Hi everyone, sorry for the hiatus, but I’ve been busy, as we all have, with the holiday season. Now that 2014 is coming to a close, I’ve been gearing up for bringing back my handmade store: Sylvita Handmade. Along with this revitalization, I’m trying out social media incorporation and so I’m going to be posting more on Instagram and Youtube, two social media outlets I actually enjoy using.
We’ll see where it goes! Have a happy new year everyone!
-S
So I took the day off because I felt like crap today. I just needed to vent and talk about other things. Let me know what you think, how have you been? Have you been having to put up with crap too? Lemme know, it’s good to talk these things out 🙂
My dad used to say that whenever we happened to find ourselves stuck in the bathroom sans toilet paper. “No job’s done till the paperwork’s finished.” Har-har. Nowadays, I feel like no job is ever finished at my house, whether we have toilet paper or not. Learning to get anything done with little E has been one of the greatest challenges of my life. So far I would grade myself a D. “Miss Lopez is very ambitious, takes on difficult projects, but must learn to follow through.” How did my mom get anything done?? With 4 kids? How did any mother get anything done?! Little E barely lets me go to the bathroom by myself, let alone cook dinner or clean up. So that’s how things have been here at my house. It also explains why I’ve been missing for the last, oh, 3 months. Well, actually that and the fact that I don’t know how to use technology and I couldn’t figure out how to log in. Oh and I posted this on what is supposed to be my personal blog, and then spent 20 minutes trying to copy/paste onto this blog. Wop-wop.
So, based on what I wrote above, know that the last project I started working on is surprise surprise….not finished! And soon we will be putting in new floors! And painting! And doing some interior decorating! Which I’ve already started! Oh and did I tell you about my plans to tear out my lawn and replace it with native plants?! And it all won’t be done until little E goes to college! Well, at least I’m starting things right? And at least the patio kinda looks like this (when it’s clean, and when the dogs are banished to the other side of the house)
Someday I will get things done. But for now, I have to spend all my time cuddling and playing with a cute lil’ baby. Life is hard, yo. -P
I did another video blog… I like the format.. it’s like writing a letter and having a conversation at the same time.
So I’m not used to doing video blogs, so bare with me as I try out the format. This simple blog took me about an hour to make and upload, so imagine the work involved to make a REAL GOOD vlog! Props to all those vloggers out there….
Anyway, I’m on vacation so I’ve been resting up a bit… not going on any big travels or anything, but really just taking time to enjoy myself.
-Sylvia
So this week, there’s no Veg*n Review, instead, I thought I’d take a note from my sis and do a little intro.
I’m Sylvia, I’m the younger sister, I work in a museum, and I don’t really have a stablized family life like Pati. No kid, no husband, no house, just me, a single gal taking on the world!
Or if my life were a movie, that’s how it’d be marketed… the truth is, my life is pretty meh and I feel like I’m at that point where I’m just starting out!
It’s exciting and scary. I was one of those “lucky” twenty somethings who graduated college right in the depths of the economic downturn and so it took me three, almost four, years to get a full time job. (now that I think of it… I coulda been a doctor by now!… oh well, I feel like I earned a doctorate in LIFE, okay?)
That time in between graduating and finally landing the job of my dreams built character, to say the least. (it really is the job of my dreams, considering that I was ready to take a job at a gym or a fast food place if I could’ve landed one). So, now when I come across a youngin’ complaining about their entry-level job they’ve had right out of graduation (which I have encountered recently)… I just roll my eyes way out into space. Kids these days… pssh!
Anyway, so you got the idea right? I’ve had a bit of an extended adolesence, like many in my generation… living at home well into my mid to late twenties… (I’ve spent the last year living with Pati though, so it was kinda like an experiment in independence) but I do plan on moving back with my parents soon so I can save up to finally strike out on my own.
But as I’ve said earlier, and as Calvin’s dad always said (from Calvin and Hobbes) “It builds character!” And I’m really glad I went through what I did post-graduation, I feel tough… like built Ford Tough. I can take on anything man, and it feels good!
So what’s it like to work in a museum? Well, first off, I don’t work in curatorial, as 90% of people assume… museums don’t run on curators alone folks! In fact, the musuem I work at has no permanent curator! But that’s more to do with the museum recovering from the economic downturn which saw half of the staff laid off a few years ago… thus, a lot of the people who work there “wear a lot of hats”… which is a nice way of saying: everyone’s a bit overworked.
I wear many hats myself; I work in Education, Public Programs, and a little bit of Visitor Services. I get to interact with schools, families, and everyday patrons, and I love it. Yes, it is stressful quite often, but the place is great. My co-workers are all really cool, the volunteers are really sweet, and there are days where I think: “I can’t believe I work here!”
It’s been six months (three months full-time) since I started with the museum, and so I’m still getting my sea legs… which leads me to the other side of me which has been neglected a lot lately: the artist side.
I like to consider myself an artist, and I guess a crafter as well, and usually, I’ve always got some kinda project on the back burner. That’s where this blog comes in. While Pati is using this blog as motivation to organize her home life, I’m gonna use this blog to motivate my creative life. And of course, food plays a big part, hence the veg*n stuff.
So that’s just the jist of my origin story. I’m excited to share more!
Cheers!
It’s pretty much been summer here in LA since August 2013, and since then I have been harping too James about making our little patio a place we can hang out on hot summer nights. Since moving into our house, the patio has basically been a catch-all room for our junk and as our dogs’ filthy little bachelor pad. Not exactly the kind of place you want to spend a nice summer evening. See what I mean:
I finally decided (came to the realization?) that if I want this patio to be a nice little hang out I needed to 1) Do it myself and 2) Spend some monies. We didn’t really put a lot of money into the house when we first moved in, so that is my justification for spending ALL OF THE MONEY on getting our house in tip-top shape. So, first I needed a plan for how I wanted to use the space.
Now that I had an idea of what I wanted, it was time to go shopping! I already purchased two Ikea chairs (ÄPPLARÖ) which cost me $45 each and a green HAMPEN rug which I think may have been $39.99. Now I needed to by some more seating, some sort of storage for dog and rabbit food, a side table, a shade, and maybe some plants and stuff to make the place feel homey. Last week I came across this pretty nice potting bench from Cost Plus
The price was right, and to top it off, Cost plus was having a lawn furniture sale, AND they also had a coupon for 15% off a purchase of $100 or more. SCORE! I also bought this little capiz table to use as my side table for drinks and candles.
With the sale and coupon, the bench came out to $101.99 and the table was $33.99. Man oh man do I love to save money. After my little shopping spree at Cost Plus, I went over to Target and pretty much gave them all of my money. I’ll talk more about that in my next post, but I will say this: the end of June is THE BEST time to shop for outdoor furniture. Apparently that’s when they start clearing everything out to make room for back to school crap.
Once I got home, I got started on cleaning up the patio and getting everything put together. I didn’t think to take step by step pictures, but I did get pictures of my helpers!
In progress and the finished product!
Overall, it took me about 2 hours to put the bench together. It wasn’t very hard, just lots of pieces and it probably is a 2 person project. I actually enjoyed putting this together over dealing with Ikea crap and it feels pretty sturdy and best of all, the holes were placed in the correct spots. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the little side table I bought. It came with the wrong pieces, so I have to take that back to the store. BOO. I really wanted to have someplace to put a drink. Oh well. At least the patio is looking a bit better.
Next week I’ll talk about what I got at Target and Home depot and I’ll show some more pretty progress pictures. I won’t be able to work on this space till at least next Thursday, so everything is going to be pretty slow going for now. Also, just to keep it real, all the junk that was in the patio is now just a few steps away. I didn’t have time to go through everything and put it away, so I just cropped it out of the photos. Photo cropping for the win!
-P
I have so much I want to write about , but I’ve been so busy today I think I’ll just write an introductory post. I’m Sylvia’s older sister Pati (hence the blog name) and I live in Los Angeles, California. I am married and live in a cute but messy house with 2 dogs and 2 rabbits. I am a pharmacist and I’m sure some posts will talk about what I like to call the rxlife. It’s a hard life and not as boring as some may think (eh, who am I kidding it probably is). When I’m not dispensing drugs or giving out free medical advice, I am a mom to the cutest baby in the world who I will just call Baby. And yes, she is the cutest baby in the world. Multiple studies and focus groups have confirmed it. I am trying to decide whether I should post pictures of her on this blog, I mean I already plaster that kids adorable mug on Facebook and Instagram, but I don’t know if I want her out on the internets for all to see. But I do plan on talking about mom stuff like mommy wars, kid crafts, and general my baby-is-so-great bragging.
So let’s see, I’ve talked about mah job and mah baby, ah yes I have forgotten about the tie that binds sylvia and me together….FOOD. Food is going to have a very big presence here, so much so that maybe we should acknowledge it as another member of this blog. Food is big in our family. Growing up, I think it’s safe to say that we probably looked forward to the food at holiday get togethers more than the presents. At least I know I did. Sylvia is my food buddy, and we’ll try to get out and try some restaurants and talk all about it here. I will also try talking about cooking for my family, but really I hate to cook, so don’t expect too much of that going on here.
I also plan on talking about my house, trying to keep it clean (haha never gonna happen, consider that dragon CHASED), DIY, pretty much everything under the sun. I’m hoping that by having this blog and needing to write something every week for it, it will light a fire under my ass to get things done. Hey look, this post didn’t turn out as wordy as I thought. WOW.
-P
Pati and Sylvia's Super Awesome Blog! 