Happy Birthday Dr. J!

J's birthday was last Tuesday, but because life is weird and sometimes irritating, he had to give an exam and then help grade hundreds of physics tests.  On his birthday. Until almost midnight.  We're still winding down from dissertation time, and our celebrating of his birthday has melted in the post-diss lazy reading time.  That's all he wants to do.  We've gotten almost 400 pages into Game of Thrones*.

Tree decorations

J outside the porch, under home-made bunting and stars

Decorations during the party

I LOVE the way the decorations came out, but I'll admit they were created from a mind too lazy to drive to the store for streamers.  Years ago I bought a giant pad of rainbow-colored construction paper, and I've done several party themes with it.  Construction paper, string, tape, that's all I need when I'm really driven to do something.  I like the little flag buntings I've seen on Etsy**, and it really was very simple.  I'd like to try one made of fabric, too.

I've made a few of these Mother's Day Brooches from Holidash, but so far they haven't come out as nicely as the creator's.  I've been felting instead of gluing, and my beginner felting skills may have something to do with that.  It's definitely good practice.  I'm making the one above for my mother-in-law, but I'm working on a blue one for my mom.  I've decided to do a variation on the one above, using rounded petals and a few sequins peaking out at the base of each petal.  We'll see.  I don't see her until tomorrow, so I have a little time to experiment.

If it works, I'll post a little tutorial here.  Of course, all my thanks goes to Holidash for doin' it first.  I found a lovely wildflower in my yard yesterday (isn't it weird when you find one you've never ever seen before?) but it's not open yet, so I'll use this one as a model:

The white part at the base will be ice blue sequins from this project.

*Forgive me linking to a review of the show.  I just figure if you don't read fantasy, watching an episode of the show is more likely to start your engine for reading this book.  I'm hopefully obtuse when it comes to fantasy, and I usually need to be tricked into reading it.

**Miko Designs is a really fun blog.  This lady has the best parties ever for her daughters.

Today is the first day of HELL YES

So, Dr. J got through his dissertation defense, and we are now spending a dreary Saturday NOT THINKING ABOUT DISSERTATIONS AT ALL.  Tonight he is making dinner.  We watched some TV.  We may go out to see some music, and then go to a party.  Maybe some of you out there understand how colossal this all is, and how completely normal it has been for these to be impossible scenarios.

(I promise to stop calling him Dr. J eventually, but I'm running with it for at least a week.)

I've been trying to pick his brain about how it feels to be post-defense, but he is as usual a cool cucumber.  I am visibly excited, and have to hold myself back from making lists of things I want to start doing again.  Oddly, going to bed at the same time was something I forgot used to be normal.  So that was awesome.  Though long hours away from home, staying up hours after me, never doing anything more than going out for dinner has been our normal for years, I'm glad to go back to the old normal.

I'm also glad I can stop trying to find meaning through PhD Comics.