Happy Left Handers Day!

Pier 39, San Francisco

Finally, this photo from a year ago came in handy!!! Pun intended.

Novice Lady

It's been over a year and a half since I decided to start this project, and the one thing I did complete a year ago was reading Gone with the Wind. And I can easily say in true Scarlett fashion that I kept telling myself that "I'll think about it tomorrow," with regards to my becoming an accomplished lady. 

Challenge back on...


Here's what I'll be reading, learning, and studying:

Literature 101 – reading list includes....

 Pride and Prejudice 

Much to my dismay unless I’m good, A Song of Ice and Fire series must be put on hold.          Also, Lisa See’s newest book came out and I love her so much, I had to be so strong and resist buying her book.

Gone with the Wind (complete)

My bff at work told me this book was a must for my challenge.

Italian 101 – I know it should be French, but I swear I have a good reason that I’ll explain later

Piano - I do know how to play the piano already, but I play poorly and I really don't remember any songs

Divine Intervention

A few nights ago my roommate and the neighbors we share a wall with got into a noise argument via hitting the wall to retaliate at one another. It got quite nasty (this had been escalating for 5 months), and I could not help but feel annoyed and frustrated. I wanted no part of that situation and didn't condone either party's behavior. I felt quite emotional, which immediately led me to anger. I wanted to storm into my roommate's room and yell at her for her childish behavior. However, I knew that wouldn't solve anything, and I wanted to speak to her in a rational manner.

With conflicting schedules, we wouldn't end up actually seeing each other for a couple of days after the incident.There had been an exchange of voice mails between the two of us, and I was looking forward to clearing the air and to making sure her hitting the wall would not be happening anymore.

I turned to my faith to give me strength and help me stay calm when I would sit down and talk with my roommate later that evening. I decided to go to Saturday evening mass. At the sign of the peace, I turned to shake the couple's hand behind me and to my surprise, the couple that happened to be behind me were my neighbors. I looked up and slightly shook my head, if there was ever a time to believe in divine intervention this was it.

I took them sitting behind me as a sign that this was God's way of showing me I should be the one to talk with our neighbors and apologize to them regarding my roommate's behavior. I muscled up my strength at the end of the mass and introduced myself to them. I was relieved to have a pleasant conversation with them. I was thankful that I had the courage to approach them. I felt so much better after that moment and the anger I had felt slipped away.

I am grateful for God to intervene in that moment, and I like to think I handled that moment with my neighbors like a lady. This has motivated to restart my becoming a lady project.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Puppet Craft

Fun, easy and fast very hungry caterpillar puppet craft for children

Supplies needed:

• Green paper bag
• Red Construction paper
• Glue Stick
• Pipe Cleaner
• Tape
• Yellow and Green Coding Stickers (office depot)

Step 1:

With the red construction paper, cut out a circle for the caterpillar's face. I precut the red circles using a Fiskars circle cutter. 

Step 2:

Using the glue stick have the child glue the rectangle at the bottom of the green paper bag and attach the red construction paper circle.

Step 3:

You'll need 2 yellow and green coding stickers for the eyes. I placed the 2 yellow circles first and then place the green stickers on top so a little of the yellow still showed on the red paper circle

Step 4:

Place 1 green coding sticker on the red paper circle for the nose.

Step 5:

Bend the the pipe cleaner in half and flip the face of the puppet face down. Attach the pipe cleaner with a piece of tape to the back of the puppet. Then you can curl the ends of the pipe cleaner with your fingers or a pencil

Then you're all set

Becoming an Accomplished Lady

On a visit to Knott's Berry Farm, I bought a 10 cent fortune from the animatronic grandmother machine. The machine reminded me of the movie Big, she was that creepy. In the first part of the day, I received this awful fortune:

The rest of my family with me received these amazing fortunes about how awesome they are.


When my mom arrived at Knott's I showed her my awful fortune to which she responded with laughter. I knew I had to brave getting another fortune from Grandmother's Prediction. She seemed even more creepy this time around moving her hand back and forth over her tarot cards. Out popped my card, and just when I thought Grandmother couldn't be any more insulting to me, she slaps me with the prediction below:

I must learn to prepare myself socially?! I lack accomplishments, refinement and adequate polish, and I must assimilate them before I can win! What have been doing these past 29 years?! I felt like Elizabeth Bennet in the scene with Lady Catherine. I’m not good enough for Mr. Darcy. Damn you, Grandmother’s Prediction!

I went back to Knott’s 2 weeks ago, and I decided once again to redeem my pride at Grandmother’s Prediction. I had my dime ready in my hand and my eyes were prepared to meet Grandmother’s. Only the machine conveniently had an out of order sign on it. Now this got the wheels in my head turning. Was I having some weird Tom Hanks' Big moment? I do know that I am not a 13 year old that wakes up a grown up, however, would it kill me to learn to become an accomplished lady? Is there a certain lack of refinement about me. Maybe the Grandmother’s Prediction machine will miraculously be back in order when I can be referred to as accomplished.

So how does one even become an accomplished lady? I decided I had go to the source, if I felt like Elizabeth Bennet after reading that prediction, then I had to direct my attention to none other than Jane Austen. I must admit that I have actually never read a Jane Austen book, so I will begin reading Pride and Prejudice as my inspiration for this challenge I have bestowed upon myself.

Jane Austen wrote, "A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved……’All this she must possess’ added Darcy, ‘ and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

I’m not going to lie, that’s kind of a lot….on second thought, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Welcome to My Dollhouse

As a child, I loved visiting the dollhouse aisle at Michaels. I would stare at the different dollhouses and dream that I would have one someday. When I was 8 my wish came true, and Santa brought me a dollhouse kit with the bay house windows I wanted. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I wanted a bay window in my room. If I couldn’t have it in my real life, my dollhouse would have it. Unfortunately, my dad never started with me the project of building my dollhouse. Over time, the poor kit got pushed back deeper in storage and pieces fell out and broke.

One day I was at lunch with a writer friend of mine and she started telling me about her latest project. Something she had said struck a chord in me and I shared the story of the dollhouse I always wanted. I got to thinking about not just the dollhouse, but other things that I wanted that never took off the ground. One of my biggest pet peeves is waiting on others, yet, here I am waiting on myself to do things.

At this time, in my life it’s just me. I’m learning that I need to go after the things I want to do and see. This is going to be about my journey building and checking off the things that I want. I’m sick of this emphasis outside of my career as I grow up being on love, dating, marriage, and children. I’d rather spend my time doing the things I can because I’m not tied down. It’s time I start living life instead of waiting for things to happen.