Feeling Inspired but Work is Getting in the Way

My mom made a joke today and said, "Well, you can't get paid to sit home and knit." I disagree! How do I make my dreams come true-er!?

A Bit of Toast and Jam, Please!

I adore the online store TOAST (and they are having a HUGE winter sale!). You can order your very own catolog here! Their website is full of cozy sweaters and pjs and everything made for a chilly night in Maine! Cuddled up next to a fire. Dreaming of days where we see snow on the ground outside our windows!

I picked a few of my favs and created a perfect sheep farming outfit! Well, maybe a perfect outfit for a cozy night at the dinner table with my wife after a long day on our sheep farm. Ahhhhh, to dream! all images are from toast:

Loving these slippers! Perfect to slip on after taking off the boots!

Time To Read More Words (and share some more of my own)

So happy to have connected in the internet with this cool lady: Check out her blog (at which she and her hubby are renovating an incredible home and barn!)and her fabulous etsy site!

I have made a new decision for this upcoming year of my blog reading. Reading blogs is one of my favorite things to do after work, while cuddled up on the couch with my wife and our dogs and fat cat (often with a cup of tea and glass of wine-bliss!). But, after reading a few blogs over the past year or so, I have noticed that I feel terrible about myself after I read them...like I'm not one of the cool kids again. And it is totally ridiculous and insane but it is even more silly that I keep reading those sites (and following a few of them on twitter). I know this is totally about me and not them or their blogs but I know that there is something small beneath the surface that is a bit pretentious and maybe not so real. I can just feel it. So, my decision is to only read blogs that fill me with inspiration and depth rather than begin questioning my worth or productivity or "coolness." This is not to say that I will only be reading blogs about world peace or climate change, I will still hunt for the perfect vintage outfit, the best red lipstick, the perfect barn renovation project done on a modest budget, and I will blog about these things, too. I will also look inside myself a bit to see why not being the cool kid still hurts like hell.

With this said, I also happen to read many other inspiring and ego-less blogs (like AO and hers and hers and hers and this one and this one, too! Ooops, and more (I will share more as I find them). See, there are many fabulous women who create blogs full of art and design and crafting and share their recipes and photographs and share my love of vintage and thrifting and reading. They also share stories of their lives and all of the great parts and the sometimes not-so-great parts. All which are pretty incredible secrets to share with strangers. And I feel lucky to read them. So, thank you, great bloggy ladies! Happy New Year!

p.s. I have a twitter so feel free to follow me. I mostly post about drinking coffee, knitting, tweeting about raising our cute little chickens, or commenting about my wonderful wife's pet sitting business (to help market her).

Oh, and I got a new computer! Wooooot! So, now I will be able to blog more. My computer was slllllooooowwwwing down the past few months and I was frustrated every time I used it. Well, no more! Oh, sweet, sweet Mac, how I love thee always!

I love how Atwood loves to be right in my lap while I knit. <3

Shop update!

The shop was just updated! Happy holiday shopping!

This weekend...

-photograph new (to me) vintage wares for etsy -list on etsy -package sold orders -knit (bought 3 pretty new yarns at the yarn shop last night!) -snuggle with the babies and the wife (really #1 on my list) -read -knit -finish college teaching position application (b/c I am a slacker) -submit fiction and creative non-fiction for publication (ack!) -wash blankets -stare at the Christmas tree -make a felt mouse for my mom's cat -knit some more -read some more -breathe

Trimmings

Our dining room table with our tree up! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

WTF is CSS? and how do I even begin to speak?

I am at war with myself. (I always want to say "elf" after I say "myself" as in myself the elf- but I digress) I want to make an all-star blog full of fabulous vintage finds, pictures of the food I make, the cakes/brownies/cupcakes I bake, or will be baking more now that we have eggs, noteworthy mentions of fashion, art, the world that grows around me. But, in order to do this I need to speak the language and thus far, CSS and Photoshop and HTML is as foreign to me as, um, some other foreign language that I do not speak. The war with myself (the elf-whew, I feel much better) is fueled by looking at other beautiful blogs, blogs written by women who appear to be amazing and carefree and fluent in the words of the machine, i.e. the web design environment. I am committing myself(I didn't do it this time...ok, stopping now)to learning Photoshop CS5 since I freaking OWN it and maybe watching all of the youtube.com tutorials will help me. I am in need of arrows and pointers and fun fonts and creative cutouts of my favorite internet finds, yo! I need brushes and tools and cut little pinking shear borders around my blogness. Stay tuned, folks. Stay tuned.