Our Life Nowadays

Josh gets up a little after 5am to get ready and go to work.  I get up at 6:30 to do the same.  My trip to work includes an hour on the Max and bus to get to the Red Cross.  Work is uneventful (for me at least, Josh's day is probably more bloggable than gift entry and database cleanup).  I try to use my twice daily hour commutes as a Trimet passenger wisely: reading, crocheting, working my Tulsa job, etc.  I get home around 6 and bide my time until Josh gets home at 7ish.  We then have two hours until he goes to bed and I work for an hour on whatever crafty project I need to complete next.  That's right folks, we spend 2-3 hours in each others' company per day.  Of course, it is less than that if he is on call and doesn't come home in the evening at all, which happens about once a week.  Weekends are glorious and we have 48 beautiful hours to work in the garden, go to Portland's many festivals, and take advantage of all the outdoor fun at our fingertips.  Except when he's on weekend call - like this weekend.

I'm not trying to be Complains McGee over here, I just thought a little sketch of this new life would be interesting to do.  Compared to his last year of medical school, where he had tons of free time and we both worked about 7 minutes from our house and could have lunch together anytime, it's a big change!  This daily routine won't last forever, in fact it will get better each year he's a resident, and we are looking forward to life after residency when he can set his hours more reasonably.  In the meantime, though, we appreciate having at least those two hours a day - happy fourth anniversary, Dr. Reese!  Thank you for spending your free time with me, I enjoy your company in life.

"I'd buy that!"

I made this purse before we went to Europe so I could have a roomy purse to supplement the sole backpack I brought for our four week adventure. Since I couldn't find one at a store that suited me, I raided my mom's fabric stash and made one myself. The pattern is Elizabeth Hartman's at Oh, Fransson! who is my favorite quilting blogger and a fellow Portlander.

On Friday, Josh, our new intern bff, Denise, and I went to the Brewer's Festival downtown. I got there first, so I passed the time listening to the fantastic bluegrass band, Head for the Hills. While I did so, a girl came up and asked me where I got my bag. It was such a great feeling to announce "I made it!" She said that she would "totally buy it," but as I can't take credit for it's design, and it was full of my stuff at that moment, that is/was not an option. Kudos to Elizabeth Hartman for a great pattern, though! And the compliment made me pretty proud of my assembling skills.

New Look!

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I gallivanted around Europe with my husband for four weeks. I watched him become a doctor. I drove a Jeep 2500 miles from Tulsa to Portland via the Grand Canyon (with no a/c, might I add). I got a job doing for the Oregon Red Cross pretty much the same thing I did for Tulsa's. I'm still working for the Tulsa chapter, too. Now I feel all settled and can get back to a normal schedule that, ideally, will include more regular blogging. And for this new life, I felt a new blog-look was appropriate.

I plan to blog about many things, including our Europe trip, my adventures riding the train through Portland every day, the awesome stuff there is to do in this great city, and the stuff that I make with fabric, yarn, or food. For now, I'll combine two of those topics and show you my favorite souvenir of our recent trip:

Handspun yarn from Vernazza, Italy in the Cinque Terre! I spoke with the lady who makes it and she told me all about the different things she uses to dye her yarn. Mine was dyed with ivy leaves. She uses cabbage, onion skins, and all kinds of things to make beautifully colored yarn. Plus, as she put it, she "has much fun!" I think I'm going to make it into a hat. First, I need to learn how to make a hat.