The Sky is Always the Bluest After The Rain

We’ve had a LOT of rain the last few weeks in San Diego.  Last week we even had hail.  There’s been tons of snow in the mountains near us, only an hour away.  But on Saturday Todd & I went for a walk at the coast and it was the clearest as it gets in San Diego, which is very clear and very blue!

It always makes me feel so great when we walk by the ocean.  It makes me feel super grateful to live here.

On the making front this week, I made a whipped shea butter body butter, just for experimenting with ingredients and formulation.  It’s made with shea butter, safflower oil, isopropyl myristate (to cut the oily feel and make it feel smooth), vitamin E oil, and lemon, orange, and grapefruit essential oils (but not at the amount that would cause photosensitivity).  It feels and smells great. 

I also made 25 candles for a custom label order.  I’ve never made 25 candles at once before, so I timed myself every step of the way so I could see how efficient I could be, ha ha.  This was the “prep all the glass jars and wick them” stage.

This was 2.5 hours later, after pouring all the candles.  They’re setting/curing.  They are scented in Sea Salt & Orchid and smell REALLY good!

While I worked on this candle order, I discovered the “Songs To Sing in the Shower” playlist on Spotify.  It is soooo good!  I literally danced my way through the candlemaking, LOL.  So joyous!

My nephew Andrew has a channel on YouTube called “Rogue Films”.  He had a video he made go viral last week and he texted us to tell us.  (It has over half a million views now!) So Todd and Noodle watched the video together.  I guess it became some sort of meme?  I have no idea what the kids like these days!

Speaking of Noodle, he is loving the sunshine that has returned to San Diego.

Sideways sleeping on his infinity bed.

Todd got to play Mozart and Mahler classical pieces with his musician friends on Saturday.  They get together from time to time to play together, just for fun.  I went and recorded a bunch of videos for him.

Every time I hear him play, I’m in awe of his talent, but more so his hard work.  He practices piano a lot, almost daily, after dinner.  He also plays trumpet in a brass group at work during lunch on Mondays.  They are going to play songs from “The Greatest Showman”.  Which, by the way, we watched for the 2nd time on Saturday night.  It’s even better the second time around.  So now I’ve been listening to the soundtrack all day on Spotify today.

Todd continued to celebrate his birthday this weekend, because several of his “free birthday food” coupons were expiring.  On Friday night we went to Burger Lounge so he could get his free milk shake.

Then on Sunday we went to brunch at Miguel’s Cocina so he could use his $10 off $30 birthday coupon.  They also gave him a free birthday mud pie and sang to him!

I had the carne asada benedict and it was delicious.  But what I really go to Miguel’s for is their cheese queso dip with chips, LOL.

I’ve been reading through Marie Rayma’s book “Make It Up”.  It is sooooo awesome!  I’m excited to try some of the formulas for DIY foundation, blush, lipstick, eyeshadows, etc.  The idea that I can custom make cosmetics for myself that matches my skin tone exactly, and also make colored cosmetics to my liking, is very exciting to me!  Especially since cosmetics is a category of products that’s marked WAAAAY up in retail sales, to pay for the marketing.  I have a feeling that fairly soon, I’m going to end up with lots of little jars of DIY makeup.  So fun!

I have already talked about Atlas Market in a recent blog post, but I went there today and got our whole week’s produce for $8.74! 

I got:

3.3 LBS of beets = $1.09
2.82 LBS of papaya = $2.79
3.87 LBS of naval oranges = $0.77
1.75 LBS of fuji apples = $1.21
1.9 LBS of green beans = $0.94
2 jalapeno peppers = $0.32
4 tomatillos = $0.48
Bag of bok choy = $0.85
2 bunches of cilantro = $0.29

Total $8.74

I think I mis-weighed some items, because it looks like I got way more than I needed.  I think the scales in the store may have been in kilograms, LOL.  But anyway, that means I could have only paid like $6 for all the produce that I needed.  That’s just incredible!  Seriously when I wheel the cart out of this place, I'm so giddy like I just stole some food! Local friends, you absolutely NEED to go to Atlas Market for produce and fruits!  It's an international market with a food hall, with emphasis on Korean and Persian food. Tons of other Asian and Middle Eastern food. They make announcements in English, Persian, Korean, and Chinese, LOL. In the food hall they have Korean fried chicken, which is soooooo good. And there's a Persian Bakery too. Basically I want to live there!

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2018 Year-End Recap

I blinked and it’s two months later.  I’ve had good intentions of blogging.  I’ve even put it on my Google calendar.  But alas, time got away from me.  I will attempt to recap the end of 2018 in this post, and catch-up to present next week!

In early December, Todd played a Christmas concert with The Winters band at The Legacy Church in Tierrasanta.  He and the band practiced for a few weeks and the show was so good and so fun!

Todd even sang this year.

Which is actually not surprising, since he’s actually heading up an acapella singing group at work.  They performed both at work and as opening act at the Christmas concert.

And he’s the head of a chamber music group at work too.  So many clubs, so little time!

As usual I’m so very proud of all his music abilities, hard work practicing, and how great his shows are.  Considering music is not his full time job, or any paid job!

I helped Todd put together some hot cocoa packages to give away to his coworkers for Christmas.  So cute, right?

I had a ladies holiday luncheon with my ex-coworkers and it was so fun.  I put together some gift packages of my handcrafted candles, lotion, and salt scrub for everyone.

We spent Christmas in our usual San Diego fashion:  at the beach!

Instead of snowmen, we have sandmen!

We had a night out of movies and dessert with AJ & Meera.  We saw Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Gindelwald, and had dessert at Baked Bear.  Blurry photo but great memories!

On Christmas Day we flew out to Orlando for a last minute trip to meet up with my sister Joyce and my nephew Andrew.  We went to Disney World Hollywood Studios the day after Christmas.

It was seriously so fun!  My favorite ride was the Slinky Dog rollercoaster.  We also went on Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

And we did meet & greets with Kylo Ren, Chewbacca, and BB-8!

We both got sick for about a week right after we got back from Orlando, so we started off the New Year down for the count.  We snuggled up and slept a lot.  And relaxed to get better.

It was a whirlwind holiday season!  My Pacifica Grace Studio Etsy shop did well for the holiday season.  I closed up shop on 12/21 for a break, after working really hard to make and fulfill orders for over a month.  I spent the end of the year being very thankful that I didn’t have to work at my corporate finance job for year-end.  For 25 years I always had to work between Christmas and New Years to “close the books” for year-end accounting!  I reveled in the fact that I didn’t have to do that this past holiday season. 

Come back soon for a catch-up post of 2019 so far!

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Best of October 2016

It wasn’t until I was looking at my photos today for October that I realized I was a bad photo-taker this month.  We did a lot of things with friends and have no photos of those events.  I just didn’t take very many photos.  Hopefully I can remind myself to take more photos next month!

I went to visit my good friend Sally and her 4.5 years old twins.  I can’t believe they are 4.5 years old already!

I brought my Fuji Instax printer and some washi tapes, and we took photos and printed them out.  Then I taught Nina how to scrapbook!

Todd went to Denver to visit his “little brother” Aaron.  (Todd was in Big Brother Big Sisters for five years and was Aaron’s Big Brother from age 9 to 14.  Aaron is now 30!)

I worked a LOT this month because I had to put the 2017 budgets together at work, on top of my normal job responsibilities.  It kind of sucked.

We made Cast Iron Loaded Beef Nachos for the Buckeyes vs Indiana football game.  It was yummy!

We also made all these other yummy dishes that were new.

Pressure cooker chicken lentil soup.

Todd made this Pasta with Cauliflower, Bacon, and Bread Crumbs from America's Test Kitchen on National Pasta Day. So yum!

I casually sent a link of this recipe for brownie cookies from Smitten Kitchen to Todd. A couple of days later, they suddenly appeared from the oven. Granted, they were not all for me. But my husband is magical, there's no denying that.

We went running at the beach for the first time in a long while, and it was a perfect day for it!  I actually like going to be beach in the fall the best.  It’s not cold, but all the tourists are gone and it’s not crowded and there’s plenty of parking.

We had dinner with our friends Pete & Cass and their family at Fresco’s.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos.

I signed up for Stitch Fix (a personal styling company for clothing) and got my first box of five items.  I tried them all on and while they all fit, I didn’t like four of the items enough to keep them. I only kept this pencil skirt.

We watched a ton of Cleveland Indians playoff games.  Hoping they will seal the deal tomorrow night in Cleveland.

I had lunch with the girls at work at Macaroni Grill to celebrate October birthdays.  It was really fun and I shared Todd’s brownie cookies with everyone.  I forgot to take photos.

I also took my friend Erecca out to lunch for her birthday.  And forgot to take any photos.

We went to our friends Anne & Gilbert’s house for chili dinner and to watch the VA Tech vs Miami football game.  And I forgot to take photos.  Ugh!

We flew to Ohio for a four day trip to hang out with Todd’s family.  We watched Buckeyes lose to Penn State (sniff).  We ate Donatos Pizza and Penn Station sandwiches.  We bought Cleveland Indians World Series shirts.  We went to Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland to see Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 in concert.

We took a walk in the woods and enjoyed the fall scenery, which is quite different than San Diego.

On the way home from Cleveland, we flew through Chicago and were subjected to the “Go Cubs Go!” song on our flight.

Todd helped me sold my 17.5 year old Honda Prelude on Craigslist!  He sold it for $2,250 MORE than Carmax was willing to give us.  I bought him (yes, it's a him. His name was Rico) in June 1999 in Dayton, Ohio. He was shipped to San Diego in December 1999 when we moved. He never had to experience a harsh winter. In 17.5 years and 105k miles, he never let us down. I loved Rico. But now it was time to let him go to someone else who will enjoy driving him. Rico lives on!  (But I miss him already.)

Todd had to work a lot this month too, due to a software deployment at work.  He’s worked nights and weekends.  Probably more than me, and I worked a lot too!  Just a month of working hard.

I had my annual physical at my doctor.  He checked this new mole I have on the back of my hand.  It was OK, but he said if it gets bigger or changes, we’ll biopsy it.  Just a reminder to get your annual physicals and see the doctor if anything out of the ordinary happens with your body.  You know your body best!

Noodle gained some weight while we weren’t paying attention.  He needs to go on a diet again to lose a pound.  But he’s still cute, obviously.

Found a sunny spot!

Noodle guilted me into posting a photo of him by telling me it was National Cat Day and all the other catmoms already posted photos of their kitties. Even cats are susceptible to Internet comparison.

I’ll be excited when I recap November and the election is over.  I’m so over it.  I vote by mail ballot and I just voted yesterday and put it in the mailbox.  Lots of state and local issues, not just the big national presidential election.  I think what this election has made me feel is: unsettled. I'm saddened to see how some Americans have acted (on both sides). And personally it's unsettling to see people I like on the far other side from me. I have to reconcile all that in my mind. Obviously I don't just discard friends who are voting differently. And it's good to have different friends and not surround oneself with people like oneself. It's still unsettling. I'm sad this race is so divisive.  I’ll be glad when it’s over.

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