Starting a new Job

I'm starting a new job in the corporate sector on Monday, and now I have an opportunity to either keep some really icky bad habits of a desk job, like snacking allllll day on evil unhealthy junk food, or having a really messy desk with an infinite number of inbox emails that pile up unsorted, OR I can clean up my act and be really organized, file everything so I can find it again, have only nutritous snacks around, and write everything down so I won't get overwhelmed- and delete emails as soon as I get them, if they are irrelevant. Where am I getting these things?
From the David Allen book that I got- "Getting Things Done"
Here's the website:
 David Allen Co.

If I never knew his book existed, I would be a serious mess right now, and still jobless. " Mind Like Water" hehe.

The Sew Sew Sewing Party

I hosted a "Sew Sew Sewing Party" yesterday, and four girls showed up- two with sewing machines, and all with repair projects or new projects to do- I had no idea that the afternoon event would go on for almost eight hours! It was a blast, and I got a chance to warm up into "teacher mode" (getting ready for next semester) and remember to be patient and think *backwards,* because it's REALLY hard to explain something to someone about how to do something when you are thinking too far ahead.
So, here's the inventory of accomplishments:
F. started making her apron, and I showed her how to set up her sewing machine, so she can stop making up stories about how it was yelling at her and biting her, and helped gain control of the little beastie.
N. hemmed some jeans.
A. hemmed some jeans and narrowed the hem of a top that she had.
and Ad. repaired some magenta spandex exercise pants, threaded my serger, and cracked a "V.hard" Sudoku puzzle in TEN minutes! no way!
And I started to hem some corduroy pants that I've been shamefully wearing in public in a half-hemmed state.
I think I will hold another one of these parties, so everybody can hem all of those wool pants that we don't want to look at yet because it's summer.

Simple Feeding Practices- The Steam Pot!

A couple of weeks ago, the local grocery store, "MB," had this crazy sale on live lobsters- $5.99 a pound, so I just couldn't leave the store without one- plus a bag of mussels, and corn and linguica (portuguese sausage) to go with it. And went home to make an indoor clambake:

Indoor Clambake Link

And I got to thinking, this is an easy way to make a whole entire clean, healthy meal without slaving away in the kitchen- put everything in a pot with an inch of water and steam it for 10 minutes or so. This is what I put into todays pot:
1 chorizo sausage (use some sort of meat item)
some baby red potatoes (for starch) cut in half
some carrots cut up in big chunks (veggies)
corn on the cob snapped in halfs (more veggies/starch)
Other veggies that would work:
Green beans
mustard greens
broccoli/cauliflower
any root vegetables
You cover the pot for about 8 minutes, and poke things with a fork to check how done things are. The corn is ready first, then the rest are ready in about 5 more minutes. The items are easy to take out with tongs.

Everything is cooked, but still bright, tender, and crunchy, and the sausage or meat product flavors the steaming water to make the veggies taste a little better. After you pull them out, you can salt and butter them to your taste.

And I had more than enough food for two people- YUM!

Sewing like a madwoman

I have finally decided not to procrastinate and in ONE DAY! finish off some of the things that I started in the category of "sewing projects" that have been sitting there for days:
-1 pair of long black knit pants
-1 pair of knee length black knit pants
-a pillow made from a shirt
-hemming my sister's dress
-replacing the elastic for a camisole
-a knit top
-an iron-on transfer for some pants

and I realize, that no matter what kind of fancy tools I have to do my sewing, I must practice. Sewing with knits is not easy, and today I was playing with a new serger, where sometimes my stitches can look either really nice, or really ugly and out of control. Like when I accidentally lop off elastic trim I attaching with the serger, cut by the trimming knife on the machine.
Some of the above items are probably suitable for in-home wearing only- so I won't be showing you what I made on this blog. But I really like both of the pants and will definitely be wearing them a lot.
Now the next mission is to teach my friends to sew...

The Disney Wedding!

Here is my cutey cousin M. arriving in Cinderella's carriage! check out the poor melting attendants in their wigs, and the short little white ponies.

Mickey was there too- and Stitch from Lilo and Stitch.



very cute, really unique- I had no idea I would be watching my cousin get married with mickey actually there!

The only sport I can watch consistently

I've been watching almost every day of the Tour de France, and I pretty much never bother to watch sports on tv. I just figured out why I like it so much- it's because it is one of the only televised sports that isn't contained in a stadium, but the gorgeous countryside of France. How wonderful is that, to see fantastic scenery and cyclists in pain at the same time! There are also lots of crazy fans dressed in funny costumes that get on tv while the riders pass by. Wish I was there....

Tour de France Link

Here is a photo of my little tiny bedroom garden. Mesclun greens are growing out of two containers, and I get salad our of them once a week. Since they are not outside, they are not as flavorful or colorful as stuff you would find at the store, but they are still quite tender and yummy, and free:

July 4th Weekend in Boston!

Went on a "Turnaround Cruise" to watch the USS Constitution turn around, so it gets even wear and tear when it sits in Charlestown Navy Yard all year round. This year they're turning it around a lot! C. will be on the actual ship in a couple weeks to see it turnaround again. It's pretty cool to be in Boston Harbor on July 4th- very packed with boats- we also saw cargo ships and the Queen Mary 2 and, I saw the ICA museum from the water.
So this is what we went to see:

And this is C. with the hah, "COWstitution" which we accidentally ran into along the way back to the T:

This is a photo of the Institute of Contemporary Art under construction to be completed in Sept:

And because I was so ridiculously tired from being out in the heat and water, I stayed in for the fireworks and saw this from my 4th floor window in Cambridge, lucky me: