Holiday Sweetness

Just wanted to share a picture of these Christmas Eve goodies we picked up in Little Italy. I got to try out our new camera. I'm looking forward to learning all of it's ins and outs. Unfortunately, I've been quite sick for the entirety of Christmas vacation so I'm not sure I tasted any of the icing or the pastry cream. I also managed to cough my way through Atonement and Sweeney Todd. So, finally beginning to mend in time for the holiday to be over. What can you do?

Happy Holidays

Heres to visiting and food and movies to come this week...

Merry Christmas to Devin

Devin's big Christmas present was the first professional recording session for our music project, Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. We're recording an ep of songs based on the poems of Richard Brautigan. I just wanted to share some of the images from our time spent in the studio. We're recording at Metrosync. Back in the day, it was a radio station. The Beatles once played live in the room where we're recording.

this time last year

I've been thinking a lot about this same time last year. I do quite a bit of that comparing one year to another.I actually started my very first blog entry with similar sentiments. Without going into too much detail, last fall was a really rough time. It was made even rougher by the fact that we were 4 hours from our families. I remember one particularly difficult day I was going to go out to buy Christmas cards. I was getting ready to go, and I thought,"I should just make Christmas cards,it would be a nice distraction". I sat down with the computer and began looking for ideas and I stumbled upon the crafty blog world. It somehow felt like a revelation to me and comforted me so much.

Finding so much inspiration has meant so much for me. I can't imagine how different my life would be right at this moment if I hadn't made this discovery. I'm so thankful for all of it.

When We Covered Cleveland in Ivy

So, its not very Christmasy, but I guess it is very seasonal, particularly if you live in Iowa. I was catching up on Tiffany's blog when I came across this quiz. I decided to take it,and while I don't want to reveal my personal results it did get me thinking about this guy. I'm not just saying that because he's my very own congressman. Actually it reminded me of a really great Dave Egger's story. The published version was included in his short story collection How We Are Hungry. However you can read another really great version here. It might be a little silly, but I have to think that crazy idealism isn't such a bad thing.

Meanwhile we are turning the corner of one week until Christmas. I have a few more crafty projects up my sleeve. We'll see how many I get done. I had decided not to bake any presents, but then I saw this post and I'm all a flutter with ideas. I'll let you know what the next few days bring. For now,I'm just listening to this and looking at this:

Oh magazines

I have a bit of a magazine problem. I'm fairly selective, but I still manage to read dozens of titles each month. A few of these I subscribe to, but many others I check out from the library. I am fortunate to have an AMAZING library, which is a bit enabling. I really just wanted to share a little bit of news with you. I just heard that Blueprint will no longer be regularly published, but instead become an occasional special guide and also be included with Martha Stewart Weddings. I like Blueprint a lot.I was really happy when it seemed to be gaining some footing and it went to being a regular bi-monthly publication instead of just quarterly. That said I probably prefer Domino. It does make for one less temptation at the checkout line.

In more exciting news, Nylon magazine is teaming up with Urban Outfitters this year. I love Nylon for the coverage of emerging designers and artists and they have fantastic music reviews among other things. I used to have trouble choosing between the now defunct Jane and Nylon. Now that my Jane subscription has been replaced by the publisher with another magazine that I would never read outside of a waiting room, this is not a problem. For a limited time you can get a FREE subscription to Nylon here.
I wish I hadn't recently caved and bought a subscription, but for those of you who don't already receive it, take advantage of this great deal.

I'm it!

Jessica tagged me last week. It's taken me awhile to reply but here goes...

The Rules:

1. Link to your tagger (see above), and also post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself (random or weird) on your blog.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, it appears some random facts are in order.
1. I was married in San Francisco's city hall. The photographer was our witness. We had lunch afterwards at the Asian Museum. That evening we went to SFMOMA and ate dinner at Millennium. This is one of my favorite pictures:



2. I used to be an opthalmic assistant. I was pretty good at it and it was really interesting, but the medical field is not so much for the creative types. Also, I was really squeamish in surgery.

3.I've been the nanny off and on for a wonderful family for the past 3 years. I love them so much They are now expecting their 6th child. I actually find it way easier an more interesting to nanny for a big family than just one child. Here's the sad princess:


4. I don't make my bed. Actually, I do sometimes, but I have a hard time getting in to the habit. I really love when the bed is made, it makes me feel all organized and together. I can make it for days and days and then poof! one day the habit has disappeared. Good habits are really hard to start. This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg quote. "People who smoke cigarettes, they say "You don't know how hard it is to quit smoking." Yes I do. It's as hard as it is to start flossing."

5. I love Mitch Hedberg. I'm not really a stand up comedy kind of a girl, but he makes me laugh so much. I found out that he had died when a band opening for Bob Dylan in Chicago dedicated a song to him. We were in the highest possible seats. I literally had vertigo. I kept thinking I must have heard them wrong, but sadly, I had not.

6. I have a very recent obsession with potato chips on sandwiches. Mostly jalapeno or salt and pepper. I'm not sure how I went to long without fully appreciating this. I'm thinking it's kind of like vegetarian bacon.

7.For two and half years, we were tough dog owners. Ok,not so much tough, but we did follow the no dogs in bed rule. Then, one night, Devin had trouble sleeping and he went and got Ramona. That was that. We really get so much pleasure out of having her there, that we keep asking each other how we managed for so long without her. I mean how did we resist this face:



I've waited so long to do this, that it seems like everyone has already been tagged. So, I'm tagging just three:

Jen

Claudia

Ashley

Post Bazaar

Phew! The craziness of preparing for my first craft show is finally over. It went really well, and it was really fun, albeit a bit chilly. The building was pretty cool and it was kind of great to be downtown all day. I finally got to meet some of my crew from Cleveland Handmade, which was exciting. I had the pleasure of being between Oh Melisa! and the Cleveland based letterpress goodness that it Oddball Press.I had my eye on some squids across the way, but never actually got around to doing much shopping. I'm looking forward to doing more shows in the future.

Jessica tagged me last week and I owe her some random facts, but I'll save that for later. For now it's a day for pancake eating, laundry doing, movie watching.