Hot tea for me

Wrapping up a cozy, stay-inside sort of day today. Freezing rain and wind is enough to make anyone want to be inside. I have to say, that sort of weather beats snow in the worst winter weather contest. Snow has the inherent beauty aspect working for it... rain and wind is just gloomy.

Anyway, after the daily ritual to the coffee shop down the street late in the morning, and a brief stop at the mostly-deserted university library to trade some books, I spent all afternoon inside, searching for cool music (and finding some!) and working on a paper that's due at the beginning of next term.

Christmas is so close, and yet this year it doesn't feel much like it for me. Christmas Day will likely be spent in a way very similar to this and the past couple of days... inside, writing, drinking tea (because the coffee shop will be closed). I'm anticipating getting home and celebrating it belatedly with my family which is all Christmas really means to me anyway. That's the important part, and if it comes a week later, then... okay!

Hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful weekend? It'll be a white Christmas for everyone at home!!

Cheers,
Kate xx

Just a decoupaged Polaroid camera.

It might not seem like a big deal, but one of the coolest things about moving is having to go through everything. What to get rid of, what to keep, etc. Some of it's tedious, like clothes and furniture. But some of it's really fun, when it comes to sentimental stuff -- the photographs, knick-knacks, souvenirs, gifts, and so on. I'm not one for much of the knick-knacky stuff, so what I do have usually holds some sentimental value. That, or I've just had something for so long that I can't imagine not having it. Does that make sense?

So, I put on a record (Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials in this instance) and started excavating.

I went through a couple boxes of things from the last move. These were the things I thought I would keep forever, and mostly that's the way it turned out. I ended up reorganizing them into a box so they would fit better, and snapped a couple photos along the way. Nostalgia can be so much fun. Rediscovering and studying the things I've been given over the years, or taken, or kept for whatever reason -- it's that stuff that makes this whole process fun. In miniature, memories come out of the box, and then they go back in. Someday they'll be unpacked somewhere nice... :)

My favorite things have always and will always be old photographs. I don't have many, but my prized possessions include just a couple that my dad took back in the late 60s/early 70s in California, amongst others.



I even uncovered the pair of moccasins I made as a senior in high school for an anthropology course. We studied the Kiowa culture, and the big project was the construction (from scratch) of authentic moccasins. Deer hide, sinew (well, something like it), and awl. ;) Tehe. Anyone in my graduating class who made the moccasins wore them to the ceremony. They still fit!



I unearthed one of my many old Polaroid cameras (the others I'm fairly sure I've given away or lost at this point). This one I was possessed to decorate one day, with that lovely thing called Hodge Podge, and decoupaged modern art images all over it. See if you can recognize Mr. Warhol and Rrose Selavy, to name a few. ;)

If I could only get my hands on some [ahem, inexpensive] film, I'd love to be able to use this baby more. I miss being able to stroll into the nearest store and pick up a pack of film, albeit usually at more than a dollar per picture near the end there. It was worth it, though. I tried using The Impossible Project's imitation film, but I had a hard time with it. Perhaps more on my Polaroid fixation later...

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!


Days to Edinburgh move-in: 50