Happy Halloween!

Instead of getting a costume, going out, and being a part of the Carbondale community last night, I watched (a little) of the Oregon v. USC game and read The Girl That Kicked the Hornet's Nest again. I sat in the chair with sun on it for as long as possible, then got into a pile with Kodak, Baxter, and yes, even Comma, for afternoon reading/napping. Not much going on - other than reliving the mental kung-fu Lisbeth pulls out on Sweeden's legal system.

Out of the blue, I got a call (I heard her voice!) from my sister in Turkey! She skype-dialed me and she told me all about her next mind-stretching project: NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I am excited to hear how it goes for her. It was a short call, but it was 11 pm where she was and sometimes that's just how it goes. I got to hear a bit from Adam too, as he piped up in the background. I miss you C!



I also received a phone call from my brother, Josh, and we talked details of our get together this week. I get to see both of my brothers! Josh and Krista are working in St. Louis this next weekend and they (as per usual) beat the truck with all the stuff so they get a few days to bum around. We'll meet in Bloomington, hang, go spend time with Miah, Jessie and the kiddos, and then on Wednesday I'll drive them back to St. Louis. I am really looking forward to meeting Krista and I don't see Josh near enough.

Aftermath

I would need to be an engineer to know the exact amount of damage that was the aftermath of my last post. But, I'm not. I just got a lot of love and a lot of calls/texts about it. Wowzas. It's nice to know people are still reading my posts!

Thanks for the support and messages everyone. You can be sure I'll let you know what's going on.

Right now, however, the only news I can confidently share is Carbondale will be in the past as of December! Dan was accepted into the Springfield internship, and that means a move to the condo in Bloomington. Yay! Yay! No more Carbondale! Friends, space, stuff...all good.

Move to Juneau?

Here is some news: I want to move to Juneau.

Before leaving Juneau this last time, I was playing with the idea of moving there. I let my mind wonder around the fun things, and the not so fun things (like snow, and dark, and snow, and getting stuck in snow), and before leaving I was okay with all of that. I talked with some friends who made the move and how it differed from their estimations. Once getting back, I started looking into it more. It didn't help that it was still in the low 90's in Carbondale, I'll be honest.

It was good to be back home, but I couldn't/ can't stop thinking about getting back there. Have you been? Have you seen the mountains and smelled the rain? Bald eagles hanging out like it's no big deal. Black bears are part of the downtown night life. Friends, community, fish. It's my kind of place. I like walking to work. I like drinking beer. I like hiking mountains and living with rain.

Before leaving Juneau a job was mentioned to me. When I got home, I forwarded my contact info to the boss lady, and along with her reply she brought up the position again. I decided to talk with her about it. I liked what we talked about. I'm now waiting for the Big Boss man to return from vacation so I can talk with him.

I've looked at ferry tickets. I've thought about what to do with my condo. I'm looking at apartment listings.

Nothing is decided and no papers have been signed.

I don't know if this is something that will be short term or long term. I'm not putting all my chips in, but part of me is hoping that it all works out. Part of me is freaked out if it all works out.

I moved to Illinois in 2005 freshly graduated from college and married. It's 2010 and I'm no where nearer to being ready to open my shop and I'm divorced. Illinois has a certain amount of baggage associated with it. Maybe I need more time. Maybe I just need to get over it, but the things I hated about Illinois in 2005 are still things I struggle with. Heat. Humidity. Heat. Flat. Land locked. And, of course, the heat. The summers I've passed in Illinois since 2007 (the time of The Deciding - more on that another time) have been: 2008- working 80 hours a week in an air conditioned restaurant; 2009 - I was in Juneau; 2010 - working the coffee shop until I couldn't take the 105 degree heaumidty (heat + humidity) and I went to AK for 7 weeks.

Good things came from all that inside time being camped in front of the air conditioner: I started sewing. I don't know what took me so long to bust out my Bernina, but Carbondale set that to motion. Thanks Carbondale. But a girl can't sew from April to October, all the day long.

Does living in IL mean leaving every summer to keep my sanity, not to mention regain any ability to act as something other than a cool air zombie? Maybe.

I don't know what will happen. I'm thinking about all parts of it pretty much non stop. All parts. Non stop.

The sleeping house.

Fuzzy

We're having a fuzzy morning here in Carbondale. The kitties look like road kill - splatting themselves all over the house. "What happened here!" I can imagine a detective saying. "We loved them to death."

One of the last farmers' markets was this morning. One more week then it's kaput. We brought home apples and cheese. Yum. I whipped up some pesto eggs and biscuits for breakfast, and now I'm off to sew. It will be a blue pouf for an order on Etsy.

The work space is looking a bit rough, but I figure, soon everything will be boxed up and sent either to Bloomington or Juneau. It can be messy a little longer. Besides, messy = creative! Right?

Sweet Pea's Treats

My friend Audrey is amazing! She has been a fantastic baker for quite sometime, and now is starting her business. At this point she is loaded with orders in the Bloomington/ Normal area, but now anyone can have her treats! She put up an Etsy page, and was featured, and here is her link: Sweet Pea's Etsy

Last weekend when I was visiting her, she let me eat a roasted banana cupcake with honey and maple butter cream frosting. I am pretty picky on banana flavored things, but these were the perfect combination of moist and firm, with an unexpected natural sweetness mixed in with the smooth calm of the frosting. So good. Yum.

And isn't the whoop-de-do on the top wonderful!?

two new pillow orders and a kitty

I had some scraps, so the other night I tried making a cat doll. It was a good first try, but I'll need to revamp the pattern if I decide to make more. I made the head completely separate from the body, and because of the quick stitching to see how it looked, it is incredibly floppy.



These are the next to orders I've put together for some Etsy customers. One wanted purples in a 24 " pillow, and the other wanted purples and pinks in the 18". I'm excited to see them puffed up and finished!

And this is Comma getting set to get on her perch. I had to take her collar off this morning, as I saw it had rubbed the fur off her neck underneath it. It wasn't tight and had plenty of slack to rotate on her neck so I don't know what to do other than keep it off to let her fur grow back, then keep a closer eye on it. She is a super happy kitty, and I think she is finally fully adjusted to life with the boys. Even in the feline world, it's hard to live with boys! She's a trooper.

Cute

Kodak helped me feel better yesterday by being super cute pretty much non-stop. Happy Tuesday world!

Couple of cute ones of the couple

This last weekend I had the pleasure of taking a few photos of my dear friends for their engagement. I've been going through them today a bit, and am getting ready to send them up to Trish and Crissy. Here, take a peek!


I had a little extra time today to play with the files, as I caught The Sickness and worked only as the register girl and delivery driver. Home by 11:30 is nice!

Tomorrow I hope to share the two custom pillow orders I sewed together, and maybe a cute pic of the kitties. Thankfully, always something going on!

Trish and Crissy

Trish and Crissy are getting married next September. The 3rd of September, to be exact. They unveiled the date and their wonderful blog Serendipitous Soulmates at their engagement party last night. In T & C fashion, the food was wonderful, the venue was fun and festive, and their friends and family were a fun bunch to hang with.

While taking their photos yesterday morning, T & C were explaining some of the events for the evening and the "games" they would be playing. All the guests were encouraged to come up with a new last name for them, as they are hoping to come up with something that would blend both of their current names. It was a hoot! Heffren and Malott were twisted and rearranged and the things that came out made for some great, infectious laughter.

To get the crowd mingling, they also had a human scavenger hunt. There were descriptions of people with things about their life or a fun trait. My clue, for instance, was "sews with a cup of joe." One other that stuck with me was "deflects with carrots." The idea was a friendly way to learn something that might not come up in a mingling conversation, and in fact, was quite detailed info of stranger. Brilliant!

I'll post some photos from the morning's shoot after I get them cropped and sent off to the ladies. It wouldn't be fair to share them with the world first.

The weekend has been super fun and rejuvenating. I love my friends and have had the distinct pleasure of giving and receiving support. How do people make it in the world without friends? I hope I never have to find out.

Couple things

The Beast is all clean and oiled. The dust bunnies and cat hair that piled up in my 8 weeks gone. Pieces are cut and ready to sew. I have an order. I'm happy to be getting organized and to be use my hands.

The world seems to be spinning fairly fast in Carbondale. All ready it is the middle of the month. Dan is neck deep in mid terms and I'm trying to stay out of his way - keep the cats from annoying him, trying to be quiet.

I had a phone call yesterday with HAPA about a year round job in Juneau. I have time to think about it. I've got pro/con lists all over the desk. I'm trying to separate my certain dislike of Carbondale from the equation - as next semester will hopefully be in Bloomington regardless.

I need to keep my hands busy or the thinking will start me into crazy.

This weekend I'll be in Blono and with friends.

Kristy ran!

Kristy ran the Chicago Marathon! Yay Kristy!

Dan and I went up to Chicago to cheer her on this past weekend, and Chicago put on a good show. The weather was warm, the breeze came out, and most were in good spirits.

We drove through Champaign and made a jam drop at my brother's. Six huge jars of Ciara's homemade jam from the stock pile at dad's house to his. "How long with this last you Miah?" "Six jars? Probably six weeks." My brother loves jam.

My weekend was rounded out with a trip to my favorite fabric shop - The Needle Shop - and a special treat of meeting Alice, Gus's sister and Dan's aunt. I happen to think aunts are pretty cool, being one myself, and Alice was no exception. She is a wonderful story teller, and hearing about how she met her husband on a 2 week long steam ship voyage from New York to Athens was both hilarious and a trip through time.

There was a lot of fun crammed into the weekend, so I'm tired today. I got sun burnt while cheering Kristy on (ironic as she was running to raise money for skin cancer research), and for some reason my body hasn't liked the weather since leaving Juneau. I can't seem to drink enough water, and lotion just gets sucked into my skin. I'm hoping everything calms down. Or it rains. Both would be preferred.

Back to the Grind

I'm home.

I started back at Common Grounds yesterday, happy to be pulling shots. People kept coming in with, "hey you're back!" Everyone thought it had been three months since I left. Did it really seem that long to them?

The sink is broken, the lights aren't fixed, and things I used to deep clean seem to have been a bit neglected. But that's my job - cleaning the underbelly of the shop.

We were working long days in Juneau. Really long days sometimes. But I can take those types of hours way better than working a counter for 8. The morning rush was great - keeping me energized and working out the cobwebs in my barista parts. But once the midday lull started and crept to the afternoon... painful.


Spokane was a great stop on the way back. It was short, but much needed. My parents are really great people - my dad time and mom time was relaxing, and I was able to work out some ideas I've been rolling around in my head. Phone calls aren't anything like real face time. I also got to see my dear friend Rena. Rena! I love Rena.

The cats are happy to see me - Baxter in my lap right now in fact. Comma has totally mellowed out in the six weeks I've been gone. I think the heat had her stuck in a funk, but now that the highs are in the 60's and the nights are downright chilly, she is down right snugly. This is much more like her hometown Portland weather.