And Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson...

So I finally found the time to sit down and sew! I've decided to try and make my first quilt and if it turns out okay I will give it to our friend Jenny's baby Lex. Luckily his birthday isn't until May, so I have a while. When I was at Joanne's purchasing sewing supplies I decided to not spend the extra money and get a rotary cutter, which turned out to be a pretty stupid decision. I have great scissors, but cutting out the squares with them makes the fabric bumpy and uneven. When I go back to Joanne's I might just spend the money and pick one up, I can see now how it will make the whole quilting experience a pleasant one. After cutting out all of the squares, I was excited to sew them together with my machine. I got about two strips of squares pieced together before my sewing machine jammed. Now that I'm super pumped about sewing and actually have the time, my machine gives out on me. There might be some way to fix it, I just need to take the time to untangle the string inside the bobbin and figure out what the string keeps getting caught on. The colors I have chosen for baby Lex's quilt are blues, green, red, and yellow...pretty basic colors mixed in with cute fabric I got on sale two weeks ago (it has little cowboy dogs riding horses and stars all around). When I'm finished, it will look something like this:



I just purchased a Flicker Pro account, which is something I have been trying to talk myself out of doing since Christmas. Flicker really gets you though, it's such an easy way to store and share your pictures...you can even edit them with their quick and simple editing software. What they don't tell you, however, is that you can only upload 200 photos and then it won't let you add any more pictures. By the time you've uploaded 200 photos, you are so used to the convenience of photo sharing that you kind of have to upgrade to Pro. I know, I'm a sucker. Good news is I will be able to post a lot more pictures on this blog! And yes, Zoe you may use any of the pictures on here for scrap booking purposes!

Two days ago, while it was still 0 degrees outside we decided to walk down the street to a bar and grill we always pass, but never go in. It was too cold to get groceries so our fridge was empty and we were getting a little tired of the usual Thai and Mexican food downstairs. Our dinner was really good and I think it might be one of my new favorite places. Ever since the new year, I have been trying to eat less meat. I've found that by cutting meat from my diet I eat much healthier because my options are limited. When we go out to eat, instead of ordering a huge burger with a plate full of fries I'll order a salad and soup, or a veggie burger. The bar and grill we went to had a delicious black bean veggie burger, much different from the veggie burgers usually served. The burger was a lot like refried beans pressed into a patty, served on a cabatta roll with salty pico de gallo, onions, and slices of avocado.


I have been drinking a lot of tea lately, because I have gotten a little tired of coffee. We are finally using the beautiful tea pot that our friend Chris brought us back from China last year and I swear it makes the tea taste so much better! I have been working on perfecting the perfect pot of tea and I think I just about have it figured out. In one pot I add two bags of green tea and one bag of orange lemon tea. Then I mix in two tablespoons of lemon juice and three tablespoons of honey. A week ago I felt like I was coming down with the worst cold ever so I drank cup after cup of my delicious tea. I didn't get sick! I love tea so much.

Mentioning honey reminds me of something pretty funny I heard the other day on the radio. It was a discussion about how much people are willing to pay for organic foods and how almost everything is labeled "organic" these days. They started talking about organic honey and mentioned how it's pretty much a scam. Although the honey is coming from beehives on a farm, there really is no way to keep the honey "pure" because the bees leave the farm. There is no way to tell where they are getting the pollen from! Anyway, the whole thing kept me smiling for a while.

Yesterday I ran over to the 7-11 to get some juice and I was behind this older lady dressed in a floor length fur coat. She was buying a huge bottle of white wine, lottery tickets, and a pack of cigarettes. Classy. She reminded me so much of Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate, which reminded me that I need to watch that movie again, it has been way too long.

















LOST starts in just a few days and I am really looking forward to this season because both of our mothers are totally into it now, so it will be fun to talk Lost with them. The past three seasons my mom would, very politely, listen to me go on and on trying to explain to her what happened. I would say, "You have to watch it mom, you'd really like it" and she would say, "I just don't get it, there's too much to catch up on". So last year she started with season one online and now she's hooked. I'm still working on my Dad.

So I have been pretty addicted to this site lately. It is a collection of brilliant, artistic ideas ranging from trick photography to clever advertisements. I probably waste way more time that I should be scrolling through the millions of categories and pictures. Also, if you are really bored and feel like learning something new check out TED at http://www.ted.com/. This site features thousands of free video lectures on almost everything including space discovery, the history of bread, underwater exploration, and American history. There are 25 or so categories and at least 100 lectures under every subject. I last watched a lecture on teaching monkeys sign language. The lady had videos of her interaction with the monkeys and it just blew my mind how smart these creatures really are.

While I'm talking about websites...CARLY, this one is for you. It is an online kaleidescope! Just move the mouse around to change the design and see what you can come up with.

In case you have forgotten, anything written above in yellow letters can be clicked on to reach the link that I have attached. You won't have to download anything, it just takes you to a picture or the mentioned website.

We are leaving to get some dinner now, lately I have had this huge craving for anchovies and pineapple pizza (sounds disgusting but it is really good, something about the salty mixing with the sweet of the pineapple...)

I will leave you all with these amazing pictures. Can you believe these are all DRAWN with chalk on a sidewalk?! If you want to learn more about this artist or see more of his work, just click on these yellow words!