Chapter 5: In Which We Discuss Resolutions

Just now, I opened the blog and got ready for a new entry, only to be halted when I saw that a looming and knowing number served as the date for its sad revival. January 1^st. Oh no. Whatever you promise to get done on January first never gets done. Aren't there statistics out there about how gym memberships are always up at the first of the year, nicotine patches are being sold by the pallet, and packs of Rosetta Stone are being purchased with the intent of finally picking up another language because all those kids in Europe already know at least five? For me, resolutions always looked eerily similar to the list Nick finds at the end of the Great Gatsby. I am forever haunted by the adolescent Gatsby's planned routine of exercise and intellect that I've always thought mirrored my own aspirations: brains and beauty. Yes, to have it all!

I must tell myself that the blog is not a resolution. Because it's not. I have given up on resolutions. The only one I ever kept successfully was to keep the Sabbath and it was the best decision I ever made. I'm not sure what else could top that. I have been living these past two or three years with one day of the week set aside for reading, praying, socializing, crafting, snoozing, and television. All other days of the week can be occupied with work if they need to be. But Sundays (or really more like Saturdays now) are special and they are set aside like I feel like they should be.

Since I've kept a New Year's Resolution for at least a year, I know I can cross that particular notion off the collective, cosmic to-do list. And once that is crossed off, why rub it in people's faces by doing it again? Hence forth, we will not call the blog a resolution.

Let's trade it for another word with only slightly different connotation. It is an aspiration. I aspire to write creatively and share my thoughts. I aspire to remain connected with family and friends near and far.

My husband and I have just experienced a very bittersweet goodbye when we drove away from his childhood home for the last time. His parents sold it, packed it up, and moved about 12 hours away from sweaty South to frigid North to begin a new adventure in a ministry that is based there. We are incredibly excited for them and their new mission, but we are equally grieving the loss of my in-laws being so close to us. Still, we tell ourselves, as my mother-in-love said in her email, it's not China! And for that, we're very grateful.

If there would be anything to resolve to be, it would be grateful. In all situations, with all people, in every day, to find something to be grateful for would be a beautiful thing. I am grateful for wonderful in-laws, however far away they may be. I'm grateful for wonderful parents who send me sweet and encouraging text messages to start my day.

I am grateful for a fantastic husband, though right now he is in another room because he can't stand the sound of typing when it is the only noise and once I finish this blog post I will tell him it's all over now and he can come back in, and he will join me in our cuddly cozy bed, which I'm also grateful for, and our cat will whine and be very ungrateful when he stops petting her to go to sleep. All in all, it's a good life, annoying typing noises and goodbyes aside. I love where we are and I wouldn't trade it for the world. What would I do with the world if I got it anyway?

Chapter 4: In Which I Revive the Blog

Well hello there, internet. It seems that what happens to a lot of bloggers has also fell upon me. I started something, got very excited about sharing my life with the blogging world, and then my life got in the way. It was a responsibility I was more than willing to put down in the face of new ones: lesson plans, organizing a classroom, getting to know new coworkers and students, grading, and still maintaining my self-inflicted housewife duties. 


Since I started teaching, I have learned a lot about balancing my social, work, and private lives. I have learned how to organize, how to plan, and how to maintain good relationships. I have learned a lot about discipline. I have learned so many lessons about teenagers that I will hopefully look back on when I am a parent of one myself. I have also learned that I can't do it all. My wonderfully helpful husband does the dishes every night, without fail. I still make the dinner and do the grocery shopping, but after the meal, I put my feet up and enjoy that I have a partner to share some of the load of meal preparation. 


I have also learned to be grateful for the slow moments--the times when I can read for fun, when I can sit and think to myself and daydream about our future. I am appreciative of the time I have right now to sit and write (though in all honesty I feel slightly ashamed that it has been so long since I've taken the time to do so).


The slow moments are so pleasant and desperately necessary. Like my dreams of being the ever-ready housewife (complete with apron, heels, pearls, and a masters degree), they often need to be carefully edited, wisely chosen, and wholeheartedly enjoyed. I choose to take a moment to rejuvenate myself now and hope that I can make this effort much more often in the future.


In other news, two big dreams came true in the last few moments of 2011. I bought a serger from an ad on craigslist (90 bucks, only used three times, like new!) and I ordered a dress form online. It will arrive on Wednesday and the UPS tracker thing tells me it weighs 20 lbs, fun fact! I bought material this afternoon for two dresses. I can't wait to get started. My other dreams of wearing dresses as often as humanly possible and sewing more often may also come true with these two new additions to our tiny apartment! 


Over Christmas, Aaron and I also got a cat, which we named Flannery, but I can tell you more about her later. She likes to walk over the keyboard when she wants attention. I hope, on your part, you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years' celebration, and I hope to have something else for you to read sometime soon.


Until then,
Lauren

Chapter Three: In Which We Discuss Healthy Eating

My husband and I watched one of his favorite movies the other day—Heavyweights--which has become a kind of summer tradition in our house. Heavyweights is a hilarious movie about a group of kids sent to a fat camp that has recently been taken over by crazy fitness guru Ben Stiller, who hopes to turn the kids' insane weight loss into material for his infomercial. It's one of those great kids-take-over-a-relatively-large-institution-feel-the-power-use-it-responsibly-learn-life-lessons type of plots that makes the child viewer feel empowered, and maybe in this case, a little hungry. To stick it to the man, the kids have all kinds of secret hiding spots for their candy, as well as a scout that goes outside of the camp for a fee and picks up fast food.

While we were watching this time, I couldn't help but be bothered by the movie's premise. At the end, the message seemed to be: “you're fine the way you are; you don't have to change.” I turned to my husband and asked, “don't these kids want to lose the weight? Aren't they tired of being the fat kid, or has it become ok since 'they're all the fat kid'?” (that last part being a line from the movie). Aaron, as always, put some things in perspective.

“You have to remember that when this movie was made, we didn't have the studies that we have today that tell us how dangerous childhood obesity is. Not as many kids were obese. So the message of the movie is not about health, it's about understanding that the fat kid in your class could be a pretty cool guy if you gave him a chance, and that you shouldn't be worried to be yourself.”

It took me back to my own childhood eating habits. Little Debbies as often as I could get my hands on them, Coca-cola for every meal, sneaking chocolate milk into my chocolate cereal when no one was looking, often eating waffles with chocolate syrup for breakfast (or a snack), and microwave popcorn. My summertime lunch was almost always an individual sized frozen pizza finished off with a giant ice cream cone. All that to say, I also have to give my parents a lot of credit for making me eat my vegetables, fixing me delicious home cooked meals, and teaching me to love gardening and fresh produce. As many good habits as they gave me, my stubborness and penchant for sugar won out in my college years, and today I'm trying to fight them off.

For the most part, I feel very uneducated when it comes to food. I have little to no knowledge about what it does to my body, and I'm more than happy to drive through a line and pick up whatever you'll give me for less than five bucks. But I want to make more of an effort than that. Aaron and I want to have kids in a few years, and besides having my body as healthy as possible for pregnancy, I want to have developed healthy habits to pass along to them like my parents did for me (albeit without the knowledge that Diet Coke isn't the best thing for you all the time). At the moment I'm not the eat-a-baby-carrot-for-a-snack type, but maybe I'll get there. To educate ourselves, we've been watching all kinds of food documentaries on Netflix. Our most recent views have been “Food Matters” and “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.” I think my latest policy developed out of “Food Matters,” which talked about the benefits of vitamins and eating as much raw food as possible for the nutritional benefits. So here it is, the sentence that governs my food choices as of late:

Don't eat what you can't pronounce.

It's scary to look on the nutrition facts of any food product and not know what you're looking at. If I don't know what they are, I don't know what they're doing to my body. I can't fathom the idea that my body would need whatever that is, if it's not available in nature. I find instant relief when I look at a package at the grocery store and see simple, definable words. Ocean Spray's Craisins have two ingredients: cranberries and sugar. Maybe that's another part of this policy, the fewer ingredients the better. I want my food to come out of a kitchen, not a chemistry lab.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is a really amazing film. I highly recommend it!

I'm hoping that with this new perspective, we can eliminate some of the more dangerous foods from our diet and eat only the identifiable ones. More produce, more greens, more raw food, less chemicals, less confusion, and finally, more knowledge. In the words of Aristotle, “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” This practice is as much about taking my back ownership of my mind as well as my body: I will not let anyone feed me that doesn't value my health and well-being.

By necessity, this change is very gradual, and it has all started with me getting to know my kitchen. I'm no longer in there just to fix up dinner or to grab some oatmeal for breakfast. Over the past few weeks, I've covered our counters with flour and exacerbated our supply of butter, milk, and eggs—I've made snacks and meals from scratch. I've made crackers, cookies, pizza dough, pasta, crisps and crumbles, and bread. Most importantly, I traded in one questionable, yet delicious dessert for the homemade version, a la Smitten Kitchen.

That's right: Oreos.

I love my homemade oreos so much better than the originals, and I know exactly what went into them (because I made them myself!) With the amount of butter and shortening that go into the cream (there's butter in the cookie too, let's not forget) they're certainly not the healthiest thing out there. Herein lies the difference between my current effort at lifestyle change and a diet. I'm not cutting out sweets temporarily—they will always be a part of my life—I'm just cutting them down and taking control of what they are, and how much sugar is in there. In a recipe for a blueberry crumble, I cut the sugar in half to let the natural sugars of the blueberry be the main focus, because I could, because it was in my kitchen, because I was in charge of this thing that was about to be my breakfast.

I hope this encourages you to think about your choices and to try to make some healthy ones. I could go on and on about this topic because I believe it's tied to a greater philosophy that I've been developing—all wrapped up in education and the domestic arts—that I will probably elaborate on as this blog continues. Just know that I'm very much determined to take care of myself and my husband and whatever kids we have in the future. But for now, we're starting small, and it's about making homemade oreos.

I'll leave you with some links to a couple of recipes I've been using.

For the past couple of years, I've been making the braided bread from Made. It's really easy and a great introduction to simple bread making.

Here's my next project: Homemade microwave popcorn? I love the idea of controlling butter and salt portions through this easy idea.

A very basic Pizza dough. The video on this website on how to knead the dough is strangely soothing...

Chapter 2: In Which We Go From Dorm to Denim

I want this blog to be personal/relatable/approachable, without telling you every tiny detail about myself. That's for my diary, not my blog. There is a multitude of people out there, my generation specifically, that think that the entire world cares about every little thing they do... so we live in a world of TMI* stories and horrible mental images. Not this blog. We're going to aim to keep this classy, quality, and crafty.

*too much information. You are now hip and with it.

So without wanting to catch you up on the entirety of my life, I'll just start with earlier this summer. The biggest projects that I wanted to tackle this summer were home decor-based. We had just moved into our new apartment at the beginning of May, reunited with our furniture after it had sat a year in storage during our adventures abroad. Every piece was just as beautiful as I remembered it, even this chair.

Please take notice of the Lord of the Rings map that lives above it.

This chair was a $20 garage sale purchase. I bought it from two teenage boys who live across the street from my parents as they tried to hit on me. It got them to carry it to my mom's garage, anyway, and telling them that I was in college did not seem to deter them. In any case, I got a retro chair and ottoman set that was the perfect tiny size for dorm life. When I got married, we made the chair the centerpiece of a really special spot in our first apartment: the book nook. It was always the place where I studied, where I cozied up with a nice cup of coffee, and where I sometimes took naps in the sunshine of the window that was right next to it. This chair has treated us well, so when we moved into the new place, we knew the book nook had to be established here too.

The problem was, ok, maybe it wasn't as beautiful as I remembered it--the chair was old, and when we pulled it out of storage, it looked aged and in my mind, dorm-y. All of our other furniture was so adult! Here was so obviously a garage sale purchase. A $20 chair that I wanted to look like a million bucks, because let's face it: I never want to get rid of this thing.

I can't afford to have it reupholstered. That is a dream for another day. I can't reupholster it myself. That is a task I have not the time or energy to take on. I could have made a slip cover for it, but I don't trust my own sewing skills to handle a project that big.

Enter RIT dye. My mom had dyed a chair once, from forest green to black. It ended up looking very professional and classy, so I decided that it was the route for me. I had an expert to consult, and the project was low-cost. The dye was 4 bucks and rubber gloves were a dollar and some change. I figured this powder-blue number was the right fabric and the right color to take on some navy blue dye. (I'm a little obsessed with navy—not sure why but probably because it's awesome.) I totally procrastinated on this. I was so nervous I was going to mess it up forever and the only choice left to me would be to cover it with a sheet until I could afford to get it reupholstered... but I didn't want the powder blue to be a part of our new living room. So I dove right in with my rubber-gloved hand to a bucket of navy blue dyed warm water and sponged/scrubbed that color into the chair and ottoman and all its cushions... for three consecutive days.

The chair sporting the first coat, with a powder blue seat for comparison.

The ottoman with the first coat

Seat: no coats; back cushion: one; chair arms: two or three, I forget

Here's what my face looked like the whole time (and my first blog self-portrait)

Tarp underneath (which totally ripped and stained our concrete patio--whoops), I put on the first layer and it was not as dark as I had hoped. Maybe I had diluted the dye too much. I let it dry and put on the second coat. This took much better, and I could have been happy with it, but it was still not quite right. Third coat, third day: success. I am SO happy with the results!

The book nook lives on and looks awesome! The last step, once everything was dry was to heat set the dye in the chair. I plugged in my iron on medium heat and ran it over every square inch of that chair. It is now perfect. I would sit on it with my favorite white shorts and not worry about any transfer. (I left the garbage bags under it for a while on the carpet just in case, but didn't have any problems!)

The best part is the fact that the dark color covered a couple stains that the previous owners had left. It looks like a brand new piece of furniture.

Kind of denim-y, but I kind of like that it turned out that way! It's definitely a one of a kind piece at this point! And still as cozy as ever. Have a piece of cloth furnitire whose color you don't like? Dying it is easy, quick (if you don't dilute your dye so much), and really cheap. It takes a little more time and effort, and it will definitely fade and not last as long as completely reupholstering the fabric. If you're like me and want a short-term*, cheap fix to a furniture dilemma, RIT is your friend.

*My mom's chair dye job lasted 3-4 years before it began to fade. The green started to seep through on the most worn parts of the cushions and arm rests. So short-term here does not mean you'll have to redo this in a few weeks. My mom also recently redyed her chair and it looks as good as ever.

I could dye just about anything—never settle for the colors you're given! Always make them your own!

Lauren

Chapter 1: In Which I Introduce Myself to a Small Audience Called the Internet

Hello Wonderful Blogging World,

My name is Lauren and I now have a blog too. So now we can hang out, and I can share all of my crafting adventures with you! Allow me to introduce myself:

I will start teaching full-time in August, a philosophy and religion class. Yeah, it's going to be pretty intense. My current goal is to get in as many Star Wars references as possible.

I like Star Wars.

I was a Lit. major in college, and having just finished graduate school, I still find myself looking forward to the day when I can read for fun.

If that day ever comes, I would read detective stories.

I lived in Ireland for 8 months while I was in grad school. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Now I have returned to my American Southern roots, and it feels good to be back where people say “y'all,” “God bless,” and “warsh.”

I love to sew, bake, crochet, and generally enjoy the domestic arts. I am a big believer in being able to become self-sufficient. Take nothing for granted when it comes to your security, and always know how to take care of yourself, financially and physically.

That reminds me of how I should work out more, but I'm on Thesis Diet.

I am currently writing my dissertation for my Masters (due September 1^st) so I'm hoping this blog will be a nice outlet for creative writing, after so much academia.

Thesis Diet consists of much staring at the computer, moving only your hands, eating lots of crackers, and sitting around a lot.

Future goals include a road-trip across America. I have seen neither coast, though I did get to go to San Diego for Comic-Con, but let's face it: I was inside the convention center the entire time.

In the next few years I hope to buy a house with my husband that has some land attached to it and learn how to garden, can, and make yummy jams!

My husband and I just moved to a new city and are excited about making connections and learning where all the free stuff is.

I basically have the best family ever.

I hope you return to this blog and find some pretty pictures and crafty adventures to enjoy! I'm excited to meet you and experience the blogging world first hand. 

Lauren