Thursday, September 30, 2010

30 Things: A Little Progress

It's about time for the third quarter report on my 30 Things, but I don't feel as if I've made a lot of progress (in fact, I've regressed on riding my bike). But I do have two things done that I'm proud of:



That's #18 [Stop biting my fingernails] and #2 [Learn more about real estate].

Honestly, I feel that #18 can be up there with paying off debt as a supreme achievement. All it took was noticeable fingernail polish--because then people would notice all my chewed cuticles and hangnails, too--and I stopped.

Simple solutions, books for dummies....who knew?

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

"Not too much, or the soul could not sustain it"

After my weekend fling with opera I went through Monday and Tuesday wishing real life were like that, with passion and tenderness and great loves instead of house hunting and craft projects and work deadlines. I thought the cure was to listen to music that wasn't opera--I pulled out The Song of the Earth, the Missa Solemnis, unaccompanied Bach--but instead of helping I think that gave me Stendhal Syndrome.

So it's a good thing that going through the blog archives yesterday to find a picture of that jacket, I found this quote from An Equal Music:

Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music--not too much, or the soul could not sustain it--from time to time.




(Related, and probably adding to my music issues this week: Does anyone out there need a semi-professional grade violin? I have mine up for sale; it's German, and does wonders with gut strings. Email me through my portfolio site in the right sidebar if you want more info.)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tuesday Project Roundup: Should I?

I'm thinking about making a winter coat. I thought about it last year and then just bought one, but this year I've discovered blogs that walk you through tailoring techniques and provide source info for things like hymo interfacing and hair canvas.

What coat would I make? Well, like 90% of women on the planet, I've always loved the orange one from Breakfast at Tiffany's:

I could track down a vintage pattern that's similar and learn how to make bound buttonholes, but I have a better idea. Remember this coat from a few years ago?

If I make the longer length, leave off the shoulder capes, and then cinch it with a belt instead of buttons, I think I'd have a modern take on the Audrey coat. Plus, I'd know how it fits and how it goes together, making it easy to add fancy tailoring steps.

Of course, J. Crew has something similar this season, too--but I don't want to enable J. Crew any more than I have. (And it's $325. Not everyone is a high roller, J. Crew.)

So that's what I've been thinking about. I've even ordered swatches, so I think I may have answered the question of "Should I?" and moved on to "When can I get this project going?"

Monday, September 27, 2010

Russians Make The Best Imaginary Boyfriends

Over the weekend I had a fling with this guy:

He's Dimitri Hvorotovsky and he was the lead in the Met production of Eugene Onegin (opposite Renee Fleming!) that I had on DVD for two glorious days.

Damn, he can wear a t-shirt. And sing.

Sorry, Mikhail, but you've been replaced. I miss hanging out with musicians anyway.

Check out my new boyfriend in action here (older, but with subtitles) or here (that special production we shared over the weekend).

Friday, September 24, 2010

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Did you see the moon last night? This article tells us that it's the first time the Harvest Moon--the September full moon--has fallen on the equinox since 1991, and that it won't happen again until 2029.

2. I've discovered that opera on DVD is perfect to sew to. I don't get too wrapped up in the plot and most productions are four hours long. This weekend I have Eugene Onegin.

3. I'm relieved to be done with canning (for now), but I liked this WWII poster:

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Rallying For Thursday

Here's a quote from W.B. Yeats to inspire us today:

Let us go forth, the tellers of tales, and seize whatever prey the heart longs for, and have no fear. Everything exists, everything is true, and the earth is only a little dust under our feet.

(I mean "gather your efforts for one last fight" here when I say "rallying," not "drive really fast over rough ground." Although that would be cool on a Thursday, too.)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Live From Cannery Row

As you can see, I got more peaches and the correct size jars. As I said to myself on the second batch of peach jam, "I am canning the hell out of these peaches!"

From left to right: Peach-rosemary jam, peach jam, tomatoes, and peaches in syrup.

And now I'm thinking of the end of Cannery Row.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tuesday Project Roundup: Fair Report

I finally made it to the fair Friday to check out my entries. Check out first place in the not-so-competitive "Blouse" category:
And check out fourth place in the much more competitive "Cable Sweater" category:

I was a little bummed about fourth (and about the fact that they had put my sweater on a hanger and stretched it all out of shape), but then I saw third place, which was exponentially more elaborate than mine and only got third:

This year I looked at exhibits in the 4-H building and the Creative Arts building, which I usually skip, an it was really heartening to see all the nice work from the young kids in 4-H. And we can all heed the advice of this sign:


I know being a "cool" person and liking the state fair is supposed to be ironic, but I think the fair is great. You think farming is disappearing or becoming totally industrialized, and then you see the eight-year-olds showing sheep or the lucky, lucky teenage girls* riding their horses and you realize that it's closer than you think.

Maybe that's why I like the fair: If I win a ribbon for sewing, I can imagine that someday I might win a ribbon for an egg from my chickens, or even be one of the people who drive in from their ranch and show their animals. Someday, I guess. Until then, I can enter things in the fair.


*Teenage girls, I hope you realize how lucky you are to have your horses. Some people are still longing for one at thirty. I'm just saying.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Happy Birthday To My Brother!

My brother turns 34 today. He's always been the best big brother, pulling me around the yard on a sled when we were little and taking car of my car now that we're grown up. Have fun today, brother!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The story of Moses the camel being rescued from a sinkhole by Oregon firefighters makes me happy. And it reinforces my desire to date a firefighter--brave, strong, able to cook, and kind to animals to boot? Sign me up!

2. I think "curate" is the new "to gift" that's going to drive me bonkers. People: You don't "curate" a book or a blog. You write it, edit it, compile it, or collect it.

3. I'm finally going to the fair this weekend. I had planned to go last weekend but got hit with whatever cold is going around. My brother already gave me the report on my entries, but it will still be nice to go see the goats and the horses.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Look What I Have

I found this poster for my office at work. It's nearly three feet by five feet. Delight in it.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Canning: It Also Rquires Measuring

When I posted that Thing #28 was "easy," I didn't mention that I did it with my mom, at her house, with lots of supervision. Well, pride goeth before a fall, and lack of spatial awareness goeth with my second canning attempt.

I had half a box of peaches and big plans to make jam with some and then just can the rest in syrup. I imagined jars full of lovely peach halves like little suns. I planned the steps carefully. I peeled the peaches beautifully. And then the halves didn't fit in the jars and I had way too many.

As it turns out, I had half pint jars that I thought were the larger one pint size. Never in all the planning and peeling did it occur to me that the peaches were almost as big as the jars. No, I was convinced I had pint jars; peach halves fit in pints; it would all work out.

This wasn't a total canning fail, because after I cut everything into smaller pieces and kept going, it all worked out. (I ended up slicing and freezing the leftovers.) It's just that I now have seven successful single servings of peaches, laboriously canned.

Seven servings! I'm stocking up for the long winter!


You know what goes well with peaches? Bourbon.

Tuesday Project Roundup: In Which My Inner Hippy Is Victorious

Introducing the hippy dress to rule all hippy dresses:
(Yes, Toby has his space heater out already.)

Pattern: Hippy dress from France, modified a lot--I took about seven inches of fullness out of the back and adjusted the sleeve pieces in order to raise the neckline.

Fabric: Liberty of London "My Little Star"

Verdict: Awesome. I haven't been worn stars and comets on my clothing since a Rainbow Brite t-shirt in 1985.

Monday, September 13, 2010

It's Monday

We need a sonnet:

Vertigo
by Adrienne Rich


As for me, I distrust the commonplace;
Demand and am receiving marvels, signs,
Miracles wrought in air, acted in space
After imagination's own designs.
The lion and the tiger pace this way
As often as I call; the flight of wings
Surprises empty air, while out of clay
The golden-gourded vine unwatered springs.
I have inhaled impossibility,
and walk at such an angle, all the stars
Have hung their carnival chains of light for me:
There is a streetcar runs from here to Mars.
I shall be seeing you, my darling, there,
Or at the burning bush in Harvard Square.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Speaking of rats, I just found out that they're being used to sniff out landmines leftover from conflicts in Africa. They don't weigh enough to trigger the mine and their sense of smell is as good as a dog's. Also, they're called HeroRats. Awww!

2. Sunday at 8:00, the organ fest at the Cathedral of the Madeleine starts. It goes bi-weekly through the beginning of November, but the organist this Sunday is from Notre-Dame in Paris.

3. And here's James Dean in glasses with a kitten. What more do you need? Nothing!

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Ratty!

My suspicions of an r-a-t visiting the spilled food underneath the bird feeder were confirmed last night. I spent about fifteen minutes thinking I had to get rid of the rat, now, because...it's a RAT! But then I realized a few things:

1. Quail, doves, a blue jay, a family of raccoons, and a family of squirrels that live under the neighbor's garage all visit the yard. None of those bother me.

2. I know I don't have rats inside my house. Toby is probably a good guarantee that I never will.

3. The rat sat up bravely and watched me with its little face and it looked JUST LIKE THIS:



So enjoy the sunflower seeds, Ratty. But stay out of sight of sight of the landlord because I doubt he has a laissez-faire policy for rats.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Well Said, Dr. Sagan

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time--when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and decay.

From The Demon-Haunted World, 1996. Reading this and then going to yoga and talking about the infinite heart and how we're all made of love is a recipe for cognitive dissonance. (Although we are made of star stuff.)

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Tuesday Project Roundup: And Now It's Fall

Hooray for long weekends and patterns you've made before! Here's a skirt and a blouse that I'm calling the first of the fall sewing. (What makes these floral prints more autumnal than any other prints that I've used? Um, they have red in them.)

I used the same pattern for this skirt as I did for the
green dot one back in the spring, and the fabric was also from Yellow Bird Fabrics. Easy, unlined, stretchy, and fast.


And here's another button-back blouse, using some of the fancy international Liberty of London fabric. This time, I drafted a Peter Pan collar for it. I think I have this pattern out of my system now.

Monday, September 06, 2010

8 - 8 - 8

Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest. Happy Labor Day! What's on your agenda for recreation today?

Friday, September 03, 2010

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Yesterday I entered the bias-sleeve blouse and the ORLY? owl sweater in the state fair. It was a craft explosion in the Home Arts Building.

2. I found more Mystery Science Theater to watch on Google Video. Pumaman made a joke about fabric that was followed by a joke about Carl Sagan. I love that show.

3. More house viewing is scheduled for today--a bungalow and a townhouse. The townhouse kind of feels like a cop-out, and I would have to have a container garden. But it has a powder room!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

It's What Happens When You Have To Bounce Your Ideas Off Your Cat

My post yesterday reminded me of a quote from 30 Rock:

Liz: "How come men can be heavy and be respected, like James Gandolfini or Fat Albert? It's a double standard, and America needs to get over its body image madness."

Jack: "Oh, come on. What are we, back in college, freshman year? Let's go to the common room and talk about apartheid."

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Let's Talk About The Art Of Manliness

Recently I found a site called The Art of Manliness. (I feel as surreptitious reading this site as I did reading wedding blogs back in the day--except I think reading this is healthier.) It has an awesome name going for it and it has nearly 72,000 followers on Facebook. It is, indeed, all about manliness.

I like how the author defines "manliness"
here, equating it with virtue (although the site is also full of tutorials on such topics as how to escape a riptide), and I like that the site encourages dressing appropriately, cleaning one's car for a date, and generally being capable and decent.

But for all the virtue, it still seems mired in traditional gender roles, which I'm guilty of, too: Is my thinking a man should know things about cars and home repair and riptides any different from a man thinking I should know things about baking and mending and grocery shopping? Are we still mired in gender roles because men and women are fundamentally different, so there will always be "manliness" and "womanliness" instead of "humanness"?

It all reminds me of a quote from
To The Lighthouse, where everyone is at dinner and the young male student is insecure and wants to join the conversation and the single lady painter notices:

There is a code of behaviour she knew, whose seventh article (it may be) says that on occasions of this sort it behoves the woman, whatever her occupation may be, to go to the help of the young man opposite so that he may...relieve...his vanity, his urgent desire to assert himself; as indeed it is their duty, she reflected, in her old maidenly fairness, to help us, suppose the Tube were to burst into flames. Then, she thought, I should certainly expect Mr. Tansley to get me out. But how would it be, she thought, if neither of us did either of these things? So she sat there, smiling.