Palais de Justice - Paris

We went to Paris in 2002. I've been looking through old pictures. The picture of the sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace was also taken by me. I wish we had had our good camera back then.

Your whole self

I was talking with someone the other day about the health of a close, aging relative who has actively ignored his mental health resulting in, I believe, a greater number of physical problems. "If only he had taken care of his mental health and his physical health, he wouldn't be where he is today." The next day, I was replaying this in my head, when I realized I am not practicing what I preach at all.

I do take care of my mental health, and to some extent my physical health, but I have some big illnesses looming in my future if I don't actively work on my physical health (type 2 diabetes, heart disease and diverticular disease). This got me thinking about what a whole person is, and what would one have to do to take care of my whole self. What does that mean and how is it defined? Some would say taking care of your emotional and physical self and some would include spiritual as well. Then I feel like I fall down the rabbit hole finding all sorts of little niches to take care of to prevent a precipitous decline. Of course I'm just running away from the fear of what changes I need to make in my life.

I need exercise. I need to eat more fiber, more vegetables and fruits, and fewer pastries, lattés and pints of Ben & Jerry's. I need to get more consistent rest.

I've started working on the fiber by eating more oats, adding flax seed meal to things and remembering that the fruit on the table isn't just for Fiona's benefit. I haven't been to a Starbuck's for five days (and before that it had been weeks since the last time). I've practically bankrupted my family with my stupid latté and pastry habit. Really. I'm just throwing this out to the world that I am thinking about this and trying.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

One of the gifts I gave Fiona for Christmas was a book of poems by Langston Hughes. It is called Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes.



The poems are powerful. Fiona keeps coming back to this book over and over again. It is difficult though, because the book has made me have to explain segregation to my five year old, to talk about the pain that people feel because someone thinks they are different. My husband explained what the word "negro" means and why we don't use that word. She is just five years old, and yet the son of one blogger I read was called the n-word when he was five.

Barack Obama has called for a national day of service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In the morning, Fiona and I are going to go and buy some groceries to donate to HopeLink. There will probably be several boxes of mac and cheese that will go in, because that is Fiona's favorite thing to donate. We are also going to each go through our clothes, books, etc, and find items to donate to a shelter or Goodwill. I asked Fiona to think of something we could do to help people or to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. She thought for a moment and then said, "I know, we could draw a bus, and in the front would be a person with a dark face and a person with a light face and in the back we could draw a person with a dark face and dark hair and a person with a light face."

A snowy Solstice and Christmas

We had so much snow over Solstice and Christmas. This is only the second white holiday season of my life. The last one was last year. Crazy weather.

We postponed getting together with family (we host) until tomorrow, so that everyone would be able to come. I just hope the snow melts enough.

On the crafting front, I'm working on a long sleeved sweater for Fiona. It is the Joseph sweater from Knitty.com. Fiona chose Cascade Lana Grande in a plum shade. She also wanted the sweater to be long, so it should fall to just above her knees if I measured everything correctly.

We made a gingerbread house from scratch for the first time. I will try to post a picture later. We didn't actually take any pictures on Christmas. I feel kind of bad about it. We had such a nice relaxed time though. Lots of yummy foods, including sticky buns for lunch.

Here are a couple of pictures from Fiona's first Christmas (five years ago).

Yes We Can!

My husband, Fiona and I watched Obama's speech from Chicago. I cried. Fiona will grow up with him as the first president she remembers. I cannot express how happy, how hopeful, how everything I am right now.

Thank you Barack Obama, and thank you to everyone who worked, volunteered and voted for him. What an incredible day.

Happy Birthday to me...

My husband asked me a few days ago what I wanted for my birthday. I told him yoga lessons. I found a place that will be perfect, but they are in the middle of a cycle and I won't be able to join until January. So, I will get yoga lessons for Christmas. That then puts us back at square one, what would be a good birthday present. Something would present itself.

We went out to breakfast and then took Fiona to a friend's birthday party. I decided to continue the tradition I had started the year before of visiting the cat adoption center and playing with the kittens. Last year I had such a nice time. Who doesn't like playing with kittens.

We had to fill out paperwork about our home situation and such before they would let us play. I went and petted the senior cats first. Buddy was a sweet old guy who wanted all the love and scritches I could give him. Then there was Sweet Pea. She was hiding on top of some boxes under a counter. Fiona didn't have much patience with Sweet Pea, she wanted to go into the kitten room. We walked in and I kneeled down to watch a couple of little black kittens that were in full play mode. One of them, a short haired black kitten stopped playing, came over and climbed up onto my lap. He sat for a moment and then he climbed to my shoulder and just stayed there. His long haired brother was waiting to play. I have a very soft spot in my heart for long haired, black cats. I tried to engage the long haired one. He wasn't interested. The whole time the little short haired guy was just snuggling away. We had to leave the kitten room because some other people wanted to come in so we went back to the adult cats.

When someone opened the door to the kitten room a little short haired black cat ran out, and the volunteer said, "He really wants to be with you." He was acting differently. I thought it was kind of strange. A few minutes later I went back to the kitten room. It turned out that the kitten that had run into the other room was not the same snuggly short haired kitten. As soon as I was in the room, he came over to check me out, there were other people there, lots of toys, lots of kittens, but he came back to me. That was when I realized how lucky I was, and I started to think I might not be able to leave him there. My husband wasn't really pleased. "We have enough animals." Fiona wanted to hold the kitten. I set him in her lap. She petted him and petted him. He closed his eyes. A little kitten that comfortable in the lap of a five year old is incredible. Fiona started begging, "Please can we take this kitty home!" Her dad relented.

I went out to the volunteer and said we had decided to take Black Ranger. She went and grabbed his folder. Her supervisor was on the phone. She held out her finger to say wait. When she got off the phone she said that they had just received a call that the kittens had been indirectly exposed to panleukopenia and that the adoption center is required to put all of the cats into quarantine for two weeks. I was so sad, but that was nothing compared to Fiona's reaction. If he makes it through the quarantine without getting sick, he is ours. Any cats that get sick during the quarantine will be euthanized. This is a terribly sad thing for all of the cats and the volunteers.

There is one more impact on the adoption center from this exposure. All of the furnishings, e.g scratching posts, tents, kitty condos, must be destroyed. One of the volunteers had just that week donated a brand new multi-level kitty condo. If you can spare a few dollars I am sure that the cats and the volunteers at the PAWS Cat City would be very grateful.

And please keep your fingers crossed for Black Ranger.

Where are the crafts?

Oh, yeah, this blog is called craftydabbler. Here is the long story, uh, long (interspersed with creative commons pictures from flickr that I like but have no real connection to this post).

Open Gate to the Beauty by Hamed Masoumi

I have been on a craft vacation for quite a while. I over did it a bit last year and had a hard time maintaining interest long enough to complete, well honestly, to start projects. I've bought fabric, thread and yarn, but for the most part they are all spread around the house in different piles.

Recently, a friend was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She put out a call for some lovely knit hats. She was told that she would lose her hair during chemotherapy. I offered to knit Shedir for her. I've never done cables before, so I was a little nervous but thought I could do it.

Around the same time I started having trouble with arthritis, which used to be very troublesome, but a six month stint of acupuncture about five years ago seemed to have put it in remission. It took me a while to realize that I had also started drinking Coke around the same time that the pain in my hands had started. I've stopped the Coke. I believe I have a sensitivity to the high fructose corn syrup, because I have had sodas that are made with cane sugar or are sweetened with fruit juice without feeling ill. My hands are still stiff, but not very painful. I am hoping to get in to see an acupuncturist soon for some help in clearing this. The upshot of all of this is that I have made very little progress on Jenna's hat. Luckily, Jenna has not lost her hair, which is amazing. She loses more than average in a day, but she still has a full head of hair. I am still working on the hat in bits and pieces. It is being worked in garnet (shade 492) Rowan Calmer on US3/3.25mm needles.

Quiet Beauty by JumpinJimmyJava

There is one project that I finished recently. Fiona had wanted a bathrobe for over a year. Last fall she and I went to JoAnn's and she picked out some lavender fleece. I decided on Simplicity 9853 for the pattern. It was all put in a drawer and a storage box and put off for many, many tomorrows. About three weeks ago it was very chilly one Saturday morning and I decided it was time to make the bathrobe. I found the bag with the pattern and the matching thread. The fleece was in the box. Much tracing, cutting, pinning and sewing later, and there was a comfy bathrobe, just the right size. Fiona is still so pleased with it that she keeps asking to wear it out of the house.

The Texture of Beauty, Or the Beauty of a Texture! by Hamed Masoumi

The last crafty thing that has been interesting me lately is embroidery and most specifically Chicken Scratch embroidery (see here and here). Fiona is getting impatient with me, she wants to go to the zoo, so I shall have to fill you in another time on that endeavor.

ps The other day I listened to Mozart's Requiem Mass for the first time in eons, it is my absolute favorite piece of music. (To call it a "piece of music" seems sacrilegious, it is much more than that.) Let me tell you, it is nice to have that popping up in my head through out the day instead of the theme to The Backyardigans.

pps Don't get me wrong, I like The Backyardigans.

Quote from Goethe

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
–Goethe

Thank you Jen Lemen.

Yet another quote...

"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded."

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

That's mighty neighborly of you

My neighbor across the street had just finished pressure washing her aggregate driveway when I got home from an errand. I stopped to say hello. She said, "We could pressure wash your aggregate steps and path and get rid of all of that moss."
"Oh, yeah, we should do that sometime," I said, thinking nothing of it really.
"What are you doing right now?" she asked.

My front steps are beautiful. They didn't look this good four years ago when we bought the house. My husband who doesn't really notice much noticed the difference right off. Pressure washing was also kind of addictive. The back spray felt good because it was about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. We ran out of gas, but I think in the next day or two I might borrow it again and do the driveway and the curb. Fun, fun.

Afterwards we all had big glasses of iced tea.

I love getting to know my neighbors. They are really all very kind people. I feel blessed.

Another quote that resonates with me

"I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters."

From Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau

Silly life getting all complicated and topsy turvy.

I don't know that I will be keeping this blog anymore. We had a vacation for a week (a while ago) and had no cell phone access and no computer access. I was jonesing the first day or two and then afterwards it seemed easier and better. I'm back to my old ways with the cell phone, but I'm trying to keep some distance from teh internets. I get sucked in too easily, like TV. I also need to go back to work. We finally figured out why we always have credit card debt. It is because we are running a deficit. I'm going to pursue being a doula. I've done doula work for friends, but now I'm going public. It is exciting and scary. My husband is being really supportive. I have to get a business license and everything.

Here is a lovely quote from a poem by W.B. Yeats.

May we two stand,
When we are dead, beyond the setting suns,
A little from the other shades apart,
With mingling hair, and play upon one lute.

Karma for snarkiness

So, my last post was a little snarky with regards to the weather. I have paid for it, or at least my little basil seedlings did. I forgot to water them and then they baked to death in the whopping 68ish degree heat wave we had. All right universe, lesson learned.

Watch out for that nasty heat!

Here is something I saw today on weather.com. Please note the part in red type. It is a link on protecting your plants from heat. Considering the anticipated high and low temperatures for the day, I don't think we need to worry about the "heat" impacting the plants. We often have what we call June Gloom here in the Seattle area, but the temps have been lower than normal this June.

One Local Summer

My family and I are participating in One Local Summer. It is a commitment to eat one entirely local meal every week throughout the summer.

For our first meal we had a goat cheese and sorrel omelet with raw spinach. The eggs came from Yelm, which is 74 miles away. The goat cheese came from Bainbridge Island, about 20 miles away. The sorrel and the spinach came from our garden. The only non-local ingredient was butter. I haven't found an organic local source yet.

Next time I will take pictures.

Mosaic meme

Credit where credit is due: 1. Evelyn Genevieve Sharp, 2. Scone Medicine, 3. Black and White, 4. yawn, 5. Dreaming............., 6. Sparkling rain in the city of Champagne, 7. HPIM6045, 8. calce e mattoni - bricks and cement, 9. Day 3 - I write, 10. Chicken A Go-Go, 11. sunday shower, 12. Fi-and-Rebecca


The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

You can play too. Found at Pea Soup.

Something learned

I am in my late thirties, my very late thirties, and I think that I have finally learned something very important. Planning is the key to success. What do I mean by success? Well, I mean actually paying bills on time, paying off debt, eating healthful homemade food, getting places on time, having savings, having a garden, and the list goes on. I admit that I am somewhat adverse to planning, and I have found that that attitude makes things very difficult at times. It actually makes things rather chaotic.

When I was young I was surrounded by chaos and to combat that I became very regimented about how I did things. I would even go so far as to say I was obsessive-compulsive about "a place for everything and everything in it's place." I broke with that chaos in my mid-twenties and ever since then I haven't been regimented about anything. It is so strange; with chaos, I imposed order, without chaos, I impose chaos. Recently I've noticed, time and again, that planning seems to be the only way to accomplish the things I want to accomplish.

When I started the Riot for Austerity I was quite good at planning in order to meet goals, but it fell by the wayside. I tripped up and became discouraged and fell farther and farther behind, and felt guiltier and guiltier. I will work on starting again after I fall. I read on a quilting website once that you should "Never try to catch up, just keep working." I think that is something good for me to remember. I am currently impressed with Celtic Mommy and her 101 things in 1001 days. I've started a list for myself based on hers, but I'm focusing on things to do within the next year.

Anyway, I am going to try adding more planning into my life. (My internal editor is screaming at me that I am a joke and this is a joke and I am pathetic, etc. Well, I say, f*ck off.) I have committed to posting to my What Grows There blog twice a week because it is pretty easy. I will commit to posting to this blog once a week.

So, I have figured something out, but now I have to figure out how to incorporate it in my life and keep it there.

Some facts about me! Meme

I tagged myself, via Our Red House.


Some facts about me!


1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their name, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was living in a nice one bedroom apartment in one suburb of Seattle and commuting by bus (I had no car) to another suburb to work. I had a lovely cat and my fiancé had just moved in with me.

Five snacks I enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world:

First I must state for the record that I do not avoid snacks because of their caloric/fat/sugar etc content, so I will list my first five favorite snacks and go on to my second set of five favorites in the following category.

1. Oat Scones
2. Plain scones with clotted cream (I have only had these a few times in my life, but they are so very good.)
3. A Latte or Mocha, depending on the mood
4. Ice Cream, specifically Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby
5. Dill pickles

Five snacks I enjoy in the real world: (or really my favorite snacks 6-10)

1. Coca Cola
2. BBQ potato chips
3. String cheese
4. Cashews
5. Apples

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. I would provide education for as many people as I could.
2. I would build a room in my house that would be just for cats, it would have ramps and sunlights and caves and innumerable cat toys.
3. I would never clean my house again. It would be someone else's job.
4. I would travel and stay places months on end so that I would really get to know them and the people who lived there.
5. I would have another child or two.


Five jobs that I have had:

1. Raspberry picker
2. Veterinary Asst
3. Army linguist
4. Customer care representative in a call center
5. Software quality engineer

Three of my habits:

1. Read everyday. I love books.
2. Open all of the blinds and curtains in the house (if I am feeling good, if they are all closed that is generally a bad sign.)
3. Turn off the lights. I prefer daylight (no matter how dim) to lamp light any time, plus I try to conserve energy.

Five places I have lived:

1. Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan
2. San Diego, CA, USA
3. Encinitas, CA, USA
4. Monterey, CA, USA
5. Seattle, WA, USA

Five people I want to get to know better: (A nice way of saying TAG!)

1. a garden of nna mmoy
2. secondhand gods
3. Franny Kate's Creative State
4. The View From Elsewhere
5. don't wake the pretty

I can't remember if some of the above do not do memes. No worries if you don't want to do it. I also invite anyone who would like to do the meme who is not on the list to join in and give it a go. Please leave a comment if you do, as I would like to read what you have to say.

What Grows There?

Hi All,

Just a note to let you know that I have started an additional blog. It is called What Grows There? I wanted to document, in word and pictures, all of the plants and animals that share my suburban lot with me.

Pop over if you get a chance.

I think it is time to clean the house...

Last night as Fiona (4.5 y.o.) was lying in bed trying to fall asleep she picked up a couple of her dolls and started playing.

Woman doll: Hi! Do you want to get married?

Man doll: Um, I'm already married. I could ask my wife.

Man doll to Wife doll: Wife, um, there is, um, like, this woman who wants to marry me. Can we get married?

Wife doll to Man doll: Of course you can! If she cleans the house.

Man doll to Woman doll: She said yes, if you clean the house.

Woman doll: Sure, I'll clean the house.

---------

My daughter thinks that polygamy is a good way to get a clean house. Hmm, I think it is time that we started cleaning up a bit more around here.