Sweatbag

Baby it's cold outside...

So, my plans today consisted of cleaning, organizing, reading and working on the "sweatbag", just not in that order.

My niece gave me a bunch of sweatshirts to sell at a garage sale that I still haven't had, so they've just been sitting here for months.

Until now.

For some reason, I got inspired and turned this sweatshirt...

into what I've been calling a "sweatbag" (horrible name, I know, but it cracks me up):

I think it's cute, but it's FAR from perfect.

I didn't plan anything - I just started cutting and sewing, and let it come together.

The drawstring is from the hood (which I thought was ingenious!), and I made the handles from the sleeves.

I just did a search on Pinterest and found this version (with instructions!)...

Source

I'm so glad I didn't have that garage sale!

One Down, Eleven To Go!

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to find 12 new recipes to add to the rotation and I've already found one!

I just made this recipe for Easy Slow Cooker Shredded Mexican Chicken and it was really good!

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup mild salsa (medium if you like spicy)
3-4 tablespoons brown sugar*
1 4 oz. can green chilies
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chili pepper (optional for more heat)
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoons liquid smoke
hot sauce to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

• Rub chicken breasts with oil and place in the bottom of your slow cooker.
• Add all of the remaining ingredients except for the hot sauce. 
• Cook on high for 2-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours or until chicken is tender enough to shred.
• Remove chicken, and let rest 5 minutes before shredding.
• At this point, she says "Return shredded chicken and let cook on low for an additional 20 minutes to absorb some of the liquid/juices. " I didn't do that.  I just put the chicken in a bowl and added a few tablespoons of the liquid.
• Then she says to "Drain all excess liquid", and suggested using it to make rice. I didn't exactly do that, but I did make a bunch of brown rice (4 servings) and threw it into the crock pot and stirred it all together.

Then I wrapped the chicken in a flour tortilla and ate it like a burrito.

It was really good and really easy!

* NOTES
Use 3 tablespoons brown sugar if using mild salsa and not using ground chipotle chili pepper.
Use 4 tablespoons if you are using medium salsa and/or the ground chipotle chili pepper.

Happy 2016!

Well, 2016 has not gotten off to the best start...

I stayed in last night, watched football until it became obvious Michigan State wasn't going to rally, then went to bed to watch the season 3 finale of Deadwood. I wasn't all that tired when that was over, so I tried to find season 4.  When I couldn't find it easily, I decided maybe I am all that tired, so just went to sleep.

Turns out, there is no season 4.

What a way to start the new year.  I'm going to look on the bright side, though...

No, there is no bright side.  I must just accept it and move on, hoping the year improves.

Along those lines, I've made some New Year's Resolutions:

1. Read 25 books - this is ambitious (for me). I don't think I've ever read more than 24 in a year, so this would be a personal best.  I'm going to choose my books based on the 2016 Reading Challenge, starting with The Goldfinch, at 771 pages.  (Yes, I've already started it, which could be considered cheating, but I have over 600 pages to go, so it counts as "a book that's more than 600 pages".)
2. Crafternoon - I've been pinning all sorts of cute ideas onto my Arts & Crafts board on Pinterest.  This year, I'm going to actually DO some of them.  First up - Smittens!  (And if there's any leftover sweater, these cute little hearts.)
3. 12 new recipes - I hate to cook, but love to eat.  I have a few really good recipes (conveniently posted here under "Recipes"), but need more. 
4. Save $1,378 - with the 52 Week Money Challenge. I'd actually like to save more, but this will be more fun than direct deposit. 
5. Wander - with my crazy schedule last year, I didn't have much of a chance to get out of town, so this year I'm hoping to make up for that with trips to the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, and the NewBo City Market and Czech Village in Cedar Rapids (and more!).

There are others (the usual lose weight, "finish" house, be more social, practice piano). 

Whether I keep my resolutions or not, I like this idea...

Two months later...

The last two months have gone by so fast (too fast!).

About a month ago we moved my dad into the memory care unit of an assisted living facility.  It was, I think, meant to be...

We were given two day's notice by the rehab facility that he was being released the day before Thanksgiving. Of course we weren't prepared for that, so made arrangements to move him into their skilled nursing section (how convenient for them).

Skilled nursing is what you think of when you think "nursing home" - hospital beds and old people sitting in wheelchairs in the hallway.

I couldn't stand it.

Then, the director of one of the assisted living facilities I'd visited when he was first taken to the hospital called the day after Thanksgiving.  I had liked the facility, but thought it was too big - all elevators and long hallways.  He'd never find his way back to his room.

But she suggested their memory care unit.  I'd driven by it.  It was smaller.

Well, I happened to be in town.  She had time to meet with me an hour later.  I called my brother and he was available too.

They had three rooms available and by the end of the day we'd put down a deposit and by that Monday he moved in.

I didn't know if he'd like it.  He always said he wanted to stay at home, with visiting nurses to take care of him.

But he actually likes it! (Maybe because they took the guys to Hooters last week.)

I don't really care why.  I'm just happy he's happy and being taken care of.

Work is still going well.  I like it. It's stressful and I am REALLY busy.  But the people are nice (for the most part!).

I've been doing a lot of work on the house.  I'm tired of living in a construction zone, so am focusing on getting rooms done livable. I'm still working on multiple rooms at once (currently the master bedroom and dining room), but there is a plan and a light at the end of the tunnel!

Part of that plan involves getting "new" furniture.  My furniture consists mostly of hand-me-downs and IKEA.

I love the hand-me-downs.

I hate the IKEA.

So, I got rid of it.  All of it.

Then, just last weekend, I finally moved back into the master bedroom (remember this? That was almost exactly a year ago!).

I moved in a dresser I got from a garage sale, and a chest of drawers I got from a thrift store in New York (Thomasville!).  I set my little tv on top and hooked up the Wii so I can watch Deadwood, and thought "This is horrible.".

I needed something I could set my big tv on to watch Deadwood (it is SO GOOD!).

I needed one of those low, wide dressers.

I needed something like this...

This is a photo of an Ethan Allen dresser that was being sold by a furniture store in Maryland.

Two days ago, I found a dresser exactly like this at Goodwill for $35.88 (for Ethan Allen!).  Similar dressers are currently listed on eBay from $595 (without the mirror) to $1,200.

Also in the plan is removing the old, ugly medicine cabinet in the bathroom...

again, not my photo. this time it's from Home Depot

with a mirror and light fixture.

And, since I'm putting the big tv on the dresser, I won't be needing the mirror, so...

Two birds, one $35.88 stone.

That same night I found found The Light Between Oceans, which is supposed to be really good, and at a different Goodwill near me (that has the BEST selection of books),  I've recently found The Girl on the Train and The Goldfinch, in hardback, for $1 each.

The Girl on the Train was really good. I'm 88 pages into The Goldfinch (only 683 to go!), but it's already really good too.

Finally, I've tried a few new recipes - some were just ok, some were really good...

This Balsamic Mushroom Pasta from Girl Gone Gourmet was incredible! It was so good, I've already made it twice.

I also liked this Pineapple Fried Rice from Damn Delicious.

And finally, I was at my brother's house on Christmas Eve, and someone claimed their homemade Ritz Cracker fake Girl Scout Peanut Butter Patties (one of my favorite Girl Scout Cookies!!) were even better than the real thing.

No way.

Way.

Good News / Bad? News / Bad News

The good news is, I'm almost a month into my new job and I love it!  Of course there is a learning curve, which is stressful and exhausting (I went to bed at 8:30 one night last week). But I feel happy at work (which makes me feel very, very lucky).

The bad? news...
The copy boy and I broke up again.  This time, I'm pretty sure it's for good.  I have no hard feelings towards him - we just want different things, and compromise is not an option.

He's an "all-or-nothing" kind of guy and I chose "nothing".

I'm not sure if this qualifies as bad news, though.

It might actually be considered good news... I'm looking forward to getting back to living the life I imagined - restoring my old house, reading good books, learning to cook and garden, and cook the stuff from my garden, knit, sew...

Basically, embrace my inner "little old lady".

The really bad news is...
My 84-year-old father is rapidly heading towards assisted living (best case) or a nursing home (worst case).

He fell again about a month ago, was admitted to the hospital then released into a rehab facility.  He was doing really well, and we were looking into assisted living options.  (He just can't be home alone anymore.)

Then, he started to regress.

He fell trying to get out of bed again and ended up back in the hospital, then back in the rehab facility.

While he was in the hospital last week he looked at me and said "getting old sucks".

He knows who he is, who we are, and who the president is.  He can rattle off his date of birth.  But, if you ask him what year it is, he always says 1951.

This would make him 21 years old.

(I would love to think I was 21 years old!)

I read this yesterday, posted by Dale Partridge, who publishes The Daily Positive. Here's an excerpt...
Culture tells us to spend an entire year saving for a week to escape our life. We call it vacation. Vacations are meant to be new, they are meant to be fun, but they are not meant to be better than your normal life. Life isn't about the 50 vacations you'll take while you're on this planet. It's about the 25,000 days between them. Stop creating a life that you need a vacation from.

If we're lucky enough to live to 84 (or beyond!), the day will come when we won't know what year it is.

Until then, go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Life the life you have imagined!

Live, Work, Play

Back in January, I accepted a position as the General Manager of an event center - planning weddings, corporate meetings, fundraisers, etc.

I did like certain aspects of the job...
Most brides were not even remotely bridezilla-y and with a mobile phone and an internet connection, I could work from anywhere, anytime.

But...
Because I didn't have a set schedule, I worked pretty much every day. This was my entirely my fault though - if the phone rang, I'd answer it.

The worst part, though, was I had very little help.  It's not easy in a town of 2,000 to find people interested in only working a few hours a week, especially when that work is physically demanding (moving tables and chairs) and requires a lot of very late nights.

So, I had to do a lot of it myself. As an example, one weekend I went in at 11am and left at 4:30 the following morning, came back in at 9am (yes, 4.5 hours later) and worked until 11pm. 32 hours in 2 days. This was not atypical.

So, when I received a call from the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce asking if I'd be interested in coming up to talk about a possible job opportunity I said "YES!".

I loved my previous job at the Chamber of Commerce in Bellevue, and I love Dubuque so this is perfect!

My primary responsibilities will be Marketing and Membership - helping promote our local businesses and make "Dubuque the best place to live, work, play and do business".

Mock Cable Watch Cap

During my recent trip to Yarn Soup in Dubuque, I picked up the pattern and yarn to make the Eco Cloud Mock Cable Watch Cap by Cascade Yarns.

The cap seems to be designed to sit back and be slouchy, which is cute...

Source: Cascade Yarn

but I'm a practical girl (and I live in Iowa) so...

This is perfect (long enough to cover my ears)!  

The best part is, I was able to make this in less than 4 hours, and they have a lot of fun colors, (this is "Raspberry") so I can make more!

I can't wait for winter!