A few Thanksgiving photos

I wanted to share a few Thanksgiving photos, because as always, E and I had a fantastic Thanksgiving hopping from E's family's house to mine.

E's family's table is always set up beautifully. Notice the chocolate turkeys!
Last year I carved the turkey too. New tradition?
At my Mom's house I was most excited to visit her kitten Jack. He's such a love.
And then Melissa showed the entire party how LARGE Simon has gotten. He's huge.
And my Mom's Thanksgiving table. Looks more like Christmas, but my mom loves her Christmas china so much, she starts using them in November.
Then today E and I set up our Christmas tree in our new house. It looks wonderful.

Reading

I've been on a reading kick lately, here is what I've read:

Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy - Price of Tides is a fantastic, scary, heartbreaking book (the movie is terrible, though). I read it with E about five years ago, but forgot a lot and wanted to read it again. I loved it just as much the second time. If you haven't ever read a Conroy book, you must! Beach Music is by far my favorite (one of my favorite books of all time), but Prince of Tides follows closely. Five stars.

The Reader, Bernhard Schlick - This book has been sitting on my shelf forever, so I decided it was a good idea if I read it. It was an Oprah's book club choice, so I was excited. She has really picked some wonderful books over the years. This book, however, was horrible! It was a quick read, hence the reason I finished it, but I felt like there was no character development, the characters themselves were unlikable, and it was not memorable. Two stars.

Red Azelea, Anchee Min - This book is a memoir about Communist China, one of my favorite topics. My friend Colette recommended this book, saying I would not be disappointed, she was right. The book starts when Anchee is a tiny girl trained to love Mao, China, and communism. As she gets older, she realizes that she isn't happy until she falls in love. I loved this book, but felt like the end was rushed. Because it was a true story, I wanted to hear more details about the beginning of her life in America. Four stars.

Sarah's Key. This book was so emotionally draining, but I loved it. It was about the roundup of Jews in France in 1942. It was horrific, captivating, wonderful, heartfelt. Everything you want from a book. Five Stars.

Update

My favorite time to blog is when I feel like I have a subject to write about. Today, I don't really, instead, I have random thoughts that are more of an update.

Thought 1 - I'm still looking for a job, and it still stinks. I found a job that I really would love to get, but they haven't called me back. I've followed up with them twice.

Thought 2 - E and I went to Snowbird last weekend and spent the night. We are so lucky to get to do this virtually every year. This year my dad had the pass that he wasn't going to use so he gave it to us. We went out to dinner and breakfast, enjoyed the Cliff Spa (this is so nice!) and also got drinks in the Aerie Lounge. Wonderful weekend. Looking at my photos of the weekend I realized I didn't take any without dolls, I'm such a dork. Anyway, here is the pool with Inky and Violet:
Thought 3 - When I'm not looking for a job I'm usually crafting with my mom. While there I get to play with her new kitten, Jack. He is really sweet, and just tiny. Yesterday I was wearing a vest, and Jack fit into the pocket. So sweet.

More crafting

My Mom and I are continuing to craft, for some reason these little fairies are addicting! They are so fun to make. We learned how to make them from this book, if you like to craft, and you think they are cute, make sure to look into getting this book.

So, I posted before that my mom and I wanted to make four fairies, one for each of the seasons. Well we were having such a great time, that we decided to make 12 fairies, one for each month! This is a huge undertaking, because each one takes us at least three hours, sometimes more.

That said, we've finished our Summer fairy, who is now the July fairy, and Winter (now January) has a new hairdo! We've also finished March, who is our first boy, and started on May and February.

Here they are, so far:
Here are all four seasons, Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.
As you can see, Winter (now January) got a new do! I like this one much better, it looks like a winter storm is blowing in.
Spring (now June) is the youngest of my fairies so far. She has springy green hair and a flower dress, and striped tights!
Summer (now July) looks like she is a little Dutch girl with the blond hair tied in two high buns. She is in sunflower yellow and a red petal skirt. She has bare legs and flip flops!
March is the first boy (November and September will also be boys). I quite like him.

Nastalgia times two

Remember this post where I scanned old childhood photos from my albums? I decided it was time to do it again, and so tonight I pulled out a few of my albums and started to find photos that I love. Here are a few:

Aren't Brandon, Melissa and I adorable? I was the only dark haired child for so long, now Brandon's hair is as dark as mine, and Melissa's is a lot darker too. This photo was taken on Melissa's first birthday.
Melissa and I, similar age as above. Melissa is one, I am nine.
I've always loved art, and when I was eight I entered this painting into a contest at the library. It was chosen to visit other libraries across the country for a Children's Art Show.
And, while I was working on this post tonight I got a call from my life long friend Allison. Allison and I have literally been friends since before we could walk. Since we were chatting, I told her I'd scan an old photo of the two of us. We are adorable.

I am so inspired

One of the things I keep meaning to blog about, but keep forgetting, is another thing that I've been doing during the days to keep me busy - crafting. I've always LOVED crafting, hence the reason I love dolls and photography, it is so creative. Well since I've been job-less, my mom (who works from home) and I have been crafting a ton. She has always been excellent at crafts, so it is fun to have a partner in crime.

Over the past couple of weeks we've started the craft of needle felting, using a special needle and fleece roving (raw wool) and making all sorts of cute animals. It is extremely time consuming, technical, and takes a lot of talent. We are slowly getting better.

Today we also started another project, little fairies for the seasons. We each spent all afternoon working on our Autumn fairy and our Winter fairy. Not only are the final results fantastic, but spending the afternoons with my Mom is the best.

Needle felted sheep, isn't she adorable?

And fox. I love his black feet and fluffy tail.

Here is my autumn elf. She has a real acorn top for a hat.

And winter elf. I plan to make spring and summer next week!

One more, just because I love my autumn fairy (or elf?) so much.

Job hunt and cold days

The job hunt is awesome. Really, I love sitting at home, looking for a job day after day. I hope my sarcasm doesn't bother you. Yes, looking for a job sucks, really sucks. I'm trying to make the most of it, but alas, it is still slow and tedious.

Mid November is not one of my favorite times of the year. One, it gets dark so early, I can't stand it. Two, it is cold all day long, and not beautiful winter cold, no, yucky gray cold. It is either raining or gray every day. The kitties and I spend the days reading, looking for new job postings, obsessively checking my email, trying to stay warm, and watching the birds. It gets old day after day.

I'm ready for a change. I want a job.

Some SWEET UEing

I've posted before that UEing is Urban Exploring, the hobby of looking at abandoned buildings as works of art, not nuisances to society. I truly believe abandoned building are photographs waiting to happen. Here in Utah there is not a lot of UEing to be had. Many of our old buildings are torn down, secure, or remodeled into something new.

However, within the last week I've had two mini UE experiences that I'd like to share-

Wednesday was a really hard day for E's entire family, it was the day of Baggie's funeral. We started at a downtown mortuary, and ended in Fairview at the cemetery. It was exhausting. However, while at the mortuary, I did some exploring. The mortuary is in an extremely old mansion in downtown Salt Lake, and the first floor and basement are in use. I could tell from the outside, there had to be at least three floors to the building, so while everyone else was "viewing" the deceased, I slipped away. Upstairs there were abandoned apartments with broken windows and scattered trash. I couldn't find any way to the third story, so I re-joined the funeral downstairs. Then, I got talking to the mortician, and somehow convinced him to give me a tour of the third story. He told me no one is allowed up there anymore, and promptly brought me up! Sweet!

On the third story there were some more abandoned rooms, a freight elevator and an old embalmment room! Inside the large room there were embalming tables and tools. There was even a gas mask hung against the far wall, because of toxic fumes. Note to self – a gas mask makes a good subject for creepy mortuary photos.


Then, today on the way up to Golden Spike National Historic site, we drove through Brigham. In Brigham there is a huge complex of old school buildings, left abandoned and open. I decided to peek inside while E waited (he hates when I UE, he is afraid that I’ll get caught). Well a little peek wasn’t enough because this complex of buildings is enormous. I must go back, but E and I decided legally, because we can’t afford a trespassing ticket at the moment.

View on America

A job I desperately want has asked me to write an essay on my view of America. I am stumped. First of all, I have a lot to say on my view of America, but when looking for a job, it is best to keep things non political. I have never been more proud to be an American than I am now, only sixty years ago, in some Southern States, African Americans were not allowed to vote. Today, our next American president is African American. But, again, I want to keep it very non political.

And another problem, I haven't written an essay for at least ten years. I don't even remember what an essay is! I remember learning that in an essay you are suppose to "prove" something with a thesis statement, I think.

So I'm at a road block. How do I prove something that is non political? I can write about how proud I am to be an American, but I don't think I'll secure the job that way.

Thoughts? Help!

Don't forget to Vote!

The weather finally turned

After an unbelievable October, the weather finally turned cold this weekend. E and I were down at the farmhouse enjoying the chilly November weather and the last of the Halloween spirit when we got a wonderful afternoon thunderstorm. Dark clouds, wind, the whole nine yards. We snuggled up, made some tea, and played with our cameras.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend:

A few Halloween photos

Here are a few Halloween photos of our house (and our black Halloween cat Rumpus).