Occurrences, Week of 2.7.14

Reading: Personal Velocity

Watching: More Dexter while working, and caught up on Downton Abbey, Sherlock & The Following. 

Listening: New 90s playlist plus the usual The Smiths station

Eating / Drinking: Surprisingly I made steaks for dinner! But that's about it- still baked oatmeals for breakfast and light snacks/lunches. Boring.

Learning: Last Friday night, T challenged me to learn the bass line for Otherside. I of course rose to the challenge and my fingers hurt- I haven't played bass in ages! It's funny that neither of us are big RHCP fans, but even I have to admit, it's a pretty good bass line.

Corresponding: Sent out a birthday card to my Grandma

Creating: Lots of jewelry!

Working: Had a show on Saturday so prepped for that, and created some new designs. 

Goals / Resolutions: Exercising 6 days a week! I feel a little slimmer but the scale isn't telling me it's true. Telling myself that while I'm weighing the same, i'm swapping chub for firm, so it's okay. Jeans are getting loose in the butt, might need to go shopping soon!

Cheers,
ashley 

Occurrences, Week of 1.31.14

Reading: Twenties Girl, finished it last night. Started off meh but I did enjoy it.

Watching: Finished seasons 8-12 of Law & Order SVU, Dexter (rewatching since the latest season is now on Netflix. We've been watching this show about Alaskan homesteading on netflix; it's pretty hardcore living off the land up there like they do.

Listening: Santigold and Chopin pandora stations with a little Depeche Mode thrown in for solo dance parties.

Eating / Drinking: not as much. Baked oatmeal for breakfast, chicken & rice dinners with loads of broccoli for dinner, grapes/apples/cheese sticks/chai lattes for snacks, and soups for lunch. Pretty boring but am determined to shed a few inches. Had a glass of wine with dinner the other night, splurge!

Domesticating: On Sunday I had nervous energy to get out so I ironed all my cloth napkins and reorganized the drawers of the sideboard. They look great! Plus, I pulled a few more things for the donation box.

Corresponding: Sent out a thank you note on Monday and a little Just Because note today.

Creating: Haven't done much other than crochet in the evenings.

Working: Completed the Jane Austen Centre project, and now working on wedding and party invitations. One of my dearest friends is getting married in May so I've started designing her wedding invitations. Also printing a wedding invitation, sxsw invitation, and pet sympathy cards.

Goals / Resolutions: Really determined to be healthier so I actually exercised every day this week (and woke up sore every morning). Wednesday was really rough with the cravings but somehow I made it through.

Keeps me on track!

My Favorite Instagram(s) of the Week:

Tea with Mom, back of the JAC cards, organized sideboard drawers, and working on wedding design for a dearest friend.

Have a good weekend!

Cheers,
ashley 

Occurrences, Week of 1.24.14

Reading: Dog Handling. Read it years ago and now it's going into the To Donate/Trade pile. Picking a new book tonight.

Watching: The usual: Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Law & Order SVU; Red Dawn, Clerks, and in preparation for the new season, The Following S1. Saw The Hobbit 2, meh. Was amused that the Pie-Maker was the elf king.

Listening: Pandora stations for Santigold

Eating / Drinking: Marathon cooking on Sunday: 4bean turkey chili, cornbread, sandwich bread, and chai latte concentrate. Lots of chili this week, and went out for sushi on Tuesday (a nice treat!). Hot toddies for drink; who knew I would be drinking this much bourbon?

Domesticating: Spent a lunch break rearranging and cleaning the back living room, and another lunch break tidying the dining area. Post-holiday the house always gets chaotic, putting it back to normal. The box to donate is getting full.

Learning: Still haven't picked up the French, but in doing research for a project, I did learn that Mark Twain hated Jane Austen's novels: Jane Austen's books, too, are absent from this library. Just that one omission alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it. Ouch!

Corresponding: Sent out 3 cards and a birthday postcard to friends. Hope you're stocked up on stamps, prices increase this weekend!

Creating: Crocheting very fine, fuzzy yarn. Will make an amazingly soft scarf if I can ever finish it.

Working: Completed designs for an inviting project, have 4 jobs to print in the next 10 days :)

Goals / Resolutions: Finished Season 1 of Zombies Run and started Season 2. Running much more and it's somewhat enjoyable, but I am distracted from the pain with the stories. Shins are still giving me trouble. Painted my nails this week, they're still short but not jagged so I figured why not?

My Favorite Instagram(s) of the Week:

Have a good weekend!

Cheers,
ashley 

Occurences, Week of 1.17.14

Reading: Finished Daily Rituals and Life a la Mode; reading a portion of Profiles in Courage in between novels. (Looking for the next novel.)

Watching: Downton Abbey, Law & Order: SVU, Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters (bad bad bad), My Cat from Hell (after a few drinks), Sleeping with the Enemy and Sherlock, to get excited about the premiere on Sunday.

Listening: Chopin station on Pandora with lots of Satie sprinkled in.

Eating / Drinking: Made a ground turkey (seasoned with thyme, fennel & black pepper) and cheese tortellini soup. Drinking a pot of Orange Spice tea almost every morning and herbal tea in evenings. T's started making hot toddies so we've been enjoying those as well. (So nice that he makes them! Usually I am bartender and cook so it's pleasant to get a break here and there, especially now that he knows where I store all of the spices.) Have sadly realized that I can whip up a small bowl of mac&cheese quickly and that it makes a delicious breakfast on cold days. At least the pasta is whole wheat and the cheese is 2%.

Domesticating: Cleaned on top of the refrigerator (seriously gross but now it's beautiful!) Took advantage of the slow work week: steam cleaned the bathroom tiles & grout, tidied the tool shelf in the pantry. The sofa was cleaned by Macy's warranty people (again) but I don't think the (cat urine) smell has left. Will likely be calling Macy's next week to try again. (They might as well just send me the credit memo- The Emma makes potent urine, there's no way it's coming out so I'll take the replacement sofa, please and thank you.)

Learning: behind on my French. :(

Corresponding: Don't forget, stamp prices increase on the 26th so stock up now on Forever stamps at today's rate. Your letter-writing habit will thank you. (Also write more letters!)

Creating: Crochet bracelet while watching TV and a paint-by-numbers kit- it's lame but quite relaxing: I know it's going to be lame, and I don't care, so I'm just enjoying the act of painting.

Working: It's, sadly, been a s-l-o-w work week but I've been in discussions with potential clients, completing tasks like inventory, Quickbooks for 2013, sales tax payments, and other not-so-fun projects that need to be done. I've also done a little designing which has been nice!

Goals / Resolutions: Did Zombies, Run missions twice this week and pushed myself to run more than a mile without walking. Shins made me pay for it in between runs so I couldn't go every day. Haven't bitten my nails since the 31st- another couple weeks until they're long enough to paint.

My Favorite Instagram(s) of the Week:

Have a good weekend!

Cheers,
ashley