She Wore Blue Velvet

Color Spotlight - Blue

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Shades Of Blue

Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.

Home From Above

As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect.

Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.

Blue Sky

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

Fun Drop Earrings

Red is the Color that My Baby Wore

Red is the color of fire and blood, red holds associations with danger, power and strength as well as love and passion. Red is seen everywhere as a symbol of love, as is proof by Valentines day decor.

Burning Heart Pendant

Red is a very emotionally intense color, physically, red excites the viewer. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage.

Red Arrowhead Pendant

Variations on red and what they mean:

Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

It's not easy being green, but it sure is beautiful!

In honor of our daughter Aisling, who was born in May, I have uploaded 3 new pieces to the etsy shop.
Emerald is May's birthstone, and May is well into spring, everything around has turned it's fullest green.

Did you know that in Celtic culture, green clothing was avoided as it was considered the color of the fairies?

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green is associated with
money and progress. Green Means Go!

I also recently read that it is the most restful color for the human eye and it can improve vision.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

Jan 24, 2011

I have become really fascinated with the new person in my belly.

She's moving enough to be felt on a regular basis and has started to actually make my stomach move on it's own.

It is a strange sensation to feel her then see her actually affect her surroundings. There is almost a little disconnect in the feeling and seeing the outside move.

She still goes quiet as soon as she hears her dad's voice, so I haven't been able to show Mathew yet.
He's convinced she doesn't like him, which we all know isn't true. I think she stops to listen to his voice.

January 23, 2011

After an emotional day yesterday, today was about comfort food.

We went to lunch with Adam & Shabnam at Olive Garden, then went to go see Green Lantern (3d)

A big bowl of pasta in cream always seems to make me feel better... Just can't do that too often or I'll start to look like a big bowl of pasta :)

The movie was cute, not sure it was worth seeing in 3d. There were some cartoon graphics in the credits that looked AMAZING in 3d but the movie as a whole didn't need it.

I suck at blogging Jan 22, 2011

So I have come to the conclusion that I totally suck at blogging.

Today we drove up to Vista to look at an apartment closer to my office. We need to move so that when I go back to work after the baby is born I am not commuting 2 hours out of my day. I don't mind commuting but when I think about having a baby, spending 2 hours away from her just sitting in a car every day just seems like a waste.

Our place in Hillcrest is great. I hate to leave but it isn't big enough to have more than one person over at a time and it seems our group of friends has migrated from going out to meet up to staying in and meeting up. Not surprising, but way less convenient. We have to wait until there is an invite since we can't really have anyone over at our place.

So onward to living far away again. I am not too worried that we will see people any less, in fact we may end up seeing people more this way.

Well the apartment is exactly what we want - and end unit with a private balcony, 15 min from work, with a washer/dryer. The catch, yes there is always a catch, it is available NOW, and we can't move until 2/15. They refuse to hold it that long. sigh... whatever will be, will be.

After the apartment we went to the lovely Stella's 2nd birthday. It sucks, because we really love seeing Stella and her parents but she is the same age as Ethan was when he passed away, so it is always emotionally draining for Mathew to see her. He slept for 3 hours when we got home tonight. I think it being a birthday party with several 2 year olds made it worse. Next time we'll try to hang out with just the 1 child around, it should be easier. It is pretty awesome for me to see her getting so big. heck I remember holding her at a tiny 5 weeks old. :)

January 7, 2011

So the pregnancy is impeding my ability to sleep.
No position is comfortable and I require a wedge and a body pillow to get anywhere close to comfy. With me, wedge, body pillow, hubby and dog the bed is crowded.
So every time I roll over I need to bring the body pillow with me and I of course whack either the husband or the dog with it.
Apparently if I can't sleep, no one can.

I am tired today, in case you hadn't guessed. The joy I realize is that it is only going to get worse over the next 4.5 months.

Although, I haven't even met her and I already know it is all worth it.
sigh, hormones make me sappy.

On the up side, hubby can take melatonin and sleep through my tossing an turning, I am happy for him, honest. If he turns up strangled it wasn't me. :)

January 6, 2011

Today was a long day.

It started out nice, Mathew woke me up and presented me with breakfast. The drive into work also started out fine. However, there managed to be 2 accidents on the freeway within a few miles of each other dragging out the drive horribly.

Work was fine although we have a project due tomorrow that is one of those that was on time, then dragged out, and is now a week behind... you know those... I haven't even gotten all the pieces to the project when the project manager asks me if I could get it done today instead of tomorrow.. Why are they asking this? No, not because of the deadline, but because they don't feel like coming in tomorrow. SERIOUSLY! I mean really, you can actually say those words with a straight face and still respect yourself in the morning? Wow I really don't have what it takes to be a manager then.

I am quite proud of myself, I took all those crazy pregnancy hormones and kept them inside and only responded with a "no, honestly I don't think I can rush the project to get it to you today instead of tomorrow, I'll try but I can't promise anything."

Honestly, I deserve a cookie for not strangling the person in question. It would have been within my professional rights to loose it, I am quite certain.

There was no way the project was getting done, the other person working on it hadn't finished their part when I left this evening. I don't feel bad at all.

Enough about work.

I got a desperate call from a dear friend this afternoon. Her 1 year old has been miserably ill with a stomach bug all week. Her husband managed to catch it as well, and while being ill, he put his back out. So all dear friend wants to do is go grocery shopping but she can't leave a (mostly better but still needy) baby with her invalid husband. So I stopped by after work to let her go grocery shopping and keep her husband from putting his back out even more. Everyone in the house is better, so there was no danger of me catching anything. The 1 year old of course was a total angel for me, because I am not mom, so none of the same needy behavior. It was a pleasure to go visit, we watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast, sang along then played with blocks.

January 5, 2011

Ahh, all caught up!
I am starting to get really sick of this cold rainy weather.
Enough said.

I guess there always has to be bright side, and the one to our crappy weather streak is that it has gone on long enough that people are now accustomed to driving on damp roads. The drive into work this morning wasn't nearly as bad as it has been the last few weeks. Mathew was up before me and made a nice breakfast so I was well fed, awake and had a decent drive.

Work had been slow, but now all the stuff that was behind schedule has finally been approved, on top of that a last minute needed to get this done 2 weeks ago project has popped up.. Oh joy. It's going to be a fun week.

January 4, 2011

Today was a big day.

At our 20 week anatomy scan, the sonographer found a cyst in our baby girl's brain.
A very scary thing to hear. It is a Choroid Plexus Cyst, which is common and not harmful in any way.
Unless, and of course there is an unless...
If the cyst presents with any other signs of genetic deformities (or soft markers as they are called in the medical articles) then the possibility of something called Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 is similar to Downs Syndrome in the fact that is it an extra chromosome (#18 in fact) however it is particularly scary because this extra chromosome when present is not compatible with life.
Word to the wise, when your doctor tells you not to worry... Try your damnedest to listen. When you do run home and google whatever it is they found make sure to find a reputable medical reference and read all the way through.
The article I read started with an explanation of a CPC and it's loose association with Trisomy 18... Then in the very last paragraph it says... By itself a CPC is harmless.
Sheesh!
Anyways-- So we went in to the UCSD Fetal Care and Genetics department for the fancy scan to make absolutely certain there were no other soft markers. None found by the way. We are all very happy. Well except for my poor stomach. The Reuther genetics in our little girl are strong. She had found herself a comfortable position in utero and was not willing to move for anything. No amount of pushing and bouncing or repositioning was going to move her. So I feel slightly beat up after all that, but good to know she is comfortable.
So with a sigh of relief we went home and I promptly decided that I must have Thai food.
A nice Thai food dinner then we ended up falling asleep early.

January 3, 2011

Oh back to work today. How sad. Actually, I enjoy work, but the holidays were nice.
The weather today was NOT nice. The rain had, I thought stopped by the time I was driving in to work, but when you drive 30 miles you can never be sure. Th record time so far has been 1 hour 45 minutes driving in due to weather and related accidents on the freeway. Today wasn't that bad.

I ended up working late not by choice, I just looked up from my work and realized it was past 7pm. Dear husband called to check on me at 7:45pm which is when I actually got up from my desk and left.

Of course working that late and being pregnant meant I couldn't wait the 35 minute drive home to eat, so it was a Carls Jr night for both of us.

It bothers me that I have to pay almost double a burger/fries combo to get a burger and salad, but I know I felt better eating the salad.

Getting home that late screws with everything. No time for any housework, just one show on netflix while cuddling on the couch before bed. (hence why this is posted 2 days late)

January 2, 2011

A dear friend of mine is in possession of diaries belonging to her Great Grandmother. Aside from being insanely cool to see what daily life was like in 1910, it was an inspiration to her and then to a few others (myself included) to keep an account of daily life. We'll start with 30 days, see how far it goes.

Here is her transcription.

Just the basics, no need to put in huge insights on the world, just a humble account of my life and what is going on around me.

Here Goes:
January 2nd, 2011
I slept in today, it was very nice, but I think that having 2 long weekends in a row has done a number on my circadian rhythms. When I got up, hubs had been awake for a few hours but kindly (upon my request) made me breakfast. It was sunny out and I kept thinking, we should go for a walk this afternoon. Hubby and I played a little Star Trek Online. I know, nerdy to the max, but hey, I like it. :)

While we were playing, the little one started moving. She always moves mid-day, and of course as soon as Mathew tries to feel she stops. Though still an odd sensation, I do love to feel her move, it is a little reminder of "here I am mom". We took a break and I went through the box of so far accumulated baby stuff, we're getting a nice stash going of cloth diapers, hopefully we'll be all set by May when she arrives, lets hear it for saving money and the environment all in one.

When I finally decided it was time to go walk, of course it started raining. The dog was quite unhappy with the situation so the walk was only around the block. I can't believe the rain the last few weeks, it is very un-San Diego. Serves me right for waiting. Maybe that will be my resolution for 2011, when I feel like doing something I will do it, not wait until later. Of course, come May, we will have a baby who will likely have a say in our schedule, but we will see when she gets here.

We ended up taking a nap in the early evening, which left me up late reading once it was time to really go to bed... I have been reading pretty voraciously, I think I have made better use of Mathew's kindle than he has. I am in the middle of Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Executioner series, so no, I am to reading aloud to baby... Once I finish this series I am moving back to the George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire series, that one may be worthy of reading aloud.