Here comes your man

This is my favorite music video right now.

Love the bike, dress, street, lipstick, and weather.



Love, J

Hot bun

After sitting in a patch of sun like this for a while, her ears are BLAZING hot. I wish I absorbed heat as efficiently as she does. Like a lizard on a rock. Only snugglier.

Love, J

Crochet Dodecahedron Stash Buster*

*This is to blog post titles what Plan Nine from Outer Space is to cinema.

Pattern:

- Crochet 4, join as ring
- Ch 3, dc into ring 9 times. This gives you 10 dcs, (first ch 3 counts as first dc). Join last dc to ch 3.
- Ch 3, dc 2 times into gap between dcs. Ch 2, then dc 3 more times into same gap. This makes your first corner. Skip one gap, and into the next, 3 dc, ch2, 3 dc. Repeat all the way around the ring, then join together when you get to the end.

Make 12 pentagons, and crochet them together. Fill it with a piece of t-shirt before closing the last gap. (The holes in the pentagons are too big to use normal stuffing, tiny baby fingers would be able to get in there and pull it out.)

Callie, you want to give this a shot for me and tell me if it makes any sense? Probably it's gibberish, but I've never written my own before...

Love, J

Another use

Check it out, we found another use for one of the failed Christmas gifts:


Love, J

Quilt guilt

If I had been honest with myself when I began this quilt (and, of course, I was not), I would have had to admit that I would probably lose interest in it before it was complete. The little pattern I settled on requires 36 squares, and I made it to 9 and 3/4 before becoming totally bored with it.

I used to have the motivation to take on long-term projects, but I've devolved into someone who really prefers those that only take an afternoon. A weekend, tops. Plus, it doesn't help that I really don't care that much for sewing. Knitting and crochet can take a while, but the process is so enjoyable that I don't mind. But sewing for me is very results driven, especially when I have to use the machine. And when those results take enough hours to achieve, my interest wanes.

The plan is to slow down and shoot for a square a week, supplementing this project with creative outlets that give quicker results. Hopefully, it will be done someday.

Love, J

Squash tomato gratin

This gratin is a wintery take on summer flavors, and is terribly, terribly good. Adapted from this recipe to fit what we had on hand:

- Thawed and sliced freezer tomatoes layered with the squash instead of kale.
- Instead of bread crumbs, a sprinkle of herbed stuffing mix.
- Less cream; just enough to fill in the cracks of the gratin after it's in the dish.
- No cheese and no butter (and still, the dish wound up super rich after the squash and tomato absorbed the cream).

I only tried this because I need to find recipes that I can incorporate my freezer tomatoes into in a way that makes me forget that I don't like cooked tomatoes very much. Also, we've still got acorn squash coming out our ears. But instead of being the just-eat-it meal I'd expected, this gratin tastes like something you'd get at a fancy restaurant (think real linen napkins), and we will for sure be having it again soon. Probably I'll make it with a side of whole wheat pasta or something to balance out the richness though, because whoa.

Love, J

Fun stairs

From Cousin Becky's Facebook page:



Love, J

What I now know about airbags

1. They smell bad when deployed;

2. And will save your face;

3. But not keep your neck and back from feeling hella achy & stiff the next day;

4. And apparently, in our car, they come with a little dashboard light of a person getting slammed with an airbag. This light comes on after the bag is deployed. Like, "Hey! This is you! You just got slammed with an airbag! In case you didn't notice!"

I am very okay (aside from #3), and will keep busy this weekend parlaying my little adventure into any advantage I can think of. I've already scored the hubs staying home from his shift to hang out with me, and my own pizza for dinner last night. And if the doctor next week gives me a referral to a massage therapist, well that would just be very cool.

Love, J

PS ~ Here's a video that I like not only because it is very happy and sweet, but also because one of my high school friends works with George as a nurse at the same hospital, which is pretty neat.

Josh & Kanye

If this CD were real, it would absolutely be at the top of my birthday wish list

Lily on a shelf, and an update

Not much news-wise around here, but I thought I'd pop in to say 'hi.'

Hi.

We've gutted the house top to bottom for the new year, bagging LOTS of stuff and packing it off to Goodwill. It's how we complete our household's consumerism circle of life, since everything comes from thrift shops to begin with.

I read the final Harry Potter book last weekend. And if "Twilight" made me feel like writing on a larger scale was an accessible, not-impossible thing to do, "Harry Potter" has had the opposite effect. JK Rowling knows her shit.

I've settled into the dream job right nice, though I'm still pinching myself every once in a while. And I'm learning that housing law is a tad more complicated than I'd counted on. Apparently there's a lot more to it than the landlord/tenant gimme-back-my-deposit questions I fielded as an intern.

Oh, and I've begun my first quilt. I think. The fabric I'm using is unusual and inconsistently textured, so it will be quite a lucky thing if it all turns out. But I'm having fun trying! Pictures soon, next time I'm home when it's light out.

Love, J