It's Like I'm Made Of Magic

Anyway, I crafted today.

It’s getting colder here.  The Autumnal Equinox is like, Wednesday, so I made a blanket about it.  We have this one blanket that I made about 6 years ago when I lived in Burlington.  I didn’t have my sewing machine in that apartment, so I put it all together by hand.  While the unrelenting wintery gales that I could hear whistling their steam engine cries, demolished all of our remaining root vegetable crops.  In a room lit solely by the fires glowing inside our brick oven.  Taking breaks just long enough to cure the elk hides that were to be used as barbaric drapery, as the gaps in our window’s frames were wide enough to let in just enough wind and moonlight that the kittens old Mosey birthed just days before could safely venture out just far enough to be frightened of the family of field mice that had taken up residency underneath Papa’s summer hat. Polio.

This is the first blanket:

Pretty great, right?  Yeah, I know.  Chad really likes it, and It’s getting a little dingy, so I whipped up another.  I’m not even saying ‘whipped’ snarkily.  It really all happened very fast.  From beginning to end, probably an hour-and-a-half.  It’s not like it’s quilted or anything. The fabric is just cut, then sewn together.  No arranging, or cutting mats, or geometry.  What I’m saying is: why don’t I have like, 30 of these?

This is the new one:

I’m into it.  I’m going to make more.

Also, this week we’re dog-sitting for Sid the Neighbor Dog.  He’s the cutest and most fun dog ever.  He likes running, and sleeping, and Chad.  He’s also afraid of every animal in our neighborhood.  He also chases the airplanes that fly over our house.

Here are some pictures of Sid:

You’re so lucky we don’t have a dog.  This blog would be ridiculous . . . . . er.

Lastly, It’s almost my 30th birthday.  This means my 101 Goals in 1001 Days list is about to hit deadline.  There’s a lot of stuff on that list I didn’t do.  And a lot of the really cool stuff I did isn’t on the list.  It evens out.  However, I still really like setting goals for myself, so I’m thinking each month I’ll make a list of ten things to accomplish.  This is a good time to do something like this, because it’s almost winter and if I don’t have such lists I’ll spend all of my free time replaying Fall Out 3 and eating my weight in S’mores Pop Tarts.  The first set of 10 will be posted on my 30th birthday.

Good night, and good luck

. . . but i’m knitting a ton more.

I finally got around to making a pair of “Mosey” leg warmers.  Really fun to knit up, and I’m wicked into the finished result.  I made them in charcoal so I can wear them to work, and I will wear the hell out of them once it cools down.  I have gross legs, and a cooperative boyfriend, so that means this:

Mosey, indeed!

I think the back pattern is really cute, too.

He’s really far too good a sport.

I used Patton’s wool with these since I imagine they’re going to get fairly dingy and I want to be able to wash them often.  I bought 4 skeins, and had enough left over for some Mary Jane’s that I adapted from a pattern on Purl Bee’s website.

I am the CUTEST!

I have a few ideas for some other projects I want to accomplish, but what I’m really interested in learning is quilting.  I’m going to try some smaller sample quilts to kind of gain some technical skill, so I’ll post those here.  Ultimately, I’d just like to put together a log cabin quilt that doesn’t look like it was made by a quadriplegic yeti.  It’s a lofty goal, I know.

Before I wrap this up, I want to bring it down a little and mention to you guys that I am still really upset that New Civilitea in Salem, MA isn’t around anymore! (Oh, just to bring you up to speed, I’m really upset that New Civilitea isn’t around anymore.)  I bought out their vanilla rooibus when they were closing, but I failed to bogart their Kiwi Berry Afternoon blend.  I’ve just used up the last of it making iced tea with mint from our garden, and now I’m really kinda bummed. If any of you know who there vendor was, let me know, yeah?

all sugared up, and no tea to flavor.

Kisses!!!

It occurs to me that The Boy and I are trying something neither of us have done before, and TOTALLY SUCCEEDING at it, and I want to share.

Just this April, we started to go into some pretty intense planning for our very first, super happy fantastic, CONTAINER GARDEN (!!!!!) that we were starting for the sumer. We talked out all the produce we’d plant, as well as how we’d plant them.  We’re in Dorchester, so whatever soil there is around our house is comprised of 45% earth, and 55% of, what I’m guessing is, corroded Newport filters and Sean Jean t-shirts.  Plus, we rollin’ pent-HOUSE style, so we really only have our 2nd floor deck to work with.

Now, I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am nothing if not excitable.  I remember my senior year of high school, some friends and I decided to go camping the weekend after graduation.  You know, to fornicate and be terrorized by handicapped mongoloids while remaining 100% topless.  Anyway, we’d made the plan that May, and I was definitely packed and ready to go later that week.  That being said, I had seeds, and at least two trips to Home Depot under my belt before it’d even stopped snowing.

Fast forward a few months, and our little garden is yielding way more produce than I’d have imagined.  We’ve already harvested our first round of sugar snap peas, and we’re germinating our second batch now.  But there’s still lots happening.  Chad headed out this afternoon to get some pictures of all the deliciousness.

grape tomatoes

big beef tomatoes

spring mix from our friend, Ananda

pickling cucumbers (we have about 6!)

Peppermint

Our garden.

So that’s it. Kinda crafty.

Later.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday, and my jaw feels like it’s trying to escape my face.  Other than that, not much is up.

I did spend some time trying to decide what to do with It’s Like I’m Made of Magic.  I’m still into posting, but not when nothing’s going on.  So, I was thinking I might take a turn for the crafty, and in between knitting and sewing adventures, I’ll update on life-type things.  I love reading craft blogs, and I’m super easily influenced, so this is a kind of natural progression.  ILIMOM will be 4-years-old soon.  I feel like it’s in it’s twilight years as far as blogs go.  Let’s slow it down, and let it crochet on the porch swing while the neighborhood kids dare each other to swipe one of the pink, plastic flamingos from the flower bed in it’s front yard.

Who’s with me?

. . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . no?

Hello, weirdos.  There’s a few new things going on that I’m stoked about.

Chad and I moved into a new place.  It’s on the other side of the wall from our old place, but it’s ours, all ours.  It’s like, 17 times sweeter than the old place.  It’s also about a thousand times more expensive, so it in no way evens out.

My no-longer-new job is also really working out.  It was an adjustment at first, but now I kind of love it.  The commute is awful, but I’m sure, with time, I’ll learn something profound about myself somewhere during the 47th minute that I’m slowly inching through the Tip O’Neill Tunnel.

This guy! Am I right?!

I’m still not totally sold on the new blog.com dashboard layout, and I really think It’s Like I’m Made of Magic took a turn for the lame when we left Vermont, but I’m just not ready to let it go.  I used to get so bummed when the bloggers whose pages I used to frequent would get all lethargic, and expect no one to notice three-month gaps between posts.  Thing is, what the crap am I supposed to write about?  Boston is boring, and Chad and I work completely different hours, so aside from the occasional trip home, we never get a chance to have adventures.  It’ll just have to be updates for now.

Once we get the infinity pool put in after the marble floors are installed in the East Wing, I’ll start posting weekly.  Pinky Promise.

So, my sister, Melanie, has been on my jock about not blogging.  It’s not that I don’t want to post some sweet, sweet updates.  It’s just that I’m not sure anyone could keep up with all this hottt, Ninjective (Ninja/Detective) action happening all up in my shiz, what with all the shenanigans and goings-on.  But, if yous guys think you can handle it, I’ll give it the ol’ vocational try (I didn’t try in college.  Like, at all.)

First things first, I got a job WITH BENEFITS!  It’s only been ten years since going to the dentist didn’t involve passing off locks of my own hair as Ritchie Sambora’s on my eBay page.  I’m not ever going to write any details about my job because, you know, I’d like to keep it.  Just know that it’s at a salon/spa, which is awesome, because my idea of dolling up is cleaning the lenses on my glasses.  But, I like to go big, so there that is. For ya . . .

Second things second, that’s about it.  I know.  I know.  Take a second to let all that crazy, sexy news sink in.

However, the new job lends itself to a pretty rad little segue into bringing up the topic of my list of 101 Goals in 1001 Days.  One of the goals is to find a job that offers benefits.  Check, aannnd check.  There’s likely some other goals that are due for some checking off.  I’m going to head over there now, in fact, and see what’s up.

Follow me, won’t you?

I’m lucky to have a ton of friends that are amazing story tellers, one of which has set up an outlet for just this purpose.

One of my most favourite friends, Brooke, has taken it upon herself to make winter in Burlington just a little more tolerable by hosting a monthly storytelling series (alȧ The Moth) at The 1/2 Lounge beginning this February.  If you’d like to share some craziness, please feel free to email her to set it up.  She’s really very sweet.

I’m for sure going to try and make it to this event.

So many people I know have started blogs, it’s inspiring.  I’m trying to keep busy this winter with all kinds of day hikes and outdoor activity to counteract the complete lack of energy that’s fogging up the inside of our apartment.  Everyone that lives here is in the same industry, so we all get the same down time.  There’s four of us, but when we’re all at home, all the time, it feels like 34.  So, naturally, I want out.

We started going to Blue Hills Reservation in Quincy.  It’s super beautiful there, and the hiking trails are really well done.  Also, they mark the hell out of them, which is important because I sometimes get lost in my own bathroom.  So, we’ve started hitting that place up.  It’s probably my favourite place in Boston.  I want to go everyday, but Chad is a lazy ass and sometimes it’s more work trying to convince him to come along with me.  Anyway, here is a picture of how amazing it is.

Pretty great, right?

So, other than trying to get outside a lot, I’m not really up to much.  Spent the majority of the Holiday season driving back and forth between here and Vermont.  Got to spend a lot of time with family and friends.  Our friends Alex, Adam, Tyson, and Chris are in a new band called Folk Heroes, so we checked them out on New Year’s.  I took some video.  We also got to see our friend Alan.  I mentioned Alan in the first year of Made of Magic.  Probably something about needing to devote an entire post to describing him, and I still will need to save the space, but the long and short is I’ve always wanted a younger brother and he’s the closest thing I’ve got.  It’s been a little over a year since we saw him last (He moved to Seattle.), so it was very cool to spend some time with him.

So that’s my life right now.  Get on board.

So, nothing terribly interesting.  I’m considering not posting here anymore, just because I feel like I’ve created this theme for the page that used to be snarky, and my version of humorous, but is now just whiney.  I complain a lot here because this is a recounting of my life, and things have changed in the last 3 years. I’ve moved from a town filled with my friends, full-time work, and some semblance of a social life, to a much larger city with no friends and no real work.  It’s depressing, but it’s where a series of decisions has landed me.

What’s strange to me is I’m here simply because Chad is.  100%.  He has never insisted that I stay.  We’ve learned that nothing changes in our relationship when we live in separate states, and we’re fortunate to have that.  However, the last time we tried, there wasn’t any work in Vermont, and as I said back then, it seemed senseless to live apart just to live apart. If I were working, things might have been different.  I might still be there now.

I guess I’m trying to find a place.  Somewhere with friends, steady work that I enjoy, and Chad.  I suppose I could concentrate on figuring out just what it is that I want to be when I grow up, but I’m 29, and nothing’s struck me yet.  My definition of “knowing what you want to be when you grow up” is the idea that a person has a kind of a passion for learning and studying something that will eventually offer even just a little financial stability.  It’s the word “passion” that makes me nervous.  I’ve had interest in certain fields.  I would certainly consider taking the time to study, or even just attempt something that might provide some sort of income, if it wasn’t for the fact that I have never felt passionate about, well, anything.

What’s strangest to me is I’m not alone.  Far from it.  Aside from just a small handful of friends, I don’t think I personally know anyone that is in a line of work that they had an initial passion for.  I have friends and family that have been in the same line of work for a long time, but I don’t reckon I’d be wrong to assume that they weren’t exactly passionate about it.  Is it a generational thing?  A personality type?  I’m driven, for sure.  When I do find work, I’m good at it, whatever it is.  I’m adaptable, and at some point between my 19th and 22nd year, the laziness wore off, and I began to actually enjoy hard work.  Unfortunately, there just isn’t a single type of something that I feel like I need to focus all that great work ethic on.  As a result, I live in a city where I might know maybe a dozen people.  I spend any day that I’m not working running errands, or knitting in front of the television.  On really ambitious days, maybe I’ll head into the city and see a friend, or explore an area I haven’t been to before.  Maybe.

And maybe that’s the problem. I have to find out what’s out there in order to know what’s out there, right?  The probability of discovering just what it is I’m supposed to be doing with my life while I’m crocheting the Yo-Yo afghan while replaying the latest episode of Mad Men on demand is likely pretty small.  Maybe my passion should be finding my passion.

Though, I feel like when it comes to knowing exactly what you want to do with your life, there’s probably not a lot of room for “maybe”.

Just kidding.  Nothing’s up.  Felt like I should post something since it’s been something like, 5 weeks maybe?  Nothing has changed.  Chad bought a car yesterday to replace the Volvo.  It’s a Focus.  He’s had one before, now he’s got one again.

Haven’t worked much, or done much of anything.  I turn 29 soon.  Really, Really soon.  Have I mentioned I want a baby?  Plan on hearing a lot more of that.  29, and nothing to show for it.  No career, no real place to live, no family of my own.  Not really what I’d imagined back when I’d picture myself grown up.  At all.

I’m really making it happen for myself over here, eh?

I’m going to go accomplish something interesting so you’ll be more entertained next time.

Welcome.