Love Life Project: a happy living blog

Dear Friends,

2012-02-02T20:12:00.003-04:00

I need to take a break from Love Life Project.

I first started blogging because I wanted to make a shift from consumer to creator; I wanted to write.

Lately, however, I find that blogging has become an excuse not to write. I've spent hours writing posts and responding to comments while my novel remains unwritten. Besides, when I look back on the past few months of posting, I've mostly been linking to other people's stuff. I haven't created any content that I'm proud of on this blog for a while now.

I will probably put up a new post here every once in a while, but for now I need to take a step back. I want to focus on writing my novel and on being more present in the world.

Thanks to all of you for reading and connecting with me over the past year!

Cheers,
Stephanie

P.S. I will still be posting a new clay story every week-ish on Clay Baboons, so I hope that you'll follow me there!

In this week's story we learn that honesty is the best policy. Unless, of course, you're trying to avoid taking responsibility for your actions.

Here There Be Monsters

2012-01-25T18:48:00.002-04:00

Click here to read a story about my Dad battling a giant ant.

It's My Bloggiversary! And Also, I Ran.

2012-01-24T13:44:00.017-04:00

Yesterday was my one-year bloggiversary! Thank you for visiting my blog, whether you've been around since the start or whether you're a new reader.

In my very first post, The Me That I Want to Be, I shared a picture of my disaster of a desk:

And here's what my desk looks like one year (plus one day) later:

It's a million times better! No, really. Yes, it's a mess, but that's because I'm in the middle of making the creatures for my next clay story. Once I'm done, they'll all get tucked away in those plastic drawers. The only mess on my desk is what's currently in use, and a dirty glass from the smoothie that I finished just before snapping the picture. This is a major improvement. Go, me!

My newest clay story, by the way, won't be posted until tomorrow. Why? Because giant ants are really hard for me to make, that's why. I may have gotten annoyed and flattened this one's predecessor with the side of my fist.
And also, I ran...

Last night, I stepped on the treadmill for the first time in almost three weeks. My three-week hiatus was due to being on holidays (weeks 1 and 2) and being lazy (week 3). I was a bit nervous and I considered repeating a few weeks from the Couch to 5K program, but in the end I just decided to just pick up where I left off, at week 6 day 1.

And it was easy!

OK, so I was running really really slowly. Reeeeeaaaaally slowly. But still, I fully expected to be exhausted and cranky and miserable.

Instead, the time flew by.

Of course, that might have something to do with my newest television obsession:

For the past several years, a few of my girlfriends have been insisting that I watch Dexter. I found season 1 on Netflix and decided that it would be my newest running show. And now, after the first episode, I'm already in love.

(With the show. Not with the psychopathic serial killer. It would just be weird to be in love with a psychopathic serial killer...although I will admit that I might have a bit of a crush on him.)

Still, I'm pretty sure that Morgan would catch him. Eventually.
I'm proud of myself for being able to jump back on the treadmill and pick up where I left off. I really am committed to finishing the Couch to 5K program this time, after having started and stopped over a dozen times in the past few years.

And I can't wait until Wednesday, so that I can get on the treadmill again and find out what happens on Dexter. I mean...that Barbie doll? All cut up in his freezer? Gah!

And you know who else motivated me to run? Flat Kitty, that's who.

Yes, he of the cat-in-a-Christmas-sweater fame arrived in my mailbox last week. (Thanks, Kristin...and congratulations on completing your marathon!)

Emergency stop? There will be no emergency stops.

Don't make me glare at you in disapproval.

And when you're finished with Dexter, I've got 144 more runs lined up for you.
So, in summary, my desk is less messy. And I ran. And also, I love my job so far (yes, I realize that I'm not supposed to put new information in a summary).

So, in a summary of the summary, life is good!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

I'm allowed to say "I'm so glad it's the weekend" for the first time in six months...

2012-01-20T15:16:00.007-04:00

Thanks to all of you for your well wishes on my new job teaching adults! I'm really excited to be starting work on Monday. I'm feeling a bit nervous and overwhelmed, since it's so different from anything that I've ever done before. I think that I'll settle in quickly once I start, but for now I'm defitely feeling the first day jitters.

The strangest thing about starting work is that all of a sudden I'm much more motivated to do everything else. I took down all of the Christmas decorations yesterday. (What?) JP and I completely cleared out the storage room this morning and now he's off lugging six boxes of junk to the thrift shop. This afternoon's job is to rewire the entertainment centre in the basement.

I'm busy.

I'm doing stuff.

Let me just remind everyone that I haven't felt like doing much of anything over the past six months.

I really think that I'm a person who thrives on a certain amount of structure - just not too much of it. As much as I love the idea of making my own schedule and writing all day, it just doesn't happen. Instead, I mostly spend a lot of time feeling guilty for the precious time that I keep wasting.

Still, I need flexibility in my day. I don't want to be micromanaged and I don't want to have to spend most of my waking hours on tasks that someone else has assigned to me. Because this job is part-time, it allows me to both conform to someone else's schedule and to make my own.

I really hope to get a lot of writing done over the next few months.

How do you strike a balance between structure and flexibility? Do you have any secret tips that improve your ability to keep yourself on a schedule when there isn't anyone watching?

I can use all the help I can get...

And now, I want to share some illustrated blog posts that made me laugh this week:

This animated gif on The Oatmeal was laugh-out-loud funny and explained the SOPA issue in simple language.

SOPA and PIPA must be destroyed on Haley's Comic. I love the illustrations in this new-to-me blog!

The Skaters and the Ice Boat: a funny illustrated story (that has nothing to do with SOPA) from Happy or Hungry.

Down Low, Too Slow on Cheeseblarg featured JRose high fiving her favourite animals.

I responded by creating some clay high fives of my own. This one was my favourite.
Happy weekend everyone!

Joining the Ranks of the Employed

2012-01-17T14:44:00.001-04:00

So, I'm going to talk about the fact that I'm no longer unemployed.

But first - with the SOPA strike set for tomorrow - I'm going to quickly share a link.

Unless you live under a rock, you've probably heard rumblings about SOPA. I don't live under a rock. So I've heard the rumblings. But I have to admit that I didn't really get it. I knew that it was a big deal, but I didn't know why.

This website helped me understand a bit more the implications of SOPA, in clear, simple language and with lots of visuals: Defend The Internet.

And now...guess what! I'm no longer unemployed!

Last week, I sent in my resume for a teaching job. It's the first local teaching job that's come up since we moved out East.

And every night last week I had a teaching nightmare.

In the dream that I remember the most vividly, I lost a child. I found him hiding in the recycling bin, and he refused to come out. In the meantime, the rest of the kids just started wandering off, and there were so many doors in my classroom that I couldn't keep them all together.

I've been worried all week. Nervous. Stressed. Excited about the idea of teaching again, but also aware of a knot in my stomach that wouldn't loosen.

I think that my inner-self may have been trying to tell me - not too subtly - that I'm not quite ready to be back in the classroom. But still, I would have accepted the job in a heartbeat if they'd offered it to me.

And then, in the midst of applying and interviewing for the classroom job, I somehow ended up getting an interview for a second job, and they offered it to me on the spot. I accepted and called back the first school to let them know that I was withdrawing my application.

My new job will be in adult education. I'll be working at a language school, teaching French. To grown-ups. Who actually (mostly) want to be there.

I'm going to have three students in this first class. And a projector. And a spinny chair. And I get to work in a place that's quiet and calm and clean and doesn't smell like sandwiches.

It's a part-time job, mornings only, which means that I can still dedicate my afternoons to writing and tutoring (and thinking about cleaning the house, but not actually doing it).

So let me take a second to contemplate:

I have a job!

Anyway, since I had an interview and got a job, I've decided that I'm qualified to give interview advice. You're welcome.

Read The Clay Baboons Interview Guide for fantastic interview tips, such as how to turn a negative into a positive if someone asks you about your flaws:

Home and Boys and Ice and Links

2012-01-13T09:00:00.004-04:00

After 2 beautiful weeks in Ontario, JP and I are heading back to Nova Scotia this weekend. I'm sad in many ways. I'll miss the day-to-day interaction with family members. I'll miss eating together and laughing and sitting quietly and reading together. I'll miss watching all of the episodes from season 2 of The Walking Dead in two evenings.

But I am looking forward to being back in my house, and sleeping in my own bed with my husband and dog. (Well, the dog has to sleep on the floor.) I'm looking forward to grocery shopping and walking in the park and watching movies and organizing some of my stuff. I'm even looking forward to...wait for it...getting back on the treadmill.

I just wish that we didn't live so far and that our visits didn't have to be so far apart.

Boys on Ice

A few days ago, I put up a post wondering whether children are ever allowed to fly over ice like wild things.

And I'm happy to report that they are.

We took my niece and nephew to the same frozen-over pond that I used to skate on as a teenager. A few neighbourhood kids showed up not long after we did and started shoveling a space for hockey. My nephew, who goes to school with the boys, joined in. JP and I melted away, choosing to skate a bit away from the hockey game, to let those boys - 12-14 years old, all of them whooping and flying over the ice - be themselves.

It made me smile.

And now it's sharing circle time!

Here are some other things that made me smile or fed my brain this week:

How To Be More Interesting (In Ten Simple Steps): by Jessica Hagy (the blogger behind Indexed)

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don kenn gallery: phenomenal monster illustrations on post-it notes

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Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
(via Happy or Hungry, Epbot and Rennaissance Ma'am on Facebook and/or Twitter)

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How To Make Your Husband Think You're a Witch: this new take on "swear jars" from The Bloggess made me laugh out loud.

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Sh*t Nobody Says

via Susan on Twitter:

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Sorry, boys, this isn't for you: "I was beautifully and wonderfully made"
(made my heart smile)

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Better Than a Sock in the Jaw: if you're on a conference call for work, mute your mike before reading this story about the dangers of injury in a public bathroom. Funny!

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Marilyn Munroe: The Frugality Audit: we all know that Marilyn was a style icon, but Annabelle shows us that she was a frugalista as well!

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Question: How is the font on this blog? Is it too small or hard to read? I'm trying to decide if I should increase the font size.

Why Women Need Fat: a book review

2012-01-12T10:45:00.004-04:00

So far, 2012 has been the year of apocalyptic fiction.

Just like 2011.

And 2010.

I can't help it...I'm a creature of habit. In the past few weeks, I've read the first six volumes of the comic/graphic novel Y: The Last Man (all about - you guessed it - the very last man on earth) and I'm currently 3/4 of the way through Robopocalypse (and yes, that is the stupidest title imaginable).

In 2012, I'm hoping to read more widely. I want to read books that aren't about the end of the world. I'm aiming for a balance of graphic novels (which I'm becoming more and more enamoured with), young adult fiction, non-fiction and maybe even books written for actual grown-ups. I'm tracking my reading this year on a pinterest board: Books, Beautiful Books.

So it's a good thing that the BlogHer Book Club offered me the opportunity to review a book this week. It helped me start the year off right, by reading a non-fiction book (written for actual grown-ups) in between all of the end-of-the-world stuff.

Disclaimer: this is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club. As you know, I don't generally do reviews on this blog. But I'm yours for 20 bucks and a free book. I probably don't even have to say this, but all opinions in this post are my own.

I have to start by admitting that I'm a bit wary of diet books. The all-round bigness of the diet industry makes me feel uncomfortable. I probably wouldn't have bought this book myself, although I might have picked it up at the library.

And I also have to admit that I probably wouldn't have made it through this whole book if it weren't for the fact that I was expected to review it.

The problem - for me - was that the first few chapters were focused on things that made the feminist in me bristle a bit: how men prefer women (hourglass figures, small waists, larger hips), how women's bodies were made for baby-making.

One of the authors is an anthropologist, and he approaches women's bodies from an evolutionary psychology perspective. Evolutionary psychology suggests that many human psychological traits - preferences, responses, sexual attraction - are a result of evolution and adaptation. And that bothers me viscerally, not because I don't think that it could be true, but because I can't believe that it could be that simple. It's the whole nature-vs-nurture debate.

So, all that said, I probably wouldn't have made it past the first few chapters if I didn't feel that I had to.

In the end, I'm glad that I did.

From chapter five onward, I found this book to be a balanced look at weight and bodies. The overall message is that it's natural for women to carry some weight and for women's weight to increase with age and/or after having children.

Every woman has a natural weight (what bloggers often call a "happy weight") that her body naturally gravitates towards. This natural weight is genetically determined; while a woman may weigh much more than her natural weight due to lifestyle factors, a woman with a higher natural weight will never be skinny, even if she diets endlessly.

The authors point to the fact that frequent dieting can increase a body's natural weight. They also question the common belief that carrying extra weight automatically leads to health issues.

This is not a diet book. It isn't a how-to-be-skinny-without-being-hungry book. Instead, this book aims at providing information to help women reach their natural weight. The authors set out simple guidelines, including:

- eating real food (including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and organic meat and dairy)
- limiting omega-6 fats
- increasing omega-3 fats
- avoiding processed foods
- reading labels for hidden omega-6 fats

And the final message of the book?

Not everyone is meant to be skinny. And that's ok. Health and beauty are not dependent on an ever-shrinking body.

The feminist in me smiled at the end.

Join in on the conversation on BlogHer!

Skating Through Life

2012-01-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

I remember my dad taking my sister and me to the outdoor rink in the park up the street when we were small. He'd lace our little white skates so tightly that our feet would tingle. We would skate until we lost feeling in our extremities and then trudge home, where we'd drink hot chocolate under a blanket, our feet slowly thawing with an awful buzzing tingle.

In the past month, I've rediscovered the joys of ice skating.

I've laced up my skates more often in the past few weeks than I have in the rest of my adult years.

Once a week, there's an adult skate at the arena up the street from my house in Nova Scotia. There are only about ten people on the ice, most of whom are over 75. They skate smoothly and gracefully, crossing one foot over another as they bank around corners. Music from the late 50s blares from the old sound system: Mandolins in the Moonlight by Perry Como and Seven Little Girls by Paul Evans.

Just in case you want a soundtrack for this post:

One gentleman who must be in his eighties laces up old black and brown skates. He proudly tells us that he's used them for 47 years. When he walks to and from the bench, he shuffles. But on the ice? On the ice he glides. He soars. He is grace and beauty on skates.

I don't soar or glide. I wobble a bit. I concentrate on taking long strides. I stop by slapping my open palms against the boards. People three times my age fly past me. I want to be like them when I grow up.

I'm almost halfway there with my 20-year-old skates. I don't usually wipe the blades after using them. That would probably explain the rust.
Fact: skating is harder when there are more than ten people on the rink.

While visiting family in Toronto last week, JP and I went skating with our nieces, our nephew and my brother at an arena that was packed with small kids. While skating in Nova Scotia, I focus on trying to skate smoothly and quickly, like the older folk. In Toronto, I focus on not knocking a little kid down and slitting his jugular with my skate.

(No, I'm serious. I couldn't shake that mental image.)

Faster, little ones! Flee the blades that I've strapped to my feet!

After taking this photo, I was told by a staff member that there were no photos allowed. See, this is why I prefer documenting with words rather than pictures. When I finally decide to stop being lazy and take some pictures, I get in trouble.
As we wove our way through the little people on the ice, my brother and I remarked on the helmets that everyone was wearing. When we were kids, no one wore helmets when they went skating.

Honestly? My favourite part of skating is still the hot chocolate.
Every year as a kid, my class went on skating trips to a frozen-over pond. There was always a parent volunteer - invariably a Dad - who would organize us into long lines of six or seven kids, hand-in-hand. Then he'd take the hand of the child at the end of the line and whip us around in wide fast circles until someone lost his or her grip and we all went flying into the snowbanks.

Sometimes someone might bump an elbow or a knee and cry for a few minutes, but we usually just laughed and got back in line. Now and then an extra-daring Dad or older sibling would give us one end of a scarf and use the other end to whip us around erratically, trying to shake us off while we tried to stay on our feet.

The teacher in me shudders at the thought of such a thing happening on my watch. Every class skating trip I've ever been on as an adult was about kids - wearing helmets, of course - skating in organized circles. Anyone who went too fast or weaved in and out of the circle or tried to go the wrong way was admonished and reminded to follow the rules.

But the skating that I remember from when I was little didn't really have any rules. When I was little, skating was like flying. I wonder if kids today ever really get to fly the way that I did when I was little.

Thinking back, we were wild as children. It's a wonder any of us lived to be 30 at all!

Things that should have killed us (but didn't):

- being whipped around by large strange men on skates
- not wearing helmets when bicycling
- not wearing helmets when skating
- not wearing helmets when sledding
- not having a seatbelt on our high chairs
- climbing (and falling out of) trees
- walking to and from school on our own
- playing outside in the neighbourhood without parents or cell phones
- swinging on ropes over rivers
- petting loose dogs (and trying to lure them home with us)

Can you think of any that I missed?

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If you're not yet tired of me after that long, rambling post, check out my latest story on Clay Baboons: For Self-Loathing, Press Three. It's a not-so-epic story about a not-so-important thing that happened to me.

Is there anything more depressing than making phone calls to government agencies who hang up on you?

(I mean, aside from all that other depressing stuff like disease and famine and war. That stuff's all more depressing than being hung up on by a government agency. Obviously.)

The Fingers Keep Typing Even Though the Brain Has Already Shrugged and Given Up.

2012-01-08T00:12:00.012-04:00

I'm alive and well!

We're halfway through a 2 week vacation to visit our families, and blogging is taking a definite backseat to living (and skating and eating and playing poker and eating and watching movies and eating and reading and eating) - as well it should. I've just clicked on "mark all as read" in my blog reader for the third time this week.

To those of you who check my blog regularly for updates, thanks for your persistance.

(Or is it persistence? Crap, another word that I can't spell.)

I think that I'm going to set myself a bit of schedule, both for me as a writer and for all of the readers who check my blog through bookmarks. Let's set an arbitrary schedule and say: from now on I'll update on Tuesdays and Fridays (and maybe also other days sometimes, but those will just be bonus posts that you can in no way hold me to).

(My original post/schedule was for Tuesdays and Thursdays. I edited it to switch Thursday to Friday. I'm fickle that way.)

Poof! So be it!

Real posts.
Real content.
Every Tuesday and Friday.

(Not like this filler that I'm putting up so that you don't feel neglected.)

(Come back on Tuesday. I'm going to talk about why it's amazing that anyone in my generation lived to be 30. It will be really rad and totally awesome. And I'm also going to link to a new Clay Baboons post where I get really depressed by making phone calls.)

I'm going to mask the lack of real content in this post now by putting up a few snippets and videos and images and links. It was either that, or just put up an inspirational quote from pinterest. Except that most of the stuff that I find inspirational has to do with running away from zombies.

So let the randomness begin!

A real-life conversation between my brother and my niece.

her: You're the worst Dad in the world.
him: No I'm not. Darth Vader is the worst Dad in the world.

Fitting illustration, posted by @raphkoster on Twitter.
Funny pinterest pictures.

(Are you following me on Pinterest? You should. Because that way I can follow you and find even more awesomeness.)

Does this count as inspirational? I say yes.
on pinterest, originally from weheartit.com

Story of my life.
on pinterest, originally from lolsnaps.com
And now for some music.

I love this song by Gotye featuring Kimba. And by love it, I mean that I've had days over the past few months where I listen to it over and over again obsessively:

And then today I saw this amazing cover linked on Epbot. Ten hands and one guitar? The mind, it is blown.

And how about a new-to-me blog?

I wish that I'd discovered Catalog Living months ago. It gently snarks on the staging done for catalogues (Canadian spelling!) and design blogs. I giggle at every single post.

See? Funny!

And finally the Book of Faces.

In case you haven't seen it on my other blog, I have a new facebook page for Clay Baboons:

Me. On the book of faces.
So far nineteen people like me. In real life, I'm pretty sure that more than nineteen people like me. Especially if you count dogs as people. But I'm new to the whole facebook game, and nineteen seems pretty exciting right now.

Bah. Randomness. The brain is tired. Happy weekend, lovely readers!

Hello 2012!

2012-01-01T08:10:00.002-04:00

JP and I are home with family, after driving for 16 hours. (And by "driving for 16 hours", I mean that I napped while he drove. It was pretty hard.) We haven't seen our family since we moved out East in the summer, and we're both so happy to be home again!

My Thoughts on Resolutions of New Years Past

Yes, I realize that the whole "make a resolution and break it within a few days" is a huge, obvious cliche. But who am I to fight against things that are huge and obvious?

click here to read more on Clay Baboons
My Favourite Posts of 2011:

This bit was inspired by a post by Lindsay.

fitness/working out: trying to do parkour at the park

food: learning to take food photos (PS I am NOT a food blogger)

self-love: learning to be creative again as an adult

photography: a photo safari on the beach near my house

funny: what not to say to someone with an uncooperative uterus

rambles: apologizing to Justin Timberlake and inspiring a star

Best Search Terms of 2011:

Apparently, the world thinks that I'm disgusting:

I ate cat poop
cat feces look like raisins
I don’t like flossing
girls wearing dirty socks
is it ok to eat snot
girls smelling their dirty socks

And also...I don't really get these:

i need to steal some pictures
kumquat being thrown
dead deer with guns
old age dog die

And also...yay, zombies:

zombie love games
my boyfriend plays zombies all the time and I can’t sleep

And now for the very first reader grab bag of 2012:

I'm pretty far behind on blog reading, so I'm just going to link to a few for now. I'll have to catch up after the holidays!

How to Set New Year's Resolutions for Wellness - from Jennifer Piccici. This is my good friend Jen's relatively new blog. You should read it.

How I Changed My Life in Four Lines - Zen Habits has a way of making things seem so reassuringly simple!

Grammar Guide: I vs Me - an illustrated guide to this not-so-tricky grammar rule from Cheeseblarg.

The 25 Biggest Songs of 2011 in one Mash-up - so cool! And the mash-up is just as good as the originals.

Mountains of Books Become Mountains - jaw-dropping 3D art by Guy Laramee. I can't even find words to describe how amazing these are. Here, look:

Wow. Right?

Happy New Year, friends!

That Angsty Meta-Blogging Post I Mentioned Earlier...

2011-12-29T08:28:00.001-04:00

In late November I made a list of "cliche" blog posts that I enjoy reading and writing. So far, I've tackled four on my list of eight cliches:

1) The pinterest post
2) Things that I’m loving right now
3) Things that I’m grateful for
4) Photo dump
5) Angsty meta-blogging post
6) Pet pictures
7) What I bought
8) Blogger confessions

Today's cliche blog post: the angsty meta-blogging post
(wherein I explain why I'll only be posting two or three times a week from now on)

In the eleven months that I've been writing Love Life Project, it's already gone through a number of transitions. It began as a healthy living blog, but I quickly realized that:

a) I was in no position to show other people how to lead a healthy lifestyle, and besides...
b) it was really boring for me to write, which must have made it...
c) unbearably boring to read.

I transitioned to a happy living blog, and started putting up posts about food, and home organization, and crafty DIYs. Then I realized that:

a) I always eat the same things, and really...
b) I'm so disorganized that putting things away is overwhelming enough without having to actually write about it, and as for DIY...
c) mine were more cautionary tales than how-tos.

It's still a happy living blog, but I gave up completely on trying to "motivate". It just wasn't me. I'm a procrastinator, not a doer. I may as well just write to amuse. I've been happiest with my blog over the past few months, telling random stories and sharing things that interest me. I especially love doing my weekly reader grab bags.

And now I've started my second blog, Clay Baboons, and it's the most fun I've had in blogging yet. I don't have very many readers on my new blog yet. The majority of people here don't click over to read my clay stories, and I have fewer visitors there in a week than I have here on a day when I haven't even put up a new post.

And I'm OK with that. It makes sense that readership will change as my focus changes. I hope that readership at Clay Baboons will grow organically, but I'm not too concerned about it. What matters is that I love writing it.

Therein lies the problem. Each post for Clay Baboons takes up about four to five hours. That's about how much time I used to spend writing an entire week's worth of Love Life Project posts. At first, I did both: weekly clay posts AND daily posts here.

But it was just too much. Writing, editing, posting, responding to comments, visiting blogs, responding to emails...the hours that I spent in front of a computer screen kept growing. And (just in case I haven't made this clear enough in the past) blogging is just a hobby for me.

As the hours that I spend on blogging grow, the motivation that I feel for sitting in front of a computer screen and writing my novel shrinks. Writing my novel has to be a priority, which means rearranging all of the other stuff that fills up my life.

Besides, I noticed something else:

note: I shameless stole the idea of representing my life in graph form from the amazing blog This Is Indexed, which represents life in general through a series of funny and clever graphs like this one:

source
All that to say that I'm cutting way back on Love Life Project posts. I'm still going to blog, but it won't be every day. I'm aiming for two or three posts a week here, and a post every Tuesday on Clay Baboons. You may also find that I geek out a bit more on Love Life Project than I did in the past. I want to do more geeky crafts, like the steampunk guns I made in October.

So was that angsty and cliche enough for you?

Oh, and one more thing... I'm slowly transitioning my twitter account from @lovelifeproject to @claybaboons, so please follow me there if you haven't already!

Happy last few days of 2011!

Sloth Day

2011-12-27T08:52:00.000-04:00

Happy day after Sloth Day! Sloth Day is the day after Christmas, which should be spent wearing Christmas pyjamas, watching movies and eating chocolate. If your family doesn't celebrate Sloth Day, I highly recommend starting a new tradition next year.

With the Sloth Day festivities over, we're going to try to tidy up the house and eat things that are green today. (The operative word here is try. As of right now, I'm surfing the net while eating peppermint bark and JP is killing things in his man cave.)

If you're looking for a way to avoid being productive for at least a little while longer, go read my new story on Clay Baboons: My Worst Ever Job Interview.

Spoiler alert: I didn't get the job.

A Bit of Housekeeping and a Reader Grab Bag

2011-12-23T09:58:00.003-04:00

I created a new twitter account this week, under the name Clay Baboons.

Click here to follow me. So far two of my nine followers are porn sites.

I want to be able to share my clay stories on my personal social media accounts, but I don't want Love Life Project on facebook, at least not right now. So it makes sense for me to have social media accounts under the name Clay Baboons, since that's what I'll be sharing with people who know me in "the real world".

And now on to the grab bag...

There were lots of posts this week that made me smile or fed my brain:

Parasites in the House: parasitic birds and a very clever analogy - smart and thought-provoking. (from Murr Brewster)

Parenting Stinks: I laughed out loud at this almost-but-not-quite heartwarming parenting story. (from Ryan at The Woven Moments)

Anonymous Donors Pay Off Kmart Layaway Accounts: spontaneous generosity is spreading across the United States.

Mini Hot Air Balloon Tutorial: turn glass ball ornaments into mini hot-air balloons. Really cool! (from Epbot)

Infertile. Pregnant. Myself.: powerful post about the mixed emotions of pregnancy after infertility. (from The 2 Week Wait)

My Eventful Staff Christmas Party
It isn't Christmas until someone sets something on fire.
(from Odd But Nice)

I'm Not Impressed - Kitty's Christmas Sweater
Oh, that poor cat. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.
(from Stuft Mama)

Zombie Portraits by Andre de Freitas: Have you ever wondered what cartoon characters would look like if they were zombified? Thanks to Carla at Yourgogirl for sending me this awesome link!

This Morning, I Became an Assassin
Funny illustrated story about a giant bug in the bathroom.
(From Abby Gabs)

The Yellow Beast
Have you ever woken up and thought that your dreams were real? This post made me laugh out loud!
(from Books of Adam)

I also started a new board on Pinterest with links to illustrated blog posts. If you're on Pinterest and you love illustrated blogs as much as I do, you might want to follow my board.

Merry Christmas to all! I hope that - if you celebrate Christmas - you have a peaceful and joyful holiday. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then I hope that you'll still get to eat lots of cookies.

Easy Homemade Christmas Gifts

2011-12-22T08:43:00.003-04:00

Dear family: This post has pictures of small gifts that I'll be giving you with your Christmas gifts. I honestly don't care if you see them, but if you prefer to be surprised, please feel free to click here.

* * *
A Conversation in my Home

me: I saw something online that I want to make.

him: ...

me: No, it'll be fun! And easy! (big grin)

him: ...

me: No, really! Trust me! (big grin, nodding)

him: ...

me: It's going to be super awesome! (big grin, wild eyes, nodding)

him: ... OK.

me: It will only take a few minutes. Want to help?

him: ...

me: Never mind. Just give me 20 minutes and then we can watch a movie.

* * *
Last week, the lovely and talented Jenn made these:

Super cute, right? So easy and pretty and festive and easy.

I could make those!

So I spent hours on Amazon looking at cookie cutters. I chose a special shape for each person in our family, as well as some more generic Christmas ones for friends and students.

Something special for everyone...
This is fun!

And you know what else is fun? Buying the ingredients. I make peppermint bark every year, and buying dark and white chocolate wafers and candy canes just feels like Christmas. I decided that this year I'm going to make pretzel peppermint bark.

And the most fun of all? Melting the chocolate. I always melt it in the microwave, and I love stirring it every 20 seconds and watching it melt.

Fun, fun, fun!

Except that it turned out that it was more messy than fun. See, Jenn is really good at making stuff. I'm...not.

It started out ok. It was pretty easy to layer the pretzels in the cookie cutters.

But then it was time to put the first layer of chocolate, and that wasn't easy or fun at all.

I spilled chocolate everywhere while trying to spoon it into the cookie cutters. There was chocolate on the counter. There was chocolate on my shirt. There was chocolate on the floor and on the cabinets and up both of my arms. I couldn't get the chocolate to spread properly, and it wouldn't fill the small sections of the cookie cutters, so I kept pushing it with the spoon and ended up with even more chocolate all over the place.

My heartrate was a bit high by the time I put them in the freezer to set before adding the next layer.

The white chocolate was a little bit easier to work with, but was still really messy.

And I crushed the candy canes by putting them in a baggie and hitting them with a hammer. That part was fun. Except that I poked a hole in the first bag, spilled candy cane dust all over the place and had to start again.

By this time, Chase was going crazy licking the floor. It turns out that he really likes candy canes.

JP (from upstairs): Steph?

me: Don't come down here!

The end result was pretty, no doubt about it. And it really should have been easy. Next time, I'm inviting Jenn over to show me how to do it properly.

Or maybe I'll just stick with plain old peppermint bark. This really did take less than 20 minutes, after I'd finished with all of the cookie cutters.

And my new favourite: handful of pretzels, spoonful of dark chocolate, spoonful of white chocolate, sprinkle of crushed candy canes. Done.

Please note: The point of this post is not to have everyone tell me how awesome my cookie cutter treats look. Because I know they look awesome. Ha! And if you ask me next week, I'll say that it was absolutely worth the mess. But right now, when I still have bits of candy cane stuck in my hair? Honestly, I just want to take a shower.

Please also note: Do I think you should try this at home? Yes. Absolutely. The end result is adorable and chances are that you'll do a much better (and tidier) job than I did. Click here for Jenn's original post.

Zombie Hordes

2011-12-20T06:55:00.000-04:00

So first this happened:

Then this happened:

It was chaos, I tell you.

For today's clay story*, I plagiarized bits of my own work. I rewrote and illustrated a post that I wrote in August about playing zombie video games with my husband. The new and improved version - complete with mediocre clay figurines - is much better:

click here to read Zombies Gave Me Carpal Tunnel Syndrome on Clay Baboons

* I used to call them "plasticine stories", but I got tired of googling it for the correct spelling.

The Photo Dump

2011-12-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I made a list of "cliche" blog posts that I enjoy reading and writing. So far, I've tackled three on my list of eight cliches:

1) The pinterest post
2) Things that I’m loving right now
3) Things that I’m grateful for
4) Cell phone photo dump
5) Angsty meta-blogging post
6) Pet pictures
7) What I bought
8) Blogger confessions

Today's cliche blog post: The Photo Dump

The idea behind a photo dump is that you...well...dump a bunch of photos. No need to tell stories, tie things together or even explain beyond a few words. This cliche post was the most fun to put together so far. I have to do photo dumps more often!

So here you go:

Presents...

...and jingle bells.

Squadron Christmas party! Time to make pretty with ruffles and bows.

Free sample of Nutella in my mailbox.
First reaction: Woo-hoo! Free Nutella!
Second reaction: Ummm...what? Breakfast? Balanced? Schools? Can...not...compute.
(Am I the only who's a little bit...perplexed?)
Third reaction: Woo-hoo! Free Nutella!

Every dog needs his duck.

Adult skate at the local arena. JP and I were the only people under 75. We got smoked by speedy seniors.

Ooooooh...shiny... Steampunk gun seen through an art gallery window.

The Little Guy lives on the window sill. She's an athlete. I high-five her when I pass by. Everyone needs to be encouraged sometimes.

All smiles after watching Breaking Dawn with a girlfriend. The movie was perfectly, wonderfully awful.

Remember this bi...ddy? Yeah, she's the one with all of the fantastic baby-making advice. In the spirit of Christmas, I zombified her.

See? Merry Christmas!

Yesterday was a day of extremes.

2011-12-16T08:25:00.006-04:00

It was a day of the highest high and the lowest low.

Of course, keep in mind that the highest high looked something like this:

and the lowest low looked something like this:

So it probably wasn't quite so extreme after all.

Yesterday evening, I accidentally reinstalled Intense Debate and lost all of my comments for the past six months. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of your funny, insightful and thoughtful comments...poof! Gone!

GAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I was trying to reinstall on claybaboons.com because for some reason my comment count there is showing up as 0 even though I have comments on my posts. But I always click on things too quickly, before I actually read them. And so I accidentally clicked save on Love Life Project instead of Clay Baboons.

So then I had two blogs with zero comments.

I saw the humour in this. I really did.

It was a shame though, because the conversations and jokes in the comments are usually more entertaining than my original posts.

After whole minutes of agonizing, I figured out that I could just get rid of the new widget, and poof! The comments were back again.

(Hey, I never said it was a riveting story.)

And as for Survivor?

Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! (Click here to go directly to the Grab Bag)

It went something like this:

Brandon: God cares about Survivor. He wants me to win instead of Sophie.

Brandon: Albert, you hurt my feelings. I don't like you anymore.

Brandon: No, I changed my mind. I love you, man. I love you, man.

Brandon: God, God, thank you Jesus, God.

Brandon: I used to be in a gang. Except that when we'd rumble, no one else would show up. Just me. Because I'm loyal.

Brandon: Albert, God wants me to give you my immunity necklace.

Brandon: I wish that I still had my immunity necklace.

Brandon: sniffle

And now for this week's grab bag...
Here's an assortment of posts that fed my brain or made me smile this week:

The Mousetrap: A sad story illustrated with mediocre clay figurines. (Yeah, yeah, OK. I wrote this one. But just in case you didn't catch it the first time...)

Welcome to the Age of Overparenting: Very interesting article from Boston Magazine with confessions of an overparenter. (Thanks to Ryan for linking to this one.)

Margaret Day: A beautiful tribute to an older sister. And also panties. (from Murrmurrs)

Gingerbread Goodies: Some of the most beautiful gingerbread houses I've ever seen! (from Cake Wrecks)

Dealing With the Discomfort: Tessa chronicles her recovery from an eating disorder. As someone who has never suffered from disordered eating, this honest and self-aware blog helps me understand a bit more what eating disorders really are. (from Amazing Asset)

Merry Christmas...With an Emphasis on the "Meh": This made me laugh out loud. More than once. (from Passive Aggressive Notes)

Constipation Nation: "You need motion and the lotion." Let's have a serious talk about constipation. (from Foodtrainers)

I Wish There Wasn't a Blogging Community: Interesting thoughts from someone who feels uncomfortable with the whole idea of a blogging community. (from Late Enough)

Thrifty Homemade Yogurt: This tutorial sounds easy! I love the idea of homemade yogurt, although I'm a bit nervous about trying it myself. (from Thrive Style)

Christmas Card Display: A cute, easy way to display holiday cards. Of course, I usually only get holiday cards from the car dealership and the insurance company, so I won't be making one of these. (from I Heart Organizing)

Happy Friday!

Hungry Day

2011-12-14T07:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a hungry day.

I think that I'm eating enough. My meals all have fruit and/or veggies, fat, protein and whole grains. I don't count calories, but if I did, then I think that my calorie intake would come in at over 2000 calories per day. I know that exercise increases calorie needs, but I'm not exercising so intensely that this should be a concern.

I walk for 40-60 minutes every day.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do 20 minutes of strength training.

Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, I do about 30 minutes of running/walking.

So, I'm moderately active, but this is not intense activity that would require an extra 1000 calories per day or anything like that. And I know that I should eat when I'm hungry, but I don't want to overeat. Or undereat.

It's an enigma. Today I'm going to go buy some apples and add a mid-day snack of fruit and toast. I hope that's enough to tame the hunger.

Thoughts? Do you ever feel non-stop hungry? I'd love some suggestions!

Breakfast

Vector cereal (9 grams of protein) with blueberries and almond milk

dates, almonds and clementines
Lunch

veggie lasagne, two scrambled eggs with broccoli and salsa, salad and clementines
Supper

trout, fried rice (with garlic, onions, green beans, shrimp and sundried tomatoes), broccoli and brussels sprouts

fruit salad
Snack

Banana muffin. It's hard to tell in the photo, but this is a giant muffin (not cupcake sized).
I used the banana bread recipe on Food For My Family. It's the best banana bread recipe in the world! I subbed whole wheat flour for white flour and walnuts for chocolate chips.
And about that running...

I'm currently on week five of the Couch to 5 k program, and I actually find myself looking forward to my run today. This is really shocking for me. I think that it has something to do with the fact that I'm watching The Walking Dead while on the treadmill, and zombies make me want to run while yelling at the screen: "Don't go there alone! Why would you go there alone?"

So I don't love it. I really don't. But I don't hate it...and that's a huge improvement!

The Mousetrap

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

Hello bloggy friends!

I've decided not to cross-post my plasticine stories on Love Life Project and Clay Baboons anymore. It just felt too awkward to share two links to one post, and to respond to comments in two different places. I'll still link to them here on Tuesdays, but the whole story will only be posted on Clay Baboons.

I hope you'll still click over to read today's story: The Mousetrap. (And while you're there, maybe you'll decide to follow my other blog too!)

warning: it's a sad story

Manly Stocking Stuffers

2011-12-12T07:12:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I made a list of "cliche" blog posts that I enjoy reading and writing. So far, I've tackled two on my list of eight cliches:

1) The pinterest post
2) Things that I’m loving right now
3) Things that I’m grateful for
4) Cell phone photo dump
5) Angsty meta-blogging post
6) Pet pictures
7) What I bought
8) Blogger confessions

Today's cliche blog post: what I bought.

But first, let me set the stage.

Growing up, stockings were always the best part of Christmas.

Even when we were older with rooms of our own, my little sister and I would sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve. The first one to open her eyes would shake the other one awake and we would sneak downstairs to gasp and wonder at all of the presents that had magically appeared overnight.

Oooooh...Santa came!
We knew the rule: we could look and touch and shake, but no opening presents until the whole family was up. The stockings, however, were ours to empty while waiting for Mom and Dad to come downstairs. They were filled with chocolate, clementines and small toys and trinkets.

We would eat chocolate for breakfast and play with our stocking toys until the rest of the family - Mom, Dad, our teenaged brother who somehow managed to stay asleep after sun-up on Christmas morning - joined us downstairs.

When we were kids, stockings were the magic of Christmas.

I mentioned before on the blog that JP and I won't be home on Christmas Day. This is the second time in 33 years that I won't wake up at my parents' house on Christmas morning. JP and I have already started discussing how we want to spend the day, and I'm insisting on only one thing:

Each of us has to fill a stocking for the other.

Otherwise, it won't really be Christmas.

one for me, one for JP, one for Chase the Wonderdog

JP's stocking, all stuffed and ready to go.
(Well, not really. I unstuffed it after taking the picture. JP was busy in the basement killing zombies for fun and profit. Well, mostly for fun. We still haven't figured out how to turn a profit by playing Left 4 Dead on the XBox.)

JP, if you're reading this, STOP!
Of course, you probably aren't reading this.
Fact: If my husband had a blog, I'd be scouring it, looking for mentions of...well...me. JP only reads mine when I call him over to show him something.

I did a few searches for "manly" stocking stuffers and couldn't help but laugh at the items on some of the lists that I found online: video games, watches, concert tickets. As far as I'm concerned, those are not stocking stuffers. My Santa does most of his shopping for stocking stuffers at the dollar store.

I started with a goal of spending about 20 dollars, and I did pretty well up until the very end! Here's what I bought:

In the end, these two items - a lottery scratch ticket and a five dollar Tim's card - put me closer to 30 dollars than 20.
Confession: it's going to be really hard for me to not shake JP awake at 5:00 in the morning on Christmas Day so that we can sneak downstairs and open our stockings.

And in other completely unrelated news:

So this is probably nothing new to a lot of you, but I was completely awed by this simple photo fix available on Picnik. Upload a picture and in the "Basic Edits" tab, simply click on the "Auto-Fix" tab.

I was amazed to see it turn this:

photo taken in lightbox
into this:

lightbox photo after clicking on Auto-Fix in Picnik
Pretty cool, right?

And yes, tomorrow's plasticine story briefly features a fly.

Yesterday I Didn't Feel Like Blogging. And Also a Reader Grab Bag.

2011-12-09T10:30:00.001-04:00

I sat down yesterday morning to blog and realized that I had zero interest in blogging. For the first time in ages, I looked at my screen and thought "meh".

Instead, I did almost all of my Christmas shopping (thank you, online shopping). I ran on the treadmill, even though my legs felt like concrete. And I spent a very long time working on an outline for a science fiction book that I hope to start on Monday. The last book wasn't The Book. I'm hoping that this one is. I'm excited about the story and I already have a vivid opening scene in mind.

Anyway, time for this week's reader grab bag. I used to post my grab bags on Saturdays, but I've decided to not put up new posts on weekends anymore. So here they are, a few posts that fed my brain or made me smile this week:

Indolence, Walmart, the Middle Class and the Kitchen Sink: I loved these thoughts on staying home and shopping at Walmart after living in an edgy urban area. A great read. (from Ginger and Lime)

Hot Chocolate 5k Race Recap: a very honest look at running and racing. (from Kiah at Good For Me Girl)

The Fence: a funny illustrated post about a childhood accident. (from Lindsey at Happy or Hungry)

How to Clean Your House in Less Than an Hour, from the non-news site that is Yahoo. Thought number one: "Hey, this sounds manageable." Thought number two: "An hour? But that's soooooo long..."

I Just Wanted to Go For a Walk: this is long (with lots of words), but well-written and interesting. I've never had the kind or the amount of male attention that the author regularly receives; I felt uncomfortable just reading about her experiences. (from Avflox on Blogher)

My "First Grade Problems": I smiled at this post that looked back on some of the Major Problems that we all had to deal with as six-year-olds. (from Eden at Eden Eats Everything)

Eating and Running and Folding Laundry

2011-12-07T07:13:00.001-04:00

I'm on Day 2 Week 4 of the Couch to 5K program. While I still don't love running, I'm proud of myself for sticking to it. The longest that I've ever stuck to running was nine weeks; maybe if I can commit for a little bit longer this time, I'll eventually turn a corner and start enjoying it.

I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas during my last run. After I finished running, I kept watching...and I slew the laundry monster! Yes, that's right, the laundry monster is no more. Until next week.

JP is home again, after spending a little over a week in hot sunny Arizona. First the Caribbean, then the desert - I think that he's trying to avoid winter altogether! I can't complain too much, though, since all of the snow from a few weeks ago melted and we're back to green grass and spring-like temperatures.

When JP is home, we actually eat real meals. Not everything that I eat is cooked in a bowl in the microwave.

Breakfast: chocolate oatmeal and a banana

Lunch: Indian food (that I didn't make), vegetables and clementines

Supper: steelhead trout, vegetables, brown rice, noodles and dates with almonds

Snack: a bowl of jalepeno chips that made my lips burn

Sometimes it Takes me Three Weeks to Fold the Laundry

2011-12-06T09:00:00.005-04:00

Laundry in my house usually looks something like this:

But no more.

This time I'm going to...

I just need to stop for a second because I have to go to the bathroom.

And I'm thirsty.

And I need a snack.

And while I'm upstairs, I know what I should do! I should add "fold the laundry" to my to-do list. It's going to feel so good to check it off when I'm done. Just let me hop on my computer and add "fold the laundry" to my to-do list. And then I'll go back downstairs and fold more than three things.

And while I'm on the computer, I'm just going to check my email really quickly. I'm just going to see if I have any. I'm not even going to read it. And then I'm going straight back downstairs to...

Oooooooooh... New Cake Wrecks post!

Two Hours Later

Oh.

Right.

Laundry.

I'll do it tomorrow.

I will slay you, laundry monster.

Be afraid.

You're on my to-do list.

***

Please note: There's no need to point out the fact that, in the time that it took me to write this post, I could have folded every piece of clothing in this house twice. Because I already know that.

The original Cake Wrecks post can be found here. Warning: if you click, you will lose at least two hours of your life. And it will be worth it.

My plasticine stories have their own blog: Clay Baboons. I needed a new title, because there are about 40 billion blogs out there called Words and Pictures. And so, after thinking for most of the day, I came up with Clay Baboons. Because one time I made a baboon. Out of clay. My creativity knows no bounds. Surprisingly enough, the domain name was still available.

Five Things I Love About December (AKA Christmas)

2011-12-05T09:00:00.002-04:00

Time for a cliche blog post! I'm changing "Things That I Love Right Now" to "Five Things That I Love About December (AKA Christmas)".

The Movies

The first Christmas movie that I watch every year is - without fail - The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's the perfect segue from creepy science fiction into joy and cheer. I spend the first two weeks of December humming "This is Halloween" and "Making Christmas". And also? Plasticine! And Tim Burton!

I also love Elf, Love Actually, A Miracle on 34th Street (both versions), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon, not the travesty with Jim Carrey) and Die Hard (what? It's a Christmas movie.).

I don't like: the fact that we don't have cable and miss all of the Christmas specials.

The Music

As soon as December first shows up, it's All Christmas All the Time around here. I love to hate cheesy old favourites, like Have a Holly Jolly Christmas and There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays. (And by love to hate, I mean that I love them but roll my eyes and groan when they come on. So really, I fake-hate them, but actually secretly love them. That probably says something about my character. I'm not to be trusted.)

My three favourite Christmas CDs are Christmas Eve and Other Stories by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked for the Holidays by the Barenaked Ladies

I don't like: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer or Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I also really strongly dislike that Christmas Shoes song.

The Decorations

December is so dark. I love the way that decorations brighten everything up. It's much more pleasant to walk the dog in the dark when there are bright, cheerful lights everywhere. I kind of wish that it weren't a faux-pas to leave the outdoor lights on throughout the winter.

I don't like: tinsel. Blinking lights. Sorry. They make me feel like I have ADD, especially when there's a string of blinking lights next to a string of non-blinking lights. And taking down the tree after Christmas is the worst.

The Presents

I like giving them. I like getting them. I like choosing them and buying them and wrapping them. I like watching people open them. I even enjoy the challenge of finding thoughtful gifts while staying within budget.

I don't like: Christmas cards. Actually, that's not true; I love Christmas cards. I dislike the fact that I never get any. I just never get around to sending mine out, and we move a lot and forget to tell everyone our new address. We usually get one from our insurance agent and one from the car dealership. Do you have any idea how depressing it is to get all excited over a card, and then open it up to read that your Ford Dealership wishes you Season's Greetings? It's pretty depressing.

The Food

More specifically, the desserts. Cookies, chocolate, apple pie, cookies, squares, fudge, cookies, candy. And also cookies. And hot chocolate. I love baking, although I've sadly lost my all-time favourite best-cookies-in-the-world recipe. Also, the closer we get to Christmas, the more likely I am to dip stuff in melted chocolate.

I don't like: overdosing on cookies. Except that I kind of also love that part. Eggnog. Bah. Horrid stuff. And candy canes taste like hard toothpaste.

What do you like best (or least) about December?

If you don't celebrate Christmas, then I'm guessing that incessant posts about Christmas is probably pretty high on your list of things that you don't love about December. I'll try to keep those to a minimum.

Help Me Choose a Charity

2011-12-04T08:45:00.003-04:00

I don't blog anymore on Sundays.

I finished NaBloPoMo, a challenge to put up a new post every day during the month of November, and while I enjoyed it, I've decided that I really don't need to blog every day. I'm going to stop blogging on weekends, at least for the month of December, and move my Saturday grab bag posts to Friday.

I thought that I should put up a post to let you know that. That way you won't all be wringing your hands and gnashing your teeth and wondering "why isn't she blogging on Sunday?". So this is not a blog post, because I don't blog on Sundays anymore.

It's a survey. There's a distinct difference between blog posts and surveys.

I'm 42 cents away from my first $25.00 of ad revenue with BlogHerAds. BlogHerAds sends out cheques if you have a minimum of $25.00, so I'm about to get my very first pay. I've decided to donate my ad revenue from 2011 to a local charity.

Yeah, it's only 25 bucks. But - as everyone's Mom used to say - it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I have my own charities that I support throughout the year. Since this money is a direct result of you choosing to come here and read what I have to say, I'd like to let you choose where this money goes. Please vote:

Which charity should we support with 2011 ad revenue?
Thank you for reading!