Posts made in November, 2008

Bay Area Moms Like Me

Posted by Michelle on Nov 30, 2008 in Parenting, Social Networking, Techie Mama | 0 comments

If you’re local to the SF Bay Area — check out Bay Area MomsLikeMe! It’s a local community for Moms to get together online and share. This is a national site with local sites set up for lots of metropolitan areas. The San Francisco one covers the Bay Area.

And if you’re an AP mama, check out the group I made — Attached Mamas @ Bay Area MomsLikeMe!

Black Friday

Posted by Michelle on Nov 28, 2008 in Life | 1 comment

A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when “out-of-control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

The rest of the article is here.

It seems like there’s always a story like this every year and it never fails to make me wonder how people get to be so heartless. I love a good deal but people are just out of control when they get pissed off because a store has to close because SOMEONE DIED in the Black Friday chaos. Sales are NOT worth dying for.

As usual, we didn’t partake in the madness. Funds aren’t great and freezing our butts off before getting stampeded just isn’t our idea of fun. We did look at a few online sites to see if there were any deals to be had, the idea being that whatever we bought would be our Christmas present to ourselves. Luckily for our wallets, there wasn’t anything that we needed.

I did drag myself to Joann Fabrics this afternoon to pick up a few things. There was a door buster for a 7′ pre lit Christmas tree for $29.99 — that was long gone before I got there, that’s for sure. But I did manage to snag some cute flannel prints ($1.49/yard) that will probably be made into pouches as well as some heavy duty Gutterman thread and twill for my mei tai project. I came home with 5 yards of fabric and thread for just about $15. Not too bad, eh?

I also checked out a new outdoor mall that opened up in the area a few weeks ago. My verdict? Meh. Not impressed. A quick drive through and I realized here weren’t any stores that I liked. There weren’t any restaurants either so instead of parking, I just drove through the area which, luckily for the stores, looked busy enough for Black Friday.

So that was my (not so exciting) Black Friday. How was yours?

Turkey Wurkey

Posted by Michelle on Nov 27, 2008 in Family, food, Life | 1 comment

Since we were originally planning to go to SoCal for Thanksgiving — *sigh*, stupid finances — we had a small Thanksgiving celebration at my house on Sunday. We don’t have things like fancy dishes or nice serving platters so our Sunday Thanksgiving table was a bit modest with mismatching plates and things served in mixing bowl. But hey, it’s the spirit and not the presentation, right?

My sister has been the designated Thanksgiving cook since she attended culinary school and she always cooks a wonderful spread. This year we feasted upon herb roasted turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, homemade stuffing, corn niblets, peas and (canned) cranberry sauce. I love traditional Thanksgiving menus! She also made her special mushroom strudel which is like spanikopita but better. Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of it. As usual, I was in charge of dessert and made the pumpkin pie. Last year, I went all out and made pumpkin, apple and pecan but alas, that just wasn’t to be. (Too much work!)

The turkey (and all the trimmings) were delicious as was the pumpkin pie. See how perfect that crust is? Wanna know my secret? It’s is Marie Callendars! They make a great, preformed deep dish frozen pie crust. Despite my love of baking, I’ve completely given up trying to make pie crust. The fates have determined that I will forever be unable to make pie crust and risotto. Evil, evil things.

Since we feasted on Sunday, we are already turkeyed out. Our grand culinary adventure today was putting our monster 13.5″ nonstick pan to work by making bánh xèo (Vietnamese crepes). Yes, we realize these have nothing to do with Thanksgiving but they were delicious anyway. Plus The Hubster ™ played chef tonight (though my sister did much of the prep work) which was awesome.

Oh and for something else that has absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving, I just wanted to memorialize the fact that The Little Empress got her first taste of phở yesterday. The Hubster ™ is a phở addict and is pleased to see that his little girl has taken after him. I set aside some broth and noodles for her and The Hubster ™ cut the noodles into little pieces for her. One taste and she was hooked — she kept opening up her mouth for more broth and noodles! She liked it so much that I finally had to hand her off to The Hubster ™ so that I could eat my soup. By the time I got to it, my noodles were cold and soggy. BAH!

Enough 2008 — Happy Thanksgiving

Posted by Michelle on Nov 27, 2008 in Life | 0 comments

This year, with the birth of The Little Empress and the purchase of our house, we have so much to be thankful for. Though we’ve never been affluent, I’ve always been profoundly grateful that we’ve always had Enough. Sometimes we’ve had Enough to Share and then some. Other times, we have had Just Enough but always Enough. This year, we have Enough and most importantly, a beautiful daughter to share it with. Being home with The Little Empress in our own home is a dream come true. We’ve had a lot of help and sacrificed a lot to get to this point. I am so profoundly grateful to God and our family that has helped make all of this possible.

WIP – Lilac interlock pouch (practice)

Posted by Michelle on Nov 26, 2008 in Crafting | 2 comments

I scored some fabric off of Freecycle shortly after getting my sewing machine. Since I’m not too sure exactly what all the fabric is made of, I can’t exactly use them for carriers since I’m not sure if they’re safe. But I’ve found that the fabric makes for great practice!

I found some stretchy, interlock fabric that I decided to turn into a prototype pouch, not so much for use but to at least figure out how to make one. I used Jan from Sleeping Baby Productions has a great page on DIY baby carriers so I used her pouch instructions. I had to read it several times over but I think I got it. See?

Of course, I’ve never worn a pouch before so I wasn’t quite sure how to wear it. This was just the test fitting to see whether or not I’d measured correctly. The pouch was a bit tight when worn correctly so I’ll probably remeasure and try again. Luckily, this particular fabric was very wide so I’ll have more than enough to try again. And again. And again.