Project #1 - The Den

This project is the one most pressing at this time & the one I want to work on the least...at least at this point. The trouble is I've already moved ahead about 15 steps in my mind and am busy picking out a new couch, wall paint, sanding the floors...

Meet step 1 - Empty out the room

As you can see I have made some progress. Items have come off the shelves and some boxes have been filled. Some sorting of items has taken place, but I'll be honest, there's a lot of procrastination happening. For example, I got up after having a cup of tea, determined to take boxes downstairs and instead, I'm writing a new blog post. Oliver is judging me as you can see from this photo.

When we first bought the house, I quite liked the built in shelves in the room. It was great for storing books when the piano was in the room. However, it quickly became a hold-all for various papers, magazines, etc. that I just wanted out of the kitchen. Because this room is going to be a tv room/den, the built ins are coming out so we can fit in a new entertainment unit.

This is the mess at the other end of the room. Too many boxes of books!

I love the chair in the corner, but I'm quickly realizing there might not be room for it in our reorganization. Oh well, it's done me well for a $5 flea market chair that I painted a few years ago.

Stay tuned for some of my den inspiration...

Below is a completely gratuitous photo of a gecko we met on our Hawaiian holiday in December.

Let me RE-introduce myself

Hello all.

It's been AGES since I've written. August 8th (yikes) was the date of my last post. It was warm. It was sunny. There were flowers in the back alley. Now it's just snow, snow, snow. But life is good.

To any of my original bloggy friends...I'm so glad to see you. I've missed you so.

And to any new readers...welcome. I hope you'll visit again soon.

As I said earlier, life is good, very good in fact. I've been busy, busy, busy at work. I finally was awarded a PERMANENT, parttime nursing position on the neonatal intensive care unit. I've been working casual for almost 2 years, picking up whatever shifts were offered because I never knew when I'd get shifts. However, this meant working close to full time every month and working a lot of really yucky shifts. Now I have a schedule and I hope to get my life back. I still love nursing though. It makes me happy to go to work, even if it is an 11:00 at night!

When I'm not working, I'm ferrying my 12-(soon to be 13)-year-old around to figureskating, school, and piano. She's a busy girl and it makes for a busy family. But I'd rather have my child involved in lots of activity rather than twiddling her thumbs at home. But it does cut into my creative time.

I still make time for crafting, my stitching is my constant companion rink-side and for slow periods at work. And I exercise a lot, 7 days in a good week, 5 days a week minimum. Plus, I'm still trying to eat healthy, so food planning & preparation takes up a lot of time. But I feel great!

So why haven't I written for a while and why am I writing now?

Well, I guess I lost my blog mojo for a while. Life didn't seem very exciting for a while, at least not blog-worthy. My days are pretty much all the same, involving eating, exercising, driving to a from school, skating rink, work, etc.,working, and, once in a while, cleaning my home. Oh, and trying to fit family & spouse time in occasionally. I've not been great at this last item. I'm sure it's similar in most other families.

I couldn't think about what to write about so I just didn't. Plus my blog was suffering from a serious identity crisis. Really, how much can you write about cats and coffee, when crafting is so minimal?

But I think I've finally gotten my inspiration. What I'd really like to do is write about my journey to becoming house proud once again. I'm most definitely not house proud at this time. Not when there is a vast collection of boots and shoes clogging my entry way, junk everywhere and a future den filled with boxes of books, papers, and anything else that should be on the kitchen counter. We are in the midst of a major re-arrangement of rooms on the main floor. The den/tv/living room is moving to our former piano room/library. The piano moved to the dining room where it is currently sharing real estate with the dining room table. And the living room hasn't changed at all & won't until I finish clearing out the former piano room. I'm struggling with trying to stay focused on one task at a time. How else to explain why reorganized my food storage and spice collection, instead of boxing up books? And this might be a good time to confess how much time I've spent trolling the internet for home decorating inspiration. Have you met some of the DIY home bloggers out there? Oh, wait until I introduce you.

So here I am. I think this old blog of mine needs a wee re-design, so that will be in the works. I certainly hope you will return soon. I hope to resume regular posting, but I make no concrete promises.

Toodles...

Stopping to smell the flowers

The past few summers I have been envious of my neighbour's flowers on her side of the alley. The lady is blessed with a seriously green thumb. You should see her yard! Seriously, I'd take pictures, but I know they aren't at home at this minute.

Isn't it pretty? Much better than the collection of weeds on my side of the alley.

So here's the story. In late spring, I happened upon her working in the garden and asked for some advice on how to pretty up my little slice of alley. She gave me great information, offering to lend me her roto-tiller to break up all the soil, once I'd weeded thoroughly of course.

Fast forward a few days...

Lizzie and I head out back on a walk and my neighbour is WEEDING my part of the back lane. She offered to "adopt" the patch of land, because she was so excited about having a new gardening project. I was overwhelmed by her generosity. The lady is so kind.

I relayed the story to Javier, who prompted burst my bubble by telling me she was probably just tired of looking at my weeds. However, I prefer to take the glass half-full approach and see it as just a friendly-neighbour gesture. I made two batches of muffins as a thank you for her hard work.

Two months later...

This is my back lane. I feel like I'm walking down a country road. Isn't in pretty? The red flowers are my favourites.

And some more flowery wonder.

I'm not even allowed to water or weed the area. She's serious about her gardening commitment.

I think another batch of muffins is due right away!

I love my neighbours.

Eat, Work, Exercise

This is my life these days. It's been a long time since my last post, but seeing my holiday photos from my Beverly Hills trip was the kicker to get my butt off the couch and start taking care of myself. I've had no time for my blog, crafting, really anything for the past 3 months.

I honestly thought this blog was a goner. I kind of lost the interest for a while, but the draw of an online diary of sorts is pretty strong. I just couldn't abandon my OliverRain persona.

This is what I've been doing...



Trying hard to cut processed food out of my diet. I've been trying to follow the Eat Clean Diet. Five small meals a day, lots of water...It feels great and my entire family has been eating better and healthier than ever. It takes a lot of planning though.



I have been in a temporary part-time position at the hospital since early April and I'm working well over full-time hours. For some reason, all the babies in town want to be born early these days and our unit is full to bursting most days. As much as I love the work, it's really quite exhausting...and I've had no time for summer holidays. Fortunately, it will end soon. Unfortunately it ends about the time the weather starts to cool off.



And exercising. There's been lots and lots of exercising. I started out with relatively easyDVD workouts, but then I heard about Turbo Fire, order it, and now it's kicking my butt (in a really good way). But working out for a approximately 1 hour per day is a big commitment. However, it has quickly become addictive so now I'm lost if I don't work out. I love the high I get from high-intensity exercise.

So there it is...my life right now. I find more balance in my life and bring my blog back full time. Sooner than later, I hope.

What are all you up to right now?

Oliver Rain 90210

It seems I'm so famous these days I can't leave my house without being followed around by the PAPARAZZI.

Oh the glamorous life of a celebrity. Having to be constantly made up and beautiful. Who knows who will be there to take my photo? What pictures will make it to the cover of US magazine?

Confused?

Okay, you got me. This is literally as close as I got to the red carpet on our family's recent holiday to Lalaland. I told Javier to dare me to stand on the red carpet, but he just shook his head at me.

We just returned from a week at the Beverly Hilton, home of the Golden Globe Awards. Of course it's already past award season, but there are still plenty of red carpet events going on. On the Saturday of our visit, an event called An Evening With Women took place to benefit the Gay and Lesbian Center. The event was MC'd by Gina Gershon and some other celebrities were also in attendance.

Javier and I hung out at the fringes of all the excitement before returning to our hotel room. We were asked by security TWICE to leave the area due to the private event, but we were determined to see somone famous. After all, that was one of my GOALS for the holiday! I'd love to say that I totally fit in with my impeccable make up and couture resort wear, but in reality I was wearing a simple summer dress, the flipflops seen in the above photo, and had a shiny face and greasy hair after some very recent spa treatments. I felt great, but looked a bit like a crazy homeless person (no offense to homeless people).

This is a photo of Kat Von D from LA Ink. We don't watch the show, so we had no idea who she was. She was standing right in front of us (we could see her tramp stamp when she leaned over), but we didn't find out who she was until she was moved onto the carpet.

Renee Zellweger was the first person we actually saw. Thank goodness for iphone cameras. I never really thought she was attractive in photos. It was the squinty eyes and mushed up face that always put me off, but she is so beautiful in person. Slender and pale and very, very pretty. And her outfit and shoes were incredible.

Sarah Silverman also made an appearance. She's very cute in person. I would have liked to hang out with her! I think she'd be extremely funny.

We had big plans to go out on the town exploring that evening, but Javier and I were unexpectedly starstruck! Poor Lizzie had to stay in the room watching movies while Javier and I sat just outside our room near the pool and sipped wine, hoping for another glimpse of someone famous at Trader Vic's on the other side of the courtyard.

What a night!

What not to wear

You know your wardrobe must be pretty bad when you search "Fashion Disasters" on Google Images and most of the people in the pictures are dressed better than you.



Except maybe this person. Although I did have a dress last summer that may have been as unflattering on me.

I used to have such a cute wardrobe. Now I just think I forgot how to dress. I blame it on the scrubs. I have some mighty cute scrubs and I love to mix and match the outfits. Maybe that's my fashion outlet. When you wear a cross between a uniform and pajamas five to six days a week, it's hard to put much effort into your at-home wardrobe.

Still, it's hard not to feel envious of other well-put-together women. I worry that my daughter will pick up clothing habits from me!



Most days I look like a combination of the two ladies above. Still petite, but not as, ahem, toned as I might have been in the past. This makes clothing shopping a challenge and more than a little traumatic as well. It makes me want to run to the internet and order the "Slim in Six" DVD set (does this work by the way?). And buy a new bra too. Foundation garments make all the difference or so I hear.

My friend Saucy offered to help a fellow blogger find a new wardrobe. Alas, time and distance work against me or I'd ask her for help too.

Any advice for a scrubbed up nurse who also wants to be a fashionista?

Don't even get me started on my hair.

April

I'm sitting here typing this post in my shorts! After a few days of nasty weather last week, we are back to nice weather. Better than nice really. I love Spring! Flowers are coming up. I think my flower bed is almost ready to be weeded.

March was crazy work-wise. I think I worked more hours than I ever have in one month. However, I barely saw my family, much less had time to blog. I miss blogging.

I was think about my resolution list for this year and how I'm doing so far.

1. Stop being guilty for doing nothing on my days off. - Well, becoming too tired to do anything on my days off really helps with the whole guilt factor.

2. Be nice. - I think I'm nice, but it's so hard some time. My major vice (well, one of them anyway) is GOSSIP. How do I conquer gossip?

3. Preserve something this summer. Pickles or jam or something like that. - It's not summer yet. I'm off the hook for this one for a few more months.

4. Play in the snow. Once, just once. - We had snow last week, but just the yucky slushy stuff. I didn't get out there once this winter. Honestly we didn't have that much really. Excuses, excuses.

5. Be patient. With people. With circumstances. With myself. - Patience? Definitely not making any progess here.

6. Learn to swim. - Need to sign up for those lessons.

7. Pray. - Working on it.

8. Accept my body. - Working on it. All the parts work, but the whole package isn't very pretty. Why is acceptance so difficult?

9. Cook more meals. - Ha! Must be at home to do this.

10. Start running again. - Got new shoes. That counts, right?

This is a very piecemeal blog post, but I really do miss this forum for my thoughts, so I thought I'd check in.

Miss O.R.