Ira Glass on Creating

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

An ambitious project (for me)

My friends wanted covers made for these big cushions they've had in the closet for years. I kept telling them I was not the person for the job, but they kept asking me to do it. I finally told them I'd go fabric shopping with them (thinking they could get someone else to make the covers) but I ended up making them anyhow.

I'm really glad I did! It was my second time to install zippers, and it went pretty well. I am now officially in project mode - making Montessori baby mobiles and grasping toys, a rug made out of t-shirt strips, learning how to crochet (and re-learning how to knit, something I learned in China last year), and a few maternity things. I have much more on the list, but I think my eyes are bigger than my ability to finish. I am blaming this on two things - on Pinterest and on the fact that I'm having a baby.

We Bought a Zoo

This movie won't come out until December, but it looks like a good one!

Coming Soon!

We're going to have a baby in early February! I'm almost halfway through the pregnancy, feeling good, trying to eat well, and reading all sorts of books on Montessori, real foods, diaper free (elimination communication), natural birth, etc. Very thankful to have a great library network close by!

Our first baby gift came from Colin's mom - the little socks in the picture (in yellow since we aren't going to find out the gender).

Game Night and Cupcakes

We thought about heading out to go camping over Labor Day weekend, but ended up staying home, going paddleboarding and then using the rest of our weekend to meet up with friends. We had a sort of impromptu game night on Sunday night and then had some friends who we hadn't seen in a while over for brunch on Monday, so it turned out to be a great weekend!

Have you ever played Moods? It's a great game.


And, since friends were coming over, I had an excuse to make these cupcakes, which were so yummy!

SUP

I bought a Groupon for stand up paddleboarding a while back and we finally used it last Saturday. It took a little getting used to for me (I only fell in once, but we both had to get on our knees or sit on the board when we were heading back against the wind!)

The weather was great. We packed a lunch and stayed out most of the day. Afterwards, we watched some kite surfers and then went out for fish tacos. It was a lovely So Cal kind of day.

Recycling Sweaters

When we moved in to our apartment about a year and a half ago, I bought a bunch of wool sweaters from Goodwill to felt and turn into pillows. (To felt them, I just washed them on hot with some detergent and dried them on high.) I ended up making about 6 pillows and still have some sweaters left, so I recently made some into Christmas stockings. I am also making a shawl out of some and thinking about a blanket, although we have enough blankets. If anyone has any good ideas to use the rest of my felted sweaters, let me know! This is phase one of the closet clean out project.

Wonderful Cameras

In the process of cleaning out my closet, I am finally getting some things up in my vintage etsy shop that are leftover from the shop where I used to work that recently closed down.

The next batch up is cameras. I just listed one and will be listing the rest soon. I don't have a way to test these, so I'm listing them at cheap prices. In any case, they would make fun decorations!