Heldin im Chaos

Weekending

Since yesterday's big knitting fail, I tried twice more to cast on for the project with different needles (same yarn because I love the color) and twice more experienced a big FAIL.  Just milliseconds shy of starting to swear, my hubby chimed in with his 2 cents.  He had misgivings about my knitting a gift for the intended recipient anyway.  Some people are handmade gift people, and some people are store-gift people...and this particular person is definitely shop-oriented.  I had to agree with his logic, though perhaps I did out of sanity-preservation.  The yarn goes back in the stash.  The bad thing about this whole fiasco is that it has sent me back to a ravelry-addiction that is hard to break.  Perhaps it's time to dwindle the sewing pile instead...

We enjoyed a glorious weekend here!  Spring is most definitely here and we are sneezing like crazy, but we are loving all the playtime in the warm sunshine!  Wouldn't you know my camera battery would be too low to bring out on Saturday when we went kayaking?  We had a blast!  The weather was perfect (though windy).  All four of us piled into our two kayaks and did a bit of exploring along the Swan River.  The girls did a great job sitting still and enjoying the ride as we ferried them around.  When we returned to our starting point, Hubby wanted to carry on by himself for a little bit.  He quickly disappeared around a bend...and when he reappeared, he was escorted by a dolphin pair!  They came so close to shore where we were watching in awe before they swam away, but he got to enjoy several minutes paddling in their company.  What a blessing!

Yesterday was very windy, grey and a bit cold...but that didn't stop the good times flowing!  The girls went kite-flying with Papa while Mama enjoyed a bit of right-brain stimulation and creative inspiration at the Fremantle Arts Centre.  I did plenty of knitting (and un-knitting, alas), and I met my brand new little neighbor, Audrey Jean.  Her little feet made my heart all flippy-floppy.  What is a mama of two to do?!  Maybe I had better finish that crunchy doula/birth educator course so I can have plenty of bellies and babies all the time without expanding our own little family.

This morning, the girls and I headed out to Swan Valley to cuddle some baby animals and run amok in open spaces.  Tomorrow, it's back to school for my girl.  Off we go to make the most of the last day of school holidays!

Quilt in progress

I missed checking in here over the weekend and again yesterday.  While from the start I've given myself weekends off, I do intend to write each weekday.  Yesterday was a pure miss.  I had three moving-house related items to juggle in the morning (a pre-move assessment from the moving company and two houses to view), which caused my wee one to miss her nap.  AGAIN.  So you see, there was no time.  The day got so long and so challenging that after the girls fell asleep, my hubby turned to me and asked which DVD I wanted to watch to complement the massive tub of salty, buttered popcorn he just knew I would need to make for myself.  Then, he went out and bought me two new chick flick movies, just because he is that awesome (I'm such a lucky girl!).

Alas, the houses were no keepers.  The first had an amazing backyard, but the house was so oddly designed that I assumed the tiny afterthought-of-a-kitchen was secondary; surely, I would find the real kitchen as I explored further (nope).  The other house was so huge (and ancient and un-renovated) that it made my current huge house feel small when I returned home.  This process of house viewing is so strange.  The past four houses I have lived in were selected within a week of viewing.  I saw it, I knew it, I seized it (excepting the company-owned house in Qatar, which we weren't allowed to choose).  This time, no such luck.  Apparently, I missed a fantastic house on Friday by THREE MINUTES.  It was a beautiful house that (at least on paper) checked off all the boxes we had outlined for ourselves.  The home open was during an event at my daughter's school.  I rushed like a mad thing to get there afterwards, but one lingering would-be-tenant told me I had just missed the agent.  The house was open for 15 minutes, and it got two applications then and there.  She closed it up, and it was gone.  Sigh.

Anyhoo, that's just some of the random hooey on my plate these days.  In between, I am making space for crafting, for which I am very thankful.  This quilting challenge has been perfect for me.  I need the deadlines to keep me on track, though I miss them like any deadline ever presented to me (I am a stellar procrastinator; I could go pro).  I do think six weeks is a reasonable timeframe for a beginner quilt that will be machine-stitched.  I may even try the same challenge again later in the year to make a quilt for my wee one too, but that's getting ahead of myself.  For now, this is where I am:

 

To this point, I followed the triangle quilt tutorial at purl bee.  Over the weekend, I finished up sewing my white squares and printed squares together.  I drew a line in pencil down the middle and sewed a seam 1/4-inch away on either side of the line.  

 

Then, I cut down the line, and voila!  80 individual squares became 40 joined squares became 80 two-tone triangles!  

 

The next step was opening them up and ironing them flat (seams to the printed fabric side).  Today, I was blessed with a long wee one nap, so I used that time to configure my layout.

 

Next up, sewing the rows and joining them together for the quilt top!  That was my goal before leaving on holiday (this Friday!), and I marvel to realize that I should actually get there!

The OCM

Last October, I started washing my face with the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM), and I haven't looked back.  I have never had problem skin (knock on wood!), but I apparently do have sensitive skin.  Store-bought cleansers left my super-dry or chemical-burned or some variation between.  It wasn't nice, and I was always looking for a better product at a reasonable price.  Well, I found it!  Castor oil and extra-virgin olive oil, a washcloth and hot water.  Simple, cheap, green and healthy.  Woo-hoo!

I know what you're thinking: wash your face with oil?  does it get clean?  don't you feel oily?  doesn't that make problem skin worse?  isn't that for hippie freaks? etc.  I've heard the lot, but I don't try or recommend it to be gimmicky or cute.  Seriously, it works well for me, leaves my skin feeling awesome, and is easy as pie.  There are lots of websites out there to give you specifics about "how to" (check here for an extra dose of hippie freak meditation while cleansing), but the basic idea is this:

Mix up your blend of oil (see the how-to site for ratios).  I use 1-1.  Pour a small amount onto your palm and rub your hands together to warm the oil.  Massage onto your face in swift, firm, circular motions.  The massage is the actual cleansing part, so be thorough but enjoy.  You are giving yourself a little facial.  Next, wet the washcloth with hot water, squeezing out excess.  Place steaming hot washcloth (not scalding, obviously) on your face and leave it there until it cools.  Rinse washcloth with hot water, squeeze out excess and repeat.  Do not scrub, though you can gently wipe your face with the clean cloth.  Done!  You may not even need moisturizer afterwards.  If you do this at night before bed (recommended), you won't need to wash your face the next morning either; a simple wipe with a warm, clean washcloth will do!

Lately, I've gotten quite lazy about this.  It's winter Down Under and our house is cold.  Our hot water has disappeared.  It can take several minutes of running the tap to produce a hot water stream, which feels extremely wasteful.  I have been using the OCM only when I shower, because I know the shower water will be hot (provided I don't turn the cold tap on).  Don't you know my slackness brought on a blemish or three, and guess what: two days of OCM later, they are nearly gone!  That castor oil really does the trick!  It's too strong to use alone (it will dry out your skin on its own), so don't be tempted to use it as a solo magic fix.  Still, the method is well-worth considering, even if you are worried about extra oil.  This should balance itself out.  Let me know how you go if you give it a try!

Why don’t we just say “No”?

Early this morning (7:50am), the electrician called to schedule an appointment to come rewire the laundry room.  This is a major job, one of the reasons we are being asked to move out, so I’m not sure why this is happening while we’re still here.  Nonetheless, the workorder isn’t the electrician’s doing, and I try to be accommodating.  He came to look it over last week, and he said he’d call to schedule a time.  Today, he asked if he could come this morning.  Mondays are crazy days here.  Readjusting after the weekend has been known to be painful with stunning regularity. I try to get a leap on weekly cleaning, food prep, organizing, etc. while at the same time, giving the girls the extra attention and TLC (and patience!) they need to ease them into the week.  If Monday goes totally pear-shaped, I know the week will be hard.  With this in mind, I try to keep Mondays as free as possible.  So, when the electrician said, “Monday mid-morning is the best time for me” and everything inside me said “but it is sooooo not a good time for me”, I heard myself say, “Okay, sure.”  WHAT?! 

Lemme tell ya, I spent spent the rest of the morning moderately tense and increasingly surly.  I whisked the girls out the door to school.  I rushed through the grocery store.  I dashed home to put things away.  By 10:30am, still nothing.  I called him, and he redefined “midmorning” to “around noon.”  That’s too late for me, as it will almost certainly make me late picking my daughter up from school at 3pm (which happened last week when he showed up late for his look-see).  It would also guarantee my younger daughter won’t get a nap, which she still desperately needs.  But again, I grumbled and said, “Ok.”  WHAT?!

Seriously, ladies (and it’s more us ladies than you gentlemen out there), why do we say yes when we mean NO? 

When I grumbled to my husband about it on the phone, he told me just to reschedule.  The appointment isn’t urgent (the landlords have let it go for almost two years already).  The fuse overloads and cuts out frequently in the winter, but it hasn’t been too cold and problematic yet.  What was stopping me from telling the electrician what times were best from me and scheduling based on that?  Good question!  So I did as he so wisely suggested, and my surly mood evaporated immediately afterwards.  I carried on with playing with my daughter, enjoyed a picnic lunch with her in the backyard, and put her down for her nap.  Then, I made dinner and yummy scones and sat down with a cuppa for a little blogging break (and an excuse to try the scones.  two of them.  ahem).  I am happy as a clam, ready for the rest of my day, and feeling rather silly about the energy I wasted by not being honest with myself about what I really needed.  

Me on Monday

 

I'm taking a page out of bluebirdbaby's lovely book and am sharing a bit about myself and what is moving me right now.  (Erin, I hope you don't mind the imitation, but it is the sincerest form of flattery!)

• It's late autumn early winter Down Under.  I love the bright yellow and deep red leaves that have fallen all over my bright green lawn with the backdrop of the neighbor's flowering hibiscus hanging over the fence.  It's multiple seasons in one garden.  Beautiful!
• How fun, fantastic and brilliantly simple is this idea?!  And this!  And this!  Wow.  Will definitely be subscribing to that blog's feed!
• Served this pasta for lunch yesterday.  This is probably the thirty-somethingth time I've made it, and it has become my husband's favorite!  Of course, this time of year is much more about soup in all flavors...and plenty of bread and buttermilk biscuits.
• I recently purchased the Juno soundtrack, and I'm especially getting a kick out of tracks 1 and 3.
• Speaking of music, if you haven't seen this, you are missing out!
• Although I am no morning person, I am now rising at 5:30am in hopes of being more awake when my little early risers wake up.  I enjoy a cuppa and get breakfast started, which they will then refuse to eat.  I listen to them play happily together and count my blessings that they love each other so much...and I am sure to have snacks ready to eat in the car on the way to school to stave off that post-Mealtime Mutiny hunger.