Cereals

Tossing in the Spoon

Cereals — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:59:14 GMT

Hello, my lovelies. I'm here to let you know that I've finished eating this bowl of cereal, or some ridiculous play on words like that.

In other words- new Cereals posts no more. I'll be writing exclusively on WelshGrl2, but will leave Cereals up for archival purposes.

I hope I don't have to say "i'll miss you" here. You're all going to come visit me at my new digs, right?

See you there!

Jaime :)

8 Down, 93 to Go...

Cereals — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:09:24 GMT

Time for a 101 in 1001 update!

Over the past few weeks I have...

1. Completed two embroidery projects. I love learning new crafts, so this was a particularly enjoyable task. I look forward to learning more embroidery techniques.

(pattern from Elsiecake)

2. Purged my book collection. I had way too many boxes of books in the garage that weren't doing anything other than taking up space and putting out real estate ads for rats across the county. "Come burrow here! No one will notice for years!" they advertised.

The variety of books that I got rid of was crazy. There was some old chick lit that I no longer felt an affinity with, books from college that I thought were really important at the time, some children's books... the purged collection was ridiculously eclectic.

3. Organize closet, dresser, jewelry, and accessories for convenience and beauty. I elaborate further on this one here.

So... 8 down, 93 to go! Any suggestions on which one I should tackle next?

My Stories- Anne of Green Gables

Cereals — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:51:57 GMT

And so the video blogging continues!

Welcome to episode one of a new little series I have cooked up. It was inspired by a much dreaded household chore, and it celebrates the little stories that make up my life.

Please feel free to leave any comments you have about this video blog on this article. Or make your own vlog! It's really fun, and I'de be happy to offer coaching to anyone who wants to try it out. : )

(By the way, any suggestions for a title for this series, something other than "My Stories" is much appreciated!)

Writergrrl, Come on Down!

Cereals — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:00:39 GMT

Katherine Center and I are pleased to announce that writergrrl won last week's giveaway, and will be recieving an autographed copy of Katherine's latest and greatest, Everyone is Beautiful.

We were touched by her kind words for one of the beautiful women in her life.

Congrats Writergrrl, and thanks to everyone who entered!

Meet Katherine Center

Cereals — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:52:16 GMT

Fellow PNN friends (and beyond!), I would like to introduce you to my newest blogging buddy: Katherine Center.

Besides running around the house after her two wee ones, keeping up her blog, and twittering, Katherine is also a full time novelist. Like her first novel, The Bright Side of Disaster, her newest, Everyone is Beautiful, is getting rave reviews.

Giveaway!
In order to celebrate the release of Katherine’s book, and the beauty within women everywhere, we’d like to give away a special autographed copy of Everyone is Beautiful. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below and tell us about a beautiful woman in your life. Have your say by Friday, and Katherine and I will announce the winner on Monday, March 16th.

Icebreaker…

Get to know Katherine a little bit before jumping into the podcast interview.

Lives: Houston, Texas

Graduated: Vassar College

First Story: Written in a spiral notebook, and about meeting Duran Duran at the mall.

Courier or Times New Roman?
Times! Though I wrote the first draft of my first book in courier, thinking it would encourage me to write with a big font. When I got to the end, though, I had to switch back to Times. It was so depressing to see it shrink! I think I lost 30 pages.

Which actress would you want to play you in a movie?
Tina Fey. Except she looks nothing like me. But I choose her anyway.

When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter? What were you doing?
Reading Twilight. I literally couldn't put it down. They're not kidding with the tagline: it truly is a gripping vampire love saga. I started when my kids fell asleep and read until 5 in the morning. Just about the only thing that I'll give up sleep for is a really good book.

If someone gave you two free plane tickets right now, where would you go and who would you take with you?
I hate to fly. Could I get an Airstream trailer instead? I've wanted to take a family trip to the Grand Canyon since I saw it on The Brady Bunch.

Best fashion decision you have ever made?
My lucky shoes. I bought these awesome red clompy wedge sandals not long before I got married, and then I loved them so much that I wore them at the wedding instead of the white shoes we'd already bought. It's been many years since then, and I'm still wearing them and people are still going, "Where did you get those great shoes?" I wore them up to New York in January once for a press junket, and it was zero degrees outside. My husband was like, "You're going to lose a toe." And I was like, "I don't care. I have to wear my lucky shoes."

If you could meet any one of your ancestors, who would you want to meet and what would you do?
I'd love to meet my young grandmother. I'd give anything to go back to the 1930s and see the time she and her twin sister danced in a stage musical with Clark Gable.

Brave Beauty

Cereals — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:19:53 GMT

January and February are always the hardest months of the year for me. They are so full of general "blah-ness" that I find them hard to plow on through.

The things that gets me through these months?

Those pink flowers that spring up on trees while the weather is still very crappy. And the cheery yellow daffodils that bloom over night.

These flowers are too delicate to come out while the weather is so harsh, but they do it anyway. Every single year. They brighten my dreary world while the wind thrashes them around and the rain pelts them into a brown mushy mess. They remind me that cheerier things are ahead, and as their petals fall to the ground, they whisper to the other flowers in wait:

"Soon... soon."

Q: What in the world is a Portuguese Water Dog?

Cereals — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:50:54 GMT

Answer:

Oh, ok. Cute.

It's still within the first 100 days of his presidency, and Obama has already delievered on the most important promise he made in his acceptance speech on November 4, 2008: a dog for the White House! Well, a decision about the breed anyway; the actual dog won't be chosen until April.

And Portuguese Water Dogs in shelters across the nation line up, headshots in hand and monologues memorized, to audition for the role of "First Dog."

(photo by Yea I Knit)

Yo!

Cereals — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:55:21 GMT

If you feel like commenting on this vlog, do it here!

PS. if you are new here, give me a shout out! I like you already, I promise. : )

Look who is here!!!

Cereals — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:07:04 GMT

Sometimes Valentines Day is awful. Like the time the bald drunk man with a dragon tattoo tried to follow my friend and I back to our dorm. (Course that makes a great story now, so maybe it wasn't all that awful in the long run...)

But sometimes Valentines Day is freakin awesome. Like the time that my boyfriend took and 11 hour flight from London at the drop of the hat just to spend time with me.

Pretty cool, eh? I have a feeling this Valentines Day will make for a great story too... : )

A Family of Two

Cereals — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:39:35 GMT

So if you haven’t heard of the Octuplet mom yet, I’m guessing you are either living in cave, have been taking an Amish-esque abstinence from all forms of technology (and if that’s the case, I’m happy to be the one re-popping your cherry!), or have been so drunk for the past week or so that you aren’t even sure you could point out where your own nose is at the moment. Whatever your reason may be, read up on it here if you must.

It seems that this lady (and her uterus) have inspired all sorts of talk about families around the web lately: how big they should be, and who should get to have them based on their income, marital status, and sanity level.

I am an only child and lived with just my mom for most of my life, so any family that has two parents and/or more than one offspring seems big to me, but that’s not the case for everyone. Some people have many siblings, some have step-siblings that feel like “real” siblings, some have mounds of cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews, and some count grandparents as their “parents.” Families come in all shapes in sizes, and they don’t even necessarily have to include birth, blood and marital relation.

In my life, I have blood relatives, relatives that came to my family through marriage, relatives that I have lost through divorce, relatives of people that are “not married” to my relatives, and some people that I would like to be officially related to some day. But none of it would mean anything without my mother. I lived with her for nineteen years, talked to her virtually everyday for the 7 years I wasn’t living with her, became an adult under her guidance, and told her things that I could never tell anyone else. She understood how I was feeling when no one else did, and is the person that I can’t imagine my life without. She is the core of my “family.”

So my question for you is this: what is a family to you? What defines your family?

Just a fun factoid… I always wanted a sibling. In fact I even told my mom that I wanted an “older sister” on a trip to the gas station many years ago- like we could just pick one up with a bag of m&m’s and a lottery ticket!

Eeeek!

Cereals — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:28:43 GMT

I have a somewhat gloomy question for you today: What is you worst nightmare?

Mine is living in LA, working as a bank teller, and going home to an emotionally abusive boyfriend. Perpetual heat, depressing traffic, having to do math all day every day, and low self-esteem? Count me out!

What's your biggest "eeeek!" inducing situation?

5 down... 96 to go.

Cereals — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:42:16 GMT

I already told you about how I did something crazy to my hair, (I am still determined to post a photo that shows it off better, btw!) and thus checked my first item off my 101 in 1001 list.

Here are a few more items I have check off my list this month.

Mom and I went on a very pretty hike on a very sunny day. Yes, this happened in January. I live in California. Please don't hate me.

I bought this bag at my favorite consignment store. It cost $13 (or rather, two t-shirts that people would tell me looked nice, but I never really liked, and a pair of balled flats that fit really well in the store but made me feel like Cinderella's evil stepsisters on every other occasion that I tried to wear them). It has nice pink accents, and manages to hold my wallet, camera, phone, and all the books, yarn, tubes of lipgloss, markers, and journals that I know I will regret leaving at home, even if I am just running out to buy a new phone card at Safeway. Love.

I went to the beach with my Dad, Stepmom, and their dog Sammy. The funny thing is that I didn't even know we were headed out to the beach. I knew we were going somewhere out in the country where Sammy could run around like a nutcase, but I didn't know that I would get to tick off an item on my 101 list (and see some glittery seafoam green waters) at the same time.

Interview Grandma M. Technically, this doesn't warrent a full check off the list because I haven't properly organized and archived the interview yet, but I do know how I am going to go about this process. I am writing a blog post detailing my process of archiving my family history, and won't cross 'Interview Grandma M." off until I post it.

A Shocking Family Secret

Cereals — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:00:15 GMT

I spent a good portion of yesterday with my grandma and grandpa- my dad's mom and dad, the grandparents that I hardly ever see since I moved down to California when I was 7.

We ate deli sandwiches and homemade tapioca pudding, an uncle stopped by, I talked to an aunt on the phone,we listened to old standards music, and we spent hours upon hours looking at old photo albums. I think my grandma was glad too see me go in the end, not because she didn't enjoy having me around, but because I tuckered her out with all the photo looking, album lifting, and question asking.

But none of that is at all important compared to the utterly shocking piece of information I learned about my dad yesterday.

Granted, it was about a billion and a half years ago*, but there was a point in his life when he was... a teenager.

I always knew that he had been a baby and even a young adult, but never, ever, in my wildest dreams, had I ever imagined that he had been a teenager.

Don't believe me? I have evidence in the bottom left corner of this picture.

* ; )