I voted. And I’m still sick.

Early voting began in NC a few weeks ago. At this point, over half a million people have voted in the Old North State. Apparently, this is unprecedented.

Even though I decided to stay home sick today, I had to run out to the grocery store to get some Kleenex with lotion and some DVDs. I also decided to swing by my local polling place to see how long the wait was and found that I was able to get in and out within 15 minutes. I couldn’t believe it! There was a line, but it wasn’t too bad. I was really impressed with the diversity of the people standing waiting to cast their ballots. 

I was surprised that I didn’t even have to show my voter registration card. All I had to do was tell them my name and address. That’s a little bit scary to me. I mean, anybody could have told them that by simply looking it up in the phone book.

And have you heard? Not only is North Carolina a swing state, but my little old county of Wake is one of two counties in the country that could decide the election. Talk about pressure at the polls.

I’m glad I can cross this off my list. At least it’s over on my end. It’s been a long two years.

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Fevah!

I’m sick. Sick, sick, sick. I even came home from work early today to get some rest. I tried my best to push through this thing, but it got the best of me. It’s the WMD’s fault. He gave it to me. I took the nasty zinc things that are supposed to shorten the illness, drank a ton of vitamin C, but all to know avail.

Blah.

I’m cooking chili for dinner. Yes, I’m that great of a wife. I cook dinner for my hubs even when I’m sick. A regular Martha, I am.

Chili reminds me of Mama’s Family. Do you remember that show? I think I’ve watched every single episode ever made. Probably because we didn’t (and still don’t) have cable growing up, so it was either PBS or reruns of Mama’s Family. There’s only so much Mr. Rogers a kid can handle.

There’s this one episode where Mama, Naomi and Iola (I’ve never met an Iola, even here in the South) decide to have a chili cook off and Vinton (I’ve never met anyone with that name either). Mama and Iola pride themselves on cooking it from scratch, but Naomi just pulls out a bunch of cans, pours them in the pot and caps it off with a beer. You would have thought the Redneck Brigade just walked in. (Which, with Naomi, they kind of did.).

Anyway, I forget the rest of the episode and who won, but I was reminded of it when I started opening up the various cans of stuff to pour in my chili tonight. I’m such a Naomi. Who was definitely not a Martha. But she always looked good.

Of course, thinking about Mama’s Family reminded me of the time when my Aunt Susie and my Aunt Jean dressed up like old ladies for Halloween one year when I was really little, like three or something. My Aunt Susie was the spitting image of Mama. She was Mama. This was before I was a fan of the show, being three and all, and it f-r-e-a-k-e-d me out. Like, run into the corner of the room behind the couch freak out. I still remember that. It scarred me for life.

 (Aunt Susie or Mama? Mama or Aunt Susie?)

Scarred.

Well folks (which is my favorite Southern colloquialism) (I say that with all sarcasticness), I don’t have any photos to show you. I DID get this awesome shirt from Salmon Street Studioas a thank you for featuring their shop on my ManMadeMarket blog:

 

How perfect is that?! As you will notice, it is red and black AND has a pirate ship on it. A PIRATE SHIP PEOPLE! I’m a Pinckney Pirate, a Pinckney Pirate yes indeed.

Hello all you people who will come here because I said the pirate again.

And here’s a photo of my stinkin’ cute niece, who is the mini-me of her mama and growing up way too fast:

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The Alliance for Paired Donation

I saw a spot on World News Tonight today about the Alliance for Paired Donation. I hadn’t heard of it before tonight, but I was nearly brought to tears as I watched the story unfold. This organization works to match people who need a kidney transplant with people that are willing to donate one of their own to a complete stranger. Basically, those who are willing to donate have their match information (you have to match so many genetic requirements with the person your donating to in order for the transplant to take) put in a system that will then match them up with potential matching recipients. So, while a lot of family members would like to donate a kidney to their family, they can’t because they aren’t good matches. But if they still feel motivated to donate, they can be matched up with another recipient in the system. (Sorry I said match so much; it fit the best.)

The show tonight not only told of the organization, but showed a ballroom full of people who have received or given a kidney in the last year through this organization. It was a huge reunion of donors and recipients. It was such a touching story and gave me hope in the midst of such a divided nation that people can, will and are still doing amazingly unselfish and unfathomably generous acts for complete strangers, regardless of political or any other type of affiliation. That’s the America that I want to live in.

I suppose the other reason this brought tears to my eyes (although it doesn’t take much these days, which is why I can’t watch Extreme Home Makeover more than once a month) is that my family has been touched by kidney disease. My great grandfather died of polycystic kidney disease at age 49, before doctors even knew what it was. My grandmother underwent a transplant, as have 4 of her 6 children. I’ve watched as people who aren’t related to our family give an organ to save the life of my aunts and uncles. So, the idea that there is an organization that is matching people who for whatever reason feel led to give amazes me in the most profound way. You really should read some of their stories.

All right, that’s enough. I’ll start crying again if I keep going. Happy tears. Happy tears.

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Red Christmas

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at dying bottle brush trees ever since I saw this post last year. However, the only trees I could find in my neck of the woods were way to expensive to justify mistreating them with bleach and Rit dye. But, on one of the many trips I’ve had for work in the last few months, I passed a Hobby Lobby and decided to pop my head in and see what they had on sale. Man did I hit the jackpot of bottle brush trees!

So, last weekend I bleached them and then this morning I dyed them red. I didn’t realize how expensive Rit dye has become. But then again, the last time I was anywhere near that stuff was elementary school and before I had money of my own to spend.

So, if you want to try this for yourself, go buy some bottle brush trees, which should be all over the place now that Christmas decor is out. If not, you can probably find them in the miniature train section of your local hobby store. Get yourself some bleach, Rit dye, a little hot water and some salt and before you know it, you’ll have a whimsical little forest of whatever colors your heart desires.

Bleaching the trees:

Bleached trees, post cold water rinse:

Dying the trees:

 

Pile of dyed trees:

Little red forest:

 

I like the curved one the best. I might add some glitter or snow drops to some of these, but for the $10.00 total cost of this project (which includes many, many more trees than the three above and the dye), I’m happy. You can find more of these by others here.

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Not Martha

Don’t you just love that title? I think most woman ages 18-78 can identify with it. Not Martha is one of the many (many) blogs that I subscribe to and read on a very regular and hearty basis.

The thing that I like most about this site is the many useful and interesting links that Megan posts quite often. Take today for instance. She posted several links to other sites about food, ranging from bacon cinnamon rolls to Swiss chard. Really, it’s that diverse.

And she doesn’t just post links to other sites. She mixes it up with great how-to articles, recipes, and all sorts of stuff that you will file away for that day (you know, that day) when you plan to get around to it. Which, consequently, will just make you feel guilty when that day never comes, but still, she’s got some fun stuff.

So, go check Not Martha out and spend the next 13 hours linking from site to site .

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Ali Edwards’ Blog

One of the things (Alright, really the only thing- I like to hedge my bets.) I’m asking for as a Christmas gift from my parents (My mom asked me what I wanted a week ago, okay? I’m not stepping out of line here.) is a small digital camera. Now don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my current digital SLR. It takes wonderful photos, particularly artsy ones, and has been very good to me these last two years. I plan to be good to it for many more.

But…that sucker is big and it’s a little embarrassing to pull it out say, when we’re at a restaurant and I just have to have a photo of the marvelousness of the food or the joint we’re at. Or, for a group photo with friends. While all my pals pull out their shiny, lithe, little silver cameras, I pull out my big, black giant. It’s like saying, “That ain’t a camera. THIS is a camera!” a la Crocodile Dundee.

And it’s kind of hard to be discreet when your camera bag is bigger than your purse. Or your husband’s backpack. Okay, not really, but it might as well be the size of the Goodyear blimp as far as the WMD’s concerned. And that’s not a good thing in his book, especially at Shorty’s. Particularly at Shorty’s.

Unless you’re Lindsay, who was able to get away with taking a picture at Shorty’s. In the WMD’s presence. With the WMD in it! The injustice! But that’s because Lindsay has one of those little cameras.

 

Man alive, I need to fatten that boy up! You’d think with the amount of Oreos and brownies that are consumed in our house that he’d weigh 500 pounds by now. But it seems that the Matthew Seering diet is a curious one. Eat all the garbage you want and still lose weight, while your wife gains it for you by simply looking at a cookie, no matter how many miles she runs on the instrument of torture that is her treadmill. Score!

Anyway (and I’ll get to my point eventually) I’ve been reading Ali Edwards blog for awhile now and I really like what she’s been doing recently on it. She’s been taking pictures of the regular, run of the mill stuff that happens throughout her family’s day and then doing a photo journal of it, calling it “A Week in the Life”. The photos aren’t of anything spectacular, just a document of their lives on a particular day, each day of the week.

From a genealogy enthusiasts standpoint (Have I mentioned this about myself? Is that weird for someone who is not even 30 yet?), I think this is a fantastic exercise. What I wouldn’t give for something like this on those Cook and Jones ancestors that tease me in their obscurity and lack of records.

Really, when it comes right down to it, life is really filled out more about the day to day minutiae that consumes us than the few really great things that happen, isn’t it? I don’t mean that in a bad way, just a realistic one. And I think there is beauty in the simple day to day.

And I think you should read Ali’s blog to see the awesome things that she’s captured for her family, as well as all of the other great design ideas she has. That lady’s got talent.

So, getting back to my point, I think this is something that I’d like to do, but I can only realistically do it if I have a smaller camera, one that fits in my purse so I can take it with me to work and the grocery store. Don’t you all want to see photos of paperwork and the confusion that is the Asian market? I thought so.

It’s probably better to do this if you have kids, so we’re having a kid so I can do this!

Just kidding (no pun intended).

But here’s a photo of me holding someone elses kid a few weeks ago:

Good grief, I look like I’m about to drop him. See how he’s desperately trying to free himself from my clutches and go back to his mama in the gray headband? Yeah, that’s promising for our future offspring.

N-E-WAY! Thus begins my formal petition for a shiny, little, lithe camera from my parents for Christmas. Anybody want to sign it?

 

 

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Pandora

Today I want to talk about Pandora. Have you experienced the wonder that is Pandora?  I think I’m probably the last person on the planet to tune into this great site, but on the off chance that I’m not, here’s my plug for it.

From Wikipedia: Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on the individual song choices – approval or disapproval – which Pandora takes into account for future selections.

In layman’s terms, it’s a free internet radio site that lets you pick the type of music you want to listen to through your computer. So let’s say I want to listen to music that sounds similar to songs sung by Eva Cassidy. I type in her name, Eva Cassidy radio pops up and I hear songs from a whole slew of artists with that same sound, many of whom I’ve never heard of before. That’s what I like best about this service- the exposure I get to new artists is great and, for someone who’s not particularly musically inclined (especially when compared to the music greatness that characterizes WMD’s family), I really appreciate getting the chance to learn about new artists without too much effort on my part.

I have noted a few downsides to this service. First of all, going back to the Eva Cassidy radio example, I’ve noticed that if I listen to the same station for a few hours, I start to hear the same songs over and over again. Maybe it’s because the creators of Pandora only have a license to play certain songs by certain musicians? Don’t know for sure. But, this really isn’t a big deal since I can just switch to another station when it happens, like Bluegrass Instrumental or Bon Jovi (my one and only, true band love).

Or Peruvian reed music.

I’ve also noticed that the site tends to freeze up or hiccup every once in awhile if I’m running too many other programs or a program that uses large files, like Photoshop. But that’s probably due more to the fact that I’m running Photoshop and 15 other internet browsers on a computer that’s over four years old. Hey, we use things until they break around here. And in this economy, that’s proving to serve us well, as does free music. I’m too cheap to buy my tunes. Poor WMD. Poor, poor WMD. In his single, Marine Corps days, he used to spend most of his money on CDs. And other things that he wouldn’t want me to list here. I will say though that he was a pretty tame Marine compared to the rest of the jarheads he ran around with. But he’s still a WMD, as evidenced here, with his namesakes:

 

So, check out Pandora. You’ll have a lot of fun exploring the stations it has to offer.

And I was just kidding about the Peruvian reed music. But not Bon Jovi. I would never joke about Bon Jovi.

 

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Hello, can anybody here me?!

It’s me again, peeking out from underneath the pile of cardstock, mat board and prints littering our living room. Our very small living room. WMD’s being a real champ about the mass of crafternalia (craft+ paraphernalia) creeping out from the spare bedroom that serves as our studio/computer/library/study/storage/guest room. But then again, he knows that for most of the year, I put up with books, papers and coffee roasting equipment littering the living room and the WMD’s no dummy, so he takes it all in stride. That WMD’s a good man.

I know it’s been quiet ‘round these parts lately. Part of that’s been due to this darned craft fair coming up. I told my mom last night that I’m more talented in my head then I really am in practice. I’ve tried to do some artsy things lately beyond photography that just didn’t pass my muster. I know I set a high bar, but really, if I wouldn’t buy something, I’m certainly not going to put it out there and try to sell it to others. I know I have the creative bug in me, but creative talent is another issue. I suppose it doesn’t help to have the pressure of a craft fair looming down on me. I had so many things that I wanted to make and sell, but I’ve decided to just stick to matted and framed prints of my photography along with a few note cards. My creative juices do not fare well under a time crunch.

So that’s one reason I’ve been absent lately. I’ve listed the other reasons why in the past few posts. I know y’all get it since you’re busy people too, so I won’t go into the list of excuses. Just know that I’m thinking about this little old blog of mine a lot and the urge to get back to it is pulling at me. I just need to store up a wee bit more energy before I get back to pouring into it.

And to list one more sorry excuse, I can’t find the cable to my camera, which means that I can’t upload any photos and I hate not being able to upload photos. It’s so boring without them. But don’t you worry, as soon as I figure out where the WMD moved that cable (because he is the one who is always moving it and he is the one who can never remember where he put things), I’ll have a whole plethora of photos to share with you. Heck, I don’t even know what I have on the camera anymore, so it’ll be a surprise for all of us. I’m thinking there’s some fancy food photos on there and I know there’s some photos of my mini-Christmas tree bleaching and dying project currently in process. Get ready, they’re acoming!

To give a little more attention to this blog in the coming weeks, I thought I’d post some websites/blogs/Esty shops that I find really cool and worthy of passing along.  I’ll post a few different sites each day. They’re sites that I’ve discovered during my hours (and hours and hours) on the internet while the WMD had his nose in a book on Cicero or Adam Smith or someone or ‘nother. In my quest of new websites, I’m continually amazed at the creativity that exists out there. Really, it’s quite inspiring.

 

 

 

 

 

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Quote of the Day

From our city paper, the News and Observer:

RALEIGH – A big building calls for a big celebration. But when the building is a bank — and its grand opening comes amid a banking meltdown — falling bodies send the wrong message.

Therefore, the sky divers at today’s RBC Plaza opening are canceled. Once again: The fabulous parachuting display is off.

“Given the recent market activities, we just didn’t think it was an appropriate time to have people jumping off of a bank building,” said Jamie Averette Mitchell, a spokeswoman for RBC Bank, which is dedicating its downtown Raleigh headquarters, the 33-story RBC Plaza, today.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that quote. Yes, the news coming out of Wall Street (and Capital Hill) has been pretty scary lately, so while I’m sure Ms. Mitchell made this statement with complete gravity (pardon the pun), it brought a bit of humor to my day, and that’s in short supply lately, just like the money on Wall Street.

Still chugging along. Will return shortly with a how-to on my spooky mansion photo from last week. Don’t go jumping off any bank buildings on me.

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