Antiques, in more than one sense of the word...(kidding Mom!)

My mom visited this week, and rather than packing a suitcase across the country and paying $20 in fees, she shipped her things to me.  I unpacked and hung her clothes in the guest room closet, and found a package among her jammies.  I had asked her to look for a patchwork quilt that I'd started in the eighth grade, made from fabric scraps of dresses she'd made for me when I was little.  She'd found it for me, but she'd also found a few other treasures... some beautiful beaded jewelry that both of my grandmothers had made, and some letters from my dad to his parents from when he was young.  Unfortunately the photos I took the other evening turned out crappy due to artificial lighting and my stubbornness about not digging my tri-pod out of the closet.  So I'll add some artsy-fartsy pics soon when I get over myself.

Mom had never been to Chicago, and neither had my mother-in-law, so we took the train on Friday morning and stayed until Saturday evening.  It rained and was windy (duh...) but we still had a good time.  Of course when I go to Chicago on my own I walk everywhere, and had hoped to do the same on this trip... but I failed to take into account the fact that my mom is... er... not as energetic as she used to be.  I had a hard time slowing my pace down so I didn't leave her in the dust, abandoned somewhere on Michigan Ave., and my plans for walking up into River North had to be changed to sticking to the Loop.  But we still had a great time and enjoyed ourselves at the Art Institute, Giordano's, and Millennium Park.

[caption id="attachment_237" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mom & I at "The Bean""][/caption]

These are a few...

The Pioneer Woman does photo assignments on Flickr, and today she referred to I Heart Faces for more weekly assignments.  I'm excited to start doing these (using NEW photos, not just archived ones) to keep the creative juices flowing and get some use out of my fancy SLR!  (Although this first project is using archived photos.)

So this week's assignment on I Heart Faces is "My Favorite Things." It's ironic, every time I think about having my own shop/studio, I think about naming it this even though I've never seen The Sound of Music.  But I remember having a record with that song on it when I was little, which I loved.



My husband - Sappy, I know, but he's one of my favorite people EVER.  It doesn't matter what we're doing (or not doing for that matter), he makes me smile, laugh, roll my eyes, grimace, hide my face... but most of all he makes me feel good.



Gardening - I don't always have the best luck with my plants (poppies that took over the world & drowned coreopsis...) but I like getting out in the warm spring sun, digging in the dirt and making things pretty.







My Pets - I love having fur-babies to cuddle and snuggle and play with, despite how exasperating they can sometimes be.

Well, it's a start... and of course there are more things that I love, I just don't have any good photos of them on-hand.

My new home...

I decided to check out wordpress today and see if I might want to switch over from blogger.  Because blogger is part of google, I was having some issues with multiple accounts and keeping track of what was accessed through where... blahblahblah.  So far, I'm impressed.  The dashboard is much more user-friendly, and the stats tools are nice to have.  Although I don't like the inability to use your own theme - or at least, I haven't figured out how to do it yet.  From what I can tell you have to either be a genius, or pay for the ability to edit CSS... neither of which is what I am capable of or want to do.  If anybody out there knows an EASY way to do it (can you insert HTML code in a text widget like in blogger?) I'd love some hints.

Other than that... looks like this is my new blog home.  I combined my two blogs (Open Mouth, Insert Foot and Life Through Green Sunglasses) into one to make blog fodder a little easier to come by.  Hopefully this doesn't have any adverse affect on potential readership... I'm NOT a hippie freak, I swear - it's my job, and I like to share stuff that I learn through it is all.  I'm not perfect at this green stuff by any means!  So I hope no one is turned off by this side of things.  I also have a tendency to talk about my pets a lot, and I like to show off my garden and the artsy fartsy crafty crap I do too.  I guess my point is, my subject matter will be all over the charts.  Just like my mind, I guess.

Because I link to this site from my Facebook page, I know a lot of my friends & family will be reading.  So I just want to say right now that I hope I don't offend any of you with anything I might say.  This is my place to vent a little while trying to push the creative side of my brain back into the light of day.  It's been a long time since I've journaled or written in a free-flowing, not-work-or-school-related way, so I'm pretty rusty.  Some of you know this already (HA!) but I have a kind of twisted sense of humor and a bit of a dirty mind, and that will probably show here.  So don't be afraid, and don't be offended.  If you are anyway, then you might want to stick to my Facebook page.  I'm a little more reined in there.

So, now that that's all out there... time to go see what the cats are doing in the basement that's making so much noise.

Do or Die

I've been meaning to write this for a while now. It's my Bucket List. I was finally inspired enough today to stop and think about all the things I want to do or see or try or learn in my lifetime, and this is what I've come up with so far... and I get the feeling that this is just the beginning.

See Live:

Flogging Molly on St. Patrick’s Day

Handel’s Messiah at Christmas

Kenny Chesney

Alison Krauss

Penn & Teller

A Seahawks game

An NHL game (no team preference at this point)

A bluegrass festival

An honest-to-god Highland Games

Travel to:

The Outer Banks, NC

Walt Disney World/Orlando (again)

Greece (Art History Tour)

Italy (Art History Tour)

Paris (Art History Tour)

British Isles (Art History Tour)

New Zealand

Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, American SW

Yosemite National Park

All the lakes/places Dad liked to go (Fly Fishing Tour)

Christmas Island (Fly Fishing Tour)

Boston – Sam Adams Brewery Tour

San Francisco – New Belgium Brewery Tour

Try:

Snowboarding

Sea kayaking

Hike-In Camping

Cooking a turkey

A new food or recipe once a month at least.

Learn to:

Ride a horse again

Quilt

Crochet/knit

Make cheese

Sew clothing, not just handbags

Live in (possibly):

Bend, OR

Any little coast town in WA or OR

Virginia or Maryland (Chesapeake Bay)

Chicago

Sandpoint, ID

Montana

Do:

Throw an honest-to-god dinner party that doesn’t involve chips & salsa

Design & build our own energy-efficient & eco-friendly house

Use my camera more, and try selling photos & other crafty things on Etsy

Be in shape enough to run for an hour at a steady pace

Contribute to a CSA or Farmer’s Market

Run an animal sanctuary for pets that wouldn’t be adopted otherwise

Own & operate a gift shop in a touristy town, selling my handmade items

Stop drinking pop, and start drinking more wine

Work for a college/university in the art department, event coordinator, sustainability, whatever

Have a house-rabbit, and chickens, and maybe a pygmy goat

Have a big, sunny, airy studio in the upper story of a barn

Take a pottery class

Take a stained glass class

Get at least one meaningful tattoo

What's a month, give or take?

I have been completely overwhelmed lately. Life is like... I can't think of a good analogy right now that really fits, but I guess kind of an invisible Rock-'Em-Sock-'Em Robot, I just feel beat up but I can't really pinpoint the source. I am glad to say that I've found a great psychologist though, and have my second appointment with her tomorrow. So hopefully this will help me learn to fight back against an unknown opponent.

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Speaking of, in my first appointment my new doctor pointed out that for a person's mind to never be at rest - to be constantly thinking and planning and worrying and daydreaming, mind spinning and churning at high velocity 24/7 - apparently this is NOT NORMAL. Oh. Crap. Now what? It's kind of overwhelming to think about. Wait... shit.

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Just like the hits, the tomatoes just keep on comin'. I have made salsa and marinara and even a vodka tomato cream sauce, all of which are stockpiled in my freezer. I haven't worked up the nerve to try canning yet - but Mom is coming to visit in October so I might take some lessons from her while she's here. Then I can blame any botulism outbreaks on her. (Kidding Mom!)

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Our neighbor has a new puppy. A Great Dane puppy. A blue merle Great Dane puppy. I met him over the fence yesterday and officially have a case of puppy envy. How can you not, with this face? If he had blue eyes, I would steal him and name him something goofy like Gonzo.

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Last week was spent in Vegas. Not fun-Vegas, but work-Vegas. Sure, we stayed on the Strip (New York New York has some great friggin deals right now!) but I was essentially there on my own since my co-worker isn't exactly a party-animal (oh ok, neither am I. Who am I kidding?). So I spent the majority of the time in my room watching season 1 of The Wire on DVD. Holy crap is that show GOOD. I'm now waiting on season 2 from the library.

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I beat Plants Vs Zombies last night. I just started playing it this weekend. Does that tell you what kind of holiday I had? But I did take time out to bake cupcakes. Unfortunately even though these cupcakes have zucchini and carrots in them, they also have real butter and several cups of sugar, so any potential healthy-factor is voided out.

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I need to write more often. Not just WANT to, but NEED to. I need to journal more. I think that might help the whole gyroscope-for-brains situation, if I have a way to funnel it into some sort of containment system. AKA, the interwebs.

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Random somewhat-related factoid: my cat is named Gyro, short for Gyroscope, not the Greek flatbread-sweaty-meat-and-yogurt sandwich. As a kitten he was in perpetual motion - chasing his tail, chasing the dog, chasing flies, chasing laserbeams... his favorite toy is still his own tail, but he's much more of a cuddlebug now.