Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Time for bed...

After nearly lobbing off my fingers while prepping food for tomorrow, I have decided it's time for bed. I got almost everything ready, including my most important task of driving down to Pittsburgh and back to drop off some forms at the museum. It is official, as of Monday I will be working at 2 of the Carnegie museums: volunteering at the art/ natural history museum, and actually getting paid to work at the science center. It's not the Smithsonian, but it's a start. I guess you can't ask for too much when your degree is in lighting design (not too many transferable skills). Just give me a year or so, and then I'll be blowing the socks off of all those HR people in Washington - unless of course I change my mind about what I want from life in that time, which knowing me is a distinct possibility.

OK, it's off to bed, because my typing skills are severely lacking at this hour.

Photos to come of party prep and more!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Baking Baking Baking

THEY'LL BE HERE IN 2 DAYS!!!! ARRGGGHHH!!!!
Spent the night baking... a couple dozen cupcakes and an 8" cake that I think I will cut in half and make into a 1/2 of an 8" two layer cake - it'll look more impressive that way.

On the agenda for tomorrow:
  • make chocolate frosting for above mentioned cake
  • go to the grocery store to buy everything else I need for Tuesday
  • make the dressing for the Asian Noodle Salad (God bless Pioneer Woman! My favorite blog for recipes)
  • make the requisite ranch dip
  • cut up veggies for platter and salad
  • go to the liquor store for the wine, and a gas station in Ohio for the beer (so I'm not stuck with a case)
  • go down to Pittsburgh (ok, Oakland technically) to deal with the HR people at the museum*

*this is the most important step, because it will take about 4 hours out of my day, and if I don't do it tomorrow I will have to do it Tuesday before people start coming to my house and I think that might be a bit too stressful

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Spring...Summer..Winter....Spring - What season is it!

It is an absolutely gorgeous day outside today, and although I have to finish sewing today (which involves quality time in the basement - yuck), I plan to walk to Dad's office to take advantage of this beautiful day!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Cupcakes

Leave it to me to turn a simple task like baking cupcakes into a major drama.

I was making homemade yellow cupcakes with homemae buttercream frosting (which by the way are Fantastic!) and I managed to flip a pan of cups filled with batter upside down into the oven - oops....

I have been cleaning it all day with the help of Kori - she's great at getting those hard to lick areas

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sesame Street Live! comes to Youngstown!!!

SSL is going to be in Youngstown, and I get to see old friends! In less than a week, our house will be ambushed by performers and technicians craving a homecooked meal.... Sounds like fun, no?


The internet problem is driving me crazy, I just keep going to the library to go online.


I knit a pair of socks!!!! This is a milestone - after years of avoiding socks, I actually found that they are quick and (fairly) easy (well once you get the hang of knitting with 4 needles)


I'm making a new dress. It's pretty awesome - the fabric reminds me of the wallpaper in the original Willy Wonka movie. You know, the one where if you lick it the snozzberries taste like snozzerries?
Awesome...huh? There are about 4 yards of fabric in the skirt, I guess you could say it's pretty fruity! I plan to wear it with my adorably awesome red wedges I bought at a cute shoe store in Burlington VT 3 years ago. They have been sadly neglected :c(

I'm still bored, and unemployed, and bored.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Library

Due to internet issues at home, I have been forced to take my trusty laptop to the local library to take advantage of their free wireless. I don't think I've ever been to such a small library - even the one in the small town where I lived in Texas had a bigger one!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Roadside Flower

I took this photo while on a roadtrip around Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands), we had pulled over to take some photos of the view, and I started snapping photos of flowers growing on the side of the road.
I came across this picture while I was sorting through the many photo folders on my computer today. It's rare that I play with Photoshop this much, and it probably looks overworked, but there's something about it that I'm really drawn to. I think it's the intensity of color.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A bit about me....

I am a 27 year old, unemployed, former touring, currently baking, knitting, and reading girl. Does that make any sense? After leaving my last touring job, I decided to switch careers, settle down, and make a new life for myself. Two months in I live at home, have no job, and have regressed to high school where my parents want to know my every action. And to make matters worse they live in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. I volunteer one day a week at a museum in Pittsburgh, but that takes me almost 2 hours to drive just one way.
Once upon a time, I dreamed of working in a glamorous job at a large museum, but my position currently pretty much involves me telling people where the bathrooms are - not glamorous.
I enjoy baking and taking pictures, but currently am having a fight with my Nikon. Does anyone know how to switch it so that it takes .jpgs and not .nefs? I do a lot of sewing and knitting.

And I also dreamed of being a travel writer.

Only time will tell how this will all pan out. Until then, wish me luck and maybe I'll win the lottery! (yeah right....)

Hello!


This is Kori. She is a three year old basset hound - adorable but crazy. Next to her is Buddy, her stuffed basset that she sleeps with every night. I think she might go through withdrawl if she ever spent a night without him. Hmmm.... I wonder....
Kori is my dad's dog, but I frequently will claim ownership. I feels she needs a protege though, maybe a bull dog, or a cocker spaniel, or a blood hound (that would be perfect until the blood hound out grew her, then she might suffer from an inferiority complex)