Moving Time

Oh yes, this week I am packing for a Saturday move.

Toby is helping, of course.

While I pack, I have the Semisonic "Closing Time" song in my head, but I'm making up new lyrics.


moving time,
pack up all the boxes
and stack them up in your house
moving time
time for Dad to rent a truck
and drive everything across town

I do like a line of the original lyrics, though: every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Oh, the profundities of 90's pop.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Attack Of The Baby Tomatoes

Here's another veggie hat for another coworker's expected little girl. This one is a tomato, because I had red yarn leftover from the owl sweater and green yarn leftover from knitting for my impending nephew.
I'm still all over the place for sizing baby things--I was in a store looking at newborn sizes and they looked impossibly tiny. But I guess babies are, indeed, small. This hat is on the small side, just in case.

Happy Belated Birthday, Ed Abbey

Saturday would have been Edward Abbey's 84th birthday. (I think he's still waiting for someone to take out the Glen Canyon Dam.*) Here are two of my favorite quotes of his:

"Completely passive, acted upon but never acting, the desert lies there like the bare skeleton of Being, spare, sparse, austere, utterly worthless, inviting not love but contemplation."

and

"A drink a day keeps the shrink away."

Amen, brother.

*dear FBI, if you are monitoring the interwebs, I'm not a terrorist. That was just the plot point of The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The latest report from people in the know tells me that I may be closing on the house as early as February 4th. That's next Friday. The Friday one week from today. Oh my god.

2. Look at this fabric that has flying squirrels and Sphinxes on it. What a shame I need to buy appliances instead of fabric.


3. Let's all think of this quote from Ayn Rand, because Ayn wouldn't panic at the thought of moving:
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.

Sundays Are My Laundry Days, But I Like The Point Being Made

Etta James had a birthday on Tuesday and I've been listening to her album At Last a lot lately--especially this track, "A Sunday Kind of Love."



It makes even laundry days a little more soulful.

In Which I Go To Sundance And Get A New Imaginary Boyfriend

Despite being a native Utahan, I've never been to Sundance (I've never been downhill skiing, either). But a friend had an extra ticket this year, so last night I got to see The Ledge. It was a thriller/love story/exploration of faith and it was really good--but I liked the Q&A with the writer/director Matthew Chapman most of all.

You can get a taste of him in the video linked to above, but he was just so smart and insightful and logical, talking about how the world needs "mercy more than condemnation." Sigh--rational humanists do it for me every time.

Also, if you want to stick out at Sundance, just wear a color. Especially and orange coat.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Not What I Pictured, But Finished At Last

Here is the dress I'd been working on since December, using fabric I'd had since August. I used a pattern I'd made twice before, so I thought I knew what to expect, but I'm not 100% pleased with this, for undefined reasons.

Maybe because the fabric is some of the last fancy fabric I'll be working with for a long time (hello, mortgage) and I expected more from it? Maybe because the print isn't large enough to handle the big blank canvas of the dress? Or is it because the print is too busy for the plain silhouette?

On the hanger. It needs pockets, or a belt, or something...


On me. Still missing something. (Yes, we like to gather round the space heater here at Chez Kitty.)

I just don't know. I think I might take up the hem a few more inches and get some bright contrasting tights. Bright tights help everything.

It's Monday

I woke up feeling cynical, so here is a picture of Toby.


He was "helping" me sew last weekend and just climbed on top of the machine while I was pressing a seam. He usually sits on the machine when it's covered, which gives him a little more room--note the paw held up to tell me, "Mama, this is too small. Fix it."

(Don't worry, he couldn't have made the machine go, so he wasn't about to hurt himself.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Sorry, I put up a broken link to my Twitter stream yesterday (I just assumed it would re-direct to the non-signed-in page but I guess Twitter doesn't do that). If you want to read 140-character inanities, here's the right link.

2. Speaking of Twitter, Laura Ingalls Wilder is on it, too.

3. And in space news, Voyager 1, launched in 1977 with the golden record of Earth sounds picked by Carl Sagan, has reached the very edge of our solar system and is almost in interstellar space--the first time anything from Earth will do so. (Thanks to my friend Jason for pointing this out.)

Eyes On The Prize

If you follow my Twitter stream you will know that there was more lender drama yesterday, which made me nearly inarticulate with fury (all-caps shouting of "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD" was about all I could manage). But I went to see the house last night and if I can ever get in, I will like living there.

Did I mention I have a basement? That comes already insulated?

And that I think I picked the best beige carpeting option from the six other beiges offered?

And that I have a place for a washer and a dryer? I think I will weep with joy when I do a load of laundry in my own house for the first time.


Until then, I just hope I don't weep.

All House, All The Time!

I didn't want to turn the blog into "househousehousehouse," but you know what? I'm buying a house! It's exciting! So I'm going to blog about it.

As of Monday, I had countertops:

And carpet pads:

And someone's jacket and hat:

As of today, I know I have carpet, and I think I'll have appliances. I alternate between excitement and dread--of the move, of last-minute impediments or expenses, of bouncing around in the big fancy new house like a rat in a can. It's mostly excitement, though.

(Pictures are from my parents, who have been up there more than I have. But I've been securing financing, and renewing my drivers license, and, you know, working so I can stay employed to make the mortgage payments.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Incomplete and Uninspired

Guess what? I'm still not done with the corduroy dress I've been working on since December. I only had to blind-hem it last night but the thought of finishing and then taking a picture at ten o'clock didn't appeal to me.

But after the dress is wrapped up, I don't know what to make next--I don't think that's happened to me in a year or two. I'm sure it's because it looks like I'll be moving in TWO WEEKS (holy sh*t) and all my creative energies are getting channeled into decor, and picking curtain fabrics, and deciding between Kenmore and Whirlpool for a washer and dryer. (Any opinions?)

So I'm sorry, I know the project roundups have been a little lackluster. Just wait until my entire living space becomes a project.

Lines For Winter

If you have the day off, enjoy the thaw while it lasts--because I think more snow is on the way this week. Here's a poem about surviving winter:

Lines for Winter
by Mark Strand

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in the valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Look, I have kitchen cupboards!
They've made so much progress! I don't have a lender yet! Aaaaaaaaaaah!

2. I realized that my driver's license expired on my birthday (the 3rd). Today's the 14th. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

3. And finally, a new site that I love entitled "Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising." Here's a sample of what people don't say:

Morning Poem

I liked the beginning of the poem on the Writer's Almanac today ("An Early Start in Midwinter," by Robyn Sarah):

The freeze is on. At six a scattering
of sickly lights shine pale in kitchen windows.
Thermostats are adjusted. Furnaces
blast on with a whoosh. And day
rumbles up out of cellars to the tune
of bacon spitting in a greasy pan.

But maybe I only liked it because it mentions bacon, which I wish didn't come from pigs.

Speaking of mornings, it's getting so light now! Check out this video that's been making the rounds--it's a time lapse of a whole year, and watching the snow melt and the leaves come out makes me feel almost hopeful.

Someday, Palm Springs

If you've followed my lists for the last two years, you know that I can't even make it to Moab, four hours away--so going to my dream vacation spot, Palm Springs (which is much warmer than Moab in the winter), is really not going to happen.

Last fall I saw that fabric designer Heather Ross was hosting a weekend sewing workshop in Palm Springs January 21-23. "Hotel and meals and sewing machine all provided for $700?" I thought. "One of my favorite sewing bloggers teaching classes? I should do that!"

But then I saw that hotel rooms were based on double occupancy, and I got shy, and thought I should save money for the house, and I talked myself out of it. Little did I know that Palm Springs would sound REALLY NICE in our second week of sub-freezing highs. Oh, well. If it happens next year, maybe I can remember this post.

Tuesday Project Roundup: The December Scarf

For December, I knit a scarf. (Reviewing the 2010 projects, I realized that I made a tube scarf a year ago December, too. Is it a theme?) While I was making this one, I was thinking how nice the green would look over a certain orange coat that I wanted. And it does.
Yarn: Malabrigo merino, my first time using it. Nice!
Pattern: I kind of made it up. I was inspired by this one but ended up using a different stitch pattern to make it look lumpier.

(And yes, my new camera came with a tripod and not one but two self-timer features. I just haven't figured it out yet. Because I'm figuring out a MORTGAGE this week and anything else might make my head explode.)

My House, Let Me Show You It

I went over to my new house this weekend and let myself in to check it out. In all the confusion of which model to get, I had only visited "mine" once and was having a hard time visualizing the layout--and after dealing with an awful mortgage broker last week, I wasn't 100% convinced I needed to buy it at all, if it was going to be that difficult.

Well, I like my house. (And I'd better, because the construction deposit check has cleared.) There were birds in the trees outside and space for a garden and it was so! fancy! inside! Plus, it wasn't drafty. Incredible!

Here is the kitchen half of the main floor. I think the kitchen goes in this week, which means I can finally get that sink out of my car.

And here's looking down from the second floor (Toby is going to love these stairs.)

There's even a real entryway, with an actual coat closet!

So in dealing with brokers this week, I just have to remember that it will be worth it. And that there's no going back now.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I know that it's usually a bad idea to take scientific reports out of their complete context, but Out of Context Science pulls the funniest or strangest lines for your enjoyment.

2. I said I'd spare you the first-world problems of buying a house, but last night's quandary will give you an idea of what it's like in my head right now: I was wondering whether I wanted to upgrade to matching wooden hangers for my new closet. The pro? It would be a fancy matching closet. The con? Wooden hangers take up more space, so would all my clothes still fit? Oh, the dilemma!!

3. And after posting about color this week, I found this quote from Rushkin:
"The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color most."

Thinking

There's a lot on my mind lately: House, job, decor, money for decor, and last night I realized that I had better start planning the move, too. So to keep this from becoming a blog of first-world problems, here is a picture of Toby taken with the new camera I got for my birthday (!):
He is thinking, too--thinking of the stairs in the new place that he'll be able to run up and down.

Color!

Here's what Dorothy Draper* has to say about using color in decorating back in 1939:

Select the loveliest colors you can find--throw them together--and your own taste, resourcefulness and independence will carry you through. Above all, never be afraid of color. As I've said before, the day of drab, timid colors is past.

With that said, I am going with white walls in the new place for now. But look at the fabrics I'm considering:


*In this same book (Decorating Is Fun!), Dorothy Draper talks about painting ceilings in a complementary or contrasting shade, a practice that no one I know has ever heard of. As she says, "Just don't treat [the ceiling] like a stepchild."

Tuesday Project Roundup: House Projects

Even though I got a lot of sewing time in yesterday, I don't have anything finished for today. (I forget how long it takes to make actual sleeves with a cuff.) But I have started buying things for the new house. The first thing, of course, was fabric:
This will be a shower curtain for the second bathroom.

I also bought a kitchen sink. It's now in my car, waiting for the kitchen to go in. And wow, could I have bought a lot of fabric in exchange for one sink. I'm going to have to get used to buying home items, I guess.

Happy Birthday To Me

Yes, it is my birthday today! (And Tolkien's, too. I always have to point out that we share one.) 31 is not really a meaningful or special number, but it is still fun to celebrate--and to make a list of things to do this year.

Unlike 29 or 30, I'm scaling back a little for 31. The long lists of goals were getting to be overwhelming, so this year I'm doing 3+1 Things instead of 31 Things. And I'm really going to do them all this year.

Here are the 3 things:

1. Walk, bike, or do yoga once a week.
When I first got an office job, I made it a point to go out for a hike on Sundays. Now that I should have my own washer and dryer and won't have to do laundry at the parents on Sundays, I might start that again. (My new house will be closer to Millcreek Canyon and I want to get an annual pass there.) I also want to try biking to the grocery stores and downtown Sugarhouse. And I need to find a new yoga studio.

2. Learn more sewing techniques.
I tend to want to hurry and finish projects so I can wear them, but this year I want to take a little more time and learn some higher-end techniques, like stabilizing necklines, and underlining, and using a silk organza press cloth, and making bound buttonholes. I also want to learn how to use my serger, since I'll finally have a place to keep it out.

3. Memorize 6 poems.
I've always been bad at memorizing--music, words, anything. I can get pretty close but then I get stuck, or discover that I don't have it down as well as I thought. Sometime over the summer I realized that I had the Mark Strand poem in the Gallivan Center memorized (after visiting it for four years), and it was a revelation when I said it back from memory. I think all poems need to be memorized now, so I'm going to try to get some of my favorites down:

i. "The Poems of Our Climate," Wallace Stevens
ii. Final section (VI) from Ash Wednesday, T.S. Eliot
iii. "Meditation at Lagunitas," Robert Hass
iv. Section XVI from Dark Harbor, Mark Strand
v.. Sonnet 100 from 100 Love Sonnets, Pablo Neruda
vi. "Starlings in Winter," Mary Oliver


And here's the +1 thing. Because it's a +1, I'm calling it optional, just in case I don't get everything accomplished this year:

+1. Go on a date.
Given how quickly the time has passed between 27 (when I last went on a date) and 31, I think it may be wise to ask my friends to set me up a couple times this year. I'm not sure I want to actually get into a relationship--Toby and I have been just fine, thank you very much--but I also don't want to suddenly be 40 and realize that I haven't been on a date in 13 years. I intend to keep my hand in, so to speak.

I have the day off, so I can start on some of the 3 Things already--I'm going to sew and think about Wallace Stevens.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Happy New Year's Eve! I've been so wrapped up in the house and future house plans that I got confused what year it will be yesterday. I plan on having my tonsils out in 2011, not 2012.

2. The Writer's Almanac tells me that in Scotland, there's a New Year's tradition known as "first footing":
...where right after midnight, a person from outside the house scrambles into the house of a neighbor or friend with some small gifts --- becoming the first person to bring good fortune for the new year. In this Scottish tradition, it’s important that the first-footer is a tall dark-haired male.
If any tall dark-haired males with gifts care to visit tonight, I won't turn them away. I'm just saying.

3. And finally, plan your meteor shower watching for 2011 with this handy guide from NASA.

30 Things Wrap Up

Since today is the 30th (yikes), I thought it would make sense to wrap up the 30 Things today. Like last year, there's only about a 50% success rate, but this year there are other things that I'm proud of that cancel out not buying home furnishings or going to restaurants:
- I found a house to buy.
- I didn't drunk-dial or drunk-email or drunk-text any ex-boyfriends. (I am inordinately proud of that.)

But on to the list I put up at the beginning on the year--green is accomplished, yellow is a sort-of accomplished, and red is a no. Commentary is in italics.

1. Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo. DONE! I just dipped into the down payment fund for earnest money and a construction deposit. Hooray for a year of saving!
   
2. Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes. Done! Real Estate for Dummies worked for me!
   
3. Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD) I made it a month and then set some limits, and then I fell for J. Crew again.
   
4. Buy that Eames desk chair. I'll use the money I'll be saving from not buying any non-essentials. I do have a new desk, which I needed more than a chair, so I'm calling this done. (On most home furnishings, I just decided to wait and see what happened with the house hunt.)
   
5. Buy that damn garbage can already. See above.
   
6. Buy a living room chair--armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22. Done!
   
7. Sew new pillow covers for the living room. Done!
   
8. Buy a vacuum. Done!
   
9. Refresh my yoga skills and then...
10. Start doing yoga once or twice a week. Kind of done. I started in June and then slacked off in the late fall and winter, but at least I went enough to realize that I need to go more.
    
11. Get recycling at the apartment. I haven't had it for three years and I'm tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail. Not done. Sorry, Earth--but soon I should have my own recycling!
    
12. Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the break room at work to cut down on waste. Also not done. Apparently I'd rather feel guilty than go to a thrift store...
    
13. November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month. Fail on this one. I guess this was the year of Looking At Houses On The Internet Instead Of Exercising.
    
14. Eat at one new restaurant a month--any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven't been before. I kind of lost count, but I know I didn't go where I planned. I think I'd have a better success rate if I could go to restaurants alone...
    
15. Eat at Red Iguana. Never mind. I'm over you, Red Iguana.
    
16. Go to Bonneville Speed Week. No. It seemed like too much of an insider's club to just drive out to, and the lack of info about it didn't help.
    
17. Go to a roller derby game. Done--but demolition derbies are better.
    
18. Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year). DONE! DONE! DONE! All it took was some color...
    
19. Wear more colors of lipstick than "pink" and "darker pink." I bought red lipstick...
    
20. Find a perfume I want to wear regularly. Done!
    
21. Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. Done! Yay, booze!
    
22. Have more people over to the apartment--not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc. I was being really social (for me) at the beginning of the year but petered out in spring and summer. I am planning on my New Year's party, though.
23. Learn more about wine. The wine class in January will have to count.
    
24. Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch. They're all whiskey. Bourbon and scotch are just variations of it. (Thanks, Jason!)
    
25. Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac. Likewise, cognac is just a particular type of brandy (from the Cognac region, AOC.)
    
26. Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer. Not yet, but they haven't been bothering me as much.
    
27. Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer. Um, no. But on the medical front I will schedule a visit with ENT before the end of the year (hello, tonsillectomy 2012!)
    
28. Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam. Done! I canned all sorts of things!
    
29. Get a better camera. I've picked out a replacement but I just haven't bought it yet.
    
30. Go to Moab and/or Zion. No. Again, I'd have a better success rate if I went alone, but going on vacation alone when you have a roommate is fun and exciting; going when you live alone is just more of the same, minus your darling cat.

Mine At Last

I like to announce important things on a Wednesday in December, it seems, so here's the big news for this year: I'm under contract to buy a house!

The search was long; the houses were many. I wondered if it was worth it. I wondered if I could go on. I was disappointed and then I was indecisive and then grim determination set in. In the last two weeks of wrangling over offers and addenda there have been innumerable setbacks, but I have emerged triumphant with a signed acceptance on new construction that is only nine blocks south of my desired area.

A new house! That's still being built! That has no upstairs neighbors! That has two bathrooms and room for Toby and modern conveniences like an attached garage! And I am buying it for myself--no one is buying it for me, no one is buying it with me. It's mine...

My own...

MY PRECIOUS!!!

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Homemade Presents

As you know by now, it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't make things for people. This year my co-workers mostly felt the fury of my crafty storm.

The bosses got the results of my canning:
From the top that's marmalade, rosemary-peach jam, and green tomato chutney.

My work friends got coin purses...

...with contrasting linings!

I did knit something, too: my dad has said several times that he's always wanted a chullo hat. Since I did not get the gene that just wants something and doesn't buy it, I couldn't fathom waiting years and years for a hat and decided it was time to make one for him. So I did:
It's baby alpaca and there are alpacas in the design--douple pacas!

And now I'm going back to sewing for me, I think.

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Well--I hope we all had a Merry Christmas! I'm sorry to disappear on Friday, but I ended up at Instacare for a raging tonsil infection. It was bad enough that I asked my mother to make and deliver chicken soup on Christmas Eve, and then called mid-delivery to ask for ginger ale, too.

But I think the chicken soup and the antibiotics are finally working, because this morning I feel happy! I'm getting better!



I think I'll go for a walk!

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

There's nothing like some Modernist poetry about the end times during the hap-hap-happiest season of the year, right?

The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Merry Christmas To Me

I know this is the season of buying things for others, but I thought I should let everyone know that I finally have my orange coat:
J .Crew, I wish I could quit you!

In either Playback or The Little Sister (sorry, I'm running too late to look it up), Marlowe takes a cigar "out of a handsome leather humidor an admirer had given him last Christmas--the admirer just happening to have the same name as himself." In that spirit, I'm saying this is from an admirer.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Fancy Things

Here are two projects that are very sophisticated, if only because they aren't kitty blankets or baby clothes.

First up is a shiny tunic that one could wear to adult parties where there is champagne and witty conversation (or one could just wear it to a regular party and be overdressed):Fabric is a run-of-the-mill brocade from JoAnn; pattern is from Simplicity.

And here's a fancy scarf, which I made for a friend who's going through a rough time and needed something nice. The pattern is the "Figure Eight Scarf" and it's really just a big tube. But it looks nice on:


Fabric here was a Liberty of London print backed with some cotton velveteen. Here's a picture that's actually in focus:
Fancy!

Get Out Your Druid Robes

Not only is tonight the winter solstice, but there is a full lunar eclipse, too! The last full moon on the solstice was 20 years ago; the last full lunar eclipse on the solstice was December 21, 1638.

Start here on the NASA site to read up about it--they'll even have a live web cam (!). The eclipse should start about 11:30 p.m. tonight, with totality starting Tuesday morning at 12:41 a.m. and ending at 1:53 a.m. The whole thing will be happening in the western sky. I hope it's not cloudy!

(Bonus activity: sing "Total Eclipse of the Moon" to the Bonnie Tyler tune. You're welcome.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Yesterday was Beethoven's birthday. Sorry I missed it, Ludwig!

2. These sci-fi slanted children's book covers have been making the rounds, but they make my heart too happy not to post a couple:


3. And here's the first animated gif I've ever posted--but come on, bees are HILARIOUS.

see more Gifs

Did Judy Garland Ever Sing A Happy Christmas Song?

As you know, she sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in Meet Me in St. Louis, which was such a sad song it featured a small child crying during the performance. But just this week I was watching In The Good Old Summertime and there she was singing another wistful little Christmas song:


Poor Judy. You kind of want her to belt out "Joy to the World" next. (Did she?)

New Snow Boots Make A Big Difference In One's Enjoyment Of Snow

Here's a poem about being happy in the snow (about more than boots).

Manna

by Joseph Stroud

Everywhere, everywhere, snow sifting down,
a world becoming white, no more sounds,
no longer possible to find the heart of the day,
the sun is gone, the sky is nowhere, and of all
I wanted in life – so be it – whatever it is
that brought me here, chance, fortune, whatever
blessing each flake of snow is the hint of, I am
grateful, I bear witness, I hold out my arms,
palms up, I know it is impossible to hold
for long what we love of the world, but look
at me, is it foolish, shameful, arrogant to say this,
see how the snow drifts down, look how happy
I am.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Kitty Blankets!

The blankets that I mentioned (and Toby modeled) a week ago got all tied and ready for the shelter over the weekend.

That's a stack of 20 kitty blankets and the elbow of my work friend (I didn't get a chance to ask if she wanted her picture posted or not so I just cropped it).

There were six ladies--including our mothers--tying blankets for a few hours Saturday at my friend's home and it was a lovely time. We'll deliver the blankets to two different shelters this week, along with food and litter and toys.

What is this feeling? Altruism? I think I like it!

Counting My Blessings, For Reals*

1. It was my sister-in-law's birthday yesterday, which I forgot to mention Friday. Happy birthday!

2. My friends offered to help me out of a technical issue with my laptop and iPod. Hooray, friends!

3. I think I found a house to make an offer on. (I don't want to jinx it so you'll have to be patient.)

4. The sun is shining!


*Some blogs I read are taking a "no complaining for a week" challenge. Do you think I can do it? I'm not sure, which is why I haven't taken the challenge, but I'm going to try.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Roger Ebert is still being awesome. His review of the third Narnia movie (which is based on my favorite book of the series but sounds like it's been turned into a CGI-fest) contains too many gems to quote, but I liked this one:
No one knows how far away the Dark Island is. Lucky thing they know in which direction to sail. If they overshoot the island, they may sail off the edge of the Earth, Columbus having not existed in Narnia.

2. Have you all seen the Hungover Owls blog? Yes, I said hungover owls.

3. I knew there was a good reason why Toby doesn't get his picture taken with Santa:
This picture makes my heart so happy.

Counting My Blessings

I've been joking lately about "First World Problems," such as not being able to find a suitable new and fancy house, or being irritated with aspects of my specialized office job, or not liking any of the coughfivecough winter coats I have, and you know what? Those are not even problems. It just took Irving Berlin and Bing to remind me.

"Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," from White Christmas:

Space!

I know I just posted a space picture from the Big Picture Advent Calendar, but this one is REALLY cool:

Each of those specks is a galaxy--which in turn has billions (and billions) of stars in it. The photo caption tells me that, "The amount of mass in this sea of galaxies is huge, and is great enough to visibly bend the fabric of spacetime." Mind boggling!

(And speaking of spacetime, have all the Dr. Who fans seen this video? Jason wrote about it Monday and it made my day.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: !!!!!!

What's this?
No, this isn't for a friend or a co-worker's baby. I haven't lost it and started making clothes for Toby. And I don't have any personal scandal I need to confess. There's a much better explanation:

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a BOY! It's their first and the first baby on our side of the family at all, so we are all VERY EXCITED.

As you can see, I have some projects planned. I actually have enough projects planned to keep the kid dressed until he's about three, I think. And don't get me going on the toys to make and buy, and the trips to the park to take, and the storybooks to read, and all the free babysitting I will offer...

Very excited indeed! Hooray!

Things That Happened Over The Weekend

1. I had to wake up my upstairs neighbor and tell him his dishwasher was flooding. How did I know this? My ceiling was leaking.

2. I took my parents to see a potential house that wouldn't have any issues caused by an upstairs neighbor, but on a second visit I decided it wasn't The One.

3. I enjoyed some (a lot of) wine while watching my imaginary boyfriend in The Nutcracker.

4. I got some polar fleece kitty blankets ready for a kitty-blanket-tying party next week. (My work friend and I cooked up an idea to donate supplies to local shelters for Christmas.)

5. Toby helped:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. One month from today is my birthday. I don't think I'm going to have a very good success rate on the 30 Things.

2. I'm reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy again after a lapse of about fifteen years. Now that I've seen some Dr. Who, I realize how derivative the book was. It's still fun, though--gotta love Marvin the Paranoid Android.

3. Something to remember:

(From here.)

When I'm Feeling Blah, I LIke To Look At Space Pictures

Yes, it's that time again: The Big Picture Blog of the Boston Globe has the third annual Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar up. Get a new space picture a day from now until Christmas!

Because if you're wrapped up in your first-world problems and feeling irritated and put-upon, a picture of new stars forming in a nebula 7,500 light years away really puts things into perspective.
(More details, including a Lord of the Rings reference--thanks, NASA!)

Early Onset Of Winter

The snow came early and deep this year, and I'm trying to be resigned because we have three more months of it. But I think a new winter coat would help me be more resigned. Since I decided I didn't want to make an orange one, I found some colorful alternatives*--because we're going to need color to get through this.

J. Crew, finally on sale a little:


Vintage plaid on Etsy:

And a vintage CAPE (!):

Of course, with a cape you can't wear a bag over your shoulder, so I'd need to get a new winter purse, too. I'd take this one if someone were giving them away:
Oh hai, typewriter purse. You should live with me.


*I have plenty of warm coats already and none of these (especially that purse) are in the budget, but just indulge me in my First World Problem, OK?