Layering, Adulthood, and other Friday Musings

Today's outfit shows off one of my winter-survival dressing techniques: take a dress. Then wear it over a turtleneck and fleece tights. It's like you have two outfits on!


Today was a pretty long day at the lab, including a couple of hours of giving demos of our group's work to a large number of sponsors from China. It made me wish I was one of the couple of folks in our group who speak Chinese, as it's always a bit harder to demo through interpreters. Though it seemed everyone was having a fair amount of difficulty trying to translate concepts like "14 independent channels of lighting" or "frequency domain analysis".

I then spent the evening going with my mother to Ikea to pick up a few things for her, and ended up getting a new little rug and lamp for by my bed to replace the tropical-floral-print ones that I got when I moved into my first college dorm room. Another goal of sorts for this year (formed when the boyfriend and I came back from visiting his family for the holidays) is Operation Make This Place Look Like Adults Live Here. Better cleaning and decluttering is a huge part of this. As is very slowly updating a handful of decor items. Anyone who considers themselves a "grown-up," do you have any suggestions for how to make someplace feel like an adult home rather than a dorm room? We don't have any posters or things like that, but the overall impression still seems young to me...

The Neverending Blanket Project

I've decided that one of the crochet projects I most want to do this year is finishing this partly-made white blanket:


It looks so simple! It's done in one basic pattern stitch, one color of yarn...the yarn is soft and easy to work with, and the stitching moves along quickly. What this blanket is hiding is that it's fairly big (well, at least really wide). When I started making it, I made the first few rows too wide, and at that point I wasn't going to unravel it and start over...no, I was going to keep going until it was tall enough to become a blanket of balanced proportions! I was going to finish this blanket! So I kept at it here and there for...I think a few months, at least. Periodically picking it up and working a few more rows. Until I eventually got bored halfway through and stuck it in a bin with the rest of the yarn.


Now, the difficulty is that I'm pretty sure I stuck it in that bin about...10-12 years ago? When I went off to college, it stayed home (having not been touched for years). A couple of years ago, the bin of yarn and blanket ended up in my apartment. And now, having built my confidence by making an afghan for my best friend's holiday present, I want to tackle this one and get it crossed off my unfinished projects list once and for all! (Fortunately, my yarn tension appears to have remained fairly steady.) Hoping to show you the full blanket within the next month or two...

What's the longest time you've had a project only partly finished? Did you ever go back and complete it, or did you decide it wasn't worth your time?

I do believe it's winter, now...

It may have taken until January for Boston to get really cold (well, a high of 26 degrees today, which is not as cold as it will get this winter, though significantly colder than December's upper-30's-mid-40's kind of weather), but now we're in what I'd legitimately label as winter. Not my favorite season, but I think this one will be short enough that I can manage.


Thus, today's weather necessitated pulling out my giant leopard-print coat. It's bulky and on the bold end for my taste, but also very warm!

Now where's that snow?

Fuzzy Crochet Cowl

I'm finally back at home today, after spending the holidays out of town with my boyfriend's family. Now time for the cleaning/organizing/crafting to slowly begin! My major craft project today was finishing up the crocheted cowl scarf that I started over the holidays.


I used this cowl pattern and several skeins of fuzzy gray yarn from my giant freecycle stash. This worked up pretty easily, and I learned how to do a couple new stitches for it. Only problem is that the yarn sheds all over the place. My shirt now looks like I own a dog!

Craft Projects for the New Year

Today I thought I'd share some of the craft projects that are inspiring me to make things in the next few months. I'm hoping to work on some stash-busting, going along with the decluttering resolution. Last year I at least made some progress with the stash-organizing...now to keep using what I've stockpiled!

I definitely want to make some progress with my stash of vintage patterns (mostly acquired via Ebay a couple of years ago). Working through a few of these would help with my fabric stash and my sewing skills...

Source: My Vintage Crafts

Also on my list are some lace-covered skirts and dresses. I have literally a dresser drawer full of lace and lacy pieces...thrifted curtains and tablecloths, bits of lace trim, etc. I've made one lace-covered skirt, but have materials for more!

Source: etsy.com via Elly on Pinterest

Source: outsapop.com via Elly on Pinterest

I'm also hoping to do some home-decor projects. Don't you love this paper-backed shelf?

Source: flickr.com via Elly on Pinterest

I've been wanting to re-cover some of the accent pillows on my couch and armchairs. I love the idea of using bold floral fabric like this:

Source: downandoutchic.blogspot.com via Elly on Pinterest

I also need to find some new crocheting projects to help me work through my giant yarn stash (mostly via Freecycle). I'd made a few holiday presents - an afghan for a friend and some baby hats for my boyfriend's young cousins - and am now just about done with a giant furry cowl scarf, looking for new patterns.

Maybe some of these Tea Cup Bunnies?

Source: littlegreen.typepad.com via Elly on Pinterest

Or a pullover?

Source: lionbrand.com via Elly on Pinterest

Anyone have any exciting crafting/DIY projects you're looking forward to tackling this year?

Entering the New Year

Source: Uploaded by user via Kelley on Pinterest

Happy 2012, everyone!

While I don't think that January 1st is a magic date for world-changing, I do enjoy taking a bit of time to reflect on the year and think about ways in which I'd like to continue developing and improving my life over the next year. 2011 was a pretty busy year for me...I did a fair amount of traveling for work, moved into new stages in my graduate studies, and spent some nice times with friends and family. For 2012, I'd like to get some more progress in my work and more creativity and new things in my life overall...

So a few things I'm thinking about as we go into the New Year:

• Overall: Do things to increase my sense of adventure and exploration, break out of my routines. Try to do at least one NEW THING every week. See more of Boston. Take day trips. Go to eat at new places, cook new recipes, take dance classes, go to shows and concerts and performances, try other classes and events and activities.


• Work: Publish more papers, take and pass my general exams, finish a new project at least every week (hardware/software and/or performance. I love what I do!)


• Home: I want to start decluttering on a regular basis. Try getting rid of A Thing a Day (an idea from the Unclutterer forums). Be more mindful of the things I bring into my home. Continue to make it a really happy place to live in.


• Health: I want to keep up the exercise routine that I developed last year, getting some cardio work in at least 2-3 times per week. I'd also like to limit my white sugar intake...despite having been raised not eating sugar, my sweet tooth has been going overboard the last few years.


• People: Make sure to take time for my family and boyfriend. Keep working actively to keep in touch with my college friends.


• Blogging: I just signed up for NaBloPoMo, a month of posting every day! I'm hoping to use this as a push to get myself writing more here (and doing more craft projects/pushing my style further).

How about you all? Do you make New Year's resolutions or not? What are you hoping to do in this year to come?

Updates...

Just wanted to pop my head in and reassure you all that I'm still here! The last couple of months, my spare time primarily went to directing a musical for the university's musical theater group...we did a production of Children of Eden, a show based on stories from Genesis retold to be about parent-child dynamics. I've done some directing/choreography of smaller pieces, but this was my first time directing a full-length musical (for which I also did almost all of the choreography). Amazingly fun, and kept me amazingly busy!

I wanted to share just a couple of pictures from our final dress rehearsal. At this point, the set wasn't finished (the beautiful, dangerous Tree of Knowledge made out of cut metal leaves was still bare) and we didn't have lighting cues... but it's a taste of the show.


Adam and Eve are banished from Eden.


Noah and his family on the Ark


At the end, the cast appeals to the audience to find their own Eden.

What else has been going on? I've been working on the proposal for my Ph.D. general exams, due next week; basically you pick three areas that you want to study (that overlap to form the area of your planned dissertation research), read a lot in all of those fields, and then be tested (in written and oral exams) on your ability to think through problems in those areas and how those areas can connect. I'll be taking these exams in June.

I've been doing some cooking and baking and holding brunch parties...the thrifted waffle maker has been getting some good use. Also, fresh cranberries in waffles are amazing. The boyfriend and I had also been talking for a while about getting a bread maker, but weren't yet willing to pay the fairly steep prices for one. However, we found a machine in a local thrift store, with an "as is" tag on it... since the tag read in full "$2, as is," we had to get it and at least give it at try!


Result: bread! I can now make INFINITE BREAD with basically no effort! I've since tried a buttermilk dill loaf, which was really nice. Raisin bread will likely be the next attempt.

And now we're already coming up on the holidays much, much faster than I realize. I can't believe it's December -- the sun seems to be setting so much earlier than I remember happening in other years. The dark and cold have really hit me harder than normally; with it getting dark by 4:30, I have no idea when it's actually time to go to sleep. Strange! Anyone else looking forward to the return of more light and more warmth, or are you excited for snowstorms? (or both?)