Notes from the Something

I miss traveling :(

There is nothing more wonderful than coming home to the places and people you love after an extended trip, like 5 months in Australia... but it gets old. Being home, especially without a job and with it the accompanying income, alone, for too long, reallllllly starts to suck. I am so ready to move to England!! (Send good vibes that Dan gets this job he interviewed for last week please!!)

I also really want to have some more adventures, especially after reading my friend Dean's blog. I met him in Laos at the same time as I met Dan, actually, and we've kept in touch via Facebook and blogs -- he's back on the road, adventuring in Indonesia.

I've always done fairly *safe* travel things -- I don't mean in the safety sense, it's all very safe, I mean in the easy sense -- but they were still awesome. I did a trek in Thailand run by a guest house - it came highly recommended and was AMAZING.

We rode on elephants, 

slept in village huts, 

schlepped through rice paddies and the jungle, 

and bamboo-rafted down the river (on rafts our guides made that morning).

 It really was fabulous, especially for an ultra-suburban girl such as myself. It wasn't a "package tour" by any means, it was very authentic. BUT all the other people were other backpackers, and our guide led all the activities. And showed us cool nature things, like a "bubble plant" - the sap works as bubble solution when you make a little cup out of a leaf and wand out of grass! It was the perfect introduction to adventure traveling!

I think after the experiences I've had, I'm ready for more. I'm ready to branch out on my own (with Dan, of course) and do some crazy stuff. Not bungee jumping or climbing Everest -- that's stuff's just not my style anyway -- but I think we could do an India-Nepal-Tibet-Bhutan thing and figure stuff out on our own. 

I am just itching to get going again! England will be an adventure for sure, and it will be VERY nice not to be homeless and have a normal life for a while, but I know it won't be long before the jungle calls me again... it's been leaving voicemails for some time now. One of these days I'll get the chance to answer.

I've been unfaithful.

As you know, Knitting is my true love (in the craftiverse only - hi Dan!! <3). After a whirlwind courtship that involved lots of staying up late into the night, giggling and cuddling, and taking a few trips together, we got married almost exactly 4 years ago, in 2005. 

And it has been a blissful, harmonious relationship. Sure, early on there were a few blow-ups, but what couple doesn't hit bumps in the road? It only makes you stronger. Our children get more beautiful and our love grows deeper. 

But now.... now I am tempted. An old flame has returned, someone I thought I left in the past. 

It started out innocently enough... Tay asked me to teach her how to sew. I thought, sure, I can do that. I haven't sewn in years, but I'm sure it's just like riding a bike. We went fabric shopping... pleasant memories returned but I was still strong. I would not be seduced by prints and colors, I have a fantastic yarn stash at home!

In retrospect, the signs have been there for a while. I bought 2 yards of fabric in Hawaii, just for kicks. I've been a little frustrated by the limitations of knitting. I knit the top for Summerlin, though I held onto the fabric for 9 months before doing anything with it. I've been wanting some cute fabric project bags like these (I bought one and I love it, but I have a LOT of wip's at any given time and $15 a pop isn't going to fly). 

So, like I've heard these things always do, one thing led to another, and I was SEWING. I was sneaking around, spending time browsing fabrics... I joined a fabric co-op, ostensibly for Tay but who was I kidding? I finished Summerlin and made 3 project bags, all the time telling myself it was only temporary. I felt dirty. My knitting languished - just a bit, but I recognize the signs of a Craft Conversion. 

(I also discovered how my Brain is cleverly tricking me, but I don't know how to plot against it without it finding out. Tricky stuff, battling your own brain. More on this later.)

I was dejected. I was despondent! Wherefore art thou, Love for Knitting?

Then, it came to me in a flash, like lightning.

I'm not an ADULTERESS, I am a POLYGAMIST!! I can love knitting AND sewing! And they can love each other! And we can all be one big happy family like the Henricksons. 

Here's why:

~Sewing is quick, but knitting is portable -- you can get a sewing project banged out in a few hours, but they are hours spent tied to your sewing machine and cutting table. Knitting takes longer to get to the destination, but the journey is so much more scenic. This way, I can be both process AND product-oriented.

~It's time to face facts: You cannot knit EVERYTHING. (there are some who beg to differ, but we're not going there.) (Apparently tonight I am channeling Julie) There are some gaps that sewing snuggles right into - Miles of stockinette skirt on Crumpets holding you back? Just knit the top and add fabric! Need an instant gift idea? Sew up a Magic Bag! (photos forthcoming after it's revealed to its new owner)

And, vice versa, some niches that only knitting will fill - that cute sleeveless dress needs a shrug? Someone wants a nice winter hat? Really, I just need to say one word: SOCKS. Knit it up, baby! And then there are the times they work in tandem - cute cloth diaper with matching longies, for example! 

~Hobbies ebb and flow with the seasons  -- Sure, I knit in the summer. I've even knit at the beach! But there are only so many things you can get motivated to wrap your hands in when it's 100 degrees out. And only so many wearables you can knit for the summer baby! Sewing has the opposite problem. Put 'em together and you have YEAR-ROUND enjoyment!! 

~Cost-Benefit Analysis - Cost of materials is directly proportional to time spent enjoying the activity. Though no peer-reviewed studies exist, I would venture a guess that the hourly cost of knitting as compared to sewing is equivalent (factoring in the time spent in misery unclogging bobbins, rewinding balls, weaving in ends, and pressing seams). 

So, in a beautiful ceremony last week, Knitting and I married Sewing as our second wife. (Photography, yoga, and scrapbooking are just close friends of ours - our "posse", if you will)

I predict a long and happy life together! (Until I lose interest and move on to something else.) 

Twitter? I don't need no stinking Twitter!

I have been resisting the pull of Twitter, I think mainly because my attention span is short enough and... ooo! piece of candy!

Where was I? (lol) Anyway, I can totally see the appeal of Tweets, but then again I also don't need more excuses to say EVERY SINGLE FREAKING THING that pops into my head out loud. And believe me, I would.

Like this:

~I felt Jenny's baby kick tonight. It was the COOLEST THING EVER. There is a real live person in there! (More on this later)

~I think the vast majority of radio DJ's are idiots and I would do a much, MUCH better job. 

~I really want to have my own travel TV show. Like that girl that goes to all the beaches! Only significantly less skanky.

~I feel 2 zits developing on my face. I thought I used up my zit quota in high school and college! Yes, college. Oy.

~I am working on what should be a very cool post about sewing, knitting, and polygamy.

~I am working on a lot of very cool posts.

~There was a great interview on Cast On with a woman who started an awesome crochet magazine and gave it up. She said, "I'm not a quitter, I'm a starter." I love this!

~Next week, I am going to visit this place. I am insanely excited!!

~I really, really, really, really, really hope Dan gets a job soon so I can move to England! 

~Or that I find some incredible open-ended awesome job here in the meantime.

~Because I'm BORED. Being unemployed is not as much fun as it sounds.

~It is sort of fun though - today Tay and I went into the city to have lunch with my cousin who works in fashion to talk about the fashion industry.

~I saw MANY parallels to Jenny's job as a civil engineer.

~Clearly, I tweet better than I blog.

~Speaking of tweeting, I got the cutest fabric today with little birdies on it!

~Dogs are starting to grow on me a little. Despite this, I am more positive than ever that I will never ever ever ever ever have one as a pet.

~I am taking a photography class online with Allison Tyler Jones over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It is FANTASTIC. Watch this space for AWESOME photos! 

My Crafty Weekend

I was visiting my *second family*, the L's. I used to babysit for them when Baby Girl was little - she's 7 now! And JB and Tay were 10 and 11. So it's been a long time. Now, I live with them on occasion and watch their dogs when they go away (like right now). Perfect example of a bad thing turning out awesome, btw -- I started babysitting for them because I got fired from Olive Garden -- yeah, go ahead and laugh -- for the record, it was because I missed TWO FREAKING WINE MEETINGS, not a reflection of my (admittedly sub-par) waitressing skillz.

Anyway, whenever they want to do something crafty, they call me, and whenever I want to do something fun for kids, I call them. This weekend, we had it all. First, I wanted to do mini cupcakes, as seen on The Pioneer Woman guest starring Bakerella! I know, my taste in blogs is so fresh and unusual, right? 41 pages of comments can't be wrong!

I had my doubts about a big ol' bowl of cake and a whole can of frosting, covered in MORE CHOCOLATE. I am not a huge sweets eater - 2 cookies is about enough for me. (lest you be blinded by the glare of my halo, I need to tell you I can eat an entire pound of bacon/large order of cheese fries/ bag of sour cream and onion potato chips in one sitting). But these things???? Oh. My. French. Toast! They were delicious. Not as pretty as the ones made by professionals, of course, but we liked them.

Oh, and for the record - you CAN dye white candy melts with regular food coloring as long as you use a teeny tiny bit and stir very well! 

The pre-baked cakes - doesn't matter what size or shape they are!

Baby Girl mashing the cake and frosting for the *cake balls*

Her front teeth fell out just from the sugar fumes of this recipe.

Dipped and decorated -- we also got creative with some pretzels! And Oreos.

My favorite - sweet and simple.

I must have eaten 10 of these in a 24 hour period, that's how good they were. (By my sweets standards, that's the equivalent of about 14 boxes of Girl Scout cookies).

She also wanted me to re-teach her how to knit. Now, I don't understand why anyone, upon learning to knit, would EVER want to do anything else with their time (except read books, which she does do), but this girl picks it up and puts it back down on a regular basis. This weekend, she was so into it she snuck into my room to wake me up just to knit more! Unfortunately, it hasn't stuck, so in 6 months I'll probably be teaching her again.

She's working on a scarf out of Malabrigo in Natural... at this rate she should be done sometime after the polar ice caps melt and no one needs scarves anymore. 

Stay tuned for Part 2, in which I re-learn how to sew.

How do you get there from here?

We were talking about blogs over at the Tri-Dub (my favorite online forum hangout), and my friend Heather mentioned she wanted to hear more about my traveling, which is  a HUGE part of my life (though not right this second) but I don't talk about it very much. I started wondering WHY I don't talk about it that much, and I came up with a few reasons:

1) I read about travel a lot. And I meet a lot of travelers when I'm traveling. Because of this, I assume everyone has the same experiences and mine aren't that special. But I guess it's like a doctor who only goes to the bar across the street from the hospital assuming that everyone everywhere is a doctor too, right? So just because I think I'm run-of-the-mill doesn't mean everyone else does too! Just trust me that there are WAY cooler travelers out there.

2) There is so, so, SO much to tell about that it's overwhelming to even think about it. To circumvent this, I think I'll just start randomly posting stories with only as much background info as you need. If I tried to sit here and "write about travel", I would end up going all the way back to 2004, when I read an article about orphanages in Thailand in Mothering magazine leading all the way through to the other day at the library, when I thought I was over it but I walked past the travel books and got weak in the knees, and then my head would explode and I would spend an hour looking at LOLcats and not post anything.

3) I tell the stories a lot in real life, so I feel like typing them out is redundant. But YOU'VE never heard them, have you? 

So, let's start with one of Heather's questions:

"I'd REALLY love to hear how you decide to go somewhere."

There are many ways I choose a place. Some, like Oregon, are because I have a friend that lives there and she says it's cool, and she's cool so I trust her ;), and it turns out to be AMAZING! This is Cannon Beach, about and hour from Portland. Portland is the coolest city on the planet, but you already know that, right?

I choose some because it's common knowledge that they are amazing -- like Fiji. Fiji is heaven on earth. Everyone should go to Fiji at least once in their life. 

(Note: I took these photos with my point and shoot camera and before I knew about editing... I like them better than ones I take now with my DSLR! Maybe I need to go back to those days LOL)

And then there are the places that are serendipitous... places I never would have thought of going, but end up there for one reason or another. When I arrive there, I know it's exactly where I need to be. 

Like Laos. It's that beige shooting-star-looking country that's not even labeled. 

(picture from Google Image Search)

It's a tiny country between Vietnam and Thailand, not the sort of place that tops vacation lists, but it's amazing.

The story of how I got there is a great one! It deserves its own post, after I tell you about Dan... or maybe to start out me telling you about Dan, but to do that I have to find my favorite picture of him on my external hard drive that I somehow deleted from my computer in an attempt to export.... it's complicated. I don't know. 

Anyway, I will make that my next job!

This is what kills me about iTunes.

I am a Mac girl through and through... I love my little white MacBook with all my heart - the Dock is perfect; Stickies are adorable; iTunes is, in my mind, the ideal program for organizing and playing music, and I even like iPhoto for its lovely retouching zit-removing capabilities.

But oh, that proprietary format about everything!! The way iPhoto hold my pictures in its iron fist! The way iTunes tells me I can't play music I BOUGHT!

It's enough to drive a person to Limewire. I mean, seriously. If they want you to pay 99 cents - now $1.29 for that Plus thing - for music that is available FREE (albeit illegally), they really should let you LISTEN to it. 

I had to reinstall my OS last fall, and thus reauthorize my computer to play iTunes. None of the passwords I could think of were working so I followed the "Forgot Password" link to what I thought was retrieving my password and somehow created a new account, and could not find a way to access songs I had bought before this happened. 

Anyway, after several emails back and forth with the EXTREMELY HELPFUL (no sarcasm here, they were fantastic!) email iTunes Support, I figured out that my *old* account had somehow gotten converted to my sister's email address (wtf?? She has no idea how this happened either) and was able to authorize it for the songs that way. 

Actually, I was in the middle of writing this long frustrated post when I figured it all out, and now it's all in the past. But still. Songs I PAID FOR! Sigh.

Oh, and just for kicks... here is the awesome screenshot I made with Skitch to show the people at iTunes that I actually HAD purchased the songs with my account in 2006 :)