I came across this project just today and I absolutely love the
idea."The world we live in is loud and harsh and bright and demanding,
and it is easy to slide into a less than thoughtful survival mode in
which we do what we have to do to make it through the day with the
least amount of strife possible. This robs us of the time and energy to
be mindful of ourselves and those we love and to recognize the grace
that exists in small things."Too true. I think I'll join in the fun.
Maybe not every day, perhaps weekly. Either way, it's time to pause
more often to take stock and appreciate the small things that add up to
make life good. So, part 1:1. A warm, purring kitty curled up at my
side.2. A warm husband curled up at my other side.3. Chocolate oreo
cake. With an oreo on top.4. Sour cream.5. Slipping into the comfiest
pair of pajamas after a long, hard day.

I spotted this dress at Downeast Basics a few weeks ago and I haven't
been able to stop thinking about it. It's so classic! The polka-dots,
the bow, the scroll work along the bottom. And pockets! It has pockets!
How incredibly charming!I can just imagine myself wearing this little
number to tea parties and brunches and ladies book clubs. Granted, I
don't have any tea parties or brunches or ladies book clubs to wear it
to, but maybe if I had a dress for such an occasion one might turn up.
Although really, I kind of just want to buy it so I can wear it with a
pair of high heels and vacuum in it. And then put an apron on over it
and bake cupcakes.This dress has domestic diva written all over it.

Okay, so images don't feed (that was an image of Doctor Who, by the way...hence the time/space/blogosphere travel thing). Which kind of bums me out, since my blogs are made up primarily of photos and images. It also appears that formatting doesn't feed either, since I'm seeing no spacing between sentences.

So I guess if you want to see my photography/sewing/other images and correct paragraph alignment you'll have to hop on over to http://wrappedinivy.blogspot.com/ and http://nikimcstitchy.blogspot.com/ .

But hey, 'A' for effort I guess!

Here's another test to see if images copy over to Livejournal.The
Doctor has traveled through time and space, and now the blogosphere.

Hello, is this thing on?This is a test to see if my Blogger will feed
to my Livejournal.Hey, it works! How about that.Hello my Livejournal
friends! No need to travel all the way to Blogger to find out what's
going on in my little world. Now I come to you!The internets is so
nifty.

We are organizing a yard sale to raise funds to help my friend Mindy pay her medical billsand we need your help. We are asking our friends, family and any other readers of this blog in Salt Lake City to please donate any unused/unneeded items to this sale. So start going through those garages and closets!

We are in need of items in good to fair condition such as:

Books
CD's / DVD's
Furniture items
Kitchen items such as dishes, appliances in working condition, etc.
Clothing (especially childrens clothing)
Home decor items such as lamps, picture frames, clocks, vases, etc.
Toys
Etc. etc. etc.

Any items that fail to sell will be donated to The Road Home of Salt Lake City and Deseret Industries.

Please contact me via commenting here or email at littlechina at peno dot com if you have items you wish to donate. We are planning to hold the sale the first or second weekend in July.

Mindy is a strong and amazing woman, and my dear dear friend. I would not be where I am today without all of her encouragement and support and I am delighted for this opportunity to return the favor.

Please repost this on your blogs and help us spread the word! Thank you to everyone for your consideration and support!!

Love,
Niki

Sometimes we all need a little help. Events happen, things go unexpectedly and before we know it our lives are topsy-turvy. It's times like these when we lean on our friends and family for support and to help us through these times.

I am linking to this entry from my friend Mindy's blog. Please take the opportunity to read it and, if you can, to support her.

Mindy has been one of my most treasured friends for many years now. Her love and support helped me out of a pretty volatile situation and I am so grateful to her for all that she did for me during that dark period of my life. Her creativity and strength inspire me every day. And she has the ability to make me laugh like no one else can. I'm talking laugh so hard you fart. That's powerful! :)

So please take a moment out of your day to read her story and to get an original piece of local, independent art (shown below). Good Karma is a free gift with every purchase.

Thanks to all for your consideration.

So where have I been?

Here.

I am mainly posting on my new blog: http://wrappedinivy.blogspot.com/

Come check me out there. I post a daily photo. And sometimes I say some things. About stuff. And whatnot.

Word.

It's that time of year, folks. Time to count our blessings and do our part to help those in need in our community. I would like to ask and encourage EVERYONE to head to your local Cypress Credit Union or Macy's Department store and chose a child from the Salvation Army Angel Tree.

Nick and I have done this for the past couple years, in lieu of gifts to each other. It's actually quite fun to shop for someone you don't know, especially for the kids stuff! And YOU can really make a difference for a kid who really needs it.

ShopKo has some fantastic sales this time of year on kids clothes and other basics. Last year I spent $100 each on two different kids, and they each got a winter coat, gloves, two shirts, two pants, socks and underwear and a fun item/toy that was requested. All from ShopKo! Talk about stretching a dollar.

So please, if you have the means this year, pick an Angel Tree Kid. All gifts are due by December 12th, so that gives us plenty of time.

Spread the Love this Christmas!

I have been experiencing some moderate fatigue over the last few weeks. Despite getting enough sleep, I'm tired as hell and my muscles feel like they're made of jelly. No strength at all. It has become increasingly frustrating.

Then tonight at about 10pm....boom...out of nowhere a burst of energy. I should be sleeping, but instead I am cleaning my house. Dusting, vacuuming, organizing...you name it. Suddenly the thought of going to bed (which is all I have wanted to do for the past few weeks) seemed silly since I had all this energy and I decided to make the most of it. I feel better.

So it's going on midnight and I'm just settling in. Let's hope this energy extends into tomorrow.

People, I love Amy Sedaris. And I love watching Martha Stewart react to difficult, funny and sassy guests on her show. Put them together and....voila! Let the hilarity commence.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Did you know that you can buy a wedding dress at Target ?

Me neither.

Styles start at eighty-nine dollars.

I'm not sure why, but this kind of boggles my mind. I mean, I like Issac Mizrahi...he's adorable and quirky and his clothing styles are kinda cute. And I suppose if you want a very simple dress and are on a budget, this is probably a great option. So why does this make me go 'huh'? Perhaps I'm just a bit snot-nosed.

"Oh, you look beautiful...where did you find your dress?"

"Target."

See? It just doesn't sound right.

They even do bridesmaid dresses . Most of these are pretty hideous. And some of the bridal gowns are also shown here as bridesmaid dresses. Huh.

But hey...to each her own. I just have one question.....why the hell does a bridesmaid gown need pockets ?? The description states the pockets are a "comfy touch". Again....huh.

All the ugly dresses have made me dizzy. The room is spinning. I need to lay down.

Well, tonight's the night! Hope everyone is ready. Nick and I plan on spending the evening at home together, watching movies and passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

Last night we carved pumpkins! We have been talking about doing this every year since we first got together, but somehow we never did. I have personally never carved a pumpkin before (our mom was always worried we'd cut ourselves, so we never did it as kids) and I must say I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

We couldn't find any patterns for what we wanted to do, so I just drew it all free-hand.




Nick did 95% of the actual carving as he is much more skilled with a sharp object than I, but I worked on cleaning up the edges and carving the mouth for Jack.






And here they are: Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ta Daaaa!!!! Not too shabby for a first attempt!

Slept in until 11am.

Spent too long at the gym and made my legs go all wobbly.

Accidentally had ice cream for dinner.

Watched Mystery Science Theatre 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die'

Laughed.

Solved the case of the stolen pearls with Jeeves and Wooster and solved a murder with Rosemary and Thyme (90's British television is faboo).

Bed.

Hey...Fall? Uh, where did you go? You only just got here and I thought we were getting on so well! Now it's all snow....snow!! Snow's nice and all, but we don't have that special bond. So come back, k? Put your feet up and stay a while.

It seems someone was listening. :) A solution may be on the horizon. More to come later.

It's another round of the insurance nightmare. As we are losing our insurance, and open enrollment is upon us, it's time to make some choices. Our initial plan was that I would pick up the insurance through my job. We did not anticipate, however, just how costly the insurance would be. Adding up premiums, deductibles, medication copays and out-of-pocket maximums...we're looking at about $8000 for the year. Ouch.

Nick is having a job change soon, which means new insurance options. But we're not yet sure what the cost may be. Hopefully we will find out in a week or so. Still...he wouldn't be eligible for 90 days which means we'd have to pay for Cobra for three months. Cobra, my friends, will be $617/month + a 2% per month handling fee. Brilliant.

And the icing on the cake....I reapplied for the insurance company job as they are still hiring. They have a really low premium (about $120/month vs. $340/month) and I figure their benefits have to be better as well. I was already offered the job with them about 6 weeks ago, so I thought I'd just have to re-do the process. I got an email back from them last night saying I wasn't qualified for the job.

So for now it seems our options are either the expensive plan or the expensive plan. I am praying that either I can work something out with the insurance company job or Nick's job will offer something better because I am scared for us if 2008 means a few thousand dollars more in medical expenses than this year.

I am doing my very best to remain positive and optimistic about the situation, but it is quite hard at times. I just don't know how we're supposed to get ahead. I know we'll find some way to muddle through, I just wish I had a vague idea of how. One thing is for sure, however. We're gonna need a bit of help and a lot of understanding for the upcoming holidays.

My birthday is just around the corner and I have begun to get requests for gift ideas. So let me make it easy by letting ya'll know that I would prefer no gifts this year. Really. Seriously. Honestly. And other similar words. I just don't need more stuff and I can't think of anything I really need.

The gift of sisterhood and friendship mean more to me than any thing ever could. So for those of you who feel compelled to give me a gift, here are some alternatives:

-A nice (or funny) card in which you write something meaningful. Give it to me with a hug.

-Hang out time. Let's go to a movie/lunch/bowling/ice skating/cow tipping. Wait, not cow tipping. But you get the idea. And we'll take some pictures to remember our fun day of not cow tipping together.

-A donation to The Road Home, the Food Bank or the local animal shelter. Doesn't have to be in my name....but if you were gonna spend money on me I'd rather it go to one of these organizations.

-A mix CD. Remember making mix tapes for our friends in Jr. High? Good times. (I need stuff I can work out to).

- Girls night. Watchin movies, painting toenails and the consumption of mass quantities. (Horror movie marathon? 80's marathon? Johnny Depp marathon?)

So, KISS it....Keep It Simple Sweetie.

Okay, I have to go clean up some cat barf now.

I was watching TV at the gym today. I had music on my headphones and so I was reading the closed captioning. As closed captioning sometimes does, it wasn't picking up all the words correctly and I read a report on Al Gore receiving the "Nobel Pee Prize".

It's official....I've been everywhere. There are no pants short enough for the likes of me. I'm a hobbit. It's okay, though. I found some really great pants and jeans that fit perfect....they just need to be hemmed. So...does anyone out there do a really good hem? Or know someone who does? Or a really good alterations place?

I know it's just a hem (or four), but I spent a good chunk of change on these pants and I want a really good job. I've had bad luck in the past just picking places out of the phone book and I can't sew a straight line to save my life...even with a machine. I always manage to get the bobbin thread jammed. And I wouldn't have a clue how to do a nice looking hem on a pair of jeans.

So if anyone knows any one/any place that can lend me a hand, let me know!