Big News!

James and I have some HUGE news that we're excited to share with you all!

James has accepted a job as Diocesan Youth Coordinator and Summer Camp Director for the Diocese of the Gulf Coast and Beckwith Camp and Conference Center! This means that we'll be moving to Alabama in less than a month! (PS: I know you thought we were pregnant again!)

It's absolutely terrifying and totally exciting. I'm thrilled to start on this new adventure, but even a cross-town move is overwhelming for me, and we're moving almost clear across the country! It'll be so nice to be closer to his family, but I'm also sad that my family and friends will be farther away.

Beckwith is the camp that James grew up attending and working at. It's on the outskirts of Fairhope, AL, which is an adorable little town that we had fun exploring when we visited for his interview earlier last month. Click here for more information on the camp. It's absolutely beautiful, and we are so excited to be back in the Episcopal Church. When James first read me the job description, my first thought was that it seemed to have been written with him in mind; he is excited to be back in youth ministry and even more excited to be making use of his Recreation Management degree.

We will be living in the town of Bon Secour, an unincorporated town whose population is less than 1,000. It'll be quite a change from Orange County. There are plenty of larger cities nearby though. Foley has outlet stores, and Mobile and Pensacola, FL are each about an hour away. But you don't have to take our word for it: come visit us! We don't want to lose touch with our beloved friends, so come visit and bug me on facebook since I'm terrible about keeping in touch.

We're still working out exact dates, but James will start work on or before November 1, so it's all happening really quickly. I'll make my excuses here and apologize for delayed posts and I'm placing a hold on my goals for right now. I'll do my best to get up G's 1 year post in short order, however. Look forward to new posts, and maybe even a new segment: "A Californian in the South" maybe :)

I can't wait to start this new chapter in our lives!


Here's a few photos of the camp:

In the gazebo on the pier

Beckwith sits between Mobile Bay and Weeks Bay

Lazy or Busy, The Excuses Abound

Maybe I'm just lazy. After all, until a month and a half ago, I only worked 2 days a week. Surely, I could have found some time in there to post here. But to be honest, I haven't been feeling it.

I've done some crafts, mostly involving yarn and needles smaller than I've ever worked with. Getting my klutzy hands around those needles and manoeuvring the infinitesimally thin yarn was frustrating at times, but rewarding in the end. Kind of. Projects don't always turn out like you expect, but sometime they're even better! I've been making Martha Stewart's neck scarf like crazy! It's a simple pattern, there's only a few things to note: When she tells you to add stitches, it's best to a kfb (knit front back, see Knit Witch for tutorials!) and the divide is a bit confusing, but it does get explained eventually. I knitted with a thicker yarn and needles than she recommended, and all three of the completed scarves came out pretty well. I've made some adjustments to length, etc to compensate and even things out the way I like them, but the idea in general is pretty awesome and the product is cool. I'm currently working on transferring the pattern to a *much* thinner yarn--hence the aggravatingly small needles. My mom gave me some cashmere yarn she'd like a neckscarf out of. I started on it last night (lazy, I know) and got about 5 rows in before deciding my brain was too tired to deal with measuring and changing patterns as I went right then. So I'll work on it a bit today.

I've also made some watermelon coasters, and got an order for a set too! I bought the wrong size coasters, so I have to go get another set of the right size before making them up. We finished our chalkboard, made from an absolutely hideous picture in an awesome frame from Ross. We painted the glass with a primer and chalkboard paint and it looks pretty cool now. Can't wait to use it. Maybe that's what I'll work on today as well. Other than that, I've got a project queue in the hundreds and half-started projects and imagined projects dancing in my brain at all hours. I just need to find the time and the energy to do it.

This is harder than it sounds. In February, I started a second job at our tax firm. When we went in to get our taxes done, I pretty much got interviewed and asked to come in on Monday. So now I'm working finances for three companies and trying to get them in order after some problems had occurred with a previous employee. It's not easy, and I'm not good with numbers, but I'm managing. It's a long day too, from 9-6. I enjoy having the later start to my day, and James doesn't get off til 6 either, but I end up arriving home exhausted. So it's taken a lot out of my crafting time. Even the weekends have been taken up lately: the past two were spent in Coronado, and next weekend will be too. We've cleaned out our boxes in the garage, dealt with the rest of our stuff in the house, gotten a new TV (yay we can watch dvds!) and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. This is the first weekend we've had time to relax, and it's going to be spent doing errands, finishing James' paper (thank God, we only have to move stuff around and write transitions) and taking my ailing computer to the Genius Bar in about an hour. So, the blog will continue and things will get posted, but at a lesser rate. Hopefully in the coming weeks, I'll feel a bit better. Look for some changes in the next week or two--we've got some pretty exciting stuff up our sleeves comes Easter and I personally can't wait to share with everyone! Pictures and news and some new recipes (chicken and dumplings, anyone?) are on their way!

New Year, New Home

James and I recently moved into a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom apartment in Orange. We are still living out of boxes. Well, more accurately I am still living out of boxes. I have yet to figure out how to organize my clothes and bathroom stuff. What kind of bathroom doesn't have drawers?? Anyways, it's a nice, quiet, safe complex only a few minutes away from both of our workplaces. We can even come home for lunch, which is great when we don't have time to pack a lunch. The second bedroom will be used for crafting/sewing and guests, though currently it's holding all the unpacked boxes to keep them out of the way. The complex doesn't have all the amenities (like a gym, etc) and doesn't have a washer/dryer in the unit, but it is really nice, and walking down to the laundry room isn't too bad, since it's relatively close to our unit. The dogs seem to enjoy it, but we'll see how they feel about it come summer, since the A/C is right next to their kennel. We had to get a new fridge, and managed to get a deal on a really nice french-door, bottom freezer one that's huge. It had enough room for tons of food, but more importantly, our Brita dispenser fits too. We use too much water for one of their pitchers to be practical, so we got the big dispenser, which is amazing. However, fitting it in a small fridge is no small feat, so it's important that it fit in our fridge with enough room for food as well. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the unit, and it even has a bathtub (can't wait to enjoy that with a long soak).

I have a few craft projects currently in the works and just went through a month-long period of voracious reading. The cooking front has been a bit boring. With the move, we don't have many of our staples (still in Coronado, or found out they had expired...in 2008....) and we've been exhausted. I worked Tues-Fri last week, with two days in Del Mar, and the nights were spent unpacking the kitchen and living room, both of which are completely unpacked, if a bit messy. So there will be new posts in the near future, dealing not only with books, recipes and such, but also with craft projects, tv show reviews, movie reviews and  a peek into my daily life (which I'm sure will enthrall everyone).

Tomorrow, our hunt for a bedframe continues. We had sold James' old sleigh bed, and had been using the bedframe my parents had in Coronado. Since we couldn't take that with us, our box spring and new mattress are sitting on the floor of our bedroom waiting until we find something appropriate. James wants solid wood, I want a slight sleigh headboard that isn't too high with no footboard (which he also likes), nothing too ornate, and we both want something affordable. We have a few feelers out to Craigslist people, but our four hours of searching today yielded only one real possibility, and even that stretches our budget a bit and comes from a source with not-so-great reviews. Maybe we're being too picky, but we can deal with a mattress on the floor for now. Since we didn't want to move the beautiful (but heavy and big) bookshelf we got when we moved in to Coronado, we grabbed the foldable bookshelves that had been sitting in storage and made use of them in the living room to hold our (my) books, in addition to the shelves that are part of the entertainment centre. (And this is the pared down set of books...) Everything seems to be coming together nicely...I just need to spend a few quality hours in the bedroom and bathroom figuring out how all that stuff is going to work (especially the bathroom...I may have way too much makeup)

Last night James' computer battery gave up and died. The charger's light was green, indicating a full battery, so I asked him to hand me the cord since my computer was getting low. As soon as he pulled out the plug, the screen went black. Upon turning the computer on again, we discovered the battery read 0% and when more information was pulled up, declared it was not charging. Wonderful. And his AppleCare expired in September. We checked a few sources online and tried a few recommended tricks (this seems to be happening a lot to 2006 and 2008 models) but nothing worked. Nothing for it but to buy a new battery, which the Apple support line guy said would be $80, but the website says will be $125. My computer is still working, but the casing has cracks all over it and two pieces have already chipped off. This makes no sense, since I take good care of my electronics, especially my computer and if I have to tote it around, I always put it in a good, padded case. Anyways, James is very happy with his Christmas present of a tablet now since he can use that without being leashed to an electrical outlet.

Speaking of Christmas presents, I'm enjoying mine. My purse organizer that James got from Etsy seller Divide and Conquer is AMAZING. It fits in my purse perfectly, is sturdy enough that it doesn't flop over and has more than enough pockets, including one that's long enough to hold my home-made receipt organizer (I sense a tutorial in that...). I'm also loving the iPod he got me. My old one's hard drive was shot, causing it to randomly skip to the next song, or restart itself. I had gotten the classic for the space, but James got me the biggest iPod touch, which has no hard drive, so no more issues! Yay! Since he bought it through Amazon, they had a deal for $100 off with a year-long subscription to Audible. Since I've been obsessed with audiobooks lately (yay for libraries) James got the subscription and I've been busily listening to books ranging from The Sherlockian to The Alchemyst (the Michael Scott one, not the popular "deep" one) and the Jake Ransom series. My parents got me an amazing grater, that I'm enjoying using too. It doesn't look like much, but we used it when we made muffins after Christmas and it made short work of the zucchini I had. It worked just as well as julienning it. My parents also got me a gorgeous seahorse ring that's currently being resized. I can't wait to wear it; it's so pretty and seahorses always make me think of the wedding. They also got us a beautiful pair of Waterford candlestick holders shaped like seahorses, which will look beautiful on our dining table. Which has no chairs. Oh well, it'll still look pretty!

Well, that's all for now. Who knows what the next post will be? See you soon!

I'm alive!

Well, yet again I've been gone for a while. As my New Year's resolution, I vowed to make and keep up this blog, and I guess I'm doing about as well as everyone else on that resolution. There's been a lot going on lately:

 

-I've gotten REALLY into crafting: jewelry, knitting, sewing (as soon as my machine is fixed), knotting, etc and it's been so much fun! In fact, I'm working on a refurbished pair of cowboy boots and I'm wearing a rosette necklace I made the other night (very chic if I do say so myself).

 

-I'm employed! (FINALLY!) This does cut into my crafting time and puppy time and baking time, but it is so nice to get out of the house and DO something for the day that I really don't mind. I work Mondays-Thursdays and I carpool with James since we only work a few blocks frome each other. I have a wonderfull ocean view from my desk and get to have lunch with James every day. I'm a front desk/administrative assistant/personal assistant at a property management company, and it's been going great so far. It's part time right now, which means that I still have time to do all that other stuff (like sleeping, napping with puppies, watching horrible SyFy movies and creating things).

 

-My Etsy store is open! Check me out right here. The store is called The Pup's Meow and will feature a lot of different things, but mostly jewelry and other accessories. There are some things here on the blog that aren't up on the site yet. If you want one, just email me or leave me a comment here and I'll get in touch with you! I've already made my first sale, so let's hope for some good business!!

 

-I am turning into a little fashion maven. Apparently, all you have to do is add an awesome hat to a nice outfit to be fashionable enough to comment on. I wore a cloche hat and loose dress to the Easter Vigil and was told I looked like a 20's movie star, then wore a hat Eastery Sunday that got a lot of comments as well. This past Sunday I wore a skirt from Ireland and added my rosette necklace (which matched the roses and the colours on the skirt) and was told how nice it looked when I walked up to communion. From sweatpants to fashionista, who knew? (I still prefer my sweats though)

 

-New books (and book reviews are coming out!) I finished Bible of Clay, finally and was thoroughly disappointed by the ending. Honestly, how it even got published, I'm not sure. I also read Haunt Me Still by Jennifer Lee Carrel, which followed her debut novel Interred With Their Bones and was just as good, if not better since it dealt with "The Scottish Play" and witchcraft/paganism. It was pretty neat, and I must say I really enjoyed it and devoured it in less than 2 days. I'd highly recommend both her books. Tomorrow, James Rollins is releasing his second young adult book, Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx and Rick Riordan is releasing his second Kane Chronicles book, called The Throne of Fire. Another two recommendations. I've read both of the first books of these series and was thrilled with them. The Kane Chronicles are very similar to the Percy Jackson series in that the protagonists find out they're demi-gods, but it's written from two perspectives (siblings whose rivalry sometimes spills onto the pages) and instead of Greek or Roman gods, it's Egyptian gods (we all know I have a soft spot for anything Egyptian). Jake Ransom is different: Jake and his sister are trying to rescure their parents, who have disappeared on an archaeological dig. They're fun, fast reads that are really interesting with riveting stories. I can't wait to buy and devour them both tomorrow.

 

-Cooking is still happening, but not always as exotic. We've made some good dinners with Fresh and Easy's simmer sauces and James and I got filet mignon from Costco and used the leftovers in steak quesadillas and a steak salad yesterday. I also used my old roommate's recipe for lumpia (we even ground our own pork with the kitchenaid food grinder attachment) and that was a success. Yummy. I've also done more baking. I made chocolate cupcakes from scratch with a peanut butter frosting for James; 6 were frosted normally, 6 were stuffed and 6 had peanut butter cookies baked inside. I also made carrot cake pops, which we decorated like easter eggs for Easter. And cheesecake pops, which need to be refrigerated, but are delicious. Risotto has become our standby dish because of it's creamy goodness. I think I'll make pie pops and some adobo next. Tonight I begin my bartending classes that will run for two weeks and turn me into an awesome barkeep that can make any drink in the book (I'm really excited, can you tell?). And to work off this caloric wonderland, James and I joined Coronado's community fitness center for the month. So far I mostly stretch, but I plan on starting strengthening excercises this weekend (I'd like sooner, but between work and bartending classes, I don't have much time in between for anything but changing).

 

Here's some pictures of crafts and cooking to keep you satisfied til I get my act together again:

Lumpia; we ground the pork ourselves!

Wrapped bangles! Available at my store!

One of five sets of bangles and earrings

Peanut butter frosting-stuffed cupcake

My first friendship bracelet attempt

Easy double chain bracelet; still a favourite of mine

Decoupaged bangle with my GBS tickets!

Broken Ladder pattern

Cheesecake pops!

My own design

Rope necklace

Easter egg cake pops

Chapstick leash (so awesome!)

A favourite pattern of mine

Celtic knot necklace

Thimble necklace

Ric rac rosette necklace

 

Return from MIA

Hello!

Sorry I've been so absent: between moving for James' new job and our holiday trip to Florida and back, I haven't had much free time. But now I have some time to catch up on a bunch of stuff, my blog included. Books, Cooks and Adventures: I have a book review, some cooking reviews and a LOT of adventures!

Let's start with adventures, and there are quite a few. Our trip to Florida for Christmas was definitely an adventure. We spent four days driving out there, the trunk full of luggage and the backseat full of puppies. Day one took us from San Diego to Las Cruces, NM. It's a long day (an 11 hour drive) and we got a late start, which put us getting in to Las Cruces at 1 am. We stopped for dinner in Tucson, AZ at the Texas Roadhouse, one of James' favourite restaurants. James found it when he lived in Waco and it has really, really good food. It was great to get a good steak and see the humiliation they put birthdays through. We stayed at the Drury Inns in Las Cruces. Getting in at 1 wasn't exactly fun, but the worst part was that our room had NO sound insulation at all. We could hear everyone walking by in the hallway, and so could the pups. Which meant that they were barking all night long at every little noise. We ended up getting the room 100% comped because neither of us could sleep at all.

Day two was the drive to Beeville, TX. It's about 120 miles south of San Antonio, and James' friend John lives on a ranch out there and let us stay with him for the night. This was probably the most boring day of the drive, as there was almost nothing to see. Unfortunately we didn't get to do much that day since we had about 4 hours of sleep and two long days of driving.
Day three however started with a trip up to San Antonio to see the Alamo! We had a great time. I know almost nothing about Texas history, so I spent most of our time there trying to figure out why the Alamo is so important. It was interesting, even though my image of Davy Crockett was shattered by an exhibit displaying his embroidered and beaded vest; seems he was quite the dandy. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Riverwalk. If you're ever in San Antonio, I recommend taking some time to spend along the Riverwalk. It is truly beautiful and walking to and from the restaurant was my favourite part of the day. After lunch we headed to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where friends of ours had graciously offered to let us stay at their house.

Day four was another late start. We got up early enough, but we drove the extra hour back to New Orleans and explored for just a few hours. We stopped at Cafe Du Monde for beignets (yum) and then tried to find a lunch place. It's amazing that in a city renowned for its cuisine we managed to find the worst restaurant, but we did. After waiting about 20 minutes for someone to take our drink orders, we finally got drinks served in little tiny 4 oz glasses (water I understand, James' soda, not so much). After we gave our waiter our order, which took another ten minutes for someone to take, we saw him storm out of the kitchen and out the door. Turns out he got fired for some backtalk to another customer. After speaking to the maitre'd multiple times (we asked to speak to the manager, but the request was not granted) we finally got our food out. Only to find that the shrimp had NOT been deveined, nor properly shelled. We called the maitre'd over again and he had to go back to the kitchen to give us a reason for it. The reason? It sometimes happens when shrimp are fresh. Now, I know I'm from California, but we have seafood too. Besides, we know a restaurant owner who buys his shrimp fresh off the boats, and I have NEVER found a shell or shite in his shrimp dishes. We ended up fighting to get our meal free (since I couldn't eat more than 5 bites due to the lack of deveining) and leaving in a horrible mood, stopping at Wendy's for lunch. I do not recommend eating at Montrel's in New Orleans.

Then it was our time in Florida. We went to plenty of restaurants and spent a few days baking our Christmas presents. Gingerbread cookies, chewy oatmeal chocolate chips, palmiers, shortbread, chocolate-dipped ritz peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate dipped pretzels in multiple designs. Our days of baking were quite fun, and our cookies were a hit with the family members. Jimmy in particular could not stop eating them...while they were cooling. As far as the restaurants go, I was obsessed with seafood soup! Gracie Rae's, by the Shrimp Boat, had a delicious etoufee; the only one I liked on the trip in fact. The Captain's Table had fried gumbo pieces and a great she-crab soup that was to die for. A new cafe-like chain place called Newk's (sadly not in California...yet) had the best soup: the ultimate crab soup. We went here because the sandwich shop James wanted to take me to was closed, and we fell in love with their soups. The crab was the best, but the chicken-tortilla was good (though it needed cheese) and the lobster-crab bisque was decent, though nowhere near the crab soup. As usual, we stopped by J. Michael's on our way out of town and I finally strayed from my normal order of gumbo. I of course got a cup of gumbo on the side, since I can't leave Panama City without eating Michael's gumbo. As usual, it was delicious. I also got the Shrimp J Michael, which Beth normally orders. Mmmmmmm. Delicious with Michael's special sauce that has a bit of a curry tang in it. So good. On our way back we didn't hit any particularly great restaurants, but nothing too bad either. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel before we crossed the state line into California (seriously?! we NEED to get some of these places) and enjoyed a delicious, late night meal before a much more satisfying night's sleep at the La Quinta in Las Cruces.

As far as the move goes, it's been a bit tough, but I've been ploughing through it steadily. I've also been sending in applications everywhere and starting to do some more crafting. I finally finished by needlepoint glasses case by stitch and zip, made a failed attempt at a friendship bracelet (figured out what I did wrong), crafted a pretty awesome necklace for a friend's birthday from home depot supplies, began re-knitting the shawl I want (since my knitting lived behind the kennel in the condo, it tasted like bitter yuck) and am working on some shower curtain ring bracelets. I have to say, I love crafting, and think I might add that to the blog. But until then, keep cooking up something new for me because I'm living off of microwave meals and mac'n'cheese. :)