Day 2: NaBloPoMo - Deliberate Thank You

This morning I was getting coffee from our local franchise, Biggby. The store was empty, service was fast and within 5 minutes I had my Decaf Skinny Caramel Marvel in hand and was headed to work. A gentleman opened the door for me on my way out and I looked at him, in the eyes, smiled and said "Thank you!"

Honestly, how hard is that?

I wonder often how different our society would be if people actually took the time to thank others. Even if it seems like it's for the little things.

Thank you for holding the elevator.
Thank you for giving me a bit more room in line.
Thank you for doing your job with a smile.
Thank you for THANKING ME!

Leif and I were involved in a little experiment this summer then we were going through our Rough Patch. We were charged with picking a day - any day - and trying to make it a great day for our partner. But, we weren't to tell each other when the day was or what we were going to do. Cheesy, I know.

We both found that thanking each other, for WHATEVER, put smiles on our faces. Even if I was sarcastically thanking him for thanking me, it still put something positive out there in the universe. We felt better, because thanking each other was nice.

NICE, people!! Imagine that. Try giving a deliberate "thank-you" sometime. I promise you, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thank you for reading.

Day 1: NaBloPoMo

I've never been much of a finisher. But I love to be a joiner!

I've had blogs. I had a great blog at Yahoo!360 that I wrote in religiously. And then with 360 was discontinued a bunch of "us" migrated to Multiply. And then I kind of stopped blogging.

Facebook killed the blogger in me.

Interests changed, people came and went and my blog sat neglected, dusty and unloved. I'd like to say that I've totally "gotten my blog back", but we all know that's not true. (Who am I kidding... again, no one reads this...) And honestly, I'm okay with it. The voyeur in me loves knowing what's in the minds of my friends, in real life and in the blogosphere. The introvert in me doesn't really give a rip if anyone reads this or not.

My favorite part of writing - a blog inparticular - is to get out all the bullshit that you're not allowed to say during the day. Gotta rant about a coworker? Blog it! Hate a family member? Blog it! Have a big secret that you can't tell? Blog it! (I mean, you don't know those readers anyway, right?!) Funny thing about blogging, though. Relationships are built whether you want or expect it to happen anyway. Amazing, isn't it? Sadly relationships can be squashed by the blog as well. I've learned that you should never put ANYTHING out on the Innernets that you wouldn't want someone to read on a piece of paper. Or a bathroom wall. Whatever. It's out there, man! And you can delete it, but it's still out there!

Maybe that's why I decided to start blogging about my crafts...

Will my blogging last? I imagine it will ebb and flow since it has in the early 2000's. Will I manage to at least keep it up through November 2011? Maybe. Time will tell.

In the meantime, Halloween has come and gone. AJ was a scary ghoul thing and spent the first Halloween in 4 years with his dad. I was happy to forgo trick-or-treating this year.

isn't he the cutest?

Oh yeah... the blog

Christmas was my last post? Really?

Lots has happened since then. Leif lost a job. We went on vacation. We had a party celebrating our wedding and house-warming. Lots of people came. AJ started private math tutoring. I planted a garden. Nothing really grew. Except a baby in my belly! (Woohoo!) We had some problems. Issues. Therapy was involved (the non-alcoholic kind, for me...). Leif got a job. Then he got a better job. I bought a quilting machine that we can't afford.

You know, life.

In all that is a smattering of knitting and quilting. And laundry. And work.

Again, life.

I feel like I have stuff to say. Then I don't. And no one reads this anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter.

But it does.

Yeah, I need to hop back on the bloggy train.

Merry Christmas!!

Man, what a roller coaster of a year. But fantastic as well and lots of great things happened. Weddings, fun home improvement projects, new jobs, etc. Not much to complain about, but I can always find something!

The holidays always get me down. I really don't know why I let the stress get to me. I think part of it is having two families to spend time with. It's hard to juggle them when all I want to do is stay in my pajamas, watch the Christmas morning parade with a hot cuppa and ignore everyone but Leif and AJ (and trust, the dogs won't be ignored.) Yet, I put on a slightly happy face, try to clean the house (epic FAIL this year), cook dinner and try to make everyone happy. I really need to stop doing that.

Despite the bullshit, it was a good Christmas this year. AJ, Leif and I exchanged presents this morning (it was definitely the year of the Wii... we got accessories and about 10 games). I cooked an (almost) great dinner, even though the oven did get accidentally turned off halfway through baking our potatoes and green bean casserole), made sweet treats and managed to only cut myself once during the prep process! Mom came and hung out, as well as Leif's brother. I spent some time thinking about Leif's parents in Florida... the holidays are definitely not the same without them around.

Next year I've decided to do a fondue Christmas for Christmas Eve dinner. How fun does that sound?! I'm tired of potatoes and stuffing and ham. I want french bread, and cheese, and sizzling steak. And a chocolate fountain! Mmmmmm....

And AJ has declared our new Christmas Day tradition of staying in our Christmas Eve jammies all day. I like it and I think we'll keep it. What's not to love about flannel?!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Old vs. New

In the old days, I would be a blithering idiot by now. Or a complete and utter bitch.
Back then I would have freaked out that Leif's big ol' finger has a very big chance of NOT having a ring for our wedding day.
Back then I would be crushed if I didn't invite a friend to my wedding, and she got slightly hurt by it.
Back then I'd be worried about how everyone else felt about my 6-day engagement.

Today, I realize that when Leif said, "I'm not marrying a ring, I'm marrying you" he meant it. And it's going to be fine.
Today, I realize that not EVERY friend can be invited to a small, on the fly wedding ceremony, but they can party like a rockstar with us in the spring when we have our "wedding reception/open house."
Today, I don't give a rip what anyone thinks about planning a wedding in 6 days.

Our day is going to rock. We're going to be surrounded by family and friends and love and all that gooey crap.

It's a new day. Yay!

The day my life changed...

November 1, 2010

He proposed.



Whaaaaaaaaa?

I mean, I always knew it would happen. And we'd been talking about it pretty seriously for the last couple months. But never, EVER did I expect to find a ring, in a brownie, at our local sushi place. Never did I think I would burst into tears in the middle of a crowded restaurant with the waitress and hostess grinning at me from ear to ear. And never, ever did I expect to look into his tear-filled eyes and not even have to answer the question that was never really asked.

It was amazing. The ring is amazing. The man is amazing. And our wedding (on Saturday, 11/6/2010 ... 3 days from now) will be amazing.

I can't wait to be his wife.

Again, life is good.

For SHAME!

I was cleaning up some of the yarn strewn about the house yesterday, due to our new window installation...

[background story]

I haven't thought of myself as an impulsive craft shopper in quite some time. Not since the days of selling all of my quilling materials on eBay (over $600 worth of supplies for about $80) and much of my scrapbooking stash. I was impulsive. And I bought a LOT!

That's when I was married.

I continued to be crafty after my divorce, but on a budget. I purchased for projects ONLY. When I started to quilt I would buy for certain patterns that I was CURRENTLY working on only. Never just because it was "pretty" or I might use it some day. Current. Projects. Only.

[/end background story]

I moved several small bags of yarn from the office to the bedroom this week so that they were out of the way when our windows were installed. I went to Target yesterday to buy a large plastic tote to start putting said yarn in... just to keep it all in one place.

Uhhh... yeah...


I filled up this tote with the yarn I had simply lying around the house. No projects planned for about 90% of it. (The maroon skeins on the top of the box are Portland Tweed, I think. I started my Central Park Hoodie with it. Other than that... ummm... not so much. And, none of this yarn is over 6 months old, I would say (probably more like 3), and NONE of this yarn contains my "stash" of yarn. That I keep in the basement.

I have two plastic boxes full of yarn.

My ENTIRE quilting collection (including fabric, books, thread, etc) all fit in two plastic boxes. EVERYTHING.

I have a problem.