a few minor changes

One nice thing about planning to build a house in ten years or so is that you have lots of time to modify and improve your design, and find out what you like best.

Here’s a new version of the house:

Main changes on the first floor:

kitchen door added (near garage)
masonry heater moved to be in front of stairs (more centrally located)
desk moved to original corner for heater
exchanged grand piano for normal upright, put in front of window

Main changes for second floor:

kids bathroom: door & tub switch sides
added large closet on landing area

Lovely gifts from lovely people!

I am feeling so loved!

My parents gave me:

A box set of the Little House books -2004 edition.  I highly recommend this edition.  The pages are really good paper, almost glossy, and the illustrations (which are the original ones) are in full color.  The box set is seriously heavy!  The paper is so nice and thick; I don’t know how they fit it into the normal-sized books.  These books should be durable enough to withstand the heavy amount of reading they tend to go through.

The Little House Cookbook YAAAAAAY!

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain -this is a semi-autobiographical book about being a riverboat captain.  If you love rivers as much as I do, you will love this book.

My little sister Rebecca (we draw names) got us some glass candlesticks and candles.  I can’t wait to use them!

My other sister Mary gave me The Good House Book -a book about alternative building styles and energy-efficient ideas

My Grandparents Bergen gave me “The Cookie Book” -a pretty book full of cookie recipes.  It has lots of yummy-looking recipes in it and is hardcover with a spiral binding which is so much nicer for cookbooks.

I also got some money both from my Grandpa Moberly and Samuel’s grandparents, Juju and Mim.

My in-laws gave me:

several pretty hair barettes and combs

The Golden Book of Fairy Tales which is large and beautifully illustrated -looks like it would be perfect for kids

Czech Fairy-tales which looks intriguing and includes several appropriately gruesome illustrations -not exactly for kids

The Illustrated Cottege which is a book about a really beautifully decorated home, includes lots of pictures

a few pretty shawls and head scarves

some gorgeous earrings like these (which I’ve wanted for years):

Carole King “Tapestry” album WITH PIANO MUSIC!!!  I have the record but it skips terribly.

Two Peter, Paul and Mary records and one Kingston Trio

Joan Baez “Diamonds and Rust”  which I love but don’t own

Paul Simon “Negotiations and Love Songs”  same as above

“Best of Bowie” -YAAAAY!!!

Samuel got me:

Some pretty white gold threader earrings which I’ve wanted for ages because I love the cheap ones I got at Claire’s but the coating wore off after a while and they look rusty.    So, the gold ones should be much nicer.  They’re pretty!

Le Morte d’Arthur with Art Nouveau illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley!!!!  The book is REALLY HUGE and GORGEOUS!

I think that’s everything!  I’m probably forgetting something; there’s just too much goodness to keep it all cataloged!

Venison!

I made venison pot roast for Christmas. It turned out AWESOME. First I stabbed holes in it and stuffed garlic slices into the holes. Then I salt & peppered it and seared it in olive oil on all sides. Then I put it in a roasting pan with seared onions, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms, and water, olive oil and rosemary and roasted it at 250 for about five hours. It was yummy and tender!
We have one more deer roast in our freezer. Next I’m going to try…

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CORNED VENISON!!!!!!!!!!

That is, venison soaked in brine for several days and then simmered in a pot. I watched a video about how to make corned beef, which I love, and then wondered if I could do it with venison. I’ve found several recipes that say yes, you can, and it tastes amazing.  Brining is also very easy: it just takes a long time to work.   I’m going to try it! I’M SO EXCITED!!!!!!

In related news, I gotThe Little House Cookbook for Christmas and it is soo amazing.  It’s partially a cookbook of the meals made in the Little House books, and partially a description of what life was like back then and how and why they made the food they did.  I love reading it.

I also got many other wonderful gifts that are filling me with happiness but I think I will blog about them separately, later.

Here are the movie quotes from my quiz that no one could guess:

7. So, go get him, for Pete’s sake! -from Amelie
8. That gag’s got whiskers on it! -from The Hudsucker Proxy
16. Is wrong address! -from Roman Holiday

mystery possibly solved

Remember when my apartment smelled bad and I couldn’t figure out why?

And then it mysteriously disappeared?

Well, the other day I was talking to the neighbor two floors above us.  And he asked me if our apartment randomly smelled bad.  YES!  I said.  He said theirs did too and he thought it was the apartment in between ours.  It’s plausible because the people in that apartment are from a different country, and maybe they cook things that smell good to them but not Americans.  And the smell did have a foody quality to it.

So anyway, that’s what I’m going with now.  It hasn’t happened in a long time, but if it happens again I won’t go mad trying to find the source.

In other news, I took my second-to-last BIO100 test and got a B on the instant-feedback part!  That is a letter grade higher than the others!  I know I’ll get an A on the written part like I usually do.  And I learned the material and studied for only two days!

I am totally going to get a B+ in Biology after aprox. two weeks of effort!  Sure beats taking the live class for a whole semester and doing all those extra projects!  Talk about prolonging the agony!  Sheesh.  I love that I can get this class overwith and focus on the classes and subjects that I love to explore.

Please try to identify the remaining quotes in the previous post if you haven’t tried already!

ok, I think we have enough now….

We’ve got over 10 inches by now and, as you can see, it’s still coming down strong.  We already had about five inches and then this morning it started snowing and now we’ve at least doubled that.

-Change of subject-

I wanted to do this fun quiz thing. Here’s what I did:

1. Pick 16 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4.. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions. And no checking my movie app.

So here’s my movie quotes:

1. Baptism! You two’re just dumber’n a bag of hammers.
2. Voltage, VOLTAGE! Up up. Up up!
3. Does this film have socially redeeming value?
4. Twigs? Speak not of twigs when you look at an oak! Until tonight, my little sapling.
5. I don’t care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!
6. You know what they say. No life without wife!
7. So, go get him, for Pete’s sake!
8. That gag’s got whiskers on it!
9. Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous.
10. I can’t go back, I’m a human sacrifice.
11. I honestly think I’d give up smoking if he asked me.
12. It’s my manner, sir.   It looks insubordinate, but it isn’t really.
13. Trial by stone!
14. My story begins in London, not so very long ago. And yet so much has happened since then, that it seems more like an eternity.
15. I have some lovely dresses; take your pick.
16. Is wrong address!

Can you guess what any of them are from?

Tag

8 TV shows I love to watch.
1. The Muppett Show
2. Fraggle Rock
3. Samurai Jack
4. (going to have to switch to movies now) Help!
5. Thoroughly Modern Millie
6. Amelie
7. A Room With a View
8. Sense and Sensibility

8 Favorite Restaurants.
1. Burger Supreme
2. Two Jacks Pizza
3. Bombay House
4. Lon’s Cookin’ Shack
5. Creamery on 9th
6. Stan’s
7. Tandoori Grill
8. Thai Ruby

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. slept in with Samuel
2. quilted while Samuel read Hogfather to me
3. said goodbye to Samuel as he went to work
4. made a 10 minute presentation for school for Monday
5. wrote an email to my Grandma
6. talked to my Dad on the tellyphone
7. got invited to see Australia but turned it down because it was too-late notice and Samuel was at work
8. watched trailers and movie clips of Australia and decided that I would rather like to see it.  It has brumbies in it!

8 Things I’m looking forward to:
1. Thursday– last day of class
2. finishing finals
3. Christmas break
4. Christmas itself
5. graduating in April
6. moving somewhere cool and decorating/furnishing the new apartment
7. having babies
8. building a house in the country and having pets

8 Things on my wish list:
1. Wish that Samuel didn’t have to work all day on Christmas
2. Wish that I had my kitty and a dog
3. Wish that I was done with school
4. Wish that I might have a baby soon
5. Wish I had more experience with horses
6. Wish that Samuel might get an amazing scholarship to the school of his choice
7. Wish I had a piano
8. Wish Samuel had a more enjoyable job

8 People I’m Tagging:

I think everyone I know has already been tagged.  So tag yourself if you want to.

my perfect life

Inspired by Thora’s post.

In February, Samuel will be accepted to all of the schools he applied to, with lots of scholarships. We pick our favorite one and plan our move.

After a fairly easy year, I will graduate from BYU in April, along with my mom and my brother. My whole family will be there, and everyone who wants to will have a ticket to see the inspiring and not-as-long-or-boring-or-crowded-as-I’d-feared Commencement.

Within the summer Samuel and I will pack up and move. We’ll have lots of help so it won’t be hard at all. I’ll get to throw away/give away all the stuff that we don’t need or want.

We’ll arrive at our beautiful, pet-friendly apartment in Collegeville, and fill it with great Craigslist furniture and decor finds. My kitty will be with us, and we’ll start looking into adopting a dog.

I will be pregnant by this time and have a baby very soon. I’ll have an awesome natural labor and birth in a friendly hospital, with a friendly and comforting midwife. Everything will go like clockwork, and Samuel won’t be too grossed out by the blood and gunk. Life at home with the baby will be hard, but wonderful. Everyone will be happy and healthy.

Samuel will get some kind of job that he loves at the university.

Our ward will be welcoming and we’ll get callings and make lots of friends.

All this while, our car will still be running strong.

We’ll have lots more babies, maybe one every two years or so.

After graduating with his PhD (hopefully he can get both degrees at one school) we will pick a place where we want to move, and rent a house there. Samuel will find that there is a great need for his counseling abilities. He opens his own practice.

After living there for a year or so, and getting to know the people and the area, a perfect 10-acre piece of land will fall into our laps. We’ll buy it and start building our dream house. We’ll finish it within a year or two, and have only a small mortgage because we’ll do much of it ourselves or with friends, buying supplies as we get the money.

We’ll have plenty of money, because Samuel will be everyone’s favorite marriage counsuler, and he’ll be hired by the Church as a counsuler, too.

After our house is built and perfect, we’ll get a horse for me. Possibly two so someone can ride with me.

I’ll homeschool our kids and we’ll have a great time learning, playing, creating, and caring for our land and animals. Our garden will be a glorious thing. I’ll learn how to can and we’ll stock up on all the things we grow. Our lifestyle will be very sustainable, but not so radically sustainable that people are turned off by us.

The kids will all grow up to be wise, intelligent, creative, peace-loving, resourceful, charitable, faithful, and good citizens. They’ll love each other and their parents, and want to spend time together. They will have successful lives and families, be active in the church, married in the temple, etc.

Samuel will retire and we’ll serve a mission at some point. We’ll keep our little farm for as long as we can keep it up. If we have to we’ll quit working the farm and sell the animals, but still live in the house. Then we’ll die within a few months of each other, in our eighties.

The End (of mortal life)

vanity

I really liked what I was wearing today, so I took a picture and then played around with it on Gimp.

I think it was mostly the new socks that made me want to document this outfit.

Kind of vintage and ghost-like here.

Birthday gift to myself

SOCKS!

Haha my dad is going to think this is so funny, since to him socks are the most comically boring present ever.

I bought myself some socks. I often wear long thick socks in the winter when I wear boots, or skirts, or both, instead of tights, cause they are more comfy and easier to put on. But I have this problem with knee-socks sliding down, or not being long enough in the first place. And since I can’t exactly try them on in the store, I’ve since resorted to another option: over-the knee socks! Guaranteed to not slide down under your boots. They’re meant to go completely over the knee and 4-5 inches past it. I usually cuff mine to just under the knee: they stay up better that way -the calf is a more daunting lump for socks to slide past than the knee is.

I had four pairs of winter socks that would not slide down my legs: clearly I needed more. So I bought six pairs. Two each in “natural” “grey” and “brown”. I was severely tempted by all the other pretty colors, but I wanted to stick with the practical for now. I’d bought crazy stripey socks from them a few years ago, and it’s just hard to find things they go with. The website is sockdreams.com. They’ve got all kinds of weird socks on that site, but my favorites are the OBasics, OTK. The quality is very good. They’re super soft and cozy.

The other thing I bought is an “Imp’s Ears” set of perfume oil samples from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. In this store, imp’s ears are little glass bottles that hold samples, and you can buy six of them for $20, to see which of the 100’s of scents you like best.

Here are the scents I chose:

EPHEMERA
The scent of loss, love and the echo of time without end: sorrowful violet and chamomile with muguet, white geranium, calla lily and tea rose with a hint of autumn leaves.

FAE
A brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss.

MORGAUSE
Earth sorceress and mother of Mordred, she is, in essence, the harbinger of King Arthur’s doom and the downfall of Camelot. She is a sister, or sister-self, to Morgan Le Fay. A bouquet of five night-blooming flowers deepened by dusky violet, purple fruits and the barest breath of medieval incenses.

JULIET
Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear.

AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA
A pale, delicate, truly angelic blend. A scent created to emulate Adonis’ halo of beauty: fragile, distant, and radiant. Rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris.

THE LADY OF SHALOTT
The scent of calm waters just before a raging storm, limned with achingly-beautiful blooms, an icy scent, but somehow warm, and mirror-bright: bold gardenia, crystalline musk, muguet, water blossoms, clear, slightly tart aquatic notes and a crush of white ginger.

I loooooove reading the descriptions of their perfumes! They’ve got hundreds, in all sorts of themes. Tons for men, even. All sorts of historical and legendary references. And Art Nouveau web decor!

I’m old?

At the Relief Society Broadcast a while ago I ended up talking to two women in my ward, just because of where we ended up sitting and stuff. We had never talked before. We talked for quite a while, mostly about makeup and clothes. Now, I like talking about these things sometimes, but it was clear that we had different ideas and philosophies about them. Both of them expressed that they “couldn’t” go without makeup, because the world would be horrified at their bleak, ill-looking faces. “I have to wear makeup or else I look sick.” One girl said she used up a tube of very expensive foundation, supposed to last five months, in one month.  I tried gently to express my opinions about makeup and the harmful messages ads send us about “needing” perfection, without sounding like a wild-eyed radical. I hope some of my thoughts came through.

Anyway, the real shocker in this conversation was when I told them how old I was. One woman was surprised to know that I was only 21. “You look older than that.” I was shocked! This had never happened to me before, and I must admit it made me feel a little frumpy and ugly. I know she didn’t mean it that way, and I tried not to let it bother me.

But I kept trying to figure out why she thought that. Maybe it was because both she and the other woman were 19 or 20. But, after talking to Samuel about this, I think it was really because of how I was dressed. My unstyled, natural hair, my used, vintage clothes, and my lack of makeup all made me look older to them. Because I didn’t look like I’d stepped out of a fashion magazine full of young, beautiful, stylish people -or was simply trying to look like I had- they figured I must be an old person. I was shocked at how much this thought made me kind of want to “update” my look. The Mainstream current is a strong one.

Thankfully, because of the conversation with my husband, a look at some really ugly merchandise at Old Navy -I sometimes see very trendy people who wear these sorts of things, and think to myself, “They’re going to look like total clowns in ten years! What are they thinking?”- and some time spent pondering our current economical crisis, I am now happily satisfied with my “old” look, which I choose to describe as “innovative,” “resourceful,” “creative,” “flattering,” “beautiful,” and even “old-fashioned”.

And today’s my birthday, so now I’m 22! Even older!