New Feature - Pinteresting

I'd like to try to do a weekly round-up of my favorite pins. This is partly inspired by Knitted Bliss's Pin-Ups series and partly because I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. I really love it.

My boards vary from recipes to fandom to cute cat pictures to knitting patterns to clever craft projects as well as ideas for teaching and stuff I'd like to do with/for my future children. I also like gardens and home decor. My pinning is pretty eclectic but I pin a lot. I've got more people following my Pinboards than reading my blog!

SO. Some of my favorite pins this week are:

1. 

This Lighted Burlap Garland would look so pretty in lieu of an evergreen swag on our staircase. I usually try to decorate our stairs somehow, but I really love the look of the lights and the colored fabric. I imagine you could use Christmas themed fabric or even just colored cotton or something since sometimes burlap is expensive. (Yes, I was looking at Christmas decorations in August. It's been really hot lately and I'm pretty much done with summer, okay?) If I was really ambitious, I might try to do a garland like this for different seasons or in different colors or something and keep the string lights strictly for Christmas, but I don't think I'm willing to dedicate that kind of time to this.

2.) 

 

Photobooth Props

My sisters' Sweet 16 party is coming up and we're thinking about DIYing a photobooth so they and their friends can have a bunch of fun pictures. I've been spending a great deal of my Pinterest time looking at other people's projects, from the extremely extravagant to the kind of pathetic. We're shooting for something easy and simple but with a cool visual effect. 

3) Which brings me to:

40+ DIY Photo Backdrops

Right now we're thinking about either streamers, a balloon wall, or some kind of funky beaded or glittery or sequined curtain against a solid colored plastic party tablecloth. Cheap and simple but a visual treat. We hope. I'll try to post pics of the process once I finish the "research and development" phase. Maybe in a couple weeks.


4)

Muggleborns at Hogwarts

This is one of my new favorite things: the various Tumblr scenarios in which we imagine modern muggleborns at Hogwarts. This isn't the funniest one but it's the one I've pinned most recently and it's still pretty entertaining. I'm not sure where I found it (probably in the bowels of Tumblr), but I saw one about muggleborns singing Queen and trying to figure out wi-fi at Hogwarts...

5.)

Butterfly Lavender

I really want a ton of butterfly lavender around my house. It's pretty, it smells nice, it cleans the air (if it's an inside plant - but it needs full sun!), and lavender is really, really, really good for bees. And bees are important if you - like me - enjoy eating good food.

6.)

this kitty

I wasn't kidding about the cute cat pictures. This is pretty much what Gatsby looked like when he was little. His head's bigger now but his whiskers are certainly as long. That's the fun thing about having a tabby - most of them look quite alike.

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed this (and the larger font - I'm trying it out to see if it's more legible). I had a fun time curating my favorite, most recent pins. If you're not currently on Pinterest, make sure you take a moment to say goodbye to your loved ones before you log on, because there's no going back! You can follow me on Pinterest (any or all of my boards, find your cup of tea) HERE.

love,

Willow

Answer Me This, Vol. 16 - SuperWhoLock and 90s TV

Welcome to Answer Me This! The Q&A style linkup hosted by Kendra over at Catholic All Year. It's the internet's favorite cocktail party!

1.  What is your favorite room in the house?
I spend most of my time in the living room, but now that I think about it I don't really have a favorite room. This is mostly because I don't like where I live and with whom I live and why I live there. Hopefully soon I'll be moving into a two bedroom place and I'll be able to convert the second bedroom into an office/library/study type of room with my desk and papers in it. Ideally I'll be able to put a futon or something in there as well to be able to convert it into a kind of guest room if necessary. (I know, I can barely afford where I'm living now so thinking I'll be able to live in a 2 bedroom place by myself is crazy but I can dream, you know!)

2. Do you subscribe to any magazines or periodicals?
I do! I have a subscription to The New Yorker which I plan on cancelling (I thought it would be intellectually stimulating but instead it's just taking up tons of space). I subscribe to Poets & Writers as well as Writer's Digest and The Sun. Those three I quite enjoy.

3. How do you feel about the sign of peace in Mass? Enriching? Awkward? Overdone? Just right? Some combination of the above?

Source

Because I usually attend the teen mass, I find it excessive and overdone as the teens form a mob and try to hug every.single.person. It's great that they're filled with love and I think that's important but they mistake it for social hour. I enjoy the Saturday night vigil mass when I can make it because it's still very warm and welcoming and joyful, but still more restrained and reverent. I love that the sign of peace is still part of our liturgy but there's a distinct disruption of the reverence accorded to the consecrated Eucharist when people are running around in the aisles to hug people in other pews. Give a hug or a kiss or shake hands and smile but remember that Jesus is sitting up there.

4. What is your least favorite sound?
Nails on a chalkboard.

Also the strangled cat noises that fill the house when my uncle decides to "sing" in the shower. I usually have to check and make sure he isn't actually strangling the cat.

Source

5. What was your favorite TV show (or shows) growing up?
My "I grew up in the 90s and was a teen in the 2000s" is about to show in a really big way...

I loved Recess and Boy Meets World and Lizzie McGuire and As Told by Ginger. They were just so good. I feel like they were actually about friendship and family and the stuff that's really important without being obnoxious and obvious about it because they were still really entertaining.  Once I got into middle school I stopped watching as much TV and by the time I was in high school, the internet almost completely replaced it. However, I still have very fond memories of watching those shows and talking about them with my friends at school the next day.

6. What are your favorite TV shows now? 
Currently on air? Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock (BBC), and Top Gear: UK. Otherwise, I don't really watch TV on a television. I watch shows that ended ages ago on Netflix. I'm currently on season 7 of House: M.D. 

*If you find yourself suffering from SuperWhoLock Syndrome, please consult your local fanbase on Tumblr or Pinterest for support.*


So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.

love,
Willow


 
*Author's Note: The "Answer Me This" logo image belongs to Kendra Tierney over at Catholic All Year. None of the other images in this post are my property. They belong to very talented, hard-to-track-down artists on the internet. I have given credit as best as I could where I was able. Thank you for not suing.*

Answer Me This, Vol. 15 - Summer, Pie, and Libraries

Welcome to Answer Me This! The Q&A style linkup hosted by Kendra over at Catholic All Year which is super fun and easier than coming up with my own content. It's also known as the internet's favorite virtual cocktail party! (in my opinion, at least)

1.  What do you still want to do this summer?
 All the things! I really want to take a long weekend and go to a hotel by the beach, but that probably won't happen. I want to ride my bike a bit more and I want to continue cleaning up my room. There are only 4 weeks left of summer technically, and I'm spending most of them at the office. I do want to polish at least one of my poems to start submitting to lit mags by fall deadlines, though. So that's my wishy-hopey for the next 4 weeks.

2. What's your favorite kind of pie?
 Apple. I love to make it and I looooove to eat it. I'm also a big fan of cheesecake, even though it's technically not a pie.

This is technically a cherry pie. I love making cherry pies, but I won't eat them.

3. How much sleep do you need each day? How much do you get?
 I've learned over the last several months that I actually require about 9-10 hours of sleep. I usually get about 8, which is great (I guess?) but it sucks right now because I'm in super night owl mode so I'm not falling asleep until 1:30/2am which means I'm naturally waking up at 10am. Do you see how this is screwing with my work schedule? I'm trying really hard this week to be better about getting to bed and doing sleepy things like drinking tea and not watching House on Netflix...

Source

4. Do you prefer to swim in a pool, lake, river, or ocean?
I like to do my swimming in pools and lakes, thanks. Rivers are not really my friend and the ocean is a bit yucky and has sharks in it. Pools and lakes are clean and cool and refreshing and so nice.

5. Do you know any poems by heart?
Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman. It's technically a picture book but it's told in inverse and has a very lyrical quality to it. Also, when my Blueberry Girl was little she would insist that I chant it over and over again while pushing her on the swings, so it stuck in my head.

I'm also very familiar with In Flanders Fields and Because I Could Not Stop for Death--. I also know Jabberwocky and assorted Shel Silverstein poems.

6. Do you use the public library?
 No.  Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of libraries and the institution that is the Public Library and libraries and librarians are wonderful and do great good in our world and I absolutely support and promote the use of the library, but I do not use the library myself. I wish I did and I wish I could but there are several reasons why I don't.

a) The public libraries in my area are dark, dingy, scary places with terrible lighting and a very limited selection of books I'd be interested in reading.

b) Because I work all the freaking time I either take a 1 1/2 months to read a book or I binge read 3 in one weekend. Library due dates do not seem to understand this.

Source

c) I often find a lot of markings, dog-eared pages, mysterious stains and smells as well as sticky spots in library books. This makes me sad, angry, and frustrated and generally ruins my reading experience.

d) My To-Read pile is staggering on both my Kindle and my nightstand. I don't need to go to the library when I'm still trying to get through all of these books I already own.

There are some really beautiful libraries out there and there are fabulous librarians in them. I simply don't have the privilege of living near any of them right now.

So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.

love,
Willow


 
*Author's Note: The "Answer me This" logo image belongs to Kendra Tierney over at Catholic All Year. The first two images in the "favorite quotes" part of this post are my property - if you wish to use them, please ask. The rest of the images in this post belong to very talented, hard-to-track-down artists on the internet. I have given credit as best as I could where I was able, thank you for not suing.*

The Letter Writer, Revisited

It's been a little over a year since I started writing letters as part of the Letter Writer's Alliance, and I've recently organized all the (good) mail I've received in the last year or so.

That's a lot of letters, people. In fact, that's 38 letters (which doesn't account for all the letters I received in high school and college - just the past year and 3 months). And I thought it's high time I write a few reflections on letters and letter writing in general as well as a bit about why the heck I write so many damn letters (this is a question posed to me quite often).

Go check out this post before reading if you want some of the relevant back story.

Answer Me This, Vol. 14 - Quotable Summer

Welcome to Answer Me This! The Q&A style linkup hosted by Kendra over at Catholic All Year which is super fun and easier than coming up with my own content. It's also known as the internet's favorite virtual cocktail party! (in my opinion, at least)

1. When driving, are you more likely to listen to the radio, to CDs or an iPod, or nothing at all?
I really don't like the radio because very rarely is there every anything good on, so I find myself constantly flipping through my pre-sets. So generally I listen to mix CDs (my car is one of those that came out just before iPod connectivity to car stereos became the norm).

Source

2. Do you prefer window or aisle?
Window seat. I like being able to look out. I don't necessarily need to be able to get up and stretch my legs or use the lavatory on airplanes (unless it's a trans-Atlantic flight because any more than 6 hours on a plane is just too long to stay seated). Plus, window seat gets to lean against the side of the plane to sleep.

3. Do you fall asleep on your side, back, or stomach? What position are you in when you wake up?
I usually fall asleep with my head on the far right side of my bed and my toes pointing at the bottom left corner, on my side, almost on my stomach. (I can't sleep all the way on my stomach because that's just too uncomfy.) I wake up on my other side on the other side of the bed, because my alarm goes off, I roll over to turn it off, and stay put because sleepy. And somehow my little cat wedges himself behind my knees at some point after I've rolled over in my sleep and takes up more than half the bed in that position. But I generally take up the whole bed to start with and then flip during the night. According to this handy Doghouse Diaries Infographic, I'm a combo of The Side-Sleeper and The Fortress Sleeper, because I also really like having a zillion pillows surrounding me.

Source

(*Dear Future Husband: A thousand apologies, but it is going to take me a looooooong time to get used to sharing, since I can currently pick up and move my current bedmate, the cat. Sorry in advance for being difficult!*)

4. When is the last time you attended a zoo, circus, carnival, county fair or parade?
Ummm..... the zoo and the circus were both when my sisters were little, so probably (at least) 10 years ago. A carnival? Probably 3 years ago when I went to our parish festival/fiesta thing for an hour because I was supposed to make an appearance. County fair? It's been about 8 or 9 years. But I attend my hometown Western Days' Parade every October. I've missed it twice in something like 15 years (probably more) and there were extenuating circumstances including a scheduling conflict.

found on Etsy

It looks like I'm really not a fun person, but I generally don't like that kind of stuff. Too many people.

5. Do you have a favorite quote or inspirational saying?
I looooooooove me some quotes!

 

That was basically my mantra while I was in college. I was blessed with some really good friends while I was there who reminded me regularly that it wasn't over until everything was right. I'd forgotten all about it until I started writing this post.

This one is so, so true and so hard to remember. I may print out this graphic (I made it on PicMonkey all my myself!) and set it as a screensaver on my glasses for the times when my uncle is really annoying....

My mother and I say this quite often, because it seems like something always, always, always goes wrong on family vacations. Always. SO we call it an adventure and carry on. It's especially important when you miss your train, or your hotel room has been double booked, or you lose your keys, or the baby has decided to have a major tantrum right in the middle of an already bad situation.  Call it an adventure and make it so.

Also, this one. Shine on, snowflake. Shine on.


6. What's the best thing about summer? 
The heat, the fresh fruit, and the long, lazy evenings that last for hours.

I used to love summer because it meant getting a break, an easier schedule, going on trips, extra money in my pocket, swimming by the pool and being outside all the time, seeing friends I hadn't seen for months... But in the last 3 years all of that has changed. I work in an office full-time - no Christmas or summer breaks - and summer is spent inside instead of poolside. I'll go out of town with the family maybe once, but they'll leave me behind multiple times to go to the lake or take my sisters to girl scout camp or something else. I'm trying to remember that this is a temporary season of my life and that someday - sooner than I think - I'll be able to take the time off and do the things that refresh and relax me. It just isn't today or this week or this summer.



So that's it for this round of Answer Me This! If you have a blog, answer the questions and link up with us over at Kendra's in this post. Don't have a blog but still want to play? That's okay because this whole thing is made up and the posts don't matter - leave your answers in the comments either at Kendra's post or right here! I'd love to hear from you.

love,
Willow


 
*Author's Note: The "Answer me This" logo image belongs to Kendra Tierney over at Catholic All Year. The first two images in the "favorite quotes" part of this post are my property - if you wish to use them, please ask. The rest of the images in this post belong to very talented, hard-to-track-down artists on the internet. I have given credit as best as I could where I was able, thank you for not suing.*