113 posts from 2008

A new muse has come into my life and gone for sale on my Etsy Store.  She is Leilu, lover of beauty and dragonfly faerie.

Leilu

She's totally hand sewn and made without a pattern, so there will only ever be one Leilu in this world.  Her clothes and hair gave me no amount of stress, let me tell you.  From start to finish I probably clocked more than 12 hours in making her.  I'm charging way, way less for her than I should, but she's my first to sell and I have these... problems with charging what I should for my hourly rate.  I hope she finds a good desk to sit on and someone to inspire.

Isn't she PRETTY?

So...  Over the past week I've written a series of posts I'm moderately proud of, and those posts have had a mixed bag of results.  At some point I realized that I'd kind of given up linking from Vox and I thought, oh, geez, I probably should link, you know, because, well...

You guys are awesome, and I'd like to hear your responses.  So here are the posts:
Perfect Love-  A bit about that phrase, "perfect love casts out all fear"
"normal"-  Because, honestly, what does that word mean?  And do we want normalcy?  I don't.
I love you. You're going to BURN IN HELL-  because the tone of the phrase belies the words "I love you."  Seriously.
Being some things to some people- because being ALL things to ALL people is a lot to ask, but we can TRY.
God's mercy, God's wrath- It's worth noting that I'm not a scholar, so this post may be totally wrong, but I suspect I'm at least partially right.

Anyway, if those who are interested would hop on over and let me know what you think, I'd be much obliged!

And while you're bouncing around the internets, check out Harlot's Sauce, and e-magazine.  I contribute!

I stole this from Cori because I'm apparently totally unoriginal right now:

The Instructions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

me in 12000 words

Hm.  It's very... pink.

emily sears- it's your birthday!

I hope today is a reflection not on all of the failed attempts and years that you wish you could replay, but instead a celebration of all of the beauty and wonder you've managed to grasp.  You are truly like the big sister to my soul, so much that I aspire to be and can only hope I will manage to grow into.  You know how to make an awesome lunch, you've the stubbornness to cook down a great chicken stock, you fill your home with warmth and art and beauty, you've managed to birth an unthinkable amount of kids and still look absolutely stunning, you're smart and tasteful and classy (with a c, not a k)!

You deserve to be celebrated, dear.  I hope you are.

1. If you start feeling ill right before a long weekend, don't wait it out.
2. If you have sinus trouble that suddenly starts bothering your ears, don't think ridiculous things like "maybe my ears are tougher than my sinuses".  They probably aren't.
3. When the Nurse on Call says, "treat your throat with an antiseptic spray" and you don't want to go to CVS and your husband and kids are also sick and you're left wondering what to do, try peppermint schnapps.  Really.  It works.
4. Swabbing out the inside of your eyelids will probably remind you of some gruesome horror movie.  Saying "blood, blood, death, death!" probably will freak someone out, though, so don't.
5. Do not look in the mirror and think of what a good zombie you'd make.  Especially at three in the morning.  This will either freak you out or depress you, or make you behave like an ass.
6.  Don't ever, ever, ever get in a fight with your spouse or kids about who is sickest.  Even if you are sickest.
7. For whatever reason, everyone at the urgent care clinic will act ungodly happy and will piss you off.  It's best not to let on about that, though, because obviously they know you are sick or you wouldn't be in the chair sobbing and saying, "I HURT.  EVERYWHERE."
8.  If you've been in the same clothes for four days and can't remember the last time you bathed, just because YOU don't realize you smell doesn't mean you don't.  You probably stink and have just adjusted to that fact.
9. Applesauce has a distinct texture.
10. When the nurse says "don't eat or drink anything with citric acid" you will suddenly learn that EVERY BEVERAGE has citric acid.  Peppermint schnapps is still good.
11.  Randomly screaming "I hate everything" may be cathartic- that is, until someone takes it personally.
    

Since emily sears reintroduced Death is Not an Option, I thought I'd reintroduce my own game.  And since she changed format, I thought I would to likewise.  So, DxO 2.0, this is CHIA 2.something-or-other!

Would you rather-

1. Be married to the most attractive man you'd ever seen (if he was not smart), or the most intelligent (if he was not pretty)?
2. Be able to eat bacon all day long, or chocolate?
3. Live in the tropics in a shanty, or in the tundra in a mansion?
4. Be able to fly or have super-strength?
5. Be a superhero or a god/goddess?
   

My husband just sent me a text saying that his work (a factory) is going to four long days a week instead of five eight hour days, to help the employees save on gas.

Oh, sure, everything's fine.  The common man isn't getting pinched into oblivion.  The middle class isn't eroding.  Look at the statistics, our gross national profit is going up!  There are less people on unemployment!  Everything will be fine!  Only our gross national profit includes everything from hospital fees to collections- so does it really tell us anything of value about how our economy is doing?  And as for people going off of unemployment- you're booted off automatically after six months.  So do we really know that all of those people got jobs?

God.  I am so sick to my stomach right now.

I'm planning on visiting my grandma either today or tomorrow if she answers the phone (she doesn't always answer when she's quilting and the phone is in the other room).  I guess I'll be walking.

Somebody's got to stop using all the gas.  Might as well be me.

Today I went for a jog.

I know, there are gongs sounding and everyone is cowering in awe.  Ra, ra, me!  I went for a jog! 

But despite the fact that it seems like an inconsequential thing, it means a lot to me.  I actually put on my shoes, and I ran somewhere.  I did this deliberately.  I am taking care of myself.  I've been noticing lately that my overall stamina is shot, and once I pushed myself with a fast pace for the jog I realized that my lung capacity is just shot.  Two blocks, and my diaphragm was aching.  My lungs and throat burned.  I could feel those weird "I'm exhausted" tears in the corner of my eye.

So I played a game with myself.  I told myself that if my legs (not lungs) were tired when I passed the next tree, or next house, or next road, I'd slow down.  Fortunately for me my legs are far stronger than the rest of me.  So I told myself to not be a wimp.  I was stronger than a little burning.  I was stronger than a weak lung capacity.  So I kept going, and I kept going, until right before that point where you know that there is absolutely no way you can keep moving.

And then I didn't stop.  I just slowed down.

And despite the fact that right now I still have that wobbly feeling in my gut, I feel good.

Because I'm marginally stronger than I was this morning.  As my body goes through the process of healing and being pushed, healing and being pushed, healing and being pushed, I will continue to grow stronger.  I will become more flexible.

And while it sucks compared to maybe staying at home and catching up on Reaper, it's good.  My forty year old self will thank my twenty five year old self for not being a wimp.

Ra, ra, me.  I went for a jog.

I also made rhubarb crumble.  And now I will eat some.

Tonight is awesome.  Boring, but awesome.