| Things to work on in the new year |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|06:13 pm] |
Originally published at life with kellybelly. Please leave any comments there.
- Eat lunch away from my desk
- Be more patient
- Brush my teeth after every meal
- Read more books
- Eat more fresh fruits and veggies
- Do Rosetta Stone lessons regularly
- Exercise daily
- Post more “real” posts on this blog
- Take more photos
I’m sure there are more that I should add to this list, but I can’t think of anything else right now.
BTW, have you seen this yet? |
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| Wordless Wednesday |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|09:38 pm] |
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( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at Lynda's Blog. You can comment here or there.
Tagged: holidailies, pictures
Comment notice: By commenting on this post in LJ, I reserve the right to cross-post your comment to the blog URL linked above. Your LJ username only will be displayed with the comment. Please be aware that you will not receive a notification if someone responds to your comment on my blog unless you subscribe to the comments on my blog page. Thank you! |
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| happy new year and i caaan't sleeeeeeep |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|02:23 am] |
hello world. this may not be the coherent, insightful or retrospective entry you are looking for, but ... well, it's not like you're paying to read this or anything, so too bad. :)
i am back. meaning my spirit. interest in life and ecommerce and friends and such. and thank god. 'cause i was gone for a while, y'know? i really missed me.
so without going into too much detail, i think events leading up to the vague/mad/sad entry were bringing me down. but they were also pissing me off. and finally the stacey who doesn't take shit or accept crappy behavior stood up. and said to hell with THAT. and it's kinda weird... i don't know how to explain it.... because at the same time those things were bringing me down, they were also pumping me up. because for a while, i wasn't my biggest fan. and that's just not right. the stacey i know and love has incredible self esteem (sometimes too much, possibly) and fire and undying optimism. and that wasn't the person i had around in 2009 at all. 2009 stacey was indifferent, totally lackluster, burnt out and passive. it was like someone had drained me of my personality and left me with someone who just didn't give a damn. because giving a damn wasn't worth it.
so yeah. it was a very frustrating and a little bit heartbreaking experience, but if in the end it gave me back myself, which is what i think happened, then holy crap it was so worth it.
ok. so where were we? i don't even remember anymore because it was too long ago. but i had coffee with a friend the other day with a financial services company and he said his business was 7% of what it was in 2008. like holy crap, he had a pretty bad year. like way worse than mine. i didn't save any money except for retirement last year and my coke drip account, but you know what? that's actually pretty substantial. and i'm still in business. so i'm totally grateful for that and you know what else? i didn't do a whole lot of work last year either.
so where are we now? well, sales are still slow because of the sad economy, but it's wedding season once again so traffic is up. and i think i'm going to open another store so i can use google checkout. my yahoo stores can't use it and it seems like such a huge handicap. so i'm playing around with bigcommerce since it got such a great review and a small store is cheap... $25/mo. i can't put many items into it but you know... if it can even drive a little bit of traffic it's totally worth it. i'm still thinking about selling ad space since i get at least 1000 unique customers a day (can you believe i used to get 4000 back in the day?) which is still pretty decent traffic. but i have no way of tracking traffic sent out, so that's a blocker.
anyway, i spent the past three weeks with my refound self uploading a crapload of jewelry to three of my sites. that's a lot of work if you know that i uploaded pretty much close to zero for all of 2009. lori was admiring my productivity and i was like, i'm just catching up from last year! but i think i'm ahead now. like, i'm even having a photoshoot on friday. so i ordered 21 dresses yesterday. i seriously need to design some new stuff though. i've been stagnant and on autopilot for way too long. it's time to open a can of whoopass.
in other news, anna thinks we should netflix the hawaiian print chair covers. i think that's a good idea. bigger market. and they're so pretty. the only downside is we'd need to buy more sash colors. or so i think. http://hawaiianchaircovers.com
i've been cooking a lot. for some reason the crockpotting renewed my interest in cooking. i've always liked to cook and have always been pretty good at it, but i started making a lot of soups and soupy things and finally attempted the anasia style thai chicken curry. and i think i did pretty well! it was damn good. and i made some broccoli soup too, which doesn't sound very good, especially since it's pureed, but i threw some onions and celery in there (recipe minus onions from honpa hongwanji cookbook iii) and it was quite yummy. i have a newfound respect for celery.
today i went to marukai to buy dashi and ended up buying 2.2 pounds of it. because the stupid 2 oz bottle is like $3, and 2.2 pounds was $18 for the same thing in a bigger box. same brand, same thing. that's like 70% off. and i got a really cute maneki tiger for mostly myself because he was so adorable, but partially for ryan because he's a tiger and may start a lure store online. ryan loves to fish and has quite a collection of pretty, expensive lures. he proudly showed me his latest acquisition and made me play my own 'guess how much this cost' game. so it was $40. and since he buys these things so often i was like, can't you learn to make these things and then sell them to other people like yourself? and then he was like, yeah, i was thinking of making some out of koa. and i have a box of scrap koa in the spare room. except he did some research and will learn on some cheaper wood. actually... i gave some of the koa to bernard akamine, a veteran who does woodwork as a hobby... but he said he couldn't use it because it was too hard and his tools weren't made for koa. i wonder if i can ask for it back. i mean, if he isn't going to use it... right? oh well. if i see him i'll ask what he did with it.
so... what else. oh. the house was already pretty clean except for the two spare rooms so i cleaned both of them on new year's eve. ryan got stuck at work, which was just as well. i had a glass of really good cab and ryan came home to say hi and was shocked at how clean it was. actually, i kinda want to clean even more, but what i should really do is put the pictures from 2005 (new york trip with jason) and on in albums and such. i'm really behind.
oh. so today's trip to marukai also included the purchase of warabi, which is this fern thing that japanese people like to eat. i don't know if they eat that in japan but it grows here, mostly on neighbor islands in grandma's backyard or something. anyway, it's freaking $7/lb at marukai. but it's so damn yummy. so i bought some. and i also found this japanese hair product... it's shiseido but some tsubaki line. the conditioner was $15 and the hair mask was $19 but i figure... the kerastase mask was $35 by itself so i might as well try it since i'm not forking over $300 for that ... treatment i can't remember the name of that richie says is really good. anyway, i'm very happy with it. :) looking forward to trying the mask tomorrow. there's some kind of tsubaki (whatever that is) amino in it and it smells really good.
i also busted out the bubble shack soap (which is organic) and it smells soooo good. it's $7/bar in resort/hotel shops here but it's like 3 for ten bucks at the swap meet. i don't usually get very excited about bar soap but this is good stuff.
also a little exciting: the new st. regis on kauai in princeville. it was down the road from the timeshare we stayed at so we went to go check it out. very pretty. i really like the full kitchen thing about the timeshare. especially since hanalei is no town for foodies. we got some pizza which was pretty good at hanalei pizza but it was so small. like, i could have eaten that myself (it was $14) so we got another tombstone from foodland. and a dvd. and there was this kayaking adventure up wailua river and a hike to secret falls, and then another paddle to fern grotto, and then another short paddle to a swimming hole where we swung on a rope and i felt like huck finn. we even saw sea bass. wailua river is fresh water i think. but the fish get accustomed to it i suppose.... saw some holehole and some dude in a small dinghy was pulling up his crab pots. and all this for $30 kamaaina, $35 regular folk. i have to say that that activity totally overdelivered. wailua river isn't very pretty to look at if you've ever been to kauai. but general shinseki is from wailua. and ryan didn't seem too thrilled about paying a hundred bucks apiece to go inner tubing down some irrigation ditches. (flumin' da ditch in hawi on the big island is closed now, no?)
what else.... i don't know. oh. for the new year family party i made four different kinds of chicken and brought some sashimi. chicken adobo, korean chicken, sugoi garlic chicken and regular fried chicken. it wasn't hard or anything but i scored major points with my mom since my aunties don't really cook and neither do my cousins. so the only other homemade food we had was all cooked by my mom, which just seems so wrong. i swear that woman holds our family together. if she weren't around things would seriously go to hell.
what else... i need to pick a new drip stock cuz my bud is all gone (they cashed everyone out when they sold to stella).
i'm bummed i missed a lot of people in town for the holidays 'cause i was sick but ... i still had a nice holiday season. hope you did too.
ok, i'm going to attempt sleep again now. wish me luck! |
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| Noah’s 6th Month |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|10:56 pm] |
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The day before Elias turned 6 months old, we gave him some mashed banana and were so excited to start him on solids. He was not nearly as excited as we were. He did not like mashed or jarred baby food much at all. He didn’t start getting into food until he was about seven and a half months old and discovered the joy of Cheerios. After that, we mostly stuck to baby-led weaning, allowing Elias to feed himself. I swore with my next child, it would be baby-led all the way. There would be no spoon feeding mashed foods in our house!
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at Lynda's Blog. You can comment here or there.
Tagged: age - 06 months, flickr, holidailies, photography notes, pictures, solids
Comment notice: By commenting on this post in LJ, I reserve the right to cross-post your comment to the blog URL linked above. Your LJ username only will be displayed with the comment. Please be aware that you will not receive a notification if someone responds to your comment on my blog unless you subscribe to the comments on my blog page. Thank you! |
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| [LJ2ME] We've gained a command post. |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|09:07 am] |
Sitting in my living room with my older brother. Peacefully! Try to contain your shock.
Testing to see if lj2me posting works from my bb.
I am debating learning java and making apps for the BB but it's also tempting to me to get a Android phone, since they have about 10x the free applications market. In which case learning Java would be a waste of time.
Device: RIM Wireless Handheld |
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| Another day passes.... |
[Jan. 5th, 2010|12:14 am] |
I got through today. I'll get through tomorrow, and the next day and the next, until there comes a time when I don't. It's not a big deal, it doesn't really take any effort once you get into the groove, but there is a major effort in getting into the groove. Between going to bed and climbing up from the depth of sleep is a major effort. It takes time, and effort, and the results are sometimes successful; sometimes not.
So things are just the same on some levels, and totally different on others. |
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| Last day of vacation |
[Jan. 3rd, 2010|10:11 pm] |
Originally published at A Cat By Any Other Name. Please leave any comments there. What we did on our last day of vacation:
- Ate leftover birthday cake and ice cream for breakfast. </p>
- Charged wildly around the house for several hours and then crashed on the couch the rest of the day (okay, that was only the kittens)
(Rosie, Azzie, Ingrid (in back), Rupert)
- Knit
- Baked bread
(White bread, variation 1, Bread Baker’s Apprentice)
- Watched Iron Chef, Worst Chefs in America, and Moon of the Wolf (not as bad as you might have expected)
- Read
(Bits of the Dead)
Tis the season for Holidailies. |
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| A mid day’s walk |
[Jan. 3rd, 2010|08:47 pm] |
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This weekend went by in a blur. I’m not sure we actually did anything at all, but it was relaxing and fun to be at home with my husband and sons. When we put Elias to bed last night, he actually played very quietly in his room with his Mr. Potato Head until falling asleep. When I woke him this morning, he had an ear in his hand and Potato Head body parts scattered all over.
We’ve been very lax on the night time routine since Noah was born. Since giving up the pacifier though, we need to put some consistency back in his nap and bedtime routine. For naps, I’ve decided to try a routine of lunch, taking out the dog and picking up his toys beforehand. We did that today and although he did not help me in picking up a single one of his toys, he did take a nap without an ounce of protest.
It’s nice to get outside, even when it’s ungodly cold like it was today. We have a pond right across the parking lot from our building.
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at Lynda's Blog. You can comment here or there.
Tagged: age - 02 years, holidailies, pictures, sleeping habits, toddler
Comment notice: By commenting on this post in LJ, I reserve the right to cross-post your comment to the blog URL linked above. Your LJ username only will be displayed with the comment. Please be aware that you will not receive a notification if someone responds to your comment on my blog unless you subscribe to the comments on my blog page. Thank you! |
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| Chocolatey good |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|10:47 pm] |
Originally published at A Cat By Any Other Name. Please leave any comments there. We slept in late again this morning, and when we finally did get up, there was the usual dithering about what to have for breakfast, until I decided to make experimental chocolate crepes with cream cheese filling (I did the crepes, while Richard was responsible for the filling). They turned out absolutely delicious, which would be a bonus except for the fact that neither of us bothered to write down any sort of measurements, so who knows if we’ll be able to replicate them at some point in the future. Ah well.
After breakfast (or rather, brunch, considering how late in the morning it was before we dragged ourselves out of bed), we opened all the doors and windows upstairs to take advantage of the lovely (albeit chilly) weather outside, and then gave the house (or at least the upstairs half) a much-needed cleaning. We’re both feeling a lot better, but it’s frustrating to get worn out so quickly, just from doing simple chores.
Richard’s parents and youngest sister arrived this evening, bearing birthday presents for Richard. About two hours before they were to arrive, I suddenly remembered that I needed to bake a cake, so I dashed off to the store to get all the necessary ingredients, then came home and whipped up Richard’s (belated) birthday cake (spice cake with chocolate frosting, which is his favorite). I figure this is a distinct improvement over last year, since this year at least I left it with enough time for the cake to cool sufficiently so I could frost it before they arrived.
We all went out for dinner at our favorite local place, and then returned to the house to open presents and eat cake and ice cream and play with kittens (wrapping paper and ribbon are awesome things to kittens. And then after they had headed back toward home, Richard and I collapsed on the couch (see above about still getting worn out too easily) and watched two movies from the collection of science fiction movies I’d gotten him for Christmas. And I have to admit, I really do love those things. The old black and white science fiction movies were all so wonderfully earnest about themselves, with their dire predictions of what the world could eventually be.
Tis the season for Holidailies. |
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| Crafty Meme and The Infant Gym |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|10:31 pm] |
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First three people to comment here will get a hand-made gift from me in 2010. You may express your wishes but the ultimate choice of gift to make is up to me. You will, in turn, post the same in your journal – and follow through.
I think this sounds like a lot of fun. I love snail mail that isn’t bills or advertisements!
COMPLETELY UNRELATED: Mark took this photo of Elias this morning under an infant toy. I’m trying not to use his photos in my blog, so to compensate I’m following up with two old photos I took of Elias under that same toy at two month and four months respectively.
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at Lynda's Blog. You can comment here or there.
Tagged: crafts, infant, pictures, products, toddler, Toys
Comment notice: By commenting on this post in LJ, I reserve the right to cross-post your comment to the blog URL linked above. Your LJ username only will be displayed with the comment. Please be aware that you will not receive a notification if someone responds to your comment on my blog unless you subscribe to the comments on my blog page. Thank you! |
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| Carry on |
[Jan. 1st, 2010|09:27 pm] |
Originally published at A Cat By Any Other Name. Please leave any comments there. Hurrah, the corner, it has been turned. Of course, this means that while the rest of me is finally starting to feel better, the sinuses belatedly decided to join in on the fun, so I might have more energy, but I can’t really breathe enough to make use of it. Fun times!
Nevertheless, I was starting to get a little stir-crazy from being stuck inside these last few days so, unlike yesterday, when we spent the entire day in our pajamas, today I actually showered and got dressed and left the house. The regular First Friday craft night, hosted by my knitting mom, happened to fall on New Year’s Day this month, so instead of having it in the evening, she stretched it out to encompass most of the day, figuring (rightly) that this particular group wasn’t the sort that was in any danger of suffering from the ill effects of over-excess the night before. So I pulled a loaf of pumpkin bread out of the freezer and sliced that up once it was thawed, and I drove off to pick up my mom and all the remaining cookies from the Christmas gathering, and we headed off to hang out with a bunch of other women and work on our various crafts. I have a baby blanket I need to make in a fairly short period of time, so that I can pack it up and send it off to the nice people at KnitPicks who have agreed to publish the pattern, so that they can have a photographer who actually knows what s/he is doing (unlike, say, *me*) take some shots of it. The last few days I haven’t had energy for much of anything, so it was nice to have a few hours to just sit and do some mindless garter stitching and get back into the rhythm of things.
Of course, the problem with only being on the recovery side of an illness is that I still wear out quicker than I’d prefer, so the rest of the day was spent doing not very much of note. We played a new-to-us Zombie game (Richard got two Zombie-themed games for Christmas this year and we have now played them both and are looking forward to inflicti…er..playing them with larger groups of our friends, one of these days), and we ate leftover pizza fondue, and at some point Richard discovered that the SciFi (oh, excuse me, “SyFy” whatever the heck that’s supposed to mean, don’t mind the excessive eye-rolling over here) channel was having a Twilight Zone marathon and so I suspect the rest of the night will be spent watching old episodes of that until we’re falling asleep in our Snuggies. The future, it is here, and boy do we know how to party.
Tis the season for Holidailes. |
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| The end of Christmas. Sort of. |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|05:40 pm] |
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Late in the morning yesterday we decided to take down the Christmas tree. It went pretty smoothly with minimal interruption from Elias. He was happy to sit at the ottoman and color most of the time.
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at Lynda's Blog. You can comment here or there.
Tagged: age - 02 years, holidailies, pictures, sleep habits, toddler
Comment notice: By commenting on this post in LJ, I reserve the right to cross-post your comment to the blog URL linked above. Your LJ username only will be displayed with the comment. Please be aware that you will not receive a notification if someone responds to your comment on my blog unless you subscribe to the comments on my blog page. Thank you! |
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