Happy New Year!

Goals for 2008!

It's that time of year to think about the things that I'd like to accomplish or get to in the new year. So here is my brainstorming:

Personal

~Lose the pesky 10-15 pounds I've been talking about losing for the past two years
~Be diligent about doing my balance ball core exercises on non-workout days
~Do three workouts a week (yoga covers two of the workouts when it's in session)
~Clean my apartment! Deep cleaning top to bottom with many donations to Goodwill planned.
~Be out of debt in 2008!
~Put myself *out there* in a non-dating social atmosphere (social/new friends groups)

Stitching

~Sweet Dreams Stocking - Dimensions (Carryover from 2007)
~Fairy Moon - Mirabilia
~Thanksgiving Fairy - Mirabilia
~Titania, Queen of the Fairies - Mirabilia
~Halloween House - Lilybet Designs
~In the Tall Flowers Sampler - Liberty Street Designs
~Retro Kitchen Aprons - Needle Treasures
+ at least four stitching exchanges

The stitching goals are pretty adventurous for me as I usually only complete about 4 medium size projects a year. Work, family, friends and dating usually keeps me so busy that its rare to find the time to stitch in the evenings/weekends. I usually have to proclaim *dating bans* on myself to find the time to stitch, read, catch up on movies and just plain relax. But since dating has been exponentially frustrating in 2007, I don't really see myself making a huge effort to put myself out there other than to have the occasional date now and again.

There would probably be more projects on my list if I had the charts for them already but I already have the charts, supplies and fabric for the projects listed above. The top four I'd want to finish are Sweet Dreams, Fairy Moon, Halloween House and In the Tall Flowers. We'll see how well I do.

Busier than I Expected...

Wow! I thought that time would free up once the department's holiday party passed but I forgot about all the little things like finding gifts for the co-workers in my office, the holiday dinner for support staff and the christmas open house that a co-worker throws every year. These are more manageable parties for me to attend since they are low-key and no one really expects me to bring a significant other. So between my yoga class and holiday stuff, the week is busier than I expected. I had grand notions about cleaning and organizing my apartment...about finally finishing the christmas tree portion on the *Sweet Dreams* stocking and sharing a picture...about finally putting some songs on the iPod shuffle I bought months ago. But none of that has happened in the past week.


I think I realized that cleaning and organizing my apartment is a much bigger task than I originally thought. Not that it's disastrous or anything. I don't want to give people the impression that I live in the ultimate pigsty or anything. It's relatively organized and I can find things but it needs a good dusting and vacuuming for one. I also need to get the closets cleaned out for a hefty trip to Goodwill. It's amazing how fast things accumulate! I have lots of old and outdated clothes to get rid of plus knick knacks I thought I'd put up in my new apartment. But now that my new apartment is two years old, it's time to admit that my junk may end up being another person's treasure. It just needs to be put out there! Oh, and don't even get me started on the office...does anyone have *caution* tape?! So I'll put the goal to have the apartment cleaned, de-cluttered and organized at the end of January.

I am hoping to have a blog-worthy picture of *Sweet Dreams* by next week, especially as my Sugar Maple Fabric for Fairy Moon is in the mail. Yay! I really hope that this color works. The other color I had, whereas beautiful, was a little too light and the clouds and beading would get lost in the fabric. So, I'm eager to get started on that as well as what to stitch for my scissor fob exchange. I decided to join a stitching exchange group, Hooked on Exchanging, and the deadline to make, finish and ship a scissor fob to your assigned person is the end of January. I'm excited! A little nervous but excited! I've never made a scissor fob let alone finished one. But I know I can do it...I have the resources and everything! So I'm hoping that this will start a friendship with a lot of stiching bloggers and maybe do 4 exchanges in 2008. If I can do 4 exchanges and 4 projects next year, I'll be ecstatic!

Cherry Mistmas!

Thanks to AM for sending me this Christmas email. I can't resist sharing! It's just too funny and I was actually asked if I was laughing or crying by my coworkers as I was trying to stifle my laughter. I guess this is one way to deal with my *Scroog-ette* mode.

Tequila Christmas Cake

1 cup water
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
Nuts
1 bottle tequila
2 cups dried fruit

Sample the tequila to check quality. (I already sampled it.....several times to check the quality)

Take a large bowl, check the tequila again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again.

At this point its best to make sure the tequila is still OK. Try another cup...just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit up off the floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something.

Check the tequila.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window.

Finish the tequila and wipe counter with the cat.

CHERRY MISTMAS!

Scroog-ette

The holiday season is here and I cannot wait for it to be over. Strangely this is the first year that I have felt such a high level of *bah-humbug*. The feeling is surprising since I'm usually the first one to finish her christmas shopping, send out christmas cards and bust out the fiber optic christmas tree with lights and hang up the stockings but this year...I'm just not feeling it. I managed to put out the fairies and the *Fat Santa* pillow from last year but I should also admit that I still have my Halloween decorations out. Yep, it's December and I still have Halloween stuff up. Where does the time go?!

I did manage to finish my christmas shopping...by buying a crapload of gift cards. It's a good thing family doesn't read this as the secret would be out. I usually relish in trying to find the perfect gift and wrapping presents and making sure that they get to their destination well before the holiday so they can look pretty under the tree but family is rarely ever cooperative. So gift cards it is.

I did already go to the christmas party at work and that was a lot of fun. It was nice to see everyone out of uniform and dressed up for a nice party. A coworker and I decided to go together since we're both single and we were curious about the party but seeing all the guys there with their wives made me feel a little melancholy about my single status and that I'm always single during the holidays. It would have been nice to go to the christmas party with a special someone. That ties into New Years' Eve as well. Most of my close friends are married, in relationships or live far away. I like going out and painting the town red on NYE but it's hard to do that when you're constantly by yourself. Brian Setzer Orchestra and Cake are both playing on or close to NYE and I love both groups and would love to go out and see them play and ring in the new year. Not so much fun doing it alone though. This is another occasion where a special someone would come in handy...or having more single friends.

So I guess it's time to think about involving myself a little bit more...sports, Team in Training, 30-something social groups, church (gah! Did I just say that?!). Anyways, you get my drift. But that's something I'll need to brainstorm as a goal for 2008.

In the meantime, I'll continue my Scroog-ette mode unless something snaps me out of it. You never know...

Sweet Dreams...

My current cross stitch project right now is the *Sweet Dreams Stocking* by Dimensions. I figured it might be a cute and fun project to work on over the holidays to try and help get me out of my *scroog-ette* mood. Plus, I am having color coordination problems with the project I REALLY want to be working on so I have to work on something in the meantime while I wait for new fabric to arrive. The suspense is killing me and I am hoping that the new fabric is the right pick!

This project has been challenging to say the least. There is loads going on...just look at it...there are at least 50 different colors in this chart and the chart isn't the easiest to read. I've been working on it just about one and a half weeks so far so there isn't a lot to share. Just a lot of sporadic brown and green since I'm trying to work on that tree there in the picture. Once you can start to tell what's transforming, I'll post a *Work in Progress (WIP)* picture.

Holiday Fairies!

So in the last three months or so, I've been trying to stitch in my free time. I have lots of projects queued up although I have no idea when I'll actually get around to doing them. But I find it relaxing and a little exciting to see a piece of material transform in front of my eyes and know that it's me that's causing the transformation. I recently finished two Miribilia fairies. One is Halloween Fairy stitched up as kited so nothing fancy there....

The second one is Christmas Fairy...obviously...as she's holding a little green christmas tree. This one was a lot of fun to work on. I decided to splurge and I bought a piece of Sugar Maple Opalescent Bewitched fabric which gives it this little shimmer and makes her appear more festive. You cant really tell in this picture though...

It's a lot of fun seeing them displayed in my living room for the holidays!

Crazy Busy!

I noticed I haven't really written in a while and it's due to loads of things. Initially, I went through a blue phase because a few people I considered friends completely and totally forgot my birthday. I realize that as we get older, we get busier but acknowledging a birthday doesn't really take a lot of effort. An e-card, email, text message, a call or a mailed birthday card. Each takes about 2-5 minutes. Not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. So needless to say, my birthday was not the greatest this year. It taught me to not really have expectations of others if you didn't want to be disappointed.

Since I've been fairly blue, I've been keeping to myself and picking up things that I hadn't had time to do in a while...reading, stitching, watching loads of Tivo, watching videos and shopping. Way too much shopping! Gah!!

I've also cut back on dating. I was seeing this really nice guy the last month and a half but despite having many commonalities, I didn't feel a romantic connection. So I let him know that we would be better off as friends and that it was probably in my best interest to take a dating break. It was hard at first. I left my profile up and still logged in to check but didn't contact anyone. No one's really been contacting me either. But I slowly came to accept that it would be a good idea to just take everything down and take the time for myself instead of strangers. Plus, everyone says that you meet someone when you least expect it and maybe Match isn't where I will meet my special someone. So down came everything and it's been good.

Although, I do think it's interesting that the moment you really aren't into dating, guys resurface. The firefighter from a pervious post resurfaced and apologized for his disappearace. I've emailed him a couple of times but I'm too busy with my own things right now to just sacrafice the little bit of free time I do have. I do want to see what he's up to though. I will call in time to fulfill the curiousity but I do have to admit that I am acting a bit like a girl. He made me wait so now it's his turn. Another guy resurfaced...someone I'd been talking to off and on via email. He lives in the East Bay though so that may as well be the end of the earth to me. Not to mention he only talks about me going to his side of the bay to meet but he never talks about him coming over here. How come I have to do all the work?! Why can't he suggest to come here instead of waiting for me to go there. I think he'll be waiting a mighty long time if that's how he thinks things work!

Work is gearing back up which I like and am looking forward to...lots of recruitments in the future.

Now all I need to do is get through the holiday season!