Donating to The Sampler

Ahhhhhh...there's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing something. For me at least. I love crossing things off my list. Today, that was mailing off the Etsy Rain submission to The Sampler. We ended up submitting about 300 items, 60 of which will be submitted to magazines and design blogs. Thankfully, I got some much needed/wanted help from fellow Etsy Rainers and friend. You know who you are. And thank you. Thanks so much. What I learned: The post office has flat rate boxes. Anything you put in them is $8 something dollars. Way better than the $70 I ended up paying for our four boxes. Argh. Doug spent many an hour making up packaging labels for Shower Art - waterproof art you can hang in your shower with a suction cup. They turned out wonderfully. I spent many hours gocco-ing them and then making them into stickers to put on the boxes. Lots of work, but I think they look fantastic. Here's some of the items we submitted: And here's the little guys in their Sampler packaging:

Oh man...I’m human again

It's true. I got so sick that I not only turned into an actual zombie, but I stopped my whole Giving Up plan. I stopped going to work. I stopped breathing almost. I stopped pretty much everything except laying in bed and moaning, "I don't feel so good." whenever Doug happened to stop playing Wii to make me some tea. Poor guy. Now he has it. He's much tougher than I was though. So, I just wanted to apologize for not updating y'all on my progress. I think the experiment is over for now, but I plan to do a larger project called: Giving Up and Giving Focus -- in the future. Basically I would plan out one year of my life and give up one thing and focus on one thing each week. It would require lots of self discipline and be hard and stuffs. I look forward to it. But right now I'm just going to concentrate on getting well for the big, Buy Stuff Day that's coming up. Doug and I have big plans to wear pajamas all day and watch Mystery Science Theatre movies. I can't be sick for that!

No Dairy - Yeah Right

So, yeah, I did not do so well this week. It all started when I did another I Heart Rummage show (their Christmas one called I Heart Indie Crafts -- if you missed it, you are SORRY).  Anywho, again with the free doughnuts.  I caved.  I ate a doughnut.  I'm not sure if they have dairy or not, but I'm relatively certain that since they taste so good, they do....they do have dairy.  I have to get away from these free doughnuts!

Then, at lunch (same day) I went to the Seattle Center House and it was filled with people and screaming children so I thought...Okay, I'll just go to Starbucks.  Fine.  Normally I never give them any of my money, but given the circumstances and the fact that they were right in front of me.  I caved.  I bought some pesto pasta salad that I really did think had no dairy in it.  I really, really did.  Then ate it while I waited in line for my Americano.  And waited.  And waited.  For some reason the barista is making every drink wrong so she has to make each one at least two or three times.  It takes at least 20 minutes.  Or at least enough time for me to finish my pasta salad.  Then it takes some more time because I have nothing to do but really familiarize myself with the label....which lists the ingredients....which includes dairy.  Damn.

THEN - (same day) later we go out for Thai food with my studio partner, Kimberly.  We order Crab Delight.  I should have made this week, I'm giving up all dairy unless it's in a crab delight because there was no way I wasn't eating those.  No way.  It's just not possible by any stretch of the imagination. 

So there's my foibles for the week.  I think this is the worst job I've done so far.

The current week: No eating after 7pm.  It worked for me yesterday. I'll keep you posted.

No Dairy - What I've Learned So Far

Here's what I've learned so far by not having dairy:

1. Soy milk is disgusting when you put it in coffee.  It takes like fake nuts and vanilla and beans all at once and the after-taste is worse than most things I can think of.

2. Semi-warm soy milk sitting in coffee you have had on your desk all day is really, really, really disgusting when you pick it up absentmindedly to take a sip.  I would have done a spit take if this wasn't a semi-new job.

3. Popcorn has dairy in it.  Yes, you heard me.  Popcorn has dairy in it.  We get free popcorn at work and I went to make a bag (disregard the part about how it's buttered popcorn) and discovered that popcorn contains MILK.  Really?  Why?  How?  I ate it anyway.  It shouldn't have dairy, so in my mind, it doesn't have dairy.

4. Don't yell at your husband when he goes to put butter on noodles so they don't stick together.  It's not like you're actually adversely affected by dairy.  You're just doing a dumb experiment.

I'm sitting here now drinking black coffee and loving it.  Anything is better than soy milk.  Speaking of -- anyone interested in a big thing full of soy milk -- it's not even open.  I stocked up in preparation for this week but I will not be needing that.  Not at all.

Hearts,

Rosalie

p.s. I just posted a bunch of new Shower Art (waterproof art you can hang in your shower with a suction cup) on my Etsy site.  Check it out. 

No Wheat - Last Day

It's my last day of not eating wheat.  I think I'll make it. 

Although after I cheated with the bagel and told you it wouldn't happen again, I ate tortellini (what could I do -- it was free) and a cookie.  Both of which most likely had wheat in them.  But since there is no way to know for sure, we'll say there wasn't. 

There.  I came clean.  I feel better.  Cleaner. 

No dairy week.  I'm not looking forward to that.  I think I just realized that means NO CHEESE.  Now what is the point of that?

No Wheat, No Cry

Well, before I started this project, I had no idea that my life, my feelings and my ultimate happiness were all connected to wheat.  But based on how this week has gone (translation = badly) I think I can safely say that wheat was the thing holding my little life together and making me react to things like a normal grown up adult (most of the time).

I can't really give you too many specific examples as much of it as wheat was apparently also powering my big, gigantic brain.  Just ask the people at work, they know I've been off my wheat game a little bit.  One example: thinking that someone told me that the Oregon Department of Education was going to be sending out the invitation to our office party.  Um...yeah....now, why again would you think that?  Only wheat can tell.

Then my kitty cat got sick.  And I took her to the vet.  And immediately started bawling.  And the vet said, "Is your cat being sick what's upsetting you?  Because this is really no big deal at all."  HA!  Hilarious.

*$(*)#@ing wheat.

After I got home from the vet, I went straight to the coffee shop, announced, "Fuck this wheat thing, give me a bagel!" and everything has been okay since.  I just cheated with the bagel.  And I won't cheat again this week.  But I tell you what: it was necessary.

Next week is dairy.  I can't wait to find out what parts of my life are connected to 1/2 and 1/2.  UGH!