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february blog archive |
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2.29.2004State of the Brandysphere - FebruaryThis month's focus = get through February. Mission accomplished. Little done on the 1:450:365 front. March = PURGING. Something my packrat tendencies has never been good at. posted at 5:20:52 PM 2.25.2004Woah.Where has February gone? For mine, I've had plans on 21 of the 29 days. It's flying by me. It doesn't feel like my own time. I haven't fallen off the wagon, things are going well. Lovin' the CSA, cooking more, still spending less. I should be writing a proper recap in the next few days. I think March will be about PURGING. I'm getting completely fed up with my apartment and it's messiness. Good news: I literally wore out a shirt. It's a white, button down Gap shirt I bought for Kent in 1995? I usurped it before we broke up, because I liked it and he wasn't wearing it nearly enough. Last week, I wore it to Ladies Poker Night. Came home, took it off and realized it was riddled with holes. Huh. I tore it up and used it as stuffing in two bolster pillows I made tonight. I made the bolster pillows (and a scarf) out of a piece of a chenille blanket I bought on eBay for $10. Still need a good chunk of stuffing to finish them up. posted at 11:32:33 PM 2.5.2004 New Favorite Necklace Alise's beau JB gave my a linoleum sample to me for my birthday. There's more to the story but I am outta time at the moment. I made it into my new favorite necklace. Update: Ok, the story is that while Alise hosted my birthday party, JB was in the office working on a site. I popped into the office to borrow a pen. On the desk was a box chock full of old linoleum samples. I picked up a red one and said, "Wow, that's a nice linoleum sample." JB said he had got a bunch of them and had designs on dong something with them." I asked, "Can I have this one?" JB: "No." Me [in a half-hearted, self-mocking plea]: "But it's my birthday." JB: "No." At the very end of the night when JB and Alise were going to give me a ride home, JB emerged with the linoleum sample in handing saying, "Happy Birthday, Brandy." And while I had a "please no gifts, thank you" policy, this was my favorite gift. It's such a fantastic object. About the size of a business card, a curved rectangle. It says St. Regis Panelyte, Red Irish Linen m-55. And while I do not like linen finish paper, it so works on this linoleum. So, I strung it on thin fake leather cord and put a clasp in the back. Ta da. My new favorite necklace. Beauty is everywhere. Thanks, JB! posted at 1:51:00 PM 2.2.2004Bonanza!Today I picked up my first half-share from King's Hill Farm. Holy Moley! I got: 1 head of cauliflower 1 head broccoli 1 bunch collard greens 1 bunch cilantro (yum!) 2 big bunches of spinach 1 head lettuce (burly like bibb, not like iceberg) 2 yams 2 red potatoes 2 brown potatoes 3 carrots 1 huge grapefruit 4 tangelos? Clementines? Blood oranges? 2 pears 2 apples 1 onion 1 handsome red tomato One yam had seen better days and the broccoli was a little pale but everything else looked great. The collard green leaves and huge and beautiful. The tomato looks better than most store tomatoes. All organic. Heaven knows what chemicals are used to make store bought vegetables look the way we expect them to. I think I'll be getting into the habit of picking up my veggies on Saturday, cleaning them and planning what to make. I'll make a crock pot fulla soup on Sundays. Salads early in the week. So far, so good. Cream of broccoli soup tomorrow! posted at 12:03:49 AM 2.1.2004Gifts!Who doesn't like gifts? Well... I've got a contentious relationship with gift giving and getting. Fundamentally, I don't like that gift-giving is all too often tied up with obligations. I am super anti-obligation. To boot, I'm just super, super anal about what I like and what's in my home, so getting gifts makes me nervous. Plus, I'm renowned for making gifts and often giving handmade gifts to people and freaking them out. (Ok, plenty of my handmade gift were accepted without freak out). I want to give gifts left and right, so I've learned to curb my gift giving. Basically, I think gifts should be given if a good gift is found and you want to give it. Simple. Direct. No reciprocation necessary. No holiday necessary. And in my life, the best ever gifts have been when someone has thought, "Oh, this is so Brandy." Like the old, rotary turquoise telephone that Kate gave me that had a silver cover on the handset engraved with a B. Like the Greek komboloi of red dice Sandra gave me when she went she returned from there. This wonderfully bizarre gift from C and Darryn in December:  What is it you may ask? It's a ZATA - Zoo Animal Teaching Aid! C & Darryn arrived at one of my open houses. C was carrying an open cardboard box and handing it to me. I brought it inside and opened it. Purple fur. Huge teeth. What the f---?! Unbelievable. It's a puppet that dental folks can use to teach kids. This is the bug and it has a huge mouth, detachable tongue, a big oversized toothbrush and a actually bulb in back so you can make it spit!! I was beside myself when I got this. So bizarre. So perfect. And when Darryn, the pediatric dentist saw it, he said, "Brandy needs to have this." It's really quite cuddly to boot! ___________ So, my birthday was last week. In my party invitations I hemmed and hawed over how to write my gift disclaimer. I opted to saw that while no one is obligated to buy me anything, if you want to, please make it something experiential like a dinner or take me out to a movie. Upon receiving my invite, my friend John from Cali emailed, "I was just getting ready to box up old bugsy and send him off to you when I get this cool birthday party invite that says 'no thanks' to stuff." Gasp! "Bugsy" is a magnificent yellow flocked rabbit that John got on a trip to Singapore. John had emailed great pics of it and I saw it in the flesh, er, fuzz when I visited him last October. A wonderous butter yellow lupine about a foot and a half tall. I told him I could make an exception. So, on Friday I got the wood, rabbit-holding crate from John. Behold the bunny:   The same day, received a great birthday care package from Jackie, a cyberfriend from St. Paul. Over a year ago, she emailed offering to send some 22 stickers (this was just before I changed the company name from Twenty-Two to Loosetooth.com). But in that first package was a bonanza of stuff, including two pairs of corduroys that made their way into this quilt and a set of unpainted nested dolls.  Jackie sent this birthday package bearing more nesting dolls and two tiny sock monkey kits. I've been wanting to make a sock monkey for awhile, so that part was pa-her-fect! I'm wondering if I wrote about that on the site or if Jackie is psychic! And the hand made card was supercool. Having only commmunicated through digital media, it was so special to see Jackie's handwriting! And since meeting Jackie in cyberspace, I've met her lovely daughter Rose, who is going to school at Loyola and only lives a couple blocks from me. Remarkably, Rose isn't jealous of the care packages. ___________ At my birthday party last night, folks were very cool about the no gifts thing. Folks brought themselves and their fantastic food! It was wonderful. Jason and Margaret did bring a gift, and asked me to open it before they left - super snazzy garbage bags! They said, "Well, since you said you were getting rid of stuff...." Brilliant. Thoughtful, funny and useful. Perfect. posted at 1:54:15 PM |
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