Progress...in small increments

Yesterday I finally finished the hot pink/red Noro yarn socks I'd been knitting on our roadtrip.  I'll post a photo tomorrow.  I was spurred into action by a blog post on make something to finish lingering projects.
I also finished doing the reverse applique stitching for an Alabama Chanin skirt (kit) I got for Christmas.  I'm a little worried it might not currently fit, but that's a temporary condition.
    Otherwise, I did a few chores today - one I really like, another that I really dislike.  Laundry and grading.  You guess which fits which description.

Feel the love

We finally broke down and bought a new refrigerator, and I'm surprised at how much pleasure it's giving me. (Ever have a boy/girlfriend you could say that about?  Uh huh, don't even pretend you haven't.)  But just like that boy/girlfriend, you often find yourself immediately making concessions or overlooking their idiosyncracies, like film in the fridge.

Yes, the first thing in our new fridge was film.  It's true - art is everywhere!

(The fridge will probably never look that good again.)
    I would love to be able to curate and arrange the contents of my refrigerator a la J. Morgan Puett, but I don't see that happening.  However, it would be magical.

 (photos from www.jmorganpuett.com/food.html)

   Instead, I'm trying to just stay ahead of dead stuff in the fridge.  That's my current art project.

 (Film never dies...)

    And just because I can, I'm including two photos of my cat who has been amazing me with his choice of hangouts.  This is from where he oversaw gardening operations yesterday.

    Clearly he's not amused by half-hearted gardening attempts.

Game On!

Serious gardening day, even though it was unintentional.  Stopped at Whole Foods to buy some seedlings (okay, we had to get off the highway because the traffic was awful) and when we got home proceeded to get totally immersed in weeding, pruning, and planting.  It's great.  We finally got rid of the giant white soil bag on our front lawn.  (Our neighbors must love us.)
   I'm trying to be a little more realistic about gardening this year.  Rather than try to grow everything, I'm focusing on fewer, more essential items like tomatoes.  I've tried to grow things from seed, and have had modest success in the past, but for some reason often can't get them past the early seedling phase.   I put in a few seeds today, just to be optimistic, along with the seedlings (three types of tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and some herbs) we bought.  My goal is to give them consistent attention.
   Watched the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Let's Go Blackhawks!  By the way, anyone see the Chris Pronger/Eddie Haskell connection?

Post 100!

In honor of post 100 I give you this from the "Questions for Martha Stewart" in the New York Times Magazine dated May 8, 2010.

Question:  Is it fair to call a craftsperson "crafty," which implies slyness?

Martha:  Yes, we call ourselves crafty, and being crafty is a good thing.

Words to live by.

A little puzzled and maybe sad

We finally watched the Lost finale last night.  I don't know why I waited to watch it, probably because I didn't want it to end.  I'm not sure how I feel about it, particularly the whole religious aspect of it.  But you know, it really was a good show although the fact that I'm still ruminating on it is a little bit disconcerting perhaps.  I have to give a shout out to Ian for turning us onto it in the first place.
   Secondly, how is it that Crystal Bowersox didn't win American Idol?  Actually, I'm not surprised.  Look at what happened last year.  Adam Lambert clearly should've won.  It just confirms what I've come to believe - people often can't recognize talent and innovation when it slaps them upside the head or they're just too frightened of it.  A cute (according to some) boy usually gets those tweens texting and calling like mad.  It's easier to vote repeatedly when you don't have to pay the bill.

Swingin'

This morning I felt as though I'd punched through the clouds.  It was really just the result of a few small things like acknowledging that I wasn't ready to run a half marathon on Sunday and that I could just focus on my training for the Nike Women's Marathon in October and finishing a small project.
   For Christmas, my parents gave me a serger and a gift certificate for the Serger Essentials class at the workroom where we bought the serger and I've taken a class before.  I really like the workroom.  Karyn's done a great job creating a crafting space that has a really relaxed vibe and cool stuff (make something is her blog).  If I lived in Toronto, I'd probably be there a lot.
   Anyway, fast forward six months, and I finally find a class that works with my schedule (the serger is still in the box - please see yesterday's post for root issue). In the class I made some dinner napkins.  It was just really nice to have a project started and completed within a few hours.  Liss likes them so much she wants to send them as a birthday gift.  I want to create an entire outfit to go with them - matching skirt and kerchief. (C'mon, I know you can totally see it.)

    So this morning, I was feeling a little mellower, cutting myself some slack.  Then I go to give blood.  I feel very strongly about giving blood (I'm a registered bone marrow donor as well), and the last time I went to give, my hemoglobin was too low (not too low in health matters, but to give).  It was the same story today.  Would you be surprised that I was practically in tears because I was so disappointed and frustrated? (Note:  I am not premenstrual, but thanks for asking.)
   I chat with the nurse - all about what to do to get my iron up.  I already do those things, and my doctor has told me that my iron levels are fine.  Then I find out that the whole thing is totally SEXIST.  The hemoglobin level required of all blood donors is EXACTLY THE SAME REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY'RE A MAN OR A WOMAN.  125 is the benchmark number - for women, that's pretty strong (even my 118 today is good); for a man, that's low - but still okay to donate.  Wow.  Are men just that much more able to withstand a lowering, from already low levels, of their hemoglobin.  Do tell.   The nurse bristled when I suggested sexism.  I'm going to write to Canadian Blood Services about this, and if they think that physiologically men and women are the same (oh, give me a break!) then this may cause me to reconsider supporting them because they're already homophobic.  (See their policy on gay men here.)
   It's difficult because I know that donating blood is important (and if you don't do it yet, and you can - physically and psychologically - you should), but I'm tired of the rejection and the cause of it (policy, not necessarily hemoglobin).  Just to ice the anti-woman cake - if you've ever been pregnant (delivered or not), you can't give platelets - ever.
   (Did I not warn you that this could get messy?)
   So I walk, rejected, to Home Depot to meet Liss and stop in their garden center.  I'm really behind this season and need to just put in some seedlings or there will be no produce in August.  Keep in mind that I'm still in a mood at this point.  I see their veggies, under the moniker "garden fresh."  Their SKU tags say "eco" something, so I'm curious.  Are these plants free from GMOs?  I ask one of the garden center workers who, guess what, has no idea.  I don't even know that she knew what GMOs were and probably didn't understand what I meant when I said something like "Are they GMO free or is the eco tag just another example of greenwashing?"  Like I said, I was in a mood.
    I'm in a better mood know.  On my way home last night I was envying Karyn.  From this side it seems like owning your own shop where you could craft away would be great.  Of course I realize that it's a lot of work and probably stressful as well (keeping a business afloat can't be a constant picnic).  I also realized that I actually have it pretty good myself.  I'm just in my own way sometimes.  I often cause myself unnecessary stress.  I need to remind myself of this, but it's okay.  It just continues to confirm my belief that I make my own life (in general), and I need to accept responsibility for it. 
    My name is Claudia, and I'm an existentialist.

State of Affairs

Behind - that's the word I would use to encapsulate my current state of affairs. Behind in my writing, behind in my closet purge, behind in my grading, behind in my running.  You name it, I'm probably behind in it somehow.  I'm hoping to shake off the inertia.  It would probably help if I got out of my head more often.  I seem to be setting up camp in some outpost of my mind.

So I'm hoping a new 30-day challenge will do the trick (since the previous ones were rousing successes - not really):  daily blog posts.   Nothing like a [virtual] audience to shame me into discipline (so many ways one could configure those words; we'll leave analysis out for the time being).  Out of my mind and onto the web (sounds weird, but I like it).

Stayed tuned.  It could get messy.