T-minus 17 hours to Heroescon!

Because Heroescon is an “out-of-town” show (i.e., I don’t have friends/family living there, where I can ship things over early and crash in their guest room), I tend to get much more stressed out than other shows.  Plus, as a comic book nerd, being able to hob-nob with my favorite artists and writers ratchets up the anxiety and the need to be perfect.

Fortunately, I have a very understanding husband, and although the weather was just *perfection* this past weekend, he quietly left me alone, so I could work on prepping as much as I can for Heroescon.

Yes, I put the husband to work...it was very "Oliver Twist"

It’s been 4 days, and the thumbs on both hands are still so weak and sore that I can barely pick up my water glass, I have so many burns and blisters on my hands that they’ve looked like they’ve been tortured, and I had been hunched over so much, that I can’t walk without a limp.

I like to call this my Terra Cotta Warriors of Hair Accessories

Still…totally worth it.  Less than 24 hours before Paigey and I hit the road for Heroescon…

(and I totally plan on sewing bags – by hand – the entire drive down)

Holy crap I’ve been busy!

Holy crap I’ve been busy.

I know, I know...everyone is busy.  But seriously, this past year has been ridiculously busy…in the best possible way.

I love the Sweatshop but unfortunately it’s not my full-time job.  I have an awesome day job/career that I love, but can get pretty busy.  In just February, there were two weeks where I logged about 100 hours at work.  Then I come home, head into my workshop and continue to create things for the Sweatshop.  I know that the schedule is pretty insane, and honestly, I don’t think I could have kept up the pace if it wasn’t for my awesome husband and my super amazing BFF that supported me when I needed support, and left me the hell alone when I needed quiet to get everything I needed to get done, done.

My friends (and many family) constantly question my sanity and ask me why I do it.  My day-job pays well, and by nature I’m kind of a slug (which still makes me seem more active than I am).  So why do I work my high-paced demanding day job and then come home to work on the Sweatshop?

I could give the simple, but trite answer: passion.

I could give the answer I give my parents: because I’m Asian and this is how you raised me.

I could give you the beauty pageant interview answer: because I have a need to create, and I have the drive to live out a dream that I’ve harbored since I was in high school, and that the Sweatshop is an outlet to express myself.

And all of these answers are true, but the real reason I will work 100 hour day-job weeks, and still dedicate time to the Sweatshop is this: I can’t stop myself.

It’s funny.  When I first started the Sweatshop, my primary concern was finding the time to be able to dedicate to the Sweatshop. I had a jammed-packed schedule of parties and events and what-nots (plus, you know, that day-job).  But then, around the third or fourth month I was working on the Sweatshop, I noticed that the problem wasn’t finding the time to dedicate to the Sweatshop…but finding the time to pull myself away from the Sweatshop to go hang out with people.  There is something soothing and zen-like about creating something.  And at the risk of sounding completely corny, it was something I’ve been missing.  All my life, I’ve loved making things and doing little arts and crafts projects, however, the problem with doing arts and crafts projects is that unless there is a distribution plan (i.e., giving them away as gifts), your house quickly starts to look like a Martha Stewart Hoarders episode.  Plus, as an adult (and a slug) there are so many obligations and things that you feel that you need to do, that taking the time to sit down and create something is always on the bottom of the priority list.  So by having the Sweatshop, I allow myself time to create. 

And all this creating stuff? It’s AWESOME.  Despite the crazy hours, and the late nights trying to complete rush orders, it’s actually ridiculously fun and relaxes me better than a full body massage.  I love it, and I can’t imagine stopping this crazy ride!  And I owe a huge thank you to all my fans and customers that allow me to have this time to create something amazing.  Because it’s a wonderfully addictive feeling.

So, the TL;DR version of all of this: I’ve been super busy this past year…and a huge thank you fans for letting me be this busy!  

Oh Hai Interwebz!

I’ve been swamped the past few weeks!  It seemed that suddenly, the Magical Sales Fairy waved her wand and orders just started to pour in!

At least that’s what happened the last two weeks.  Which was totally amazing and awesome and I’m still doing the dance of joy over that.

But this week? 

This week, my still-yet-unpaid-but-I-really-should-get-on-that-before-she-wises-up-and-takes-her-talents-elsewhere “VP of Marketing and Design”, (and BFF…errr…VP-BFF?), Paigey, waved *her* magic wand, and made the interwebz notice the Sweatshop in the most amazing way possible!

So Monday morning, I was greeted with this: FashionablyGeek.com (whom I *adore*) doing a little shout out for my Human Centipede Ouroboros Fleece Hat…which is a weird thing to squeal over first thing on a Monday morning.  I mean, there I was - my bleary and half-awake self, desperately clutching a scalding hot coffee mug, and staring at my computer screen, thinking “wait…is that…MINE?!?”

If that wasn’t enough, a little later, FashionablyGeek.com decided to do the same with the GLaDOS Inspired Hair Flower (yes, the one that LIGHTS UP)!

Clearly, I’m through the roof with excitement…but my BFF (think: Don Draper with boobies and cuter accessories), wasn’t done yet…because the very next day, BOINGBOING.NET DID A MINI WRITE UP ABOUT THE SWEATSHOP!  OMGZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…I’m not going to lie…I may have peed a little in my pants.  Again.

So yeah…thank you EVERYONE (and especially to my crazy and awesome VP-BFF) for all the support!  I’m seriously overwhelmed and so giddy with delight and surprise that I don’t know what to do with myself!!! 

See what awesomeness you guys do to me? This was the 2nd load. 
I forgot to take pictures of the first round!

***EDIT*** SoGeekChic.com just did a little thing for the GLaDOS Inspired Hair Flower too!!!

2012: Year of the Roadshow!

If 2011 was the “Year of Madness", then 2012 is definitely the YEAR OF THE ROADSHOW!

Why?  Because my BFF partner-in-crime and I may be coming to an East Coast show/event near you!

So far – here is our (tenative) schedule and is subject to change.  This will be updated as we insanely add to this ever growing list!  HAHA!

Sunday, February 19^th – Pinup for Pitbulls event at The Park in NYC.  I won’t be there vending, but Enz’s NYC will be, and LittleAsianSweatshop hair accessories will be shown/available!

Wednesday, February 22^th – Chesapeake Roller Derby Auction in Westminster, MD – I won’t be vending, but LittleAsianSweatshop hair accessories (and boutonnieres for the menfolk) will be available!!!

Saturday, March 10^th – Charm City Roller Derby in Baltimore, MD – there will be special CCRG TEAM FLOWERS so you can show your support for your favorite hard-hitting, fastball spinning roller girl!

Saturday, March 31st – Tommy McGee and the Baby Please CD Release Party at Rams Head Live in Baltimore, MD – the venue is great, the booze is delish, the band is rockin'...and we'll be there vending!  

Saturday, April 7^th – Chesapeake Roller Derby in Westminster, MD – and we’ll have special CRD Team flowers available!  *squee*

Friday, June 22 through Sunday, June 24^th – Heroscon in Charlotte, NC – come find us at the Paigey & Her Amazing Friends BOOTH!  Yes, that’s right…BOOTH!

Friday, July 13^th and Saturday, July 14 – Psychobilly Luau – Paigey and I will both have tables (more gorgeous stuff to spellbind you with, my dears)!  This is an incredible festival/event…I believe it’s the biggest rockabilly event on the East Coast!

Friday, September 7^th – Paigey’s Solo Art Show “Thanks For Your Support!” at Ottobar in Baltimore, MD  (I won’t be vending…but I’ll be there to help out P’s merch table…be sure to come by to say “HI!!!!!!”)

Saturday, September 8^th through 9^th – Baltimore Comic Con…where again, come find us at the Paigey & Her Amazing Friends BOOTH (I just can’t stop giggling over having a booth at TWO shows this year!).

Does this schedule sound as insane (and mildly exhausting) to you, as it does to me?  I hope so…because our insanity hasn’t hit its peak yet!  Coming soon, we’ll be inviting some of your favorite indie artists to design special custom hair flowers!!!  Working out the details – so stayed tuned!!!

not even Wonder Woman can keep up with us!

T-Shirt Quilt from AliciaSquared's Perspective

I can't believe I totally missed this entry (I really do read your blog AG...I really really do!) about the infamous T-Shirt Quilt project that I did with one half of AliciaSquared several months ago...from her perspective.

I'm going to say this now - AG is a lot nicer about writing about me then I would have been (seriously, I made pin for 2 hours, then caused her to bleed...and then had her sew the blanket in reverse!), and she's pretty magnificent...even if she steals my FTRs.

Winner Winner! Chicken Dinner!!!

I meant to post this up last night - but between cutting out over 130+ entries for the "Let's-Celebrate-the-Sweatshop's-New-Fantastic-Logo" contest so I could draw them out of a hat...then making said hat to draw the entries out of (because I'm also bat-shit insane at 2am)...and then rushing out the Xmas orders...I decided that no one was going to read this at 2am anyways.  Plus, at that point, I was also mildly delirious from the lack of sleep and I'm not sure anyone would have understood what I wrote anyways.  Heh.

So...the winner of a free Poker Hair Flower is...

SOOEY92!

I have just sent a message from Etsy, but if you are Sooey92, please shoot me an email (littleasiansweatshop@gmail.com) so I can get your address and mail this out to you today!  HURRAH!


Seriously Etsy...we need to talk about basic data exporting functions

I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone!  You guys have been amazingly awesome and supportive and retweeting my new logo and contest all over the place!  Evidently - the Sweatshop also got a mention on paper.il!  WOOHOO!

There will be more contests in the future...and hopefully, I'll be smart enough not to schedule them at my busiest time of the year!  Heeheehee...

Dear Bed...

Dear Bed,

You have a right to be mad at me. I have been ignoring you and I feel pretty low about it.

I have no excuse except to say that the Sales Fairy won't stop visiting me. Not that I'm complaining - you know how much I love the Sales Fairy (it does keep you, my beloved bed, in high-quality 800 count Egyptian cotton sheets after all), but it was really my fault to not having pre-made more of the more popular items before-hand.

However, I hope that you will be glad to know that despite being caught a little off guard, I have been able keep with my usual turn around of 24hours (although, in the past week, I've been able to get most orders out same day...hurrah!), so everyone's holiday orders will get to them with plenty of time to spare.

Frankly, I don't know how the elves do it.  Although, from all the Rankin/Bass specials, it looks like the elves automate their process...clearly, they aren't fans of quality, handmade good. Perhaps if they were, there wouldn't be quite so many citizens in the Land of the Misfit Toys (I'm just sayin').

But I digress...

Since it's not too late for people to order in time for the holidays (sidenote to my beloved customers - I ship USPS Priority Mail, so if you order by December 19th, it should get to you by the 23rd - giving you a day to gift wrap!), I will be up until 1am for a few more nights. 

However, I plan on making it up to you!  I am clearing my schedule and will be sleeping in until 3pm on the 24th!  So fluff up the pillows and be prepared for some epic snoozing!

Know that although we are apart...you are constantly on my mind...

*smooches* and sweet dreams until we can be together again...

P.S. Have you checked out the new logo and the fun little contest I'm running in honor of it? Yes, I know, just one more thing to keep me away from you, my beloved Bed, but just think of it as an awesome holiday present for one lucky fan of the Sweatshop!

My schizophrenic Muse

While I love talking about the Sweatshop, my products, and my process, I become completely flustered when people ask “how did you come up with that idea?”

Creativity is such a weird and meandering path.  The leap that took me from watching “Barbarella” (for the 398^th time) to making a Japanese Flag circle bag is hard to explain.  It would involve a long story about how much I love Barbarella, the Xmen Morlock storyline that was completely based on Barbarella (seriously – watch the movie, then read issues 169 - 170 and you tell me!), which then lead me to think about the whole Wolverine/Mariko story line (which was so silly), and…voila!  My brain gave birth to the Japanese Flag bag. 

And the story behind how I came up with the monsters hat is just as convoluted (and involves a blizzard!).

So by the time I’m done explaining how I came up with my idea, the questioner has a confused yet blank stare in their eyes, as they try to follow my “logic”.

But I guess, creativity doesn’t really follow logic.  If it did, it wouldn’t be so elusive and magical and rare.

The thing that drives me the craziest is that my inspiration comes from all over the place.  Various materials, styles, and methods.  I’m so envious of those who have a set medium and style and can stay with it consistently.  It’s aggravating to come up with a retro Rat-Pack Vegas inspired hair piece while working on a soft romantic feathered birdcage fascinator for a client.  It’s not enough that my muse is fickle…but she also has to be schizophrenic to boot. 

Which is why the Sweatshop is filled with boxes upon boxes of various materials.  Since I never know what will inspire me next – the workroom is filled with all sorts of odds and ends, waiting to be made into something different.  It’s like the Land of Misfit Toys, only they are all wanted…just not right now.  Of course, I complain, but I’m really thrilled that I am fortunate enough to give voice to my creativity – and to have fans of my work!  It’s always wonderful – and humbling – to hear the exclamations of amazement and delight.

I wonder if I bribed my Muse with Chipotle burritos, would she be more cooperative?


How about you?  How to you rein in your muse?

Not dead yet...

I know it's been a month since I updated and even my twitter feed (follow me #shamelessplug) has been eerily quiet, but I swear that I'm still alive...just insanely busy.

I know, I know..."I've been busy" is the worst excuse in the world, but this has really been beyond madness!

In just the past month, I've started a new day job (YAY day job!) so that's been taking up a lot of my brain time.

Then I had the awesome opportunity to go see "Sleep No More", which is this amazing immersive play based on Macbeth.  It's basically Hitchcock and MacBeth had a love child...it would be this experience. If you haven't been, and you were thinking about visiting NYC in the next month or so...definitely make the time to go see it.  It's worth the $100.  It's like being trapped in a dream or a video game.  Only without having to worry about dying or monsters killing you.  Insanely surreal and utterly amazing!

The Plague Doctor (skull duck) mask that you wear during Sleep No More!

Then my inlaws came up to visit for a few days.  While I adore them and love hosting them, right when they visited, was right when my Etsy store decided to go crazy with orders!  So I had to juggle being a gracious hostess, with the madness of family get-togethers, with fullfilling orders as fast as my little Sweatshop fingers could go (PSA - glue guns are capable of inflicting 2nd degree burns...be careful kids!).

This weekend, my BFF is coming down, and bringing me some minions so that we can whip out 40+ hair flowers as party favors for her wedding...and also making a very special wedding bouquet! 

Basically every weekend has been madness.  So my normally pristine house and Sweatshop looks like a tornado blew through it...and I haven't had time to clean (I've barely had time to do laundry)!

And despite how busy I am, I'm just so grateful that I get to be so joyously busy.  Yes, I'm tired, yes I just want a weekend to curl up and sleep and veg out...but I'm glad that this kind of busy is the fun kind of busy - the kind of busy that is really tons of fun and better then the alternative.  I just wish it wasn't happening all at once! 

So...long story short...not dead yet!  I'm here and pushing out products with as little sleep as I can get away with!  I promise, lots of fun bloggy updates coming soon.  In the meantime...GO SEE "SLEEP NO MORE".  It was seriously worth the angst of having to work double time to make up for the loss of a weekend of fun!

Craft Therapy (I need it!)

It was a fairly usual Wednesday morning. Like every Wednesday, I grabbed a cup of coffee on my way into the team staff meeting. Also as usual, we argued over the most ridiculous things - why documents need to be proof-read before being send, why we're changing direction on a project...for the fifth time. Upon leaving the meeting, still flush with the glow of victory (we *weren't* going to change directions on the project), we get a notice that we had a meeting with our VP in 20 minutes.

Now, for those of you who are not in the corporate world, whenever your VP wants to meet with you or your entire team with less then an hour's notice...and no reason is given...it's never good news. I half jokingly hopped onto my company's intranet site to look up the severage package policy. As we entered the room, I noticed that standing next to our VP were HR staff members. Again, not a good sign. Within moments, we were told that all of our positions had been eliminated and the entire department was laidoff...with the exception of four, who would be asked to continue to work eight additional weeks.

I was told that I was one of the four that they wanted to keep for the eight additional weeks.

At first I was elated. I mean, clearly, this was the best possible situation, right? I would still draw a steady paycheck for the next two months as I look for a new job, with the severance package as a cushion in the event that my job hunt took longer then the 2 months I would be still gainfully employed. Also, I secretly thought, if the job hunt took a little longer, it meant that I would be home all day...sewing and crafting away in the Sweatshop.

At least...that was my reaction that first day.

I'm a bit of a control freak, and I like to know where everything is - not just physically but emotionally, financially. Basically every part of my life has a little compartment. And now the compartment that was labeled "good little corporate cube-farmer" was all out of wack. This in turn made the compartment labeled "climbing the corporate ladder" go all out of wack, which in turn made the compartment labeled "20 year financial plan" go all gray and fuzzy, which in turn...you get the idea.

So it should be no surprise to anyone (except me), that as the days went by, I became a hot jittery mess.

Or I should say, I quickly spiralled into a hot crazy mess for about two days...until I (OK, J) couldn't stand it anymore, and started to focus all of that nervous crazy energy on sewing and crafting.

And suddenly, everything made sense again.

Oh, I was still nervous that all these compartments were teetering and wobbling around in my head, but rather then obsessively chew my nails off as I checked my email for the 12937465th time in ten minutes to see if any job leads have come in, I was at least productive and burning off all the energy that was making poor J go bonkers.

Somehow, not only did survive the last seven weeks, but that I got an offer from a company that I've been dying to work with for the last two years. As a side-effect of using my sewing and crafting to get through this tumuluious time...I have a *TON* of new products in the pipeline!

Sneaky peeky - red turtleshell backpack

Sneaky peeky - Japanese flag messanger shoulder bag



Sneaky peeky - A-line halter wrap dress

Sneaky peeky - Halter wrap circle dress



HA! Who needs valium or a therapist? My beloved Kenmore, Swinger and White sewing machines (yes, I have three - please don't judge) are all the therapy this little Sweatshop needs.

An Apology to My 10th Grade Geometry Teacher

Dear Mr. D,


Remember me? I was in your 10th grade Geometry class  20-odd  a very long time ago. I was the snarky little Asian girl, second row from the back, who would sigh dramatically and saying things like: "but when will I ever need to know how to the figure out the diameter of a circle? I can just use a ruler and measure!" or "ugh, WHY would I never need to know how to make a perfect pentagon?!".


Although you kindly gave me an A (OK, I begged and pleaded my way into that A), I really never learned nor remembered the concepts...and now, years later...

You were right.  I do need to know this stuff.  I use it every day in the Sweatshop.  Or, I should say, I need to use it every day, but due to sleeping through your class, I have not a clue what I'm doing when it comes to figuring out the circumference of the design of the new messenger bag so I can be sure to buy enough trim.


If it wasn't for the kindness of Twitter followers and Facebook friends, I would still be trying to figure out how much to cut out to make the waist for a circle skirt.

And that whole debacle with making a perfect pentagon? Thank you YouTube!

In that overly warm, right after lunch, spring semester class, you stared me down and told me that one day, I would indeed need to know this information. At the time I scoffed, but you were right. I did need to learn this. 


So, I am taking this opportunity to apologize for ever doubting you. I eat my words every time I run into a problem that requires something that you tried to teach me. I wish I paid closer attention. Saying that I regret not being a better student doesn't really cover it.  Especially as I sit here, trying to remember how to figure out the angle of this corner without a compass or a protractor.


With every fiber of my, now wiser, heart, I apologize.


Sincerely,


~LittleAsianSweatshop


P.S. Do you offer remedial geometry classes for those of us who somehow passed college level Calculus, but still can't figure out how many yards fabric I will need to make an ottoman with a diameter of 18" and a depth of 14"?

The Sweatshop Gives a "Friends" Themed Party

My sister-in-law was turning 40, and my mother-in-law and brother-in-law (her husband) asked me to throw a surprise birthday party for her.

Normally, I adore throwing parties, especially for big milestones, however, I wasn't expecting to be tasked with this so I hadn't budgeted for a big bash. However, determined to live up to my party-planning reputation, I dug deep within myself to come up with a way to throw a shindig on a shoestring budget.

While thinking about my sister in law's interests to get ideas for a "theme", I recalled that she is a *huge* fan of the old 90's show "Friends". In that single moment, everything clicked into place.

As the show has been off the air for quite a while, I knew that I would have a tough time finding "Friends" themed party gear (plates, cups, etc). Besides, I generally dislike (read: desperately hate) preprinted licensed stuff. It makes a gathering feel so commercial and less organic and thoughtful. I knew I would have to rely upon my creativity to set the tone.


You know you won't be able to get the theme song out of your head now...



Taking inspiration from one of my favorite episodes, the one where Monica dismissively assigned Phoebe the job of "cups and ice" and Phoebe vows that "Monica is gonna rue the day that she put me in charge of cups and ice", I bought a stack of the ubiquitous red plastic cups (which I needed for the party anyway), and embellished them with left over trim from the Sweatshop. I also found an old floral leis that I kept because I liked the colors, and tore up for this project. Using simple thin elastic strings (can be found in any craft or fabric store), I punched a hole in the sides of the cups and tied off the elastic string to create the straps to hold them on people's heads. (Cost: cups: $5.99 for 100; elastic string $2.99 per 3 yards, I needed around 9 yards, so $9.97; trims, flowers and glue: free)

Every good party needs party hats

Because my husband was such a good sport about how this "hat" making project had taken over our living room (random flowers and trim were oddly attracted to his socks), I made a special one, just for him.

Made the fez tassel by rolling together left over fringe

Funny husband!

Since food featured heavily on the show (between Joey's mania for sandwiches and Monica being a chef), I started off by listing foods that I remember seeing on the show. Like the aforementioned sandwiches. But then I started to remember more of the show, such as the (in)famous birthday flan! And Phoebe's grandmother's famous "Toulouse" cookies. And Rachel's "English Trifle" that was half trifle and half shepherd's pie. As I laughingly jotted these ideas down, my husband also started to remember things from the show (the episode where Monica bakes a dozen lasagnas...the "Joey Special" which is two pizzas, etc). By the time we were done, we had a menu that was several pages long, but incredibly simple (and inexpensive) to pull together! To make the theme of the menu easier to understand (there was a weird mix of foods), with the help of the interwebz, I made little tent cards with lines from the show about that dish. Then, to keep the "ice and cups" inspiration running, I cut little slits at the top of a few red plastic cups (I had a ton after all!) to create card holders for the tent cards. (Cost: around $175 for all the various dishes).



3 foot long sub - it would make Joey proud!

Look honey, I baked!



 

Made a quick trifle using whipped cream, strawberries, pudding and Nilla wafers.  No meat!



As my sister-in-law is a huge scrapbooker, I wanted a few mementos that she could use to create a scrapbook of her party. Taking a piece of black foam board and colored pencils, I created an inexpensive replica of the "Central Perk" daily specials for guests to "sign in" as a guest book. Although I thought this was a little corny (even for me), it turned out to be wildly popular! (Cost: $4.99 for the foam board; the colored pencils were free).

  

The colored pencils gave a "chalk" feel to the logo



 As I didn't have DVDs of the show, and I couldn't seem to find it on Netflix (yet, I can find weird screwball bad 80's movies like "Apple"...I love Netflix!), I took to the interwebz and was able to find mp3 and wav files of Phoebe's singing (including 5 different renditions of "Smelly Cat"). Embarrassingly, I also had a copy of the "Friends" album on CD...which was so old that it took iTunes nearly 45 minutes to read the disk. I put all of this on my iPod and plugged it to our stereo as music for the party. (Cost: free...unless you count the embarrassment of realizing that I had once bought the "Friends" album).

Final review - the party was hugely successful. My mother-in-law and brother-in-law were happy with the party (or at least, that's what they told me...haha), and my sister-in-law and all the guests had a great time. Although I was pretty stressed out trying to deal with all the last minute details by myself, I had a ton of fun making the hats if nothing else. Best part? I was able to throw a party for 30, for a little under $200 total!


And that is how the Sweatshop throws a party!

The Sweatshop and the Long Weekend

With the exception of theater tickets on Saturday, for the first time in nearly six months, my husband and I found ourselves with a completely free weekend. Nay, not just any weekend. A completely free *long* weekend. Excitedly, we danced around in our underwear (to the chagrin of our neighbors, I assure you), and shouted out what we wanted to do for the weekend:

"Let's have crabs for dinner!"

"I want to invite AG over for sewing and wine!"

"Let's work on the house and yard and stuff!"

"I wanna stay up until 3am!"

"Let's make that green chili that you were talking about!"

Quickly, I jotted all of this down on a list:

I love making lists!

Fun, yet productive. Well...productive if it wasn't for Fate's sense of humor, and our natural Sweatshop tendencies.

Friday night, I was able to get together with the aforementioned AG for an evening of sewing, crappy American-Chinese food, Hello Kitty First Aid, and totally embarrassing sewing-fail. After AG left, demoralized and in a semi-stupor from the gluttony of dinner, I sat on the couch and proceeded to watch horrifically mindless TV. Made more horrible when I realized that it was nearly 3am and I had just watched 4 hours of "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding".

Well, that's that! I thought, looking down at our "To Do" list.

Check and check.  Kinda.

Now, one would think that after crawling into bed at 3am, one would sleep like the dead until 1pm. Well, clearly, that person hadn't been on the go constantly for the past six months. My body has forgotten how to sleep in. I was up at 8, and after some tossing and turning, I "checked" to see if J was awake (by "checked" I clearly mean, I repeatedly poked him until he was up).

After the post office run, J's mood brightened considerable and took me to our favorite Sunday breakfast spot...even though it was a Saturday.



 

                                Before the devastation                               After the devastation

 As we  ate  gorged, we decided to run some errands and pick up brick pavers so that we can get started working on the yard. I'm not going to lie...our epic 4 hour home improvement shopping trip quickly devolved into 3.5 hours of buying crafting/sewing/Sweatshop stuff. Oops!

When we got home, we felt that it was too hot to do the manly-yard work that we had originally planned...so instead we headed inside...where J worked on ottomans, and I worked on making fascinators.

The key to any good list, is the ability to adapt!

By the time evening rolled around, we were both deeply engrossed in our projects and had to quickly change to make our dinner reservations before watching the Shakespeare Theater Company's performance of "The Merchant of Venice" which was *brilliant*.

Clearly...no home improvement work actually happened on Saturday. *BUT* we did purchase the brick pavers that we needed...so we counted that as a partial win. Right?

                                                   It's been 7 days and the pavers are still there. 
                                                But at least it's in the yard...that's progress, right?

Sunday morning, we blithely awoke and decided to run to the market to pick up crabs for dinner. Naturally, I dragged J to an Asian market, where they had Dungeness, Crystal and Stone crabs as well as the ubiquitous Maryland Blue Crabs. J's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and we walked away with all four types of crabs for an evening of feasting!

Crystal Crab                         Maryland Blue Crab

Dungeness Crabs                        Stone Crab

Again, it was really hot out (or at least, that's what we kept saying to each other), so, again, we retreated into the nice AC climate of the house to continue working on ottomans, fascinators and other Sweatshoppy projects. Just as we were starting to give the crabs the hungry eye, my parents called to invite us over for an evening of gorging (as all my family events tend to be). We hadn't been over for dinner in a few weeks, so we quietly put the crabs into a cooler filled with ice, and headed to my parents' home for an evening of steaks and ribs.

Monday morning, we woke up and determined to knock *something* off our "to do" list, we both vowed to work on our projects and once we were done, we would head outdoors and work on the yard.

Now, if you think this story is going to end with "and we finished all of our projects and made our yard the star of the neighborhood", you clearly don't understand our love of crafting and sewing and furniture making! We ended up spending the rest of the day (even skipping lunch) to work on the Sweatshop. By 5, when the weather started to cool off, we were ravenous and went to the fridge to cook us up some crabs.

Sadly...the Dungeness crabs did not survive the night. For a while, I thought that J would also lose his will to live, as he simply *adores* Dungeness. The last time I saw him this sad, was when my I ate the last bite of his hazelnut chocolate gelato (I thought he handed it to me to finish...I didn't realize I was to just hold it for him). However, the rest of the crabs survived and they were *delicious*!

Get in my belly!

As the crabs were cooking, J started the green chili. Alas, as he was preparing it, he realized that there wouldn't be enough time to finish it off for dinner that night. And then, I was sad too.

After we finished decimating the crabs and feeling pity for ourselves while the green chili bubbled away, we sat on the couch and we confusedly looked at our "To Do" list and wonder how we accomplished so much, yet nothing on our list.

So we did the only thing one could do in a situation like this...we threw away our To Do list and just basked in the glory of our Sweatshop...