Lately

I've been meaning to write a lengthy blog post for months now about why I don't blog as much these days.  But I'll whittle it down to a few sentences instead: I record things elsewhere.  I got a paper reading journal that I write in rather than on Goodreads.  I write in my actual journal.  I record things in the baby journals.  I have a paper planner.  I guess I'm regressing as far as the digital age goes, but I love it.  So, sorry.  My blog posts have been going elsewhere.  

But I do still enjoy keeping up on the blog, at least to a point, and of course it's fun to add in pictures and what not. 

So in that spirit, here are some little things that have been happening lately.  

I will start with a confession.  You know how on special occasions people make fancy/special foods for each other?  For example, for Valentines, Drew wanted to make (simplified) pho and sticky rice.  

Sometimes he asks for ribs or some other favorite food.  Do you know what I asked him to make me for my Valentines meal?*  The same thing I ask for every birthday or special occasion:

Yep.  Velveeta with hot dogs.  DON'T WORRY--it was the fancy Velveeta where you have to make the cheese sauce yourself.  It is delicious, okay guys?!?  

I finally started an etsy store!

Buy my stuff!

I love Kate Morton.

I have read 4 of her 5 books since November and I love them and she is just SO GOOD and I wish she were my spirit animal.  This one might be my favorite.  And I'm so sad that once I read the 5th book I will have to wait until a sixth comes out!  Pretty sure Drewbles is kind of tired of hearing about Kate Morton...

Kate Morton Kate Morton Kate Morton!  

*sigh*

But speaking of other excellent lady authors...

I hosted a book group and our book was Murder on the Orient Express.

I also tormented Mr C with watercolors.

When I say "tormented" I mean I tried to get him to paint and he recoiled and said he was scared, refusing to do it.  But he had no problem telling ME what colors to paint and where.  

(This was actually very similar to his first experience with finger paints about year ago, but with much less sobbing on his part, fortunately.)

I made the mystical three ingredient scones/biscuits.  

Pretty amazing that they turn out!

I've had these three prints for yearrrrrrrs and I rediscovered them when we cleaned out the office.  I put them in frames (for the first time ever!) and now my laundry room looks really cool.  

I finally finished this wreath I started last summer:

It's covered with moss!  I made the little eggs out of model magic and painted them.  

I'm not sure the moss will survive more than one season, but if it falls off or whatever I think I'll just remake it with artificial greenery.  Have I mentioned that I really like making wreaths?  Pretty sure I meant to blog about it...

Well, here are my wreaths:

I also remade a fall leaves one from Walmart, guess I don't have pictures of that one.  Anyway, I have a grand vision of 12 wreaths hanging on the wall in the garage, one for each month.  I think I need about four more!  Maybe by the end of the year...?

*Obviously we did not eat all these meals at once.  Next time...

Unfinished Tales

This blog has been going for eight years now.  Eight!  I'm amazed with myself.  It's definitely had its highs and lows, but looking back, I'm quite pleased with it.  In fact, recently I was reading old entries and laughing at how funny I was.  Oh ho, me!  So funny to myself.

Since blogger changed to its new format, I've realized that fourteen of my posts are only drafts.  When I looked at them more closely, I realized most of didn't even get past the title.  Some of the subjects I remember, some I don't.  But since I'm never going to go back and finish them, I thought I would record the titles here for posterity.  Then I can delete them!  *rubs hands*  So, here are the blog posts that might have been:

"A List of", from 2008. 
I labeled this "Twilight" but it's actually a (long) list of complaints about the third X-Men movie.  Just because.
 
"This One or That One?" from 9/11/2008
No clue.  But it ALSO has a Twilight label. 
 
"A Boy Named Coop" from 9/24/2008
This was a collection of tales involving a very amusing young fellow that I met my last year at BYU.  His last name was Cooper, hence Coop.  This also inexplicably has a Twilight label.

"Distance: I Shake My Fist at Thee" from  2/18/2009
Surely related to Drewbles and the miles that separated us at the time.

"Blog Blahs: I Have Them" from 4/22/2009
Pretty self explanatory. 

"Water: There's so Much" from 7/1/2009
Probably related to how Finding Nemo made me afraid of open water.  Also possibly involving the Titanic exhibit I went to around this time.

"Dueling Lists" from 9/25/2009
No idea.

"Autumn!" from 10/2/2009
I dunno, probably something about spring or summer.  Maybe winter.

"(Untitled post)" from 11/3/2009
This happened to contain Drew's resume.  Why not, right?

"A Story: Part 1" from 12/10/09
But WHAT story??

"2009:It's Over" from 2009
That's true enough.

"Unemployment: It's a Lifestyle" from 1/22/2010
A lifestyle so accurately depicted in the fine film Post Grad.  (...)  This was actually mere days before my unemployment ended.  Maybe I should have written it earlier...

"In Which We Go to England: Part 3" from 8/2/2010
This one was posted so who knows what it's doing in my drafts.

"For my Special Little Friend" from 1/23/2011
I started this after my precious little Rosie cat passed away.  Then it was too hard.

If anything can be learned from this post it is that since early 2011 I have published all the post I started.  Surely that means I have become a better human being, right?  Smarter? More mature?  Better looking?  Let's just say yes.

In Which I Offer a Link

...to our art blog! I can't even remember if I ever mentioned our art blog on here, but it's been humming along (more or less) for a good while now. Tonight I finally added a link to my sidebar and here is another one, just in case anyone has been missing out on it all this time.

That's all.

The Days of Yore

I started this blog in the summer of 2004, can you believe it? That's got to be some kind of record. Okay, maybe not, but it has been around for a while now. In all those years I changed the design once--from light dots to dark dots. And I'm pretty sure I changed it back to light dots within a month. When I started this blog there weren't many design options to choose from, and I just always liked those dots. Once the blog template business started booming I thought I might change it but the scrapbook look has never been my thing. Plus I just like those dots.

Well. Lately I have been thinking that maybe it was time to move on from the dots at long last. But I wasn't sure what to change it to. I'm still not into the scrapbook thing and my own ideas were rather uninspired. UNTIL. Last Saturday morning as I was running down Center Street it came to me. "Brilliant!" I said to myself. "Don't forget it." (I always make a point of telling myself not to forget my brilliant plans) I have had many great ideas in my time that I never followed through on, but this one I did. And it looks just how I want and I did it all myself!

So, the point of all this is that the dots are finally gone. I probably should have taken a screenshot of the old look since I don't think that template is even available anymore. Anyway, check it out the new look and praise my cleverness if you feel so inclined.

Anonymously speaking

I got this comment on a recent post from that infamous blogger commenter, Anonymous, and it's so full of gibberish I just had to share. And never fear, I edited it for you, my tender readers.

"Thanks looking recompense the mammoth info. To be established ' ethical sh**! I on the entire do not commentary on these but I cerebration you did a genuinely humanitarian proportions and I’m indubitable some people meditate on the awfully unvarying"

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need go meditate on the awfully unvarying.

2011: Let's Be Friends

And now commences the blog post I have been meaning to write for weeks now.

So, 2010 has ended, and now 2011 is here and I can't even believe it. 2001 seems like last week, even though I know it obviously wasn't. Okay, maybe it seems like, five years ago, but not ten. My my my. Anyway, I don't usually get big on resolutions. I tend to make goals whenever they come to me and then follow through from there (or not). This year I made a whole list, and while most of them aren't really interesting/relevant for other people, I do have two categories of goals that I am particularly excited about.

First, I have some art goals. I spent so many of my teenage and college years drawing pencil portraits, but ever since I started drawing my own things my senior year at BYU, that's kind of fallen by the wayside. I've drawn a handful, but they've taken months and months at a time. So one of my goals this year is to do a lot more pencil drawings, even just small ones. I'd like to do one a week but since that is entirely unrealistic, I'm aiming for once a month at least.

Another one of my art goals (leftover from last year) was to start an art blog for me and Drewbles. We finally did it and you can see it here. The design is still in progress but we've been updating it pretty regularly. You can also see one of my other art goals in progress--finishing a drawing of Legolas I started about a year ago (eesh). He's the main reason I haven't done any of my pencil drawings yet.

So, aside from the art goals, I have some book goals also. I feel like I spent 2010 reading either a) books I'd read before or b) reading dumb books that I knew were dumb and read anyway. Not that I don't enjoy a ridiculous book from time to time, but the ratio was a little off last year. This year I plan to read more books that I've never read and to have most of them be good books. I haven't made a final list of books to read or anything, and I have no set number, but here are some books I have already lined up to read during the year:

• Jude the Obscure (the only big Hardy novel I haven't read)
• Mansfield Park (the only Austen novel I haven't read)
• 1984
• The Bourne Supremacy (I read the first, and have the 2nd and 3rd)
• Cold Comfort Farm
• I Capture the Castle

I'm also planning to reread Series of Unfortunate Events with Drewbles in the summer, but that's my only planned repeat. I'm really excited to read some new things! A little while ago I did a little books meme on Facebook and marked off which ones I'd read. I was quite happy with how many of them I'd read, but I hadn't read many of those recently...so I'm going to have a much better book diet this year.

In 2011 I have a lot of things that I just want to get done. Lately I've felt like I've been kind of stagnant with things. And of course I'm largely to blame with not using my time as well as I should, but dang it, my favorite hobbies are just time consuming. So I need to be better and prioritize things so that the things I REALLY want to do and get done actually HAPPEN.

I feel pretty good about the year so far. January has been kind of busy with post-holiday stuff and apartment hunting, but I've been sticking to my art goals, and I'm almost done with my last 2010 books so I can start afresh. Huzzah. I've also been noticing that my poor blog has been a little neglected lately. Unfortunately I think it might remain a little neglected, for a little while. If I've got these goals, I can't spend the time blogging about random stuff. I'm definitely not abandoning my blog--I mean, it's been around since 2004, it's not going anywhere--but I just want to focus on taking care of some other things for a little while.

BUT luckily Mr. Graham keeps a good blog with regular updates on our doings so if you like to keep tabs on me, please go hither! But in the meantime you can also find bits and pieces from me here and here. And of course, Facebook. I think I'll always be able to make time for a little status update.

Dinner and a movie? How about books and a movie

As some of you know, this semester I'm taking Materials for Youth. That basically means we read at least 40 picture books and 30 novels with a variety of plots, authors and reading levels. We have to keep track of these books of course and to do this I started another blog, which I am pleased to say is called Books and Cleverness. Today I added the books I read this week so if you're interested, you can check those out. Also, if you have any recommendations for me of either book type, let me know! 50% of my books have to be written in the last 5-7 years so keep that in mind.

Books I am intending to read are: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Tale of Despereaux, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (sneaky!), The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Fairest, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Inkspell, The Golden Compass and something by Vicki Grove. I need some more "real life" books and I need more books directed at boys, but really I want to hear any and all recommendations.

And thus concludes the book portion of today's blog.

Last night I watched Son of Rambow, and overall, I liked it pretty well. It went a little long, and sometimes I get a little impatient with movies only about and only featuring kids. Now that I sound like an ogre, I have one more thing to say about this movie. OK, for those of you who don't know the premise, the main character is a little boy who never watches TV (his family is very religious) but he's extremely creative. He happens to watch First Blood at a classmate's house and loves it. So, long story short, he and this friend are making a sequel to First Blood where the little boy has to save Rambo(w) from the Evil Scarecrow.

So, I did really love something about this movie and that was how magical Rambo was to this little boy (William?). He started wearing his tie around his forehead and ran everywhere, jumping on things, and fist fighting with the air. It wasn't that he turned violent or mean at all, but it just excited him so much and he was so exhilirated. I started wondering how often that happens now. It seems like everything is so well advertised and easily accessible, that it would be hard to be sort of hit over the head by something now. I mean, we hear about movies months before they're released, we see the trailers and the stills and merchandise. The only experience of mine that I can equate to the First Blood experience is seeing Return of the King for the first time. In that case, I hadn't read the book yet, I didn't watch the trailers, I didn't see any stills, I read no spoilers whatsoever. Of course, this led to me having minor nervous breakdowns in the theater but it was so worth it to be completely blown away. But even then, I'd seen the first two movies so I had some idea of where it was all going.

Anyway, I liked that Son of Rambow really captured this little boy's experience of seeing something thrilling for the first time and having it really work on his imagination and change his life. Plus the movie that sparked all this was First Blood, which is totally unexpected but it works so well! So, long story short, I would recommend it because, in addition to all that stuff I rambled about, it's also well made, quite funny, creative and the cast is all very good.

Did I mention it's British?

Crushing Cans

Some people think I don't blog anymore. I don't know why this is since I blog just as often as others who blog as often as I do. But whatever. Clearly I am still blogging.

Unfortunately, I don't have much to blog about today. I've been drawing Firefly characters lately, which is fun. I also took four Firefly character quizzes and I got Wash every time. Rock on.

In other news, I find it funny that Dreamgirls gets the hype for most Oscar noms but THREE of those are songs. And we all know movies that would not be nominated for anything else often get into the song category. So, really, it's got five nominations which is not the most of any movie. This whole paragraph really probably stems from my disappointment that Casino Royale got nothing, including no song nomination.

Speaking of Casino Royale, I had a dream last night that Daniel Craig had made another Bond before CR. But it wasn't as good.

Has anyone else traded in for the new Blogger? It is kind of cool but not extremely different. In other computer news, I want to play the Sims 2.... I wish you could trade in Sims 1 for it. That would be a sweet system.