75 in 12 {A Year with the Kindle}

If you don't know me all that well, here's a little-known fact:

via Tumblr

Seriously. I was one of those read-under-your-covers-with-a-flashlight kind of kids, and things haven't really changed that much over time.

Boxes of to-be-donated books. Buy at Goodwill, read, then donate back: my M.O.

So,  when I think about it, Husband was dead-on with his Valentine's day gift last year.

Working through Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy series.

I've talked about my love for my Kindle before, but I've had it for exactly one year today, and I wanted to commemorate that moment. It's a slow-news day.

Like I said before, I was really skeptical if I would like it or not. Would it be as satisfying to finish a book on the Kindle? "Exit" doesn't have the same effect resolutely closing a book after finishing it. And what about the lack of page numbers?

Answer: It's only slightly less-satisfying than hard-copy.

I'm accident-prone, so would I be able to keep it un-damaged?

Answer: Kinda... Lasted about eight months, then I damaged a few pixels.

Regardless, Husband convinced me to give it a shot, though, and sure enough, it has CHANGED MY LIFE. While there are definitely some advantages to reading actual books, the Kindle definitely has its perks (Better on my eyes than a book, easier to carry, can have way more than one book at a time, you can change the font and size of the text, etc etc etc)

I noticed that I read a whole lot faster when I would use the Kindle, too, and it got me thinking. How many books could I read in a whole year? So, I kept track, all year long. Whether it was an actual book or a Kindle version, whether I loved/hated/had no opinion on the book, it went on the list. Now, a year later, I can't believe what I've blown through:

Frank Abagnale ~ Catch me if you Can
Douglas Adams ~ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams ~ The Restaurant at the end of the Universe
Douglas Adams ~ Life, the Universe, and Everything
M.C. Beaton ~ Death of a Witch
Rhys Bowen ~ Her Royal Spyness
Rhys Bowen ~ A Royal Pain
Ray Bradbury ~ Fahrenheit 451
Dan Brown ~ The Lost Symbol
Augusten Burroughs ~ Running with Scissors
Robyn Carr ~ Moonlight Road
Tom Clancy ~ The Sum of all Fears
Suzanne Collins ~ The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins ~ Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins ~ Mockingjay
Michael Crichton ~ Prey
Kim Edwards ~ The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Janet Evanovich ~ One for the Money
Janet Evanovich ~ Two for the Dough
Janet Evanovich ~ Three to Get Deadly
Janet Evanovich ~ Four to Score
Janet Evanovich ~ High Five
Janet Evanovich ~ Hot Six
Janet Evanovich ~ Seven Up
Janet Evanovich ~ Hard Eight
Janet Evanovich ~ Visions of Sugar Plums
Janet Evanovich ~ To the Nines
Janet Evanovich ~ Ten Big Ones
Janet Evanovich ~ Eleven on Top
Janet Evanovich ~ Twelve Sharp
Janet Evanovich ~ Plum Lovin’
Janet Evanovich ~ Lean Mean Thirteen
Janet Evanovich ~ Plum Lucky
Janet Evanovich ~ Fearless Fourteen
Janet Evanovich ~ Plum Spooky
Janet Evanovich ~ Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
Janet Evanovich ~ Sizzling Sixteen
Janet Evanovich ~ Wicked Appetite
Janet Evanovich ~ Foul Play
Janet Evanovich ~ Full Scoop
Janet Evanovich ~ Full Bloom
Janet Evanovich ~ Full Tilt
Craig Ferguson ~ American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
Monica Ferris ~ Thai Die
Helen Fielding ~ Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
F. Scott Fitzgerald ~ The Great Gatsby
Earlene Fowler ~ State Fair
James Frey ~ A Million Little Pieces
William Golding ~ Lord of the Flies
John Grisham ~ Skipping Christmas
Charlane Harris ~ Dead until Dark
Laura Hillenbrand ~ Seabiscuit
Steig Larsson ~ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Steig Larsson ~The Girl who Played with Fire
Steig Larsson ~  The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Debbie Macomber ~ 44 Cranberry Point
Debbie Macomber ~ Summer on Blossom Street
Mary Jane Maffini ~ Organize your Corpses
Mary Jane Maffini ~ The Cluttered Corpse
Brad Meltzer ~ The Inner Circle
Tamar Meyers ~ The Glass is always Greener
George Orwell ~ 1984
Ben Patterson ~ Muscular Faith
Joanne Pence ~ Cooks Overboard
Emilie Richardson ~ Wedding Ring
Maggie Sefton ~ Knit One, Kill Two
Maggie Sefton ~ A Killer Stitch
Maggie Sefton ~ Needled to Death
Maggie Sefton ~ Dyer Consequences
Maggie Sefton ~  Fleece Navidad
Maggie Sefton ~ A deadly Yarn
Kathryn Stockett ~ The Help
Cecily von Ziegesar ~ Gossip Girl
Rebecca Wells ~ Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Seventy-five, people. How I managed to plan my dang wedding in the midst of that is totally beyond me.

Barber Chair or Electric Chair?

I got a haircut yesterday, and while I was watching the stylist work her magic, I realized something:

No one is attractive when they get their hair cut. No one.

Except for this baby. It's cute. Source Unknown.

(side note: It seems like every time I get my hair cut, it's done by the one woman in the salon with bad hair. It's like the whole thing is inevitable. What is that about?) 

It starts when they tie that horrible thing around your neck. While it does keep everything from trickling down your neck, it automatically gives everyone a double chin and makes you feel like a fatty, regardless of your actual weight.

Then they give you the smock. The SMOCK! It adds so much to your bloblike appearance. I don't care how "fashionable" or "cute" they try to make those smocky things, it ain't fooling us. NO.

A haircut reduces even the most attractive person into a monster. For those of you who think you look good when you get your hair cut, I DON"T WANT TO HEAR IT. 

THEN they start in with their tools, and it is all downhill from there.. Awful. They spray your hair so it's somewhat wet and starts getting all frizzy. Rip the comb through it so much that it starts to stand on end like there's lightning in the air. They secure parts of it up haphazardly in alligator clips like a four-year old who's finally allowed do do her own hair for the first time. 

They start to cut, and it's a full-blown panic attack. I TOLD YOU I ONLY WANTED A TRIM, YOU NINCOMPOOP! My entire ponytail is in my lap! 

Anyway. The whole process, you are a disastrous mess. Hair is everywhere. You are not attractive in any way, shape, or form. No understanding or interpretation of that word applies to you while you sit in the chair. You look around at the other people getting their hair cut, and they don't look half as much a disaster as you do. You want to melt away or climb deep into that unforgiving smock and never come out. 

{And you wonder why I only get my hairs cut like every eight months?}

Still, time after time, they end up okay. The process is a mess and ugly and messy and embarrassing, but when the final product is revealed, it's like Ta DAAAAAAAA! Oh that's right, I forgot you went to school for this and kind of know what you're doing. My bad. We can't see the "after" picture while we're getting our hair cut; we get so fixated on the process, bogged down in the details. After all of that, your hair is healthy again, you feel new and beautiful, and you forget all of the trauma in the chair. 

Why are we like that? 

The Lord is like that hairdresser. He sees us get freaked out at the process he's taking us through as we learn and grow, but he doesn't stop because he knows how amazing and complete the final product is going to be. We are constantly works in progress, and we get caught up in that process. We don't want anyone to look at us because we're embarrassed of the state in which we are caught in the moment; afraid of letting anyone see us when we don't have our deal together. Everyone else seems to have it together a lot better than we do. Time and time again, we prove the adage that comparison is the thief of joy.

Why can't we learn to trust God? He certainly knows what He's doing; he's got a lot more going for Him than cosmetology school. He's also got the benefit of being able to see the final product.

Just a little in-the-chair musings :)

Awkwards and Awesomes

Awkwards

• Those of you who are regular readers might remember this little mishap? Misremembering the anniversary already? Would you believe that this doesn't really come as much of a surprise to me?
• After running an exam through the scantron machine, I noticed that the all of the grades were really low. Like, REALLY LOW. As in the highest score was a 25%. Further investigation revealed that I had in fact graded the students using the key from a different test. Whoopsie Dasies.
• Pulling my READING GLASSES down off my head to block the sun. Not only was I still being blinded by the light, everything was also blurry. Fail.

Awesomes

• Husband booking the most perfect Valentine's date location ever. I can't wait (hint: It's where this happened!)

photo by Jessica Fairchild

• Keeping. The house. Clean. All week. Yesssssssss I win!!!!!
• Getting compliments on my outfit three days in a row! This is amazing, especially considering a) the lack of clean laundry in my house and b) the fact that I woke up a half hour before I had to BE at work. Success.
• Celebrating the friendship of an AMAZING friend before he moves to Seattle. What a Christ-filled night. You're not even gone and I already miss you :(

Just a little of the awkward and awesome bits of the past week!

Inspired by Etsy

 I have a secret. 

I have always crushed on dresses with back appeal. Lately, however, I've been more drawn to ones with a little... less.

via LanaStepul

via LanaStepul

via melissaabor

via LanaStepul

via xZOUix

Lovely, no? All of these are via Etsy.

I mentioned briefly in a previous post that I was trying my hand at making a dress. Being that low-back dresses like the ones listed above can cost a pretty penny, I thought I'd try doing something like these! I was hoping to be able to wear this to a winter wedding, so I modified a sleeved-dress pattern I found online to have a low back.

Pattern via Burdastyle

Unfortunately, things didn't really go as planned. (Do they ever?)

I followed the pattern almost exactly. That was probably my first mistake. Did I check to make sure the pattern was going to fit before making it? Nope. And I omitted the inclusion of a zipper because I didn't want to go driving 20 minutes out of my way to go buy one. That was my second mistake.

Before I added the sleeves, I wanted to make sure everything else looked right (YES! I do think during projects! Sometimes). I'd done darts for the sort-of-first time and wasn't sure they'd sit in the right place, and I wasn't sure the armholes were small enough.

So I tried it on.

Excuse the zombie face, it was really late at night!

Three things you should know: 1) This dress was made out of a non-stretchy material (salvaged from the sheet project) 2) It was supposed to fit a little snug. 3) My waist is smaller than my bust and my hips. These three things add up to a recipe for disaster.

In other words, I got stuck. (Other than that, though, it fit perfectly!)

Husband was out of town, and since I didn't have anyone else to help peel me out of my awesome one-of-a-kind creation, I had to cut myself out of it.

Like, literally. With scissors. :(

So, clearly i'd either need something a bit more stretchy or have to suck it up and get a zipper. And start over, obviously, since the poor dress is currently sitting sadly at the bottom of my garbage can.

Thankfully, the second go-around was a lot faster than the first, since I'd picked up a couple timesaving tricks along the way the first time. I got real fabric, picked up a couple zippers so I'd have spares on hand (for the next spur-of-the-moment MacGyver project), and finished the final dress in just an evening.



Here's the best shot I got of the fabric. It's charcoal with swirly lighter cloudy bits? Obviously "description" is one of my spiritual gifts.

I traced the pattern onto the wrong side of the fabric, this time making sure to give myself an extra inch in the middle, just in case. I'd rather it be too big than too small!

All the pieces I'd need. I decided to have the zipper go up the back than on the side (so I had two halves  to the back of the dress), which ended up saving my LIFE when I hemmed the neckline.

I sewed it all together, and that was it!

Haha it wasn't really that easy, I just made sure to take my time and double-check everything before I actually sewed it.

But I'm stoked with how it turned out. Wanna see how it looked for the wedding (before I did my hair, I forgot to take pictures after)?

front

Back

I even did little pleats at the shoulders! I kinda winged them, so I can't tell ya how I did it. You cannot imagine my relief when they turned out ok. (side note, when I told husband to take a picture of my sleeves he took a bunch of pictures of my armpits. This is the best I could get.)

detail

How'd I do?

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Linking up here:

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Kitchen things I'm convinced were invented JUST for me (and by "me" I mean lazy people)

~one~

 

Those plasticky chopping board things. Don't have to handwash my cuttingboard? I'll take five.

~two~

I have no idea what to call these, but you basically can turn any liquid into a spray this way. No more icky Pam? Yes, Please!

~three~

Silicone baking mats. I had no idea what this was until someone gave it to me as a wedding gift, but I'm convinced it was invented specifically for me. Reason 1: Cookie sheets stay clean. WIN. Reason 2: Everything looks nicer when cooked on one of these. I can pretend to be a better cook than I am. I'm sold. I want MORE OF THEM.

~four~

Crock Pot. Set it and forget about it. Pretty self-explanatory. God's gift to full-time anythings.

~five~

Programmable coffee pots. See #4.