etc.

Easter lunch with my folks today, my mum made some awesome cupcakes.

I mentioned to a few of you over email that once I got going on this list, it was hard to stop. I joked about the “goal-setting” being done but, in truth, it is a wonderful exercise in making you stop & consider the stuff you want to accomplish outside of the get-though-it-ness of everyday. Here are my next 20.

100 Things to do before I go (21-40):

21. Swim in the Dead Sea
22. Go on a humanitarian mission
23. Visit Japan
24. See the Aurora Borealis
25. Knit fair isle
26. Go up in a hot-air balloon
27. Karaoke
28. Show something I’ve made, painted, or photographed in a gallery
29. Live on a tropical island for a year
30. Hang glide
31. Rid our lives of chemicals
32. Go to the Komodo islands to see the dragons
33. Spend a week at the Louvre
34. Contribute to PostSecret
35. Road trip across Canada
36. Cook a meal comprised entirely of food we’ve grown/raised/caught ourselves
37. Build a piece of furniture
38. Make soap
39. Save a life
40. Learn to play the violin

Hope you were all blessed with bountiful chocolate and all-around weekend awesomeness. PS: I changed the tagline on this blog. It was time.

Behold, my new kitchen timer! Which has nothing at all to do with the rest of this post.

Perhaps you’ve seen these lists of “100 things to do before I go” floating around the blogworld lately. I first spotted one on Mighty Girl and have subsequently seen it meme’d in a few other places. It looked like fun, so I thought I’d join in. Besides, everyone needs goals, right? Here are my first 20.

100 Things to do before I go (1-20):

1. Publish a book (or 2)
2. Winter camping
3. Walk to work
4. Adopt a dog
5. Finish a Ph.D.
6. Live in a dry house with no plumbing problems
7. Hike the silk road
8. Learn how to spin and weave
9. Sail
10. Visit the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut
11. Live completely offline for at least 1 week every year
12. Bake bread
13. Have lunch with the mister on a workday
14. Climb a mountain
15. Silkscreen something
16. Run a marathon
17. Go on a vacation with my whole family
18. Make paper
19. Sea kayak in Alaska
20. Live in the country

What’s on your list?

This is St. Lucia. 25 days there would be brilliant. We were there for 1.

I wish I could say I’ve been on vacation since that last post. Alas, vacation lasted for 10 days, and the last 15 have been spent playing catch-up. But, oh, it was worth it. The mister and I were on a 9-day cruise in the south Caribbean, and let me just tell you, I did not want to come home. Usually, I’m ready for home at the end of vacation, any vacation, no matter how lovely, but this time the escape from reality was so convincing, so complete, that it was hard to come back. There was a whole lot of reading, some knitting, plentiful eating, and a goodly amount of relaxing. Also? Snorkeling, zip lining, and sailing. It was brilliant, folks.

And the last 15 days? A whole lot of reality kicking my butt and harshing my mellow. I’m trying not to think of that though, and to that end, I’m heading back to my aggregator to work through the 600+ feeds in my “art/craft/design” folder. That’s right, 600+ new posts in just one folder, so tonight, I’m indulging myself! Reality, be damned.

With apologies to those with delicate sensibilities.

That pile of laundry up there? Taller than I am. It’s a good thing we had the foresight to place our laundry hamper up against the wall, because, frankly, we couldn’t pile laundry that high without some sort of propping mechanism. The mister has suggested a game of laundry Jenga.

Lest you think it’s all white light, orange clocks, and domestic felicity around here, I thought I’d throw in a little offering from the keeping-it-real department to balance things out. That’s all.

Tin watering can. Orange. And kind of random.

Oh, I’ve always got random. Shelbi tagged me for the 5 random things meme, and lucky for her, I am abundantly random! You probably already know the rules (link to the tagger; post these rules; share 5 random facts about yourself; tag 5 people), so I’ll jump in.

5 random things about me:

• I’ve worked more jobs than many but less than most. I’ve been a lottery ticket retailer, library assistant, retail lease administrator, campus ticket seller, file room assistant, html coder, web designer, records manager, gardener, librarian. That last one is my current and most favourite gig.
• I used to chew my fingernails right down to the quick. I still do gnaw on them every once in a while, but mostly I just let them be. Many years of chewing have left my fingernails thin, brittle, and annoying.
• I am mysophobic and claustrophobic. That first one causes me to wash my hands a LOT and open doors with a deft combination of elbows and feet. That last one causes my limbs to stiffen and the air to leave my lungs when I even think about confined spaces (you know those scenes in movies where the good guy is crawling through ducts to get away from the bad guy? Can’t watch those. Must leave the room, breathe deeply, and think happy thoughts. Don’t even get me started on the accidentally-buried-alive scenes. Ouf. Maybe I’m watching the wrong movies).
• I count my steps when I walk. I’m particularly diligent about counting stairs because I live in fear of missing one. I know exactly how many stairs there are in our house (40), how many stairs I must ascend & descend to get me from my car to my office (95 up, 17 down), and how many paces and stairs it takes to get from my desk at work to the closet washroom (34 paces, 9 stairs). Hello, OCD!
• This does not work on me (i.e. my foot does not change direction). The mister thinks I’m wired wrong and has been known bring this up at parties (party trick!). If my librarian day job doesn’t work out, I’m joining the circus.

Thanks for the tag, Shelbi! Because I’m such a rule-breaker, I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you haven’t already done this one (or if you have but still have more random goodness to share), consider yourself tagged!

Happy Tuesday, friends.

PS: you have seen this, right? Lusty!

The first and second are days 3 & 2 of Project 365, respectively. The mohair scarf is a couple years old (both the picture and the scarf) that I recently added to my Flickr archives for Ravelry. Oh, Ravelry!

I don’t know what it is about orange lately. I want to wear it, eat it, taste it, smell it, surround myself with it. Does orange even have a smell? I know green does.

Day 3 and the project is going well. Thank you all so much for the encouragement! As I mentioned to a few of you over email, when I told the mister about my plans to participate, I was met with a chuckle and a few guffaws. Followed by a, “sorry sweetie, sounds like a neat idea!”, with a barely-disguised smile in his voice. I wonder how those words will taste a few hundred days from now? Heh.

Once upon a time, on this here blog, I used to maintain a page of links to my favourite crafty blog reads. I took down that list recently because my new aggregator (Google Reader) can’t generate a handy list of blogs I subscribe to like Bloglines used to (which I haven’t used in ages). I didn’t feel a whole lot of remorse for getting rid of the links page at the time because I sort of assumed that no one looked at it. But, here’s the thing: every once in a while, I go on a discovery tour of craftblogland by clicking on link lists on blogs I visit. I find it’s a great way to discover new blog treasures, and without those lists of favourite reads, I most certainly wouldn’t find those treasures! And then it’s just me and the usual suspects dancing around in an echo chamber!

I’ve added a whole slew of fantastic blogs to my aggregator recently, as a result of just such a discovery tour (next post: what’s new in my aggregator!). But, I’m curious about what others do. Do you plumb your favourite bloggers’ lists of favourite blogs? Do you ignore the links and walk on by? Do you see those links at all? I’d love to know!

A blanket of snow to-day. This is day one of Project 365, where I take a picture a day for a year. Of course, this year has 366 days, so I get a day off.

Day one. So full of possibilities, isn’t it? Have you made plans for the new year? Resolutions? Mine include eating better, cooking more, living healthier, swimming more, getting outside more, taking pictures more, smiling more, making others smile more. Nothing concrete, just some vague notions of doing better.

Happy 2008 to you, dear readers! I wish you a year of limitless possibilities.

Elijah the elephant, a gift for Zach. One of the crafty things I couldn’t show you last week.

Best non-fiction book: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan.
I’ve been at this book for a few weeks, picking away at it in fits & starts. When I do pick it up, I find it extremely difficult to put it back down again, it’s that good.

Best fiction book: Consolation: A Novel, Michael Redhill
I haven’t read a lot of fiction this year, so there weren’t many contenders, but this is easily the best of the lot. It’s set in Toronto, so I’m sure the local-ness had a lot to do with why I enjoyed it so much.

Best movie: Das Leben der Anderen (Lives of Others)
Watched in ’07, so I’m going to say it counts. Looking back over the film archives this year, I’d have to say that it’s been a slim year on movies, and even slimmer on really good ones (I still have a post in draft listing everything we’ve seen since September, will post that soon). Das Leben der Anderen definitely stands out as the most beautiful story and generally the best all-around movie-watching experience. I loved it.

Best album: Neon Bible, Arcade Fire; Reunion Tour, The Weakerthans; Under the Iron Sea, Keane; The Reminder, Feist
Four brilliant records, how could I choose between them? So I didn’t.

Best concert: The Killers.
Mind-bendingly awesome and probably my most anticipated concert in ages.

Best lip gloss: Labello Caregloss & Shine
2007 has been the Year of Lip Gloss for me, I must have tried 7 types. This one came out on top in terms of lip protection, appropriate colour subtlety, shine, and pleasant lack of taste (I don’t need my lip gloss to be yummy, thanks). But wait, there’s a minor tragedy here: I found an old tube in brown at a drug store that obviously had some pretty old stock, because I don’t think they make that shade anymore. I can’t find mention of it anywhere!

Best online experience: Ravelry
As I mentioned the other day, I got my invitation back in October, while I was in the thick of conference traveling, so I only really got around to noodling about in there a few weeks ago. It’s as addictive as everyone says it is and even more useful too. I finished photographing and cataloguing my stash (login required for that link, sorry!) last week and at one point I found myself thinking, “wouldn’t it be handy if I could find patterns based on what I have stashed?” and indeed, I could. One click tells me who has the same yarn and what they are making/have made with it. Brilliant! I keep finding fabulous little utilities like this, the more time I spend there. Plus it has rekindled my love of the craft, which is always a good thing.

Best consumer-electronic purchased: Canon Digital Rebel XTi
I love love love this camera. It might just be the best consumer-electronic purchased ever.

Best place visited: Boston, MA
Many places were visited this year, most for conferences, some for vacation: Fort Myers (FL), Las Vegas (NV), Arlington (VA), Washington DC, St. John’s (Newfoundland), Boston (MA), Victoria (British Columbia), Monterey (CA), San Francisco (CA), Huntsville (AL). Boston was probably my favourite because it was the only pure vacation (no conference! no teaching! no work!) and because it’s an awesome city, and I’m a big fan of awesome cities. Next year’s traveling is looking less far-and-wide and I’m secretly pleased about that.

Best store visited: Morba
A dusty little mid-century modern haven on Queen Street West here in Toronto. We drive past this store all the time and every time we do, I tell the mister how much I’d really like to go in some day. So last weekend, we did! We bought a trophy lamp with a chrome base and dome shade that looks like it’s right out of The Jetsons, and an orange clock for the kitchen. This is my new favourite store ever.

Best knit: Elijah (pictured above)
Full details on the project page in Ravelry (bien sur!), but for those of you who aren’t there yet, the pattern is here and I used just over one skein of Lamb’s Pride Worsted in Turquoise Depths (and a hint of Ruby Red for his scarf). It’s a really well-written pattern with no seaming, just a bunch of picked up stitches for the limbs (which was finicky, but not hard). I’ll definitely be making this one again.

Best person met: Zach
My new nephew and, hands down, my favourite person of 2007.

What are your bests of 2007?

Holiday Card 2007

If I were to tell you what I’ve been busying myself with recently, the list would look something like this:

• baking: can’t say, it’s a surprise
• knitting: can’t say, it’s a surprise
• sewing: can’t say, it’s a surprise
• crafting: can’t say, it’s a surprise

And so on, &c. It’s a wonder anyone out there in craftblogland has anything to talk about in the month of December. Of course, I’m hardly prolific in the craft department these days, if I was I suppose I could keep the gift-crafting to myself and share the non-gift crafting with you. Ha, fat chance there’s any non-gift crafting going on! Anyway, the holiday card I made this year is about all I can share by way of craftiness, even though the glue is barely dry, nevermind that none have been written or posted. It’s not a palette you’d probably expect from a holiday card (the card itself, nor the setting above), but I’m crazy about blue, brown, and orange at the moment. That orange watering can in the background? Won it at the library party a couple of days ago. Along with an assortment of other orangey backyard goodies. A little something to help me take my mind of winter and start dreaming of spring and summer. So lovely! So, anyway, back to the card: it’s your typical craft store creation, really, and not what I had in mind for this year’s card at all. But as soon as I spotted the bird-shaped craft punch in the store, I knew what had to be done. I picked up the alphabet stamps (in the shape of typewriter keys! Who could resist?), got out the blank, ivory cards, some scrap paper bits, and set to work. I’m pleased with it.

Some other newsy bits and links:

• I have a new nephew! His name is Zach, he was born 3 weeks ago, and I am absolutely in love with him. I can’t go 2 days without seeing him, truly. I’d post a picture but I have to get permission from his parents first (I keep forgetting to ask!).
• I survived an earthquake! OK, it’s somewhat old news, and probably a bit alarmist for a minor-ish quake in California, but still. It was my first!
• My Ravelry invite came in a few weeks ago! Here’s my sparsely-populated profile. Go ahead and friend me, it might encourage me to actually spend some time beefing up my projects & stash info. I have to admit, it’s the stash cataloguing on the site that really intrigues me (librarian much?)
• I went to Alabama last week for a quickie conference. I saw very little of it, the highlight being a drive past the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, twice (from the airport, to the airport). Wish I had time to go in.
• Time Management for Creative People, a free e-book that is in my to-read file.
• If you work with Photoshop or Illustrator you might like this collection of brushes, patterns, fonts, etc. I nabbed this off someone’s blog and forgot whose, sorry.
• My parents gave us a crockpot this year and the onset of winter has seen me scouring the interwebs for good crockpot recipes. Got any? Here’s one I can’t wait to try.
• We saw Feist last week and she was even more brilliant than I expected. The Great Lake Swimmers opened for her and they were pretty brilliant too. Folksy with a lot of nice instrumental work, and a lead singer with an absolutely haunting voice.

There, I think we’re all caught up now.

  me, October 13, Victoria BC, in my hotel room

Wow, are you sick of looking at that yarn yet? This here blog has been nagging on me for the past few weeks. “I really should update,” I said to myself. “It’s got to be 3 weeks since I last wrote.” So, I get here to realize that it’s actually been over 6 weeks. Damn. Sorry about that. Things have been a bit silly in the work & travel department. I was in Victoria for a conference back in earlyish October (picture above was taken in my hotel room; that’s a Green Leaf & Owl pendant, in case you’re wondering. It’s fantastic). And then the mister and I were off to Monterey & San Francisco a couple of weeks ago for 9 days of work followed by a little play. Victoria pictures are here, California pictures are forthcoming.

So, it’s November, and you know what that means. Of course, we’re 7 days in already, so I can’t officially enter, but I can make a wee pledge to do better this month, and that’s what I’m going to do. I have a list, folks, a great long list of many little things I need to catch you up on, so let’s do that this month, shall we? Yes, let’s.

For now, tell me, how have you been?