delight in life

thanksgiving week 2011: wednesday

Today I was so grateful to see my friends Molly and Hiram. They live two hours from my parents' house, and they have a three-week old baby. (Plus an adorable two-year old.) I'm so so glad we had an opportunity to visit for a few hours. I'm even more thankful that in less than 2 months, they're moving to the DC area!! Getting to see them more than twice a year is SUCH a happy thought.

thanksgiving week 2011: tuesday

Today I am grateful for the miracle of human flight and beautiful fall weather.

thanksgiving week 2011: monday

Today, I am grateful for my cat Oscar. We found out recently he has a kidney stone which can be very serious in male cats, but so far he seems to be fine, except for some pain that is making him grumpy. I'm so thankful that it hasn't been more serious (or expensive). (Knock on wood.) And I'm grateful that we are able to leave him behind in the care of a pet sitter while we go out of town without too much worry. For a while, we thought we might have to bring him with us, which is not fun for him and a bit of a pain for us.

He's my little buddy, never far from my side, always getting into things and driving me crazy. I'm relieved and grateful that it seems we've still got many years together.

embroidery

I recently started a little embroidery project, and I have really been enjoying it. I bought a little kit on Etsy a few weeks ago that came with everything required: a small hoop, thread, needles, a pre-printed pattern, and a brief how-to on some of the different stitches.

I've embroidered little notes on a few of my quilts before and while they ended up legible, they're certainly not skilled, by any means. I've been wanting to learn ever since I started doing that. The kit came with simple instructions, but I found the website Needle 'n' Thread incredibly useful. Detailed steps on loads of different stitches and lots of video tutorials (which I found the most helpful).

So far I've really enjoyed this project! It's a great simple thing to do when I'm in between projects -- or waiting for my sewing machine to be repaired. I'll probably bring it with me next week when we go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving.

hi monday

I spent the weekend working on various craft projects, most of them Christmas gift related. My favorite thing I started was decorating some mugs with a porcelain pen, like here. The project definitely requires a steady hand and I'm still trying to figure out some more patterns that look cool with a slightly shaky freehand line, as opposed to sloppy.

On the frustrating side, I had to take my sewing machine back into the doctor on Saturday, for the same problem that they fixed just two months ago. I'm not sure what keeps going wrong; I hope it's not something I'm doing! I have lots of sewing that has to be finished soon so I'm eager to have it back and good as new.

On Sunday, Chris had a band concert, one of the first he's had in a long while, almost as long as he's been out of school. I was happy to go see it. I love band music and have missed getting to hear it (and play it too, but that's another story).

feeling a little homesick

I've been missing home lately. It's been a while since the whole fam was together, but I am so so happy we are all going to be there for Thankgiving! Chris and I are flying in for a week, my youngest sister is coming in from Oregon for a week, and my middle sister lives in town but hardly has to work at all!

To help quell my excitement, I went all kindergarten on the situation and made a paper chain to count down the days. Stuck it right up there with my silly Rose Tyler banner, and I think it looks pretty festive! Even if the banners do pull my picture frames crooked.
 
14 days. 

quilt...7?

I'm losing track of the numbers.

 Happy Friday!

new books!

Apparently November 1 is a good day for book releases. Three books that I had pre-ordered on Amazon were delivered Tuesday, which was perfect timing. When I get sad, I'm usually tempted to go shopping and buy things I might not need. But I didn't have to go shopping Tuesday because I'd already done the shopping, months ago! I just got to reap the pre-paid rewards from the UPS truck. 

The three books were Menagerie by Sharon Montrose, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling, and Food Rules: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan and illustrated by Maira Kalman. 

Menagerie is a collection of photographs by the internet's favorite animal photographer, and it's beautiful. I have one of her prints on our wall and will definitely find reasons to buy more someday. I kind of have a thing for animal portraits; I also own (and love) Creature by Andrew Zuckerman.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is, obviously, Mindy Kaling's new book, which I've been dying to read ever since she announced it last year. The lady's hilarious. She's my favorite writer on The Office, one of the funniest people on Twitter, and I will read everything she writes from now till the end of time.

Food Rules is Michael Pollan's Cliff Notes version of his much longer The Omnivore's Dilemma -- another book I read and loved. But the real reason I purchased it is because this edition is illustrated by Maira Kalman, whose work I adore. (I also highly recommend And The Pursuit of Happiness, her illustrated and delightful history of the United States.) I'm looking forward to being inspired by her drawings.

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Bonus round! I've also recently read:

Steve Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson. Very, very interesting.

Pawnee, The Greatest Town in America by Leslie Knope. The writers of Parks and Recreation, the greatest show in America, wrote this book (Leslie Knope is the main character) about the town the show is set in and it is hilarious.

Emma by Jane Austen. I didn't actually recently read this, but I did recently buy the Penguin Threads edition. Have you seen these? They are re-publishing a few classic books with intricately embroidered covers, by Jillian Tamaki. They're gorgeous. And the way it's printed, it really looks and feels like the real embroidery.The inside of the cover is even printed with the underside of the fabric, the "wrong" side of the embroidery. Very cool. I love Emma so I had to get it. Hope they do a Pride and Prejudice cover as well!

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Whew! This turned into a long post. Lots of book recommendations, if you're into that sort of thing. If you're not, well, sorry. Come back tomorrow. :)

 

whoa, hi

Remember when I used to have a blog? Yeah, I almost forgot too. But hey, I remembered and here I am. 

Sooo, last time we talked it was halfway through October and I was working on some goals, as usual. You might not be surprised if I tell you that I lost focus a little bit. I did apply to a few jobs, not 5, but 3. I had one great interview, but unfortunately I found out yesterday that I did not make it to the final round. I did make it to the top ten (of 117 applicants!), which is nice to hear, but nonetheless I am pretty disappointed to be out of the running for this job. I was really excited about it.

Oh well. Onward. I'm still waiting to hear on the other jobs I applied to, and will obviously continue to search for interesting openings.

As far as the other October goals go, we did hang those curtains and I have been loving fall. Last weekend we got a little taste of winter when it snowed! If we were still in Texas I would have called it a bonafide blizzard, but something tells me it was just a preview of what's to come in a few months. I'm ok if fall sticks around for a few more weeks.

For November, I don't have any "official" goals. I have a few sewing projects in the works, a few more I'd like to get in the works, one batch of homemade t-shirts to put together for an epic family event in a few weeks, and a trip home for Thanksgiving. Plus that pesky job search. Oh, and it's about time to start thinking about Christmas gifts and plans and decorations. Lots to focus on. Time to get started!