I miss blogging!

I'm back!

I’ve been thinking lately about reviving the ‘ole blog.  I dunno, I miss it, it was fun.  And it gave me a neat impetus to keep doing creative things, whereas left to my own devices (and now that I like…have a job and stuff…), procrastination can really take over (remember that quilt I started 5 years ago?  Yeah, it’s still going).

So here’s what’s changed since last we met:

1)   I am no longer a poor, broke grad student.  I am now a comfortably middle-class diplomat.  Before I had a flexible schedule and my program, frankly, was not a good fit, so this blog was a much-needed distraction that I was able to make time for.  Now I have a 9-5 job and will need to be more disciplined if anything is to come of this.  Before I was crushingly poor – which frankly was part of the fun of the blog, trying to find ways to live the good life on a shoestring.  Now I have, like…disposable income and stuff.  It’s still somewhat disconcerting.

2)   I no longer live in Madison, WI – or the U.S. for that matter.  Soon after we last spoke, I spent a wonderful couple of years in Ottawa, Canada and I’m now living in the utterly fascinating, if somewhat more grim and gritty, Kyiv, Ukraine.  And let me tell you – as wonderful an experience as it is being here, there will be times when this blog will be a welcome distraction from all of that.

3)   I am pregnant.  Ayup!  Expect baby projects.  But I promise they won’t ALL be baby projects.

4)   I actually haven’t been knitting a lot lately.  Lots of people knit in Ukraine, but there’s not the sort of yarn culture like there was in Madison – no yarn stores cum coffee shops…in fact no yarn stores at all, that I’ve found.  Most folks buy their stuff online, which is just not as fun.  I’ve been dabbling in cross stitch, cooking up a storm and have some simple sewing projects that I’ll be blogging about soon, but I promise there will also be plenty of knitting (stay tuned for a new free pattern and giveaway coming really soon!).

5)  We went Paleo.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  And I’ve actually been super bad about it since getting knocked up (I’ve been having a hard time gaining weight, so my only real option here is cake, know’m’sayin’?).  I promise to keep this blog 100% Paleo-evangelism free.  But you will, from time to time, find some nifty gluten-free recipes and stuff.  I like to say my approach is “Laidback Paleo;” for instance coming soon will be a post about The (now not-so little) Blonde Lightening Bolt’s amazing grain-free birthday layer cake topped with SUGARY SUGARY BUTTERCREAM!!!  (And yes, that is an ice cream bowl made of dark chocolate in the background.  Don't worry, that tutorial will totally happen).

6)  I have given up my feminist ways and accepted my husband, who shall remain nameless, as my lord and master.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  Kidding.

So what hasn’t changed, I hope, is the general ethos.  Better living through makin’ stuff.  Punchy, irreverent feminism.  Occasional references to swords.  I may not have a hilariously negligible budget to contend with, but living the ex-pat life offers its own hurdles to creatively overcome, so you’ll all be privy to that.  And I may not have blue carpet anymore, but I sorta like to think that I’ve traded that in for the more metaphorical blue carpet of embassy-issued furniture (about which more later).  Fundamentally, here at Sasha’s Blue Carpet, we’re still all about living the good life.  And as any good crafter/grad student/ex-pat will tell you, the only way to live the good life is to make it from scratch!