Friday, April 29, 2011

english things and check marks on a list

boy there is a lot going on today. royal wedding was lovely. made me want to have a gin drink ever so much.
well, if that wasn't enough english in your friday, i finally finished the keith richards autobiography. 547 pages, 3 weeks. such an enjoyable read! it even drew a tear at the end! who knew keith was such a funny fellow? not i! i want to hang out with him now.
as for the 29 things list, i'm counting that book as two. it was just such a honkin' long book, and i make the rules anyway. so numbers 7 and 8 out of 29 are complete! that's pretty good progress if you ask me!
i also knocked out making a handmade book from my 29 things list. i will post pictures this weekend. and if that weren't enough, i also completed my meditation for 30 days straight and am currently happily ensconced around day 35 of pleasant, peaceful daily meditation.
last but not least, i have also purchased my shampoo alternative (interesting stuff, i know!) and will be trying that out in a week or so. i'm going to knock this list out if it kills me.
cheers friends! have some fish and chips today!!
~lu

Thursday, April 28, 2011

a little thursday dose of awesome

possibly the cutest thing ever? it's a whole mess of adorable and i think my brain may explode if i watch it again.
~lu

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

babble on + keef + a pillow pup

it has been a long day. a fun, somehow productive, but long day.
i had a terribly fun morning/afternoon feng shui-ing at miss c's house. her apartment is in an old bungalow in a lovely older neighbourhood in town. i ate a delicious lunch consisting of the absolutely best deviled eggs i've ever had (curried!), and gingerbread muffins (for the love of! sooooo delicious!) amongst many other amazing things and a bowl of strawberries. we had a mini-dance party and channeled some chi.
well, bad storms are knocking my friends and family around up in tennessee and near birmingham, alabama. positive energies their way, please. i know it seems out of the blue, but dangerous storms that concern our family and friends kinda spring up that way sometimes.
anyway, mad men season 4 has just begun in the old dvd player, seven is atop a pillow looking like little lord falteroy. mr. n is pacing around the house, chatting with our dear friend, conductor ben. i am examining the rag rug and wondering how on earth i can work on it an entire hour and still not be able to notice a difference.
i also marvel at how an entire evening could sweep by so quickly and yet take such a long time. well, time to retire and read more of the keef bio. it's an odd and interesting world that man dwells in.
more tomorrow!
adieu for now,
lu

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

a little ditty

and a great find by NPR, as per usual. hard times. it has such a great 60's nashville + california + mephis vibe about it. right on, brooklyn, NY.
cheers!
~lu

a tuesday list

1. i woke up with a wes cunningham song stuck in my head. this isn't it, but it will be stuck in my head by the time this post is finished.
2. the rug is still taking forever.
3. so is the keith richards biography. but it is so worth it. it's 547 entertaining pages of awesomeness.
4. just ordered these for myself as a nice little post yard sale treat. i have wanted to try them for nearly a year.
5. we are getting really excited about our summer in the dakotas. the new scenery, the wide open space, the target practice.

happy tuesday, friends!
adieu,
~lu

Sunday, April 24, 2011

p.s.

also, a lady bought my hula-hoop off of me at the yard sale for $0.75 (why is the cents symbol missing from the keyboard?). i feel like i've lost a limb. must procure a new hula-hoop!
~lu

Saturday, April 23, 2011

selling shtuff

oh thank goodness. the yard sale is over. the surplus has been divvied and donated. we did well. it went by quickly. the mister consumed far too much coffee (maybe a little beer too) and i wheeled and dealed and had a blast. we are done. the sun is warm now. the mist has burned off. we are (give or take) 250-330 lbs lighter. it's a good day.
cheers!
adieu,
lu

Thursday, April 21, 2011

some pretty voices


i just love patty griffin.
enjoy, friends. cheers!
~lu

rifling

there's nothing like going through old photos (cleaning out as a part of my 29 things project) and realizing just how much you have blocked out over the past 10-15 years. depression, fashion (ouch), hairstyles, adventures (misadventures), boys, old friends, long lost and dearly missed souls. i just spent about two hours doing so. it mostly made me cry, that is to be expected. but it also felt tremendously good to throw away about 50% of this little stash of history. it makes me think of what my kids (if i have kids) will piece together of my youth by looking through it all one day. i used to look through my mom's old pictures a lot when i was a kid. i saw her farrah-flip hairstyle days, the uber-sunbathing, the preppy button-down shirt tied in a knot at her tiny waist and her penny-loafers. i loved seeing all of that. it was all little pieces of her. bright blue eyes and bouncy hair. it makes me smile to think about.
but what would my kids see? will they see my long hippie hair and hemp necklaces? my yellow-lens sunglasses (helloooo 1990's)? my gangly 110 lb frame? my big (really big) awkward (really really awkward) smile and my obsession with baggy boys' bowling shirts (again, hellloooo 1990's)?
i hope they don't see the sadness, i hope they see something that i missed rifling through it all. i hope they look at me the way i look at my mother in her photographs. happy and hopeful.
~lu

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

raggamuffin part 4

what i have learned from this ongoing task i have taken upon myself:
1. don't begin your first rag rug with a 3x5. a 2x3 is probably far more rewarding in that immediate gratification way.
2. also, just start on one side and work your way over. i didn't do that, clearly and now things are getting hairy.
3. any fabric scraps with spandex in them, or jersey works the best. plain ole cotton, denim, or corduroy are a pain in the butt.

here's day 12 (the buddy was helping).


day 13
adieu for now!
~lu

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

raggamuffin part 3

and here are the rest of the photos i have thus far. today will be day 12 (i think) but here are days 8-11.
day 8

day 9
day 10
day 11
it's actually starting to feel like a rug when you walk on it, instead of some sort of odd foot massaging mat of knots.
cheers!
~lu

weeding

on an unrelated note, i am and have been quite the productive lady today. lots of much needed cleaning, last-minute yard sale additions (being cleaned and tagged shortly), a lot of day-dreaming about our future plans, some twisted nerves over a few friend situations. it's been a while since i have had the twisty nerves over something like that. i have a threshold, you know? i take a lotta hits from people, i give a lot of chances. i don't really indicate that you are nearing your final chance until you do. then, i do what i'm doing today. i sit and i ponder. i think of cost vs. benefit. i make pro/con lists. i honestly take into account where i need work as a friend. mistakes i've made with this person etc. i meditate. i listen to my gut. then i cut ties. i've only had to do this maybe four times in my life. only twice, did the breakaway have to wind up with a long drawn out conversation about it. the others fell away naturally. one actually was fantastically mutual. cleaning house before a move is like this experience. it can be really emotional. do we need this? i have another one just like this and it's never broken. these hurt my feet every time i wear them. this always reminds me of bad times. that thing is too heavy to keep hauling around. this i have to keep, it's perfect and always brings a smile to my face. i don't think i could go a day without having this around. every time i wear that i think of that time we...{insert time of awesomeness and hilarity here}. you see? getting ready for a big change has you thinking about a lot of things. the life you want. what you are willing to lug around and what makes every journey easier and more fun. that's kinda the thing i'm dealing with today.
i have a literal handful of friends who lift me up unlike anything else. who leave tulips on my doorstep on a random friday night, just because they care. or call you on the drive home from work, even though they are exhausted, just to get an update on how you are doing. i have friends who send me dirty jokes they know i'll love via text, just because they know we will be laughing together (though 900 miles apart). those are the folks who you keep around. there is no need for pro/con lists when it comes to them.
i think i accidentally just figured out what to do about my situation. thanks for listening, interwebs.
adieu for now,
lu

raggamuffin part 2

so the rag rug continues. this project has been going on for 3 weeks and though i haven't worked on it every day for three weeks (otherwise it would be done by now), this 3x5 project of mine is about 3/4 of the way complete. so here are the progression photos beginning where we left off...18 days ago.

day 4
day 5
day 6 (it's starts getting harder to tell which is which, but i will try my best).

day 7 ( i think)
sadly, i have about five more photos to post before we are up-to-speed. thank you for hanging in. just looking at these has made me tired.
more to come, perhaps even of substance!
adieu,
lu

Monday, April 18, 2011

monday butter bath

good evening friends. 'tis monday night. the boys are bickering on the carpet. i ate pizza in the bathtub. which, although it sounds oh-so appetizing, is pretty much the nastiest thing i may have done in a long time.
alas, this weekend was a strange one. despite being completely incapacitated saturday and spending a fun but mostly strange afternoon at a pool party on sunday; i somehow managed to wake up this morning with a pleasant and peaceful smile on my face.
i woke up inspired to achieve a bit more balance in my life. the bathtub pizza incident aside, i surely am inspired and motivated to eat more thoughtfully (really!), continue my meditations, and all-around fulfill the little goal sprouts i woke up with this morning. stay tuned for more on that, and i will try really hard not to leave you with any gnarly imaginings of underwater junk food consumption. ew.
~lu
(don't forget the full moon tonight!)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

more happy fun times stuff

the voice that is in my head almost always. enjoy!


~lu

everybody needs a little sanctuary

pretty cool. though very different, seer farms and the cat house on the kings do something i would like to do. give animals a loving home whether it's temporary until their parents can afford to take care of them again, or to give them a sanctuary far away from a pound so that someone may find them and give them a new home. i'm not particularly a cat person, but the end result is the same. animals being cared for. i just love it! i hope you do too.

~lu

sunday

allo friends! 'tis sunday and i figured since i'm 100% better today than i was yesterday, i'd tip my hat to you and then share a silly video inspired by one of my favourite video games ever, Space Invaders. happy sunday, enjoy!
~lu

Saturday, April 16, 2011

thunder and bugs

after all that. we had to cancel the yard sale today due to inclement weather. it ended up being a good thing though, for i got some sort of bug about an hour after we got home from bringing the yard sale stuff in at mom's house. sheesh.
~lu

Friday, April 15, 2011

links of love

a list to preoccupy you until this preoccupied blogger is finished with the yard sale.

1. my favourite smurf figurine when i was a kid was the one holding a beer stein. why that was a kid's toy i don't know. but i loved it and played with all 30 i had in the tub.
2. i often dream about what i would wear to awards shows if i were a famous filmmaker or musician. this dress (actually shirt & maxi skirt) is up there.
3. i have been in a stevie nicks mood lately, which happens once every six or seven years. but the wind is right, you know? i love this song (ignore the kinda cheesy opening from practical magic, a favourite movie of mine- but i can't stand when there is random talking before or during a song).
4. i'm also in the mood for hoots and hellmouth. makes me want to break out my bright yellow hula hoop (a treat for the yard salers tomorrow) and dance barefoot (though there is nothing unusual about either of those things with me, really).
5. my pop has a cool online radio station, east nashville radio (i'm on a music kick, can you tell? it's the only way to clear my mind while i'm clearing out my house). have a listen, if you dig my regular contributions of sound, than you'll dig it.

cheers beloveds!
~lu

Monday, April 11, 2011

boxes and bins and bright little round price stickers

we are still in moving sale prep. i would say waist-deep but we are in deeper than that. it has been a tremendously daunting super-fun task. progress is so inspirational! but because of my freakish focus, my bloggykins has fallen to the wayside a bit. so has my rug-making. not completely. i work on it 30 minutes a day, but for heaven's sake the giant knot-yacht still isn't finished. it's a half-assed complaint. i love every second of it.
well, because i haven't uploaded or posted any images of all the things i've been doing, rest assured i am a bee. that's right a busy bee; but as i have been rifling through 29 years of accumulation, wiping away tears when i see something wonderfully "grandma" or "mama" or "bestie" or just "lulu"; or reading about some of the things i went through as a kid in my journals and realizing i was some kind of resilient (and perhaps some of that bitterness i carried around had been rightfully earned after all- though i'm stoked most of it has dissipated). plus, i keep finding all kinds of neato stuff i had forgotten about, like a cameo ring, and a righteous turqouise ring, bangle bracelets, parchment resume paper (score!), a jumbo bag of rubber bands...
okay yes, i do realize i sound like a hoarder, but office supplies are something i feel it's sort of okay to have a lot of. you never know when you will need a new resume or a rubber band. seriously!
anyway, the point is, i've been having a fun time going through it all and rather mercilessly sifting through it, it's also been a bit of a harrowing, emotional venture. tears and smiles, memories and more tears. sigh. it's all for the greater good though, and in 112 hours (and counting), the end result will be in sight. i'm really really looking forward to that.
adieu for now, friends. more to come, i swear. i know i keep saying that, but i mostly mean pictures and stuff. heh.
cheers!
~lu

Friday, April 8, 2011

la vie

i know everyone already knows who they are and know all their covers...but i just love this.
happy friday friends!!!
~lu

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

the parenthetical haps

heavens i've been a busy lady. lots of productivity in the ole nest. we are still preparing for our moving sale which is far more all-encompassing than i predicted (and i predicted an insane amount of work). the rug is going great (more photos to come), the pantry is stocked with enough cheap groceries to get us through the week (i got a little tired of going to the grocery store every day even with my very bizarre love of grocery shopping). i'm moving on to the 7th of 29 books for my 29th year. the house looks great, the art paper is faring tremendously well (though not selling as much as i would prefer). the pup has been behaving (except for the corn cob he ate while i wasn't looking last night), so has my hair (which is just so magnificent i cannot express), we had a blasting thunderboomer move in through town last night (the downed trees the only evidence i could tell of it this morning) which caused me to sleep unbelievably well (i'm a storm lover). now i'm getting ready to pull out my olivetti and type away on my creative-writing project. more to come kiddos (with pictures!).
adieu for now,
lu

Friday, April 1, 2011

raggamuffin

happy friday kiddos aand happy april first as well! it's a wonderfully chilly first day o' the month here and mr. n and i woke up in ridiculously silly moods. part of that is due to the fact that mr. n fell asleep singing the friday song (much to my chagrin) so of course we woke up singing it this morning and began laughing hysterically at our parodies of it the entire commute to the shop. i have to admit though, i am relieved that i woke up singing something other than "what is wrong with the world today" which i had stuck in my head every morning for about two weeks. good grief. now it's back.
i digress.
i'm currently on day 4 of the rag rug project and now have some pictures to share with you!

day 1, there are probably 50 pieces on it and it took me forever to get that far!

day 2: i'm quite happy with the progress, though i could seriously use a pedicure.





day 3: we stayed up pretty late after a wonderful family dinner and watched always sunny in philadelphia while mr. n tested my new art paper and i added about 25 new pieces. i'm rather tickled with how it's looking but i needs some deeper colours to fill it in. if you begin hearing of dark t-shirts mysteriously disappearing from people's closets in northwest florida...well... it was me.
more to come, friends! happy almost weekend!!
adieu for now,
lu