Saturday Brunch

What happens when you sleep in till 10 in the morning after staying up till midnight playing Fallout: New Vegas and then wake up and decide, "You know what, I feel eating pancakes." ?  Well turns out, you get your lazy butt up and make pancakes.

I have to confess, this is the first time I have slept in past 9 in the morning in years.  Years, I tell you.  Why?  I'm not sure, I just don't like sleeping in all that much.  It bothers me somehow, like I'm wasting my day or something.  ( Which doesn't make a lot of sense because I'm down for taking naps in the middle of the day any time you ask but if I made sense I wouldn't be me, would I? )  So I was actually super surprised that I felt lazy enough to sleep in that late.  But when I did finally get up, my tastebuds wanted pancakes.

I struggled a bit making these pancakes, not because they're hard to make or because I'm capable of burning water* ( I actually make a mean baked potato soup with home made rue and all the works so A+ kitchen skills for me ), but because my blood sugar was low.  Very low.  I get lightheaded very easily if I don't eat enough, so after not having eaten since dinner the evening before ( that's what, 18 hours or so without food? ) I was in need of those pancakes.

*I have never actually burned water, just want to put that out there.  Not that you can, but still.

I piled myself some of those bad boys up in a bowl with blueberries and honey and boy, where they good.  It was about 11:30 or so by the time I finally took a bite, after mixing and cooking and cleaning up after myself ( because you do not want to leave a dirty kitchen for your mother to clean up ( not because she's threatened to tie a pork chop around your neck and leave you in the foothills for the coyotes to eat or anything, but because you're a nice person who wants to help your mother out** ) ), and also after taking a couple of pictures just for you, yes that's right, wonderful you, who is so special and who I appreciate so much for being here with me reading this ( I truly do ).

**Or both.  Both is a possibility.

They tasted as good they look.  Maybe even better.  It was a milk free, egg free recipe ( though I did use extra butter ), so my mother could eat them without feeling bad afterward.  It was good start to a great lazy day, and later in the evening, the extra pancakes had fried chicken piled on top of them for a great breakfast-y dinner.  Yum.

Now I'm off to drink even more caffeine then I did this morning, because it's going to be another late night.  The Rhythmic Gymnastics All Around Individual Finals comes on here in my area at 23:30, and won't end until 0:30.  Then, at 9 tomorrow morning the group finals will be on, and I don't want to miss either of them.  Olympics over sleep is what I say.  They only come every four years, so might as well watch all you can, right?

Let's go USA!!!!!  WHOOO!!!!!

Em

Orange Tinted Smoke

There is a huge wildfire burning near the area I live, and the gray smoke coming from it is not only a reminder of the danger that comes to my area each summer with the wildfires, but is also the creator of some fairly strange looking mornings and evenings.

Unlike a cloudy day, where the thick, gray clouds will block out the sun for a muted day where colors can pop against the cool background, the voluminous smoke creates a film for the sun to filter through.  This, aside from being a health hazard, gives us fire-light scattered across every object in sight.

The sun turns red, the blue morning sky is hidden behind the smoke.  We wake to find our quilts and walls and floors bright orange, an orange so bright, in fact, that the camera can't pick up on it properly to show you how vivid it really is.  Outside everything looks oversaturated, and you can hold your hand up in some spots to see beams of light shinning through the smoke, much like you would see the light shinning through thick clouds of dust in an old room.

It really is sort of pretty, but the destruction of the fire is not worth the nice colors it creates.  Houses have been lost, roads shut down, people evacuated from their homes.  The amount of smoke in the air is, as I mentioned before, a health hazard.  Despite the nice summer temperatures, we can't have our windows open, least the smoke fills our house, too.  It makes for summer days spent inside, instead out enjoying the sun like we might be otherwise.

The mornings are orange, and the days a pale yellow with bright gray tinted skies.  But the evenings have purple in their skies.  Gray tinted yellows, teals, and sometimes even greens accompany the dusty purples when the red sun sets.  These sunsets will have to be left to your imagination, though, because the camera sensors fail me once again in not being able to pick up on what the colors really look like.

Despite the color show it gives us, I hope the fire is put out soon.  Even after it is, the smoke may hang around for a while after it, but perhaps we might still get to spend our last few summer days outside, like we should be.  More importantly, let's hope no more houses are lost before it finally burns out and leaves us.

Em

A Yarny Recap: Where I Went & What I Did

Now where on Earth did I go for just over two weeks?  Somewhere without internet connection or the ability to socialize, apparently.  Ok, so that's not entirely true.  I actually stayed right where I'm sitting as I type this, at my desk, in my room, drinking tea and over caffeinating ( as usual ).  I may have also been consuming copious amounts of peanut butter.   Can neither confirm nor deny.

But I'm back now, and here to give you the recap of the past two weeks or so.  Let's a make a bullet list.  Yes, I think a bullet list will do nicely.

• I finished my Egypt mythology book!!!  Yes, isn't it exciting!  I even wrote an essay on it, albeit a very confused one because I was trying to cram all of the things I found interesting into a tiny little essay without turning it into a 500 page thesis or something.  Here's the opening paragraph.

"The waters of the Ancient Egyptian mind are murky and uncertain regions to traverse.  Even in today’s world of the internet and seemingly endless knowledge where we think we know it all, much of the Ancient Egyptian world and it’s thoughts still remain shrouded behind the curtain of the Nile, lost deep within it’s dark waters and muddied banks.  Plunderers, grave robbers, and even the Egyptian people themselves caused damaged that has lead to a deficit in our understanding of their ancient world.  But the biggest culprit?  Time.  It is the age of Egypt that bars our way most strongly, that has caused much of it’s old world to be, almost literally, lost to the sands of time."

Intriguing, yes?  Makes you want to read the whole essay, doesn't it?  Well trust me, you don't.  But please, continue to think that I am a master of the essay.  Some lies are ok to believe ( but only the little ones I give you, ok?   Don't go believing everything everybody tells you, because they don't have your best interests at heart like I do. ).

Back to the bullet list.

• My next culture to study?  The Irish!!!  I have to tell you that I'm super excited about this one too, possibly even more excited then I was about Egypt.  Though I am a little concerned about the size of this Irish book.  It's over 600 pages long.  Mildly concerned that it might crush me by accident.

• On the subject of books, I finished "A Gathering of Shadows" and I loved it!!!

• Oh, and "The Bell Jar"?  It was definitely one heck of a book.  I can't say too much without running the story for you ( and I HATE that ), so just go read it.  Like, right about now.

• I have a new plant.  What does this mean, you wonder?  Well my Johny-Jump-Up died, sadly.  The one I had sitting in a little glass container on my windowsill.  It was't going to last forever, and after it seeded, it was gone.  But I have now planted some of my very own bachelor's buttons in the glass container, and they are doing great!  I am questioning that decision now though, because they are a tall plant.  A very tall plant.  In a little container.  On my windowsill.  But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

• I drew this little guy!  How cute is he?!  I just love him.  My little bitty ghost, looking a bit unsure of things, probably slightly concerned with the sanity of the person who drew him ( at least I would be, if I were him, and, you know, if he were actually alive but shhh ).

• Oh and this.  I drew this.  I'm just gonna' leave it right there.

• Yoga has become a regular ( -ish ) part of my weeks and it has done me a ton of good.  I basically do hours of walking and lifting heavy things where I work and I have to admit that I am a small person, so this does not exactly make my little back feel good.  But yoga does.  It also helps me relax, because I get kind of stressed about time a lot.  Turns out, I'm not actually as flexible as I thought I was!  But that's getting better too.  I haven't managed to rip anything important yet so I'm counting that as a win.

• I have also a) been continuing with my editing b) been super busy with school and work and responsibility ( ick ) which is the main reason I disappeared into the unknowable void that is my room and c) been working on starting a new book focused blog but never fear!  I have plans to move to Wordpress ( shhh, don't tell Google ) and I believe I can have multiple sections, so to speak, under one blag name, which means the main part of my blog will be for books, and on the side I can still do some journal blogging just like I do here.  I'll keep you posted on this. Like, literally posted.  Because that's what these are, you know.  Blog posts.  Anyways.

So now I'm back ( for now ) and I will stay back ( for now ) so don't worry!  You don't have to miss me anymore!  I certainly missed all of you and missed writing a blog post or two here and there but boy, was I super busy ( also, I might have spent some time just lying on my bed stressing about how busy I was but you know ).  I think I have my act together now ( at least slightly more together then it was before ) so all there is to do is continue pressing forward!

Em

Summer Garden

Carrots and asparagus, tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers.  Herbs and onions, strawberries and rhubarb.  Lots of green sprouts and ferns nestled happily in our garden beds, growing away, getting bigger, while we wait for the right time to pull them out and enjoy them.

By no means has my garden ever been big enough to actually replace the need to go to the grocery store for a certain item, but still, there is something nice about seeing it all grow, even when half of it doesn't grow right and you don't really get anything from it.  The strawberries, for instance, haven't given a single berry yet.  They seem far more concerned with growing runners to root more plants then they are with giving me berries.  World domination is clearly more important than jam to them.

On the other hand, some plants take off.  There are two giant rhubarb plants sitting at the beginning of the garden that are over 6 years old.  I can get 3 harvests from them in a single year.  The growing season here isn't a very long one, either, so this makes that fact even more amazing.  Similarly, there is a potted chive that I just can't seem to kill.   Usually I'm very good at killing plants.  But this chive is stubborn.  It keeps coming back in it's pot each year without any help or encouragement, and despite how many times I forget to water it, it just doesn't die.

I'm very proud of my chive.

Getting out in the dirt is something that just makes me feel good anyways, regardless of wether or not the plants end up being useful or not.  Still, there is something about my small garden that does seem a bit, well.... small.

I almost think it would be better to grow an herb garden.  Something that perhaps you could keep inside your house and use all year long.  Or, for the outside garden, to just pick one plant you really love, and I mean really, really love, and just fill all the garden beds with that single plant.  That way you could eliminate the need to buy that particular produce from the store.  It just seems like it, the garden, would be a bit more useful that way, like there would be more of a reason to grow it, instead of planting handfuls of a ton of plants that don't really grow anyways.

It does make me a bit disappointed that my garden isn't exactly as useful as maybe I would like it to be.  But, I must remember that it isn't really my garden, either.  It's our garden, my family's garden, and we all have our plants we love and would like to grow.  We have to share and help each other, just a family should.  So really, in that respect, I can be very proud of my garden, of our little garden.

It may be little, but it certainly is very green, and varied.  As much I would like to strive for a more 'useful' garden in the future, I can be happy with what we have now.  There is a very summery feel to it.  You can't deny that.  The rhubarb and the chives continue to flourish, and so perhaps the rest of the little experiment plants don't need to be quite so fruitful as they need to be there just make the gardener smile.

Over all, I love going out water it in the summer evenings when it's cooled down a bit, checking to see if the plants have gotten any bigger, going barefoot in the dirt, and sometimes just sitting there in middle of it imagining what it would be like if we just had a little more room for things to grow.  It's very good starting place, our garden.  A very good little place, in the middle of it all, to sit and just be happy to look at the life that you grew.

Not everything in life really needs to be 'useful', I think.  Somethings just need to be there, for no other reason than to make you smile at life.  That's what our little garden is for me.

Em

Strawberry Moon

Last night there was a full moon on the summer solstice, an event that has not happened since 1967, and will not happen again till 2062.  This rare event is called a Strawberry Moon, and my daddy and I went out into the backyard last night with his camera to see it.

My father placed his water mark on the bottom of the moon.

It was well past midnight and I was tired, but seeing as this is such a rare occurrence, I wasn't about to stay in bed and miss it.  So I put my damp jeans and shoes on ( I had been running through the sprinklers just hours before, you see ), which made me a bit chilly in the otherwise nice night temperatures, and went out with him wrapped in my favorite denim jacket.

It was so bright out.  I really couldn't believe it.  I know that it was a full moon and all, but standing in the direct moon light, I could read the notes I had written on my hand to remind myself of things I have to do today.  It was almost entirely quiet, with the air conditioner coming on every now and then, and the sound of other people's sprinklers spraying.  Aside from that, it was just still, bright, and the sound of my daddy's camera clicking.

I loved to be out in my backyard wandering around in the dark.  My memory of the place is was kept me from tripping.  It might have been bright in the light of the Strawberry Moon, but in the shadows, it was pure blackness, a striking contrast that I was not expecting to see.  I was standing not ten feet away from my daddy at one point in the shadows, and he couldn't see me until I called to him.  It was really quite amazing.

I looked at our garden, at the plants sitting still in the moon light, I peeked through gates at the dark street outside and saw how the world around me was suspended in slumber and the cool night air, most likely entirely unaware of the rare, potentially once in a life time lunar event that was happening right above their resting heads.

I sat on the damp paving stones and watched the moon hang in the sky.  We, my daddy and I, didn't talk. There was no need to.  We both love nature so much, and that's all we had come out for.  Something about being outside refills our souls, and it was nice just sit out there with him and enjoy the site.

When a long strip of clouds came across the sky and got in the way of the moon, we went back in.  My mother, tired and resting in bed, was counting on us to get pictures and tell her about it all in the morning.  My sister, who I woke from her sleep, decided that she was too warm and comfy in her bed to move from it, and went back sleep.  So we show them pictures now, just as I show you.

Were you aware of this Strawberry Moon?  I, for one, had never heard of it before in my life.  If not for my daddy waking me up, I would have missed the whole thing and never been any the wiser.  I hope at least some of you knew better than I did, and that you were able to get outside, if only for a minuet, to see it with your very own eyes.

If, on the other hand, you were more like me and did not have someone to wake you, then I hope you enjoy one of the many pictures my daddy took ( and so kindly let me use ) as a second alternative to seeing the Strawberry Moon.

Em

P.S.  If you like his photo, then you should go look at his photography website ( this is the dream I mentioned him working toward in my last post ).  As of this very moment, he is still building it, but he's very, very close to launching it, so keep an eye on it in the near future!

Kimono Breeze

I feel that when you make something, wether for yourself or for someone else, you either look at it and think, "Wow, I can't believe that came from my hands." or, "WOW!  I can't believe THAT came from my hands!!!"  I also feel that this is especially relevant when it comes to clothing articles of any kind.

Thankfully, my reaction this time was one of the latter.

I have made pullovers and hooded cowls and even a dress for myself, but these things have always been done up with yarn.  The furthest I can remember getting with sewn articles of clothing is skirts of all manners and styles.  So I was a bit apprehensive of how this sewn-kimono-jacket-thingy was going to turn out, especially since it was my first time using single fold bias tape ( I know, I'm a bit unexperienced when it come to clothes ).  I wasn't all that sure if it was going to be wearable or if I was inevitably headed down the path toward making a backwards tangled pile of fabric.

These fears were silly in the end though, because I think I might have actually done pretty good with it.

I made something that's breezy and summery and so comfy that I wish I could wear it always.  It looks great as part of an outfit to wear around in public or as a nice part of your lounging pajamas when you decide that human contact is something that you just can't do today and it really would be much better to sit around the house like a hermit to avoid it all together.

In other words, it fit all aspects of my life.

Pretty fabric, and pretty feeling.  Simple, yet elegant.  It flows as you walk with out any effort at all.  This flowing allows you to stride around your house imagining yourself to be Sherlock's partner in solving crime with your jacket billowing out behind you just as bad-assed-ly as his does.  Or, if you're out in public, it makes you feel all light and summery.

It took me a while to get here to the finished state.  If you remember seeing this in one of my older posts, you'll know just how long it took.  The problem was the single fold bias tape.  The pattern I could cut out and piece together just fine.  Then I stalled when I got to the last step, which involved using the fabric tape to finish off the edges all the way around.  I had never used it before, and I felt nervous.  Also, I had no clue what I was doing.  Instructions were unclear.

It took my wonderfully more experienced mother and some YouTube videos for me to finally understand how you're supposed to use the stuff.  Once I got it, it felt so simple that I could probably do it in my sleep.  The only problem was that all the edges around the outside of the jacket where I was using the tape are slightly curved.  If you have ever sewn, then you know that you have to cut notches into all the curved areas of your fabric in order to make it look nice when you fold the edges over.

I spent over 45 minuets on this part alone, and I had a pile of tiny fabric triangles from all the snipping covering my desk, my floor, and myself.  I vacuumed up as many as I could find, yet still, like glitter, they are magically appearing around my room after every time I think I have finally gotten them all cleaned up.

Being stalked by tiny snips of fabric for the rest of my life is worth it though.  That's how much I love this kimono jacket whatever you want to call it ( once again, pattern was unclear as to what this actually supposed to be called, aside from the word, kimono ).

More than happy with what I was able to do, I now feel confident enough to stride further into the world of making your own clothing.  Specifically, clothing that is not another skirt.  So we shall see what it is I make, or mess up, in the future ( whenever life decides it's going to give me the time ).

Em