...goal setting...

Goal setting is a funny thing. I, for one, set about a million "goals" a day, but the number of those "goals" that actually come to fruition is embarrassingly small. Am I just a total loser or is there something more to this? The thing about goals if that without a clear and distinct plan for accomplishing them, they never in fact become a goal; they are stuck in dreamland. It is like making cookie batter but never baking them... or something like that... maybe more like deciding you want cookies but never buying the ingredients and then just waiting by the oven expecting chocolate chip goodness to spring forth from its gas fired loins... yeah maybe more like that.

Anyway, after having a baby I found that, while I enjoyed my time with her and couldn't imagine life without her, I mostly felt a little lost, totally overwhelmed, and wildly unmotivated. I have an adjunct faculty position teaching things I enjoy talking about, was offered an amazing opportunity to illustrate a children's book, and get to spend a lot of time with my little one and yet I didn't feel like I was getting anything done, and I was feeling paralyzed to move forward with any new projects. 

After a wonderful visit from some of the most amazing and motivating friends from warmer dryer climes (Hi Auntie Mellow and Uncle Guny;), I felt like I needed to sit down, re-center and find something small that would recharge my motivation. I don't need to do everything, or really anything deeply meaningful, I just need to do something!

So here is my very first tiny step, I am going to update this dutsy old blog at least once a week on Sundays.  I hope to be able to update you on exciting possibilities on the yoga front, tasty foods, and probably some baby stuff- haha-  Happy Sunday!

Vietnam

vietnam...

Our trip to Vietnam was amazing and challenging, most disappointing was when we lost our camera- sooooo... many of these photos are sourced from the internets based on what we did while we were there.  Hanoi was bustling and... well seasoned ;).  This was exacerbated by my raging morning sickness (I had just entered my second trimester) and being a person that doesn't eat wheat because of intestinal fussiness all I could fathom eating most of the time was french bread and cheese- pobrecita!  I did try the pho and bun and loved it- and many other things that I imagine I would enjoy under normal circumstances like fried snakeskin, sauteed silkworms (Sean's favorite), sweet potato and prawn fritters, chicken feet (ack), and lots of other interesting tid-bits.  I think our favorite activity was the cooking class we took.  They took us to the open air market before we went into the kitchen and it was incredible.  There were ladies sitting cross-legged on rustic looking tables with raw slaughtered mean laid out around them... seriously.  They did two slaughters a day and the meat was incredibly fresh.  There was honestly no odor in the market- and I was the nauseous pregnant lady to find any and all questionable scents- it was seemingly the cleanest freshest place we visited.

Hanoi market:

Photo Credit: David Brewer

 Photo Credit: Gus and Jess

Photo Credit: Pikelet & Pie

Hanoi Cooking Centre:

Photo Credit: Hanoi Cooking Centre

The traffic in Hanoi was incredible- it was like the Seinfeld frogger episode... We visited lots of sites here including the Hanoi Hilton where Vietnamese people were imprisoned by the french before the American were imprisoned there during the Vietnam War (including John McCain).  It is now a museum and was super interesting to read the history of the Vietnam War from the North Vietnamese perspective- talk about a reality shift.

We also stood in a massive line to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausuleum with hundreds of very small school children.

I visited the art museum by myself after Sean left to fly to China and loved it- it was so NOT climate controlled- the art was ooooold and sort of rotting in some places.  I took myself to lunch at KOTO which is a restaurant that works quadruple-time to get kids off the streets, educate them on working in hospitality, and employ them in the restaurant.  I loved it there.

Hanoi:

Photo Credit: Chris Anderson

Hanoi Hilton:

Photo Credit: Hawkins

Photo Credit: Willettsworld

Ho Chi Minh Mausuleum:

Original Photos

Hanoi Fine Art Museum:

Photo Credit: Travel Blog Land

KOTO:

Photo Credit: Wanderlust

Halong Bay, where to start... We had totally idyllic ideas of that this place would be like- built from pictures like the ones below.  We took a bus out there which stops midway at a rest station that is run by an orphanage of sorts that was started to house and care for children born after the Vietnam War with varying degrees of birth defects from the chemicals used in warfare that could not be cared for by their parents in villages across the country.  I had never considered this part of what war leaves behind and it was very sobering for me.  The people that lived there made arts and crafts that they sold to the passing tourists and we bought a needlepoint type picture for Norah's room.  When we arrived we were shown to our junk boat which seemed to be a regular boat retrofitted to look like a junk boat.  We cruised around and everywhere we went there were at least five other boats in the near vicinity and copious amounts of garbage floating in the water.  It was a pretty amazing site regardless and the spires of rock jutting out of the water were inhuman.

Halong Bay:

Photo Credit: Vietnam Tour

Photo Credit: MiKuZandvoort


We ventured out of Hanoi by taxi one afternoon to do something we had read about on the internet- pick a venomous snake to eat, drink the bile from the liver, and... drink the blood and still beating heart... why not!  The taxi driver dropped us right at the door of the restaurant he wanted us to go to and managed to get the message across that we should not leave the restaurant until we were done and then they should get us a taxi to take us right back to Hanoi... this was somewhat unsettling but we were on a mission.  The people in the restaurant spoke zero English and we had quite the adventure haggling for a snake, figuring out how to eat the million dishes they brought to us which was supposedly our snake prepared a multitude of different ways, and getting back out the door.  We choose a smallish snake and they whacked it on the head, slit its little body and drained its blood right there.  Did I mention I was queasy on this trip?  They poured the blood into two shots of rice wine, and then they proceeded to remove the heart and liver.  The heart was presented to Sean and he was to put it into his shot and drink it down.  Then they gave us two more shots and poured the green bile from the liver into them.  Sean was my champion and drank ALL FOUR shots- I wasn't sure my prego bally could handle it and we didn't want to appear rude.  We then mowed through as much snake pieces as we could- Sean again taking the lead and eating way more than he wanted to because I was turning more and more green the more they brought out!

Snake feast in Zermat:

Original Photos

Phew- I think that just about covers it- Sean and I separated in Vietnam and he went on to China for his MBA program and I came home.  We loved the adventure and I made him promise our next vacation would be a little more cushy and relaxed ;)

...nursery...

Our Inspiration:

http://www.buymodernbaby.com/MyModernNursery34.jpg

http://www.chiccheapnursery.com/2011/real-rooms/a-mid-century-modern-inspired-nursery/

We got the crib built first but we had a lot to do, and I feel like we have only just truly finished making the nursery just right a few months ago (so... when Norah was 7 months, haha)...

I had a comprehensive pinterest inspiration board here

This was my color inspiration:

 

The dresser is an Ikea Hack that I did from this site:

Anyway here it is...

Strange iPhone panorama...

Handmade changing table crib topper from Sean's dad...

Flensted mobile, original watercolor trees, baskets from Homegoods (all the baskets that you see are from Homegoods or Marshalls)...

Ikea adult rocking chair, thrifted baby rocking chair (thanks Amanda) that I painted...

Ikea drawers and curtains...

This is a "Giving Tree" inspired trunk that was painted for me by a grandmother from the montessori school I worked in after college...

Boon nightlight, prints from Vintage Dictionary Art on Etsy, crosley radio

In action!

...three little birds for my little bird...

I sang this song to Norah each morning on my way to work in the car and as soon as she was born.  Interestingly she immediately reminded us of a little bird- and still does all the time.  This is a purely sentimental post ;)

 song for my little bird...

...turning over the next leaf...

Welp, bebe D could come at any moment (I am hoping for a moment sooner than later), and in honor of his or her arrival I have put together a little slideshow to celebrate our journey with the sprout-cum-squirmer and all the adventures we have shared even before he or she joined us on the outside!

I am hoping that this will reignite my blogging but I make no promises ;)

...The Ultimate DIY Experience...

I have a question for you...

Sean+Lucy= xx or xy??

That's right, we have embarked on our own ultimate DIY experience.  We have remodeled, redecorated and redesigned our home in Atlanta for the last two years and now we are reproducing.  Yikes.

Dia de los Muertos

The Dia de los Muertos Project-

El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is a celebration to remember and honor the departed. It's celebrated Nov. 1-2 with family altars, parades, special foods like skull-shaped bread and candy - and increasingly, costumes and face paint that gleefully mock death.
Day of the Dead imagery is at once dark and beautiful.
In this project, I'll turn ordinary crowd-sourced snapshots into colorful Day of the Dead portraits. The project, if funded, will launch on Day of the Dead and conclude one year later on Nov. 1, 2012.
               From Rachael Rossmanhttp://www.rachaelrossman.com/

I just became a backer so that Sean and I can partake in this project.  We were both sold after seeing her portrait of The Blogess:

I need your help to decide which picture to send her to paint...

UPDATE:  Well I have been a lazy enough blogger in the past... what almost 6 months... that this is sorrowfully out of date.  If Rachel Rossman weren't so on the ball I may have been able to sneak my own laziness by you but as promised she began painting the portraits in earnest when the new year began and guess what... we were the first portrait she did!  We thought we were going to have to wait until October or November to finally get a peek at our portrait but I received an e-mail on January 1st that ours was the first of the new year (I am choosing to believe it was because when she saw a picture of us she couldn't resist our blinding beauty...hmmm...).   Without further delay (drummmmmmmrooooolllllllll):

That came from this:

What do you think??