Month: October 2012

As Hurricane Sandy prepares to batter the east coast, I find that I’m feeling incredibly grateful that I don’t live there anymore. Sorry to all of you who are battening the hatches and preparing for stormaggedon.

It was a sunny and simple week here in Oakland. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, which means that I really didn’t take that many pictures.

I decided last week that I needed to give myself a break from all of the “shoulds” and “musts” that usually rule my life. Other than the truly required tasks (going to work, taking showers) I didn’t do anything last week that I didn’t really and truly want to do. It was a much needed break, and gave me a little bit of clarity about how I should be spending my time. Truth be told, I can be quite hard on myself about doing all the things I think I should be doing, and trying to do them all perfectly. And if I’m not careful, that can really start feeling like a drag. As we move into holiday season 2012, I am setting my intention now to give myself a break. Nothing needs to be perfect, it just needs to be done with joy and love.

So this is what my week of no obligations looked like:

Oct 21 – Sunday night I made pork tenderloin and sauteed squash for dinner. Yay for fall foods!

Oct 22 – I made a skirt over the weekend and wore it to work on Monday. I’ve had this fabric for years, and knew what I wanted to make with it but just…didn’t do it. But I’ve been on a real sewing kick lately, and I’m glad I finally knocked this out. It didn’t turn out exactly how I imagined, but this is a learning process, and I really like it anyway.

Oct 23 – This is not a cappuccino.

Oct 24 – I’ve been reading lots of books about garment sewing, and one suggestion I liked was to select a few of your favorite articles of clothing and accessories, look at them all, and find a few adjectives that describe them. These are mine, and I was feeling stuck for descriptive terms, so I asked my friends and family on Facebook to give me a few adjectives. That was a super fun for me, and this whole exercise did give me a more concise idea of what my personal style is. What adjectives do you think describe the things in this picture?

Oct 25 – No pictures on Thursday ’cause I forgot. It was a boring day anyway.

Oct 26 – I did decide to do some minimal fall/Halloween decorating in our apartment. I made this polka dot garland using some felt and some thread. So easy and festive! And I always love pumpkins.

Oct 27 – Also no pictures on Saturday. ‘Cause I forgot again. We went out for brunch. I took a nap. Sean went to the gym. I watched Dawson’s Creek. It was a pretty quiet non-entity of a day. We did not go to any Halloween parties.

Here’s to not letting your life be ruled by unrealistic expectations. As the holidays approach, join me in pledging to yourself to relax and recognize that none of the things we let ourselves get so stressed out about are the end of the world. Approach the holidays with a light heart and practice letting go of all the things you think you should be doing, in favor of the things you love to do.

Wow. I just realized that we only have ten weeks left in 2012. That is insanity. I also managed to forget to take a picture on Thursday AND Friday last week. Sad face. It was kind of a long and frustrated week, I will admit. It’s hard to want to capture the moments when the moments are feeling dumb. But here are some of the parts that aren’t dumb

Oct 14 – Ok, this part is dumb. I made this skirt a few weeks ago, and the zipper broke. I bought another zipper, took the skirt apart, put in the new zipper, and it broke again. Then I realized that I must have made some cutting and measuring mistakes because as you can see, there is a serious gap in the back. Doh. It’s a bummer: I loved this fabric, and my stitching was actually really good. But alas. I’m still learning. I will just have to try again. (In happier news, I made another skirt this weekend, one I’ve been thinking of for years, and I’m wearing it right now! No broken zipper.)

Oct 15 – I got this recipe for a pasta-less butternut squash “lasagna” from my colleagues Kathryn. It was so delicious. Just thinly sliced squash, Italian sausage, marinara, and plenty of cheese. Yum.

Oct 16 – We’ve been getting lots of little apples from our CSA. We are not eating them fast enough.

Oct 17 – I had a dream for an amazing grilled cheese sandwich, with creamy Brie and sauteed mushrooms. It didn’t turn out quite as wonderful as I imagined, but these sandwiches were still tasty. I just have to do a little more tweaking.

I don’t know what happened to Thursday and Friday. Apparently, nothing worth capturing on pixels.

Oct 20 – But that’s ok, because there was plenty worth capturing on Saturday. We went for a walk in the Huckleberry Botanical Park, and it was quite lovely. And I was admonished to know my snakes. We didn’t see any, but I feel better prepared for the future.

Oct 20 – I have no idea who J and S are, but I’m happy for them.

I cannot stop marveling at how fast this year is passing. I am like a broken record saying this.

Oct 7 – I spent my last afternoon in Columbus at the North Market, where I ate some tasty polish food, bought some awesome spice and salt blends, and enjoyed some Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (Bangkok Peanut!).

Oct 8 – I participated in The Bitten Word’s Cover to Cover Challenge, and made this very tasty citrus and chile tuna.

Oct 9 – I made a special note for my man.

Oct 10 – I’m trying to be a little more adventurous with my clothing choices. Bright floral patterns. Trendy boots. I actually really loved this outfit.

Oct 11 – Fall food makes me happy. This butternut squash mac and cheese might not look like much, but it was so good. The browned butter didn’t hurt one bit.

Oct 12 – It’s time for scarves!

Oct 13 – Saturday evening we visited Drake’s Barrel House in San Leandro. Kind of hard to find, but so worth it. They make some tasty beers.

I don’t know why I’m so bad at counting, and keep mixing up what week it is. It’s a problem I have, apparently. But here we are, it’s October (otherwise known as Oakland summertime), and here’s what’s been going on around here.

Sept 30 – I spent most of Sunday morning vigorously cleaning our apartment. Then Sunday afternoon we had a very relaxing, quiet time at home. I cut out fabric for a new skirt.

Oct 1 – The sun is starting to come up later and later, which is both terrible and kind of cool. It’s so hard to get up before the sun, but it is nice to see it slowly brightening our apartment and our city in the morning.

Oct 2 – The greens are starting to appear in our CSA again. I made this quick saute with chard, mushrooms, and couscous. for dinner on Tuesday night.

Oct 3 – Our tomato haul is starting to slow down. I marked the end of summer produce with this simple but super tasty caprese with grilled chicken (and no basil, because I forgot). If you had told my 18 year old self that someday I’d be eating raw tomatoes, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Oct 4 – Thursday I flew to Columbus, Ohio for the LITA National Forum, a library tech conference. I have to admit, I kind of love hotel rooms.

Oct 5 – Friday morning, I got to join a small group of librarians for a tour of the OCLC data center. This is the server where WorldCat lives, and if you are a fellow librarian, you probably think that’s as neat as I do. If you are not a fellow librarian, just be content to know that this is where the biblio-internet lives.

Oct 6 – I bought some new boots this week, and I am in love with them. I’m having a thing for grey right now, and these little grey ankle boots are perfection.

I missed my kitchen, and my blogs, while I was away in Ohio, but now I’m home, and I have lots of fun cooking projects up my sleeves. I love how getting away for a few days can sometimes help me hit the re-set button on life. I came back from this conference energized and motivated, and that is such a great feeling.

Last week seemed really very long. But it was a good week, mostly, and I am fully embracing fall.

Sept 23 – On Sunday night, I made Vanilla Bean Blondies. They were good, but way too sweet and much chewier than I wanted. This recipe is going to need some testing before I share it, but I loved these pictures, anyway.
Continue reading 2012, Week Thirty-Seven