Without further ado, here are seven completely random things you probably didn't know about me.
1. I'm left-handed. On my mom's side, so was my grandfather, and so is my uncle and my cousin. Four lefties in three generations. Pretty cool. I've always thought it was neat that I was left-handed. I love how lefties are always happy to discover another leftie. Last summer on a plane the guy next to me asked if I was left-handed. As I was asking him how he knew, it dawned on me: he saw my watch on my right wrist, not left.
2. My favorite time period outside the 1940s and 1950s is the middle ages in Western Europe, specifically the UK and Ireland. I love castles and chivalry and the legends of King Arthur. In fact, in my sleeve, the name of one of my favorite books, Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, appears on the back of my arm.
3. I have been knitting since Christmas 2005. Shortly before that, my mom re-learned to knit after over a decade of not knitting. I crocheted at the time (having taught myself from a booklet), but didn't think I could ever grasp knitting. It just seemed way too complicated. But I somewhat grudgingly let my mom teach me over a Christmas visit that year. These days, I don't think there's about anything I can't knit. It's just something I 'get'. (I definitely can't say the same about my sewing.)
4. I am a bit of a tomboy.
I like to think of myself as kind of a vintage tomboy. My vintage fashion sense leans towards the casual end of the spectrum. I adore style icons like Jean Harlow and Katherine Hepburn who unapologetically wore trousers and wore them exceptionally well. There are really no cocktail dresses or high heels in my repertoire. While I've been enjoying skirts and dresses more lately, I'm most comfortable in wedgies or flats, high-waisted jeans or trousers and a blouse. I swear like a truck driver, there's usually something a little messy about my hair even when done up in a great 40s 'do, and I can never keep up with my nail polish before it chips. On the other hand, you will never catch me without my nails painted red, and about the only time I'm not wearing red lipstick is when I'm at work or out hiking or camping. Go figure.
5. I hate coffee. You cannot trick me into having something coffee-flavored by calling it mocha. I don't like the smell, I don't like the taste. Coffee has touched my lips exactly three times in my life. Yuck. My version of coffee is black tea, like you'd have in the UK or Ireland. I learned to drink tea when I did study abroad in Ireland in college. When Mel and I went to Ireland last fall, I was absolutely ecstatic to have tea and cake at Bewley's Cafe in Dublin.
6. I have a dishwasher and don't use it. We've gotten to the point where about the only non-vintage kitchenware that we use regularly (outside of a few cooking utensils and some random mugs and pint glasses) is our Fiestaware plates. So while we were hand-washing the red Bakelite flatware and cooking utensils and our glasses, we'd always end up with all of our plates in the dishwasher and have to start fetching them back out again because there wasn't enough to fill the dishwasher before we'd need them again. So we really just don't use it any longer.
7. I know almost nothing about pop culture. I couldn't pick Lady Gaga out of a crowd, I really have no idea who Justin Beiber or Katy Perry are, and I don't watch Glee. In fact I haven't watched a network TV show in more than 10 years. But I can really geek out on the Discovery Channel, Science Channel, History Channel, Food Network and Travel Channel. We're watching Food Network as I type. :)
Now I'm supposed to give this award to 7 other deserving bloggers. But I've been getting to know so many awesome blogs! So I'm going to do this in a slightly different way. I'll post some great international blogs I've been enjoying, from non-native English speakers—six vintage-inspired ones and one great artist. If you haven't discovered them already, hope you enjoy them, too!
