February: Catching Up!

Wow...so it turns out when you go on vacation for a week, you shirk duties for a month! Don't worry, my darlings, I have only shirked the duty of posting on this blog. That does not mean I have been unfaithful to my goal of doing something creative each day.

So first off, prior to flying far away, I spent most of the week working on my happy afghan: 

I'm really happy with how quickly this is knitting up. I think I started with either 10 or 12 skeins, and now I'm down to just 4. This is the largest afghan I've ever knit, and I decided all the pattern repeats and edging myself, so that is a little baby step in the right direction toward making my own pattern...someday. Completing this project will be incredibly satisfying, not only for the final product but also because it makes a huge dent in my yarn stash. Of course, I'm pretending that there aren't eight pounds of yarn from Peru in my closet...

So you may have heard I went to Hawaii for a week. That was...fun? Let's just say three rounds of airport security with two women in wheelchairs, one walker, a ton (more or less) of carry on, and - oh yes - an oxygen tank is enough to make anyone tired, but when your luggage is lost for two days on top of it, any trip becomes a bit of a bummer. However! I did see some very cute sea turtles, a million humpback whales (including a cow calf escort pod which we kayaked next to for about half an hour...dreams DO come true!), and even an eagle ray! If you would like to help me achieve my singular bucket list goal, please send funds so that I might ride with the manta rays (don't worry, I would not actually touch the magical creature!). 

Turns out that Hawaii isn't really the ideal place to take a lot of photos...at least when all you're doing is water activities. But we did make it up to Haleakala one day. So here are just a few photos from my trip, representing about 90% of the total photos I took.

Haleakala! Volcano land.

Poke, the most delicious discovery of Hawaii. It's sushi meets salsa. Nom nom nom.

Mom was a real trooper and made it to the beach!

She also made it to the top of Haleakala, but was totally school by Grandma the speed demon.

I really liked the windows in the observation deck.

I took the girls out for dinner at Mama's. Probably the most expensive meal I will ever pay for, and this "Polynesian Black Pearl" of chocolate mousse in a pastry shell demonstrates why it was worth every penny. 

The view from our hotel balcony. I've seen worse sunsets.

Doesn't it look like Hawaii!?! Total score for a quintessential vacation experience! Also, while on vacation, I did my best to stay on top of crafting. I knit many, many puffs. Now I have a PILE of puffs.

If I could complete 100 puffs by the end of April, that would be a nice sub-challenge. I will probably be putting the knitting away once the spring starts melting into summer when I can focus on outside projects, so I'd like to think I'd achieved some notable puff status before moving in other directions.

Also! I read a book! "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. I like Donald Miller. His books are always a good, quick read with a warm challenge inside. I don't think he's a particularly talented writer, but I always feel a heightened level of self-reflection after turning the final page. This book is a reflection on the Story of life and how we must find meaning and how God is the greatest story teller. Nothing particularly new, but it was a nice reminder that if I want life to be more satisfying and challenging, it is up to me to pursue a better path. So naturally I'm getting all restless again, and the folk art school I've been dreaming about for years is FINALLY hiring...

Life right now is good, though. Things at the planetarium are very interesting. I find myself doing a lot of evaluation and program development, which I love. It's nice to know that I can name something and say, "Yes, I know I enjoy doing this. This is what I'm looking for in a job." It has taken me more jobs than I expected to be able to nail something like that down. And apart from work, many friends are engaged, pregnant, and just wonderful to be near. Chicago is home and home is warm, supportive, rich, and deep. And gosh, there are some cute cats in this apartment! 

xo

Kaitlyn

P.S. Valentine's Day taught me a very valuable lesson: it is NOT a Good Day to Die Hard, unfortunately. Biggest disappointment of my adult life. 

Days 26-30: Sweat and blood, but mostly blood.

Creative Clock: On schedule with many hours over the weekend and about an hour a day during the week so far.

Listening to: "Dancing on My Own" by Robyn (warning: not an awesome music video)

Watching: Girls (and quite obsessed with it)

So this week has been a bit more productive - or at least memorable - than last week. The reason it has been memorable is because nearly every project (except knitting - sweet, gentle knitting) has left me wounded. Hey, you know the saying; "crafting is pain" (right?). And so....a weekend of bloodshed began with a baking project. The challenge? These "simple" muffins. The ingredients? Cake mix, pumpkin, and water. I added quick oats to suck up some of the moisture. 

What could possibly go wrong, right?  THIS is what goes wrong:

Oh, I suppose when you only have three key incredients it should be a piece of cake (no pun intended). But when you live in a home where both the can openers in the kitchen drawer have been busted since before you even moved in, you're setting yourself up for failure. And pain. Thank goodness we have a very basic tool set so that I was able to use pliers to pull back the "lid" after I stabbed it heartily enough. And PRESTO! Muffins!!



Next up on the itinerary was to get to work actually sewing the first few blocks of my long-anticipated t-shirt quilt (I am pretty sure I am the only person who has long anticipated this project so don't feel *too* guilty if you didn't know. It's forgivable.). Unfortunately, I'm still terrified of cutting a few much-beloved shirts and so I foresee some long-term delays in this project. Still, it was nice to lay things out and even sew a few things together. Nacho helped, as always.

And for the first time, I sliced myself with my rotary cutter. All the lovely old ladies in all the quilting shows my mom has Tivo-ed for me are clucking about what a failure I am, but I supposed in some ways it's a rite of passage, no?

And anyway, I had THE PERFECT band-aid to save the day.

Additionally, this week, apart from knitting two skeins-worth of my orange afghan (scroll to bottom of post), I also decided it was time to trim the bangs. They were having a fight with the goggles, plus it was a stressful week personally, and as you may know about me, safe "self-mutilation" is my solution to stress. So snip snip!

Ta-da!

Not included is a photo of the middle finger that I also nipped with the scissors. So to conclude, always be careful with sharp objects, kids.

In other news, in case you're not following my really important life on Facebook, I wrapped up physical therapy today. For the first time since my accident, I feel like I am not in constant pain or discomfort. I feel like I am in control of my pain management. I feel like I am moving into a new chapter of my life. It is truly an unexpected blessing for which I am inexpressibly thankful. Thankful to God, but also thankful to you, my friends and family, who have put up with much moaning and complaining over the years, but have also provided much concern and comfort, always finding me the chair with back support, always offering to carry my bag or sit down to rest with me or simply asking me how I am doing. I don't think I have done much to deserve such love, but I am grateful that you have taken me into your lives and cared for me so.

So there! Meow!

Days 15-21 - The First Amendments

Crafting Clock: Okay, so I haven't been keeping the greatest track of the exact number of minutes, but I am almost certain it has been at least an hour each day, and I know it has sometimes been over 3 hours, so I think it all evens out and we are still on track!
Listening to: Swim by Caribou
Reading: Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko

Well, it has been an interesting week in the Land of Creativity. Not in that I've done something extra creative (in fact, most of that has been pretty un-imaginative), but because I have been thinking a lot about how I do want to define "creative" in order to meet my goal. As I mentioned in my first post about this New Year's resolution, I don't want to get too bogged down with what it means for the purpose of this endeavor. However, I was recently shamed by someone (oh, I won't name names) who said that reading isn't a creative activity, and so I was pushing myself to do things other than open a book. But then I realized that I wasn't reading anymore, and that made me very sad indeed. So reading is back in the game! I think it is creative in a way because it calls on use of your imagination to draw up scenes in your mind. I might not be creating the plot, but I am creating the theater in my mind, and that's enough for me. **What do you think? Is reading creative or a cop-out?**

I have also decided that cooking pretty much anything counts as something creative for me because it requires me to overcome the same combination of laziness and fear of failure that inhibits me from taking up my needles or sitting down at my sewing machine. And much in the same way that both crafting and cooking make me drag my feet at first, they also both bring me so so much joy and such a sense of accomplishment when I actually finish preparing something.

Tonight I made fried rice, which I know sounds about as complicated as chewing bubble gum to some of you out there, but believe it or not, not everyone is as competent and capable of using as a rice cooker as you. Bless her faith in my abilities, my roommate let me borrow her rice cooker tonight with the simple instructions of "Pour the rice in and add twice the amount of water. And turn it on." That made sense when she said it (I even got cocky and gently mocked her for reminding me turn it on! ho! ho!), but then I pulled out the rice cooker and about three million questions. Put the rice in first and then turn it on? Let it heat up and then put the rice in? Let the water boil and then add rice? What is the switch for? What is warm vs. cook? How do I know when it's done? How long does it take? What planet does rice come from anyway? Too bad she had already run to catch a bus by then. Luckily, there's this magical place called "the Internet" where they have all the answers to every secret about your specific rice cooker. THANK GOD. And look! Half a bottle of soy sauce later and we've got dinner!

Another amendment I'd like to push myself toward given that reading and cooking may seem a bit like steps backward is to try to do one creative activity each week that I'm not used to...in other words something that isn't knitting. This week, best buddy and I made shrinky-dink earrings! They didn't really work so great because they curled up into boils in the oven, but it was fun all the same.

leafy leaf shrinky dinks. she also tried making purple bunnies, but one slipped through the cracks of the oven and broiled in a fiery death. RIP purple bunny pal.

shapes!

i shouldn't have shrunk these cuties...

...because now they look like they're about to poop out something rather uncomfortable.

Besides the usual puffs (of which I now have made 21...so that's nice and slow), I also bit the bullet and returned to an afghan that I started a few years ago, but gave up on when I made some mistake in a row and was too irritated to try and figure it out. Turns out that was only a 20 minute puzzle which means I am back on track to knitting something quite snuggly.

So there's some give and take in this challenge, and I admit I feel the need to justify myself to you (whomever you are), but also...I'm really awesome, so you can eat my feet if you don't like how I'm playing. Just see if I make you something, critical readership, you!