Contacts

I got contacts this weekend.  I haven’t consistently worn them in almost two years, because I got this major eye infection, and the doctor recommended I take a break.  And then I just never got them again. 

 

So because I now have vision insurance, we went to the optometrist, and I got contacts again.  As I type this, the computer is really straining my eyes.  I have to keep trying to focus.  I have to glance away at a distant object every now and again in order to not get a major headache.  But I remember that my eyes will get used to this.  After three or four days, looking at the computer all day long will not be so difficult.  The entire struggle to adjust will be worth it, because I can wear sunglasses and colored eye shadow again.  (Wearing colored eye shadow behind glasses kind of looks like you have a black eye.)  And hopefully, you won’t end up with another eye infection, or worse.

 

So I wonder if this is how marriage is.  Maybe for the first three or four years out of sixty, it’s a struggle to focus and not switch back to what you used before (in the contacts analogy, it would be glasses).  But maybe once you adjust, it gets easier to get along.  To have daily routine not be a struggle.  To not make stupid decisions, like driving 100 mph on the freeway and endanger your wife’s life.  And like the analogy above, hopefully you won’t come out of this with an infection in the marriage.   

 

Happy Long Weekend

We had a lovely three day weekend.  We were busy all weekend running errands, although I did manage to get some sewing done on Saturday.

 

 

2 month anniversary celebration – Friday

 

 

Sprinkles!!!

 

 

So good!  But I could not finish it.

 

 

Sleeping in

 

 

In-n-Out on Sunday

 

 

Matt like’s queso on his hamburger, so we brought our own.

 

 

President’s Day dinner – quesadilla’s at Lupita’s taco truck, arguably some of the best carne asada in the Valley.

The Grocery Cart - Marriage, Month Two

I promised to tell the truth about my marriage.  So here is my awful admission: I have not cleaned the house in almost a month.

 

There have been spurts of taking out the trash, doing dishes, and other miscellaneous cleaning, but there has been no organization, no sweeping, no mopping, no cleaning the stove.

 

Why?  Because I have a shopping cart in my living room.

 

Matt decided he didn’t want to carry things up and down the stairs.  (We live on the second floor of our apartment complex.)  It was easier, he said, to have a cart and use the elevator.  So he went and stole a shopping cart from someplace.  Maybe we can put ribbons on it, he said.  Make it pretty.

 

There’s something about a shopping cart in your living room that makes you want to not clean.  It’s gray, dirty, and ugly.  It’s white trashy (yes, my elitism is popping up).  It’s not what you want in your living room.

 

That’s what marriage has been like this second month.  It has not been fun.  It has not been easy.  It has been fighting about a shopping cart in the middle of your living room.  It has been fighting about decorating styles (he is minimalist, I am French country).  It has been arguing for a half hour in the middle of Michael Levine because he thinks you want a floral print for the couch slipcovers, and he wants a solid burnout slipcover, and then he finds out that just because you say, “Oh this is pretty!” about a fabric doesn’t mean you want it, and you actually did want the solid burnout like he did. 

 

There is still good in the last month.  Eating dinner on the bed every night.  Finally succumbing to frozen dinners.  (The pressure is lifted!!)  Bubble baths.  Him calling me from the parking lot, coming home from class – “Turn on CarTalk [NPR], I want to see if I got the weekly puzzler right!!”  (He did.)  The Valentine’s Day flowers still making the bedroom smell heavenly. 

 

So it is not all bad.  It is not all good.  And I’m realizing that “for better or worse” doesn’t mean “in better years or in worse years.”  It means “on better days or worse days,” “in better hours or worse hours.” 

 

But I am wondering if this is all me.  I’m just too sad right now, and so maybe this gloominess is my brain lying to me.   I’ve been struggling lately with depression, again.  As soon as my health insurance kicks in, I’m going to try to get fixed.  Maybe things will get better then.  I’m very bleak right now, and I’m quite certain that this entire darkness about marriage, the grocery cart, and life in general will go away once I am medicated.  So this is my hope – that I can get fixed, and that things will get better.

A Message to Macy's

 

I was doing a search on Macys.com for a dress to wear to a wedding next month.  And I have one thing to tell Macy’s.

 

No Sane Wedding Guest wears a FLOOR LENGTH WHITE DRESS to a WEDDING.

 

The end.

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is such a pretty vintage Valentine.

I made chocolate dipped strawberries for our second annual Valentine's picnic.

In it goes!!

Matt's present - a giant chocolate chip cookie heart!!  I'll decorate it when it cools.

Fashion District

 I took Gina and Brittany to the Fashion District on Saturday.  Brittany purchased material for cltch purchases, which she plans to sell on Etsy, so once she gets her shop up, I'll put up a link for it.  Matt and I got fabric for slipcovers for our couch, and I picked up fabric for throw pillows.  It was a fun day.

$5 sunglasses!!

Santee Alley

So pretty!!

Matt & Gina

Matt & Gina

The Fashion District is a great place to find cheap jewelry, makeup, hair jewelry, and fabric.  It's not for the faint of heart, and you have to be prepared for the gritty environment (ie, it's not South Coast Plaza).  The amount of choices can be completely overwhelming, but as long as you know your own personal style, it's kindof Pandora's Box.  I think it's worth it, especially for the jewelry and headbands. 

Daisy Lollipops

I wanted to thank the colleages at work that have helped me succeed over the past 10.5 months.  I've been working an extremely grueling admin job at a major utilities company in downtown Los Angeles, and it is finally over.  Constant pressure to never make a mistake, to keep the speed of my work going-going-going was really tough.  One of my colleagues commented that I'm not as perky as when I started working there, which is really quite true.

So to thank the two colleages that gave me awesome recommendations for my new job, and for the coworker doing the same job as me, I made daisy lollipops for each of them.

It's super easy to do.  Stop by your local confectionery or craft store (or Wilton), and get candy molds.  You'll also need candy melts, paintbrushes, and lollipop sticks or kit, which are optional, depending on the mold you get. 

For this mold, I melted two yellow candy melts (yes, in an espresso cup!) in the microwave for two sets of 30 seconds, 1 minute total.  It was pretty pliable by then, so I painted the center of each daisy with the yellow candy.  I then froze the tray for about 30 minutes, until set.

This is the only picture I got - it was really late!!

Next, I melted 3 colors of candy melts: red, pink, and purple.  I poured each color into a daisy, then stuck a lollipop stick in each mold.  Make sure you swirl yours around so it's coated with the candy.  I froze that overnight.

In the morning, I popped each one out of the mold, and wrapped in a little cellophane bag.  Ta-da!!

Cubical Mouse is on Twitter!

Major news for this week: we're on Twitter!!

Otherwise, things are pretty sedate around here.  I'm training the new contractor to take over my job.  Yes, I got a new job.  I can't say where, because, well, let's just say I'm planning on staying there for the next 40 years. 

I do have some pretty awesome posts going up next week.  On Friday, I'll have a post on DIY chocolate lollipops, and next week, we'll talk about Valentine's Day activities, shopping in the Fashion District, and (finally) a tutorial on easy curtains.

Off to bed folks!!

Shower

My friend Julia is getting married in less than a month, so on Saturday, I went to her shower.  I made her a lovely French country lap quilt.  I alternated between a purple floral and an ivory cotton fabric.   Her wedding color is purple, so I thought it would be a good choice.

 

The shower was lovely.  Gina planned games, which were fun, and the cupcakes were delicious!  I’m so glad to go to other people’s showers and wedding parties, rather than my own!

 

 

My name and date, so that in 100 years, historians know who made this quilt.

 

 

Shower guests

 

 

Julia, Me, and the quilt.

 

Instagram Wedding Pictures

Hot Chocolate

I love hot chocolate. It's a great bedtime habit. But last night we ran out of milk, and I detest hot chocolate made with water.

So I had to be inventive. I crushed half a candy cane and melted it in water. The. I mixed in the powder with a whisk, and voila! Mildly peppermint hot chocolate.