Category: 29 things

Almost-Quarterly Report: 29 Things

Karen1 Comment

When I was laid off I thought immediately of the 29 Things and how things like paying off debt and buying a new mattress (#2 and #3) would have to be put on hold. While those things and other things that involve money or eating out have had to wait, understandably, I’ve been able to cross a few things off the list:

4. Make a queen-sized quilt. I bet you thought I forgot about this, but I’ve been working on it at my parents’ house on Sundays. I already had the fabric when I was laid off, so I thought making a quilt with no pressure to finish and put it on a new mattress might be nice. I finished piecing the top yesterday! Now I have to add a border, because someone forgot to check her math about how big a queen-size quilt needs to be. Then there’s the back and then, well, the quilting part. Good thing there’s no pressure.
16. Stop biting my nails. I’ve made some progress here, too: After I gnawed them off completely in February, I’ve been able to let them grow a little, if only because I never want my hands to look like that again.
17. Learn how to sew knit fabric. I did a practice T-shirt that ended in the FAIL bin, but I have something else in progress now and future plans for a knit dress. I think I can get this thing figured out.
25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store. Only about a 50% success rate with this one so far, but at least it’s 50%. And it doesn’t cost money.
27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals. I haven’t made any yet, but I have found three sets on clearance at Target and we’ve been using them regularly.
28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month. This was able to happen in January and even in February (we went out for Valentine’s Day brunch instead of dinner at The Paris)(#11), so maybe I can keep this one up if we go somewhere humble in March.

And one thing I can’t wait to do: 18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara the minute I find out I have a job again.

Thing #24: Learn How To Dance

Karen2 Comments

Before I thought of the 29 Things, I had already planned to take some sort of Continuing Ed class with Mr. Isbell in 2009, just to get us off the couch and away from re-watching old seasons of The Office. Once I realized I’d like to know how to dance going into the next decade, we signed up to learn “East Coast Swing.” Our first class was last night.

We picked swing because it was a more convenient night than the general ballroom dance class, and because I thought the music would be better–you’d expect big band swing standards from Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, and Tommy Dorsey in a swing class, right? Well, that wasn’t the case. Although we’re not really dancing yet, either, just going through the steps, so I guess we wouldn’t have done good music justice anyway.

Despite my disappointment in the music (Bad 90’s swing revival stuff? Really?), it was fun, and when I got home I learned a lot about the history of swing. And now I want some saddle shoes:

This will so be us in a month.

Friday Unrelated Information

Karen

1. The URL tells you all you need to know:www.cutethingsfallingasleep.org. Just don’t watch it when you’re in an afternoon tired funk at work.

2. I’ve been thinking about quilts–Thing 4 on the 29 Things. To practice quilting and binding a big quilt, I am thinking about making a doll quilt. For Toby. To sit on when he looks out the window. Because I am a crazy cat lady. (Although I think I would be crazier if I made a doll quilt for actual DOLLS.)

3. I’ve also been thinking about storage solutions, so this is appropriate: Translate your name into an IKEA furniture name here.

29 Things

Karen1 Comment

I turned 29 Saturday–which for me marks a new year much better than any drunken New Year’s Eve goings-on–and I made some birthday resolutions of things I’d like to have happen before I turn 30 and magically become a bona-fide adult. So here’s my list of 29 things I want to accomplish before I turn 30:

  1. Learn the names of the Wasatch mountain peaks–I only can point to Mt. Olympus
  2. Pay off the remaining debt
  3. Get a queen size mattress
  4. Make a queen-sized quilt
  5. Hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas again
  6. Finish reading The Silmarillion
  7. Knit Christmas stockings (starting with Toby’s, of course)
  8. Visit the north end of Zion National Park
  9. Be less wimpy about riding my bike on cooler days (80% of Copenhageners ride their bikes throughout the winter. So does my father. I’m shamed enough to try to be tougher in the spring and fall.)
  10. Eat at Red Iguana
  11. Eat at The Paris
  12. Chill a watermelon in a stream on a picnic in the mountains
  13. Knit at least one thing for charity using up yarn I have
  14. Get a new desk chair, if an affordable molded Eames chair exists
  15. Cook moules marnieres and frites
  16. Stop biting my nails. (God only knows how, since I’ve been wanting to stop biting my nails for about 20 years, but I’d like to have lovely grown-up hands now.)
  17. Learn how to sew knit fabric
  18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara
  19. Learn how to apply eye makeup that doesn’t look scary or amateurish
  20. Go to the Oyster Bar one Monday a month after work for a half-priced appetizer
  21. Replace my Rubbermaid kitchen garbage can with a broken spring top with something nicer. Because a 30-year-old should not have duct tape on her garbage can.
  22. Knit an elaborate cabled sweater*
  23. Build my collection of Bach CDs
  24. Learn how to dance
  25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store
  26. Have tea at The Grand America
  27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals
  28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month
  29. Go to Moab for New Year’s Eve

*I think this is the one to knit–after I finish that cardigan and make an owl sweater and Christmas stockings and the charity thing, of course. Hey, I have a year.