Ever since then, I have been intrigued by little houses. Yesterday I came upon this blog post of a little house that could be the next incarnation of Will’s creation. A slightly larger design, a working fireplace, higher end finishes and divided up into more rooms.

Can’t you just see yourself here with a good book and no distractions? In my dream tiny house, I wouldn’t have a fig fireplace bc that would mean I would have to both light a fire everyday and take out the ashes, which are two things I don’t like. That said, it makes for a nice picture. I also love the tiny kitchen:

This house doesn’t have a stove or an oven. All the cooking is done on that wood fire. Again, making a fire and taking out the ashes: less romantic in real life. Also, indoor pollution.  Open fires in enclosed spaces do not make for healthy lungs no matter how beautiful they are.  Not to be Debbie Downer or anything

And there’s a hilarious study for one’s alchemy and globe examining:

A tiny house is just so intriguing. Do you think it would be difficult to live in a 12′ x 12′ space? It’s such a different type of house from our standard suburban house with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. It’s funny though, as I try to stop buying new things and decrease the number of things I have, my current apartment seems bigger and bigger. Perhaps downsizing when I move will be less painful that I originally thought…

This program was interesting because it made me reassess my exposure to these compounds from the plastics that I still use in many areas of my life. I can’t stop touching plastic at work since much of our sterile work requires plastic. However, I identified three areas where I could reduce exposure to chemical exposure:

1. Cosmetics
2. Food storage
3. Prepared food

My plan is to address my exposure due to my cosmetics by going through the database compiled by the environmental working group called “skin deep”. I’m a little worried about my sunscreen as I do wear it everyday and I know they need to use something to block the UV rays…

My plan on food storage will require less effort. I already use glass storage containers for my leftovers but I may bite the bullet and recycle my remaining plastic containers. Also, I need to look at the long term storage of my pantry staples. How dangerous is it to keep your cooking oils stored in plastic? Perhaps, I can buy new oils in glass containers as I use up what I have now.

Prepared food will be harder for me because I am a big frozen entree eater. Frozen meals are my lunchtime staples since they are cheaper than going down to the hospital cafeteria. That said, frozen meals often violate the “no plastic in the microwave rule”. Even the ones in cardboard containers have a plastic sheet on top. Stop buying frozen entrees and eat more sandwiches? We’ll see. 

My one small step for today was switching out my use of plastic forks and spoons for real silverware. Not only will it reduce waste and decrease the clutter on my, my fork, knife and spoon will be one fewer potential vector of chemicals into my body. It’s better than nothing! 

I have been trying to come up with some things that I want for Christmas:

a pair of full length running tights for exercising in the winter.  I’m a size medium and I prefer black bc it goes with all my shirts. I like the ones from Nike bc they have a drawstring in the waist so actually stay up. Plus, my old pair from ~2003 has just lost their stretch and are going in the trash.  That’s a lot of use! 

a pair of boots to wear while I take Wallace out and walk through the rain to my car. All I wear are flats and keds but when it’s raining in the winter, I need other everyday shoes. These will keep my feet dry and warm and will hopefully be more comfortable than wearing big rainboots all the time.

These boots are made in the US and I think I would wear a size 7 (given that they run very big).

And because I can’t say no to J.Crew handbags: I love this “Brompton hobo”. I can’t decide between black or brown. My current brown crossbody bag is falling apart (which isn’t much of a surprise as I got it from the goodwill more than 10 years ago) and my black crossbody isn’t quite big enough for all the junk I like to carry around. 

I also love my Longchamp bag that I got about 5 years ago. I like the all black ones. Although I have seen one has little leather guards on the corners that would make it more resilient to constantly carrying pointy binders and portfolios that I hold my papers in.

Another thing I would definitely use is a gift certificate to Petco for $42 as that is how much it costs to get Wallace groomed and bathed. I can wash Wallace for free at home but he starts smelling bad again within the week. A gift certificate to Petco in any denomination would get turned into dog food or treats STAT. In fact, I still need to get Wallace a tag with my name and cell phone number on it. That way, if he ever got lost, people would call me instead of his previous owner.

and I’m still hoping for one of those wardian cases to keep my little venus fly trap in…

One thing that is challenging about my apartment is that the only window is in the front. That means the back (where I enter from the hallway) is completely dark at all times of the day. Plus, there is no overhead lighting! Lamps are imperative but somehow, no one thought about outlet placement when designing these lofts. The previous tenant had run an extension over the door to put a hideous christmas light wreath over the door. That was the only lighting in the hallway.  It was not bright enough to see if your socks actually matched.

In the photo above, I have already taken down the wreath, but I had left up the extension cord so I could plug in a lamp on top of my shoe rack without tripping over the cord. Jeff had a great idea to just run the cord under a rug so I wouldn’t have to look at the cords anymore.  Since I already had a rug I was willing to sacrifice to muddy paws and some liver-treat drool, I rearranged things a little bit: 

I think it looks a lot better! Also, thank you to my sweet brothers for that photo of the overgrown house you can see on the left hand wall. I love getting to look at it every day as I put on my jacket!  One of my favorite birthday presents!

I have a cross-country move in my future. This has always seemed a long ways away, but now that move looks like it is less than a year away. I can’t even imagine moving all my stuff down into a U-haul, let alone across the country. After reading a bunch of her blog posts, I decided maybe I could get behind this whole minimalism thing. Miss Minimalist wrote a book “The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide“, which I read e-cover to e-cover after downloading it to my kindle. Probably not surprising to anyone, the secret to reducing clutter is getting rid of all the stuff you don’t need. But the big breakthrough is redefining what you NEED.

This book (and the accompanying blog posts) made me look at my whole apartment with new eyes. Why did I have so many bins of out of season clothes when I also had a full closet and two full dressers? I can justify each piece of clothing individually, but when you look at the whole “collection”, it is overwhelming. And I’m sure I don’t even wear half of those clothes.

The bigger disappointment for me is that I have been compartmentalizing my consumption from its larger effects. Those effects range from the loneliness of giving into materialism to the damage to the environment. Even more timely (in light of the OWS protests) is the effect of materialism on our society, which leads to our viewing ourselves as consumers first instead of citizens. Today, I read an article in the NY Times about the encroachment of black Friday on Thanksgiving itself. Although much of the focus of the article was on how people didn’t want to lose their celebration of Thanksgiving to waiting in line in the cold for Black Friday sales, I really appreciated how the author included a small discussion of the effect that such a change would have on the employees of these stores.

“The concern among customers about retail workers recalls an earlier era, when consumer advocates encouraged people to consider the impact of their shopping on sales clerks, said Lawrence B. Glickman, the chairman of the history department at the University of South Carolina. In the late 19th century, as labor organizers pushed for eight-hour days and holidays off, consumer advocates told shoppers to “watch out for their complicity in the exploitation of workers through shopping” he said.”

Is this sentiment not relevant even outside the context of black Friday? This weekend I plan to attend a local craft fair to start my holiday shopping. This year I am going to try to purchase my gifts from small businesses instead of supporting companies that don’t meet my standards. 

1. A car charger for my iphone.  $24.95

This seems quite practical because I often forget to charge my phone.

2. I have been trying to buy less clothing, but I love this denim shirt from Madewell. $88  I would wear a size small in desert willow.

I have been longingly eyeing this shirt for a couple of months, but in Durham, there is no need for a long sleeved shirt until Fall. And now it's fall!

I promise I won’t wear some dumb hat if I get that shirt.

3.  A cover for my kindle so I can pop it in my bag and not worry about it getting trashed.  I like this navy blue and red one, but honestly I don’t have a strong preference here.  This item is about utility.  The reviews though seem to indicate that the ones with the metal hooks that latch into the side have a tendency to fry the circuitry though so I am thinking this one with the elastic may be better.

I like how this one looks just like a regular notebook.

I would also use an Amazon gift card since I’ve been buying a lot of books online for my kindle.  This whole “instant delivery” to your e-reader is really dangerous!

4. I am a crazy person who wears out a eye mask.  Thus I need a new one.  This eye mask ($10) has gotten hundreds of good reviews as to the quality of the velcro and ability to block light.  If anyone has a source for the one Holly Golightly wears in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” with the eyes embroidered on it though that would be pretty funny.

i think that sleep mask would completely freak Wallace out.

5.  An air plant.  I don’t know where to find them but perhaps you do.

It doesn't need to be watered! I probably won't kill it!

6. A Wardian case ($130) for my venus fly trap that lives at work.  This one is currently out of stock but maybe they will be available for Christmas?

That's a fine looking Wardian case. I would put something cooler than Ivy in it though.

7. A phone call.  You know I love to talk on the phone

(I think this is enough ideas.)

This one is pretty amazingly cute: 

The girls in my lab have convinced the new grad student that she should get a cat too.  They all went to the shelter together to look at kittens.  The new grad student liked playing with the kittens but didn’t get one.  I asked her why not and she replied that she had been disappointed by the selection.  The ones that were there were very cute but none of them looked like Maru from the videos.  Also she wanted a cat that could fit in a tea cup.  Forever. She didn’t think she saw any cats of that breed.  To all this ridiculousness, I had to break the bad news.  There are no cats that will fit in a tea cup forever.  She answered that perhaps it had just been a picture she saw once and not actually real.

That anecdote really happened.

Since my last post, I have had a miserable summer cold that led to the most ridiculous cough.  This week, I’m feeling better and I’m not coughing so much.  I should be  grateful, but I just feel like I need to catch up on all the work that I put off while I lay on the couch moaning and exhausted.

and Update from the last post: the beautiful Liberty print swimsuit was way too big and they didn’t have any smaller sizes in stock.  I had to return it and now I am gun-shy about more diaper style bikini bottoms.  I bought these J.Crew swim suits on sale online and we will see if I have better luck.

This one has little birds on it. This is the one I really hope fits!

This one is paisley and had the bottoms in a smaller size. This one seems more likely to fit. Anything will be better than my 5 year old current bikini.

I will let you know if one of these is ever going to make it out on the lake.  I will also let you know about the bizarre behavior of my labmates.  Since I’m sure you’re waiting with bated breath.

But I was wrong.  The lake was awesome.  The scenery is beautiful and you feel like you are surrounded by forest.  We saw an egret or some other large bird!  I saw no snakes! I did see more than one confederate flag and mine may have been the only Obama sticker in the parking lot, but everyone was really friendly.  All the other people on boats are smiling and listening to their tunes and waving to you.  I’m guessing it’s bc they’re on a lake in the sunshine instead of behind a desk under fluorescent lights.  The boat is also a great place to drink beer.  I love the lake!  Here is a picture of me and Mr Bandy being delighted by being on a boat:

Us on a boat! Wearing hats! Getting splashed!

Additionally, Mr Bandy was so sweet and he got out there to try his hand at some X-treme sports. Wakeboarding is exhilarating and challenging but still doable.  Here he is on the water:

He's standing up! On the water!

I was so proud.  We had to leave a little early because of an approaching storm so that meant he didn’t get to show me his (what I will assume were prodigious) wakeboarding skills.  He didn’t get to wakeboard bc I was hogging the thing.  Because I LOVE wakeboarding.  You feel like you’re going so fast and yet if you crash, you aren’t going to die.  It’s a great feeling.

Inspired by the fact my old bikini bottom looked remarkably like a diaper when wet and that said bikini is over 5 years old, I just bought a new one!  If you haven’t gone onto the J.Crew sale website recently, you should do so TODAY.  They have a 30% off the sale price special code, which is good until tomorrow.  I bought this new swimsuit for $60 instead of $114.

J.Crew paradis paisley pleated swimsuit

I don’t care if those colors are not going to look as awesome on me since I am the palest queen of the albinos.  If you can’t tell from that photo, this is a Liberty of London print and that will make me happy even if I look silly.  Because a good deal and Liberty of London make me a very happy amateur wakeboarder!

close up of the Liberty of London paisley print. I love it!

Note to self: would be perfect for that lock of hair from my dead Victorian lover

Now I can close the extra tab I’ve had open on my browser for a week since I found this thing.  Thanks blog!