News + My Nerd Origin Story

Hi Friends,

This week has been a crazy one, with lots of good and lots of bad to report.  Honestly it breaks my heart to think about it all too much.  However I'm going to try and write about some of it and we'll see what happens from there!

News

Giveaway

First off I'm pleased to announce a winner to my giveaway (found in this post).  Congratulations to Melissa K!  Her prize will be shipping soon, and if you missed this giveaway please stay tuned to my blog.  I'll be hosting another in the near future!


I'd also like to thank everyone who entered my giveaway.  I loved reading your ideas for what I should be writing about and noted many folks want to see more about plus size fashion and reviews.  I can't wait to bring you more of this!

Liebster Award

Last week I was nominated by my lovely colleague Sadie at Sadie By Design for a Liebster Award!  The Liebster is an way of giving bloggers a better platform to tell their story to the world.  I wanted to acknowledge it in this post even though I haven't had time to fully address all that goes with the nomination yet.  I'm thrilled and flattered to be featured this way and can't wait to write more about it.  Please watch for a more in depth post about this in the next few weeks!

#BlackLivesMatter

This is just exhausting to keep track of, and the more hate that builds as people start to see race as an issue to take sides on the more sick I feel.  I can't think about other people that way.  506 black lives have been lost so far this year, and now more are being added from the police force thanks to a few renegades who are taking things into their own hands.  One of the 506 was my cousin a few months back.

I keep thinking things will change for the better, and then there is only more violence and tragedy.  It leaves me an emotional mess, feeling guilty when good things are happening in my own life and others are experiencing so much loss.  Guilty for being white and having the privilege to go and do what I want without being anxious for my life.  I feel bad that the best I can do most days is simply have dialogue with you, my readers, or the other folks I know in person or online.  It just feels like nothing I do will be enough to help.  And for that I am sorry.

However I try to read and stay educated about what is going on.  I don't just block it out with my own moderately happy life.  If this strikes a chord with you and you'd like to learn more about concrete ways you can help find peace and ensure a better future for everyone in this country please check out this amazing article featuring a list of practical ways to become an ally.

Pokemon Go

This has been the happy thing of my week  I have been enjoying this app I have eagerly awaited the past 8 months.  I'll be writing more on this in the near future, including a full review!  For now I have my Bulbasaur, a gym next door to my house (First to claim!  Though it's already been taken over and....well, I'll come back to that later).

My Nerd Origin Story

My friend and fellow blogger Mickey came up with this writing prompt and opened it up as a bit of a group project within the Geeks & Beauties community I'm a part of.  I think it's a great topic to think about as we get introspective about life because it helps us look on the bright side of things and view our own life as a story that we get the power to write.  Just as some of our favorite superheroes lives were shaped by adversity so are our own at times.  And as with superheroes, sometimes we keep our nerdy identity a secret from the general public.  However, today I'm opening up about it to you all.

My own story starts when I was learning to read.  I was homeschooled and my mom had some curriculum to help that included a series of books with stepped difficulty and little racetrack to move along as you read each.  I remember after the first dozen or so I think I completed the rest in a day, and then started begging my mom to take me to the library.  From then on I loved reading and would get a dozen or more books each visit, multiple times a week.  When I was 10 years old my mom, brother and I spent some time living with my grandmother and great grandmother to help them out.  As soon as we realized we might be there long term the library visits started there too, and in some ways reading became my best friend when there was no one my age to play with.  While I love my brother, when you're cooped up in a house together you get sick of each other eventually.  Books became my escape from that, and later my comfort as I had to figure out how to make friends with kids again when I had left a kid and came back to my hometown a middle schooler.  Fantasy books were my favorite, from retellings of fairy tales to waiting for each new Harry Potter book.

I was the kid who while perhaps 13 walked to the mall on black Friday to buy myself a Game Boy when they were finally cheap enough to be affordable to my family, and then patiently wait to receive it on Christmas day along with a cartridge for Pokemon Blue (my brother got Red!).  We had an old Nintendo we shared and played the first few Super Mario games on, and I vividly remember playing all of the Legend of Zelda on a 6 inch black and white tv.  As he got further into his teens my brother took over most of the gaming systems in our house, deeming me unworthy to play them as a female.  But I was already hooked.

Growing up we had a closet full of board games, stocked by my mom that we used often.  Before she homeschooled my brother and I full time she had been a librarian at a university, and before that a high school biology teacher.  She loved learning and finding us new projects to work on that stimulated our curiosity.  Even when we watched tv with my parents they would often be watching Star Trek or other science fiction shows.  On Saturdays my dad would take us on walks to 7-11 to pick up some small item the family needed and buy me a Barbie or Strawberry Shortcake comic.  I didn't realize how nerdy this all was until much later in life.  I just took joy from reading about gardening and teaching myself to grow roses, or learning to identify birds, trees, and insects.  I never thought of myself as an outdoorsy kid, but I loved nature and the science and beauty of it.  To this day when I'm creating art or decorating my home themes from nature are constantly finding their way into my work.

Later in high school I wanted to run my own website for a church group I was in and learned to code some in HTML.  We didn't even have a computer at the time, just a WebTV unit that allowed us to do very basic web surfing and checking emails.  But I figured out how to make it work, and later when we did have a computer I was the one keeping that up and running for the 5-6 years we owned a desktop the family to shared.  And I almost ended up in the field of graphic design, except I fell in love with darkroom photography and preferred it to sitting in from of a computer for long periods of time.  And now my work involves a computer (or smartphone) all the time!

For most of my life I didn't think about myself as a nerd, I just did the things I loved, which happened to be geeky.  Nowadays when I'm looking for new friends or trying to find my tribe I often go straight for the nerdy girls first.  And most of the time that's exactly what works best.

If you'd like to hear some other great nerd origin stories please go read Mickey's here at the Nerdily blog, Sadie's at Sadie By Design, Andrea's at her YouTube channel Chibi Drea (coming soon), and Evelyn's at Princess Eevee.  I'll update these links to go straight to their stories, but for now you can check out their sites and get to know these lovely ladies.

What's your nerd origin story like?  Let me know more in the comments!  And as always, thanks for reading.  I really appreciate all my visitors.

The Garden Corner

Hi folks,

I know I've occasionally mentioned how I planned to start a garden once we moved.  I wrote down ideas and potential ways of setting things up.  All my planning got dropped on its head when I got to our finished yard.  Not to say I haven't done a lot.  I have, but I've had my fair share of failures too.

When we closed on our house there was just straw in the backyard, with some sparse grass seeds.  The seeds have struggled and even with a second seeding of some other type of grass there's still muddy patches around.  The biggest problem is the soil quality in the backyard, the topsoil was all stripped, so despite my soil testing being a bit more promising this spring nothing except densely compacted clay is in the backyard.  I still need to check a bit of the hillside though, so maybe I'll get lucky there.  We're getting some lawn treatments as a move in bonus, so hopefully that'll help too.  In the meantime I had a gaggle of seedlings and small plants to put in the ground and I unexpectedly inherited a variety of plants from my parents old house too!

What I've managed so far is:

Planting the sad little Japanese Maple my parents sent
Setting up two raised beds with new soil
Creating a compost bin with the help of Bryan's dad
I seeded most of the backyard with clover since it stays low the the ground, needs less mowing,
enriches the nitrogen levels of the soil, and is rabbit friendly too!
Planting a blueberry bush (1 of the 2 we bought died before we could plant it)
Planting the gardenia I'd been trying to rescue
Planted a Climbing Don Juan rose
Set up bird feeders in the back and front yards
Transplanted all the seedlings I had left from my starters
Planting more veggies from seeds

We originally put the raised beds a bit further into the yard, but moved the further one so contractors could access our yard and fix the drainage problems (the paths the water created after our first rain show how the grass seed got washed away)

What's flourished:

The Blueberry bush
Most of the clover
Cucumbers
Spinach - though some has bolted (gone to seed) our bunny doesn't mind the taste
Kale
Carrots
Bell peppers
The 2 dwarf mulberry trees
The rose bush
Coleus

What we're not sure about:

Cauliflower (the bugs like it, but it's still growing)
Tomatoes (only 2 plants made it until I could transplant them, with our first fruit expected soon)
Our apple trees
A couple little lettuce plants - I planted them from seed, but the heat seems to be too bad

What's died:
The Japanese Maple
The old strawberry plants
Most lettuce, miners lettuce, and sea kale
The gardenia
The surprise plants I from my parents that I couldn't get into the ground fast enough

Everything in our garden is pesticide free, and I've tried to pair plants that work well together in the same bed.  That's mostly gone quite well, though we'll see how the cauliflower turns out, I think they might not like the hot summers, so I'll be planting more of them for fall as well.  A lot of plants that enjoy cooler weather can be planted at the end of summer and harvested in fall and winter.  I'll be planting more kale, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, and a few other things in a few weeks when we get back from a trip to the beach.  The only special treatment I've given plants otherwise is watering them for 15 minutes with a sprinkler if it's been a few days since it rained.  I haven't had to do that too much yet thankfully, but the summer isn't over yet.

I'm thinking about creating some hillside planters once the weather is cool enough to really work outside more.   If so I'd set them up for the dwarf mulberries and apple trees.  I'd love to have full terraces with steps and eliminate mowing the slope altogether, but I'm not sure when I could implement a project that large, but I could use the area for more vegetables and fruit and some great flowers too.  I'd love to attract more local pollinators.  I know we have the hummingbirds around since I've seen one at the feeder in our front yard and got buzzed in the face by one while wearing my brightly colored Pokemon tshirt last Thursday!  I think it mistook me for a flower patch and then thought better of it once it got close enough to me face.

As you can see I'm keeping things green where I can!  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Love,
Lydia

Book Reviews in Fiction and Non-Fiction

Hello everyone,

I'm finally getting my thoughts down about all these books I've been reading.  Hopefully my mini reviews will help you discover some great new reads!  And if you're yearning for more after this I'll be writing many more posts like this in the future, usually on Wednesdays, or you can look at my Goodreads page to see my full reading history.

Without further adieu here are two of my fiction selections to start out with:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a classic that I've watched many times on the big and small screen.  The A&E version is my favorite of course!  I couldn't help but love it after watching it at girls nights at Mrs. H's when I was a teenager.  Mrs. H had all boys and would invite the young ladies from my church for a movie night and some of her home cooking, we'd always have a great time.  I'd bought myself a copy and read part of it, but finally came back to it and read it while also reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, going back and forth every few chapters.  I supremely enjoyed reading Austen's work, but found myself disappointed by Grahame-Smith's.  It's a period book, and Grahame-Smith nor the illustrator Philip Smiley took the time to properly research the clothing, and many other aspects of the time.  It just ruined it for me, and I didn't think the writing was particularly great either, since many aspects of characters were changed.  The dialogue was sadly much too modern in parts, which I also found jolting.  However, Austen's work engrossed me and I could easily imagine the world and characters she created between the films and her masterful prose.  There was a really lovely quote I wanted to share with you all, but I can't find it now that I'm looking.  Isn't that always the way that works?

Next up some non-fiction:

The Weekend Homesteader by Anna Hess is a great starting book for those who wish to start a home mini farm or be more self sufficient.  I really liked how it grouped different activities by the month they should be done in (more or less depending on climate of course!).  And she even ranks things by difficulty, which is helpful for those just getting started.  I found that at least half of the activities weren't the type I was interested in persuing, but still found it an interesting read.  If you're thinking about raising chickens and doing some serious work in your yard/garden this is a great read to start with.

Call the Nurse by Mary J. MacLeod is the memoir of an English nurse on the far Scottish isles of the Hebrides.  Her stories are both funny and poignant, which made me unable to put this book down.  She captures a time around 1970 when only a bit of modernization had come to the islands and many people still lived much the way their ancestors had for centuries.  Having picked this book up on a whim I'm now happy to recommend it to all of my readers who might enjoy a book of short stories that's sure to please.

My last selection in this category is Paradise Lot by Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates.  This is book documenting the journey of a pair of young single gardeners as they move into their first home and change the landscape into an urban oasis.  There are bumps along the way, lots of garden talk, and a bit of romance too.  I found it was a very insightful book for those looking to create edible gardens, but it's written more as a story that just happens to involve lots of plant life than a guide to growing.  It's an amusing read if you're into gardening and ecology, but a bit less approachable compared to the other two books above.

On a related note I've been writing an entry about gardening at our new house to share with you all next week.  I want to show you the whole house, but I'm not quite happy with everything just yet.  So I'm delaying the post on that until I can get things up to snuff.  Between the house, yard, fashioning my capsule wardrobe, games with Bryan's family, planning trips for summer and fall, making art, and reading I've been keeping quite busy!  I'll see you all Friday for another fashion themed post.  Till then keep being wonderful.

Love,
Lydia

Making, Growing, and Moving Things

Hello again dear readers,

I've been incredibly busy these past weeks cleaning and organizing things, getting ready for our upcoming move, selling my art at the CCAD art sale, plus some fun things like going out the see art during the First Friday art walk in downtown Raleigh.  I've got some newly completed pieces, and am working on more, plus putting many of my photographs up on Etsy for the first time.  I didn't realize how many I'd simply neglected to put up.  I should have more new photographs soon too, because at the new house I'll be setting up a darkroom!

I've been planning my garden, and even bought a pair of apple trees for it, a couple blueberry bushes, a grape vine, plus seeds for veggies and some flowers that will attract hummingbirds.  I also happened upon a sad little gardenia plant at Lowes, which I'm nursing back to health.  I've been prepping for the new yard by doing soil tests and planning where things will be placed according to the light conditions at the new place.

Between all that I've been neglecting my blog and my pins project, as ambitious as it was, it's been pushed to the back burner.  But I have several new ones to share with you, and will still be doing more as the year goes on, just less often since I'm being more realistic about my goals in an attempt to combat the some of the effects of depression.  Otherwise things with the new house as well as prepping the rental for moving are keeping me busy.  Here are a few shots of how the house is coming along.  I can't wait to share more with you all about the journey!  I'll write a more about it in a post later.

9. Coin Magnets, this was a quick easy one that I thought would be perfect for the coins from Mexico I've had tucked in my backpack pocket for the past 2+ years.  I decided to try a modification and used adhesive backed strips of magnet.  I got it to work on coins, plus I also tried it on pressed pennies!  I have a ton of them because they're such fantastically fun souvenirs from my travels.  I grabbed the ones I still had floating around in my wallet.  Anyway, I think I'll be replacing the strips on the coins with the resin and thicker magnets as in the tutorial, but for the pressed pennies the strips worked really well!  It helps that the magnets can be cut larger for them, making them stronger, plus their backs are smoother that the coins.  This is a fun one guys, try it out!

11. Homemade Stromboli, a great easy recipe, which while it takes a little time it's completely worth it!  It was my first time making my own bread product with yeast, but this recipe totally raised my confidence levels.  I can't wait to try out more bread recipes, though the kneading process isn't my favorite.  Maybe one day I'll get a breadmaker!  We opted for canned sauce to go along with the stromboli, but went with a more adventurous option, which proved to be delicious.  We also changed the filling inside the stromboli to sausage, which was great.  We decided we'd put the herbs inside the stromboli next time we make it, but otherwise the recipe was fantastic.

I've got lots on my plate as I get through processing photos for Etsy, packing like a madwoman, and working my way past a sinus infection (oh allergies!), but I'm excited to have lots to write about and share with you all this spring.  So until next time...

Love,

Lydia

Books!

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the kind words and responses to my last post.  It really does mean a lot to me as we try to be patient about the timing of having kids.  And I'd be happy to talk to anyone else dealing with infertility; I find it's really important to be able to talk to someone outside of your husband about it, or else feelings can get bottled up.  I tend to find people online through message boards (Babycenter) and other groups, though I'm less involved lately.

Anyway, I've been reading like crazy and have lots of additions to my reading list so far.  I'm up to 10 books finished so far this month, with a half dozen more started.  Apparently I'll be knocking out the 52 on the early side if I keep this up, though in some ways I'm not surprised.  There was a summer around 6th grade when I read nearly 100 books thanks to a fellow library patron who decided to challenge me more than the reading program at the library was.  I feel awful that I don't even know that woman's name, but perhaps soon I'll challenge a young reader myself and make it a tradition!

The books I've added are Injustice: Gods Among Us Volume 1 and Injustice: Gods Among Us Volume 2, which are comics involving the Justice League characters (Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, etc).  The storyline was written as a prequel to a video game (I didn't know this when I read it or I might have hesitated), but it was so well received as a comic that more volumes are being published to continue the story.  Most of the story revolves around the idea that the superheroes with all their power are nearly gods, and to some people are as one group takes over ruling the earth.  It's really well written and I highly recommend it.

Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont is a great guide to the natural trees, shrubs, and small plants of the south grouped by how they're found in nature.  It was a fantastic read (if you're into plants like me) and I'll be using several of the plants I found in here to craft my garden with.

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale was a light read, that was fun and a follow up to her first Austenland book, with more of a mystery twist.  These books aren't as well written as the YA books she's known for, but I enjoyed them anyway.

The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country was a book that I had high hoped for, but was mostly disappointed by.  It had a lot of information that wasn't useful to me interspersed with a bit that was.  It read more like a textbook than anything though, making it dull enough that I skimmed it for what was interesting and finished it fast despite it's large size.

Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi is a prequel to Lock In, and more of a novella than a full book.  It's available to read online for free here, which is how I read it.  I thought it was definitely as good as Lock In, if not better in some ways.  It reads a lot like World War Z by Max Brooks, giving a great historically styled narrative.

So, that's a bit of what I've read in January and I have so much more to update you all on regarding the Pins, but that will have to be in a follow up post.  If nothing else this post shows just how eclectic my tastes in books are, and it's just the tip of the iceberg!  More interesting book choices to come, including a Pulitzer Prize winner and more gardening books, plus a new comic choice.  I'll see you all again soon.

Love,
Lydia

Pins 1, 2, and 3!

Hi everyone,

So the new year has started out a busy one for me.  I've been in talks about Starting a blog about art supplies with a new friend.  It could be pretty fantastic, and I'll be keeping you all in the loop about it if it works out.  I've also been taking care of Bryan as he's been sick with the flu, and then I came down with it myself.  As much as I'd started this new year with lots of hopes for fantastic projects and lofty goals of being productive they all got put on hold for about two weeks.  At the moment I'm getting caught up on life, things like the cleaning I'd put off over the holidays.  That was a huge mistake, don't put off cleaning like that.  It makes it so much worse to get back into things when the unexpected happens like this flu did!  And is just a horrible idea in general.  No Procrastination, please.

And when it comes down to it, maybe that's my true goal, to beat down procrastination and be more productive.  I'm just trying to be inspired by great ideas others have found work for them as I get there.  That's the beauty of trying all these great projects from Pinterest.  So here's a bit on my first few pins, with another post to come very soon.

Pin 1 - As briefly mentioned in my last post I'll be doing a January photo challenge!

I'm a little behind on it, but will be doubling up to make sure I get all the shots.  More on that to come at the end of the month.

Pin 2 - Trying a month of no shampoo.  This is a pin I've seen many times and have been curious about trying for the past 5 years.  So, with much trepidation I'm testing it out.  I've been using baking soda/water for shampoo and vinegar/water as conditioner.  You can find more on that here.  I wanted to do it for at least two weeks, and started January 3rd.  While I was sick I used regular shampoo once because I was feeling awful, wanted a fast shower, and hadn't got into the routine as well yet.

So, I've met my goal of two weeks, and feel like for my hair, which is very fine/prone to be oily it's just ok.  It's not better than shampoo so far, but I'll be going to the end of the month to see if my body is still adjusting to it.  I definitely am not able to go very long between washes, but I was never able to with shampoo either.  I pretty much have to wash my hair every day.  Overall the pros so far are that it's gentle on my body, got rid of frizz, even with blow drying, and it's seemed to make my hair color go farther (especially the purple!).  So that's all pretty good; and the cons are that it takes a little more time and thought in the shower, leaves my hair with less shine, and leaves my hair without much body (it has very little anyway, but I can get a little more with shampoo than with baking soda and vinegar).

I'll give another follow up on this at the end of the month to see if there's been more change as my body adjusts, or if it's stayed about the same.  However, so far I'm still in the shampoo camp, though ladies with thicker hair than me may want to try this out!  It's super cheap compared to shampoo/conditioner and not that hard to get used to.

Pin 3 - 52 book challenge!  I'm excited for this one, as I love to read.  It comes out to being a book a week for the entire year.  I'll be sharing each of the 52 with you and probably doing some theme challenges within the 52 using another interesting pin.  Thus far I've read:

Week 1 - Lock In by John Scalzi, which is fantastic!  The premise is in a speculative future where a disease has rendered about 1% of the population locked in paralyzed bodies.  Technology has helped these individuals reconnect with the world, but brought it's own fair share of problems to complicate things as a mystery is solved.  (before the new year I'd read one of his more famous books, Redshirts, a Star Trek parody/love letter.  While fun, it hadn't sold me on his writing skills because it was so light, Lock In proved to have a much richer world.)

Week 2 - Ms Marvel Volume 1 written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Adrian Alphona- A great start for what looks to be a fantastic series.  It's got many classic elements of the teenage superhero storyline as our heroine finds her powers and chooses how to use them much in the way of Peter Parker.  Some things that add interest are the heroine's background as a Muslim and woman of color.  It brings up the idea of being true to oneself as the most satisfying path, and follows Ms Kahn as she learns how to be herself, and not the superheroes she idolizes.

and a bonus since I was sick - Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich - This book is a pretty thorough look at a good collection of fruits for home gardens.  The author's a little biased towards what he enjoys, but it's given me a great start to my plans for the garden at our new house.  It's an easy read that's good enough to pick up as a reference book if you're interested in this kind of gardening.  I borrowed it from the library, and may buy it eventually myself.

Week 3 - The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough - I love history, and had been curious about just what made this flood so tragic, and when I saw the book as a Kindle Daily Deal I snapped it up.  Getting over the flu gave a good time to read it.  McCullough is a great researcher, and keeps fact and fiction separate while writing a book that's easy to read.  The events surrounding the flood were in some ways relatable to the current events of today with big companies allowing less than safe conditions for the public, while happily paying very little consequence for their actions later when people are hurt.  Additionally there are some great firsthand accounts of the experience that McCullough weaves together masterfully creating a seamless story from them.  I didn't realize until after the fact that the book was written in 1968, which is a bit amazing since it's quite sensitive to social issues of all kinds.  Though it does lack the voice of anyone besides white Americans, and I would have loved to hear accounts from the immigrants or African American people as well.   Overall it's a great read, and I'll be reading more of his work in the future (I've been meaning to for a while!)

I keep a record of the books I read on Goodreads.com, feel free to friend me there!

Speaking of following, please follow me on Pinterest if you'd like to keep up with the pins I'm working on over the course of this year, you can find me here.  I'll be seeing you all again soon as I share more pins and projects with you!

Love,

Lydia

Two Years and a New Year!

Good afternoon everyone!

This past Tuesday, December 30th marked the second anniversary of my marriage to Bryan.  I can honestly say neither of us had any idea of the changes both good and bad that would be in store for us over the first two years of our marriage.  However, both of us knew we wanted to meet whatever challenges might come with the other, side by side, as best of friends, and deeply in love.  That love has only deepened since, and I know I don't talk about it too often, but that's mostly because I'm private, and have no complaints!  I am ever so glad to to have him in my life.

He may not read my blog much, but I wanted to do a little photo recap of our past two years.  Hopefully you all will enjoy it too!

December 30 2012

We had a small ceremony, with mostly just family.  Photos taken by the fantastic Arielei Kinzer!

Bryan and I headed to Florida for our honeymoon, spending time in Savannah, GA, St Augustine, FL, and Orlando, FL.  You can see we're really just big kids at heart!

After the honeymoon, in February Bryan lost his job at ACHC, which was really an old internship from when he was in college that had let him stay on after graduation.  This led to a tough month for us as he searched for a new job and in March happily started working for the NC Dept. of Agriculture as a programmer.

In May we moved out of the little apartment we were sharing with Bryan's brother Stephen and into a little rental house of our own.  We got to paint and decorate a bit and have really enjoyed living close to both Bryan's job downtown and his parents in North Raleigh.

We went to the beach with family and friends that August, where I tested out a new lens for my phone's camera.

During the fall of 2013 I worked on my domestic skills, making chili (recipe for that here), growing my own tomatoes (everything else I tried to grow that year died), and working on my computer out on the screened in porch as Carolina Wrens occasionally visited.

Bryan and I headed to our first concert together, Switchfoot! And not soon after saw Neko Case, though no photos were allowed at that show.

In October Bryan was rear ended, totaling our old Buick, so in early November we got a little Honda Civic hybrid, which was a huge improvement in gas mileage and our first car of our own.



We also went to the NC State Fair together and made silly faces while enjoying ourselves.

As part of our Thanksgiving week that year we also went to DC for a couple days to visit the Smithsonian.  On day one we went to the National History Museum.  We didn't know my friend Samantha was going to be there, but we ended up meeting with her to go to the Natural Science Museum the next day. The butterfly house was amazing!

And we celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple!

Throughout 2014 we spent lots of time with family.  Some of it was at home and a bit at the family reunion, the beach, and the weekend in the mountains.  We spent our time having friends like Stuart over to visit, road tripping with brothers, exploring caves, playing board games, and fixing flat tires!

So you all have mostly heard about all that has gone on with us this year.  However, in October Bryan heard he'd soon be laid off from his job with the state.  He had enough notice that he was able to get a new position at a great educational programming company in Durham that he started immediately after his job at the state ended.  I couldn't believe how hugely blessed we were by that one.  I tried working for Anthropologie for a bit after attempting the Kickstarter in January, but am now simply working as an artist.  I had my first local show in December, and we also got our lovely pet rabbit, Scarlet, which has made the last month of the year exciting.

And finally, our next big announcement is that we'll be buying a house this spring!  We need to move closer to Bryan's job in Durham (it's 45 minutes to an hour each way!) and the new job has allowed us to afford buying over renting.  So we've found a new neighborhood that's being built and will be getting a house with some custom features built for us.  We're currently starting the design process, and are really excited.  I can't wait to share more with you all as we make the journey to home ownership!  Here's a shot of the rendering of our home (top image), plus the siding and door colors, Thistle Green and Tuxedo Gray respectively.  Any advice and such is welcome as we're learning along the way and love hearing the stories of others as we work our way through the process.

I'm looking forward to all 2015 has to offer, and can't wait to share it with you all!  Each weekday I'll be working on Pinterest projects and sharing the results with you all.  To start things off I'm doing a January Photo Challenge where each day I'm taking pictures which I'll share here.  Today's shot is "new" so you get to see the new home plans above.  More soon!

Love,

Lydia

Days 87-101

Hi everyone!

My blog has now been going for over 100 days!  Exclamation points for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not enough posts to go around, but I'll explain a bit about some of the delays there.

I've been applying to jobs still....something like 8-10 since my last post in fact.  I've also had 2 interviews since then.  One was for a position that once I found out a bit more about I wasn't so interested in anymore.  The other sounds really good, and I've made it to the second round with them, so sometime in the next few weeks I'll get a date for an in person interview.  Besides all that I got a call from Anthropologie yesterday asking me to come work as a temp for their opening, so for about 2 weeks I'll get to work for them, which should be a pretty good little gig.  I can guess they don't want to hire me for anything other than temp work since I can't wear their clothing, which is a bit frustrating, but I have better things to worry about than that.

My parents are preparing to sell their house and hope to move to a one story place in the near future, so I'll be heading to Roanoke at some point soon to help them paint and pack things if possible.  I certainly don't mind painting, especially while the weather isn't too hot yet.  I have an old bedroom of things to go through there and decide what I want and don't.  Meanwhile a storage room at our house is pretty full of boxes from our old apartment, I sense some spring cleaning in my future.  I've already started since I wanted things to look great for my drawing lesson last week.  I just need to take the pictures to share with you all now that my studio and living room are looking up to snuff finally.

The drawing lesson went really well; the kid's a typical teenager and deciding if lessons are something they want is the hardest part.  For now the mom is making sure they at least try it for a while.  I worked with them to see what objects they could draw from life and then started on some basic shading techniques and went over pencil qualities.  I think this week we'll talk about lines, texture, and continue with shading.  I keep thinking I wish I had the design textbook I'd used for my design I & II classes at Virginia Western because it had such great examples of various elements of design and art that's more approachable for learners.  It's one of the few textbooks I ever sold, and of course I'm now regretting it.  I started looking for it on Amazon today without any luck.

This spring has been keeping me so busy I don't think I'm going to have the time to plant a little vegetable garden as I was hoping.  My allergies have been pretty bad the past few days now that the trees are starting to leaf out.  Everything is light green, white, and pink, and birds are constantly singing outside out windows.  I think some have even made a nest in our gutters!  I can't help admitting how lovely it is despite all the symptoms the pollen gives me.  I'm hoping to start a spring watercolor piece based on some fond memories I have of driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in past seasons.

On the other hand I've spent more time on various games with family, board games with just Bryan and I and his parents the past two weekends, Hackmaster games with Stephen, Bryan and BG, and Magic the Gathering with Bryan, BG, and their dad.  Then inspired by Twitch Plays Pokemon (a massive chatroom controlled collective that has played through of various Pokemon titles) Bryan suggested playing through one of the games set to random for most variations of items and creatures in the game.  So Bryan and I had most of his brothers along with one of their girlfriends join us in playing Pokemon Platinum, on emulators with random settings.  It's proved to be quite interesting, and we've been playing in a way that keeps us more or less working on the same part of the game at the same time, by waiting for the majority (5 of the 6 of us) to beat a gym before going on to the next one.  We've had some fun chat on Facebook thanks to it, which is really nice since we aren't all playing it in the same city or even state.  I can't say enough sometimes about how much I love being a part of Bryan's family, I'm really thankful for all of them.

More tomorrow.
Love, Lydia