There is an Artful Lack of Color in my Room. Because I am not allowed to paint my walls.

I bought a travel tripod today, because I wasn't sure if I would be able to take my gorillapod to San Francisco, since it was supposed to arrive on Friday but our UPS guy doesn't get it. Anyway, I tested it out in my room - it holds the camera up very well, is incredibly stable, and is very lightweight. For $20 (marked down from $60!), I can't complain. Still, I wish my gorillapod had arrived earlier - it might actually have a chance of fitting in the bag I'm taking with me to walk around the city, which is the only area where this tripod fails.

I am looking forward to a week long vacation with J - sightseeing, drinking wine in Napa, and visiting with friends (and their adorable bunnies) in Davis. It's been a while since I've taken an honest to goodness vacation. And with my fancy new camera and fancy new camera equipment, I'm more excited than ever.

P.S. - I know...it's kind of like an IKEA bomb exploded in my room.

Re-upholstry

I am absolutely dying to do this to my wing back chair.

And Singer? Singer just came out with a sewing machine that automatically threads the machine and the bobbin.

While I would love to splurge on a sewing machine right now...maybe this should be on my "Things to do before I turn 26" List.

Productive, even though it was my day off

Because last week was particularly long (I pulled an all nighter on Thursday, working a total of 28 hours - that would be minus three hour-long breaks for meals), I decided to take Thursday and Friday off this week. This means I have a five day weekend to play around with.

Yesterday was reasonably productive:

I lined my el-cheapo IKEA CD shelf with some bird paper I found at Paper Source that I thought was absolutely gorgeous. With birds! And even though I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, I couldn't resist making some pink heart shaped cookies. They were delicious, and so cute they triggered my barf reflex, which you might not think would be a good combination when cookies are involved, but it was. Don't worry. To counterbalance the heart shaped ickiness, I used the leftover dough to make a wang cookie (a dickerdoodle, if you're a PA reader).

24 Things To Do Before My 25th Birthday

Inspired by hula seventy, I have decided to make a list of things to do before I hit my quarter of a century mark.

1. Build my own website 
2. Take a photography class 
3. Build a piece of furniture 
4. Screen print my own t-shirts 
5. Make sure this list is a yearly thing
6. Put another stamp on my passport 
7. Learn how to sew
8. Host a board game night 
9. Try to be more rigorous about taking photos
10. See a play 
11. Go camping 
12. Go to a free film night in Davis Square 
13. Make my Christmas cards
14. Make my own stitch markers
15. Knit entrelac
16. Aim to ride my bike to work four times a week** 
17. Participate in another bike ride (for charity or otherwise)
18. Take a weekend trip to Maine 
19. Bike up the coast in Rhode Island 
20. Visit a winery in Napa Valley 
21. Switch to energy efficient bulbs 
22. Get a library card
23. Build a light box (for photographing yarn)
24. See snow on the beach 

**This year I aimed for three. I was not successful many weeks out of the riding season. I figure if I aim for four, I might succeed at three more often?