Barely kept up with taking a picture a day, but I did, and I am glad.
proper noun: sherlonya
mom, writer, cook, runner; in that order.
Category Archives: projects
Lovesong
I’ve been playing around with Photoshop Elements. I love The Cure’s Lovesong, and decided to make a poster.
It is not perfect, but I like it.
Goal 12
So, as most people who know me know, I have been working on a project to read a biography of each US President. The original goal was to do it within the year when I set the goal. I got off to a respectable start, but then I stalled out. I chose too many of the presidents in which I had burning interest in the beginning and then was left with swaths of president that just didn’t move me. But then I caught a cold and watched a documentary on President Johnson, Lyndon, not Andrew, and my passion was reignited. So when I set birthday goals this year, I decided that I wanted to make a certain amount of progress on Project President and assigned myself to read biographies on Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Mission accomplished. I even threw Franklin Pierce in there just for thrills I am now much, much closer to my goal of reading a biography about each President, which is giving me the inspiration and information I need for Project Presidential Poems.
I love crossing things off of lists! Makes me happy.
Goal 27
One of my birthday goals was to take a picture daily for a month. I have set this goal before and failed to achieve it, so I decided to try again.
This time, however, I gave myself at theme. I assigned myself to take pictures of the sky.
Funny thing is, I can’t find one of the pictures. In the past, I would have been all upset about this because it marked an imperfection in a project on which I worked. There are other things I would have let ruin this project/process as well. For example, in a number of the pictures, I was unable to get a shot that just had the sky in it. In a different one of the pictures, the sky looked really funky because of nearby lights.
However, I have chosen to think differently about this project. This project did exactly what it was supposed to do. It made me stop and take notice of my surroundings once a day for a month. Only on three occasions did I wait until after dark to do this, which at this time of year in Michigan says a lot. I am happy with it, and glad to say so; these goals are meant to contribute to my happiness.
Pretzels (aka goal 33)
Last year one of my birthday goals was to make pretzels. I didn’t make it happen, so I carried the goal over. As I looked this year’s goals, the 33 things I want to accomplish by my 33rd birthday, I couldn’t bear the thought of having another year go by without completing this simple task, so I busted out the mixer and the yeast and went at it. A while ago, I bought a cookbook that is explicitly dedicated to the pretzel. But the base recipe in that book required an overnight proofing, so I decided to look elsewhere. Hello Internet. So, I followed a recipe I found on CHOW.
It was a pretty simple recipe.
Trying to figure out how to twist the pretzels was the biggest challenge. You can see that some are a better shape than others. This experience makes me want to go to the mall and observe the pretzel twisters there.
Next time, I think that I will try to make the pretzels a bit bigger, but I will also try to roll the dough out into thinner strips. I had a hard time with the rolling the strips. I kept trying to make them thinner hoping it would help me get a better pretzel shape, but then my strip would break before I could even twist the dough, much less get it into the pot for boiling. I thought about making ring shaped pretzels, but I thought that they might turn out too much like bagels. I hadn’t known that the alkaline water would make such a difference in how these turned out.
I baked my pretzels in two batches. The first I baked a bit longer than the second (more than the 10 minutes the recipe called for). I think that these turned out better than the other ones.
I’m pretty satisfied with this experience, but I want to go at it again. Besides, making a second batch of pretzels would go perfectly with goal 22, which is to make homemade mustard.
Christmas craft!
I love the holiday season. And even though it is totally weird to go into the store and find both Halloween costumes and Christmas lights on display withing aisles of each other, I don’t mind seeing it. I love walking through aisles of peppermint candy, snowman shaped baking pans and nutcrackers. I love that there is glitter everywhere during this time of the season.
I am ready to put my Harry Conick Jr. Christmas CD on repeat.
Yes, I have in my possession this season’s wrapping paper. I also know what i’m doing about gift tags. There are bows in the closet waiting to be adhered to packages. I just think this stuff is so pretty!
But what, I asked myself, could I do today? Then it came to me: make a garland!! Text cannot properly convey the excitement that feels like delicate bubbles raising through my torso in a frenzy. Yes, I’m going to make a garland! I saw the idea years ago here and have meant to do it ever since. I did one thing differently. Instead of gluing this, I fastened it with eyelets.
Carpe diem, yo.
The Sketchbook Project
I read Design Sponge, and had been seeing the ad for months, when extreme thirst and a (correct) hunch that I had failed to lock my door woke me up in the middle of the night. I started poking around online and saw the ad. Again. And that the deadline had been extended. And signed up.
This makes me one of the 28727 folks from 94 countries doing this.
A few days ago, I got the sketchbook in the mail and have been thinking ever since of different ways to fill it. Each participant chooses a theme for his/her contribution. The theme I chose was “And then there were none.” My brain has been crackling with ideas ever since, which was sort of the point. I feel all askance and ungrounded when I’m not generating a bunch of ideas. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time learning to dance a bunch of dances which has taken a fair amount of the time I would have otherwise been exploring behind the craters and crannies in my brain.
I have had an on again, off again relationship with creating art. I always like it when I’m doing it, and miss it when I’m not. I have wanted to make this relationship more constant, but this can be a challenge to do and also have a sense of balance, which is very important to me. But maybe this project will jump start something. I hope it will.
Moist
Right outside my apartment building is the drain for the parking lot.
I hadn’t paid much attention to this in the past having moved in the fall and missed spring rain.
Well, let’s just say I am glad that I bought rain boots this year.
Let’s also say that this is a serious amount of water. So much that despite the rain boots, my feet were in pools of water. Not, however, because the rain boots were faulty, but because the water came in over the top. AND, I almost fell in it. Shudder.
Yuck.
Oh, and this isn’t solely about my dislike for being wet unless I’m in the shower. This is about the fact that this standing water came from the very parking lot where the goose play (and poop) and where I’ve seen more than one Colt 45 can and where, this week, I saw a condom wrapper (which I am assuming…well, I have chosen not to think about it, and was really successful until I got all sloshified.)
I felt dirty and immediately took a shower. Then I put the groceries away.
Goal 24: Done
It’s the cocktail goal.
There’s something about always being the girl to order a Jack and Coke at the bar when she goes dancing by herself that is a little uncomfortable. It’s just not ladylike. (Stop laughing!)
So, I decided to learn more about what I like and what I don’t like in terms of drinks (or dranks as my one time neighbor called them).
Through this project, I learned that I’m not really a fan of vodka, but gin makes me downright happy. I like drinks that can be described as “refreshing” when all this time I thought I liked “sweet” and “fruity” drinks. Who knew?
My favorite drink of the 31 is the simple Gin Rickey. Just seeing the words tempts me to go make one.
But here they are: 1.Wally World 2.Mango Mojito 3. Mango Margarita 4.Daniel Boone 5.ABC 6.Blue Day 7.White Russian 8.Jamaican Surprise 9.117 Cherry 10.Anti-Freeze II 11.Gin & Ginger 12.Gin Fizz 13.Domaine de Canton Margarita 14.Barfly’s Dream 15.Angel’s Delight 16.Absolut Nut Martini 17.Devonia Cocktail 16. Cherry Cordial. 19. Caipirovka 20. Swimming Pool. 21. Apple Pomtini 22. Bahama Mama 23. Gin Rickey 24. Butterscotch Truffle 25. Dirty Virgin 26. Poor Man’s Mimosa 27. Mormon’s Surprise 28. Time In A Bottle 29. Chocolate Martini 30. Female Cadet 31. Midori Sour
I was mostly using a few books (The Daily Cocktail, Playboy Bartender’s Guide, Cocktail Basics, Old Mr. Boston DeLuxe Official Bartender’s Guide and The Bartender’s Guide) to figure out what I was going to make. But, sometimes, I did break down and consult the web. Other times, I used a Mixology iPhone app.
Checking in
So, I do these birthday goals.
The thing about year-long goal setting is that life can get in the way and then, unless you are diligent, you can lose sight of those goals. That general you really refers to me.
So, I’m checking in. When you set 31 goals, you sort of know that you won’t meet every single one of them, unless all you are doing is working toward those goals. Considering that have a bazillion other things that I like to do, not to mention those that I have to do, exclusive attention to goal-progress isn’t an option.
Well, so far, I’ve achieved 2/31 goals. (I made homemade horchata and I completed a half marathon).
I’ve got some work to do!
I’m supposed to try 31 new-to-me cocktails. This goal seemed really cute when I wrote it, but the truth is, I just don’t drink that many cocktails. A few months slipped by and I hadn’t had any. So, I had to step up my game. I am at 9, which isn’t bad, but really, I have to stay on track. That isn’t something you want to leave off until the very last minute. That could get pretty ugly, pretty fast. One goal is to try 100 new recipes. I don’t know quite where I am with that, which is the problem. I cook plenty. I also try new things plenty, but I have not been the best at keeping up with them. That leads into the goal of blogging more. Had I kept up with that, I would have better documentation of the recipes.
If I had to grade my efforts, I would give myself a C+. I am doing better than the average person who, say, sets goals on January 1 and has forgotten about them by the time February rolls around. But I don’t see myself as doing THAT much better than that average person.
And if you know me, you know how I feel about average grades.