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.

Kings of Convenience New Album!

YAY! I'm so excited they have a new album out! Alec and I saw them live the 1st time we hung out together as friends way back in 2005. They put on a super fun live show.

I've just returned from Nashville!

Lovely flight there:


Stayed in a crazy hotel that had a whole city underneath the large roof. When I say stayed in, I mean I never went outside!




Learned a TON. So exciting!



Spent time with awesome people (only some of which are pictured here):


Had an awesome flight home:

Men at Beach

This pattern was included along with some others I picked up at the thrift store. I have yet to convince Alec that this is the must wear outfit of the season. I think today might be a good day to start working on him though...

Tara McPherson embroidery patterns via Sublime Stitching

Jenny Hart is so awesome. I love Sublime Stitching. They rolled out four new patterns and I was so excited about the Tara McPherson patterns my little mouse starting clicking! Go check them out here!



Go check out Tara McPherson's website while you're at it. She is AMAZING!

Old lady chic

I love wearing my old lady chic clothing, but I never thought of putting them together in a polyvore style mashup. Here is attempt #1 using SAS classic shoes and an afghan jacket pattern I found at the thrift store.

FAME!

I went to see it tonight with my friends. It's what you would expect. The best part is that I didn't even go to a cool theater to see it but I still wore this:

20 Questions

I saw this over on FreckledNest and thought it looked fun.

Wanna play too? Answer these 20 questions on your blog (or just the q's you want to answer) and share a link to your 20q in the comments of this post :) Have fun :)




2. What's the last homecooking you had?

We made this pork loin with a blackberry sauce, green beans with parmesan, and baked beans (we like the beans around here!)



3. What do you miss? (no dead people please)

Since I'm so busy with school most of the time I miss a LOT of the things I used to be able to do when I had free time. I miss traveling more often


Believe it or not, I sometimes miss teaching. I loved seeing the joy of discovery on kiddos' faces. I also loved field trips and picture day and holidays with them!


I miss having dance parties with my awesome friend Eric:



4. What makes you laugh often?

here

5. What's your favorite word?

CAKE! I love the way the word feels in your mouth when you say it. I also love to eat it!

6. What are you trying to quit?

Stressing...

7. What's your favorite commercial right now?

We don't have TV, so the only commercials I see are movie previews online. This one looks so funny.



8. Whose style do you dig?

Masuimi Max and Bernie Dexter. These images from here





9. Link to a great blog you've discovered lately...

Mental Floss Blog

10. What's the last craft you made?

I made a quilt square for Janel's blogger BFF quilt.



11. A photo of the last happy mail you got :]

Alec bought me this shirt as a surprise/gift



12. Something you've got lately?

My new cousin Karen gave me a crochet hook so I can learn to make all kinds of cool things! I like crafts made with fabric and yarn because you end up with something that you can display or gift nicely.

13. What are you looking forward to?

Alec and I have a lot of anniversaries. We don't know exactly when we evolved from friends into dating so we arbitrarily decided it was the first time we ate at Arby's together. We joke that we owe it all to that delicious Arby's sauce. YUM! We call that one our Arby's anniversary and it is coming up on October 13th. Can you guess how we'll celebrate?



14. Post a recent snapshot of yourself.

I realized I don't have any recent snapshots of myself. I either need to recruit Alec to start taking more pictures or start taking them myself. This is from this summer. That's my awesome mother and my awesome husband there with me. I call this picture, "Hello our names are..."



15. Recent Favorite Movie?

I haven't really LOVED any movies I've seen recently and I often choose to watch streaming TV shows instead of movies lately due to the shorter time commitment. Anyway, we've been watching the IT Crowd and LOVE it! It is so hilarious!





17. If a movie were made about you, who would play you?

Ally Sheedy from Breakfast Club, of course.



18. What gives you goosebumps?

Stories about otherworldly events.

19. Share a new obsession.

Embroidery, sewing, crafting in general...whenever I get a moment!

20. What's the meaning of your life?

Being the nicest and best person I can be and inspiring others to be the same.

(So you can copy and paste it easy)
1. Show us the inside of something cute
2. What's the last homecooking you had?
3. What do you miss? (alive)
4. What makes you laugh often?
5. What's your favorite word?
6. What are you trying to quit?
7. What's your favorite commercial right now?
8. Whose style do you dig?
9. Link to a great blog you've discovered lately...
10. What's the last craft you made?
11. A photo of the last happy mail you got :]
12. Something you've got lately?
13. What are you looking forward to?
14. Post a recent snapshot of yourself.
15. Recent Favorite Movie?
16. Something you're working on right now?
17. If a movie were made about you, who would play you?
18. What gives you goosebumps?
19. Share a new obsession.
20. What's the meaning of your life?

Black Cab Sessions - Fleet Foxes

Awesome music in a bumpy ride.

More Living Room Upgrades - Record Player Time!

We always had the record player itself, but it stood on a different stand before. You may see the before picture here. This picture shows the old entertainment center and the old record player stand next to the TV. This picture was taken before one of the glass shelves mysteriously shattered while we weren't home. Thank goodness none of the heavy components were on that shelf! Anyway, my awesome friend Jana gave us this record player stand when she moved into a different house and Alec refinished it to match the entertainment center he built. The living room looks so much better and warmer now! I also love having our records alphabetized and accessible. Now I just need to make some cool dividers for them.

MAGIC

I wish I could find the full length version of this video. It makes me really happy, and my awesome friend Eric told me about it. He always has the magic.






I miss you, Eric!

New Desk!

I study ALL of the time so I sit at my desk TONS. My old desk, while cute, was not very ergonomic. Since I already have neck/shoulder/wrist issues I really needed to get something that allowed me more leg room to rotate my chair and a place to put my keyboard at a better height. I found this awesome used office supply store in Austin called Cox Office Furniture and they exceeded my expectations by a mile! They had tons of old really cool desks and other office supplies as well as newer stuff. I was in love with this All-steel tanker desk from the 50s but my goal was to get an articulating keyboard tray. The man who works there took the lap drawer off, put an articulating kayboard tray on and now I'm set to go with an awesome desk that is MUCH more comfortable than the old one! YAY!

Old Desk:


New Desk (shown here in an ad from retrooffice.com with the lap drawer still in place:



My actual desk with my ergonomic adjustments:
1) articulating keyboard holder
2) elevated laptop stand





Now I need to find a way to hide the cords that is compatible with a steel desk but still keeps my cords accessible for when my laptop is on the go. hmmm...

Maybe I also need a cool retro phone and/or typewriter.