Friday Information

To just jump right into the information: I was laid off from the agency yesterday. They were as pleasant as they could be about it--gave me a few contacts at other places, some vacation pay as severance, and offered portfolio help. But still.

On the bright side, I have lots of fabric and yarn piled up, so I won't have to buy more of that for a while; I can now go to the grocery store in the middle of the day; and Toby is really enjoying playing in the box that I used to take all the stuff from my desk home.

So let the search for a new job begin. If anyone reading this needs a freelance writer, let me know at karen(dot)kaminski(at)gmail(dot)com. I have some great skills--knitting skills, sewing skills, writing skills...

Two Happy Things

1. There are magnolia trees in front of Kingsbury Hall*, and last night I saw that they're starting to bud. Spring is coming--the early-blooming magnolias know it.
2. The Married to the Sea comic site, which is updated daily, also makes me happy. Here's a favorite:


*The magnolias were the highlight of the performance for me. A radio play does not make for gripping staging, and I would think that holding a script would make it easier for actors to deliver their lines, not harder. There was a good pro-science crowd, at least.

Why I'm Not Going To Grad School

I've had two classes to go to this month--dance class and sewing machine class. I reported on swing dancing a few weeks ago and predicted success at the end of the four week class. Well, let's just say we dropped that class and will re-take it before graduation. We missed last week at the last minute to go to the Utah Democratic Party inaugural celebration, and last night Mr. Isbell and I looked at each other and said, "Let's not." (To make us sound less like lazy quitters, the class was HUGE, so we weren't sure we could pick up what we missed; and our original plan was to take it with another couple, which we still want to try to do.)

But sewing machine classs was going well, and tonight was going to be my final class. Except while not at dance class last night I got a call from my friend Sean saying, "Scopes Monkey Trial! Kingsbury Hall! Culture!" After some confusion, it turned out he had scored tickets to the one-night only LA Theater production of "The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial." So I'll be skipping class tonight*, too.

Apparently, I'm still 21 and think skipping classes without consequence is AWESOME. Hey, let's go get a bagel instead of going to Music Theory!


*I can still go to the Saturday morning session of sewing machine class, so I won't miss vital information about using a walking foot. Otherwise, I would have had to say, "No Monkey Trial."

Tuesday Project Roundup: Piles Of Projects

Which pile should I start with? The pile of quilt fabrics?
Turning this into a quilt shouldn't be too daunting, because the final product will consist of just long columns of these fabrics, like this or this. I just need to get started. (I decided against making a doll quilt to practice, because most of my motivation on a project comes from anticipating the final result, and, well, Toby already got his new rug.)

This pile of yarn will be that owl sweater I've been talking about since November:

And then there's this pile, which is the sweater I've been working on for ten weeks now. It will look like this someday...

Maybe I can blame Toby for impeding progress. I had to snatch the pieces from the jaws of death right after I took this.

Feeling Sad? Do Something For Someone Else

I did something for my cat...Toby got a sheepskin rug from IKEA yesterday and it makes him so happy that I get happy, too. (Kitty happiness also trumps my animal-cruelty principles, apparently.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Wow, a president who promptly does what he has specifically promised to do? Yes! Obama Issues Directive to Shut Down Guantanamo.

2. I know Tuesday's picture of my skirt wasn't very detailed, but I just saw this, which is essentially what I made, brown buttons and all. And it wasn't $195.

Not me. But I have a similar skirt that was cheaper.

Wouldn't It Be Cool If This Was What You Did On Thursdays?

I found Wayne Levin Photography in my internet wanderings last week. There are more whale pictures on the site. Check out the "Fish Schools" series, too--really cool and a little sinister. But then, I'm pretty terrified of the ocean. I like whales, though.

I Think We All Feel This Way:

And I loved this shot--"Good bye! Good luck! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!"

Photos from the NY Times. You can read the complete Inaugural Address on their site, too.

UPDATE: Just saw this headline--Obama Orders Halt To Prosecutions At Guantanamo. He's not wasting any time!

Tuesday Project Roundup: New Blog Format, New Storage, New Skirt, New President

It's a good day!

First, notice the new blog format? The archives are now a lot easier to go through.*

The new storage, built by my dad and furnished with boxes from IKEA**:

There are quilt fabrics in the top half of the stack in this close up:

The skirt I mentioned last week:

And, of course, OBAMA! I have Mr. Isbell's laptop open streaming the beginning of the ceremony as I write this.

*The images in the archives were lost, sadly. But I was unable to search them for particular posts with or without images before. We'll just say 2009 starts a new phase in the blog.

**I highly recommend the elderberry flower concentrate from IKEA foods--"Fladersaft." Mix one part concentrate, two parts gin, and three parts water, and serve with a lemon slice for a delicious elderberry sour apertif.
*

Just 24 Hours More

Boing Boing pointed me towards the online portion of the Harper's Index for this month--it's all about Bush. And while I appreciate that he didn't bring about a Dr. Strangelove-like "nucular" winter--which I fully expected when the war(s) started--these just reminded me alll over again how really and truly bad the last eight years have been:

• Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an "elevated terror alert" that the level has been relaxed: 0
• Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
• Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
• Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4
• Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35
• Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4
• Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8
• Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
• Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000
• Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000
• Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1
• Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
• Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

There's more online, if you want to get worked up even more. But guess what? Tomorrow will have happy news!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Wow, how about the captain of the jet the landed in the Hudson yesterday? That's one hell of a pilot.

2. The ability to embed video on this blog continues to elude me, but if you go here, you can watch an announcement by my favorite singer Neko Case: For every blog that posts her new single, her record label will donate $5 to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary! I'm playing along--this link will download the song directly and get a $5 donation. http://www.anti.com/media/download/708
(If you don't want to download, you can also hear the song on the info page. It's the number of blog posts that gets the donation, not the number of downloads.)

3. I have a shelf being delivered tomorrow that my dad built, so I can spend the long weekend stacking fabric and sewing. Yay!

I Don't Mind Winter When It's Sunny And In The 40's

So I can post these pictures from an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts) without complaining too much about the cold. (I can't complain at all after reading about Shackleton.)

There are 14 images from the show online, with informative captions, and they're worth a look. For example:


And the caption:
Painter George Marston joined explorer Ernest Shackleton on two voyages, the 1908 Nimrod expedition and the ill-fated 1914 Endurance expedition to Antarctica.

In his painting Aurora Australis, he uses the southern lights - the southern counterpart of the northern lights - to frame an iconic view of polar exploration at the turn of the 20th century, showing the rough shelters and sled dogs.

Lacking a canvas, he painted the scene on a salvaged piece of tea crate

Also, who knew there was an Antarctic equivalent to the Northern Lights?

Thing #24: Learn How To Dance

Before I thought of the 29 Things, I had already planned to take some sort of Continuing Ed class with Mr. Isbell in 2009, just to get us off the couch and away from re-watching old seasons of The Office. Once I realized I'd like to know how to dance going into the next decade, we signed up to learn "East Coast Swing." Our first class was last night.

We picked swing because it was a more convenient night than the general ballroom dance class, and because I thought the music would be better--you'd expect big band swing standards from Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, and Tommy Dorsey in a swing class, right? Well, that wasn't the case. Although we're not really dancing yet, either, just going through the steps, so I guess we wouldn't have done good music justice anyway.

Despite my disappointment in the music (Bad 90's swing revival stuff? Really?), it was fun, and when I got home I learned a lot about the history of swing. And now I want some saddle shoes:

This will so be us in a month.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Project Overload

Currently working on: Navy corduroy skirt using this pattern* (and the FANTASTIC buttonhole feature on my new machine).

Currently planning to work on:
-Quilt top
-Tan knit t-shirt
-Striped knit t-shirt
-Navy floral blouse
-Brown Japanese rose-print dress
-Vintage orange floral dress

Currently wishing I had another two weeks off to sew.

*That isn't my photo in the link; it's the designer's. It's been too dark for pictures here, hence no modeled shot of the plaid blouse from last week and no pictures of the pile of sweater pieces that are growing at the rate of cave formations. And no pictures of the failed cowl that was supposed to be so chic because, well, FAIL.

Happy Birthday Jack London

The Writer's Almanac tells me that today is Jack London's birthday, so I got some more details from Wikipedia: Born in 1876, he worked in a cannery, sailed as a pirate and as part of the California Fish Patrol, went to the Klondike with goldrush fever, got scurvy, bought a ranch and a yacht, amassed a library of 15,000 volumes, and died in 1914 of a morphine overdose.

I didn't realize that he died so young--I guess children's copies of The Call of the Wild don't get into a lot of detail about death from alcoholism and accidental overdoses.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The URL tells you all you need to know:www.cutethingsfallingasleep.org. Just don't watch it when you're in an afternoon tired funk at work.

2. I've been thinking about quilts--Thing 4 on the 29 Things. To practice quilting and binding a big quilt, I am thinking about making a doll quilt. For Toby. To sit on when he looks out the window. Because I am a crazy cat lady. (Although I think I would be crazier if I made a doll quilt for actual DOLLS.)

3. I've also been thinking about storage solutions, so this is appropriate: Translate your name into an IKEA furniture name here.

Poem For A Sluggish Morning

"Waking From Sleep," by Robert Bly:

Inside the veins there are navies setting forth,

Tiny explosions at the waterlines,

And seagulls weaving in the wind of the salty blood.

It is the morning. The country has slept the whole winter.

Window seats were covered with fur skins, the yard was full

Of stiff dogs, and hands that clumsily held heavy books.

Now we wake, and rise from bed, and eat breakfast!

Shouts rise from the harbor of the blood,

Mist, and masts rising, the knock of wooden tackle in the sunlight.

Now we sing, and do tiny dances on the kitchen floor.

Our whole body is like a harbor at dawn;

We know that our master has left us for the day.

This Guy Isn't Telling Kids To Get Off His Lawn

Via BoingBoing, yesterday I read an interview online at PingMag MAKE, "The Japan-based interview magazine about 'making things' " with a 97-year old botanical illustrator. The man, Chikabo Kumada, sounds like the most serene and happy person on the planet. He has an exhibition planned for his hundreth birthday!

I think the interview is just fascinating to read. The first few questions set up his career, so you could skip those if you're pressed for time, but it's really worth a look--there are quotes like this:

I hit the renaissance of my life when I turned seventy. That was when I really bloomed. Up until then it was like I had been like living in muddy water. (laughs)...So my 80s were really like the bloom of youth for me. But when you reach such an age, you could really die at any moment. So I felt that it was important that I didn’t miss anything, and I took another close look around my garden. And that was when I realized I was able to see things in flowers and leaves that I hadn’t been able to see before, and my work got more detailed.

And this: "I believe that any living thing can be beautiful if you love it."

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Vacation Projects

I didn't get as much knitting finished as I'd hoped during my time off after Christmas but the new sewing machine certainly helped me get some projects done.

I finished this tunic pattern from the 70's in gray corduroy. It looks medieval to me, but Mr. Isbell said that I looked like an elf from Lord of the Rings and my mother mentioned Star Wars. I think those were all compliments, though.

Here, I just look like a cat wrangler. (It's really tricky to get a picture of gray corduroy in a dark apartment at dusk. This was the best one.)

I was able to start and almost finish another blouse, using all the seam finishes and bell and whistles on the new Bernina. This one has already prompted Mr. Isbell to say, "The collar is like a Star Trek villain's," but I like it. It just needs buttonholes and a hem.
I'll try to have a (better-lit) modeled shot next week. Maybe there will be some knitting, too!

29 Things

I turned 29 Saturday--which for me marks a new year much better than any drunken New Year's Eve goings-on--and I made some birthday resolutions of things I'd like to have happen before I turn 30 and magically become a bona-fide adult. So here's my list of 29 things I want to accomplish before I turn 30:

1. Learn the names of the Wasatch mountain peaks--I only can point to Mt. Olympus
   
2. Pay off the remaining debt
3. Get a queen size mattress
   
4. Make a queen-sized quilt
   
5. Hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas again
6. Finish reading The Silmarillion
7. Knit Christmas stockings (starting with Toby's, of course)
8. Visit the north end of Zion National Park
9. Be less wimpy about riding my bike on cooler days (80% of Copenhageners ride their bikes throughout the winter. So does my father. I'm shamed enough to try to be tougher in the spring and fall.)
10. Eat at Red Iguana
11. Eat at The Paris
12. Chill a watermelon in a stream on a picnic in the mountains
13. Knit at least one thing for charity using up yarn I have
14. Get a new desk chair, if an affordable molded Eames chair exists
    
15. Cook moules marnieres and frites
16. Stop biting my nails. (God only knows how, since I've been wanting to stop biting my nails for about 20 years, but I'd like to have lovely grown-up hands now.)
17. Learn how to sew knit fabric
18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara
    
19. Learn how to apply eye makeup that doesn't look scary or amateurish
20. Go to the Oyster Bar one Monday a month after work for a half-priced appetizer
    
21. Replace my Rubbermaid kitchen garbage can with a broken spring top with something nicer. Because a 30-year-old should not have duct tape on her garbage can.
22. Knit an elaborate cabled sweater*
    
23. Build my collection of Bach CDs
    
24. Learn how to dance
    
25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store
26. Have tea at The Grand America
    
27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals
28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month
29. Go to Moab for New Year's Eve
    

*I think this is the one to knit--after I finish that cardigan and make an owl sweater and Christmas stockings and the charity thing, of course. Hey, I have a year.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Tomorrow is my birthday! (And Tolkein's.) I will sew on my new sewing machine and eat some seafood. I've made a list of things I want to accomplish by my next birthday that I'll post on Monday.

2. Today is Issac Asimov's birthday, and yesterday was both J.D. Salinger's and E.M. Forster's birthday.

3. Well duh, New York Times: an article announces that it costs less to make things than to buy them. At Jo-Ann, the supplies to make a child's apron and chef hat cost $7.90 for fabric designed with gingerbread men, iron-on letters to spell "chef" and elastic. Making a hand-knit throw costs $40 for nine skeins of yarn and $6 for knitting needles; a similar-looking item at Pottery Barn costs $129.

They don't mention that it takes about four months to knit that throw.

Happy 2009

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

T.S. Eliot