Santy's workshop

For the past few years I've eschewed purchasing Xmas gifts, opting instead to make or create something personal and unique. I guess I'd rather spend time getting crafty than trying to tackle the malls. Plus free time is more precious than just about anything you can buy, right? As much as I enjoy doing this sort of thing, every year I bite off more than I can chew and end up working away until the wee hours of the night, finishing a stencil or baking cookies or creating jewelry. Admittedly I procrastinate until the very last oh-crap moment. This year was no different!

Everyone got a stencil (again) this Xmas. In an effort to go green, I stenciled a couple of ecobags for Les and Jeri. I couldn't find any images online that I liked (if you can believe that!), so I went free-hand and designed my own. For Ryan's baby tee (space invader) and Steve's long-sleeve tee (the Minister of Silly Walks) I used images off the Web, American Apparel tees, and Jacquard fabric paint.

Works in progress:

(Whew! Stencils drying; Les's bag in mid-peel)


(The befores and afters)

The finished products!

It's like Xmastime or somethin'

Yay the holidays. Since it's our first year in our new condo, we were especially excited to set up a tree and decorate. So we went down to see our friends at Delancey Street, where we've gotten our Xmas tree for the past few years. As soon as we walked into the lot, I saw our tree:

"This one," I said, pointing.

The BF, a little hesitant, "Uh, it's nice, but it'll never fit."

It is 7'8" tall.

"If you can get it through the front door and haul it up the stairs, it'll be perfect."

And it is!

1. Our lonely tree in the lot; 2. Our naked tree at home.

This was a problem: a naked tree? We needed ornaments. Sure, we had some from years past, enough for a smaller tree, but they looked pretty skimpy once we put them up. We got a few boxes of new bulbs from a non-profit shop down the street. Still, we needed more. But with the recent purchase of our condo and the economy as it is, I decided it was time to get thrifty and creative. I went with some extremely simple, but festive ideas. No real explanation necessary for the candy cane ornaments. Everything came from Walgreens and probably cost me about $6 for 25 hanging canes. (Yes, I ate one!)


The next simple project involved our old clear bulbs from Target. I don't know WHY we bought these last year. They look kinda cool in the box, but completely disappear once you hang them on the tree. I mean, they're CLEAR. Duh. I needed something that was lightweight but full enough to fill up the bulbs. A smart and crafty coworker of mine suggested feathers. Thank god for smart friends! So I swung by our local Cliff's Variety and picked up a bag of red feathers (only $1.50!) and stuffed them inside the bulbs. They looked pretty cool up on the tree. At least, they were visible!

November flew by

And not a blog post to be seen. This entry is dedicated to the dearly departed November (and the end of October).

First of all, we celebrated a couple of important birthdays: Rusty's and the BF's. Whose was more important, you ask? Ohh, you're not going to catch me answering that one! But I did only manage to take photos of RUSTY's party... The piggies weren't the only party animals. We had an awesome pre-Bootie birthday party for the BF and our friend Nortie. It was also a mini-housewarming slash come-up-and-see-the-new-pad for our old friends from the Coop. Good times!

(1. The birthday boy! 2. On the menu: raw-food, vegan lettuce wraps; 3. Oliver, always dapper in fancy hat; 4. Brothers share.)

Oh yeah, and in November there was this tiny, teensy thing called the Presidential Election. Ya mighta heard about it. I have to admit that I've kinda gotten into politics lately. I mean, I used to just watch the Daily Show and thought that was enough, you know? But now I'm habitually reading the Daily Kos and Huff Post (Mainstream and popular, yes I know.) But you have to understand that before this I considered "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" as NEWS. (You are witnessing a serious, applause-worthy shift in priorities, people!)

So anyway, I kept hearing/reading that because this is such an historical election, people decades from now are going to look back and share stories about where they were on Election Night 2008. It's kinda like how in the Bay Area people ask, where were you during the '89 quake? (In high school. Working on a homecoming float.) Right. So. Seeing as how my Quake-of-89 story completely blows, I really wanted my Election-08 story to kick a$$. I was gearing up for it; I plastered our new pad with Obama/Biden and No on Prop 8 signs, and I just knew there'd be massive celebrating in SF--and I was going to be there, partying and celebrating, able to tell my grandnieces and grandnephews all about how crazy Auntie got back in '08.

And what ends up happening? Dude. I end up having to work TWO all-nighter shifts at the office on Sunday and Monday night for a campaign pitch. (As in, go to work at 8pm, leave work after the sun's already up and normal people are getting IN to work.) I got home Tuesday at around 10:30am, staggered across the street to my polling station, voted, then crashed. I woke up in time to see the polls closing and the results coming in. By then, I was in my jammies and curled up on the couch. And I could hear people celebrating in the streets outside my window, honking horns, whoo-hooing. There was even a big street party a few blocks from my place, and what did I do? I slept. I was too pooped to party (!?!), and anyone who knows me at ALL knows that that never happens. Sigh. Still, I was/am elated about Obama and enjoying this feeling of hope. Way to go people! Yes, we did! And for this I am thankful, which catches us up to last Thursday. (See how I did that, all nice and tidy-like?)

Orange you glad the room is blue now?

October 19. Our first weekend in the new place! Home Improvement Project #1: repaint the front bedroom/office. We used Benjamin Moore Aura paint in Buxton Blue. Unlike most interior flat finish paints, this stuff is really thick and self-priming... and it dries. Super. Quickly. By the time you move the ladder, the place you were just painting is already tacky. Note to future Aura users, do not go back and touch up the paint. You've got a window of about 30 seconds before it starts to get funny on you and puckers up. The first coat was a royal pain in the 'tocks, but once we knew how to work the paint, the rest of the job was easy. And it turned out beautifully!

1. Junior and Senior hard at work; 2. How lovely! Don and Betty Draper would approve.

Last days at the old apt.

Our last few days in the old apartment were pretty hectic. We did manage to pack up 67 boxes and about 5 suitcases worth of stuff. We got everything neatly labeled and wrapped up in packing paper... for the most part. There was, of course, the last-minute "sweep" where we just took all the straggling odds and ends and swept them up into a garbage bag. Not necessarily the recommended way of packing, but hey, the movers were coming in 20 minutes!

Many thanks to the trio of movers from Pat Ryan Moving. They showed up at 8:30am, loaded up the truck, drove to the new place, unloaded the truck (depositing each box and piece of furniture in the correct room), and were done and outta here by 1:30pm. Let me tell you this: I will NEVER move myself again. Hiring movers is more expensive than renting a U-Haul and coercing your friends to help you out, but it is so worth it. Those movers were working hard--my back hurt just watching them!

Ahhh. Watching our humans scramble around packing up really IS a lot of work. Time for a little doze in the sun...

Three little pigs

I needed to escape my apartment. The packing, the boxes, the piles! Seriously, it looks like someone came into our apt and took everything off the walls and out of the closets and threw them in the middle of the room, and then threw himself on top of it, and then had a seizure. Being a complete neat freak, I. had. to. get. out.

What a perfect excuse to see my cutie-pie nephew! It's been a few weeks since I've seen Ryan. He's getting big now, cruising around pretty fast. And my what new teeth he has! We brought the pigs with us, of course. Ryan had a blast hanging out with his cousins; check out those smiles! Oliver was a little camera-shy, but Russ wasn't afraid to get up close and personal.

Pack it up, pack it in...

The BF and I have been busy little bees. We've been trolling Craig's List for boxes and packing supplies. We could have easily gotten new boxes, but really felt that we should be reusing this stuff. And can I tell you, living in a green-minded city like SF, everyone else and their mother thinks the same way. I never would have guessed what a hot commodity moving boxes were! That is, until I got horn-swaggled like three times! Seriously, someone posts that they've got some boxes, I charge down there with my empty car like 30 minutes after they've posted, only to get there and see someone else carting away the boxes. You've gotta act fast!

We've managed to get enough packing supplies and are making good progress. Our apt. is getting less recognizable, little by little. Two weeks til the movers get here! The piggies enjoy checking out our progress. The boxes create a nice little maze for them to explore. Here, Oliver either does not want us to move, or finds cardboard very tasty indeed!

Next stop: homeownership

Here she is, folks. She's a centenarian, but she's new to us!

The past two weeks have been a blur. Like a rollercoaster, it's been up and down, but through it all there's been the feeling of exhilaration. Just to give you a taste of our first four days: We saw the place for the first time on a Sunday, took a second look on Tuesday, placed an offer on Wednesday, and by Thursday we were in escrow! Since then it's been rapid-fire phone calls back and forth with our realtor (who is awesome btw), a slew of inspections, much faxing of paperwork, and then of course the inevitable signing away of lives and life savings. Ramen, anyone? (Actually, on top of all this, both of us were doing the cleanse! Not the best timing on our part.)

Seriously tho, this thing called homeownership has been a long time in the making. A dream realized. The BF and I have been working toward this moment for YEARS. (Ok maybe not all our 13 years together, but a good portion of it!) It's funny, sometimes the rollcoaster will come to a sudden stop, and we'll look at each other and say, "Can you believe we're actually doing this?!?" (followed by screams). We get the keys next week! GAHH!

Ketchup is not part of the cleanse

For the past 9 days I've been on the Blessed Herb cleanse. I'm going to spare you the gross details. If you want gross, go to the web site and check out the photo testimonials.

What is it? The cleanse starts with a 3-day pre-cleanse where you slowly cut down portion size all while taking the powder and pills. Then comes the 5-day liquids-only fast where you consume only the powder mixed with apple juice (gritty, bloaty), the pills, water, and some vegetable broth. This is then followed by the 1-day post-cleanse to slowly introduce normal food back into your system.

So what's it feel like? I wasn't too hungry (surprisingly), got headaches the first few days (normal), felt bloated and slightly nauseated (also normal), but for the most part could go about my day as usual minus exercise (but I didn't do much of that before the cleanse). There was a pretty constant feeling of bloat and nausea, which is probably why you don't feel hungry--you are too disgusted to eat. I've done a couple of other cleanses in the past (read: I've had lots of disgusting powder drinks) and this drink isn't so bad at first. By Day 7, it made me gag. I'm on my last day of the cleanse and have thankfully returned to the world of chewing. In retrospect, I'm sure that the cleanse was good for overall digestive health, expelling toxins, out with the old, and so forth. But I've done other cleanses and have felt better both during and after. I think it's good to do a cleanse every now and again. We eat so much crap (and by "we" I mean ME), like junk food, trans fats, processed white flour, on and on, that it is a good idea to give your body a little refresh.

So why'd I do this one in particular? Partly to see if I could. Partly to see what would happen, to see if my "results" would be as ... uhhh, "impressive?" "disturbing?"... as the photo testimonials. Partly to simply clear out the ol' GI because, honestly, no one wants a John Wayne colon (supposedly it weighed 30 lbs when he died) and no one wants to go out like Elvis (which my brother lovingly calls the Dump of Death). And Elvis's was reportedly 60 lbs!! [Insert your own King/Throne joke here.] OK, this entry is getting a little TMI. I know blogging is a somewhat anonymous, removed way of communicating, but all my readers (all 4 of you) know who I am!! Plus, describing my BMs in detail, by any means, is overshare. I just can't do it. What I can say is that I've never thought so much about poop! I'm glad it is over and I can return to normal life! Now someone please pass me the take-out menu.

Ketchup and wine

A lot has happened in the last month. I'm going to try and re-create it for you here in these next entries. Oh the joys of ketchup.

We gave ourselves a week to recover from Oliver's ragin' bday celebration. (Right.) So the BF, John, Kev, and I declared it Friday Ditch Day and went to Napa/Sonoma. Actually it was my last Summer Friday (and, sadly, those of you in the corporate world know how dearly we hold on to those--ugh, kill me). It was a good day and a good haul--way better than sitting in a lightless suckhole aka. my desk. We had the carefully planned out route of let's-stop-at-the-next-one-on-the-right. Cline, Trefethin (they had dogs roaming the grounds so of course that was my favorite), Miner, Ballentine, and... at least two more... I can't remember. And no, I wasn't looped. I was the DD. And I still managed to enjoy myself. Shocking, yes I know.

More ketchup (and ice cream)

The following weekend, I volunteered to scoop ice cream at the Slow Food festival. Slow Food and the ideas behind slow food are pretty cool. There was an interesting article in San Francisco Magazine about how SF completely missed the boat on the purpose of slow food, making it elitist, yuppie and inaccessible. I dunno about all that. I'm not really into food. I mean, I like to eat, but I'm no foodie. That's more the BF's arena.


Ok, so back to volunteering. Here's the thing. It was fun and all, but the next time I'm anywhere where VOLUNTEERS are handing out food, I'm really going to think twice about eating it. Don't get me wrong. Volunteers are lovely people, yes, yes. And I try to volunteer at least once a month. It's awesome, can't say enough good things about volunteering (except that I don't do it often enough). Not only am I "doing good" (and contributing to something bigger), I meet tons of great people and I have fun in the process. THAT being said... at this event, some volunteers were simply lazy. Others were just plain gross. I could kinda handle the gross ones if they were earnestly trying. I get it: things can get a little hectic if there's a long line of people and ice cream is in demand. So they're slobs and have a messy workstation, so what--at least they have a good heart. Licking your fingers or the scoopers and then handing the ice cream over to a customer all while sweating profusely... now that's just straight up sick. Gross, right? Wait. It gets worse. So the booth had those typical ice cream freezers, the kind where you've gotta lean over a little ledge in order to reach the containers? One lady (a fellow scooper) was reaching into the freezer to scoop, and there were some already-scooped dishes of ice cream sitting on the ledge that she had to reach over. I swear her pits touched the top of the ice cream in those dishes. And she was wearing a tank top! Honest to god. You'd think I'd lose my appetite after that, but I still somehow scarfed down at least eight scoops (which I scooped myself thankyouverymuch!!)



1. Fort Mason, all prettied up. 2. The booth. 3. MMM pre-pit ice cream! 4. My blister from scooping.

Bon anniversaire Olivier!

This past weekend we celebrated Oliver's 3rd bday. It was quite the gourmet, 2-course affair, complete with a tropical luau theme. The pigs even broke out the fancy dress.

How do I plan such a successful pig party of my own, you ask? Well, if you must know:

First, prepare the entree.

1. Go to the local farmer's market and pick up fresh veggies and fruits.

2. Weave some ong-choy (Chinese water spinach) into a lattice work base.

3. Vertically stack carrot "confetti" on the lattice, using a cookie cutter.

4. Place yellow pear tomatoes stuffed with dandelion greens around the carrots.

5. Top with 3 bell pepper "candles."

Next, set up the dessert platter.

1. Dice up some organic yellow nectarines and strawberries into pig bite-sized pieces.

2. Arrange in a pleasing pattern.

3. Get your straight jacket ready, someone is going to have you committed soon.

My etsy shop is open for bizness!

Yes! I am finally up on etsy. Ok, so I only have two items up, but I did it. It's a funny feeling, putting yourself out there. Exhilaration. Relief. Fear. Accomplishment.

For those who don't know, etsy is a great online venue to sell/buy handmade goods. There's even some vintage on there, but most items are handcrafted by the seller. You can even shop locally and support your fellow local artists. Trolling etsy.com sucks up waaay too much of my work day, to be honest. Hopefully some jewelry-lovin' people out there will stumble upon my little shop. More items to come soon. Keep checking back!

Go to SugarCube Jewelry's etsy shop.

Droplet earrings

As promised, new jewelry pix! I have to confess tho. These aren't really "new"--I made them months ago. What I really need to do is get more pictures up on the SugarCube web site. It's been ages since that site has been updated. Who's responsible for running this outfit anyway? In true CEO fashion, I'm going to lay the blame elsewhere: my IT department (aka. the BF). It's gotta be his fault, right? Because it can't possibly be me and my non-motivated self. Oh no. The only other options are Oliver and Russ and, well, the pigs are just too cute. And they aren't very savvy in DreamWeaver...


1. Amethyst briolette droplets; 2. Different colors of faceted tourmaline; 3. Cherry, champagne, and smokey quartz; 4. Pale pink freshwater pearls on Sterling silver.

Amazonite & Gold

I've been working on a few new jewelry pieces over the summer. This one I made a few weeks ago. To me, it has a vintage-y feel to it, but the asymmetric design keeps it modern. The cloudy blue stones are amazonite, and that's a burgundy pearl in the back for a little interest. All the metal is 24k GF.

Oy. I'm using the decapitated neck display. I didn't want to get one of these at first--they're a little creepy to have around the apartment, if you know what I mean. But it actually worked really well for the May jewelry show, especially for pieces like this so you can see how it is supposed to hang. More new jewelry pix to come soon!

Hello Sunshine!

A lovely and rare sunny day in the TP. Here, Oliver and Rusty enjoy warming up in the little rays of sunshine we get in our apartment. I love the first picture! It looks like Rusty's smiling and Oliver is goofing for the camera! On the right, Olive takes a little lie-down while Russ keeps a watchful eye out.

I'm really appreciative of the good times like these. Pigs are such delicate creatures. We got a pretty harsh reminder of this a few months ago. We found out that Oliver's back molars were overgrown due to malocclusion, which is when bottom and top molars don't line up. Since guinea pig teeth continuously grow, pigs need to be able to gnaw and chew in order to wear their teeth down. When they can't do it naturally, that's when the vets (and vet bills!) come in.

This all happened shortly after our San Diego trip. Oliver's appetite was down, and he was getting slim. He was also in obvious pain: his eyes were teary and he had an all-over sad, hunched demeanor. When we got him to the vet, it turned out that (on top of the tooth problems) Oliver had contracted pneumonia due to pain and stress. So we had to treat that first with antibiotics before the vet could anesthetize him for the tooth trim. Luckily we have a wonderful, smart, experienced exotic vet in SF, Dr. Herman. She said that Oliver's back teeth were so overgrown that they were touching in the middle and trapping his tongue underneath, which prevented him from swallowing. And, because his teeth weren't occluding, there were a few long, sharp points on his teeth that were poking him in the cheek and tongue, causing lacerations! Poor thing was in so much pain before the tooth trim.

So Dr. Herman got Oliver all treated and trimmed up, and a few days later we were able to bring him home. His recovery was slow. We were really worried about him--he wasn't bouncing back very well at all. He wasn't eating on his own and lost a LOT of weight. The BF and I were up til the wee hours every night and waking up at dawn every morning for two/three weeks so we could assist-feed him Critical Care (a powder from the vet that we mixed with water, formed into a mash, stuck into a needle-less syringe, and squirted down the pig's throat). It's messy and feels like you're torturing the poor thing, but it really was the only thing keeping him alive. We averaged about 50cc a day of Critical Care, and still Oliver was losing weight. He was down to about 860g and looked anorexic. And believe me, the Nicole Richie-look is NOT a good look for pigs!

Miraculously, Oliver started eating on his own again. He's had one tooth trim since May and is due for another one on Monday. He has to go to the vet's every month for a tooth trim. I always get a little (more like a lot!) worried whenever he's up for another trimming. I drop him off in the morning, and the vets keep him there for the day. I think I worry the most about the anesthesia, which is always a risk. But lately Oliver's feeling really good, he's happy, and his weight is way up (almost 1100g!). Rusty helps out by keeping Oliver company and scampering about the apartment together, not to mention he's put on some serious "sympathy grams" too. (Russ is up to 1250g and he's not even a year old!) They're buddies and are inseparable.

(Left: Rustopher Jones hangs out under the dining table, while M. Olivier gives us his best side; Right: Two pigs and a banana.)