This and That

I had a couple of days off at the end of last week and was able to recover from the Valentines mayhem at work.  It was a nice little retreat.  We spent that time at my parents' house with my family.  On Friday night we cooked a feast of Crunchy Sesame Chicken Wings, Granny Potato Salad and Spinach Salad and had a bunch of friends join us.  It was great fun.

I feel like my blog has been all about my niece Karlie lately.  I guess she is what I've been all about.  On my days off I just want to spend time with her and we have been as much as possible.

I tried to get her to pose with me to show off our boots, but she wasn't feeling it.




I love my new boots.  They were a Christmas surprise from my parents and Frank.  They will last me forever because they are so well made.  I have been wearing them under long jeans, which is sort of a cowgirl boot look.  I do like the way they make my legs look longer.  I have jeggings (never thought I'd own those) that I thrifted to tuck into the boots, but I need longer shirts to wear over them.  They also look great with skirts that hit me right above the knee.


I have been sewing too when I'm at home and have really gotten into sewing with knits. I have almost finished my 3rd top from Sew U Home Stretch and have been wearing one of them a lot. I wish I could get into taking pictures of myself in the clothes I make, but somehow I'm not motivated to do so.  I will try to get over that and show you come of the great new sewn and thrifted clothes that I have added to my wardrobe.

For my Valentines mayhem story.  I loved working in floral, despite the craziness.  I rotated between helping out in the back and bringing flowers to the front, helping customers pick out flowers and wrapping flowers for customers.  By Monday they weren't doing any more custom bouquets, but customers could pick flowers and we wrapped them in tissue.  Both days were crazy, but Tuesday was nuts.  There were flowers in front of the store, but mostly the men with lost looks in their eyes congregated in the floral department.  I enjoyed going up to them and asking what they had in mind, any specific colors or flowers.  Some knew their ladies' favorite flower and we went from there.  My favorites were the ones who wanted something different, not necessarily a dozen red roses.  Red roses are pretty but red roses with baby's breath just bores me.  One gentleman buying flowers for his mother wanted Sunflowers and I put together a bouquet with Sunflowers, Irises, Gerber Daisies, Stock and I can't remember what else, but he loved it.  It's really all a blur of flowers, but I totally enjoyed it.  As I was tagging flowers for the cashiers I was so glad that I wasn't one of them.  I had cashiered Saturday and Sunday and those days were already insane.  So Valentines at Central Market really lasted four days.

By the time I got home on Valentines evening it was late and I was exhausted.  Frank had made me the sweetest card and gotten me chocolate.  I was super lame and hadn't done anything for him.  He made us quesadillas for dinner.  We made up for it the next night with possibly my favorite new diner though.  We made our Shrimp Pasta dish with the new fresh pasta from work and a splash of cream that I had bought for the caramels.  Best pasta dish we have ever made and I don't think I can go back to dried pasta now!!!! Seriously, it was so good.

 My to do list has been growing lately with lots of handmade gifts to be made. I have three birthdays and three baby gifts coming up and two are fast approaching.  Possibly too fast to get anything made.  Work really does get in the way sometimes!  I have also been obsessing over new Spring sewing patterns and eye glasses.  More on that later.