A Return...Maybe?

 Well, we’re here. I’ve reached the point in 2020 that I’ve returned to a blog I haven’t posted on in two years (almost exactly to the day!) I’m not sure exactly what that says about blogging, or this year in general, but here we are.

What’s bringing me back? Well, being home all the time these last few months has inspired me to do a ton of home improvement that sat waiting over the last two years. I’ve finished projects I wasn’t able to finish while pregnant, started new projects, and overall felt more inspired by my space than I have in a while. That feeling of inspiration brought me back to what inspired me to blog in the first place: the fact that I enjoy reading about other designers’ process as well as seeing their end results. I’m not going to promise any kind of regular blog schedule yet, but I’m excited to take some nice photos of the work I’ve been doing as well as the new projects I’m dreaming up!

A few of the projects I’ve been working on:

-I used vinyl peel and stick tiles to give the laundry room floor a fresh new look

-A master bath makeover that keeps growing

-possibly an upcoming faux finish on my old IKEA dresser from college

-plus, the small one and I have been doing weekly baking. Baking with a toddler is so different from baking alone!

I’m looking forward to sharing bits of all these projects!

A Return after a Hiatus

If anyone has been following this blog, you probably noticed that I disappeared this summer. At first it wasn't deliberate, but life was busy. And then...it was deliberate.

One of the last posts I had up (not counting meal plans) was about the construction of our chicken coop. We finished the coop, the girls moved outside, and I was waiting on the weather to cooperate to get some good pictures of the finished work to share. I finally got those pictures, and was writing the post, when the unthinkable happened.

A stray dog got into our backyard.

For those that know me in real life, you've probably heard the story by now. For those that don't...I still get heavy hearted thinking about it. And that's what has kept me away from the blog. Because I'm still not entirely ready to write it all down.

But I'd like to get back to my meal planning posts because they really do help me. And I'd like to get back to my house update posts because they are fun.

So, my precious first flock is gone. We have plans to rebuild for next spring. We have plans to make the coop even more predator proof. Because methods that work against nocturnal predators proved useless against a determined neighborhood dog. But you may not see much about that until next spring.

But hopefully with this, I will get over that emotional hurdle the blog has represented, and I'll get back to the posts I enjoy.

From the Bay to the Mountains

We've moved!

As everyone who knows us offline is aware, Sean and I have moved from the San Francisco area to Colorado! Sean had a great job opportunity come up, and before we knew it movers were packing up our life and suddenly we were here in a corporate apartment near Denver. It's been a huge adjustment so far -- I went from wearing shorts at home to staying bundled up near the gas fireplace in the apartment, then back to wearing shorts again! It's a great adventure, and I'm looking forward to really getting to know the area as we get settled in.

Some pictures from our first few weeks in Colorado:

 the bottom unit is our temporary apartment

 the patio of our temporary apartment

 see the squirrel tail in the tree?

 bunny!

Making me smile today

Today was a really good day. Among other good things, this conversation happened while playing pretend with a kiddo:

King Connor of Jupiter (played by the Munchkin) and Marcus, Supreme Leader of Mars (played by me) discuss their upcoming invasion of Earth over the intergalactic telephone. Picture King Connor with an evil, maniacal voice.

King Connor: the bats are excellent soldiers, because now we don't just clone them, we can regenerate them and they never die!

Marcus: yes, they are much like Cylons.

And without missing a beat,
King Connor: yes, or like pawns in chess. Except more better than pawns because they fly.

Thank you for playing along Munchkin! Maybe in ten years you'll understand all the references I've brought into our games.

Thesis. Time for a Hiatus

No sooner do I come up with a great idea for my Conservation Monday series, which would combine my passions for design/decor and the earth, than thesis work becomes an all consuming force.

In an effort to help me focus during these last two months of grad school, I'm going to take a temporary hiatus from blogging.

I plan to still post my weekly meal plans, because I have found that they help with my kitchen accountability. If I told the internet that I'm cooking X tonight, I better cook it, right? Silly maybe, but it's helped us with our food waste and budget so I can't argue.

But aside from weekly meal plans, and perhaps the occasional photo dump, I will probably not be posting anything until Memorial Day. Graduation is in sight, and during the summer I will be back!

some tulips from the farmer's market last week - a lovely bit of spring

Conservation Monday #7: Living Green for any Design Aesthetic

Although "green living" or sustainability are not design choices themselves, it seems that they have become identifiable with certain decor styles. Sustainable decor conjurers up ideas of hippie or bohemian style, while the idea of living waste free seems like it would only apply to minimalist, modern design.

I love reading Bea Johnson's blog Zero Waste Home, and she has inspired many of my own efforts to consume less. But while I admire her minimalist, white home, it is not my chosen style. I love color, and prefer a cozier feel. I like extra blankets on the couch to curl up with the cat (as Fleck tries to add her own thoughts to this blog by crawling onto the laptop keyboard). And I will admit to still having some inexplicable emotional attachments to otherwise useless things. But that's ok! Today I want to discuss how living an eco-friendly lifestyle is adaptable to any decor style you wish for your home!

Let's start with furniture. The most sustainable furniture choice is one that already exists. Yep, this means used! But used doesn't need to mean grimy thrift store finds that scream 80's.

For instance, my dining table was my grandparents' table. It is a simple, elegant and fairly timeless style. They chose a high quality wood which still looks great. And it has multiple removable leaves so that it can accommodate more people should we ever host a seated dinner party. (The physical constraints of our dining room don't allow for much expansion, but it's a flexible option for later down the line.)

(Please forgive the odd light balance of this picture - it's from sometime last year as I was beginning this blog. Time to take an updated picture of the dining room!)

While we're looking at this picture of the dining room, let's talk about the rest of the furniture there. The chairs were an amazing hand-me-down: my college roommate and awesome friend was given these chairs for free by a neighbor when we first moved into off-campus housing. When we graduated, she was moving back home so gave me the chairs. I'm currently in the process of refinishing them (thesis before painting! thesis before painting!) since they do show their age, but they're still strong and in good condition.

That bookcase holding my cookbooks and serving pieces was Sean's when he was a kid. It actually was bought to match his bed set when we was in high school, but by chance it's a fairly close match to the dining table and it works quite well in here.

And what is on the bookshelf? Mostly hand-me-down cookbooks! We've been given a lot of cookbooks as gifts, some new and some old. It can be fun to go through the old ones, especially the 1970's era "Cooking for Two" books that were passed to us from both sets of parents!

Oh, and the art in the dining room used to belong to my aunt! I actually hadn't realized before typing all of this just how many pieces in this room came to us from other people. Wow! And you can see that my decor is not minimalist at all -- I have many cookbooks that I enjoy going through, and I have beautiful serving pieces that are decor most of the time but handy when I need to use them.

Of course, there are some areas of the home where newer choices are more eco-friendly. One item that I've been reading about lately is the mattress. Many typical mattresses use unsustainable materials as fill, and then use cheap chemical flame retardants. These chemicals offgas as we sleep -- with our faces only a thin layer of fabric away. Organic mattresses may use natural latex or wool, and no chemical flame retardants. Unfortunately, they are considerably more expensive and often require a bed with slats to prevent moisture build up and mold. Since our bed is a platform, but we need the storage it provides and aren't ready to buy a new bed frame and organic mattress, this is something that is just on my wish-list for now!

At the risk of writing a huge essay, I'll end this post now. Hopefully I've given you some ideas on how to translate sustainability and waste-free living into your own design aesthetic. Since there are so many more aspects to talk about (not to mention looking at other decor styles besides my own) I think my Conservation Monday posts for the next few weeks may focus on eco-friendly design. Stay tuned!

And of course, if you have any ideas for green design, please share them in the comments! Have pictures that showcase green living joined with your own design style? Direct me to a blog post of yours and I'd love to feature it!

Package of Meat (or, why we started using a meat CSA)

We joined a fruit and vegetable CSA about a year and a half ago, back when we moved into our condo. While some people argue that you can get better deals on produce at the Farmer's Market, as graduate students we have found the convenience of delivered veggies to be irreplaceable. For those in Northern California who are curious, we use Farm Fresh to You. The big reason why we chose them is the ability to completely customize the delivery schedule. Depending on how busy we are in a given month, we get deliveries either every other week or every 3 or even 4 weeks (filling in with visits to the Farmer's Market between box deliveries). We also enjoy the discovery of new vegetables we might not otherwise try, and I enjoy the challenge of eating with the seasons and using up everything we have. Without a CSA box, would I have learned so many ways to eat leeks? I doubt it.

Recently we joined another CSA group -- a meat one. These are not as common as the produce CSAs, and it took quite a bit of research to find one that met our needs. (If you're in the Bay Area, the one we settled on is Marin Sun Farms.)

Why did we decide to sign up for a once a month delivery of meat? We have been discussing on and off the problems with conventionally raised meat animals. The horrors of factory farms turn my stomach and make me sad. I completely understand why some people choose to become vegetarian, but, while I frequently will do meatless days, a completely meatless diet isn't for us.

I was buying organic chicken at the store, and organic grass fed beef...but while that helps, distributors still try to keep costs down for chain grocery stores so it's not always the most humane choice.

We started buying meat at the Farmer's Market, which was nice because we could chat with the farmers and know that the meat was organic and came from animals who were allowed to free range or pasture. But, again with our unpredictable schedules, sometimes we couldn't make it to the Farmer's Market. Or we would get there later and the more cost effective cuts would be sold out.

our first meat box delivery

We had been researching meat CSAs on and off for months, but finally made the jump with the new year. Here are the points that caused us to choose Marin Sun Farms:

1. Local, pasture raised livestock. While their farms are not certified organic (which can be costly for the farm) they do guarantee that their livestock are never fed antibiotics or growth hormones. Most importantly for us, the livestock live in pastures for most of the year, and are treated humanely.

2. Ability to get only the amount of meat we need. Some meat CSAs use the old model of customers paying an upfront sum, then receiving a half a cow when processing time comes. This wouldn't work for us, since we only have a small freezer! With this CSA we get about 6lbs of meat per month at a monthly rate. If we know we won't be available to pick up our box, we can call ahead of time to cancel that delivery.

3. Variety. This first box, we received about 1lb each of ground lamb, pork, and beef as well as a small leg of lamb, a pork butt shoulder and two pork chops. I like this variety because we will never get bored with the meat in the freezer. And who knows what we will receive next month?

Here's a good article about meat CSAs : link

Another benefit of this CSA is the reduced packaging. Yes, everything is vacuum sealed in plastic. But there are none of those extra Styrofoam trays, or the weird absorbing things that sometimes are packaged under meat at the grocery store. The cardboard box everything comes in is recyclable or reusable. So, per pound of meat, we are throwing less in the garbage than if we were buying conventional meat at the grocery store.

Those are my thoughts on our meat CSA so far. I'll be digging into the ground pork this weekend for our Baked Eggs with Kale dinner, so I'm quite excited about that!

Do you have any experience with CSAs, produce or meat? Please share in the comments!

*Neither Farm Fresh to You nor Marin Sun Farms has anything to do with my writing of this post. Eating locally and Community Supported Agriculture is just something that I've become quite interested in and I wanted to share my experiences thus far.*

And I'm Back

Have I really not posted at all in 2014? Wow...somehow this January has just flown by!

It's been a hectic and stressful month, with build/paint, tech and opening of Grapes of Wrath at Hillbarn Theatre. As is normal in the theatre world, everything was stressful right up until opening night when it all came together. This was a truly wonderful group of people to work with, from the director, other designers, production team, and each cast member. I am so glad that I had the chance to return to Hillbarn as a designer, after volunteering there as master carpenter/scenic artist for the year before I started grad school. I can't wait to work there again!

These last few days since opening have been spent catching up on all my house projects that I wanted to get done this winter. We gave the old multi-colored floor lamp from the office to some friends who moved (young girls got their own room), and replaced it with our first major lighting purchase ever. Yikes, who knew that nice lamps could cost $100 a piece! I'll be blogging about that in a couple days...just need to get the desks clean so I can take some nice pictures. And some sun wouldn't hurt either so that we can get some natural light in the room.

I've also been cooking up a storm the last couple days. Baked some sourdough bread and chocolate persimmon muffins today; slow cooker chicken for dinner tonight; fennel and tortellini was dinner last night.

In light of the drought here in California, I'm also planning on collecting conservation tips to share weekly, starting next Monday. I'll start off focusing on water conservation, but I'd love to keep it going as a regular weekly thing so I'm sure I will branch out.

Well, that's a quick run down of what I've been up to this month, and what I'm planning on posting here in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!

2013 Year in Review

2013...what a year!

This was my first year blogging, and I can definitely say I've learned a lot from the experience! While I haven't been the most consistent blogger, I do it because I enjoy it. Sure, I want to share my projects and experiences, but what it really comes down to is that I want to write. This is a fun way for me to write about the things I love: design, home projects and crafts, cooking experiments, and my garden.

Beyond the blogging experience, 2013 has been a great year. Sean and I celebrated our first anniversary, and we are both so close to finishing our graduate degrees. We saw my sister graduate from UCSD and start her own graduate program. We celebrated engagements and weddings with friends; new babies in the family; kids' birthdays. We made progress on our condo, bringing it more and more in line with our design vision, and less of a hodge podge of young college student furniture. I can't wait to see what 2014 holds in store!

Back to the blog world, here are my five top viewed posts from 2013:

Packed Lunches for Adults

Packed Lunches for Adults Round 2

We Have Compost! Worm Update

Experimenting with Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

And Then We Made Applesauce

Enjoy this recap! Here's to much more blogging fun in the new year!

Recap: Summer 2013

It's the end of summer break. Sean is back at school tomorrow, and I start again on Monday. Although summer was a bit anticlimactic since he has a regular job and I had a fairly regular internship, it's still a bit sad to get "back to the grind" and a bit scary to think that soon we'll be dealing with proposing and doing our master's theses! But before real life takes over again I thought I'd take some time to reflect on how much fun we did have this summer despite "grown up" work schedules.

We volunteered with Village Harvest, picking oranges, apricots, apples and more. We made jams, preserves, applesauce; baked bread, turnovers, cake and cookies. As Sean's interest in where food comes from grew, so did his confidence in the kitchen. After years of having a hard time cooking together, we truly enjoyed cooking and baking together this summer!

Our balcony garden was fairly successful, giving us beautiful plants and a decent amount of food.

We spent time in beautiful Monterey...

...and celebrated our first anniversary under the gorgeous redwoods of Felton (in the Santa Cruz mountains).

We went on lots of hikes, and checked off a few state parks on our list. (On our honeymoon we made a goal of visiting each of California's state parks together while married. At our current rate, we'll finish around our 40th anniversary.)

We spent time with friends, hosting dinners and attending dinner parties. We went to a play, the aquarium, and our own local parks. We spent some great time with both families, everything from my sister's graduation in June to relaxing pool time with Sean's sisters.

It was a wonderful summer. Here's to an equally amazing fall!

Things I'm Learning About Marriage

Today is July 1, the first anniversary of the day I married my wonderful husband.

It's been a crazy year, with me going to school full time and working part time, him working full time and going to school part time. Only one more year until we each have our Master's degrees!

During this crazy year, I've learned a lot about marriage. We lived together for almost two years before we tied the knot, but it is true that some things change once everything becomes permanent. Today I want to share a few tips I've learned about marriage in the last year.

1. People say don't go to bed angry. That's true. But also know the difference between anger and mere frustrated exhaustion. When we both have projects due the next day and I get annoyed that the dishes aren't done after he said an hour ago he would do them, and it turns into a huge deal because I've barely slept for two days...just go to sleep. After a good night's rest, lots of things sort themselves out. Something that seems worthy of a fight when you're exhausted may not be a big deal at all in the morning.

2. Before the wedding, lots of people reminded us to keep dating each other. Sounds nice, right? But with work and grad school, dates seem to get pushed to the back burner. Once we decided that anything could be a date as long as we called it one, we got a lot happier with those quick dinners on the way to paint a set. Who says eating at Panera Bread in paint-stained clothes isn't a date?

3. Be spontaneous. Doing things together without a plan is a great way to keep up the romance. This picture of Sean (above) was taken one day last October when we decided to drive down to Watsonville to go apple picking. Afterwards we went to the beach for an hour, then had dinner in Santa Cruz. All with only the vague idea ahead of time that we would go apple picking "sometime this fall." It turned into one of my favorite days of the fall!

4. Remember why you fell in love. This is so important. Whenever I'm stressed out, whether it's something that he did or just something with work or school, thinking back to our early days of dating always seems to calm me. 

5. Keep learning about each other. We change as we grow, so his opinions on XYZ might not be the same as they were 5 years ago, 2 years ago, or even 1 month ago before he borrowed that book from the library. Keep talking, keep learning. Together.

6. Nurture the other's interests, even when your interests may not collide. Actually, ESPECIALLY if those interests are separate. We need our alone time. Not because we don't love the other person and want to be with them, but because nurturing our separate interests helps us grow independently which I believe makes our conversations more interesting, which in turn makes the relationship stronger. It can be hard to feel connected to someone when you can't think of what to say. But talking about our individual passions always seems to bring us closer together, even though the listener might not really understand everything that is being talked about. His HAM radio club, my painting, etc.

7. Keep having fun! Be silly, and enjoy your time together!

I know that as the years roll on, I will learn a lot more from this amazing man, and our marriage. I look forward to each moment!

An Avocado and the Future

I may have a slight obsession with avocados. I just ate a whole one by myself, and I could probably eat another if I had one. Ok, the avocado was inside a quesadilla, but still. The husband always thinks half an avocado is sufficient for a single quesadilla. Maybe it's a good thing he's still at work....

This avocado got me thinking. That's another "must have" tree for the house-of-the-future. Others include peach, orange, apple...does the lemon count even though we already have it in a pot? It would also be nice to have an apricot, maybe a dwarf lime...oh and a pear would be nice. I think I'm going to have a problem narrowing it down to fit in the yard of the house-of-the-future.

***

I've been thinking a lot about the future lately. This time of year does that to me, with graduations left and right, people moving (but not us, for one of the few times since the start of college. So happy to have a home and be settled in place!) My little sister just graduated from UCSD with her bachelor's, and is heading off to get her master's degree. Changes are everywhere, which leads me to ask myself: With just one more year of my master's degree left, where exactly do I want to take my life?

So far I've been given some amazing opportunities to build meaningful connections and work on shows that really stretch me, push me to new places in my creativity. I've worked with wonderful people whom I am pleased to call friends. I'm happy with where my career is headed.

But what about the rest?

For most of my life, my focus has been on school, which would lead to a career. Sure, I always had interests and hobbies outside of that. But as my time in school approaches its last year, drawing to a close after 22 years of education, I will be doing. Learning will naturally continue my whole life, but it will be practical, on-the-job learning rather than a classroom setting.

So, in facing this change in the focus of my life, I've been developing some goals. Well, they're not all phrased in a traditional "goal" manner, but they are ideas about what I want to do to keep myself active and well-rounded. (To keep ourselves from becoming just working stiffs, as Sean put it.)

Volunteering has always been a big part of my life, ever since joining Girl Scouts in elementary school. I still work with Girl Scouts occasionally, as a camp counselor or adult volunteer at various events. I know this will always be part of my life, whether or not daughters are part of my future. Working with Village Harvest (as I talked about here) has also become a way to give back, and a way to spend some quality time with Sean.

On our honeymoon last year, Sean and I decided that we wanted to visit all of California's state parks. And we could only count the ones we visit together, starting from the day of our wedding. And we have to spend enough time there to appreciate what makes that park unique and special (this rule is subject to our own discretion). This is a rather big task, considering that there are over 200 when you count up state parks, state beaches, state historical sites, state recreation areas...But it's certainly fun, and we love that it will keep us traveling and exploring new parts of the state.

I also want to take up dancing again. I did ballet from the time I was three until around 22, when I traveled to Italy for a year long study abroad. After I came home, I started doing more ballroom. But since our wedding last year I haven't really danced. My crazy schedule has made it hard to sign up for classes, and I'm often too tired to go to the evening dance places I enjoyed. I need to get myself out there again though. Dance has always brought me so much joy, I'm crazy to not be dancing.

The future can be daunting, especially with big changes ahead. But I'm excited to see where it all takes me. I couldn't be happier about pursuing my passion for theatre, and I know that as long as I continue to explore all of my interests, I will be happy with where ever life takes me. Especially if there's an avocado tree in the backyard :)
 

A Friday at Home...

Finally, a Friday night at home.

It's been too long, between school and rehearsals for "Sonia Flew". But the show opened last weekend, which means my job is done until the end of the run, when its time to strike the set and return the borrowed furniture and props. Until then, I just have one more class project to finish, and a model and drafting for "The Unmentionables" to present...but after next Thursday I'm done for the semester.

Next Thursday I can begin preparing for my internship with a set designer in the city this summer.

Next Thursday I can turn the living room back into the living room, rather than the flat-surface-covered-with-lighting-design-books that it currently is...because the office is covered with set models.

Next Thursday I can create my plan of attack for FINALLY finishing the touch up paint in the house...a project that's been sitting around since we moved in last summer.

But for now, a nice Friday night at home with the husband. Cupcakes and BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner (yes I ate mine in that order...it's been a long semester) and Star Trek. We're watching the first of the JJ Abrams reboot tonight, in preparation for seeing "Into Darkness" with my parents tomorrow. A well deserved break before the last stretch of projects.

I love this guy.