Picara Baby Carriers

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Things I've learned

Things I've learned from living in a hotel with a small child.

You can make instant oatmeal, noodles and rice with the small coffeepot worth of water.

Bouncing on the bed is never as fun as jumping from bed to bed.

It's impossible to sew at night without waking said small child up.

Running through the hotel sprinklers is much more fun than the sprinklers at home.

People having sex in the room above us can be easily explained by saying, "Oh, someone else enjoys jumping on the bed too."

Going out to eat gets old on about the 3rd day.

Homecooked meals seem a luxury and if someone shows up with a meal, they've gained instant good karma.

Two sewing machines and a computer cannot share the same table at the same time.

Heat over 110F will kill most of the flies, making your stay near the dairy and sewage treatment plant oh so much more bearable.

A remote control can be used to control a small child. Just tell her it works and then describe the channel you've just pressed. ie, Ok, channel 55 the flop on your back like a dead bug channel. or Channel 78 the pretend to ride your bicycle up and down hills channel.

Teaching a small child swear words in Portuguese is funny until your Portuguese future MIL comes for dinner and child calls her a butt head or underwear face in perfect Portuguese with an Azores accent.


And now we get to pack for our REAL vacation/conference. We'll be in Portland from the 3-9 of August. I'm expecting better internet access up there, so hopefully I'll be a bit more communicative.

I'm sewing like a maniac and almost finished with my "wish" list of things to bring. I hope I make a good impression. I'm starting to feel like all the other companies there will be bigger, more legitimate, more "real".


Also, should I buy some of this fabric? I think it's adorable, but not sure what others think.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Eggs on a sidewalk

I thought about showing Sarah how an egg would cook on the sidewalk, but, well it's TOO hot to try. Right now, it's about 106. It feels cooler than it has been though. I think the high Sunday was 115. We've now hit 10 days of temperatures over 100F. I did not sign up for this weather. Frank apologized for the weather, as if it were his fault. I know it's not normal for it to be this hot, this long. I just hope that we haven't screwed up the climate so much so that this is now the norm.


The heat is so bad now that I think it's actually unhealthy to be out in it.

Good news on the home front however, the contractor has started work. He'll have a crew there all week and then testing can happen on Monday. We leave for Portland on Wednesday and the babywearing conference starts Thursday.

I'm disappointed that instead of sewing my heart out making all the awesome showpiece carriers I can, I'm stuck in a hotel with a faulty sewing machine and one in the shop. I'd really like to head up there with some great silks, brocades and the best of the best instead of just the regular.

Ah well, that's life and I just need to try not to stress.


Here's the adventures of motel bound Sarah. Frank's shirt as a cape, and Barney undies on her head. At least she's doing great.

We're on our way to Fresno tomorrow to visit my Granny. The stroke seems to just have affected her speech centers. She's able to understand language, but not produce accurately. Speech therapy and time should help.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Cleaning up, clearing out

The first bid is in for the work at a whopping $14,000 some odd. Got another estimate this morning, hopefully their bid will be lower. Getting a third tomorrow. Unfortunately, the bid is for the clean up only, not the rebuilding, not for cleaning the house contents etc. We have to have the house empty before they can start work also. That's right, empty.
Move out. Vacate. Pack up our shit and park it in a storage unit till the work is finished.
I can't even begin to say how I feel about that.


I'm beat. I worked at Sarah's preschool this morning. It's 107 here today. We came to the house to just pick some stuff up, but I couldn't let the mess rest. I swept, mopped and dusted, hoping that it will help with the mold while we're here. Dishes done, fish water changed, dinner defrosting. Some pick up done, but that will just have to wait till later. Sarah has been watching TV for 2 hours now. Getting back into our regular schedule and routine is going to be hard. I'm not even going to try till after our trip to Portland in August.

So, things here are sucky. How's life in your neck of the woods?

Friday, July 14, 2006

Karaoke

The restaurant next door to our hotel has karaoke. I think we're going to introduce Sarah to the joy that is watching your parents make fools of themselves in public tonight.
I'm thinking, "Islands in the stream" or "Brick House" or maybe some James Taylor.
She knows the words to "If I Had a Million Dollars" by BNL so maybe that one.
Can you see I'm trying to distract myself from the suckiness that is hanging out at a hotel on a Friday morning at 9 am?
Sarah's still sleeping (she needs it sooooooooo much). Frank is at work. His team got spanked at the softball playoffs last night, but oh well.
I need to sew, need to work on the website, need to do laundry. But I'm stuck here. So, eh that's life?
The contractor that said he'd have a bid sent to the insurance company by Tuesday? He lied. He's on vacation now. The insurance rep isn't calling me back. He's an asswipe. The house is still standing, albeit without us. We went swimming there yesterday afternoon. Even that small exposure to the inside of the house made me more congested. BLECH.
Sarah found caterpillars in our tomato plant too. They will eat and eat and eat and eat and eat some more. There are only three right now, so I'm not committing caterpillarcide yet. I might pluck them off and put them in a bug house so Sarah can watch them make cocoons and metamorphose. We were swimming around the pool singing Met a mo pho sis yesterday afternoon. She thought it was the funniest word.
And now, pictures!
Sarah on the carousel at Casa De Fruta.

Frank and Sarah walking through the gardens at the La Playa Hotel in Carmel.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Notes from the Travelodge

Here we are, enjoying the high life, hotel living.
Except the flies, the ring of fire to the west of us, the dairy to the south and the lack of frothy, alcoholic drinks.

We are now staying at the Travelodge in lovey trilogy, CA. All gifts should be addressed to the front desk.

Sarah is taking it remarkably well, she's a very resilient kid. Summer school started this week, we moved into the hotel the night before. She had a hard time sleeping, but now it looks like she's so tired that sleep tonight will be easy.

There's a huge fire to the west of us in the hills. Yesterday the light in town was this smoky golden color, quite beautiful if you didn't count the ash and smoke.

The contractor came to the house yesterday to finish an estimate for the ins. Company. He said he'd get a quote in by the afternoon. I called the company this morning and of course, he's gone till next week. I am so sick of people promising things they can't deliver. What is the point?

Speaking of that, I've got to get back to the house and either move my sewing stuff here or into the garage and get some stuff out. People are waiting on special orders and there are orders that are just pending samples. I refuse to be one of those people who promise and then don't deliver.

On a completely separate note, aren't these pictures cute?


Sarah took them. Yes they were taken by a 4 year old. Better than any of the other fifty pics I took at the wedding.
She's talented I say.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Blah

I'm feeling blah. Like all the things that need to be done are piled up in front of me and I can't figure out a way to start. I guess I'll just make a list.

Clean house
Laundry
Vacuum (once I find out if it's ok to use, or if it will spread more mold spores @@)
Mold hygienist's report should be faxed to me today
Insurance company should call
Construction company should call
Fabric shopping for MMM
Servicing for all the sewing machines
Grocery shopping
Talk to hotel about reimbursement/apology


I don't feel like doing any of it. So I'm here, online, piddling around.

I know the mold is making me feel tired. I know I should get out of the house, do something outside. But it's hot outside already. Last night at 10 it was still 92.
I really hate the heat. I really hate the mold.
I'm not surviving the summer as well as I'd hoped.

We were in Carmel this weekend for a wedding. The weather was so beautiful, the town was adorable (snotty and snobby, but adorable). The hotel sucked. That's a whole story for some other time though, it will just piss me off now. Just what I need, to be pissy and tired and blah before Sarah wakes up even.
The wedding was lovely.
We went to the Monterey Aquarium on Friday. Fabulous time there. Got the membership so we have to go back. Here's a cool picture of a blue mushroom jellyfish.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

I'm channeling Martha

I don't know what or who has gotten into me.

After a lackluster morning folding laundry, doing some cleanup, I decided to cook for our trip tomorrow. Easy portable stuff that will last in a cooler. So far I've made:

Cranberry orange muffins for breakfast
cleaned and cut canteloupe
washed grapes
made pizza dough!
prepped ingredients for sandwich rolls
salami, ham, red onion, cheese, basil

Now I'm just waiting for the bread to rise so I can roll it up into delicious bits of portability. Then I don't know what to do. I'm off work today, no Mamamade pressing business, Sarah is clingy, but manageable. Maybe we'll go swimming.

Frank has a softball tournament tonight, so he's pontentially gone till 11.

What's a girl to do?

4th of No-Buy

So I busted my ass for this booth. I have been going to this fair as a watcher for years and thought, "A shining rainbow of commercial bliss will shine down on my booth like coins raining from heaven." Instead, there were very few people comparatively, very few babies, and still fewer parents who were willing to try something "new".

I did make my booth fee, plus some. I did much better than a lot of vendors there. There were LOTS of disappointed people with lots of leftover merchandise. I, however was situated across from the Figure-8 Hairclip booth, the handmade jewelry booth and next to the french tablecloth booth. All three of those did ROCKING business. Thousands and thousands of dollars. Heck, I even bought a clip, finally one that holds my hair!

So although I did OK, I didn't do great. I'm such a perfectionist that anything less than excellence irks me. I have one custom order and the possibility of adding my stuff to a store though. I guess I shouldn't bitch too much. Total # of sales, about 6.


Here's a better pic of the puppet theaters, they were a big hit. Everyone who walked by said, oh look, what a great idea.

A very cool mom with her 3 month old "Dean-O" in a mei tai. She and her hubby were super cool. Frank and I were thinking we should invite them over to hang out.

Me with a wrap on front with a bear in it and Sarah on back in a mei tai.


In other news, we're headed to Monterey and Carmel for a wedding this weekend. We're hitting the aquarium tomorrow and then heading down to Carmel for the wedding Saturday. Sarah looks like a fairy in her dress. I was going to hem it so it's tea length, but my sewing machine decided to give up the ghost on Monday after sewing vast quantities of slings. It's the only one that has a rolled hem foot (out of 4 machines under one roof, wouldn't you know) so I can't really hem the darn thing without it. She'll just be a floor length kind of kid.