infinite wisdom

a thermometer on the forehead. a clamp around each wrist to measure heart rate. a blood pressure cuff inflating at regular intervals. a monitor on the finger to measure oxygen levels. a brace locking my elbow in place. the i.v. slowly dripping. a tube shoved in my nose for more oxygen. a blurry doctor comes in, "so we're extracting your bottom right wisdom tooth today?" and he starts to pump in the anesthesia into the i.v. as he talks. just like that i was out.

i can probably count on one hand the amount of surgery i've had in my lifetime. i'm sure i had something done when i electrocuted myself when i was four (walking example why you should cover wall sockets), and i know i had oral surgery when i was in 6th grade to correct an upside-down tooth (which has since perished). this is the first time i can remember actually going under. or at least the whole process before and after. it's just crazy to me that i wake up jaw numb, tooth gone and absolutely no recollection of the whole event. there's no foggy memory. no residual feelings of pain from the operation. just 30 minutes of my life unaccounted for by my brain.

christmas in pictures

it's business time

so i'm a little behind the times. i'm making sure aaron's gets on his 4.5 hour delayed flight out of chicago. he just boarded and i'm passing time browsing the net. brian played this for me last night and i thought it was hilarious. i had to watch it again and share with everyone.

pretty dogs all in a row

the excitement of christmas is wearing these dogs out.

love lights

one thing i LOVE about christmas are the lights. the twinkle, the glow--there's just something about them that make me feel all giddy and childlike inside. disney feels the same way. and even though the weather didn't scream christmas the light displays did.

if i could get away with having them up year round i would. i just love seeing them on houses, especially way up on the mountainsides. aaron and i debate if we'd ever go crazy with yard art and inflatables. if there was a tactful way of doing it, i'd be all on it. but being a designer i think the idea is pretty much squashed. i'm just too anal when it comes to decor, and most light displays fall on the cheesy side. (no offense to those who have them) we've got our old-school lights up and even though they suck up tons of energy--i love em!

i'm such a tease

a christmas tease that is. two more days til family arrives. i can't wait!

biggest upset of 2007

of course i have to post this: biggest upset of 2007

AND appalachian state won the national championship for the third year in a row on friday. go mountaineers!

westphal does walt

disney in a day...impossible. especially when toting around four little ones. we did manage to hit up epcot and the magic kingdom. weather: couldn't ask for any better. i don't know how people do it in the dead of summer. lines were fairly fast. we got a fastpass for soarin seven hours later we were riding high. best attraction at epcot and super popular. we did a several more rides with all the kids. little shayna met all the height requirements so she was riding on every ride with the big kids! what a trooper. all in all i had a great time. can't really complain when it's all free. perks of having a disney employee in the family.

i had a great time seeing dana and her family. dana and i chatted into the wee hours every night. we had 12 years of catching up to do. she is a super momma. i must admit i was a bit overwhelmed. going from zero to four is quite an adjustment. even for someone like me. i love kids but i don't think i can manage four. how she does it on her own is beyond me. you go girl! we even got to squeeze in a short visit with oma alyce! exactly how i remembered her. must be the water over there. she looked and acted exactly the same.

i am glad to be home. as nice as the weather was down there, it didn't feel like christmas. i love to bundle up and snuggle under a warm blankets. love to see my breath in the crisp air. snow. and, of course, to see my babies again. although aaron is somewhere in the washington wilderness right now. this is the longest we've been apart since we've been together, 10 days in 10 years, crazy. i talked to him yesterday and he was four hours into his six hour drive from bellingham. then he had a six mile hike ahead of him. he was loving the scenery. hopefully he'll take plenty of photos and i'll make "sometimes aaron" post a blog about his trip upon his return.

making the lists

in case you missed it. an article was recently brought to my attention. thanks, aly. read more here: america’s 10 best outdoor towns

"the mountaineers are a win away from an unprecedented third straight national championship." aaron almost had a conflict of interest. it could have been siu vs. asu in the championship game. unfortunately siu lost to deleware last night. not much of a football fan but go mountaineers!!

"...these towns have not only back doors to some of the country’s best adventure terrain, but also lively, livable communities that are dedicated to playing in and preserving the great american playgrounds."

bad dog momma

lately i've been taking the dogs with me when running errands. we've got christmas decor everywhere and i'm paranoid they're gonna yank, pull, demolish something if left alone. yesterday i looked up from the computer to see bosco standing on our dining room table. so my concerns were well founded.

with it starting to get colder i decided to pack a blanket in the car and put the two in warm outfits, bosco in a smoking jacket and marley in her sweater. none of them bought by me. (i think i have brian and irina to thank for both.) ran my errands, got home and decided to leave them in their outfits. of course, aaron wanted to take them off as soon as he saw them and i told him to let them be. i think they like 'em i told him. a few hours later, marley was upstairs with aaron and didn't come down when he did. which was very unusual. we just thought she was very tired and decided to crash in her crate. then we heard a whimpering from her and we both shot up the stairs. there she sat, looking up at us from the top of the stairs. is she feeling sick? are her ears warm? aaron picks her up and says her paws feel wet. i grab her paws and they're ice cold. take the sweater off, i think it's cutting off her circulation. a few minutes later she's running around like nothing was wrong. problem solved! the price we pay for fashion!

how do you like my balls?

i'd bought some styrofoam balls to make some fabric ornaments i'd seen on craftster. after a futile attempt at making one, i came to the conclusion i was using the wrong type of styrofoam. this type would crush if i applied too much pressure to it. since i had five extra balls i decided to go in another direction. luckily i saw another post with these ornaments. who knew i'd find another use for my sequins stash! yes, i have an overabundance of sequins. over 2000 stickpins later and many hours of sorting sequins... here is the end result.

i'm going to disneyworld

this time next week i'll be in sunny florida enjoying the company of the mouse. disney in a day? is that even possible? aaron thinks it's unbelievable that we're even going to try. dana assures me it can be done. we'll see what the photos have to report.

busy weeks ahead. i leave wednesday for florida. aaron leaves next sunday for washington state while i return home, maybe we'll cross each others paths at the airport. brian and irina arrive the following friday. mom, dad and aaron arrive/return the 23rd. christmas, new year, oral surgery, academy...the list goes on.

yes, more teeth drama. yesterday i went in to see my orthodontist. after wearing my retainer for extended periods what i thought was my jaw was locking up. come to find out, it's the muscle around my jaw, kinda like a crook in your neck. culprit: my wisdom tooth. it's erupted and causing my teeth to misalign. he ground down the tooth and it was immediate relief. he recommends i get the tooth pulled, otherwise it'll continue to bother me. if it's not one thing it's another. so now i have to plan a tooth extraction sometime before the 18th of january. what a way to ring in the new year!

coming to a mailbox near you

i finally made some relocation notes to include in our christmas cards this year. here's the image i used. it's a portion of our tree skirt that aaron's mom made years ago. i would have modified it a bit, but aaron is insistent we get them out sooner than later. look for it in a mailbox near you soon!

criss-cross will make you...

it takes approximately six squares to make one coaster. 24 squares to make a set of four. 120 to make five sets. plus the additional square of fusible interfacing needed for each coaster. who knew such a little thing would take so much work and use so much fabric. here's one set i finished before we left on holiday last week. i should take a pic of the stack of squares sitting next to my sewing machine. we've been working solely on christmas decor that i haven't gotten a chance to finish. goal for today.

we got back sunday. a nine hour drive from cdale to boone. a venti, mocha frap and an ipod full of good tunes made the drive tolerable. good times in the dale. i have to remember, one night of too much fun early on can ruin the rest of the week.

we got to see everyone we wanted to see. how we did it in such a short span is still a mystery. next trip...maybe a short stint down to florida in a few weeks to see dana and the kids...and perhaps mickey. i'd be flying solo since aaron will be heading to washington state for his christmas hike with tom and crew. still have to look into a plane ticket.

this year we're hosting christmas in the carolinas for my family. we've been in holiday overdrive since returning from illinois. aaron dragged out box after box of christmas decor from the basement. who knew we'd accumulated so much. one of aaron's patients gave us an eight foot christmas tree that is now standing in our front foyer. a fraser fir, it looks awesome!! last night we trimmed it together. how quaint. i'd post pics but i wanna keep it a surprise for the family. i'll probably give a little teaser in an upcoming blog. i'm off to clean up a little...our house looks like it's been ransacked by little elves.

another felt creation

i gotta a little sidetracked on my way to making criss-cross coasters. yes, felt hair clips. 24 of them so far. i had bought a packet of snap clips a few weeks ago, knowing i'd eventually get around to making them. now is eventually. i first practiced using craft felt. quality isn't great, but served it's purpose. they're the neon looking ones with somewhat morbid designs. the pastel ones are made of wool felt. what a difference in quality. aaron convinced me to stick with cheery themes when making ones i want to sell. makes sense, a majority of the population would rather put cute than creepy on their child's head. i'll still do a few creepy quality ones, but unless there's a popular demand i'll stick with cutesy. now you'll know what will be occupying my time on our drive back to illinois monday/tuesday.

in action

i finally snagged a photo of carrie wearing my creation. yes, it's been "carrified," i mean sexified. it looks 100x better with the wider neckline. remember i didn't like the seam down the middle to begin with. i'm impressed she was able to make it work. damn, it looks good!

postsecret

postsecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

new site find today. interesting to see what secrets people keep. do i have any skeletons in my closet i'm dying to share? anonymously, of course. i'll have to dig deep.

every sunday it's updated with new postcards.

i make me laugh

what do you do with intimate items you know you'll never use?

for the last few months i've been taking said items over to jill and jerome's. when they were distracted, i'd duck into their bathroom and toss an item under the sink. after leaving about five items i started to wonder if they'd come across the stash. jill and jerome are clean freaks and i remember seeing cleaning supplies in there so i know someone's had to have seen it by now. finally after two months i couldn't hold my tongue, i asked jill. "what!?! you've been putting that stuff under there? i thought it was jerome trying to hint at something!" too funny.

what items am i referring to? everything i got at my bachlorette party last year. kama sutra body lotion, spanish fly, penis straws, jenna jameson bubble bath and...
after an evening of drinking, you know someone's gonna be wearing edible underwear. let's just say it wasn't someone of the female persuasion.

go bold, go home

seriously considering going bold with wallpaper this time around. where? still pondering that one. i know it's going to be too much for an entire room. but as an accent wall, i'm sure it won't be too overwhelming. only thing i'm worried about, applying the wallpaper. it'd be a first for me...and i can already anticipate frustration. it'd be a challenge but if i start fairly small, i think i can pull it off.

bookmarked

i received a small bag of bamboo tiles in a supply swap a few months ago. i honestly didn't have a clue what i was going to do with them. after some brainstorming, here's the end result. fashion bookmarks. supplies: bamboo tile, paper scraps, hemp cording and plastic beads. great stash-buster.

this was the first time i used a high-gloss varnish. it took longer than i expected to dry but it was well worth it in the end. i also made a few pin-up tiles that i couldn't bear making into bookmarks. i think they would better serve as some type of jewelry. what type...i have no clue. i'll have to ponder on that one a bit longer. next project: criss-cross coasters. i think i'll alternate between sewing, crafting and home improvement projects.

i just dropped aaron, jerome and patrick off at the asu football game. i really don't think it's gonna be much to see. they're playing the worst team in the conference. jerome and his buddy patrick came over a few hours beforehand, had a little tailgate at the house. i did have to drop off three very drunk football fans. maybe the alcohol will keep them warm cause it's a bit nippy. go asu!