The Perfect Storm

I'm sometimes amazed at what pops up as autofill options when I start to type things into various fields. People have clearly been doing very weird thing with this laptop while I'm asleep. Anyway, I know it's been a while. I dropped out of life for a few weeks. I don't feel too bad, since it appears that everyone else is taking a beginning-of-the-summer break as well. There's been an absolute drought of blog and lj posts.

This week I went to the grocery store for the first time in two months. The break was the result of travel combined with an unwillingness/inability to provide myself with the necessities of life. It felt pretty amazing to finally step into a Publix and buy produce. There are beautiful fresh flowers all over the house and everyone is getting their stuff settled and arranged. The combo of exams, shifting roommates, and multiple vacations left the School looking like a bit of a wreck for a while. I think it created a negative feedback loop with my life. We're finally ready to let people back into the house, though, so we're having a house re-warming party on Friday. It'll be nice to have a house full of half-drunk, happy friends again.

The weather is nice and hot now, and my little garden is growing fast. My trips to Maine, North Carolina, and Florida were all super rad, if exhausting. My only really complaint is that my heart is like gasoline and I've encountered too many matches in my travels. Portland is definitely my favorite of the places I visited, in terms of the actual city. It was so awesome and super important to see Maggie after such a stressful few weeks at the end of April. West Palm Beach was lovely and lazy. North Carolina was emotional and amazing. I've seen so many people that I care about...Maggie, Keith, Chris, Tim, Kaylan, Faith, Lis, Devender, Sarah, Kenny, Adam, Ty, Greg. It's overwhelming in the most wikkid of ways. I'm back in town for at least a little while, though, and glad to be slightly more settled.

Summer school has started and my Indian cinema class is rad so far. The first movie we watched, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was totally epic, fascinating, hilarious, etc. A serious, all-out Bollywood blockbuster. It seems like the summer term will be chill and fun. I need to kick things into gear with Napoleon, though. I've been distracted of late and spend most of my time putting off the things on my to do list rather than getting things done as usual. Things are turning around, though, and I'm sure I'll settle into something more calm soon. In the meantime, though, I'm having fun feeling like at an extended slumber party.

Are You Here to Stay?

I'm hoping so very hard that the warm weather is here for good this time. I'm feeling better than I have in days. Of course that's probably because I got a big project out of the way–a presentation on 18th century gothic revival in design and architecture. Riveting, isn't it?

Beaux Animeaux got a big project out of the way, too, as I mentioned last time. They were gone all weekend recording and then Evan spent Sunday evening listening to rough cuts of the tracks. I'm pretty sure I vowed not to date musicians after my first boyfriend. I guess it's lucky for me Evan is only pretending. But seriously, the tracks sound good. The album is gonna be wikkid awesome.

I finally got out and weeded the raised beds for this years garden and started some flowers indoors. I suppose I'll try to get some veggie plants this weekend. Fewer tomatoes this time, and I'm going to try chives, beets (though they didn't turn out last year), and Japanese eggplant. Maybe some chillis? Hopefully I've learned from the first go round and will be more successful this year.

On a personal note, recently I've been having a bit of a buddhist existentialist crisis, though it's subsided a bit. As I've probably mentioned before, I'm rather negative in some respects. I might even say that I have a teeny tiny evil streak, and not in that sexy, glamorized way. Besides being judgmental, I've got a lot of hate-y feelings, especially when it comes to people who've done me wrong. "Yes, of course. Everyone does," you might think. But this is a problem. Shadenfreude to the extreme. Revenge fantasies. Utter delight at the thought that their uppance will come. But I don't want to be this way. It makes me unhappy. It makes other people unhappy. I want to be a good Buddhist, practice loving-kindness, and make everything better, not worse, even for people who've hurt me. But how do I get over it when hating feels so good? (I mean it. It's pretty sick really.) And more importantly, how do I practice loving-kindness and protect myself at the same time? Probably the answer is to not try to protect yourself, to let go of fear and let things be how they are. But that's a lot easier said than done. So those are my struggles right now. Any tips? I see a lot of meditation in my future.

Missteps

I photographed my quilts last week. Things were not as easy as I was expecting. First I had to build some very low-tech light stands out of 2x4s and shelf brackets. I've had the materials for weeks, but only just got down to putting these together. Then I clipped on cheap reflector lights and screwed in some very expensive daylight bulbs. I threw together a backdrop by cutting a black bed sheet to size and sewing a rod pocket on top and bottom. Each pocket got a curtain rod. The top rod slides into to screw hooks mounted into the wall in the hallway. The bottom rod is for weight to keep the sheet flat. This is where the stupidity begins. I pinned the first quilt to the backdrop, positioned my lights, and set up my tripod. Then my camera battery ran out. After recharging, I tried again. I took the first few photos and realized that 1) the lights weren't evenly flooding the quilt, and 2) photographing a whole-cloth quilt this way, unless you're trying to show of some really amazing stitching, is really stupid.

Plan B was to take photos of the quilts on my work table, a nice white surface. I set up my lights and got to shooting. As you can see from the thumbnails above, things turned out okay, but the photos are short of spectacular. These are going on my site, so I really wanted them to be good, but alas, I am no photo stylist. So if any of you are, and are aching to do some product shots for your portfolio, I'll do you a favor and let you redo the photos of my quilts. Otherwise, this is as good as it's gonna get.

Also in the news this week:
• One of our boarders will be leaving the Rowe School, so there is a vacancy. Anyone wishing to be considered for the big loft bedroom, please apply in writing or in person.
• The squash 100% died.
• I realized that my flight back from NY arrives in Birmingham 18 hours before my best friends wedding, which is an 11 hour drive from here, so I'm going to have to change the ticket.
• Monstercard scanning has begun.
• Tastespotting is back!

Edible Monster Card, Pt. 2

We had our Monster Cards game and it was awesome, per usual. I promise as soon as Adam and I have a chance to get our project going, you, too, will know the joys of Monster Cards. I used the game as an excuse to make macha cupcakes. I saw a recipe a few months back and have been wanting to make them ever since. The original recipe calls for pretty pink marzipan flowers on top, but I didn't think that was much in keeping with the theme of the night. Instead, I decorated with monster faces, bacon strips and t-bones, etc. If vanity is the sin that sends me to hell, I'll blame that marzipan bacon.

The cupcakes turned out to be delicious. The same cannot be said for the triumvirate of new Mountain Dew flavors, sampled during the same game of Monster Cards. But I'll let Adam tell you all about that. What I will say is that Mountain Dew: Code Red cannot possibly prepare you for the severity of this latest blunder.

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of the quilts I'm working on. They're looking good and I'll show them to you soon. I'm about to have to take some for-real, professional(ish) shots of them for marketing purposes, which is why I haven't taken any half-assed ones. I'm done with the samples that I'll be taking to New York next month, so you'll get to see those. I'm especially proud when I look at the little Napoleon label in the corner.

The garden is producing a little, but mainly it's failing. The squash plants got huge and are now dying, one by one without ever having shown sign of making a squash. The stems seem to be rotting from the inside. I have no clue if this is due to some failure on my part or if they're diseased, or what, but it's sad. The tomato plants got big, too. No matter how much I stake them, they're a tangled mess. Nevertheless, I've eaten a few tomatoes from them and they're not bad. I also managed to get a Japanese eggplant to grow. I haven't eaten it yet, but it'll be part of my lunch some day this week. Even the sad little cantaloupe plants have put out a couple of runners and are trying their best. I fear for their spotty-leaved, insect-eaten little lives, though. I've learned enough to do better next time, I think. And if it all dies tomorrow, I'll try again.

Not a Complete Failure

Tomato! I grew one! Yay!!

Band practice tonight, which I'm really excited about. It feels like it's been forever, even though it's only been a week.

Also, I decided not to go to Quilt Market because the plane ticket was too expensive...you know, just in case you were wondering. But some of my fabric came in and it's all really cool. Pictures soon.

Beets!

Oh, my adorable little beet sprouts! I assume that's what you are because you're in the area where I planted beets. Please do not turn out to be weeds. I've already killed one of my cantaloupes, and I really need the reassurance of your presence.

I'm out of batting and should order more. Every day I wait for the mail, hoping that my state tax ID will arrive and that I will be able to order wholesale. So I've been putting it off and now I've run out of quilting supplies. In the meantime, though, I have other projects. Some embroidery, the koi quilt I've been working on for months and months, and buttons for Cigar Box. But first I have to pull myself away from Word Twist. Damn you, Facebook!

Why Elix's Dad Is the Best Dad Ever

Yay for kitchen gardens! Yay for help building them! Elix's dad came over today to take a look at things and then took us to the store to buy everything we needed for making a raised bed. And then (!!!) he built one for us! We planted tomatoes, squash, and beets with a day lily at each end of the bed. He also tilled another spot for us to put in cantaloupe, but I need to get some more soil before I plant them.

While Elix and I were off getting gardening stuff, Evan taped off the trim in the dining room for painting, which I guess we'll do tomorrow. Yay for Evan, who never complains when I steal his weekends.

Vegetables

Last weekend I bought some plants and seeds for a vegetable garden. Every day I feel more guilty about not having done anything with them. To be fair, I potted the herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, and rosemary), and I was waiting for toilet paper rolls in which to start my seeds. Now that Rodney has kindly bestowed them upon me, I can probably take care of that part this afternoon. My big plans for building a raised bed in the backyard, however, keep being pushed back because I'm intimidated by the project. Not only building the bed, but the whole kitchen garden thing. But watching the poor little tomato, cantaloupe, and summer squash plants die in their plastic containers on my porch is a lot worse than just starting the garden.

So that's my first weekend project. The second is to paint the dining room, which is a really gross color of green. Honestly, the color isn't so bad, but it makes the room sort of dismal (and it really doesn't go with my complexion). If you're handy with a paint roller and really want to give your arms a workout, come over on Saturday and I'll put you to work. I mean, as a favor to you.

I'm finishing up the binding on the latest quilt. I had enough fabric for two of these. As much as I dislike the cutting and pinning part of the process, things really go faster when you do more than one at a time.