i'd pin that

I'm back from the Middle East. And clearly struggling with what to say about the 3 weeks I spent in the Holy Land. I finally posted the last of my photos (Jordan, Israel, Egypt) and that was overwhelming enough. But I want to share, so hold tight.

In the meantime, check out the things I think are beautiful, thoughtful, or projects/foodstuffs I want to give a try. The groupings below (click the image to link through) are boards I'm cultivating with stuff I love. Enjoy yourself, and lemme know if you want an invite.


I think I'm going to try painting a wall in my bedroom like this, found through the gorgeousness found above.

Lastly, in case you were on pins and needles wondering what I think about Google+, don't be. I don't think much of it. The end.

I don't have kids

But if I did, I'd be making this for lunch tomorrow:

Can someone please do this and report back?

An Argyle Christmas Craft

I have two cousins, Erica and Brittney, who are incredibly crafty. Crafty and with kids. I hardly find time to craft, and I'm only in charge of making sure food makes it from the table into my own mouth. But with seven days of Panamanian beachy nothing-ness stretched before me over Thanksgiving week, I decided to put my hands to use.

Felt is the staple fabric in the Wood/Williams Christmas decorations. The majority of our ornaments, stockings, tree skirts, etc. are laboriously cut, sequined and beaded together by needlepoint. Knowing that lugging a sewing machine to Panama (if I had one) was out, I designed a tree garland I could craft upon while on the plane, sitting on the deck during a rainstorm, or while catching sun at the pool. And I needed something that could be completed. (I have a tendency to leave half-completed crafts.)

Step 1: Cut felt into squares. I did some 2" x 2" and some 3" x 3". It depends how big you want your garland and how much time you want it to take. (Larger size = faster to complete. Is this the best craft ever or what?) I'm lazy and didn't measure my cutting at all (isn't cutting always the worst part of crafting?) -- eyeballing it worked for the most part, but I'm not a true perfectionist when it comes to crafting. If you are, you may want to create a pattern.

Step 2: Thread your needle with three threads of embroidery floss. I used quite a large needle -- one with enough of a point on the needle to stick through the felt, but wanted an easy eye to thread. I used a #18 needle for Chenille. (This is me pretending I know what I'm talking about.)

Step 3: Stitch together. I used three colors--red, white, and cream in a bit of an argyle pattern. I created a star on the white squares, but any kind of pattern would be cute. (A green/orange/purple/black woudl be cute for Halloween too!)And thaaaaaaat's about it. Easy? Yes. I'm beyond pleased with the way it turned out and it'll be nice to have for the next few decades. Happy to answer questions if you've got them!

homemade halloween pop art

For a number of reasons having to do with an evening Stake Conference church meeting and our non-celebratory Sundays, today, October 29th, was our Halloween.

I do love a heavy makeup costume. It's late and a picture is worth a thousand words, yes?

People I knew had a hard time recognizing me--it was the first time I've ever felt incognito!

Happy Halls yall.

the gender of humor

Three years ago when I was still fairly new to Boston, I gave a talk in church. I considered it equal to the other talks and lessons I've given in recent years, but references to this talk surface every six months or so. For one reason or another, it seems to be one people remember.

The last time the talk came up, a few of us were out to eat. In this instance, it was a boy who brought it up and was explaining my delivery method to another new-to-the-area boy. I won't attempt to recreate the conversation because I'm terrible at remembering quotes--I remember meaningless details. (Raise your hand if you're surprised.) Sprinkled in the conversation, however, was the phrase "good at lady humor".

I'm sure I arched an eyebrow and asked for an explanation. Half stumbling through the rest of his discourse, the storyteller continued his observation that my talk had the women in the room enchanted. Surely noticing my silence and the wheels turning in my head (because I'd never heard this angle and until then had no idea anyone labeled my humor) he attempted to dig himself out of the conversation (though no digging was needed, but silence makes most of us begin to spew words). He considered "being good at lady humor" a true gift since women (at times) aren't the best at recognizing the good in other women (sometimes true).

That was about it for the conversation, but I've thought back on that conversation many times since. Is there a difference in men's and women's humor? Can you be good at one and terrible at another? Does my 90% women readership (see sidebar poll) give weight to this theory?

Obviously, we all find humor in different things. What's funny to me won't necessarily be funny to you. On the flip side of humor intake is the sense of humor you push out into the world.

A friend boy and I had a lively discussion a few weeks ago about movies and entertainment. You see, I'm not a huge fan of the Judd Apatow-brand of guy-buddy humor movies. I don't find (or provide) humor in any of the vulgar or crass things in life. It's not my style--and if it makes me square to say it, fine--it makes me quite uncomfortable. (Sorry folks.) I've thought a lot about that conversation too and wondered how much of him growing up with only brothers and me growing up with only sisters has slanted our humor views.

I recognize that I make witty connections every now and then. I attempt to be clever (without killing kindness) and poke fun at things (usually myself). My dad has always said that "sarcasm is the lowest form of humor"--and for a long time I thought that was the dumbest thing. As I've gotten older however, I see the true wisdom in the sentiment and try to think outside that box.

And as a side note, I try not to think of myself as a person with a slaying gift for humor. People who think they're funny, and say so (hello personal ads!) are typically indulgent and not all that funny. It's like some of Ellen's material on American Idol. She pushes too hard to add jokes and they end up being awful. For me, humor is a "show me, don't tell me" type of thing. It's not something that can be provable--especially because what you think is funny and what I find to be funny may not be compatible. As soon as you start thinking you're too hilarious, the sooner the number of people who think that start to dwindle. End side note.

There's no real grand climax to this post; nothing that wraps this up with a nice bow and makes sense of it all. (I'm just talking to talk.) Except, I guess to say that I'm more than happy to be "good at lady humor" and am pleased as punch to entertain those of you who frequent this oddly named blog. It's true that making yourself laugh is the first tier of importance, but it's lovely to have other people who find you entertaining as well. So, as always, thanks for your kind comments and compliments and if nothing else, humoring me.

pajamas in public

Raise you hand if you're tired of listening to me talk. Aye carumba. There's always something I can wax poetic about, right? I'm tempted to spill about the mental clarity that hit during a restorative yoga class I attended last night but I'd have to shoot my face off first. I'm loving the person I've become in the last year(ish) so no need to take eight giant steps backward by becoming that blogger. Gross.

What I'm trying to get at here is that it's probably time to trot out some photos of what the heck I've been up to lately. February wasn't a month laden with possibilities for gorgeous photos--I blame the New England paste--but the wards hosted a "Pajama Prom" last month that proved to be a perfect (and weird) photo opportunity.

Total flashback to High School. The "prom" was ladies choice, and what choices we had. In true throwback style, we all decided to group date and had breakfast for dinner together before the big dance. Like any good breakfast, more bacon was consumed than waffles. When Vicki's date stood to say the prayer before we ate, I may have snort laughed -- it's not often you see a grown adult (who's not your dad) wearing matching top and bottom pajamas (if your dad is the kind of dad who even wears matching top and bottom jammies).

In an effort to make the whole situation even funnier (and let me tell you, the "modesty reminder" email was as funny as I thought it could get), Linda and I made corsages/boutonnieres for our dates. And for the record, those suckers are hard to pin on no matter your age.

And then? We danced. And it was surprisingly fun. We get down to get down. Happy dancing.
Annnnnnnnnd, guess who lives with the Pajama Prom queen? Does this make me a lady in waiting? Holler.
Now, I kept thinking it couldn't get any funnier. But I love being surprised. What a treat the post-Prom photographer photos turned out to be:

The best (for me) /worst (for everyone else) part? The entire group was posted to the same public album. I (for once) got lucky and my photos weren't too awkward. BUT, oh but, the collection of photos were inadvertently hilarious. Most (like my back to back delight above) were cheesy on purpose; but some photos? Oh wow. I laughed all afternoon. I'm only sorry I can't post them here. No one looked terrible, but they just struck so much joy in my heart.

One month til the dearth of Q1 photos ends. One day (hoping for sooner than later) I'll have photos of me tan... and wearing structured pants in public.

Of Posts and Ponytails

Tap tap tap. Is this thing on?

This is the time of year when dull is the word. The weather is drab, grey is omnipresent, and my hair just isn't very shiny. It's hard to feel motivated to do much besides burrow down, keep your feet warm, and try to survive yet another Boston winter. (For those keeping track, this is my fourth.)

This time of year is funny because I feel like so many of the things that make me inherently unique lie dormant for weeks and months at a time. In review, I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing, just an observation. Maybe this is me. The Q1 Nat.

Hi. It's good to be back. Part of me wants to write the longest blog in the history of blogs (and boy have I written some doozies) to make up for my time away -- to update you on what needs being updated. The other part of me wants to go back to wearing the same 8 outfits, slapping my hair into a ponytail, and allowing the chores of my life to stack up in favor of good books and TV.

As my previous post pointed out, I've had some real humdinger weeks at work. The worst appears to be past, so I'm going to cling to that hope. I'm also beyond grateful for a company that forced me into a mental health rejuvenation day and an unexpected 3-day weekend. I ended up going to NYC, partook of some festivities--and didn't manage to take a single photo. On a weekend with minimal ponytail usage and maximum color wearage... waste of a good opprotunity, huh?

This coming weekend will be another slow one--which is a plus given the pace I've been sprinting. It's a long weekend for most and Valentine's Day for most so maybe something exciting will happen. Chances are slim but a girl can always dream about getting flowers delivered, right?

Despite the lull in activity and excitement in my life, I'm going to try to bring the creativity back to this blog and back to my life. Won't that be fun? Because let's face it, a ponytail only looks good for so long.

*This photo brought to you from a creative event in the summer at a non-pony event. Nothing to do with this post, but 8 out of 9 readers want to see 67% more photos.

**This second photo brought to you by the color GREEN!

On the Ride

I've started a new project. I guess it could still be considered another blogging endeavor, but more than anything I'd like to think it a writing exercise. Not that blogging isn't writing, (because it is! and everyone who blogs is a writer! go blogging community!) and this is probably splitting hairs, but I think it's time to separate the zippy, off-the-cuff, running life commentary from the short stories of my life.

It's not that the stories of my life share anything significant or life-alteringly profound. But I feel I have an interesting place and voice in this world. There are some blogs that cover what it's like to be single, Mormon and in a big city. None are to my taste, so I've decided to create my own. In the between, I plan to both record the present and remember the history of how I got to where I am today--and it's been a ride, I'll tell you that much.

Did you know I aspired to to be a romance fiction writer? (Those who can't learn...) I learned two interesting lessons from that experiment. That and more!

http://ontheride.wordpress.com

I may or may not be worth a bookmark, but you can decide for yourself. The page above links to the "About," but for my very first actual post, I've made like the first hit, opening song in one of my favorite musicals of the high school variety and kareoked The Start of Something New.

Maybe I'm being ambitious, but someone gave me ambition for my birthday apparently...

On...

Creativity
Once upon a time, I used to keep up to date on a pretty creative little blog. I told stories, waxed anecdotal, drew pictures, wrote satirical poems, and posted photos of weird things (like my hands). My posting has suffered the last few months (years?); I feel overwhelmed at trying to jump back into the fray. (To be honest, I don't feel very funny or creative any more.)

But, I've been putting my creativity to use other places! Out in the real world! No words involved!And now! Behold! A picture display! (and some necessary commentary...)

1. The night before the 3rd of July, our trip to the Drive-In movie was rained out. Instead, we had the first annual Wonders of the World Rice Krispy Treat Sculpting Extravaganza. The creativity of my friends is outstanding. My favorite was the fast food hamburger meal, but the TMNT, King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, the octopus, and the various dinosaurs put my unintentional and possibly racist Michael Jackson tribute to shame.

2. Helped create this "Saved by the Bell" class pose.

3. Helped style these two brides. Two besties, two weddings, two weekends. I just couldn't be happier for either or more in platonic love with their respective husbands. How sweet to be in the bride's room helping zip or lace. My uber-talented sister Alaina took both of their photos. Julie and Greg here. Kendall and Josh here.

4. Someone thought I knew how to arrange flowers, so I tried my hand. Ju's bouquet, boutonnieres (22!), and centerpieces (9).



4. Shark Week party! I love theme parties, so how could I resist? (PS--does anyone need arm floaties? I've got a dozen.)

5. And last, the crowning glory... the 220 cupcakes I made for Kendall's reception. My 12+ hour piece of the puzzle seemed like an eternity, I can't imagine how many hours it took my mom to throw a world-class reception in our backyard. My darling cousin Rachel was my sous-chef; Mallory took a quick turn for one batch. We made three kinds of cupcakes, a cinnamon roll inspired with cream cheese frosting, coconut, and chocolate ganache on a chocolate cake. They were by far the nicest cupcakes I've done, but I don't think I'll be quitting my day job any time soon. So there you go. A reminder to myself as much as to anyone, that I can create in ways other than blogs no one people are reading.

Flashback Friday XV

A hundred years ago, I taught a Gospel Doctrine class at BYU. It was hard to keep people's attention for longer than a small-talk conversation in most cases--let alone a 50 minute class!

We were teaching the New Testament and an entire lesson was devoted to Paul and his travels. The lesson was comprised of four short stories--miracles really--of Paul's missionary work to the Corinthians. Taking it back to Primary, I decided we needed visual aids to tell the story. Thanks to the generous tithes of LDS church members, each classroom in the MARB was equipped with a computer and projection equipment and we were in business.

I don't remember the exact stories to give you the run down, but here's a snapshot of some of my most favorite MS Paint creations. My favorite details are the midget dissenter, the guy sleeping during Paul's mission report, the French ship captain, the one-handed girl, Brigham Young's great-great-great-great-great-x100 grandfather listening to Paul preach while under house arrest, and Paul's general appearance.

Doesn't this kind of make you want to read these stories? Even just a little? If I'd given Paul pants, would you be more or less inclined to read the source material?

I probably should have given him pants. Or a tunic at the very least.

Proof that Math is Evil

I have to cancel skydiving with friends and fellow wardies tomorrow because some college brats need their math textbooks.

Dear Math,
You sucked in 7th grade, I hated you so
Algebra, geometry, my loathing did grow,
Functions, equations, sin and cosine
So desperately for English class did I pine.

You're back in my life I still can't believe it
I barely escaped from your grasp with tech skill and wit!
The last formal class I took was in the 10th grade,
But sadly [so sadly] now you make sure my bills are paid.

You're mean and I hate you.

Grumbly,
NatA!

A Winner!

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!!!

The polls have officially closed as Stephanie is the winner of this oh so very fun game from my previous post. Thanks to all those who played, your guesses were entertainingly fun, albeit incorrect. (Yes I have to color my eyebrows to match my hair, Yes I wear yellow, Yes I wear earrings, Yes I wear green eye shadow, Yes I smiled "normally", Yes I dig my stumpy arm as well...)

The correct answer to "what's different about Nat in this photo?" is that Yes, my hair was parted on the other side. I just realized how lame this is all sounding. Could I really be THIS bored? Thinking... thinking.... YES.

As a baby spot of proof before I get to payment, below is a screenshot of my profile pictures on Facebook. Note that all photos circled in red have my bangs/hair swooped to the right. Photo circled in yellow is to the left. She's tricky...

I know I shouldn't have a post (or two) dedicated solely to my hair part, but it's too late now. (Yes, I feel the shame and pity you're feeling for me.) Nevertheless, now you all can see me as I've been seeing my part in the mirror for the past 20 years.

I promised $5 cash money and a poem to the winner. I've been trying to mail out Steph's birthday present for two months now (good thing it's not til September so I've got some time)--I'll include your five big ones in there too, mkay? And without further adieu, a really crappy poem:

S is the simple way you make me laugh (don't worry; it's not going to be one of those poems, just the start)
T is the time you showed me your favorite dance moves from the creepy Lil Superstar video
E is the empathy you gave when I blew up the D-Mark bathroom
P is the pretty, pretty boyfriend Neil on our most favorite dance show
H is the habit we've formed of loving/not loving the same things. Food, Entertainment, People.
A is the ample time we've spent on the phone discussing love, life, and the American Dream
N is the necessary daily discussion before and after our shows
I is the idiocy I feel that I can't think of anything that starts with I
E is the end of this poem; why couldn't you have had a shorter name like "Ed"?

Happy VD

Oh the day of love. February 14th. You dawned with our neighborhood in six inches of snow and my commute to work surprisingly very fast albeit very slushy. I was the first to arrive in the office at 9:31; doors locked and lights off. I need to get a key. Time is short, but I promised I'd throw up the Valentine's Day cards I made last week.

Take with a grain of salt; I actually really love Valentine's Day. Not just a day for sweethearts, but to express appreciation for everyone important in your life.

So, you'd expect a typical homemade Valentine to look something like these:

I made those two cards and got bored. The cards that were made next can really only be explained by photos.

For the recently broken up:

For those trying to spark a little Valentine's Day lovin':

For those who have lost hope:

Or become disillusioned:

Those who are bored in their relationship:

Those who are optimistic:

And lastly, those who are too punny for their own good:

So what do you think? Am I Hallmark's next great? Or should I keep my day job. Which card is your favorite? I have my personal faves but am interested in what other's think... Have I missed other obvious creative cards? My friend Jared made a few funny ones too--I wish I had the photos. But alas, you'll have to do with these.

Happy VDay peeps!