Happy Thanksgiving!
Baba tried on my new hat – which is a hit with all the women in my family – and looks pretty darn good! She said she can’t wear hats like this. Riiiiiiight.
Baba asked if hats are coming back in style – did they go out? – I’m wearing it anyway.
I was browsing around, online shopping if you must, after I found a bit of money burning a hole in my pocket. I have been extremely good this year – Santa, can you hear me? – in not spending those hard earned pennies. Even when I found all my cashmere and wools had been violated by moths. I merely trudged on.
When I needed new pants or work gear, I became a frugalista.
When I wanted new funiture, I thrifted.
In trying to find a home for that money burning so hot I stumbled upon an ultimate gift. Shoes. Every month. For a Year.
It’s almost too much to bear, until you reach the price tag. For a mere $1,800, I could have a new pair of heels delivered to my door each month of 2010 – that works out to $150 per pair. Yikes! I do not currently own any garment that I paid more than $100 for, and those are the heavy hitter items – coats, cashmeres, etc. – and even those I stalked until they were around $100. But $150 pair of shoes each month? I’m sure they’re just gorgeous – especially after having seen all the shoes that came out of their catalog this previous year – but I think it would be daunting to wear a pair of shoes that cost that much – mostly because I would see every pair as having cost $1,800. Though I’m sure I would get over it…
This puts Fruit of the Month clubs to shame!
I went up to my Baba’s house this past weekend – Baba is Hungarian for grandmother – and taught me how to make a cookie that is part of our family tradition. Kifli (pronounced Kee-Flee) are little pastry cookies filled with either walnuts and condensed milk – yum! – or a fruit preserve and then dunked in powdered sugar while they’re still hot. The walnut version is far superior, in most of my family’s eyes, so we made a batch for the coming Thanksgiving holiday. A batch is roughly 9 dozen, so it takes a while to make.
My Baba pulls out the two cookies sheets we’ll be using and grabs parchment paper for the one and butter to grease the second. She tells me that, if I don’t want the added expense of parchment paper, I can make them just as well on a greased cookie sheet. Then she mentions that Kifli baked on parchment comes out better. To which I wondered, if she has already tested this and knows which is better, why are we making a batch not on parchment paper?
As you can guess, the parchment Kifli turned out beautifully. Those on the greased cookie sheet are a little more “done” on the bottom than I would prefer. But I guess Baba made her point. The Kifli in the photo are from the parchment paper.
It’s the first post from the new phone and I’ve got to say this thing is one of the coolest things I’ve ever bought! It’s taking some getting used to – the keyboard response especially, but I’m really getting into it. Qwerty is great but I miss having the keyboard memorized. I had T9 down pat and could text from my pocket รก la Matt Damon in The Departed. I try to text and walk with the iPhone and, well, let’s just say that Cirque du Soleil will not be calling me anytime soon. Falling with grace is not tops on their list. C’est la vie.
I get to do another Trib Tested this week – especially since last weeks tester wasn’t that great. I tried the new Starbucks Via and was completely unimpressed. Fine instant grind or not, the flavor was really lacking; bitter at first and gritty to finish. It might be good for camping if you had nothing else, but I don’t understand how Starbucks can market it as a great cup. It’s bitter and gritty and beads up on the side of your mug. Oh yea, I want that in my tummy.
This week I get to test Avon’s Anew Rejuvenate – a mineral facial – and I’m excited. There is something so alluring about facial scrubs. It’s sitting here on my desk already calling for me to go home and try it out. The directions are pretty simple; twist, apply, wait 15 minutes and rinse. Buh bye fine lines and wrinkles! Well, at least that’s what 86% of women say. They must be 86% of women like 4 out of 5 dentists. I’ll know in another two hours!
I finally took the plunge and bought iPhones this morning. And yes, that is plural. Mom doesn’t know it yet, but Thursday – she’s going to flip.
And then Friday I’m going to kick myself for having bought them.
So after yesterday’s post about the wedding albums I noticed that a letter is cut off in my post cloud and it made me laugh. That’s Entertainmen!
I’m also pretty keen on the word combinations and font heights of “bad day bill pay”, “Cleaning Closet” – particularly because one does not dictate the other – and “School Shoes”.
And I’d definitely be up for trying some “Shopping Sweets” but I do not ever want to see a quiz lend men my mother.
Working for Joe Appel Photography is a lot of fun. Not only do I get to set up and tear down lights and cameras, but I get to do a lot of behind the scenes work, too.
All summer long I have been taking the beautiful shots that Joe captures and putting them into huge books. Most would call them albums, but because the photos are printed into the book and not stuck in like the 3 x 5 photos you get from Kodak or another printing agency, the work I do is extremely fun. It’s almost like a puzzle, except there are no pieces that fit together with their cut out and you can change the size of the pieces at your whim.
This first album is one I recently did for Joe. The full scale of the page is 9″ x 24″ which is great. I have a half page with of 9″ by 12″ to work with but can do huge 24″ spreads should the image dictate it.
This is a page out of Allison & Brennen’s Album which I did for their Christmas present last year. The album is 14″ by 14″ so I had plenty of room to play. Pages like this absolutely amaze me because, as I scale photos, I want to make sure they’re not too small, but when all was said and done, those 3 inset photos are 5″ by 7″ – Incredible.
This last example is a page for an album I’m finishing up right now and has turned out to be one of my favorites. Robin DeNoma and her husband (name?) were the photographers and, even though I wasn’t there the day of, I really feel like their photography captured the day. I know there is a lot going on, but with all the bright colors, I think it works.
Pages like this are great to lay out because I get to really do puzzle work – not only do I have to be mindful of sizes and shape, I have to watch out for the dreadful center line. Looking at it, you would think the book would fold in half right though the middle, but the photos are actually offset enough that the crease runs a little to the left of where you would think it would be, while remaining balanced.
It’s so meticulous to lay these pages out and make sure that everyone appears in the album, but I love doing it. It’s such relaxing and enjoyable work.
Have you heard this one? Not Yeti!
This past weekend was as much fun as it was a blur. So nice to get out of Pittsburgh for a little while, for sure, but terrible to have to leave Columbus after only a few short hours of being there.
Everytime I go back I get to see my friends – sometimes there are oversites, though – So Sorry Domer – but nevertheless, I enjoy being back. The Short North, where I usually stay, has grown up quite a lot since I last lived in the area. It looks more like Olde Worthington, all growd up.
Fitz and I got to spend some fun time together, especially once it was no longer “Carolinetime”, which is a close relative of the Nelsonville TimeWarp. But I digress.
I always leave feeling a little melancholy that I no longer live in the area that I grew up a part of, but I think it’s because I leave an area that was a part of the history that once was. Allow me to explain.
Most people complain about high school. If you polled a group, any group, you might find that they hated high school. They were teased. They were unpopular. They were waaa wa waaa wa wa wa. (*Charlie Brown teacher voice) They were not what they wanted to be. But not me.
I loved high school. For the first time in my life I really felt like I fit in. Like I had a group. Like I belonged. Granted it was with a solid cast of 7 guys and various female and male subs as we navigated the mine field of growing up, high school and, for most of us, the marching band, but we really had it made.
We made it through ridiculous science projects, had fun times at school dances (anyone remember getting Domer on the Valentine’s court? Or when he forgot the PROM TICKETS???) and seriously enjoyed our senior lunches, with or without wing-dings and rides in Olsen’s van. Where is that beast now, I wonder? The Van. Not Olsen. I know where Olsen is. Relatively speaking.
DMB’s Crash Into Me is playing on my iTunes right now and I feel like I’m 14 again. Back on the drumline and waiting for Friday Night Football to get here, all the while riding around in a silver chrysler. It was such a good time in my life. And, even though I don’t say it, often or at all, I am so grateful to those 7 guys. The brothers I never had, but somehow got anyway.
It was nice to slip back into conversation with Ross this past weekend and I feel like I haven’t missed too many beats with Fitz – did you do the Monday Night Burritos??? I must know, Purple! -But I want more of it!
Ah. Challenge.
Welcome Adele Marie Hydzik!
Born at 6:26 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, 2009 to Allison & Brennen Hydzik.
8 pounds, 3 ounces, 19 inches
Photos by Keith Hodan
Congratulations Allison and Brennen. Your girl is lovely.
Happy Birthday Barcodes. Without you, well. You know.
