Category Archives: everyday life

Giving up 2012 / Remembering worth 2013

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2012 was the year of giving up…and not in a I-will-no-longer-eat-fast-food sort of way. In a I-can’t-commit-to-anything sort of way. I was restless and unfocused and, overall, uninspired. At some point in the year I started then later gave up on scrapbooking, wearing makeup, photography, writing a memoir, cross stitch, knitting, crochet, blogging, sewing, running, watching the X-Files, embroidery. Only thing I really stuck to was reading (three cheers for the Kindle) and dying my hair (though partly because of the appointments made in advance).

I felt not good enough. My photos weren’t as great as those of others on Flickr or Instagram, especially because I wasn’t willing to dress up in a funny costume and never figured out how to clone myself with software. My current life had no excitement to blog about and my past was too boring to write about even within the confines of the notebooks that no one ever sees. My cross stitch was mundane; my attempts at a TARDIS embroidery untidy. My knitting (except socks, everyone always love their handknit socks) was unwanted. My attempts at cooking, bland. My attempts to mentor the students at FIRST, ineffective. My job search did go well at first because my suit didn’t fit properly (not because a great job was waiting for my within my own company – where I wore jeans to my interview). The only thing I could do correctly was eat, it seemed. Oh, and fall asleep reading. Totally mastered that this year.

So..what will be different in 2013? I’ll learn not to care. Okay, still care about important things like doing my absolute best at work and not dressing like a slob and making sure the bathrooms are clean when guests come over. But, not to care about things which are creative.

My friend Heather once told me that you can’t possibly fail at creativity. And, you know what, she’s right. No one dies if your embroidery is crooked or your photos is a bit blurry (call it “artsy”) or your mac-n-cheese is a bit runny.

Because, for the 100th time, all of my creative (and running, ’cause, you know, there’s that, too) efforts are worth it. Because, greater than that, I’m worth it. My time, my energy, my effort, my stash of craft supplies – all worth it.

Boyfriend – Quick FO Post

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The FO itself wasn’t particularly quick, taking me a month and a half to complete. I haven’t even blocked it yet, hence the slightly too tight, slight too short nature of it as is. It’s supposed to be an easy going sweater, like you’d borrow from your boyfriend (hence the name).

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The details:

Pattern: boyfriend by  Lori Versaci

Yarn: Berroco Vintage DK in Pumpkin, purchased last Black Friday at fibre space’s annual sale

Yardage: Not quite sure, I’d guess 4.5 skeins so just under 1300 yards

Mods: Made it slightly shorter both in overall length and the length of the arms due to my, well, short nature

Comments on pattern: I liked this pattern but must admit that the twin rib drove me nuts. It’s one of the designer’s signature fabrics but I don’t think I’d sign up to lots more of it again. I liked that this was seamed – allowed me to practice my seaming and didn’t require me to fiddle with working on the round.

(Thanks to Matt for taking a quick iPhone photo. I sort of ambushed him in his office and made him take it. Try to ignore the green bag by my foot, wrinkled pants, and flipped up shirt hem.)

It’s November

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…and we all know what that means: another year I attempt to blog daily and fail somewhere between the 13th and 18th. Don’t I just look sooo enthused?

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I know, it doesn’t look good when my very first day of posting daily doesn’t happen until just before I crawl into bed. And it’s a pithy entry, too. We’ll just pretend that I wanted to spare you a long first post to wade through before I get to the point.

So we’re not without visual cues that don’t concern my I’m-ready-for-bed face: two shots of my desk, a reflection of how busy either my life or my mind is. About now, both are sort of scattered, but I’m trying to embrace the mess.

desk left

desk right

Tomorrow, there will be more words, most likely. And maybe even photos not taken when it’s pitch black outside.

Mix Tape, er, CD

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One of the Flickr groups I participate in is doing a mix CD swap and I had to participate. Not because I’m any sort of musical genius who can expertly put a CD together or anything but, in my opinion, I’ve got interesting taste. Note that I didn’t say good, but interesting.

I blame my parents.

No, really, I do. See, my dad is a classically trained percussionist and my mom, sheesh, never play against her in musical trivia. My dad loves to sing and my mom jokes that she plays a mean CD player. I grew up listening to Afro-Cuban jazz and Celine Dion and Phil Collins and Carol King and who knows what else. In high school, I got into techno and acid jazz. Now, I listen to lots of pop and country with some classical and jazz thrown in, depending on my mood. I own over 200 CDs, though less than a dozen are from the last decade.

So, I put together quite the list. Here’s the tracks and why I picked them.

(1) Two Night Stand – Agent 99

No, you’ve never heard of them. My friend, Erin, knew the band because, well, they rehearsed in her garage for a few years. I’m pretty sure they’re not together anymore. This was the title song from their first CD (and maybe only CD) and it’s still a favorite of mine 8 years later.

(2) Besame Mama – Arturo Sandoval / Chico Corea, et al (Special “Jam Miami” concert recording)

Excellent, excellent CD. Some of the greats of Cuban jazz got together for a concern one night in Miami and produced this CD afterward. I was tempted to pick a song like Oye Como Va that everyone who has ever heard of Cuban music or Tito Puente but that would be too easy. 

(3) Godspeed (Hybrid Mix ) – BT

BT was one of the techno/trance groups I came to love in high school. And I still remember every moment of this song.

(4) Bernstein Portrait – Canadian Brass

Sorry, Dad. I stole this CD from you years ago. The Canadian Brass are a quartet of, well, brass-playing Canadians. This song has bits and pieces of several different Leonard Bernstein classics, from West Sing Story to Candide.

(5) No Tell Lover – Chicago

Chicago is one of my all-time favorite bands. It’s something about the brass, I think. The guys (well, some of them) have been together for over 40 years and it’s obvious that they love playing together. 

(6) Go Outside – Cults

This was a free iTunes song of the day awhile ago but I truly enjoyed the track. It just reminds me of cabin fever in winter, where all you want to do is go outside and frolic in the sun.

(7) So Right – Dave Matthews Band

My brother and I discovered Dave Matthews when I was in ninth grade. OK, he had hits before that but we got really into him them. The driving horns behind his vocals make this a favorite.

(8) Maybe I – Five for Fighting

Randomly selected track from a mostly overlooked CD (most people bought it to hear “100 Years”)

(9) That’s Life – Frank Sinatra

Does anyone not love Frank Sinatra? This is the song I listen to after a hard day.

(10) Congo – Genesis

My dad had this one CD he played on repeat called Rhythm of the Saints from when Phil Collins traveled to Africa to learn traditional percussion. This song is a sampling of what that CD was like though far more, well, Westernized (I, quite sadly, do not own a copy – yet).

(11) Up Up Up – Givers

Don’t even know where I got this song from. But you can’t help but have a smile on your face when you hear it.

(12) Are We the Waiting – Green Day

Green Day was just this band that was OK and popular with middle through college kids until the American Idiot CD came out. This song shows their maturity and depth.

(13) Hear Me in the Harmony – Harry Connick, Jr

In the ilk of Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr could sing me the phone book and I’d love every minute of it. 

(14) One Fine Day – Hiroshima

Another band that’s probably new to everyone but not to those who love acid jazz. Combine American jazz with Japanese instruments and melodies and here’s what you get.

(15) Summer Song – Joe Satriani

It’s summer and Joe Sat is an amazing guitar player – do I need another excuse?

(16) Do You Hear the People Sing? – Les Miserables Original Broadway Cast

I’ve always been a fan of Les Mis since it was our marching band theme my Freshman year of HS. I chose the most rousing number, a call to start a revolution (the French one, specifically).

(17) Gershwin: Sleepless Night – LA Philharmonic

Having been a clarinet player in a former life (ok, 6th to 11th grade), I’ve always enjoyed Gershwin. Here’s a non-Rhapsody in Blue or Porgy and Bess piece. Good tune for walking through a city you don’t know at night.

(18) You Don’t Bring Me Flowers – Neil Niamond

Another song which makes me feel like I’m really a 60 year-old woman, disguised as a 27 year-old. Here he is with Nancy Sinatra (I think).

(19) I Have Confidence – Julie Andrews (from the Sound of Music)

Any musical buff like me knows the Sound of Music by heart, but how many know this track? It’s in the movie but often forgotten about, played as Maria heads off to the von Trapp house.

(20) Caribbean Breeze – The Rippingtons

Just what the title says – a little piece of the Caribbean from a well-known smooth jazz group.

(21) Trust – The Generationals

From a compilation from the South by South West (SXSW, for short) music festival last summer, a rock-y trio sings about, well, Trust.

(22) The House That Built Me – Miranda Lambert

This was a big country hit last summer. I cry every time I hear it, without fail.

(23) The Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga

A track to lift all of our spirits and make us wish to be and do more than we imagined

(24) Don’t Panic – Coldplay

From another oft-played CD, this song represents my two years spent at the University of Florida, though more in a looking-back-on-it-now way than a “this is where I was then” way

(25) Saturday in the Park – Chicago

Fave song, ever. Truly. 

Toffee Cookies and Backyard Progress

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The two big accomplishments of the week are, as you could have guessed, toffee cookies and fixing up the backyard.

I had a pretty crazy day at work on Wednesday and decided to remedy this by making toffee cookies after work. I tried to find a recipe elsewhere but eventually went with the recipe on the back of the back of Heath bar chips (or bit o’brickle or whatever their actual stupid-sounding name is). I won’t bother with a recipe as it’s right on the bag but note: if you use unsalted butter, you’ll need to add more salt than it calls for. Mine wound up very sweet. And, yes, they really do make about six dozen cookies.

Here they are, all ready to go, in their not-quite-the-same-size goodness.

Toffee Cookies - Ready to be baked

And just out of the oven. Even though Matt and I love cookies, we had more than enough to share. I handed them out to work to everyone except my boss who is allergic to nuts and a whole handful of folks who gave up sweets or cookies for Lent.

Toffee Cookies - Just out of the oven

On the backyard front, Matt finished up getting things cleaned up and today we bought grass seed and straw (along with the grass seed dispenser thing – thankful we sprung for the model you push vs the manual version).

I don’t have any photos of what it looked like before we started on the backyard a few weeks ago but here’s what it looked like after a dusting of snow in January. You can sort of tell how many leaves there were – about 3″ worth – plus there were tons of sticks and acorns.

Through our Picture Window

Here’s what it looked like earlier this week, with most of the cleanup done (and a new birdfeeder – that one got all gunky and I couldn’t clean it out).

Backyard

Finally, here’s what it looks like today which, I admit, looks almost just as bad although it is progress.

I think it’s been a pretty good week. For now, I’ll ignore the fact it’s Sunday and have to go back to work tomorrow.

What I’ve Been Up To

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I’m still here, just busy with work and life. This’ll be a photo-less post, partly because I’m too lazy to dig through Flickr to find relevant photos, partly because I really don’t have that many. Maybe next week I’ll get back into the swing of things with posts with actual photos in them. Who am I kidding, it’ll probably be another month or two before I write another blog post with something that’s not just like “here’s my latest scrapbooking pages.”

So, what have I been doing? Well, working, knitting, scrapping, improving the house, enjoying the weather, planning vacation, and reading. Mostly working and reading (ok, and sleeping and eating but no one wants to hear about that).

Working

Don’t worry, no boring details. Just know that work is busy and while it’s sometimes overwhelming, I’m enjoying my current project.

Knitting

Ok, so I haven’t knit a single stitch in about three weeks but before that, I knit a shawl/scarf and about 2″ on a colorwork hat.

The shawl/scarf was Different Lines using bright blue and bright orange Neighborhood Fibre Co Studio Sock that I originally purchased to make the Steven West mystery shawl. It turned out HUGE and rather scarf-like due to how I blocked it. Of course, I forgot to really take photos of it once I gave it to the recipient (Anne, my Phi Rho big sister).

The colorwork hat actually isn’t one of the patterns I was trying to choose between a few months ago. It’s called Latvian Hat and I’m using Neighborhood Fibre Co in a white colorway that’s named, appropriately, after what Matt tells me is a very, er, racially non-diverse part of Baltimore and Miss Babs in Lilacs. Even though the pattern starts at the crown and gets larger, it’s still very slow to work a single round and the pattern requires rather a lot of conentration. It’s also at an awkward stage where it’s a bit too small to work on two needles comfortable but too large for only one. I put it aside once work got busy enough that I was only making myself more frustrated trying to work on it in the evening hours.

Scrapping

Despite not taking a whole bunch of photos lately, I have been keeping up with making at least one scrapbooking page a week. Some weeks, they’re rather unimpressive but it’s about recording what’s gone on, not always having a gorgeous page. I am going to try and pick up my picture-taking so it’s not quite so sad when I open up the week’s folder of photos and see only two in there. I’ll post pages from weeks 5 to I think we’re on 11 later this week. I also still need to finish the last few pages from our last Europe trip. I think maybe two need words then they’ll be done. Oh, and finally print some of these off, likely starting with Europe pages.

Improving the House

Nothing involving power tools or anything but quite an impressive list of small projects:

  • Hanging photos everywhere (my friend Lead provided opinions on good locales)
  • Installing a door sweep and fixing the screen on the porch door (Matt did most of this)
  • Picking out and trying a paint color for our bedroom (liked the color, will paint the whole thing starting this week)
  • Buying a new hanging birdfeeder – the old one had old feed permanantly stuck in it
  • Cleaning up the leaves / sticks / acorns / randomly strewn bricks in the backyard (Matt did most of the work here but I helped with some pickup and  moving of stuff to be picked up to the curb)

Enjoying the weather

Despite being mid-March, it’s been in the high 70s almost every day the last week or so, with mostly clear skies on top of it. We’ve already grilled out twice (burgers then chicken) and enjoyed several evenings of reading on the porch after work. I keep waiting for the weather report to talk about a return to colder temperatures but it’s supposed to remain warm at least for a few more days. Anyone know if this may mean I can get my hands on some good and not very expensive steamed crabs earlier this year than normal? The wait until Memorial Day may be the end of me. Ok, not really. I’m just impatient.

Planning vacation

Matt and I started a few weeks ago thinking about taking a summer vacation and where we wanted to go and all that. After lots of thinking and looking around, we decided we’re going to head to Ireland for 10 days in May.

Reading

Ever since Matt got me a Kindle about a month ago, I have been reading like a crazy person. I think the first book I read on it was an Agatha Christie book, quickly followed by memoirs, dystopian novellas, more Agatha Christie, two books about WWII with a time travel theme, and, most recently, a thriller. I won’t go into all of the details but you can check out what I’ve read on Good Reads.

So…what’s up with you all?

Two more days..

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This whole blogging daily thing became a drag about a week ago but, alas, I want to actually finish this year out with having blogged every day. At first, I was so good about blogging first thing or about having posts mostly written in advance. But now. Well. I’ve not got much to show. Just a picture of some of Matt’s Christmas gifts (still in their packaging, of course).

Errand day

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Today was, simply put, errand day. Farmer’s market, Fibre Space (got 2 sweater quantities of Vintage DK – orange and light blue), La Cucina (Matt got a French rolling pin and a quarter sheet pan), Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wegman’s. In between, Mexican food for lunch and some relaxing at home. We finally picked up foam to help keep some of the heat out of the attic / crawl spaces and splurged and picked up a leaf blower that also can suck up leaves and compost them (for far less than I intended). I did some scrapbook stuff but nothing amazing to show off so this will be a photo-less post.

‘Night, all

Ten Minute Update

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I’ve only it ten minutes until bedtime so this will be super fast (but will, in no way, involve Elmo).

1. I finished the sweater I’ve been knitting since we got back from Europe and it fits! Photo session as soon as I convince Matt to help with the photo shoot.

2. Work is busy and stressful.

3. My only day off next week is Thursday. Before you feel sorry for me, realize I did just take a 2.5 week vacation and will get so very much done with everyone else out.

4. I have no clue what I’m going to knit next. I started a few things today but pulled out progress on every single one because they just weren’t working.

5. Here’s a photo of Willie.

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