return to the creative

so...it's been almost a month since posting to this... i've been a bad blogger...
but not that i haven't had things to blog about...just busy, preoccupied, & therefore neglectful of posting

i've recently returned to my artistic and creative side... i've been itching to paint for quite awhile, but our "office" was still a huge disorganized mess from the move, and i just wasn't inspired or motivated... dh has been working on organizing the office. and finally all my art stuff was exposed and he made it very convenient for me to start painting...

this is the result...
painted: last thursday
medium: acrylic
destination: for our bedroom

Deals

so...what is a good deal?
everyone wants a good deal.
but not everyone gets a good deal.

do good deals need waiting for?
not everyone waits for a good deal.
but are deals worth waiting for?
maybe some, but not others.

would you say, there's always a good deal.
so if you don't get this one, there'll be another one?
so, then it means if you wait, you'll always find another good deal?

and once again, what is a good deal anyways?

who do you trust - part 2

gosh. there are so many realtors. too many realtors.

we meet a new one everyday. and they all "want to be your friend" or something like that... salespeople...

who do you trust?

and how do they all stay in business? so many realtors. all trying to make commission. all trying to close the deal. whether or not it's good for you... they do what they need to do i guess.

who do you trust?

housing market...it's overpriced usually. all about "what the market can bear"

what will ppl pay for something? supply and demand...
it's all about what one is willing to dish out over another one.
how much do you want it?
what is it worth to you?
what are you willing to pay?
how much do you have?

who do you trust?

so many ppl in the world out for themselves. every has their own story. everyone is trying to make a buck. who is telling the truth? they all say something different trying to play you. especially when it comes to selling this or that...or fulfilling their agenda.

i don't think it's totally evil or have a bad view of it. it's capitalism. but still...

we're just wanting to find& buy our 1st "house". gosh. why does it have to be so difficult?

yay. so excited!

i haven't been this excited in a while. i think we've found a DEAL! all this house hunting, deal hunting, going to the foreclosure auction at the county office last week, driving around, looking online...

Primer

Just watched Primer tonight... I had to watch it again right afterwards b/c it blew my mind. I couldn't and didn't get it all the 1st time. Good movie. I highly recommend it! And the $7000 budget, very impressive. Had to comment b/c the past few movies we've watched have been less than we've expected. (We've been watching a movie every night the past couple of days.)

brilliant husband - part 3

"the dyeing of the laundry"

saturday, dh was being super helpful & super productive - all so that i could sleep in a bit. he took care of the dependent. he cleaned the bathrooms. he did the laundry...

due to changing the dependent on the upstairs bath rugs, they got a bit of poo on them. so he tossed them into the laundry. (the rugs are a taupe color.) he decided that while he was at it, he'd toss in some cloth diapers that i was keeping in a dry pail and some other of the dependent's items. and why not toss in the downstairs bath rug too to make a full load. (the downstairs rug was blue - and of a dyed yarn)

since there was poo on the one rug, and oh...there's cloth diapers with pee, so let's set the washer function to "sanitize." on the washing machine, there's cold, warm, and hot... and well sanitize is ever hotter than hot. well, you can guess what happened...

everything in the wash was dyed blue. white cloth diapers - now blue, white washcloths - now blue, anything pink - now blue, anything lavender or purple - now blue, blue bibs, blue outfits, taupe rugs - now blue, and the blue rug...now faded.

i discovered this when i was about to switch the wash load.

i was laughing, amused, yet exasperated, and a bit upset. i didn't know how to respond. poor hubby...he felt so bad and so shamed. he'd never dyed any laundry on accident ever in his life. not to pink, not to blue. he always had perfect laundry. washed clean, folded perfectly. no mistakes. it was a totally new experience for him.

i spent the next few hours trying to "fix" and "reverse" the dyeing of the laundry. i was able to save the taupe rugs by washing them again on warm in a bit of bleach. the whites, I could only bleach to an off-white/cream color. one lavender outfit came out almost okay, some other pastel colors were almost okay. The other pastel colors just couldn't be saved.

a reality tv show i like

though we've not watched much tv lately...we were flipping stations the other night, and we stumbled upon this new show on FOX: Kitchen Nightmares.... i actually like it a lot.

i remember when i 1st saw Chef Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen (that i watched a few times flipping channels again), i thought he seemed so harsh, so mean, & he cursed so much.

but in this new show, i like how he helps these failing restaurants come back to life - and gives the menu and the restaurant a makeover. it's rather inspiring and he does a really good job - probably why he's such a success. and you can watch whole episodes on FOX online.

brilliant husband - part 2

one sunday night driving back home from a long road trip...

story to come...

thanks dh for my b-day presents

thanks dh for my b-day presents! you're great!

i especially like this present:
Oral-B Professional Care 8850-DLX.

brilliant husband - part 1

i really have a brilliant husband. i am amazed at his analytical ability and engineering mind. he computes numbers & equations in his head, balances our finances, calculates pros & cons, and helps me solve free cell and minesweeper when i get stuck (when i'm playing on road-trips). he's a determined and goal-oriented guy. i love him.

so with that said...that's what makes this story to follow all the more funny to me...

all of the wedding hubbub is over. yay!

hubbub is over. thank goodness! i was more stressed out doing this wedding planning thing for my sis than i've been over anything in a long time. i wasn't even this stressed out planning my own wedding.

two weekends in a row of festivities, all in different cities and all "a long roadtrip" for us, thanks to the large geographical distance of texas.

i guess i'll put up some stuff on my lil sis' site...since i created it initially anyways.

in the midst of all of the hubbub, my b-day became secondary. so happy b-day to me from yesterday.

finished flowers & floral tape

yay! tonight i finished the making the "main" flowers for my sister's wedding this Saturday.

i really like floral tape. i didn't use any wire at all or adhesives or glue. just floral tape. oh so fun it is. my fingers are all sticky and waxy.

oh...i guess i did use corsage pins to affix and finish the wrapping of ribbon.

after much hemming and hawing and phone calls with the bride, i did my best to fulfill all of her wishes, requirements and preferences, from type of flower to color of flower, with many executive decisions of my own. and this was after lack of sleep with jet lag and time changes and just getting back from halfway across the world just a week ago.

she wanted:
-calla lilies, another type of lily (i decided stargazer), orchids, maybe roses, an assortment of flowers, a wine color or fall colors.
-not a round bouquet...something flowing with a sort of cascade shape, but not stuff sticking out up top too much
-the hand tied look, but without unwrapped stems sticking out
-bow & ribbons hanging down (i opted for no bow)

i decided on calla lily boutonnieres and corsages.
the grooms corsage is the same color as the bride's bouquet.

the father's boutonnieres and mother's corsages are white calla lilies, with wine-colored mini orchids in the mother's corsages. no ribbons/bows on them. just the plain beauty of the lily.

i opted for silk/fake flowers instead of the real thing due to availability and her many flower wants & my time constraints & the issues of flower transportation to the site & flower preservation (keeping them alive, fresh, and beautiful for the actual day). i don't own a flower shop and i didn't want to scour our small town to find these flowers or order one of each etc. plus real ones are delicate, fragile, hard to transport (since i'm making them many hundreds of miles away from the actual wedding and a few days away from the wedding, and i have a baby to take care of - i'm not a florist by day).

Airlines, briefly

I am disappointed in the service of the American Airline industry and AA. I used to really like them and would choose their company over others. I've decided I much prefer foreign airlines others... namely JAL's service as of this last trip. More to come later.

shopping marathon

i've never shopped as much as i have in this past week. everyday it seems, we're at some department store or clothes shop buying this or that. i'm "along for the ride" and exhausted by the end of the day. i guess that's what happens when you put 4 generations of women in a family together. they get together and shop. either for clothes, presents, souvenirs or what not. it's been exhausting even for me...and i'm usually pretty patient with shopping.

world is still spinning

well of course the earth is spinning. it's always spinning.

but i'm feeling dizzy still. lack of sleep. jet lag & travel worn...
experienced little bouts of dizziness, esp going up 90+ flights in the world's fastest elevator.

The world was spinning all day

i woke up. ate breakfast with dh, and the world started to spin. i was incredibly dizzy. i lay down on the couch, thinking i was just lacking sleep. eventually i went back to sleep and awoke from the nap in the afternoon, still dizzy. Vertigo. it was very uncomfortable...and trippy. it was like motion sickness, but i was on land and in the house. even when i closed my eyes (usually that helps when I get migranes etc), i was still dizzy and the world was spinning behind my eyelids. i had no extra symptoms, no headache, no body aches, nothing, but dizziness. just felt like the world was spinning around me. it caused me to throw up. it was worse than morning sickness. i was nauseous and yucky and dizzy and nothing helped. couldn't keep down food or fluids. took dramamine and threw that up too.

eventually with intervention, i slowly felt better. thank God for that!

even now...my head feels a bit spinny. my equilibrium is off.

She's napping!

YAY! She's finally napping today!

Happy Birthday to my dearest!

Happy Birthday to the man in my life! Thanks for being born! I'm glad that you are here today. Yay!

"Momsense" on YouTube

so gone are the days when i could surf YouTube for fun. i don't have that type of time anymore, but a friend sent me this one.

the summer i was prego with the dependent, i was so nauseous that i stayed in bed mostly and surfed the net b/c i didn't know what else to do. my lil bro suggested that i surf YouTube and so i did. i liked all the Japanese practical joke videos.

boring posts

as i look back at the previous posts...gosh...how boring. it doesn't really reflect who i am or anything. from the posts, i seem to live a super dull life of domesticity where painting my walls, buying photo frames, and paper towels are the highlight of my life. what's up with that? ahhh! oh wait! i AM a SAHM. i am being assimilated...

dh posts about politics and all i can share is my preference for paper towels. has my brain become soft and mushy? oh wait! it was already soft and mushy with white and gray matter, csf - mostly water (almost 80%!), a bit of lipids, some protein & carbs, and then other organic stuff. haha!

that's the thing about blogging or journaling. what is written is later interpreted as a glimpse into the person's life/mind or what not. but what i choose to write about here doesn't even reflect my whole life at all or much less what is going on in my mind most of the time. i think i select these really random tidbits that say absolutely nothing and then expand it into a blog entry. doesn't that seem like a waste of time? maybe?

i should probably start writing stuff of "import" or "interest" but hey... the blog IS titled "MUSINGS of a RANDOM mind" so why should i feel responsibility to publish things of import or to edify the general public?

i certainly don't want to journal publicly. though i DO feel that i need to journal...of important things in my life, my milestones, my stories. but not here. where shall i journal...hmm...

i write enough about the dependent on her blog. so that takes up most of my limited time to blog. i think for me that's good enough, to document the dependent's growth, developmental milestones, etc.

maybe this blog will eventually evolve into something more substantial. but for now...it's going to continue to be random musings. mostly ambiguous, non-identifying stuff from me. more "fluff." but it's all from yours truly.

read on! whoo hoo!

paper towels

before i forget...random story...

so the other night, i discovered that blue liquid laundry detergent had leaked onto and into a large package of paper towels that i left on top of the washer. i quickly separated the "stained" from the "non-stained" and salvaged the ones that had not soaked up any detergent. there was a particular roll that had detergent on 1/3 of the bottom diameter, but not soaked through it. being the non-wasteful offspring of really frugal parents, i couldn't bear to toss the whole roll. i proceeded to attempt to save the roll by cutting off the soaked "corner." dh saw me, laughed, took the serrated bread knife and proceeded to cut off the bottom 3-in cylinder of the roll. i laughed, and we then switched to one of those Forever sharp surgical stainless steel knives that my mother had given to us (she buys those gimmicky TV items) to saw the roll. paper towel shavings were flying everywhere. but we "saved the roll" by shortening it. ridiculous...and the time was really late at night. i was just totally ocd and couldn't let it be. ha ha!

we usually get the Bounty select a size. we also like Viva b/c of its clothlike feel and absorbency. but this last time i ended up buying Sparkle, don't ask me why. just did - maybe to give another brand a try. and we just don't like it as much. oh and we like them in white, but the Sparkle i bought has patterns on it, and i definitely prefer the white.

photo frames

i think i spend too much money on photos & photo frames. but i really like photos and portraits. i like "decorating" the house. not with TONS of photos, but selected family ones in our stairwell...

i finally bought more frames and mats for the portraits we took in august. framed them and put them up today. i got some on sale! yay! and i didn't even know they were on sale until i checked out. i may go back and get some more frames...

eventually i think i'll buy a digital frame. but i'll wait for now...

i haven't printed off any of the ones i've taken in the past year. i just store them on our hard drives and look at them, and periodically email them to peeps. mostly family that requests it. and then they come up on the screen saver. oh and i post them to the dependent's blog. they're all mostly of the dependent anyways.

painted wall...

when we 1st moved in, we decided to "add some color" to our new place. i decided we should paint the dining room wall. it was 1st supposed to be a light green, leafy color to match a leaf jacquard table cloth, a tea set and some green accessories, like a light greenish window treatment. well, i took the tea cup to do the color match, took the paint home, and dh painted the whole wall for me...and it was too green.




so after some brainstorming and another paint purchase, i decided to do a whole layering effect. i diluted a taupe brown color with water, and did a wash over the green to tone it down. then i used a sponge brush and stenciled on leaves. next, i diluted a light green with water and glaze, and painted vines and also stenciled on leaves over that. here is the result. very organic, patterned, and brings together the dining room elements much better.




We also decided that it should be a half wall of color, and not the whole wall.

blogging bandwagon

yay! got dh to jump on the blogging bandwagon!
so i muse while he rants.
he probably will have a lot more substance to his posts.

mine is just fluff....so far...

got lots of computer "to do's" done today. caught up on a lot of posts and updates and uploading of photos.

why?

so much to do. so little time!
so here it is in the wee hours of the morn...
burning the midnight oil, doing stuff... for them.
they better appreciate this.

much better

woke up super early today. and i feel fine. feel good and very productive. ready for a brand new day. the dependent is still sleeping. yay.

i think i will tackle many things today. i'm in one of those super productive states. it's a good day.

i really like breakfast foods. funny that i'm a night owl and not really a morning person. i'm eating some nice crispy pancakes right now. i like them crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. it's a delicate balance. dh made me some eggs too. yummy! i like eggs. i also like them crispy on the outside (border) and soft on the inside. had some yummy crepes at R&R's Monday morning. haha! their initials are R&R. we did get lots of rest and relaxation there too! i'm going to tell them that. in the future, that's what it'll be. we will go for rest & relaxation at R&R's!

don't really feel like doing much

i'm tired. my head sorta hurts. i know i have a lot to do...and stuff that i'm not even remembering to do. i think i've forgotten to do a lot of things. and i'm perfecting procrastination - to where things are procrastinated to the point where doing them is just pointless anyways. i think this is the accumulation of years of sleep deprivation and a messed up circadian rhythm and biological cycle.

the dependent is sleeping. and i should be taking advantange of the time to be productive, but alas, i'm going to do "not much."

i'm going to catch up on reading my friends' blogs.

New Shoes

I LOVE these shoes!!! They're totally me! I've been wanting them for awhile. Sporty, dressy - combos for me. Good for walking, good for casual, good for a skirt. All-purpose.

I got these over tax free weekend. I mulled over whether to keep them or not (I don't need new shoes...already have a ton that I don't wear...and finally last weekend I decided to keep them. The funny thing is in NJ, it was tax free all the time, and I didn't feel the urge to shop that much b/c it wasn't a big deal. And then here, there's one weekend where shoes and clothes are tax free, and I make an event out of it. HA!

Another thing. There are too many ppl with my name. So I've decided to change it. ha ha ha! I've already changed it before, and now I'll do it again! muahahahaha!
It was such a big deal to me these past 2 years...whether to change my name or not... the whole identity thing... yada yada... and one day I decide to google my own name, and BAM it's not an issue anymore. I want a new name!

hmmm...

A little fried. A little annoyed. A little tired.

So much information out there. Too much. Inundated. Yikes.

beginnings

so i thought i'd have a place to put random thoughts. here it is.

i was going to put random thoughts here earlier, but didn't get around to it.

TIME...how do we spend it? how do you spend your time? why does society place more worth, importance, or preference to certain ways of spending time over others? who decides what's worth more or more important? it just varies...so many variables. culture? leaders? parents? microcosms of life? species? nature? circadian rhythms?

so a few weeks back we rented Premonition. it was a movie that seemed interesting and the psychological-thriller type, rather enticing to me (but not to watch in the theatres...a rental). so anyways, we watched it. and it was a totally illogical attempt at something that could have been really great - potentially, but sadly it was a disappointment to me. Sandra Bullock has been choosing these time-warpy movies. what's up with that? The Lakehouse...time-warpy romantic movie. hmm... though that was more entertaining to watch for me than Premonition.