In Less than 24 Hours

Tomorrow at this time we will be dragging our luggage onto the subway. We will head to our tiny hotel room and we'll be grinning from ear to ear. No matter how many times I visit the city I get so excited every time.

So what does this mean for you?

I'll be in a conference for the rest of the week so you'll be chillin with Joshua. Posts will be slimmer but they will probably include some of his awesome photography. I will think of all of my warm friends in Texas while I'm freezing with my friend in New York City.

The Amazing Race

We just watched last night's episode and it happened... the teams went somewhere we went last year. The pit stop for this week's episode was in Salzburg at Hellbrunn's Palace.

Now their experience was a little different because none of their spouses were running a fever and no one got a sinus infection and everyone had a camera with them at all time. But still, same location and that made us smile.

The previews say they are heading to Romania which was not on our trip but we have high hopes for a couple of other overlaps over the next few weeks.

Happy Monday!

Why We Don't Have Kids

So I was bathing the dog last night and Joshua and I were talking about a weird ear thing she has going on. Although she is the chronically ill dog this ear thing is new and different so we were talking about whether to take her to the vet. We came to the consensus that if it hadn't eaten into her brain at this point we could probably wait and see what happens until Monday. Then this thought popped into my head.

We need to make sure we have it figured out before we leave for New York.  

You want to know what I thought next?

Oh Crap!  We haven't even thought about finding someone to keep her while we are gone. 

 Yeah we forgot totally about having to find a place for her to stay. I am so glad we are having this realization a week out instead of 2 days from our trip so that I have more time to craft the craigslist ad.  Free dog rental for one week. 

I mean, seriously, who can say no to this face?

Silver Lining

While we were keeping Austin (the boy) Joshua asked him how old he thought I was going to be. His first guess was 47.

I think it is all the new gray hair I got this year. On the train in Europe Joshua discovered a few and this weekend he announced to the whole parking lot of Publix that my gray hairs had gotten (and I quote) "out of control."

Well, at least that means my hair is getting thicker.

9 years into an Era

The last year of my 20's starts tomorrow. Its been a pretty big decade.

Since I was 20 I ...

graduated with a "worthless" film degree. got married. became a professional. got an amazing opportunity to make videos I believed in. returned to the entrepreneurial roots I began at 15. discovered a love for house renovation. re-discovered my love of teaching.

had my heart broken a couple of times. have friends i've loved for the entire decade. fell in love with New York City.

began an almost daily log of life. embraced being weird (something I'm certain my children will hate). lost a grandfather. took up his art of stained glass. been through a small bout with cancer with my mom. been through my own benign mass (and all the drama that goes with that).

died my hair pink. dropped my "adult" life for 6 weeks and backpacked through Europe. found the most amazing church. discovered you can be good with numbers and creative at the same time. ran end zone to end zone on the field of Darrell K Royal Stadium (I AM small enough to squeeze under that fence).

became an aunt. learned to knit. learned to sew. read the whole Harry Potter series. worked on a feature film. discovered Joshua and I can stand each other 24 hours a day and actually prefer life that way.

Even if nothing at all happens this year I will still say my 20's were amazing. I'm glad Joshua and I got to spend them together before having kids. Here's to a strong finish and looking forward to what the next decades hold.

But I Looked Good Doing It

While we began to prepare for our New York City trip I was faced with the reality that my shoe selection had degenerated into things mostly of the canvas variety. I have a few dress shoes but those sure aren't going to help me in the possibly freezing weather of the city. Armed with the Christmas money from my grandmother I decided to rectify that situation.

These are my new boots.

I have tested out the warmth and they get an A+ rating on that. I also wore them to my shoot last night to test their longevity and I'm going to have to go with a solid B rating there. They were fine at the beginning but I'd say about 6 hours in I was beginning to dread having to walk somewhere to move a cable or give notes to an actor. My logical brain said to pack something of the canvas variety for the early morning hours but I chose to live like a girl and not pack a "sensible" option.

My feet are still a little sore almost 12 hours after I have taken them off but I don't really know many shoes with a heel that can stand up to a 10 hour production day. I am looking forward to my Rocket Dogs for tomorrow's shoot but the purchase does makes me feel a little more "grown up" and with the boots over my skinny jeans I can totally pass as a fashionable person.

Good Morning!

While you guys are peacefully finishing up your sleep, I'm about to head to bed and by the time you get to work I'll be midway through my first REM cycle of the "night."

I love night shoots.

5AM feels so much more logical when you see it after 4 and 3 rather than just being jarred awake to experience it. So to all of you I say good morning good night.

As far as I can tell you Friday goes pretty smoothly.

Homework! Oh Homework!

Last night was the first roll out of the new tutoring plan I have been working on for YES. I was super nervous because the folders weren't finished and I only had flash cards adding up to 10. But I would have to say it went very well considering. The kids threw fits just where I expected them but they also immediately forgot that they were supposed to hate what they were doing once they got started.

Without the folders we really only had the poem they were supposed to memorize so that is what we did. I had kids telling me up and down why they couldn't do this, why they didn't want to, and how they were never going to come back. I told them no one was making them but that they should probably read it through before they gave up on the pizza party the first week out. By the end of the night kids were running up to me telling me the part they had learned and asking if they could take the poem home with them to work on it.

One week in: Kids are loving it even though I was totally unprepared.

One of the Little Miracles

I put my hair in a bun today and at 4:45pm it is still holding. For those of you who have never met my hair you don't understand just how huge that feat really is. I have professionals that can't get my hair to do what they want for longer than 2 hours.

I'm not saying I have magic power I just think God knew I didn't have time to wash my hair and He didn't want me going out with the crazy looking hair I woke up with.

Thank You 70 degrees

I went and got the mail...barefooted.

We laid in the grass reading.

We rode the scooter on an errand.

We opened our windows all afternoon.

Joshua took Austin (the dog) while he played frisbee golf.

I made over 1,000 flash cards with 2 high school girls.

Yeah, I know that last one has nothing to do with the weather but our house turned into a flash card factory on Sunday afternoon so I though it worth mentioning.

Also worth mentioning...we have about 9,000 more flash cards to go. Lucky for me these girls are dying for community service hours so they will be doing probably eight of the next nine thousand. So I end with:

Thank You National Honor Society Community Service Requirements.

Diversification

I produce.

I sew.

I write.

I teach.

I design spaces.

I do the books.

I am so glad I'm back to having six different ventures. Two whole years of doing only one job was really wearing me out.

Currently Loving

For once it is Tiffany currently listening to something instead of Joshua. I like the song but I LOVE the video. Seriously, hang with it because it is worth 3 minutes of your life.

By Oren Lavie via a blog I enjoy

Nesting

We bought this print for the living room from matteart through etsy. It was originally intended for the living room but we decided to do something different leaving the poor bird homeless. Six months later it has found its home in our bathroom. I think it is perfect in there and from now on I will tell people I bought it intentionally to go right there - don't tell.

The other funny thing about that bathroom is the glass lantern hanging from the ceiling was never supposed to stay there. When we unpacked it we literally hung it on the only hook in the the entire house to just get it out of the way thinking we would move it when we figured everything out. Lucky for us, we figured out it was perfect there.

Canvas Curtain

When I bought this canvas the people selling it asked what I was making. Apparently they had never sold 3 yards of this stuff to one person. When I said I was making a shower curtain they couldn't believe it. Normal people apparently only use canvas to make bags so the people at the store thought I was crazy. They all raised their eyebrows and said, "Oh!"

Three needles later here it is.

The trickiest part of sewing it was the fact that the red parts are rubber and they DID NOT want to go through the machine. Other than that, once I got the right size needle it was a breeze.

Overall, the pattern is a little busy considering that the toilet is all of 2 feet from the curtain but I think it really adds something to the all white room. Too busy or not I would label it a success if for no other reason than I can say - "take that fabric store ladies!"

Finished Projects

We are slowly finishing the projects we have set out to do since our return from Europe. So this week I will feature one a day...for 3 days. Yeah, we have only have three of them finished but I'm not going to let your rolling eyes bother me in the slightest.

If you remember back in July we set out a plan for our bedroom and last week the finishing touches went up (or at least the finishing touches around the bed). I sewed some silk dupioni into a panel that we rigged to hang from the ceiling to cover all the ugly wires. It makes the room feel a little fancier.

I'm really enjoying sewing panels. Let me know if you need any curtains because I am so mastering all kinds of methods to make panels. Tomorrow you will see that I can even sew canvas now...I'm telling you its getting crazy over here.