Color Crazy

It's that time again where I decide to change the look of my blog! Woohoo! This is only for the 5th time or so. I think I like the header (today anyways) and now it's just a question of colors. Suggestions welcome.

This is what I started with, but felt it was too summery and bright.

This is where I am as of posting.


Found this neato video of someone making art for the cover of the New Yorker on his iPhone. If only I was that artistic...

Non Self Promotions

Okay, well maybe the first one is a little self-related.

In case you didn't know, I'm a proud member of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America...duh.) and the regional chapter in Louisville. Our region is hosting an awesome Jane Austen Festival in July and Margaret Sullivan will be speaking, author of AustenBlog and The Jane Austen Handbook. Ms. Sullivan posted about us last week and you should check it out and come to the festival because it is awesome.

Also, one of my favorite blogs is This Young House. They are in a Better Homes and Garden 48-Hour Makeover Challenge and they need your vote. Everyday. (Okay I forget to do it everyday but at least try for most days.) If you don't like their makeover the best and don't want to vote for them, then please don't vote at all. Need additional incentives to vote?

1. Don't you want to learn about the projects they'll do with the prize money?

2. If this visual doesn't inspire you, then I don't know what will.

Image courtesy of This Young House

New Craft Idea!

I've been struggling lately with trying to decide how I want to organize my calendar. I like having it electronic, but I don't like the calendar format on my phone. I have a Google calendar, but since I don't want to pay for the internet on my phone that's not a portable option.

I'm starting to consider a return to the paper calendar.

At Target yesterday I found one I absolutely loved! Tragically, I can't find it online because I'm going to botch this description. It was a standard, spiral-bound planner but it had a cover made from really cute fabric. At the end of the year, you could slip that planner out of the canvas cover and slide a new one in.

My next thought was, "I can make this!" It didn't seem difficult really, I'm just not 100% sure on my current abilities. Especially since this would rely more strongly on me actually sewing in a straight line. Maybe with some practice though I can get one done for Christmas.

Happy Memorial Day!

My soldier and I are celebrating by me not making him go shoe shopping with me! Exciting, I know. :)

Check us out at the Army Reserve Christmas Dinner in 2007.

Apron!

Finally! Pictures of my fabulous apron! The project on which I learned to sew with Lee's Great Aunt Billie!

A close-up of the pocket. Yes, that is a real, working button and button hole. Observe the decorative stitch!
Tomorrow night Aunt Billie and I will begin our next project: sewing from a pattern. I'll be making Lee and I some pajama pants with the fabric below. Since Joann's was having a 2 for $5 on Simplicity patterns, I got one for the pants and one for a future awesome project.

Death and Doom

I worry a lot sometimes. I'll have moments where I will just start to become very concerned about what will I do if I die. Okay, well clearly I won't be doing much of anything (other than getting fitted for my angel wings, fingers crossed! Actually, God probably already knows what size I need. I mean, He's God. Anyways...). But what about if Lee dies! Or what would Lee do if I die?! The nearby Arby's and Papa John's would benefit tremendously, but that would still suck! And sometimes during these thoughts, I wonder, what will happen to my or Lee's Facebook. Or my blog.

Seriously.

I've seen Facebook walls turn into nice memorials for the deceased. But I wonder, will that stay there forever? What if some people wanted to see my Facebook memorial who weren't already on Facebook or my friend, how could I accept their friendship since all my secret passwords have died with me. What if I needed to be untagged from some photos after death so my memorial is more...appropriate. How will I cancel any of Lee's video game memberships? Or notify the rest of the guild? (Yes, my husband is super cool.)

Call me crazy, but apparently other people have thought about this, web developer people, and there is a solution. Enter Legacy Locker.

You can keep all your passwords to anything here and when you die they will pass on to a beneficiary. You can also type up a Legacy Letter as a final message to your e-mail contacts. (Creepy. Please don't put me on your final e-mail. Somethings are really best said on paper.)

It seems a little crazy -- and I know this is terribly morbid (Maybe it's the clouds and the boil water advisory. Grr.) -- but this isn't a horrible idea. Of course this information could be typed out on paper and placed in a safety deposit box too. Perhaps the real audience for this are those with online businesses and regular online transactions. Like if you have an Etsy shop and people keep buying things but you can't fulfill those orders because no one knows the password and you're dead. That's a much bigger problem than Lee not showing up for his dungeon raid.

Let's close on a positive, shall we? From KSR's Twitter on May 8:

Curtains!

After some previous issues with my curtains, I now have one complete, non-ghetto curtain to use.

I had some issues with the aligning on the first curtains because by the time I hemmed the front and back, they weren't the same size and I did not compensate for that well.



So I bought some new fabric that is the same pattern as the green above but in brown so hopefully just one panel of it won't let in too much light but still be mildly attractive on the wall. And just one sheet of fabric was much easier to deal with.



So yay! Curtains complete. Next (once I made another curtain for the other window): Bed skirt! *fingers crossed*

Grey's Anatomy Season Breakdown

Season 1: What is this amazing new show!?!
Season 2: Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!
Season 3: Umm...when Denny died I think he took a piece of all that is good with him.
Season 4: Watched only out of habit. Missed a few episodes because I barely cared.
Season 5: Cried like a baby every single week. Not kidding. First it was sad patient stories, now it's Izzie dying stories.

I've started watching Grey's before The Office so I can end my night smiling and not sobbing into husband's shoulder, blubbering pathetic crap.

*sigh* Here's to the simpler times...

Mantel Revamp

I'm perpetually second-guessing most of my home decor decisions and lately I've been concerned about our mantel. Back in January I finished mantel decorating, and being super proud of me, shared my achievements. However, as I was recently scouring my new favorite blog, This Young House, I came across a how-to article on how to avoid being matchy-matchy. I prefer not being matchy-matchy, but it's so much easier than being tastefully non-matchy-matchy that I often succumb. The mantel is a perfect example. I shifted some things around and now that it is assymetrical I'm hoping it's less matchy-matchy.

Before
After

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I celebrated this afternoon by eating Mexican for lunch. Later I might break out the tequila shots. For now, I will share pictures from my honeymoon in Cancun.


Isn't Mexico pretty?


This is how I spent several hours a day.

Self-portrait: Me and the Gulf of Mexico

Explaining My Issues

Last week I posted about how I waste my time doing things that really, if I think about it, I probably don't want to do. I don't want to play as many computer card games as I play. I don't even want to Facebook stalk as much as I Facebook stalk. However, these things tend to suck my time away by their magical powers.

Actually though, there are no magical powers involoved in this. It's all in my brain. I love it when science prooves that there are reasons for my nonsense. And apparently, with practice, I can fight the magnetic draw of Facebook and spider solitaire. For help fighting your own battle against lame distractions, read this.