Day(s) at the Park, by Gibson

hey, i know you’ve heard a lot about me, but i thought i’d introduce myself:

hey!  i’m gibson.  well, gibson wainwright prescott anderdise, but i just usually go by gibb.  my parents sometimes also call me dr. gibbles or mr. gibblesworth, but that’s neither here nor there.  anyway, this weekend it was 75 degrees out, so my mom and pops decided to take me to this amazing park, shelby farms – both days!  this picture of me above is from me in the car on the way there.  i usually am quiet in the car, i keep thinking i might be going to the vet so i try to be good to keep it from happening.

my pops is usually at the wheel.  we spun out to the farm, and i was ready to go!

i was soooooo excited, i got to meet a bison, first thing!  i was positively SCREAMING with the thrill of it.

then, for the first time, i got to play with a crabapple.  it was almost as big as my head, but i didn’t care – it tasted a little good so i was happy to chase it over and over for pops.  when my mom made me leave it behind, i was pretty let down!

i took a quiet moment to look out over the farms before we headed into the woods for some trail time.  it’s a pretty, and pretty BIG place!

i love being in the woods!!  this trail was my favorite – sun dappled, over 70 degrees, and i had on my woods souvenir, a new beat-up blue bandanna.  i think it makes me look a little hipster, and who knows, maybe i’ll get some skinny jeans next?

let’s hit the trails!  through the woods, by some tall grass (which i couldn’t get enough of, what is more fun than running through tall grass with your nose down??  nothing!), leading my mom all the way.

she looked a little tired.  she acted like she felt a little tired.  but she kept on following me, all the way.

dang, it was bright outside, though!  in this picture we’re finally on the way to meet up with my pops at the water fountain.  he took off running on his own so that mom could get in some quality time with me.  i didn’t mind, i love her best anyway….see?:

don’t tell pops.  he has patsy the cat for comfort, anyway.  mom and i look GOOD together!

ok i’ll confess.  i know i looked all bad to the bone walking those miles of trail, but i am BEAT when i’ve done it.  both days this weekend i was a ball of jello afterward.  especially once i hit the backseat…see?

and this was my day, both days this weekend….right now i’m dictating this to my mom while i’m dozing off and on in my bed.  i can’t stay awake to save my life!  my parents high-fived over me just now, talking about how awesome puppy exhaustion is…i have no clue what they’re talking about, but i’ll take more trips to shelby farms any day!

Fall? Is This You?

so i’m confused.  fall to me is, as i have previously mentioned, full of cool breezes, warm scarves, hot drinks, snuggly nights, and so on.  so….WTF memphis??  it was seventy-five (75) degrees here yesterday.  i had to spell that out for myself because hi, it was november TENTH yesterday.  NOVEMBER tenth.  where AM I???

but i soldier forth.  for what is fall without baked goods?  and dammit, it will be fall around here whether it likes it or NOT.  so i baked all last night (and i mean all, right up til 11 p.m.).  i made those pumpkin muffins i keep mentioning first, and man they are so, so good.  like, so good.  i just put a smidge of cream cheese frosting in the middle of each one, and it’s perfect.  they’re not overly pumpkin-y, but just enough for flavor (does anyone else think that the pumpkin bread from starbuck’s is pretty much just pumpkin puree molded into the shape of bread?  it’s so heavy and way too moist for me.).

then i made two wayyy overdue birthday cakes for friends.  one was a pound cake, due to the recipient’s love for a prior one i had made from scratch.  i love making pound cake, because i get to use my electric mixer!  i supposed i could use it for box mixes but it seems like a bit of overkill.  i used a box mix for my final cake, a chocolate two-layer with chocolate frosting (and funfetti!).  what is your 26th birthday without funfetti, am i right?

and ok, there was also a whole paragraph right here regarding all my efforts last night to also prepare lunch materials of the healthy variety – veggie wraps, string cheese, whole grain crackers, low fat yogurt, fruit, etc.  it was a great paragraph.  and then it disappeared.  so, pretend you read it and be all impressed that i’m back to eating healthily and trying to fight against my previous daily activities: starbucks in the morning for $5.30 (grande nonfat no water chai with a donut) and panera/el porton/mcdonald’s/wherever for lunch for $5-9.  that’s $300+ per month on junk!!  so here goes another one of my erstwhile well-meaning attempts at self betterment.

NaBloPoMo Fail, Friends Win

well, i’ve now missed three out of five days in november, so i officially fail my meager attempt to make good on NaBloPoMo this year.  dang.

to build my karma back up, i’m going to let you in on some secret artists that you may love (or not, that’s up to you, but i bet you’ll love them!).  and, push me over with a feather, i know these people!  this first artist is danielle maslan.  danielle and i went to elementary school from 2nd to 4th grade together, and thought we were hard listening to green day in 4th grade and coloring our nails with marker.  she is immensely talented and went to parsons in new york to hone her skills.   i’m totally going to save some pennies to pick up one of her pieces.

next up is gena destri (keffer) mcgill.  i knew her as gena keffer, same elementary school, same grades.  then we both moved a couple of cities down the road, went to different elementary schools for the next few years, and then we were back in school together in junior high!  gena is also insanely good, and i actually already own one of her pieces:

there it is above the mantel in our townhouse – she painted the Colosseum from life, and i snatched it from her.  i looooove that piece, and it now hangs in my dining room in a spot that i get to see it every day.  so cool to own things by friends.  and check out her other stuff – i really want her series of doors, also painted from life in italy.

high school (especially AP Chem class, what were we thinking?) brought me closer to amber ledom kellen.  after a stint in the navy, she is now a mommy to three (!) little ones and one busy lady.  she makes some super cute custom jewelry…order from her for the holidays if you order from anyone!  check out her stuff:

next is my college friend, lauren reyes gibbs-beadle.  first one to get married, first one to have a baby, and i’m pretty sure my first friend to have an etsy shop, especially an etsy shop that was once featured on dooce (!!).  i love her little hippillows, and i’m going to have to send her some fabric to do a damask one for my guest room bed.  so cute.

and finally, sisters leslie and martha (hi ladies!).  i met them working with the two of them at my second job, and they each have an etsy shop – leslie owns rhetorical printing, where she makes gorgeous stationery.  i’m totally going to use her for my next set of invitations, if i ever throw some kind of legitimate party:

and sister martha owns punkinpied, for your next baby gift:

so, wow, i know a lot of talented ladies.  and check out their linked names, those last four are big-time bloggers, too!  now i’m feeling the need to step up and open an etsy shop of my own.  hmmmm….

Last Weekend & Last Last Weekend

[i've missed day one of NaBloPoMo, dang it.]

let’s start two weekends ago.  we flew to DC (through thunderstorms, my faaaavorite.  ugh.)  we spent saturday afternoon picking up race packets, drinking water, and eating carbs.  i did the carbo loading in sympathy.

then the next morning was the race, bright and early.  the anderson trio (ben, pete, and stuart) took off for the marine corps marathon at about 6 a.m. for the start time of 8 a.m.  their support crew (me and stuart’s girlfriend leah – ben’s wife megan had their three little ones to watch) got a late start and met them at mile 20 around 11:30 am.  here’s the rev, looking not all that winded at this point:

then leah and i walked back to the subway to scoot a couple stops down the way to meet them at the finish line.  we stepped off the train and this is what we hit:

a wall of people.  it took us 25 full minutes to exit the subway station – good thing a. the ceilings were high and b. i’m not claustrophobic.

and here they are!  post-finish line with goody bags in hand and exhaustion beginning to severely take over.  at this point they were all starting to limp a bit.

very heroic.  i was so proud of him, i have no idea how he did it.  he wants me to train with him for next year.  uhhhhhhhhhh…maybe?

the trio’s worn-out kicks after the run, complete with digital tracking microchips.  unfortunately, despite my having signed up literally months ago to receive text-messaged updates to keep track of their location, i received nary a text.  thus our meeting them at only 2 spots…we had no idea where they were among the other 21,997 runners!

and finally, the rev took a much-needed respite and was cleaned off by the anderson family dog, max.  he was not much cleaner, however.

this past weekend was much less eventful…we had a power-cleaning session saturday day once the rev returned from standing on the sidelines of another race (for the cure) as a firefighter, on hand in case anyone dropped.  (no one dropped.)  then i worked for a few hours, and we tried to find something to go do for halloween.  absolutely nothing panned out, to our chagrin, so we fell asleep watching dexter.  we did get a couple of trick-or-treaters though, which thrilled the rev and gibb.  patsy didn’t care so much.

yesterday we had brunch out at bob barksdale’s after pete and gibb’s 6-mile run, and went to the sheffield antique mall in collierville.  i could spend about a gajillion dollars in there!  then we gave pete’s mom (a halloween baby) her birthday gift, went home for dinner, and again watched a string of dexters back-to-back (i am soobsessedomg.)  i’m thrilled that this morning i could start the week with all laundry cleaned and put away, the whole house dusted and vacuumed, and an hour later (seemingly) than normal.  fall is going well in memphis!

Bum Warmers

there is one single feature of my car that i vastly underestimated upon initial purchase: the seat warmer.  the two front seats have them, each with two settings: 1, pleasant warmth and 2, searing heat.

my car's interior, the day after i bought it. no longer as spotless, sigh.

it is hard to express the wide variety of uses i have found for the seat warmers.  they include (but are certainly not limited to): warming a pyrex of brownies en route to a party, that-time-of-the-month relief, impressing passengers, and simply heating my cold, cold body.  when i worked at the nelson and lived in midtown KC, the four-minute drive to work seemed most excellent.  but whose car’s heater heats up to a comfortable temperature in such a brief time?  no one’s, that’s who.  but my seat heaters?  they heat up in about 14 seconds.  totally lovely.  i have no idea how they work, but as long as they do i will be cranking them up through the winter months.  don’t have one?  apparently you can buy and install your own, and i couldn’t recommend you do that more (especially you people up in boston or those other northernmost regions)!

Baking Fail

last night, rather than make the muffins posted about yesterday, we had people over for a cookout instead.  no baking occurred, just cleaning and throwing sticks for gibb and lounging around with friends.  maybe tonight?  nope, working.  maybe tomorrow night?  nope, volunteering at a halloween party for inner-city kids.  maybe saturday?  saturday has some openings.  saturday might be good.

in other news (but still slightly on my new tangent of hi i have no time for anything), the following is a depiction of the sorry, sorry state of my nails:

blurry cell phone picture, but i’m sure you can see, nonetheless, the missing dark polish.  ick, ick, ick.  also, my sister thinks that that middle finger is horrifying, because i have a permanent indentation and bump next to it from pressing so hard with pencils and pens as i grew up.  this is one way you will tell if i have ever been replaced by a clone.  anyway, hopefully tonight after working til 8:30 i can carve out some time to repaint my nails.  unfortunately at my second job my hands are often front and center as i display items for purchase…embarrassing.

Despite the Shortage

despite the fact that there’s an apparent pumpkin puree shortage in the world, i’m excited to go home and make these tonight:

pioneer woman’s yummy looking pumpkin spice muffins…i think it’ll be the perfect thing to wake up to tomorrow morning as thunderstorms roll in and the world goes grey and cold!

Gone & Back & Gone Again

absence explanation:  last weekend i was in the city of my alma mater, boston, ma.  actually, i was at my alma mater itself, wellesley college, for an “Alumnae Leadership Conference” – basically a few sessions over the weekend on how to be a better alum and help the college out.  interesting, i’ve done it before, and it was really nice to see some old friends.  mid-october on campus was gorgeous as ever.  it was totally surreal to be back, especially for the first time that i didn’t know a single student, but still all in all was lovely.  i also got to spend the evening with my former campus boss (i worked for her for four years) so it was nice catching up with her.

now we’re already to this weekend, where i am once again going to be absent from memphis – the rev is running an east-coast marathon with his two brothers (his first marathon!), and i will be joining him to cheer him on.  expect good pictures of a sweaty, exhausted rev.  while away from memphis, i’ll be missing a baby shower for a friend/co-worker.  last night i made her gift, and i wanted to share it because i’m kind of secretly thrilled with the results:

ok obviously the upcoming baby is a girl, named allie grace.  her father is in love with the florida gators, so she already has the nickname of allie gator.  i went to old navy and picked up two light pink onesies and used some iron-on adhesive stuff to add custom fabric designs to each one.  i also happened to find a stuffed alligator at old navy and added that to the mix.  this is the larger of the two onesies – i picked up a 0-3 mos. and a 6-12 mos., so she has multiple sizes covered.

this is the smaller onesie, featuring the baby’s other nickname (her last name begins with J).  i seriously had so much fun designing these, finding fonts i liked and doing the cut outs.  for future projects i’ve determined that i’ll need a pair of wee, strong scissors to more easily cut out those letter openings.

both onesies have her monogram (both are the same) on the bum, so you know her coming and going!

then from etsy (WillowandIvy.etsy.com) i picked up some too cute handmade baby leg warmers, a trend i cannot get over for its adorableness.  they have light and dark pink stripes, so i was able to stick to the pink & green color scheme of my onesies (and, by design, the baby’s nursery colors).  this was such a fun project, and a follow-up to the tees i made for pete’s nephews and niece (seen in the header on Andersonmania, over in the right link bar there).  i’ve got more ideas up my sleeves!  i love no-sew projects!!

Currently

…eating Special K italian tomato & herb baked crackers with roasted red pepper hummus.
—creating a mental to-take list for my flight(s) this weekend.
…realizing i forgot to get three tubes of chapstick from walmart just now (went on my lunch break) – one for my bedside, one for my keyboard at work, and one for my purse.  i have a problem, you say?
—wanting to make cincinnati  chili for dinner on this dreary memphis day.
…trying to remember the recipe for pound cake that i actually will be making tonight (not for dinner).
—wishing that H&M had an online store so i could plot my upcoming purchases.
…dying to repaint my nails.  i hate when they get all chipped and outgrown-polishy.
—wondering if i can get by traveling with everything for my trip in one large canvas tote that has no zipper.  maybe i’ll sew in some buttons…
…mentally amping up for a walk in the rain with gibb after work – he has a yellow rain slicker, i have zero waterproof coats.  dog parenting success, life skills fail.

Grocery Store Bouquet

last sunday we had a couple friends over for brunch.  i like to put out some kind of small centerpiece or something to enhance the table and my pottery barn paisley runner (man, i miss my discount there).  i figured i’d give a quick run-down on how i made a $4 bunch of carnations into something a bit more:

about a week earlier i had bought the “vase,” a glass pumpkin from walmart for all of $5 (you can see the lid/top of the pumpkin leaning to the right there).  i had had some fake fruit and berries in a fall theme inside, so i dumped those into another glass bowl for our coffee table and filled this halfway with water & flower food.

next i went out to my backyard and snipped the extra greenery (the long leaves you see around the base of the white flowers), so that was $0.  i tried to get a mix of dark, light, and then some were turning a kind of rust color so i threw a few of those in there, too.  i placed them in the vase all around the base.

then came the carnations: i snipped them all with about 4″ or so of stem left and arranged them into a domed bunch.  it’s solid white, which i really like.

i wanted some height to it, so i pulled one dried onion stalk (about 3′ long) from a dried arrangement i have elsewhere in the dining room and snipped it in thirds, but of unequal heights.  i slid them down into the center of the dome of carnations in a central grouping, and grabbed a single piece of dried grass from that same other arrangement.  i snapped it in two pieces and just kind of used the base of white and the green stalks to act as bases for sticking it in some sort of “artful” design.  i liked the ikebana feel to the upper half of the arrangement.

it’s nothing big or overly impressive, but it was a nice intimate piece for a smallish dining table filled with food, coffee, and friends – it worked and was a nice fall piece without being too, you know…glowing-orange-pumpkin-with-spooky-music fall.  and all for a grand total of $9.