Feb 26th 2006 06:50:49 pm

I have only been in one wedding, other than my own… I was a bridesmaid at the wedding of our friends, Tim and Jenn. I had so much fun at their wedding! It was seriously the best day. Travis and I got to be with our friends, dress in fancy clothes, eat good food, and unlike our own wedding, we weren’t the center of attention. It was great! So, to commemorate the fun occasion, I made a little shadow box of pictures and their invitation and program.

I hung the new shadow box with the rest of my wedding wall. There is quite a bit of stuff on the wall now! And it is just going to get more out of control after Chelsea & Scott’s wedding this summer! (I am her maid of honor – I am so excited!)

4 Comments » Categories: Home, Projects, weddings

Feb 26th 2006 12:38:31 pm

I ordered these four books from Amazon on Friday. They are all pretty much for school, although they are for pleasure, too. I guess that is a good sign when you can buy books you really want and then use them for school projects…

• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson – Nonfiction about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. I have been wanting to read this for a long time! It is about the construction of the White City and a serial killer who prowled the fair. Exciting!
• Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler – Nonfiction about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. I am currently taking a class about cultural museums, and this book was recommended. The first American anthropological museums were so crazy – just a bunch of collected weird stuff!
• Bazaar Bizarre: Not Your Granny’s Crafts! by Greg Der Ananian – Ok, so I really wanted this book just for the fun of it… but I am actually writing a research paper about the online craft movement, so it is also research!
• Get Crafty: Hip Home Ec by Jean Railla – I read the intro to this book online and it really spoke to me. It is all about how feminism steers women away from the traditional “woman crafts” but how many ladies are re-discovering the importance and the joy of stuff like sewing and home decorating… anyway, it is more research!

I am nervous about buying these books instead of trying to find them at the library. I hate having more stuff that I am just going to have to move again someday, and I also don’t want to clutter my house more than it already is… plus the whole thing about saving the trees (we live in Eugene – it is required that you worry about recycling if you live here)… but I really think I will like all of these books! The craft ones have lots of activities and projects in them, so I must keep those! And, all of them may come in handy for future school papers and maybe even my thesis, so they are kinda like textbooks. Plus, they are all paperback so maybe they won’t be too tough to move…

1 Comment » Categories: Books, Misc

Feb 21st 2006 04:42:58 pm

Purplepinkandorange.com hosts a super-fun swap through Swap-bot every month. I participated in the February Leftover Craft Items Swap and I received a HUGE box of fabulous goodies from Karla last week. She sent all sorts of things like yarn, paper, stickers, foam letter stamps, popsicle sticks, tons of beads, fabric, some funny magnet things, a watercolor set, a little wooden box, and she made me the cutest card! AND, she also painted me a super-cute watercolor (above right) which I immediately hung on the wall in my studio! Thank you so much, Karla, for all of the crafty goodness! (I also uploaded a slightly larger photo of my loot on the purplepinkandorange photo gallery.)

I, on the other hand, just managed to send out my package to my partner today. I am a day late pass the mail deadline, but I hope it arrives quickly!

P.S. Swap-bot has been going through a few improvements lately, and we are continuing to change things and make hostings swaps easier and more fun… There are a bunch of cool swaps up right now that you can sign up for, so go check them out!

3 Comments » Categories: Crafts, Misc, Swap-bot

Feb 19th 2006 09:13:38 pm

I really am working on a lot of homework today, but I thought I could sneak in one more blog post without hurting my productivity too much…

I finally finished The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. I bought the book over a year ago, but took my time getting through it. It is over 900 pages filled to the brim with the all-too-realistic everyday activities of nineteenth-century London. It covers a lot of issues from feminism and sexuality to religion and class structure. A narrator pulls you through the story in an entertaining, but slightly creepy way, which I liked. I enjoyed the whole book a lot even if it was a long read and a bit depressing. I think it is empowering for women, but also too matter-of-fact about the hardships women face. The male characters have all of the power in the book, but they are the ones who are most severely punished in the end – more because of their aloofness/stupidity than because they are men. That might be giving too much of it away… but, maybe not…

All in all, I would definitely recommend the book to women who want to know more than they need to about birth control, and to men who would like to better understand the plight of the fairer sex, or to anyone else who really likes well-researched historical fiction. This is the most accurate review I have read of the book: “If you like your characters ‘likeable,’ your plot-endings tidy, and your sex tantalizing (rather than gritty and smelly), this may not be the book for you.” (from Amazon.com)

1 Comment » Categories: Books

Feb 19th 2006 03:17:31 pm

Travis and I went to Crate and Barrel yesterday during our trip to Portland. The store is huge and they have pretty much any home thing you could need. I liked these two beds: the Stafford Bed and the Colette Bed. The Colette bed is upholstered in linen and trimmed with pewter nailheads – very elegent, but perhaps too feminine for Travis. The Stafford Bed is more traditional.

Despite liking these beds, I am NOT buying anymore furniture until I am in a semi-permanent location. I realized the other day that I have been in a different dorm room, house, or apartment at least every year for the past seven years! Moving around kinda stinks. Plus, if I ever upgrade to a nicer bed I think I want to go for a King size… and you need a big place for that!

3 Comments » Categories: Home, Thinking

Feb 19th 2006 02:31:52 pm

These are the many beautiful birthday cards I received this year. (Not pictured are a card from my mom’s cat, Marvin, and one from my 3-year-old cousin, Alex. They arrived after I had taken this group photo!) Two years ago, my brothers gave me the cutest birthday card that I just had to share with the internet. This year it is too hard to choose a favorite from all of the lovely greetings I received…

13 Comments » Categories: Birthday, Just for Fun

Feb 17th 2006 05:50:00 pm

This is a version of the Power Point presentation slide I was talking about. I will work on it a bit more, but I think this is basically what the base of the slides are going to look like. I will just add content about myself, like my portfolio and resume. What do you think? Too colorful? I gave the pink background a fabric-like pattern…

4 Comments » Categories: Projects, School

Feb 17th 2006 12:24:12 pm

For one of my classes I have to make a custom Power Point presentation – meaning we have to design the background from scratch as well as the content. It is a preliminary exercise before making our actual ePortfolio websites. I am not a huge fan of Power Point (I don’t think anyone is), but I have already complained enough about school for this week… I made this pink flower pattern to be used as a border pattern behind a white panel on my PP slides. It is kinda hard to explain – I will show you the final design when I am done. Anyway, do you think this is too playful and girly? The presentation is pretty much all about me and my portfolio, but I would like it to be slightly professional, yet still pretty…

7 Comments » Categories: Projects, School

Feb 16th 2006 07:21:26 pm

My mom always says that I should be positive, and act like Pollyana, and see the bright side of every situation. That really is how I would like to live my life… but today has no redeeming qualities.

I just hate school. Today was a really bad day. Travis is out of town and I had to go to my most dreaded class… a class where we learn how to make resumes and do job interviews. It is so frustrating! Remember that I am in graduate school. Meaning that I already went to high school, college, and worked for two years, as well as applied and was accepted to this school – all previous to taking this class. I think I started doing resume-building and mock interview stuff in middle school! I don’t know how they think we got this far without knowing how to write our resume. I feel like I am banging my head against the wall!

The real kicker is that they had a group of our department’s “student forum” come in to our class to try to get us interested in running for a postition on the forum for next year. Are you kidding me?! Student government?! My god, I have done so much student government in my life it could fill four resumes – if that is the kind of crap you put on your resume. If I learned one thing from student government in both high school and college, it is that NO ONE CARES that you were student forum president!!! We don’t even have a freaking prom to plan, people!

I know, I shouldn’t be so mean… but you know what, this is my blog. If people are offended that I don’t care about resume design and graduate school student government, they can kiss my rear end.

On the other side of things, I actually really enjoy my Museology class. Today we got to tour all of the collection storage areas. It was interesting and the museum director (our teacher) and all of our guest speakers are very kind and generous with their knowledge. I wish all of my classes were like that – you just go in, sit, and the teacher fills your head with knowledge. No mock job interviews required.

8 Comments » Categories: Feeling Sad, School

Feb 16th 2006 12:32:45 am

Well, my birthday is now five days past and all of my gifts have been put away…

But I really had a fun birthday even thought I barely had time to breath. I got some very nice gifts (seen in the bottom photo – I also put it on Flickr with notes about who gave each gift) from my family and friends. A few of my friends at school (you know who you are!) even gave me presents, which was totally unexpected and so nice! The middle pic is of the things Travis gave me. The truffles are from a local chocolate shop, and that is me eating one in the top photo. Yum! I love the movie Lilo & Stitch. I think it is just about the best Disney animated film ever. It is unique and fun and a little wacky, and it doesn’t play into all the princess stereotypes… Anyway, I just had to have the sequel! Travis also got me some beautiful earrings that aren’t in the photo, and a cute cake. He is a sweet husband.

All in all, everyone was very sweet to me… I think my mom sent me a total of ten separate cards and packages – including some fabulous Pottery Barn towels! Wow! And, my sister-in-law sent me a cute package with just about all my favorite things! Travis’ parents sent some awesome sandals and a t-shirt from Banana. I am so spoiled!

Thank you so much, everybody!

3 Comments » Categories: Birthday, Photos