2010 July 22

if you’ve got a video camera…

On July 22, 2010, in big picture stuff, creativity, experience, by Lori

Thanks to the lovely blogger at perches in the soul (do check out her blog, if you don’t already follow her!), I just learned about something that’s going on this Saturday. It’s a public and global project called Life In A Day; we’re supposed to videotape some portion of our day and upload it to YouTube. Quoting from perches:

“YouTube is working with director Kevin MacDonald & producer Ridley Scott to create a documentary about 1 day in history and the 6 billion perspectives of humanity as we live it.”

Here’s another link about the larger project: here.

Cool, right? I’d love to see that documentary. I’ll toss in my few frames, won’t you do it too? What will I film? Maybe I’ll get my husband to videotape me knitting, or maybe we’ll go to Central Park (but there’s a good chance of thunderstorms Saturday). What would you film this Saturday?

another wedding, another time

On July 22, 2010, in big picture stuff, daughter, my people, son, by Lori

My sweet older daughter Katie got married in June 2008 (easiest anniversary ever to remember: 06/07/08). Hers was a much more traditional wedding than Marnie’s, complete with puffy white dress, groomsmen in tuxedos, rosebud corsages, and all that happy jazz. She hired a professional photographer, who caught this very enigmatic shot that I rediscovered yesterday while wandering through her online photo album:

me dancing with my son

Several things to note, before turning attention to the odd glance:

1- That’s my daughter Katie, dancing with her husband Trey, in the right side of the photo

2 – That’s Marnie visible in the back, in the green maid-of-honor dress

3 – Yes, that’s right, I’m wearing the same dress at Katie’s wedding as I wore at Marnie’s. First, both girls crazily decided to have OUTDOOR weddings in the HOT SUMMER, so something extremely cool was called for. And second, I bought it specifically to wear to Katie’s wedding, and when Marnie’s came up I decided to call it my “dress I wear to my daughters’ weddings.” I’ll have to keep it safely aside to wear in the future when my youngest girl gets married, which will probably be several years, since she’s a sophomore in college.

It’s a very long story with my beloved son – lots of very long stories with him, to be more accurate – so I know everything that lives behind that glance, behind my close hold on him. I store the photo here so I don’t forget about it again.

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reining in consumption

On July 22, 2010, in knitting, by Lori

I don’t know if you’re like this, but I have a very itchy mouse-finger. When I see yarn or tools or patterns I like, click! click! click! Right into the electronic shopping cart. Or the Ravelry queue. More, more, MORE! About a year ago, I realized that I could stem the spending tide by putting things in electronic shopping carts and clicking “save” instead of “check out.” That seemed to do the trick, somehow; it satisfied that momentary craving, and after a while, I didn’t really need whatever it was I’d put in the shopping cart. My Amazon account is like that too.

Now, though, now that I’m in the period between having a stable income and figuring out how to have at least enough of an income, it has a new urgency. Frugal is my new watchword, at least in this interim period.

So last night I went “shopping” in my ravelry account. I looked at the excesses in my queue (though I’m not as bad as some! one raveler has 6,182 projects queued and 20,141 things faved. I’m going to have to unfriend her because when I look at my friends activity page, it’s always flooded by her and we don’t have the same taste). Anyway – long diversion there, sorry – I looked at my 183-item queue and put some real order in it. After I finish the projects on the needles, what do I really want to knit? Really?

I have 10 projects ready to go, matched with yarn that’s already in my stash:

Austin Hoodie, knit with my porcelain tosh merino light
Sockhead hat, knit with some cool sock yarn my youngest daughter gave me for mother’s day
A Noro striped scarf, using some really beautiful and soft Noro I stashed
Inaugural Sweater, with yarn I bought specifically for it
and A Very Braidy Cowl, with yarn I got from Kelly when she was destashing