Quietish

It’s 2009 now and I haven’t kept up with this blog enough lately to have kept up any sort of community feeling here. So I figure it’s time I reintroduce myself and tell a bit about what I’ve been up to lately.

I’m Rosemary, as you can probably tell from my URL. My blog is called Quietish… I don’t know why. I thought up the term once when I was sick of my previous online moniker and needed something to change to. At the time, most of my friends were online ones and I really did feel that I was the quiet sort. On message boards and such I was always online and active, but just didn’t say much. Nowadays when my online friends have become IRL(1) friends and I actually have quite a few RL friends, I suspect most people wouldn’t call me quiet. Who knew?

Those that still read my poor neglected blog probably remember me mostly as a crafter. I suppose that is still true. When I started blogging (if I remember correctly - too lazy to go check) I was mostly scrapbooking. Lots. During and after scrapbooking, I also cross-stitched(2). I do still, now and then, but that hobby has too been long neglected. Actually, if there is a craft that I haven’t done in the past I wouldn’t count it off of my list because it surely is something I would like to try at least once. Crafter. Yes.

My current craft of choice is knitting(3) because I have a lot of yarn and need to knit my way out of the bottom of the pile. Thank goodness I brought my computer with me when I started this journey, ha! Although I am currently working on a big poufy party dress for the Oklahoma City Yule Ball(4).

Being that it’s a new year I feel like I should be making some resolutions, but they’re always the same ones. Well I can think of one new thing: The use of footnotes in my blog posts(5). I also will be continuing my efforts to lose some more weight. Walking, Wii Fit, Weight Watchers, maybe some Roller Derby. The typical stuff.

I am obviously thinking about blogging more. That would be nice. A paper journal would be, too. Kelly has also resurrected Self-Portrait Sunday, which I took the year off from last year. So to start us off, a picture(6).

1. It amuses me a little that “(internet, slang)” is the first entry for IRL, and not the Republic of Ireland.
2. People that like cross-stitching and needlework and also like Harry Potter should totally join the Leaky Craft-Along this month.
3. and crochet
4. Mistletoe Masquerade. Go to okwizards.com to buy a ticket for it. Now.
5. Because they’re highly annoying in, I don’t know, a quirky way I suppose. Also, I am trying to quit my excessive use of parenthesis habit.
6. Me, with a fat lip. Don’t ask. It’s embarrassing.

Please join the Leaky Crafty-Witches in our first Craft-Along of 2009!

Magical Needlework Craft-Along on the Leaky Lounge.

I’ll cross-post my CraftBorg vlog.

It’s long past since the time that I should be pimping this event on my own blog. My local Harry Potter peeps and I have been working to get a Yule Ball event going for the Oklahoma City area.

Please CLICK HERE to view details and to buy tickets. If you’re close, or if you’re not close but willing to come visit, please do. It’s going to be made of awesome.

Crossposted from the website of OWL:

When?

Saturday, January 17, 2009
5:00pm to 11:00pm

Where?

Grand Ballroom in the Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center
Oklahoma City University
2501 N. Blackwelder
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
Campus Map

Who’s playing?

The Whomping Willows
Oliver Boyd & The Remembralls
The Remus Lupins
The Mudbloods
Justin Finch-Fletchley & The Sugar Quills
Catchlove
Tonks and the Aurors

How much?

Adults: $35
Kids 5-15: $15
Kids under 5: Free!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so I’ll tell you about what I’m making for dinner.

It’s a recipe from a book I love called The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet, by Nava Atlas. (I’m on the iPhone at the moment so I will add the link later.)

This is such an easy recipe but it is so good. It only has water, peas, pearled barley, carrots, and onions, and seasoning. I have made it that way in the past and it’s fantastic, but I can’t usually help throwing in fresh garlic, celery, and extra onions. Mm.

I am excited for the cool weather because my rampant love of soup looks less strange than it does in the Summer.

Anywho, I’m going to try to add a photo but I’m not sure exactly how on this strange mobile app. Ciao for now.

CLICK HERE and let us know your choice. Thanks!

I haven’t made any sort of announcement yet, but I’m going to be moving my blog over to the CraftBorg site to simplify things and be a little more thrifty as well. Justin’s will be moved over too. I haven’t fiddled with a WordPress install for awhile and I’m also finding a few buggy things having to do with importing all of that content. Also, I’m going to be too lazy to move photos I don’t have hosted on Flickr to the new site. So they’ll go poof. I’ll get it figured out. Wheee.

Edit 12/1 : Ok, announcement made. Now to get Yahoo to make my domain forward work!

This blog post is brought to you by Laurie, whom I fully expect to show up at my door at some point and forcibly make me post on this thing lol. Actually I was supposed to post last night, but I was tempted by Kassy’s promise of a girls’ night out. So I’m probably still in trouble, actually. Anyway. Here I am.

The most blog-worthy thing I have at the moment is my participation in NaNoWriMo this year. My goal is to write at least 50,000 words. I have known about WriMo for many years, but for whatever reason waited until this year to try it out. I’m sure in the past I felt that novel writing (or in WriMo speak, “novelling”) is something I’d never be able to do. I don’t know that I feel that much more confident this year, but maybe just enough to give it a shot.

It hasn’t actually gone all that well yet. It was impossible for me to get started on time to begin with, as I was away for the first 2 days of November. Then I was sick, then I was tired, then I was busy. Life, in other words, continues to get in the way. It does to everyone but I am weak, I think. I am very, very behind compared to the expected word count for this part of the month. I feel alright about that, though. While it is a great challenge and certainly a good motivation to go ahead and get writing, I don’t think I actually expected to “win” NaNoWriMo this year. I’m going to try, but I won’t be disappointed if I have to continue past the end of November. It’s my first year and has already gotten me back in the practice of putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard I suppose. I am committed to reaching those 50,000 words, whether this particular story is something that will turn into anything good or not.

So I’m excited. And I’m alive. See? Blog post. Ciao for now.

Also, Microsoft Word says this post is 355 words. That is all.

I do have plenty to post about, however I can’t seem to find the time at the present. I’ll try to squeak in some posts this week.

In the meantime, if you’re one of my Yahoo Instant Messenger contacts: I am changing my stuff over from quietishelf @ yahoo to just quietish. So feel free to re-friend me on the YIM.

Yay! Catchyasoon,
R

So Justin and I spent the afternoon going through our bedroom closet. It was a complete mess. We tend to stow a bit of everything in there including things like our entire arsenal of sheets and blankets. We are in an apartment and don’t have a proper linen closet. Recently we put big plastic bins containing most of our DVDs in there as well until we can figure out a convenient yet attractive way of storing them. (”Attractive storage” in Rose-speak = hidden.)

We got the everything pulled out, reorganized, and put back in so now we can walk in there. I’m happy. I have a lot more of the same sort of projects I want to work on tomorrow and the rest of this week. Having an uncluttered place makes me very happy. I also seem to prefer Fall Cleaning to Spring Cleaning. Spring just makes me grouchy because Summer is coming, and thus indignantly opposed to cheerfulness or any sort of hard work.

One of the things I came across in the closet was my stack of old scrapbooking magazines and idea books. I can’t say how long it’s been since I’ve actually bought scrap magazines, used them, or even have scrapped (Amy? Any guesses?). So I’ve finally decided to let them go. I did go through them sometime last year and pare them down to cross-craft books and the ones I had work published in, but that still left me with a stack of at least 100 lbs. Of the closeted stack I kept a few issues of Legacy (now Somerset Memories) I had articles in, the issue of Creating Keepsakes in which I had my first published page, and the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame issue in which I was awarded an honorable mention. (It rather makes me laugh to think of how exciting that was at the time. It was such a big deal! Wow, things have really changed for me.)

Something I noticed when I was going through the various issues is that I did a heck of a lot more writing when I was scrapbooking than I do now. Whether I was writing journaling for the scrapbook pages themselves or writing about scrapbooking, I was writing something nearly every day. The process was: Choose the photo(s), choose the mood, write the journaling, execute the page (well, then “scan and submit” of course). I was so productive those days. I find this revelation a bit sad, as one of the reasons I would choose to give up one activity is that it would free up time for other activities. This clearly has not been the case here.

I know this post doesn’t have a point. It’s late and really I’m just rambling. I just feel like I’ve neglected this blog for far too long, and think I should probably just pop on and post something whenever I have time so I can get back in the habit. And to, you know, let people know I’m still alive. I am. Alive. The knitting continues. So, obviously, does my futile quest to find time for all of my interests. I could ramble more, but I’ll save that for another post, assuming I remember to keep coming back.