This ‘n That

— 1 —

Do you guys read Young House Love? (I know some of you do.) I’m kind of obsessed with the show house they’ve been building and decorating. The exterior is so charming! I wish we had the option of buying new construction that looks like that here. Everything around here that I’m aware of is built in the same rather generic style. I like our house’s exterior enough, but I like the pseudo-Craftsman style so much better!

— 2 —

Jose brought home a lot of cool souvenirs from Moscow including two pretty amber necklaces for me (apparently amber jewelry is very popular there) and this awesome Olympics pin, which I immediately stuck up on my cubicle wall at work. I love that they made a pin showing the torch in space!

— 3 —

I have several different projects in the works right now, using whatever spare time isn’t dedicated to finishing my master’s project. In addition to the April block for the Once Upon a Time sampler and a social tote, on Sunday I got the urge to finally start on a dress for Emma — something I’ve been meaning to do ever since she was born. I’m using the geranium dress pattern and the cute multi-color triangle fabric you can see above. (And look at that cute ruffle! First ruffle I’ve ever made.) I went with the 3T size, so hopefully it’ll last all summer.

— 4 —

We went to a birthday party for one of Emma’s friends last weekend. They did a construction theme and Emma is totally in love with this yellow plastic “hard” hat.  She puts it on every day when we come home, and last night she was miffed when she had to take it off for bath time. It’s pretty adorable.

— 5 —

Today is a flex Friday, but I have to go in to work for a couple hours for a multi-center videocon scheduled by Headquarters. Apparently HQ doesn’t recognize our flex Fridays. Hmph!

— 6 —

I printed out a couple of my Master’s Project posters earlier this week in preparation for a poster session that I signed up for at a UHCL student conference next week. (I’m kind of regretting having signed up for it because it’s just one more hoop to jump through that wasn’t actually required. But what’s done is done.

Anyway, it turns out that when printed, the “space” background on many of my posters comes out nearly flat black instead of subtlely (is that a word?) textured. Ugh. I’m not sure whether my monitor is calibrated poorly or what, but the contrast needs to be bumped up. Sigh.

— 7 —

Please enjoy this random picture of my kid stopping in the middle of a giant pothole in a parking lot to pick up a rock and show it to me. You’re welcome.

(Linking up: 7 Quick Takes, hosted by Conversation Diary)