Sometimes

Sometimes all you need to create is a pencil, some blank paper, a spare piece of floor, and pineapple.

It’s a wonderful thing, because I still haven’t even started to tackle the gigantic mess that is my craft space. I have my reasons, which I’ll explain soon, but right now, I’m off to watch tonight’s glee…

A bit about my (messy) Craft Space

When I was in highschool, my English teacher was Sister Michelle. To discuss papers, one had to go to the convent. When she opened the door, she always said ”‘Will you step into my parlour?’ said the spider to the fly.” She was quoting this poem, but it was still a bit creepy. My basement craft space, which I refer to as “The Craft Dungeon” reminds me of Sister Michelle and her words. 

It’s the most secluded space in my parent’s house and I don’t really enjoy being there. The truth is, I usually craft as fast as I can and then leave the place a mess, because staying down there the extra ten to fifteen minutes to clean it up, isn’t worth it. But then I never want to craft there because it’s so messy! It’s a Catch 22.

I’m not getting another crafting space anytime soon and I realize that I’m lucky to have a crafting space at all, especially one as big as what I’ve got. Since one of my resolutions for this year is to continue to strengthen my creative muscles, I need to embrace this space, and make it somewhere I want to be. So my goal is to reorganize, brighten, and personalize this space by the end of January.

This is going to be a big, big, task. I don’t think these photos do the space justice. It is a disgusting mess; I am a hoarder of craft supplies. I’ve been known to set out to clean the space and really end up crafting instead.

Some concrete things I want to do to improve the Craft Dungeon:1. Take down my highschool paintings. 2. Create a coffee can organizer shelf for my yarn. 3. Clean/ cover the nasty desk. 4. Move/ throw out the nasty white leather love seat no one ever sits on. 5. Create an Inspiration Board. 6.Make bundting to brighten the room, but change out as I please. 7. Throw away old stuff, so I can make more storage space. 8. Use containers to store things 9. Designate a place for my computer. 10. Create a space specifically for photographing things. 11. Make/buy a black board to list what I’m currently working on.   12. Designate a spot for the sewing machine to stay at all times. 13. Petition to remove the cat’s litter box from the basement.

I’m sure I’ll think of more things I want to do as I go. It’s really bad guys! It stifles my creativity instead of sparking it, and that’s got to change. I want everything to have a place and a purpose. I don’t want to have to dig out something (like the sewing machine) in order to use it. If it’s easily accessible, it’s more likely to be used. One of the other things that has to happen is I’ve got to stop buying craft supplies and use what I have because seriously, I have boxes and bags and drawers full of stuff.

I’m hoping to work on it A LOT this weekend, and over the next week so maybe I’ll have some “after” pictures by next Friday. I’m not making any promises though. It’s bad.

Anyone have any craft-space inspiration to send my way? Any advise on making a finished basement with absolutely NO natural light, feel light and airy?  I can use all the help I can get.

Resolution Theme 1: To Get Healthy(er)

One theme within the goals circling my brain for the coming year is to get healthier. I witnessed my grandma’s health decline over the past year and in the end pancreatic cancer over took her in December. My other grandmother, my Nonna, who was hit my a car while riding her bike in October, has been steadily recovering because of her strength and her health (and sheer determination).  These two experiences have reaffirmed the value of health. I’m not all that unhealthy, but there is definitely a lot more I could be doing to improve my health.

 

 I complain a lot about little ailments; extremely dry/itchy skin on Monday, a headache on Tuesday, a belly ache on Wednesday, and hangnail on Thursday, hair loss on Friday and so on. Jon told me he thinks I might be a hypochondriac*. There is some truth to his statement. A few weeks ago, I woke up and tried to sit up four times, but kept getting dizzy and needing to lay back down. My conclusion; brain tumor. In reality it was probably just a case of dehydration or a cold symptom. I never went to the doctor but I am pretty sure I’m ok. Another reason I want to improve my health, is I’m in tune with body enough to know when something isn’t right and a trip to the doctor is warranted. Please note, I really hate going the to the doctor as well. Webmd is this hypochondriac’s best friend. (Until my one of my actual besties finishes Med school, Just kidding, sort of.)

 

There are two aspects in which I plan to improve my health. One of them is exercise. Truthfully, exercise is something I stopped doing about 2 years ago and I want to get back into it. But I don’t want to do it with the intention to lose weight (Although I need to do that in order to get healthier; my switch from chasing two-year-olds around to sitting at a desk all day has not helped around my mid-section) I don’t want to exercise to lose weight because in the past I’ve become obsessed and I hate to place so much stock in the scale’s number. I want to exercise so I can be strong and healthy. I want to be able to do a decent number of sit ups today without being unable to laugh because of the abdominal pain tomorrow. I want to be able to run three-five straight miles without fainting or throwing up at the end. I would love to be capable of keeping up with my very athletic, very fit, brother on a sibling run or during a family baseball game etc. I want to be able to help my dad move large items of furniture fearlessly and with some degree of ease. I want enough energy to chase Texie around the backyard for more than 6-8 minutes. I want exercising to be about what I’m going to gain, not what I’m going to lose. I want exercise to become part of my lifestyle, not a fad, but a lasting change. Don’t worry, I won’t be writing any posts just about my daily exercises, but I will occasionally update about how it’s going and what’s been working for me.

 

The other aspect is my eating habits, or diet per say. I’m not a terrible eater. I don’t eat fast food or meat and I’m not picky. My current diet consists of a large amount of vegetables and fruit, however, it also consists of an insane amount of take-out, unhealthy portions of sugary cereal/other sweets and too many processed foods. I want to concentrate on eating whole healthy (hopefully organic and/or local) foods cooked by me or my loved ones.  To my diet, I’d like to add more nutritionally rich grains like quinoa, brown rice, and barley, more leafy greens like kale and Swiss chard, and more sources of protein like tofu, Greek yogurt, and nuts. I’d like to cut out things like my daily guilty pleasure of cereals like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Graham Squares, and Wegman’s Blueberry Muffin Squares. Ice-cream, chocolates, prepackaged trail mix, cookies, skittles (all candy), and donuts really need to be eliminated, if not completely, at least minimized to one or two indulgences a week as opposed to the three or four (of each) I currently indulge in per day. One concrete way, I plan to see this to fruition is to try one or two new “healthy” recipes per week. Either I’ll make them up myself based on a variety of recipes or I’ll use a recipe from the surplus of cookbooks I own, but regardless, I do plan to share them here. I also want to limit take-out and restaurant going to 2-3 times a month as opposed to the 2-3 times a week that’s been happening lately.

 

These healthier lifestyle goals are all part of my quest to be a better version of myself. I’m recording them here so I can hold myself accountable. In the past, I’ve made similar resolutions but for other more narcissistic reasons, and I’ve achieved the goals, only to revert back to my old ways. This time, it’s not about that and I hope this definitive difference is what will make these changes last.

 

*I don’t think I have clinical hypochondria, and I’m not implying that (for those who are sensitive to people wrongly self-diagnosing with psychological illnesses). I’m referring to the widely-used-some-what-comical-definitely-not-clinical definition of hypochondriach.

Woot, Woot My 100th Post

Currently, I have so many thoughts drifting through my mind, that I’m finding it hard to concentrate on one at a time. I was going to write a post about my ambitions (goals, or resolutions) for the new year but I feel like there are so many and they are all so varied that I need to be thematic in describing them. I think I need to do one post per theme, but organization has never been a strong point in my writing. I tend to be all over the place.

I also don’t want to just talk about them. I want them to come to fruition. Recently I saw a pin on pinterest that read something like “Usually if you talk about doing it, you don’t actually do it.” It’s an over generalization and not true for everyone, but it shook me a little, because it can definitely be true for me.

Last year, my goal for 2011 was to grow my creativity, and the process to achieve this was that I was going to create one thing a day, every day, for the entire year. It was a ridiculous resolution (for me), that had its heart in the right place. It lasted a little over a month.  And while I definitely failed at the process I had laid out, I think I did achieve the heart of the resolution. I have tapped into my creativity in the last year more than in the past. Do I think I’ve unearthed all of it? No. Do I think it’s possible to ever achieve full creative potential? I hope not, because I hope that creativity is an unending resource we all have residing within us. So, I hope to continue to grow my creative muscle in 2012, and every year.

 I also resolved to read two new books a month at the beginning of 2011. Well I didn’t do that. I haven’t really read anything new since October or November. However, I almost achieved my goal of 24 books for 2011. I was only five books short of my goal. All things considered, nineteen books isn’t too shabby, considering everything else I did this year.

In conclusion, 2011 wasn’t a bad year for keeping resolutions, but I have a feeling hope 2012 is going to be my year. If I can concentrate on one thing at a time, (a big IF), I plan on sharing a little bit about what I’d like to do in 2012, thematically one post at a time, over the next week or so. I didn’t end up choosing a word, but I did make a sort of bucket list, that I may or may not share.

Did you make resolutions or goals for 2012? Do you think resolutions are stupid? Are you bad at keeping them? Or do you instead choose to focus on a word for the year? And do you have a bucket list? What’s on it?

By the way, this is my 100th post. Just thought I’d note it here, because my WordPress is dashboard is making a really big deal about it.

Some Randomness about the Holidays

The Thursday before Christmas was my last day of work before the four-day-weekend and also one of the warmest December days in my memory. The temperature was in the high fifties and it was glorious, especially compared to the weather we’ve had this week (It felt like it was in the single digits on Tuesday, which was disgusting).

As soon as I arrived home from work that day, Jon and I grabbed my camera and Texie and went for a nice little walk in a park nearby, while it was still light out. This bridge passes over the same canal that I discussed here, only it’s about two miles up/down canal.  The bridge is relatively new development to the park- it was only built within the last year and I love it. It reminds me of Monet’s bridges that he painted, only not as nice. I also kind of have a thing for walking bridges. I don’t like the ones I have to drive over, but if their somewhat small, and just for people, not for cars, then I’m enamored. If I could, I’d collect bridges. I secretly dream of having one in my garden, but that will most likely never happen so I’ll just have to search them out in the parks around where ever I end up.

I’d also like to note, that I definitely didn’t need to be wearing my coat, but once it gets cooler I always wear a coat, even when we have unusually warm days. However, if I know it’s going to be above forty five degrees, I also wear a skirt, because I love them. To comment on my outfit, I’m not really a fan of the mustard skirt/green and blue plaid coat/grey tights/ brown boots combination. I may have been thinking “50 degrees, MUST WEAR SKIRT,” when dressing, without considering how things would look together. It’s okay though, because I wore my fabulous anthropologie headband, and whenever I wear that headband (read: every-other-day) no one even notices my clothing, because the headband is so awesome. It was definitely a lovely walk, bad outfit included.

This year my Christmas was quite different from all the other Christmases I’ve experienced. My family was scattered, my parents were in Florida with my aunt and uncle, my sister remained in Maryland and spent the holiday with her boyfriend and his family, my brother went to the Hamptons and visited with my aunt, uncles, and nonna, while I stayed home and spent time with Jon and his family. I won’t lie, it made me a bit of a Scrooge and I may have gotten ridiculously upset at Jon for a very silly reason on Christmas day. (Sorry!) But when all is said and done, I have some lovely memories from this holiday season. It definitely wasn’t perfect, or the same as the past, but different isn’t always worse.

Jon and I made a quasi-traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner for his (Jewish) family. It was nice to share a snidbit of my tradition with them. Usually, for Christmas Eve, my entire family is at my Uncles’ apartment in Manhatten. I help my uncle cook the Italian feast of seven (usually more like 12) fishes. Since most of Jon’s family doesn’t like fish, we just did three kinds; my go-to cod recipe, Jon’s awesome scallops, and I tried my hand at Mussels fra diavolo. Unfortunately, Jon and I were so busy cooking everything, I didn’t take any photos of the food or the process. Mostly, it was delicious, although definitely not perfect. My favorite part of the evening, was when while his mom and her boyfriend cleaned up, Jon and his brother played scrabble with me! I love scrabble, but no one ever wants to play with me. I think Jon felt sorry for me so he made the evening extra special, by taking out the Scrabble board. Of course, I won, in the above photo, do you see the smug look on my face as I write down my score?

People don’t play scrabble with me, not because they don’t like scrabble but because I’m not fun to play “Thinking games” with. In my freshman year of college, in our honors dorm, we played scrabble constantly for over a month, until the fateful day when I swore I’d never play with one individual again. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I think he, like me, was a sore winner/loser and the game just blew up in our faces. I may have stormed out of the room and all the way up to my own dorm. The memory is kind of foggy so that part may not have happened but it’s not entirely unlikely. Now that I think about it, I’m surprised I still had friends after that.

And lastly, I cannot mention Christmas without showing you my new best friend, Shirley. She’s so pretty my mom even allows me to keep her on the counter in the kitchen! (Which is really great because she’s also a wee bit heavy.) She was gifted to me by Jon, his mom and his grandma and I couldn’t be more thankful. She is exactly what I wanted.

Kudos to you if you read this entire post. Now it’s your turn for an overshare… Do you share my love of walking bridges and fear of driving ones? Was your holiday different, but still enjoyable? Have you ever been a part of an Italian 7 Fishes Dinner? (Do you know why there are seven fishes?) Are you a terrible person to play scrabble with like I am? (Would you risk playing scrabble with me?) Did you get an awesome gift that you really wanted for Christmas? and lastly do you name your major kitchen appliances?

 

“Aw”dorable Pictures

Rather than come back into this space with a word-intense post about my goals/ intentions for the new year (which I intend to write), I thought I’d overload on the cuteness factor by sharing just a fraction of the many pictures I took of Tex and Tony over the past few weeks.

Despite the fact I’ve seen Milo and Otis, and all of the Homeward Bound movies, before Tony arrived and joined our clan, I didn’t know it was really possible for cats and dogs to be best friends. Well here’s the truth, in real life, not just in movies, cats and dogs can like each other! And now, for photographic evidence.

 

 

 

 

I guess this post officially makes me a cat-dog lady. Don’t worry. I promise to be more interesting in the near future and write posts about things that aren’t my pets. But really, aren’t they adorable? And can you tell by their faces, that they are done getting their pictures taken? Am I the only one who takes a seriously insane number of pictures of my pets or are there any other pet-photographers out there?

By the way, Happy New Year!