So this happened.

I'm so tired.

dark, you can't come soon enough for me.

this is one of the bath bombs we made almost a week ago. learned a lot about making them. i'm giving most of them away for xmas, so will make more. definitely.


ooh! i made these felt ornaments for yarnsalad for her tree. they were fun and easy to make. i kind of wish i had made myself some too! but our tree is full (we have a red ornament-only tree and a box of other ornaments under the stairs)...and i'd rather knit, in all honesty.


mmmmmm toys. folding laundry together. well, me folding him unfolding. schma.

this is officially and hopefully the last of my late night posts. for me part of the transition to being 'back to work' means that i'm working for the weekend and going to have to focus on spending my week working, rather than playing. BOO. i really liked being off. especially to decompress after doing my MA. i'm under the impression that i can ease into work, but i'd like to have more $$ so i need to try and work more. it's a vicious cycle, really.

also, to just start taking better care of myself and get into some sort of a routine i'm going to take my "no food after 10pm" rule and move it to 9pm. if i didn't get to eat dinner then too bad, i'll have to have a piece of fruit or something, but no heavy food. if i did eat dinner then i just need to suck it up, have a cup of tea or water. but no food. eating late night has always been a bad habit for me. limiting myself to 10pm has been great. i've felt better and am hungry when i get up. sometimes ravenous.

the other thing i need to do i start going to bed by 10-10:30p. i would make it 10p, but i know i wouldn't achieve it IMMEDIATELY and then i'd feel like shit and a failure. (not fun). that way i can ensure i get a good sleep whether seth wakes up or not.

and the last thing i'm going to try and do right now to get us back on a routine is to transition seth to his bedroom. egads. i really like having him in bed and cuddling, so i anticipate he'll be sleeping in our bed often, or on bad sleep nights, but it's the needing to be super quiet in our room when we go to bed and tip-toeing around him in our bedroom (ie. not being able to set an alarm b/c it would wake him up too and then what would be the point?). i'd like to be able to get up a bit before him and make coffee and get my day started (maybe have a shower?) and then have him get up and get him ready for his day. that is the goal.

i hope that by getting on a routine then i'm not feeling like i need to work in the evening (which should be my winding down time) and can have an hour or so to knit. i'm sure there's going to be other things (like being ok with my google reader being over 1000+ unread..., and starting to use my crockpot more, or double batch cooking on the weekend to make the week easier)...but i'll get there. oh, transitions.

28 before i'm 29

Wholly inspired by ElsieCake of Red Velvet this is my list of 28 things I want to do before I turn 29 next September. I'll probably keep track on the side. And on the blog. I love goals. I always used to hate them and then the Succulent Wild Woman said to set smaller goals. And it all made sense. Wish me luck!

1. Go to half of the Provincial Parks on Vancouver Island
2. Pay back my tuition debts
3. Pay off my CitiFinancial Card
4. Pay off my HBC Card
5. Pay off my Mastercard
6. Pay off my Visa
7. Go to Toronto with Stewart and Seth
8. Get three tattoos: a crysanthemum, the smash patriarchy comic, and another one (so many to choose from)
9. Make my own mozzarella
10. Knit 5 sweaters
11. Send Melissa a postcard for every week from now until my 29th birthday
12. Dye my hair like Ramona Flowers
13. Get a full time permanent job with the Provincial Government (even if it means we have to move)
14. Write an essay for the book collecting contest (and win!)
15. Be “The Letter of the Day” on Q
16. Roller derby
17. Eat at every Chinese food restaurant in Port Alberni
18. Start a booth at the Farmer’s Market
19. Go to Portland
20. Finally officially change my last name to Jurkic-Walls
21. Embroider my first “My Favourite Misogynist”
22. Finish and print our Pizza Zine and get it published by Microcosm
23. Cook every pasta recipe in the Rebar Cookbook
24. Finish the Hanami Shawl
25. Get red tomatoes this year
26. Make crafting and stuff like that 20% of my monthly income
27. Learn how to do Sashinko
28. Try to eliminate sugar and white flour as much as possible

"everybody gets pinned with something, a reduction of them..."

Well tomorrow night will be the night to ring in the new year, the new decade. It will also be a time to say sayonara to the decade between me graduating high school and now. (whoa).

In my life and what I've gleaned from popular culture, the high school reunion (the 10 year mark) is the measuring stick. It's when you're supposed to be less fat, more successful, and better than anyone imagined, there by blowing them out of the water. For the past 7-8 years this hasn't been my real reality, especially since I've been able to maintain and rekindle the most amazing friendships from people in my grad class (and around it). I married someone who went to the same high school as me and my bestest friends went to high school with me. Those that matter/d have followed me to now so who cares what my "grad class" thinks? I'm happy to not want their validation or the validation of "rising above" high school and making my high schooler comrades wish they were nicer to me or revered me in a clique back then blah blah blah. So water under the bridge.

What's more interesting and present for me is that it's been 10 years since I've graduated high school, this year I will be 28! I'm so much the same and so much different, it's kind of fun to recall the transition and the adventures of the past 10 years. So many adventures that I feel like a different person completely. One thing that's different is that much of my life up to starting my MA//falling in love with stewart was that my life and my choices never felt like ME decisions or choices, they always seemed like I was either going with the flow or doing what I thought other people//"they" thought I should do. Whatever made me "click" in 2006 (the year I started my MA and fell in love with Stew) I owe my life to. I started to recognize what I wanted/desired/needed and how I could make those things happen.

The 101 in 1001 list was great in helping me orient myself around how to make positive change and accomplishment happen in my life and I've been sad to see it go over the past few months. Now it's like I have to be accountable to myself all over again. Eden said I should make a smaller list of goals and I bantered this around with myself, "will it ever be as good as 101 in 1001? will i be able to maintain it?" etc. But for some reason today I decided that with the coming of the new year I'd make a new list of goals for the next year (maybe it was the road sign that said, "have you made your new year's resolution yet? it was my LA story moment). I'll be putting them up on the left again and keeping track of them throughout the year and will hopefully blog about them in more detail and more often. So, without further ado, here is my small list:

1. reconstruct the bike in the garage. new paint, new breaks, panniers, new tires, lights, fixed gear, fenders, new handlebars.

2. figure out what i actually want to do with my life career-wise over the next decade (or shorter, whatevs): a) PhD, b) Teacher's Certificate so I can be a high school counsellor, c) find a long term permanent job that uses the skills I have now, or c) find a tattoo apprenticeship and be a tattoo artist

3. pay off the following debts: speeding ticket ($130), 4 credit cards ($4500), Line of Credit ($1530), and Outstanding Tuition ($1600).

Not that many but for me this is setting my sights high! I mean, pay off debt and decide what I want to do "with my life". I guess, because it's a little short that means that things are AWESOME in general. woop. (p.s. the link for the tutorial for the new year's garland above is here courtesy of the purl bee). xo