So, how are we all feeling about it? Everybody say, "YEAHHHHHHHHH!"
This is my somewhat thrown-together version of the Pastel Marley hat from Itty Bitty Hats. I think it turned out OK. But, if this project has taught me anything, it's that often random-seeming stripes or texture sequences need a little planning to achieve the right look. Next time I think I'll follow the pattern.
One thing I love about summer is the Farmer's Market and fresh produce. When I was young we would go visit my grandparents in rural Georgia during the summer. Granny was a fantastic cook and favored tried and true southern food. I remember snapping peas on the cement carport, and walking down to her catfish pond to catch, and then prepare and fry up our dinner. I also remember shucking corn and using a scrub brush to get off all the "silks," the filaments that are inside the husks and sometimes cling to the cobb. I thought of her this weekend when I got some fresh corn and prepared it. Maybe a bit more work than the canned variety, but SO good!
Last Saturday I went out to a Lindy Hop dance. It's a swing dance similar to the West Coast swing I usually prefer, but a lot more energetic. A few years ago I thought about brushing up on it, but the timing wasn't right--I had just gotten off a dance team and wanted to put more energy into non-dancing activities for a while. Now I've had my break, usually only dancing once or twice a month, and I'm eager to go out more frequently and learn something new. So with more than a little excitement I prepared for a night out at a new place. The dance code tends to range from super casual, especially with the well-represented college set, to heavily 1940s inspired. For a big event guys have been known to show up in vintage WWII uniforms, and the girls in print dresses with pin curled hair.
So I did a little research, mostly on hair and makeup from the period.
After road testing some swept up rolls, I went with a simple (and
heavily bobby-pinned) style with the back brushed out and rolled on a
jumbo curling iron. Makeup then was pretty simple: pale and heavily
powdered face, clean eye makeup with a strong line of black liner, and
a defined mouth, usually a shade of red. Normally a lipgloss girl, I
was a little concerned about my mouth full of red lipstick migrating
all over my face. Following instructions from a movie makeup site, I
did a multi-step process that involved prepping with chapstick, lining
the entire lip with a matching lip liner, a thin layer of loose powder,
a layer of lipstick, blotting and then powdering, followed by another
layer of lipstick. And I'm here to tell ya, those red lips were
bulletproof, people. I went, I danced, I sweated, my hair fuzzed and I
pulled it back with an elastic.....but when I got home, the lips were still red. Our grandmothers clearly knew a thing or two about looking sexy, whether they were working in a factory as a Rosie the Riveter or welcoming their soldiers home in a housedress. Next project: asking Grandma Parker to help me with finger waves.
In my never ceasing quest to keep my little bachelorette pad streamlined and organized, The Stash has resided in several different locations. There were the under-bed storage containers, plastic bins in the closet, and most recently, jumbo Ziploc XL bags. The biggest problem was access: digging through the bags or through layers to find what I needed, when I needed it. That and the lack of being able to scan over the entire contents of what I have.
After recently getting rid of a round pappasan chair and acquiring a sewing desk from my sister, I had a bit of room in the corner next to a bookcase. Using that space for a stash storage option seemed like a wise choice. Between that and a chair, it was an easy decision: company can sit on the floor, by golly--the stash can't.
Having already pilfered Steph's IKEA catalog, I had a good idea of what I wanted. Mom had been wanting to go to IKEA since the store opened, and still had not been, so it was also a great excuse for a mother-daughter outing. We had fun, and my first choice from the catalog looked perfect on display at the store. I got it, loaded it into Mom's minivan, and took it home.
Once I put it together and added the glass door I encountered a problem: due to either the heaviness of the door of uneven flooring, the unit was pitching forward. Uugh. I tried wedging some of the cardboard from the packaging underneath the front edge, but it didn't seem sturdy enough, and didn't really give enough height, anyway.
Like most shelves, it comes with the hardware to secure it to the wall. But due to where it was sitting, in a corner, the back wasn't flush against the wall. The sides weren't against either a wall or the other bookshelf, either, so it couldn't be bolted to anything for support.
Having already committed to helping my sister today, I knew I'd be driving up to Wade Green Road, so I decided to stop off at Home Depot on the way. There were multiple options, but I ended up getting some small plastic knobs that are nailed on, ideally to make furniture easier to slide around. A set of 4 was less than $1, and once distributed across the front edge of the unit, steadied it nicely.
Now my only challenge is figuring out how the HECK to get ALL the stash squished into the thing.
(Early prediction: ain't gonna happen!)
Received via email today.....enjoy!
Too many people put off
something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about
it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are
too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about
all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that
fateful night in an effort to 'cut back the calories'. From then on,
I've tried to be a little more flexible!!
How many women out there will
eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner
until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration'
mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped
in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Who wants to be a
millionaire' on television?
I cannot count the times I
called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?'
She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My
hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It
looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a
few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because we cram so much into our
lives, we tend to even schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet
of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We'll go back and visit the
grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we
replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we
get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating
as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to
ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show
for our live s is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday,
when things are settled down a bit.'
When anyone calls my 'seize the
moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She
keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious.
You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad
feet for a pair of roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched ice
cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well
apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the
digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a
triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would
have died happy.
Now.......go on and have a nice day.
Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If
you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Have you ever watched kids
playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the
ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun
into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you
ask 'How are you?' do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie
in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever
told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his
sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say
'Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away. ...
Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
'Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!
Tagged by KateyJ....
The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the "named" people's blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you've been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go!
1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Living in a condo in Austell with two girlfriends, working as an Asst Office Manager. The company sold air filtration systems for shooting ranges, and I got to attend the NRA convention at the Congress Center that year and meet Steven Tyler and Lou Ferrigno (the original Hulk). I had just started learning to partner dance at Cowboys in Kennesaw, with a guy named Michael who always wore a ballcap backwards, and I was out there 3 nights a week.
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
Target shooting at the range....already done. Really should clean and oil the guns before I put them away--we'll see about that. Invited to go shop with girlfriends at Lennox, but don't want to be tempted to spend....might skip this. Work on photography website and blog. Clean out dishwasher. Glower at evil wireless router still sitting here mocking me. (Lightbulb: call Sherrie about router!)
3. Snacks I enjoy:
On a healthy day: Wasa crackers with peanut butter, yellow apples, granola bars, baby carrots with hummus. On an impulse snacking day: crackers with cheese slices, anything sweet I can find in the house, multiple granola bars in one sitting. On a REALLY bad day: large quantities of chocolate, ice cream, wine
4. Places I've lived:
Charleston, South Carolina (1973-1974)
Birmingham, Alabama(1974-1975)
Lexington, South Carolina(1975-1980)
Chattanooga, TN (1980-1993)
Powder Springs, Georgia (1993-1996)
Austell, Georgia (1996-1997)
Lithia Springs, Georgia (1997-1998)
Dunwoody, Georgia (1998-1999)
Marietta, Georgia (1999- )
5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Immediately pay off my car, credit card, and student debt. Invest like crazy. Set up college funds for my nephews. Set aside "just in case" funds for my sister and my parents. Donate to my church, Hope From Heaven, and Make a Wish Foundation.
Go somewhere in the Bahamas, rent a house and a boat and spend the rest of the summer in a bikini and a sarong. Plan my future trips to Italy and Australia. Buy a ton of awesome camera equipment.
The rules say I have to tag 5 people now. I think everybody has done this now, so I'm going to wuss out and not tag anyone else. :)
OK, it just really amused me to title this blog "Fiber." It is, actually, somewhat about fiber, I swear. But still...
So the fiber I'm talking about is the kind that goes into the mouth and through the gut. We all need it, we all know we need it, but it's not high on anyone's list to discuss. That's not quite as much the case these days due to the winds of change blowing through the dieting community. Now everyone is waking up to the fact that fiber is not only good for old people with digestive issues, but plays a part in GI health for all of us, especially those attempting to eat healthier and/or lose weight. There's probably not a woman alive who doesn't feel at least of twinge of alarm at the beginning of the summer swimsuit season. Thus the googling of weight loss and exercise options and the pantry purging of the junk food. For me, good intentions can only take me so far. I DETEST feeling hungry or deprived. (Those of you who have witnessed my visceral excitement over pizza, ANY pizza, can attest to this) I've tried, people....I have. The food journals, the South Beach, the cleanses, those ridiculous one-square-of cheese diets--nothing ever lasts long. Besides, like most sane people, I realize that healthy eating and maintaining one's weight really needs to be more of a lifestyle change than a white-knuckled multi-week endeavor each summer.
Being on a tight budget these days, I've been trying to find the most economical options. But finding options to put decent quantities of food and drink in my mouth, feel good about it, and on a budget....those are hard to come by. So I felt pretty jazzed by my haul at Big Lots the other day. Here are two options, specifically designed to up the fiber quota and help keep you feeling satisfied. Good for your gut function, too, of course. And CHEAP!
Having recently tried the Special K powdered drink in Tea flavor (BLECK!!), I was only semi-hopeful about this. But it was YUMMY! (This is what I was guzzling in my water bottle at WWKIPD, by the way)
Then there are these crackers. Living alone, I have a hard time getting through a loaf of bread before it starts becoming questionable. A lot of snack crackers are just empty calories, and not that healthy, or economical. But these crackers are crispy and satisfying, and stay good a long time in an airtight container. With a generous dollop of peanut butter, they give me a little protein and fat to tide me over.
Happy snacking!!
With all the router drama going on the last few days, I almost forgot to say something about this past weekend.
Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day, and several of our LYS had events. I had another event in the morning I had to attend first, the second annual motorcycle ride in memory of my friend Loren Lilly. Loren was a Cobb County Sheriff's Deputy, newlywed, and all-around great guy who was killed in an accident on his way to work in December of 2006. The first ride to benefit one of his favorite charities (Hope From Heaven) was last April, only a few months after his passing. Another year has passed, and although the feelings are still there, the rawness of emotion was more manageable. (Translation: I wasn't fighting tears all morning)
His widow Jamie was in good spirits, and very excited to ride her new bike. The turnout was HUGE, even bigger than last year. The civilian riders lined up in the Chattahoochee Tech parking lot across the street, leaving the Earl Small's Harley lot for registration, socializing, and the Cobb County uniformed riders who arrived just before the ride. Once Loren's goddaughter Summer sang the national anthem and Loren's pastor prayed to bless our ride, they were off. Jamie and her stepdad Harlan led off, just behind the Honor Guard.
When compared to daily life in a third world country, or say, Iraq, my life is pretty good. I have a lot to be thankful for, I know. But then there are some days, days when just nothing is simple, everything seemingly is wrong, and even relatively simple tasks are hard. Some days, just suck.
Yesterday was one of those days. After purchasing a wireless router over the weekend to enable both my desktop computer and my new laptop to access the internet in my home, a friend who was moving gave me one she still had in the box. So the router I purchased can now be returned, saving me money. Yeah.
Supposedly, everything I needed was in the box, including a CD to guide me through the installation. Uh-huh. In the same way "You can't miss it" almost insures getting lost, a CD to guide the consumer through a simple installation almost guarantees complications. Like many people, I can hang with computer stuff and lingo, until the scenario gets complicated and things NOT addressed by the handy installation CD begins occurring. So I did what anyone would do: I called a friend who speaks computer. Her name is Sherrie, and she is a woman of extreme patience and understanding. We're talking, she had to first clarify terminology, so that when I was hysterically describing plugging the blue wire with the squarish plug into "the box thing", she knew what she was dealing with. It sounded something like, "So going forward, we're going to refer to the black box that is the Comcast Cable Modem as the.....modem, and the D-Link Router box as the.....router. Got it?"
Unfortunately, due to forces beyond anyone's immediate control, our efforts did not meet with success. Here's what the ugly scene looked like in the thick of things...
What you are about to see is not a cell phone training class, a technology demo, or a scene from your local T-Mobile store. No, this is what happens when a group of woman, normally united by love of fiber arts, engage in a feverish discussion about cell phones.
By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil Show, you too can find inner peace.
Dr Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have
started and have never finished."
So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and
hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished
off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's
Irish Cream, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old
Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of
chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.
