crafty wednesday

just made me laugh. a lot.

2011-04-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

I posted the following on my facebook the other day:

"I was going to text someone 'it's fridaaay fridaaay gotta get down on fridaaay' hoping they'd get that horrible song stuck in their head, and my phone autocorrected "fridaaay" to "grossest." Touché, iPhone. Touche."

One of my cousins responded by directing me to the website "DamnYouAutoCorrect.com" You know... when the autocorrect function on your cell phone guesses what you're trying to say but gets it WAY wrong. They're all pretty hilarious, but this one made E(rnie) and me laugh so hard we were crying. Had to share.

crafty wednesday

2011-04-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

Crafty Wednesday is getting better and better every week! We got the first of the Easter headbands done, and I got started with several little surprises. My sister, A(ntoinette), definitely has the insider scoop on all the ridiculous stuff I'm making this year, but she pinky swore to secrecy so don't even try it.

The "First officially completed Easter headband of the season"award goes to A(mos). She busted this out;
a. Faster than green grass through a goose.
b. Faster than a turpentined cat.
c. Faster than greased lightning.
d. Faster than a duck on a junebug.

Here, she is proudly modeling her three big achievements for the night. She did everything short of forge her own metal clippies, folks. Those felt flowers are 100% homemade.

The picture doesn't do justice to how cute these really are. The colors are really beautiful and vibrant, but here they just look dull. The middle one is a really nice purple, but it looks.... gray. My camera has a hard time because the felt has a little bit of sparkle to it. They're gorgeous, I swear!

And here she is, little miss S(unshine), looking very pleased with her new accessory. I think she's saying, "I look faaaaabulous, daaaaarling! Simply faaaaabulous!"

It didn't take long before J(ackrabbit) here was getting in on the craft action. He thought this scrap would make a really great crown for a baby doll. Good work!

This spectacular headband was also brought to us exclusively by J(erome). He fashioned this beauty out of a pair of stretchy pants. LOL. Actually, A(retha) bought them to use for headbands, but we were a little intimidated. More bravery next time?

This is J(emimah)'s very first headband for easter, ever. Or for any holiday, for that matter. He made this awesome butterfly complete with daisy antennae.

He even modeled it! What a good sport. He was definitely in the crafty wednesday spirit and was full of ideas.

By far the most productive Crafty Wednesday yet. Thank you J(erry) and A(lf), and baby S(herpa) for the good times, creativity, and the modeling. Next week, we're doing those stretchy pants. For sure.

Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter ...

2011-04-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe it's not "crafty" in the typical sense, but spoken word is an amazing art form. One of my favorite memories from college was going to spoken word night every week with my best best friend at a local coffee shop downtown. It wasn't always poetic or beautiful, it wasn't always eloquent, but it was inspiring to see people getting up there and bravely speaking their peace (even if it was homeless-style drunken nonsense, on occasion). I envied how passionate and free they all seemed to be. I always left wanting to be more like them... to have passionate thoughts, opinions, to love... to have something to strive for, or to mend. To be brave, honest, vulnerable and, well, real.

Recently, spoken word came back into my life when my manfriend posted a youtube video on his facebook of Taylor Mali's "What teachers make." It was fantastic, and it reminded me why I loved spoken word poetry to begin with. I wish I could live every minute of my life with that kind of intensity, and that every word out of my mouth could be backed by a ferocity and conviction that resonated to my core. The power to say what I mean, and mean what I say, so to speak. Maybe I thought it would lead to a deeper appreciation of the beautiful things in my life and around me. Maybe.

Sarah Kay's video, "If I should have a daughter..." was featured on youtube today. Having just posted the big blog about my sisters, I was kind of in family mode, so the title of the video caught my eye. I hadn't heard of her, but after ten seconds, I love her. LOVE HER. I don't even really know what to say about this video other than "Watch it! The whole thing." My middle sister just welcomed a daughter, so this video really made me think of her and wonder. How do mothers do it? She is an amazing mother, infinitely patient and forgiving. I know I'm lucky that my life is full of amazing, strong women, but sometimes it helps to be reminded. All the mothers in my life, you're amazing. Hats off to you.

three funny sisters

2011-04-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

Crafty Monday brought to you by my sister, and Photoshop. But first, a lengthy backstory.

When I was little, my dad created a trio of characters called the "three funny sisters." They showed up in drawings and paintings often, but their most notable appearance was a large homemade jigsaw puzzle that my dad cut by hand and decorated. I am sorry to say that I lost track of most of the pieces a long time ago, but I remember it very well; three smiling (or were they shrieking?) girls with long brown hair that stands straight up. Think finger in a light socket; the crazy hair was their trademark. It was a really fantastic and well crafted puzzle, but it didn't really resonate with me back then other than being silly. I mean, my sisters were practically grown up by the time I was born (at least I remember it that way...), so going on adventures and having crazy fun as a trio of equals was a very far fetched idea. Now that I'm grown up, sort of, I wish more than ever that the puzzle was still around because now I am finally starting to realize how prophetic the characters really were. I really am proud to be one of the three funny sisters.

My oldest sister was always funny. She was (and is) rambunctious and irreverent, always a prankster, and the beloved clown of every gathering for as long as I can remember. I didn't realize my middle sister was really funny until I was an adult. Her sense of humor is completely different, and I think she kept it a secret on purpose as a kind of long term cosmic joke for herself. When I finally figured it out, I realized she is one of the funniest people I have ever met. I can't say how I compare, but I try to follow in the footsteps of the jokesters who have come before me and try not to bring shame to the family. (you're really funny too, mom, but this is a sister post. *eyebrows*)

We use facebook, like most people, to stay in touch and share photos and details from our lives. Unlike most people, however, we also hack into each others' accounts and post embarrassing status updates as each other, tag each other in really horrible pictures, and try our best to out-joke each other whenever we comment. Being shameless dorks, we often post these ridiculous comments and pictures while on the phone with each other just so we can hear the big reaction. Actually, doesn't everybody do that? I'm sure they must.

One of the first facebook hijackings, about a year ago, resulted in my mom's status being changed to "I'm a pretty pony!" In homage to that, I logged into my very patient and forgiving boyfriend's account and posted the same thing on my sister's wall (as him), as a symbol of my deep appreciation for her work. Her response came as my mother saying "I am the only pretty pony, and don't you forget it!" Now, we're all crafty and creative in different ways, and so far I've had the monopoly on photo manipulation so I was very surprised to find the following posted on my facebook page the next day, with the caption, "Proof."

That's my mom, and she's a veeery pretty pony. Why so sad, mama pony? "I'm saaad I'm a pony!" At first I couldn't even tell she was supposed to be a pony. I thought she was some kind of winged human wearing blue jeans, with no feet. Then I found out that not only is she a pony, but she is also... mounting... her little friend, there. You know, the way magic ponies do. Actually, she kind of looks like she's climbing out of the other pony's back. Maybe these ponies reproduce sort of like aliens from that scary movie. Regardless, I laughed very very hard and was caught completely off guard. That was Wednesday. The next day, I was greeted with this:

What's that, you say? That... is my face on the very alluring body of Nacho Libre. Deeeeeelicious. "Chancho. When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It is for fun." Knowing my sister I know this is just the beginning. Yesterday, I logged in to find this:

That's my middle sister's face on the body of a... well, I don't know exactly what that is. A Manicorn? .... An unholy fusion of Unicorn and... the lead singer of Limozeen? Or Lady Gaga? Or... Lady Gaga? I don't know, but it was a huge leap in terms of awesome. Is she wearing roller skates? I am pretending she is. In doing some research trying to find the original photo she used (be warned, my sister did some censoring that I appreciate VERY much) I came across some really awesome pictures that I can't resist linking to. Here's one. Here's two. And here's three.

Lastly, my sister posted the following this afternoon with the caption, "We are needing the help of a few strong men for our move on the 15th."

Oh. My. Gawd. That's my boyfriend, brother in law, and DAD. My man's up front there in the little pink number. Nice Tevas, buddy! He looks like he is about to rock an epic air-drum speedo solo. At least my boyfriend got to be the only one with clearly visible man junk. I would be irreparably scarred if I saw my dad or brother in law with that much speedo action. Ew ew ew. This post is over.

Thank you to both my sisters for bringing happiness and sunshine into my life. I look forward to many, many more photoshop shenanigans. And lots more unicorns.

Rude!

2011-04-03T15:11:00.001-07:00

I parked my car on the street last night, and some jerkface drove into it and ripped the driver side mirror off. Rude. So, my crafty activity for today was duct taping my mirror back on.

foodie friday

2011-04-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

I love, love, LOVE illustrated recipes. Like this one from RecipeLook, submitted by weef. Maybe it's the doodler in me, or the fact that I just love illustrations and color, but there is something super charming about these that makes me melt like a knob of butter. Maybe it's the illustrated sequence that I'm a sucker for, like a comic book that ends with a delicious treat. Yum!

crafty thursday?

2011-03-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

summary of today's crafty activities:
built half of a pinata (amy says it looks like a boulder)
engaged in crafty discussion with Maggie regarding headbands; techniques and supplies
started LED window display project, mostly Eric
made quesadillas (does that count? lol)

aaaaaaaand......
made googley face at this picture of the baby wearing the first Crafty Wednesday revival headband

oh, hi!

2011-03-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a computer for the last two years. The old timer I'm using now stopped working out of the blue (as in, no power, wouldn't turn on... nothing. dead) waaaay back in 2009. I took it into a computer-fixer-store-place and the guy told me I'm an irresponsible laptop owner, that he wouldn't even bother to make eye contact with my computer no matter how much I paid him, and literally said it was all my fault and I deserve to have a dead laptop. Nice guy. Aside from that, I hadn't given it a second thought until I plugged it in on a whim, and abracadabra, perfectly functioning laptop. Voila. Did I forget to mention I had recently spent like $600 setting myself up with a fancy new iPhone because I didn't have internet access? Being away from "home" as often as I was back then, the laptop wouldn't have done be much good anyway. I love my iPhone, but I would have waited....

I went ahead and got the blogger app and was like, "Oh good. I'll totally, like, keep up on my blog!" PFFT, yeah. Right. Say hellooooooo to my third-ish post in two years. When I started this blog, I wasn't thinking of it as much as a way to share everything as I was thinking of it as a way to keep organized. I mean, links to everything I like, a central location where I can keep a decent crafty to-do list, if you will. I failed to realize that being in a rural area meant not-3g coverage, which meant everything took forever if it worked at all. And I conveniently forgot the whole "no keyboard" thing. Then I realized the iPhone camera sucked, but then I lost my camera, then lost my charger, then lost my NEW charger......... I'm a messy lady, what can I say? It's hard to get it together when you're never really settled. Really hard. But I don't want to be like that anymore. I am working toward creating a more stable life situation for myself, and a lot of things are going to be changing. I don't know what's going to happen during the next year, but I have my fingers crossed that it'll be easier than the last two have been. I have lots of questions to answer and lots of issues to work through.

So. Maybe that means there will be some post action going on here. Yes?

Oh. Crafty Wednesday. It started at work with Ali because we were bored out of our minds at work. Then we didn't work together and Crafty Wednesday turned into me planning this huge easter family reunion thing, and then the headbands started. THE HEADBANDS. Easter 2009. I should devote a whole post to that. If you know me, you know about the headbands. I'll do a blog about the easter headbands. My sister Amy and I have been getting together doing shirts for her new baby once a month, and with the regularity of that came the revival of crafty wednesday. Wednesday is my day off, so I don't drive anywhere, so I'm actually at home early enough to get over there before she goes to bed. I went over there last week and her new baby was fussy, so we just hung out and I finished some felt roses I had cut earlier and made a big flower clip out of them. Overall, a pretty tame night. This week, however, the baby was sleeping much more soundly. We made the baby her Five-Month Shirt, aaaaaand glued some little flower clips together, and watched American Idol. Still mellow, but we're working our way up to the big stuff. What's the big stuff? No idea. But I do know Amy got herself a glue gun and seemed confident with it, and that is fantastic. Has she unleashed her inner crafty-monster?

Two years have passed... I feel like I'm rambling aimlessly and there is no end in sight. I'm exhausted, and falling asleep. I am not even going to proofread or spell check this. Livin' on the edge!

gooooodnight

Lucky

2010-02-28T11:02:00.000-08:00

new stickers

2010-01-02T23:22:00.001-08:00

is it my lucky day?

2009-04-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

1. this afternoon while i was watching dominic, he was very sad that he didn't get to go to the "mommy party" so i took him to the park to try to cheer him up. we saw some very cute little girls flying kites (he kissed them), checked out some ducks, and dominic's booty was surprised to encounter a pile of human feces on the way down the slide. we were about ten walking minutes away from home and spent a good portion of the rest of the afternoon playing "how many times can we wash our hands?"

2. while i was getting ready to cut some clover to make juice, i found a four leaf clover by chance. i was sitting in the clover talking to my dad, not really paying attention, and another four leaf clover caught my eye. then another. and another. after about ten minutes of sitting there chatting, i had found 18 four leaf clovers without venturing beyond the original area i plopped and without any major hunting effort. not to mention however many i must have in the clover i cut in mass for the juice. i was pleased to present my mother with a four leaf clover boquet before spending half an hour trying to press them all in books.

3. as i was leaving my parents' house (in the middle of the afternoon), a HUGE coyote came trotting down the road. skipping, more like. he just jogged along the road, cut into the little fruit orchard in front, past dad's garden, and casually hopped toward the backyard until he was out of sight.

4. i arrived home 5 minutes before josh took a tasty surprise pizza out of the oven.

was it a lucky day, or did i just break even? does a coyote, a pizza, and 18 four leaf clovers make up for the literal shit from the morning? LOL

[when i arrived at my parents' house, my dad slyly asked, "how was dominic? did you have to put up with any of the *crap* that usually comes with watching little kids?"] ha ha :P

french onion soup

2009-03-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

josh made this for valentine's day... just now getting around to posting it. yes, the bread is slathered with cheese. why are we all so chub, again? i forget. :)

leftover soup

2009-03-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

after mushroom hunting, i threw a bunch of leftover random into a pot to make some soup. i do that a lot. leftover everything ends up as soup. usually it's weird, but this time it was cute and tasty, so i need to document it so i don't forget. i like the pictures because you can see that it's still steaming......

let's see... what was in there?

leftover swiss chard/leek mixture (from dad's garden/farmer's market)
leftover mushrooms from josh's mushroom lunch sandwich
leftover organic brown rice (what was left in the bag)
barley (half of what was left in the bag)
cracked wheat (a couple shimmy shakes from the container)
2 handfuls soup mix from s&s (lentils, split peas, tiny abc noodles)
tomato paste (half a little baby can)
dehydrated onions (couple generous shimmy shakes. first time using them)
siracha (2 squirts)
salt (enough)
thyme (2 pinches)
celery salt (3 shimmy shakes)
1 chipotle seasoning cube
oh, water too. fill the cute little soup pot.

directions: boil all ingredients unattended until enough time has passed for you to forget you were making soup altogether at least once. regret adding siracha so early because it boils into the air and makes you choke all the time. eat.

mushroom hunting

2009-03-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

josh and i have started learning about wild mushrooms. some conversation i wasn't present for took place at work, in which josh, ivana and amanda expressed interest in mushroom hunting. dangerous and delicious at the same time. :)

josh and i have gone wandering around almost every day since for at least an hour just looking around (not picking or touching.... it's not really safe unless you can identify the mushroom you're looking at) and it has been really fun! today, we found two that we're pretty sure are safe and edible. josh was so excited!!! he wants to keep them forever.

flying greenhouse

2009-03-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

we've had a few really windy storms during the few weeks, which means we've come outside more than a few times to find our yard rearranged. specifically, the greenhouse has blown over several times (just tipped over, face down). i came outside one morning to such a scene, righted the greenhouse, and went inside. within about 10 seconds of being back indoors, i heard a big gust and a loud crash. i went back to the door to find the greenhouse about 15 feet down the sidewalk and around the corner from its original position, marked in red. it doesn't seem very far in the picture, but it's far! particulary far to travel in a single gust....

amanda's birthday banner

2009-03-09T20:49:00.001-07:00

watercolor paints and thin tipped black marker on crappy office paper, glued onto cardboard, then taped onto thread. some puffy stickers too. it's hard to see what's going on without getting really close.

amanda's birthday scarves

2009-02-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

crafty wednesday - business card shelf

2009-02-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

practice for an organization project i want to do for the art room. before, all these boxes were just stacked on top of eachother with business cards spilling out everywhere. now they're organized and slide out like little drawers. yay cardboard!!

first handbag

2009-01-31T23:27:00.000-08:00

my camera takes giganto pictures (i mean, when i upload them, they're so huge you can't see what the picture is even of....) so before i upload them i use photoshop to shrink em down to a reasonable size (and crop them and make sure they're clear, and all that..) so, to keep things organized, i have a folder of pictures that are resized and ready to upload to the blog, and then the huge archive of every picture i've ever taken, as is, straight off the camera. when i went to upload this picture, i remembered resizing it but i couldn't find it in my "Ready to upload" folder. the only other folder on my desktop was one containing pictures of about 35 handbags i'd saved for inspiration for my next bag. (you know, i like the shape of this one, texture of that, blah blah. it's kind of a way to keep track of things i like without keeping a sketchbook.) anyway, i thought maybe i'd stuck mine in there by accident, so i looked but i didn't see it. while i was looking, i joked with myself, "i wonder if my handbag is just so awesome that i can't tell it apart from all the designer ones... hahaha." and i moved on to looking elsewhere. looked and looked. nowhere. i looked through the handbag folder 3 times before i found it, tucked in there between prada and dolce and gabbana. (BTW. this is the first time i've ever saved anything so stupidly branded on my computer. i am NOT a brand whore.) anyway, it's my first purse, and it was only a sketch outline using crappy felt to get a feel for it before i made one out of real fabric, but i'm not ashamed; i'm proud of it! when you shrink all the bags down to tiny 1 inch thumbnails, you can't even tell them apart. lol.

first sprout of the season

2009-01-31T14:05:00.001-08:00

here she be; the first sprout. started a whole bunch of seeds on january 26, and this little snap pea popped right up by jan 30th. the first picture is the morning of the 30th, the second is that evening, and the last shows him ready to go this morning, jan 31st. i'm a proud sprout mama. he also had another snap pea friend poking through this morning, and i think a few green beans may be thinking about emerging. perhaps by tonight. so quick to germinate! at least my house doesn't smell like manure for nothing.....

crafty wednesday - hairy bowls

2009-01-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

i made this hairy bowl the other day out of some old rope. and who doesn't like hairy bowls on their head? i know i do.

do you have hairy bowls?

asparagus bulb

2009-01-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

what say you, mama?

very first crochet

2009-01-26T14:45:00.000-08:00

all my posts recently have been pretty damn domestic, haven't they? i need make something a little edgier. lol. amanda d(arling) taught me how to crochet the other day at work. she was making something that looked sort of like this, only amazing and beautiful. not bad for my first few inches of crochet, though, right? a little distorted, but... better next time.

crafty wednesday - a mustache for the lady

2009-01-26T14:44:00.001-08:00

one of my creations from crafty wednesday last.

crafty wednesday - more stamps

2009-01-26T14:35:00.000-08:00

a few more. three of them are copied from a rubber stamp artist on etsy (just for practice). specifically the bumblebee, the letter J, and the owl in the top photo. cutesie, no?

crafty wednesday - eraser stamps

2009-01-23T14:03:00.001-08:00

my first stamps carved out of rubber erasers, thursday 1/22/09.

crafty wednesday - earring frame January 14, 2009

2009-01-21T14:43:00.001-08:00

ali made an earring frame for crafty wednesday last week. she hot glued some pale yellow tulle to a frame (which was a lot harder than either of us anticipated) to hook the earrings on, then hot glued some decorative (glass marbles??) to some nails to hang necklaces and other goodies on. she planned to nail them in later, but now that i think about it, it was probably difficult to nail them in with the glass tops on them.... i'll ask her how that turned out. lol.

for crafty wednesday i made her some mustaches, which will probably end up on the mustache a day blog, and needle felted a huge bird that i will take a picture of when i finish.

homemade granola, peppermint bark

2009-01-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

i have cooking dates with my sister sometimes. this last week we made granola, and peppermint bark. i tried to make the granola again at home, but i didn't have all the right stuff so it's not as pretty as the first batch... but tasty nonetheless....

eyeball scarf

2009-01-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

needle felted for my sweet pie.

my camera wasn't working very well because it was dark, and, well, it's not a great camera. i'll try to take some better pictures and repost (and straighten the painting in the mean time. and move all my junk mail out of the picture. and take a picture NOT on top of a flower garland.lol)

it's really long, so i couldn't get many of the eyeballs into the picture. i think there are about eight.

turtle costume

2009-01-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

i made my halloween costume again this year. i sewed a bunch of circles on some brown jersey, then scrunched 'em, sewed some backing on and stuffed them with... stuffing..?? then i cut the spirals out of green fleece and hot glued them on. the hat is just a super basic fleece beanie with a turtle face glued to the front. there's a front-shell piece as well that's just brown jersey and a little stuffing with a shell-belly pattern sewed onto it, holding the fluff in place. the shell front and back are attached by ribbons that go over the shoulder, human-sign-on-the-side-of-the-road style. lol. it seems so much less cool when i describe how lamely it was created. how many days until josh makes me take his picture down? hehe.

***update - how many days? four days. goodbye cute picture of josh wearing the turtle costume.

new life for blog

2009-01-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

the last few weeks have been the first of my life that didn't involve acute or impending school anxiety. i graduated, and now i'm on a break. i understand now why everyone always says you'll never go back if you take a break; i actually feel like i have a life to live now instead of every moment of every day being filled with, "what did i forget?" i cannot even begin to describe how wonderful it's been and it has only been... 3 weeks? woo!

i've finally had time for art and craft lately, especially since i vowed to make as many christmas presents as i could this year. and... now that i've already given them to everyone, i can post them without ruining any surprises. lol. more to come. i plan to use this blog to document experience; learning how to live like a semi-normal adult with hygeine and healthy food, exercise, organization, and best of all... art (and music). fingers crossed.

Graduation

2008-05-12T22:22:00.001-07:00

I'm hours away from giving what is by far the most important presentation of my education to date (to the Economics faculty in order to earn honors in Economics), and days away from earning my bachelor's degree in International Economics. I have 3 massive papers to write, a really important calculus final, and I wish I was exaggerating to say that my house looks like a garbage dump. Not to mention, I have about 60 pounds of college stress eating to destroy and I feel like living with any sense of normalcy is impossible from now on (this is a good thing). Yet, I spent the last few hours watching government conspiracy documentaries with Josh, and now I'm somehow convinced that writing the first blog of my life is the best idea ever. The first and only post previous says something about how the creation of this blog page is a testament to the fact that my social life is at an all time low. If I could see my current life, I certainly would not have felt that way back then and would have appreciated how social and great it really was.
As I near the completion of one of the last stages of my formal education, I find myself reflecting (how cliche) on how much I have changed and how much my life has changed since the end of the last stage (high school). And the more I write, the more this is beginning to sound like the cheesiest and most horrible graduation speech of all time. Basically, the reason I am writing this is because I wish I had done this then so I could remember what I thought and felt, and I am feeling very distinct lately and I don't want to forget it in another four years. In other words, nobody will read this except for me, and I wouldn't write it if I thought otherwise.

What is going on in my head lately? Future me: You cannot possibly have forgotten this, but you better be prepared for some pretty psychotic raving.

1. Life Plans, in order. Write Blog. Write presentation outline. Complete presentation, work, bake pumpkin bread for final Honors class meeting. Finish 3 papers; independent study paper, Honors in Economics paper, Honors capstone paper. Prepare for calculus final, not fail it. Clean house. Graduate, have party. Have a fantastic time with Amanda during her visit. Learn to garden, develop gravity drip system. Do art; write music, paint, sew something. Spend time with my parents. Lose 60 pounds of unwelcome body mass that has taken root on ass, thighs, gut. Go to grad school, or maybe not. Learn to pickle and can, and can-can. Build an adobe house somewhere beautiful and employ expert gardening skills. Get chickens. Lead a clean and sustainable life and remain as unaffected by impending apocalypse as possible. Activism?

2. Fears. Aforementioned apocalypse happening sooner than I can handle. This semester I have been smothered by peak oil and impending doom (sorry sally). Insanity, also impending.

3. Art. Droopy eyed sad faces, flowers with receding hairlines, scary babies in animal suits. Stencils of Dominic's face. Baby clothes??? Anything made out of garbage. Is an obsession with heirloom fruits and vegetables going to ultimately be an art?

4. Canning, Pickling, Heirloom vegetables, Seed Saving. I am apprehensive that when the peak oil crisis occurs that the people I care about will suffer and die due to lack of food/water. In addition to an oil crisis, there's apparently a major water crisis coming and that's even more terrifying. I need to find someone's grandma to teach me how to preserve because I'll be SOL if I can't save food for the crappy seasons. I need to learn how to garden greenhouse style, too. Things just become increasingly complicated, don't they? The drip system with the IV regulators and the milk jugs seems to be working pretty well, but I'm not sure at this point how long something like that will survive in the sun. I'll have to figure something out for that. The tubes are long enough that I should be able to hang the jugs in the grape vines without compromising the sun that the plants are getting. Oh, 3 tomato plants; Black prince, Mr. Stripey, and Pink Brandywine. We'll see if I kill them.

5. Children. Not mine, are you kidding? Dominic is talking quite a bit now, and I love it. Still with the biting thing, but I really think that sometimes he doesn't realize it doesn't equate to love. I think that since we always try to make sure he hugs the person after he does it that he might be starting to get in the habit of doing it because he wants to hug you, not realizing it's not a necessary step. He's a beautiful child, and very charming. Taylor and Katie are giants, and they're turning into really nice kids. Not always so nice to each other, but genuine, loving, good hearted. They've been through a lot, and they're lucky to have each other for stability. I wish the world to them.

6. Friends. Amanda. I miss her. The past year has been pretty horrible. Sometimes I notice myself purposely not calling her because it's so hard to acknowledge how far away she is and how much I miss her. I took her for granted a lot when she was around, and now I really wish I wouldn't have. I feel like I was a terrible friend when she needed one and she's always been here to support me whenever I have needed it. She's flying out for my graduation, and I can't wait to go to the park and paint, and watch some movies, and swim and hang out and do nothing. Maybe we'll build a greenhouse. Kind of stupid right before summer, but whatever.

7. Josh. Of course I can't write what I want to. That's all.

8. Money. I have definitely gotten the shit kicked out of me financially by having that stupid credit card. I am yet to have a month where I can't pay it all off, but it's getting closer and closer every time, and it disturbs me that I spend 700 a month on nothing, and that doesn't include living expenses. The holidays sucked me in the most, but it's May and I still can't get out of the spending rut. Clothes, eating out, groceries, art supplies, gasoline, utilities, geez.

9. We got a noticed a few days ago that water and garbage will no longer be included in our rent, starting at some undisclosed time in the future. This comes only a few months after a rent increase. In essence, it's raising our rent by excluding things that were previously included, then raising it again because we have to pay for those things. So our rent was raised 3 times over the past few months. Upsetting. I tried to convince Josh that we should look for a better place to live because we could get a decent house for the almost 1,000 monthly we pay here after all the utilities and crap are factored in.

I'm caught. Josh said to me, "Are you working on your presentation, baby?" "No, just writing." "What do you mean, just writing? What are you talking about?" "..........."

Goodnight future self.

freaky poop

2005-01-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

the creation of this "blog" just goes to show that my social life is at an all time low.