Generally Not A Fan...

But for these I'll make an exception.

As a general rule, I don't like leggings. There are very few fashion trends from the 80's that should ever see the light of day again and in my opinion leggings are not one of them. Leggings in church, especially over dresses that are essentially long shirts, were once on my "things that must go" list. Just because they cover your legs doesn't mean they are appropriate in that setting. I mean, skin does the same thing right, so really why bother wearing pants at all? That being said, I think there are a few ways that they can be worn tastefully, though you will never see me demonstrate those ways. (I'm sure you all look to me as a fashion icon and take what I have to say about the subject very seriously, right? :)

Anyway, I randomly came across these skeleton leggings on the inter-web and there is only one word for them: Awesome! I so wish I had known about these when I was taking anatomy. Maybe I would have gotten a better grade :) Actually they're probably not really anatomically correct, but I still love them. Maybe because they remind me of this guy:

Did anybody else watch this show as a kid? I think I was a little too young to really get what he was teaching about the body but I thought his suit was cool, in a creepy sort of way. Apparently he still tours the country and does educational assemblies in elementary schools. (Sidenote: I would love to get his opinion of the full body scan machines at airports. Wouldn't it be kind of ironic if he were against them?)

Anyway, in conclusion, if any of you would like to wear the leggings shown above you have my express permission to do so and the official AskLinds Seal of Awesomeness, which I just made up but will now use in the future: ) Just make sure your shirt-dress covers your butt when you do.

A Lesson in Botany

This is a sunflower

More on that later. First, a few items of business. (Random information you probably don't care about knowing: Every time I spell the word business I pronounce it BUS-EE-NESS in my head, as in the big yellow bus. I do this because I used to have a hard time remembering whether it had one s or two. I also always say BEE-EE-AE-YOU-TIFUL when spelling beautiful, for much the same reason.) Anyway, the business.

Um, I have been a slacker. Every time I think about writing something on this blog it works up into such a monumental task in my head that I lose any sliver of interest I had. This wouldn't be so much a problem except that I have been doing it with many other things in my life as well. Such as communicating with my friends. If this is you (and it most likely is, because I think anyone who reads my blog is pretty cool and I would be your friend even if I don't really technically know you right now) then I apologize. I don't know why it is that when I feel most isolated and really need to keep in touch with people it becomes the last thing I want to do. Strange.

Anyway, I apologize and propose that as a partial solution we examine the name of this blog. That is, AskLinds. Now, if you separate the syllables in this name, you will see that it becomes two words: Ask Linds. Crazy, I know! But, in order to help me get out of this funk of slackerness and apathy, I propose that you the readers ask me some questions : ) (I know my track record for answering questions promptly is pretty poor but I think that the quality of my answers somewhat makes up for that, right? And I promise I'll try to do better) Anyway, like I tell people, I may not know everything (and definitely don't), but if I don't know the answer I'll make up something that sounds plausible to me :) So if you have something that you've always wondered about but never really gotten around to finding out, send me your thoughts and I will see if I can come up with something. I think it will be good for all of us.

That concludes the business portion of this post. Now back to these guys.

These sunflowers are about two feet tall and growing in my bedroom. This is due to a project that my dad conducts every winter to stave of his slackerness during the cold months, namely a mini-greenhouse. Being as how my bedroom gets ample sunlight from the two windows (which also allow ample cold in) the greenhouse is set up there. This has never really bothered me because I was always at school in the winter so I never saw much of it. This year, knowing that I would be living in the greenhouse, I decided that I might as well participate. So I decided to grow some watermelon.

This was a bit of an afterthought actually. My dad happened to notice some volunteer watermelon plants growing in the crack between our patio concrete and the grass. We figured maybe they had sprouted from people spitting seeds from the back porch. It seemed more sanitary than volunteer tomato plants and I don't like tomatoes anyway, so I brought them inside, visions of ripe watermelon in my head.

I was a little surprised after a few weeks to see that they grew straight up, rather than spreading like a typical vine, but I figured maybe they were trying to attach themselves to the blinds. But when they started to sprout big yellow flowers I suddenly remembered the bird feeder hanging from the back patio. The bird feeder which we stock with sunflower seeds.


Not exactly the juicy watermelon I had envisioned. Then again, it does brighten things up a bit. And maybe I'll get some roasted sunflower seeds out of it :)

I Get The Point

But I had to wait a good 4 or 5 years for you, so you're just gonna have to be patient little guy.

Just Because

Not much is new with me so I thought I would post a few pictures of Evan. Because I can. And he's cute :) (I'm afraid the background on my blog kind of bleaches him out and lightens everything but he's still pretty cute.)

On an unrelated note, does anyone have any good ideas for Christmas presents for parents? I think Heidi and Jeff are probably off the hook this year, since they have given them the first grandchild. I definitely can't top that, but any other suggestions would be good. Feel free to comment mom :)

It's A Boy!!!

And I'm an aunt! Evan Michael Clift was born at 4:51 am, Sunday November 8th, in Shreveport Louisiana. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and is 19.5 inches long. Mom, dad, and baby are understandably tired but doing well. Congratulations Heidi and Jeff and welcome Evan. Can't wait to meet him!

Baby Evan

Holding dad's hand

The proud parents

(Ps- Heidi, sorry I didn't give you the chance to post first but I figured it might take a few days and I just had to show him off. You can beat me later I guess : )

Yet Again

I know how you feel, little guys. I know how you feel.

Must Be A Virus

And surprisingly not the swine flu. Or the regular flu. I am hoping for a certain level of herd immunity on those two since the vaccine supply here is non-existent and I am not in a priority group anyway. If I'm lucky I should be able to get one about mid February. In the meantime, it seems I have caught a full blown case of the craft bug.

I had thought that I was already immune. That the very core of my being was so craft illiterate that it wouldn't recognize a craft bug if it was quilted and covered in glitter. But somehow, when I was least expecting it, I got hit. And these are some of the results.


An apple pie. A homemade apple pie. A made-from-scratch-including-the-filling-and-both- crusts apple pie. I know that this is not a craft, but considering that the only thing I didn't do from scratch with this pie is hand-mill the flour, I am counting it. I think the apples that came from our tree and which I peeled, cored and sliced myself, were harboring a virulent strain of the craft bug and that's where the whole thing started. Because then I found myself making these.


These leaf prints were actually surprisingly easy to make. Even more surprising is the fact that I finished them. Within a week. And hung them on my wall. On the rare occasions when I am forced into crafting, such as for Young Women's activities and the like, I rarely finish the project within a year. You only need to see the unfinished state of my "Temple Wedding Time Capsule" from a Young Women's Activity EIGHT years ago to realize that I am quite serious about this procrastination. (Maybe the reason I am not married is because I never finished it...Hmm... So if I DO finish it, does that mean I will get married? If so, I will probably have to wait for a few more years to catch another craft bug to be motivated enough to finish it. Also, don't think that I haven't finished it because I am planning some elaborate wedding. No, no. Not for me. I actually just have to seal it to have it be considered "finished." It is in one of those metal cans that you use for storing flour and sugar and the like and I don't have one of the machines that seals it. So eight years later, its still sitting in a drawer in my room somewhere. And probably will be for another eight years.)

Anyway, back to the leaf prints. Here they are all finished and hanging neatly on my wall, which I painted green by the way. But I promise it is not such a barfy color in real life. Blame that on the camera I guess.

It was really easy and they turned out pretty good. I just took some leaves and dipped them in craft paint, mixed with a little water, and pressed them onto some fabric. Then I used some fabric glue to stick them onto some boards I found in the garage, glued some ribbon onto the back for a hook and hung them on the wall. I liked the result so much that I decided to do leaf prints on a bag. The only problem was that I didn't have a bag. So I made one.

Now, here is where it gets really crazy, because not only do I not sew, I don't even know how to thread the machine. Seriously. And I have taken several sewing classes. Why they can't make a self threading sewing machine is beyond me. Or even one with arrows pointing to the various holes you have to wind the thread through. I mean, really, you have to guide the thread through like 5 different gadgets just to get it to the needle. Is that really necessary? Fortunately for me, my mom had just finished a sewing project herself and had left the machine threaded. So I went ahead and made this.

I MADE IT! I'm telling you, I was ill. Really, truly ill. Anyway, the only fabric we had lying around when I got this idea in my head was some drafting paper (which is actually really thin linen that has been starched into compliance) so it turned out to be kind of a flimsy bag, but a bag nonetheless.

This virus was unrelenting. It even manifested itself with random creativity. Case in point: After I painted my room I was going to put the curtains back up but I suddenly got this idea that they didn't really go well with the new look and I decided to change things up a bit. I was thinking of hooks and my mom found these cute bird hooks at Tai Pan Trading (Of course she found them. Like I would ever set foot in there of my own accord :)

So I nailed them to the wall and used some willow branches as curtain hooks. The curtains will probably be up in a few years when I catch another virus, but in the meantime here is what the rods look like.

(I took the pictures at night so the colors are really off. It's usually a lot brighter and less olive-y but you get the idea.)

Just so you know how bad this virus was, it even gave me the motivation to finish a project I started two years ago!

I had been meaning to frame these pictures from my mission for a long time but I could never find a frame that had the extra long mat to fit the Seattle skyline picture. But when we went back to Tai Pan to get the bird hooks I found this frame and altered it a little. The top part of the mat originally had two photo slots but I just used an exacto-knife and cut them into one. (The fact that I even know what an exacto-knife is should give you a clue to just how badly this bug affected me.)

Fortunately I survived my bout with the craft bug, and I even got a few cute things out of it. Thankfully I am over it now and I should hopefully be craft free for a few years. Too bad it doesn't offer any immunity against the flu :)