the clash! the clash! the clash!

Oh, Mad Men -- when will you be back?! I miss me some creepy Pete, some angry Betty, resigned but hopefully soon to be furious (yet always fabulous) Joan*, in denial AND command (just like Don) Peggy... you get the picture. I miss them all! Visiting the fantastic flickr Mad Men Illustrated set by Dyna Moe helps. Ossining Calling is one of my favorites.


I love this illustration! There were a bunch of these flow chart song things when flow chart madness ruled the land, but this was always one of my favorites -- mostly for its simplicity, but also because I love the song. (I'm listening to it right now!) To see more song flow charts, visit JC Niemeyer's song chart flickr set. To see even more (of various qualities), visit the Song Chart pool.


*I doubt we'll see a fully empowered running the television department Joan, even though she's obviously got the right stuff. It would be the easy feel-good thing for them to do, but it would be a cheat.

project list

I was thinking just the other night that I was all out of sewing/craft projects and WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT? But then I got over my temporary euphoria/amnesia, and remembered that I had these projects still to do:

1. finish the binding on the quilt I made my sister. (which I did finish since the other night. If I were standing in front of you now, the quilt would be described with handwaving and maybe a thought bubble showing me sewing the binding by hand wearing clothes from three days ago that indicate this task is already completed.)

2. purge supplies. I know this doesn't sound like a project, but when you have a box full of nothing but different kinds of glue (mostly dried up) IT IS. I'm about 1/2 done with this and hope to finish it before the weekend.

3. make new bag. I need a work bag. Since I go from branch to branch I don't have a locker, so my regular purse-bag is not enough. For a long time I thought I just needed a purse that satisfied every eventual need, with many pockets and flaps and whatnot. I was planning on making one (waiting for that never available IKEA fabric!), but in the meantime I started using one of those reusable shopping bags (from powells -- it has a squirrel on it) and discovered that this humble bag was just about the perfect size. I can drop my purse into it, and carry around water bottles and notebooks and whatever, plus it fits over my shoulder. The downside is they get ratty pretty fast, especially when a person drags home a lot of heavy pointy books. I bought some groovy canvas weight fabric last week and hope to make a replacement. I could have just gotten another squirrel bag for .99, but this other fabric makes me really happy so we'll see how it goes. I think I'm going to start this tomorrow.

4. Finish crocheting babette blanket! I need to get busy and finish this before it gets hot and I don't care anymore. There's no more room in the "it's too hot/cold, I don't care anymore" cupboard.

5. I really want to do some embroidered something on something, but I don't know what and I don't know where. Or when. #5 is an embroidered tale of frustrated longing, is what it is.

There's more, but five is respectable, so I'm going to go answer some email and go to sleep! (notice how I have gone one whole week of posting every day and not whining until right now about how it is hard.)

LIST BONUS: Here's a lovely Blitzen Trapper video for the song Furr. I saw it all over the internet today, but all roads seemed to lead to Pitchfork.tv. I love so much about it, but especially the bears, the woods, and the stop motion paper animation.

january tree video

because it's not enough to take 100000 tree photos, I present you with two tree VIDEOS. It was windy today and I didn't feel like taking pictures because of the aforementioned 100000 tree photos, but then I thought "a-ha! I will make a tiny tree video!" so I did. I need to figure out how to turn off the sound on my camera when it's in video mode -- it always sounds like someone is hissing into a plastic cup.




... except on this one, where there is howling in addition to the hissing. I have no idea what that's all about because I was listening to my ipod.



I wish I'd made a note of what I was listening to.

brain aches and short stories

I spent today having a headache, which was no fun at all. It was the stealth headache, which is my least favorite kind because it sneaks into the brain and hurts for HOURS before I realize what's going on. In the meantime it makes me irritable and prone to cringing like a dramatic headache baby at things involving: light, sound, smell. Also my printer ran out of black ink, although I don't suppose that has anything to do with my head hurting. (maybe I'm developing a new super-annoying strain of headache that actually leaves my body and does things to irritate me, like siphon off black ink. My migraine EVIL TWIN. Genius! I am awaiting my Nobel prize in headache/evil twin science. A Nobel, or maybe a cabinet position.) (Whenever I hear "cabinet position" I think things like "put me next to the SALT SHAKERS" and dumb stuff like that. Let's just say that's the headache hangover talking.)

ANYWAY, before I got all carried away with my headache politics and headache poltergeists/doppelgangers/evil twins, I meant to say "since somebody has put a hold on the library copy I have have had checked out since July, the time has come to talk a little about the Barthelme Sixty Stories collection."

I liked this a lot.

I read it over a period of a couple months -- the stories are very short (mostly), but they're so... much. (in a good way!) so much packed into so little, it was hard for me to read more than one or two at a time. Hard is the wrong word. I knew that if I read it in the usual page-turning manner, I wasn't going to have time to think at all about anything, let alone look up words I didn't know. (I love looking up words!) I read this mostly when I was on breaks at work. I made little notes to myself on the back of the hold slip I was using as a bookmark, which is how I found these quotes tonight, Headache Night.

I didn't love every story, and I can see how this collection could be irritating to someone who prefers their narrative straight up/straightforward/straight ahead, but overall... OH MY GOD. It was like having tiny jumper cables hooked directly to my brain delivering steady voltage with occasional surges where it was just so good I couldn't even look at it anymore.

These quotes are not necessarily from my favorite stories (although some of them are), and some of my favorite stories are not represented in quotes, but I think these give an inkling of what it's about. (although I would urge you to check it for yourself!)

from The Party, where King Kong is in attendance: "The mind carries you with it, away from what you are supposed to do, toward things that cannot be explained rationally, toward difficulty, lack of clarity, late-afternoon light."

from The Great Hug, in which Pin Lady and Balloon Man strike a balance: "Pin Lady tells the truth. Balloon Man doesn't lie, exactly. How can the Quibbling Balloon be called a lie? Pin Lady is more straightforward. Balloon Man is less straightforward. Their stances are semiantireprophetical. They're falling down the hill together, two falls out of three. Pin him, Pin Lady. Expand, Balloon Man."

from The New Music:
"--The body knows.
--The body is perspicacious.
--The body ain't dumb.
--Words can't say what the body knows."

from Me and Miss Mandible:
8 December
My enlightenment is proceeding wonderfully.

9 December
Disaster once again.

from Rebecca: "The story ends. It was written for several reasons. Nine of them are secrets. The tenth is that one should never cease considering human love, which remains as grisly and golden as ever, no matter what is tattooed upon the warm tympanic page."

preservation and encouragement

Before I can describe how I came to take several pictures of the World's Tallest Barber Pole today, I feel like I need to give some background information: My family is full of map nerds. It's not really so bad with me (sure I had National Geographic star maps, maps of the ocean bottom and the arctic circle on my walls for years, but they're currently in drawers) -- but my mother, sister, and various uncles have it BAD. Topo maps, old insurance maps of the city, arguments about what certain markings on BLM maps "really mean" and so on. Road trips throughout my life have been much more interesting due to this gene mutation, but interesting covers a lot of ground. (Usually of the "well, it didn't look that twisty/empty/deserted/completely without gas stations/bedevilled by sasquatch on the map!" or "did it really go down to one gravel lane for 20 miles?" variety.) My Fresno uncle's specialty is picking roads that technically have fewer miles and are therefore "faster," but they're usually clinging to the side of a mountain, one hairpin turn after the other. He really gets into describing how (even though he's never been on it), it's not as a twisty as it looks while my aunt stands behind him and shakes her head and mouths "don't do it" to anyone who will catch her eye. My mom's particular talent is choosing roads with no gas stations and no way to get off of them, just as the sun is going down. Ah, TRADITION!

Did you know there was a special program to put writers to work during the great depression? The Federal Writers' Project was part of the Works Projects Administration under FDR. One of the most famous products was the American Guide Series, the goal of which was, according to this site, to "reflect topics such as local history, folklore, economic development, scenic areas, places of interest, local lore, facts, and tours. The books were initiated to stimulate travel to bolster the economy during the Great Depression." These books are GREAT FUN, and the NYT has begun a multimedia series sending journalists out to re-take some of the tours and see how things have changed. (these tours are also great fun!) Click here for more NYT WPA resources.

ANYWAY, for Christmas my mom acquired a copy of the Washington book for my sister and ordered a reprint of the Oregon book for herself. Today was tour day! She chose one that started downtown and headed out toward Forest Grove on state road 8, which has changed a lot since the 30-40s (fewer farms, more strip malls featuring tanning salons and dollar stores). But once we got to Forest Grove, things started looking up.

First, we stopped and had lunch at the Grand Lodge. (the service is always really S L O W, but the food is tasty and I love how they rehab these old buildings!)


I also love this copper tabletop. I think it looks way cooler than stainless steel.



After lunch, we drove around the campus of the local university to see some work that the company my sister works for had done. This is where we encountered THE POLE. I don't know how I feel about this, honestly. It's a tall pole, sure, but is it really a barber pole just because it's painted red white and blue? There's no barber shop nearby! (Although I did notice what seemed like a lot of hair salons around town.) It's no World's Largest Frying Pan, I tell you what. But I did learn that Forest Grove is HUGE in the world of barber shop quartets! It is Ballad Town, U.S.A, for crying out loud! How could I live this close all this time and not know it?

I can't help but think this kind of trip and discovery is exactly the sort of thing that the American Guide Series was trying to promote, which leads me to wonder what kind of public works projects will be launched in the new administration. I hope they make room for artists and writers, too.

ain't no party like my nana's tea party

This Flight of the Conchords video makes me laugh every time I watch it. The names Rhymenocerous and Hiphopopotomus are inherently funny (to me, anyway), let alone the rest of it (the awkwardness, the sincerity, the dancing, their incredulous audience, Rhymenocerous' neon safety harness, Steve, Nana, etc.). Just THINKING ABOUT IT makes me laugh.

calm and bright

The most amazing thing happened late last night.

But first you should know that yesterday, new year's day, was the rainiest day (I resisted the urge to write "the rainiest day" in all caps) we've had in ages. The news was full of swollen, flooding rivers, how to recognize if you're eligible for a landslide and other helpful information. Probably a reporter standing in the street up to his ankles in rushing water. (I think they miss Arctic Blast 08.)

Okay, to be honest this thing was probably not the most amazing thing, or even in the top five of amazing things, but it was pretty wonderful nonetheless.

I was sitting at my desk reading or typing and listening to the great torrent of the water that was overflowing from the gutters hitting the ground, until suddenly I realized that I couldn't hear it anymore. I looked out my window to see HUGE QUIET snowflakes falling from the sky. It snowed all night and by this morning everything was covered in white and the sky was that weird bright snow sky morning color. It was perfect snow in that it was beautiful, but not sticky enough to cause trouble. We did have sleet and hail and rain and snow off an on during the day (is this your wintery mix, O Meteorologist?), but by the time the sun was going down (4:30 ish) the sky was not only clearing up, but doing so while showing a million unusually lovely colors, some of which I always thought were made up by painters of sunsets.

It's raining again now, but those little windows of variety help leaven the gloom considerably.

enthusiastic failures

If you're afraid to fail, you're afraid to try. (gnomic wisdom courtesy of the Iceland chapter of Eric Weiner's travel/happiness book The Geography of Bliss, which was very enjoyable -- more about that later.) Enthusiastic failure is my goal this year. The more I think about it, the more I like it! And that's all I have to say about that at the moment.

I've decided to post-a-day in January along with Martina. This year she's put a fun and positive spin on her experiment. (I will probably just post my regular way, only every day.)


Happy 2009!

fare thee well 2008

I am blinged out like Mr. T right now!! okay, not really. But I am wearing three necklaces and one of them is made out of a sea urchin. I'm thinking the sea urchin has got to count for like, 12 gold chains. The other two: one Wilma Flinstone fake pearl necklace in blue, one dog tag thingy with words on it -- all handmade, but none by me! Maybe I should resolve to make some necklaces in the new year. I used to like doing it, but fell out of the habit as is so often the case. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

2008, here's to you! You were obstreperous, infuriating, and straight up disappointing in a lot of regards, but in spite of this (or maybe because of this) I found my way to a more serene state of mind than I've had in years. I'm still working on a lot of the big questions (like "what do I want, anyway?"), but I feel more confident that I will find the answer. Actually, it's not a single answer! It's more of a rolling answer -- it has to be flexible. What I think I want and what I really do want are often divergent.

One of the biggest epiphanies I had all year (and I hesitate to call it an epiphany since it crept up on me rather than arriving via divine lightning bolt) was that I had to, HAD TO let go of a lot of expectations. Believe it or not, the most persistent ones were negative. If I was unsure about something (and I'm unsure about so many things), I figured in order to play it safe I should anticipate the worst... this is a bad policy. (for me, anyway.) Reminding myself that I DO NOT KNOW what the future holds and that it just as easily could turn out good as bad -- that was a game changer as they say in the world of presidential punditry. I guess what I'm saying is letting go of a lot of that stuff (which often had little to no relationship to reality -- if you've got a good imagination, worst case scenario can take you pretty far afield into the stealth stress zone before you know it) has made it easier for me to be in the present moment. There was a time when I'd have been embarrassed to say anything as new age hippie dippy as "the present moment" except it's true and that embarrassment is exactly the kind of mental gymnastics that keeps you out of the present moment. ANYWAY. it's getting late so I am going to go to bed. (after de-blinging. I don't want to sleep in sea urchin!)

I'm really looking forward to 2009, but in a "great things are possible" kind of way rather than an "I must achieve XYZ" way. But I still plan to work really hard! More on this tomorrow. For tonight -- happy new year to you! Oh! one last thing: I was working yesterday and the due date for books checked out on the 30th is January 20th. I told one woman they'd be due back on that day, and she said "I will be at the inauguration!" She was so happy and excited, which of course made me happy and excited. I do not expect that I will agree with everything President Obama does, but I know I won't want to throw my shoes at the television every time he speaks, which is an improvement already!

countdown to tiny pink boot

Exciting New Year's Eve News: I had a tremendously successful afternoon of running errands! (running errands sounds so domestic and housewifey or househusbandy, which is just weird. Housewifey/husbandy, or associate pastory. Why is that? it should sound more exciting, what with the RUNNING and the potential for ERROR built right in.)

I will try to get at least one more post in (after this one) before the new year arrives -- one that is a bit more reflective (COVERED WITH REFLECTORS) of the year now ending, but I was way bummed to notice I'd only managed ten posts all month, and thought this pink boot picture was worthy of ERRAND RUNNING REPORTAGE.

(while I am here and talking about rubber shoes, what is up with crocs on adults? They're fantastically ugly and they're DANGEROUS. I can, of course, due to my magnanimous nature, allow that everyone has their own footwear aesthetic. I like flip flops and chuck taylors, which is no doubt horrifying to some. Personally, I think crocs look cute on kids under 5, not ridiculous on kids under 12, and that's where it should end. At 13 you should turn in your crocs and get a certificate or something. BUT NO. Croc devotees will tell you that it's the only thing that fits their feet, that it's the only thing that gets them through their long shift at the hospital, that it's so great to have a shoe they can simply hose off (!), that it's none of my goddamned business what they wear below their ankles, etc. the usual, and so on. All of which is probably true, but they really are dangerous -- crocs broke my friend's shoulder! Beware the croc! and shoddy croc-alikes!)

(now I have to post again tonight because I cannot leave the year on a shoe screed.)

right on and okay

(from before Christmas)

The snow is almost totally gone! We're now looking forward to the more traditional pacific northwest winter weather of rain and driving winds. I don't mind, but I loved the snow! It was incredibly beautiful. I've been working the past two days and have heard more bellyaching about the weather than you would believe. (mostly, I think people are just happy to be out of the freaking house -- after we've covered that they won't be charged any fines for the days the library was closed due to weather, the next logical step (apparently) is to say "well, in Boston/Chicago/ Milwaukee they know how to handle the snow!" or "I have lived here for my whole life and have never seen it this bad" (although old timers have of course seen it worse, which they describe in loving elaborate detail) or "I put my weather machine in my top secret ice cave and you'll never see the sun again! Mwahahahaha!!" (All of these people are my favorite.)

ANYWAY, I'm getting ready to go to a postponed Christmas dinner. Yay!! It was delayed due to weather, and I'm glad I get to see my friends, eat a lot and open presents even though it is December 28. (I love the continuous celebration, although I think at this point I am fueled almost entirely by caffeine and cookies.)



But, the reason for this post is to show you some pictures I took at the park right before Christmas. Someone(s) had gone out in the middle of the night or early in the morning and made this crazy ice labyrinth type thing from the crunchy ice layer on top of the snow. (I love you, whoever you are! This is even better than the giant snowball, although I think the snowball will persist until summer.)



(these photos were all before Christmas. Now we're in the messy melting phase.)

A Christmas Carol

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Festive Yule! If you observe it and it's around now, I wish you the very happiest of celebrations. If you do not, I wish you the very happiest of thursdays!

Thanks to the unusual (for portland) amount of snow, my whole week has been spent mostly indoors, reading and eating and whatnot. (Whatnot family: couch potato.) Since this is how I planned to spend Christmas Day, I decided I needed to do something to differentiate this day from all the rest. Solution: read A Christmas Carol. I'd never read it! I know, I know! It's a holiday classic. I'm familiar with the story, have seen countless ads, movie versions, comedy sketches, jokes, bah humbug, etc, but I'd never read it myself.

I remembered that I have a nice hand-sized copy, picked up at a used book sale a while back, so I went digging through my shelves and found it -- a lovely British edition (printed at the Aldine Press, Letchworth, Herts) that was first published in 1905. (mine was the 1960 printing.) It has wonderful illustrations that remind me of the style of drawing I love so much in the Oz books. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book! (Maybe I should note here that I had a falling out with Dickens somewhere in college. I can't remember why, but he was on my shit list for a long time for reasons that undoubtedly had very little to do with him and everything to do with whoever I was fighting with about it. I'm well over it, but have yet to have any kind of Dickens Emergency so it really hasn't come up.)

The story of A Christmas Carol reminded me a little of Nightmare Before Christmas, even though, of course, Dickens was first. Well, not the story so much as the fact that it's got your spooky element and your redemption element and your holiday element. It's got ghosts! It's got feasts! It's got guys who cheat a blind-man's-bluff for lascivious purposes! It's creepy (Marley's jaw in his lap?!), it's funny, it's sentimental but not as cloying as a million Tiny Tims would have us think; it's a reminder that living in the world of people is not always easy, but it's better than the alternative. Live while you're alive! ETCETERA! Plus, Dickens never met an alliteration he didn't like, he punctuates like a madman, anthropomorphizes everything in sight, and is really very funny as I've mentioned already. (he loves the exclamation point! a lot!) He also loves food. Or his readers loved descriptions of food and he happily obliged. This is from a section in "The Second of the Three Spirits" describing some shops on the way (via ghost transit) to Bob Cratchit's house. Keep in mind that this is just a small selection, and after he finished with this, he went on to describe the Grocer's and the Baker's. (caveat lector: I think I gained 15 pounds just reading it.)

"For, the people who were shovelling away on the house-tops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball--better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest--laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the fruitierers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars; and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence, to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner."

And now, to prove that I'm not entirely unaware of the ridiculous excesses of this season, here is a photo of an insanely creepy/wrong yet somehow charming to me glass monkey ornament.

shortest day!

(woodpecker movie from saturday)

HOORAY for the winter solstice! It happened (according to the internet) at 4:04 AM pacific time. (I am intrigued by the double 4's. I keep noticing doubled up numbers lately.) Anyway -- I miss the sun and I'll be glad for the days to start getting longer.

It's still beautiful and snowy here, but the furnace stopped working some time last night. the good news: it's not the only source of heat, I have lots of layering items and it will be fixed tomorrow. Right now I'm sitting in front of the fire (v. nice!) with blankets, fingerless gloves, many layers, and a hat. I would try to work this up into some kind of tale of Dickensian winter suffering (with, like, COAL and socks that need to be darned only I can't because I have frostbite in 9 fingers from selling matches to victorian villains all day), but since my reality is considerably more comfortable, I will refrain.



These pictures are from earlier in the week -- it's snowed a lot more since then (although not nearly as much as at Maggie's house -- holy cow!) , but I haven't caught up on my flickring quite yet. I worked at my favorite library this week -- it's close enough that I was able to walk, which is when I took this picture and the following. I walked for two reasons: 1) it's down a pretty steep hill that is always causing problems when it's potentially icy. It's much easier to walk up than to drive up when the weather turns bad. 2) I really wanted to spend some time IN the weather, since it's so unusual for us here. It was lovely! (I should walk there all the time, but I never seem to leave soon enough.)


I love how sunny this yellow house looks against the snowy sky.


From Saturday. I think there are drunken elves who go to the park and cause mischief every night. This snowball was probably about four feet tall, and made of snow and leaves.

SOLSTICE BONUS: I love this Beatle video! I saw it on Fluxtumblr tonight -- so great! I haven't seen many Beatle performance videos that aren't the usual ones (from Ed Sullivan, Shea Stadium, their movies, etc.). I love that this was in a recording studio context, I love Ringo's tie, I love that George looks cool, that Paul is wearing a sweater vest (!!), that John looks like his transformation to werewolf is almost complete, and I've always liked Hey Bulldog anyway.

unrepentant sentimental jaywalker

It snowed like crazy today! All day! It's almost midnight, but still really bright out because of the white. (the sky is currently a beautiful pinky-mauve nighttime snow sky.) The novelty hasn't worn off for me yet -- it's all very winter wonderland-ish. I managed to get out and take a walk and some pictures earlier today, but flickr is not cooperating so none of those tonight. I expect I'll have plenty of time tomorrow as the less delightful freezing rain is supposed to start and I don't like being out in that unless absolutely necessary.

For now I'll say that I have been having a surprisingly peaceful week. Things have been upside down, compressed and nerve-jangly (weather, work, deadlines, etc.); I've fretted over a lot of dumb stuff, but almost everything I worried about turned out better than fine AND I rediscovered the joy of jaywalking. I vow to never cross at the corner again! (unless I feel like it.) Take that, johnny law! I will or I won't and you can't make me say otherwise.

Plus, and I know this sounds hopelessly sentimental (blame it on the season, the snow, the bossa nova), but sometimes people are just wonderful. Not even fancy stuff (although sometimes!), but more an accumulation of everyday kindnesses. It makes my heart feel stretchy like gumby instead of sharp like a wind-up robot. (plastic dinosaur? matchbox car?)

okay -- more soon and I mean it for real. I still plan to write up something on wordstock -- I loved it this year! and now that it's been over a month, I feel free to fabricate wildly to fill in what I cannot recall.

Now I'm going to go get under a lot of covers and read a book I've been wanting to read for a long time. (I love this snow!)

baby, it's cold outside

I think I title a blog post this every time it is cold, but I don't care because baby, it IS cold outside. It's true!! It's not just wah wah temperate winter town two snowflakes whining like usual, it's really freakin' cold!

Winter here is not about snow shovels and sustained cold temperatures, it's about the occasional freak ice storm and a large variety of winter raindrops: small, sharp and sideways, fat and cold, and the invisible frozen mist (this is the kind where you don't think it's raining but get wet nevertheless). Large scale sustained cold is not the norm. (sustained damp? yes.) This is the coldest stretch we've had (or will have, when it's done) in over thirty years. For now it's a novelty -- anyone I saw out wandering around this afternoon of closed schools and telecommuting was clearly on An Adventure. Next phase is probably Brave Little Toaster, followed by Complete Epic Cabin Fever Breakdown which will spread like zombies from neighborhood to neighborhood. Good times!

But now I must hurry up and go to sleep. I had a wicked migraine most of Sunday and was fighting off residuals today with a lot (a lot!) of caffeine. I got a lot done, but only to the messy disaster stage that every one of my projects gets to before the it may not be finished, but I'm done with it stage. I have one hundred million things to do, but I'm actually looking forward to most of them! Woo hoo! But sleep first.


(I love how the green looks in this light! the snow changes everything.)