Monday, October 31, 2005

holiday wishes

a very special Happy Halloween from the Cutest Puppy in the Whole World, Murray!
(and little help from photoshop!)

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

yay for jenny cartee pottery!


you may notice the link at right for jenny cartee pottery. my friend jenny is very cool. we've known each other nearly our entire lives. she makes way cool pottery. here are some shots of my collection, including my new plates.

seen here, cool candle sticks, bowls, beer mugs and my new plates. yay!






here are some serving pieces, bowls, platter, honey pot, covered casserole and a wine chiller. cool antique buffet courtesy of maw maw and paw paw stewart. cool tapestry from my trip to l.a.





this is my kitchen sink. not all this stuff is piled up in the window at once, but i was trying to be concise, all this stuff is in my kitchen. in the far left of the window is a tall vase that jenny friend gave me for my birthday, then a small lidded thingy to keep my corse salt in, a few bud vases, salt and pepper shakers, my way coolio butter dish and my garlic keeper. the soap dispenser is a jenny piece too, i like lemon scented soap in the kitchen so jenny made me a big lemon to keep my soap in... aw.



this is called, fall still life. this is a special piece, a vintage treadaway piece. before jenny got married last october, she was jenny treadaway. she made me this piece for throwing her a bridal shower and bachelorette party and being in her wedding. i heart this bowl. to celebrate fall, i filled it with indian corn, a little pumpkin and some fun colored squash varieties. the bottom is full of rosemary out of the yard, so it smells yummy too.

some might say that all of this is frivolous, but its really not. jenny is a strong believer in making pottery that is for use everyday. i eat and drink off of my pottery everyday. i have several other mugs and cups that aren't shown. all of her pottery is food-safe, microwave, oven, freezer, frige and dishwasher safe. it makes every day special, and makes me very happy. yay!

Friday, October 21, 2005

"i will miss your lips and everything attached to them..."

oh to be in love, lust or anything in between, to swell with excitement in the anticipation of a kiss, to sacrifice sleep for hours of conversations about everything and nothing all at the same time and still wake with a smile that cannot be contained... aw, i want that.

elizabethtown is a great movie, not at all what i expected, and to be honest the initial draw was because of paula deen's (food network star) role. in some ways its the same "uptight guy meets whimsical girl who teaches him to loosen up, look at life differently, the fall in love, yada yada yada". usually those movies annoy me more than anything. but this one is different, besides being packaged in beautiful cinematography and a fabulous soundtrack, the lessons learned about how to look at life are not just for the lovers, but for everyone... allow yourself time to grieve, but for pete's sake, move on, get over it and live a little. there are lots of great quotes in this one. my favorite headlining this piece. other favorites "just dial HELL, i'll answer", "trust me, everyone is less mysterious than they think they are", or "i'm impossible to forget, but i'm hard to remember".

go see it, have a great weekend everybody

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

sad sad time

so my cell phone is dead, d-e-a-d. *sigh* i took it to the phone place, they fiddled with it and ta-da it worked again... until i got about 5 minutes away and it went... i feel so disconnected from the world. and not only that, but lost comes on in less than an hour and not only do have to watch it alone, but i can't even call someone and have them comfort me through it. and before i catch any lip about being a superhero... that doesn't mean that i don't get nightmares.

wanted: someone to cuddle with on the couch

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

we can maaaaaaake it

so it started out being a pretty crappy day. step-dad went into the hospital at 2:00am with kidney failure, got into a large um, disagreement with my supervisor, and other small aggravations just grew. i was just about at my breaking point when i called my dad and asked him to take me out to lunch. we went to a little greek owned place, crown point restaurant on sardis road. after some yummy chicken orzo soup, i regrouped for the day. just before we left, i noticed a vaguely familiar face walk by, and a sugary sweet, ear piercing voice said, "thank you honey" behind me. i turned around to see none other than tammy faye bakker messner. i giggled, star-struck. without a second thought, i stood up, walked over and introduced myself. i felt as if i had more legitimacy than the average intrigued passer-by, and pointed out to her that i attended middle and high school at heritage academy (which later became crown christian academy after the whole scandal thing, i didn't feel it was necessary to bring up that incident). [here for a then picture or here for a now picture]

i even tried to give myself more validity by telling her that my uncle had been her diamond broker for about 15 years, and that she sent my paw paw (grandfather) a card when he was in the hospital. at that point, she stood up and said "my god, you're one of my children!". oh yikes! i don't know if that's what i was going for. but now, after all the excitement, i have to reflect... you never know what will brighten your day if you let it.

and to answer the question on everyone's mind, yes she really does wear that much make-up.

Monday, October 17, 2005

brr

i would just like to say "brr" to a chilly 39 degrees this morning in the qc. despite the coldness, i refuse to wear close-toed shoes. mostly because i dislike wearing shoes all together (and i dont want to hide my cute feet from the world!) . i will not be defeated by coldness!
happy monday y'all.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

not bad for a sunday

wow, its a lot of pressure to have a blog. i've been getting a lot of grief from my readers about my slackness. give me a break, its only my first week with one of these things. it should be more then obvious by now that i don't have a lot of creative energy. domesticity does not make one creative. i have a midterm tomorrow in my public health care management class, and instead of studying, i found many exciting (and some not so exciting ways to procrastinate). first, saturday morning i got my eyebrows done. a glutton for punishment maybe, i was off in search of even more exciting and slightly less painful ways to procrastinate. i went to garden ridge and world market in search of just the right glass bottles for christmas presents, in true heather fashion, i was readily distracted by decorative knick-knacs and picture frames. i came home and rearranged my bedroom furniture (to more appropriately accommodate new picture frames, duh). i finally got prints made from some shots i took in hawai'i this past spring as well as a few i stole from t-nat's deviant art site. after spending a little over an hour telling tripp about how lost is the greatest tv show ever, he was convinced to go out and rent the first few episodes himself. i settled down on the couch and watched last wednesday's episode that sam (not miriam's brother) was so kind to tape for me. since i had to watch it by myself, i of course had to do it during daylight, basically because i'm a big wimp. even disney's villains give me nightmares. i need miriam to cuddle me on the couch. aw... (i miss you pookie!) sam (miriam's brother) supplied me with a virtual plethora of wild and crazy websites just for my viewing pleasure. i spent some time outside picking all of the basil left, some rosemary and thyme from the yard in preparation for christmas presents. yeah, i did nothing exciting.

i heart fall. its definitely my favorite season, and not just because its the season of college football (god bless the person who invented spandex pants--that was one of my campaign slogans when i ran for homecoming queen at gardner-webb back in the day--that clever bit is courtesy of tlmc). i love the crisp air, i love not having to run the a/c or the heat and i'm sure i will very much love my low power bill this month. it should help offset the fact that gas is a jillion dollars a gallon right now. i mean really.

if you need a pick-me-up this week. i suggest checking out anntonies caribbean cafe over by my house. they have a live steel drum band on friday and saturday nights. and no one can be sad or grumpy when they hear a steel drum band. because it makes you want to dance mon! that reminds me of a funny conversation in this very establishment (before they started having live steel drum bands) i had with my dear miriam, my life partner, my pookie. i think it very accurately depicts our personalities.

mims (oogling attractive minority male waiter): "when i go to law school, i'm going to date a minority... i need a struggle, its too easy being white, even a female, we don't have any struggles."
me: "my dad says women make up struggles"
mims: "except in politics i guess, it really pisses me off to look at the senate and see all of those white male faces... that's not what america looks like!"
me: "they should pick members of the senate by random selection"
mims: "like jury duty!"
me: "we should get on that!"
mims (oogling attractive minority male waiter): "i should get on THAT!"

ok, very important annoucement! sam (miriam's brother) just informed me that iTunes 6.0 came out today and that you can download entire tv shows for $1.99 and you don't even have to feel guilty about it because its legal. yay! :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

this is my best side









to satisfy the fans clanging for a picture... because its "necessary for dating purposes" unfortunately this is all i have at my disposal here at the office. i'm still trying to figure out how to put a picture in my profile, it says it needs a url, and the only picture i have with a url it tells me that the url is too long. why are all the forces against me? hopefully someone will come to my technological rescue. in the meantime i'll stick to something i can handle, putting pictures in my posts. i heart pictures. yes, those are my feet on the black sand beaches of kona, hawai'i. the well-manicured toes are courtesy of the schell/bilbro wedding which occurred just days before my trip. once on spring break in college i won a "sexy feet contest" ... note* that's the only thing i won. that's ok... no one ever says "look at the wit, charm and pedicure on that girl" or "i bet she can whip up a mean pesto".

did i mention its still raining?
happy hump day

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

soggy

so yes, i'm at the office, but having a hard time feeling productive today. its about the sixth day in a row its rained. it makes me sleepy. actually, i enjoy a good rainy day, as long as i can be at home curled up on my big couch with a book (well duh, not watching tv because i don't have cable..*sniff*). the darkness of this past week has reminded me how much i hate artificial, especially overhead lighting. one of my favorite things about casa de' tcf is the abundance of windows and the way natural light floods in them in all seasons, an important factor in fighting off the evils of SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

in the spirit of project optimism, here are some other ways to fight off the dreary day blahs.
-call a friend and do mad libs over the phone (if you don't have a mad libs book, there are several options available online, even better, write your own)
-learn to cook or know where to find your favorite comfort foods (tcf's kitchen is always open for business)
-invest in a piece of jenny cartee pottery, especially a coffee or beer mug, love it, horde it, use it.
-embrace the rain, rain is only sad if you're trying to stay dry, beat it at its own game, start off just standing in it, find a good puddle to splash in, do a little dance, don't worry, no one can see you. come in dry off, have some nice hot chai in your jenny cartee mug.
-be mindful of what you read. i suggest nonsense books or ones that just make you feel good. try hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, eat mangoes naked, rural studio or hope for the flowers.
-on a day that's not so gloomy, put together a box of funness, stash away candles, cd's, pictures, jokes, or reading material that makes you especially happy. open it and enjoy it on a day like today. its like giving yourself a present, and everyone loves presents.

this optimistic tidbit is brought to you by the fine folk at project optimism.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

say goodbye

today i say goodbye to a very old friend... it is my last day with cable television. obscenely high gas prices and threats of federal budget cuts have resulted in some difficult financial decisions. one way to shave $55 a month (a little over a tank of gas) off the monthly expenses, is to say goodbye to tlc, the food network, a & e and other favorites. i feel like i should sit on the couch all weekend and soak up as much of it as i can. i keep telling myself that its going to make me a better person. i'll spend more time reading (stuff other than for class), writing letters, playing with murray or piddling in the yard. i want to send care packages to friends and family in school far away, get to work on christmas presents (homemade candy and flavored olive oil with herbs from my garden), and to finally put together that photo album for my mom. we'll see.

on to a slightly more shallow topic... there are some wildly entertaining commericials out right now. tripp told me about this one where a girl was juggling mints with her tounge, i just saw it, that is pretty impressive. my favorite has to be the one for intel that says "incredible entertainment experiences in your lap from intel centrino mobile technology"... ha! that makes me laugh everytime.

i wish i was artistic, creative, or something. i spent all day yesterday with my dear friend jenny cartee at the mcalpine pottery show and sale. being surrounded by all that creative energy just reinforced to me that i have no artistic ability whatsoever. i really appreciate people who do. i was verbalizing this observation to jenny who is an amazing potter, and she replied with a "its ok, you're organized and very helpful". aww... thanks jenny, now go make me something cool.

there will be a meeting of SPAM, super people against mondays this afternoon at 4pm, rumor has it that a monday is rapidly encroaching on our weekend. we must act now.

Friday, October 07, 2005

just me

hello, now i am a cool blogger like you
actually, as i told harper, having a blog makes me neither cool nor fun, just ask tripp. he'll tell you i'm bland and boring (or at least pretend to be). i wanted to name my blog "melba toast personified", but i didn't.
i wanted to have a blog like everyone else. i wanted to be like the cool kids. i couldn't stand to have a my space, too much pressure to have friends and you have to have a myspace to comment or to look at pictures. and having a catch 27 card was out too, i just can't see the logic in paying to play that dumb game. reminds me of when i was a youngster, how my dad would say he was going to stop paying my friends (which he claimed was the only reason they were my friends to start with) in an attempt to get me to behave. i already feel inadequate on facebook before not having gobbs of friends like everyone else *insert cheesy mantra here* "grad school students, especially those with full-time jobs, do not have lives or time to piddle on blogs or be part of a social e-community"
*discontented sigh*
back to work
happy friday