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I've been busy this month, so I've taken a bit of a break from beading and just made these few items. The fossils in the yellow-tan stone form little flower petal shapes. I am also in love with the fire agate in the double strand necklace - I might add another piece of turquoise to the necklace as well.

Every year, graphic designer Nick Felton prepares a booklet detailing the statistics of his past year. I've been inspired by it the past couple years, and have just started using the daily personal stat site he made, which is quite fun. I'm tracking the pages I read by genre, what I eat for dinner, how many pieces of jewelry I make and post on Etsy, my daily method of commute, and free time activities (top entry so far: napping). I know I could set this up in excel, but daytum is easier and generates pretty graphics for me.

Continuing on the projects theme, I've laid out a detailed plan of 2010 goals and quarterly "action items" to achieve them (since I seem to have failed at completing my 2009 goals since my last 'goal check-in'). I tried to follow all that advice about making goals specific and quantifiable (e.g. 'drop a pant size by June' instead of 'lose weight'). A few goals I'm excited about: backpack from Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass in August, compete in an orienteering meet this fall, earn $1000 profit through etsy, and create a seasonal recipe database. So far this year I've mostly tackled other goals (improve naturalist skills, manage my $ for retirement and specific purchases, expand my graphic design portfolio to include 10+ solid pieces), but now it's February it's time to step up the pace.

Labels: jewelry, news, weekly

I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving - we just hung out at home and I prepared a feast for the two of us!


My main course, wild rice stuffed butternut squash, was a flop. But, the wine-glazed brussel sprouts are super delicious and EASY! Plus, you get to drink the rest of the wine ;D

Wine-Glazed Brussel Sprouts

Purportedly serves 8 - the two of us mostly polished them off!

2 pounds Brussels sprouts
1/2 cup dry red wine
3 T honey, agave nectar, or maple syrup
1 1/2 T soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 1/2 t cornstarch

Prepare brussel sprouts: trim the stems, remove outer leaves, and cut a 1/4 inch deep X into the base.

Prepare sauce: in a small bowl, combine the wine, honey, and soy sauce.

Cook: combine brussels, sauce, and water in a 3-quart saucepan. Cook, covered, at a gentle simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes.

Finish: dissolve the cornstarch in a small amount of water. Stir into the saucepan quickly and cook for another 5 minutes.

Labels: recipe, weekly

I made a few new spice labels to match my set from 2 years ago.

I also polished my black shoes - man, I forgot how much work polishing is!

My parents were up to deliver me stuff, meaning I had to reorganize all my art stuff, kitchen stuff, books, etc! I acquired a bookshelf, which makes our living room look exponentially nicer (not exactly a feat considering the cardboard box table).



Also, we were leaving my aunt and uncle's house and spotted a garage sale - they had a great new dresser we picked up. The mirror is from a different garage sale over the summer - it was $5 so I couldn't resist, although I had nowhere to put it. It's non-functional atop the dresser, but at least it looks pretty ;D

Labels: news, random, weekly

I've been feeling a little low from lack of energy/feeling like I don't accomplish anything, so I thought I'd look back at the past six months and plot out goals for the next six. And now I feel great! Give it a try! I was surprised.

Since January

• Drawing: took portraiture & figure drawing classes; filled half a sketchbook (versus in previous ENTIRE YEARS filling only 1/4-1/2 a sketchbook)
• Graphic Design: took a graphic design class and designed 3 brochures, one being the start of a cookbook I've been meaning to do for years
• Jewelry: made a TON!
• Reading / Writing: wrote 3 graphic novel reviews; have read several good books (the sci-fi books Grass, Doomsday Book, and The Forever War stand out) - I've been working my way through the dual Hugo/Nebula award winners
• Life: rode my bike to work all through winter, I'd guess probably 60-75% of the time; visited my family and went to Yosemite!; planned and planted my garden; volunteered snowtracking and pulled weeds one morning

Goals for next six months

• Drawing: finish drawings I started in spring; draw for different seasons/solstices
• Graphic Design: get some more experience (through volunteering); possibly take another couple classes (logo design, color theory); redo my website and make business cards for myself
• Jewelry: start selling on Etsy
• Reading / Writing: finish/make significant progress on my book!; increase pace of graphic novel reviews to one per month instead of every other ;D
• Life: get better at maintaining myself / my stuff; be more social
• Science: study and take GRE; complete my currently-being-developed get-back-into-science curriculum

Yay!

Labels: news, self_improvement, weekly

So, I finally got a new computer - yay!!!

But that means prepping the transfer, personalizing the new one, cleaning up the old one to give to someone else. I've been working on it all week :(

Labels: weekly

Art

• Made 2 mix CDs


• Outlined detailed drawing


• Website stuff


• Finished writing review of Brian Azzarello's The Joker

Life

• Snowshoeing again! I'm a-gonna be sore.


• Updated desk setup - including NEW COMPUTER!!!! About freakin time.


• Hung framed art (only a month and a half later...)


• In progress: purging old computer for a fresh start on the new computer!

Labels: weekly

I really am failing at this accomplishment thing. Post-work naps are the bane of my existence.

Art:

• drew my best thing so far in my portraiture class (with conte crayons, fun!)


• fixed a couple drawings


• finalized layout stuff, compiled content, started coding website overhaul


• made a pin, a necklace, and a couple pairs of earrings


• made mix cd

Life:

• went for a hike today


• 3 concerts in the past 2-3 weeks!


• failed 2x at seeing the Dark Knight on IMAX

Labels: weekly

I may have to initiate Plan B. I have no excuse for accomplishing nothing except that this was a social week. The only drawing I got done was when I was trapped at a friend's house for 6 hours while CJ played poker. He got a talking to.

For a vegetarian, I've been eating a lot of meat lately. We went out to a fancy organic sustainable restaurant, so I had some duck and some amazing boar nachos. CJ had never eaten sushi, so we went out and tried it. At a family brunch, a surprising amount of ground beef somehow "fell" into the vegetarian pasta. I can't say I've really liked it any of the times, except for the nachos.

Labels: weekly

I was sick this week, so I did jack.

Art This Week

• drew footer in illustrator and colored


• sketched several decent sketches


• wrote half of a comic book review


• collaged (shittily) the front of my sketchbook

Life This Week

• bought new office chair and file cabinet. Assembled file cabinet. NEVER AGAIN.


• went for 25 minute jog! Now I'm sore, my own fault since I didn't stretch


• Emergency Kit 90% assembled! Only missing photocopies of important documents and maybe a fleece jacket or something

Labels: weekly

In keeping with last week's posting that I aim to accomplish something noteworthy each week (last year's and now this year's resolution), I've come up with a rough schedule for the week:

Monday - Projects
Tuesday - Art (Drawing or tutorials)
Wednesday - Comics review / Beading
Thursday - Art class (Portraiture)
Friday - Projects
Saturday day - Culture / Cooking / Cleaning

Weekly Accomplishment Goals:
1 comic review
1 blog post + weekly recap
2 new bead projects
3 decent sketches/artspeak drawing
2 hours (significant) project progress - I need a better way to measure this
2 hours drawing

These goals are in fitting with (most of) my overall goals for 2009:
1) Significantly expand my art/graphic design portfolio
2) Sell my jewelry
3) Daily accomplishments - make sure I can name at least one thing I did each day
4) Exercise 3x/week (biking to work doesn't count :/ ) <-- this is not happening yet

This is all probably being overly optimistic. But if it turns out I wind up still sitting around reading shit on the internet or habitually tidying (not cleaning), as I tend to do on weeknights, I have another idea: pay myself for artistic accomplishments. And only spend money on fun stuff (like comic books, movies, art, beading supplies) what I've earned.

Labels: news, self_improvement, weekly

As a means to hold myself accountable for my goal of getting more stuff done, I will post once per week about my artistic (and life?) accomplishments.

Art This Week

• website: finished (for real this time) site header, sketched site footer, designed rough page layout


• wrote and posted Watchmen review (maybe I should post it here too?) READ IT!!!!! Movie's out March 6!


• made 3 pairs earrings


• made mix CD


• one decent sketch (for portraiture homework)

Life This Week

• we got a dishwasher! It didn't work with our sink, so I got it running in only 2 trips to the hardware store. The plumbing gods are not pleased


• framed two posters myself, and am getting 2 framed professionally !$!!$

Labels: weekly