You Can Call Me AL

Escape in Real Life

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Above is the castle featured in the Downton Abbey television series. Apparently, it is becoming a bit of a hot spot. Read the article here on CNN. Oh, if only I could go and get away. I could walk for days around the house and grounds.

Escape

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:10:00 +0000

On days like this, when my life just feels a little crap, I am happy to escape away into someone else’s world. And basically that just means I’m watching a whole lot of TV. This time, I am indulging in a marathon of the first season of Downton Abbey.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series but I never caught it during it’s airing and now that season two is on the air, I figure I’d get going on the first. I do love my British people.

I’m watching it on the new media player I purchased for my guest bedroom. Review on it to come soon.

Hair Of The Week

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:28:00 +0000

This week I am wearing my hair in a braid out. I wanted my hair out of my face so I just pinned it back. I love it. My mother said she doesn’t like it so much because it’s not shiny. I could only laugh at that. The braid-out is a style that I couldn’t really master until my hair was longer. This is mainly because of the straight ends that I sport in the front, but also because the shorter your hair, the more braids you have to have. The same goes for the twist-out, but the braid out is more of a pain. The braid-out gives me big and fluffy hair. I re-braid every night and get a more stretched look as the week goes on.

I originally set these with Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter Moisturizer which I absolutely love, but it has no hold and the recent rains would not let me go out with hair with minimum product. When I reset these braids at night, I have been using Organic Root Stimulator Lock & Twist Gel. This product is like a mix between a creme styler and a gel. My hair feels good. It feels soft, but it doesn’t give me a noticeable shine as my mother pointed out. But today was a fluffy day and not a sleek defined day so I’m okay with that. I think for me this will strictly be a winter time product. I doesn’t have enough hold to keep my summer time hair together. So my search for the perfect me-gel is still on.

Despite the lack of shine, I do love-love-love this picture and have swapped it onto the Save The Date notice.

What do you think?

On My Bookshelf

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:02:00 +0000

One of the goals that I have set for myself this year is to increase my reading. You wouldn't believe how many books I have around the house, on my Kindle and in my Audible account that I have yet to read. I'm announcing to the world that I am a book hoarder and I need help. In an effort to control and reverse my book buying habit, I have a subset of actions that I will take.

I will read at least 100 books during the 2012 calendar year.
I will not purchase any new books (unless I already have them on pre-order). New titles will come from the library.
I will sale, trade, donate or gift at least 50 books from my shelves. This does not include books that I need to return to friends.
To keep myself accountable, I will keep a running tally on the blog and do at least one book review a month.

Being that January is almost over and I have not read anything, I am terribly behind. To make it through 100 books in a year, I have to read roughly 8+ books a month, but since I'm down to 11 months, I'm looking at 9+ books a month. I need to get started!

My first selection of the year happens to be written by a friend of mine, Victoria Thurman. I met Victoria a few years ago at a book conference (I meet such great people at conferences!) and we have been friends since. When I am dying for wine and curry, she is one of the first people that I call. Her book, The Dating Dilemmas of Delilah Dunnfield, hit the shelves in October, but I have been waiting to start reading it until my other wine-and-curry buddy, Angela, got her copy over in Indonesia. She confirmed receipt last night so we are ready for a Read-A-Long. If you are interested in reading along with us, leave me a comment and I will include you in our discussions.

I'm sure many of you can relate to the opening lines of this book.

I have often heard it said of life that there are watchers and doers. It doesn't take a genius to figure which of those I am.

When I read these words, my heart jumped then sank because I was just thinking this of my own life. As I am gearing up to meet a boat load of inspiring women at Blissdom, I can't help but think of all the things in my life that I keep saying I will do but haven't made the time to do. I have to stop watching and start doing. Hopefully as I read along with Delilah's journey, I will make some changes in my own life and thinking.

You can read an interview with Victoria over at Elizabeth Byler Younts' blog.There is also a giveaway so go over and say hi. And if you think of any other questions for the author, let me know. I'm sure I get her to dish a little more over a glass of wine and a curry.

The Standout Completed

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:26:00 +0000

This was a three day project that is not for the faint of heart. I can’t say that I will be rushing to bling out my cell phone but I do want it done.

These are the gems that I used, purchased from Michael’s. I painfully picked out all the pink and purple variety and started applying them with the jewelry adhesive that I already had in my supply.

As you can see, I used quite a bit of it. But I am disappointed that the last tube that I opened (BRAND NEW BOX!) was no good. I barely got two drops out of it. The rest had solidified inside. No amount of massaging and squeezing was going to get any more out of the tube. This was a $5 purchase that was a complete fail. I love this product for doing earrings, but I would not recommend it for this type of project. I did like that I could move slowly and apply a bead at a time which was good because I did not separate out all of my beads at one time. I alternated between pulling out beads and applying them to the laptop case. I would have liked to be able to spread the adhesive a little better, but the goal in this case was to use what I already had.

I’m not sure if t was the nature of the beads being cheap or the adhesive being too caustic, but the foil on the bead did crack after the adhesive dried. This takes away from the bling of the bead, but not a significant amount. Next time, I’ll try an adhesive that’s more appropriate and see if there really is a difference.

I ran out of beads so I was not able to get all the way to the edge of the top cover, but I think this is best as the beads take away from some of the flexibility of the case making it a little more difficult to take off. So the extra space on the edges will be helpful. I also used some beads to go around the edge of the bottom case. I worry about these popping off due to the wear they’ll get from being in contact with my wrists as I type, but I’ll deal with that when I have to.

All in all, I am very happy with the outcome of this project. I will do it again (crazy me). I have so many beads left over, I have to find something to use them for.

Do they sell clear cases for Kindles???

If you try this, let me know and leave a link to your blog in the comments. I would love to see it.

If you’re attending Blissdom ’12 in Nashville, you’ll know its me when you see this laptop. Come by and say HI!

Save The Date?

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:17:00 +0000

Because I’m procrastinating so much, I decided to take a stab at doing my own save-the-date postcards. It has been close to impossible for the boy and me to get a good photo together so I’m stuck with singles. What do you think?

The Ballroom, Of Course

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:41:00 +0000

I have been a little slow on wedding planning, but one of the things I did do early was book the location. We will be getting married in the Silver Ballroom at the Sheraton Read House in Chattanooga, TN. Since I attended my first wedding here, this location has held a special place with me.

The wedding ceremony and reception will take place in the ball room. There’s an area outside the ballroom for bar and mingling. The Gold room is also available to me. It’s such a pretty space. My goal is to have a beautiful but simple wedding. There is nothing better than having one location for everything with a price that can include location, food, cake, DJ and setup all in one. You don’t get any better than that! I still need to get rooms booked and rates set up for guests and a whole list of other things. But I’m not as far behind as I feared. That’s the lie I’m telling myself so I would appreciate it if you didn’t make me face reality.

Still Learning

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:14:00 +0000

This is my fifth year blogging (WOW!) and there is still so much to learn about this whole process. If you are reading this in your RSS reader, I encourage you to click over to the site and take a look at the page. Go ahead, I'll wait for you there. :)
I haven't changed much, but there are some things I want to point out.

As I mentioned before, I've done some cleanup to the tags on each of my posts, making the Tags list in the right-hand bar more useful. Just click one of the words and you get all the posts that I've assigned that tag to. I love easy to find information.
I've finally learned how to set up and display multiple pages to the blog. You will see those listed in the ribbon just below the title banner. These will change every few months as my focus changes, but for right now the wedding and the blogging conferences, Blogalicious and Blissdom are my areas of focus. And I can't forget my prayer project which will be continuing throughout the year.
I have often had comments made to the blog that I wished I could respond to. At one point in time, Blogger did not have a native solution for responding to comments. This is now available and I plan to use it to continue our conversations.

I'm sure there will be other changes as I continue to learn and grow. If you more experienced and savvy bloggers have any suggestions for me, please let me know. I would love to get your feedback.

The Standout

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:58:00 +0000

I decided to try a new project today. I have been wanted to bling out a case for my cell phone for some time now. I keep looking at the different cases for sell and that people have DIY’d and I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to shell out the bucks to buy one or order the supplies and do it myself. Since I have a case for my laptop that I hardly use, I decided to go ahead and give it a try on the laptop. I went to Michael’s and bought a multipack of plastic flat multi-faceted rhinestones. I already had jewelry adhesive at home--lots of it--so I didn’t need to purchase more. I don’t know how many colors are in this pack but I only plan to use the pink/light purple blends for this case.

This is as far as I got before I was forced to take a break to attend a meeting.

This is not a quick project so I will update you when I make it a little further. Of course, this is just so my laptop stands out a little bit when I hit Blissdom in February.

Portlandia Imitating My Life

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:46:00 +0000

I saw this clip from Portlandia and I was immediately convicted for my recent behavior. I just finished a four day marathon of Dollhouse seasons 1& 2. I had seen a couple of shows when season 1 was airing, but I lost track of it and before you know it, the show was cancelled. I recently bought a media player for the TV in my guest room that I refuse to buy a cable box for. So, to test it out, I started watching several things, but got stuck when I watched the first episode of Dollhouse. I have been camped out in my guest bed every night devouring the show. I even watched a couple of episodes away from home in a place where I should not have been indulging. You didn’t hear that from me.

Anyway, Portlandia and Dollhouse both come highly recommended from me. I hope I get caught up on Portlandia before it gets cancelled so I don’t have to subject myself to another television marathon.

Reviews on the media player and service I used to watch the video coming soon.

GBE #35--Pet Peeves

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:57:00 +0000

I now have more than 200 posts to this blog. And every one of them became more familiar to me as I was taking care of some of the backlog issues with the blog. Adding tags to each post gave me a glimpse back to some of the things I have written about and some of the things I said I would do and never did. I am not a fan of people who demonstrate no follow through in life and with this blog and my writing in general, I have done the very thing that I despise. I failed to follow through on so many things.

I could blame it on all the travel for work that I have been doing. I could blame it on an ongoing lack of focus. I could blame it on the fact that in the beginning, I didn’t think anyone would read this blog of mine. I could blame it on a lot of things, but at the end of the day the blame lands right at my feet and accuses me.

I didn’t start blogging just for kicks. I started blogging to get used to putting something I wrote out into the world and having other people comment on it and possible shred it death. I did it so that when I eventually became an author, I would have had some dealings with the good and bad comments people would make against me. I did it because I have a voice and I want people to hear what I have to say. But none of that matters if I don’t consistently follow through. Who wants to follow the girl that promised to fill you in on that book she’s reading and two years later she still has nothing to say about it? It’s not a good look for me and I intend for that to change.

Please forgive me for not following through.

Blissdom 2012

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:50:00 +0000

You all know how much I raved about Blogalicious 2011? I was an amazing and eye opening experience. I hoping to get even more inspiration at the upcoming Blissdom Conference in Nashville, TN. This is so close to home, I just couldn’t pass it up. I have so much planning to do. I need new cards made. I need to finally get that QR code so I can easily share my contact information and blog links. And I need a plan for this blog and a press kit. Even though this blog is still really small, I’m quite interested sharing information about the products that make my life better. There isn’t anything better for spreading word of mouth information than the blogs we share with the world. I worry about the way products are marketed to us and I love seeing the truthful reviews from real people. Of course, not even every blogger can be trusted but I take the word of a real person over an advertisement any day.

And I completely blame Krystal Grant. I saw the Blissdom badge on her site and I couldn’t help but check it out. See, unspoken word of mouth.

Tackling the Backlog

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:40:00 +0000

Tonight, I am handling some of the backlog in my life. In terms of my hair, I’m getting in a much needed protein treatment. For my house, I am continuing to put away and clean out. And in terms of this blog, I’m adding the much needed meta data to each of my posts. For each post, you will now see labels making the label listing in the right hand border bar more usable. Increases productivity with just a little bit of effort. I love it.

Maybe this new year is turning around for me. Let’s see what else I can accomplish.

GBE #34--Work

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:41:00 +0000

This is actually a late post for last week’s GBE, but I really wanted to talk about work. Actually, I have a question to ask to all of you readers.

Have you ever hesitated quitting a job because you didn’t want to give up the space or location? This is the dilemma I am facing now. For the first time since being an engineer, I work in a really nice space. I’m not sure what the building was used for before, but it has exposed brick and wood beams and the cubicle layout added by my company is actually quite appealing.

We get tons of light and the location is close enough to all the downtown restaurants without being so close that the area is distracting. There are some negatives--the temperature controls are never quite right, it’s going to be noisy if we ever get to fill it with people and it’s next door to a chicken processing plant so coming in and out can be stinky at times. But, it’s such a pretty space and that says a lot for an engineering firm. I’ve been hesitating sending my resume out because I don’t want to leave such a nice office space.

What do you think? Crazy? Tell me you’d do the same.

Giveaway Failure????

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:43:00 +0000

So, I now consider my very first attempt at a giveaway a failure. The winer never contacted me, so now it’s time to move on. Any suggestions? Any tips from my fellow bloggers on running a successful giveaway. I purposefully did not want to have a giveaway that required you all to write poetry or Like a Facebook page or tweet me. I just wanted a simple, “thanks for subscribing” giveaway.

Oh well, I will mark this down as a learning experience. I’m not sure what I have learned yet, but when I figure it out I will let you all know.

In other news, I’m still working on getting my house in order so I can concentrate on crafting and writing.

Happy New Year?

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:16:00 +0000

My 2012 has truly started in an interesting way…and by interesting, I mean it sucks already. Here are the highlights.

I spent the first week of the year wondering if the job I have would be over at the end of the week. On Friday I was informed I still need to come to work on Monday so I guess I should be happy about that. I’ll see if I make it through this next week. It’s the nature of the work that I’m in but it doesn’t get any easier to deal with.

When starting to put out feelers for jobs with other places in the city, I was politely informed that one company does not look on it highly that I quit working for them at one point. Seeing as everyone there are “friends” that I’ve worked with, I’m taking that to mean that someONE did not appreciate me taking better job opportunities over staying there to work with them. The reasons I left had to do with taking a better, more interesting and more risky job opportunity. It had nothing to do with the company or it’s employees that I thought were my friends. Oh well.

Distance does not always make the heart grow fonder and it definitely won’t help people think of you more fondly.

An 800 square foot apartment can accumulate a lot of stuff. Incorporating that stuff into an already full house can be a bit much. As such, the charity pile is growing.

Just the thought of being positive is depressing me, so bah humbug to the new year.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 05:07:00 +0000

This will be an uneventful Christmas for me as I am in the middle of a major transition of life and living. I am blessed to be spending this Christmas with my fiancé but as he is sound asleep and I am nowhere close to tired, I am watching my favorite holiday movie (The Holiday) and packing. And I shouldn’t leave out the 20 games of Words With Friends that I have going and the blog reading that I’m catching up on.

So, even though this Christmas is uneventful, it will definitely be productive and enjoyable.

I wish you all a very blessed and joyful Christmas.

The Long Awaited Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0000

Forever ago, I mentioned that I was so inspired and motivated by the Blogalicious 2011 conference that I attended that i was going to hold my first giveaway at the end of November. Of course, I chose November because of all the online activities I was attempting to do, like Nanowrimo and Nablopomo. November came and went and although I managed to post every day during the month, I had absolutely NO follow through on my giveaway. And I have no excuses my friends. None whatsoever considering I did order the item and have had it on my bookshelf since it’s arrival.

So, to one of my very lucky readers will go a brand new Kindle Fire! <<insert applause here>>

To be eligible, you had to have been a follower of the site by the end of November or have commented on a post during the month of November. I put everyone’s name in a numbered list and used Random.org to pick a number and the winner is…

NIK

I’ve been following Nik’s blog for awhile now. She is a fellow knitter and a fellow STEM girl. Visit her on her site and consider joining to see her great projects.

I’m looking forward to the next Giveaway! Click that little follow button or comment often to be eligible. Thank you all for following along on this little journey known as my life.

Finishing?

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:23:00 +0000

The countdown is done. I am officially on holiday!!! I am officially done with my temporary 6 month assignment that turned into two years. And even though its not done, I am officially done with 2011. That may change tomorrow, but it’s how I feel today. 2011 was not a bad year by any means but it was a tough year, the worst of it being three trees hitting my house during spring storms. How I hate tornado season!

But 2012 will be here soon and although I expect it to be tough as well, I’m hoping for the kind of tough that strengthens me and not the kind that wipes me out. 2011 has wiped me out! So, what am I looking forward to in 2012???

Making a family cookbook with my grandma
Wedding planning with my mom
Our wedding in September
Becoming a wife, gaining a husband
New job?
Finishing a book
Buying into a business
Launching a new endeavor for engineers
Becoming a MacArthur fellow or winning one of their grants or at least putting in a proposal for something
Make the donation that will get me on the wall!!--more on this later.

There are so many other things on my list for the new year. Needless to say it will be a busy, busy, busy year and I’m praying for so many things for myself and for those around me. This is truly going to be a year of action. I can’t let 2012 see me as tired as 2011 saw me. I have to break through.

What’s on your Goal TO-DO list for 2012?

Kanban Followup

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:38:00 +0000

Since I’m stuck at work waiting for a meeting to start (I started this post on Monday night), I figured I would update you on how the Kanban productivity system was working out for me.

For tasks that are repetitive or have very distinctive sections or parts, this system is a great aid. In the middle of using this system to produce a report, I got sick and needed to be out of the office for a couple of days. Upon returning, my Kanban was on my desk giving me a visual clue of exactly where I left off. I was able to quickly get back to my report with little time lost in trying to figure out exactly where I was in the process. Adding the HOLD box allowed me to delay portions that were causing me problems. The extra box under the Done column was added to allow me to quickly answer questions from my manager on a subset of items that fit a specific criteria.

The green post-it tags are inputs to the report that I am writing. The blue tags are sections of the report itself that need to be completed. I put the Kanban in a plastic document sleeve to keep from loosing my tags. As I moved items into the DONE column, I started to tape them down as the tags at this point were starting to loose their stickiness.

For regular usage, I would…

use the super sticky line of post-its so there is better hold
always use a plastic document sleeve
color code the task types to add to the visual value of the Kanban

And I do need to add that it is definitely a positive to have such a visual progress chart for coworkers and managers to fully understand your workload. I can verbally tell you that I am working on generating a report, but that doesn’t fully relay all the input documents that need to be produced and reviewed to generate the report as the Kanban above does.

All in all, the Kanban is an excellent tool for those job tasks with repetitive or distinctive sections. My next step is to evaluate using a Kanban for following a procedure flowchart.

Starting Over

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:30:00 +0000

I have been away from home for almost two years! I get to come back to visit every few weeks but there is nothing like just being in a space long term. Now that I’m going back home, I almost feel like I’m starting over a little bit. I have been in a tiny city apartment and that has taught me a few things about paring down into a small space. And since I will eventually be moving a husband into a space that was just a single girl’s space, some things will have to change going forward. For the past few weeks, I have been combing the internet looking for inspiration for revamping the look of the house. I saw this photo on the Anthology Magazine website and I have fallen in love with it.

I love the print curtains. I love the mixture of textures-leather, wood, fabric. I love the green walls--my living room is already green. I love the cushy chair. I love the pop of red in the room. And of course I love all the books.

When I’m back home and settled, I’ll be working on making my living room a little more like this inspiration piece.

I’m excited!

Exhausted!

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:44:00 +0000

The Poundcake and I are packing up the apartment and getting ready to move out. My temporary assignment is over and I will be returning to the homestead. Poundcake will move into a temporary apartment in the city until after the wedding. I am sad to be apart, but I am oh, so happy to be back in the home that I love so much. I am looking forward to cooking and sewing and redecorating some spaces to make room for a husband.

I hate moving, but I am happy that instead of having to hire movers and get this furniture to the house, it has all been sold. Now we just need to deal with all the clothes, yarn and books that have amassed in this small space. It’s a lot more than I would have thought.

2012 will truly be a new start for me. How are you finishing out the year?

Another Finished Project

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:56:00 +0000

Using this Hot Pad Pattern, I crocheted this little ditty to use as a soap sack. I took all the little bits of left over soap pieces and stitched them in the middle of the double thick pad. I will use this in the shower until all the soap is gone and then wash it and use in the kitchen as a hot pad. I like the idea of getting two uses out of this item. This is much more practical than the first one (Ravelry Link) I made. It is much too small to comfortably use. But I will add it to the hand knit scrubbie collection in the kitchen.

Sick Day #2 Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000

From the bag of unfinished projects, I pulled out this crocheted basket. I don’t remember when I started this project, but I’m happy to see it off the hook before the end of the year. Now I just need to figure out what to use it for. I finished it off with a white rim. I didn’t add a handle because I think this will end up sitting on a counter rather than hanging. It’s made out of standard cotton that I bought from a craft store. I bought tons of it and still have quite a bit left so you’ll see more cotton projects coming up.

I do have some pot holders and soap sacks in the near future plans.

Sick Day #2

noreply@blogger.com (April Dorris) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:23:00 +0000

I’m on the mend, but by no means 100%. I’m still trying not to talk so I can continue to heal and not go backwards. I’m still working on the agenda from yesterday, but I have pulled out my bag of unfinished projects to work on something else while I continue to read through all the posts in my RSS reader. I know RSS reading wasn’t on the list of things to do, but I’m going to do it anyway!

Hope you all are being productive today, whether you are at work or home.

Ta-ta!