Checked Out-Checking In

Our library checks out books for 3 weeks at a time, so on Oct 4, I checked out 3 books, determined to read one each week and actually get them turned in on time. (Luckily, our library doesn't do fines for overdue books!)
I met my goal!! All 3 books have been finished and are ready to be returned tomorrow. (Hopefully the library will have a new issue of Runner's World on the shelf tomorrow too!)
I checked out (and will be checking in tomorrow):

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume. Lately, I've been interested in  re-reading a few of the books that I remember reading when I was a kid... maybe since I'm almost 30?!?!?!?!  Earlier this year I re-read Island of the Blue Dolphins, and I think maybe this might be a project for next year???

Dating Hamlet, by Lisa Fielder. This one caught my eye while I was browsing in the teen section. I have found some of my favorite books in the teen section, and it's usually a sure bet for a quick, easy read! This story was fun & makes me want to ask my dad to send me my big ol' Shakespeare anthology. The story is written in Ophelia's point of view, and I just saw that the author also has another similar story, Romeo's Ex. Will have to see if that one's there tomorrow.  Or maybe I'll stick with Hamlet and see if "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein is available.

How to Be an American Housewife, by Margaret Dilloway. I read books for grown-ups, too! The endpaper summary had me hooked-- this is the story of a Japanese woman who married an American military man after WWII and tried to assimilate to an American lifestyle. I loved that the descriptions, words and names in the book took me back to Okinawa! I loved the writing style, the characters, and the story.

I'll let you know what I check out tomorrow!

From the Fitting Room

Tomorrow, I'm going to a party.
So today, I went shopping.

My wardrobe pretty much consists of "teacher clothes", "camp counselor clothes", and jeans. I've got cotton cardigans in a variety of colors. I've got a billion t-shirts. I have a decent little collection of button downs or shells to wear under cardigans. I've got fleece top layers. And I have jeans. Tons of jeans, most of which seem to be too big for me, since I always buy jeans when I am in the states and I'm usually eating a lot while I'm in the states.
I'm okay with my wardrobe. Except for when I have a party to go to. Then I wish I had something a little more trendy. I don't want to wear my almost-2-sizes-too-big jeans and an Old Navy fleece to a club in the city. I want to wear a purple mini dress, grey tights, black boots and a long strand of grey pearls. Unfortunately, I only have the tights and boots, I don't know where the nearest fabric store is, and my aunt who would be able to help me make my party dress is about 4,000 miles away.
So I had to go shopping.
I don't hate shopping, but I don't love it. I'd rather shop for yarn, books, or scrapbook supplies--things you don't have to try on. I hate trying clothes on. It's hard to find things that fit me right, and sometimes, I don't even know what the item is supposed to be. I tried on something purple today and I still don't know if it was a shirt or a dress. It was shapeless and pretty much transparent, so I put it back on the rack.
Since there were no suitable purple dresses to be found in town, I ended up changing my "vision"-- black top (that I already have), skinny jeans (don't have), black boots (have) and a long purple necklace (don't have). And so began the search for skinny jeans. Let me tell you that when you've been wearing almost-2-sizes-too-big jeans for a long long time, you feel a bit ridiculous trying on skinny jeans. I ended up buying a pair of the same jeans in each of two sizes, so I could make my decision about which to wear at the very last minute. And I might even keep them both, because the bigger size doesn't actually have the "skinny" fit, so I can see them becoming just another "regular" pair of jeans for me. Best of all, the jeans are grey! I was just wishing that I had some grey jeans the other day. And second-best of all, this clothes shopping should be just fine to hold me over for a while so I can save my shopping energy for other things-- like Christmas decorations!

12 of 12: The Can't Find My Camera Edition

Well, I sure am glad that this is NOT going to be the final year for the official 12 of 12 after all, because I have not done well at participating each month!
I don't know where my camera is! I had it on Sunday, I do know that... but it's not in any of it's usual hangouts.
So my 12 of 12 exist only in my mind--

1. 0705- Woke up, checked watch and actually remembered it was 12 of 12.
2. 0745- Dressed & ready for a run to my friend's house, a walk & run with her, and a run home. I'll go ahead and count that as 3 runs for the day.
3. 1045- Breakfast-- Special K. I'm saving my last box of Frankenberry for later.
4. 1100- Washing dishes, until I decided not to wash anymore dishes.
5. 1300- Commissary, where I tried to pick a pumpkin but they were all displayed so you didn't notice the dented, moldy side.
6. 1500- My pretty pink & yellow flowers outside the front door. Unfortunately, the rosy smelling roses seem to have died as suddenly as they appeared. 
7. 1600- Organizing coupons & throwing out the ones that expired 7 months ago. The commissaries only accept the ones that expired less than 6 months ago.
8. 1740- David comes home from work.
9. 1815- Our dinner looks tasty and beautiful-- Penne w/ Salmon & Asparagus.
10. 1820- We watch tv while we eat... tonight is How I Met Your Mother.
11. 1900- I decided to knit, but...
12. 1910- we researched travel ideas instead.

Need to find my camera for next month... November should be an interesting 12!

Holiday Dinner

Happy Columbus Day!
Or, if you're Canadian, Happy Thanksgiving!

October-December (well, January 12, actually!) is my favorite time of year because of all the festive foods! Christmas cookies, all the yummy Thanksgiving side dishes, apple cider, pumpkin goodies, "creepy" Halloween foods, chili, tamales, pierogi, fudge, bark & brittle... it's a great time to eat!

Since today is Columbus Day (and Canadian Thanksgiving), I decided that we'd have to have Italian food for dinner tonight, in honor of that famous Italian who wasn't actually the first person to sail to America.  (I don't know any Canadian recipes)
I planned a Giada DeLaurentis recipe for tonight-- Roman-style Fettucine from her Everyday Pasta cookbook. I don't know if Columbus ever went to Rome or if he ever ate anything like this, but it was good!

Unfortunately, I was baking apple bread (delicious!! from the Better Homes & Gardens classic "red plaid") while I was supposed to be cooking dinner, so David took over the dinner-cooking tonight. He's not exactly a great recipe reader, and I still chopped the veggies, herbs (the thyme was from our garden!), and garlic, but the dinner was great!! But, since David did the majority of the cooking, I have to do the dishes! :( Boo! 

2010's the Charm

I think I'm going to "pre-make" a December Daily album this year. Don't know what December Daily is? It's an Ali Edwards project and you can get an overview here. 
The basic idea is that you build an album or pages for your album for the month of December, in advance, and then during December, you journal & take pictures of what's going on on a daily basis (hence the clever title, December Daily) and just add in your journaling & photos. In my case, I'll be adding my photos later because I don't print at home.
I'm going to make mine a mini, since I've been really into mini-albums lately. I've been so into mini-albums lately that I actually made one, bringing my collection up to 2. But I have plans for a few others, including this one.
During one of my flickr searches for mini-albums, I found this one made from a box of soap. I use the liquid body wash, but lucky for me, David uses bar soap. (Irish Spring, in case you were wondering.) I searched "soap box mini album" on google and the first link that popped up was actually this video tutorial made by the same person whose flickr photo had inspired me!

I have tons of holiday themed papers in my scrapbook stash and my mom brought me some more adhesive when she came to visit. I've chosen the format of my project and declared my intention to do it. So, there's no turning back now! (Unless I can't manage to clear a path from the doorway of my "hobby room" to my table...)

On the Needles

On the Needles right now:
Helena  (here's my Helena on Ravelry) -- I'm making this baby sweater for no other reason than to make room for more yarn! I'm so close to being finished.

It now has two sleeves and I finished turning the picot hem. My least favorite task lies ahead--picking up stitches around the front opening & neck.

Amused  (My Amused on Ravelry)-- I am completely embarrassed that I started this project 360 days ago. And it's shoved, unfinished, in my step tansu.

It probably still looks a lot like the photo above. I'm frustrated by the color pooling, and I can no longer remember where I left off in the pattern. I don't know what I will do with this sweater...finish or frog??? But at least I've now acknowledged its existence.


Big Snugs (my ravelry project link)-- Another project that I can't believe I'm admitting to hiding in the step tansu.

I know that this is still the spot where this project is because, unless the little knitting elves sneaked in and fixed it for me, I'm stuck at this part. Literally. I did something really wacky when picking up my stitches and my needle is so very stuck in there. Like really, really stuck. I'm in this strange stage of the knitting-related grief process where I'm no longer in denial about the problem itself, but still dealing with a lot of denial with regards to the solution to this problem most likely involving a tiny pair of scissors. Or elves.


Also on the needles are a few swatches that I'm supposed to take to a knitting class I'm taking on the 23rd. Just 2 more weeks!! It's "finishing school" where I will finally learn the "right" way to seam those projects that do make it off the needles!

Coming up for air

what have I been doing in the past... I don't even know how long it's been... since I last blogged??

Girl Scouts--to include a weekend trip w/5 tweens to Germany
Yuletide Bazaar committee-ing
reorganizing my scrapbooks
knitting
printing saved recipes & filing in a binder
looking at yarn online
tutoring
harvesting my cherry tomatoes and planning next years "crops"
buying plane tickets to Poland (but not researching hotels...need to get on that!)
catching up on Gossip Girl episodes
reading
running, but not as much as I'd like to

In all of September, there was ONE day that I didn't have anything on my calendar.
I'm going to make a conscious effort to blog more in October!