a p p a r e n t l y

My friends seem to be in cahoots and think I should open a coffeehouse. Now, it’s true that my neighborhood is devoid of a decent place to get a good cup of coffee, and not one but three coffee spots have closed in the nabe within the past year (two within the past two months).

And it’s true that I have some strong opinions about how a coffeehouse should be run.

But someone’s going to have to give me a very strong argument for why I should hire someone else to raise my child so that I can pull espresso and manage baristas twelve hours a day before I will seriously consider this sort of entrepreneurial career route. Even if – especially if – there is a knitting shop element to this plan. As we say to our son, persuade me. Or, get back to me in five years.

On the other hand, it took me many, many years to understand that just because you think you can do something better doesn’t mean that you should.

Top Ten Sewing Notions that Guys Will Actually Use

Some friends are taking 5 months off to travel around Asia. They’ve just arrived.

not martha arrives in Paris and encounters an incredible apartment and some awful Americans.

j caroline creative is shutting down the fabric side of her online shop. Nearly everything is on sale, including 100% wool felt. Did I make a purchase? You bet I did.

And in the midst of writing this post I’ve discovered my new favorite website: Knock-Off Wood. I’ve been on the search for twin bed plans for nearly a year, and here they are! (Now, if only I had a wood shop…)

It’s March 1, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s posting today about the end of winter. The weather is sunny and warmer than it’s been and the snow is melting. But it’s the metaphorical turning-of-the-calendar page that really changes my mindset. Something about March 1 says to me, “Winter is over. You made it through four months of cold weather; no matter what the weather brings in the next two months, you can consider any cold, snowy days anomalies.” Maybe I’m fooling myself, but that’s my mindset (and has been since college, where the collective state of mind was “February is the most depressing month”). I feel like being outside and being social in a way that I just don’t in the middle of January.

In meta news, I have completed Bertram’s Post-a-Day Challenge, in which I was gently coerced to post something (anything!) on this blog every day in February. I managed to meet the challenge, but of course I did not write something every day – some days I posted photos (and yes, not once but twice I forgot, posted them the next morning and backdated them). My goal was to complete the challenge and then assess: did I enjoy posting? What did I enjoy writing about? And the answer, as I suspected it would be, was threefold:

1. I really enjoy writing when I actually have something to say, such as describing a trip to a museum or something interesting that my family did.
2. I did not often have something to say, and I felt like posting my craft achievements and shoe woes was just navel-gazing. Fun navel-gazing, but not terribly interesting.
3. I really like posting photos. This blog’s first incarnation was as a photo blog, and I’m mulling over he idea of a return to that. Although, to come full circle, I do enjoy writing when I have a topic I’m eager to write about.

Will there be more Apparently? Yes, although perhaps not every day. The Post-a-Day Challenge inspired me, and I’ll keep writing. But not about my navel.