I finished it!

I went looking for baby mobiles on etsy awhile ago - I wanted Magz to have something to look at when she's hanging out pre/post sleep - and ended up loving the stuffed, homemade variety... here's an example. oooh, and I just saw this one, how cute are those girls?? I'm suddenly reminded that I intended to purchase felt in the beginning but ended up finding fabric quarters on sale...

felt would most assuredly have been easier to work with. :) oh well! file that away for the next mobile I make.

so I came away from etsy thinking that I could just make my own instead of paying someone else to do it, even though my stitching/sewing skills are still, um, 'in development'. here are the supplies I started out with:


to these, I ended up adding stuffing, a glue gun, pink ribbon and thread, an oval embroidery hoop, little silver metal hoops, and some wooden dowels. it took a few weeks of working on it on and off, but here's the finished product:

some of the stitching and whatnot came off looking a little rough, but I decided to embrace the 'homemade' look and just enjoy the project. aside from the flower, each stuffed piece has two different, contrasting sides:

baby's-eye view...

it felt good to finish something. :)

-m.y.

good news, cherries, and other favorite things

the best thing about today was going to my doctor, hearing his positivity, and seeing my fluids up a little again. the baby's heart rate is great and she's moving a lot - I even got to see her curl up her little toes on the ultrasound, which I loved. the doc said we'd wait and see what my specialist says on Monday and hope to formulate a game plan from there. but yay - go rest and water! I'd really like to be on the other side of 37 weeks before she comes, but I'm open to whatever is best.

we've still got pictures floating around in my brother-in-law's camera, but here are a few from mine from the SWC baby shower:









and this was just after they refinished our floors:

pretty, huh?! we love how they turned out.

and THESE are some of my favorite things today.

Daddy's first present to her - he brought these home today:

Yaya's kitty. it's been with me since I was three, and it made me happy

to hang it in our little girl's room.

Whale spout cover and rubber ducky!

this is what you see when you're in the tub. the whale watches you.

I adore this owl-y pack-n-play.

and this dog.

this photo is full of favorite things: the painting (a friend painted it - it's called 'Eisenglass', which means 'clarifying agent'), the trusty and comfy leather couch, the macbook, and my lucky Houston Oilers water glass.

this man. every day, but especially today.

the dinner he made me.

and there will be brownies later.

-m.y.

recommedations

here are some people/things I can totally recommend:

Downtown Radiator and Automotive

Manual at Downtown Radiator has been our go-to guy for at least a couple of years now. With an '03 Nissan Altima with over 170,000 miles and an Element approaching 90,000, we need a good, solid mechanic and Manuel is a straight-shooting, affordable guy. Case in point, our Element wouldn't start Saturday AT ALL - we couldn't even jump it to drive it to the shop. Everything about that situation seemed not good. After having it towed, we find out that yes, it WAS the starter, which Manuel was able to replace for less than $500. if you're looking to try a mechanic in the Montrose area, I'm comfortable recommending this guy.

West University Wrecker Service, near Lamar High School

I met Bob Ferguson Saturday afternoon. When the Element didn't start, I called Manuel to see if he had any tow truck connections and he gave me Bob's number. Bob was a straight up nice man, very reasonable, quick, and helpful (plus, he gave me a GREAT price). His number is 713-927-3058... put it in your cell phone in case you break down!

The Sewing Center

For hard-to-do alterations (or if you just want someone else to do them for you), the ladies at The Sewing Center on Rice @ Bissonnet have had my back for 4-5 years. It's a little pink building directly across Rice from Jax Grill, and they always do very good work. Just today, I took a pair of jeans and a maternity dress my grandmother gave me for Christmas over to be shortened, and the total will be less than $30.

Clothing-wise, I'd like to submit that I truly believe we've lengthened the life of some pieces of clothing by not drying them. in general, I try to let jeans, sweaters, and cotton clothing I love the color/fit of air dry so there's less fading and shrinking. my sister-in-law brought up the fact that jeans can sometimes feel rough/stiff after being air dried, but I've found that after you wear them they relax and feel normal again. it also helps to shake everything out well before laying them out, and a cycle with fabric softener also makes everything more pliable (though I'm not sure how much (if at all) the fab softener breaks down clothing...).

I've already mentioned my Goo Gone fix for oily patches on clothing, but it's worth repeating. if you've splashed bacon grease all over the front of your shirt, wet the offending area with hot water and rub on a bit of Goo Gone. gently work it in as you'd do any stain remover, and then give the whole garment a quick hand wash in hot water with some mild detergent or soap in the sink. the soapy hot water will wash the Goo Gone out - you don't want to just treat it with Goo Gone and leave it, as it can leave an outline when it dries. then, just launder as usual.

I'll add more to this list as I think of other people/places/products I use. feel free to throw out any you'd recommend!

-m.y.

maiden soupage, or a gleaming, golden bowl of Positivity

we broke in the Cuisinart with a tasty butternut squash soup!

the ingredients:

1 big butternut squash, and about a half of a medium-sized one (because it was older, and I was concerned the end of it was going a teensy bit soft)
olive oil, for drizzling
2 med white potatoes, peeled and diced
half an onion, diced
3 tbsp butter
3 local carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
vegetable stock
half & half
salt & pepper (we like kosher salt)
green curry paste

I halved and baked the squash (drizzled with olive oil) on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes. then I let them cool, and M scooped out the seeds and then the flesh. in a big saute pan, I cooked the potato, onion, carrot, celery, and a pinch of salt in the butter until the onions were translucent, and then added about 16oz of vegetable stock. most of the recipes I read called for chicken stock, but we'd just bought a concentrated vegetable stock so that's what went in. *note, I know many people believe that you need to make the stock from scratch for it to really be good, and I won't dispute that the real stuff has tons of flavor, but sometimes you need to cheat and that's where we are.* I added the squash to the pan too, mixed everything together, covered and cooked it for about 40 minutes (until everything was soft), then turned off the burner and went to the movies to see Avatar.

good movie. I cried. see it in 3-D if you can.

I came home and set about spooning my veggie concoction, which had soaked up most of the liquid, into the gleaming, gorgeous food processor:



note for a moment how crowded our countertop is. dear, tiny little kitchen. husband said earlier today that one of his heartfelt wishes is that we don't have to use every spare bit of counterspace as storage in the house on Woodfin. here I am preparing to hit 'GO!':

here are some of the ingredients we used... the half & half somehow missed the picture:

after it was all pureed, which happened in two batches, I ended up adding about 2.5-3 cups of vegetable broth and about 3/4 to a cup of half & half to get it to the consistency I wanted. I added pepper, another good pinch of salt, and about 2 tbsp of the curry paste, for a smidgeon of heat and, um, curry flavor (because I love it). here's what it all looked like in the soup pot... delish, I tell you! and good for your soul!

I had mine in a cup, for I needed to down it quickly and head to my meeting (which was great... it was all about having hope and courage tonight, and being with my family there felt so good):

here I am enjoying the soup I made immensely:

husband added sriracha, goat cheese, and parsley to his bowl, and toasted some bread.

he had seconds, too.

mission accomplished! welcome to the family, Cuisinart food processor, you can stay! I have no idea where we're going to store you.

in other news, we gave our tenants notice today, so the countdown has begun to Woodfin! our renters have been so great, but I'm excited and looking forward to being back in the house and preparing it to be home to our family.

here's a song I love from the latest Mountain Goats record, The Life of the World to Come... M and I have both taken to this album, and J. Darnielle is a fascinating dude. (for a live recording of the song and a glimpse of J.D. in action. click here):

all work and no play makes yoshimi go crazy... or not.

I've been jonesing for a day off... and it has yet to materialize. BUT, I've gotta say, when you're looking down the barrel of a gigantic plumbing bill, work being heaped about your shoulders feels an awful lot like God saying 'it's okay, baby girl, I gotcha covered. AND you'll get out of debt in a crazy way! BAM!' except He's maybe not so Emeril Lagasse about it.

but He is very very Great. and Faithful. and that's the teary, wonderful truth.

know what else is wonderful? having a husband to do the negotiating with plumbers. I'm not kidding.



I knocked out writing an entire episode today and celebrated by throwing on my shoes and heading for the park to walk around in the sunshine for awhile...






so beautiful out today. and so appreciated after sitting in front of a computer all day.

then I came home and used one pound of ground turkey to make both a turkey helper and turkey vegetable soup... I love doing that, getting multiple meals out of something like ground turkey or beef. Now we're good for dinner and lunches tomorrow...



we had the Bells over for Easter dinner, and at the risk of tooting our own horn I have to say it was pretty tasty:




I really can't take any credit for the food... M was the point person on all of the edibles. but the tablecloth, the flowers, the vacuuming and such that preceded the meal, oh yeah, that was all me.



in other news, my sister-in-law was apparently taking the trash out or something and my 2 year old niece LOCKED HER OUT OF THE HOUSE. she locked the DEADBOLT. help us all. if you're reading this, LC, grab that little girl and squeeze her for Lulu, would you please? then squeeze yourself. :)


'member when I said I was knitting in the recording booth? behold the proof:



my first homemade scarf is way longer now. WAY.


-m.y.

steam it out!!

there is a very nice man currently giving our carpets and rugs a very thorough, eco-friendly steam cleaning right now. we got a flipping awesome deal for four rooms... maybe now some of the secret fears I've had about germs and spores ever since Ike dumped water in our house last September will relax. though prepping the house for the dude stirred up a lot of dust and stuff that's making us both cough. which triggers the I WILL CLEAN EVERYTHING IN THIS HOUSE AND MAYBE I SHOULD GET RID OF HALF OF IT SO IT DOESN'T COLLECT SO MUCH DUST AND HIDE UNCLEANLINESS switch. this feeling shall pass. but not before my dustrags have had their say. I had a doctor in Baton Rouge tell me I was allergic to dust... that I needed to dust once a week, and not sleep with the ceiling fan on. it's hot in BR, and fans were sort of important to me, so I just decided I'd have to keep the fans and house clean so it wouldn't matter what was kicked around in the air. I'm pretty sure M thinks it's a load of hooey... he says everyone's allergic to dust.

M: Can Because I Said So's child come over and play?

M.Y.: No. There's too much dust.