okra: December 2006

As We Were • Friday, December 29, 2006 • 12:04 PM

It's pretty much back to normal life once again around the Okra household. (Well, almost. Keith is still in San Diego.) It's always a bit of a gear change after the holidays. I've posted some more holiday and snow pictures on Flickr.

I had a great time, and it seemed to go too fast. I don't want to take my Christmas tree down. I think I'll leave it up for another week or two. I'm just not tired of it just yet. And by that time, I'll be gearing back up for Chinese New Year! So, instead of moping, I'll be hanging lanterns.

It's going to be the year of the pig! I'm super excited, because that's my Chinese zodiac sign. Yay! It's finally our year for us pigs again. We're last in line, after all of the other animals. ;)

I found a really cute lai si style envelope over at Cut + Paste featuring, of course, the pig.

{Photo from Cut + Paste.}

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Gift Cranes • Friday, December 22, 2006 • 8:20 AM

I was enlisted by my mom to make some origami jewelry for my cousins as Christmas gifts. I had a really good time making these and I'm super pleased with how they turned out. I got some new origami paper that I'm loving; the colors and patterns aren't particularly unusual, but still endearing.

{My new origami paper. Also in the package were the cutest folded figures of kimono wearing girls. I'm now obsessively analyzing them. I, too, will make kimono girls!}

{Earrings in progress. }

{A pair of the finished crane earrings.}

{I folded little gift boxes with lids to put the cranes in. Here's the the pale pink set in its box.}

{The other two sets, in their boxes, and then all three of them tied up with twine and labeled with tiny gift tags.}

I don't know my cousins very well. I've considered that perhaps it's silly to be so excited about the earrings, considering there is a good chance the recipients won't be as excited about receiving them as I am about giving them. I hope that my cousins at least sort of like them (since that would be the main objective of a gift). But, even if they do not, that's ok. The little cranes and boxes were fun to make and they were meant to be thoughtful; that's good enough for me! ;)

On a related note, I thought that this article about gift giving from the New Yorker conveys a very interesting point. There is a lot of wasteful spending associated with gift giving. And adding my own two cents, simple homemade gifts are a good replacement for aimless spending.

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• Thursday, December 21, 2006 • 8:08 PM

I'm so busy, I can hardly think. Yesterday I had a lunch meeting about another free-lance type job. As I've mentioned before, I do illustrations and diagrams on the side for an anthropologist for her academic papers. She recommended me to another anthropologist, and so now I have more, though strangely non-related, work. This time, I'm checking citations for a book on linguistics. I have to find each referenced article or text and make sure that the citation is accurate. This is an emergency rush job, so most of it will have to be done by January 1st! Akkk! So, between that and holiday stuff, I'm absolutely swamped.

But holiday vacation from my regular day job begins tomorrow, thank god! My list of things to do tomorrow is monstrous, but I am looking forward to having a solid chunk of time to devote to all of the many things that need doing. There's a lot of work to be done, but also a lot of fun things. I'm hoping to make sugar cookies, clean the house, I'm having some friends for dinner, and I'm also hoping to get some major citation checking done tomorrow.

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They're in the Mail! • 7:10 PM

Last night I assembled my holiday cards. I'm only mailing a few of them (the rest are for in-town friends), but I hope that they get there on time... I think maybe I should plan to do this earlier next year, har. I dropped the disk off at the photo shop to have them printed on Monday. I picked up the prints Tuesday, but they weren't right, so they had to be printed again. Blast! They were very nice and apologetic and I got some free prints. But, it set me back a day and for last minute fools such as myself, a day can make a lot of difference. Nonetheless, all of the cutting, affixing, addressing, signing, etc. was finally finished last night. Yay!

{Here is the paper, ready for the photots to be added.}

{Here are a few samples of the finished cards!}

Last year I worked out an efficient card plan that I utilized again for this time around. I ordered the necessary number of photos in 3.5" x 5", which just perfectly fits on 1/4 of a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper. This year I used a nice, heavy weight textured paper. So, first I cut the paper in half (oriented vertically, to create a 5.5" x 8 1/2 sheet). Then, I folded each cut piece in half to form the card. This is the perfect fit for a standard "invitation" size envelope. I considered other sizes, but decided I didn't want to make 30 or so handmade envelopes. I like making envelopes, but that would be sheer hell. The pictures are secured to the front of the cards with black self-stick photo corners. It takes a little while to assemble them, but it's really very easy.

I put cards and little packets of pizzelles in each person's mailbox at work this morning. I've gotten quite a few positive comments, so I think they were a hit!

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Trees • 10:54 AM
	I like these glass trees from CB2. I think would feel at home with my retro plastic deer. Too bad they're out of green. The red is nice too, though. It's also too bad I really don't need any more holiday decorations. It's probably good that they wouldn't get here by Christmas... I wonder if they will be on sale after the holiday? No! BAD! (smacks self) 0 comments

Busy, busy! • Monday, December 18, 2006 • 2:40 PM

This weekend went by in a blur; I can't believe it is Monday already. And Christmas is one week away, eek! Though, I'm mostly ready. The bulk of my shopping was done in late October (ha!) and everything is already wrapped.

I made about 100 pizzelles last night and have plans to make sugar cookies later this week. (This is very simlar to the recipe I used.)

{The finished pizzelles.}

I wanted to put them in plain, clear cellophane bags, but those are surprisingly hard to find (well, locally anyway). So, I ended up using some "treat bags" from Target. I wasn't totally keen on the bags at first, but the finished product ended up looking pretty good, better than expected at least.

I just dropped my photos off at the print shop for our holiday cards. I'm picking them up tomorrow after work. I'm going to have to hurry to get them out on time. It took me awhile to decide what pictures to use this year, but ended up using some of the photos from the "big snow".

Our bed frame has still not arrived, so I called them this afternoon, only to discover that they are planning to deliver it next Saturday. Saturday is not going to be convenient per se. I'm supposed to be meeting up with my family that day. The only other day they can deliver it is January 6th. And NFM promised "mid-December", darn it! Wouldn't that be roughly the 10th - 20th if you divide the month in thirds, or what does that mean anyway? Though, somehow I doubt that arguing with them about my interpretation of mid-December is not going to convince them to bring my furniture earlier. ;) Oh well, I'm still pretty happy about new furniture, and I'm sure it'll work out somehow.

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Oozing Holiday Cheer • Friday, December 15, 2006 • 9:11 AM

Last night, I finished the stockings project! Wow, they turned out pretty good, better than I was expecting. I think I figured out the sewing machine problems, and I managed to sew pretty straightly on the second one! Yay! I also added another run of green stitching on Keith's stocking with my new skillz. It looks a lot better, I think. I'll try to post some pictures today of the finished stockings.

We have a big holiday extravaganza today at work; we are having a catered brunch! It's going to be mostly breakfast fare, yum. I'm all about the free food. We are closing the office for two hours to have a gift exchange (I have the feeling there will be a lot of gag gifts ) and open up our stockings that we have been secretly filling for each other over the week. I have been putting candies and random little things in them, but last night I made each person a little gold origami crane ornament. I just folded the cranes and then strung them on red crochet thread. They turned out pretty cute and were so simple to make.

Last night I also wrapped some gifts that I was asked to get for our work study students at the office. It was a fun task. I got them some cute things from Target and wrapped them up in a candy-like striped paper and tied ornaments to the tops. I also picked up some cards at the last minute (I wrote in them this morning).

Ahh, it's so festive around here it could nearly drive a person mad. Good thing I'm a little crazy already. I'm hyper-happy.

P.S. I put my hair up in pigtails today and I'm wearing a shirt in my favorite color (Keith's mom gave it to me), which is also making me happy. Ahhh, a happy Friday indeed.

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Otherworldly • Thursday, December 14, 2006 • 9:17 AM
	Wow, I just discovered this amazing set of photos of an abandoned tuna factory. Well, abandoned by all but graffitists. The photos have an otherworldly quality. They are posted on flikr, but I found the link through the photographer's site, A Bird in the Hand. Certainly worth a visit. 0 comments

WIP • Tuesday, December 12, 2006 • 11:01 PM

Here's my latest work in progress, the holiday stockings that I'm making for me and Keith. His is mostly finished (crazy stitching included). I'll probably just need to use some fray-check around the edges and then kind of glue down some of my stray threads. My green one is looking good so far. I sewed the star on it this evening.

We went to this crazy little dollar shop on the edge of town tonight. As is usual with dollar places, it was kind of seedy, but they did have some interesting stuff. I got this cheesy, kitschy little wire Christmas tree. I think that I will put it in a gift basket for my grandma and grandpa along with some sugar cookies. I dunno, I might have to get another one to put with my little vintage plastic deer.

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Mattress Review: Week One • 10:31 PM

The new mattress arrived exactly one week ago. Am I still liking it? Here's my week one review:

Overall:
I'd give this mattress a very good rating, about 4.5 stars out of 5. I'd dock it more for having a high price tag, except that I think it's worth it. I'm sleeping noticeably better than I was (but I did have a pretty darn bad mattress, so that might be a factor).

Comfort:
My back pain has definitely lessened, but not completely gone. Though I wasn't expecting my back pain to disappear after trying the new mattress. I don't that it is realistic to expect any mattress to cure me. That being said, I think that it gives excellent support. I have been waking up less during the night, and I have not woken up with asthma problems at all during the night (I usually do). Though perhaps that can simply be attributed to the horridness of the old mattress, which I'm sure had accumulated quite a bit of dust and allergens over the years. The allergen resistance of the mattress is something that will have to be proven over time I suppose.

I really appreciate that each side of the mattress has a different firmness. Ironically, Keith and I ended up liking each other's side more (and not just because we like each other, haha). He liked the medium firmness, and I ended up liking the soft. So, we switched and are now quite content.

The top of the mattress cover is quite comfortable. The top is quilted, so that it has a soft, cushy feel. It's not overly padded though, which in my mind is good, as I don't believe that there is much potential for body impressions to form. I think permanent body impressions would ruin a mattress for me, and thus would diminish the life of the mattress. We added a thicker, removable mattress pad on top for added cushiness, but also to protect the mattress. We just bought a moderately priced one at Target.

Ease of Assembly:
The mattress came unassembled; there were four foam sheets and a casing in which to stuff them all into. It was not terribly hard to put the foam pieces in the fabric cover. The cover is made to fit tight, so it did take some patience. The instruction sheet did warn that "at first the cover will appear too small, but it will fit". They weren't lying. It really was tight, and it really did fit. The finished product looks more or less like a regular mattress and the cover is tight enough that it does not bunch when you sleep on it. I did notice that tiny pieces of foam rubbed off on me, the floor, and our cat Mao Mao while I was assembling the mattress. She looked like she had a bad case of cat dandruff. (!) But, of course the shedding stopped as soon as the cover was on. I'd say that is only a temporary problem.

Quality:
The mattress seems to be of high quality; we got what what we paid for. It is as was described. I was especially impressed with the quality of the organic cotton and wool mattress cover. The top completely zips off, via a metal zipper. As aforementioned, the top is quilted; it seems to be a quality stitching job. The only drawback is that it is not washable, though it can be dry cleaned. However, it seems a bit contradictory to saturate your organic mattress cover with dry cleaning chemicals. One could send it to an eco-cleaners', but I don't think that would be practical for us, since there are none near here that I am aware of.

Misc. notes:
Keith said that the foam looked like big pieces of tofu. At first he thought it smelled like tofu, too, but then later claimed that it also smelled like french vanilla. (?) My guess is that it would smell like rubber, but maybe tofu kind of smells like rubber? I personally don't have a sense of smell, so don't really have any idea. Whatever it smells like, Keith said that it wasn't too strong, especially once the cover was put on. I'm generally convinced that smell is not a real concern with this mattress. There have been complaints about smell (a chemical smell in particular) regarding foam mattresses made from other materials, but I think that it is safe to say that latex does not have this problem (I'm basing this on what Keith has told me).

Also of note, we have the 8" thick mattress, so it has a bit thinner profile than most modern mattresses probably have. When researching the mattress, others had been concerned that regular sheets would not fit the thinner mattress. In reality, this doesn't seem to be a problem though, as the regular standard queen size sheets we have fit it just fine.

The end:
I had personally found a general lack of helpful reviews when I was researching latex mattresses. I hope that this is helpful to someone, someday. So far, I'm very happy with our choice, and I think it is an option worth looking into for others that are seeking a practical organic mattress.

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Cold (chicken) Feet • Monday, December 11, 2006 • 8:57 AM

The snow finally began to melt this weekend. I can see most of my lawn again now. Maybe the chickens will come out of their house today. They have absolutely refused to come out since the snow storm hit. All three of them rush up to the door, stick their heads out, see snow, and then turn around and get back on their perch. Snow would be pretty cold on bare feet. Maybe I should make them some booties. Haha, just kidding... or am I?

No, really the only socks I'm making at the moment are Christmas stockings. I promise. (Sorry chickens.) For some reason Keith realllly wanted to have stockings this year for Christmas. We went to Target to look at them and I wasn't overly impressed. They were either too expensive or too cheesy. So, I decided that I would make some for us. I went to the fabric store yesterday and got some felt and cut out two stockings. I used the Martha Stewart templates for the shape (oh la la). I hand sewed a green star on Keith's red stocking with red thread. I machine sewed some ribbon at the top and then sewed all the way around. But let's get one thing straight here: I'm really pretty stinky at sewing on a machine. I can sometimes manage to sew in a straight line. Yesterday was not really one of those times. I also discovered that I can't really sew on a curve either. Haha. I did finish the first stocking, and it's ok, but it's also kinda funny looking around the edge. I'll probably have to fix it up a little. I'm thinking about just sewing the second one by hand.

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Sweet dreams will be mine! • Thursday, December 07, 2006 • 11:36 PM

We ordered our new mattress a week ago, and now it is here! We decided to go with the Savvy Rest natural latex mattress. This is the mattress that we bought, at the Online store we bought it from.

It is made with organic latex and has a removable organic wool and cotton cover that can be cleaned. The design of the mattress makes it possible to customize the firmness of each side, so my side is a bit firmer (because I have back problems). We plan to use the mattress without a box-spring, directly on a platform bed. Right now it is on the floor (until our bed frame arrives). We've slept on it for two nights and so far, it's excellent. I'll post a more detailed review update after I get it on the frame and give it a thorough testing.

Natural (organic) latex is a good solution if you like the idea of foam, but are concerned about the chemicals that go into conventional "memory foam" and Tempur-Pedic mattresses. These chemicals are released into the air as the material degrades over time. I personally don't like the thought of my face being pressed against something that produces potentially harmful fumes. Latex is also very resistant to dust mites and mildew, which is a plus for allergy sufferers.

If you are looking for a new mattress, here are a few resources I found helpful regarding latex:

Here is some information from Savvy Rest about latex. While this was written by someone selling latex products, it is the most detailed and even seemingly the most frank discussion on latex that I found.

Interesting site on mattresses, titled "What's the Best Mattress". However, I found the forum part of the site to be more helpful and less "commercial".

This is a thread on the What's the Best Mattress forum about Tempur-Pedic mattresses and the (scary) chemicals that go into them.

A couple of other bloggers posted interesting/helpful info on mattresses in general not too long ago, at Not Martha and Fig and Plum. There are some interesting Ask Metafilter links at the Not Martha page. There didn't seem to be a lot on latex mattresses at Metafilter, though, surprisingly.

And if you are interested in my longer personal bed shopping experience, you can keep reading...

The new mattress unexpectedly arrived on Tuesday. We weren't expecting it to even ship before that date. It arrived in two hugeomongo boxes; the layers of foam were rolled up inside. Luca was sitting on top of the largest opened box and nearly fell into the hole in the center of the rolled up foam sheets. (!) I think that we were more alarmed than her, though. She's still having a blast with the now empty boxes, which are temporarily stashed in the basement. We are hanging onto them, just in case we need to switch one of the latex sheets for a different firmness (which is free of charge, btw, excepting shipping costs).

We don't have the new queen size bed frame yet (see below), but were so excited to try out the new mattress that we set it up on the living room floor. I've slept on it for two nights, one on my firmer side, and one on Keith's softer side. It is sooo indescribably more comfortable than our old mattress. Oh man, there is no comparison. I didn't want to get up this morning. Though, I think that my side may be a bit too firm, ironically. I believe that the firmer mattress produces a pressure point on my hip. I'm wondering if it will feel different once it is on the frame, rather than directly on the floor.

My main observation this far regarding comfort is that the foam conforms to my body, without being too spongy. This is especially true for Keith's softer top layer. I've had problems in the past with my spine and hip twisting when I lay on my side, as the leg not in contact with the mattress is at more of an angle than the one laying flat against the bed. To remedy this, I had to sleep with a pillow between my knees. This bed eliminates this twisting, as the mattress is softer on the ends (where your head and feet would go) and softer in the middle (where your hips are) so that my hips sink in a little, aligning my hips and legs better.

In preparation for the new mattress, we've had to shop for a new frame as well, because our new queen mattress won't fit our old double frame. I was feeling a little sad because I like the quirky metal frame we have. It's very old, from maybe the 1930s? My parents had it for some time, since the early 80s perhaps, and I'm kind of sentimentally attached to it. (When I was little, I had a lot fun jumping and doing summersaults on it. Hmm, maybe that's partly why the mattress is so bad now, doh!) It was given to us because no one else in our extended family wanted it, as it was painted a disgusting mustard yellow color. My dad sandblasted off the yellow and repainted it white, which was a big improvement. In fact, I think those who had initially palmed it off on my parents were just a little jealous after it was fixed up, haha. My mom kindly let me use it when I got my first apartment, so I plan on returning it to her. So at least I don't expect that it will be gone forever.

I went shopping for a new bed frame in Kansas City the Sunday before last. We had previously done some looking around at local shops without much luck. There are a lot of bad furniture places in existence around here. They are jammed full, so that you can hardly walk through, with really cheesy fiberboard furniture. We did find one promising store, where we purchased our futon from when we moved into our house. It's a smallish, locally owned shop with higher quality furnishings. They have a lot of nicely designed pieces. They had solid wood frames, as opposed to all of the cheaply made fiberboard stuff we kept finding at the other places. We were also lucky enough to visit when the owner was there; he was very helpful and we almost bought a frame from him.

But, just to be sure I had shopped around enough, I decided to make a stint to Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) in Kansas City before making any final purchases (their website is terrible, not really worth visiting in my opinion). It was a pleasant day out and I had a nice lunch with my family before commencing with my shopping. My mom and dad were nice enough to drive me out to the mart. At first my mom and I were horrified by the furniture we found there, it was mostly really cheapo looking, fake veneered pieces. Also, I would ask various clerks questions about the furniture and they would respond only to my mom. I do look young, and not that I'm complaining about that, but it was a bit frustrating. We were about to give up, when I saw the very same bed frame that I had looked at in the Columbia shop. But, for half the price! They also deliver here, at no extra charge! Yay! It turned out that the frame I want was not in stock, but is slated to arrive sometime mid December. I didn't think that it would be a problem at the time, because we thought the bed would arrive later. The clerk in that particular department was actually quite nice and did answer my questions to me directly instead of to my mom. I felt a little like a traitor, buying from the big box store instead of from the little, independent guy. But for that much savings, I went ahead and bought it. I saved so much that I was able to buy the matching dresser as well. Ahhh, I hope my karma isn't ruined. ;)

This is the bed we are getting. It's "Edo" from Sitcom furniture. It's much lower to the ground than what we have now, which I think I will like. I like it so much that my old bed frame separation pangs aren't so bad now.

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I take that back. • Friday, December 01, 2006 • 2:12 PM

Ok, I take back the "perfect timing for a snow day" comment. My mom just called to tell me that their house was robbed this afternoon while she ran an errand. I'm off to attempt to clear the car again so that I can drive over there. I think that a lot of things were taken, including my great grandma's silver. Not good.

Update: 4:55 pm. With the help of Keith, the car got cleared off. But, the road is so bad that I immediately got stuck. Our street was not plowed at all. While I was stuck, I saw three other cars get stuck as well. Our neighbor helped push me back into the driveway. I guess I'll have to wait for the snow to melt... whenever that might be.

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All Wrapped Up • 2:04 PM
	I got nearly all of my Christmas wrapping done last night and put the last few things on the tree. And with all of the snow, it's extra festive around here. Perfect timing for a snow day! The cats, especially Luca, love the tree. Luca already started opening her present; the end is pretty chewed up. 0 comments

Snow Day! • 1:54 PM

Late yesterday afternoon it began snowing and it snowed all night. This morning, everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow. It is so thick that I couldn't even get the car out to go to work. I don't think that anyone has made it in today, except maybe one co-worker who lives close enough to walk. Today is a very clear, sunny day, but it is very, very cold. Very little of the snow has melted. The snow is sparkling in the sun.

I ventured out to try to dig the car out, taking pictures along the way. It was so very, very cold. I could hear someone down the street (I couldn't see them, but I could sure hear them) shouting "Arrrrrrhhhhhhh! So cold! Wahhhhhhhhhhh!" and carrying on. I feel your pain, anonymous neighbor! I didn't last long. I dug out the driver's side, fighting the snow with a broom just to open the door. I got the door open and the car started, but I had created such a pile of snow around the car that I couldn't really move. It was piled higher than my waist! I don't have a snow shovel, and I also have asthma, so I just went back inside. Even if I did manage to dig out my car, I bet the roads are terrible. I called my work and one of the bosses pretty much just told me to stay home. So, I just finished a bowl of vanilla oatmeal, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. The net was down for awhile, but now it's back up, and so I couldn't be happier.