Monday, December 31, 2007

in review

unfortunately more for me than for you this is less of my year in review than
a review of both a book and movie that i would highly recommend.
i'll start with the movie we just watched...
Once.
Once is my hands-down favorite movie of 2007.
a simple story really, perfectly simple.
a Dublin musician meets a Czech immigrant. the end.
86 minutes of cinematic creativity, haunting music and two magnetic characters.
we've since, bought the soundtrack and cannot get the lyrics out of our heads as well as our car stereos, ipods and laptops.
how few films sit with me longer than a moment, now and days, and for that i must recommend Once.

the book i've just finished is my other end of year favorite.
it took me a while, with a slow start, but the night i found myself closing the last page,
a nostalgic and sad cloud formed over my pillow as i drifted off to sleep.
the book:
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
an epic about a relationship that spans one hundred years in south america,
a calming read for cold nights, and a beautifully written story of persistence and hope in the midst of a
grey historical setting during the days of cholera.
a wonderful read.

i think i enjoyed both for the sheer pleasure of their simplicity.
true life, made remarkably poignant and clear.
Here's to hoping that the new year is just as fresh and uncomplicated.

...take this sinking boat and point it home
we've still got time,
raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice,
you've made it now...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

craving creativity

lately, i've been craving creativity.
whatever it be - sewing, knitting, writing, photography...
yet instead of sitting down and actually doing something...
i'm soaking up what others are doing...like a sponge...
reading blogs, lingering over over thought out word, every post...
and continue to pout, and wish i had more time...
wishing i had full days off, alone in my house,
creating little treasures to keep and to share.

it's not that i haven't been busy,
but i haven't been too successful lately.
in the last two weeks i "knit" my first sweater.
thick green marino wool...
with oversized size 19 needles...
i had visions of curling up with a book on the couch
wrapped in my bulky handknit sweater...
it went quickly and was fairly simple,
the weave was loose, i thought it would be endearing to make it a little
oversided...
well, oversized it was indeed.
when all was said and done and i was finishing up the seams with my mom at her house...
we realized how big it really was...
needless to say, it ended up being too big even for my dad and
my mom spent the rest of the night unraveling the whole piece, to salvage the 30 dollars worth of yarn.

i also began to use my sewing machine a few weeks ago,
but soon after, i knew something was not right.
the small bobbin seamed out of line, unbalanced.
i eventually brought it in to be looked at and they told me they had to send it in to be fixed.
there went all my visions of delightfully small hand sewn gifts for christmas.
napkins and aprons and book covers...
that was nearly two weeks ago and it is yet to be fixed.

so instead i'm ready all my favorite blogs about what others are making...
and i sit here jealous and creatively frustrated.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

my happy accident

i had a little accident on sunday night...
the browns game was on and i was happily knitting away while curtis and my cousin joe where enthralled in the game...
i ran upstairs to get something, clad in slippers i would soon learn were way to slick for our hard wood floors...
as i was hopping back down the stairs in a horse-like trot, my feel slipped out from under me and down i went,
my back hitting every hard. wood. step.
as i was lying at the bottom of the stairs moaning in pain...
all i could think of was how i would manage if i was paralized for the rest of my life...
luckily i could still feel my toes, which put my melodramatic fears on the back burner as i tried to catch my breath after the wind was knocked out of me.
we all agreed that a trip to the er wasn't necessary as i stubbornly refused to ice my slowly swelling back.
(we keep our house just too cold to think about putting ice on my already freezing body...)
needless to say i am not only bruised and sore, but i was not able to sleep on my back that night, so i had a fitful night's sleep...
i decided to take the day off...as i couldn't bare think of sitting on my bruised tush all day...
now i'm sitting two days later and i'm just as sore, if not in more pain now than i was before.
but thankful for the little break in my monotonous week...where i got to write my christmas cards, watch oprah and knit the body of my first sweater...
now i'm off to take more, much-needed advil.

 
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