Christmas 2009 Playlist

Needlework from Travieso

My awesome friend Travieso made us this awesome needle work as a wedding gift, but it took us forever to figure out to how to frame it! I ended up sewing black fabric around all four sides so it now has a fabric mat in the frame. You can't even tell when you look at it! Anyway, Travieso is so cool. He knows tons about astrology and he made us this artistic interpretation of our star charts combined into one. We love it! It is now displayed on the mantle above our fireplace.

Estate Sale Finds!

It's pretty amazing how many folks will turn up to an estate sale in the pouring rain. I found two super cool things to bring home. I got another pretty Pyrex to add to my collection towards my goal of having a turquoise and red kitchen and a cool old globe.

One Year of Marriage

Traditionally for your first anniversary you are supposed to give a gift made of paper and for once in my life I decided to be traditional. I got Alec this awesome custom portrait of us done by the totally awesome Ashley G.

We love it!

The Proust Questionnaire

Alec and I spent several evenings on the couch asking each other these questions. It was fun at home in the cold entertainment. I recommend it!

The Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Here is the basic Proust Questionnaire.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favorite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favorite writers?
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favorite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?

Willis - Word Up

We are getting closer and closer to our 1st wedding anniversary so I'm getting sentimental and nostalgic. The night we got engaged we were eating at a fancy restaurant in Chicago and this song came on. I asked our waiter what it was because it was the first song we heard (or paid attention to) after we got engaged and he wrote it down on a post it note for me. I never found it until now. I think it is hilarious that it is a cover of Cameo, but I like the way Willis covered the song.

Awesome Quilt Wedding Gift

Alec's cousin made us the most awesome and thoughtful wedding gift. I have been wanting to post pictures of it but a day of sunshine and my memory and schedule haven't coincided for awhile. Anyway, she made us a lap quilt in the colors we had for our wedding with a monogrammed message on the back along with a really cool red stripe for interest. I love the back just as much as the front. Just in time for cooler weather we have a blanket with style! We keep it on the back of the couch, but we never have any natural lighting indoors because we are surrounded by so many trees so I took it outside so you can see it better. I love love love it!






Thanks, cousin!

Life List

I made this list awehile back, but all of it still rings true and none of it has been accomplished.....the future looks fun!

1. Travel lots more, but that’s a separate list
2. Learn real photography
3. Master photoshop, lightroom, etc.
4. Sew myself a dress from a pattern (did it in 4th grade and never since)
5. Make a quilt from beginning to end all by myself
6. Expand my cooking skills
7. Make my recipe gathering process more organized and accessible by others
8. Figure out how I’m going to handle keeping up with photographs in the digital age. I used to make complicated photo albums in the film days. Now I almost never print pictures, and I’m just not sure what to do with them that works for my lifestyle.
9. Learn more HTML
10. Make a really weird exercise video on YouTube wearing a side ponytail, and possibly recruit my mother and mother-in-law to co-star in it with me
11. Live on a body of water
12. Walk the entire Lost Pines trail at Bastrop State Park (Texas)
13. Take my Mom on a trip, just the two of us.
14. Take more family trips with my parents and Alec’s too.
15. Someday I want to be the “cool” aunt that my nieces and nephews come visit for a week in the summer when they are older than they are now, but maybe not old enough to drive. That freaks me out.
16. Learn to re-upholster furniture so well that nobody would suspect I did it myself
17. Live outside Texas, even if it is temporary.
18. Learn to be a formatting genius using Excel.

Black and White Afghan

I wish I had time to learn to make this and actually make it.