More crafts, part 2

Here are some more crafty things I've made over the last year. These have a more geeky flavor to them. I'm pretty proud of how they all turned out. <3

It's a wallet!

This wallet was a gift for one of my good friends. Took me a while to finish, because I was intimidated by sewing and structure of the project. (I usually come up with a loose plan and then make it up as I go.) But I'm really proud with how it turned out!!

Before.

After!!!

This is one for myself. I got tired of staring generic clock, ripped it apart, and made a Chrono Trigger clock.  Much more awesome and subtly geeky.

Key hanger

Lost sock holder

Welcome sign

Light covers

These were made with some help from the hubby, for a dear couple as a Harry Potter inspired house warming present.  Just some wood pieces from the store, stained, and painted. :-)

All very fun projects!

Crafts over the last year, pt. 1

I'm going to slowly add the crafts the hubby and I have done over the last year. All the photos are on my phone and the never got posted, because it's such a pain to email them to myself. This new app should make that easier to document though!




Here's a necklace that the hubby made for his sister's birthday. It's steam punk in style with a resin coating. Not bad for a first try!






Here's a peyote stitched bracelet for one of my best buds. She loved it! And it was fun to try peyote stitching. Side note: one of my work friends saw this, loved it, and requested one for her wedding! So I actually got to make two. :-)


That's it for now. I'll continue to update the craft record as I can!!

People are terrible.

So I know it's been close to a year since I've posted anything. And I know probably nobody reads this any more. But that's perfect. There's something I need to put out into the universe, however, I don't want it to be as public as say a Facebook post. And I don't particularly want to just email my friends, because they are in no way past of the problem, and I don't wish to just complain to them.

As a select few people know, we're interested in adoption. As even fewer people know, we're taking steps to educate ourselves and become registered as adoptive parents. I haven't told many people mostly for one reason.

The stare. The look people give you when you mention adopting. Where you can see then mentally cycling through options: why would they do this? Does she have fertility issues? This seems so outlandish. Why doesn't she want to be a mother? Millions of other uncharitable thoughts.

Finally they settle on a "that seems nice" or a "you have to do what you think is right." All without enthusiasm. All with the undertone of disgust and confusion.

Why can't you be happy for me? Why can't you appreciate the millions of children that would give anything just to have loving parents? A home?  If we're able and willing to provide that home, is that not enough of a reason?

I don't know. Honestly, at this rate, I think we just won't tell anyone until one day we show up with a five year old in tow.

Musings on Children? I hate coming up with titles.

Without going into details, I have a story:

On Friday, we had a dog come in that was having puppies.  However, one was stuck.  So after an exam and oxytocin, they managed to get the puppy out - it was "not right" and didn't survive, to put it lightly.  Mom came back in on Monday, totally sick, having lost two more puppies.  We stabilized here and took her into surgery for an emergency/critical spay for a pyometra.  (Warning! If you are of a queasier disposition, DO NOT google "pyometra."  If you still wish to, I warn you your uterus - even if you don't have one - will cringe in pain and disgust.) She made it through surgery (we got that nasty uterus out just in time), but we're waiting to see how she recovers afterwards.

This story, along with all the sickening sweet stories and photos acquaintances post on social media of their pregnancies and babies, really makes me consider: do I want to have children?  I already knew I wanted to adopt most/all kids we have, but the hubby has always wanted to have at least one too.  Now I know people have better prenatal care/hospital care in the process of having babies, than dogs, but seeing what this dog went through, just makes me question.  Why would I want want put myself through that?  Do I want to potentially put myself in a situation that could lead to something similar?  It can't all be wonderful and sunshine like *all* moms insists it is.  I get paranoid of things that appear too happy, because nothing in life is like that - there's two sides to everything.  Are they trying to justify the terrible parts by overcompensating?  And also in insisting that having a baby is so awesome, I sometimes feel like they're implying I could never love and feel as connected to an adopted child as one I had (even though these are people, that in all honesty, probably don't know I'm reading/looking at their updates).  While the hubby has said he'd like to have a child, he also acknowledges and respects that it's my body, and ultimately, my decision.  (He's awesome like that.)

The whole thing doesn't really change my mind about raising children.  It just makes me question if I even want to go the route of having children.  I've always said that I wanted to have at least one, just to know the experience; but now, do I even want the experience?  Did I say that just because of social stigma?  I mean, I've always viewed adoption (for animals or children) as a way to provide a loving home and family for someone that isn't privileged enough to have those things.  But a lot of people don't look at it that way - it almost seems like a last resort for people - after having spent thousands and thousands on infertility procedures.  Then there are still some people that see having a child as a means of "carrying on the family."  (Yes, I've been told this before.)  Am I just responding to these pressures?  Or is it something that I really want?

I was hoping that writing out the musings will help sort out an answer in my head.  We'll see...

Snow

So today I count as the first official snow day this year.  We've had a few flurries, but nothing that's stuck to the ground much.  Today we have a good 1-2 inches.  Luckily nothing's sticking to the roads though.  (I think they use a different kind of asphalt up here that retains heat better - it takes a lot more for the roads to snow/freeze over than other places I've lived.)  Also luckily, it's my day off, so I don't have to go out in the cold and wet!

Just a few quick updates to keep track of life:
- The knit blanket is almost done... I have one more round of the pattern left.  It just gets so tedious working on the same large project for so long.
- I finished a hat! It's a pattern that I found that was actually circulated during WWII as a easy hat to knit and send abroad for soldiers.  Very plain, but easy - it didn't have a gauge recommendation, so I just made a guess with what I know: picked a similar weight yarn from my stash and went up two needle sizes from the recommendations, since my tension tends to be super tight.  The hat came out well, and fits my head and the hubby's head.  Now I'm going to make one in a boring gray yarn for my FIL (who loves WWII and boring colors :-P).
- We got new beds for the girls - fuzzy and warm and they love them with the colder weather.
- I switched the kitty over to all wet food a couple months ago - there is some new research that indicates that it is healthier for our cats, and it is more like what they have evolved to eat.  The idea being they eat whole prey in the wild (even feral cats these days, not any of this "my dog is a wolf, my cat is a lion" shit. Our animals spend more time indoors than we do, and my dog can't even tell when there is a raccoon 5 ft. away growling at her. NOT. A. WILD. ANIMAL.)  Ranting aside - they've evolved to get most of their water from food intake, so they don't have a huge thirst drive.  There's some thinking that wet food increases their water intake and helps them stay healthier longer.  Makes sense to me, especially when you look and see how many old cats die of renal disease (still will probably be inevitable, but maybe we can push off the onset for a few years).  Either way, she loves it, her hair coat looks better, and she seems sweeter/cuddlier.  I can't tell if it's the food, or the cold weather that's attributing to these behaviors, but we'll see.
- Gone Girl was a fantastic book and movie.  The movie adaptation was really true to the book.  Very messed up, psychological thriller/drama.  I recommend it!

I might come back through and elaborate and add pictures later.  I mostly just wanted to get the update here so I have some continuation of this blog.

Trying something new

I'm trying something new to cut down on straightening heat damage. And to just try something new. This is the second time I tried this, but this time I curled it first with sponge curlers, then scrunched it with diy sea salt spray.

I think I like it better this time!

Crazy Hippie Ravings

So this post is really to chronicle the hubby's and my decision to try to simplify/green? our lives a little more.  I feel a little silly writing this out, because I feel like I sound like a crunchy-hippie-tree-hugger...but I don't feel like one! :-P

We've always tried to be aware of earth-friendly type things - recycling, green products (when cost effective...), etc.  But recently, one of my friends made the decision to go vegetarian.  And after about a week of her doing this (I tried to help by providing advice and cookbooks), she went from never cooking, to trying some simple cooking, and loving it.  One of the most profound conversations I had with her, really didn't have much to do with meat or no meat.  It had to do with the fact that she was more aware of what was in her food (b/c she was looking for meat products), and how she's come to realized there's A LOT of extra CRAP that gets put in food!  And with that realization, she's trying to prepare more things at home to avoid some of that.  It's something that I've realized before, since we cook a lot at home, but it was brought to the forefront of my awareness again.  Around the same time, a family member has had the beginnings of sugar issues, and I started looking again at some of the foods I was eating and realizing, "Wow, why do they even put sugar in this?!"  I'm trying to be more aware of my sugar consumption (not too worried about natural sugar in fruits/veggies, more added sugar) and it's a little unnerving to realized that some of the "healthy" snacks/juice I was consuming had almost as much sugar as drinking a Coke.  Ridiculous.

Anyway, that lead to me questioning additives in other products.  Hence the reason I decided to give making laundry detergent a shot.  Also, I ran out of the Seventh Generation detergent I was using, so it gave me a convenient excuse (I do love their detergent though, just pricey.)  I like the idea of simplicity.  So far the detergent experiment is going well.  My scrubs (this is part of my REAL test) are still looking clean and stain free.  I still use oxyclean occasionally, because I have a lot of it still, but I have transitioned to using other methods (that work better too) on certain stains: rubbing alcohol for ink stains, hydrogen peroxide for blood, and dish soap for greasy spots.  Oxyclean is mostly hydrogen peroxide, so it'll work for blood too, but H202 is much cheaper. :-P  Hydrogen peroxide and alcohol tend to get most betadine stains out too.  I'm hoping that from this soap making experiment the hubby's going to try, I'll get a decent chunk of soap that'll make a good stain stick too.

Also, I've stopped using dryer sheets.  I've never really liked them, so it didn't take a lot of convincing to get me to stop using them.  Dryer balls seem to be a good alternative, so made a couple foil balls and got a couple tennis balls that go in with each load.  The foil helps with static, and the tennis balls help with dryer time and softness; they are loud however.  And I think the foil is slowly losing it's magic - I think instead of replacing them with more foil, I'll get a set of wool dryer balls, that last forever and are "rechargeable."  I think they might be quieter too, judging on size.  Vinegar in the wash helps with fabric softening too (without a vinegar-y smell!)

We've tried to cut back on paper towels, by switching to washcloths for napkins and to wipe down surfaces.  We still have paper towels, but we save them for really "dirty" issues - like for vomit, when the girls get into something they shouldn't. :-P

We're planning on trying a dishwasher detergent recipe soon.  My dish soap I'll continue to get from Seventh Generation for two reasons: 1) I love it, and 2) my last try of making liquid soap was a major FAIL - I ended up with hard soap in the shape of a plastic body wash bottle.  OOPS.  I made some changes related to feminine care - won't go into details here (email me if you're truly interested) - that was one of the best decisions EVER and cut down on waste on that aspect.

Overall, I feel better about these changes, and I don't feel like I'm giving up my life to spend extra time making these things.  That was one of my major concerns before I started the transition.  I'm not going to go miles and miles out of my way to change EVERY little detail, and I am going to finish up the products that I do have (that's just wasteful otherwise).  But I am going to make changes that are feasible, that have evidence to back it up - using things that WORK, not just convincing myself they work b/c they're "natural."  For example, I'll probably stick to bleach in certain situations, b/c bathroom scum is gross and PERSISTENT.  So I guess on that hand, I'm not very hippie-like, but on the other I am.  Which is fine by me. :-)