New Blog

I am recently into re-crafting and re-purposing furniture, fabric, spare bike tubes, and pretty much anything else I can get my hands on. I have decided that with my new interests, I am starting a new blog as well. Please follow me as I make another attempt at staying on top of things and posts will come as I complete projects. Check out my new blog here.

My Bag!

This is the bag I made of spare bike tubes! I gave it to my friend for her diaper bag for her new baby and even though I wanted to keep it, it will be very useful and was much appreciated! Here it is (Rupert's checking it out...):

and it has pockets:
If you know anyone who would like to get a bag like this, let me know! Who knows, maybe it will be my next profession!

I'm Back!

It's been exactly a year since my last post-how weird! Clearly, the whole consistent updating is not my thing but I'm giving it another try. This post is about a few projects I've been working on recently. I went to a thrift store not long ago and got these chairs and this old sewing table.

We've been needing a few new chairs for our kitchen table and the sewing table was so neat that I had to get it. After sanding down the chairs, re-staining them, adding a little paint and gloss, they now complete our kitchen table set!
The dresser was a little more time consuming. I sanded it all down and wanted a red color stain so I could still see the grain. The top was also a little difficult so I ended up turning the hinges around so the wings hang at the side. I stained it red and then found some tiles at the Habitat Re-store for the top. I wasn't thrilled with the stain so I ended up resanding it and painting it again, this time blue and with some white knobs, this is the (almost) final project. I need to get knobs for the top drawer but need longer screws because the wood is thicker than the other drawers. Re-doing things may be my new favorite past time!

Benefit

Life has been pretty busy out in Sacramento. I've been working 2 part time jobs, one with Clean and Sober and the other with El Hogar. El Hogar provides mental health services for individuals in Sacramento and I'm working as a service coordinator. I've been there for about 1 1/2 months and will be going full time in November. I'm staying with Clean & Sober through the annual benefit, where there is a silent auction and dinner. I'm excited about it this year because Kevin will be out for it. Kevin and Brian are both coming to visit this weekend, but Brian won't be here until Friday night. After the Benefit, it'll be nice to have some time to relax and hang out with Kevin and Brian. If only Stephanie could come out too!

Meghan's site

I'm putting in a plug for my old roommate's current endeavor. Meghan is a registered dietitian who I lived with my first year of volunteering in Sacramento. Her site is below and also with the links on the side. Check it out!

http://www.dietitianmeghan.com/

Yosemite

For Labor Day weekend, I went to Yosemite with my roommates and a guest from Friendship park at Loaves & Fishes. We went up Saturday and then Sunday went hiking. The guest from Friendship Park has a lot of experience rock climbing and is well known in the climbing world, even with his own website. He had lived in Yosemite for a while and knows all the ins-and-outs. The climbing world is interesting, almost like a whole different culture. We met some of his climbing friends and then hiked up to the base of El Capitan. We didn't do any real rock climbing but managed to get pretty high up on the mountain to see some beautiful views. The whole trip was pretty good. I was a little stressed because the trip wasn't very well planned and I usually like to have everything ready before I leave. It worked out well though and we all had a good time.

El Hogar

I have recently started a new job! I was hired part time at Clean & Sober as Program Assistant which was fortunate because I wasn't quite ready to leave yet. I just love the people too much. Because it is only part time, I was looking for another part time and got lucky! A friend of mine out here works at El Hogar and is returning to school in September so he is now working part time. I'm picking up the other 20 hours!

El Hogar is a mental health clinic where I will work as a Service Coordinator. I have a shared case load of ~80 people who I check in with, meet with and help out whenever necessary. I have been there two days so far, training under my friend. Monday will be the first day that I'm on my own which I'm excited for but I still have more training to do. It's a job through the county so there is more paperwork and general rules to follow so I'll be learning a lot over the next few weeks-months. As I learn more, I'll update more!