Good year

Bad blogger. No posts in over a week!

My only excuse is that I'm sick. I've had a nasty head cold for the last few days (luckily, it seems to be starting to go away). But because of it, I haven't felt like doing anything. I have 3 pumpkins that I never carved, a costume that I didn't make, and decorations I never put up. Crap. I love Halloween, but I just had no energy this year.

Last week, I turned 32. I really think this is a good year. 32 just looks better than 31 -- round number, I'm now comfortably in my 30s, rather than just hanging around the edges. The day of my birthday was pretty low key. We went to Pizza Club and Richard had provided everyone with hats and noisemakers for me. Ashley even brought me chocolate cupcakes, which was very nice.

I know, Vivian looks really into the birthday spirit, doesn't she? But she is the best birthday present I could ever ask for.

Over the weekend, we headed up to Fresno for the largest Civil War reenactment west of the Mississippi. I'm a total history geek, so it was perfect for me. I loved seeing all the reenacters and how excited they were to be there. I know that I could totally be one of them -- heck, give me a few years (after Vivian and any siblings are a bit older), and I probably will be!

Vivian was an angel all day. Before the battle, people kept coming up to Rich and saying that he should be careful of Vivian because the cannons were very loud and would probably scare her. So before the battle got underway, he walked to the back of the field. And BOOM! The cannon fire felt like I had been hit in the chest. And Vivian? She slept through the entire thing. Richard kept asking me, "are we sure they tested her hearing in the hospital?" They did. She just wasn't worried about the cannons. She was snuggled in her Bjorn with Daddy -- what could go wrong?

On the crafty front, I have been knitting and crocheting. No Christmas gifts yet, but I'll start those soon. I'm working on my Juliet sweater and I finished a crocheted sweater for Vivian.


Halloween pictures to come. Vivian looks absolutely adorable in her pumpkin costume that my mom made for her. And tomorrow is our WeHo SnB Stitch n Witch party! Come on out and join the fun!

Pumpkin in the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday, Rich & I took Vivian for her first visit to the Halloween Pumpkin Patch. Ok, so this visit may have been more for us than for her. At 16 weeks old, I'm not sure how much holiday spirit she absorbed. But she is the Pumpkin, so we had to take her for some photos.
And you cannot take a bad photo in a pumpkin patch.

Vivian was very patient, considering that Mommy kept trying to sit her up in and amongst pumpkins and gourds of various sizes. The pumpkin patch is up in Saugus, and the winds were extremely fierce. Vivian actually seemed to enjoy the wind, and I enjoyed the fact that I have short hair, which does not get tangled and messy!


We finally left when Vivian seemed she had had enough, and not a moment too soon.
The sky behind Rich & Viv isn't brown with the usual LA smog -- that's smoke. The Agua Dulce fire started while we were there, and now the road we took to the pumpkin patch is closed because of it.

When we got home, we headed over to the park to take some pictures of Vivian with her pumpkins, including some of her in the pumpkins.
She was only mildly amused. We only got a couple of good pictures of her in the pumpkin before she started to protest. But we continued to snap away, and took some adorable ones of her next to the pumpkins.

And finally, as the sun went down, I put the camera away. Vivian was very happy about that.

Movie meme

stolen from k8

AFI's top 100 movies. Bold the ones you have seen. Strike out the ones you couldn't finish. * the ones you have seen more than once. (Found via kmkat)

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

2. Godfather, The

3. Casablanca (1942)

4. Raging Bull (1980)

5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

6. Gone with the Wind (1939)* one of my favorites

7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

8. Schindler’s List (1993)

9. Vertigo (1958)* "I look up, I look down, I look up, I look arrgghh!" Seen at cinespia.

10. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)*

11. City Lights (1931)

12. Searchers, The (1956)

13. Star Wars (1977)*

14. Psycho (1960)

15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)* Seen at cinespia.

16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)

17. Graduate, The (1967)* Plastics.

18. General, The (1927)

19. On the Waterfront (1954)

20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)*

21. Chinatown (1974)

22. Some Like It Hot (1959)* Seen at cinespia.

23. Grapes of Wrath, The (1940)

24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)*

25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)*

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

27. High Noon (1952)

28. All About Eve (1950)

29. Double Indemnity (1944) Seen at cinespia.

30. Apocalypse Now (1979)

31. Maltese Falcon, The (1941) Seen at cinespia.

32. Godfather Part II, The (1974)

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)*

35. Annie Hall (1977)

36. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)

37. Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946)

38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)

39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)

40. Sound of Music (1965)*

41. King Kong (1933)

42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)*

44. Philadelphia Story, The (1940) Seen at cinespia (I think...)

45. Shane (1953)

46. It Happened One Night (1934) Seen at cinespia.

47. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)

48. Rear Window (1954)

49. Intolerance (1916)

50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)*

51. West Side Story (1961)*

52. Taxi Driver (1976)

53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)

54. M*A*S*H (1970)*

55. North by Northwest (1959) Seen at cinespia.

56. Jaws (1975)

57. Rocky (1976)*

58. Gold Rush, The (1925)

59. Nashville (1975)

60. Duck Soup (1933)

61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941) Seen at cinespia.

62. American Graffiti (1973)*

63. Cabaret (1972)*

64. Network (1976)

65. African Queen, The (1951)

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)*

67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

68. Unforgiven (1992)

69. Tootsie (1982)*

70. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)

71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

72. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)*

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

74. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)*

75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)

76. Forrest Gump (1994)*

77. All the President’s Men (1976)*

78. Modern Times (1936)

79. Wild Bunch, The (1969)

80. Apartment, The (1960)* Another of my all-time favorites.

81. Spartacus (1960)

82. Sunrise (1927)

83. Titanic (1997)*

84. Easy Rider (1969)

85. Night at the Opera, A (1935)

86. Platoon (1986)

87. 12 Angry Men (1957)

88. Bringing Up Baby (1938) Seen at cinespia.

89. Sixth Sense, The (1999)*

90. Swing Time (1936)

91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)

92. Goodfellas (1990)*

93. French Connection, The (1971)

94. Pulp Fiction (1994)*

95. Last Picture Show, The (1971)

96. Do the Right Thing (1989)

97. Blade Runner (1982)*

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

99. Toy Story (1995)*

100. Ben-Hur (1959)

Ok, 55% isn't too bad. It leaves room for improvement. If it hadn't have been for cinespia, it would have been much lower!

Fashionable and free?

I may be the only sewer who didn't know this, but Burda has super cute sewing patterns available for download... for free! Dresses, shirts, skirts, pants, clutches -- all available for download and printing on either your home printer or from a copy shop.

I'm a little bigger than their size range, but with some careful drafting, I could make some of these patterns work (especially in stretchy fabrics).

Of course, I also have a 3 1/2 month old at home, so I don't know when I'm doing all this sewing, but now I have some extra reasons to get stitching!

Whew!

We survived. I went back to work, and both Viv and I survived. I probably had a harder time than she did. I did stop by at lunch to feed her, and she seemed happy and smiley to everyone (but me).

My first day back at work was ok. A lot of people are out at a 3-day meeting, so it was a bit slow, which was good. I can ease back in instead of being slammed. And it went faster than I expected, so all in all, about as good as I could have hoped for.

Several projects under way right now. I'm doing Juliet in Noro Blossom, the Back-to-School Sweater Vest from Fitted Knits (in vintage wool I got at the PCC Flea Market) and a motif sweater for Vivian that is similar in basic construction to Annie Modesitt's Lacy Leaf Cocoon sweater. More details when I get a bit further on any of them.

And here is your gratuitous baby photo:

Isn't that a beautiful smile? I sure think so!

WIP

What is life if not a work in progress? We move forward, like it or not. And here at Chez Reeve/Manfredi, we're moving forward.

This is my last week of maternity leave. I head back to work next week, and Viv heads to daycare. I'm dreading this transition, but it's something that needs to happen. We're a two-income family, and we both work outside the home. Rich is being wonderful -- he tells me that we'll that if I hate leaving her at daycare, we can revisit this. Not that we can really afford to live on 1 salary (at least not in LA), but just the thought that we can revisit this if necessary lifts a bit of the weight off my shoulders.

So, we're getting ready. I decided I needed a new look to help me get into a work frame of mind. So let me present my new haircut:

It's so nice not to need to pull my hair into a ponytail or work to make sure Vivian doesn't grab it. The only bad thing is that my hair seems to have gotten curlier now that it's shorter. So it curls up in funky places. But I still love it. I went to Haas Salon on Larchmont Blvd., just walked right in with my sister Jenny, and got this fab cut for only $45! I've found my new salon!

More works in progress, on the crafty front. I finished Vivian's Christmas stocking! It went really fast, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I do still need to line it and add a hanger, but it turned out just how I pictured it.


I only used 1/3 - 1/2 of each skein of Cascade 220, so I decided to make good use of the leftover yarn by crocheting Vivian a winter vest. Layers work so much better here in LA when it's cold(ish). This is the Pastel Parfait vest from Candy Babies, by Candi Jensen.

It's going really quickly, so it should be done in the next day or so.

And that's that. Change happens, and it's not always bad. I just have to get through this transition and back into routine. Take a deep breath and just move forward.

now that's a sleepy pumpkin