And we're BACK!

It has been ages since I've written anything here. My apologies to those of you that still faithfully visit every day to stay for .015 seconds and see that I have yet to write anything new.

Whew, so my fall was busy. How about yours?

So where to begin...we last ended with our puff paint adventure, which I think was quite a hit in general. I decided against wearing my homemade sweatshirt to my work's holiday party, but did sport Gina's flashing Christmas light necklace. Much of the surrounding time is a blur, but I was able to relax a bit at my parent's house over the holidays. Here are some of the highlights:

• Christmas Eve dinner (lasagna and Caesar salad, tradition at our house)
• Christmas Day! (shirt from Honey, gingerbread with lemon sauce for breakfast, usual feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, swiss green beans - NOT your canned soup variety!!, apricot salad, and many, many pies)
• World's quickest trip to Austin to see Ginger, Ebony, and of course the baby Daniel, who is still very chubby and still very adorable
• New Year's Eve dinner with Sarah here, which is super duper cute and needs to be revisited for game night (food was fab too...buffalo chicken mac and cheese!)
• Generally hanging with all those people (mostly my family, official and honorary) that I miss the most when I'm here

I'm seriously looking forward to starting afresh this year, not so much with the resolutions, but more of a change in my mindset. Being healthier, being better to myself as far as my time is concerned, and so on and so forth. Most of these ideas aren't really concrete beyond having a smoothie each morning (fruit! and yogurt!), so I won't write at length just yet :). But at the very least, here are my goals for the next few weeks, more as a reminder to myself than anything else:

• Visit the Corcoran to use that exhibition ticket I bought back in July before it expires, and try to hit one museum around here a month (I mean, they're mostly free! What am I hung on, exactly?)
• Finish my jewelry holder project in addition to a few hats and scarves for folks that just couldn't get done before Christmas
• Hang up the window things I bought for our bathroom shower window (and burn the current blinds that are disgusting and collect mildew like its their job, and dance around the bonfire)
• Attend at least one ballet class a week (I was actually doing okay with this until I got some sort of coughing malaise in the fall, and then the busy hit)
• Read more. Of everything.

There are probably more that I should write, but they're still forming out there in the nethersphere so I'll ponder them a bit longer, if you don't mind.

Oh, and

• I will try to update the blog more consistently. Smooches!

Yeah, I KNOW, okay?

So a few of you have hinted that I've been more than remiss in posting the photos...which is totally true. I feel like I have perfectly good reasons for taking my time that I don't really need to explain - suffice to say, I am a busy girl that is looking forward to holidays. Holidays in which there will be no freaking soap orders to fill, or cookies to bake, or laundry to put away...all of that. Without further ado:

My sweatshirt, unworn:

Gina, posing:

Group shot, where you get my full ensemble.

Despite all the puff paint work, I think the furry Target socks are actually the highlight, no? Wella the puppy dog is clearly amazed at our holiday spiritedness. Note that my tinsel collar lasted about 15 minutes until the itchiness wasn't worth the kitsch factor at all.

I hope they lived up to the hype :).

Party Like it's 1985

So as you may have gathered elsewhere, Gina and I have embarked on a lesser known (these days, anyway) art form known as "puff paint." Now, we didn't just take this up as a hobby (but truly, I spend enough time at the craft store trolling for yarn that it's not all that far out as a possibility), but because we are invited to an after-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Party/Ugly Holiday Sweater Party. We tried to just buy some hideously Christmasy sweaters at Kmart, but alas, they weren't out yet. Kandi later informed me that they would be out after Thanksgiving had passed, or at least that's when her mother buys them. So file that away for future reference.

Anyway, since I do spend a decent amount of time at the craft store, and was the proud owner of many a puff paint sweatshirt in grade school, I decided that this was the best route for the both of us. And boy, was I right. Turns out, Gina and I are puff paint artistes. Which is actually rather tragic, because there is really nothing less useful than to be good at puff painting a shirt. I mean, of all the things to have been innately good at, I probably would have gone with something else. Like the violin, or maybe oil painting, or even tap dancing...but I digress.

All this is to say, the shirts are in progress, and pictures will be posted. I just have to sew the tinsel trim on, and mine's all finished. Yes, you read correctly. I challenge anyone to come up with a more awfully cheesy Christmas sweatshirt than Gina or myself. Gauntlet, thrown.

It's Tuesday, But I Want it to Be Friday

And not just in that "I'm so done with work and wish the week were already over" sort of way (even though that's a little true as well...).

Here are the lovely activities I have to look forward to this upcoming weekend:

Arlington Library Book Sale! I limit myself to $20, and usually walk away with a sack full of books. I know it's uber-nerdy of me to be so into it, but if the books were not on shelves, but in a big pile on the floor, I would probably roll around in them, because they are THAT EXCITING.

Dupont Circle Farmer's Market! Not for shopping mind you, I will be selling this super smelling soap. I don't exactly know why I'm so into farmer's markets anyway, but the thought of working at one is a whole other level of happy. Plus there's the added bonus of taking a twenty minute break and buying all of my fresh veggies and fruits for the week.

And then there's also sleeping, which is going to be exciting too.

**EDIT: There's also Crafty Bastards, featuring stuff from Joi!

This is getting way out of control

Okay, so I know I mentioned a little while ago that I started crocheting, and have yet to post any sort of photographic evidence to that effect. However, that does not mean that I haven't been making things. Lots of things. Some things are completed, some are mostly finished but lacking one last little touch for them to be totally done (i.e. those Christmas slippers I made for all of you guys...), some are just started, and others I just have big plans for. The list currently includes: slipper add-ons, two baby blankets, a wrap, a sweater, and a throw blanket. And that's only what I could think of off the top of my head.

In addition to the crocheting, I also am trying to learn how to knit. Sort of slow going in the very literal sense: crochet is much more instant gratification because it progresses really fast, and I'm realizing that I'm a very instant gratification kind of girl (reference any past shopping posts, if you doubt this!). So far I have about two squares of a scarf, and I haven't had any huge gaping holes in these squares, so at least that's progress from anything else I've tried to knit.

Then a friend gave me a lamp base (i.e. a lamp with no shade), and any sane person would just go buy a new shade. But me? I thought, "I will make a shade! With beads! Melted beads!" So I then began this process of melting beads in my oven in a muffin tin and then remelting the circles together to form a sheet that forms one side of a square lamp cover. I ran out of beads about halfway through, so I'll finish the rest of it later. It's going to be so awesome when it's done though, probably around this time next year, given my current rate of progress.

Most recently I was reading about people who make homemade soap, and as I am addicted to all things bath product, I am already thinking about jumping on that bandwagon. There may be an outside hook-up with this activity though, so I won't have to also do this in our kitchen. I'm hoping anyway.

But just imagine, if I actually become good at any of this stuff, many of you are going to be on the receiving end of some kick-ass presents!

A New(ish) Hobby

It's all Joi's fault, really. She (and her many crafty friends) are always making cute things and posting photos on their websites, and it makes me want to make stuff. There's also this side of me that really wants to make things that are tangible and do not deal with Microsoft Office in any way, shape or form. So when I went to visit Joi this summer, she taught me some basics of crochet. And then I went and bought a book, and now, in November, there is yarn all over my freakin' apartment (with apologies to Gina, who is a very nice and understanding roommate).

All of this is to say that, if I can get my act in gear, I might from time to time, show you guys stuff I'm making. So now you are forewarned. Also, this has led to conversations with other people who also do things with yarn (i.e. knit and/or crochet...there's a difference! I'm learning something new all the time!), so notice a new link to the right, so you can go and ogle the pretty things Ava makes as well.