what's a year anyway? new in the shop today!

sprung ahead

have been cleaning, organizing, re-decorating a little bit, websurfing, and eating more consciously.

so far today:
very tasty breakfast of two slices turkey bacon sauteed with onion and kale (no added fat) with a cage-free organic egg cracked over the top and a tablespoon of gorgonzola cheese. a little espresso and vanilla almond milk as well as some green machine-type juice.
lunch was a bowl of special K strawberries and chocolate with unsweetened almond milk.  I am so bummed that it's 'special edition' because that means it will go away some day and i will have to buy the chocolate and strawberry boxes and mix them together myself. AUGH!

now i'm drinking some chai tea with a squirt of organic agave syrup*, and i had a banana snack about an hour ago.

as is the case with the first few days of a new eating plan, i'm OBSESSED with what i will be eating next. i can't go grocery shopping until later in the week so i need to use up my freezer and pantry staples in a portion-controlled and healthy way.

dinner was a bisquik pizza crust with a scant 1/4 cup of cheese and about 3 T of leftover alfredo sauce with a ton of veggies piled up on top of that.

the crust is SO easy to make-it's 1 1/2 cups of bisquik, 1/3rd cup SUPER hot water-mix until it forms a ball, then pour 1 T of olive oil on top and let it sit on top of the oven.... with a towel on top so cat hair doesn't drift in...for 5 minutes while the oven heats up to 450. carefully spread the crust olive oil side DOWN on a pizza pan, top with your toppings and bake 13-15 minutes.  i set the largest parts of the crust aside to see if i was still hungry for them later and i wasn't so the neighborhood squirrels get a big treat.

*pro tip* i get a lot of my spices and 'weird' food items at home goods and marshalls' (and would at TJ Maxx if there was one by me). they have a great selection of gourmet, organic, and specialty items for sale. adding spices helps when you're trying to cut down on fat-because the flavor gets boosted by spice instead.

no excuses

except this one-

there are not enough hours in the day.

 i can't even imagine what it'd be like to have more than myself in this family. well, besides the kitters. believe it or not spock and kirk's favorite 'bed' right now is their kennel AKA the enterprise. 

i know that everyone has 24 hours in the day, but seriously. i can't get it all done.

between work, cooking, cleaning (badly) and trying to work on the biznass, i just can't seem to keep up with this blog.

interesting things HAVE been happening, but more than likely they go on to facebook and pinterest.

i've also become hooked on watching internet videos like portlandia, rhett and link, and wimp.com.

for instance, check out this AMAZING video about a very unique artist and his art form. warning: john mayer music and skypeing.

in other news, i've sadly slid very far off the WW wagon and gained back about 28 of the 50 lbs i lost over two years ago. i know why, because i started eating whatever and whenever i wanted, and stopped keeping track of fruits, veggies, etc. and started eating way too much processed junk.

for my health (and wardrobe) i have spent the last few days doing what i call 'the long kiss goodnight' to some of my favorite (really bad for me) foods, and looking for alternatives that are better for me and my health.

since daylight savings starts tomorrow (EEP!) i figure it's as good a time as any to recommit to a healthy, happy lifestyle of fitness, healthy eating, and getting enough ZZZ's. because now with the weight back on, i need to lose 100 pounds to get back to my High School weight. YIKES. my goal is 75 though. it would be 50 less than i got to at my low point, and that would mean a total of 100 pounds lost from my highest weight ever.

i remember that during the big WW push the first few weeks were fun and easy-and as the weight came off i felt like it got easier-but when i stopped counting points and going to the meetings my enthusiasm waned quickly. though the weight stayed off for a while, i was leading a much more active lifestyle and i'm sure that helped. i fluctuated in a 15 lbs range for most of the past two years but this winter  the big gain has been a pain as i had to repurchase 'fat' clothes that i had donated as i lost weight. uuuuugh.

so with spring around the corner (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) as the earth transforms from white and brown and grey, and i look to transform from lazy, lardy, and lumpy, this space will once again be a forum for me to share what is happening in my world. 

wish me luck :)

where does the time go?

an etsy listing! yay!

what's that steve miller song say? time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'...into the fuuuuutuuuuure!!!

it's totally true.

as summer fades into fall, and the plants outside succumb to my lazy watering scheme (read:when it rains, you get watered) i find myself wishing that time would slow down so i could do things..like...list more stuff for sale! or clean! or do dishes! or blog!

one thing i WON'T neglect is this awesome online drawing course i'm taking with tascha. i have loved her work since i found her a year ago, buying three of her holiday ornaments last winter. her style is so adorbs...and i had thought of commissioning her to do a painting of kirk, spock and i but instead i decided to take her class so i can free my inner frida kahlo and make one of us in tascha's style. i missed her online class the first time around and was determined not to miss it again. yay!


speaking of the divine miss K...here are some shots of the scarekahlo my mom and i made for her veggie garden this year. her body is an old tomato cage, her head is a milk jug (which i've stopped drinking but that's another story) with her eyebrows sharpied on..her hair is an old black sweater that just would NOT felt, her beaded flowers came from my stash of random stuff...her clothes were from my goodwill pile. the jewelry was from my sister-in-law and it's just too big for me (read, my bosoms are too big for IT) and the palette and brushes came from my mom's art supplies.

after reading 'the lacuna' as well as 'frida kahlo: song of herself' i guess it's not surprising that for me, this is the summer of frida. i am thinking of letting my eyebrow go for halloween and dressing up as her this year....instead of a monkey i'll have two very unruly kittens as my sidekicks.

have a seat.....

my boss and awesome friend Sarah gave me a rocking chair that she had found many years ago, intending to fix the broken spindle in the back.  she never did. during a recent cleaning bout, she texted me asking if i'd like the chair! sure! i said,  why not! i'll think of SOME way to use it....then i saw a pic in a magazine of people planting containers and setting them in old chairs. but why use a container when you can just suspend it in the air?

so last weekend, my parents and my friend jyk came down to attack my yard. when they left, i was exhausted, but i still wanted to plant my chair!

and this is what i did.

1. remove the seat pad and upholstery, and any loose nails or staples. my chair had some pressboard and some plywood on the bottom. i removed the pressboard, but left the plywood because i was lazy.

2. staple fabric on the bottom of the chair using a hand stapler. if you don't have one of these, you can hammer 1/4" tacks every few inches as well. just make sure the cloth is pretty tight to the bottom of the chair and there aren't big gaps between your staples. i used weed blocking cloth, which lets water escape but keeps the dirt 'in'. you could probably also use something like denim or two layers of cotton fabric.

3. flip the chair back over, and check to make sure there aren't big gaps by pressing gently with your hands around the perimeter of the seat. I discovered a few spots that needed more staples. the weight of wet soil and plants will add up quick-do this step to make sure you've attached the cloth well. You can see the pressboard over the plywood that i didn't remove. i just stapled to the plywood on the back.


4.OVER fill the seat with succulent mix soil, or whatever you have layin' around that drains well. get it wet and make sure only dirty water comes through, NOT mud.  succulents don't like to sit in water-so make sure you have good drainage on this soil! let it drain so that you don't see standing water in the soil, and then plant your succulents! i used hen-n-chicks and two different kind of stonecrops, and added some creeping thyme which will have gorgeous little purple flowers in a bit. use your hands to pull back the soil and plant the roots of the plants horizontal rather than vertical. these guys have shallow roots anyway so you aren't hurting them by doing this. remember that plants look great in odd numbered groupings.

5. set your succulent chair in a sunny spot and admire the view! make sure no one tries to sit on it (ugh!) and remove leaves or berries from the neighbor's trees that happen to drift in. give it a water about twice a week or so (unless it's been raining a lot) and re-bury any roots or stems that work their way up until they've had a chance to root. i'm going to bring this into the garage for the winter so it doesn't freeze....and hopefully next summer it'll look even better!


like i said, this idea's been around for a while, i can't take 100% of the credit, but i would love to see what other people do with this idea! if you plant in a strange (or interesting) container, post a link!

recurring dream

i have a recurring dream that i've had about twice a month since i bought the house in october.

i discover a hidden wing of the house with a HUGE bedroom, GIANT bathroom, and a lovely, well organized closet with clothes i never remembered having before.

i think this blog has become that hidden room. well, most blogs in general! in my limited break time at work, i'm pinning, looking at facebook, or IM'ing with friends, not using the internet the way i used to use it. since i don't have unfettered access to it at home anymore (since i'm too cheap to shell out for cable and internet) i spend my evenings reading, sewing, doing housework, or pretending to do those things while i sit and snuggle the kitters.

my suspicion is that about 90% of the people who read my blog are friends of mine on FB or pinterest and you already get all the becca-jo news you could ever want from those two sources. but for the rest of you, and the world at large, i'm going to try to rediscover this hidden room and get better about posting new stuff here.

thanks for still being there, internet. i swear, i still love you <3

keeping warm.....

i've been swamped at work and still don't have internet at home. winter has finally come to MN and so the boys and i are cocooning while i work on spring duckies, FINALLY start work on my book proposal, and do little projects around the house. this is what happens when i try to lay down on the couch to read.


if you don't have luxurious fur coats, layers are the key. i have begun to collect a wade range of blankets and throws which i constantly use throughout the house. since the kitters' favorite game is to duck under the covers and explore the fabulous land under them, this pleases them no end.
here they are mid-bed making in the morning. this is also how they usually sleep, one at my feet and one by my side.

house bits

oh faithful readers. i swear i miss this blog-but with everything going on with the house and the new job and trying to get some holiday duckies done for my various vendors and art fairs, i barely have time to read my emails and facebook let alone post on this blog! coupled with the fact that i don't have internet at the new place.....i'm sorry i've neglected this corner of the interwebs lo these two months. i'll make it up to you.....



here are shots of the living/dining room. both rooms are a study in 'found' furniture. the futon frame and cushions, dining room chairs, and coffee table were all FREE on the side of the road, with the exception of the cushions which I saved from the dumpster pile at work. kirk models the smaller of the two rugs from home goods, and he's staring at the refinished cabinet of curiosities which my mom and dad stripped for me. the lamp and shade came from goodwill, and there's oodles of frames on the walls from various thrifts and garage sales. i love the built-ins but they severely limit the floorspace. i wouldn't trade them for the world, though!

that's it for now, more to come i promise!

gotta find my corner.......

12 days from today i will be the owner....of.....my very own corner of the sky......

my work time is blissful (except for the carpet-moth infestation that we've been battling in our warehouse).

my at-home time is like a an episode of HOARDERS; buried by crafts. sorting, tossing, organizing, and trying to work on my holiday orders while maintaining some minimum level of personal hygiene.

all my current web time is going towards banking business, pinterest dreaming, and online furniture shopping. my favorite blogs have gone unread for WEEKS!

i feel so....amish!

sorting it all out....

i think we need to just light a match and let it all burn
-Jason Schommer

my very good friend jason recently moved to vegas. he is a 'collector' of cd's, movies, books, and other media. his favorite person on the planet is madonna. by the time we got into his 'save forever' closet, he was in such a purging mood that he threw away a collection of about 20 madonna posters and countless magazines featuring the material girl. helping him sort through his years of accumulated stuff lit a fire under my own bum to get moving and get on with my life. thank you jason for being an inspiration!

instead of viking funeral, we had a full dumpster. i still wonder if he went back and fished them out after i left. but i digress....

i am trying to decide, what things do i need to let go? not only physically but emotionally and spiritually......what has been holding me down and strangling me all these years?

i have gotten a new (old) job again. i am returning to work in theater full-time, as the shopper/buyer for the props department at the Guthrie theater. i couldn't be more excited. i won't post much about my job except to say that it's going to be awesome and it will allow me to do things i've not been able to in my current position, but i will miss my job at the church very much.

i am also hoping to buy a house soon. once again, i don't want to say much, except that if it does happen you can count on a LOT of house/DIY posts in the future.

the goal is to make sure i don't end up on TLC's hoarders, buried alive. i could probably actually film an episode from my car. but i need to develop a new attitude....let it go....and watch it drift away...

cuteness and naughtiness

cabinet help.....

i need your help faithful readers. this chippy cabinet has been in the family longer than i have. and it needs some help. right now it's a not-s0-awesome blue, and i want to paint it. i hope it will be the centerpiece in my studio when i move out. and i'll have a wee tiny bit of downtime next week so i want to spiff it up. here's what it looks like now:



and these are the other things that will for SURE be in my studio:


here in no particular order are some ideas i have been kicking around.

Blue large-scale suzani

pink large scale suzani

shabby turquoise

grey otomi pattern (or any color)
blue/green ikat


small scale suzani (could be any color obvs.)

mint suzani (that sounds like it should also be a drink...hmmm...)


ok what do you think!?!?!?

crashy mc crasherton

computer crashed due to a malfunctioning power cord, about a month ago, but it was restored to two weeks prior to that by my friend who is my own personal geek squad. but then last week, it really got messed up with a virus.
so i'm thankful i put a lot of photos on my facebook and blog because they're all gone. :(
a single tear falls for the girl who didn't back her files up.

video update

12 hour daze....

after the weeks of hard work, vacation bible school started this morning. i'm bone tired. this job has spurts of 10-12 hour days like this and you'd think by now i'd be used to it.....

today's theme was God is the one responsible for the creation of our amazing world.



anyway this little short film was adapted from the GoFish script, edited on my crummy work PC, and stop-motion animated with paper that some high school aged kids helped me cut out and design. enjoy!

florida!

we took a family trip to florida to celebrate my cousin jay's wedding.
i got to spend TONS of quality dorothy time, swam in the ocean and saw a shark (not as scared as i thought i'd be) and had a wonderful vacation.

dorothy performed her flower girl duties very well!

studio shots

s

just a few snapshots of the studio. the cori dantini poster is from last year's creative connection event. the flowers are from our garden and include columbine, chives, and a bunch of other lovelies. no it's not my birthday, but for some reason this is quickly becoming the birthday board!

quicky on color

now that i am pretty much finished with the stage manager/wardrobe assistant/retail uniform needing part of my life, i'm trying to avoid buying black and bringing other colors into my wardrobe. i never thought i'd wear orange EVER (being very freckl-y) bit it turns out bright colors actually look better on me than dark ones.....along these lines.....today i got purple and red streaks put into my hair (!)
it looks sooooooo cool. i can't get a good photo of it. but in the mean time, here's some fabulous tiles i found at augsburg college last week-i went for an ELCA gathering for youth/children's workers and ended up winning a $100 gift certificate to their gathering in NEW ORLEANS in 2012! WOOT! Sure, I have to spend like $600 to save $100...but hey, i won something! i should use it!

sneezy, goofy, and spock.

our entire family got walloped by a nasty cold this last week and my computer also battled a virus or infection of its own. i seem to have lost a lot of my hard drive. i'm bummed about the photos of early duckies, but what was i going to do with those photos anyhow?

i've been battling through it to finish a bibelot order. the kittens aren't making it easy on me. they love to 'inspect' my work and offer their assistance with the thread, scissors, etc. i'm surprised i haven't snipped off one of their tails let alone a whisker or two.....i hope they grow out of their kitten curiosity...but not too quickly. it's fun to see their crazy antics as i sew beaks onto birdies, talons on to owls, and yes, whiskers onto kittens. can you see how long their whiskers are in these photos? it's absurd. i'm going to enter them in the twin cities beard and mustache competition next year. fer reals.

workin' on the night moves....

having a dayjob in addition to helping folks with wedding flowers, doing the duckie thing, and teaching means that my day runs from about 7 AM to 11 PM or even midnight. my kittens are modeling good evening productivity followed by intense periods of sleep. their nighttime mania is even more entertaining than their daytime antics.
i am putting out the feelers on finally buying a house. 3 years ago (before i lost my awesome gig at the college) i had been pre-approved for a loan and started even touring homes...but i'm SO thankful that didn't work out because i'd have long defaulted on the mortgage. i feel like the timing is much better now.
but in order to make it happen i need to squeeze extra time to make extra $$ out of my days.
maybe i'll teach kirk and spock how to sew for me while i'm off earning their kitten chow......