Yarn bottles update and thoughts on Madison thus far

As promised, here are pictures of my finished yarn-wrapped beer bottles. I ended up using two beer bottles and one wine bottle for the project. I had three different colors of yarn so I did three bottles. Pretty simple. My colors are pretty similar to those in the last inspiration link I posted. I gravitate towards neutrals in everyday life punctuated by small pops of color and that was definitely reflected in the skeins of yarn I had lying around.

The project ultimately ended up being super easy and quick. Although I think the yarn would have adhered a bit better with a hot glue gun rather than my Elmer's like I mentioned in a previous post. But all in all, not bad for a free, easy DIY.

Aaand now for the heavy stuff... I kid. Sorta.

I realized this morning that Saturday will make three weeks I've been living in Madison. How has the time flown by so quickly?! Madison feels familiar yet still so new and undiscovered at the same time. I've gotten to know our quirky little neighborhood quite feel I think simply from the fact that Dean dog and I take multiple walks a day. I've used the bus system a few times and so far, so good. It's nothing like Philly. All of the bus driver's I've had have been so helpful! They've offered me directions, advice on living in Wisconsin and helped me understand that transfers are free (!) here.

Meeting other people hasn't been quite as easy of a transition simply because without a job and no real network to speak of I'm just starting at zero. And the meetup.com scene in Madison seems to be somewhat limited to SAHMs and Singles Ready to Mingle. M has been great about including me in a work event or two and going out of his way to find things for us to do. I'm hoping to hone in on some activities (and therefore a community of folks) I might want to join soon.

Though I don't think there are a whole lot of us twenty-something, stay-at-home, non-mommies (fur babies don't count here I think) out there... it's no longer 1955. Most women who don't work tend to have children. And most women my age are out there in the workforce or in school. So the whole making friends at the playground or in the preschool drop-off line doesn't apply in my case (And yes, I'm aware of the gendered nature of my comments. But this is my perspective and experience. While one could argue the economic recession coupled with the rise of young hipster parents has led to a surge of stay at home daddies, women still perform 90+ percent of child care duties in the country. That's the way it is. Anyway, I digress...).

Crossing my fingers I'll find a job soon. And not just for the monetary benefits it will bring. Human interaction is nice too! But lest I sound like a whiner, I will say that I recognize how lucky I am to have this option. And I will try my best to make the most of my free time. i.e. there will be more DIY projects ahead!

Good-bye Philadelphia

Just under two weeks ago we taped up the last moving box, loaded our (terrible) rental car up with last minute "have to take this with us" items, strapped in the pets and said good-bye to Philadelphia forever. Forever sounds so definite but in reality we're not likely to move back there again. Two days of driving- logging 17+ hours in the car- and we saw something to this effect:

Welcome to Madison
(pop: 233,000)

So here we are in Wisconsin! Never in all my days did I think I'd ever live in the Midwest, let along Wisconsin... but thus far Madison is proving to be a charming little city.

Why did we leave Philly, home of the cheesesteak, water ice, oh and apparently liberty and freedom? M got a job offer that was right up his alley and too good to turn down. You see M originally moved to Philadelphia for graduate school and I followed him there the next year. He was a PhD student at one of the universities in Philly until this past summer when we both realized that he wasn't happy in his chosen field and consequentially we weren't happy as a couple either. The thought of three or more years of his unhappiness and daily frustrations (he was about to start his third year of studies) and I was ready to beg him to leave... but of course it wasn't that simple.

I'll spare you the details suffice to say that we've had a stressful past nine months and we're thrilled to be finished with that chapter of our lives.

But I'll miss Philadelphia. It's people and food and row homes and nightlife. The gritty side of the city that we all as city dwellers disparage out loud to one another at cocktail parties but secretly love. After all that's what makes us city folk.

So we've said good-bye to the City of Brotherly Love (there's a misnomer if I've ever heard one) and hello to America's Dairy Land. I have a feeling we're in for one heck of a ride. Oh and did I mention that winter is coming to Wisconsin?

Stick around. It'll be fun times for all.