what are you reading?

March 2, 2015 by 17 Comments

Today is Read Across America Day!  To celebrate, I’m sharing the books that I’m into right now.

First up is “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys.  It’s a short novel from the perspective of the mad wife in “Jane Eyre,” and it’s very interesting.  The back of the book says: “Set in the Caribbean, its heroine is Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into Marriage to the prideful Rochester.  In this best-selling novel, Rhys portrays a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.”

Read Across America Day - what are you reading?Next on my list is “Longbourn” by Jo Baker.  This novel is similar to the one above in that it adds to an already existing novel, but in this case it’s a new view of “Pride and Prejudice.”  Focusing on the servants in the Bennet household, it gives a refreshing perspective to Regency England.

Read Across America Day - what are you reading?

My dad got me both of those books and I’m loving them (thanks Dad!).  I’m also listening to an audiobook as I knit/crochet/surf the Internet: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”  I know that’s not very new for me — I’ve read and/or listened to it a gazillion times — but it never gets old or less magical!

So what are you reading on this Read Across America Day?  People in countries besides America, I’m asking you, too!  🙂

 

Filed Under: other hobbies

loopy doopy misery and fun

November 22, 2013 by 24 Comments

Being sick sucks.  Something came on all of a sudden yesterday and I had a fever during the night.  Now I’m just stuck with a runny nose and clogged sinuses, which usually leads to chronic ear infections.  I’m on a decent number of medications and am feeling a bit loopy.  Kinda like “WHEEE!” and “UGH!” at the same time.

On the bright side, I think I’m going to love my job!  We get free lunches every day, flexible schedules, insurance benefits, paid vacation time and sick days, and my coworkers are great, not to mention the interesting times with clients!  I don’t often do selfies but here’s me at my desk!

first week of workThe lime colored Patagonia vest was from the thrift store that our program operates, but it’s closing so one of my coworkers snagged this for me!  They’re already accepting me and it feels so nice to be liked!  🙂

So do you have things that you specifically like about your job, or are you working in a place that makes you unhappy?   And how many of you are stay-at-home moms or “housewives?”  I’m just curious because it seems to me that ladies who are all about family consumer sciences (that’s what they call home-ec these days) or being at home are the ones who knit and crochet the most (although I have seen a couple of business women knitting in public over the years).

Speaking of knitting in public, I saw a lady knitting in the waiting room of the allergist’s office yesterday.  I kept trying to watch her because I was curious, but I think she noticed and thought I was staring at her in a way that connotates that knitting is stupid (which, as we all know, is not the truth).  Do you feel like people look at you in a snobbish way when you knit/crochet in front of others?

Well I’ve rambled enough — there wasn’t even anything project related in this post!  That will be remedied next time.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

 

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sewing and a belated link

August 1, 2013 by 13 Comments

Hey everyone!  I have a bit of a different post for you today.  I’ve been doing some sewing and wanted to share it with you.

As you can guess, working on a food truck is very hot.  Working outside the food truck for hours in the sun is also very hot.  Appropriate attire is a bit tough to figure out — if you wear a shirt you’ll need an undershirt to keep your sweat from showing through, which works but also makes you a bit hotter.  Dresses are ideal for standing outside (inside the truck you need to stick with the shirts), but there is the problem of wind.  I was nearly discommoded by a strong breeze a couple of weeks ago, but I caught the skirt before it flew up.  Here’s the dress, which as you can see is a bit short, meaning the problem is likely to happen often:

sewing dress

That close call reminded me of something I’d heard a long time ago about sewing things into the hem of a dress to weigh it down just a bit and keep it from blowing up.  The best options I could think of were cheap chain necklaces or small fishing weights.  The fishing weights were really cheap, so I went with those:

sewing weights

They actually don’t weigh very much (although heavier options are available), but since the fabric is so thin I didn’t want to weigh it down too much and make it look weird.  I went to my handy dandy sewing box, which my mom used to use:

sewing box

Using navy thread, I hand-sewed a fishing weight every 5 inches along the hem of the dress:

sewing done

Testing it out today revealed that the fishing weights do indeed help with breezes, but are still not effective against stronger gusts of wind.  I’m debating on getting another pack (they’re only about $1.50) and sewing more in.  It took such a long time though, working with such tiny things and making sure that they were securely attached, that I’m not up to doing more right now.

The second thing I wanted to mention today is a bit belated.  Over a week ago, Rachel from The Little Room of Rachell made a guest post on another blog about how to crochet if you are left-handed.  Being right handed myself, I never really thought of how troublesome it would be to try to learn as a leftie from right-handed instructions (which pretty much everything is), but now I see that it would definitely be nice to have some instruction.  I just wanted to link to her post so you can see it, if you haven’t already.  The post is on the blog Slugs on the Refrigerator; click here for the post!  I had actually never seen that blog before, so I subscribed immediately — it looks great!

That’s all for today, thanks for stopping by!  The next CAL post is already scheduled, so get ready for Saturday!

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my temp job on a food truck

June 28, 2013 by 5 Comments

A few posts ago I mentioned that I’ve started working on an as-needed basis on a food truck called The Herban Legend, and I wanted to share a bit about it with you.  It’s so fun, and I wish I could just keep doing that for a while (but I need a job that will have more hours and thus, more money).  I’m actually really proud of the business, the chef I work with (my chef boyfriend’s head chef’s girlfriend… so many chefs!), and myself — I’m learning quickly and doing my best!  Here are some pictures:

the herban legend

 

You order at the window, and inside there’s a fryer, a flat top grill, some warmers, a refrigerator for the fresh ingredients, a freezer, a cooler for the drinks, a sink, and the little area in front of the window that has a table/cutting board.  That’s a lot in such a small space!  I stand at the window and take orders using both regular paper tickets and an iPad app that’s like a cash register.  The chef’s phone has an attachment that works with the same register app, and it lets you swipe credit/debit cards.  Pretty cool, right?  I also season the fries, put things in the little baskets and paper bags, and call out the names of the customers to give them their orders.  I’m learning what goes into each dish, so maybe I’ll be able to construct them myself sometimes when we get really busy!

The menu is designed with a few staple items and some specials that can change from day to day, depending on what ingredients are available and what new ideas the chefs have.  Here’s what we were serving on Wednesday:

the herban legend menu

 

I’ve tried almost everything and it’s all amazing!  The Parmesan truffle fries are especially great — they’re tossed with Parmesan, truffle oil, and a salt blend:

the herban legend parmesan truffle fries

 

There are always some left over at the end of the day, so I get to eat them along with a free meal of my choice!  It’s really a great job, I just wish I could work more days/hours!

Just wanted to share this with you.  I know it’s not crochet/knitting related but it’s something I’m really excited about, and I don’t go off-topic too often, right? 🙂

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  Back to the CAL tomorrow — it’s gonna be a great installment!

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yarn hiatus

February 17, 2013 by 9 Comments

Haven’t knit or crochet all week.  I guess I’m resting from my frantic knitting last week, I dunno.  I have been busy though, and I’ve got lots to share.

Firstly, if you are religious, please pray for my dad’s parents.  They’re my only living grandparents and they’re both in the hospital with various (serious) problems.  Dad’s actually on his way to Arkansas right now to see them.

And second, last night one of my car’s front tires got demolished when I slid on some ice and hit an embankment.  I have to get a new rim and new tire.  I’ll be contacting the junkyard tomorrow to see if they have a rim for about a fourth of the price of a dealership.   And, of course, ice means there was some wintry weather:

feb snow at jamiesThat’s the view from our buddy’s back porch.  Not a lot of snow, but enough to melt and make the roads icy, apparently.  So I’ve been sitting inside, where we haven’t turned our central heat on yet in an effort to save money, with my little space heater and my pretty mugs of cider and tea:

fiesta mugI’m collecting Fiesta brand tableware, like my mom does.  I only have 4 pieces and they aren’t as old and collectible as my mom’s, but they’re very pretty all the same!

In other news, I’ve been making a shimeji!  What is a shimeji, you ask?  Shimejis are cute little animations that walk around doing adorable things on your computer desktop.  I’m making one of Ron from “Harry Potter” because the only HP shimeji currently available is Snape, and there need to be more!  Here’s the program in action on my own desktop:

shime2And since they’re not doing exciting things at the moment, here’s some of what the can do:

shime4You can move them around and make new ones (they also self-replicate) and stuff.  They’ll be able to do more when I’m done.  And just so you don’t run away thinking I’m good at programming, I should tell you that I’m using the preexisting Snape program and just overwriting the image files.  Makes it seem way less cool, but let me tell you this is very time consuming and you have to be very precise!  I’m enjoying it though, and hopefully I’ll get to making other ones if this one works out.  So far so good!

Also you may have noticed that my foray into Photoshop work isn’t just with little shimejis — there’s a new banner for this site!  I know it’s pretty simple but I think it’s cute.

Well that’s all for now.  Sorry that I haven’t been knitting/crocheting this week.  Hopefully I’ll get back to it.  To be honest my arms are a little sore right now from all the wing chun martial arts practicing, haha.

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you back soon!

 

 

 

 

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