Gettin' Crafty

Because if there's one thing my readership (Abby) wants to read about, it's home decor projects.

Every year my family has a white elephant gift exchange. Last year I won a set of 4 picture frames from my Aunt T. I say "won" because some of my family members take the exchange as an excuse to get rid of literal garbage, instead of stuff that's random but usable. It is absolutely possible to lose at this gift exchange. So even though these frames weren't really my style, I consider this a win. Better than that time I ended up with a handful of original Playstation games (not even good ones, not that I have a PS1 anyway) or a box of men's work gloves.

So I had the frames sitting around in my closet for about six months until I finally found a use for them. I installed a couple of little shelves in the awkward space above my TV (it's only about 4 feet wide and I have to work around the thermostat), and I broke out two of the picture frames to set on the shelves.

Those two swirly frames are the ones I'm talking about. Although that might have been kind of obvious since they're clearly the only two frames that came from the same set. Sorry for the shitty pic. It was taken on my cell phone just to send to my mom, I never intended to use it on the internets. But I didn't think to take a "before" picture, so it'll have to do.

Here's what I don't like about these frames: A) The color. The off-whitey beige color just doesn't stand out very well against the white wall. But I could live with the beige if it wasn't for B) the "shabby chic" paint job. I am definitely not a fan of shabby chic. I don't like chipped paint or rust. When I won them in the gift exchange I was all "I can paint them a different color!" But I never got around to it. 

Until today!

I had a really good grad school-related morning, which put me in the mood to get shit done. I guess I could have "gotten shit done" in the sense of cleaning up my messy apartment or finishing homework but that's boring and doesn't involve a trip to the store. I debated for a bit as to what color I would paint the frames. I considered doing a fun, bright color, but couldn't settle on a shade. Finally I decided to just do silver. If I decide later that I want a fun color instead, I can repaint these or paint the other set. 

I'm writing this now as the back of the frames dry. So far, so good.

I didn't realize until I looked at this photo that I totally spray painted over my cousin's picture in the paper. She's in that Garrett Smith ad. Oops.

The Results

I clearly didn't think this through.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely like the frames a million times more spray-painted silver. The problem? Painting them silver didn't really fix my "blending in with the wall" problem. In my mind, when I was picturing the end result, I was imagining them more of a pewter or gunmetal color. Obviously the frames didn't end up pewter, because I didn't buy pewter paint. I bought silver paint. And when the silver paint reflects the light in the room the frames totally blend in with the white wall.

I'm not gonna repaint these guys because I do think they look much prettier in silver. And in my next place I'll be able to paint the walls so these guys will stand out more. Imagine the silver frames against a dark blue or teal wall.

Coming soon: this shit gets dealt with.

What really matters is what you like, not what you are like.

Goodreads has a nifty little feature where you can compare the collection of books you've rated to your friends' collections. It's mostly useless but sort of fun. Here are the comparisons of my books to books some of my grad school buddies have rated:

And here, kittens, is photographic evidence of why Abby_wan_kenobi and I are BFFs.

Best Venn diagram ever.

Letters Never Sent

I use my gmail drafts folder to keep track of links I want to check out later. Today I decided that it was high time that I cleaned out that folder, since it had somehow gotten up to 85 drafts. Among various links to articles that I'm probably never going to read, I also have an amusing amount of emails that I started to write to Abby but then never finished or sent. Check out the highlights below.

I'm a big fan of the emails where I wrote a subject line, but then got distracted and never wrote the rest of that email.

"Workin on my Night Cheese"
"UGH"
"Twinkies are Bankrupt!"

You're curious about that Twinkie thing, I can tell. I got a little further into this email, but not enough to complete a thought:

Subject: Delicious Irony
Message: K__ just invited me to a Tastefully Simple party to raise

The suspense! Sometimes I think I started writing emails but then realized she was on chat but never got rid of the draft. Either that or I realized I was writing the world's most boring email and just gave up.

Subject: I accidentally got to work super early this morning
Message: I woke up about 45 minutes early today because I was having sinus issues and I had to pee.

[no subject]
Message: I got in a fight with my sister yesterday about breastfeeding.

I still haven't cleaned out my drafts.

Hold on to this lullaby

I'm taking a break from the other things I really should be writing to say that I am OBSESSED with this song.

This song is fantastic. It was written for the Hunger Games soundtrack, and it does an amazing job of capturing a mood without being blatantly about the games. I've been ambivalent about Taylor Swift in the past, but if this is the direction she's going to go in with her music I can see myself becoming a huge fan. Clearly she should only write songs with T Bone Burnett from now on. The song is gorgeous and haunting, and Taylor's voice has never sounded so beautiful.

PS, I'm going to see the movie for a second time tonight, this time with my mom, grandma, and sister. Mom and sis haven't read the books, so it'll be interesting for me to hear their interpretations.

EDITED TO ADD: I have not yet read the third book, so I ask you to be mindful of spoilers if you leave a comment.

Thick Beauty, Whiskey Baking, and Ice Cream Tragedy

What Abby and I were chatting about one year ago today (yeah, it's gonna be a thing now.)

me: thoroughly enjoying today's Peanuts cartoon. after charlie brown tells her "beauty is only skin deep," Lucy responds with "I deny that! My beauty is not only on the surface, it goes down deep.... layer after layer after layer. Yes, sir! I have a very thick beauty!"

Abby: hells yes. btw, I'm still reeling from that whole Jack Daniels situation.

me: i know, right? although it kind of makes me want to try adding some JD to the brownies I'm gonna make. but I'd probably eff that up, and I don't have much Jack left in my apartment. i'd rather drink it than do experimental baking.

Abby: exactly. I kind of thought the same thing, I was like "Hm I should put a splash of Jack in everything I cook.... OR! I could just drink it often and that would actually be much more satisfying."

me: yeah. although i do love the jack daniels grill stuff at tgi fridays. maybe i just need to stock up on jack daniels steak sauce.

Abby: that sounds much more practical.

me: Dude! I just freaked out bc i checked amazon.com to see how much that steak sauce is, and i thought it said $44 for a 10oz bottle. Turns out it was $44 for a pack of 6 10oz bottles. that's a bit more reasonable. i was like "how on earth is it that much more expensive thanactual Jack?" it was very similar to the freak-out i had last night when i thought i left the bag containing my Ben & Jerry's at the grocery store.

Abby: you're a little panicky. Maybe you should stop jumping to outrageous conclusions.

me: hey, i thought i left my 2 pints of Ben & Jerry's (Smores and Phish food) at Jewel, which is a 20 minute drive each way. it would have been tragic.

Abby: yes. that is the definition of tragedy.

A recurring theme I've discovered while reading old chat logs? I say I'm gonna do a lot of stuff that I never do. I never bought JD steak sauce and I never made JD brownies. And I'm a complete panicker, but we already knew that.

One Year Ago Today

This is what Abby and I were chatting about:

me: howdy. sorry i've been away from the computer all morning. the system was updating their servers so [program in which I do all of my work] was down. There was nothing i could pretend to be doing on the computer while really chatting.

Abby: THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY TRAGIC.
I'M NOT YELLING AT YOU, I'M JUST DOING DATA ENTRY AND OUR CODES ARE IN ALL CAPS.
YOU'LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT BECAUSE I'M NOT SMART ENOUGH TO REMEMBER TO FLIP BACK AND FORTH.

me: do you remember the SNL skit where Will Ferrell couldn't control the volume of his voice so he was always yelling? that's the voice i'm hearing in my head while reading your all-caps message.

Abby: NICE. NOW I'M HEARING IT TOO AND IT'S HILARIOUS.

me: i know, right? who knew data entry was so funny

Abby: IT'S NOT. MY FINGERS HURT.
I THINK I'M GETTING CARPAL TUNN... I DON'T THINK TUNNEL IS RIGHT BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE REAL WORD IS.

me: no, you're right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpal_tunnel

Abby: REALLY? LIKE A TUNNEL UNDERGROUND? THAT DOESN'T SOUND VERY MEDICAL.

me: "in the human body, the carpal tunnel or carpal canal is the fibro-osseous passageway on the palmar side of the wrist that connects the distal forearm to the middle compartment of the deep plane of the palm."

Abby: CRAP. MY SPELLING IS GOOD, BUT NOT MY DEFINITION. MY KNUCKLES ARE REALLY STIFF, I GUESS THAT ISN'T REALLY C.T.S.

me: arthritis?

Abby: SURE. THAT SOUNDS FUN.

me: that's really the only other thing i know of that affects hands. i was going to start making stuff up like "lockknuckle" (a relative of lockjaw) but i decided my brain is too tired to make up fake medical syndromes

Abby: IT DOES SOUND LIKE A FUN GAME THOUGH. LETS PLAY IT LATER THIS WEEK WHEN IT ISN'T MONDAY AND MY KNUCKLES AREN'T ANGRY

me: ok

I'm kind of sad that we never actually played that game.