what to do?

I'm really conflicted right now because in terms of exercise during the school year, I don't know what to do. I'm currently taking a "pilates" class through the IMA--and I put it in quotes because my instructor, Erin, usually teaches yoga so her style of pilates is heavily influenced by that. I have to say, I absolutely love my instructor! I like how everything flows from one form to another, how she always asks what areas we would like to focus on and really caters to that, how she focuses on loosening and warming up the areas around our joints, and how she emphasizes understanding our bodies' limits while still maintaining proper form. Usually instructors first demonstrate the proper form and then sometimes show the modification. Erin takes the opposite approach where she slowly eases us in with a warm up, and then while focusing on the right area and right muscles, slowly puts us into position and gradually increases it from there

some issues I've always had with pilates and yoga are my weak lower back and tight hips, but Erin really helps strengthen and loosen those areas. She's the only instructor I've had (and I've had my fair share) where I never look at the clock and I look forward to going to class. Hell, the only drawback right now is that the class is only twice a week!

my conflict is that once summer quarter is over, Erin will go back to teaching at Yogalife and the usual teacher will come back to teach pilates during the entire school year. I really don't like this instructor! I feel that my muscles tense up with her because she focuses too much on form and flexibility without much consideration for those who may need some modifications. She obviously understands the body, but sometimes focuses on too many muscles and joints at once that I get over-stimulated, over think it, and end up tensing up. It takes me a lot of self-motivation (and I mean a lot) to get myself down to the IMA to attend one of her classes. In the end, I'm either prone to skipping her class or I don't feel neither relaxed nor worked out like I should

but, it'd only cost me about $15/mo for classes 2x/wk, whereas, Erin (and the other instructors at the studio) would be about $90/mo for unlimited classes... There are more pros & cons I could list, but then I would never shut up. I'm currently leaning toward the latter option, but fiscally, that difference is soo much that I really need to consider this

schmancy

I just found out that I won a copy of Anna Hrachovec's Knitting Mochimochi from PlushYou! This is so awesome, I feel like I never win anything! :D If you're familiar with Anna's work, she does a tiny series almost every week, so PlushYou! decided to hold a contest for whoever could come up with the next best tiny idea. Since I like the deep sea/nautical theme, I suggested a tiny submarine, steam punk scuba diver, or seahorse. I'm not quite sure which idea won, but hell, who cares? I won out of about 200 entries!! I really hope that Anna will take one (or all?) of my suggestions and knit something up because I'd love to see what she comes up with!

you can't fire me

I fuckin' QUIT!

1 skin, 2 skin, 3 skin, 4...

I use to be afraid that school depleted me of all creative energy. I remember when I was a kid, I loved getting projects because that allowed me to make things, not just study them. All sorts of images would pop into my head of the projected end product and I'd be busy busy busy making, drawing, cutting, pasting... creating!

I think I was influenced by my sister, the ultimate Renaissance woman, both intelligent & artistic. When we were kids, she'd yell at me for coloring in her "Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers" coloring book with her crayons, and not only that, but I'd be coloring too hard. She also turned an egg carton into a full-fledged studio apartment, which must've later given her the idea to empty out our eggs while still maintaining the shell and eventually turn them into all sorts of various jungle animals. Whatever it was that she made, I just remember that I wanted to make it too! I don't even know if she still remembers half the things she did; I only remember them because that was the kind of influence her creativity had on me

now that I have the summer off before grad school, I've decided to relax, which has given me a lot of free time to create. In fact, I finally got my little craft corner set up! It comes w/office supplies, books, pattern/idea notebook, ball winder, yarn box, caddy fully stocked w/knitting and crocheting equipment, and plant. It's not much, but it suits my needs. I'm trying to think of some clever, witty name to call it so that I can vaguely hint at what I'm doing. Something to the tune of, "well, time to drop the kids off the pool..." but you know, more on the funny, less on the TMI connotations

I feel that having this creative outlet, some of the juices have come back! For instance, the other day, it just occurred to me to make an alphabet-themed toy & letter plate set for my nephew. I've been knitting and crocheting all sorts of toy animals with no particular purpose, but to make them and learn some techniques along the way (I have plans to design my own pattern some day). So for each letter of the alphabet, I'll make him a little animal accompanied with a card representing said letter and animal and an interesting fact about it. This would give him something to play with, two- and three-dimensional objects to visualize, teach him the alphabet, AND expand his knowledge of the animal kingdom. I'm also hoping that his parents will take the letters of his name and maybe hang them up on his wall?

but anyway, I've only got B is for Beaver done. This will definitely be a summer-long project because this one letter alone amongst all the other things that I have to do, has taken me about 3 days...

my dream house

I use to own a box of pictures, notes, and clippings of things I wanted to have someday in my dream house. Over many, many years, I accumulated ideas for different kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, landscapes. I included color schemes for which areas of the house, skylights in which rooms, porch decor. I had both interior and exterior covered! The idea was to collect anything and everything I liked, decide what was economically and ergonomically the best choice, and consult with my construction team from there. Unfortunately, I lost this box. I've recently come to terms with this because I figure my tastes change with experience anyway. And now with it being spring and the season for plant shopping or traipsing through Japanese gardens, I've been learning a lot about plants and landscaping, and my mind is going wild! I think now is as good a time as ever to start a new box of pictures, notes, and clippings of the things I want to have someday in my dream house, so here goes...

my dream house will have Magnolias & Wisterias

my mom has a silk flowering plant that she bought years ago when we still lived in Houston. It's some sort of Oriental plant with huge, blooming pink flowers. I've always liked this plant, but assumed it was either non-existent or only grew somewhere in Asia (presumably Japan since her furniture seemed to carry that theme). Until recently, I've discovered that this plant does exist, and in fact, can grow in the Pacific Northwest. It's a magnolia. Every time I've tried to describe this plant, people always thought I'd been talking about orchards or cherry blossoms, which are beautiful plants too, but they shed. After having a weeping willow, I've learned that shedding trees are way too high-maintenance for me. Besides, I much prefer the gorgeous, huge blossoms of magnolias and they're far more fragrant. I'd love to have a soft breeze carrying that scent all throughout my house

I've also learned a new species of plant that I've always liked: wisterias. I've always wanted a trellis with some sort of climbing plant wrapping itself around it and hanging blooms draping off of it. I'd always thought these plants were some sort of grape variety, but as I was at the local nursery by my parent's house, I've learned that they're wisterias and that they grow quite well in the Pacific Northwest and England. I'm not sure what color I'd like them in (it depends on the color scheme of my dream house), but I think I'd like them in purple. Or maybe white. Or maybe yellow...

hurrah!

I can officially add "crocheting" to my list of special powers! ^_^ Many thanks to Woowork for without him, I may have never gotten in touch with Planet June and thus found a reliable source on left-handed crocheting. I've taken many stabs at trying to learn how to crochet, but with black&white hand-drawn pictures, it's nearly impossible to imagine the instructions and then flip them to make them more lefty-friendly. I've even tried many sources that claim to teach crocheting to left-handers, but they were no good. Planet June, on the other hand, is actually a lefty crocheter with really simple instructions and pictures to aid. I was able to understand her instructions right away and in fact, made my first attempt at amigurumi!

I'm the type of person who whenever I take on something new, I immediately try to jump 10 steps ahead of me. Everything relies on those first moments. If I'm not getting something (organic chemistry) or it's not piquing my interest within 5 seconds (Clay Aiken), I give up and move onto something else. But if I can somehow mathematically wrap my head around something and I feel like I'm progressing toward some sort of understanding, I recklessly ignore how deep the plunge is, and jump right off the edge, figuring I'll find out the subsequent risks along the way

when I picked up my first pair of knitting needles, as soon as I got the basic knit and purl techniques down, I immediately set myself to knit a lace shawl. I ignored the fact that I didn't know any other techniques, gauges, or tension, and went right at it. Of course, this led to many many mistakes and much pleading for help on my thankfully-patient, master-crafts-woman big sister (^_^)

likewise, just yesterday, I was introduced to Planet June's instructions on basic crocheting for lefties. As soon as I saw it, I immediately picked up some cheap yarn and my crochet hook (like I said, I've attempted, and failed many times before! Plus, a crochet hook can come in handy for knitting too). Once I felt like I got the basic chain stitch down, I went right ahead and bugged my sister (again!) for one of her amigurumi toy patterns. This morning, with my chosen pattern in one hand and June's instructions in the other, I went right at it, and by this afternoon, I completed my first ever crocheted amigurumi project, huzzah!

post edit: meet my first ever crocheted project, a burgundy koala! Or as some people like to call her, Baby Gau

mmm, begonias *nom nom nom*

courtesy of Woman's Day

if you don't sweat, you're not doing it right

day 1 of the VCR Pact. And by VCR, I mean the Vivian-Carmel-&Rosa Pact: work out 4x a week. Pretty simple and not to rigorous, right? Wrong! God I hadn't realized how out of shape I'd gotten... since the last half of fall quarter, I haven't been able to hit a gym at all. Winter was busy with grad school apps and spring has been a packed schedule of 19 credits and 2 labs.

so finally, I hit the gym today as day 1 of our pact. I started everything out light knowing that it'd been awhile. In fact, I've been wanting to get back into my old running shape, so I restarted the original training program that I did almost 5 years ago that made me into a runner in the first place. And even with a light workout, I was huffin' it! -_-''

I did 20 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the elliptical, and 8-min abs. And let me reiterate, these were light workouts--as in, I wasn't going that fast or hardcore. I use to run 4.5 miles on the treadmill set to speed 6.5, and that was on an easy day...

I'm really glad I decided to join in on this pact because I've been wanting to get back in shape for awhile now, especially before grad school starts. I hadn't really noticed it until I was talking to Rosa one day, but at one point, running kinda became my identity. I felt off if I didn't run, and now that I haven't been running, I've felt off from a big part of myself. Now that I have a full summer, my main goals will be to work (nothing tough since it'd only be a summer job) and workout. I'm hoping now that I won't have a car, I'll be forced to use my bike more, which will also contribute to my exercise regimen. But ultimately, I'd like to do a 5k sometime before 2011. I never did one when I was in good running shape and I'd always regretted that. I figure, now that I'm trying to get back into the groove of things, now's a good time as any to slowly train myself for a 5k in the meantime. Wish me luck!