Flea market

Inspired by a post from another blogger today, I decided to go check out Chico's Indoor Flea Market. While not nearly as inspiring or containing any of the beautiful things the other blogger's flea market contained, I *did* learn where to acquire Stevie Nicks's entire discography (including, of course, all of Fleetwood Mac), boxes upon boxes of drill bits, a plethora of Hot Wheel cars, or baked goods made by charming old ladies who also knit and/or do needlepoint. Next time I need baked goods for a gathering, in fact, I may just go to the flea market, because they looked yummy.

While I was out, I decided to head to Joann's, which is always a dangerous trip. I was looking for a 2" wide bias tape making tool, but the widest they have in stock in the store is a 1" one. Bias tape is good for all kinds of things, and having the tool to easily make my own would be pretty awesome. Something else for the Amazon wishlist, I suppose! I then checked out their remnants cart, where I grabbed some SUPER cute glittery ladybug fabric that I'm going to use for a bag for the 2-year-old of a dear friend of mine, and 2/3 of a yard of an olive-green-y fabric with dots on it. Not sure what I'm going to use it for, but they came out to $4.45, combined, including tax. I had $1.50 left over on a gift card, so it was only $2.95 out of my pocket for a total of 1 1/3 yards of fabric - pretty good, I think!

After that, I went to Old Navy and to Target, but didn't find what I was looking for at either place (a khaki version of the awesome pants I picked up last week, and satisfactory not-annoying shower curtain rings, respectively)... so I had In-N-Out Burger for lunch. Mmmm.

Oh, right. Hubby isn't home, so this was all by my lonesome - I miss him, and won't see him until tomorrow, but it's kind of nice to have the house to myself...

Well, me and the little monsters. :)

How exciting!

Facebook gets better all the time, I tell ya! The local newspaper is sponsoring a monthly "dinner and a show" contest. The winner gets $40 to a local restaurant and tickets to a show. This month was a gift certificate to Tres Hombres, a great Mexican place here in town, and tickets to Hello Dolly, put on by the Chico Theatre Company.

And I won! :D

Not so excited about the show, but DEFINITELY looking forward to a night out at Tres! :)

Amusing anecdote

Amusing story of the day? Go!

I have this coworker who doesn't seem to know how to dress appropriately for work, despite having been told this on at least one occasion. She's got this pair of white cotton capri pants that she wears all the time.

I looked up today and realized that, not only are they see through, but that what I initially thought was a stain on her pants was actually her tattoo, a big green butterfly, which is on her ass.

I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THIS, BUT NOW I CANNOT STOP LOOKING.

Book 5: Once Upon a Quinceanera, by Julia Alvarez

Book 5 was Once Upon a Quinceanera, by Julia Alvarez.

Intended to be an examination of how the quinceanera celebration affects Latinas in our community, by the end, Alvarez loses track a bit and heads more into personal exploration.

Quinceaneras are the often very elaborate parties thrown for Latina girls for their 15th birthdays; think a Hispanic sweet sixteen. Various traditions, which started who-knows-where, include girls being dolled up in enormous white puffy gowns; girls' fathers exchanging the girls' flat shoes for heels; girls being crowned with tiaras; a 14 couple court to escort the girl into womanhood; and so forth. No one can seem to agree on where this tradition came from, but the purpose generally is to acknowledge the girls' statuses as "women" instead of "girls," marking their eligibility for marriage.

Alvarez explores what this really means in today's society. We no longer live in a world where girls get married at 15, yet this tradition says "you're a woman now, time to go be a grown up." There are no statistics directly relating "los quinces" to things like dropping out of high school or getting pregnant, but Alvarez does cite other studies that indicate that Latina girls in the US are generally in trouble - they drop out, have children, get involved with drugs, etc., at earlier ages than their white counterparts.

Overall, the book was alright. As I stated earlier, Alvarez lost sight of the quinceanera theme a bit by the end, instead focusing on her own troubles "at that age" and what might have been done for her as a Dominican-American. Although this does contribute to the theme of the book - the importance for Latino/a families to focus on helping their girls really fit into the expectations of American society while still maintaining an appreciation for their heritage - she doesn't really tie it in as nicely as one might expect from a published book.

Next book: Pornified, by Pamela Paul.

Laundry update!

Jeff successfully laundered our clothes - and even moved my dresser into our bedroom...

So after a year of getting my "delicates" (his word, not mine, LOL!) out of a plastic Old Navy bag every day, now I can get them out of a drawer, like a real, civilized person.

This is very exciting. :) Jeff doing the laundry, though? Cute. He hung up my clothes until he ran out of hangers, which he ran out of relatively quickly since he was hanging up all the tank tops that I wear underneath my shirts to work so that I don't freeze. Adorable! hahaha. I love my panda!

Laundry

My husband's a smart guy; I wouldn't have married him otherwise! He's got a degree, he's put half our house back together, learning things he didn't know in order to do so...

But today I had to give him written instructions on how to do our laundry.

We don't yet have a washer/dryer installed in our house - right now there's a big ol' red tool chest where the stackable machine I bought from a co-worker will go - so we've been going to the laundromat every two weeks to get 'er done.

And by "we," I mean me. I'm fed up!

Today, it's his turn.

We'll see how it goes.

Thoughts on Sewing

As a new sewist (the noun I've chosen for myself, because I'm not exactly a tailor or seamstress, and sew-er isn't exactly a pleasant term, sans hyphen), few things are as scary as the first cut (or, in my case, slice) into a BIG piece of fabric. I'm able to afford all kinds of little pieces, like fat quarters, or just scraps, or whatever...but having a BIG piece means I've gone out and purchased it.

True, fabric isn't incredibly expensive, but the time to go get more, the shame in having screwed up... it's a lot.

Back to work. :)