Caitlinesque

rainbow cupcakes!

2011-06-26T14:42:00.003-04:00

I've been admiring other bloggers' rainbow food for quite some time.
"I can do that!" I thought.
And then I did it.
I'm pretty proud of 'em, gotta say.

Closing Shop!

2011-05-10T13:04:00.003-04:00

I know it's an obnoxious reason to suddenly reappear in the blogosphere
(PAUSE! song lyrics flash! "*now that she's back in the atmosphere, drops of jupiter in her haaiir..."* ...sorry.) , but I'm here to inform you lovelies that CaitiJo Crochet is closing up Thursday night. Not permanently, I think. It's just time for a break. I don't have the same amount of time to devote to my hobbies anymore.Walking and reading are taking priority over crochet in my leisure time now that I'm working and stuff. Ah, growed-up life!

So, point is, if you want something, now's the time to nab it! Otherwise, I'm gonna yard-sale it. :)

Hope you're having a lovely May! I'm so excited Summer is only 3 weeks away!

beginagain

2011-03-16T13:40:00.009-04:00

In my lack of blogging, I have neglected to inform you...

I got a haircut.

And then I got it shorter still and had a fun night out with some girlfriends for Valentine's Day.

(and in case you were wondering, this is why I did it)
(I ruined it with a flatiron. The curls were dead and could not be revived.)

Also, I just visited my sister at her college on Saturday. I am happy.

The End.
<3

worship medley

2011-03-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

known and held

2011-01-29T13:20:00.003-05:00

As I'm learning to lean on Truth to conquer insecurity, I keep coming back to Psalm 139.

"God, You have searched and known me. You encompass my paths, know my ways, and hear every thought and word. You have surrounded me with yourself. I can't even understand all of this! It's too much for my mind to comprehend. There is no place I can escape from your presence. No matter where I go, your right hand is there to uphold me.

You formed my inward parts. You know things about me I don't know. You created me meticulously, beautifully, lovingly, before I was even thought of here. All the works of your hands are marvelous - including me. You made me who I am and laid out the days of my life before they began.

How precious are your thoughts toward me! If only I knew. The earth is covered with sand, yet your thoughts for me are more numerous still than every grain. Know my heart. Know my anxieties. Cleanse me of what keeps me from the purpose for which you made me, and lead me in your paths of eternal life."

So, as I was reading it again this morning, I noticed it says "your right hand is there to uphold me." And I really don't know if it technically has significance or not (I haven't done any study or research...), but it just struck me as kind of awesome that, with everything God is in control of, out of everything he could possibly need his right hand for, he has it extended to me. The world is spinning around like mad, and God has his right hand stretched out to uphold me, no matter where I am.

That's just awesome. I am so important to Him! It doesn't even make sense.

Every time I read this psalm now, I think of this song. Listen. It's pretty.

"Savior, you have known me as I am. Healer, you have known me as I was, as I will be. In the morning, in the evening, you have known me. In my rising, in my sitting down, you see me as I am. And as a lover knows his beloved's heart - all the shapes and curves of her, even in the dark, Oh you have formed me in my inward parts, and You know me."

(If you have time, listen to a couple more of her songs. They're all really good.)

P.S. The above quote scripture is not an exact quote of any translation. It's the Caitlin Paraphrase.

[in]security

2011-01-24T23:53:00.004-05:00

Thoughts from So Long, Insecurity. -Beth Moore

(Because this book is changing my life at the moment. I'm halfway through. Maybe I'll blog about the self revelation going on later. Maybe not. For now, some of my favorite thoughts, loosely quoted.)

He knows it's scary to be us. He does not take our suffering and pain lightly.

If what you went through translated as something huge to your heart,
it is huge to God on your behalf.

We live our lives screaming "somebody notice me!"
He not only notices us, He never takes His eyes off us.

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
Ps. 139:1&17

"If I search around long enough, I'll find insecurity beneath my grandiosity and arrogant expectations beneath my self-contempt."
-Dr. Richard Winter

I have chosen you and not rejected you. Do not fear.
(Isaiah 41:9-10)

I cannot put people in charge of my security without setting them up for failure.
I must stop using others as my mirror and start seeing myself as God alone sees me.
Valuable. Worthy. Beautiful.

If you could realize how valuable you really are,
your insatiable need for affirmation would be quieted.

She is clothed with strength and dignity.
(Proverbs 31:25)
You have... crowned them with glory and [dignity]
(Psalm 8:5)

We possess dignity because God Himself has it and created us in His image.
He crowned us with it.

If we knew who we were and what God has conferred upon us, what everybody else thought of us would grow less and less significant. God wills for us to walk out the depth and breadth of our lives with dignity and security.

You are my security, God.

Rapunzel No Longer

2011-01-13T11:37:00.012-05:00

And so, my friends, after more than two years of dedication,
the journey ends here.

But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

In September 2007, I decided to cut off all my hair. I'm not putting up a picture because I don't like them. However, if you want to dig in my archives, it exists.

June 2008, I became a redhead. Best. Hairstyle EVER.

I'm probably gonna go back to it one of these days. I got the best compliment on this cut - that I looked like a silent film star. yayness!

I don't remember exactly what date I decided to start growing it back out (I'm guessing Novemberish '08), but in March '09, I was definitely on my way. And tickled to I look like a hobbit. ha!

Progress went slowly at first.
July 2009 had the hobbit look long gone, but my hair was still really short.

Exactly a year later, in July '10, it was long enough to wear braided pigtails to the rodeo. lol

Aaand about six months later at Christmas,
it was super long and straight.

(sidenote: check out Alyssa's rockin' ginger curls! JEALOUS. She makes me want to go round 3 with the red so bad. But then I would look like a poser. lol)

So, January brought the decision to be finished. Mission complete. My hair is longer than the length specified when I started growing it out.

As you can see, I am super pleased.
A lot. Even though this post felt really self centered and cluttered. My hair's kinda been part of the journey on my blog, and I thought you should know that part of the journey is over. Lucky for you, that doesn't mean I'll quit talking about my hair. HA!

P.S. Thanks Erin (pictured in the last photo) for the top photo, and thanks to Katie (in the rodeo pic) for the ending photo of me and Erin. <3 love you girls. lol

Manly Movies + Inspiration =

2011-01-12T13:36:00.007-05:00

Monday night the family all settled down in the living room to watch The Bourne Identity.
Last night we all settled down for the sequel. It was late when it ended, but nobody had anywhere to be today so we stayed put and watched the Ultimatum as well.

Best man-movies ever.
Really. I prefer chick-flick type stuff, but if I'm going to watch a "guy movie," give me some Bourne. Or Mission Impossible. I can do that, too.

Anyway, I'd kind of lost my habit of crocheting while movie-watching. Inspiration left me, so I quit. However, inspiration bit me last night and those two action packed movies left me with this:

Adorable, right? Obviously, the inspiration had nothing to do with what I was watching.
It has 3 pieces - the hat, the bow part (which is just a small rectangle), and the ...uh... part that goes around the bow (which is just a tiny rectangle, plus a loop and a button). This is so that you can :
A) not wear the bow
B) wear the bow buttoned to the side, or
C) wear the bow buttoned to the side & cinch up the edge of the hat to give it a differentish shapeI really hadn't been planning on making it for myself, but... it's so perfectly, exactly what I envisioned in my mind that I don't think I could part with it. Plus, it's yellow. Need I say more?

Unrelated except for the crochet factor is this little owl mask. He's been lying around in my "finished projects" bin for... ever, and today I pulled him out, did a mini photo shoot and listed him on Etsy.
I'm rather fond of him, but I seem to recall my little sister asking "why did you make an alien head?" when I finished him. :|

I also added photos to existing inadequate listings, and I'll be adding a pair of elbow-length gloves to the shop later tonight.

Aaaand, that's about it. I don't really have anything else to add. So, I'm gonna go eat some lunch or something practical like that. lol
Happy Wednesday, friends. :)

Caiti

less and more

2011-01-10T13:25:00.003-05:00

I realized recently (for the seventy-twelfth time), that I spend way too much time on Facebook.

I like facebook. I like "connecting." But the problem is, there's not been a lot of connecting going on. Mostly just me, looking through my newsfeed, checking people's pages, waiting for something interesting to happen in someone's life that would move me to comment or think or something.

How. Pathetic.

And so, another unofficial resolution this year is to spend way less time with Facebook and more time with actual books. So far so good. To help with this resolution, I've started a 52 Book Reading Challenge for myself at goodreads.com. You can click on my challenge link to see what I've finished and reviewed. So far, I've got one book knocked out and I'm well on my way to finishing the second. If I keep motivated, I may heighten my challenge to more than 52. However, this new ambition will probably wear off with a little more time. We'll see. :)

I'm having a lot of fun rediscovering goodreads while on vacation from facebook. So, to my reading blog-friends, if you have an account, add me! And if you don't, it's worth checking out.

I feel like an advertisement.

So, I think I'm going to run off and finish my current read. Happy Monday!

Caitlin

Happy 2011

2011-01-09T18:57:00.006-05:00

Hi, blog world!

As you can see, I took a break.
My blog couldn't decide if it wanted to be ramblings about my life, etsy related stuff, or the slightly deeper ponderings on Jesus and love, so since it couldn't make up its mind, I abandoned it. My personal journal has been feeling very loved. ;-)

It still hasn't decided, but it told me I should at least pop in and wish you a happy new year. It's going to be a good year, I'm pretty sure. And I actually made resolutions! a sampling:

finish that guitar lesson book I've had around for forever
read the entire Bible
really stick with trying to teach myself the french language
hopefully find a nice person who speaks fluent french who wants to befriend me and help
knit an amazing beret

One of my unofficial goals is to sketch more. I've been on a fairy kick lately. viola! (that's french. ^.^ lol)
Actually, I think I drew the leaf-clad fairy last year. Oh well.

I really love this ginger fairy. She turned out so perfect! I've discovered I love "painting" on www.picnik.com and giving everything a watercolor kind of look.

I've never seen an emo fairy before, but I like her.

So, here's my first blog post for the year! I don't really know if I'll keep blogging or not, but I'll probably pop in from time to time.

How's your year starting off?

<3 Caitlin

Redirecting

2010-09-22T12:40:00.004-04:00

He loves me with an everlasting love. Nothing I can do or say will ever sway the power of his love for me. He thinks of me night and day. He showers me with little gifts just because it makes his heart glad to see my smile. He is jealous of the things that take me away from him.

I have rejected him. I've run from him. I've left his body full of scars.
And still he loves me.
When I leave him, those arms that ached on the cross ache to hold me close.
His hands, the hands that I wounded, long to touch me with healing and comfort.

His love for me is so strong he would kill for me.

He did kill for me.
His own Self. His own Son. He made a sacrifice of his own flesh and blood.
So that I would know his love.

And then he conquered Death!
His love is so powerful that it shattered the reign of Death so that I could be with him!
Not only for proof of his love and power, but to give me the ability to share in it.

How can I not love Him?

This is the greatest story of love ever written. This man, my Lord, who is Love Himself, wants nothing so much as for me to be caught up with him in this beautiful extravagance of love. To share in his life. To share in his power. To know and be known.

He is beautiful. And I love him.

Four Eyes!

2010-09-03T12:53:00.004-04:00

Hallo there!
Sorry for being such a bad blogger.
The summer has just been too fun for me to blog it all. Sad, yes, because now I don't have records of all my adventures. However, just living life has been great.

What brings me here today is my excitement.
"About what?" you say.
About my new glasses!

I've had the same glasses for at least 4 years. I only wear them when I can't wear my contacts. They've gotten all crooked, and I still feel partially blind when I wear them. Sooooo, last week I finally went and had an exam and ordered some new ones!

I had fallen in love with a pair of cheap, nerdy frames at Wal-Mart when I was killing time a week or so before. I decided I must have them.

The lady at Wal-Mart chuckled. Then she laughed at me outright. Then she tried in vain to get me to change my mind. "Kids these days," she muttered as she shook her head. She laughed again when I handed her my prescription. I stood my ground.

Behold!

YAY! Cute nerd glasses! It's ok if you don't like them. You're not the only one. ;-) They're certainly not as classy and smart-looking as my old pair. But it's fun to be so in love with something that you don't even care if other people think you look like an idiot. haha!

I just picked them up this morning, and I'm wearing them right now (gotta break 'em in, you know). I think I know now why she laughed again and raised her eyebrows when she saw my prescription. You can't really tell in the picture, but I believe the technical term is "coke bottle glasses." Therefore, I have this odd sensation of everything in my peripheral vision being curved. Unless I'm looking at something head-on, it's curvy. WEIRD! Walking down the hallway, it looks like the walls are curving toward me! So yeah. I'm guessing that's why she was so amused. It's a good thing I'll still mostly be wearing my contacts. However, besides for things being curvy and skewed, I can see very clearly. With my old glasses, things beyond about 4 feet away were still blurry. I can look out the window right now and see the next house no problem. Which rocks, let me tell you.

So, really, that's all. I just wanted to share.
Happy Friday! Have a great weekend, y'all.
Caitlin

P.S. FALL IS COMING!

104.7 THE FISH Celebrate Freedom Contest - Janson Roberts

2010-08-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

hey people! I know I kind of already did this, but I'm doing a really good job becoming a spammer. :) So, if you haven't seen this video, please check it out. Like I said, even if you don't care about helping my friend with the contest the song is REALLY a blessing.

Seven times Three

2010-08-06T00:24:00.007-04:00

Equals twenty-one. I always liked the "sevens" times-table. It had a quirky feeling to it when the other numbers were just boring drudgery.

But that's not really what I meant to write about.

I'm 21 today!! I meant to write while it was still technically my birthday, but I didn't get online until 11:15, then I spent the next 45 minutes talking to friends and responding to birthday wishes. So here I am, half an hour into the day after my birthday.

My birthday started out less than satisfactory. I woke up in a grumpy mood. "Bleh," I thought, "I'm another year older... why can't birthdays be as exciting as they were when I was little? I'm too young to not be happy about a birthday. But nothing special is happening anyways... It's just another day. Stupid boring birthdays."

And then the coffee was yucky. And we were out of sugar and I had to use fake stuff.

And I just got grumpier and grumpier. Within like a ten minute time span. So I went back to bed! HA!

I spent some time snuggling with my pillows and talking to God. After I wallowed in pathetic self pity for a moment, He reminded me to not be so self focused and said that if I'd fix my attitude, it would be a good day. Even though nothing spectacular was happening. So I did. And He was right. (as usual.)

Birthdays are way more fun if you get to dress up. To my great pleasure, I had the opportunity when my lovely friend Katie decided to take me out for coffee. (which was superfantastic since my morning coffee was a disappointment) So, I put on my pretty skirt and my birthday things and we headed out.

Venti hazelnut iced coffee. (that can be a sentence by itself, right?) Katie and I decided to sit in the huge orange armchairs to sip our drinks. Carrying on a conversation became awkward. The chairs were comfy, but there was too much space between them and the speaker was pouring coffee-shop ambiance right on top of our heads. Not to mention the agent in sunglasses, keeping watch over his business partner (who was working a deal on the phone) and glaring at me every time I laughed.

After Starbucks, we went fabric shopping so I can make more cute skirts. Two for her, one for me. They're going to be awesome. Expect pictures in a week or so.

When I got home, my mom was making stir fry, which I LOVE.
And since I felt pretty, I had my little sis take a few pictures of me being twenty-one.
(This was also done for the purpose of photographically recognizing some of my awesome birthday gifts!)

The amazing yellow beads of sunshine are from Erin who thinks of me every time she sees something yellow. She also gave me some sweet bird earrings which are not pictured.

The super cute birdie earrings are from Kathryn, who knows my deep appreciation for Etsy and bird-related items therein.

The PERFECT belt is from Tiffany, who loves to shop. We went shopping together and she saw that I fell in love with this belt, so she went back and bought it for me the next day!!

(Sunglasses from Rae would have been in this picture too except I wore them yesterday and now I can't find them!)

Anyway, dinner was fantastic and afterward we had a family meeting of sorts. Life has been crazy, so it was good to take a few minutes to get everybody in one place to encourage each other and regroup.

Then I got to spend some much needed time with my dear friend Katey. Life's been SO crazy that we haven't gotten to really talk in a long time, so there was a lot of catching up to do. That was nice.

Beside for all that there's been a steady stream of birthday wishes on Facebook, which has been a ton of fun. I also got a card in the mail from my sweet Mema. Then when I got online to write this four friends were chatting with me at once all of the sudden! So... YAY! What I expected to be a boring, non-special day turned out really great. Nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary happened, but it's amazing how much good sweet friends, good coffee, a pretty outfit, and your favorite food can do.

So now you know. Happy 21st birthday to me!

20 was full of craziness, and so much change I can hardly believe it.
I'm excited to see where 21's gonna take me!

Goodybe, July

2010-07-31T11:01:00.005-04:00

Thought I'd better write again before July was out. It is the last day of this fine month, you know.
I don't think I can coordinate my thoughts this morning, so a random smorgasbord of bullets is the order of the day.

I'm currently eating cheese toast with tomatoes on it, courtesy of my friend Rebecca. She brought me a lovely block of Muenster from Wisconsin last week.
July has been a month of craziness.
I made a successfully cute skirt a couple weeks ago.
I need to go fix a seam in aforementioned skirt when I get off the computer.
Yesterday I went to Six Flags again with some of my awesome friends.
I have been so busy doing things with my friends this month that I am exhausted.
Also, I have a cold.
Wednesday was bad. It was very depressing. Erin gave me a string of yellow beads and that helped.
My world is spinning around me like mad, but God's got it under control so there's no point in me freaking out about it.
People are disappointing.
God is faithful.
People are also amazing.
Thursday night I stayed up and colored a unicorn with my crayons. I think people should use crayons way more often.
Sometimes I wonder if it will ever end, but I don't really know what "it" is. I have a feeling it's not going to, though.
There is a fly that keeps buzzing around my head and it's driving me INSANE.
I've been too busy for the past week and a half to journal, which is really sad because I've been busy doing stuff that begs to be written about.
I've written more in my journal this past month than any other month in my life because I'm determined to remember. Recently I realized that I can't remember huge chunks of my life and it makes me sad. No, I mean seriously sad. Like I've lost part of my life, as if I had amnesia or something.
God is amazing. I know I sound redundant, but when life goes crazy and you're forced to just spend time sitting alone in God's presence so you don't go crazy with it, that's when His beauty becomes so real.
Sleepovers, a birthday party, a prayer retreat, a visit with old friends, six flags, VBS, are just a few of the things that have occupied my time and energy this month. And, may I say, they were all fantastically fun.
As I'm writing, I'm listening to this video: Aaand you should listen to it too because that's my friend Janson and he's entered the Opening Act competition for a chance to open at Celebrate Freedom concert this year. Go watch it. It counts as a vote for him. :) Even if you don't care about the contest, I recommend checking it out anyways because it's a fantastic song.
I could use some ice cream right now.
Yesterday at six flags I was wishing I had put sunscreen on the back of my neck, but it was too late... then we noticed someone had left some spray-on SPF 50 sitting on a bench... thank you, random person, for forgetting your sunscreen. My neck is grateful. =)
Bekka and I convinced Rebecca to get a spur-of the moment haircut while she was in town since she hated her hair. She loves it now. You're welcome, Bex. lol
On the way back from the retreat, I spent hours talking in a British accent. During which time span this picture was taken. Starbucks' shaken iced tea/lemonade is delicious. Hat shops are less boring when silly boys and silly accents are involved.
Egyptian bellydancing belts... haha. And it's ok if that didn't make sense to you. It won't make sense to most of you, but I felt like it had to be there.
I kept up the accent until it was scared right out of me when I had to run across 4 lanes of scary traffic. O.o It didn't come back after that.
If there's a cup over the ketchup pump at Zaxby's that means you probably don't want to consume that particular ketchup. Experience is a fantastic teacher.
Looking at that pic reminds me I really need to work on my gangsta face.
I won a game of Scrabble last night. Both the other girls I played with claimed to be champs. in yo face!
I feel kinda bad this post is so disorderly, but I seriously am unable to write about everything in an orderly fashion right now, so it was this or nothin'.
I never eat ice and yesterday my fingertips got all wrinkly from eating all the ice chips out of my cup at Applebee's.
Um... I think I'm done for now. Happy weekend, people. <3

I like the smell of fireworks...

2010-07-09T12:02:00.009-04:00

Happy Friday!
I have decide on this lovely, much-too-warm Friday to share with you all just how very fun last Sunday was. (In case you forgot, Sunday was the 4th of July)

Actually, I'm afraid unless you were there you just won't be able to fully know the amazingness that it was, but I feel that it would be blogger deprivation if I didn't share what I could. So here goes.

Almost our whole Sunday school class (which is a lot of people) showed up, plus a couple stray youth group kids. (Something happened when I turned 20 and all of a sudden I'm calling everyone a kid, like I'm actually older than them or something. haha.) Our favorite class activity goes like this: Everyone brings their favorite games and some food to Floyd's, and then we spend hours playing and eating. And maybe pretending to faint on Floyd's nifty sofas... ehem.

I brought cookies and watermelon. Heh heh... Nobody even knew what I did to the watermelon.

There were footballs and Frisbees and bubbles. There was Wii. There was Apples to Apples. UpWords. Life. Uno. Other games I don't know and didn't play... Lots of stuff going on all at once.

Even some modeling.

(The other models, I think, would rather their picture not be posted publicly.)

Katie and Keith and I wanted to play Uno, so we rounded up some people...
Somebody took this great picture of Anna Leigh and Laura...

Matt brought his nifty camera. He left it unattended at some point... That was fun.
Props to Matt for sharing these pics with me so I could share them with you. :)

I took this pic of 3 of my favorite people!

The boys were hardcore and grilled us some foods.
Anna Leigh took a picture of my foods.
There also happens to be a picture of me eating said foods. Wow. Thanks.

You know what? I don't think this post is doing the day much justice at all.
There were just too many people having too much fun for me to properly express it.

Here's this picture of everybody.
The best game of Catch-phrase ever was sacrificed for this picture!

So, we ate lots of food, and played lots of games, and had lots of laughs. The day ended with fireworks, as it ought. Fireworks and "Jesus music" and Christian college horror stories and snarkiness... Perfect. :)

The End.

P.S. I just had to edit this post because I used to word "awesome" about 3 times.

Just Today

2010-07-08T23:31:00.002-04:00

foreward: This is a seriousish post about a conversation I had with God about me being single. If that disinterests you, you may tune out now. =D I wasn't going to post this on my blog, so it started out earlier today as a little note on Facebook. But now it's officially a blog post too, just in case any of you would happen to like it.

So...

I was going to do this as a blog post, but then I decided that
it wasn't blog worthy. Or too personal maybe? Or that people wouldn't like it.
Or think I'm weird. Or something. I don't know. Something kept me from posting
it on my blog, but I just wanted to share it. Mostly with Erin because we've
been talking about this kind of stuff lately. (contentment, trusting God,
relationships, talking to God... you know...)

Well, I had a revelation
the other night. Or maybe it was an epiphany, whatever that is. Or just a
realization.

I was lying in bed, trying to muster up the courage to tell
God "if you want me to be single for the rest of my life, I'm okay with that." I
do a lot of my talking to God at night, in case you haven't noticed. Anyways, I
really couldn't even manage "I am content to be single til I'm 42, if that's
your will for me, God." Because, honestly? I want God's will and only God's will
for my life, but how can I promise that I'm going to be content being single
every day for the rest of my life right now?!

And then the neatest little
thing happened. God said "You don't have to be content to be single for the rest
of your life. Just today."

Just today?
I thought I had to sign it all
over and say "Lord, I am ready to be an old maid for you! Let's do
this!"

And He was like "nope. Just today. That's all I really
want."

That makes SO MUCH SENSE!

I can live with being single
today. We're supposed to take life one day at a time anyways, right?
He gives
grace when we need it, and right now I don't NEED the grace to be content to be
a crazy old bird lady for the rest of my life. All I need right now is the grace
to serve joyfully where I am TODAY.

And I dunno if this is necessarily
scriptural, but why should I force myself to say "I'm content to be single
forever" when God hasn't said that's His will anyways? I don't know WHAT His
will for the future is.

But I must act on what I DO know of God's will,
and I DO know that TODAY I am supposed to be single.
I can deal with that.
=)

And sufficient grace for each new Today will come as it gets
here.

And if it turns out that I AM supposed to be single forever, well I
guess that'll be ok too, because not only will God give grace, but Erin has
agreed to be a crazy bird lady with me.
<3

More Fun!

2010-06-25T10:13:00.003-04:00

I've really been slacking on the whole blogger thing lately. You poor dears.

This morning I decided I just needed to post something, anything.

"Let's see..." I thought to myself, "what has been going on that I can post about?..."
"Well," I said to myself, "you have been going to Six Flags a lot lately."
"Oh, right!" I replied, "that should make a good update!"

So here I am.

It's true. I've been to Six Flags a few times already this year. It feels like I've been a lot, but I can really only think of 3 times so far. That number's gonna change fast, though. If you've been around a while, you may already know of my love for this park.

Not that you can actually see me, but I'm in the front there -on that crazy wooden instrument of exhilarating torture, the CYCLONE! ahem. Most people come off it with spinal problems and migraines. bahaha. Much props to my awesome friend for capturing such a cool shot.

On the left there is the awesome friend I was talking about, but this is a different trip. That's me in the middle, in case you didn't know. On the right is my devious-est friend. All together we had a blast that day. We brought two boys along so we would have somebody to pick on - how brilliant are we? Laughter all the day long.
(...so maybe we're not that mean... ... the boys are good sports, anyhow.)

And, just so everyone knows, the best thing in the world is to ride the Goliath in the very very front in the DARK. And be the very last people to leave the park. Super cool.
So, now you know.

hello, teeth!

2010-06-11T12:19:00.002-04:00

So, Monday I got a call from Cathy at the Office.
She's my favorite Cathy.
Also my favorite person at the office.

And you know what she said?
"Hello dear, would you like to get your braces off tomorrow?"
And I said "ohmygoshareyouseriousCathyIloveyou!"
Or something like that.

Really, I wasn't *supposed* to get them off yet, even though my teeth were ready.
Cathy pulled some strings. She rocks like that.
And so, I went in on Tuesday morning to get my braces off!
But first - a picture with the awesomest orthodontist on the planet.

Dr. Wright is the bestest EVAR. Seriously. Not that I've met any other orthodontists, but if you've met Dr. Wright there's no point meeting any other orthodontists. ha. Nobody could top Dr. Wright. He's just that cool.

Out of the 2 years and 10 months of having braces, getting them off was the worst part. Well, actually that would be right after I got them off. Having your sensitive teeth blasted with icy water and freezing air is pretty uncomfortable.

However, it wasn't too terrible, and it's all over now! And now I have teeth.
... Well I had them before, but now you can see them. In all their toothy glory. It's a little odd, actually. But I'm getting used to it! I was worried I would hate how they look, and I don't, so I'm happy. :)

See how happy I look? Also, I'm wearing TWO bunny necklaces. That was a contributing factor.
And since I had the camera out, and my snake was sitting right there, I ended up with this picture, too.
He doesn't have a name yet.

I used to have braces. Now I don't. That's how the story goes.

Domesticities: baking cookies

2010-05-27T11:38:00.004-04:00

My family loves me.

Probably because I keep making cookies.
It all started about 3 weeks ago when I really really wanted some chewy chocolate cookies.
I ended up with this recipe. It's perfect!!

Just like a brownie - crinkly top, chewy edges, soft middle... YUM.
Their only downfall is they're not nearly so yummy two days later... But why let them sit that long anyways?

About the same time as I discovered the chocolate cookies, my friend shared with me some food blog on which the author was talking about using roasted flour. Intriguing! Tuesday I printed off her "squeeze cookie" recipe and gave it a try.
I decided to shape my cookies with a tablespoon instead of squeezing them. Delicious! My mom declared them pretty much the best cookies ever and demanded I make more. They're like a cross between shortbread cookies and sugar cookies - and since these were so thick they were a little cake-like in the center. Buttery, crumbly goodness.

I told her I thought they would be better if they were a little smaller, but I was at a loss for how to shape them. She suggested the pretty fluted sugar spoon. Brilliance! I ended up with a pan full of pretty shell-shaped cookies! They are absolutely perfect with a cup of hot coffee.
And there you have it.
I think I need to go eat another one...

It's Enough

2010-05-17T12:17:00.001-04:00

I couldn't fall asleep.
So I just lay there, wishing I were asleep and thinking.

Thinking doesn't seem the right word. Sometimes at night your mind takes on a mind of it's own.
Thoughts bombard me in a swirling torrent, drowning the peace, keeping out sleep.
I wish they wouldn't do that.

"Good thing relationships are the most important thing in life," I said,
"they're the only thing I'm not a failure at."

Of course, everyone says that's not true - that I'm not a failure.
I know it's not true.
Funny thing, though - Feeling can be a lot stronger than Knowing.

For so, so long I've battled with those stupid Feelings.
They have names.
Feeling Pointless. Feeling Inferior. Feeling Aimless. Feeling Stuck.

The torrent keeps telling me about Everyone else. Whoever They are.
Everyone else has a Plan.
Everyone else is climbing their ladder to their Future.
Everyone else has Goals. Real, tangible goals.
Everyone else is succeeding!
Going places. Achieving things. Being Somebodies.

What do I have?
About five baskets of laundry to fold.
About that many siblings waiting for me to cook breakfast.

What am I doing?
Staying at home. Going to church. Doing laundry.
(Wait, no. Actually, I don't do laundry. It's such a circular chore. Progress feels impossible. Put away a load, and it's time to wash another. The key to avoiding defeat is total avoidance of whatever's defeating you. That logic is not sound.)

"So why don't you go to school?" They ask.

"God hasn't told me to."
It's not a cop-out. I promise.
I don't think they believe me.
I think they think I'm a bum.

"Maybe I am."

Then I figured it out.
An Aspiration. That's what I need!

"Something to strive for," I said, "a concrete Goal to give me daily purpose. Then I will feel Fulfillment!"

...

How do I get one of those?

So I asked God. I may have beat around the bush about it.

"You said it was Your Will for me to be at home at this point in my life, right? That was You, I'm sure of it. I thought Your Will was supposed to be fulfilling. It's not! The only thing for me to do here is laundry! That's not fulfilling. It's boring."

He didn't say anything.

"Look, Jesus. Everyone else is MOVING. See? I'm SITTING. I need a Goal. Please? Just flash some inspiration into my mind. Throw me a random passion I need to pursue for your glory. Those other people are becoming writers, counselors, teachers, nurses, whatevers. I want to become too! What am I supposed to Become?"

He still didn't say anything.
He certainly didn't just toss me an Aspiration out of the blue.
But He was listening. I could tell He was listening.

Sometimes you just need someone to listen.
This wasn't one of those times.
Sometimes you just want the answer.
This was one of those times.
Sometimes it gets annoying when the listener just watches you struggle to figure it out on your own.

(That happens in Pastor's classes sometimes.)

Frustrated, I started to cry.
I felt stupid for crying. My pillow grew uncomfortably wet as I questioned God.

"Why do I feel an emptiness? Why haven't you given me a clear path? Why am I at home? I'm twenty. I'm supposed to be accomplishing things. Isn't there some grander thing for me? Isn't there some higher goal?"

Exasperated, arms raised in the darkness, I asked aloud, "Is this ALL?!"

It was like the ceiling wasn't there and my words had all gone straight out to Him.
There was a moment of nothing.

"is it enough?"

From wherever my cry had gone, these words came back to me. They weren't mine.
I didn't think them. But they were there.

"Is It Enough?" He asked me.

I knew it was Him, because He has that crazy habit of answering a question with a question.
And you know what I said back?

I said I didn't know.
Then I went to sleep.

IS it enough? Is IT enough? Is it ENOUGH?

Day after day I repeat His question.
Why would He ask that if I was right to begin with and the answer was "no, it's not enough" ?
He must be trying to get me to say yes.

*introspection* Nope. No "yes"es here. It still doesn't feel like enough.

Saturday morning. Time for devotions. I've never liked that word.
Pastor gave us homework on Wednesday:
Read John 17 every day this week.
So I read John 17 again. (I love that chapter. My favorite part is verse 24)

I checked the homework section on Wednesday's notes to see what else I was supposed to do.

"Do Something About God's Glory" it said.
No questions about what that means. It was printed in big letters on the other side of the page:
"Giving God Glory = DOING WHAT GOD GIVES ME TO DO"

It told me, "Focus on the question Am I doing what God gave me to do?"

"Well, God... what have you given me to do?" I asked bluntly.

I don't think God rolls his eyes at us.
I would have rolled my eyes at me, though.
But He just watched me sit there thinking for a minute.
I asked Him again.

"We've already been through this whole thing how You won't give me an Aspiration.
So what HAVE you given me?"

Then you know what He said?

Laundry.

I'm serious.
So. Serious.

Then He decided to be a little conversational.
He said
"You were right about My Will, insomuch as I want you to be at home as opposed to going to school or working full time. You got that part a long time ago, but it looks like you've been waiting for some Bigger And Better Will, though, and that's not happening. You need to remember that My Will is bigger and better than what you presently see. Accept it for what it is now, and we can move on to the next step when we get there."

I interrupted.
"But if I'm doing your will, why do I feel like I'm failing? Why do my days feel pointless? Why does it feel like a standstill?"

"Because," He replied, "You ARE standing still. You're where I told you to be, but you're not doing what I told you to do. Unless you're doing what I tell you to do, when and where I tell you to do it, you're not really doing My Will, are you?"

"Oh. That makes a lot of sense." I said.
I didn't say that aloud, but if words in your mind can sound crestfallen, mine did.

Like a gently reprimanding father teaching his child to recognize his own mistakes, he questioned me again. I felt like I was six years old again.

"And what is it that you have been given to do?"
"... housework...."
"Specifically."
"... I like cooking..."
"Stop dallying and just say it. You know what I'm talking about. I already told you to begin with."
"Laundry."

Then you know what He said?
He said "That's right. Whatever I have given you to do, do it. This is my will."

I have never before felt so enlightened, foolish, and disappointed all at once.
What a menial task.

"I figured out the problem. For real this time. Well actually -" I interrupted myself, "God showed me.
His will for me is to do the laundry."

Sweet words to my mother's ears.

When I say laundry, I mean it literally as well as broadly- encompassing all the little no-fun things that must be done to maintain order in a home brimful of people. I'm not exactly thrilled that this is God's will for me right now. But these are the things that need to be done Here, and I'm certain that Here is where He wants me.

I'm also certain that it's a step. You know those steps Everyone Else is climbing?
This is my step.
It just looks different from theirs. And one day I'll be on the next step. God's Will for Right Now won't be the same forever - The Present calls for menial labor. Maybe the Future will be a little shinier. Maybe.

This is where it becomes important for me to find my identity and worth in Christ and His Glory.

Let's face it - you're probably not going to be really impressed with me if we're all hanging out and you ask everyone what God has us doing right now.

Someone will probably say God has them on their way to Pensacola Christian College or something peachy like that.
Someone else will probably say God has them working a crazy stressful full time job.
Someone else might even be taking a little break from work or school to really "focus on God" and "find His will", which is dandy.

And then you know what I will say?
God has me at home doing my family's laundry and making killer chocolate cookies.

Maybe it's just me, but that sounds a lot less impressive. (except about the cookies. you should try one)
As a matter of fact, to some people it sounds downright lazy.

But nobody can say, "You're crazy. That is not God's will."
Because God already told me, "This is my will for you, love. It is enough."

The Music of Heaven

2010-04-20T17:55:00.002-04:00

Last week I read Beth Moore's Get out of that Pit.
I haven't been in a pit, but it was a good read. There was a chapter near the end entitled "Singing a New Song" that was really exciting to me. It presented the idea that we were all born for song. Our lives are a song. We are surrounded by song. We need song.

And since I don't want to write for permission to copy what she said, I'm just going to tell you what I got from the chapter in my own words.

Job 38:4-7
“ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Music is eternal. Outer space is filled with the songs of stars we can't comprehend. Heaven rings with the songs of angels. God invented music and set about filling the universe with it.

Psalm 32:7
"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."

God wants us to be free, and he surrounds us, in the midst of our battle, with songs of deliverance!
Beth Moore said to think of all the dramatic movies you've seen. She specifically mentions The Return of the King and Remember the Titans. The Lion King being my favorite movie, that's what comes to mind for me. (Ok, Hanz Zimmer is amazing, so I'm not ashamed. lol)

Movies are filled with amazingly haunting scores, triumphant scores, joyful, aching, glorious melodies. If earthly music, played on earthly instruments to accompany a drama written by fallen people has such moving power, just imagine the accompaniment with which God surrounds us! Surely it is composed of melodies we could never imagine, with sounds and structure we could never comprehend!

So... I don't know a good way to wrap this up, but that was an amazing thought to me and I thought it was worth sharing. Not only does He fill our hearts with unutterable songs to Him, and the heavens with songs beyond our comprehension, He surrounds us in the midst of our struggles with "ringing cries" and "shouts of deliverance". (Strong's Concordance)

Wow.

Hoot!

2010-04-08T09:32:00.003-04:00

Here's a mathematical equation for you.

Marshmallow Peep Bunnies
- Ears
= Hooty Owls!

see?!

I was thrilled to find that out.
I will never eat peep bunnies the same way again.

Showing Off

2010-04-07T16:24:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I made a sweater vest thingy!

I kind of don't know what to call it.

I also don't know what to do with it.
Keep it? List it?

I have more of that yarn, and I don't know what to do with it, either.
Make another sweater? A different sweater?

So many decisions.

I think my photographer/little sister did a fantastic job on these pictures.

But not that last one, cuz I took it. =)

So, what do you think?

Crayons are Underrated

2010-03-29T22:22:00.003-04:00

Why do we stop coloring when we grow up?
What happened to all the coloring books and markers and crayons?
Did it stop being fun?
Or do we just have better, more grown-up things to do with our time?

Last night I went over to Katey's house for a cup of tea. And you know what I did?
I brought my 96 pack of Crayolas (why yes, I do have a built in sharpener!),
and two sketch pads.
Then I declared "we must color while we sip our tea."
And so we did.

I drew a disproportionate Alice in Wonderland teacup. Then I decided that it needed to have a spout. Then I decided that it was a teacup-like gravy boat. ... I have no clue.

Next came the shroom. AKA toadstool. And I have no idea what's up with all the pink and purple, because I don't even like pink and purple. They just came to me.

Determined to get away from pink and purple, I decided green was a good choice. Which, naturally, led me to draw a mermaid tail.

... I think Katey drew a normal woodland scene or something. Her drawing made sense. haha!

When's the last time you used a crayon? It was probably way too long. Go find some and color a picture! You don't have to stay in the lines. ;-)

Good Morning...

2010-03-27T11:22:00.004-04:00

Good morning, friends.

It's been a while again, hasn't it?
It's spring now, and I am happy.

Right now I'm sitting in the living room, having my morning coffee a little late (it's Saturday!). My little brother is sitting beside me making weird noises and concentrating like a kung fu master on our game of Jenga. Now he's trying to replicate Yzma's evil laugh from The Emperor's New Groove. I can't seem to figure out why I don't play with him more often. :)

In about two hours I'm leaving to go to a wedding. I haven't been to a wedding in such a long time! I'm looking forward to it.

(There went the tower. I win!)

Life continues to bombard me with cruddy stuff I would rather not deal with. But you know what? God is totally using it to teach me about Himself, and myself, and working everything out to bring ultimate glory to Him. So, that's that... It's not fun, but He gives grace which is sufficient and sweet.

The coming week is going to be really busy. Our church's Easter production is Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. The forward part of the week will be spent in dress rehearsals. Which means my voice needs to come all the way back! It's been rather out of commission since sometime Tuesday.

Now, I'm going to play one more round with Benjamin and have another blueberry muffin.

What are you doing with your Saturday?

Find some daffodils to enjoy, and I'll talk to y'all later.
-Caitlin

Undeserving

2010-03-10T13:09:00.003-05:00

I've always thought of myself as a blogger. Probably due to the fact that I've kept a fairly faithful running update of my life since the days of homeschool jumpers and LiveJournal. However, I'm feeling rather undeserving of my self-imposed title.

I really enjoy blogging. It's probably the self focus that is so attractive to me.

"Here is me! Aren't I lovely? This is what I did! Isn't that nifty?"

Then again, it's not all selfishness. Writing is fun! Expressing myself with words is sort of a creative experience. Lately, though, (and who knows how long lately has been) I find myself neglecting my blog. Not because I don't want to write, but more because I don't know what to write about.

"I got up, cooked something, and crocheted a hat" gets old, you know? Doesn't garner many comments either, and we might as well admit it- what's the point of posting if it's something nobody's going to comment on. (Okay, so there are exceptions, but you get me, right?)

That's another thing. People "getting me". I don't think they do sometimes. I want to be more pithy. Write about real stuff, serious thoughts, not just what I did this week. But sometimes I do write something a little more introspective, and once it's out there I feel like nobody "gets it".
Of course, that's not completely true. A lot of my friends understand me perfectly, but sometimes I find myself starting to throw out disclaimers left and right to ensure nobody misconstrues what I'm saying.

Now that I've stopped and re-read what I've written so far, I don't really know where I was going with this. I just thought I needed to update, so I started typing.

And in case you did just happen to be wondering what I cooked recenty, I shall tell you. Absolutely fantastic ricenoodle stir-fry, and some amazing banana bread.

The End. :)

Seven Things

2010-03-01T10:26:00.003-05:00

Hello, world!

Jessica at Simply Riveting has given me a Kreative Blogger Award!
That means now I have to write 7 things about myself.

I love to dress nicely, but I've pushed aside my well-dressed habit in favor of wearing the same two sweatshirts all winter long. (at home, that is.) Big cozy sweatshirt = love.
I never "do my nails" because it always turns out to be a pointless endeavor.
I hate sewing buttons. I will make a pair of Mary Jane slippers and avoid sewing the buttons on until the last minute before I'm supposed to ship them.
I love to cook. Cooking is the medium in which, when I have an idea, I can execute it the way I envision it in my head and it usually turns out right.
When I was young, I was in love with Golden Retrievers and promised myself I would own one someday. Not so adamant on that any more.
I hope to go back to teaching this fall. We'll see how it goes.
Naming animals gives me great joy.

Now I'm supposed to tag 7 more people.
I choose... Jess, Alyssa, Sabrina, Emily, Erin, Mandy, and Lisa. They all have fantastic blogs, and it makes me happy inside when I see their updates on my Google Reader. lol

There you go! I'll try to post again soon. I've missed blogging. :)
Happy MARCH!!

Caitlin

The Unattainables

2010-02-19T09:24:00.003-05:00

There's this one person you wish you could get to know. Inevitably blessed with a gorgeous smile and constantly surrounded by people. There they are, in all their glory, just running over with fun personality (that made me think of that line from Shrek - "you're just REEKIN' with feminine beauty!" unrelated, yes). You know, the kind that enables them to be friends with anyone and everyone.

Everyone but you.

Okay, so maybe that's not quite true, but that's beside the point.

You just know if you could hang out with them and really get to know them you'd be great pals. You'd have lots of laughs and inside jokes, and you'd get along really well. But it will never happen for you. Why? Because they already have a horde of best pals, and they're super nice to everyone else on the planet, too. How could they possibly have room for another friend?

"High school buddy moved away - now accepting applications for new friend."

It's not like they ignore you, heaven forbid dislike you. Sometimes they even stop and speak to little ol' you! They flash you that lovely, sincere smile of good will, ask how you're doing, make some astoundingly clever remark, and then they're off again. Off to be friends with the world.

Maybe I'm pathetic. I can think of ten people right now that I've observed in this light.

Some of them, looking back, were probably best left relegated to acquaintance status.

Some of them I was pretty close with, and this opposite thing happened where I watched our friendship slip into oblivion as they grew closer to other awesomer people.

Some of them I currently count among my friends, but still feel like I don't know them well enough.

Some of them I'm sure I never even spoke to. Maybe I said hi once. Maybe.

Probably not.

What do you call that, anyway? Is there a nice, short way to say "aspiring to be close to a person you admire who is so awesome they already have so many friends there's no room for you"?

Maybe I'm just a selfish kid. Maybe my wish to be good friends with these people is some inner self-seeking ....thing. I never considered that before. Hm. But I don't think that's it.

Honestly, I just think they're cool people and wish I could get to know them better. humph.

Maybe I'm the only one that feels that way about some people.

Nah. Can't be.

Are there any Unattainables in your life?

I wonder how they would feel to know they're in that category.
I wonder if maybe some of them do know?

Happy Presidents' Day!

2010-02-15T22:43:00.002-05:00

I didn't realize it was Presidents' Day until the mail never came.
Pairs skating last night was cool
I miss all the chocolate and valentines from working at preschool.
I made a new hat this week but haven't photographed it yet.
Alicia, Katey, and I made a Valentine's garland for their house.
Construction paper, glue, glitter and markers make me HAPPY!
Katey and I made cupcakes, too.
God is good, even when life is cruddy.
"Your Hands" by JJ Heller- new favorite song. See above.
Laura and I went out with some girlfriends tonight for Valentine's Day.
Sushi is good!
Coffee is better!
Choir's going into overdrive for Easter. YAY!
I need another cup of mint tea.
This week is chock full of stuff. Fun stuff.
I'm happy.

Have a good week!

Show and Tell

2010-02-08T11:14:00.011-05:00

Last week was a very creative week for me. I shall tell you about it. =)

I had a little home decorating project to do that turned out really well.
Turns out, doing things make my life seem a little more meaningful. Who'da thunk!

Last week our corner shelves were put in their homes in the dining room, looking rather bare. Guess whose job it was to spiffy them up? Mine! Yay!

I went on a scavenger hunt around the house, found some interesting stuff, and put it all on the dining room table. We were lacking some focal centerpieces, so I dragged out the percolator and espresso machine.

Then I was at a loss as to how I should arrange it all.

Somehow, it ended up looking really nice. The percolator and espresso maker constantly being before my eyes don't help with the frequent coffee cravings, but they sure are pretty.

Most of the week's creativity was spent in the kitchen. I cooked a lot of stuff. I decided that we needed to have some new, different stuff for dinner, so I went to the library, picked out two cookbooks that had "normal" sorts of food in them, and went from there. (Turns out, most cookbooks are full of recipes that require fancy things we don't keep around here.)

Besides for 3 recipes I (sort of) made from the book, I also decided I wanted to replicate the chile rellenos I had at the Mexican restaurant. Success! No recipe, but it tasted exactly how I wanted it to. Probably not authentic, but whatever. It was delicious.

Also, I kept thinking about all the homemade poptarts I'd seen online. I was itching to try it, and it did so warily. My expectations were very low. I expected nothing more than edible-ness, and that only because the ingredients were edible. I certainly did not expect triumphant success. That's what I got, though!

Even though I used different flour than what the recipe called for, I had perfect, flaky pie crust. (Which you can't tell from the pictures.) You would not believe how excited I was. I ran around jumping and squeaking "IT'S FLAKY! LOOK! It's REAL pie crust!!!" (which you also can't tell from the pictures.)

Anyways, it was a good week. I cooked two Asian-y meals yesterday, complete with oyster sauce I bought at the market. Yum!

While I'm showing off, here's a picture of our mantle that I mentioned somewhat recently.

You kind of can't see all the awesome grasses and stuff on the left, but they're there.
So, that's all for now. Now I need to get off the computer and find some creative things to do today. I think I'll crochet something. I haven't done much of that in a while.

Have a lovely week, people!

Caitlin

Adventure to the Bahamas -The Day Before

2010-02-04T18:19:00.010-05:00

Two weeks ago today, I got in a car with three people, headed toward Florida to get on a ship for the BAHAMAS!! Those three people? My super-awesome friend Anna Leigh, her mom, Mrs. Jeannie, and the fun-loving Mrs. Theresa. None of us had been on a cruise before, so yay for new experiences!

I spent the night with the Acords the night before, and they don't usually have coffee. It was getting on around 9 AM and I was like, "Um... This is selfish, but I'm an addict and I need some coffee.... heh!" Mr. Rocky jumped up to make me some, but he didn't have to, because Mrs. Jeanie was on the phone with Mrs. Theresa, who was at McDonalds. Problem solved. The dear Mrs. Theresa brought me some coffee, and I knew everything was gonna be alright.

Mr. Rocky packed our luggage in the trunk, Anna Leigh and I settled down in the back seat with munchies, blankets, and dvds, and so we set out. Mrs. Jeannie took the wheel under the guidance of Anna's GPS, and Mrs. Theresa rode shotgun. And we drove. And drove. For hours.

For lunch, it was decided that we would all write down our top four choices for lunch (on a ripped up napkin) and whichever place had the most votes is where we would go. Subway won! The subway we found had a Dairy Queen beside it, and all of a sudden I really wanted some fries. So I decided to get a DQ chicken wrap, which I ended up regretting because it was tiny and weird. However, the fries were fantastic and that's what mattered. Then we drove even more, finally making it to our hotel about 9 hours after we started.

Anna Leigh and I plopped down on the sleep number beds as soon as we arrived. We played with the settings and laughed for probably half an hour, til Mrs. Jeanie called out outside to look at the awesome pool. By the way, the most popular sleep number is 35. The perfect balance between soft and supportive. The pool was pretty sweet. It had a waterfall rushing over these big landscaping boulders, and a nifty koi pond. It would have been nice to go for a swim, but we got there too late, and had to leave too early in the morning.

All the way to the hotel we kept thinking of things we needed. Fake nails, chocolate, deodorant, wrinkle release spray, blo pops... you know, important stuff like that. A Wal-Mart run was definitely going to be a necessity. We also decided we needed to find a Cracker Barrel for dinner since all of us but Anna needed a real meal. It seemed perhaps if we just drove around we would find what we wanted. We drove one way. Nothing. We drove another way. Nothing. That plan wasn't working so well, so we stopped at a pharmacy and asked some lady where we could find a Cracker Barrel. She gave us really good directions, told us there was, mercifully, a Wal-Mart right beside it, and suggested we visit the Atlantis hotel on Paradise Island once we got to the Bahamas.

So, we headed out following the girl's directions without a hitch, and found the Cracker Barrel. I have never been so excited about roast beef, mashed potatoes, and macaroni in my life. My heart flooded with joy at the thought of it. And rightly so. Anna asked if it fulfilled my expectations, and I told her it quite exceeded them. It was the best ten dollars I've spent in a while, topped off with a biscuit and blackberry jam.

With our stomachs much happier, it was time to head to the next-door Wal-Mart. We sallied forth, made our purchases, and headed back to the car. Mrs. Theresa realized that this trip (which had been pretty dramatic for a simple trip to dinner and Wal-Mart) was definitely worth documenting, and forbade us enter the car. Henceforth she found an optimal space in the parking lot whereat the Wal-Mart sign could be see above our heads. The camera found a place on top the car, auto-timer was set, and the picture was taken! Time to move forward!

Who knew forward would be so confusing? Richard the GPS voice told us how to get back to the hotel from our current location, but we passed the exit he told us to take. We got off at the next one, so he told us to get back on the interstate by turning left in a couple hundred yards. We approached the place to turn and were stunned to find not a clearly marked ramp, but what looked like a vast emptiness instead. "I'm not turning into that cow pasture!" Mrs. Jeanie said, so we did a U turn. It didn't make sense for it to be a cow pasture, and surely Richard was right, so we headed toward the left turn again. "Take it slow, Jeanie. Nobody's behind you, just go slow. It DOES look like a pasture!" said Mrs. Theresa from the passenger's seat. And so she did. Of course, it was not a cow pasture. It was not well lit, but it turned out to be a normal on-ramp, and we made our way back to the hotel drama free, with Anna Leigh and I contentedly eating gummies and chocolate.

Once we got back to the hotel it was time to make preparations. Getting ready for anything can be a fiasco when there are women involved. Increase the number of them, and the insanity increases exponentially. Anna Leigh and I had to lay out all of our potential outfits and corresponding jewelry, and invite a panel of judges to help us. Oh, the indecisiveness of us! We made quite a mess of the contents of our suitcases, deliberating which pants would be best for which day, and showing off our formal dresses. Mrs. Theresa's enthusiasm for everyone's dresses was very gratifying, and we were quite satisfied with our selections. Finally, casual and dinner dress were chosen for the next day, we re-packed our bulging suitcases, and went to bed.

Happy February!

2010-02-02T09:35:00.003-05:00

Hello, people.

In my blog absence, I have been to the Bahamas, and been sick.
And who knows what I did with all the time in between, because that was only two weekends.

Of course, I intend to write about my 3-night cruise with Anna Leigh, but sometimes my good intentions don't turn out so well. I have the trip to Florida chronicled in splendid Caitlinesque detail, and the adventurous dance party night fairly well covered, too. Other than that, the rest of the trip is still waiting patiently to be written about, and if I don't do it soon I shall forget.

The problem is once I start writing, I write in exact detail, and end up with a Very Long Story. And then it's so long, I'm not sure anyone will want to read it anyway. So, with the prospect of the documentation becoming a Very Long Story No One Wants To Read, I put it off.

Now you know! But I will try to get around to it, and give you lots of pictures to break up the monotony. And you all seem to enjoy my writing, even when I think it's boring, so I shall give it the benefit of the doubt.

At any rate, moving on to other things: Today is Groundhog Day. Which, honestly, holds no significance for me. I usually forget that it's groundhog day and don't find out the results of the foreshadowing (or not) til days later.

So, happy groundhog day! May winter leave soon. It was quite a shock being in the Bahamas for 3 lovely, warm days, and coming back to the cooold weather. Not that I'm complaining - I'm glad I live in GA where it almost never gets below 30.

P.S. If you would like to buy something from my shop, now would be a good time... Sorry. :)

P.P.S. Oh! By the way, I made a really cool beanie for this kid I know, and I failed to take pics and write a pattern. So, tomorrow, he's wearing it to church and I WILL take pics and write a pattern. And I shall show it to you because it's awesome.

That's all.

Caitlin

Ten Days of Listings

2010-01-18T18:56:00.004-05:00

What started as a plan to post an item a day for 7 days turned into 10 new items in my shop!
I skipped Sundays.
Here's how it went down:

Thursday, January 7th

Friday, January 8th

Saturday, January 9th

Monday, January 11th

Tuesday, January 12th

Wednesday, January 13th

Thursday, January 14th

Friday, January 15th
January 15th

Saturday, January 16th

Monday, January 18th

Thanks to good lighting on the 14th, I was able to take pictures of all the scarves I already had, subsequently allowing me to continue listing things without having to make anything new. ;-)

YAY!

Grass and Sticks

2010-01-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

Yes, this post is about grass and sticks. Sort of. Since we took our Christmas decorations down, the walls and mantle have seemed really bare and sad. Mama put me in charge of making the mantle pretty again. She gave me a couple other things to do, too. The other things didn't get done til the last minute in the evening because I spent the WHOLE afternoon on this one project.

Benjamin and I went out in the woods and foraged for pretty things. Sweetgum balls, pretty sticks and grasses, curly vine things... It was a lot of fun. I filled a glass lamp base with the sweetgum balls, and made a pretty natural arrangement with grasses and star shaped seedpods in a mason jar. I would post a picture, but our living room is so dark I can't get a good shot of the mantle. Maybe I'll try again eventually.

After the lamp and the mason jar, I got a little overzealous and built this really tall arrangement in a gooorgeous glass jug. (That jug was on the porch when we moved in! It just needed some washing.) After meticulously arranging the whole thing, I went to put it on the mantle and discovered it was way too tall. Unless I wanted to smoosh it. Which I didn't. So now it has a lovely home on the piano.

Those berries were actually just sitting on the piano beside the pictures before I put them in the arrangement. I found them lying on the ground at the park last week!

Then I had the problem of a big open space on the mantle where I had been going to put that jug. The kids told me that we already owned a similar but smaller one somewhere. I went rummaging downstairs again and found it! As of yet it has nothing in it, I tied a satin ribbon around it and set it on top of some books. Books make everything nicer!

So... there's my bit of show and tell for the day. :) More coming soon, as I'll have to show you all the wonderful things I posted in my shop this week!

Happy Saturday!

Caiti

A One-Time Deal

2010-01-14T12:00:00.003-05:00

It was a cold, dark evening. My stomach felt a little nervous as I zipped my hoodie up higher and hugged myself, trying to keep warm. Laura was driving. Alicia was in the backseat, keeping us company. We pulled into the parking lot and turned the car off.

It was time.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," I said. Laura laughed. "It's okay. Plus, I'm doing it with you."
Not helpful.

Abruptly, I jumped out and shut the car door, making my way to the sidewalk as quickly as possible. My heart sank as I scoped out the people inside. We were at the door. It was too late to turn back. We went inside.

After that initial glance I kept my eyes to the ground, shuffling quickly to the back of the establishment. Again I muttered, "I can't believe I'm doing this." Again, Laura laughed at me. I ignored her and ducked between two shelves where no one could see me. Dissatisfied with the surrounding selection, I darted across the aisle to survey the other goods. Still not finding what I was looking for, and afraid of being called out, I started to panic.

I was rapidly declining into nervous breakdown mode when Alicia strode across the floor towards me, triumphantly holding the coveted rectangular object we'd all been searching for.
A wave of relief swept over me as we made our way back towards the door. I had done the unthinkable. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

One thing is for sure - I'm never going to Blockbuster (or any other public place) in my pajamas again.

From the Library

2010-01-11T13:37:00.002-05:00

Hallo!

Our internet provider is wonky this week, so I'm at the library.

I was unable to post my item-of-the-day on Etsy yesterday. (see above for why)

So, here I am, at the library, posting it now.

I guess I could just say I was sticking with the tradition of not working on Sunday and not count it as a loss. :) That works. So, now I say that they are Monday's item and we're all good.

While I'm here, I'll add that I'm unhappy the library won't let me get on Facebook. :(

However, I am happy that I can check out a George Winston CD. They have a sad selection of music here (actually, they have a sad selection of everything here. I am not impressed.), but I did discover George Winston and Wynton Marsalis thanks to them.

Now, If you have any ideas on how to make my Etsy shop more successful without my having to spend gobs of money, your advice is much appreciated. I suppose I'm off to not check my facebook.

Happy Monday, folks.

Caitlin

25 things plus One

2010-01-07T11:24:00.004-05:00

My friends kept tagging me for this "25 things about yourself" thing on Facebook. So I did it.
And now I'm sharing the results for you people in blog/email world to see, too.

1. Due to my open personality and strong tendencies toward honesty and transparency, I feel I have very few interesting/random things to share.

2. In 2009 I struggled with wondering if it's okay to just let go of dying friendships. ... I might still be struggling with that, actually. It's amazing how you think you'll be friends with someone for forever, and then you just... aren't.

3. I've lately held that the photography is going to be the most important part of my wedding (besides the groom, obviously). As long as there are gorgeous pictures at the end of it all, I'll be happy. lol

4. I'm a perfectionist. Which means when I try something and fail, I beat myself up. If I try again and fail, I give up. Which is why I'm not good at playing the guitar and why I can't even properly play beginner level piano anymore. Practicing and failing was just too miserable.

5. One day when I'm rich, I'm going to get microdermabrasion done on my face. Maybe lasik surgery, too. (the spell check doesn't know those words. lol)

6. I read The Prince by Machiavelli and liked it. And I felt guilty because I totally agreed with him.

7. I love socks and hate flip flops.

8. I like my feet.

9. I've never been out of the United States. That's going to change, though.

10. If I were a boy, I would have a crazy huge collection of ties and cuff links. Cuff links are the awesomest.

11. One day I was singing and thought to myself "wow. I don't sing nearly as well as I thought I did." and then I was sad.

12. One day I had another sad realization. I used to think I was pretty well-read. Then I realized I'm only well read in childrens' books and classics from the 1800's.

13. I'm an excellent cook. Not to toot my own horn or anything... :P

14. My life has a hole in it without a bird. :(

15. I really really want to learn French, but I feel guilty because I'm sure it would be a useless endeavor... you know, in light of the fact that nobody here speaks French, and why would I ever need to use it?

16. I am most definitely biased in favor of little boys. They're way funner and way cuter. That's just how it is.

17. I have mad eye-twitching skillz.

18. One day I'm going to turn all of my blog posts into a book. I wonder when one day is.

19. I never want to be too old and mature to color with crayons, skip down a hallway and sing made up songs.

20. I wish I could sing like regina spektor and hayley westenra. Whose voices are totally different, by the way.

21. Sometimes I wish I looked like Audrey Hepburn... and somebody else, but I can't remember who. But, actually, I like the way I look pretty well. I wouldn't really change my face, given the chance. :)

22. I don't like painting my fingernails. I have tried, and having colored fingertips always catches me off guard. And then they chip, and then they have to be redone, and it's just way too much work. However, I love having red toenails. *shrug*

23. I almost always spell guard wrong. It's funny the words that throw me off. I can spell microdermabrasion no problem. But guard and piece always get me. I want to switch the vowels.

24. Sometimes I still feel like a stupid failure because I never finished algebra.

25. If I call you a weirdo, it's like compliment. Seriously. It basically means "You're an interesting person, and I rather like you" in Caitlinese.

WOW! I thought of 25 things! It took way too long. :)

The "plus One" would be the first installment of my resolution to post a new item in my Etsy shop every day for 7 consecutive days. Behold:

So there you have it!
Now if you'll excuse me, my cell phone is ringing. :)
Bye!

Thoughts for 2010

2010-01-06T15:35:00.008-05:00

So, the new year came in with fun times at the Looneys' house. Coffee, Apples to Apples, fireworks, and the best friends ever.

Upon inspection of my cards, I realized I had an excellent description of the perfect boyfriend.

Upon inspection of her cards, Katie realized she had an excellent description of a typical girlfriend. In case you can't read them: Complicated, Fantastic, Naive, and Phony.

We girls have a mantra for the new year. A little rhyming nugget of inspiration, if you will:

-God will send men in 2010-

I know you're so impressed, aren't you? lol So, I guess we can't dictate what God's going to do, but we can have some active faith going on, right? And it makes us laugh, and laughing is good. :)

Furthermore, my blogworld friend Jess inspired me to make an inspiration board.

I have made a small list in my head of things I would like to do this year. I made a small cork board tonight that I am going to add my resolutions, goals, and inspirations to. I encourage you to make one for yourself as well. Organize your goals and resolutions into an artistic visual piece...put it on the wall in a place you will look at every day. I have mine placed to the left of me as I sit at my desk.

Now to procure a corkboard. Or maybe I'll improvise with an unused poster frame I have. Oh, and lest I forget - some goals to fill it would be nice, too.
Let's see...

A book a month - plus review/synopsis
Write random kind notes
Save a couple thousand dollars
Read my Bible
Consistently practice the guitar
Maybe learn some French
Drink more water

What else? I need an Etsy goal. None of those are really "whoa! noteworthy!", but I'm trying to keep it realistic and doable, but something I'll have reason to be proud of at the end of the year.

Ideas, people?

In the meantime, keep an eye out on my shop. I'm going to try to add a new item every day this week! I've already got 3 things finished, so watch for them!

Here's some new things you might not have seen.

Nothing like a good, stripey beanie!

What do you plan on doing this year?
-Caitlin

Catching up on Christmas

2009-12-31T16:51:00.005-05:00

Wow, I totally disappeared over the holidays, didn't I?
I assure you I had a lot of fun. I need to do a big long picture post. As it stands, I don't feel like it right now.

Christmas Eve I got some yarn in the mail. I'm going to make this sweater!!
So excited. I've never made a real sweater yet.
So guess what I did Christmas day? I crocheted. All. Day. Long.
Christmas night I finished the back of the sweater. It looked kind of small.
I measured it. It came way short of the size it was supposed to be.

Pretty much ruined my night. Totally ruined the next day. I couldn't stop thinking about how I had spent all of Christmas day working on something that's going to have to be undone. I haven't unraveled it yet, but I've let go of the pain. ;-) I can't decide if I should just be more conscientious about my tension, or up my hook size - cuz my gauge swatch was spot on.

The Looneys came over on Christmas Eve and we shared finger foods and exchanged gifts. That was awesomely fun. I say, this year was the best gift-giving year for me. Practically everything came from Etsy, and everyone was thrilled with their stuff. Then Katey, Laura, Alicia and I took silly pictures of ourselves. For as long as we've been friends, Katey and I have very few pictures of us together, so... yay! we have one now. Even though I'm smiling weird. lol

Christmas Day we leisurely opened gifts in the morning, then headed over to Mema's house in the afternoon for Christmas Dinner. So yummy. I got my cooking genes from Mema and Mama. They're the best.

So, it was an uneventful, relaxing, and fun holiday. Just how it ought to be. Wally (that's Laura, for the uninformed) and I took a picture in front of Mema's tree. (which is always lovely - She and Alicia have been the official Mema's Tree Decorators for the past couple of years)

As for today I've made 2.5 hats, put away some of the Christmas decorations, and made peanut butter rice krispie treats for the New Year's Eve party at the Looneys' house tonight. We're going to go over this evening and eat more junk food and play games and be crazy again. Yay!

So, Happy New Year to all my friends out there, and perhaps I'll actually get around to doing a New Year's post too... Or maybe that should wait til I post Christmas pictures? Or not. I don't know. We'll see. :)

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!!

Caitlin

More Christmas Fun

2009-12-18T22:33:00.004-05:00

Hello people!
It's a week til Christmas!! I'm so excited. I may have said that already. :D

Last week was the Sunday school class Christmas party. Anna Leigh and I teamed up to decorate a table. We got there and the other two teams already had their tables done, and quite splendidly at that. It scared me. lol But Anna brought some stuff from her family's Christmas village, and I brought some lights to illuminate it, and it turned out really pretty. So, yay!

We did a white elephant gift exchange, for which I brought a radio-football-pillow. Emily opened it, but I got it back from her when my turn came. Which means she was forced to open my package... and we won't even go there. Broken tiles, squished cans, duct tape, multiple knives... I'm not even kidding. Thank you Matt. lol But it was tons of fun. For the rest of us. ;-) My Sunday school class is a bunch of awesome people. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that Emily ended up getting the football back from me at the end of the game.

For the record, catchphrase is underrated. Best game ever. Actually, I guess it depends a lot on the people you're with.

"If you're not short, you're ....?"
"undecided!"
...**puzzled**
"You know - if you're not sure, you're undecided!"

The last few gifts I ordered are coming in the mail this week!! AH! The anticipation of giving all these people all this stuff is getting to me. :D

I hope you liked the pictures... I haven't had a picture post in a while. Now, I think I'm going to go to bed. I wish you all a happy weekend, and a merry Christmas. Again.

Caitlin

P.S. Check out how long my hair is getting!!

We Have A Winner!

2009-12-15T10:33:00.004-05:00

So, I got home too late Saturday night to do anything but go to bed.
Then I was busy all day Sunday.
Then on Monday I just didn't feel like randomly numbering a page 1-26 and writing all your names.

But I have done so this morning, as you may now see:

See there? Completely random.
Then I went to the Random Number Generator and asked for a number between 1 and 26.
Are you ready for this?Dun dun DUUUUN! Numbah TEN, you are the WINNER!
What do you know? Number 10 is my friend Alyssa L. from church! GO ALYSSA!

Why is giving stuff away so fun? If I could afford it, I think I would do it more often. lol
Maybe I'll do a New Year's giveaway too.

So, congratulations Alyssa! And thank you SO much to everybody who participated. It still makes me kind of sad that only one person can win. :( I like all of you! Which means you'd better come back and try again when I do my next giveaway. :)

Happy Monday!

Caitlin

Time for some Christmas Fun!

2009-12-12T09:01:00.002-05:00

Today's gonna be a good day.

In a couple hours I'm leaving to see a movie with my friends. The Blind Side, in case you were interested. And then the Michael's in Conyers had better have that yellow yarn I need, or I'm going to be in trouble. (on the bright side, YAY for Christmas sales!)

This evening is my Sunday school class Christmas Party. YAY! The only problem is that I don't have a white elephant gift... yet... heh...

Anyways, it's going to be a long and super fun day, I think.

Don't forget - it's the last day of my giveaway! Participation has been WAY lower than it was earlier this year, but that's ok, because it gives each of you a better chance. ;-) SO! Pick your fave and leave a comment!

I'll just go ahead and apologize for not having my new stuff added to the shop yet. I'm currently working on some brown gloves, and I've already finished a couple of unique stripey beanies and pretty wool scarves. I just haven't been able to photograph them yet. meh! And now I really don't have time to get them up for Christmas.

Oh well! Enter the giveaway here, and I'll declare a winner tonight, if I can stay awake. =)
Merry Saturday!

Caitlin

Saturday Afternoon

2009-12-07T09:28:00.002-05:00

Saturday afternoon, my perfectionist self completely redid all the lights and ornaments on our christmas tree. I feel kind of guilty about it - the kids did it all themselves last week, but it was bugging me, and now it's not. Afterwords, I decided to spend some time out in the sunshine.

Belle the Dachshund went out with me, and we played with sticks and all that sort of thing for a while. She settled down to gnaw on a nice little branch, and I got a crazy notion to do something I hadn't done in years.

Every time a car went past I couldn't help but wonder if they suspected what I was about to do.
I don't really know how long I was out there, but progress went pretty fast.
I raked up a big pile of leaves from our front yard.
Then I stood in front of it and fell backwards.

I swished the leaves around with my arms, and then settled in, leaves from either side spilling over on top of me. It was wonderful. The spicy smell of crisp autumn leaves surrounded me as I looked up at the sky through the bare branches of the oaks.

Some of my clearest memories from our old home in Jonesboro are of playing outside in the Fall. We had 6 or 7 pecan trees in the front yard, and Laura and I spent hours stomping on pecans for a "snack", or making nests and forts in the leaves. I remember being completely immersed in leaves, burrowing underneath what seemed like monstrous piles of them at the time.

In Mansfield, we didn't really have any leaves. Just pine needles. One year, back in the woods behind the dog pen, we raked up a small leaf pile - half of it was pine needles. It was a disappointment, and we didn't try again.

So... Saturday afternoon with nothing to do and a vast expanse of crunchy, spicy leaves before me,
really - what else was I to do?

Giveaways are Fun - Christmas Edition!

2009-12-05T10:45:00.006-05:00

In the spirit of Christmas (and self-promotion) I am henceforth issuing the decree for a second CaitiJo Giveaway!!

**crowd yells huzzah!**

I thought about picking one item (such as the elfin slippers -wouldn't those be a great Christmasy thing to pick?) to give away, but then I remembered that I had already made this poster that says "pick your own prize" ... I didn't want to make a new poster, and I guess people like having a choice... So.... there we have it!

Lots of other people usually give you about 5 ways you can get an entry, but I like to be simplistic. Here's how it's gonna go down:

1) Just leave a comment saying what you would pick should you win.
2) Saturday evening, December 12, I will pick a winner by using a random number generator.
3) Winner will be notified, and congratulated publicly on my blog.

Should you win and find yourself thinking "darn! I should've said elfin slippers instead of black gloves," or, "no fair! that crazy awesome beanie wasn't listed when I posted my entry!" no worries. Changing your mind is allowed. ;-)

So. Take a gander, pick your fave, and enter to win a Christmas gift for yourself!
(Or for a friend, if you're feeling generous.)
Spread the word if you feel so inclined.

Happy Entering!!
-CaitiJo

Improv Chicken Pastina is Good

2009-12-04T18:10:00.003-05:00

That was a very random title.
However, it is the subject of this post, so maybe it's not too random.

I've never cooked pastina before. 4 o'clock came and I didn't know what to do for dinner. Frozen roast wouldn't cook fast enough. Frozen chicken would! So I pan-seared some frozen chicken with a couple cloves of garlic. (the great thing about cooking chicken that way is that it makes it so flavorful. chicken likes to be bland sometimes.)

While it was cooking, I decided to use that pastina that's been sitting in the pantry looking so cute. I went down to the basement and came back up two or three times in an effort to think of something to go with the chicken. Soup was not an option. Well, it was, actually... but I didn't want soup. But I did want pastina. And chicken.

So. I chopped up some carrots, celery, bell pepper, and onion suuuuuuper finely and sauteed them. Then I cubed the chicken and mixed everything together - chicken, pastina, and veggies. It was good, but it needed a little more flavor. So I made a little bit of sauce - chicken mushroom sauce with a splash of soy sauce - and poured it in. Perfect.

Then I served it with steamed cabbage and proceeded to be in awe of my improvisational cooking skillz. Thank you, mother. :)

Now I'm going to go wrap presents and listen to my new Louis Armstrong Christmas CD.
If only I had some cocoa!

What sort of Christmas music do you enjoy?

Caitlin

Christmas is coming!

2009-12-02T10:13:00.002-05:00

With a cabinet full of secrets and a whole stack of Christmas CDs that have been waiting all year to be recommissioned, Christmas time is definitely here again. Not to mention the gray rainy weather.

I need to go to the post office today. Maybe I'll go ahead and go to Michael's to pick up some yarn and get some gift wrap while I'm at it! Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I will. I have like 5 Michael's coupons, and some of them are going to go to waste because I only have 3 days to use them.

I just printed out these amazingly cute gift tags from ConnieK - whom I don't actually know, but I "follow" her blog. Sadly, they all turned out pink. :| I would say that means the printer is out of order. So, I'll need to borrow somebody's printer, because I plan on using them. ;-)

Lately I've been thinking of doing another giveaway. What do you think? If I do, should I pick an item to give away, or should I do it like last time and let the winner pick?

My paragraphs mostly begin with I, and it annoys me. However, I have a really hard time finding different ways to begin them. :P

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to do. Which reminds me, somehow, that I also have new items to list in my Etsy shop. It doesn't look like the nasty weather is going to let me get any good photos, though. Perhaps later this week.

Have a super great Wednesday! I will. Church tonight! Yeah!
So. Bye!

2009-12-01T09:14:00.002-05:00

Apparently, blogging has become a once-a-week thing for me. Bummer!
So here's the deal on the latest happenings.

I will not, in fact, be participating in the Christmas Marketplace at the PCA. After stressing out about it, I realized that there is way too much stuff going on this week for it to work out anyways. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday different members of the family have to be at church in the evenings. Plus, Mama's working. Soo... that would have made participating virtually impossible anyways. So I dropped out. Sad, but kind of a relief.

Etsy's been fun... I made a couple of sales over the weekend (which I need to make/ship today), and am wrapping up the last of my Christmas trades. Trading has been awesome. And I just gotta say, this shop is still my favorite. Not that I'm dissing anyone else... just throwin' that out there. :P
And I'm working out a trade with these people, too. Exciting!

Now I'm eating some oatmeal. Courtesy of myself. It's good.

In other random news, I'm pretty much going crazy posting links from Stuff Christians Like all over Facebook. New favorite blog! Satire = awesome. Christian Satire = super awesome and hilarious. Especially when it's one of those "been there, done that, now let's look back and laugh at it" things. You know, stuff like saying "I was just flipping channels" when you watch something you shouldn't, and having to hold hands during a prayer. Then there's the humorous observations on random stuff like email forwards, true love waits, and judging people that use the table of contents in their Bible. It's just good stuff. And I'm going to preorder the book.

This post has now taken way longer than it was supposed to because I just spent forever at that site. Again.

I'd better go for a walk or something before I sit down and crochet the day away.
Wishing you all a super happy week. :)

Me

the holidays are here!

2009-11-23T12:28:00.005-05:00

Sooooo. I'm sittin here in a green sweater, drinking hot cocoa with a splash of coffee out of a mug that says "given enough coffee, I could rule the world."

That's pleasant. :)

It's almost time for a hair update.

I'm doing lots of trades on Etsy for christmas presents. It's awesome fun. Except for I have like 5 trades going at once now and it's getting a litle confusing. I'm so excited about all the cool stuff I'm getting for people!

Yesterday I realized it had been almost a week since my last post. Today it has been a week! AH! Sorry. :(

So, there are some pretty cool things coming up in just the next 3 weeks. Ah, the busy rush of the holiday season! Here I shall list some of the events I'm looking forward to:

wednesday my Katie will be home from college, and Caiti, Katie, and Katey shall all go out for coffee in the morning. <3

thursday is Thanksgiving. HELLO! THANKSGIVING. It rocks. **hums Josh Groban's Thankful**

I just found out my awesome S.S. class is going ice skating soon. I've been waiting for this!

December 2, 3, and 4th will be a first for me. The drama teacher of a local high school contacted me and asked it I wanted to participate in the Christmas Marketplace at the Henry County Performing Arts Center! Everyone who participates donates something for a silent auction and sets up a table to sell their goods before and after the Christmas performance her class is doing. How cool is that?! Come see me. ;-)
December 12th is the College and Career Christmas party. I'm in charge of decorating a table for that. It's going to be SO FUN!!

So, there's more but we'll stick with that. I just wanted to do a quick update.

By the way, nobody'd better call me out on saying "holidays." I hate it when people make a fuss about the word "holidays", fussing about Christ being taken out of Christmas. I'm opposed to avoiding the word Christmas, too, but "holidays" is totally legit. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years togevva! So... I just wanted to rant about that for a second. :) And while I'm at it, I'll throw in that I think "season's greetings" is lame. Maybe that's just me.

Anyways, spread some holiday cheer this week. I'm off to make some stuff!

bye!

Last Feast of the Crocodiles

2009-11-16T12:34:00.003-05:00

Five small children huddle together on the bed, the older ones holding the small ones protectively close. Growling, the menacing figure ahead of them lunges, nearly capturing the smallest in his claws. The crying shrieks of the children fill the house as the oldest kicks the beast in the chest, knocking him back to the floor. The monster regains his position for another lunge as the children press themselves harder into the corner furthest away from his relentless attacks.

With a roaring leap, he flings himself onto the bed, ruthlessly grabbing at the smallest, dragging her off the bed. They land with a thud, and he begins to roll and thrash wildly in the floor. The small one flails and cries. The children on the bed wail in grief and horror as their charge is taken down by the glowering beast. Pushing the small ones into the corner, the older two jump to the edge of the bed, not daring to get off, making a desperate but futile attempt to save the youngest. The escalating screams of horror and agony drown the low growl of the beast, who is rearing back to take out another now that the youngest lies motionless.

Those escalating screams also drowned out the voice of an unhappy mother, wishing her children could find quieter ways of occupying themselves.

You have witnessed, my friends, something very few people know about. PBS was our channel of choice years back, and there was a program called Last Feast of the Crocodiles. (I googled a few keywords and learned that just now. lol) We must have watched it three times.

Filmed during a brutal drought in central Africa, this brilliantly photographed video from NatGeo follows the predicament of animals living along the dwindling Luvuvhu River. As the water level sinks during the dry season, baboons and impalas are forced to seek water in pools filled with deadly crocodiles. The behavior of increasingly desperate and thirsty animals is shown in all its brutal detail, and some scenes, such as a violent confrontation between crocodiles and baboons, are heartrending. And while some of the video is inevitably difficult to watch, the photography is always spectacular. This video is both brutal and beautiful, and puts the viewer as close as possible (and desirable) to some of Africa's most amazing wildlife.

From this breathtakingly brutal documentary sprung what was to be our favorite game during 2002-2003 - Crocodiles and Baboons. Emmie Grace was the baby, and Nicholas the ruthless crocodile. Laura, Abby, Joey, and I were usually the dehydrating baboons. Laura and I would desperately try to get some water for the weak little babies. No matter how valiantly we faught, one of us was usually taken down along with a baby. Of course we switched it up sometimes, but this way worked best for maximum fun and drama.

The funny thing is, there wasn't really a point. We were just playing pretend. And when you're pretending, anything can happen. Sometimes the baby baboons would come back to life and crawl back to safety while the crocodile was busy with bigger prey. If the point had been for the crocodile to get all of the baboons, it would have been boring. If the point had been for no baboons to get eaten, it would have been super boring. As it stood, we could play endlessly.

There were no winners, no losers.
Just a bunch of terrified, desperate baboons and cruel, bloodthirsty crocodiles.

Happy Saturday!

2009-11-14T10:14:00.005-05:00

Hello!

Welcome to Saturday. The sun is shining, the coffee is fresh and delicious, and it's going to be a good day.

I have some pictures I want to share, so just bear with me while I be random and show you pictures that have nothing to do with each other. :D

I didn't mention that I had planned to make a matching hat for those nifty gloves, did I?

But I did. See?

A couple days ago I was sitting here at the computer, looking out the window, and the sky just went black with birds. It was crazy. A HUGE flock of birds was just... I can't think of a good verb ... I dunno. Swarming is a lame word. It was more like undulating. But that sounds weird. At any rate, this huge flock of birds was just flying about, and it was so awesome. I ran outside as fast as I could to take a picture. I was disappointed because I only got like 1/4 of them in the shot, but it still turned out pretty cool.

Yesterday was good. I crocheted some stuff, and took 4 packages to the post office. Then I came home and got ready to go paint our sunday school classroom with some friends. I decided to take the camera and found this picture on the memory card.

Oddly morbid, yes? I was rather surprised. They took pictures of themselves rolicking happily in a leaf pile, and all of a sudden there's this. My little people apparently have some sort of appreciation for darker art. Who'da thunk a playful romp in a leaf pile would result in this creepy little photo? Awesome. lol

So, then I went to church and spent a little over 5 hours helping some super great people with some painting. Cubbie Bear and his friends have been banished from the walls. We've got some classier colors going on now. (shout out to Allison on her super trimwork!)

So. It's a great day for a walk. And since I'm caught up on Etsy orders, I can crochet whatever I want today! I plan to have a lovely day, and I wish you the same!

Bye!

The Vicious Cycle

2009-11-11T11:47:00.005-05:00

I feel guilty for not blogging, therefore I keep not blogging.

Sad, isn't it?

I did finish those gloves! After many hours of torment trying to get the roses even.I could use the excuse "I've been crocheting a LOT" for not blogging. Which is true, except that I've spent plenty of time at the computer, too.

At any rate, here are some of the things I've been working on.
(can I just say I'm super proud of this photo?)

Currently annoyed because I ran out of yarn to do the scallop trim on the elf slippers.

I'm also in the middle of a making-non-slip-slippers experiment utilizing "craft goop" on the bottoms of the slippers. We'll see. I had faith, but it is waning.

I made a super cool scarf I was going to show you, but my pics disappeared!

I think this rain is ushering in the more wintery weather. Goodbye, pretty colors. I'll miss you.

So... Yep!
I'm ready for Christmas music, but I know I'll be sick of it by mid December if I start listening to it now. Building anticipation, I guess. :)

Happy Wednesday!

Caitlin

P.S. Sales have picked up some! wOOt!

Literary Update

2009-10-30T16:30:00.003-04:00

Hello!
It's Literary Update Time.

Did you know that being sick is a great opportunity? For me, anyways. I got to take advantage of all the down time by reading.

What did I read?

You're probably thinking I read another classic. Those are my favorites, after all.
Let us ponder, shall we?

Charles Dickens? No. (Though I do still have plenty of his work on my to-read list)
Jane Austen? No. (Been there. Own the books. ;-) )
C.S. Lewis? No. (... well, I did start piddling through A Mind Awake last week.)
George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain ...? No. Excellent guesses, by the way. lol

Stephenie Meyer.

**GASP!**

No, I did not read Twilight. I mock twilight. Without ever having read it. Hypocritical, I know.
I read The Host, upon the recommendation of my weirdest friend, Keith. (Hi, Keith!)

This is the part where I'm supposed to get wordy and creative and write a mini book review for you.

...

I think this cold drained my creativity. Will you mind too much if I just tell you that it was super good? Because it was. It was about a Soul named Wanderer who finds herself a misfit among her fellow Souls. The human body she inhabits still houses the willful consciousness of it's former owner, Melanie. Through circumstances beyond their control, Wanderer and Melanie become allies, working together to save the people they love.

That sounds amazingly weird and corny. But it wasn't... really!

So. I never did listen to Big Fish. I turned on the first disc and decided I really wasn't interested.
I was going to watch BBC's miniseries version of Tess, but since I'd already listened to the audiobook, I wasn't that interested. It was very prettily done, though, and I may still watch it.

In other news, I'm making a new pair of fingerless gloves and they should be ready to show you by the time I get around to posting again. :)

Sorry for neglecting you all! I'm going to try to pick up to blogging around 3 times a week like I used to. It's a lot of fun.

Now I must go - my little brother is 7 today, and we're having some friends over soon!

(this is him a year and a half ago.)

Happy Birthday, Ben!!

-Caitlin

A Frustrating Problem

2009-10-22T14:05:00.004-04:00

Hello.

I just realized that I've got to redo some pictures in my Etsy shop.

This does not look like the same color as this.

And the sad reality is that neither representation is quite correct.
"Fig", in actuality, is not as purple as the first example, nor is it quite as pink as the second example.

This realization has made me quite distraught because, for some unknown reason, my inner photographer has died. I always take like 100 pictures in order to get 5 good ones for Etsy. And lately, I can't even seem to manage 5. I don't know if it's the camera, or if it's me, but what used to be fun is now a dreaded task. I suppose I could just open up picnik or something and tweak colors until I think they're closer to real life, but I would hate to mess up and misrepresent.
But I'm already misrepresenting! That's the problem!

So, until I realized that I was having an absolutely delightful day.
And now I've decided this little trifle shan't ruin it.

I had pumpkin spice coffee this morning, thanks to my fantastic aunt. (love you!)
My dears Katey and Alicia came over and shared it with me. Then Katey and I went for a forever-long walk and talked about C.S. Lewis and becoming and all sorts of nice things.

I expounded upon my recent realization that to become who you aspire to be, you must attempt to be it in order to really become.
**blank stare**

The more I try to say what I mean the less it sounds like what I meant to say.

I think I'll just go continue having a productive day.
lol

Happy trails, yo.

Happy Monday!

2009-10-19T10:55:00.004-04:00

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the air is cold, and it's a pretty day.
I've had two cups of coffee, I'm still wearing my flannel pants, and I have 3 crochet orders to work on.

Got some stuff cleared up with God yesterday. It's a lot easier to be joyful when there's nothing sitting on top of your conscience.

And just now I took an hour long break from blogging to cook brunch.
Now that I've had that coffee plus cheese eggs, grits, and ham gravy, I think I'm pretty much set for a super day. :)

**hugs to all the peeps**

And just cuz I thought this post needed a picture, here's a shot of a lovely day from last month. This was taken on my way home from my last day working at preschool. I miss that drive - it was so pretty on a sunny day!

I'm so glad it's actually fall! We kind of skipped it last year. The drought killed it.

So, besides for crocheting like mad, I think I may also run some errands with Laura and go for a walk.

What are your plans?

Re: hats, adjectives, and audiobooks

2009-10-14T10:38:00.003-04:00

Wow. My blogging skillz are dying!

**dramatic noooooooo**

At least I'm here though, right?

Just thought I'd drop by and show off some more new stuff in my Etsy shop. Told you I'd jump on that ball, didn't I? ;-)

So, here's the new lemongrass beanie. I can seriously whip up one of these in a few minutes. Minutes, I tell you! Did I ever mention that I love instant gratification?
Perhaps now I need to work on my flower-makin' skillz, because it does look a little plain, doesn't it? But I think it could be a good boy hat, too, and boys don't like flowers.

I also just so happen to be very proud of this "eggplant" beret. I hated purple up until sometime last year. Now I love it. (all purples not included. for example: Barney purple. yuck. Also not a fan of pastel purple.)
I haven't done a good literary post in a while. Maybe that's what I should do next.
I listened to Tess of the D'urbervilles last month. You know why? Because it was the only other audiobook in the library narrated by Davina Porter. I seriously love that lady's narration. The book was fantastically devastatingly, depressingly romantically beautiful.
I'm pretty big on the "ly" adjectives. ;-)
Cumulative adjectives, too.

I'm moving on past Davina Porter, though. I plan to listen to Big Fish this week. It's narrated by some guy. I don't remember his name.

And in case you're wondering what's with the audio books instead of lovely, real-life pages, I shall tell you why. It's because it's awfully hard to read and crochet at the same time. Really, I prefer to read pages than listen to someone else narrate, but when I do so much crocheting the books get neglected.

Sooo... If you'll excuse me, I believe I'll be off to notify the DOR that my business has changed locations.

goodbye!

Crochet Update

2009-10-05T20:20:00.006-04:00

It's been a good week, Etsy-wise. And otherwise, actually. But since I can't think of anything to say about the otherwise part, this post shall focus on Etsy happenings.

Sales are up this week! woot!

I didn't think the green vest I love so very much would ever sell, but I was wrong.

Chaucee
at Taylor House Designs ordered some custom gloves in navy with mustard trim. They turned out really cute!

One order this week was placed by a name I recognized. Hooray for return customers!! She ordered some blue slippers and black gloves. Turns out, she placed a custom order before, and I never got back with her about it. That's embarrassing. But she still came back! Yay!

In other crochet news, you finally get to see the "fantastically pretty hat" I mentioned in a previous post.

You don't have to think it's awesome, but I'm still thrilled with it.
Since I made it up as I went, I don't have a pattern. Sad! I guess I should try to decode it sometime. However, making it up as I go is fun sometimes, so I did it again.

People keep asking if I've found a new job now that we've moved. I haven't. Just so happens, I haven't been looking. Honestly, I don't plan to. Not yet, anyways. My plan for now is to really focus on my Etsy shop. Make new things, list more frequently, ...I dunno. Try to make my presence a little more known. And I'm looking forward to it. Pouring more concentrated effort into making my little shop work will be fun!

As for this very present moment, I think I need to see if there's any chocolate ice cream left. All of a sudden I feel like rambling, and this post is long enough already. =D

Have a happy week!
Caitlin

sporadic-ness

2009-09-27T21:46:00.005-04:00

hello!

Life is good.
It's hard, and frustrating, and I'm selfish...
But God has blessed me so much, and He is good, and life is good.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures!

For some reason I had this thought that once summer over, things would gear back down.
Wrong!

But I'm having lots of fun. Church is fun, and hanging out with church friends is fun... and hanging out with Katey and Alicia is fun. We like to get together and go for walks.

It's my last week of working at preschool.

I still miss my bird. **sigh**

Why do I insist on bringing up the sad things at the end?!

ANYWAYS. sorry for the sporadic-ness. Just thought I'd let you know I'm alive and quite well.
And very sad I didn't get any comments on my last post. ;-)

Maybe I should do an etsy giveaway to kick-start getting back into the swing of things. I decided it's time to put forth more Etsy effort since I'm out of a job now. We shall see!

Have a happy week, ok? And if you feel so inclined, leave me a comment about the moment that made you happiest recently.

my recent happy moment: On the way to choir practice this afternoon I had a bottle of Coca-Cola. I love the little smoky swirl of vapor that comes out right when you first open the cap. Never fails to make me happy. :)

Oh, and I finished reading Deception by Randy Alcorn. Good stuffs, that.

later!

Oh, the adventures!

2009-09-17T19:21:00.003-04:00

We have moved into our new house. Built in 1982, it has some interesting... character flaws?
Moving has been a big ol' pain!! And there's still stuff in the old house, and boxes, boxes, boxes in the new house. However, New House is now pretty homey, and the adjustment has been easier than I thought it would be.

Turns out, *dun dun dun* I am NOT getting to keep my job. It's just not gonna work out. So, I'm very sad. And I cried again. ha! But after moping around and being grumpy for the past two days, I've decided it's of no use. It's not very fun to walk around being a downer all the time. So, I'm resigned to the disappointment, and trusting that other good things will happen. :) Stopping at Quik Trip and getting a latte last night worked wonders, too.

In the meantime, I'm working the rest of this month, and I intend to enjoy it. Much to my dismay, Mrs. Dawn was out this week, so I got to be the leader. Our projects did not get finished, and our Bible stories were rather violently abridged. Maybe violently isn't the right choice of words there... Anyways, it was a tough week. Today involved blood. Child running down hallway trips, plows headlong into corner of water fountain... large gash in forehead... mhm. I have the blood on my shirt to prove it. **points proudly** I forgot to change. lol It's kind of like a battle scar I'm proud of. Poor little dude. He'll have a lovely scar from that one. But isn't it said chicks dig scars?

The past three afternoons have found me at the Old House after work, gathering stuff to take back to the New House. It's creepy in there. All empty and echoey and sad. Forlorn and forgotten... **sniff** It was a good house. I get scared though. Noises make me jump. And everything is louder since it's empty in there. Being alone there in the emptiness is so weird, after living there for so long.

So, I still miss my bird, in case you were wondering. Funny how he'd sort of become ingrained in my thought proccesses. I've caught myself thinking stuff like "I bet Vincent will be glad when all this moving stuff is over" or "where did they move Vincent's cage?" ... And then I remember he's not there. :P

I actually went to the library today to check my blog and update it. Somehow I spent an hour online and never did what I went to do. I'm at the Looneys' house now. I LOVE them being our neighbors!! YAY! We went for a walk together the other night and got to talk about all of our grumpinesses. It was great.

By the way, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is the saddest. movie. ever. Beautiful, but sad.

Quite the sporadic update, this was. You are now in the know. I feel like I'm missing something, but of course I don't know what it would've been.

I need to make myself some new slippers. :)

Have a happy weekend!
Caitlin

Happy Bullets

2009-09-09T20:42:00.002-04:00

We're moving this weekend!
I own three boxes packed full of books!
I get to keep my job!
Today was the first day of school!
I just now found the new, cool earrings I thought I'd lost!
Yesterday I finished a fantastically pretty hat.
I wore my pretty hat to work today, and I looove it.
My French press and I are getting reacquainted.
The hairs on my head are now long enough to wear up in a clip!
God is so good. All the time.

What are you happy about this week?

2009-09-05T11:26:00.004-04:00

We're moving.
It seems rather sudden. In less than two weeks my family will be living in a house half an hour away from here. Different house. Different city. More people. More traffic. Less trees. Less hills. Less distance between our home and the places we go.

Funny how life works, though. All of a sudden I realize how much I like this house. Our long, gravel driveway. The road we live on. The surrounding woods. Being able to walk from one end of the house to the other in the dark, knowing exactly where everything is (except when there's something unexpected in the middle of the floor!).

But I really am happy that we're moving. It's a good house, and I liked it when we went to see it. It's so much closer to everything than our home "out in the sticks." And, get this: It's on the very same street as our bestest friends in the whole wide world. How cool is that? We've always talked about how cool it would be if we were neighbors, and now we will be! So, it really is pretty exciting.

Dread at having to pack up all of our junk and scour both houses has sort of killed the excitement for the moment, though. Packing is nothing compared to the real joy-killer. What could be worse than packing and cleaning, you ask? It is this:

I can no longer work at the little preschool in town. I'm pretty much devastated about that. (I cried after I called Mrs. Nancy to tell her so.) All summer long I've anticipated going back to work. Back to my sweet boys from last year, back to spending weekday mornings being "Miss Caitlin," reading the same books over and over, repeating playground rules, passing out second helpings of goldfish and reminding little hands that snack is for eating, not squishing.

Last week I spent every morning preparing our room for the first week of school, and now I don't get to be there. So... I'm pretty much heartbroken about that. And people keep saying, "don't worry, there are plenty of preschools where you're going! I'm sure you can get a job there!" But that's not the point. It's not my preschool. I'm sure I can get a new job, and make friends with new teachers, and love a new set of kids, but the point is that I've missed everybody from our smalltown preschool over the summer, and now I don't get to go back to them.

The thought also struck me that I won't be going to the little brick Post Office in town for all of my shipping needs any more. Mr. Bob always asks how business is going, and says I'm their favorite customer. :) The local P.O. where we're moving is bigger and busier.

Lest you think that I'm complaining, let me reassure you! I'm happy we're moving. I think it's a wise move, and will be very beneficial. We'll be so close to everything, best friends included! The house is perfect for us, and getting it just right -like we did with this house- will be a fun process.

I've just been wanting to write a sad post about how I'll miss the people at preschool, and the post office, and the woods, and our road, and being close to Mema's. Now that I've done so, you can expect ... well, I don't know what you can expect. =)

Enjoy the long weekend!
Caitlin

2009-09-01T19:27:00.010-04:00

I found a funny picture of my Vincent the other day. (It looks like he's screaming or yawning, but he was probably just bringing up some food from his crop... how boring. lol) Having a bird around was lots of fun, and I definitely want another one.

The thought entered my head that perhaps I should just get a normal little parakeet, but I dismissed the notion almost immediately. After having a parrotlet, a budgie would be so blah. :P Not that I don't like them - as a matter of fact, I was thinking of getting one a couple months ago, but I knew it would make Vincent mad. lol

So, we shall see what happens on the bird front. I'm sure I want another parrotlet (the turquoise ones are so pretty!!), but I don't know when I'll be able to get one. For one thing, I'm trying to save money and I want a new pair of eyeglases. For another, there aren't really any local breeders. But you know I'll keep you updated, whatever happens.

In the meantime, you can enjoy kitten pictures. ;-)

This is a nice flattering shot of them. Spectre's sisters are having allergy problems or something, so their little eyes don't look too swell. Poor dears.

They're only like 5 weeks old, but they've gotten really adventurous. I came bounding up the porch steps the other day and nearly tromped on them! Usually they stay close to the shed they live under, but apparently they're exploring further territory now. After I took this picture, their mom wandered off while they took a little nap.

Crocheting has been sort of a drag since I finished my earflap hat... I want to make something new and cool, but I'm never satisfied with my ideas once I start working on them! However, I did make this pretty wool beret this week. I crocheted as I watched X-Men.

The beret was finished before the movie wasn't over, so I started on these little wristies. Then I finished them during an episode of Star Trek.

So, now you know.

This week at work we're getting everything all set up. Yesterday I washed toys. Today I decorated our bulletin board and door. Yay! Tuesday is Open House and the first day of school is Wednesday. I'm so excited!

Hope you're having a good week, too. :)
Caitlin

Bring on the cold!

2009-08-27T10:19:00.002-04:00

I need a reason to wear my new hat!

Actually, I'm sad that summer is over, and would rather winter not rush upon us. But still. My lovely pointy and stripey earflap hat is begging to be worn!!

Aventures dans la Cuisson

2009-08-26T11:44:00.004-04:00

Last night I decided to make some French bread to go with our spaggetti.
Seeing as how I've not made French bread before, I was a little nervous.
It was for naught - the bread was perfect. So beautiful was it that I told Daddy not to cut into the second loaf so that I could preserve and frame it.
Of course, that didn't happen.

So, I'm making more today. ;-)

Also on yesterday's agenda was banana bread.
Also a success.

Yay!
I should bake more often.

P.S. I love how Picnik makes all my pictures look quaint. :)

To My Little Green Bird

2009-08-21T15:45:00.006-04:00

Dear Vincent,

Tonight I'll be sad when I go to bed because you won't be there for me to say goodnight to.
I'm gonna make banana bread this week, and I'll be sad because you won't be here to eat some. I already got your cage cleaned and put away so I won't have to be sad every time I see it. Somebody had a hair dryer blowing earlier, and it was a little strange because you weren't here to make that obnoxious fire-alarm sound at it. That's one thing I won't miss about you, buddy.

Aside from that, you'll be missed. A lot. Even though I called you a jerk, and devil-spawn-bird. And nicknamed you Evil. I'll miss taking you for car rides. Why did you always feel the need to take a shower in your tiny little water cup whenever we got in the car? Oh, and I'm sorry I scared you the other day when I attempted to take you for a bike ride. lol And even though it was annoying like crazy, you wouldn't have been you if you had been sweet and non-grumpy all the time, so I guess I'll miss your crazy grumpiness too.

I'll think of you every time I hear Josh Groban's "Vincent." I'm glad you liked that song. Thanks for chirping and singing with me whenever I sang it to you. Sorry I didn't sing to you more often. I know singing with me was one of your favorite things. Like just the other night, when I was singing nonsense before bed -I noticed you chirping with me from under your blanket. That was so cute. :)

I'm sorry I let you get hurt. You were supposed to be with me for a long time. At least a couple more years. Ha! I had even imagined how you would be mean to my future boyfriend/husband. It was going to be hilarious. You would be jealous and attack him, and he wouldn't like you, but I would say tough noogies, and tell him to get over it. Yesh, I'm silly sometimes.

Some people probably think it's silly to be so sad about a bird dying. (It's probably silly to write a letter to you as a blog post.) When I left your cage outside a few months ago and you flew away, I was miserable. Somebody said "what's the big deal? It's just a bird." Sure. I guess you were just a bird. But you were a very loved bird. That's the difference. And when something you love is gone, it hurts. And if you loved a lot, it hurts a lot. I loved you a lot.

By the way, thanks for getting up the courage to fly back down out of that tree. And thanks for being so darn sweet to me the last few days. It was a nice change from your random attacks.

(Feb. '06)

I don't have many pictures of you, and I don't have tons of blog posts about you, but to have been such a tiny little bird you were a pretty major part of my life the last couple years.

I have a bird!
He has a name!
Another post about him
We liked the same music
"A Day in the Life of Vincent"

(Jan. '08)

Love you.

Impromtu Confessional

2009-08-17T17:22:00.003-04:00

Drowned in good intentions
Changing is a fight
Ghosts of resolutions
haunt me, mocking in the night

I stop to reevaluate
Who I am and what I’ve done
And realize I’ve begun to hate
The other person I’ve become

I can’t seem to escape from me
Become the one I want to be
It looks like what they say is true
Your own worst enemy is you

The self I want to be drags me deeper
Cause I know I can’t reach that high

Cost of complacency’s getting steeper
Why’s it so hard to do what’s right?

This metamorphosis
Is taking too long
My pride and apathy
Have proved my better self wrong

Perfection’s always out of reach
Eluding my best efforts still
I’ll settle for a better me
But can I conquer my own will?

My feeble inability
Held the answer all along
This battle’s ending on my knees
Bringing me back where I belong

That's a song I wrote this summer. The italics are my favorite part. :)
One day I was feeling very let-down and disappointed in myself, and some thoughts just started swirling around. Decided I'd better write them down before they flew away. So, I did. And I worked on them for about two hours, had the song mostly formed, and then it just stopped. The creativity ran out, and I only had about four phrases I knew needed help. So, I left it alone and forgot about it.

Just the other day I remembered it, pulled up the file, and tweaked those few phrases.
Now I'm happy with it.

It's the song of my summer. As I said, it's been fun. However, if I'm being completely honest, spiritually it's been a drag. Which is MY fault, I know. Mostly I just used God as a crutch for the hard times, and threw a few "thank you, Jesus!"es up to the sky when something made me happy. And while I've been praying for a few people regularly, I haven't kept up the open line of communication prayer is supposed to be.

And here's the terrible part: I know this. It's not like I've blindly slipped into lukewarm Christianity. It starts out as complacency. "I'm doing pretty good at this Christian thing." Always a mistake. As many times as it's been said, when you stop moving forward, you start sliding backward. But I'm not posting a sermon here. lol If I am, it's for me.

The other terrible part is that the song is true, up til the last verse. I haven't got down on my knees and made things right yet. My human nature is being the ugliest it's been in a while. I was singing mindlessly along with the radio the other day. "Empty me of the selfishness inside, every vain ambition and the poison of my pride, and any foolish thing my heart holds to. Lord, empty me of me so I can be filled with You." And all of a sudden I realized I was singing a lie. I don't want to be unselfish. I don't want to surrender. And I don't really even know why, because I do know that when I'm fully surrendered to God, it's the most awesome thing in the world. To just have that openness between yourself and the Creator of the Universe is indescribably beautiful. So why am I rejecting it?!

Hm. I didn't really mean to write a confessional. Then again, maybe I did. Guess I felt like I needed to be completely honest with myself and everybody.
But now you know.
And so do I.
And so does God.

It's time for a change.

Of Owls and Spectres

2009-08-15T16:36:00.009-04:00

Hello.
My bird just flew past and distracted me. Vincent's gotten pretty good at flying through the house. Sometimes he lands on the edge of the fishbowl, which I find comical.

Yeah, that's not how the beginning of this post was supposed to go. Then again, I didn't have a beginning planned or anything, so it's okay.

Thursday night was movie night at the Looney's house. Yeah! After the first movie, we sat around in the kitchen for a few minutes, just taking a break before we put on the second one. Or so I thought. All of a sudden, we're all singing "Happy Birthday." I like singing the birthday song, so I'm just singing along, wondering whose birthday it is now (there have been lots of August birthdays), when Alicia starts walking toward me with a glowing little birthday cake. I was like "Oh RIGHT! It's MY birthday! sort of..."

They gave me a little surprise party!!
It was sooo awesome. Katie stuck a tiara on my head, and I blew out my candles and just sat there and grinned like a little kid while presents started appearing out of nowhere. Among which gifts were these lovely owl bookends from Sheesh

That's not a very good picture of them.
I'll just have to take pictures of all my presents and make a whole post about them. ;-)

In other news (I love that lead-in, but I try not to overuse it, really I do), one of the resident kitties had a litter of kittens. A white/calico kitty, a grey kitty, and a white and grey kitty. I saw the white and grey one and declared that I was keeping him.

His name shall be Specter.
Or Spectre.
I haven't decided yet. What do you think?

See how cuuuute he is!!?

So, if you want a kitten, let me know. His very cute sisters will eventually need to be relocated.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make hot dogs for supper.

Driver's Ivy Scally Flat?

2009-08-11T23:51:00.005-04:00

Hello! This is a crochet story.
If that doesn't interest you, you may leave now.
(but it does have cool pictures. ;-) I promise.)

So, apparently there are a lot of names for this particular style of hat. I've heard driver's cap, golf cap, ivy cap, scally cap, flat cap... If there are any technical differences between the hat structures, I stand unawares.

At any rate, I've always wanted to make one. I browsed for a pattern a couple times, but didn't really find anything, so I moved on. Then I watched this music video the other day. (Need To Breathe - Washed by the Water) I just kept going "duuude! Their hats are awesome!" through the whole video. Then I decided that I Really Must Make One.

So you know what I did? I did what any sane person would do.
I whipped out Laura's trusty laptop (oh, wait. I already had it cuz I was watching the music video. nevermind.), and started looking for crochet patterns. All of the ones that claimed to be what I wanted were floppy, beret-like things with brims poking off one edge. Of course, that's fine and good if it's what you're going for, but that's not what I was going for. For hours upon end, I searched for a pattern. For hours upon end, I was met with nothing.

Being the brilliant person that I am, I exclaimed, "if I could just find a template of the shapes I'd need - like from a sewing pattern or something - then I could figure out how to crochet them and put them together!" So, I began a search for a template. Or any sort of sewing pattern for a flat cap. Yeah, um... all I got was the medieval muffin sort of flat cap. And one person on Etsy had a pattern. Good for her. But I really didn't want to pay that much for a sewing pattern when what I wanted was a crochet pattern anyways. (It just occurred to me that I'm really dragging this story out.)

When I went shopping and found ZERO cap patterns at the store, I gave up. Looking for patterns, that is. I went home determined to create one without a pattern. Hey, that's how I make almost everything else, right?

Sooo, I pulled out a nice little conductor-y type hat of my own to help me estimate the size my cap would need to be. Then I drew a nice little shape for how the top of my cap should look. Then I found a nice little skein of wine colored wool and got to work. The sides and the brim were a lot harder to figure out than the top. The brim was just a big ol' pain, actually.

Two Star Trek episodes, one Janette Oke movie, and at least 6+ hours of non-television aided work later, I have my SUPER AMAZING CAP!!

I say, folks, I am so insanely proud of this thing.
And that stupid brim gave me fits.
It's a little big on me, and the pattern definitely needs tweaking (that is, if I can reinterpret the chicken-scratch I furiously scribbled as I worked), but I'm very happy with it. It looks just like it was supposed to!!

P.S. Isn't my brother Nick a fantastic model?

P.P.S. I know you were all just dying to find out what the new thing in my Etsy shop was. (that was said with just a smidgen of sarcasm, in case you mis-read it silently to yourself.)

Beautiful red fingerless gloves. Now you know.

Recap of Summer

2009-08-10T08:40:00.006-04:00

Hello.
I'm mourning the end of summer.
It was a lot shorter than it should have been.
Then again, maybe it wasn't so very short. Maybe I just didn't do all the things I had planned to do.
Yep. That's what it is.
I didn't organize any photos.
Middlemarch, which supposed to be the first book of the summer, is still lying unread on my shelf.
No new crocheted creations have been listed.
More time was still spent indoors than out.
We didn't go chill at the lake as much as I thought we would.
There haven't been as many movie-nights as I had imagined.

Cuz you know what? Life still gets crazy and inconvenient. Even in the summer! And sometimes your plans just don't work out.
But guess what?
I'm okay with that. Because even though I have a whole list of things I didn't do, it was still a good summer.

Six Flags is great. I lost count of how many times I've been. Eight or Nine, at this point, I think. And the fun's not over yet, either. Now that everybody's going back to school I can take all the little peoples and we can have a blast riding things over and over while the lines are short.
And I'm going for Fright Fest this October, which will be a new experience for me.

I got to spend some quality time with some of my girls from church this summer, too! Alyssa and Erin spent the day at the lake with us, and then we watched A Streetcar Named Desire. haha... I don't know what we were expecting from it, but we came away with a couple jokes and a lot of laughs. I have a fantastic picture of Laura dropping popcorn off the side of the boat for Alyssa, so she could catch it in her mouth while swimming. lol I guess if they force me, I'll take the picture down.

Erin and I went to see a movie after Six Flags with a bunch of friends. We hated it and walked out together. I'd say that was a bonding experience. ;-)

Allison had me over for a weekend. That was unique. LOL And lots of fun, of course. I learned about Charlie the Unicorn and they learned about Daniel Gardner. YouTube Marathon... mhm. Oh, and we watched a creepy alien-abduction movie that made my shoulders ache from being tense!

I spent the night with Anna Leigh before we went to six flags last week. I just sat there, being lethargic while she made caramel bars and we talked about deep stuff. And the next morning I practically begged her to drive through Starbucks and then had to explain how Gordon was flirting with her... Oh, and then laughing til we couldn't breathe at the creepy gas station that night...

See? Six Flags picture! I had posted a boringly normal version of this picture because Picnik was flipping out on me. But yay for editing, because Picnik decided to behave and now I have a cool looking version!
I stole it from Anna Leigh. It turned out blurry, but the Batman is awesome back there.
(L-R Keith, Anna Leigh, Jonathan, me)

And this stuff is probably boring to you people that don't know my friends. Sorry! Just thought I would prove that, for all my whining, I've had a fantastic summer. And of course, there's been lots of other fun stuff which I won't bore you with right now. Even with the big family-crises thing that happened, it's been a good summer. And now I'm 20.

Preschool starts back beginning of September. I'm excited. Have I said that yet?
I still haven't sent the parents from last year the pictures of their children I told them I'd send. Bad me. It's what happens when you don't get a paycheck during the summer.

And there's finally something new for my Etsy shop, which I'm going to finish up and photograph today. I'll show you what it is once I get it listed. ;-)

So, this may not have been very cohesive, but... yeah. I hope you enjoyed your little glimpse of my summer.

Caiti

In Which Caitlin Turns Twenty

2009-08-05T21:31:00.002-04:00

Today I am Twenty.
What does that mean?

I am no longer a teenager.
In a year, I will be twenty-one.
If I live to be eighty, a whole quarter of my life is over.
While I may be young, I can't just shrug and say "ah well, I'm still a child!", for I am not.
Being a grown-up comes along gradually, but being Twenty makes it more real.
Twenty does not "feel" different.

It has been an odd two days. In preparation for the coming school year, my fellow teachers and I attended a conference. Of course, you know that the other ladies I work with are all "grown ups" compared to myself. The conference was full of such grown ups. I'm certain I was at least six years younger than anyone else there. Twenty or thirty years younger than everyone, for the most part. So, while I was mourning becoming old, I was painfully aware of just how very young I am. Quite interesting.

The teacher I worked with last year told me today to stop calling her "Miss" so and so.

And now, I present you with a list of thing I have not yet done in my twenty years of life, and would like to accomplish sooner or later. Preferably sooner.

Twenty Things I'd Like To Do**

Grow my hair out long again*
Travel someplace exciting
Become more like Christ*
Lead some people to Christ
Go to school for photography/cosmetology/writing
Make my business more successful
Learn another language
Read the Bible through
Write something publishable
Develop patience for larger crochet projects
Take guitar lessons
Go skydiving
Learn to dance
Ride a horse
Keep a quote journal
Become somebody's special somebody***
Read more great books*
Write regularly
Learn to play the piano again
Be a fantastic Oldest Sister*

* currently a work in progress
** money, time, and God permitting/no particular timeline in mind
*** no particular somebody in mind at this point, in case you were wondering

Thank you to all the fantastic people who wished me a happy birthday.
I couldn't ask for better friends!

And Another Week Passes...

2009-07-28T23:44:00.004-04:00

Keith observed how vacation goes by so much faster every year. I told him it was the Matrix. They speed the program up a few notches every year. And if you haven't seen the Matrix, then you won't get that, but it's ok. It's not necessary for a well-rounded life. Time's just flying, and it's creeping me out.

Growing up is creeping me out. Life's crazy.

But you know what? God is good. All the time.
And I just read this article, and it really ministered to me. Read it. It's good.
(I wonder how many people actually click all the little linkies I love to include in my posts? lol)

Aaaand, Laura's home! I missed her while she was at camp the last two weeks. She's going back for another week on Monday. Then I'll miss her again. But I'll be busy going to six flags and a preschool conference.

We haven't done anything really awesome and sister-y. Like I said, life has decided to go all haywire on us. But I'm so glad she's home again. Even when we don't do fun stuff and talk a lot, it's just good to have here here. And now I must post a picture in honor of our sisterhood.So, yeah. I'm looking forward to going back to work. Yay! Until then, maybe I can squeeze in the other stuff I meant to do this summer. And maybe not. And if I don't, I won't feel guilty. It's been a nice summer.

And... well, I guess that's all I've got for now. Happy wishes to ya.
Caitlin

Can't stop reading...

2009-07-21T13:28:00.003-04:00

You know how I had that great ideal about writing after each book I finish this summer?
Yeah, it's not going so well.

In addition to Romeo & Juliet and Fahrenheit 451, I've read For Women Only, How to be Your Own Selfish Pig, and Wedding Planning for Dummies. All of which were completed during my weekend stay with the Looneys. That makes us sound awfully boring, but there's nothing like being such good friends with someone that you can all sit around doing nothing together and enjoy it just as much as when you're doing fun stuff.

Okay, there are so many things in that one paragraph that I could write another whole paragraph on. Let me expound:

Firstly, I at least need to write a paragraph about each of the books I've read. But I'm not going to do that in this post.

Instead, what I'm going to say is that every woman needs to read For Women Only. Seriously. Ranting about how great it was could be entertaining, but I can just refer you to the above hyperlink where you can read about the book yourself. Now I need to read For Men Only so I can see what it is that men don't know about us. lol

And in case you were wondering why I was reading Wedding Planning for Dummies ... it was just lying around their house, so I picked it up. Fascinating. It made weddings sound like nothing but a long, expensive nightmare. I think maybe I'll just elope and have an elaborate photo shoot.

Now, in case you were wondering why it was lying around their house, I shall tell you.

MY VERY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD IS ENGAGED!!

That's all.

=) But this post is supposed to be about how I can't stop reading, so I'll talk more about that later.

Since we're still talking about reading, I should inform you that I've already started another book.

The Beautiful Fight, by Gary Thomas. (recently retitled "Holy Available: what if holiness is about more than what we don't do") I meant to start reading Middlemarch, but I've been waiting for this book to get to my library forEVER. Or at least it seems like forever, because I was so excited about reading it since the minute I heard about it. I don't know if I've ever been this excited to read a "christian living" type book. Nope, I haven't. But this one's gonna be good. I've read the first couple chapters already... I have paper and a pencil handy while I'm reading it.

So... I guess that's all. Just thought I'd update you on my summer reading.

Life is good. And even when it's not, God is good. Amazing how you can still have joy when your soul is weighed down if Jesus Christ is holding you.

I'll post again soon!
Caitlin

P.S. I went to the post office and the library today. I went to the post office for something trivial just so I could say hey to the people who work there. Small towns are fun. :)

Rapunzel Returns

2009-07-16T22:50:00.004-04:00

Time for another hair update!

(Last update: Rapunzel, Rapunzel )

So, my hair's growing slowly but surely. I wish it would grow quicker, but the awkard mid-length part is pretty much over. Aaaand, despite my constant lust for quirky hair, I'm resisting all thoughts of cutting it again. Dying it, too. No more fun hair. I'm going to grow it back out long and natural. And then guess what? I'll chop it off again!! **evil laughter* ... maybe. maybe not.

But the point of this post is so that you can admire my constancy and determination.
Also so you can tell me my hair looks great. Which means you need to see a picture.

Lucky for you, I have four.
I was feeling snap-happy.

Obviously, I straightened it. It looks longer when it's straight. Which means it looks shorter than this when it's curly. (don't you love my redundancy?) I have to straighten it every now and then to help me remember that it's growing.

After church, I ran around looking for batteries for the camera. "You guys, I have to find batteries!! I have to get a picture of my hair or all that time spent fixing it will be WASTED!"

Obviously, I found some batteries. And now you have this lovely post.

You're welcome.
:)

2009-07-15T09:51:00.004-04:00

Oh hello!

I hope you've all been having a nice life. My blog subscriptions are all backed up. I have no idea what's going on with anybody except for the Looneys and my "church people." Which really isn't all that bad, actually. It's kinda like things used to be before the internet took up 75 percent of my life.
haha...

During my prolonged absence I've been doing more reading. I feel like I need to apologize for the impersonal nature of my last post (The Remains of the Day). Summer reading, I decided, would be a little more fruitful if I wrote something about each book after I finished it. And so I did. However, since the completion of The Remains of the Day, I've also finished Fahrenheit 451 (which was fantastic), and Romeo and Juliet (I've never read Shakespeare before). I've not written about those yet.

Etsy sales have picked up some! Three or four sales in one week! Yeah!

Yesterday I went and had some fun with my friends and didn't exactly keep good track of my money... I almost spent more than I had, but fortunately I made a sale and got paid during the day, so nothing bad happened. Thank you, God!

Today's plans : Go pick up "The Beautiful Fight" from the library. Make some slippers. Ship some orders. Go to church. Oh wait. The things that require driving to town might have to wait til tomorrow...

So, anyways, now you know what's going on with my life.

Enjoy the rest of your week!
Caitlin

The Remains of the Day

2009-07-07T11:34:00.001-04:00

The Remains of the Day
-Kazuo Ishiguro
　
What makes a great butler?

Stevens ponders the question afresh as he travels.
"Dignity," undoubtedly, is his reply. It is the hallmark of every great butler. Still, dignity alone is not a satisfactory answer. Further thought begs the question: What is dignity? Many long hours have been spent before, meditating on the question of dignity, but it presents itself to him again as he drives.

It is his first vacation from Darlington Hall, where he has served faithfully for thirty years. Presumably to document the English countryside he’s so pleased to finally see for himself, he makes the trip with a journal close at hand. No sooner is his journey underway than he finds himself preoccupied with reflections on his career.　

Taking advantage of the opportunity to rest and collect his thoughts, Stevens begins to write. Pause between thought is necessary when keeping a journal, in order so the pencil may keep up with the mind. Somewhere in those quiet spaces when the mind is still and fingers busied, new thoughts take the opportunity to arise, presenting angles never considered before. Stevens reiterates ideas apparently long held, as if subconsciously trying to persuade himself of something, or keep himself from thinking deeper on matters already decided. Not quite defensively, he repeats statements which would deny himself as an individual, instead assigning all areas of his life to the jurisdiction of himself as a butler.

Very little is mentioned of the splendid scenery. Instead, we find his journal dominated by reminiscence of the past, and solemn consideration of his present situation. His written thoughts show little emotion; he analyzes past and present with an impersonal sort of impartiality, almost as though he were no person of his own, and solely Lord Darlington’s butler.

But somewhere under what, casually observed, would be read as indifference, an undertone vulnerably human comes through. The lines are calm and collected, strictly professional, but read between them and perhaps there can be found whispers of creeping doubt, and faint echoes of something that might once have been love.

Allowing new thoughts to arise could shed a new light on all he has known. What if he were to see things differently? It might prove things to be something other than he’s believed. A man told Stevens that one cannot have dignity without freedom, and the ability to think and choose for one‘s self. His life was dedicated in it’s entirety to the service of Lord Darlington. Now, since His Lordship’s death, what has Stevens left to show of his own?

The House of the Seven Gables

2009-06-30T00:24:00.005-04:00

Today, I picked up my book with a resolute determination to make some headway.
(pretty book, isn't it?) After trifling with the introductory chapters, and feeling as though the story was trying to escape me, I decided to just buckle down and dig in. If the story wasn't going to show itself, I was going to find it.

Buckle down I did. Previously I had read more than I assumed I had - turns out, I was already halfway through. So, today I finished it. 11 or so chapters.

The plot revolves around the House of the Seven Gables and the ancestral curse said to plague all offspring of the builder thereof. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Despite the mysterious secrets lying undiscovered in the souls of certain characters, the house itself, dark and decaying, so like its cursed inhabitants, and the two young people, come to stay at the House, so unlike, yet "held united by the stiffened grasp of Death", I was not intrigued.

A good book pulls you in, draws you into the life of the characters, tugs at you to keep reading until the end. Sadly, I felt as though I were plowing through this book. "Keep going, there's only 5 chapters left. I can do this!" Usually when I read, I get so absorbed in the story that I lose all track of chapter breaks. Not so this time. I kept waiting to be intrigued, and it just never happened.

However, I pulled a few quotes I really like from the depressing depths of this dark drama:

"...it should be woman's office to move in the midst of practical affairs and to gild them all, the very homeliest - were it even the scouring of pots and kettles - with an atmosphere of loveliness and joy." (written in contemplation of young Phoebe Pyncheon)

How idyllic! I should wish to do just such. Too bad I'm not a character in a book. We real life people don't usually pull that off so well.

"It was the Eden of a thundersmitten Adam, who had fled for refuge thither out of the same dreary and perilous wilderness into which the original Adam was expelled." (description of the gardens in which aged, troubled Clifford found solace)

I should mention that Clifford, upon gazing into Maule's Well, beheld a colorful "phantasmagoria" -shifting faces, mostly beautiful ones. Any joy in these visions was fleeting, though, for a horrible, gruesome face would always appear and ruin the splendor he found in the rippling water. (Hm. I think that was supposed to be a picture of his life. This book had lots of metaphory type stuff.)

I just had to throw that in there because I'd never heard the word phantasmagoria before and thought it was awesome.

"She knocked a third time, three regular strokes, gentle, but perfectly distinct, and with meaning in them; for, modulate it with what cautious art we will, the hand cannot help playing some tune of what we feel upon the senseless wood."
(Hepzibah Pyncheon, aflutter in alarm, knocking upon the door of her brother's chamber)

So, it is finished. I have conquered the House of the Seven Gables.
No longer shall its shadow fall over the stack of other books I've planned to read this summer. ;-)

Happy Summertime!

2009-06-24T14:33:00.003-04:00

Hello, friends!
I waited almost a week to post again. Bad me!
Part of the reason would be that I've cut WAY back on the amount of time I spend at the computer. I'm now limiting myself to between 40 and 90 minutes per day. Limited time plus limited interestingness equals limited posting.

However, while my life may not be an exciting and brilliant adventure, it has certainly been fun lately. I warn you now, I have no pictures for this post. Actually, I do have this one picture of Laura sitting on Pepa's boat, dropping popcorn down to Alyssa, who is swimming in the lake, mouth wide open, trying to catch the popcorn... Lucky for them, it's on the other computer. ;-)

We've been extremely grateful for Mema and Pepa's house on the lake so far this summer. And, of course, our Season Passes to Six Flags - made happier by the fact that many of our friends also have passes. How cool is that? Various outdoor activities aside, cutting back on computer time has made way for the books I've been neglecting.

The House of The Seven Gables is my current project. You may recall I started reading it before, but never really got into the story. I ended up returning it to the library and never checking it out again. However, thanks to PaperBackSwap.com I now own a gorgeous hardcover book containing 5 novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne, of which The House of the Seven Gables is one. The beginning was eternally slow, but I think I'm starting to scratch the surface of the actual story.

It's taken me a while, though, because I keep getting distracted by other books. I took the time last night and this morning to reread a favorite: The Two Princesses of Bamarre. (Thanks again to PBS, I also happen to own a gorgeous hardcover copy of this one.) When I finished it this afternoon I wanted to start reading it again. It's just that good. Yay for brave princesses and handsome young sorcerers, deceptive spectres and beautiful, cunning dragons with bell-like laughter!

Hm. Now that I've updated you on my reading, what else shall I say?
I think I need to regularly write movie and book reviews. It would exercise my brain, and add a little benefit to all the time I'm spending on such trivialities. ;-) Ask me how that's going sometime. I need to be held to it.

My mother has put the idea into my head that I should go to cosmetology school. And I have to say, I quite agree. The more I think on it, the more I fall in love with the idea. I like to learn. Sounds like fun. And structure. And not exactly feasible at this moment in life, due to the busyness of several other family members, but I'm praying about it.

And now, I shall be off. Hope you're having a fun summer too!

Caiti

Unrelated Accomplishments

2009-06-18T21:52:00.005-04:00

Hello!

Remember when I made that lovely green vest thing?
I posted a poll on my blog that said: What should I do with the green vest?
(because, if you'll recall, it was a little too small for me, and I didn't want to sacrifice my favorite buttons for something I couldn't keep.)

You answered:

Get over the button issue and sell it on Etsy	1 (5%)
Put on new buttons and sell it on Etsy	19 (95%)
Give it away - family or friend maybe.	0 (0%)
Heck with too small! keep it!	0 (0%)

Oddly enough, I decided against the majority.
The vest was just so pretty, it deserved my bestest buttons.

So, here you have it.
Finally properly modeled, photographed, and listed on Etsy. YAY!

So, moving on to the unrelated accomplishment.

I just so happened to write a poem that was very pretty.
It's dark and sad and beautiful.
Behold!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Momentary silence.
Unnecessary fears.
Return to pain and violence
Immersed in private tears.

Time is neverending
Elusive glimpse of peace
Darkness and pretending
Aching for release.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I'm very proud of my sad little brainchild.
And I'm amused by the fact that I wrote it while in a very silly, happy mood.
It can be difficult to focus on dark imagery when you're feeling chipper. But I did it!
After I told Katey and Alicia to stop making me laugh and let me focus for just a second.
I always write strange things at their house...

Anyways, that's just a random update to share the things I'm very proud of.
Maybe I'll remember to update again soon instead of abandoning my blog for over a week as I seem to have gotten into the habit of doing.
=)

ttyl!
Caitlin

Memories

2009-06-17T14:20:00.006-04:00

I've been having lots of memories from when I was a small child coming back to me lately. It all started when I remembered this one time I had a nightmare.

The Little Mermaid came out the year I was born, and it was my favorite movie until The Lion King came around. One night when I was very small, I woke up to Ursula standing beside my bed. The larger than life sea-witch gave me an evil stare, and I jumped out of bed and ran across the hall to my parents' room. What's funny is I remember vividly the placement of the bed in their room, and where I was standing. I also remember telling them it was real, even though I knew they wouldn't believe me. Of course, it was just a bad dream, and that's what they told me, but I was convinced the giant purple squid was still standing there beside my bed.

After that came to mind during a discussion about dreams one day, all sorts of other memories keep coming back. I'm trying to remember to write them in my journal so I'll still have them and won't forget.

(see? Little Mermaid shirt.)

Little things, like how I used to be fascinated by the woven wicker-type backs of Mema's dining room chairs, and the nifty wooden shutters in the breakfast nook. They were just shutters, but they captivated me with their pivoting slats. I remember eating many a lunch and dinner at the round table in front of those shutters, looking out the sliding glass door to the back patio and the swimming pool. I would purposely drop a few crumbs for the puppies as I wondered what exactly would happen if I got in the pool before the half an hour was up.

(We don't seem to have many pictures taken in the kitchen.
Aunt Cindy, Laura, Nicholas, Mama, and me. Obviously, we were dying Easter eggs.
See the shutters?)

The kitchen was magical. There was something wonderful about sitting on top of the washer or dryer as they were spinning, begging to eat some of the cheez-its that were supposed to be for the top of the chicken casserole. Another cool thing about the kitchen was how it was open on either side, and you could run from the kitchen, through the dining room, through the living room, back into the other side of the kitchen. That is so fun when you're a small person. Fortunately for everyone but me, there were usually gates up for the dogs, so I didn't do much running.

The place to do the running was outside around the pool. Nevermind that you're not supposed to run on concrete, or get that close to the edge. Who's scared of scraping their knees and falling in the pool anyways? Laura and I used to make "soup" out of the prickly evergreens and pool water. Nothing like the smell of warm, wet concrete, sunscreen, and a fresh towel. When you're having a birthday party, it's pretty much perfect to have grandparents with an awesome pool. Sometimes at night, we would sit at the edge of the pool with Mema, feet dangling in the water. Pool water is always so warm at night. We'd listen to Delilah playing love songs for people on the radio while Mema had a smoke, keeping an eye on that serpentine polaris as it made its rounds. I never liked the polaris. I swear the thing chased me.

(I have no idea who all these people are, but it was my birthday. ;-) 3rd, maybe?)

(Combined party years later. Me-8, Laura-7, Joey-2)

(see the bushes we made soup of? The diving board was so fun.)

(Go Laura Go!)

(Aunt Cindy, I posted this one for you.)

Mema taught us to sing in the fan. She always had a stand-fan turned on in her room. We would go stand with our faces almost against the wire cover, and warble "singin' in the fan! we're singin' in the fan! what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again!",
laughing at the sound of our voices chopped up by the blades.

There was an air of mystery about the front door since we never used it. We always came in through the den. Up the concrete stairs, with the big four'o'clock bushes beside them. In the door, past the sofa, past the piano, and through the little breezeway we called "the puppy room" (mema used to breed poodles), and into the dining room, with the living room at your left.

(This is the den, and the door we always used.)

Upstairs always seemed a little creepy. Aunt Cindy's room was to the left once you topped the stairs. She was away at college, so her room was always perfectly neat and vacant. I guess the quiet perfection of it was a little strange. However, she had some neat stuffed animals and sometimes Mema would let us play with them. :) There was a door directly at the top of the stairs, and I don't remember if I ever knew what it was for. Funny how innocuous things like doors can be frightening when you're a small person. Mama's bedroom was to the right. You could see the garage and the driveway and the magnolia tree from the window. The window had a little rainbow sticker in one corner.We kept all of our toys in that room. Big blue and red rubber bins with rope handles were our toyboxes. Somewhere amongst those toys was a little egg that, when "cracked" open, had a little chick who would pop out and say "cheep!" When the buckets were emptied of toys, they were just the right size for little girls. Laura and I would take turns rolling each other around inside them.

When we were done playing upstairs, we would sit on our bottoms at the top of the steps and "slide" down. Last time I tried sliding down a flight of stairs it hurt tremendously. I think we even used to go on our bellies sometimes. I don't think Mema liked us doing it, though.

Past Mema and Pepa's house, up the hill, was another little house. Mema's daddy, PawPaw, lived there. There was a corncob squirrel feeder on a tree outside his house. Mema would fill a Tupperware plate with dinner, and she let me take it to him sometimes. It was dark and smoky in his house, but I loved taking him his dinner and getting a hug in return.

(me and PawPaw on my birthday)

(Aunt Cindy, me, and Laura, dressed as bunnies for Halloween. That's PawPaw's little house in the background.)

Around Christmastime, there would be a fire in the fireplace. I loved to sit by the fire til I got so warm I had to move back. The best thing was when Mema would let us "help". We would wad up a piece of newspaper and throw it in. Then she would use the poker, push it under the grate, and we would watch as it lit, glowed, shriveled up and disappeared. It was so exciting for Aunt Cindy to come home from college - she brought us candy. lol And there were always sausage balls on the coffee table to snack on Christmas morning while we opened presents.

(notice the sausage balls in a bowl, and the biscuits beside them)

I remember sitting in the kitchen and Pepa teaching me to count money. Pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters. Quarters made sense, they're the biggest amount, and biggest coin. I remember thinking it wasn't fair that nickels were bigger than dimes, since dimes are 10 cents and nickels only half that much. Perhaps that explains my random love for dimes. I have a little glass piggy just for collecting dimes.

Sometimes Laura and I would sit out on the swing with Mema, each with a handful of saltine crackers and a piece of "slice cheese." We'd sit there, happily munching and swinging, getting covered in crumbs and mosquito bites.

(This picture was taken at the apartment where we lived, but it's the swing that used to be at Mema's)

When we spent the night, we liked to sleep in the guest room downstairs. Across from the bed was a window from which you could see the pool. Against the wall was Mema's vanity. We loved to sit in there and watch Mema get ready to go somewhere. Watching a grown woman fix her hair and makeup was pretty much enthralling to me as a little girl.

It's so fun to remember all these little things. Most of my memories of being a small child are centered around Mema and Pepa's old house. Sometimes Laura and I will hear a country song on the radio that was popular back when we spent entire weekends out by the pool. We look at each other and say "that makes me think of Mema's old house." I usually hate the smell of cigarette smoke, and Mema and Pepa have long since both quit smoking (yay for them!), but sometimes when I'm outdoors on a hot day, the warm breeze, smell of pavement, and just a whiff of smoke takes me back.

I thank God we were able to be that close, and spend so much time making memories with them when we were little.

See you later, Alligator!

"We Now Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming..."

2009-06-07T22:43:00.005-04:00

So, it's long past time for another blog post. I shall now proceed with random comments:

I am disappointed in myself. Lately I've been quite the slacker - with the exception of cooking dinner, which I'm getting pretty good at. Not only have I neglected things I ought to be doing, but I have neglected my relationship with God, which in turn makes the rest of stuff crummier than it would otherwise be. And I keep kicking myself saying "straighten up, Caitlin!" and then not doing it! But you didn't want to hear about that. :)

On a different note, there is a lady in town who is willing to take my crocheted stuff on consignment. The problems now would be
1) I don't know if it's going to be worth it (then again, I'm telling myself small profit is better than none)
2) If I decide to do it, I have to make some more stuff. The only stuff I have now is the stuff in my Etsy.
3) I'd have to buy more yarn to make more stuff, and I don't have any money with which to do so.

So where does this leave me? I don't really know, actually.

Hm. Is it me or do I sound pessimistic tonight? I honestly didn't mean to do a depressing post! It was supposed to be random, not ranting.

In other news, I spent the weekend with Katey and Alicia, and a dash of Terry thrown in here and there, which was awesome. Then Laura and I went to Calvary for the graduation, which was awesome. Youth choir sang in the service tonight, and we were awesome. Julie came for the church graduation reception this evening, which was also awesome. So, in spite of being penniless and somewhat pessimistic due to copious amounts of caffeine, stupidity, and little sleep, it has been an awesome weekend.

Stay tuned, because I plan to do a neat little post pertaining to my childhood soon. ;-)

P.S. I'm going to Six Flags again Thursday - yay!

2009-05-26T09:52:00.002-04:00

Praise the Lord for our freedoms,
and God bless those who have lost the ones they love in defense of them.

So, I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day.
I did. It was lazy. My family watched the Land of the Lost marathon on TBS.
Then we went and chilled at Mema and Pepa's house for a while. I finished reading Bachelors Anonymous by P.G. Wodehouse. It was hilarious. The humor in it was fantastically sharp and random.

Today I shall take the Little People to Six Flags. Little People = Abby (12), Emmie (9), and Ben (6).
It shall be fun!

I finished the green vest thing. I sewed some buttons on it, and then didn't like the way they looked. So I gave in. I got my favoritest buttons and sacrificed them for the vest. It's beautiful now.

And I made a sale today! Huzzah!

I have nothing else to say. :)
Happy Tuesday.
CaitiJo

Becoming

2009-05-23T17:22:00.004-04:00

This afternoon was spent tidying my room, having random, sporadic conversation with friends, and making chicken pot pie. Pleasant occupations, if you ask me. I decided to wash the sinkful of dirty dishes I had created, and as I began to scrub chicken and flour off various utensils, a contemplative mood came upon me. Weird, eh? Washing dishes does that to me sometimes.

Somewhere between recalling a conversation about how fast time flies and assessing my own personality, I remembered a statement I read somewhere. By the time you finish high school you will have become the person you will be for the rest of your life. Or something like that, anyways. I suppose it means that your personality, likes, and dislikes are pretty much cemented. Character flaws apparent, strong points developed. Maybe the fundamentals of who you are have been laid, but that can't mean you'll be at 80 the same person you were at 18.

But that got me thinking. I'm 19 - have I become the person I want to be for the rest of my life?
The answer was yes and no.

Ever since I was able, I've liked myself. Which sounds rather vain, doesn't it? People who acted like someone they weren't never made sense to me. Why would you want to go through the trouble of being someone other than yourself?!
(When I was about 14 and realized I wasn't "cool," it made a little more sense. I recall wishing I was a different person then.)

I like who I am now, but I don't want to stay the same. Of course, I doubt staying the same would be possible. People are bound to learn and change as time passes, for better or worse. But I don't want to just be shaped by what happens to me. I want to be the person climbing the escalator even it as it takes me forward (metaphorically speaking. ;-) I usally like to stand still on real escalators and watch the people go by).

It doesn't make a lot of sense to say that I'm happy with who I am, but I don't want to stay that way. I guess what I mean is that there can always be a better me. Being me is good. I want to always be the Caitlin we know and love, but working to be the best version possible. I don't expect to ever get there. Not on earth, anyways. Til I die, there will always be more to learn, and perfection being impossible, always some flaw to overcome.

Sometimes I think I could have made a little more progress by now, but I know I'm on the right path. Sometimes I like where I am and want to stop and dawdle for a while. Usually when that happens, I somehow manage to slip backwards a step or two before I realize I need to keep going. Sometimes I want to run, but I just can't become as good as I want to be as fast as I would like. (Sometimes I like using metaphors and then think they sound stupid. However, I don't feel like deleting this paragraph!) Sometimes I just want to sit down and cry because being good can get so darn hard. And sometimes I do. Then I get angry at myself. And then my Perfect Father reminds me that I can't do anything by myself, and if I would just look, I'd see that all my progress was because He was with me, not because I'm just that awesome.

And now I have that Switchfoot song stuck in my head.

This is your life, and today is all you've got now.
This is your life, and today is all you'll ever have.

This is your life
- are you who you want to be?

Crochet Foray

2009-05-22T11:34:00.004-04:00

New things have been on the crochet horizon lately. On my quest to venture into making different sorts of wearables hence unexplored, I heard of a magical land called Ravelry and requested an invitation. (You have to have a code to get in) It's this cool community of knitters and crocheters, full of patterns and projects and tips and tricks. Yay! So, I found this neat free pattern for a cropped cardigan type thingy. The pattern calls it a capelet. Actually, the pattern is the crocheted version of a knit pattern inspired by a capelet somebody saw in Anthropologie. That was a tongueful. Or it would have been if I had said it.

Anyways, like I said, I found this pattern and decided to give it a whirl. I had the yarn lying about just waiting for this type of project, and everyone said that it worked up really fast. Fast projects are the only kind in my world.

True enough, a couple of hours and a skein and a half later, I had this lovely little blue ... thing. I don't think capelet is an appropriate term, and "cropped cardigan" sounds snobby. Bolero? Shrug? Whatever.After such success, I decided to try again with some Caitlinesque modifications. Some lovely green yarn I found on sale was also waiting for just such a project. Such was also the case with a pair of black vintage buttons - they're reserved until I find just the right project that deserves them. And this was going to be the one. With something more vest-like in mind, I set to work.

Exactly two skeins, a couple hours, and an episode of Good Eats later, I had this:

After taking this picture, I realized you could probably see it better against a not-so-similar shade. You might not can see them, but I safety-pinned the Favorite Buttons on. I'm very pleased with my result, but a little sad because it seems to be too small. Of course, it's supposed to be small-ish, but... yeah. I think I'm going to have to sell it or give it to somebody. And the buttons go PERFECTLY with it. Just like I'd envisioned. Problem: I want those buttons. Nobody else can have them. So if I can't keep this vest, the vest can't keep the buttons.And there you have it.
Should I make more for my etsy?

P.S. I put a poll on my sidebar. Take it! Take it!

I'm a Believer

2009-05-21T14:43:00.003-04:00

Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster:

Nessie's fo' real, yo.

Favoritism

2009-05-16T11:07:00.003-04:00

Hello! Happy Saturday.
I would like to take this moment to share with you some of my favorite items on Etsy.
Seeing as how I felt like blogging, and haven't done this in a while, it seemed like a good idea.
So, I opened up my page of favorite items, and picked a few to show you today.

Firstly, here are these great little heart earrings by Novadesigns. I am not going to hyperlink any of the text, because all of the pictures are hyperlinked and will take you directly to that item in the seller's shop.

Here's the lovely "Candy Girl" hat from BKMHattitude. (what a great name...) It's not there anymore. It sold. But I love it so much, I had to show ya.

These twig pins by4TheSparrowsNest are so lovely.
I want them.
They would make me feel like a woodland fairy or something... lol

And I'm not a huge fan of sparkly necklaces, but I think I'm in love with this one.
And I just gott a shirt it would go so well with...
from SoVeryCharming.

And I HAD to include something from PamperingBeki! Her shop is fantastically vibrant and fun.
So is she. I follow her blog religiously. She said she wants to adopt me. What's not to love?

I added this to my favorites because it makes me think of certain friends of mine.
The lovely artist over at sticknymph originally designed it as a wedding announcement for her friends.

And if you've known me very long, you probably know I'm a sucker for stuffed animals
- mostly bears.
I have 13 of them.
There are so many cute animas at ptitebaloue!
This little polar bear is all natural and all handmade.
And his name is Leo. How impressive.

And, one of my new favorites are these lovely little silk poppies. They're cropping up everywhere on Etsy. These pins brought to you courtsey of foundling.

And so, now I think it is time for me to be off. Me creative genius eludes me. I'm still trying to find it. I have made a few things, but they didn't feel creatively brilliant like they should have.
I don't even know what I'm saying.
lol

Happy Weekend, everybody!
CaitiJo

I'm still busy!

2009-05-13T11:17:00.004-04:00

While absence of blog updates may lead you to the conclusion that I've not been up to much,
let me assure you that the truth is quite the opposite. I may not have been blogging, but I have certainly been busy. One thing with which I've been occupied is crocheting, of course.
Let me show ya:

Khaki and Brown Cabby.

Earthy Hippie Hat.

Blue V-Stitch Beret.

Happy Woolen Bird Friend.

These last two I conjured up last night. Blue hat was created while I was watching Kronk's New Groove, and Birdy during Pirate of the Caribbean.
All freehanded, as usual - straight from my little noggin.
Yay!

Wait, well, I did use a pattern for the cabby, but I'm the one who wrote the pattern,
so it doesn't really count as using a pattern. :P

In other news, I went to Savannah and had a lovely time. I've decided that I would like to live there for a summer and ride my bike around everywhere, frequenting coffee shops and parks with books and such. How very picturesque it would be.
As if.
haha.

So, anyways... what's new with you?

Caitlin

P.S. SCHOOL'S ALMOST OVER!
I love my job, but I'm glad next week is the end. ;-)

Compelling Guilt

2009-05-07T16:01:00.003-04:00

Wow, that's a serious sounding title.
But really, I just wanted to post because I feel guilty for letting a week pass without posting.
I guess some of you are waiting for vacation pictures - it always takes longer than it should to post pictures from a trip for me. Dunno why.
I'm sorry!
Okay, actually, not really.

The reason I'm not really sorry is this: I've been doing more reading. Reading is good! Reading is fun! I'm back on a reading kick! Yay!

I made a couple of etsy sales. I wouldn't say sales have picked up yet, but it was nice to sell a few things. My poor little head - I'm racking it for ideas for new things to make, but nothing brilliant is coming.

I'm going to Savannah with some of my favorite people this weekend! Isn't that cool?

Tuesday I was doling out crackers during snacktime when Jesse pointed to my necklace and said "Das pritty, Miss Caitlin. You got it at the beach?" I didn't know he even knew I went to the beach. I guess they talked about it while I was gone. I told him that was a good guess - I did get it at the beach! What a sweetie.Here's a picture of him.
I think I could use a nap.

Every day when I check for new comments (self absorbed maybe?), I try to think of something good to write about. Obviously my creativity fails me. So for now, this post to explain the unusual silence.

Happy Weekend!
Caitlin

Overheard

2009-04-30T23:17:00.004-04:00

"Hey Ben, let's play a math game. What's two plus two?"

"Four."

"What's three plus three?"

(pause... whispers numbers to self) "Six?"

"Yeah. Four plus four."

(pause and whispers) "Eight."

"Okay, now do ten plus ten."

"Uhm... I can't even guess that one."

"Then tell me what's five plus five."

"Ten. I've knowed that one my whole life. Okay, Emmie, here's one for you: Zero plus eight."

"Easy - that's eight. What's 100 plus 100?"

"beep-beep! beep-beep! overloading! overloading!"

More Thoughts from the Beach

2009-04-29T01:36:00.003-04:00

Standing at the edge of the sea and watching a kite soar high in the air can make you feel very small.

There's nothing quite like a nap on a warm sandy towel.

Ben is so proud of his shell "worth precious moneys and hundreds and hundreds."

Running up to the water's edge, playing catch-me-if-you-can with the waves.

Catching up on journaling, not worrying about blogging.

Four girls gadding about, sampling italian ice, sniffing cologne, and eyeing trinkets they can't afford.

Who needs cohesive thoughts and paragraphs? Not at the end of vacation, anyhow.

Everyone staying up late, cozy with a favorite movie after a long day in the sun.

A mug of coffee to make it cozier.

There's always a touch of end-of-vacation melancholy.

Ready to be home, but not ready to leave.

We'll go for one more walk in the morning.

Walks along the shore always seem shorter than the walks we take at home.

I'd better start packing and get some sleep.
Be home soon.
:)

Me

thoughts from the beach

2009-04-26T11:00:00.002-04:00

Coffee tastes better outside with a view of the ocean.
Limited internet access can be very freeing.
Most postcards are ugly and stupid.
Washing vacation dishes is easier than washing at home.
Volleyball til 10:40.
Strolling on the cool, windy beach at night.
Strumming and singing as loud as you please on the porch.
Watching gulls, sandpipers, and pelicans.

I'm in no hurry to come back. ;-)

We Have A Winner!

2009-04-22T02:42:00.002-04:00

I finished my vacation packing and decided to tally the entries and select a winner by getting a random number from Random.Org.

Breakdown:
41 people entered!
31 of them left a critique, gaining them an extra entry.
Total - 72 entries! How cool!

The random number was picked, and soon Kayla at The Eclectic Element will be the owner of a CaitiJo Charcoal Beret. YAY! Congratulations, Kayla!

Summary of the Giveaway:

It was fun to receive that many comments and compliments. Talk about an ego boost!
I got some really great tips for my shop that I definitely plan on putting into practice.
I found some cool bloggers.
Everyone who entered is going to get a blog comment from me if they haven't already.
I'm left feeling a little sad that only one of those amazing people could win. But I'd be in trouble if I just started giving away everything to people just because they're nice.

Maybe I should do this sort of regularly. It was definitely fun.
Thanks to everybody who entered. You made these past couple days super awesome. Reading all your comments was a blast. I really thought I might only have 3 entries. :D Glad I was wrong!

And now, I'm off to get a couple hours of sleep before the drive in the morning.
Happy Wednesday!
Caiti

Six Flags

2009-04-21T13:32:00.007-04:00

Dear Readers,

I sacrificed my nap for this post. I was up til 2:30 last night, fighting with iTunes, trying to get about 100 podcast episodes onto my iPod. I had to redo it twice, and then it still ended up wonky. After work, I had every intention of napping, but I knew if I didn't post about Six Flags now, I wouldn't get to it. Every hour from now til sometime tomorrow is claimed for vacation prep. Once there I wouldn't have access to all these dorky pictures I knew you'd want to see.

So, let's get to it, shall we?

We left the house around 1 o'clock.
On the way, we stopped at our favorite convenience store for drinks and gasoline.
Joey got some Reese's cups to share. Dear boy.

We got to Six Flags at 2:45.

We spent the first half hour swimming in the sea of Spring Breakers, trying to figure out what we wanted to do. Since every line was going to have a wait time of forever, we decided to stop thinking about what to do and just do something. We got in line for the Acrophobia, which Abby had never ridden. And guess what happened?
Nothing.
We stood there for 2 hours. I think it's the longest line I've ever been in. We are so lame, we should have played I Spy or at least talked or something, but we just stood there, silent and cold.

Why was it so cold and windy that day? Obviously I didn't check the weather report before I left the house.

At 4:30 we finally got to ride. It was AWESOME. I've ridden it before but my stomach totally jumped up in my throat. Abby was beside me and I was afraid she might cry. Her face and knuckles were all white, and her eyes were huge. But she loved it. Yay!

We don't have any cool pictures of that kind of stuff because we kept the camera in the van most of the day.

So, we got off the ride and enjoyed being able to run around after being cramped in that line. We made a beeline to the van to get some lunch. Yes, it was a late lunch. Tuna sandwiches and carrots are amazing when you're starving. Of course, you're never too satisfied to keep from drooling over the enticing smells of popcorn and funnel cake wafting all around. :P

We took our time eating because there was no point rushing because we'd never make it through another line before Big Daddy Weave was took the stage at 6.Well, we left the van at 6, and it took us a whole 20 minutes to get to the amphitheater.

Big Daddy Weave was great, but I felt a little shortchanged when he quit singing at 6:40. Newsong was supposed to start at 7, not 6:45! So... that was a bummer. He was really funny though. :D

It was getting cold, so we skipped Newsong and searched the park for affordable sweatshirts.
Yeah right.
After looking in every shop, we decided it was time for a snack before Barlow Girl.

So, it's 7 o clock and we're walking to the van. I said "Dear God, this is a weird prayer, but if you'd magically make some sweaters appear in the van, that would be awesome."It wasn't exactly a prayer... just me thinkin'... We got out to the van and Joey and Abby were like "hey! We didn't know this bag of clothes was in here!"

Yep! So they didn't magically appear, but if I hadnt've mentioned it to God, we might not have noticed them. I dunno. At any rate, we all ended up warmer than before! Joey found his other sweater and let me wear his hoodie. Abby found a long sleeved shirt which was not very attractive, but was very functional, and Laura donned a big thick oversized tee shirt, which she was just fine with. I was glad to have the Timberland hoodie cuz I'm selfish like that.

Anyhow, Abby posed for a picture with me and fixed some more sandwiches.

Laura posed with Joey, then started noshing on some carrots and ranch dressing.

She was modeling as she ate, and I told her that was a great "'carrots are healthy and sexy' face."

She nodded her assent as Abby choked, laughing at our idiocy.

I had a couple carrots myself, even though I'm not supposed to because of my braces.
Then I posed with my beloved pass.

We attempted a picture of all four of us, but it wasn't working so well. We tried again. It worked.

Finished snacking, we headed back to the amphiteater. The popcorn was calling loudly, but we ignored it.

Barlow Girl was awesome. This thing at Six Flags was my first concert... It was pretty cool. During one song, I was ready for it to be over because I'm not exactly accustomed to feeling as if my chest is going to vibrate right out of me. However, I got into the spirit and did a little hopping and cell phone waving with the rest of the crowd at the urging of the band.

So. Concert over, we decided we MUST have some popcorn. And don't you know when we went to find it it was all gone. All the vendors with carts -gone. All the little window shops - empty.
Not to be so easily defeated, we climbed aboard the skybuckets, on a quest to search the other side of the park for delicious, salty, fake-buttery popped corn.

Here is an interesting shot from the sky bucket. Six Flags at night is COOL.
Oh, and one of me, Joey, and some tiny little aliens who flew past at an inopportune time.

AHA! Finally. In one of the more restaraunt-y places we found our prize.

We loaded back into a Sky Bucket so we could ride the Scream Machine before closing time, eating popcorn all the way. I think it tasted better than it would have before, since it had an adventure behind it. ;-)

Our popcorn adventure took half an hour.
We ran as fast as we could from the sky buckets to the scream machine, where we waited excitedly, polishing off the last of the popcorn... and probably some germs too, if you think about it. Ew.

9:50, we were flying through the night sky on a roller coaster! WOOT! I love those things.
It jerked to a halt, and it was time to go home.

And so we did.

There you have it.
I think it's funny we had more fun just running around the park not getting much of anything done than we did the rest of the day. :D It's awesome to just hang out with your family and be a nut.

Hope you enjoyed the post!

Love,
me

Giveaways are Fun!

2009-04-18T00:00:00.005-04:00

Fact of the Day:
Giveaways are fun. Mostly if you win. I've won two etsy-people giveaways before.
Both prizes were earrings. As a matter of fact, my favorite yellow lemon-drop earrings were a giveaway prize. I won them by pleading eloquently. They went AWOL on me...
I've also benevolently donated my items for other people's giveaways.

Anyways! Because giveaways are fun*, I have decided to hold my own.
Behold my Giveaway Poster! (isn't it lovely?)

That's right, people! You get to pick your own prize! Whatever you want from my shop can be your very own. Well, "whatever" is limited to one item. And there will only be one winner.

Here's how it works:

Visit www.CaitiJo.etsy.com, come back and tell me what you would pick to win and why.
For an extra entry, leave a critique - Do I need to change something? How so? (you can leave both "entries" in one comment.)
The winner will be randomly selected and announced Wednesday, April 22.

There you have it! Go for it!
I'm excited. I hope more than one person enters.

Contest open Saturday, April 18 - Tuesday, April 21.
Open to residents of all countries. I hope you don't have outrageous shipping. lol
I'm going out of town for a week Wednesday afternoon, so if you choose a made-to-order item, I will send it ASAP when I get back. You've been forewarned. :D However, if you so choose something already finished, I'll slap a label right on it and stick it in the mail that very day! ;-)

I know lots of people give extra entries for posting about the giveaway on their blog, but I'm going to be different and not. However, I think you should post about it anyways, to share the fun with your friends out of the goodness of your heart. lol!

Have a happy weekend!

CaitiJo

* I'm big on honesty, so I thought I should let you know that I'm also doing this for shameless self promotion.

Coming soon...

2009-04-16T22:41:00.003-04:00

Story of a Day At Six Flags coming soon to a Caitlinesque near you.

Aren't you glad. I know you've been waiting.
Rosalie has, anyways.
lol

Today was lovely, so I just felt like popping in and saying hi.
I got a new item up for my etsy shop this week.
I made two more new things, but I haven't put the finishing touches on them. Poor them.

But here's the beret I finished, photographed, and listed!

I'm kind of fond of it. :)

Work was good. Shopping with mama and Katey was good.
All the junk food I ate today was good.

Now if the rest of the week will keep with the trend, I'll be quite content. :)

Have a happy day.
Caiti

Random Weekend Update

2009-04-11T10:27:00.004-04:00

Today my siblings and I are off to Six Flags. Feel free to come hang out with us. ;-)
Ooh! I just realized it's Christian Music Weekend! Cool.

I'm currently reading Deadline by Randy Alcorn. The power went out because of the storm last night, but I stayed up reading from like 11:00-1:30 by the light of an oil lamp. Yay! It's a super good book.

It's making me excited about Heaven. I always pictured it as standing around a throne singing forEVER. Which isn't too bad, I guess, since Jesus is there, but it did seem a little boring. Mr. Alcorn's vision of heaven is pretty cool. But I guess I won't derail this post and go into it here. :D

Trading on Etsy is fun. I'm trading these slippers
for this pendant. Thanks Lori!

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday! It's going to be busy, but fun. The choir is singing in both services, then my family is going to hang out at Mema's house with lots of other great family peoples, and then we have communion service at church, and youth choir practice afterwards.

May we remember the reason for all the celebration during the flurry of activity! Jesus Christ is Risen! YAY!

Oh - my Morning Thunder tea is steeping, and it's probably nasty and bitter by now. :|
If you like black tea, you should try Celestial Seasoning's Morning Thunder. It's gooood.

This is so random. But I felt like posting, and decided to just write whatever I thought to write.

Oh! Another thing! I'm almost done with sorting out "the businessy stuff" in regards to my Etsy business. By which I mean that I finally got my business registered, my trade name registered, and got a tax ID number to take care of sales tax and all that. Phew. Now if I could just figure out how to submit sales tax. They sent me a whole packet full of papers that I don't really understand how to use. I'm seeking help for that... And help needs to come fast... I'm running out of time to file for the last quarter!

I thought y'all would like to know that after all the whining I did before about not being able to figure it out.

So. I'm going to get ready to go to Six Flags now. After I drink my tea.
Have a happy Saturday, and rejoice! Our God is alive. :D

Caitlin

Another Shoe Post

2009-04-08T10:45:00.007-04:00

Hello!

I do not believe I have ever shown off my amazing, custom hand painted shoes from Alexandra.
Allow me-

Are those unique or what? I got her to fashion the little paintings after some of Helen's designs.

(Because I own the little bird earrings and a tiny lovebirds ring from her. And I LOVE them. )

In other news, I have been on the ball with slipper-making this week.

That one blue background picture with all those green ones is feeling a little lonely. However, it's a better photo all around, so it doesn't mind too much.

Now, I would like to share with you a photo that absolutely made my night when I saw it.

From a super-awesome buyer:

"Your description of the slippers made me think I would love to illustrate that."

Is that just the coolest thing or what?! It makes me soooo happy!
I've gotten a couple of appreciation photos before. They all rock, but this one SO takes the cake!

So, I think I'm off to read a little, and maybe make more brown Elfin Slippers.

Happy Wednesday!

Caitlin

Life Lesson Monday

2009-04-06T22:25:00.003-04:00

Do not fall in love with an otherworldly shapeshifting creature.

You may find yourself eyewitness to snarling alien forms, confusion,
emotional turmoil, and/or crushing heartbreak.
The relationship will likely end prematurely with a forever goodbye and lingering "emptiness."

This lesson brought to you by Wesley Crusher of The Starship Enterprise.