The Power of Love… and He-Man

Yesterday I decided I was going to spend my child rearing years reassessing my style and what kind of legacy I want to leave behind while I focus on my family.  I also decided to focus on my “Chainmaille with a Hui-Twist” collection because it embodies me the most and is what I wanted to do with all of my chainmaille after I absorbed all I could on that basic left brain level.  The next step was to figure out how to adorn it and I was so happy to have Aislyn of Urban Maille as my guide into the next level of ascension.  I’ve mentioned my creative plateau before, but I’ll link to it again for significance.  The early part of 2008 was when I decided to take my jewelry to the next level, and OMG, it really, really did.  By 2010, I got a little lost, but now that my personal life has settled down into married life and soon-to-be motherhood, it’s nice to be somewhat back in action.  Jesse has made a huge difference in my creative mojo.  It’s wonderful to have such a supportive and adoring husband.

I made this bracelet after spending the weekend with Jesse.1 and being surrounded by friends and family.  Embodiment of all the love and mushy stuff that was spewing out that weekend.  I worked on it Saturday night well past midnight if I recall correctly.  I have an idea for another necklace just like this with the rose gold accents, but I’ve been hesitating for some reason.  I should just make it and see what happens.

Last night, I decided I wanted a Double Double from In-N-Out (one of the few fast food items I can eat) and figured Jesse could take care of his own dinner.  It was still really hot so after scarfing down the deliciousness with a tall glass of milk, I decided to take a nap (yay for pregnancy laziness), played a round of Diablo (yay for killing monsters), then eventually got myself settled at the eating table with my iPad perched and ready to watch some He-Man.  Played Emile Autumn to get into the mood while Jesse tinkered with the CD drive he dissected out of my old computer.  Once I got the initial right brain stuff going to the point that I knew what I wanted, I switched over to watching He-Man and explained to Jesse that I haven’t seen ALL the episodes because I was 4 and only remembered probably a quarter of them.  When they were released on DVD in 2005, I was ecstatic and spent a good chunk of time watching them over and over as background noise or zoning out after a long day at the office.  Even my mom figured out whenever I was watching He-Man, I was exhausted and recharging my batteries.  So you can imagine the happiness of being able to watch He-Man and make jewelry at the same time again.

I ended up making this necklace.  The focal bead is a kyanite, and it’s really difficult to polish kyanite like this because it has two different MOH hardnesses on the vertical and horizontal axis.  This was the very first strand of beads I bought from my Crazy Pirate Rock Lady.

Love really is a many splendid thing.  You can’t sustain a marriage solely on love, but it’s definitely more than just icing on the cake.  I know just exactly how blessed I am and I am thankful for everything everyday, even on the days when he’s being grouchy and annoying.

Food and Pregnancy Stuff

Last week I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  Yesterday I took the education class and started taking blood sugar measurements.  While poking myself and trying to get my finger to bleed isn’t the most fun thing to do, I’ve come to terms with the foods I can eat and not eat until Hui.1 is out and screaming.  Really, I’m not craving chocolate.  I ate a spoonful of the chocolate peanut butter ice cream and that was all I needed until the end of September.  What I’m really sad about is the maximum of 2 servings of fruit a day.  Yes, this is definitely Jesse’s baby with all of my fresh, raw food cravings.  Postpartum, I want fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, smothered in the last of the season’s strawberries with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.  While the idea of going to BJ’s and getting the Pizzookie trio (chocolate chip, Oreo, and Ghirardelli), I don’t want to shock my system with that much sugar.  Who knows, I might be delirious enough that I’ll send Jesse to fetch me one during the first week at home.

Food has never been one of my weaknesses.  I don’t know why, but I’ve been able to maintain a healthy outlook when it comes to body image and food.  I have a bag of Cheetos sitting on my desk right now in front of me and it’s about half full (less than that now because I offered some to my sister yesterday).  I don’t count calories, carbs, or whatever else people count.  Honestly, it irritates me about how carb/calorie conscious people are.  Yes, it’s okay if you have to have a certain diet to maintain a healthy well being, but it’s another thing to be overly obsessive about it.  Maybe I’m not obsessive about it enough, but my food/exercise rules are simple and I have Jesse to blame for that.  Less sugar, more fruit.  No white flour unless you’re going out to eat and they serve you really yummy bread (yes, it’s a treat).  I don’t eat a lot of pizza, so I’m not missing out.  1 small slice of veggie/meat pizza is okay, but no more than that. I consider that hard to eat just one slice, so unless I can find a really small pizza, forget it.  Ice cream is good to have in the freezer, one half gallon at a time.

I bought whipped organic butter because I was at Sprouts and I’m too lazy to wait for my butter to properly melt.  And this is a lot less mess, IMO.  My friends and MIL have butter holders but it gets too messy for my taste, so I’d rather pay extra for more easily spreadable butter.

Allison is coming over tomorrow for some shiny, jewelry chaos, so that’ll be fun.  And also be a great excuse to clean up the apartment since I’ve been doing nothing but managing my food and playing Diablo.

Happy 4th of July!

What a random day to have a holiday.  But Jesse and I made the best of what we could.

Played some Diabo before heading out to Downtown LA for lunch at my family’s old favorite dim sum place.  Dad and I always stop by whenever we’re in Downtown, simply because we have to.  I’m more Chinese than I give myself credit for.  Holidays = Chinese food!!!  I’ve been in Chinese food withdrawal ever since I moved out and got married.  Yes, my dad would be proud considering how much I detested it as a child.  I will do the same with my kids… Chinese food until they’re beyond tired of it, but then they start going out with friends and thinking it’s cool.

After walking around a bit to help digest the yumminess, we headed up the 110 to go to Pasadena.  I saw an organizing video online yesterday about drawer organizers and I was like, “I must have those!!!”  The Container Store carries them so it was a perfect excuse to head to Pasadena for the afternoon.  I asked Dad if he wanted me to take any pictures because we’re implementing pay parking in one of the cities we work in, so I took a picture of the “Pay Here” sign.  It’s actually not the best location for the sign because you still have to walk a few more feet to the machine. Not sure how to avoid that unless you have a designated pole to place the sign.

I really like these drawer organizers.  I’ve actually saved room in my sock and underwear drawer.  Now I have a real reason to fold my laundry instead of just tossing it into the drawer of DOOM!  There are some mismatched socks, but I’m sure I’ll find them eventually.  Next thing to figure out is how to deal with all of my nicely folded t-shirts that live in the cabinet.  Jesse is willing to buy a dresser, but I’m wondering if we can avoid that and just work with what we’ve got.  But with the baby and a ton of clothes coming, I don’t think we can avoid it.  The best we can do is make everything as organized as possible.  Oh boy…

As I was wondering what to write about today, we happened to stop at Superior Grocers because I wanted salsa for dinner.  It got me thinking about what a melting pot this country is because we had Chinese food for lunch and Mexican food for dinner.  Heck, we’re an interracial couple/marriage.  25 years ago, it wasn’t all that common and almost frowned upon.  These are the freedoms we mustn’t take for granted and this is one of the things to celebrate on July 4th.  Not your typical BBQ celebration, but I find it quite suitable.

Ooo Shiny!

Lots of new shiny things and new pictures.  I’ve been inspired to use my wedding china as a backdrop.  What else am I going to do with it if I don’t use it for entertaining?  Yeah, next dinner party, I may just bust it out…

So this is what happens when I have a Saturday to leisurely sit on my butt and “rest” while Jesse occupies himself with Diablo 3.  Someday, I will play video games again, but not until I replace my crappy computer.  But hey, it lets me do all the stuff I need to do online, so I’m not complaining.  Besides, one can only do so much “running around and killing things” before one’s butt gets tired of sitting.

This is my spring necklace… I love what I did with it.

Old fluorite necklace I revamped with this big @$$ focal bead.  It’s certainly a show stopper.  I should post it on Etsy, but that’s a task for another day.

Teeny tiny multicolor tourmaline beads on yellow gold filled.  I blame 2 things for the creation of this necklace… my friend who is obsessed with tourmaline and the fluorite necklace.  It took me all day and I tumbled it all night (yay for fan noise to block out the tumbler noise!).

With matching earrings, of course.  Well, I never make matching anything, so this is a big accomplishment.

Rose gold filled and sparkly sunstone.  Yum!

And a work in progress tourmaline necklace.  This is the lighter strand.  The darker strand is in sterling silver.