Well I know it's and absolutely cliche thing to say...but time really does fly. I can't believe there are only 10 days until Christmas, 9 until Jared's birthday! I remember when December 1 came around and I was all geared up to do some sort of grand Christmas countdown. I thought maybe some sort of advent adventure, with a little piece of Christmas cheer for each day or a fun holiday idea was in order. But then the 4th came and went, and then the 7th, and now the 10th, and I must admit I think I missed my chance. I really had great intentions to come up with some cute holiday title images and such, but I guess my Halloween blogger cheer trumps my Christmas cheer this year. I'll try to do better 12 months ( minus 10 days) from now.

By this time next week, Jared and I will have said our final goodbyes to Kalamazoo. I'm wrapping up all the loose ends at my job, training my replacement and emptying out my desk drawer. It's kind of a bittersweet experience actually. My folder in our student drive here looks strangely lonely now that it's been mostly emptied, and I can't help but feel a little bit sad that someone else will now be doing the jobs I so nitpickingly did for 4 years. Only in training someone to do my job have I realized how much I really like things done a certain way. I have to admit that I felt somewhat reluctant as I handed over control of one project to another person. The project involves using and maintaining a spreadsheet that I painstakingly created, an amazingly complete tool of ultimate organization, if I do say so myself. Over 600 entries divided into 5 sub categories...oh how I'll miss it. And how I worry that it'll soon be neglected by someone who cares less about organization than I do. Oh well, I guess it's out of my hands now. Goodbye sweet Michigan Serials Project. *sigh*.

Ok, and enough of that. It may not look like I've been up to many things lately, since I haven't posted any cool projects or even mentioned them recently. But in truth, I've been very busy, but my projects just happen to be mostly Christmas gifts, so naturally I can't post them until after the holiday. So all of you should be looking forward to after Christmas, when you'll see a full display of all my artistic creations. It'll be awesome :)
But I will give you a preview of some projects I hope to work on after we move.

First off are these floor cushion ottomans. 

 

This first one was posted somewhere by Martha Stewart. 

And heaven help me, I found this image months ago, and have been trying to find it again ever since. The basic idea of these ottomans is taking a platform, and stacking some square floor cushions on it. The cushions can then be removed at any time for extra seating.  Jared's new job involves a lot of entertaining, and we may at times have big groups of high schoolers at our place.  If any of you have hosted a group of high schoolers, you know that they'll sit pretty much anywhere, and squeeze themselves into pretty small spaces if necessary. But I think it might be nice to make our place a little more comfortable, especially since we...well...don't have any living room furniture quite yet :) Plus I love that I can mix and match designs and patterns with these cushions. Any chance to use some pretty fabric, right?

I have been searching for a sewing machine for months, and was generously given one by a friend a couple weeks ago. I'm itching to test it out for these cushions, but I'm also a little nervous about making them. I've found basic patterns and instructions for making a floor cushion, but I also want them to have a little extra detail. For example, I like how the top one has buttons on it, it ads a little dimension, but I have no idea how to do that. Plus, upholstery fabric is really expensive, so I'm just nervous about buying it and then potentially ruining it. Any words of advice? I'm also tempted to just buy a couple of these from Urban Outfitters and save myself some time.

They're pretty much the perfect colors. Unfortunately, they're sold out of the green. *sigh*. Oh well. I guess it's the perfect excuse to get sewing again :)

The next thing on my to-do list involves something on my Christmas list. Jared and I were out shopping recently, and I found, and immediately fell in love with, this calendar at Barnes and Noble.

It's a collection of poster art from the WPA advertising the National parks. It is awesome! I'm crossing my fingers that Santa will check it off my Christmas List so I can frame the illustrations and hang them around the living room.

Merry 10 days before Christmas everyone!

Two weekends ago, Jared and I celebrated the last wedding of the season. We've been to eight this year, including our own, and if you've ever glanced through the photos of me on Facebook you'd think that's all I ever do. It was kind of a wedding bliss whirlwind, but we've had a great time at each one! It was so much fun to see how each couple made their wedding unique. Here's a photo tour of our weddings this year, in reverse order:

Manda VandeKopple and all of us girls freezing a the Rockford Dam

At Holly and Corey Osbeck's wedding, they had a photo booth that was tons of fun to play with!

My old roomie Heather and dear friend Kristin at Heather's wedding

Ben and Jeannie got married at an old dairy farm, it was beautiful!

Audrey made a beautiful bride!

  

A very cramped group hug for Chelsi and Jaime's wedding

My cousin Erin and all her girls

Me and Jared!! Not to brag, but I love this picture. (is that even considered bragging?)

All these weddings have made me infinitely more grateful for my own. It was such a beautiful day, and so many people put in work and time to make it great! If you want to see more pictures from our big day, check them out here. Jared and I are approaching the half year mark. All I can say about these past 6 months---I love being married!!! Congrats to all you new brides out there!

I can't believe we're already into December, the ground is covered with snow and we leave in less than a month! Lately it seems like Jared and I are graduating from high school again. I keep having that feeling that "oh, this is the last ... before we leave". And just like it was in high school, it can sometimes feel a little bit overwhelming. When we tell people we're moving in January, I've been shocked at how many people think that's such a long time from now. Looking back, we have been preparing for this move since August, but now that it's a month away, time seems to have flown. It seems like there's still so much we want to do, so many people we want to see, so many things we need to do. But for now, we'll take it day by day, and enjoy our month of "lasts".

Tonight, we're attending Art Hop. It's a monthly event downtown Kalamazoo when shops open their doors to the public, display local art, and serve free wine and hors d'oeuvres.. Jared and I have been enjoying Art Hop for over three years now, we started going back when wine was still forbidden, and we giggle shamefully every time a shopkeeper accidentally served us this forbidden drink instead of sparkling juice. When we first started going, Jared and I always substituted the free snacks for a Friday dinner, until I started growing too crabby by the end of the evening. Snack foods are just not a suitable dinner. But perhaps tonight, in honor of tradition and it being our last art hop, maybe I'll forgo eating ahead of time and enjoy an Art Hop dinner :) I'm especially excited for tonight because the December Art Hop is always huge, with most stores participating, lots of live entertainment and Christmas cheer, and the Jolly Trolly traveling around downtown, playing Christmas tunes and offering free rides around the area

 Happy Christmas everyone!

I am  happy to report that Jared and I officially have an apartment in Langley!

As many of you know, Jared and I have spent the last couple months hopping from apartment to apartment, adopting the gypsy lifestyle in an attempt to avoid signing any long term leases. Most of our possessions, including the majority of our lovely wedding gifts, are boxed up and stored at my parent's house, ready to be moved. We've basically been living with what we can fit in our car (fortunately, we have a minivan...so it's quite a bit ;) which means we have our clothes, bathroom stuff, food, a camping worthy selection of kitchen stuff and a mattress on the floor. It's been an interesting experience living with just the basics, and would be very do-able if it weren't for constant "Do you have_____?" "Yeah! Oh wait, it's packed..."

For the past two months, we've settled in a basement apartment generously rented out to us by some friends. It's really a lovely space, plenty of windows, nice carpet, finished walls--unfortunately, it doesn't have a kitchen. We have our own refrigerator, microwave, and food storage area, but no sink, stove, oven--all those things that make a kitchen lovely and useful. And I need a nice kitchen--one that is all my own (and Jared's too, since I'm pretty sure he cooks more than me :), because I don't like sharing kitchens. Even in my past apartments, sharing the kitchen was always the hardest part of living with a roommate for me. So our current situation--using someone else's kitchen, bringing our dishes up and hoping that the sink is empty of their dishes, sharing a stove and an oven at dinnertime--is driving me crazy.

But now, I'm finding some comfort in the future. Because in less than two months, we will finally have our own kitchen. We'll finally be able to use our beautiful new dishes, our spotless and lovely new pan set, our shiny red blender and beautiful, cheerful table linens and fresh, clean wash cloths and gleaming new silverware and sharp new knives.While Jared was in Langley a couple months ago, he toured several apartments and reported back to me. We decided on this one together, and are both very excited. Check out these pictures of our new apartment!

Our kitchen, complete with a dishwasher and a pantry cupboard--I've never had one before, and I'm thrilled! And we even have a window that is just begging for some curtains :)

 

Our living room area. This is kind of an odd shaped room, but we like that it isn't just a long, rectangular room. This will most likely be a challenge when it comes to setting up furniture, but I'd rather have a challenge than a bla-room.We're a little curious about the overhanging kitchen counter-- I'd love to hear ideas for how to make that a useful space in the comments section! Maybe we'll add some shelves like in my friend Amanda's kitchen?

Here you can get a little better of an idea of the shape of the living room. The futon was left over from some previous tenants, we have the option of using it if we want. We're hoping to find a nice couch once we move out there, but in the mean time this might come in handy. And who knows, with a nice cover and some throw pillows, it might be just right for the next couple years. And ideas for a quick futon cover?

 

And these are the doors to our two bedrooms, the master bedroom on the left and the spare room/ office is on the right.

We consider ourselves very lucky to have found this apartment! It has plenty of storage space (I didn't include pictures of the two big hall closets) almost new appliances and, best of all, it's ground level. In Langley, the apartment complexes we're so accustomed to in the states don't really exist. Instead, people build apartments in their homes, usually in their basements, to help them pay their mortgage. These basement suites are pretty much the only form of affordable lodging in Langley, but many are afterthoughts, poorly planned, dark, or a bit dodgy. We are lucky to have one that is so nice, with great land lords and our own private entrance.

I have to admit, I've had the song "Bicycle Race" by Queen stuck in my head since Tuesday. Why, you might ask? Well, check out my new bike!!

 

In a previous post, I mentioned how it might be a good project for Jared to fix up a cruiser bike for me. He was actually really excited about the idea, and we decided that if we find one, he could get it for me as a Christmas gift.  Since then, we've been watching for any cruiser bikes that might show up on Craigslist or anywhere else. Last week, Jared found a great bike, but by the time he called it was already sold! Then over this past weekend, we had another disappointment. I found the perfect bike at an antique mall in Howell for only $36. Full of excitement, I dragged Jared and his parents there, only to discover that I had failed to notice the 1 before that number, and it was actually $136--not quite the price we wanted to pay for a bike that would take a fair amount of fixing up. It was quite the let down. But on Tuesday, this beauty popped up on Craigslist.

 

She's a 1950 Schwinn Cadillac Women's Cruiser. You can kind of see the Cadillac logo on this head badge.  

She's been hanging out in someone's shed for probably 20 years now, gathering dust and a whole lot of rust, but she still has a sturdy frame, some awesome fenders and curves in all the right places. Needless to say, we decided to give her a new home.
Unfortunately, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before I get to ride my bicycle. She may be a beauty, but right now she's a bit of a monster. 

Fortunately, I know just the guy to give her a little love. She'll need some work, probably a bunch of new parts (white wall tires, anyone? yay!!) and obviously a new paint job (yellow, please), but I'm so excited for my new bike! Happy Christmas to me :)

Hey there again everyone,
Here are my thoughts on some of the books I've read this week!
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
I'm proud to say that I have finally completed this book, but disappointed to say that I found it, well, disappointing. In his debut novel, David Wroblewski weaves this story of a young, mute boy who spends his childhood learning the art of breeding and training his family's infamous Sawtelle dogs. After Edgar's long lost uncle returns to help around the kennel and his father mysteriously dies, Edgar finds himself plunged into a new life of mystery, betrayal and loss. The storyline is complex, at times stark and realistic, and at other times dipping into the realm of the paranormal. With a plot that loosely follows Shakespeare's Hamlet, Wroblewski presents a creative take on the play, but the results are unfocused and forced.

I am a genius of unspeakable evil and I want to be your class president by  Josh Lieb
 This book was the perfect company for election week. In his debut novel, Josh Lieb, producer of The Simpsons and The Daily Show with John Stewart, tells the story of a young, overweight, unpopular boy who we soon discover feigns stupidity to cover up his true identity as a rich, evil genius. Narrated in the snarky voice of main character Oliver Watson, the book follows Oliver's decision to run for the president of his eighth grade class, though such a feat hardly presents a challenge for a boy who has already become the third richest person in the world, capable of running corporations and overthrowing world leaders. With subtle commentary on real life elections and  insights into life as an unpopular seventh grader who, though he won't admit it, wants nothing more than to please his father, Lieb's novel is both funny and compelling. Jon Stewart sums up the book well with his comment, "If War and Peace had a baby with The Breakfast Club and then left the baby to be raised by wolves, this book would be the result. I loved it."

Skinned by Robin Wasserman
One of my favorite genres to read, and fortunately a genre that is rising in popularity for YA fiction, is post apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. This genre presents a modern, teen twist on classics like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and  includes books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (one of my all time favorite books), Uglies by Scott Westerfield, and even books like Lois Lowry's The Giver which I mentioned in an earlier post. These types of books are typically set in a future time in a world that can be recognized as the United States after some sort of major catastrophic event. In Skinned, author Robin Wasserman tells the story of a young girl who had it all--beauty, popularity, money (or in this world, "credits")--but awakes after a fatal accident to find that her body has died, but her mind has been downloaded into a new mechanical body. Now, main character Lia finds herself  facing a life of immortality in a society that disdains what she has become. Set in a world where names like "Chicago" and "Atlanta" are only names in history books, Skinned is a story of survival and change, of overwhelming social networking and class distinction. After discovering that the book is the first of a trilogy, I'm excited to see how this story unfolds. 


This past Friday, I attended the Youth Literature Seminar, an annual celebration of children's and young adult fiction put on by Kalamazoo Public Library. This year's focus was on international literature, with discussion on the boundaries that could be crossed by reading books written outside of the United States. I've always loved reading international books, so this was an exciting opportunity to learn new titles and suggested authors. International literature, especially books in translation, is a growing trend in the world of publishing, so this next book is me participating in a trend!
Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Well, this book is not exactly a translation, but it was originally published in Australia. It's always fun to start reading a book and slowly figure out the world I'm reading about is not the United States. Often, the clues are subtle and easy to ignore, like college referred to as "University" or a word here and there that sounds just a bit off. This book, however, is not subtle. Within the first pages, we are not only introduced to the life of a teen in Sydney, we also learn many different varieties of Australian slang. In Ten Things I Hate About Me (not to be mistaken with the 1990's movie Ten Things I Hate About You, which I love), Randa Abdel-Fattah tells the story of a young Lebanese Muslim girl who is trapped in two identities. At school, she is blonde and blue eyed Jamie, a typical Anglo Australian girl. But at home, she is Jamilah, daughter of a strict Muslim father who forbids her to go out past sunset or to participate in co-ed activities of any sort, except Arabic school. In this coming of age story, Jamilah/Jamie struggles to juggle her two worlds, and must gain the confidence to  embrace both sides of her identity.

Hello everyone!

It seems like it's been a two weeks since I last posted, but it really hasn't. As it turns out, I'm the type of blogger who updates a ton when I'm inspired to do so. My apologies if you were hoping for a more regularly updated blog :) But I'll give some brief updates of my life since my last post.

Jared and I celebrated my birthday with a lovely picnic at Milwood Park in Portage. He made me homemade cheesy potato soup, with lots of cheese and bacon to go on top. It was delicious! Later, we had homemade apple crisp with caramel and vanilla ice cream. It was heavenly. I married quite the chef, I think :)Then that Saturday, my actual birthday, we traveled to Rockford to celebrate with my family over lunch. Later that evening, I got to debut my Halloween costume at my friend Manda's bachelorette party... 

Since the party was so close to Halloween, we were all asked to wear costumes of the type one would typically see on a college campus and/or frat party :) She posted this picture on her blog Days of our Lives--this is hopefully the only photo you'll ever see of my "handiwork".Unfortunately, when I was putting on the costume I learned the importance of not buying a cheap zipper! The whole thing unraveled as soon as it was zipped up, and I ended up walking around in a costume held together by safety pins. Oh well, it's not like I would ever wear it again :) The party was a blast though, Manda's future sister-in-laws had planned some great games! I'm excited to be part of her wedding in less than two weeks!
Then on Sunday, Jared and I spent our Halloween evening passing out candy with my sister Anna and her husband Adam. It was so fun to see all the kids in their costumes! When I walked into work on Monday, I was met with a sparkling, tacky trophy for winning first place in the pumpkin carving contest. As it turns out, only three departments, including mine, had participated, so the win was fairly small, but a victory nonetheless :)

 

Only three more days until Halloween....oh, and only two until my Birthday! How about that? 

We've had some crazy weather this pre-Halloween season in Kalamazoo. On Tuesday, I drove to work listening to the gusts of wind and warnings of severe weather throughout the region. After hearing weather alerts at work, warning of tornados in regions that grew closer and closer to Kalamazoo throughout the morning, I soon regretted my decision to park under a tree. And as I headed to the library's basement, armed with our department's first aid kit, a two way radio, some flashlights, blankets, and a book--just in case--I  regretted my decision even more. But fortune was smiling upon me that day, and I, along with the car, survived the day unscathed. 

Later that evening, Jared and I drove out to Mattawan to attend the Kalamazoo Young Life banquet, where we ate some great food and had the opportunity to join a hundred other adults in a marshmallow fight. It was a great time! It was encouraging to see so many supporters of Young Life in one room.

The banquet was Pirate themed. Jared makes a better pirate than me, I think :)

We're looking forward to joining a community in Langley as supportive as the one in Kalamazoo! When we left the banquet, it was still cold, blustery and raining. Jared and I had set aside Wednesday as our pumpkin day, when we'd venture out to Gene the Pumpkin Man's farm and then spend the evening carving our finds. Unfortunately, prospects of good weather for that day were looking pretty bleak.  

But lo and behold, Wednesday morning met us with blue skies and plenty of sunshine! It was a bit windy, but Jared and I still enjoyed our annual trip to Gene the Pumpkin Man's farm.

A little bit of pre-pumpkin-farm excitement

Gene the Pumpkin Man's pumpkin kingdom!

Jared with his pumpkin find

It was really windy!

And on the way back, we ran into a little bit of adventure when we pulled over to watch 15+ cop cars, sirens blaring and lights blinking, zoom past us in pursuit of a car. Turns out, we were kind of part of a high speed car chase! The full story is here. These are our completed pumpkins!

Mine's the spider web, Jared's is the bat

We don't have any candles, otherwise they'd be lit up. Somehow this happens every year lol.
I've now carved a total of three pumpkins this Halloween (which is more than enough!) but these are still my favorite :) 

Well everyone, it's that time of the week for a review of my bookshelf. Unfortunately, I'm still reading the same book as last week.....but I figure this is a good time for some old favorites. And, since this is the week before Halloween and apparently I'm obsessed with Halloween...these books may contain a lot of monsters and possibly even some spookiness. 

The Gates by John Connolly

You know how there's that old saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? Well, I don't believe in that-- I judge books for their covers all the time.  That's how I stumbled across author John Connolly-- I was drawn to this cover for his  The Book of Lost Things. After enjoying this book, I started researching him and discovered he's a bestselling Irish author famous for crime thrillers--not exactly my style. But in recent years, he's written two novels with lighter, more fantastical themes, The Book of Lost Things and topic of today's post,  The Gates. Perfect for this Halloween season, The Gates tells the story of a small boy and his dog's adventures after his neighbors accidently open the gates of Hell, allowing the creatures within to wander into our world. Now, it sounds dark and scary and kind of...I don't know...horror-esque, but this book is surprisingly hilarious. John Connolly manages to create a mature, multidimensional story filled with a cast of hilariously loveable demons who are not in the least bit scary. With his witty and deceivingly light writing, Connolly creates a supernatural masterpiece with this monster filled fairytale. 

And lets face it....I just realized that I don't really read scary things...so for the sake of not ending up with  a big old list of teen vampire, werewolf, fairy and immortal novels (all of which I adore, by the way), I'll just end it with this! Does anyone have any spooky recommendations for the Halloween season? 

Well, it's official---I love Halloween! All the costumes, spookiness, pumpkins, colorful leaves, and of course, candy!! But I have realized this week that there is one thing I do not like about Halloween....the pumpkin carving contest at my work. It's not that I dislike carving pumpkins at work--it's actually really fun to walk through the library with my hands covered in pumpkin goop---it's that I do not like group projects. You see, every year, the library hosts a library-wide Halloween party along with a contest where each department submits a carved pumpkin ( or two). In the past years, my Government Documents department has tried to submit a pumpkin that is somewhat Gov. Docs themed. Three years ago, we did a globe like this one:

Then last year, we did a set of three pumpkins featuring the statue of liberty, the liberty bell and the Lincoln memorial. Here's how they turned out:

They were intricate and lovely, but what do you think won the competition?

A stupid Swine Flu pumpkin like this one:

But not even that detailed. It was an outrage. Ok, or maybe I'm just bitter, but the whole thing didn't exactly make me excited for the pumpkin project this year :)
But nevertheless, my mornings at work this week have been devoted to tirelessly searching for a creative and witty idea for a pumpkin. See, it has to either be creative (like the Swine Flu one, apparently) or scream pop culture enough that people have no choice but to love it...like a character from a popular movie. And of course, I love making things somewhat over the top and detailed--I'm never one to shy away from hours of menial work if the end result is awesome. So when one of my coworkers submitted this duo of Star Wars pumpkins...

Darth Vader and the Death Star

I was excited. They would be perfect! And while the Death Star looks daunting, it's actually not that hard--just some boxes and such. We had a couple other ideas too--

Nightmare Before Christmas themed pumpkins

From Where the Wild Things Are

But the favorites so far have been Star Wars or else this one. 

 

We'll probably  end up using this last one--some people seem to think the Star Wars ones are too much work (*sigh*).But I guess I can't complain, this pumpkin is pretty creative, and actually pretty cute. But I guess I'll just have to use one of the other awesome ideas on my own pumpkin, which I will be getting tomorrow!!! Yay!

Happy week before Halloween everyone!