As Good as Martha Stewart in Prison

This is what my bf thinks of crafts as a whole. Or this is what he thinks of my crafting as a whole. The last couple of weeks have been full of all things domesticated and to tell you the truth I am a bit exhausted. Not in a bad way just trying to put a house together and still have a life is a lot of work. Trying to come to work without looking like I just rolled out of bed is a lot of work.

I would say about 80% of the house is unpacked. The rest of it is still sitting in boxes in the garage. At least they are neatly stacked. I am waiting for a weekend that I am not working and not having company over to plow through it some more. Still have some painting to do and other little projects but not the end of the world.

I am also waiting for our semi-permanent house guest to find his own home. Nice guy but seriously? 2 going on 3 weeks? He's been doing this all summer at everyone else's house just because we have an actual spare bedroom doesn't mean we want you in it through the Fall. Plus, I am tired of Febreezing the bed. I miss having my closet and having to pick out my outfits the night before and having to get ready in our tiny master bath.

When I was in Idaho I relearned how to crochet and about to finish my first blanket which i pretty excited about. its a couch blanket. Long enough to cover all under my toes and wide enough to cover me side to side. Oh speaking of vacationing... Magda please e-mail me your pictures again because the link that you sent me didn't work. It's cool if you send them in separate e-mails. I will have a decision for the contest by the end of the week if anyone is still here listening. Thanks!

When I was up North i went on a crazy yarn binge and got some pretty nice stuff. A lot of people will be getting scarfs this year. I also met up with LJ's sister who is still in her Jerry Springer life. I think the reason her and I get along is because I am not negative towards her decisions. Do I agree with everything she does? Um, no. At the same time she is an adult and she is choosing her path and all you can do is be supportive as long as she is not hurting anyone (including herself). Along with that I think I am helping her make some positive choices in what she is doing with her life. I will get into more detail as our little project progresses.

Since I was on this yarn kick I started looking up local places when I got back and went to a place on my way home from work. I think it was a sign when I got there it was the first day of a knitting class. I signed up for the class and learned something the first day. Unfortunately, I had something conflicting on my schedule for the second meeting so I will be there for the 3rd meeting. Also when I was up North I met a girl who had a really cool necklace that I am attempting to reconstruct and those will also be Christmas gifts. I have a few projects between now and Christmas.

If crafting isn't enough to take up some time in the next few months Junior League is in full swing. I have been to at least 4 JL related things in the last month and I think I have another 7 more between now and the end of the year. So far it has been a lot of fun and the social aspect of it is one of the main reasons I joined. I have met a bunch of girls who are on the same boat as me in the respect of career and relationship status. I mean there are million girls who are married but a lot with long-term bfs as well. I still haven't made a real good friend but there are lot of prospects. The only thing that sucks is that I am out of the area on the weekends because I live so far out. Oh well. Willing to travel.

So I will be going back to my jail cell crafts. I will post some pictures once I have some finished projects done and more of the house as they come. I am still here even if I am not writing. I may actually be starting a new blog. I will have more details once I get things a little more together. For right now I a still reading even if I am not the best commenter.

Starting to feel a lot like Christmas....

Last year was the first year I had really celebrated Christmas in a long time. My family hasn't hosted Christmas since about when I moved away from home. Since then I never really did Christmas tree's or any other kind of celebrating save the office holiday party.

So far this year I have gone to see the christmas lights, sent out some Christmas Cards and actually have a real live tree in my house. Honestly, I think all this Christmas cheer has to do with LJ's love for the holidays. Before I was always the grinch and never wanted to participate in anything holiday related. I know that this year we will be going to Christmas Mass which I am pretty excited about. I will also be making home-made spiked eggnog for our christmas potluck.

When we were in the Northwest we went to Advent services at LJ's families church. They had just built this new church b/c the last one was too small. It was a beautiful church that was massive! It was a great service and the priest made it feel like it was a 2 drink minimum and the bad thing was that instead of completely focusing on the service **sorry God!** I was thinking "I could totally get married here!" Before anybody gets any bright ideas. No there was no engagement.

So I am actually looking forward to having a festive holiday this year. Everything may not be perfect in the world but we should at least enjoy some of the few happy moments we do have.

Thanksgiving in the woods - better late than never!

This year for LJ's birthday I actually planned ahead. I bought him tickets to go see his family for a week in the potato state. Compared to last year's fiasco of a 6 hours before the flight I figured this should be easy breezy.

First off when you have way too much time to think of stuff to bring you end up bringing everything but the kitchen sink *even though I considered it*. The flights weren't actually 2 bad. Well, except on the way back when I didnt realize we were supposed to make 2 stops during the flight. I actually brought a nice coat with me this time so I wouldn't freeze my keester off. It was so nice that while I was running across the street on some shopping venture some ladies yelled out to me ask me where I got it from.

You know you are loved when everyone knows that you are eating healthy even through one of the unhealthiest days of the year and they make the whole Thanksgiving dinner out of Cooking Light Magazine." LJ's grandpa almost had a heart attack over the idea but everyone enjoyed the meal. As light as it may have been it was pretty tasty. I had been bugging LJ to take me to Canada since we were already so close but that didnt happen. This ended up being a working vacation for both of us. Not with my real job but with helping the family. We at least got to see everyone in the family.

LJ's sister and I actually got to bond a good chunk of the time I was there. Everyone has made her out to be a super villan but once you get to know her she's not bad. She's a nice girl that has just made a few mistakes. Not saying she has necessarily learned from all her mistakes but she is really young and honestly at her age I hadn't either. So who am I to judge? In all this bonding time with LJ's sis and her mom I tried to get some dirt that I hadn't heard before. Either they were being nice and not selling him down the river or there really is no dirt. The only comment that LJ's sister made was that LJ was adament about not getting into a serious relationship until he was completely financially established *not in the middle of his start-up company*, yet they know he is serious and ready to settle down with me. There must also be some level of trust b/c other information was shared with me about other people in relation to the family that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise.

Oh did I forget to mention that I went to my first Black Friday sales. Actually not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Doesn't help that I didnt go to bed till 11pm to get up at 2am. That's what happens when you are out in the sticks. Last but not least I did not gain any weight over the week I was on vacay including thanksgiving and a prime rib dinner. I count that as a success.

Christmas? What Christmas?

So I am not a big fan of Christmas. Haven't been for the last 6 or so years. Why? Did Santa not come one year? Did I gain 10 lbs. from one christmas? Was I the last one to the chocolate box and found that only the (nasty) fruit ones were left? Not so much.

The first year I moved out of my parents house everyone ditched me for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Everyone meaning all of my friends, my family and my then boyfriend. Since then I am normally a grouch about the whole holiday season. Last year was the first year I spent thanksgiving with the family and I think it was still pretty disasterous in the sense of uncomfortable silences and people leaving early because they just couldnt take looking at each others faces anymore.

This year with the family stuff going on my dad is out of town, my brother is not around and well my mom... I will at least be spending part of it with her but even I am not sure how that is going to turn out. The rest of the time will be spent with the boyfriend.

Very few people got christmas gifts from me this year. I have been spending way too much money in general. I got an awesome gift for the bf and I got something for my client. I am still working on my parents and something for one of the girls from work (also now a good friend). I am dreading the whole shopping thing still. The malls are zoos here. Fuck. I don't want to go.

Can we really just pretend Christmas never happened? And never will again?

She doesn't talk much....

My bf's uncle is a very nice guy but now I think he must be smoking something if he really believes I don't talk much. 98% of my bf's family is out in the middle of nowhere so I have yet to meet them. His uncle is the only one that comes out from the abyss to SoCal so he is the only one that has ever met me. The bf and I have talked about going up there for Christmas but it doesn't seem like that will be the case. Considering it snows, we either were going to do the "white christmas" or now it seems like we will have to wait till the summer/spring to go out again.
Anyway his uncle was telling me how great it was up there and once I go up there I will fall in love with it; and that I will love the family. I told him I hope they like me. He said as long as you talk they will love you.
I do talk! You normally can't shut me up! Sometimes I think I talk just to hear myself talk. They want talk they will get talk. Normally when I see him we are doing some sort of activity and there is a lot of people involved. Sorry I don't always want to be the center of attention *shut up, I really don't*.
Since I saw the bf's uncle I passed him my card to give to the bf's mom so she can help me with the bf's christmas gift. Mind you I don't even know this lady and I am asking for her help. I already have his family's gift planned out. I know we barely had Halloween last week but it's already time to start doing the Christmas stuff. I am working on Christmas card lists for myself, for my clients and for my office. I remember last year I did everyone elses but mine. Here's to me actually getting Christmas done without a hitch! *snort*