would it be better to refer people to the Owlishly Ravelry group? That way they can get help on the simpler type of questions like how to do a certain stitch.  I don't feel like I'm that great of a crocheter- probably intermediate level, and while I really, truly appreciate everyone who buys a pattern, I can't keep explaining what things like hdc means.  I sincerely want people to learn how to crochet, but I can't be their teacher, and there are so many online resources that will tell or show them how to do the stitches that I use in my patterns.  I don't think that I use stitches that are uncommon, do I?

Blech, I hate sounding so whiny, but I also wanted to get things off my chest.  So let's be constructive- if I did create a FAQ page, what type of question/answer do you want to see on there?  I can think of a couple, but it'd probably be better if you could help me out with this one since they're questions you have for me :)

On a lighter note, we've tried to maintain a very laid back summer vacation.  Some infrequent swimming, and very frequent library trips are keeping us busy during the week, in addition to a 4 day a week preschool for my little girl. I usually have a black thumb when it comes to plants but I decided to try again to clean up the air quality inside our house so I went with some rubber plants and aloe vera for the bedrooms.  And I've renewed my interest in making healthier food, or I should probably say just making food in general- cooking is so not my forte!  I do love reading recipes and books about food though so I have lots that I could recommend.

Anyway, I didn't mean to be a Debbie Downer (no offense to Debbies!) in what was supposed to be a quick "Hi! I'm trying to be back" type of post, so I hope you're all well, and I'd love to hear questions you'd like me to answer in a FAQs section :)

Facebook and other musings

So school is out as of 12:30 yesterday.  Whew! I'm finding out more and more that I'm an all or nothing type of personality, and even though I tried my darnedest, I really did sign up to volunteer/help/do too many things that all culminated into the past 6 weeks of utter and total busy bee behavior.  I have 10 weeks until school starts again for my now preschooler (!) and first grader (!!!) to plan what I want to do next year and how to save time for myself to do things I enjoy doing also.

Meanwhile, I hadn't crocheted for almost 2 months, and while I was selling fundraising t-shirts at the kindergarten registration and assessments last week I was able to make 2 heads! Yay me :) Seriously, you wouldn't think this any major accomplishment, but I'm thrilled.  So, I'm just having my panda pattern tech edited and I should be releasing it next week.  I know, I'm so sorry it's taken this long.  Especially since I talked about it such a long time ago!

In other news, I finally figured out how to do a page for Owlishly on facebook. 

 

After much vacillating, I've decided to keep my MiaZamoraJohnson account for just family, and old and new friends, that way I can share personal information more comfortably with those that know me in real life and I don't have to worry about people taking things in ways that I don't mean them.  But now that I've finally made a decision I set up the page and added pictures.  Feel free to stop by and check it out, I'm embarrassed that I keep saying that I'll update things with more frequency, but I do really intend on trying to, and hopefully it'll be something that I can get done now that I have just summer time activities to participate in.

So I hope to be back soon with some new pattern news to share :)

Happenings

Hey there, it's been a while hasn't it?  I keep having to take unintentional breaks for crafting, blogging and creativity in general and it's frustrating but I really want to keep trying, I figure if I can just keep coming back it'll stick one of these times :) Also, I have no pictures- I forgot to charge the battery in my camera and have been paying the price for that lately.

So in lieu of being able to do any crocheting/crafting I've been very busy with my son's school, I never thought I'd be *that* mom, but it is such a small school with great need and I can help, so I do, but mainly with the library.

I did get a chance to drive out to UCLA for the LA Times Festival of Books on Saturday.  As usual, it was fantastic! This year I had an ulterior motive- I was looking for book vendors that publish bilingual books, either Spanish or Mandarin and was pleased that I made some contacts.  I was excited to go since I usually see people that I went to library school with, or librarians that I worked with but somehow I didn't see anyone I knew.  I took my little girl and my sister (who ended up stealing the Babies t-shirt I won at the movie booth), and both had a good time, the only book talk we listened to was by Alicia Silverstone, who wrote a cookbook- The Kind Diet. It looks like a pretty good book, but my daughter wasn't in the mood to stay in one place very long and was still fairly upset over not being able to get a (WAY overpriced- $18!) Ponyo pencil topper at the Kinokuniya booth.

I can't wait to see the Babies movie when it comes out- it looks like it's going to be tons of fun and my kids can hardly wait.  Maybe I can finally finish my baby doll in time for the movie :)  Speaking of movies, I took my grandma on a movie date last week to see The Perfect Game, it was such a sweet movie and as a little league mom during the time the movie was set, she loved it.

I was also thinking about creating embroidery patterns or scrapbooking patterns of my dolls too, especially since not everyone can crochet and I think it'd be a cute medium to transfer them to.  During the course of researching this idea I've come across some major copying of my images so I'm working on that too.  I also recently bought a larger button maker- a 2.25" size that I can make mirrors with, I was going to do a fundraiser for my son's school with pictures of the students, but I thought that I'd try making a couple of mirrors with my dolls too. 

Anyway, I've got to go- I feel like a chicken running around with it's head cut off.  The golf tournament (that my husband and I are organizing) at my son's school is 5/14, he has his first soccer game 5/15, our kiddos are participating in the Mayor's Mile on 5/16 (celebrating the bicentennial of our city), I think our daughter's birthday party'll have to be that afternoon too, her actual birthday is 5/18, and we leave for Iowa on 5/20.  Geez, I'm feeling hive-y thinking about it all :) but I do hope to be back soon!

Cranky

I thought I'd have more time once one of my little ones was in school.  I don't know what I was thinking.

I haven't picked up a crochet hook in weeks- it's leading to crankiness on my part :)  I'm making the Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark, I thought for me, but my mom's birthday is next week and she mentioned that she liked it, so it'll probably be her's if I can get it finished & blocked by tomorrow night's party. 

I saw it first in the Wrap Style book, but didn't want an entire book for just that pattern, and I've already paid overdue fees on it twice from the library- I finally just bought the pattern from her website so I'll have it forever and can take my time making a second one for myself.  

Just a couple more things that aren't really related to crafting, but are big in my life right now.

Some friends of ours recently adopted a sweet little baby from Ethiopia and we've loved learning all about her old family and welcoming her.

Next, I'm the head of the library committee for my son's school, and besides helping out there once a week we now need to raise some money for the books.  The librarian was anticipating a lot more money than she has now for book buying, but we recently found out it wasn't going to happen after all.  The standard is a 15-1 book to student ratio, our aim is 6-1 by the beginning of the next school year, but right now we're at 2-1.  Sad. 

So if you have any suggestions on what you've done at your schools (whether as parents, students, administrators or fellow librarians)- let me know!   The only thing is that books can't be donated- they have to be purchased to have library binding so all we can do is find the money to pay for those specific types of books.  Oh, and we're trying to grow the Spanish and English sections at the same rate, but since they'll be adding Mandarin in 3 years, we'll need some of those too :)

Lastly, and most definitely one of the most tragic things to happen in our little circle is that a second grade teacher at our school, along with her husband and 4 year old son and 7 month old daughter were killed on Saturday in an accident on the freeway.  They were sandwiched between semi's and erupted in flames.  It's been a horrible and sobering blow to our school and community and I feel so horrible for their families and friends.  It's just been in my thoughts nonstop and I felt I needed to mention it- so please be careful when you drive- it's easy to forget how dangerous it can be.

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I plan on being back next time in a better mood :)

This and that

I've tried to sit down and crochet a couple of times lately, but I've been getting to distracted with other things.  So I'm going to do a brain dump to purge it all out and see if that'll get me back on track with the Hula girl pattern I'm working on. 

Well. First off, I've always had fairly sensitive skin and with the hives thing the summer before last I've been super careful about what I put on my skin.  But lately I've been in the mood to find a good makeup foundation.  This seriously has been an off and on quest since I started wearing makeup as a teenager.  I don't really have complexion problems so it's never felt like a must, but I'll like to have it in my repertoire just in case :)

Before having kids I used to wear makeup a lot, never gobs of it, but it was fun to play with and I'd gotten pretty adept, but never found a good foundation.  I suck at color matching and now recently with having to be more careful about what I put on my face I was thinking about trying Bare Minerals, and did a couple of times have people at a BM store, or Sephora try it on me and the four times I did it, I had four different color recommendations.  Not really fueling my confidence in the makeup artists either :) 

Anyway, I'd have them apply it in the morning and I'd wear it through the day to see how it felt, and every single time my face itched at the slightest appearance of sweat.  I live in southern California, there's no way I could not sweat, and at first I was thinking maybe it was the brushes, but upon further research I think it's maybe a combination of the rough brushes, and the bismuth oxychloride perhaps?  So I've been looking at different mineral makeup that's bismuth oxychloride free. 

So far, I've tried Jane Iredale and it's been lovely, no problems and it's felt good all day long, but the makeup artist that tried it on me last week was having a hard time matching my face too.  I'm hispanic with light tan skin, but I think I'm a cool and have naturally rosy cheeks so while there were a lot of colors in my range, neither of us were exactly sure which to go with the two closest matches were latte and natural for those of you familiar with the range.

I was thinking about Mineral Hygienics, but have heard/read a lot of either love it or hate it about them, and then kept finding my way to the Everyday Minerals site too.  So anyway, in a roundabout way, have any of you tried and had success with any of the above-mentioned?

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Next up has been a bunch of crafting for new babies.

A friend had a preemie last week, so I've been sewing a couple blankets & knitting & crocheting a bunch of hats for him since they were completely unprepared and there were no complications up until that day.  Luckily, he was born at almost 33 weeks and was around 4.5 lbs so he'll only be in the hospital a couple of weeks.  It just seems really strange because the majority of babies that've been born lately amongst my family and friends seem to be preemies.

One of my cousins also had a baby on the 8th so I've been trying to make some stuff for her little cutie too.  I've been putting off going to see the baby because I wanted to give my cousin a chance to rest up a bit, and to get stuff made beforehand.

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Also, I've been intrigued lately with woodburning.  Too many whims I tell you! I did buy a woodburning tool at Joann's a couple of weeks ago to try out, and I've been burning a ton of little dolls for my little ones, but haven't thought until now to take any pictures.  I get a little obsessive when trying something new to find out absolutely as much as possible about whatever it is I'm obsessing about, and with the wood thing, it's been trying to find a natural finish.  I think I'm going to try a mixture of walnut oil and beeswax since no one I'd be giving the toys to has nut allergies.  I was thinking of just buying a salad bowl type of finish, but where's the fun in that- I like to making things harder for myself ;)

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Anyhoo, what's been sending you off on wild internet searches lately?