I’ve never been a big ‘New Year’s Resolution’ participant, but last year I did have a goal which I achieved successfully, so I figured I’d have another go with some other things this time around. :)
My 2010 resolution was to overcome my intimidation of putting on and wearing makeup (don’t laugh!), but this year I’ve got several things I’ll be working on…
No more skipping meals and keep my weight stable at where it is right now.
Be able to go down and back up all 15 flights of stairs in our building without getting tired. This needs to happen bare minimum by November, but ideally much sooner!
Finish scanning the documents in my filing box, and keep up to date with all incoming documents.
Get the piles of stuff on my side of the bed cleaned up and keep it that way.
Have at least two things in my Storenvy store.
Have at least one app in the webOS app catalog.
I’ll have to work on my self discipline, but it’s definitely all doable! Wish me luck!
I’ve been getting ready for this for practically a year, it’s what I wanted to do and made the most logical sense, but it was still difficult when it came right down to it. Last Saturday, I sold my MINI.
Initially, the motivation to sell one of the cars was that we only had one parking space. We can use the light rail to get to work and a lot of our shopping is within walking distance, so we probably didn’t need two cars except for the occasional day we head out of San Jose in different directions. At some point, after we got used to the idea of selling one of the cars, this idea morphed into swapping one for a new 2011 Clubman. I’m not entirely sure how this happened now that I think back on it, but it probably had something to do with how neat MINI Connected sounded, and what suckers we are for new gadgets and toys. It also made sense to have one car be a little longer as there have been a few — not many, but a few — times that something we needed to transport didn’t fit in the boot of either Cooper. My ’07 was younger, had fewer modifications, and had an abnormally low odometer reading, so it made sense to be the one up for sale. I loved my little Cooper, and it broke my heart to think of him sitting on the lot at a dealer, so I was thrilled when I found out that a close family friend was interested in being the buyer. Not only would he go to a good and loving home, but I’d even still get to see him now and then!
Last week was a little tough. I got really reminiscent and kept thinking of fun and significant moments: when Jason and I went over to the dealer together to pick him up, parallel parking in the driveway entrance to dodge the street sweeper, hitting the end of the break-in period, the neighbors looking at me like I’m a loon as I washed him in the rain, and lots of others. My MINI was the only one to ever hear me ‘sing like no one was listening,’ and is also the only car I’ve ever driven that made me want to sing for no reason beyond how much fun I was having.
Giving him up felt a lot like I was moving somewhere far away and had to give up a pet for adoption. It felt like there was an endless amount of things I had to remember to tell his new owner, some legitimately important, and others maybe not so much. Instead of “he loves to be scratched behind the ears and this is his favorite toy,” it was “his favorite gas is Chevron Supreme, and he loves to listen to Imogen Heap’s instrumental version of Tidal while motoring down long stretches of freeway at 90 mph.” It wasn’t all sad though. MINI’s new mom was so excited to be a MINI owner it reminded me a lot of when I first got him. She was grinning ear to ear from test driving to paperwork to getting handed the keys. It’s hard to be sad when you know you’re making someone else so happy. :)
At long last, I once again have a sewing machine to call my own! Picking it up, I was so excited I could hardly stand it; and so, appropriately, a few hours afterwards we went out of town for a long weekend. Such is life. ;) But, you can bet I had a mental list going of projects to start and projects waiting to be completed for when I returned. First up was some hemming and repairs, but I promise the next ones are far more interesting!
The machine that I brought home was the Bernina 350. I grew up with my mom’s Bernina and fell in love with the brand, and now that I’ve used mine a few times, I can confidently say my love was justified. The machine is amazingly feature rich and it sews wonderfully smoothly. It was more expensive than many other machines I could have gotten, but it is top quality and will last a lifetime. A primary factor in my buying decision was that I didn’t want to get one that I’d have (or want) to replace in a few years. So far the 350 has exceeded all of my expectations… I look forward to many years of sewing with it!
A shout out must go to the shop where I bought my machine: Eddie’s Quilting Bee in Sunnyvale. Their staff was super friendly and incredibly knowledgable, they let me put down a deposit to hold a great sale price, and without even asking they gave me a tutorial of my new machine before I left with it! All the questions I had were answered, and I was assured that if I ever have any troubles with it they will be there to help. Talk about buying with confidence!! I look forward to giving them lots of future business! :)
So Mochi has discovered a new favorite treat, and it’s the last thing I could have possibly expected. We’ve been attempting to grow a small container garden on our balcony (key word there being “attempt”), and when we brought in one of our pitifully tiny carrots, Moch was instantly riveted. She meowed and sobbed with a desperation that made it obvious that her possessing this carrot was a matter of life and death. Evidently carrot greens are fascinating, and taste as delicious as they smell! Who would have thought?!?
For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to make Bake It in a Cake’s (now somewhat notorious) Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes. If you haven’t heard of them before, they are cream cheese vanilla cupcakes… with a tiny pumpkin pie baked inside, crust and all! I’ve been wanting mini muffin pans for a while, but never really had a good reason to get them, so this was the perfect excuse! The hunt for ingredients was 99% successful, but for the life of me I could not find the cinnamon chips for the frosting. This was the first time I’d ever heard of such a product, so it wasn’t all that surprising to me when I had to make due without them. Instead, I swapped them out for white chocolate chips and mixed in few shakes of cinnamon. I’d like to try the cinnamon chip frosting some time, but my white chocolate variant turned out quite tasty and really blended well with the rest of the flavors. The tiny pumpkin pies baked wonderfully — the recipe’s instructions were dead on — and my skepticism of whether they’d actually fit into the the cupcakes turned out to be unfounded.
All in all, the whole thing came together very smoothly. I was a little intimidated at first and had a couple moments of panic*, but it’s really not a difficult recipe; it just has a longer set of steps than most. :) The cupcakes turned out fantastically, and I hope that everyone who I was able to share them with enjoyed!!
If you like to bake and haven’t perused Bake It in a Cake before, definitely take a look! There are all kinds of amazingly delicious looking recipes you will want to try out!
*a BIG thank you to Jason for all your support and encouragement when I got frustrated! I couldn’t have done it without you! :)
Typically found online under the pseudonym Alcedine, I am a web developer with a passion for creating. Among many other things, I love to sew, draw, bake, and write code for websites ...and when I think of a new project that doesn't fall under my skillset, I live for the challenge of learning how!
When I'm not busy filling the house with semi-completed projects, you can find me on twitter, at my aikido dojo, or motoring around in my MINI Cooper with my husband :)
