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The Holiday Recap
Jan. 3rd, 2010 07:50 pmThis was our Christmas tree:
Yeah, that's Mr. Holmes hanging out. This was his first Christmas with us and he loved it. He would hide under the tree and pounce on people when they walked by. He's gotten into the habit of reaching up to grab my leg and meow at me when I pass him so I will stop and wrestle with him a bit.
He's rarely sitting still this long. And more rare is that closed-eyes thing. It's like he never sleeps.
Anyway.
I was particularly poor this year. Which is frustrating because I've got something like $10,000 coming in over the next month between student loan money and my tax refund. Most of our gifts came from Jacquelyn's parents, who sent each of us a few things from our Amazon wish lists. My parents had some huge medical bills this year (even after insurance they were still paying over $1000 for an MRI) and we got homemade gifts from them. Knitted washcloths and candles and wooden peg games. Jacquelyn managed to get me a book she'd ordered a while ago.
It's called Contact Sheet and it's pretty awesome. The author took some famous photographs and hunted down the contact sheet - the initial print of the whole roll of film - for those photos. You can see what the variety of shots were and how they picked the best one.
Jacquelyn also snatched up some old Bureau of Land Management surface land use maps from the geography library to recycle as wrapping paper. They looked spectacular:
Here's the lovely lady:
Jacquelyn's birthday is on the solstice right before Christmas and I got her tickets to see Yo La Tengo later this month. This holiday was particularly difficult for her as family and tradition are very important to her and both were pretty lacking this year.
We did start what is going to be a new tradition - the New Year's Medieval Feast. She researched traditional holiday meals for medieval times and prepared a multi-course feast for us. Traditional bread and cheeses and salads, egg noodles with cheese, Cornish game hens wrapped in bacon and crust, plums in wine, and bread pudding with currants. It was fantastic and the food was so rich. Simple but my god, so rich.
Did I mention there's an icicle outside my house that is trying to reach the ground?
It got very close. Too close. You've got to reign in those uppity icicles all tryin' to be columns.
Last, but not least, I got hired to make another rave flyer - this one is at a hotel resort. They wanted a sort of neo-80's neon sun-and-surf theme. I believe the request was for "chicks in bikinis, palm trees, big crowds, and that pop-art swirly shit." It's a one-page flyer, folded. Under the cut, you can see the whole thing, cut up in order, the cover, the inside and then the back cover.
( Make Your Winter Warmer )
I think that's all for now.
Yeah, that's Mr. Holmes hanging out. This was his first Christmas with us and he loved it. He would hide under the tree and pounce on people when they walked by. He's gotten into the habit of reaching up to grab my leg and meow at me when I pass him so I will stop and wrestle with him a bit.
He's rarely sitting still this long. And more rare is that closed-eyes thing. It's like he never sleeps.
Anyway.
I was particularly poor this year. Which is frustrating because I've got something like $10,000 coming in over the next month between student loan money and my tax refund. Most of our gifts came from Jacquelyn's parents, who sent each of us a few things from our Amazon wish lists. My parents had some huge medical bills this year (even after insurance they were still paying over $1000 for an MRI) and we got homemade gifts from them. Knitted washcloths and candles and wooden peg games. Jacquelyn managed to get me a book she'd ordered a while ago.
It's called Contact Sheet and it's pretty awesome. The author took some famous photographs and hunted down the contact sheet - the initial print of the whole roll of film - for those photos. You can see what the variety of shots were and how they picked the best one.
Jacquelyn also snatched up some old Bureau of Land Management surface land use maps from the geography library to recycle as wrapping paper. They looked spectacular:
Here's the lovely lady:
Jacquelyn's birthday is on the solstice right before Christmas and I got her tickets to see Yo La Tengo later this month. This holiday was particularly difficult for her as family and tradition are very important to her and both were pretty lacking this year.
We did start what is going to be a new tradition - the New Year's Medieval Feast. She researched traditional holiday meals for medieval times and prepared a multi-course feast for us. Traditional bread and cheeses and salads, egg noodles with cheese, Cornish game hens wrapped in bacon and crust, plums in wine, and bread pudding with currants. It was fantastic and the food was so rich. Simple but my god, so rich.
Did I mention there's an icicle outside my house that is trying to reach the ground?
It got very close. Too close. You've got to reign in those uppity icicles all tryin' to be columns.
Last, but not least, I got hired to make another rave flyer - this one is at a hotel resort. They wanted a sort of neo-80's neon sun-and-surf theme. I believe the request was for "chicks in bikinis, palm trees, big crowds, and that pop-art swirly shit." It's a one-page flyer, folded. Under the cut, you can see the whole thing, cut up in order, the cover, the inside and then the back cover.
( Make Your Winter Warmer )
I think that's all for now.
