Just Another Manic Monday (Oh-o-oh)

If you did not just sing that title in your head when you read it then you are not a child of the 80's. :)

I've got inertia on my side today--go go go! Getting lots done around here. I love to work on big projects when Jason is gone because then when he comes home he is amazed and doesn't look too closely at the credit card bill. [Just kidding!]

Moving around every couple of years meant that we "made do" when it came to storage and organization in each different house. Read: we have a lot of junky, cheap, and/or plastic storage stuff. Now that we are Grown-Ups With A Mortage And Everything and will be here for as long as we can stand this damn humidity a while, I want to invest in some nicer storage options. But since I want things that I actually like to look at, that means that it's, you know, not free. And if I'm going to plop down some dough, then I want to make sure the dough is plopped down for the right things. And that means capital-letter tasks like Research (i.e. what's out there and how much is it), and Weighing My Options, and Prioritizing, and Can I Just Get Rid of All This Stuff So I Don't Need Storage Furniture In The First Place?

I did mention that I am a Blue-Ribbon Winner in Making Mountains Out of Molehills, right? And that I have a Silver Medal in Overanalyzing Everything?

So this morning/early afternoon I'm shuffling things around to their approximate proper places in the house, sorting out stuff to get the heck rid of, and all that fun jazz that comes every time you move. [Shhhh, nobody mention that we got all of our household goods in February. And it is now June. I've been busy! Mainly with polishing my Gold Medals for Procrastination and Avoidance (in the "I can't cry about broken and ruined things if everything is still in boxes" category).] Later this afternoon I will reward myself with some Artsy Time. And possibly a blog about my class yesterday.

Okay, lunch time's over! Go go go!

Taking this medicine may cause you to fall asleep during important activities such as DRIVING.

If Iiiiiiiiii were President... all commercials for prescription medication would be banned from television!

Sunday Funday

I'm about to head off to go meet Carol Wingert and together we (and a bunch of other women--and hey, possibly a guy, you never know!) are going to make something approximating this:


I'm excited because Carol is also going to be an instructor at Inspired next year! And I will be there. So it will be fun to get to know her a little now. :) Because I'm such a smarty I decided to buy the two books that Tena and Carol wrote together so I could have Carol sign them. Yes, indeedy, I am such a smarty that I forgot I already bought one of the books when I was at Inspired so that I could have Tena sign it. Doh! At least I found the Tena-signed one before I ended up with one Tena-signed and one Carol-signed and then I just wouldn't know what to do. :P Oh, and both books are both fabulous and can be found here and here. :)

After the class I get to be artsy or I get to sit around and watch whatever I want to on television because 1) I cleaned the house yesterday, 2) Jason is gone, and 3) I have not succumbed and am still rockin' the South Beach (although getting Jason packed last night almost sent me to the fridge for a beer about 18 times) so I deserve it. :)

Have a super Sunday!

The Weekend Update

I've planned all week to do another edition of If I Were President today, but when I woke up this morning I decided that Mondays are better days for pronouncements about changes one would like to make. So Monday it is!

Yesterday I went with my aunt Susan to a quilt show. She's an amazing quilter and was seeking inspiration. I was also seeking inspiration via the colors and textures; some of the work that goes into these fabric works of art is amazing. I took some photos and want to post a few on my Inspiration board in my studio. Some pieces of my favorites:

I've already started not one but TWO quilts that I'm not even close to finishing, so I successfully avoided buying any big kits or fabric. But I did figure that maybe conquering a smaller project might be a good and doable thing that would encourage me to work more on the unfinished quilts, so I bought the patterns for two cute bags. One I'll make using my stash, but I am obsessed with the sample fabric for the other bag and must find it. Can anyone help a sister out here?

I need just a fat quarter of the floral and 7/8 of a yard of the stripes. I also need 5/8 yard of the polka dots but I'm not as concerned about them; it's the stripes and the floral I'm really obsessed with. Anyone know which line(s) these came from or where I could find them?

And then, to complete my apparent obsession with bags to support a very cool local artist, I bought this (front and back):

It's a vintage bag with Bermuda cedar handles and a pretty satin lining. The artist crocheted these cool flowers and leaves and then stitched them on. Here they are in their full textural glory, YUM:

On the way home I had to stop at a few places and guess what I found!

Claudine's "Crafty Girls" cards! One of the cards is even of the lovely Donna. How fun!

And yes, I do realize that lately I might as well change the name of the blog to "Buy Beauty Daily," but I have been working on things. I've been working on so many things, actually, that I have about 18 projects that are 50-90% done and only one that is actually done!

Actually done: an acrylic bracelet that I adorned with pape-ah (that's paper with an accent :)).

I would post a photo of me actually wearing it except if you know me then you know that my wrists are teeny tiny and this bracelet looks ridiculous on me. And Jason refused to model it, which is probably for the best as his arm hair would not lend itself well to the overall look. :) So maybe I'll put it on Etsy. It was fun to make and I have a few more of the bracelets so maybe I'll whip some more out this next week.

And hints of a few other projects I'm having so much fun with:

Today: Still rockin' the South Beach Diet. Prepping Jason for his big trip tomorrow. A little house-cleaning and a little organizing. A little art-making later this afternoon, hopefully. Have a super Saturday, everyone!

Salt & Vinegar Pringles, Blueberries, and Gummy Bears

I started the South Beach Diet Phase 1 on Monday. For those who don't know about South Beach, Phase 1 is the strictest phase and it lasts only two weeks. I can't eat/drink/consume in any way the following items: fruit; any type of sugar (including honey, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc); alcohol; carbs such as bread, pasta, rice, or potatoes; high-fat meats; high-fat cheeses; high-sugar vegetables such as beets, carrots, and corn. In case you're wondering what that leaves: most vegetables; lean meats; low-fat cheeses and other dairy (milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc); eggs; nuts (in limited amounts). I think that's it. It seems a lot worse when you write it out, actually. I did South Beach very successfully for about a year (all three phases, I was only in this phase for two weeks!) and lost 20 pounds and loved it. But all that's not the point at the moment (maybe I'll write about that more later).

The point is this: if you ever decide to try out the South Beach Diet, make sure that you do not start Phase 1 during the week you're PMSing. Make sure that you do not start Phase 1 during the week you're PMSing. Make sure that you do not start Phase 1 during the week you're PMSing. Holy Lord, what I wouldn't give for some Salt & Vinegar Pringles, blueberries, and gummy bears. The hormonal cravings and the withdrawal cravings have mated and their offspring is a beast. A beast of burden that haunts me day and night. And I'm not even exaggerating--I actually dreamed of eating carbs and fruit last night.

But I am committed. I have not succumbed. And it's Day 4, so we should just have another day or so of cravings. Hopefully. And on Sunday Jason leaves for a week, so it should be a lot easier without having to smell his beer and--stick a fork in me why don't you?--his popcorn.

And now, I will leave you with some very un-Pioneer Woman-like shots of the food I have been eating lately:

Sautéing mushrooms & asparagus for a lovely breakfast:

Doesn't this look yummy? Well, it was! (I only ate about half.)

Notice the Spicy Hot V-8. Very cold Spicy Hot V-8 is so integral to my survival on this diet that the first time I was on Phase 1 (two years ago in Italy), one day I forgot my V-8 at home and nearly pitched a fit when I arrived at work and discovered I didn't have it. That was a rough day.

Yogurt! Luckily for me I prefer plain yogurt anyway. This stuff is pretty good.

When I went to Costco and saw that they finally had blueberries now that I can't eat them, I almost died. Okay, not really, but I almost gave in and ripped open a box of blueberries and devoured them right there on the Costco floor without paying for them first. Or washing them. Have I mentioned I love blueberries? Anyway, to reward myself for not dying or eating blueberries, I bought some of the good mozzarella...
...and we ate it with Roma tomatoes and fresh basil and really, really good olive oil and balsamic vinegar I brought back from Italy. Yummmmmmm.

Okay, now I'm off to go eat a no-sugar-added Fudgsicle. :)

Blogging on the Fly

So I'm still figuring out this whole blogging thing. I keep having these ideas but then instead of blogging I will say, "Oh, but I want to finish this project so I can put that up on the blog..." and I end up making a mountain out of a molehill, making everything bigger than it needs to be. Classic me. [Siiiiiigh.] Or I'll have a photo to put up and then decide it needs a little tweaking and I'll end up spending half an hour in Photoshop trying to figure out why in Photoshop it looks perfect but then once I save it as a jpg it looks almost nothing like it did in Photoshop, and then I get frustrated and decide to mop the floor instead. Anyone?

So! I am trying a new thing today. I'm calling it "Blogging on the Fly." Like mini-blogging. Or imperfect unedited blogging. Or something. Anyway, here goes!

Darky & Lighty: Remember that commercial where the guy buys a house and proceeds to open every door and window and turn on every light in the house, at which point he calls his mom and tells her he's done so? I loved that commercial, and thought that I would surely do that someday when I had my own house. But instead I married Darky Darkerson, the man who asks questions such as, "Do you need this light on?" A harmless question, sure--except when the question is posed about the kitchen light, while I am in the kitchen making dinner. Hence the nickname. So obviously in retaliation he's nicknamed me Lighty Lighterson. Nagging becomes teasing and it works for us. :)

It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity: Darky Darkerson (DD) finally turned on the A/C, yippee! It's really not that hot here yet, but I. Don't. Like. Stickiness. I used to think that I wanted to live in Georgia (we could have been neighbors, Jen!); I was in college and I had romantic notions of huge wrap-around porches and weeping willows and mint juleps and Southern gentlemen. But the humidity--ugh. It's bad enough here! I woke last night at 2:21 a.m. and Jason was not in bed. I don't think that's ever happened in the history of Jason and Cameron--him supposed to be there but not being there--so I was kind of freaked out for a second. But then I realized I had the whole bed to myself so that I could spread out in such a way that none of my skin was touching any other part of my skin (if you live with humidity you know what I'm talking about!). I figured Jason was doing the same thing in the guest room, but then he came back in and announced he'd turned on the A/C. Either it was finally bad enough that he couldn't sleep, or he realized that if he finally turned on the A/C (our neighbors have had it on for a month) I would stop saying, "Don't touch me. Uck. Don't touch me. It's sticky. Don't touch me. Blech. Don't touch me."

Crawfish Boil!: The Boil was great fun, but for completely different reasons than I'd anticipated! We got some crawfish (or crawdads as I grew up calling them):

I discovered that peeling crawfish is like riding a bike... no matter how long it's been since you've done it, jump back in/on and you remember right away. Yum! They also had dark(ish) beer, Amber Bock, which was a big happy surprise for me. We'd paid a little bit for tickets to this shindig, so we were anticipating eating and drinking our fill and getting our money's worth. But the skies turned grey and the wind rolled in and pretty soon we were in a downpour, so we packed up and hoofed it back to the car. Luckily all was not for naught [I heart homophones]; Andrea's friend Elizabeth invited us back to her lovely condo to continue the festivities! She very generously treated us all to a deluxe wine-tasting of various lots of Cameron Hughes wine. Yum! I wish I would have taken a photo of the cheese tray... when she brought it out I thought, "Oh, right, like we're going to finish all that cheese!" Many bottles and many hours later we'd not only done so but also ordered pizza from a yummy Italian place! As if all this wasn't enough, Elizabeth's dad, Stephen, is a professional photographer who is generous with advice. He taught me a new way to hold my camera--what a dork am I that I didn't even have that right?--and gave me his e-mail address if I have any questions or want constructive criticism on any of my photos. Sah-weet! I'll definitely take him up on it once I start my photography class in July and know which questions to ask (ha ha!). So I guess in the end it was what I expected it to be... I said that I was expecting a "good food, good friends, good fun kind of day" and I guess that's exactly what we got!

Okay, this is fun. I'm going to go work on a project but I'll be back later. :)

Holy Productivity, Batman!

I woke up at 5:15 this morning when Jason got up and I couldn't get back to sleep (trust me, I tried) because of all the stuff bouncing around in my noggin. So I got out of bed and decided to make use of the two hours before my morning ritual of Crossing Jordan and due cappuccini. I really need to try this more often! I got a day's worth of chores done already AND am making homemade soup, and I have the whole beautiful guilt-free afternoon to work on a project I've been dying to try, yippee!

Still haven't sorted through my 25th Day photos... but that will be coming sometime this week.

For now, here is something SUPER COOL that I picked up in Portland last week:

And it has friends!

Tell me these aren't the coolest freakin' things you have seen in a long time. Go ahead, just try to tell me. 'Cause I just will not believe you. They are sah-weeeeeeet. I am torn between leaving them as they are, tearing out pages to use in other things, and decorating them as they are. I think for now I will leave them but you just never know. :) Don't they just make you want to scavenge books and break out your husband's jig saw?