thursday is the new friday.

kim said that once. she said it about going out in san francisco, but i cannot tell you how much i would rather do anything but go out tonight (possibly because i no longer live in san francisco).
i meant to go to the studio and get things done.
i meant to, but i am tired. today was that kind of cold, gray day (kind of like all the other cold, gray days we've had for the last million days) that is turning into the kind of gray, lazy evening that is much more given to curling up on the couch with a glass of wine and some hulu, rather than being very productive in any way.
my brain is done. fridays at work are always a little painful, mostly because my brain is just tired and i need a break!
does anyone else vote for the national shift to the four-day work week?
if i were president, that's the first thing i would do.

one reason i love valentine's day.

these are the most amazing february treat and only available at cub foods (i have been known to take long bus rides in search for these gems). don't be fooled by impostors! just because brach's makes "cinnamon jelly hearts" does not mean that they taste like this: hot and spicy, a little sweet, and perfectly chewy. yum, yum, yum! the winter light has been a little temperamental lately--either too little or too much. but it seems appropriate that these babies glow a little. that's how tasty they are.

just a little saturday morning quandry.

sometimes i feel like living in minneapolis is like dating a boy that i really really like, but with whom i do not see much long-term potential. perhaps that is a sad analogy, but it's true. minneapolis has never done me any real harm, and always takes me back after i have been awanderin'. he is stable, he is nice, even if sometimes a little passive (this is minnesota, after all). but sometimes a little cold (literally and figuratively). sometimes i don't feel like we connect that well. sometimes i get the itch to move on to someone--i mean, somewhere--that might be a better fit. greener pastures and whatnot. and other times i think i just need to stick it out, make it work. after all, there is something to be said for having a history with someone, knowing them, trusting them. even if they sometimes don't understand you or communicate with you that well.
someday i will be moving on. but for now i am going to enjoy my freezing city. i'm going to pull on my long underwear and throw my heart into my current life and location. for today, i will make it work.

mystery mail

three issues of glamour magazine have shown up in my mailbox within the last two weeks--two issues in the last two days. i'm being pelted with them, inundated with them! is someone trying to tell me something? something like, "start dressing better!"??
which, since i am very, very single these days, seems to be the only piece of relevant glamour information. unless someone (the universe? the relationship fairy? cupid?) is trying to prepare me for something that i do not know about. well, i will be prepared, all right. i have three months worth of beauty tips and sex tricks to catch up on.
are you kidding?! i don't even have time to read the magazines i actually subscribe to, let alone the ones that make me question every facet of my being. maybe i will start calling them "ugly magazines", describing how they make me feel rather than what they are supposed to help me be.
i am trying to think of something crafty to do with them, like shredding them and weaving the shreds into placemats or floormats. or maybe i can donate them to the yw. there's always a shortage of current ugly magazines there.
maybe. after i read the britney article. . . .
but seriously, i have no idea why the glamour gods have decided to smile upon me. i have no idea where the magazines are coming from.

this is how i feel after catching up on clips of yesterday's events. from aretha's bow to elizabeth alexander's poem to obama's speech to michelle's beautiful gown (i do not have the energy to turn those each into links to photos). i mostly just cried and knitted and got goosebumps the whole time i was watching it.
i woke up this morning to a story from steve inskeep about the bumble and pause of chief justice roberts and president obama (oh, magical words!!) during the swearing-in. the jist of it was that "both men's politeness prevailed, and the very first moments of this new administration were of two men from opposite parties, working together to get it right". i put that in quotes and it is what i recall, not what i fully researched and know for a fact to be a direct quote.
the other thing piece of news i found amazing and encouraging yesterday is that there were two million people on the mall, and not a single arrest. not one! that is exciting, and a good start to this new era.

even more valentines. . . .

as much as i love red and white and pink, i couldn't help but explore some other options in these dark days of winter. i haven't managed to be home at all during daylight hours to take the good, etsy-worthy pictures, but here are some i took tonight in the fading, inadequate light of 5:30pm. maybe tomorrow i will be able to snap some before heading to work.

hibernating

you can call me lazy, and you can call me a wimp, but if you lived in minneapolis right now, i don't think you would be going anywhere you didn't have to go, either. i have even considered calling in sick to work. anything below zero is a horrifying temperature.
all of that is my way of saying that, although i left some of my new valentines at the studio, i just cannot make myself go there to get them. however, it looks like there are a couple of days coming up this week that don't have a minus sign in the temperature, so i will post them soon. i did get the mini valentines posted, so that is progress (i am working on being patient with myself). the only other progress i have really made in the last couple of days has been on my knitting project. you can imagine that i have quite a bit of incentive to finish a scarf right now. there will be pictures of that eventually, too.

valentines!!

preface: today.
1. i got busted by the elderly proprietor of the laundromat for changing my dollars into quarters without doing my laundry there.
2. i encountered the lovely elderly war protesters on university avenue this afternoon, holding their peace signs high.
3. i made valentines!! (which is what this post is really about).
4. i had a knitting breakthrough (which actually happened last night, but i'm not about to make a whole post about just that).
4.25 a copy of glamour showed up addressed to me. huh?
4.5 i am succumbing to the minnesota winter and am carbing it up tonight: i made sweet potato fries and downed two slices of wonderful bread from anthony. and i still want more. . . .
5. i finally did my mountains of laundry and am excited to sleep in (on?) my new organic sheets tonight. ahhhh!!!

now on to the real post. ahem.
i don't really care for the phrase "i heart", but in this case it seems applicable. i finally got out my gocco set, which i also heart, and made some little valentines.
i also love valentine's day. i'm not exactly sure why, i certainly have never actually had a valentine, but for as long as i can remember, i have loved making heart-shaped greetings out of construction paper and doilies. here is a sneak peek of my grown-up version, the real things will be in the shop by the weekend. a new batch of sachets, too.



oh, and also because i cannot resist, i am telling you to go look at the art of amy bennett. it is magical. read her statement, too. it made me want to do cartwheels.

happy new year!

a lot has happened in the last two weeks! my sister made it safely into town and we headed to wisconsin. we saw beloved family members and ate some great food. i celebrated a birthday and saw beloved friends. here are a few highlights, the rest can be found here.
the end of the year is always an awkward time, it usually seems to drag out a little bit, in a delightful, lazy way. i am excited about the new year--additions i have planned for my etsy shop, getting ready for art fairs. from other blogs i have read, there is a great spirit of optimism out there about the new year. i am excited to see what the year holds!