Snips

I hope you're ready for some more photos of Citizen Snips, for while my blogging had stopped, this cat is still on a roll.

What I'm working on...

Hey all,

For those not following along in real life or on Facebook, I recently moved to be closer to work (which moved to Wilton, CT from Bethel, CT) and I've been very busy fixing up the new digs. I'm living with two roommates and I snagged the grandest room (aaand paying a little extra for it, too). I wasn't a huge fan of the other two rooms - one is in a corner of the house that also happens to be on an intersection and the other is carpeted. Neither of them had the kind of light my room has, either. All of this is to say, I'm fancy now, with the best light in the whole house, and I have my own fireplace (which maybe works, maybe doesn't) and dressing room.

Since I'm spending a lot of time nesting, I figured I'd give an introduction to the house, because I'm sure it'll show up a lot on the blog. I really enjoy the little home improvement and decorating stuff that I can manage. I didn't do very well with taking before shots because I was so impatient to dive into projects, but I'll post the general stuff.

This is my room, through the different stages.

The fireplace side of the room:

Opposite side. (The paned windows requiring 2-3 coats of paint to cover up that blue will absolutely be the death of me).

So glad to start covering up the paint.

I debated color for a while but decided that with the low(er) ceilings and the orange-ish floors, white paint would be best. One of my favorite blogs had her house's paint colors listed, so I went with her shades of white to let all my artwork and thangs shine.

As an aside, I was homeless and drifting for about a month and a half due to a house that we were supposed to be moving into having one problem after another, eventually rendering it unlivable (no heat, no water). It's embarrassingly wonderful to a) know that I have a place to live and make my home and b) have all of my things back and on display. Each thing is being dragged around the country for a reason; I made it or a friend made it, my mom got it for me, I got it while abroad, etc. The room is still a work in progress, and I need to finish making the curtains, but this is the general idea, and it makes me happy.

The cat's particularly happy in the new house. I'm going to sound like a total cat owner, but for some reason Snips really did seem to know it was home and not temporary, like the places we bounced around to for a while. He took to it immediately, which made me feel better about the whole ordeal.

For the record, my two favorite DIY/super classy designer-y interior design blogs are Door Sixteen and Manhattan Nest. I desperately aspire to be like them someday.

Hanging Hills with Rachel

A while ago I went hiking with good buddy Rachel at Hanging Hills in Connecticut. It's got a 'castle' that we decided to hike up to. It's probably a very pretty park in the summer with the river, et al. Conditions were cold with icy, slippery/crusty snow when we were there, but no matter.

Weird castle tower... yay? On the way down we happened upon something really cool, though. This little ditch/stream had the most beautiful topographic ice on it. It must have been formed over a few days, with different levels and temperatures of water. The top of the ice was smooth but underneath there were crisp lines between different thicknesses of ice.

It also made a really beautiful tinkling glass sound when it was broken because it was thin ice and there was no water underneath to dampen the sound. Beautiful looks vs beautiful sound. It was a conundrum. We compromised by only messing around with the areas that were already broken.

Overmountain Launch

This is one of the things I've been up to for the past year or so - working on graphics for the Overmountain line, specifically the Trigger 27.5 and Jekyll 27.5. My favorites are the Jekyll Carbon Team and the Trigger Carbon Team and 2. I've got a soft spot for the Triggers especially.

It gives me warm fuzzies to read an article and look through the photos of pro riders ripping around on 'my' bikes. Like, say, this article on exciting new rider Marco.

I do all I can and it's rewarding to see the finished product.

Still Kicking

Hey All!

Due to being crazy busy, and having accidentally washed my camera with my sheets, there haven't been many blog posts lately. But now Eurobike prep is over and my replacement camera is in the mail... ah, and I'm on vacation as of today. I should have some nice, somewhat interesting stuff to post about pretty soon.

While you wait, here's a photo of a ladies' ride I did this past weekend. I haven't been out on the mountain bike for months (which is an actual crime in some circles) and it was so good to get out again.



The chick who set the ride up, Lindsay, is new to mountain biking and promised she would be the slowest one on the ride. I showed her who's boss and held us up the most, though, going back through sections two, three and sometimes four times, trying to get back up to speed with technical skills. The other ladies got some extra practice in, too. What's more, Lindsay was totally not slow. She's been practicing and it shows. She doesn't ride like a beginner!

Anyway, I've got to catch my last flight to Durango, CO, where I will enjoy being on vacation and far, far away from Connecticut. (Sorry, CT, you just suck.)

Bull's Bridge etc

This past weekend (How many of my blog posts start this way? Maybe just enough.) Tyler and I took the long way to go on a road ride. The first stop was the famous Elephant Trunk flea market. We just stopped in for the last 45 minutes, so it wasn't too happenin', but it was an interesting flea. There's a special place in my heart for the Wellfleet flea, though, and I don't see this one replacing it. I did get a little succulent plant for $5 because I'm secretly half hipster and require things like succulents, hiking boots with red laces and things with birds on them.

That pocket on my shirt? Birds.



We made another quick stop at a vintage store we had seen driving through last weekend, but it was a bit of a bust. Interestingly enough, though, the bottom story of this house was half vintage store, half knife and sword store called 'Affordable Swordables'. Let it not be said these guys don't have a sense of humor.

Then we did one last bit of procrastinating before our road ride - we stopped to kick around Bull's Bridge, a covered bridge near the Connecticut/New York state line.

The day we went was sadly the last day of swimming, as they've been having a lot of trouble with vandalism and littering.



We hopped around below the bridge for a while.





It was a popular place - gotta wonder how well the crack down on swimming will go.





We made our way up above the bridge to explore a little more. This side had some really interesting rock.



There were lots of holes that almost looked like they had been drilled in the rocks.







It got really neat up above what I assume is a dam.



I shamelessly used my camera's 'miniaturize' setting.



After allll that explorin', we finally got down to some riding.





...and a little posing.



After that, there was a quick dinner at the White Horse (check out the squinty horse!) and a pretty sunset.





Wrapped up another good one.

Bikes and Bikes

I recently bit the bullet and ordered a Cannondale - it's cool, it's only been about a year since I started here. Since I was riding smaller brand bikes instead of competitors - I usually commute in on my Salsa Chili Con Crosso cross bike - it wasn't too much of a problem. The cross bike works alright for road rides, but for a while now I've wanted to replace the Blue RC6 road frame that I cracked in Asheville. After several months of commuting, I cashed in my commuter points (which count as $$$ toward employee purchases) and managed to cover much of the cost of the Women's Supersix Evo with Di2. It's just plain silly.

I'm not much of one for some women's cycling products, but I was awkwardly positioned between a 50 and 52 in the men's bikes, and the size 54 women's Evo has indeed turned out to be a good fit. I'll take it!

Obviously it's not dialed yet - I basically just pulled it out of the box two days ago and took off - but this is the 'before' shot. I'm going to paint the frame and fork in our paint booth once I get the artwork for it done. The graphics on it are not mine, btw. They were done by a woman who worked here before my time.



Always desperate to be 'different', I did make a quick adjustment as a placeholder, though.





That sticker and many other charming ones available from All Hail the Black Market, should you be interested.