365 Days Handmade

Making life a better place, one day at a time

Category Archives: Adventures with Sean


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Day 222/365: Appointments and Errands

I had two appointments scheduled two hours apart this morning– one with the allergist and one with the dentist.  Afterwards, Sean and I ate lunch, ran a couple of errands, and then made the two-and-a-half-hour drive back up to Morro Bay.  I didn’t get a chance to work on any of my assorted projects today, but that’s okay.  There will be a lot of knitting coming up in the next few days, because on Thursday morning we’re headed to Los Angeles, where we’ll be flying out of LAX to Florida.  I should have a lot more interesting photos to share with you then.

8.10.2015


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Day 221/365: The Day We Ran 8 Miles and Then Drove 160 More

Today was a long but productive day.  We got up at 6 AM because our half marathon training schedule called for an 8-mile run.  After we got home, we had just enough time to take showers and eat breakfast before making the 80-mile drive to the Stub Hub Center in Carson, where we had tickets to see the L.A. Galaxy play the Seattle Sounders at 1 PM.  It was a packed game and a lot of fun, but it also meant a lot of time being in the car and waiting in lines.  Now we’re back in Ventura and I could easily go to bed, even though it’s only a few minutes past 8.

Hope your weekend was a fun one, too!

8.9.2015

I took this photo a few seconds right before L.A. scored their first goal.  (Check out that packed stadium!)  Go, Galaxy!


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Day 219/365: Pumpkin Plants For the Soul

Every day at noon, I usually take a break from my desk by walking out to the parking lot and sitting in my car, where I check my text messages and scroll through Facebook and browse the internet.  Just physically leaving the prison and connecting with the outside world through my phone helps me decompress from a morning filled with absorbing the very intense problems of the incarcerated men who make up my caseload.

Today I walked out to my car to discover that a notice had been slipped under my windshield wiper, undoubtedly placed there by a correctional officer patrolling the parking lot.  The folded piece of paper turned out to be a copy of a memo from the warden, reminding employees to lock their doors, not leave valuables in their cars, and to roll up their windows all the way.  This last part was highlighted in yellow for my attention, because this morning before I went in to work, I’d rolled down my windows an inch to let cool air circulate through the car during the day.

Anyway, I felt a little annoyed by this, even though I understood it all had to do with maintaining the safety and security of the institution.  I got into my car and checked my cell phone.  Sean had sent a couple of photos to show me something he noticed in the front yard this morning.

My pumpkin plants were blooming.

8.7.2015

Even though they were only photos, it felt good to be receiving flowers.

8.7.2015B


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Day 215/365: The Day We Got A New Front Door

We’re getting our house painted this week, so I took the opportunity to ask for a new front door, which resulted in commiting a big chunk of today to obtaining the door.  We had to go to the Home Depot in San Luis Obispo, rent a truck for an hour, pick out the right door, bring it home, drive the truck back to Home Depot before our hour was up (stopping beforehand to fill the gas tank), and then look at hardware and knobs and door-installing tools.  When we got back home, Sean did most of the rest of the work, but I did help a little, like hold the door steady while he used the skillsaw to trim 3/8 of an inch off the bottom.

8.3.2015A

Before: The old blue door with blistered paint, courtesy of the previous homeowners.

8.3.2015B

After: Fresh new front door!

Now the door is up and I am pretty excited about picking out a paint color for it.  I wonder if bright pink would work?

8.3.2015

Speaking of paint colors, Sean painted these color swatches for me so that I could pick a shade for the exterior.  I made him paint those vertical stripes on the top, so that I could compare colors.  Later, when the paint was dry, he pointed to those stripes and said, “You see this?  This shows the mark of a very patient husband.”

I should also mention that after he hung the door for me, he went and washed the dishes and cooked us a dinner of penne pasta and putanesca.  So I thought I would repay the favor by writing today’s blog entry about him.


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Day 212/365: First Haircut All Year

I took Friday off from work today because I had a dental appointment and a hair appointment in Ventura.  After breakfast, Sean and I got into The Rental and he drove while I tried to hand-sew the binding on the third quilted placemat in the set of three that I’m making for my cousin.  Unfortunately, we hit a lot of traffic and the stop-and-go movement was making me carsick, so I set the placemat aside to finish later.

On a separate note, I have been growing my hair out for Locks of Love.  I plan to donate at least ten inches, but I’m currently a couple inches shy of my goal.  In the meantime, I still needed to get the scraggly ends trimmed, so I scheduled to get this haircut today.  It’s the first one I’ve had all year, and I’m pretty happy with it.  I asked Sean to take a photo so I could text it to my hairstylist to thank her, and this one was my favorite.  Even though it’s a blurry action shot, you can tell I am stoked.

7.31.2015

 


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Day 207/365: Key Lime Pie, Exposed

Last night I made key lime pie.  Although the pie was supposed to chill overnight in the refrigerator, Sean and I didn’t wait that long before cutting into it.

7.26.2015A

Out of curiosity, we decided to calculate the number of calories in each slice.  It turned out to be approximately 400 calories per serving.

7.26.2015B

This slice of pie adds up to around 400 calories, can you believe it?

I decided to eat just half a serving…

7.26.2015C

Only 200 calories!

…and then ended up eating the other half of the slice, anyway.

It’s a good thing we’re training for a half marathon and had to run seven miles this afternoon.  Because there’s still half a pie left, and it is yummy.


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Day 206/365: Key Lime Pie

Tonight’s handmade project is key lime pie.  Sean is from Florida and when I saw that our local grocery store had fresh key limes for sale, I knew I had to purchase a bag and make a key lime pie for my husband.

So this is what I did earlier today:

7.25.2015B

The recipe for the pie itself is pretty simple.  Mix 3 egg yolks, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, and half a cup of key lime juice.  Pour into a graham cracker crust and bake for half an hour in a 325 degree oven.

I just took the pie out of the oven five minutes ago, and here is what it looks like:

7.25.2015A

It will look a lot prettier once I whip the cream and dollop it all over the top of that pie.  In the meantime, I’m supposed to let it cool.  Ideally, the pie should be left to chill in the refrigerator overnight before serving, but yeah, I don’t know if that’s going to happen.


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Day 201/365: Borders and Fronts

Over an early dinner of couscous and shrimp salad with sugar snap peas, basil, and cherry tomatoes, I was telling Sean that I still needed to write tonight’s blog post.  I wasn’t sure what to write about.

“You have a lot of borders and fronts sewed,” he said, motioning to the fabric strips draped over the back of one of the dining room chairs.

It took me a few seconds to realize what he meant by “borders and fronts.”  I’d spent the weekend cutting and sewing binding strips, as well as piecing together the nine-patch blocks that I’d shared in yesterday’s blog entry.

“Oh,” I told him, “you mean binding and quilt tops.”

He tapped his finger on the top of the quilted placemat underneath his salad bowl.  “Like I said, borders and fronts.”

* * *

Anyway, I decided not to take photos of the borders and fronts for today’s blog, mostly because I wanted to share a bright outdoor photo rather than an indoor poorly lit one.  So I went outside this evening and took pictures of my birthday angel trumpet plant and the pumpkin seedlings that are no longer seedlings but turning into full-on plants with vines.  They really loved this weekend’s rain and were very happy to soak it up.

7.20.2015A

See, don’t the plants and gnomes make for very cheery photos?

7.20.2015B


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Day 199/365: Fusion Breakfast with Handmade Placemats

7.18.2015

Sean is the breakfast maker in our household.  He always cooks my eggs exactly the way I like them, over medium.  This morning’s eggs were so pretty that I had to take a picture of them.  As I was framing the shot, it occurred to me that a lot of objects in the photo tell you a lot of things about us.  There are the quilted placemats that I made, along with a luchador cocktail napkin that I sewed.  In the background to the left are an aqua chair that I upcycled (I should post a blog entry with Before and After photos of that project), along with a white side table that I also painted.  And Sean’s t-shirt tells you who he’s supporting in Major League Soccer.

Our meal is also reflective of our backgrounds:  you take a Filipino girl from Hawaii and a Southern boy from Florida, have them living in coastal California for a dozen years, and you’ve got a breakfast of rice, eggs, vegan sausage, and unsweetened iced tea.  Total Hawaiian-Californian-Southern fusion.  And it was good.


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Day 188/365: Week 6 of Half Marathon Training

I got home from work–10 hours of what is my Monday after a 3-day weekend–and I was fully prepared to camp out on the couch for the rest of the evening.  But, nooooo.  Sean said, “We have to run today.”

“Can’t today be a rest day?” I asked.

“No,” Sean said, “because tomorrow is supposed to be the rest day.”

Drat.  He was going to be disciplined and stick to the half marathon training plan that I’d printed out and stuck to the refrigerator door.

So I changed into my running clothes and put on my running shoes, and we went out for a forty-minute run, according to schedule.  I spent the first half hour alternating between being mad at my husband and trying to distract myself from the various aches and pains that were developing along my hamstrings and shins and the arches of my feet.  I spent the last ten minutes focused on just getting home and putting this run behind me.

Just as it is with every long run that I complete, by the time I got home, I felt pretty good about what I’d accomplished, and I was back to liking my husband again.  Especially since he’d made puttanesca while I was at work, and we would be able to sit down to eat in a matter of minutes.

I didn’t take any photos of our dinner, but here is one from our 4th of July breakfast that Sean made.  My contribution was the handmade quilted placemats and handmade napkins.

7.7.2015

Even though he won’t let me slack off the training schedule, he does make the best breakfast.