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?

dang the weather

(note: this post ended up being really long... just don't say I didn't warn you.)

so here I am sitting at the computer. das is in bed sleeping. he's supposedly getting up to play flag football tomorrow; all my bets are on "yeah right". :) but I'd like to get caught up...

so first let me show off the final product of the "hanukkah lights" project. not too shabby if you ask me... considering I haven't paper pieced in ages.

as you can see... it's rather long. the rules were 6" x 12" centers for a table runner and 12" x 12" for a table topper. mine's about... 6"(ish) by maybe... 18"(ish)? it's an invalid entry. :( but I hope that people will make due. it's my first round robin ever. please be gentle.

and yes, my tablecloth is bright yellow. I'm surprised you can't see all the hair on it from the cats.

so my friend storey called this morning while I was working on my project and we made the executive decision that ultimately it may be considered "bad parenting" to subject her two and a half year old son to the epic rainstorms we were expected to have here in CT. understandable. we were disappointed, but such is life. she got her son's hair cut... and I decided to go anyway. yeah, you heard me. I decided to go... in the weather that was potentially going to require a large boat and sets of two of every species (except mosquitos... I can do without them thanks). so I packed up my stuff... prepped for the elements... and went to the post office, dunkin donuts, and michaels (for some stamping supplies). THEN I went to the fair. up to this point, there had only been slight drizzle so I was expecting to get there and have torrential downpours greet me instead of cows and goats and fried food. I get there... shuttle in from the off-site parking lot... still nothing. I walked around the fair for three hours. NO. RAIN. AT. ALL. which was awesome for me since I was currently at the fair... but disappointing all around because storey totally could have come. was it muddy? yeah sure... but it would've been dirty anyway. it's just wet dirt so who cares? :)

so about the fair. it was great... as expected. I very much enjoyed myself and am glad I went since I wasn't sure if I'd get out there again this weekend to really look around. it was perfect, too, when I first got there as no one had realized that it wasn't going to rain and we were still in that apprehensive "oh well do we risk it or do we stay in and go tomorrow" phase at home. there were hardly any lines or congestion typical of a fair scene. that changed later, as people realized that no, it really wasn't going to rain even though the weather forecasters (AND weather.com) said it was 100% chance of rain today. but I digress. I visited the swine/small animal/poultry/goats section first. I saw THE cutest little black goat. I do so much want a goat, but das for some reason is highly against that. I'm just trying to be green... a natural lawnmower? :) anyway, I went to the llama/sheep section next. most of the sheep were off-limits because, I believe, they were doing some showing still so they wanted to avoid pedestrian traffic as they loaded and unloaded sheep. the llamas were mentally preparing for their obsticle course section. the handlers were still setting up, so I opted to continue walking instead of waiting around. besides, the wet llama is a far more grotesque odor than many things I've smelled. wet wool = oh HELL no (gag). so I moved on to the photography section. I mentioned before about how I forced das to enter some of his work... well, of the two things he entered, one didn't place and one was honorable mention (which might I add is honorable considering there are about 250 photos entered into the competition and not everyone gets a "hey thanks for playing" ribbon). I personally think it's a sham, but it's all in the hands of whoever is judging. who knows what their criteria is... same with quilt judging. one person may count off more for one thing than another and so on and so forth. he tends to get deflated after his work is judged, but I keep trying to get him in again and again. anyway, my submission (at the end of this post) was an honorable mention, too. so I moved on to the needlework section. I had entered my irish chain (which I was SO hoping didn't have as much cat hair on it as I thought it might). and I got a blue ribbon! I am very excited. I just like having my work validated sometimes... I am very (ok... very to the infinite power) picky about my work. I think that is why sometimes I don't want to work... I'm worried I'll mess up. but I was proud of this work. I put love into it because I was making it for my husband to commemorate a great time we had together in ireland. that alone was worth the blue. :) I don't know yet what any commentary may exist so we'll see. maybe there will be something about "ok seriously... shave the cats". maybe. the next stop was the canning area to scope out how my pickles did. this was a huge experiment for me since a) I've never entered canning before and b) I've never canned anything before. I always like a stressful challenge... ok not really but in the end it's usually ok. just not those several weeks leading up to the deadline or the 12 hours just before where I'm frantically scraping everything together. at least with the pickles... I had to have them done at least 10 days before I entered them so that they could, well, pickle. :) though I ultimately made three styles (level three hot, level seven hot, and level ten hot), I submitted the level threes since those were the only ones I had made and tasted prior. I searched up and down... and found them... I got a third! which, for me, is so great. some pickles hadn't even placed, so to win a ribbon on my rookie pickle entry is so cool. I don't know if I'll do more in the future... it depends. I hope that there are some comments so I know what to do... not just for the entering portion, but to make the pickles better in general. so moving on... I checked out the craft areas, which are usually the same as they always are at the local fairs, and got some food, and just walked around some more. I found the farm museum, which was quite interesting. there was documentation on all the local farms from their humble beginnings to where they are now. the sheer number of older and antique farm pieces was just astounding. they even had an antique treadle there, too. after a while, though, my feet were acting up and I decided to head home.

I started to work on some stamping stuff, but das got home from his poker night early so I ultimately just futzed around. such is life. I did find out that our soccer game was moved due to the potential field closings. what really irks me about this is that the coordinators are moving the games and then wondering why we can't field a team. that's because people plan to have the games at a certain time... which is why you give the schedule to us at the beginning of a season. then the games are changed for whatever reason (usually rain) and now it interferes with plans that people have already made. our team is having enough issues fielding a team without the issue of overlapping schedules interfering. it's just frustrating to have to deal with a team of women who should all know better, but complain about it anyway. well, not everyone complains, but all it takes is one. I so don't want to be rep anymore; I'm a player and a rep, not your mother. wow... thanks for that vent, internet. I needed that.

so I leave this dissertation-sized post with this photo: the sham ShamWOW (note: sound auto starts with the page load). hilarious.