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!

Homeless

Not really.  I mean...I have a place to stay.  Hell, I even still have an apartment, it's just empty and unbelievably sketchy.  But here's what's true:  Last Monday, movers came and emptied out our apartment.  We stayed in a hotel with the kitties until last Friday.  My husband, who shall remain nameless, took the kitties to DC and I went on a trip with a friend and spent the weekend sleeping on the ground in a tent.  Now I'm sleeping on the floor in a friend's house for the rest of the week.  I'll be in a B&B this coming weekend, and then - only then - will I make it to DC, where my husband, who shall remain nameless, and my kitties await me.  So for now, I do feel a bit like a vagrant.

I'm so tired.  It's disconcerting not having my own space for so long.  That apartment was no great shakes, but at least it was a consistent place.  It had my creatures in it.  Bouncing from floor to floor is exhausting.

But lemme tell you, crashing in a sleeping bag on my friend's floor is a damned sight better than crashing on the floor of my sketchy, empty apartment (that was my first plan, which my husband, who shall remain nameless, wisely vetoed).  Her place isn't sketchy!  And it's not empty.  I'm an introvert - I do pretty okay by myself.  But usually "by myself" at least involves kitties.  It's nice having another soul in the house, y'know?  And it's nice not to have cigarette smoke wafting through the bathroom vent and pot smoke creeping up from downstairs and neighbors screaming at each other, and wondering when the really sketchy people will figure out that you're 105lbs and all alone....

Thanks Becca!  :-)