congrats to random visitor from february 18th!

I guess I hit 1000. hits, that is. I don't know who it was... but if you were surfing my blog on wednesday, february 18th... it could have been you. congrats! you win... well, nothing. other than the satisfaction of being number 1000. seriously though... I have "three" jobs to pay my basic bills... I don't have the extra cash-cash for even a small gift. and well, I don't know who you are anyway... so I guess it wouldn't even matter. :)

things have been insane lately. things for the bridal shower; things for soccer; things for home; things for work. ugh. hopefully after april... things will start to calm down. the soccer season will have started; the wedding will be over; job #3 will be "off-season"... and maybe I'll be able to get back to some quilting and stamping. :) now, my downtime pretty much consists of lounging on the couch wishing I wasn't so tired. (sigh)

so I'm thinking of putting in a garden in my backyard. not flowers... but some leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans. with only four things, the garden doesn't need to be large, but it'll still provide enough tasty produce for the summer. now does anyone know how to grow these things? because I *so* don't have a green thumb. :) but I'd like to try...

anything else that I should add to my plate while I'm feeling ambitious? :)

lastly, in this minor update, I wanted to thank those who volunteered to send some green fabric for my friend's quilt. I will email you with the sizes we need (so you don't need to send twelve yards when all I need is an eighth of a yard)... just let me know if you're still willing to help out!

spoonful of sugar

there's a lot going on in my world.

• I am finally trying to make heads or tails of my "hometown" quilt guild website.
• I am helping out some friends with some print materials for their respective jobs/events.
• I am picking up the slack at work b/c my coworker just opened her own wedding invitation business and is using some of her work time to take care of some details here and there (or just gets easily distracted by searching for new paper stock and invitation ideas on the web).
• I have three jobs.
• I am trying to cook more complete meals at home rather than throwing something together at the last minute (read: hamburger helper).
• I am helping to plan a bachelorette party.
• I am preparing for a wedding shower.
• I am the newly-elected vice president of my local soccer league... thusly I am in charge of retaining the old (and obtaining new) sponsorship plus plan three weekends worth of preseason clinics.
• I need to finish cleaning our office so I can have space for all of the information regarding the above tasks.

then there's the stuff that I just want to do...

• finish the flannel pillowcases for my friends' children before it gets too late for flannel pillowcases
• spend some time knitting
• wear more makeup
• upload more photos to shutterfly (of our wedding, for example, and of ireland)
• do yoga
• take walks (with and without bowser)
• spend time with das
• read more books (including "unstuck", even though I don't feel stuck anymore)
• watch movies I haven't seen, and some that I have seen
• take a cooking class

I realize that the first list is, well, really a bunch of stuff that could probably fall under "wants" as well. no one ever said that I had to have three jobs. I could deal without the other two. but I like bartending. no one forced me to do the website for quilt guild. but I wanted to help bring our ladies into the technology age. my friends didn't say I had to help them. but they're my friends, so why wouldn't I offer? I wasn't forced into leadership in soccer. but I wanted to be a part of that which organizes and supports our league.

the short answer is... that there is no short answer. some say that life is too short to go to bed early and sit on the couch. some say that if you want to do it, then your time will come. some say that you have to worry about yourself and make YOU happy.

I say as crazy and hectic as my life is right now... I'm ok with it. because I know... my time won't come... it's already here. really... life's too short to think otherwise.

what do you think?

another monday...

so... another rainy day here in CT. it's been pretty crazy out the past week or so. ahh... another flash of lightning. actually, last thursday was a freakish storm with hail about the size of nickels (at their maximum). the storm lasted a long time, too... at least an hour if not more. it just kept coming and coming. just down the street, a tree was split from the lightning. and by "just down the street" I mean "it could have potentially hit any number of cars in our parking lot because it was that close". ridiculous!

hopefully the storm subsides soon... I have to pick up my car at 5pm b/c the battery is potentially dying. joy of joys. the place I have do my auto repairs and oil changes is across the street from work so I just have to drop it off and walk to work. not a bad deal. I'm irritated though... I just brought the car in last month to have its 105k mile "inspection" done. I didn't want to pay out the ass for the dealership to do it (considering my warranty was up 25k miles ago)... so I just had them work on it there. I spent (essentially) my whole freakin' bonus check on my timing belt and all the accompanying work. (sigh) so much fabric that could have been purchased.

since blogger was being difficult at the end of last week, I just gave it a chance to breathe a bit. thus I didn't post any photos of the bridesmaid outing. :) we didn't actually take any photos because we were kind of worried we'd get caught and disciplined. rumor has it that david's bridal isn't too keen on unauthorized photos being taken of the dresses. however, I did steal some photos online so that I can at least share which dresses we're interested in! we have two MOH and two bridesmaids (of which I am one). two of the party reside in new jersey... and one of them is about to give birth at the beginning of september. so needless to say, she's not getting her dress yet. the purpose of this outing was to determine, with the bride, what styles would be best. we had eleven styles that we were going to try on... some were ok, some were pretty yuck. :) but we narrowed it down nicely. the plan is to allow the bridal party to select their own style, but we wanted to make the decision a little easier. the dresses we picked all go well together with similar style on the bodice. we're avoiding the taffeta dresses, and sticking with the lighter, more flow-y dresses, too. the one on the right, with the ribbon, is the one that is my personal fav, plus the one the bride likes for me, too. the one on the left is the second choice for me. there is a back-up, too, (center) that looks nice on the other bridesmaid who was with us, but it's long... and david's bridal said that they wouldn't alter it to tea length... not that a seamstress couldn't, of course. from personal experience, I know that david's bridal charges a lot for alterations. grr. but hopefully, there won't need to be too much done to whichever dress I choose.

and speaking of hopefully, I am hopefully going to get my quilting stuff this week. I had wanted to go tonight after work but a) I totally slept a lot later than I should have thus needing to stay later, b) we really need coffee, c) we really need other groceries besides coffee, and d) I have to pick up my car (not that that would take a long time, but I'm just going to be tired and not want to deal with it). tomorrow's my massage that my darling superhusband das got for me. wednesday is bowling. thursday is my parents' arrival. now, they will have the truck, but they're returning it on friday morning/afternoon and I certainly don't want to deal with driving to the other house late on thursday night. most of the stuff I have left is all backseat-able, but there are two tables that need to go, plus some things that may just be easier to handle in a truck rather than the jetta. anyway, we're hoping that our cousin will allow us to borrow her truck to assist. we'll see. otherwise, I'm hoping that my mom can get some things together while she's here to help clean the basement up enough to make it a workable area. we'll see. it needs light... that is FOR sure. :) and the otts are at the old house. GRR!!

lastly, we got our new headboard in on thursday night (after I ordered it on tuesday!). that got put together friday night and it looks ok. it's lower than the bed because we have the bed up on risers to have storage underneath. normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but it's a bookcase/storage style headboard. but it'll be ok I guess. we ordered our baker's rack, too. that will deliver between 8/14 and 8/19, though I'm hoping it's sooner. it'll probably ship out tomorrow. we tried to install our pet door for the cats so we can move the litter into the basement, but the tools das borrowed from work weren't working well with our door... so we have to figure something else out. also, we tried to bring our old kitchen table up... yeah. not so much. we were going to refinish it, but with the ridiculous moisture and humidity in the basement it was starting to mold. so we were going to clean it off and move it upstairs. then, in an attempt to fix a wobbly leg... pieces started to fly off. the wood had broken apart because it was so old. it probably didn't help that it was getting damp, too. so... of course... we now have to look for a new kitchen table. great. :)

delayed... again

so I spoke with my parents... and yet again, this weekend isn't going to fly for their visit. I'm of course always excited to see my family, especially now because they haven't been in our new house yet. but I'm thoroughly disappointed because not only were they bringing the full bed for the spare room and my desk, we were going to utilize the trailer/moving truck to move the remainder of our stuff from the old home. aka MY QUILTING STUFF!! (sigh) another weekend will go by without my working on things I need to work on... jacob's baby quilt, my friends' wedding quilt (from last november), potentially another wedding quilt for october... and definitely some things that *I* want to finish for myself and the house. plus I have bought some dress/clothing patterns from the amy butler line and I want to be able to practice with them and get used to it. I've never made clothing before and quite frankly, I'd like to know what I'm doing before I cut into my $9.50 yard michael miller fabric!! :D

so anyway, I have my UFOs on the sidebar, but I think I'm going to list them here, too. I need another list like I need a hole in the head, but here goes! :) (oh, and blogger is totally screwing up right now so I can't get my bullet points and I don't know why... so hopefully the formatting isn't all messy).
* amy and ben's wedding quilt
* jacob's baby quilt
* "practice" quilts... a lap quilt and a tree skirt
* landscape quilt (someone at maine quilts show-and-telled hers - so awesome!)
* civil war pumpkin patch (I keep seeing leslie at various events and now I'm feeling a mite bit guilty it's not done!)
* a couple of wool applique pieces... quantity TBD
* children of israel paper pieced quilt (oh the horror)
* handwork stars of david

I'm sure there are a whole bunch more... but since everything's packed up still, I don't know. I'll provide a better inventory (hopefully) next weekend.

lastly, my good friend is getting married in april and I am one of her bridesmaids! at first I was worried because I knew that it would be a huge financial undertaking between the dress, the shower, and the bachelorette party... and with the new house... yikes. also since das is a groomsman, too. but I have since gotten over it. I am still watching the money, though, and hope to be able to pick out some things that are a bit lighter on the wallet... like the dress (we have eleven to choose from - I hope to have some pics later - we're shopping tonight!), and the decorations for the bridal shower. I have confidence in myself that I'll be able to help with the wedding while still keeping track of the finances. this won't be the last you hear of this wedding, though, I'm sure. :) I'm excited!! I just hope that I can tone it down a little bit... I'm just a bridesmaid, not the MOH and I really don't want to step on any toes. I'm just really happy and want to make sure that it's everything that my friend wants. you know?! I am considering doing a signature block for the shower and then putting it together for the wedding as their gift, but I made them a quilt already. not that that precludes them from ever getting another quilt again... but we'll see I guess. I also don't want to take on too much stuff that I can't promise. or maybe I should just get it done instead of procrastinating. :)

ok, well, I hope this posts because I have had trouble all morning with blogger. grr.