Waiting on the Move

I’ve always been one of those “I’ll do it when…” type people. I managed to overcome this tendency over the past year by actually baking and cooking in a house with a crummy kitchen and roommates. However, now that we’re in transition phase and getting ready to move, I’ve become a lump again and am currently in my mindset of planning to do a million things once we’re in our new apartment.

Okay, so I haven’t been a total lump. I’ve been knitting and crocheting. Current projects include scarves for my nephews and a set of washrags for the new place. So far they’re coming out pretty well. Once I get the chance, I’ll take some pics and upload them.

Other things I want to do, besides thrift shopping for the new place and decorating, include trying my hand at jewelry making. After my earrings a few weeks ago, I’d like to try some other things, and I’m sure there’s no shortage of blogs to look at for help in getting started. The internet is a wonderful thing.

I’m also going to try Bento, the art of making cute little serving size portions of food porn. The serving size thing will be nice for portion control, and I just want to try something new and different. It’s not something I have to stick with if I don’t like it. I managed to find a few relatively cheap Bento boxes online, but I think I’m going to invest in some cheap Tupperware first to see how that goes. Being a picky, non exotic type of eater, I doubt if I’ll be doing anything really traditional. In fact, I have visions of meatloaf and salad Bento in my head, or anything else Americanized and suited to my tastes. I do think it will help me expand my snack horizons a little bit.

We’re also trying our hand at going green in our quest to be frugal. While we’re not big on recycling for various reasons, we are trying to reduce and re-use/repurpose as much as possible. I’d love to start a small garden at the new place, though it’ll probably just be an herb garden in the kitchen. We have some furniture projects and several other things to try once we’re roommate free.

I’m hoping to get more use out of this blog, so bear with me. We’re almost there!

The 30s List

I finished my list a few weeks ago, but hadn't gotten around to posting it. I haven't been posting much in general due to the fact that life is freakin' crazy right now. Not in a bad way, per se, though there have been a few rough moments. Today, my future brother-in-law reminded me that he wanted to read my list. Since I've actually already accomplished one of the things, I thought I'd better go ahead and post so I have more blogging material in the follow-ups.

In no particular order, here are the 100 things I want to do in my 30s:

1. See Tori Amos in concert again
2. Reach weight goal #1
3. Walk a 10K
4. Walk a half marathon
5. Walk a marathon
6. Walk the Relay for Life
7. Send a book in for publication
8. Apply to The Amazing Race
9. Weight goal #2
10. Run a 2-Mile event
11. Run a 5K
12. Run a 10K
13. Run a half marathon
14. Run a marathon
15. Do a triathalon
16. Go snorkeling
17. Take bellydancing lessons
18. Go to Las Vegas
19. Get married
20. Go to an amusement park...and ride the roller coasters
21. Knit or crochet a hat
22. Knit or crochet a top
23. Knit or crochet a purse
24. Crochet a set of washrags
25. Open up an etsy store
26. Spend a weekend at a Bed-n-Breakfast
27. Master Dance Dance Revolution
28. Make three layer cookies
29. Adopt a puppy
30. Go dancing at a club
31. Read the Anita Blake series (no matter how bad people say it is)
32. Visit New York
33. Ride in a limousine
34. Highlight my hair
35. Plant and grow something without killing it.
36. Spend the day at a waterpark
37. Go parasailing
38. Visit Europe
39. Take a cruise
40. Learn to bike
41. Visit the Grand Canyon
42. Meet someone famous
43. See a musical
44. Spend a week at a nudist resort
45. Take a spinning class
46. Buy something at an auction
47. Throw a dinner party
48. Throw a “Repo!” party (with costumes and everything)
49. Start or join a crafting group.
50. Bake homemade bread from scratch
51. Learn sign language
52. Grow an herb garden
53. Hike the Konza Prairie
54. Get a deep tissue massage
55. Color every page in a coloring book
56. Visit the Chicago Museum of Art
57. Eat at an expensive restaurant
58. Splurge on a purse
59. Have a day at the spa
60. Walk in the Breast cancer walk
61. Make my own laundry detergent
62. Walk 1000 miles (not all at once)
63. Get past level 20 on SpongeBob Collapse
64. Kiss the Blarny Stone
65. Attend a music festival
66. Enter a karaoke contest
67. Do my own online radio show
68. Get 1000 Twitter followers
69. Go horseback riding
70. Visit Seattle
71. Take a "fitness" getaway
72. Run a D&D Campaign
73. Ride a jetski
74. Ask for a raise
75. Spend the night somewhere haunted
76. Take a yoga class7
7. Take an art class
78. Make a set of friendship bracelets
79. Learn to make jewelry
80. Try decoupage
81. Take a trip by train
82. Make a homemade headband
83. Go antiquing
84. Try geocaching
85. Spend a week on a houseboat
86. Play on an organized sports team
87. Send a postcard to Postsecret
88. Take an unplanned flight somewhere for a weekend
89. Make "hoodie" chairs
90. Get a pedicure
91. Get another tattoo
92. Get my ears permanently pierced
93. Climb a rock wall
94. Take a wine tour in California
95. Visit Washington Dc
96. Go to a sci-fi or webcomic convention
97. Buy something off a late night infomercial
98. Go to a Detroit Red Wings game
99. Visit Yellowstone National Park
100. Make it to 40.

Alot of these are pretty easy, some are a littel crazier. I figure if I can do 10 things per year, I'll accomplish everything on the list.

Follow ups may be on different blogs depending on which category they fall into, so if you want to keep up, make sure to follow or subscribe to my other blogs.

What I've Been Up To

Besides packing, de-cluttering and preparing for my move in June and my trip to Michigan in May, I've been keeping busy with little things here and there.

Tonight, I repurposed one of the purses I kept and turned it into a knitting/crocheting bag. Using a Handbag as a Craft Bag

I've been walking more and completed my first 5k last weekend. AHA-Heart-Walk-aka-My-First-5k Tomorrow, my boyfriend and I will be walking in our third official charity walk. This one is only a 2-mile.

Tori Amos is touring this year and her new album comes out May 19, so I'm catching up on her previous albums.

Blogging, working, and just trying to enjoy each day. It's not much of a life, but I'm not complaining.

King Size Afghan

I finished my afghan last night. I started this three years ago and have been working on it sporadically. It was originally a present for my boyfriend and I was finally able to give it to him. It's obviously not perfect...there's a major seam issue and if one looks close, they can see I didn't actually make the ends meet. But because I'm not selling it, I'd like to think the imperfections give it character.

I'm actually really proud of finishing this. This is the only crochet pattern I know how to do right now, but I have plans to learn more, even if I have to self teach with some online sites. I spent alot of time working on it while watching movies to keep both my mind and hands busy. I used a 5.00 mm needle for this one. The one I'm working on now, another old project that's turning into a long term thing, uses a 3.75 mm needle, so it'll be interesting to see how different they turn out.

If anyone knows of any good crocheting and knitting sites, hook me up.

Kicking Off Sale Season

Yesterday after work I found an ad for a sale being held at Cico Park. We weren't going to go, but let's face it...I can't say "no" to an opportunity and I've been waiting patiently for garage sale season to start.

The bad part? Seeing all kinds of great furniture that I can't get at this time due to lack of storage space. There was an awesome coffee table and end table set for twenty dollars. I'm holding on to the hope that not being able to get it right now means that something better will come along after we're in our new apartment though.

We did find two pictures to hang in our new apartment though, so we grabbed them because they're much more storage friendly. The first one is small and I picked it out for $2.

I thought it was kind of contemporary and will go great in our bedroom, which the plan so far is to decorate kind of hodgepodge, kitchy, random. The second one Jon picked out for $5 and was pretty excited about finding it. Not suprising...he has a thing for Germany, but the pic is neat and will look good in the living room.
We also got (but didn't take a picture of) big blue bathroom rug that's in really good condition for a dollar. It's a dark blue, so now we get to find a matching toilet cover and rug. I have to say our first sale was successful and now I can't wait to hit a few more.

New Apartment Ideas

We’re under two months before we move into our new apartment, and my nesting instincts are raging. I keep coming up with things I want to try, décor ideas, even color schemes for the new place. I’m trying not to go overboard, but it’s so easy to plan things only to be disappointed when the things in my head don’t necessarily work out the way I want.

It’s hard for me to keep my ideas on hold. SpringPad is great for making lists, and Jon always seems open to a random email from me about the thoughts running through my head. Still, having to wait to do these things is driving me mad.

For instance, my newest thought is to nix the dresser idea all together and go with colorful storage totes for under garments and socks. I’m all about saving room, especially since we want to put at least two of our snakes in our room. I have to get Jon in on the idea of hanging up a good portion of his clothes. This might be easier since the bedroom in the new place actually has two closets, one for each of us. I’ll need more hangers.

I’m also batting around the idea of getting rid of our bedroom TV. Sleep experts basically say not to have one anyway, and even if we want to watch something, we both have laptops that will play a DVD. We would keep the one in the living room. This will leave us with an extra TV and an extra DVD player, both of which could be sold on Craigslist. I may take the extra DVD player to my parents though. I think they need one.

My planned color scheme has already changed for the living room and the kitchen since getting a rather large haul of apartment stuff off Craigslist. That’s cool though…I’m rolling with the punches and I think the new scheme will be a lot more warm and earthy than the original. At the moment I’m having a hard time holding off on answering ads for furniture, even though we already have enough things to get us started.

This weekend will involve a little more packing, possibly getting rid of one of our TV, and maybe moving out the borrowed dresser we’ve been using in order to make more room for packed boxes. The more I get done now, the easier June 1 will be.

Our Snake Family

I suppose pets could be considered a hobby, hence the reason I'm posting the intro to ours in here, though we actually love our little guys. A little background: I never thought I'd want a snake until we moved into the place we're living now. One of our roommates had a ball python and was taking care of two others for a friend. Intrigued, I asked if i could hold him one day and it was all over from there. I loved him and knew I wanted one.

We did some research on several different snakes. While I liked the python, I've always liked boas. Here in Manhattan, we have a herp store called Scaly Dave's Herp Shack, so we headed down one Sunday to look around. With help from Jon's brother (don't worry, Ryan, we'll get that squared with you!) we brought home this guy:




We originally named his Esteban, but that was around the time I was on a "Nacho Libre" kick, so I started calling him Chancho and it stuck. He's the sweetest, mellowest little guy and is content being held. In fact, most days he doesn't want to go back in his cage.

Our next additions were two rainbow boas who we named Circe and Gorby. Unfortunately, Gorby had some health issues and died about a month ago. Though it seemed like an impulse buy when we got them, we knew we were going to get a new snake and had researched beforehand. Circe is huge and somewhat of the queen. She's actually seems to favor Jon, which is just as well because she's a cow and he has a easier time handling her most days.




Number three was a California King Snake someone had listed on Craigslist. She was slightly impulse, though we did check into it to make sure we had the right conditions and could take care of her with our current situation. These snakes are pretty hearty and so we added her to our family and named her Domino. While she's completely adorable and sweet when she wants to be, she has got out of her cage once and she's bit me once. So yeah, she's feisty, but we love her.

And finally, our most recent baby, another Craigslist find, this one a young ball python who Jon named Rorshach. He's still a bit skittish at first handling, but he mellows out really quickly and loves to curl up against body heat. You can see that he's still got some shed on him, and while we don't normally handle our snakes during their shed, we gave him a little snake oil to help him with that last little bit.



This is our little herp family. Most of my human family thinks I've lost my mind, but these guys are great pets if you're willing to take on the commitment and take care of them the way they need to be.