Category: Ten on Tuesday

Today's Ten on Tuesday is a list of things on my nightstand:

1.  Lamp.  I don't love this lamp, but I haven't found anything I like better.

2.  Coaster. Can't see it in the picture, but it has a fun, free-hand design.  I purchased it at a pottery show in Cold Spring, NY in 2000.  Lots of cups of coffee and glasses of water have spent time on it.

3.  Bottle of vitamin E oil. Until recently I have always had strong nails.  I keep my nails really short; I admire long nails on other women, but I've never learned to function efficiently with them.  Even with my nails short, though,in the last six months or so, they have been splitting like crazy.  When I bemoaned this on Twitter, Amy told me that it was probably just age (she was nice about it, but, still.  Oh, the vanity!).   I read up all I could about splitting nails and came away more confused.  My girl Cheryl recommended that I start brushing them with vitamin E oil daily, and while there are still some peeling and splitting issues, my nails have improved. (Gee, should this have been on last week's list?)

4.  Kindle.  My book club met on Sunday to re-assess our loosey-goosey system of selecting books and of meeting.  We put together our list of books to read between now and January 2012.  As soon as I arrived home, I re-charged the Kindle (seen in the top-flip m-edge green cover.  *love*), downloaded a few of the books, and started reading.

5. Mohonk Mountain House pictures.  When we arrived at Mohonk for our honeymoon, there was a gift on the mantle: a little MMH frame with pictures of the beautiful resort.  I've kept it next to the bed ever since.

6.  Notebook and pen. Lists, ideas.  Whatever.  I don't trust my memory.  I need a place to write things down, especially as I drift off at night.

7.  Life Before Death by Abby Frucht. I started it last week.  The narrator's voice is funny, and I think it will be a quick read. My pal Amy, a voracious and strong reader, recommended this to me a while ago.

8.  Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz.  I read about half of this over the summer and either need to give it back to Teri or finish it! The writing is great; it's just not a subject that holds my interest.  I do feel I better understand the hold the Civil War has on people, though.

9.  John Scheepers bulb catalog.  When I don't want to read, but I need something to occupy my mind, I look at the pretty pictures and dream of spring.  Of course, it isn't the spring I'll have since I never ordered or planted bulbs this fall.

10.  Lavender massage oil. Lavender is one of my favorite scents (reminds me, among other things, of one of the prettiest places in Albuquerque), and this oil is great.

What's on your nightstand?

I was pretty psyched when I saw this week's Ten on Tuesday theme: Top Ten Health and Beauty Products.  I have a few I love and want to tell you about, and I'm looking forward to learning about new goodies as I read the other lists.

First, less product than habit: 

1.  Water.  Our bodies are made up of a LOT of water (that is a scientific fact!), and keeping them hydrated helps skin to look better, as well as flushes out toxins.

2. Sleep.  Best health and beauty product ever, unless you cried yourself to sleep, in which case you might, like me, look terrible even after eight solid hours (swollen eyes do not = beauty!).  Sometimes I think the best benefit of a good night's sleep is simply the better attitude I have the next day.

3.  Good food.  It isn't always cheap, but eating good, in-season food, preferably cooking it at home (as opposed to going out too much, in to which trap I often fall) does wonders for my health.  The USDA pyramids, tailored for different dietary needs, are an excellent resource for making sure I get the right balance of foods.

4.  Exercise.  After a long day of teaching today, I came home and shoveled.  Not the entire, huge driveway, but enough that my blood got moving.  I am not a fan of working out in a gym (the only time I've ever really liked it was when I took boxing lessons with the Rev).  I ride our bike trainer only to prepare for some of the goals I've set for the summer. I would much rather move outside, and sometimes that comes in the form of shoveling, chasing the dogs, running with a scarf over my mouth and nose, ice skating, or skiing.  No matter what I do, I feel so much better after (except, you know, for the aches).  My skin glows, and I feel firmer and mentally healthier.

Okay, enough of the common-sense-yet-vital beauty products that aren't really products, and on to the fun stuff.  I raved about the Rosebud Salve in my last post, so I'll skip it.

5.  Vaseline.  Some ways I like to use it: put on my dry feet, pull on old white socks, go to bed, wake up with softer feet; put on lips over red, red lipstick for extra shine; smooth eyebrows with it (don't glop it on); put a tiny bit on eyelashes instead of mascara.  

6.  Aveeno Positively Radiant Cleanser.  I have sensitive skin.  I can't take heavy fragrances.  This cleanser does the trick for me.

7.  Goldwell Color Glow Deep.  I spray this on before I comb out my hair (with a wide-toothed comb, of course) after a shower.  I've been coloring my hair for ages, and this product truly has kept the color looking better more than any product I've used before.  The light fragrance is so pretty, too.

8.Kiehl's Tinted Moisturizer. When I've been drinking ample water, eating well, exercising, and getting plenty of sleep, I don't always want to wear foundation (though I love the one I use).  On those days, I use my Kiehl's tinted, pop on a little powder, some Rosebud Salve on my lips, and I am ready to get to work.

9.  Boots No. 7.  I've used several of the line's products, and I like the Protect and Perfect Serum, the Day Cream, which has an SPF of 15, and the eye cream, though I confess to liking Aveda's Tourmaline eye cream better (it looks like they're not making it any more?!).

10.  Good sex.  Okay, not a product, and I debated about adding this one, but as a woman who went a LONG time sans a lover, I am a firm, dare I say, hardcore, believer that good sex does wonders for mental health, for skin (aren't we usually using makeup to a. replicate youth; b. enhance our favorite features; and c. replicate afterglow?) and for all around happiness, which is the most beautiful thing a woman can add to her health and beauty arsenal?

Now that I'm blushing a little, I'd love to hear about your favorite beauty product.  Be sure to check out Carole's list as well as the list of everyone participating in Ten on Tuesday!

This week, Carole asked us to think back to childhood and share a list of games we played.  

 
1.  Dolls.  There are no rules to this game, but I loved playing with my dolls.  Paper dolls, soft dolls, anything dolls, and I was in.

2.  TV shows.  The four or five youngest of us in my neighborhood liked to re-inact our favorite tv shows.  Land of the Lost was a big favorite, as was Charlie's Angels.

3.  Spit.  My oldest sister and I played this by the hour, and I still love a good game of spit.

4.  Reading catalogs.  Is that a game?  Well, even if not, I certainly spent many, many hours poring over the Enchanted Dollhouse catalog.

5.  Hide and Go Seek.  I loved that thrill of hiding out.  I was not so keen on being the seeker.

6.  Field.  Again, not really a game, but a big part of my childhood.  We had a huge field across the stream behind our house that developers had started to dig up, but then stopped.  We played endlessly on the huge mounds of dirt and explored the area for hours on end.  As a young teenager, I borrowed my older sister's skis and learned to cross-country ski there.

7.  Monopoly.  As the youngest of five kids, I often had to beg for siblings to play with me.  This was one of my faves.

  8.  Dress up.  I had a rich fantasy life, even as a child.  I liked to listen to my records and tapes of fairy tales and dress up and dream.  On the back of this picture, my mom wrote that my gram had made the hat, and I wouldn't take it off for anything~not even bath time!

9.  Tree climbing.  Well, there was only tree I really liked to climb, and I was pretty adept at doing so with a book in tow.  I felt so free and secure on my favorite branch.  

10.  Monkey bars.  We just called the contraption, which would probably never be sold today, "the bars".  It was red.  It folded in half.  It could easily tumble down or pinch a kid's fingers.  But, man, did my sisters and I spend hours flipping around that thing, playing at being gymnasts.

It seems like there were a hundred other games and things I loved to do to occupy my time as a kid.  How about you?  What was your favorite game as a child?

Over the last few years, my life has changed a lot.  While some of my usual organizational methods have remained useful, others no longer suit, leaving me in the process of finding the Goldilocks system.  There are some things I think Help me to be More Organized, the subject of this week's Ten on Tuesday.

1.  Saving documents.  I am consistent in how I save my work.  Letters are always saved "x name date".  X=letter, name=recipient, date=when written.  I save writing by "title, draft, version, date" (commas not allowed, of course).  Classroom documents are saved by semester, class, doc title, date.  These little consistencies make it easy for me to track my work, returning to earlier versions with little hassle.

2.  Computer desktop folders.  I get a little chill of fear when I see a desktop absolutely littered with documents.  Creating a folder by project, activity, whatever makes sense, and placing all the documents in that folder help me to stay organized.  And to avoid feeling overwhelmed when I turn on my computer.

3.  Routines. The best routine I've ever started was to put my keys in the same place.  Always.  Every time.  I impose that on Neal, and he laughs at me, but if he drops the keys on the counter, as soon as I see them, I pop them into the key basket.  I never want to be that person searching for keys.  They go in the same place in my purse, too.

4. Real folders.  The trick is to make sure you use a system that makes sense to you.  I have big subjects (Dogs, Warranties, etc.), and I also have folders for each of my short stories/articles. I keep folders for inspiring magazine images, too, though I'm using Pinterest far more than I'm ripping magazines apart. 

5.  Separate things by use.  Spices that I use predominately for baking are on a different shelf than those I use for cooking.  

6.  Pretend to be a librarian.  If like me you have lots of books (or cds or any other physical media), don't lump them all together.  I have fiction and non-fiction on different bookshelves, and the non-fiction is further broken down.  Short story collections are separate from fiction.  Craft books have their own shelf, as do poetry and Classical literature.  Shakespeare also has his own shelf–I have collected works, many of the Arden editions of individual plays, and critical books.  Stop judging; I wrote my MA thesis about his work and can't let go of the texts I labored with for so long!

7.  Sort the mail immediately.  I don't linger with mail.  If I'm going to read a magazine or catalog, it goes on the coffee table.  Neal's mail is placed on his desk.  Anything to which I need to respond goes on my desk.  Recycling goes out the door to its new home, the blue bin.  Piles of mail give me anxiety, so I deal with it right away.

8.  Plan the week's menu.  I was amused to recently see that another blogger has posted a menu-planning worksheet.  It seems a bit overkill to me, but if you don't already have a system, I suppose it is useful.  I try to grocery shop on Sundays during the semester.  While I'm having my morning coffee, I go through recipes and write up dinner menus for the week bearing in mind late days (I won't want to cook much) or evenings out (Neal fends for himself, usually with something on the grill).  It makes grocery shopping easier and probably less expensive, and I don't have to think to hard about food for the rest of the week.

9.  Don't trust your memory.  Have a secure place for important documents.  My ex-husband's filing system before we got married involved his record collection.  I'm not even kidding.  I would never trust myself to remember that my birth certificate was filed in Abbey Road because the Beatles started working on it not long after I was born.

10.  Purge.  Project 333 has been amazing for many reasons, and topmost is the purging of ill-fitting, worn-out, or simply not my style clothes that I have done.  I am far more organized when I get dressed now, and I'm much more organized about what pieces I would like in order to make my wardrobe work even better. This weekend I purged a lot of fiber from my spinning stash, and the yarn stash is slated for the next big purge!

For all I have to say about organization, I'm still struggling with finding a way to merge my home calendar, work calendar, paper calendar, and electronic calendars in a way that will be most effective and efficient for me.  If I figure it out, you'll be the first to know!

Meanwhile, what helps you to be more organized?

 *

Carole's directive for this week is "Ten Things I Wouldn't Want to Live Without".  I'm glad I re-read it. First time around, I had "couldn't do without" in my head, and that is a different thing entirely.  After spending most of Monday morning discussing what I couldn't do without with Neal, I realized shelter was the only thing.  Maybe running water, but I suppose I could make do if I had to, at least for a while.

Anyway, Wouldn't Want to Live Without is so much more fun.  So, here goes:

1.  My computer.  Rupert and I work and play a lot together.  I believe that a person should have her own computer, unshared by others who might eff up settings, put fingerprints on a screen, or any number of other unsavory insults.  I would not want to live without Rupert all to myself.

2.  Yarn.  What would keep my hands busy if I couldn't knit or crochet?  Oh, I know, I know.  There are plenty of other hobbies, but yarn is the supply I would not want to live without.

3.  Kindle.  Shannenabler as I like to call her convinced me two years ago that the Kindle was nothing short of necessary to an avid reader.  As she always is, she was right.  I don't use it to the exclusion of books, which some people seem to think is the future. Instead, I prefer it to carrying several books around in my bag when I'm traveling, and it is also much easier to schlep around in my handbag.  I would not want to live without my Kindle, or some sort of e-reader.

4.  Fluevog Chinoas.  These boots take a few minutes to lace and buckle, but if I need to feel like a badass, these are my shoes of choice.  I would not want to live without shoes that make me walk a little taller. 

5.  Compact OED. I may not consult it often, and I suppose I can access the OED online now, but I would not want to live without this dictionary on my bookshelf.

6.  A car.  Well, technically, I would like to live without a car, but that would mean relocating to a place I know N. would not like.  Since I live in the woods, sans a bus or train line that would put me near my campus, I would not want to live without a car.   

7.  Trixie Trek, my bike.  I love to ride my bike.  I would not want to live without the freedom and strength I feel when I ride her.

8.  Saag paneer.  A world without my favorite Indian dish would be a sadder world.  I would not want to live without food that makes me as happy as saag paneer does.

9. Addi Clicks.  #2 would do me little good sans needles, and the Clicks are my main choice. N. was super generous to me this Christmas and spoiled me with a second set, lace Clicks.  Oh, I do love a sharp point!  Don't get me wrong, I'm also a fan of the Signature needles, but since I own the Clicks I know I would not want to live without them. 

10. Paper.  I'm a paper junky.  I like handmade paper, handcrafted journals, stationery, composition books.  I wouldn't want to live without paper, no matter how much I prefer to write on Rupert.

So you don't think I'm a big meany who would be happy to live without her husband or friends, remember Carole's words:  people (and dogs!) are not things!

What things would you not want to live without?

*If I added an 11th, it would have to be my new washer/dryer set.  After months without a dryer, I know I prefer not to live without one!

Today's list is Ten Intentions for 2011.  I am glad Carole didn't use the word "resolutions".  When I resolve to do or not do things, I fail.  A lot.  I'm going to take up her word "intention" and have a more mindful attitude about the changes I want to make.

1. Revamp my project organization.  Not my knitting projects, silly.  That's what Ravelry is for.  I had a few bursts of creative thinking over the last few months, which have led me to several ideas worth exploring.  I want to be able to keep things straight and give ample time to each project.  This week I'm exploring different organizational methods (beyond my usual to-do list tool): Things, Getting Things Done, and the Action Method.  They are all fairly similar.  My task is to figure out which one makes the most sense to me.

2. Perfect cooking rice.  I don't want to buy a rice cooker (though I know Penny loves hers), and I got a slew of advice via Twitter yesterday.  It's time for me to stop effing up the rice.  I want to feel, deep in my soul, what Amy assured me: it is no harder than cooking pasta.  Please don't judge me on this shortcoming.

3. Take longer bike rides.  In 2010, I got on my bike more frequently.  In 2011, I want to continue that frequent riding (once the weather is warm again!) and build up mileage.  I dream of riding my bike across the country one summer, and building mileage is one way to help me to achieve that dream.

4.  Rekindle my daily writing practice.  Last semester kicked my butt.  My good writing habits went by the wayside.  It is time to get them back, get the never-ending novel finished and move on!

5.  Participate in Christina's Project Define 365.  I'm hoping that I can learn to take better pictures, enjoy connecting words and images, and explore my life all at the same time!

6.  Improve my gardening.  We've roped off a sunnier spot in the front yard for the 2011 garden, and I am going to be much more thoughtful about what I plant.  I tend to lose my head when it comes to buying seeds and plants, and I end up with produce I don't eat (peppers!) and have to find uses for or dump on my neighbors.  This year we're going to implement tactics from Gaia's Garden.

7. Finish some of the knits languishing about.  There are so many projects I want to start, but I must have some discipline.  I must.

8.  Go on a yarn fast.  All of the office cleaning I've been doing in preparation for a big design revamp has made it clear to me that I do not need another skein of yarn.  Sure, I might want it, but for 2011, I'm going to set up some guidelines. 

9.  Participate in another 365 project inspired by Noah Scalin.  I'm hammering out the idea still, but I'm close.  I'm close.

10.  Pare down my clothes.  Project 333 has been fruitful, and I want to build on it.  I plan to participate in the next round, with some modifications to make the project suit me better.  I don't want to go back to a crammed closet, though.  

How about you?  What are some of your intentions for 2011?