Thanks! & The Story

Thanks for all your kind words, prayers and thoughts.

This pregnancy has certainly has been a lesson in patience, determination and ultimately surrender.

The short story is that I had some weird bleeding at the beginning of  my Easter break. I had planned each day with an inch of it's life. I had plans to paint the bed my dad and I made. I planned to paint our bedroom. I had lots of errands and social gatherings. I was busy with a capital B.

But, the bleeding was strange and gross and I thought "Welcome to your 40's" and called the doctor. Of course my beloved Dr. Dwight (real name awesome OBGYN in LA-seriously) was booked solid so I met with a new partner. Dr. Yamaguchi. She was/is terrific too. She told me I was pregnant, but that my uterus was full of blood clots and I would more than likely loose this baby. There was no way for her to measure how far along I was. She couldn't really see anything. My mind went totally blank and I couldn't think of dates either. I asked her if I should cancel my plans and go on bed rest.  She assured me that there was nothing I could do to cause or prevent a miscarriage.

I told Cliff that good and bad news. The good news was, that after seven years of trying and six rounds of IVF and three miscarriages-we actually got pregnant on our own! And the bad news, this one wasn't going to make it either.

We cried for about 10 minutes and then I just went on with my life. I buried this pregnancy deep in denial and went on with all my plans. The bleeding continued for weeks on and off. At this point I was working after school and on Saturdays getting my students ready for state testing. Things at school were very stressful.

Sure I was tired, but hey that's the story of my life. Other than that I had no symptoms of pregnancy and on the few times when I allowed myself to even think about it, the lack of symptoms seemed to convince me further that this was not going to work out.

In early May, my family suffered a loss and I took two weeks off to mourn. I felt so guilty about being away from school, but I knew that I needed this time to rest. It was then that I remembered that I never did miscarry. So, I asked Cliff to take me back to the doctor to schedule the D&C. I figured the day already was sad and awful, let's just get all the bad stuff out of the way.

I couldn't even look at the screen. I did not want a memory of what wouldn't be. Even when Dr. Yamaguchi said, "Look at the four chambers of the heart." I was scared to turn my head. When I did, I saw an 11 week old fetus!  It was too much, I just couldn't comprehend it all.

Dr. Yamaguchi advised us to wait until 16 weeks to announce just to be safe. I had 3 previous miscarriages to warrant a high risk scan at 12 weeks.  Everything looked perfect there too. But, Cliff and I were still too nervous to get excited. At 16 weeks I was terrified because I wasn't feeling anything, but the doctors appointment went well. Still I was mum.

I went to a therapist to try and sort out what I can only describe as post traumatic stress syndrome.

Finally, at the 20 week high risk scan I could exhale. I was showing, but only a few people caught on. Most of my friends thought I was stress eating. Nobody said anything and I am grateful. The "telling" was so scary because "un-telling" is so sad and miserable.

Needless to say, the excitement our family, friends and you have shown is wonderfully overwhelming. I have cried so many times hearing that this person or that has been praying for me/us. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

The flowers and pink baby clothes were waiting for me in the guest room at my parents house. I spent ten days relaxing, swimming, and catching up with them. It was a wonderful way to start my second trimester.

Not Exactly "Crafting"

Source: weheartit.com via J on Pinterest

Happy 4th of July -

Happy 4th of July!

This is not a typical 4th of July post in that there is no red, white, or blue craft in it. Instead, I want to celebrate a little of what makes America great for me. It's the small things.It's the kindness of strangers, the willingness to help, and Yankee ingenuity just to name a few.

Not too long ago my neighbors discovered a teeny tiny hummingbird egg smashed on the deck outside their apartment. Turns out, the bottom of the nest was weak and the eggs were dropping as fast as mama bird could lay them. (If ever I could relate to a hummingbird it was this one.) Well, my neighbors used a bit of creativity to solve that problem with a cotton ball and some surgical tape.

Mama bird laid more eggs and now there are two baby hummingbirds thriving.  You can just see their heads and beaks here.

Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.”

Bob Richards quote

A special thanks to our military men, women, and families. YOU are our cotton ball and surgical tape!

Storage Bed Done!

It's a gloomy day in LA! Still, I couldn't wait to post. I finished!!

I am really pleased with the storage bed. However, if I were to do it again, I would definitely sand, prime and paint BEFORE assembly! Those cubbies are deep!

It's Not An Otter- Easter Bunnys for My Girlies

Did I mention that I love being an aunt? Well I do. I have yet to meet either of my east coast nieces, but I think about them all the time and get updates as often as possible. My little Sweet Pea is out of the NICU, home and thriving! Ava Baby is also doing great. I follow her adventures on Facebook.

Naturally, I wanted to send the babies something for Easter. I have been eyeing rabbit patterns for weeks. Then one Saturday night I was feeling anxious and in need of some sewing therapy. I chose what I thought would be the easiest pattern. This Chenille Easter Bunny, but it was getting late so I decided to wing it and estimate the pattern. I used some minky that I had on hand for one and a piece of pink minky-like fur for the other. Neither was very planned out.

At the last minute, I decided to add some taggies to the pink one. But, since I wasn't really thinking, we have what looks like a one armed rabbit. When Cliff saw them he said that he liked the pink one best. Then he said, "It kind of looks like an otter." That Cliff.


Sweet Pea and Ava Baby- somebunny in California loves you very much!

Shara's Egg Swap

I participated in Shara's Easter Egg Swap again this year.

I have always loved those sugar eggs with the window. I had wanted to make these last year, but I ran out of time. This year I was determined to make eggs with a window. Yet again, time got the best of me so I had to scale back my quilling plans. I created paper machae eggs using plastic eggs as molds. Then the question was, what to put inside?


Lacking in ideas, I fell back on my moss nest/birds egg filler of past projects. Once I had a bird theme, it was easy to make it up as I went along.


The little tub of Model Magic I picked up several years ago at the $ store is still going strong.  It has this weird gold glitter in it which is probably why it was at the $ store. Anyway, I thought about painting each egg and bird, but decided against it out of sheer "tone on tone is good" laziness.

While it wasn't at all what I had envisioned at the beginning of the swap, I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Dying Fabric

Hello again!


Not too long ago I needed a pink t-shirt for work. It was going to be customized with one of those ink-jet printer iron on transfers. I knew I would only wear it a few times. I decided that I really only wanted to spend $4 on this shirt. Walmart had several possibilities, but most were too nice to ruin with an iron-on. Others were in the $8 price range, which is still cheap, I know. Still, I had it in my head that I could spend $4. Have you ever gotten stubborn cheap? Well, I was. So I decided to buy a white man's t-shirt for $4 and dye it. Since I was buying for my colleagues too I ended up dying three of them.

Here is the t-shirt. The back shows all twelve teachers at our school who got pink-slipped this year.

I can't comment on darker colors, but I was impressed with how easy it was to get even consistent color with this Rit "Petal Pink". Out of respect for the other tenants who use our laundry room, I did the boil on the stove top method.  It was super easy. I wet the shirts in my tub and soaked them in hot water for a while.Next, I boiled them with the dye for about five minutes each. Then I rinsed them out in the tub and put them in the dryer to set the color.

As long as I had this big pot o'dye on the stove, I decided to try an idea from my Martha Encyclopedia of Crafts. I dyed some printed fabric. In this case I used some bits of vintage sheets.


I like this one the best.

All in all, dying with Rit on the stove top was affordable, easy and fun. I already have plans to dye a shirt that I recently stained. I'll update after using the darker colors.