Decorating the apartment

So I'm on a very crafty, creative kick lately. Not only have I been knitting up a storm (see my recent Ravelry projects here), but I purchased my first sewing machine and am scouting fabrics online. I have this dream of a crisp, ordered New England farm house filled with handmade shetland lace, classic quilts, and a warm breeze worth of Eastern flare through everything. We'll see how it works in the apartment's living room and then I'll scale it up in our house...when we buy one.

So as this is a craft post, I should mention my projects.

In progress:

1. Sam's Gift for our Jan Challenge on Fiber Pen Pals: about 65% done. Hoping to finish for a Saturday send-off. Love the pattern and yarn. She's lucky I'm not keeping it :)
2. Mike's Brioche Knit Hat: yeah not going so well. Acrylic yarn is so hard to handle when it gets tight. And DPN knitting is still getting the best of me.
3. Living Room Curtains: ordering swatches; waiting on machine to get into Saftler's.

In The Wings

• 1. & 2. Aunt Teri and Jen's presents
• 3. Secret project!!!
• 4. Dara's arm warmers
• 5. My shawl/scarf/cowl? I just have 350 yds of cashmere to use...

Nine '09 accomplishments; Ten '10 To-Dos

Stuff I did in 2009:
1. Finished my thesis and got my M.A.
2. Started tweeting
3. Hiked the White Mountains
4. Landed a job as an acquisitions editor
5. Super-connected my life with a Blackberry and a netbook
6. Edited my first book (and got paid!)
7. Ghostwrote my first book (and got paid!)
8. Avoided the flu
9. Began training for dog agility with Pepper

Stuff I want to do in 2010 (stuff with *s has already started)
1. Clean the apartment once and for all
2. Hike the White Mountains for Charity again--and recruit people to join me!*
3. Get back into shape. All weight-loss goals aside, I want to be healthy.*
4. Knit knit knit because it's fun fun fun!*
5. Learn to sew*
6. Start blogging again*
7. Volunteer somewhere
8. Join a CSA
9. Take a vacation with Mike
10. WRITE. Even if I don't finish anything.

I'm proud

I can hardly remember a time where the phrase "proud to be an American" wasn't commonplace. Since 2001, it has rung so loudly over the radio and in writing and in speeches that it started losing me. I don't know when I'd heard it too many times to feel the joy, to be moved to tear by the words. It left me even more hollow because I started searching for the meaning and couldn't remember why it once made me shiver with the truth.

But today I've been reminded why I love my country.

It's not that my party representative won. I was not an Obama supporter from the start, and I made it clear to the friends and acquaintances who asked. Don't get me wrong: I'm ecstatic that Obama won and am feeling a million different wonderful things at once while I listen to his acceptance speech.

The real joy I feel is from the knowledge that my peers did our generation justice today. My elders, too, made our forefathers proud. I have been sick and tired of years of political apathy and misery, and to know that my fellow countrymen exercised their right to choose our future gives me more hope in the future than any single candidate could. I am proud to know that I can hold my head high to say that I voted, and I am honored to stand with the others who made their choices at the polls. Whether or not our choices on those ballots were successful, we made a tangible difference by casting our votes. For the first time I feel like the American forefathers would be proud of us for honoring the blood shed to found our country, the tears cried while it grew, and the wonderful documents that guarantee us our freedoms. I am so proud to be American this morning, and I hope this feeling lasts for a long time.

Savvy Context: The Writing Process, Part 1

The words “publishing” and “technology” are hot topics these days. The Google news search results wouldn’t surprise you: an obvious spike of news and blog articles popped up in August, almost doubling July’s figures. But while everyone’s debating which new e-book reader will become the market favorite and how publishers will survive the transition to the electronic book, I’m sitting back to consider the smaller, quieter effects of technology in the publishing world. Let the pundits and big voices handle the politics of the industry for a while: I want to get down to the basics, the parts of publishing technology you and I know best.

Want to read more? Check it out this post or the whole column on Fringe Blog!

Savvy Context: Technology for the Literate and Literary

"I don't remember life before the PC.

There. I've said it. I hate revealing it for fear of losing credibility, but the truth is fairly simple: I'm a 22 year old blogger and have always had a computer. On the other hand, you are reading the blog of a forward-thinking online literary magazine; you, at least, might not immediately peg me as a Gen Y baby or a traitor to literature. Here, my childhood steeped in floppy disks might lend me some authority. After all, who better to investigate the role of technology in the world of letters than someone who neither remembers life without a computer nor deny her lifelong devotion to literature?"

Want to read more? Catch this post and future posts in my tech column "Savvy Context" on Fringe Blog!

Four Long Years

As of today, I've been blogging for four years...

I've spent more time blogging than I spent
...in college (undergrad).
...as an only child.
...working full-time.
...writing my novel's first draft.
...realizing my novel's first draft was crap.
...rewriting my novel.
...dating any one guy.

Okay, so I don't blog regularly enough. I know. But all that other stuff--college, family, my boy, work, writing--is giving me more to write about. So I just need to buckle down and get it done. Let's see how this next year goes =)

In honor of the fourth year, here are some of my favorite posts:

2004-2005: A Year of Poetry, Prose, and College

• "Tail-gate ponderings" - the poem that started so much in my life
• "Gardens" - a great, longer poem in parts.
• "Caffeinated Poetry" - Haha. Oh how I love reading this one aloud...
• "Hard as Coal" - I still get chills when I read it
• Natural Disaster, Unnatural Solution - creative non-non-fiction. In otherwords, it's fake journalism
• "Monsters" - another poem that started something big. And the comments are still there!
• Obituary - a sad, sad day, but a very funny obituary. Yes, it's possible.
• "Chthonic" - I miss England
• "Drowning Man" and "First Rain"- Gato's favorites, can't skip them!

2005-2006: Finding myself...for the 1000th time

• "Meditation" - I still need to be here more...
• The Alien and the Casey - funny short story
• "Sense/Memory" - can you tell it was a mistake? ha...
• A Definition - one of my fav OED entries
• "No Good Deed" - Ha. Now you can really tell it was a mistake
• New Day - not much of a poem, but it's a life landmark.
• The Working Girl series - a good start that went nowhere, but I was in NYC and I had everything so wonderfully undercontrol!

2006-2007: Growing Up and Graduating

• 70 - growing pains of a collegiate
• Review of The Fountain - I loved that movie...bad critics for shooting it down!
• Desiree: The Evidence series - part of my thesis for undergrad. Fun to write, and a little meta-history for my novel
• Part 1: Conversations - something I really really want to continue...Mike helped me start it. It's so close to being sizzlingly good!!!
• The Epiphany - a happy moment blogged

2007 - 2008: Grad School, Publishing, and the Present

• The Publishing World Series - 10 posts on current events in my biz. See them all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• New, News, and Nonsense - yesterday's post, but it felt so good to write and I feel like it's very representative of where I am now