March 6, 2012 · 4:39 pm

headshots

I had to get headshots taken at work, since I started writing some of the blog posts there.  I guess if I say something really good, they need to have a picture ready so that you can bask in my smirk and my words of clever simultaneously.

The photos were taken my Jay Graham, a local professional photographer with breathtakingly amazing work – who also happens to be the husband of a coworker.

The photo session was pretty quick.  There were just two rounds, one looking off to the side and one looking at the camera.  In each round, I think the expression on my face just got more and more skeptical, so the first one of each batch was the best.

He was gracious enough to let me use them for my own personal plastering, hence this is now my avatar for everywhere.

And this one is just extra, with one squinty eye and one less squinty eye because that’s the best way to see you through the interwebs.

3 Comments

Filed under Tidbit

March 5, 2012 · 3:10 pm

sunday crafternoon

On Sunday, I had a bunch of my local lady friends over for a “crafternoon.”  The intent was to give everyone a few hours to dedicate to a craft project of their choosing or to just learn something new.

As is my way, I was worried about how it would turn out, but it was great!  There was a good combination of people who just worked on their own thing, people who wanted to learn something new, and people who were both.

I had a few Smitten Kitchen nibbles prepared for the occasion.  Deb’s cheese straws get my highest encouraging recommendation for your next social occasion.

Here are some crafty visuals:

Painting wood cross-sections with chalkboard paint while wearing a necklace of felted wool beads.

Little blocks of paint and pages of text and collage-y bits culminating in adorable, whimsical little pieces of art.

Knitting.

Needle point.

Wrapping bangles with fabric.

I had been wanting to try out the felted beads for ages, so having an afternoon set aside for this express purpose was really satisfying.  And it’s just so much funner to try out new things with someone else, isn’t it?

2 Comments

Filed under Family, Friends and other Humans, Nifty things, Up to Stuff

March 2, 2012 · 8:05 pm

cuffed jeans and stripey socks

In my mind, when I cuff my jeans, it’s slightly quirky and harkens to fashionable depression-era farm folk.

The stripey socks don’t harken to anything.  They’re just fun.

Remember the story of the two coats I couldn’t decide between?  The moral of that story is that I kept both and this is one.

Part of the vision includes the hip-less legs of a J.Crew model.  The reality involves what-the-heckles-ever.  Until such a time as it is appropriate to traipse around sans pants, it will not be like J.Crew catalog up in here.  But just you wait.  When the era of No Pants begins…

New watch from Fab.com.  I was having a long time covet of this Michael Kors tortoise shell watch and this feels like a very happy approximation for a quarter of the cost.

And then the rest of the outfit went kind gypsy.

coat – anthropologie
shoes – fluevog
socks – gap
peasant blouse – anthropologie
matchstick jeans – jcrew
vest – gap
watch – AND from fab.com
necklace – Andrea Valentini from fab.com

Photos taken by my spectacular friend and fasion blogger, Hazel.

4 Comments

Filed under Maggie's closet

March 1, 2012 · 1:33 pm

Running: Actually, yes you can

I’ve got that half marathon coming up in a few weeks, which means I’m running a grody number of miles more often than not. So, if you’re a person who has in person conversations with me, we might have one like this:  I tell you that I ran 11 miles on Saturday and you’re all “Crazy Town!”

And then you invariably say “I could never do that.  Not even if <scary animal/menacing chaser> was chasing me.”

And I will try to convince you that you could do it.  You deny and self-deprecate.

But seriously, you can.  It’s actually not really that special at all.

Or, ok… it is special.  I’d wager that fewer than 50% of adults can actually jog a mile.  But not because they’re missing legs or because they have a disordered phobia of moving quickly by foot.  It’s just because they haven’t properly tried.  With gusto.
So, it’s special.  By default.

But it doesn’t have to be.  If you have a functional body, you can run.  Maybe not fast, or far, at first.  But you can.

You can you can you can.

You can run 10 miles, if you want to.  It was unthinkable to me, once upon a time.  Turns out, I wasn’t being very imaginative.

You can you can you can.

You can run for 60 seconds.  They might be some highly uncomfortable seconds.  But uncomfortable doesn’t mean you can’t.

You can you can you can.

You can cross a finish line.  And cry because you did it.  I know you can, because I did it.  As clichéd as it is to say, I’m saying it anyway.  If I can do it, you can do it.

I couldn’t do it, and then I could.

I can.

You can you can you can.

2 Comments

Filed under Fitness and/or Fatness, Running, the bitch goddess

February 29, 2012 · 8:49 am

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

Watch this incredibly charming animated short film about a young man who gets whisked away to be the care taker in a home full of magical books while you can….

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris LessMore

[Edited on March 2, 2012… the free full version of the film is no longer available.  You can see a little trailer for it here, though.  And you can buy it from iTunes for $1.99.]

2 Comments

Filed under Big screen, little screen, Book crave, the interwebs

February 28, 2012 · 11:56 am

separation anxiety

It’s been 17 days since The David left for his mountain climbing expedition and 14 since the last time we spoke on the phone.  There are still (at least)* 14 more days to go.

And it sucks.

I am wallowing in a big sadly fug.

There are plenty of activities on my dance card, and I had thought that that would see me through alright, but I’m starting to wish that I didn’t have any of those things to do so I could just curl up at home and suffer quietly, alone.

Here’s a list of what seems like the best possible way to get through the remaining forever:

1.  Potato chips (varying flavors)
2.  9 or 10 hours of sleeping a night
3.  Samoas
4.  Special Edition Samoas Ice Cream
5.  Pyjama pants

So, it’s going well, right?

 

*There’s a once a day satellite uploaded audio cast from the group on this expedition and the last one made it sound like they might not be coming back on time.

2 Comments

Filed under Family, Friends and other Humans, The David

February 22, 2012 · 11:20 am

consuming the CSA box

20120222-111944.jpg

The box of vegetables that’s delivered to my door every other week is a daunting prospect of consumption when there are two eaters.  At the moment, I am 11 days in to a 25 day bout of life sans The David (who is somewhere between 15 and 17,000 feet up on Mount Acancagua in Argentina, and also probably not dead.)

So only one eater will be consuming:
4 humongous leeks
1 bunch of dinosaur kale
1 bunch of chard
1 bunch of collard greens
2 stems of broccoli
1 romanesco (that’s the neato spirally one)
1 green leaf lettuce
4 little endives
1 bunch of celery
A bag full of baby bok choy

I read once that fats are an important part of our diet, not only because we need them for proper very scientific functioning, but also because they make things like vegetables taste good and us more likely to eat them.
Exactly right, sez I.
So most likely, much of the leafy green things will get chopped and then sautéed up in a bit of bacon fat and then mixed up with the crunched up bacony bits.  But how many days of bacony greens are we talking here?  4?  5?
Yikes.
And the leeks?
Man.  I like leeks fine, but this is leekier than I feel the ordinary girl is expected to get.

If you’ve got any great recipes or cooking recommendations for this lot, please share!

Also, come over and eat some?

4 Comments

Filed under Foodery, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

February 21, 2012 · 4:02 pm

pretty tupperware

I admit it.  I get silly amounts of happy over some goofy stuff.

For example, my tupperware pleases me to no end.  But it’s not just any tupperware, it’s Portionware!

The Portionware containers are marked with the exact volume of each vessel, so that you can control your portion sizes!  How very mindful, no?

Given that I don’t really know if I should have a 2 cup serving or a 1 cup serving of whatever it is I’m toting around for lunch today, I’m not so invested in this aspect.

But the pretty pretty nesting rainbow colors!  Whee!

If such a thing interests you, keep an eye out for a deal.  I got mine from Bloomspot and Fab.com.

I may be silly with my monies, but thirty bucks for tupperware is goofy, even for me.

2 Comments

Filed under Shopping

Tagged as ,

February 20, 2012 · 6:06 pm

need a fix before season 3 starts?

if you were loving Downton Abbey and need a little more WWI era British aristoacracy in your life

then try The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.

I know, I know. Television ≠ books.  But still.  You gotta take it where you can get it.

4 Comments

Filed under Big screen, little screen, Book crave

February 15, 2012 · 3:00 pm

Little Facts (of love)

Photobucket

1.  I was 13 when I had my first kiss.  It was at a dance during summer camp.  His name was Matt.  After summer camp was over, we had a brief period of exchanged letters.  In one of these, he sent me a drawing he had done especially for me of The Predator.

2.  High school was a time for much unrequited love.  I didn’t go to prom (though I desperately wanted to) and except for item #1, there was no kissing.  Perhaps one day I will scan and post some pictures from this era to help illustrate the teenage woes.

3.  In the beginning times of The David, there was an afternoon when we were talking about how we felt about one another.  We were both dancing around saying “I love you” for the first time, so instead I told him that he gave me a welling in my heart.  Ever since, “having a welling” has been one of our things.

7 Comments

Filed under Little Facts