bright eyed & bushy tailed

i hate the flu....

2011-03-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

hello world again!

so January and February were fairly productive, and I've been on track with the majority of my 2011 resolutions.... until I got the flu THREE TIMES in the past 8 weeks. I'm guessing three different strains of flu virus, but they were all unquestionably the flu. awful. I am never missing another flu shot >.<

the past couple of healthy weeks have just been getting myself back on my feet and my ideas, art, and products lists / designs back in order for the rest of the year, so now feels like a good, albeit belated, time to pick up my blog again. It feels like 2011 is really starting to happen NOW.

A few back-pats:

1) I've been exercising! Not super rigorously, not following any particular routine, but I am indeed exercising anywhere from 2-5 times a week. And eating healthier too!

2) I have been learning how to cook healthy vegan food, although I cannot say I am vegan. I'm just hoping to reduce my negative impact on this world, and live more sustainably as much as possible. My favorite new vegan thing is homemade seitan vegan sausages - super tasty, super versatile, super easy, and super fun to make! I will be posting a step by step tut of this soon.

3) I still watch quite a bit of TV, but I also just discovered the amazing audiobook rental section in our library - completely digital, downloaded directly to my computer from home, automatically deletes from my system in 2 weeks' time, and I get a lot of very new titles. Super smart system. I'm currently listening to the entire Wicked Trilogy by Gregory Maguire, and have already gone through several Neil Gaiman books, the entire Harry Potter saga, and a bit of David Sedaris.

4) I have art in my Etsy shop, as well as about 15 news products on the drawing board, 4-5 of which are scheduled to debut in early April!!

5) I built my lightbox, but I made it too big, and collapsible, which at the time I designed it, I thought this was a perfect combo, but now it's just a huge pain to set up. sigh. :(

I'm also starting classes at Portland Community College on Tuesday! Finally learning Revit (even though I already know ArchiCAD and ADT - grrrr), and also taking Power Yoga. I'm just excited to be on some sort of routine, plus getting to meet new people. I'm not excited about the prospect of being an old person in my classes though, even though I know that there will be others older than me. oh well. better sooner than later of course!

Our new garden is mostly in place too - I'm trying to take advantage of our private back deck with 8 odd planters and an earlier planting than last year. So far, bush beans, pole beans, tomatoes, basil, and a few pest repelling flowers have gone into the soil indoors, to be transplanted when they're strong enough. We're also having rainbow chard, beets, and brussel sprouts this year! (well, we'll be planting them. whether or not that will happen, that's a different matter entirely)

anyway, cheers for a fast-approaching gorgeous Portland spring/summer, and to real 2011 momentum :)

~ d

oh, and number eleven.....

2010-12-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

....

11) Make me a lightbox so I can have better photos with which to decorate my blog and shop. I think that's part of the reason why my blog [in its previous life and this current one] doesn't have many photos, and the ones in my shop are subpar at best.

I'm going to build something similar to this one, but a little bigger and taller, and without the fancy flashes - Just desklamps will have to do for now:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

more + better photos = 2011.

resolute ~

~ d

four days.....

2010-12-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

.... til 2011!

and only 2 days until I'm home in Portland again with my beau [I re-read Anne of Green Gables while at home - it always makes me feel very wishful and wholesome....and somehow validates talking to myself more. and it skews my English.... ]

I'm always anxious to start a fresh new year [though it's not always a pleasant anxiety]. This time around I'm feeling much more pressure to perform to a higher standard than ever before, probably because I need to be much more disciplined in setting my own standards, otherwise things won't get done. That's one of the drawbacks of not having a boss holding a carrot in one hand and a whip in the other - things slip by you much more easily, with fewer [zero] consequences. Well, this year, my number one resolution is to tie up my own carrot on a stick! No whip though. I don't function well with whips. I just get eeyore-esque - very sad and tired.

So, here is my handful of hopefully very realistic and attainable resolutions. I hope that by posting them on the public blogosphere, I will feel that if I don't achieve my resolutions, I will be betraying far more people than just myself, so I will be more likely to at least strive harder to meet these goals.

1) string + stick + sparkly, plump, brilliantly orange, leafed carrot.

2) exercise. I really can't put this off any longer, especially now that I have some nice new clothes from the holiday sales [including one teensy weensy dress!]

3) use more photos in my blog entries [which means I need to carry my camera around with me all the time. makes me wonder if I should've bought a higher-quality camera phone]

4) make things for the people in my life, not just for my shop.

5) watch less TV, and switch my crafting background noise to audio books, NPR, and new music. I found a great website with tons of free audio books! The problem is that "free" usually means "really really old" but I figure it's a great time to catch up on all the classics, including all of Jane Austen.

6) evolve my etsy shop from fish to frog [or even just into some sort of one-legged creature that can begin to hop, rather than just drag itself along on its stomach]

7) draw more. and learn to color good too. [a good year always starts out with a few zoolander-isms. I can't help myself]

8) plan that wedding!!!

9) give people feedback in a timely manner [a timeframe of about 2-3 weeks would be a great improvement on my current 2-3 months]

10) wear socks. or rather, try to like wearing socks. I already wear socks, but my toes don't love it.....yet.

And I'm going to cap it at ten, cuz anything more than that will very likely overwhelm me for the time being, and make me feel like I've already lost the battle.

peace, love, and if I don't write again until then, a happy four more days until 2011 :)

hearts ~ d

finally, a new etsy shop banner :)

2010-12-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

and it's more winter-appropriate too!

view in my shop here: www.brighteyesbushytail.etsy.com

I really need to update these every couple of months, or at the very least, once per season. My previous one was in use for more than two years! for shame.....

Cheers!~

home for the holidays.....

2010-12-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

....and winding up for 2011!

I've given up on recapping 2009 and 2010. Those were wonderful years, but the moment has passed. Lesson learned, for a far more diligent and routine-ful future......

Anyway, now I'm home for the holidays! The best part about not having a real job is not having to put in vacation requests. My time is mine. Granted there is the guilt of leaving B behind to fend for himself for two weeks, but I did make him some very healthy and tasty food before I left.

So, home. Home is always a mixed bag of emotions for me. I love my family, I love being well-fed and having a pantry full of bad snacks that I would never buy for myself, I love vegging out and playing video games with my brother the whole time, but there's always the annoying nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should still keep a good routine and be working on something more meaningful than beating K at super smash bros, or, for this particular holiday, getting to the next level of earthbound..... ::sheepish::

Luckily this year [ although unluckily for K ], his finals are after the winter holiday [ why do they do that to kids now?? it's CRUEL to have finals AFTER a two week holiday..... ] , so he still needs to study. Hopefully that discipline will rub off on me a little, since I really want to use these 2 weeks at home to get myself prepared [ at least mentally with lots of well-planned checklists ] for lots of exciting new tiny business entrepreneur-ish activities for 2011.

I love the new etsy activity feed. It's wonderful being able to see new hearts, treasury adds, etc. immediately, and it's encouraging to see the positive feedback my new and old products consistently receive. It definitely helps my creative and working momentum when I feel like my past efforts have been validated. Seventy shop hearts!! Although that's not many compared to some of the very well-established shops, I still feel very lucky to have that many. I'm slowly inching my way to triple digits. :) And with that, I'm off to attempt some of that momentum while fighting to stay away from our wonderful pantry......

Much, much cheer and happiness and love ~ d

where did the last year-point-five go??

2010-12-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

how did i let this happen? [again] .

I can’t believe it’s been over a year and a half since I have posted. I’d love to say that it’s because I’ve been living such an incredibly meaningful and busy life that I didn’t have even 5 minutes to spare for an update. That’s about 50% true, but the other 50% is that I’m just bad with routines and I’m pretty lazy.

*sigh. nothing like a public internet blog confession for some much-needed introspection and for stoking that fire ‘neath my derriere.

That said, I’d like to say a big welcome back to myself! I have moved yet again since that last post forever ago, from beautiful historical Boston / Providence to the equally beautiful, eclectic, and awesomely weird town of Portland, Oregon. In my brief 5 month residence here, I can already say I really love this city, so much so that I have added a new blog category titled “PDX Love”, which will tag my many culinary, art, and exploratory adventures in my new home.

A gazillion more things happened during 2009/10, including a recent flowing of new ideas and endeavors, which I will [hopefully] give [brief] rundowns of in the next few weeks, so that my life can be catalogued, caught up, and ready to start anew in 2011.

Big plans in sight, full speed ahead. I love my life. :)

<3 ~ d

Note: currently migrating my blog from wordpress to blogspot! old old OLD blog entries can be found at www.brighteyesbushytail.wordpress.com.