Dog Beach

There's a stretch of beach in Hungtington Beach where they allow dogs off leash, and it is absolutely amazing. The beach is at least a mile long, and it's beautiful, and if you visit on a weekend day, it's packed with happy dogs and people. Few things can lift the spirits like a happy dog - and hundreds of happy dogs, well that's about as good as it gets.

A couple of weekends ago, we met up with some friends down in Orange County. It was a gorgeous, hot day, so on the way back we stopped by the dog beach.



We'd brought Flynn here when we first moved to LA, and at that time, he seemed to be quite frightened of the ocean. Now he's a CA dog through and through, and was fearless in the waves.




Flynn says, "Just give me a couple more visits and I'll be tackling these waves on a board!"

BTW, I am going to try to tackle some waves on a board -- next Wednesday, in a surfing lesson (!?!).

Eat your heart out Ralph Macchio!

As you probably know, Raul is a super trooper. I don't make many trips to fabric stores, but when I am ready to make the occasional pilgrimage to downtown LA to hit up Michael Levine, Raul is always my ready companion. So, when he wanted some handmade pajama bottoms, I was all over it.

I skimmed this tutorial and then kind of winged it. And it actually resulted in a totally wearable pair of pants!



The smashing headwear was his own design.

Woohoo!

Raul and I have finished our step exams for the USMLE!

Here is some misc. baby stuff I made while on medicine for my cousin that's about to have a baby!


Hello. I am a flannel receiving blanket in the background. And in the foreground we have a bib, yellow lab onesie and burp cloth.

Details: I followed this tutorial for the flannel receiving blanket. I bought the flannel from Micheal Levine - they have really great selection of prints and colors. I think next time, I might try to do some bias tape sort of edging. For the burp cloth, I sandwiched a piece of cotton batting in between flannel and some white terry cloth material that I had in my stash. I used this tutorial to make the bib from flannel and the white terry. These projects were fun, quick and easy.

Last but not least - the yellow lab onesie, made during my labrador-themed-onesie-making-extravaganza! I am sure my cousin's two yellow labs are super excited about their soon to be arriving lil sis. Raul told me that some dogs rival a human two year old in terms of intelligence. I totally believe it. I think Flynn is super smart, and yet so like a two year old when he tears through the trash to eat raw chicken trimmings when he's angry at us for leaving him alone in the house for 8 hours. Sigh.

Oh Happy Day

I survived that month of internal medicine. Hallelujah. Raul was on Labor and Delivery at the same hospital for the last two weeks of my rotation, and I called him for help on a daily basis. He is smart, and fluent in Spanish (very helpful with patients on my service that were always trying to die and did not speak any English.) In the end, three of my patients had heart attacks while they were on my service, and another 2 had cardiopulmonary arrests - while I was on call. It's really a terrible feeling hearing "Code Blue, Code Blue - 7East" and knowing that it's most likely your patient that's coding. But, I survived (and so did they), and it's over and I learned a considerable amount. I am very happy to be back to psychiatry. I'm on outpatient internal medicine now, but I've taken a couple psych calls. I saw a decompensated schizophrenic off meds that had smoked catnip earlier in the day. And another very agitated person that proceeded to call me all sorts of very rude names when I told him he was being placed on a 5150. Oh psych patients, how I've missed you. Crazy, but completely medically stable. I don't have to worry about your heart failure or your transplant rejection or your ischemic limb. Ahh (I am sighing in relief.)

So, I consoled myself while on medicine by spending rather exorbitant amounts of money on fabric. I'm not going to admit to exactly how much I spent because it is rather embarrassing. I was apologizing to Raul about going overboard in the fabric purchasing department, and he said, "Don't worry about it, you're not buying heroin." And I realized that he was absolutely right, and my guilt completely evaporated because heroin is bad news. Over the course if this year, I have encountered many a heroin addict, and I have gotten into the habit of thanking Raul on at least a monthly basis for not being addicted to heroin. I am being completely serious. Thank you for that perspective, Raul. If everyone could spend their money on fabric instead of heroin the amount of suffering and devastation in this world would decrease a gazillion-fold, and there were probably be a lot more nifty handmade goods circulating around out there. Enough with the crafty grandma-style fantasies, let me show you some of the stuff I made with my haul.

Two quilt tops:

Numero Uno:


Made from a Moda Wonderland fabric charm pack (the fabric comes pre-cut in 5"x5" squares. What genius!) and the sashing is Kona Cotton from Micheal Levine (aka heaven.) I was talking to Quilting Grandma about how it was a little difficult to line up the sashing, and she said that there's a rule in quilting that quilts should be scrutinized only from the point of view of someone galloping by it on a horse. That's a good rule.

Numero Dos:


And this is a stripe quilt from the West Hill by Heather Ross fabric line. So easy and sew fun!! I became totally spoiled working with this fabric. It is so soft and so decadent. I don't think I will ever be able to use the Cheapy McCheaperson fabric from discount fabric stores again.

And finally, a visit from some favorites of favorites!