You Should Know: How to Avoid Getting Sick - 5 Tips From a Teacher

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You Should Know: How to Avoid Getting Sick - 5 Tips From a Teacher

uyguguygu   10.21   Comment  

(My breakfast - designed to help me avoid getting sick - a smoothie with veggie based protein powder, mixed greens, almond milk, and frozen berries)

My lovely husband is sick today - sneezing, sniffling, dripping everywhere. I’m working really hard to avoid getting sick from him. Also, cold and flu season is just around the corner. I’m a teacher and I’m around sick kids a lot. I really try hard to stay healthy through diet and lifestyle but sometimes you have to go a bit further, especially when parents send their kids to school sick or someone is sick around you. Here are the top five things I’ve found that help!  

1. Avoid sick people. Yup. Avoid them. This one sounds harsh but it’s totally the number one thing you can do to keep yourself from getting sick. Try to stay away from the air they are breathing, the things they are touching. Don’t sleep next to them. I always kick my husband onto the couch when I’m sick and when he’s sick I go for an air mattress. When a student is sick I try to help them from a distance, without putting my face to near to their hands or face. This is still totally effective teaching and helps keep me from having to get a sub a few days later…which is generally not effective teaching.  

2. Don’t touch your face, nose, or mouth! This advice was given to me by a doctor when I was really sick during student teaching. There’s only a few ways for germs to enter your body and your hand connecting with one of them is a sure fire way to get sick. If my eyes itch I’ll scratch them while holding a tissue or use part of my sleeve in a pinch. I wash my hands before food prep and try to use utensils instead of my fingers to eat. When I put my moisturizer on my face I make sure that my hands are clean both to avoid bacteria in my pores and also to avoid germs that could make me sick!

3. Wash your hands! This was alluded to in the previous point, but washing your hands and washing them frequently is such an important thing! Hopefully I’m preaching to the choir with this one but it’s important to get rid of those germs. You can really make handwashing as fun or as boring as you want to. At work it’s whatever soap they provide but at home I go for the Method soaps in the fun containers and of course minty smelling soap! I generally do liquid over bar soap because it makes my sink less messy! Wash all the time, especially before food prep and eating and…do I even need to say it…after you use the restroom!

4. Rest and hydrate! If you find yourself feeling like you’re coming down with something…rest! I try to get as much off my schedule, I stop training cold turkey for a day or two, and I just hydrate and rest. I try to nap, and give my body the space to use the energy I’d generally be putting in at the gym to repair the damage before it gets too intense.

5. Eat Right. I hope that this is one thing that you already do! Eating lots of great living foods, healthy grains, lower amounts of sugars…I believe that would be called eating clean…is the best thing you can do! Having good food will give you a good immune system and having enough vitamins and minerals help with that, too. I personally take a high quality multivitamin purchased through my natropath with a healthy dose of Vitamin C to help with absorption. I also strive for 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day and try to stay away from refined sugars. Eating healthy is a little less easy to do when you are on your way to getting sick because your energy is drained but it’s the number one thing you can do to help keep yourself healthy. When I’m getting sick I get Zicam (I’ve found it’s the best of the cold remedies out there for my physiology) and take a few zinc supplements on top of it. I completely cut all sugars (including fruit sugars) out of my diet because I know bacteria loves sugar and uses sugars to multiply, and really, really go crazy with the veggies and hot soups. I make a huge kettle of Veggie Soup and just eat that for a few days as needed and the heat and liquid helps you stay hydrated and clear out those sinuses. I put Cayenne pepper in it, tons of garlic, organic veggie broth, rosemary, and any veggie that looks appealing into it. I snack on carrots and bell peppers and Kale chips. 

Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market

uyguguygu   18.06   Comment  

I can't always manage it but I like to keep my Saturdays slow.

I like eating a lazy breakfast, sleeping in, cuddling the cats, drinking cups and cups of tea, and just hanging out with JR. 

This past weekend we went to the farmers market. We didn't buy anything because we forgot to bring cash but we enjoyed the morning and the bustle of the crowd.

Oh, and these beautiful flowers...

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Tank top: Old Navy

Jacket: Ann Taylor

Jeans: J. Crew

Shoes: Topsiders

Sunglasses: Vintage Ray Bans 

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I have terrible handwriting...but these links have inspired me to clean it up. 

I love this card case. 

Here are some more little tutorials and things to help you with your lettering and handwriting. 

This notebook makes me happy. 

Your heart is like a ghost town...

Your heart is like a ghost town...

uyguguygu   16.46   Comment  

It's been a while since I've blogged. School started and that's kept me busy. Mountain biking season wrapped up and for those of you following me on Instagram you might have picked up that I won the series in my category, earned a few medals, and really got to know every single inch of the mountain bike trail system whether I liked it (Serenity) or not (WTB). 

Our favorite camping partners and their new puppy came with us to Ouray, Colorado last weekend for a little trip to celebrate the long weekend. We stopped the first night in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, looked around the second day and declined to go into the canyon once more and then drove on to Ouray, which is probably the most beautiful place in Colorado...and I do not make that statement lightly. The mountains there have an incredible amount of Iron in them and they are a gorgeous rose color. Finally, the forest is lush and green and filled with Blue Spruces and mosses and it just smells delicious. 

The second and third nights we camped in a legit Ghost town. Irontown, an abandoned mining town, is part of the National Forest so you can simply camp anywhere in the town. At one point the town had 2,500 residents but now it's reduced to a few standing houses and a lot of collapsed outbuildings. 

Itty Bitty Baby Clothes - Simplicity 2300

Itty Bitty Baby Clothes - Simplicity 2300

uyguguygu   20.22   Comment  

This is the summer of Showers. Not just the (unusual) amount of rain showers here in Colorado, but baby showers, wedding showers, bridal showers.

For the most part I purchase gifts off of registries for said showers, but I have a wonderful friend who is expecting a little baby boy and I knew she would appreciate something handmade. She also loves vintage clothes so I looked through my vintage pattern stash and interpreted (seriously, this was a tough pattern for me to figure out!) a late 1940's child's playsuit. 

I've recently become enamored with the idea of "Slow Sewing," which is where you slow it down and really, really make it look as good as you possibly can both inside and out. No more whipping out a garment in a single day - every seam is finished and hopefully it looks as great turned inside out as it does right side out. This was my first "Slow Sewed" garment and it really only took me about a third longer than sewing normally does once I figured out how to finish the seams. 

Finally, the coat has the first Welt Pockets I've ever attempted. I found a great tutorial here, and that helped me out a lot! Also, you can find a picture of the original pattern cover on the Vintage Pattern Wiki here.

 

Welcome

Welcome

uyguguygu   17.17   Comment  

My life has been a little boring since I've had my nose in a text book for the past few days. I have an exam that is worth 35% of my grade to take next week and I need a 96% to get an A in this class. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get that, since it means missing only two questions on the exam. I'm just a smidge heartbroken over this because that will be my first B in a very long time, but I'm doing what I can to make sure I do a comprehensive job of knowing the material and studying. I have a feeling I'll be mourning the loss of my 4.0 for a few days after this exam. Don't mind me.  

After one of my daily study sessions I was able to grab a few shots of what I was wearing that day and the outfit just happened to include my newly altered pants. 

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Sunglasses: Unknown - Picked them up at Buffalo Exchange

Shirt: Urban Outfitters

Pants: Urban Outfitters (altered by me)

Shoes: Doc Martens

Bag: Demano

Taking in a Pair of Jeans - The Lazy Way

Taking in a Pair of Jeans - The Lazy Way

uyguguygu   17.19   Comment  

Because I'm an athlete, and more specifically a cyclist, my body goes through three distinct sizes every year. There's winter, when my size goes up because it's the "off season" and I'm not exercising as intensively. There's the early spring/summer and early winter clothes when my body is losing weight and I'm the most proportional, just generally skinny all around, before my cycling thighs really kick in, and there's where I am right now, high summer. 

This is the part where everything, and I mean everything is really skinny, except my calves and thighs and rear end. I have to buy pants a size or two too big for my waist so that my thighs will fit into them. 

(Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of the back of a pair of pants?!)

This means that I have a lot of pants that are  falling down around my hips, gapping terribly in the back, or just plain old not working out. I definitely put some away, like my work pants, for other times but there are a few I don't mind keeping just for in season pants and are tailored accordingly.

I found this pair of pants on super sale at Urban Outfitters and figured this busy print would be the best test subject. If I ruined them I could just write it off as a learning experience. If they worked out, great!

I started by taking my stitch ripper and pulling off the interior tags, the center back belt loop, and I began unpicking the bottom portion of the waistband. 

After I unpicked this a little bit I put the pants back on, zipped them up, grabbed the center back where it was too loose and pinched until it fit. Then, reaching precariously behind me I drew pink lines with chalk where I wanted the edges to meet. If I would have had an assistant I would have had them pin it up for me but since it was just me I drew and then matched it.  I realized I would have to take about 3.5 inches off the back, which is a pretty significant amount! It was here that I lost my seamripper and had to put the project aside for a week or so until I found it! 

Once I found the seamripper again I unpicked that entire section I needed to take out plus about an inch  on either side. I also picked out the center back seam about four inches since that was how long I needed to take the extra fabric without a pucker.  

After everything was picked out I put the pants back on, zipped and buttoned them up, and pulled to take in the extra fabric from the center back seam. I drew lines with my chalk and then took them off and pinned it up to take in the extra fabric. I never worry about pinning things perfectly - I tend to manipulate the piece I'm sewing as I sew so I have clean lines. 

Starting at the existing seam, I sewed a basting line with a big stitch up where I thought I wanted the pants to meet. I left the waistband alone and went to check the fit - turned out there was a pretty severe pucker and the seam was leaning hard to the left! I unpicked the basting line, re-adjusted where I was going to take the seam in, and basted it again. The second try was a lot better!

Once it was basted in place I sewed two seam lines to replicate the twin needle that had been used initially.

I ironed it to smooth out any kinks and tried them on - perfect fit, except for the waistband, which I still needed to figure out. When you have pants professionally tailored they often remove the entire waistband but I didn't feel like this pair of pants was worth doing it to, so I decided to just snip at the center of what needed to be taken off. 

On the left side of the waistband I folded it over and ironed. I snipped the extra off the right side of the waistband and tucked them inside each other. 

I pinned each side back onto the pair of pants and overlapped them so the seam was clean. I sewed, following the orignal stitch lines. 

I re-enforced this seam by doing a little square of stitching and doing some back and forth stitches over points where there would be tension. I wasn't too worried about it looking perfect because I knew that once I put the belt loop back on this would be covered. 

I put the belt loop and brand tag back on (quite frankly the hardest part! This was so thick to sew through!)

Here's how the pants look now that I've taken several inches off the back to accommodate my tiny waist and sway back. 

(Even if altering pants got easier taking pictures of my back didn't! Sorry about the awkward angle!)

Not bad, if I do say so! The back edge of the waistband sits right along my lower back and I can lean over without them falling all the way down and flashing my skivvies to the world! I guess I believe in modesty, propriety, and really loud pants! 

I hope this helps you figure out how to take in your own pants! I had no idea altering pants would be so easy - there are so many seams on pants that it seems like a daunting task a lot of the time. If I hadn't lost the seamripper this project would have taken me less than an hour. I'll be posting outfit pictures featuring these pants tomorrow and then I have one more sewing project to put up. It was a gift for someone so I wanted to make sure that she had received it before I put pictures up on the internet. 

Denver Underground Music Showcase

Denver Underground Music Showcase

uyguguygu   18.19   Comment  

JR came home on Saturday night and asked if I had any energy and wanted to go to the Underground Music Showcase, a four day festival of local music here in Denver. 

(A Place to Bury Strangers)

UMS was pretty awesome because you purchased a relatively inexpensive wristband ($35 for the entire weekend) and you could go see anything you wanted to see. Everyone was playing in bars and parking lots up and down a street here, about twelve blocks worth, and bands changed on the hour at each place which was both a blessing and a curse. The short sets allowed you to see a ton of bands in an evening but at the same time the sets were really short - I felt bad for some of the people from further away that had traveled a while only to play for about 45 or 50 minutes and some of it felt incomplete because they couldn't get through a proper set. 

We were able to spend all evening on Saturday and Sunday and we got to see a pretty stellar set of music. A few we just wandered into and a few we planned to go to. JR, who is a lot more in touch with local Denver music than I am, curated our band selection on both days but we did meander into a few shows 

Here's a not-so-comprehensive list of a few of our favorites for the weekend + some links so you can check them out:

A Place to Bury Strangers

Snake Rattle Rattle Snake

The Marrow

Atlas Sound

Paper Bird

Kentucky Street Parlour Pickers

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Shirt: Senegal

Jeans: J. Crew

Bag: Kate Spade

Sunglasses: Pilgrim

Tall shoes to see over everyone: Urban Outfitters

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uyguguygu   00.23   Comment  

I have a million photographs to post up here, a million things to write about, events that maybe I did or maybe I didn't take photographs of but happened. I've been busy sucking the marrow out of life in the Thoreau way, running like a banshee until my bones feel like they are made out of glass and my skin itches and I have to sleep or I will fall over, right off my shoes onto the floor. 

There have been trips up to Winter Park to ride my bike in the mountains, climbing passes, descending in the rain. There was a day spent in bed watching bad TV and eating Nutella straight from the Jar. I took a ride in the mountains in a car that costs more than I'll make in four years, flying along the highway with the top down and my hair whipping in my face. I celebrated my anniversary, a hard won beautiful prize for steady, relentless love. I have danced until the break of dawn, sewn until my fingers could hardly hold a needle. 

I have been busy living, busy making sure that I am treasuring each second. That I remember to count my blessings and breathe my thanks to God for them. That I take time to hang on for dear life to the ones I love the most, whether it be by phone calls, emails, letters, or sitting with them drinking and singing on the stoop in front of my house or digging through my closet with them. 

In the middle of a city filled with flags at half mast, agonizing news reports, an apartment that's deliberately death-trapped, living abundantly, fearlessly, and with great gratitude is the only way I can figure out how to do them justice. 

(Gold glitter and cigarett butts, spilled on the pavement. A little magic with the mundane - isn't that how it should always be?)