month in review: January ’13

January flew by despite being full of ups and downs. The weather was cold, then hot, then cold again, and my brain chemicals didn’t know how to react. I was really hard on myself for being lazy and depressed, but I came out of it and now I’m on an emotional upswing.

cardinal

This month, I (and sometimes Daniel):

  • attended two concerts at Mockingbird before it closed down
  • reached out to a band about joining them as a vocalist
  • contacted a local photographer to look into assistant opportunities
  • started a Fair Trade blog; I’m really proud of it
  • witnessed a friend’s marriage dissolve
  • went on several walks (one, two, three, four)
  • became obsessed with Trader Joe’s (that’s worn off a bit now)
  • attended a swing dance lesson and Sock Hop
  • took a lot of photos
  • survived a couple snow days
  • attended a game night
  • started modeling for my online shop
  • experienced record sales at my online shop
  • wrote three poems
  • finished decorating the library
  • got the mullet trimmed off my outgrown pixie cut
  • felt insignificant
  • felt proud
  • watched a lot of The Wire
  • wore many layers
  • was almost always cold
  • bought a digital scale for mailing orders from home
  • talked to some llamas
  • visited many thrift stores
  • nurtured new friendships

snow

How’d I do with my 4 Simple Goals?

  1. Grow my online business: things have been looking up. I use new bookkeeping software that helps me keep track of fees, purchases, and revenue.
  2. Put money in savings every month: I should be able to do this as soon as I deposit my paycheck.
  3. Buy fair trade/ second hand as often as possible: I think I’ve stuck to this.
  4. Travel to a new place: we visited an antique mall in Ruckersville; that kind of counts.

Hope you had a fun, productive first month of the year.

attend to life

Each minute doesn’t
have to count
but it has to matter

Each waking eye
Each phase of the moon
Each dawn and
rain
it’s bound to come again
but never with
just the same flourish
or shape or pattern.

It doesn’t have to count
but it must be
acknowledged

Each hair brushed
just so, each sizzle
in the pan and
coffee ground and
alarm sounded
it’s the dance and
melody of normalcy
but not mediocrity.

It doesn’t have to count
but it should be appreciated

Each sigh
Each staring at the
wall and
backache and
hangnail and chore
forgotten
it strikes in the cheek
like a sinus headache
but it dissipates.

It doesn’t have to count
but of course it matters

Each daily ritual
Each daily error
it’s a rhythm, cycle,
slow creek in an often
parched wood
but it persists

It isn’t a counted forward march –
It is a sinewy, strengthening web
of rich matter.

home tour: The Library

Finally, a post about the library. It took me forever to arrange and re-arrange and add furniture and put up artwork in just the right way. I didn’t feel satisfied with the overall look until two weeks ago, when I moved the cube shelf we used to have in the living room onto the bookshelf wall. It is incredibly difficult to decorate rooms that have a glaring wood element built in (in this case, the window frame); no wonder my peers who own homes are all painting everything white. I settled on multiple wood tones to make it look intentional rather than makeshift.

budget libraryinterior design chairs

Walmart pillow, painted reindeer, Target paper lamp, banjo (!), TJ Maxx ottoman, hand-stretched frame with antique labor union pins

paper cut art

Modpodged San Francisco “Street Sheet” newspaper headline, paper cutting by Daniel’s sister, art print from Tallahassee shop

red and gold room cube bookshelfThis room has a red and gold color scheme by default; items that didn’t fit in other rooms made their way here. I had intended to add an area rug to bring in another color, but that proved difficult on my current budget (which is essentially 0.00). We hardly go into the library, but I’m glad it’s presentable. Maybe I’ll use it more now?

For all home tour posts, click here.

snow day

Every morning I open the bedroom curtain just a bit to let more light in to do my makeup. This morning, I looked out and exclaimed, Oh my gosh!, waking up Daniel on accident. A blanket of snow covered every horizontal surface, including my car. They predict another snowfall this evening. Tomorrow may be my lucky day for capturing snow in action!

berries in snow snowy forest ll bean boots on stump mitten snow pine cones blue ridge plants in snow

by a different route

or, Why Walks are the Best

moon in daylight sun sheer leaves glove love stark branch forest berries shallow dof tree stump virginia roadAfter taking Daniel to school on Monday afternoon, I looked about me on the drive home and realized suddenly that it was a beautiful day. We had about a week and a half of weird, dreary weather; it messed with my mood – everything felt stagnant. But Monday was cold and dry and crisp. The winter sun was at its brightest and the leaves and houses shone with its glaring light. I walked, this time, by a different route and felt refreshed. And at night, I looked up and saw Orion as clearly as if it were beaming out from a constellation chart.

Enjoy the winter light while it lasts.

Enough

I am not enough.

I know this to be true. The struggle of the quest to be enough is that it has no blunt ends or signposts or sections in the dictionary.

Enough : being what you need to be and nothing more.

But context is the final definer of the lines around enough and that story rests largely in my perception, my point of view.

I am not enough, I say, because I want to be more. Need is not a good enough end.

And here grace steps in, shaking her head, drawing a circle in red chalk in the center of the blacktop street – telling me firmly to Come In!

I step into the center, see a single word scrawled in bold block letters beneath my feet.

It says, Enough.

weekly review

last red leafThis week felt a little off, sort of like Marie Cardouat’s surrealist artwork in the game, Dixit (more on that later). Either my positive attitude or my energy level – or both – tend to run in a cyclical pattern: one week on, one week off. I had such a satisfying week before last that I guess my brain gave my body a break without telling me.

That’s why I need to reflect on it now, to give myself closure and perspective.

This week:

  • a customer compared my coworkers and I to the donuts on a Krispy Kreme conveyor belt in terms of efficiency; it was meant as the highest of compliments.
  • I wrote another poem. I feel really good about this one.
  • I gladly partook in American Apparel’s Friends and Family sale. Hooray for checking things off my wishlist.
  • I considered joining choir, backed out, then considered taking ballet lessons again.
  • three of my sister’s photographs were accepted into a Jacksonville art show; it’s the first non-student exhibit in which her work will be featured!
  • I met with a friend at a local coffee shop and had a marvelous time conversing on various topics (and imbibing too much caffeine) as the snow came down.
  • several friends and acquaintances visited the coffee shop where I work.
  • I talked for nearly forty minutes with some customer friends about poetry, the elderly, and the Vietnam war. He survived some of the worst parts of the war and writes poetry now to cope and help others through their trauma. It’s really great!
  • Speaking of Vietnam, a customer told a coworker and me that we are beautiful women in Vietnamese (but couldn’t tell us how to answer, thank you, as he forgot the phrase).
  • the sun finally came out on Friday morning, bringing me much cheer.
  • Daniel and I joined some friends for a game night. We played a fun interpretation game called Dixit, which includes whimsical surrealist paintings by Marie Cardouat.
  • I slowly continued to work through the book, Sexing the Body. It’s a good read despite its small print and daunting size.
  • Daniel and I had a heart to heart on my seeming embarrassment over not attending grad school. It was an emotional but necessary discussion on which I’ll reflect in a separate post.
  • my dad was interviewed on the radio about his new book, Working Would Be Great If It Weren’t for Managers.
  • my camera remote came in the mail, so now I can model vintage clothing for my store! I guess that’s this week’s project.

As always with these wrap-up posts, I feel immensely better after reading through my list. So much of my angst is due to an emotional funk rather than any real lack of progress or efficiency. Here’s to another good week!

 

catalog favorites

Winter hasn’t quite hit Charlottesville, but I’m already excited for spring fashion. I know fall is the season for fashion, but I’ve always preferred the bright, floral, bare-legged styles of spring over the drab, monotone glamour of fall. Fall is too serious for my taste.

I’ve been flipping through old Google catalogs for inspiration. Here are some of my favorite looks (including some fall looks that easily transition into spring):

catalog

Clockwise from top:

  1.  Anthropologie, March 2012
  2. Clarks, Fall 2012
  3. Fossil, Fall 2012
  4. Madewell, Spring 2012
  5. J. Crew, February 2012
  6. Madewell, Spring 2012

tutorial: digital photo film effect

Have you noticed that black and white film, especially older film, has a slight green tinge that distinguishes it from black and white digital photography? I prefer the softness film provides to the harsh gray scale of desaturating a digital image in photo processing software.

Since I use PicMonkey for most of my photo editing, I thought I’d share an easy tutorial on how to make your digital images look like black and white film prints.

1. Open your image in PicMonkey.

1

2. Click on the Effects button (it looks like a flask), then click on the Black and White effect located under the Basics category. Click Apply.

2

3. Scroll down to the Time Machine effect, select Trixi, and move the saturation tab to somewhere in the 70-80% range.

3

4. Go to the Basic Edits category and click Exposure. Adjust the brightness and shadows tabs to achieve desired amount of contrast. It helps to zoom in on the focal point of your image for this part.

4

5. If cropping is desired, click on Crop and adjust to your heart’s content. I typically set the crop tool to Original Proportions or 4×6.

5

6. Congratulations! Black and white film perfection.

coffee shop


Compare to a real black and white film image:

babb

on coffee shops

coffee shop

Coffee shops are a necessary social institution. They’re a place for meeting, reuniting, flirting, reading, studying, napping, meditating, observing, and imbibing.

I feel immensely grateful to work in one. I eavesdrop on brown-nosers, innovators, hobbyists, gossipers, and over-sharers. I see joyful reunions and daily fights between friends over who gets to pay for whose latte. I meet local business owners, professors, students, artists, volunteers, and retirees. I see kindness and generosity extended. I see community at work. And I get to be a part of it.

Today I met a new friend at a local coffee shop. Although the ambiance differed from the one where I work, the purpose was the same. Coffee shops create an open atmosphere for free expression, a safe space for complaining, intervening, and frivolous merry-making alike.

My daily work is addictive. That we can unite under the banner of espresso – republican and democrat, Christian and Atheist, heterosexual and homosexual, scholar and athlete, male and female – fills me with joy.

Diplomats should consider conducting their meetings exclusively at coffee shops.