Crystal Madrilejos

Hot damn! We finally got out to the garden to plant! This rain has been really been… raining on our parade (jeez, i’m dumb.)

We decided to scale things back a little bit this year. We’ve been overly ambitious the past couple years and while it’s been fun, it’s also gotten to be a headache at times. Plus, we have this tendency to just cram everything in. So this time, since we have a little more room to play with we’re giving everything room to breathe.

Yesterday (before it started pouring) we were able to get tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots in the ground. Unfortunately, we were so late that we missed our chance to do regular potatoes, which have been the most fun to grow in the past. All the seed potatoes were gone before we even could consider planting, and we didn’t have any left from last year. Boo hoo!

Hoping to get the salad greens in and the fence up very very soon. The damn deer have already destroyed any strawberry plants we had left. They are such jerks! Heard this story on NPR the other day and it confirms my suspicions that the deer are hating on us hard.

-c.

p.s. How awesome is that garden in the picture above? Found it while looking for garden inspiration!

Image by Ben via Flickr

Finally went running last night! And it’s confirmed, I suck at running.

Ok, I know I’m not giving myself much credit. I ran a mile. And I felt like I was dying. I know some of you are thinking “A mile?! Big whoop.” But I haven’t run in awhile. It’s been probably a year or so. And I wasn’t very good at it then either. It’s weird. My legs don’t get tired, but I can’t get my breathing under control. I sound (and possibly look) like someone having some sort of attack.

Andrew and Q ran with me, which helped a lot. Andrew pushed Q in the running stroller. It’s hard for Andrew to run with me because he’s almost a foot taller than I am and running at such a slow pace is almost painful for him. But he did it anyway, what a guy! And Q fell asleep a half-mile in.

Going to try to go running tomorrow. It’s supposed to be a scorcher, so hopefully I don’t pass out and make a fool of myself. Wish me luck!

-c.

Image by ►CubaGallery via Flickr

Golf? Yes, actually.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine put out a call for ladies to join a local golf league and with absolutely no golf experience whatsoever (unless you consider hitting golf balls from the backyard into the woods as “experience”) I decided to join. Ok, I guess I’ve had some experience. I mean, I can hit a golf ball even if it’s with terrible form and some cursing and swearing. But I had never actually PLAYED golf, like, on a golf course.  The first day of the golf league was officially my first time ever setting foot on a golf course!

So began my current (and weird) love affair with the sport. It’s like we love to hate each other. I’m not an uncoordinated person. I can throw a ball and look relatively normal while running. But trying to hit a golf ball with the correct form is unbelievably unnatural and extremely frustrating. And yet, I find myself enjoying the process of commanding and willing my body with all my might to hit the dang ball correctly. Luckily, Andrew has a childhood of sports related experiences and lessons that he is willing to share. He’s been very patient with me and has helped me figure out what I’m doing wrong.

There were many times when I threw up my hands and said, screw it, this isn’t for me! But the other day Andrew and I were just hitting balls around the yard and something just clicked. I could see and feel what I was doing wrong and was able to fix it. I’m by no means “good” but I feel like I’m improving which, if anything, feels good!

Wish me luck!

-c.

This is what happens when it rains too much. Snapping turtles start hanging out on the driveway! Andrew’s mom found this beast lounging around. Scary, isn’t it? It’s prehistoric looking!

This weather is completely bipolar. It’s been raining non-stop for weeks, but finally today it’s all the sudden mid-summer. I guess we just sort of skipped Spring.

Finally got to clean up the garden area and till. It was starting to look like Grey Gardens out there, sheesh! Once it starts looking a little more garden-like and not just a huge patch or dirt, I’ll start posting some pictures.

-c.

Everyone knows that the Midwest is where awesome vintage goods are just hiding out waiting to be discovered by some big city folks looking for a diamond in the proverbial rough. Well, the Medina Antique Mall is one such place. Also known as AntiqueLandUSA, it’s so chock full of old shit it will make your head spin. Most of the inventory is stuff that I don’t have too much interest in, like ratty porcelain dolls with scary eyes, old baseball cards, and Victorian furniture. I mean, some of the stuff is really beautiful, just not my style.

However, we took a little trip there a couple weekends ago and found some real gems. There was one dude who had a booth full of mid-century Danish modern goods, hell yeah! As well as a few other choice pieces scattered here and there.

One draw back of this place (other than the fact that it’s super huge and overwhelming) is the fact that it’s mostly out of my price range. At this point in my life, I just can’t afford to spend $600 on a single side chair. No matter how awesomely designer-y cool it is. But it doesn’t cost anything to browse!

I didn’t bring my camera to the Antique Mall so I will resort to found images on the interweb. Here are just a sampling of the cool things I found:

1. Bertoia Side Chair by Harry Bertoia
2. Wassily Chair by Marcel Breur
3. Dansk Kobenstyle Cookware
4. Sprite Stacking Chair by Ross Lovegrove
5. Crayonne for Habitat Ice Bucket
6. Lucite Folding Chair
7. World Time Mantle Clock by Howard Miller
8. Herman Miller Eames Shell Chair
9. Italian Guzzini Arco Style Floor Lamp

Not all these items would be at home in our house, but I still enjoy them nonetheless, though Andrew wasn’t too keen on some of the things I pointed out. A couple times Andrew referred to the furniture as “looking like it belonged in Akeem’s Apartment”. For those of you who forgot the movie “Coming to America” let me jog your memory:

God, I wish that image was bigger. But don’t worry, our house looks NOTHING like that.

-c.

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

Sorry I’ve been MIA the past few days. I was sick on Friday and had to stay home from work. I thought I would be able to squeeze in a post from the couch where I was laid up for most of the day. But instead I opted to hover in and out of consciousness while watching Howl’s Moving Castle and hugging on my baby boy (who also was weathering a cold.)

I haven’t posted about the progress of my workout lately because, to be honest, I’ve felt embarrassed at how badly I’ve been slacking. I hate to throw around excuses, but I will anyway. The main issue I’ve been having is that Q’s schedule has changed. He’s been going to bed later which means I have to start my workout later and most times I’m just too ding-dang tired! Luckily, last night Q fell asleep at 8:30 so I was able to squeeze in a round of Core Synergistics. I’ve even considered maybe trying to go to bed at 8:30 and wake up at 5am to workout instead of doing a nighttime routine. Knowing myself, that probably won’t go over well.

I think P90X is really great if you want to see results relatively quickly, BUT I’m starting to realize that unless you are the type of person who’s already in the habit of working out regularly, the whole 90-day thing isn’t the best approach. I think that’s my problem. I keep thinking, I just need to get to 90 days then I’m done! But I’m not done. Exercising isn’t something temporary, it’s something that has to become part of my lifestyle. More than anything, I need to change my perception of how exercising fits into my life. It needs to become something that just needs to be done regularly, like showering and brushing my teeth. What’s that saying about old dogs and new tricks? Sheesh, they weren’t kidding. It’s not impossible, but it’s freaking hard!

Time constraints aside, overall I am just lacking in motivation. Maybe I need to start a new routine? Maybe I need a workout partner (or just six kids, like Gloria in that picture above)? How do you, dear readers, stay motivated?

-c.

P.S. I reread this post and realized that I sound like a lazy bum who hates even the thought of lifting a finger, which is not the case. I actually enjoy being active. But, to me, there is a distinction between “being active” and exercising for the purpose of losing weight and strengthening muscles. The latter being what I’ve been bitching about in this really long, text heavy post!

We got really lucky in this department with Q. He started sleeping through the night around three or four months. I have many friends and relatives with kids so I know this is not always the norm and something to be envied. So much so, that people give you the side-eye when you tell them that your baby sleeps through the night. I totally understand.

During those first few weeks I really understood why sleep deprivation is a form of torture. I was dead on my feet much of the time. But after awhile, the human mind and body really shows what it’s made of! By the end of those first four months I was able to sit up in bed at 3am, wide-eyed, and not be tired at all. And not only that, but I could function normally during the day on only four hours of sleep! Take that college days!

Last night, Q had one of his rare bad nights and ended up in our bed around 5 a.m. only to whine, and toss and turn and chew on my shirt, and smear his snot all over my pillow until 7 a.m.! It really made me appreciate that, in general, he is a really good sleeper. However, all those super awake-on-4-hours-of-sleep powers that I gained during those first few months pretty much disappeared after he started to sleep through the night.

So, since we’re on the topic of sleeping, I’m hoping to get better pictures of Q’s crib soon so I can post those. Made with love by his Papa! Here is a sneak peek:

Enticing, isn’t it?
-c.

I totally forgot that I never posted about this! Most likely because it happened during the worst drought of blogging that we’ve had yet. Slowly, things from that period are coming back to me that I wanted to post about but never got to.

Around Thanksgiving of last year my family decided that we wanted to start taking yearly photos of all the Grandkids. We figured Thanksgiving is really the most reliable time to take the portraits since we are all together. My brother, Tom, was the one who had the idea of taking the portraits and how they should be shot (he also handled the color correcting of the pictures.) Between my brother and I we tag teamed taking the photos and making sure the lighting was sufficient. With the help of sisters and husbands and grandparents we were able to wrangle this gang long enough to get decent shots.

I think they turned out really beautiful (though I am bias) and really show the personality of each kid. Falcon with his boyish, yet silly attitude (top row, far right). Arwen with a bruise on her chin (middle row, far left). Q looking like a deer in headlights with a cut on his nose. This year we’ll be adding another portrait of my sister’s new baby, Sofie, who was born in April.

Hooray for growing!

-c.

This weekend we finally completed the next step in Project Clean-Up-This-Old-China-Cabinet. In the first phase, we cleaned all the grime only to realize that the top would need to be stripped because the grime had pretty much damaged the finish. Phase 2 consisted of Citri-Strip, which looked like this while it worked its magic:

Followed by removal of the loosened old varnish with plastic scraper and lots of this nastiness:

Disgusting! So after that, we let it hang out for a bit, then the next day we gave it a cleaning with Mineral Spirits, a little sanding with extra fine sandpaper, another wipe, then a couple coats of Teak Oil. Voila! A long ways away from this mess.

Andrew decided that it needs a coat of shellac because as beautiful as the teak finish is, it isn’t as shiny as the rest of the piece so it doesn’t quite match. I trust his judgement. So! One to Phase 3! Hopefully, Phase 4 will be the phase where I fill it with all my junk!

-c.

The title of this post really says it all. You can find (almost) anything on the internet, especially creative inspiration. If you ever feel like you need a boost of awesomeness, check out these sites:

Designspiration

Creative Journal

Some of my favorites of the day:

Miss Marple lamp, by Elisa Strozyk

Sweat the Small Stuff poster by Alonza Felix

I could post a ton more photos, but I’m lazy and also, you really should check out the sites for yourself.  You could really get lost in there! Which is not a bad thing.

-c.