A list of things you cannot live without....

The First Thing You Cannot Live Without: Low Anthem
On Friday, work brought me to a quiet thoughtful place, mostly because I was listening to Low Anthem's new album while I was beating my head against the desk analyzing some particularly difficult data. You can listen too on NPR's First Listen until Feb 22 when the album comes out. I just pre-ordered the album, and in preparation for its arrival I'm going to get my record player hooked up to the speakers again (it became unplugged in a recent furniture rearrangement). I haven't decided if I love this band because they are lovely or because they release their albums on vinyl. I'm thinking its both.

The Second Thing You Cannot Live Without: Maple Bacon Cupcakes
When I told you that I liked bacon I bet you thought I was lying. In truth, I could never go fully vegetarian due to this oft-downplayed meat. I would choose bacon over steak nearly every day of the week, and one of my favorite meals is definitely a BLT (emphasis on B). I don't eat bacon often, but I relish it when I do. So when I found a recipe for Maple Bacon Cupcakes, I knew that I had to make them for myself Tom on Valentine's Day. Yum.

They were fun to make together and fun to bring in to work (bringing cupcakes with bacon is an easy way to make your coworkers think you're crazy..... or awesome).

The Third Thing You I Cannot Live Without: A New Cell Phone
Forgive me for being selfish, but this one may not have anything to do with your personal situation. But, then again, it may.

My cell phone has stopped receiving text messages, which I think - in its own way - means that my phone is giving me permission to upgrade. This phone has been good to me since I got it for free when I signed up for my first cell phone plan in 2006, but now may be the time to say goodbye. It is scratched up, banged up, dented up, and - believe it or not - still says Cingular on it.

Apparently my resistance to new technology knows no bounds, and even I admit that I've stretched the life span of my telephone a bit too far. Being unable to accept text messages is just the icing on the cake. So.... What kind of phone will I get next? Surprise, surprise, I'm thinking of keeping it pretty low tech. In keeping with my resolution to use technology to enhance my happiness and not let technology use me, I'll probably just get the sans-internet phone that comes free with the plan. I'm also trying to distance myself from my work blackberry, but that resolution isn't really taking hold (yet). Baby steps....

The Fourth Thing You Cannot Can Live Without: Your Horoscope
I am in love with Information is Beautiful. Why has no one shared this site with me before? I am especially smitten with their newest post: horoscoped. Partly because I've never believed in horoscopes (I hold a grudge against whoever placed me in the 'Leo' category, because I have felt like a Leo exactly .37 seconds of my life), but partly because I think many of us use our horoscopes to justify what we have already decided must be our lot in life (hand slowly rising with guilt). Just check out the graphic here.

Just read the horoscope that the information/beautiful folks (and their computer) generated based on the most common horoscope-associated words. I think this is the best horoscope I've ever received. I might just post it by my bed (or tattoo it to the inside of my eyelids).

Family and friends matter. Keep making love. Life. Fun. Energy. Change your mind and a better mood comes along...

Oh touche computer of my brain. Touche....

photography LOVE

For Crafty Christmas 2010, I made my sister Lisa a LOVE-ly gift. I've been really inspired by alphabet art of late. I first saw the idea at the Georgia Apple Festival, but have since learned that they were really made popular by Oprah way back in 2007. Apparently I was in the dark all these years, so thank heavens I attend regionally appropriate craft fairs to get me up to speed on the current trends.

I decided to go with the word 'LOVE,' mostly because I figure she'll get married someday and won't want her current last name framed, and also because 'Robison' is entirely too long in the picture-framing world. Besides, a frame with more than four letters wouldn't have fit into my suitcase.

I simply took black and white photos, made them slightly more 'sepia' on my computer, and had 4x6 copies printed by my favorite Walgreens employee. Voila....

The possibilities are pretty endless with this craft as long as you're willing to get creative. Here are a few tips to help you avoid problems I ran into:

1. If you're using a digital camera, leave space around your letters. My first try yielded unhappy results since I zoomed all the way in on my object (turning the image into a standard 4x6 photo will crop a little bit of the border).

2. Take several versions of each photo. This will allow you to choose the best photo of each letter (my favorite on the screen wasn't always my favorite when printed.)

3. Don't bring the frame home in your luggage - even in bubble wrap - because its going to break! Of course then you'll have to rush to a hardware store to get a new piece of glass cut, which will naturally be 1/16 of an inch too large. And then your father will have to bust out his power tools to shave away the inside of your frame so that your glass fits and your Christmas gift is saved......

In the end, it all worked out lovely (pun most definitely intended). In fact, I've even started calling this two thousand e-LOVE-en. As in, i love my job i love my life i love my dog. You know, kind of like this:

{yes you may use my LOVE photos!! they are absolutely free to use for your personal non-commercial interests}

like a candy cane - except delicious

I'm not a candy cane fan. At least, not candy canes of the peppermint variety. So when my sister Lisa came up with this ingenious use for candy canes I knew I had to share it with all of you (you know, so you're not still staring those things down in March).

 





















Take five candy canes off your tree

Side Note: yes, we can still be friends if you aren't a Red Sox fan. Just take Tom and I for example. We have different favorite teams, but our ornaments definitely coexist harmoniously on the tree.

Unwrap the candy canes and put them in a cuisinart.

Pulse candy canes until they look like this:

Add to a tub of cool whip (or for you modern mavens, a bowl of freshly whipped cream)

The cool whip should be a nice pink color.

Make a cup of your favorite hot cocoa.....

Add a dollop (or two) of the cool whip and enjoy!

Admittedly, this looked better in my head. Pretty or no, it tastes delish!!

Lets say an amen for my little sister and her ingenuity, shall we? {and another amen for finding a way to get rid of those pesky candy canes.}

A New Cookbook

My sister Lisa gave me a Visa gift card for my birthday, along with instructions to use it on something frivolous. Anthropologie automatically popped into my head. Why? Number one because I love anthro, number two because I never go there unless I have some sort of gift card, and number three because some of their products represent the very definition of frivolous. After all, can you imagine ever spending $168 on this little guy? Me neither.

In the end, I decided to spend the money on a new cookbook. I never buy cookbooks because I get my recipes online, but went for it anyway because I've been wanting to read an entire cookbook beginning to end (think Julie and Julia) and because I found a list of the best cookbooks of 2010 on the site flashlight worthy (best site ever for finding a perfect book).

After spending entirely too much time in the book store (is such a thing even possible?), I walked away with In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark.

I normally don't even pick up cookbooks without pictures (this one doesn't have them), but the delicious writing seems to more than make up for it.

Case in point: the chapter with the recipe for Buttery Polenta with Parmesan and Olive Oil-Fried Eggs begins with this paragraph:

The first best thing about adulthood is being able to order three desserts for two people. The second is having breakfast for dinner whenever the urge for pancakes pulls harder than pork chops.

Amen, sister.

Happy New Year!! - or, the year i rang in the new year at walgreens

Sometimes, in order to have a good new year's celebration and rock the night away you've got to go to the right party.

Sometimes, you've got to bring the party to the right people.

This year, I did the latter.

Tom was working the graveyard shift at Walgreens - from 10pm on 12/31 to 7am on 1/1.

You know, like he worked on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

I digress.

He rolled out of the house at 9:45pm, and I acted like I was going to get all journal-y with myself and reflect on 2010 and sip wine and chill on the couch.

But as soon as he walked out the door I sprang into action and pulled out my very secret supplies.

Sparkling grape juice, hot spinach and red pepper dip, and deviled eggs

At 11:45 I walked into Walgreens with my party hat on and all the food and drink.

We didn't have TV or radio, so we counted down to midnight on our cellphones.

It wasn't perfect, but it was ours.

How did you ring in the New Year?

Happy New Year to you and your family!

Read this Book Now

2010 wasn't really my year as far as books go. Sometimes I have such luck at finding amazing books and diving into them and loving them and finishing them at warp speed and then finding another book that is just as delightful and also finishing it at warp speed..... and the cycle continues. But this year my book selections have been hit or miss. {The Help and Girl with a Dragon Tattoo being notable exceptions}

When I was in Maine for Christmas I grabbed a book off the shelf before heading to the airport on Sunday in case the blizzard of 2010 made it impossible for me to get home. {It didn't, but I'm so glad I grabbed the book anyways.}

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

I won't tell you much about the book. In fact, I can't:

"We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again -- the story starts there.... Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds."

Ok Ok, that's a really cheesy and gimmicky way to sell a book, but if I tried to tell you I'm not pulled in by a completely cheesy and fake-emotional review then I'd be lying.

I really really adored this book. Honestly - gimmicky tag line or not - the book is real, emotional, heartbreaking and uplifting.

PS. Not up for reading an entire book at this point and time? Might I recommend entertaining yourself at this site. My sister Laura sent me the link, and I've been LOL-ing all over the place ever since.

Reverb 10 Day 29 - Defining Moment

I'm participating in Reverb 10, a fantastic month-long initiative for reflection. Here I will be responding to one prompt every day.


I've struggled this month with Reverb 10, mostly because I am unsure of how I want my responses to read. I don't want them to be journal entries (I can do that in a more private forum), but I do want to use them to dig deep into the marrow of something important.

I want to use this blog to reach out. To become more connected to you. To be a part of a larger collective of folks who care about this world and the people in it, and who dream of becoming more on the inside and having less on the outside.

Which means that I read this prompt for the day:

December 29 – Defining Moment
Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.

and I think: what is my defining moment/series of moments? At the same time I also think: why should you care, and how will my response allow me to connect with you?

And so I have struggled. Some of the posts this month have been intensely personal, and I have decided not to share them here. Not because I am modest and nervous of over sharing (I am), but because I am unsure of what you can glean from a post that is Dana-centric and only relates to me.

I guess, in the end, we can all relate to each other in some way. We are all human, and the threads that hold me together also reach out to you. When I read your stories, when you tell me your story, when we share stories together, it resonates with me. In the same way, I hope that my stories resonate with you.
 
I could tell you again in great detail how the most defining moment/series of moments of my year all relate to this blog. Starting this blog, maintaining this blog, sharing myself on this blog, have changed my life. Before this year I don't remember ever reading another blog. Now I read several daily. I am getting to know people that I have never met in my life, simply because I read their stories every day, share their hopes, cry with them and watch their children grow.

Participating in this virtual community has changed me, has given me new ideas and has inspired me.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing this space for me, for giving me words when I am feeling empty, for supporting me and for being here.

My most defining moment this year was not one moment at all, but a series of moments that grew into something more. A new perspective, a new stage of growth, a new Dana.

This community has sustained me. What has sustained you? Are you being sustained? If not, what could you do about it in 2011?

PS. Happy Birthday to my amazing father!