Employed

Well folks, I'm finally employed. I was hired last week and had my first day on Friday but had too many things going on to write about it. I'm working for the Child Center which is a non-profit children and family therapy center in Springfield. I'm working as an instructional assistant in a classroom with children who are currently unable to be successful in a regular classroom due to behavioral issues (mostly the result of abuse). It's rough stuff but I can totally handle it. The pay sucks, the hours are awesome, and it is a permanent position--ie, I have the job until I feel like quitting and having myself a baby. Woohoo! I am super relieved to be able to stop looking for jobs and filling out applications.

On an unrelated note, Monday was my honey's 24th birthday. We went to a cabin in the woods with some really fun friends for the weekend to celebrate. We hiked, beached, and sat in a glorious in-ground hot tub. On Monday I slaved away in the kitchen making food that was as close to that at La Isla, in Seattle, as I could. I made pulled pork with mojito sauce, cilantro-lime rice, and a pinto bean concoction. It turned out surprisingly well--whew. We are still, as ever, poor so Ricky only got three presents. They are awesome presents though; I got him Settlers of Catan (his favorite board game), this Ork Poster of Seattle, and best of all, I found a used Mario Kart 64 game on Amazon for him. I played it too. I am very anti videogame so this was a big move for me. I decided that the game is so old that it can be cool to play it once in a while. Anyone want to come over and play with us??

Thanks to everyone who supported us during my job hunt. You are great.

DIY: Grandma's Doily

My great-grandma used to make doilies all of the time and hand them out to various family members. I'm sure my sister and I have at least a dozen each. I'm not really the type of person that would put doilies around the house as a decoration but I wanted to do something special with at least one of them.

I decided to make this dream-catcher to hang on my wall. This was a super easy project because I didn't  have to buy anything and I was able to finish it in one afternoon. I used white thread to tie the doily around the inner hoop of the embroidery hoop. All of the feathers I used on the bottom are ones that I found on my hikes and walks while we lived in Seattle. I superglued the feathers together at their tips, tied them with some basic twine, and then tied the three sections of twine to the outer embroidery hoop.

I chose to hang this sentimental craft in the center of a main wall, surrounded by other art pieces that are special to me. Can't wait to enjoy this for years to come!

Special thanks to my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Stout, for giving me this lovely doily.