w.b.w.

don't you wanna be their best friend?

well, i know i do!

friends...

one evening last week i went to a get together of local artists. turns out, some of them (most with whom i am merely an acquaintance) read my blog. they don't comment, but they lurk and read and were nice enough to tell me they like the queenly content. so nice!

then, a friend sent me an e-mail and said that a mutual friend had told her she should check out my blog and she did...and guess what? she liked the queen's musings too! go figure!

i guess that means my hit numbers keep going up not JUST because i'm constantly checking my own blog out, but because folks like me...they really like me.

phew...what a relief.

oops...

lying in a hotel room, i am watching a marathon of what not to wear. a real luxury because even though we have stepped out of the dark ages and got cable, this particular show is on a channel i don't get with the basic package.

i'm guessing that since i never get to see the show (except for when i'm marooned on a feather bed island), i might have missed a few hints and tips...like...

"no mini-skirts after 35."

excuse me, ahem, i have a little closet-cleaning to do.

weird times six...

1. when barefoot, i walk on my tiptoes. kelly pointed it out to me. i didn't know i did it. i knew my sister did it and that it drives me crazy. i can't stop, even though i've tried...now i drive myself crazy.

2. i can wake up at a specific time without an alarm clock. i just make a mental note before falling asleep of the time i want to wake up and, voila, i wake up.

3. i have an inordinately elaborate accounting system that includes an old-school ledger, an excel spreadsheet, my checkbook registry and a mental checklist of exactly how much money i have in my wallet at any given moment. this, in addition to my abnormally strong need to control everything, is why kelly can never take over the household bills.

4. once i start eating sweets, it is difficult for me to stop. m&m's? can eat a whole bag and not get sick. good & plenty? chocolate kisses? birthday cake? cookies? jell-o? drink hot chocolate? i won't ever get sick and i won't ever feel like enough is enough already. because of this, i try my level best to not start. i don't like salty snacks very much at all.

5. i have kept every greeting card that was ever given to me. this is going to stop, i think, because i'm afraid of turning into one of these. the thought of that creeps me out, especially given my predilection to organizing to the point of distraction (see also number 3, above).

6. i don't like to talk on the phone. at. all. there are rare circumstances in which i will talk on the phone, but 99% of the time, i try to get off of the phone within 3 minutes. this is in stark contrast to my mother and sister who could talk on the phone for 29 straight hours. this also makes it mighty difficult to extract myself from a phone conversation with either my mother or sister as they don't actually need a respondent to continue said conversation. but my phone rescue techniques are a topic for another entry.

tagged: becky

w.b.w.

honestly, when i went to college, i thought this was what everyone was going to look like.

easier said...

this weekend we went to visit a college nathaniel is interested in. none of us had ever travelled to this part of the state and we didn't know where there was a great place to spend the night. so we looked in the brochure from the college and chose based on 1) availability, 2) proximity to the college, and 3) price.

on friday night, when we pulled into the parking lot of the motel, i was immediately concerned. this was not a hotel, it was a hot-sheet no-tell. we were directed to a separate building with a series of connected bungalow type rooms. we walked into the room and i noticed right away there was no heat. in addition, the room was not clean...did not smell clean...was in no way, shape or form clean. i told kelly i didn't know if this was going to work for me. he reminded me it was just for one night and told him i'd think the whole thing over at dinner.

dylan, a a friend of nathaniel's, and his parents checked into the joint right after we did. we went to dinner with them and the friend's mom was also not too interested in staying the night in this establishment. the dad's talked it over, checked around the small town and secured alternate lodging arrangements at a well-known hotel chain.

we drove back to the dive and loaded up our belongings into our vehicles. the dad's entered the office to speak with the manager.

dylan's dad tossed the room keys on the counter and with a complete lack of emotion in his voice, stated, "we're going to need a refund."

the manager asked, "is there a problem?"

dylan's dad responded, "the wives are not happy."

refunds were promptly given.

those five words -- the. wives. are. not. happy -- apparently can convey a volume of information.

food or foundation...

i was reading in style magazine and the name of this product cemented my til then, unproven, opinion that the majority of the citizens of these great united states have way too much free time and far too much money to spend...

jelly pong pong venus magical pearls

this may explain why i have never, ever set foot in a sephora store. i'm afraid i would become at once ravenously hungry AND abnormally self-conscious about the status of my eyeliner.

w.b.w.

"let's have a swingin' record party and invite jimmy. he's the most!"

slippery...

ice on the holly tree...january 13, 2007

i took a trip to garden ridge last night to purchase some baskets to house my ever-growing yarn stash. the baskets were buy one, get one 50% off. so, of course, i got two. i never imagined that there would be enough yarn to fill both of the baskets. and of course, there was yarn enough and a few skeins on the side.

it's a dangerous thing letting your spouse actually see the yarn that has amassed in your stash. i could see kelly scanning the situation and mentally noting that both baskets were full. i suspected that his mind was already working on processing that fact. in a bold, decisive, preemptive move, i stated, "i'm not going to buy anymore yarn until some of this is used up."

now some may say that my declaration was asinine...there's no way i can go on a yarn diet until a project is finished. but i beg to differ. i can do anything that i put my mind to.* so to help me accomplish my goal, i arranged the baskets in order of project to begin next.

i put the purple sweater that will never end on the top of one of the baskets so as soon as i finish my legwarmers that will never end (can i say how much i hate knit 1, purl 1 rib? it really slows down my already turtle-like pace!) i will take up the purple sweater and get it off the needles for good. then there are the neopolitan socks that i really do want to wear before the weather gets warm again. how hard can one sock be to finish? one is already completely done! then there is the yarn for many, many felted bags and those always work up so easily and use up so much yarn. one of the baskets is bound to be empty by the end of february, right?

but here is the conundrum...this weekend i will be spending quite a bit of time in the car. i can get a lot of knitting done in the car. with some straight lite up needles i could knit in the car at night. problem is, all the yarn i have is for projects that are worked on circular needles. you see where i'm heading right? do i get a head lamp and work on one of the existing projects on circular needles or do i get a bit of yarn and lite up needles to work in the car at night?

i imagine kelly reading this post right now...he is asking the computer screen why i can't just nap in the car like "normal" people.

*kelly and i had been married for about a year. i wanted to start a family, but kelly was concerned about expenses and how we'd be able to afford another mouth to feed. he told me if we could save up $2,000 that we could start our family. at the time i was working at a department store making a little bit more than minimum wage. i also got a hefty discount. i'm sure kelly thought that the challenge would be more than i could achieve given the fact that i often left work with purchases. oh, but he was wrong. a little less than 6 months later i had managed to squirrel away more than the $2,000. never say i cannot rise to the occasion.

if i were a carpenter...

...and you were a lady, would you marry me anyway? would you have my baby?"

that's the way the song goes, right?

i can't believe that's the song that's stuck in my head today.

we had a surprise baby shower for my co-worker the other day. her husband is not a carpenter; he's an engineer. she IS a lady (not in the royalty sense of the word, but she is quite genteel), and she married him anyway.

what is it that attracts us to one another? i don't think it's our occupation. physical appearance -- of course -- plays a big part. but i believe it has most to do with the way we smell to one another.

i've seen a number of shows that deal with this topic. experts believe it is our instinctual sense of smell that enables us to recognize how a potential mate's DNA will match up with ours and how healthy the resulting offspring might be.

from the very beginning i liked the way kelly smelled, and he i. our son is tall and strong. chance? luck? probably. maybe, though, it had to do with our scents being a good fit.

i wonder if those that wear a lot of perfume or aftershave/cologne have a difficult time finding a mate that is their perfect match? what if they can't recognize one another because their natural scents are masked? what if they end up liking each other in spite of what their intrinsic olfactory signals might try to warn them against? would they end up not being compatible?

neither kelly nor i wear perfume or cologne. freshly scrubbed is my favorite scent and his as well. kelly works as a printer so many days he comes home smelling of ink and paper...not bad either.

i don't like the smell of sawdust, so i guess i never would have ended up with a carpenter. i hope i can still qualify as a lady.

a spark of creativity...

fabric cards...vintage and new fabrics.

w.b.w. (on thursday)

you would think that with eleventy billion calendars that the queen could remember what day it is. i feel like uncle billy in "it's a wonderful life" not remembering what all the strings tied to his fingers are supposed to be reminding him of. as a matter of fact, yesterday, i actually accidentally included some crafting directions i had printed off in a file that i promptly placed in an office file. luckily, when i was organizing to go home and couldn't find the directions, i retraced my steps and found the misplaced print-out. thank goodness it wasn't an $8,000 bank deposit or the feds might have been making an unexpected visit to chateau wallace.


anyway...here's some vintage knitting goodness for you to enjoy on a thursday morning.

i so want this hat, but does anyone know a man that would actually wear this sweater? the body of it is fine, but the almost turtleneck part has got to go.

jumping the gun...

when you're trying to have a baby, one of the worst things you can do is TELL people you are trying to have a baby. i believe it actually works against you, the telling, as all the folks kindly, but persistently asking you every other day if you've conceived, is enough to put you off feeling frisky ever again. not to mention the stress and the pressure ("s & p"). oh, the s & p!

then, once you have a bun in the oven, the worst thing you can do is tell people too soon that you are expecting...we all know what risks this scenario can bring. more s & p.

so when i wrote to you dear readers on friday that my weekend would be jam-packed with creativity and the production of fine handmade items, it was tantamount to telling you i was trying to conceive and then that i had very recently conceived. lots of s & p.

there WAS a great gathering of ideas, supplies and a general cleaning up of the creative space.

there WAS the creation of a fab desk calendar here with this great gal after a breakfast here (are we the last two st. louis residents to frequent this restaurant? because it was crowded with all manner of slipper-clad, pajama-pant-wearing, suspiciously uncombed diners who seemed to think that this particular breakfast food was a cure for whatever had happened to them the evening before).

there WAS a steak dinner and last minute christmas shopping (we still have not visited all the family my side of the wallace clan has to offer!)

there WAS a brief visit to see my gram while she recuperates from some nasty knee surgery.

i DID make some homemade donuts.

and...i made two sets of fabric cards. it's like saying i'm a little bit pregnant.

bitten...

the creativity bug has bit me hard and it's like there's a rash all over my body that needs to be scratched. when this happens i know that i should just call off work and stay home and get it out of my system, but that wasn't in the cards today.

instead, i filled my office bag with tear sheets from magazines and printouts from the internet in hopes that while my boss is at his business lunch, i will be able to get some ideas down on paper. when they're loose in my head, organizing the plan is all but impossible. concrete drawings and descriptions make the concepts feel real and doable to me.

i'm thinking in spring colors now -- jewel tones are so 5 minutes ago. i've seen some fabulous things that have planted a seed in my imagination and the germination is about complete. hopefully on monday i'll have a few new things to share.

of course, there will be more of the oldies but goodies. fabric cards will be back as will more brooches (with an added bit of pizazz). and i've set a goal for myself to create at least three new purses (knit and/or recycled felt) each weekend (the embellishments are going to be even bigger and better). and, i'm seriously thinking about jewelry again. i know, i know...that's a big list. but when the wave hits you, you have no choice but to grab your surfboard and ride straight onto shore. hopefully, you'll swim out again and catch another sweet curl. (are you tired of the surfing analogy yet?)

anyway...

if you're one of the folks patiently waiting for a brooch from me (hi, angelica and kim), chances are your patience will finally pay off this weekend.

day by day...

tallulah bankhead once said, "only good girls keep diaries. bad girls don't have time."

good or bad, i like to keep a record. something concrete to confirm that indeed, time is passing. a catalog of sorts, to remind me of all i've accomplished. let's face it, some days pass and you'd never know it if there wasn't something, somewhere to tell you what it was that you did.

and the calendar is a way to remember what the heck it is that you're supposed to be doing...dentist, doctor, return library books, call so-and-so, go here, meet this person...

as i sit here in my work-a-day cubicle there are no less than four calendars and i use each and every one of them.

***a vintage barbie wall calendar
***a desk calendar featuring vintage images gifted to me from my dear friend becky
***a personal journal/desk calendar i use as a diary of sorts
***an electronic calendar that is tied to my office e-mail

at home we have two page-a-day calendars in the bathroom (jeopardy and a weird word game one) and on the fridge hangs a vintage travel poster calendar.

there's a scene in the movie, grand canyon, where a mom is sitting on her bed and she is surrounded by piles of calendars. she's in the process of writing everything onto one large posterboard sized calendar, color coordinating and jotting and referring back and forth. a nightmare? to me, blissful minute organizing is a dream.

oh, and on saturday morning? i'm taking a class to make a personalized calendar.

have i crossed over the line? o.c.d.? or do eight calendars constitute a collection?

w.b.w.

does anybody else think this guy looks like frankie avalon?

let's call it a year...

i love the week between christmas and new year's -- filling in next year's calendar and looking back at the year that has passed.

so here is my personal "best of" list culled from the pages of my journal:

movies

friends with money
wordplay
little miss sunshine
the science of sleep
marie antoinette
the pursuit of happyness

(for those of you counting at home, i saw 31 movies this year.)

concerts

aimee mann
lucinda williams
the ditty bops

i saw five concerts this year. death cab for cutie was fine, but disappointing and the pink floyd tribute band that we saw on christmas eve eve was not as good as last year's show.

home improvement projects

painting the bedroom
installing a new digital thermostat

(this portion of the list is a testament to the outright boring-ness of my life!)

my fave picture of 2006...he's my 6 foot 2 inch baby and i love him.


hope you all have a great 2007 in store!