Wishes

I want a typewriter.

Mmmm....typewriter.

As I said in a recent post, I'm contemplating how to live my life a little more deeply and deliberately.  One aspect I come back to is my love of the written word and my former drive to craft stories of my own.  I haven't completed my notes/thoughts on bettering my life (Hey - I said DELIBERATE alright?  Off my case!) but I do know that part of my problem with the written word is my tendency to waffle and then wander away.

I write a paragraph or two, futz with the words, delete whole sentences, futz some more, and then wander off in search of easier pursuits.  I leave convinced of my inablilty to write when really, it's my inability to commit to anything more academically challenging than a tv game show by the time the work day is over and the baby is in bed.

I have wanted a typewriter for as long as I can remember.  I blame Murder, She Wrote.  When I was probably five years old or so, my mother gave me an old gray-green one that set in it's own case.  It was old, the keys got stuck, and it probably weighed as much as I did.  I loved it!  When we moved to California from Ohio, she made me get rid of it, saying we had a computer now and it wasn't worth the move.  Pfft.

For my 21st birthday my parents purchased an old and dinged up typewriter for me with the intention of refurbishing it.  Sadly, college was in full swing and I didn't take it with me.  About a year and a half later they sold the house and, in the garage sale in preparation of the move, sold the typewriter.  Pfft.  (To be far, this time they asked and I gave permission as I knew it was not going to be refurbished any time soon.)

You may think I'm kidding about my typewriter love but this website is where I fantasy shop.  *drool*

Now that you know the backstory...

Last night I was sitting with my laptop and wishing the battery in it wasn't completely kaput.  I have to charge up about every hour or so.  I was also wishing it wasn't so warm on my leg and it wasn't so distracting.  I had ten windows open, kept clicking into Facebook, and screwing around with a few other things.  I thought about all that internal noise we keep plugging into.  I thought about all the effort to be near a plug, remain connected, deal with glitches.  If I could have something that allowed me to write, forced me to focus, and wouldn't allow me to fiddle with paragraphs, instead helped me to move forward through the pages I would have a useful tool to help build my skills.

What magical machine could do such things?!?

Typewriter!

It wouldn't have to be beautiful like the ones I linked to above.  It would only need to be a workhorse, something to help me build the strength and focus that I seek.

I haven't convinced Craig yet but I'm thinking that a few well chosen things to be sold would get me a decent starter machine and put me on the way toward discipline. (More on discipline in a later post.)

Ahh...to google, perchance to dream.

Now if only we had a little more furniture...

Our apartment is cramped. It's cute and cozy but to be perfectly honest it's cramped. We have four full bookshelves, two full built in book shelves, two beds, two dressers, a sofa with a chaise lounge, a recliner, a small desk, a desk chair, a coffee table, a nook for shoes, two dvd cases, the tv and tv stand, four bookshelves serving as pantry storage, and a dining room table and chairs. We also have various boxes and items sitting around because there's no storage space left to shove them. hehe Whew!

And now we have a crib and a cradle and I couldn't be happier! :) My parents visited over the week of Thanksgiving and they brought one of the two beds we now have set up, the cradle, and 9 boxes of my books from home. hehe The bed was mine as a child and will serve nicely as a guest bed for people coming to visit. The cradle was made by my grandpa for me when I was an infant and it's now going to be used for our little one when she makes her arrival. While they were here they bought us a crib and mattress from Ikea and helped us build it and situate it in our room. It's beautiful. Natural wood, simple design - perfect! Once we have a bigger place, the plan is to give the baby her own room and move all of our dining room storage shelving into her room as bookshelves and storage. The stuff in the dining room is dark brown-black and will be a nice contrast to the light crib.

My mom, being the crafty woman that she is, not only arrived with a knitted baby blanket, a hand-quilted baby blanket from scraps of a quilt she made my brother and a quilt she made Craig and I, and a quilt front of nursery rhymes she's going to finish and give to the baby, but she's also said she'll make me my own crib set so that I can have the colors I want instead of the stuff we've found. How awesome is that?!

Craig and I ran into a slight problem while looking for crib bedding. The problem is that Craig wants monkeys for our bedding and I want the colors green, purple, and brown. Those are fairly hard to find together. I can find green and brown and green and purple but not together - at least not without something like butterflys all over it or whatever. Sooo - my mom and I picked out a green fabric and a purple fabric that she's going to use as a back and front to a simple quilt. She's going to use a monkey face I found as a template to put on the green side of the quilt, thereby getting both monkeys and the colors I want and then she'll use the same purple fabric for a skirt. We also found a nice white with little purple flowers to use as the cover for a crib bumper. I can buy the fitted sheets in green, purple, and this really cute monkeys and brown polka dots and we're good to go! There's a wooden wall hanging of a monkey face similar to what will be on the blanket that I'm going to put up on the wall next to either the baby's name or some saying in brown and purple lettering. That's my current plan for the baby's crib space, etc. As you can see, the nesting has begun. :)

All of my mom's generosity and craftiness has gotten me thinking about crafting. I can cross stitch (but then again, a monkey could cross stitch - it's not exactly complicated) and I've been attempting lazily to learn how to knit for some time. I've never really sewed, at least not in earnest, although I've always thought about it. I value the items my mom has made for me so much - graduation quilt, wedding quilt, scarves, wall hangings, etc - and I'd really like to be able to do the same thing for my little girl. I think I want to learn to do more than just cross stitch. As much as I love it and find it relaxing, I also recognize that cross stitch art/craft is pretty tacky outside of the occasional holiday decoration or simple piece. Sewing and knitting have a little more versatility. I'm perusing sewing machines now in hopes of finding something cheap and efficient to start out on. I'm also thinking classes would introduce me to people in the community and since I know almost no one here, that would be a good thing! :)