A Little More About Me

**the January Craft Book Challenge blogpost is coming... I promise! but for now...

A little more about me :) This is actually from Facebook, but I figured it'd be fun to post up here as well. I'm not "officially" tagging anyone, but it'd be great to learn more about you all as well! If you do post your own, be sure to leave me a comment and let me know. Enjoy! :)



1. i have never dyed my hair, although if i spend enough time in the sun during the summer i usually end up with reddish highlights (thanks to my grandpa's genes! :))

2. the beach is by far my favorite place to be and if i could live there, i would.

3. when i was a kid i always wanted to live in san francisco--every time we visited i watched for "apartment for rent" signs in the windows

4. p.s. - i still want to live in san francisco :)

5. my best friend jodi & i watched "you've got mail" in stages every friday our senior year in high school after selling chocolate at safeway to finance our class's trip to DC

6. while "you've got mail" is still one of my favorite movies, my husband won me over to "his" movies (i.e. shoot-em-up, war movies) as well

7. i draw the line at movies like "scorpion king" where you can literally leave the room for 45 minutes and know exactly what's going on when you walk back in



8. i love little kids and tend to "adopt" others kids as my own temporarily

9. luckily... the parents whom i "borrow" the kids from don't mind at all! they think i do a great job :)

10. ryan and i are looking for a bit more financial stability and job security before having kids... but we already have a boy's name picked out thanks to my uncle's suggestions :)

11. although my "this is what i want to be when i grow up" statements changed frequently when i was young, they all revolved around similar topics: author, journalist, novelist, editor, copywriter, etc.

12. now that i am "grown up," i'm not writing published works on a daily basis, but i do work for a publishing company in their public relations department, so i am fulfilling my dream of writing! we'll see where else my love for words and writing and editing takes me someday.



13. i love to travel and want to do it far more than my job allows. it doesn't matter where--i just love seeing new places and doing new things.

14. i am NOT a morning person. i need at least 20 minutes of time to myself in the morning before i'm able to carry on a coherent conversation.

15. fortunately, my husband is the same way and understands completely.

16. unfortunately, our puppy is not the same way and doesn't understand at all.

17. once and for all... our dog's name is ember. no, we didn't name him -- the adoption/shelter company that we got him from did. yes, he's a boy. no, it's not a girly name unless you pronounce it amber, in which case, you're not calling for our dog in the first place... you're calling for the girl who lives down the street. and yes... we like our dog's name, or else we would have changed it :)

18. when we first adopted our dog, we made it a rule that he couldn't be on the couches, up on the bed, or in the 2nd bedroom. we lost the battle re: the couches rather quickly--he now spends a good portion of his day up there. we're in the process of losing the battle with the bed--the last 4 mornings i've woken up with him curled up next to me, fast asleep. we are determined to not lose the battle with the 2nd bedroom. there are too many cords, knickknacks, and expensive gadgets in there for him to get into.



19. although i'm willing to try new things and go to new places, if you ask me what i want to order at a restaurant, 9 times out of 10 i'll settle on a safe favorite rather than branching out. in other words... if i have to pay for it and don't have the choice of eating something else if i don't like the food i ordered... i'm not very adventurous :)

20. food at home, however... i experiment with. constantly. i hardly ever follow a recipe from start to finish -- i substitute items, taking out what we don't like and adding extra spices or other ingredients that sound good. and to my credit... it rarely turns out bad if i do say so myself!

21. i'm addicted to craft blogs. literally addicted. i'm subscribed to 81 different craft blogs via RSS feeds, and have about another 15-20 bookmarked. stop looking so shocked... i told you i was addicted! (p.s. if you find any good ones that i might enjoy--let me know!! ;))



22. i keep a to-do list of projects that need to be done both at work and at home. i don't usually follow them, but for some reason it gives me a sense of accomplishment to just see everything that i have to do written down... even if i have yet to accomplish any of those things.

23. one of my pet peeves is coming home to a house with piles of stuff everywhere--the mail left on the counter, clothes piled by the bed, laundry still in the dryer from the night before, etc. but before you get on ryan's case, you have to realize that even though it's a pet peeve... i'm one of the worst offenders.

24. i enjoy working out... once i actually get myself to the gym. it's the getting to the gym part that's hard for me. gotta work on that one... any suggestions? :)

25. i love the idea of bubble baths... relaxing, enjoying the peace & quiet, nursing sore muscles, or just winding down from a busy week... but in actuality i don't enjoy bubble baths... just the idea of them. maybe if i had a jacuzzi tub? maybe then i would enjoy both the idea and the actual bath :)

Wednesday Wish List: Knitting

::edit:: sorry for the delay... apparently something is broken in blogger's scheduled posts option. i'm recovering from a 36-hour migraine, and now that i'm able to see straight, sit up for a long period of time, and tolerate both light and noise... i noticed :) more on the january installment of the craft challenge and my reviews for Chronicle.

i was perusing etsy the other day (ok... so, i drool over things on etsy practically every day) and ran across the following things that i'd love to have one day.

let me rephrase that... i'd love to have them... or have the talents to make them. :) most of these items this week are hand-knitted... which is a skill i have yet to acquire. anyone have any suggestions on good knitting books or sites with tutorials? i'd love to learn!

these handwarmers from suetreiber would be wonderful for work! my hands are constantly freezing but it's a little difficult to type with mittens on (believe me... i've tried!). i've heard they're pretty simple to make, so maybe this is one project i could actually accomplish! :)


this "my little mushroom" cap from tottotter is absolutely adorable. i have a few friends that are either pregnant or have little ones, and this would be a great gift! the little girl pictured is equally adorable, yes? :)


this project from strikk is at the top of my "i want to learn to knit, because..." list. :) along with cute clothes and essentials like diapers, etc. those little babies are going to need blankets, and with the warm weather we've been getting lately, heavy quilts or patchwork items aren't always needed! this one would fit the ticket nicely!


and while not listed on etsy, this owl sweater is to die for...

isn't it amazing? she has a free pattern posted on the site as well... so maybe one of these days i'll possess the talent required to make something like that!


alright... enough knitting pictures for now... maybe i should actually concentrate on learning the skill before i start dreaming up everything i could make! better yet... (and for the sake of my dear husband) i should concentrate on finishing all of the projects i already have going now :)

goals for 2009

so i know i'm a bit late on posting my goals for 2009, but i've given up on making goals on new years day -- those goals were always broken before i had a chance to give them a good run. so now i've figured i take the month of january to evaluate things, think through reasonable goals, and begin to implement them. goals that have been kept thus far (by the end of january) are ones that i will continue through the year. does that make any sense to anyone other than myself? if it doesn't, just humor me... :)

and you can humor me first by enjoying a picture of our puppy at Christmas time :) he's grown quite a bit since then... but this one is too cute to pass up!



so, back to the point: my goals for this year.

1) keep the house straightened on a constant basis. not clean as in dusted, vacuumed, swept, 24/7, but straight. as in... no piles of clothes, mail, ads, coupons, wii supplies, etc. basically, the idea is that if someone were to show up at our doorstep, we wouldn't be embarrassed to let them in our house without first frantically running around to pick up. (note to self: we don't have kids yet. what's going to happen once we do?!?)

2) balance our finances and take care of all bills on the last weekend of each month. we keep up with it on a regular basis, but the more often we can transfer money into savings and keep stocking up our nest egg, the better the interest rates, which means the better our future!

3) plan meals out for a week at a time. this should help tremendously with grocery bills as well as with planning ahead for meals (aka not eating dinner at 7:30 at night, which makes ryan very excited!). i've been using future girl's meal planner and it's been wonderful. we can transfer meals from one night to another, write down all the ingredients needed to make it, and any notes needed (i.e. take the meat out of the freezer, etc.)



4) this one is inspired by WhatKnot and her flickr set tracking her progress. complete one project a month out of the stack of craft books i have... and the new ones i got about a month ago from Chronicle Books. Haven't you heard? I'm one of their newest reviewers. *squeal!!* yep... you heard me right. the books arrived right after Christmas, and i could have sworn it was Christmas all over again :) i'll be reviewing the books on here and completing projects from them... maybe even giving away a book or two once i'm done with the reviews, so stay tuned! and lest you think that i'm already behind with last month, i completed last month's project on saturday, just in the nick of time :) i'll be sharing pictures of my progress in a later post.



5) lastly... i want to hold myself to updating the blog at least twice a week. i know it's not much compared to what some of you hard-core bloggers do, but with work being so busy, it's about as much as i can handle right now. so stay tuned to see what i'll be doing :) and who knows, i may just surprise you (and myself!) by blogging more :) i do enjoy it... i just can't always motivate myself to turn my computer back on after being on it for 8+ hours a day at work :)

so hold me to them, ok? i'll need all the accountability i can get :) pictures coming soon of the first craft challenge accomplishment!

i'm back!

sorry for the long absence. it wasn't intended, but between 2 colds back-to-back that kept me out-of-commission for several weeks, getting a new dog/puppy that's been taking a lot of our time, and chaos at work due to a lay-off and those of us left having to pick up the extra work... it's been just a tad busy around here lately! :)

needless to say, all things crafty have been a bit on the slow side (read: non-existant). i've had quite a few ideas flying around this brain of mine, but simply no time to implement them. there have been some sketches (although i'm not a great sketcher by any means!) and a lot of jotted ideas.

one of those ideas has been more of a dream for the future... one that my dear husband has been brainstorming on as well :) it may be quite some time before we have the space (or money) to implement it, but it's fun to dream in the meantime! as you can see by the picture below, i'm in great need of a good workspace... and especially a good cutting table. my "cutting table" for right now typically consists of either an ironing board, our coffee table, or the kitchen table, as they're the only surfaces big enough and flat enough to work well.



the problem being, the ironing board is the only one of the three that is tall enough for me to stand at, the kitchen table is the only one large enough for me to cut big projects on, and the coffee table is too short for me to be able to do more than kneel at. we talked about it a little bit the other night, and decided that the best way would be to make it a little higher than table-height to allow me to stand or sit, have cabinets on two or three sides underneath and one side open to sit at. that way i have areas to store supplies as well as cut, iron, and sew. i've been researching it a bit and saw a fantastic idea to layer the top with cork and brown paper/butcher paper to allow for sticking pins in to secure fabric while cutting, patterns while tracing, etc.

minor detail, this all has to wait for a bigger house or at least a bigger craft area. we unfortunately don't have enough room in our second bedroom/office area/craft room/music room for any sort of cutting table. but i can dream :)



any tips or tricks to help me in the quest for a perfect work/cutting table? all i've got is time for now :)

Merry Christmas!

from my house to yours... Merry Christmas!

Santa's Workshop

now that we don't have company anymore... i'm back in full christmas-making mode. since i've decided to make most of my presents this year it's definitely cut back on the "oh my gosh--what do i get him/her this year?" dilemma but it hasn't cut back on the "when am i going to find time to finish this/that" predicament. somehow i think that's always going to be a problem :)

on the other hand... i'm crafting far more than i have in a while... and loving it! people are enjoying my hand-made gifts... and i love the feeling of giving something that i have made! on the downside... since all of these crafty projects are also Christmas presents... and i know of at least one or two family members who read this blog (hi mom!) i can't exactly post pictures :) but rest assured that i'm still taking plenty... preparing to blast you all with documentation as soon as the holidays are over :)

on a quick sidenote... there are pictures i can show you... completely unrelated to crafts... but still amazingly cute! :) we adopted a one and a half year old puppy yesterday... named Ember. we got him from an amazing organization called The Milo Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that rescues dogs from local shelters as well as from the streets. he's a border terrier mix... maybe with some pug or jack russel terrier mixed in there. he's got an adorable tail that curls into a perfect circle when it's not wagging his whole little back-side... and the calmest, most mellow personality that i've ever seen in a dog. he's incredibly curious and eager to please, full of energy at the site of a new person or place, but also perfectly content to lay on his bed or cuddle in your lap. he doesn't bark unless he's startled at something, and then it's only a single bark (i told you he's amazing :)) and neither does he slobber all over your face -- it's a quick lick on the chin and that's all the kisses from him :)



he's pretty awesome if we do say so ourselves :)

if i don't have a chance to jump back on before Christmas Day... Merry Christmas to you & yours! :)

and the winner is... me!

no, not because i'm sick. and no, not because i have 2 weeks of paid vacation from work coming up (although that IS a prize, isn't it? :))

because i won an ornament from the amazing tollipop!



the funniest thing is... since it's been so busy at work & home lately, i haven't had a chance to keep up on my blog-watching, so i only found out because Kristin popped over to my blog to see who the lucky winner (me!) was and left me a comment :) so thanks to her... i know that i won... and i have a great new blog to follow :)

thanks to Amanda for pointing me in the right direction :)