motionary : blog

london.

2009-12-04T16:34:00.003-05:00

our beautiful baby girl is here...

london marie murphy
11.19.09, 4:12 pm
8 lbs, 20 inches

more posts + photos coming soon.
london is doing well, mom is recovering, and everyone needs a little sleep :)

the waiting game

2009-11-16T13:09:00.000-05:00

here i am, 5 days past my due date... just waiting. and while i'm beyond excited to meet her, we've waited this long... i can keep on waiting until she's ready :)

photo from this weekend:

i'm sure i'll get some inappropriate comments, but you know what? i don't care :) i think i look amazing. we're both glowing. all of our hard work has paid off, and i'm proud of my body and our baby.

so for now, i'm just trying to keep busy. still working. still enjoying our time together. 2 weekends ago we went to frick park to enjoy the beautiful weather and snap a few shots before sunset. here's the belly in action, 4 days before our due date:

and a family photo:

also some more freezer paper onesies + homemade boppy cover (design matching shower invitations, and room theme):

now i just need to actually work on her quilt. its hard, i've made so many quilts that i've loved, that i feel like the one for our baby has to top those, design wise. its a lot of pressure! i will probably work on that during maternity leave, when i have the time and i can actually reach the sewing machine without her in the way ;) i'm going to do a modern quilt to match the nursery fabrics, possibly with some screen printing or bird stencils (a la boppy cover). then, i might do a vintage quilt. before my dad died, he gave me all of his quilting supplies and some pre-cut fabric squares. he even gave me all the pieces + patterns from my grandmother, so by vintage, i do mean "vintage". i think it will be sweet to give my baby a quilt from her grandparents...

i think its obvious to say at this point, i'm really missing my parents. i wish they were here for this. its so unfair, and i get so emotional now that we're getting so close. i've talked to my dad at the cemetery about this, which, well, isn't quite the same. my mom doesn't know who i am, let alone that i'm pregnant. its hard to go through this life changing event without my parents, but i am so lucky to have ian. he makes dinner, rubs my back... he even gives me pedicures. he's going to be a great dad :)

5 weeks and counting

2009-10-04T21:05:00.001-04:00

5 posts in one year... thats kinda sad. in the back of my mind i'm always saying "yea, i need to update my blog", but i hadn't realized how infrequent it had been. i can't promise anything, but we'll see if i can start to get back into the swing of things.

the most obvious event to blog about is our pregnancy. maybe thats why i've been a little hesitant. i announced the good news in may, but didn't really give the back story or follow up on anything. we'll, i'm at 34 1/2 weeks, so we have about 5 1/2 weeks til the due date. for the most part, its been a fairly easy pregnancy. much easier than actually *getting* pregnant.

here we are at 32 weeks:

we had been trying for over a year and a half when i decided to see a fertility specialist. we were officially diagnosed with "unexplained infertility" back in july 2008. that was problem X that i would occasionally refer to in blog posts. we tried 3 cycles of medicated IUIs, with no luck. we tried another IUI with injectables and that didn't work. (at this point i should point out my extreme fear of needles and blood work. i was having bloodwork every week at this point, ian was giving me shots, it was no fun at all). after serious discussion, we decided to try IVF.

the process was much harder and stressful than i thought it would be. i was working FT and going to the doctor before work to get BW + ultrasounds done every other day. ian was giving me shots every night for about 2 weeks, and the 3rd week it was 2 shots a night. i remember laying on the couch one night after the shots, and a baby lotion commercial came on. i just started sobbing and asking how much more i could take. luckily, i responded well to the drugs and developed 13 eggs that were retrieved. 8 fertilized. 3 made it to the day of transfer. 1 little girl is on her way :) based on how hard it was to get pregnant, we kept things quiet for awhile. i'm technically considered "advanced maternal age" at 36. i've been terrified that something would go wrong this whole time. so its been a little hard to blog about. we wanted this for so long, and sometimes its hard to realize that it actually is happening.

everything is going well, and i'm feeling great (except for the nasty cold that just surfaced). we had our shower last weekend and we've been putting all the wonderful gifts in their respective places. i've been washing little blankets and baby clothes. and i've been knitting like crazy. baby sweaters are fun because they knit up quickly, and you can use stash yarn :)

offset wraplan, 3 months:

black cat hoodie:

i also made some freezer paper onesies:

she's already a rockstar :)

three.

2009-05-12T13:59:00.000-04:00

i believe the unofficial 6 month hiatus is over. i'm back. enjoying the sun, outdoors, life. all that fun stuff.

and finally... some good news!

poor sydney and tan cat are going to have to share the spotlight with a new little murphy. this little one will be 14 weeks tomorrow. after all the heartache, it truly is a wonderful change in our lives. we've been struggling to make this happen for over 2 years now, and had to rely on modern medicine. i believe my fear of needles is slowly being resolved :)

i'm beginning to believe that maybe every cloud does have a silver lining....

ohiopyling

2008-11-01T16:21:00.008-04:00

this past month has been a busy one, and i haven't had the time to post. but, everytime i open up my homepage and see that photo of my dad from the last post... well, its just making me sad, so here goes a quick photo post of our adventures a few weeks ago.

in keeping with our "lets get out and enjoy this fall weather" we went to ohiopyle a few weekends ago. we both had been working heavily during the week, so it was really nice to get away, even if just for the day. it was a fun drive, even with the bad traffic, and the scenery was amazing. we stopped for coffee and had lunch, then made our way over to "downtown ohiopyle" to do a little hiking. we took sydney with us and she enjoyed herself too!

we crossed bridges:

we walked trails:

we hiked rocks + waterfalls:

i snuggled sydney:

and took closeups of ferns:

a good day was had by all. i doubt we'll get another nice (work-free) weekend anytime soon, so i'm happy that we had the chance for our tiny roadtrip. tomorrow we'll be doing a little road-tripping as we drive up to grove city to meet my mom, sister and nephew for lunch. i haven't seen my mom in quite a few weeks, so i appreciate that we're able to meet halfway on a busy weekend so i can spend some time with her.

tonight we're off to another halloween party, so i've got a little transformation to take care of. in the meantime, enjoy this photo of our last celebrated halloween, in 2006. (last year, well, lets just say there was no celebrating going on...)

as hard as i try, i just can't quit him. or his handlebar mustache. a girl has got to be pretty secure in her femininity to dress as a gay cowboy, but i think i rocked it. a few previous years on flickr as well :)

tonights outfit will be a little more dark. photos to follow.

we'll meet again

2008-10-10T07:45:00.001-04:00

1 year can go by both quickly and slowly. its been that kind of year. as i've mentioned before, sometimes its the little things. while i miss my dad every day, sometimes, its one little thing that can hit you like a brick and either bring sadness or a smile. it can be the smell of concord grapes, hearing a song from his funeral on a random tv show, or something totally random that only he and i would know about.

theres this one dream that i repeatedly have had this past year, and this is the closest image i can find that matches how he appears. i'm always sitting in our old living room, in the wooden rocking chair, (maybe 2001-2002 ish) and he walks thru the front door wearing his olive green work clothes carrying a paper bag of groceries. no oxygen, no paleness, just healthy and tan. and the sun is shining.

theres not much i can say about today. just that i miss you terribly daddy.

10.10.2007

-------

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day.
Keep smiling through, just like you always do,
'Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.

2 years and counting

2008-10-07T11:15:00.004-04:00

ah, so young... our first photo taken together, sometime in march 2002, during the first trip home to meet my parents.

on the morning of our wedding, ian had to pick up my dad's tux pants in monroeville and drop them off at our hotel. he also brought a dozen krispy kreme donuts (1 boston creme for me) and a hot tea from starbucks, because i had been nursing a horrible chest cold all week. its the little things. i still have that kk receipt, from 8:45am :)

happy 2 years ian :) here's to many more *clink clink*.

ETA: real anniversary photo to make up for ridiculous other photo.

a week in photos

2008-10-06T09:59:00.005-04:00

fall is here... its my favorite time of year. i've been waiting months for it. the crispness of the air, the warming of the leaves, the smell of autumn. something you can't quite explain. a feeling that makes me want to trade in my iced tea for a warm latte in the morning, a summer beer for a glass of reisling, the tank tops for sweaters. this season has always been like the "new year" to me, when its time for a change. i'm ready for it.

we've decided to take the month of october off from any house remodeling. we basically took september off, but that doesn't count ;) we only have a few more things to finish up, so once we get back on track this winter, the house may be ready for the market in spring/early summer. we will see.

now with all this free time on our hands, we're trying to spend as much of it outside as possible, enjoying the weather and watching the leaves change. they're starting to, and just that brightens my outlook. i pretty much missed this whole season last year, so its nice to be able to enjoy it again. last weekend we went to oktoberfest at penn brewery. it was fun, but crazy crowded. ridiculously crowded. and the smell of sauerkraut everywhere. sunday morning we made croissants from trader joes, coffee, and headed out for errands and some open houses. we check out the swissvale houses for comparison (our house is looking very good compared to whats on the market), then we checked out some potential neighborhoods. we've visited forest hills, blackridge/churchill, mostly the east end/suburbs-ish areas. we'll continue to explore the areas... we've got time :)

this weekend was nice and very relaxing. i'm glad it warmed up a little bit too :) on saturday we had more errands to run, and made our way out towards monroeville. we headed a little further east, and went to schramm's farms for the start of their fall festival. we did some shopping at the market, and i was stopped in my tracks. i had walked by some concord grapes. wow... i was taken back to my parents house in erie, where we grew them in the backyard. my parents made their own grape jelly and grape juice, and the smell is so powerful. i had to buy some :) we strolled thru the pumpkin patch, picking out some winners that we'll carve later this month.

we ended the day at shady grove for some onion soup and sandwiches. i'm totally digging their website. very nice.

on sunday, ian ran our recycling over to construction junction, then we headed over to frick park with sydney for a long walk. its going to be beautiful in another week or 2, when the leaves are really changing.

after the walk, we took sydney to the self-serve dog wash in wilkinsburg. it was convenient, and timed, so we were able to wash her more quickly than in the tub at home. however, they don't say that the air-dryer is COLD. poor syd was whimpering the whole time, but we had to get her somewhat dry before getting back in the car. next time we'll bring towels and smocks. we got a little soaked.

the night was capped off, by, of course, marshmallow roasting outside. it was super chilly, but the fire was warm and the treats were tasty. and while i don't completely like this photo, i think it conveys the toasty warm feeling of the night.

in other news, tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary. damn!

its a brand new day

2008-09-23T14:44:00.003-04:00

so i'm sure everyone has already seen this, but just wanted to share the link because its so entertaining :) NPH ... amazing singer. and the songs are catchy too.

cables and bobbles, in green

2008-09-21T15:46:00.003-04:00

i finally have photos of a finished knit, so here goes:

Aran Crossover Top (by Mari Lynn Patrick), from vogue knitting 2005
yarn: Valley Yarns Longmeadow, roughly 6 skeins, with a few scraps left over
modifications: used smaller needles + gauge to downsize pattern to XS. knit S/M sized sleeves to account for my massive biceps. skipped the long wrap ties and used a button + snap closure instead. i love it!
details on my ravelry page

hmm... what else is going on? we've taken the past few weeks off from any house remodeling. its been a much needed breather and we don't know what to do with all our free time. last weekend we dusted off the bikes and cleaned them up and put air in the tires. we've been enjoying some s'mores times in the evenings. last night we went mini-golfing where i kicked ian's ass by 9 points. pars. strokes. whatever! but doesn't he look triumphant? unfortunately, all my winning shots were blurry. i think he did that on purpose. (and no sheila, i did not cheat.)

the funny thing is, i was totally distracted during our games. first, they were playing some really good 80s music. and second, there was a dairy queen next door and the peanut buster parfait was calling my name. it goes without saying how pissed i was to find out that it was closed by the time we made it over there. at 9:30! instead, we headed over to madmex for a mexican brownie sundae. delicious :) now i've got some thoughts on making a mexican chocolate s'more.....

this old wound

2008-09-09T16:05:00.005-04:00

sigh. where to even begin? the good or the bad? sometimes its just too much. i've had a totally shitty year and i'm just tired of it. (and yes, i realize there are people much worse off than me, but i'm not writing to complain or get sympathy. and i also realize that only like 4.2 people read my blog and already know about all this crap, so i apologize.) i just need to vent. we don't have any demo work left to do on the house, and i don't have a punching bag (yet), so i need somewhere to left off some [vocal] steam.

my uncle died last week; my mom's brother, my only blood relative uncle. 2 months after his sister died. i guess this might be the only time i could find the positive in my mom having alzheimers. i drove back and forth to erie on thursday for the funeral. i'm so tired of them. what i'm having problems with is that i feel like i'm unable to grieve for the person who has just died because the funerals just bring back reminders of my dad, and the wound is open again. at my uncles funeral, the pastor who did my dads spoke a few words. my dad and uncle used to volunteer together for quite a few years, working at a food bank, building for them, etc. the pastor mentioned my dad, which i thought was very nice, until he brought up the point that he would volunteer, with his oxygen tank, until "his illness got the best of him" and how we had "just buried him a year ago". it was unexpected and difficult to hear.

the drive home sucked, as they usually do. not only was i tired and sad, with a crappily made starbucks drink, i couldn't get my mind and the memories to stop. i repeat, this year has totally sucked. in the past year, we've had to clean out and sell my childhood home that my dad and his dad built. i lost my dad. we moved my mom into a dementia unit nursing home. i lost my aunt. i lost my uncle. i lost my cat. i'm dealing with problem X that i'm not quite ready to blog about. i've technically "lost" my mom. i had a stupid heavy landscaping beam fall on my foot. can i please get a break god?? i know that all of this had made me realize that i'm stronger than i thought, but... i'm good. really. any more and i just might break.

(end of venting. blogging continues.)

this past weekend, i learned how to drive/steer/pilot(?) a pontoon boat. hows that for good news? i keep saying boat pilot, which just makes me giggle. the in-laws bought a lake house in ohio this summer and we finally managed a free weekend to make the 1.5 hr trek out there. it was chilly, and i wish i had brought a sweater. or worn long pants. and not tried out the icky starbucks oatmeal that morning. but it really was a relaxing and a nice break. its a cute little house at the end of wooded drive (several other house are there, but theirs is at the end, next to a hiking/wooded area), and right on the lake. after a little tour, we walked down to the lake and fired up the pontoon boat. since it was overcast and chilly, there weren't alot of people out, other than a few fishing boats. it was peaceful, secluded and very beautiful. lots of blue herons out in the marshes. we're definitely going back in a few weeks once the leaves start to change.

maybe some knitting photos in the next post. i finished my sweater and need to get some shots of it modeled, but hopefully i will be in a better mood for that tomorrow.

-----

well i've been bleeding well from this old wound.
cleaning it with salt, so it will still feel new.

breakdowns

2008-08-28T12:44:00.000-04:00

last weekend we managed to get a lot done on the house. and i realized that there is something i hate more than skip troweling... sanding! it was my job to sand + repaint the stairwell banister. it had close to 3 layers of paint (badly done) with drips and globs everywhere. had to sand all that off. my hand was cramped so badly, i had to take a few days off knitting :( then painting it was horrible, trying to reach between all the spindles. had it not been painted originally, i would have loved to have stained it, but it wasn't possible. i have one coat done, one to go. its a little dreary out today, so i can't see well enough to do the 2nd coat.

ian worked on sanding the stairs and painting those. we've used extra laminate to replace the risers and it looks great! we have another coat or 2 of poly to put on the stairs; thats always interesting with a curious cat and dog in the house. baby gate time for a few hours.

here are some before + after pics of the stairs:

we also finished up the spare room and hallway/landing/trimming. we still have to move the furniture around before taking some "after" shots. debating on picking up a sleeper sofa/futon/something for any guests that may visit. or as a super-sized cat bed.

we also did some outdoor work until the lawnmower broke. sigh. we've been so busy, we haven't had a chance to get it out to sears this week, but the yard is badly in need of a mowing. [is that even grammatically correct??] its still under warranty, so hopefully we can get that fixed, pronto!

then, lets see... the tivo breaks. (also still under warranty, thank you). we turn it on and the screen says something crazy like "serious problems found. will take 3 hours to self-repair. blah blah blah". it keeps rebooting itself or freezing, so we'll need to take that in too.

and then, of course, my new-ish sewing machine breaks. wtf! this is somewhat still under warranty. its an electronic one and the lcd screen turned dark. so i have no idea what stitches/settings im using. i have to pay to send it to the manufacturer, and let them fix it for 4-6 weeks. so aggravating.

but, i did manage to make a quilt with it on the fritz. i pieced together the top and bottom before the "break". i came up with a random squares design. i was gifting it to the walters, for their baby girl, due in october. they were doing a gender-neutral colored nursery, with butter yellow and espresso colors. i wanted to make something hip and modern, and i hope that i did! i quilted and did the binding after the machine breakdown, so the binding is a little uneven. sorry! i really need to practice on that. here's some pics:

ian managed to get the rainbarrel hooked up, just in time for all this rainy weather. need to switch the hoses around and see how much water we'll be able to use. and yea, we also have a compost barrel :) we'll see how well that works out. (on a side note, our garbage amount has gone down considerably since using that this year, in addition to recycling everything we can. our goal is 1 bag of garbage a week, with the exception of any building materials that can't be reused.)

on that note, i guess i should go paint something. or not sew something. ooh, or make lunch.

wally world

2008-08-19T12:03:00.005-04:00

this past weekend, ian and i went up to erie. after visiting my mom when we got in saturday morning, we had a day to ourselves, which is a rarity. so on a sunny summer saturday in erie, what else is there to do but go to waldameer and eat funnel cakes? it was a crazy busy day there, but it was entertaining. we rode a handful of rides, and didn't mind the wait. it was fun to just relax and enjoy ourselves for once. we *did* eat a delicious funnel cake, but limited it to that after a few spinny rides.

spider futab:

i hate this ride with a passion. the last time i rode i thought i was going to fall out and it wouldn't stop spinning. i didn't learn my lesson!

whee!

later in the day we took a leisurely drive around presque isle. it was really relaxing and beautiful. we met penny and cj and walked on the beach and watched the beginning of the sunset. (we were starving by that point and had to leave. man can not live on funnel cakes alone. i wish.)

my rockstar husband basking in the glow of the sunset:

i also manga'd us last week. does it look like us?

now that we're back in town, we need to get back to work on the house. we've got a list of things to finish up in the next few weeks. i've also managed to do some more knitting on that little cabled cardigan; the body is done, and i'm on to the sleeves. maybe photos in the next post.

ok, thats it for now. time for real work :(

ketchup vandalism

2008-08-14T15:20:00.001-04:00

not much to update on, but i figured my last post wasn't much of a "post" was it? last weekend we took saturday off. we've been dealing with some personal stuff and needed a day off to just relax and enjoy ourselves. we had a lazy morning then headed out to robinson to do some shopping. we don't make it out there very often, but wanted to see what new stuff was at ikea and do a little shopping.

ikea has been reorganized, and i didn't like it. maybe because of the thousands of people there who were "back to school" shopping, but i found it irritating, and not enjoyable like i had hoped. so we worked our way over to the mall, and decided to relax in the sun at houlihans. not my favorite place, but their outdoor dining was pretty empty around 3, so we grabbed an appetizer and a drink and started to relax. after that, we mosied thru the mall feeling old. on a whim, i thought i would check out aeropostale. yes, i'm 35 and about 20 years too old to be shopping there. i already know that. surprisingly, the jeans were very well fitting and i found this adorable sweater vest. seriously, how cute is this?!

now i'm actually looking forward to the weather getting cooler so i can wear it :) after that it was uneventful window shopping. we headed over to bahama breeze for dinner and sat outside on their patio. a relaxing way to start the evening with a slight reminder of our honeymoon. and a strong reminder of our need for a vacation. we really need to get away, but it's not practical at the moment. i know vacations aren't supposed to be "practical", however..... we'll start planning to plan one soon. we've been debating going back to montreal (it would be my 4th/ian's 2nd trip there) and it is beautiful in the fall/winter. a lazy tropical beach vacation would be nice, but those do get boring after awhile. we've still got awhile to figure something out.

we did a lot of work on sunday. we painted the doors, installed the hardware and trimmed out the room/hallway. we finished installing the flooring in the hallway. ian installed the 2nd window in the spare room. we did a little more landscaping and picked up 2 barrels to convert into rainbarrels. hopefully we'll get to that in the next few days. we've been doing a little work in the evenings and hope to get the spare room finished soon. pictures will come after that. then... its on to the stairwell...

sigh. today started off badly. ian was up early so he offered to move my car around back to the parking pad before street cleaning. he came back in to tell me that our cars had been vandalized. i guess thats the right word. someone had squirted ketchup on his truck and something liquid-y had been thrown all over the drivers side of my car. looked to be something like milk/milkshake-y. who carries around a bottle of ketchup??? and then whats even more ridiculous... who on earth would waste a perfectly good milkshake?!? crazy kids.

s'mores

2008-08-04T10:36:00.004-04:00

the past week has been a busy one, and i just haven't felt like writing.

we did some landscaping.

before:

after:

we installed a continuous new floor in the upstairs/hallway/spare room:

i knit:

we roasted marshmallows and made smores:

thats it for now :)

that'll do pig, that'll do

2008-07-24T10:21:00.005-04:00

where to begin... hmm... last weekend we made some progress on the interior of the house. ian finished skip-troweling + painting the main level + top level staircase, along with the main floor landing. he has to cut in the paint sometime this week, but that won't take long. i primed a tiny crawl-space storage area we have. its an interesting feature of the house... on the top floor, there is a pull down "drawbridge" type ladder that accesses a storage space. we don't use our tiny attic, so this is very handy. i need to finish painting it sometime this week as well. we're going to be installing a cedar ceiling in there too. once all of that is finished, i need to move all of my crap back into that space so we can install the flooring in the hallway/spareroom. no photos yet... painted walls aren't very exciting :) i'll wait until the floor is down and the new doors are in.

on saturday we visited a few nurseries to plan the landscaping of the back yard. looking out on the deck, we have a chain link fence to the right that offers no privacy, so we need to figure out a solution for that. we've got a few ideas, and will make a trip back out there [possibly tomorrow night?] to load up the truck with some new plants/trees/shrubs. i love working in the yard, so i'm looking forward to that on saturday.

black cat got another steroid shot last week... thursday i think. she was doing well... but still not eating alot. she had 2 seizures a few days before getting the shot. the vet thinks the cancer had spread and that she had a tumor in her brain, which was causing neurological problems. he kept stressing that she wasn't in pain, but the steroid shot would help. which it did, for a little while. on monday she was up and about... she made her way down the stairs to find me in my office and curled up on my lap for a bit. she went over to sniff sydney while she was sleeping which was really cute. she slept most of the day.

that evening after dinner, i came downstairs to find her sitting on a rug next to the washing machine. something seemed "off"... and i realize she didn't have the energy to make it upstairs. i brought her upstairs and tried to get her to eat... and thats when we knew. it wasn't going to be much longer. i won't go into details, but it was a sad thing to watch her getting weaker. the other odd thing was tan cat's reaction. they get along wonderfully, but he started coming over to hiss at black cat. and tan cat is not a hisser. i guess that was another sign. we kept black cat on the couch with us for a few hours to watch over her. then, we brought her upstairs and made a little blanket bed for her on the floor. she made a few little meows thru the night, but around 3:30 woke us up, and we were there to take care of her. it was horribly sad and heartbreaking. i don't know what was worse... being there watching our cat die, or burying her in the yard the next day. i am just so tired of death and losing people (things/animals/whatever) close to me.

i've thrown myself into another knitting project to occupy my mind. i'm sure going to the gym would be more productive, but one step at a time. i've started on a cropped cabled wrap sweater... i can't find any photos of it online, since the pattern is from vogue knitting 2005, but its so cute. here's the ravelry link. its a great pattern thats keeping my interest, and its coming along so quickly. i'm using valley yarn's longmeadow yarn which is perfect for cabling work. its so squishy :)

its an easy cable pattern to memorize, which makes it great tv knitting. last night we threw in a movie instead. i haven't seen babe in years, and i forgot how much i loved that movie. its so sweet, and a little sad, but it was a good movie to watch after losing black cat. everyone should go and rent it this weekend. it can do wonders.

plan b

2008-07-14T12:42:00.000-04:00

or, why we had to build a deck instead of a patio. frustration. so, back in may we started our backyard patio. after a long weekend of mixing and pouring the concrete pavers, we waited for another sunny weekend. and waited, and waited. during that time, as the rain washed away some of the leveled yard, we noticed little holes appearing, that became a little bigger. we started to dig a little, then a little more, and realized we either had some mole holes or gophers or something like that. whatever it was, we realized that building a patio on top of that may not be the smartest idea. so we threw some smoke bomb type things down the holes and started planning "plan b".

plan b is now a low slung deck. last weekend, we started framing the deck and preparing the site. ian started digging postholes while i slowly transported the existing patio. it seemed like such a waste of time and money to just put the deck over it, so we decided to move it to the side of the house. our house is built into a hill, and we have stairs on the side of the house, going from the front of the house, down to the back yard. at the base, there is poured concrete that we would need to replace anyways. now, it has a nice cobblestone paved landing, which houses our garbage cans nicely.

we had wonderful weather this weekend, so we were back to work saturday morning [after our sad vet trip :( .] by the end of the day saturday, we had all of the decking laid. ian would measure and cut the pieces, while i nail-gunned them into place. i only had one mishap and shot a nail across the deck and hit the firepit. thank god ian and sydney were not in the firing path! i need to work on my angle-shooting skills :) this is what we had by the end of the day:

on sunday, ian finished the trim, and trimmed off the ends of the deck sticking past the firepit side. we really need to figure out our landscaping beside the deck tho. it looks a little barren. we'd like some sort of privacy along the chain link side too. i'll need to get some finished deck photos sometime this week. we have moved the grill out back and have definite plans for outdoor dining this week. is it wrong that i want to buy a little leash for black cat and bring her outside to enjoy the sun?

for the knitterly readers, ugh... another plan b. a few months ago, i started knitting a picovoli/tivoli by grumperina. i finished it a week or so ago, and went to try it on. the damn fabric is biasing. which i guess on a normal top might not be so noticeable, but with the highlight of this top being the increase/decrease seams, its way too obvious. at least to me.

from the comments i've received, its because of this type of yarn, being knit in the round in stockinette. its a wonderful finished fabric, but i think this is going to need a plan b of its own. probably another summer type tank, NOT knit in the round. maybe the tuxedo tank from interweave knits? this one makes the pattern actually look cool, plus her hair is totally rockin'.

time for me to go check on black cat and see if i can coax her to eat some food. its gonna be a long sad week.

enough

2008-07-13T16:18:00.003-04:00

i don't even know where to start. last weekend we had some "issues" with the patio. the easiest thing to do was scrap the patio and start over. we've made major progress since then [a completed deck!], but i'll save that post for later this week. i need to charge the camera and all that stuff. plus, i'm just not in the mood, i've got other things occupying my mind.

a few months ago, we noticed that something was wrong with black cat. she wasn't jumping up on things as much as she used to and was being a little more affectionate than normal. she's not much of a lap cat, but she started wanted to cuddle on the couch with us, or sleep right next to me when going to bed. we thought maybe it was her aging, as she would be turning 9 in september. then we realized she was slowly losing weight, and was getting a little bony, even tho she was eating. i got her into the vet on wednesday and they ran the standard blood tests. no feline leukemia, no feline hiv, no diabetes or kidney problems, but a little anemic. based on her weight loss [she went from 8,8 to 6,3! she's so tiny!], the vet decided to run some more blood tests, and sent us home with some antibiotics.

on friday i got the results. after finding that she had something abnormal with her white cells, the blood was sent to a pathologist. black cat has leukemia. [the cancer, not the cat virus]. and there's nothing we can do. we took her into the vet on saturday to get a steroid shot, which *might* improve her quality of life. he's hoping it will stimulate her appetite so she will get some energy back. the vet is giving her anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks.

i've had enough bad news :(

this side down.

2008-07-03T11:12:00.004-04:00

its been a busy week, as usual, but i figured i was taking a break to post photos to flickr, i may as well write about them. first of all... july?? how is it july already? my birthday was just last week, wasn't it? sigh.

in spite of everything thats been going on in our personal lives, we've been wanting to keep busy. busy-ness is a good distraction. ian has been a real trouper and is getting a lot done on the stairwell. we have a 3 floor house [plus basement] so we have a 2 level stairwell [main floor to top; main floor to bottom] and each has a landing in the middle. right now we're focusing on the top stairwell so we can finish putting the floor down in the spare room and landing. confused yet? last year when we remodeled the master bedroom, we stopped the flooring at the doorway and have been patiently waiting since then to finish it. its going to be a continuous floor over the 2 bedrooms and hallway. the floor was really gross before moving in:

the stairwell wasn't in much better shape:

those lumpy patches on the wall? we found out those were cereal box patches. no wonder the wall was all wobbly and squishy feeling.

over the past few days, ian has given up going to the gym after work to patch the stairwell and skim coat it. talk about dedication!

we need to re-drywall the ceiling on the top floor hallway before we can do anymore drywall finishing. if all goes well, we can get this done over the next few days [especially if the forecast calls for rain], and have it skip-trowelled and painted soon. i'm just anxious to get the extra flooring out of walk-in closet and installed in the hallway/spare room.

and while we'd like to finish up the hallway, we're praying for no rain this weekend so we can finally get back to work on the patio, but the forecast isn't looking good so far. its getting frustrating waiting for a full day of sunshine to finish it. more than likely we'll have to put in a 12 hour day on the next sunny day just "in case". yay!

and on a completely unrelated and totally embarrassing [for me] note... haim and "feldog" share the news that they were both molested/raped by a friend of feldmans??? hmm... any thoughts on this one? sadly, probably no, because i highly doubt anyone else watches this show. its like watching a train wreck, but highly entertaining. ok, not really entertaining....

and the night is as black as the sea

2008-06-30T09:13:00.006-04:00

its been a busy month. and sadly, busy doesn't always mean good.

we went up to erie father's day weekend to visit my family, and to be there for my nephew's dedication at church. the church was also doing a memorial type thing for my dad, acknowledging all the work he did for the church. father's day would not have been my ideal choice, but, then again, when would have been a good day? we spent time with my sister, and visited my mom and aunt. we made it back to pittsburgh in time on sunday for a father's day picnic at ian's parents. it was a difficult and emotional day. the fact that fathers day is just a week after my dad's birthday... well, that doesn't make things any easier.

after arriving home,we get the news that my aunt lois is in the hospital with pneumonia. mid-week, she isn't doing well. i don't think the word "dying" was used, but it was understood. she passed away friday afternoon. she was 79 years old, unmarried with no children. other than my parents, i've never really talked about "personal" aspects of my life, but this may need a little explanation. my aunt moved in with us when i was 5 years old. she lived with us until she moved into a nursing home several years ago. she had to be in a wheelchair at that time and couldn't maneuver thru our house. needless to say, she was like a grandmother to us, and often told us that we were like her children. [my only living grandmother died when i was 5; my aunt had lived with her, and thats why she ended up moving in with us.] of course, we visited her whenever we went up to erie, even when my father was getting bad. at the very least, we'd always manage to squeeze in a stop before we got on the road, many times visiting with sydney. the elderly *love* sydney :)

the funeral was held on tuesday. i had been up there awhile, to help with the final arrangements. because of her closeness with my parents, they had all pre-planned their funerals at the same place. to make a long story short, the funeral was held in the same room as my fathers had been. it was just a little too soon :( we had her brother and 2 cousins sing "i'll fly away" and "peace in the valley" which was really beautiful. other than some annoying family bullshit, it was a nice ceremony and i know my aunt would have been pleased.

having another family funeral brings up alot of sadness and memories, but i won't get into that now.

we needed a little happiness. or at least "fun". thursday night we headed down to the strip district to see alkaline trio play at metropol, er, i mean, the ridiculously named club zoo. we started off the night by having dinner at kaya, the setting of our first date. after being seated, we were asked to move to the next table over, and given a carafe of sangria on the house. unnecessary, but a nice touch :) we enjoyed our meals of paella and burger and then made the rainy walk down to the club.

we had purposely missed the first 2 bands and worked our way thru the crowds to find a good spot. [this was after realizing that even tho alcohol is normally served at all ages show in a separate area, there was no separate area or alcohol. i was much more looking forward to the separate viewing area.] so anyways, the lights dim and i hoisted myself up to sit on the tiny ledge of an uncomfortable industrial pillar, as others on the pillar were doing. this was met with shouts of "sit the F down" from the 15 year old emo kids behind us. and while i normally don't have a problem with perfectly coiffed whiny emo kids, i was more in the mood to just enjoy the show from my perch. which i did. and it was a great show. very loud, but enjoyable. however, i do find it somewhat distracting trying to watch a band thru all the camera phones being waved around. between that and the flailing legs and arms coming from the mosh pit, but... maybe i'm just getting old. well, definitely too old for all ages shows!

my sister came down this weekend to visit for a bit. she went out for a few hours on saturday which left ian and i to do a little more work on the house. i finished removed the old flooring in the spare room and we got a coat of paint on half of it. [thats basically to seal it before we put down the new flooring]. this week we will need to patch the walls in the stairwell/hallway. we have a continuous floor joining the top floor bedrooms + hallway so we need to finish the walls before installing the floor in the hallway and then into the bedroom. luckily, its a fairly small hallway, so it shouldn't hold us up too long. because of the rain the back patio is still on hold, but we're hoping for sunny skies this coming weekend.

thats it for now. time for me to get back to my day job :)

35

2008-06-09T12:52:00.007-04:00

so last sunday [the 1st], i turned 35. yes, 35. i feel old. i am old. it sucks. to cheer myself up [and to get myself out of a rut], i decided to cut off my hair. i've been debating this for the past year or longer, after "growing my hair out" for the wedding. [which, i don't even understand, because my hair, as usual, was pulled back]. so i went to the salon and emerged an hour later with 10" less hair, and possibly 2 pounds lighter. i have very thick, heavy hair. i am donating the ponytail to "pantene's beautiful lengths" hair donation program.

after having my hair straightened at the salon, it looked sleek, swingy and light. i have not quite been able to duplicate it yet. i even bought a new wigo flat iron at ulta to replace my shitty one. i've been whipping out all my hair products and trying them out, but this humidity is killing me. and having naturally wavy hair isn't helping. this morning i let it air dry and it looked like rhona mitra's from doomsday. decide for yourself if that is a good or bad thing ;)

my birthday celebration was low-key, exactly what i wanted. ian and i went to casbah for sunday brunch and, as usual, it was delicious. i had the brioche french toast with carmelized bananas, while ian tried the hanger steak. both were delicious. we also had appetizers of cheese + fruit plates and granola. and mimosas. and complimentary little muffins. its always too much food, but so worth it.

i received some wonderful gifts, including some craft books, some "green books", a few movies that i love but for some reason didn't own, some cute clothes, godiva chocolates, and some random other stuff that i can't remember at the moment. ian also got me some screen printing + block printing supplies as i've been wanting to try out some ideas on clothes that i've made.

we took that weekend off which was really nice, but it meant we had a lot to catch up on this weekend. we resumed work on the patio first thing saturday morning. armed with iced coffees, coppertone, and some wendy's breakfast frescuits, we started working in the 90 degree heat. it took awhile, but once we developed our system things went smoothly. we are using the quickrete walkmaker mold in the country stone pattern. ian mixed 2 bags of concrete with 1 box of charcoal colorant. then we would pour it into the mold and i would level it off and make adjustments while ian would work on the next batch of concrete.

we finished about 1/3 of the patio on saturday, which was maybe 6 hours of actual work on the patio. we stopped when we ran out of concrete. we'll need to pick up some more this week and then get back to work! once we finish setting the patio, depending on how the color finally dries, we may spray a concrete stain on it. then we'll add sand between the pavers and start setting everything up. here's how its looking so far:

i'd like to rearrange the "firepit" so it is lower and not open in the front... more like a pit than an oven. i also need to finish potting my plants and rearrange everything in the gravel area. its alot of work but its going to be totally worth it. for us to enjoy and for selling the house :)

so needless to say, its been a busy week. i'm still bummed about being 35, but i did get carded the other night, so it can't be all that bad. plus, with all this adorable cuteness at home, how can i possibly stay bummed out?

3 day weekend

2008-05-28T11:38:00.000-04:00

phew! we had a crazy busy weekend. since i moved in back in 2003, one of the things on the house to-do list was "something" with the backyard. it was always very uneven and lumpy, kind of in 2 levels, but neither of those were even. you couldn't level a picnic table, and mowing the lawn was a bitch. so the past few rainy weekends, we started planning. we made a few trips to lowes for pricing + ideas, watched some episodes of desperate landscapes and home gardening shows, and came up with some ideas. last weekend, we had a few hours of sunshine and started digging.

before:

we decided to divide the backyard into 2 levels, making a wall out of railroad ties. its 3 ties high.... which really sucked for ian. those timbers weigh 250#s each, and sadly, i could not help him carry them. i dug out + leveled the trenches while he picked up the timbers. we had 2 truckloads of 6. that was a painful weekend. we placed what we could before the rain started, then had a mud pit for a week, until the sun came back out this weekend. thats when the real fun started :)

the weekend is a blur, but i'll see what i can remember. saturday morning we woke up early and drove out to lowes. of course we made a pit stop at starbucks and then sadly, at mcdonalds as i needed to have a mcgriddle [egg + cheese, no meat]. then off to lowes to stock up on dirt, some edging stones, drywall mud [another project going on], and random other crap. ian finished installing the railroad ties while i moved onto another project.... removing the concrete walkway. it was badly made, uneven, and about 2-3" above the lawn itself. out came the sledgehammer, and the upper body workout. it was alot of work, and i could barely move on sunday, but the walkway is out. i broke it up, while ian moved all the rubble to fill in behind the wall. we disassembled then reassembled a concrete lincoln-log type firepit on the top level. after that, we called it a night. we headed over to harris grill for dinner then decided to grab dessert and a nightcap at casbah. we had raspberry chocolate bread pudding, with a warm vanilla sauce. it was delicious and just what we needed after a long day of work.

walkway removed:

sunday was more of the same. digging + leveling the top level of the yard. marking off the area for the patio. re-working the stepping stone walkway we had in place. mowing the lawn [as a break from hard labor]. late morning we had to make another trip out to lowes and ended up stopping at rock bottom for brunch. yes we were dirty and in our work clothes, but we were hungry! the staff recognizes us, so it wasn't a big deal, just the looks we get from the other diners. then it was back to work again. in between the yard work, ian would go work on our other project, the spare room. he patched all the walls, and skip troweled this weekend. the next step is sanding the baseboards + trim before we can paint. we did as much as we could on sunday before sheer exhaustion took over. i can't even explain how exhausting the weekend was.

monday was our day "off", where we ran errands and picked up some more supplies at lowes, found some 70% off gardening pots at joanns, then had a relaxing outdoor lunch at mad mex. [i really don't like their new website.] it was really nice to just relax and take a day off. ian did a little more work on the spare room when we got back home, plus we spread some more grass seed over the bare areas of the lawn. no photos of the spare room yet... photos of blank walls are pretty boring.

its going to be a busy week, so i'm not sure when work will resume on the backyard, as the coming weekend is my birthday. hopefully i will have more progress shots soon. our realtor is coming over tonight to take a look at the house to see all of the work we've done. we're hoping to get a good estimate of what we could sell the house for. i'm not sure when we would be selling, but i know its in the not-so-far-off future. we go to open houses and see whats out there... we're keeping our eyes open.

i'm it

2008-05-27T08:32:00.001-04:00

so i've been tagged. normally, i ignore these ;) but hey, its been awhile since i've posted, so why not? i've got a weekend recap post on the way, so i'll be back sometime soon.

The Rules:
Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 6 people to be tagged, list their names & why you tagged them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re it!” & to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you, so since you’re not allowed to tag me back; let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR weird/random/odd facts, habits and goals.

so here we go....

1. i love DIY projects. obviously. i love the satisfaction of knowing i made something, plus its usually cheaper to do it yourself! while i can knit, sew, and garden, i can also hang drywall, tile and electrical work. and thats just the start of the list!

2. most of my pet peeves are sound based. windshield wipers left on after the rain has stopped, gum chewing, nail biting, mouth breathing, loud eaters,... i could go on. ian says i have super sonic hearing. maybe thats my super power?

3. i have an indescribable fear of needles and blood. this had led me to pass out 15+ times, walk out of 3 movies [for fear of passing out], and waiting until i was 28 to get my ears pierced [i passed out the first 2 times].

4. when i'm really sick, one of my ears [usually the right] turns bright red. this made it very easy for my parents to tell when i was faking it when i was little.

5. the only thing that calms my stomach when i'm sick or upset is a wendy's iced tea.

6. in high school i worked at dairy queen brazier. one of the first things you learn is how to make the signature "curl" on the soft serve cone. i think i could still do it. i also made ice cream cakes, dilly bars and blizzards. even though i'm not a huge fan of soft serve ice cream, my all time favorite sundae from there is the old school peanut butter, made with chocolate syrup, peanut butter syrup, marshmallow syrup and spanish peanuts.

7. back in '99, i developed a blood clot in my eye. i was driving home from work and lost my peripheral vision. it lasted through the night and i thought i was going blind. pretty scary shit.

8. i studied french for over 12 years. i am semi-fluent and can read and speak french, but still have a hard time understanding someone speaking it. i'm a little rusty. i've been to france twice and montreal 3 times. hoping to go back soon :)

9. i met chris carrabba of dashboard confessional after a solo show in los angeles a few years back. he is at the top of "my list". the most i could manage to say was "thank you" when he signed my so impossible cd. im such a dork.

10. i don't drink soft drinks [pop, soda, whatever]. i hate the taste and fizziness. i always have, even when i was kid.

i have no idea who to tag tho, so... hmm... bob, you're it again. and sheila, amy, jane, and whoever else reads this, feel free to play along :)

baby quilts3

2008-04-21T14:50:00.011-04:00

this will be an almost entirely sewing related post, so come back in another week if you [bob, ian, joe, etc...] are looking for something more interesting ;)

i think there must be a baby boom going on or something, because almost everyone i know is having babies. normally, i break out the knitting needles and make a cute sweater or blanket, or if they are having a girl, make a cute little dress. when ian's sister was due to have her baby in january, i thought, hey, why don't i try to make a quilt? i had just picked up "last minute patchwork + quilted gifts", and thought i would try one out. she was having a girl, so i looked thru my fabric stash and found some fabric remnants that would work, plus part of a new white sheet that was in my dad's quilting stash. [and i would have to agree with that... sheets seem to produce a much softer quilt than cotton fabrics from the store.]

baby quilt #1:
pattern: chinese stacked coins from last minute patchwork + quilted gifts
size: approx 36 X 45 ish
gifted to: kellie's baby samantha

i used some soft colored fabrics for this one, with a backing of a purple-ish floral. i machine-quilted it on a diagonal. this was my first attempt at any of this, so there are a few mistakes [some puckers on the back of the quilt] but i think it turned out well :)

baby quilt #2:
pattern: my own; a simple quilt of blocks on a white grid
size: approx 36 X 45 ish
gifted to: penny's baby boy-to-be

my sister wanted more of a traditional quilt [something that "looked like quilt"], so i decided to go with something simple and somewhat traditional. i picked up a few fat quarters, used some stash fabric i had, and backed it with leftover fabric from the bumper pad + crib skirt i had made her. she was very happy with it :)

baby quilt #3:
pattern: my own, in shades of pink, chocolate + coffee. double sided, machine-quilted on the diagonal with pink thread. self binding by wrapping back side around to front as binding.
size: 40 x 40
gifted to: gary + ann's girl-to-be

i think this has been my favorite quilt so far. i love the color scheme and design. i designed it in illustrator which was very helpful and made the actual piecing of it very easy. this was my first solid color quilt and i am very happy with the results. i discovered that my machine has a walking foot attachment, which made quilting so much easier! no puckers on the back! even stitches on both sides! you can't even tell which side was right side up when i quilted it. i was inspired by the color's of yaiann's quilt, but of course, didn't want to copy it! it was gifted on sunday morning at a warhol museum baby shower, and the couple was happy with it.

finishing up this last quilt has made me seriously re-consider my sewing/knitting hobby as a side business. i've been thinking of opening up an etsy shop [to start, before i can actually make the website + market items] focusing on infant clothing and bedding type accessories. i've got a lot to think about before i can start planning, but with any luck, it will happen :)

smile

2008-04-10T17:06:00.008-04:00

the warmth of the sun does wonders for the soul. and today, i needed that. its the 6 month reminder of a very sad day. and while i miss my dad every day, i still can't believe its been 6 months without him.

so today, i'm taking notice of the little things that make me smile, because today, i really need it.

- springtime. its finally here. the sun is warming up the ground, and i was able to plant some bulbs and groundcover this weekend. i find gardening to be calming and relaxing, so i'm glad that i'm finally able to do it again.

- watching the birds and squirrels from my office window. the birds check out the numerous bird feeders we have, while the squirrels dig holes in the mulch and scurry all over the yard and across the fence.

- random text messages from ian, i.e. "my name is seth. i like to dance." or "he's a master of karate". ok, these make me giggle too :)

- waking up in the morning, with sydney at my feet and a cat [or 2!] curled up beside me, as if i'm spooning them. its almost as cute as falling asleep with tan cat draped across my rib cage as i'm curled up on my side. and yes, he does that every night.

-realizing, 5 seasons into monk, that leland stottlemeyer is none other than buffalo bill, the creepy, transexual, womens-skin-wearing, it-rubs-the-lotion-on-its-skin, serial killer. wow! i'm really going to have a very hard time watching the show after re-watching the silence of the lambs infamous dance scene.

- bell's oberon. its that time of year again. enough said.

- homemade chocolate pudding. oh wait, i didn't make that, but i do *love* it, and it sure sounds good right now. i'll have to wait till we finish up the chocolate zucchini cake that i made earlier this week. its my moms recipe and it is tasty! maybe i'll share that someday.

- did i mention it was spring? my lilac tree is blooming :)

[hopefully my next post won't be too far off, and i'll have some photos of the cute clothes i've been making, along with the handknits, and more info on my fabric de-stashing.]

enjoy the sunshine. life is too short not to.