i sent this little cat to michelle yesterday after work. who knew that not even an hour later, i would be standing in shock filling out a police report at 24 hour fitness. thankfully, none of cat's sisters were stolen. just my purse.

on the way home, i was sitting at a stoplight and a guy pulled up next to me and said, "hey, make sure you clean up all that glass (it was still all over the seat) because a piece blew into my eye and blinded me on the way home after my car was broken into."

i just had to think...wow, if a stranger smashing your window and taking your stuff wasn't frustrating enough...:/

anyway, i'm rambling, but just seeing 'buster anne' (michelle promptly named her) answering the phones the second she arrived across town the next day brought a smile to my face. and i realized, it's more annoying to have my purse stolen than anything. i still have all the things that matter.

my sister, nae, came to visit this weekend. i can hardly believe she's in the air somewhere flying back to iowa as i type this.

when people visit me here in l.a., i get this urge to take them everywhere. we have to go to the getty, to the huntington, to the promenade and definitely to hermosa. if people are willing, we can catch a manchester united game and pancakes at a pub near the ocean or eat delicious icecream sandwiches for $1.00 near ucla. if there's a king tut exhibit, we'll go to lacma and if it's summer, we are most certainly trekking over to the hollywood bowl.

this time, though, was different. we did make it to a bunch of places like the promenade and the beach and old town pasadena. but mostly, we just hung out and talked and drove around. it was so nice. i think i needed a relaxing weekend with my sister.

thanks, nae. :)

p.s. we did manage to get a cupcake at the promenade and wow, were they delicious! :)

wow. i just got an email from my grandma. the 'wow' isn't because she's tech-savvy enough to email me--we've been emailing back and forth since I was in college. it's actually because the project she and my grandpa have been a part of for the past several years is finally completed.

several years ago when my grandpa retired from teaching, they chose to take a different path in retirement. instead of using the rest of their lives to travel the world and sit on the beach in florida (although, those aren't necessarily bad things), they chose to join a group of people who travel from community to community helping with projects. my gramps is a remarkable carpenter and for lack of a better term, handyman, so it was the perfect fit. they'd set up their mo-ho (motorhome, hehe) and set to work with a team--refurbishing summer camps, churches, or whatever needed to be done.

flash-forward a few years. they decided to make their home base in kentucky and work at a creation museum that was being built there in petersburg. we would receive gramma's latest blog entries and pictures of grampa standing next to dinosaurs (okay, replicas of dinosaurs) and hear all about all of the artisans who had decided to be a part of this project. it has been exciting to hear all that has been happening in their lives, but what has especially impacted me is the simple fact that you are never too old, too young, too whatever to make a difference in the world. they are living proof that God will use you if you're available. we just have to show up.

i'm so proud of them! i love you gramma and grampa!

here's a link to an article in the ny times from today: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/arts/24crea.html?ex=1337659200&en=8b466c5f5d8be9f3&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
pretty cool.

seems a lot of women are having this same idea of creating a space where we can get together and make stuff. i really would like to see something like this come to life in the pasadena area.

http://creatingfromscratch.typepad.com/

i would really like to do this. the next one is in september...

i spent some 'quality time' decopauging journals and making chocolate chip cookies for the craft and goodie fair at work. i love these little journals, but they take a while to make since i layer tissue paper, paint, and little drawings. and in between each stage i have to let them dry. last night was the finale (i think) of 24 but i spent more time talking with friends who stopped by. it just wasn't that compelling of an ending. anywho...

this is my dream come to life: http://www.sparkcrafts.com/ it's actually kind of surreal to see it. i've been wanting a place like that in pasadena for a while now--a space where people can come, create, hang out, learn, etc.. i love their space--it is so peaceful and homey. :)

oh my goodness, i love these cupcakes at my little mochi. she is sooo creative! good grief! our cupcakes for my cousin's wedding shower last weekend had an m&m on them. (they tasted delicious, though...mmmm)

onesies, hand-painted/collaged journals, and cards

emma modeling the onesies and some little cat ornaments

a couple of weekends ago, i had my first craft show. it was so amazing, thanks to all the helpful crafters/artists that were there. i went in a little nervous (wondering if anything would actually sell) but it went really well and i met so many great people. :) i have another show in about a week at work so i'm busy "re-stocking". ha

a (blurry) close-up on the journals

these are my favorites of the cards :)

i love how dusk transforms trees into black outlines on the horizon. some of the trees at home are so detailed-thousands of tiny little branches drawn against the night sky. it completely stuns me (and makes me wish i had a better camera and/or patience/skill to sketch them.)

anyway, i've been thinking a lot lately about just being more aware of the little things. i go through these stages where i get into my routine and stop noticing things. or i still notice things but immediately forget about them. i want to learn how to truly live in the moment and drink it all in.

this morning on the way to work, i stopped at a stop sign (that i stop at every day) and noticed for the first time that a vine covered in tiny white flowers had grown all around the post to the bottom of the red sign. it was so beautiful.

then in internetville, i came across this:
Ten Thoughts on Whole Living
(from Body and Soul magazine)
1. Your home is more than the sum of its walls. Make it a sacred space.
2. Creativity is a lifestyle, not simply an activity. Let it expand you.
3. True forgiveness springs from love, not regret.
4. Learn something new. Emphasize the trying, not the succeeding.
5. Spend some time in the dirt. You'll be amazed at what nature can inspire.
6. You don't have to have a perfect body to feel great in it.
7. Define yourself by who you are, not the roles you play.
8. Find rejuvenation in five minutes of silence.
9. Contribute to abundance. If you no longer need something, pass it on.
10. Find direction in your life by looking where you want to go, not where you don't.

it's hard to believe that in a couple of weeks i'll be running another marathon. ha especially since this training season has been a bit more sparse than the other ones. granted, it hasn't even been 3 whole months since l.a., but...

it's interesting because each marathon that i've run has a little story. the first one was just to see if i could do it. in the course of training, i became a girl forest gump and likened everything to running. perseverance, patience, our life journeys, comparison--all of life seemed to be riddled with marathon metaphors. i had trained for so long (from may to october) and race day was like a dream. everything was new--the people, the long tables filled with water cups, the stretches of road that seemed to go into oblivion (for those who've run long beach, you know that is around mile 18 when you're out in nowhereville...)--when i finished, i was sooooo happy and sooooo tired.

l.a. no. 1 was like a dream too. that training had been a completely different story--a lot of junk had been going on in my life, so i felt like i was just running off demons during the whole thing. i think the theme there was something like "letting go" and yeah, "letting go." i loved that race, though i completely overtrained at the end. oops. (i realized this when i hit the proverbial wall at mile 10. haha) still, l.a. has a life of its own. i loved the energy and the tour through the city...

for l.a. no. 2, i wanted to go in and just be consistent. i trained with a great team and honestly, i guess i made my goal because i stayed with them until mile 18. for that training round, it was all about community. sheesh, those guys were so much fun to train with. i honestly wondered how in the world i had run 22 milers on my own. uck! the race was its usual hard self (i love how the marathon schools everyone in its own way) but the tour was fun. we ran past the hollywood bowl and through lots of neighborhoods and USC...there were some funny moments in that race, too. we had three elvises running along with us for a while (i was amazed they could smile in those polyester white pants and jackets!), the firemen were out in large numbers spraying us down with open fire hydrants because of the heat (not with hoses--that would have been mean, haha)...oh, and there was a jovial man in front of me at the very end who was running back and forth riling up the crowd as we ran up flower street. his energy amazed me!

so i finished l.a. and after 15 minutes sitting on the curb in a painful daze, i recovered and started thinking about doing another marathon. but this time i wanted it to be for something more. there's a group i love called gospel for asia that works mostly in india. i don't know, i just love their compassion and their heart for the people there. ever since i was a little girl i've wanted to go to india (another story entirely) so maybe that's why their ministry has moved me since, well, i guess when i first heard about them in college. anyway, one thing led to another and i decided to sponsor a missionary over there for a year. it's kind of stunning but a year's salary for this missionary, Mister B, is $1440. this will provide him with food, clothing, shelter, everything for a year.

so all that to say, this marathon has been completely different. i'm excited to go down there in a couple of weeks and run this race for him. this one's for you, Mister B!

i was talking to one of the guys who does maintenance around the building today and he told me the story of the bird he's owned for the past 10 years. he said when the bird first came to him, he couldn't name it right away because 'you have to know something for a while before you name it.'

i think that sentiment is particularly true in relationships and life in general. sometimes we give up or run away from things before we can properly name them.

(emma reading and posing for a 'onesie photoshoot', hehe...note that the book is upside down. love it.)

this pretty much sums up my weekend:

i do it for the joy it brings
because i am a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it's the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to
because I want to

(by ani difranco)