look what I made!

Today was my potholder class at Capitol Quilts in Gaithersburg. MD. Yes, a bit of a hike, but it was fun! I made three potholders! I think I will be going back for other classes, they have all sorts of things!

Look how cute they are :)

Albania huzzah!

Steve has decided to sponsor an Albanian through World Vision too! Yay! I've volunteered to be the Chief Correspondent and will be in charge of sending all letters and packages. He said to pick my three favorites listed on the site and then he'll choose one.

I'm hoping I can convince him to sponsor two of them :)

hmmmm

Okay, question.

Sometimes people write posts about how they did a search to see how people found their blog. Meaning, if they were googling, they came up with a phrase that led someone to their blog. How do you do this?

I'm a little slow :)

alive, mostly well

Thank you for your lovely and thoughful messages regarding my last post. I guess I've just been in a bit of a funk lately, which I know is totally normal, but still, I hate it. I'll be fine, right?

Hope your Valetine/Presidents weekend was lovely. I enjoy three day weekends and really feel like I'd be more productive if we had them more often. Not necessarily every week, but maybe one a month? That isn't too much to ask, is it?

Remember my 12-in-12? I'm doing one of them this weekend! I signed up for a quilting class at Capitol Quilts on Sunday and I'll be making THREE potholders, according to the email confirmation I received after registering! Apparently I am also supposed to bring my sewing machine. Hmm, I guess I'll need to buy one. I won't be buying one before then, but I'd like to. Do you have a sewing machine? Anyone have any suggestions for what sort of sewing machine to buy?

Oh and my tax refund paid off my credit card! YAY!

Over the weekend, Steve and I went to Fogo de Chao for Valentines Dinner, which was so nice. We'd been once before, for my birthday, but ages ago. We saw a few movies this weekend- Taken and Defiance, both of which were very good and I'd recommend them to you as well. We also watched Nick and Norah's Infinate Playlist, which I thought was adorable and hilarious. I think I have a crush on Michael Cera. Steve bought me the pancake pan from Williams Sonoma for Valentines, which I'd been lusting over for months and months. Who wants to come over for brunch?

Oh, we also went to a few wineries. Please don't let me buy wine for a long, long time. I seriously have at least 20 bottles right now. I don't think that is healthy, do you?

PS. I really want this. I love Susan Branch.

I'm sinking slowly, so hurry hold me

It's not even 6am and I've already been awake for more then an hour. This can't be a good omen for the day. I spent much of last night in tears about, well, everything and I don't know how to make it go away. I don't know how the weekend, which started off so nicely, went down the drain by mid-Sunday.

My tax refund arrived in my checking account Friday morning, along with my normal pay for the week (yes, I get paid weekly and no, it isn't as nice as it sounds), so after I work, I may have stopped by H&M. Finding nothing, I walked to Ann Taylor Loft in Chinatown and picked up a few things. This was after paying off a credit card (good work, Lexi) and calling World Vision to send an extra donation to my girls. I spent the rest of my Friday night reading a new book that came out this week and I'd been waiting rather impatiently for. Saturday I went to the VA Wine Expo with Steve and Magda, where I bought about 18 bottles of wine after being mistaken for her mother. Yes, some old broad pouring merlot told Magda that she didn't look old enough to be drinking and that her mother looked young too. We both were a bit confused until we realized that she meant me. She then tried to backtrack by asking if I was her sister, but the damage was done. THAT MUST BE BECAUSE I'M NOT HER MOTHER, YOU JERK! I had a birthday two weeks ago. I wasn't too bothered by turning 29, but apparently I need to invest in some wrinkle cream. We quickly left that winery's table, forgoing the rest of the wine they were offering.

Sunday included a trip to Target, the grocery store and the Washington Animal Rescue League where I fell in love with several puppies, but didn't take any home with me. After that, it was all downhill. I don't know what is wrong with me, but this stress needs to go away and I don't know how to get rid of it. I can't talk to my mother or to Steve without ending up in tears. My grandmother had heart surgery last week; it went well and she's recovering nicely. I wanted to fly home this weekend, but my parents told me not to. I hate being so far from home, especially during times like this. I want to be there when my family needs me and I want my godson to know who I am. This is my last semester of school and I feel like it may never end. I have so much work to do and I don't know when it will get finished. I am so sick of my tiny apartment, but the idea of moving to a new one makes me cringe. Everything is making me crazy right now.

I think I need a corgi to make it better.

facebook fun

So there is that meme running around facebook and if you aren't my facebook friend, you haven't seen my fascinating list (maybe you should be my facebook friend!). I know you're dying to know all sorts of random things about me (though perhaps some of them are not new information!), I thought I'd post it here...


1. I can't stand Angelina Jolie in the least. She's unattractive and a hypocrite.

2. I talk to myself in foreign languages, but mainly in the grocery store. I am far from fluent in either Polish or Spanish, but find myself thinking gdzie jest mleko or donde esta la leche instead of where is the milk?

3. Before I moved to DC four years ago, I had never been here, not even to visit. I moved to a city I had never stepped foot in, into a house I didn't see before moving in. At the time, I was in Canada running an election, and didn't have the luxury of being here to look at apartments, so I had to base my decisions on phone calls and photos. I got lucky, and moved into a great house with great people, including Steve.

4. Yes, Steve, my boyfriend, was my roommate first. Le scandal! He lived in the basement apartment and I lived upstairs. He seduced me one day and the rest, as the say, is history.

5. I hate tomatoes. I will, however, eat ketchup, tomato sauce, bruschetta, tomato soup, salsa and pretty much anything that contains tomato...but the actual fruit gives me the heebee jeebees. If it is a large chunk, or slice, like in a salad or on a sandwich, I can't handle it. Small, cut up, in something? No problem! Yes, I am aware that I am ridiculous!

6. I love writing letters and getting mail. While email is truly a wonderful thing (thanks Al Gore! hehe) I appreciate people taking the time to sit down and write down their thoughts to share. I have several friends all over that I write to, and I very often send random cards to friends for no reason other then to let them know that I am thinking of them. Coming home and finding a hand-written letter in my mailbox really can make my day. I really should buy stock in Hallmark.

7. Even though I have one MA and am nearly finished with my second, I can’t help but consider another…likely in Library Science…

8. I consider it rude to use call-waiting. This drives Steve apples and bananas. If I am on the phone with someone, and my phone beeps, I look to see who it is, but 97% of the time, I ignore the beep, unless I am waiting for a call. If it is important, they will leave a message and I'll call back. If that person calls again right away, I assume it could be important, so I switch.

9. I don't understand sarcasm. At all. I never get jokes. Ever. I'm also gullible. Bad combination. Maybe someday I will tell the Christ with a K story. Consider yourself lucky if you already know it!

10. It makes me really sad to see Christmas trees lying on the sidewalk, their glory days being over. I wish they could stay up year-round, I really do!

11. I collect tea towels, teapots, Peter Rabbit books/pieces and Russian babushka nesting dolls.

12. Before I met Steve, Iowa was on the list of “states if I never see in this lifetime, it will be okay.” Now, I find it’s a very nice place and I’m glad to go there and I even have a few favorite places there!

13. I really love the cupcake trend that is going around now, because it means that cupcake shops are popping up all over DC!

14. Three of my favorite boys live in Charleston, SC, and one of my favorite boys lives in Laconia, NH and it makes me sad that I don’t see them often.

15. I would love to have a library named after me someday.

16. I sponsor two little girls in Albania through World Vision and I really am so thrilled with it. It makes me so happy to send them letters and packages and come home to find a letter from them in my mailbox. As cliché as it sounds, I’m so pleased to be a part of their life.

17. I’ve become really obsessed with etsy lately and want to make things too!

18. I want to learn to knit and quilt. When I was home earlier this month, I made a pillow and I have signed up for a class to learn to make a potholder next month!

19. I speak some Polish, Spanish and French, but I am far from fluent in any of them, but would like to be. I’d also like to learn Albanian and Norwegian and at least one language with a different alphabet.

20. I truly think that reading with your children is one of the greatest things you can do with them. Some of my fondest memories come from these moments with my parents and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

21. I have more then 150 cookbooks. Seriously.

22. I horse back rode for 15 years and competed in college. Until last summer, I hadn’t been on a horse in about six years. My mother has been taking lessons and she and I rode together one day, which was such a fun moment for me. I want to start taking lessons this spring.

23. I’d love to have twins someday.

24. The most random summer job I ever had was the summer after junior year of high school. I worked in the ticket booth for the G.L.T.A. (Greater Laconia Transport Agency), but didn’t sell any tickets, because the boss decided all rides were free. For some reason, he kept me in the booth to serve as an info point for tourists, but nobody ever came by because the booth was in strange spot and nobody knew it was there.

25. I have more books then I have space to keep them. I need more shelves because the books are in piles all over my apartment. I also have a large number of children’s books that I hope to give to my own someday.


PS. I also have two other memes that I need to do, courtesy of Lizzie

winner!

I decided that my contest is over. I need to start setting an end date. Anyway.

Turns out, I still don't know how to use the random number integrator thing, so instead, I wrote down everyone's name on a piece of paper and pulled one out of a hat (okay, it wasn't a hat, it was a Vera Bradley bag, but whatev)

The winner is.....

SARA!!!

If you aren't reading her blog, you should be. She's fantastic.

Sara, please comment with your address and I will send off your prize. I will screen comments on this post so that your address isn't posted for all of my seven readers to see :)

you'd think I was pregnant or something

For the past four days, I've eaten almost nothing but hummus. Seriously, I can't get enough. Pita bread or carrot sticks, hummus, and I am a happy girl.

Could I turn into a chickpea?

PS. I am SO not pregnant, for the record. I just crave food at random :)

can you cook?

So remember once before when I said I had a lot of cookbooks? Tonight I was cleaning my apartment (it's a complete disaster!) and found a stack of new cookbooks that I got for Christmas (so I haven't totally put things away from the holidays...) and I realized that I really have no more room for cookbooks.



Seriously. This is why----

Do you think I have a problem?

Don't answer that :)

Instead, answer this- what is your favorite cookbook AND favorite recipe? Let me know, because I clearly need more of both.

They'll be a winner! Oh yes, another contest! This will be randomly chosen by one of those random integrator things that I see people use (I'll ask someone...) and the lucky winner will win a copy of Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book! No, it won't be the copy that you see on my shelf and is signed by Rachael herself, but a new copy of your very own!

So, get cooking!

you know you love me

Okay, Gossip Girl, let's chat.

1. Blair and Jack? Did I miss something?
2. Jenny, please take your ugly hair and go away. Don't ever come back.
3. Is the sibling actually alive? I am totally confused by that.
4. Blair, forget Manhattan. Move to Georgetown and be my BFF. I'll take you to my favorite crepe place.

xoxo

are you a lurker? lerker? I like lerker better, but it's the wrong one...

So I'm a bit slow and am now realizing that this is National Delurking Week. Considering about seven people read my blog, I don't think I have any lurkers...but if you are, please say hello! Ask a question, make a comment, whatever, just let me know who you are, in case I am missing out on wonderful and fabulous you!


(I don't know how to paste in those nifty pictures everyone else has)

my bulleted life

• I hate the song "I Knew I Loved You" by Savage Garden. I have no idea why. In theory, it's a lovely song, but there is something about it that irks me. A friend wanted to use it as her first dance at her wedding, but then found out that someone else planned to. I was secretly relieved. I know, I'm awful.
• It makes me really sad to see Christmas trees lying on the sidewalk, their glory days being over. I wish they could stay up year-round, I really do!
• Last weekend, we stopped by Mount Vernon (I LOVE Mount Vernon...) and there was a wedding reception there. It was so lovely and beautiful that I wanted to cry. It was one of those perfectly cool and crisp days that wasn't too cold, but cold enough that you knew it was January. The bride had an amazing dress that I may secretly covet for my own, and she had a mink stole around her neck. Really, she was stunning. I'd love to have my wedding there, but since it is unlikely that the entire plantation will be relocated to NH anytime soon, I guess it won't be happening!
• Obama was outside my office building this afternoon and I didn't see him. I'm not particularly upset about not seeing him, but my colleague stood outside for 40 minutes waiting for a glimpse. She saw him, she was happy.
• I have lemon rosemary chicken baking in the oven right now and it's smelling delish.
• I hosted a cookie swap last month and I still have not posted the pictures. It was a lovely afternoon and much fun was had by all (I think!)
• I saw snow flurries for about seven minutes today. Then, poof, like magic, they were gone.
• I love Russian babushka nesting dolls. I have a bit of a collection, including a tea towel and a few ornaments, and they never fail to make me smile.
• There is a rowhouse on 8th St. SE, near Eastern Market that is still decorated so beautifully for Christmas. They had wreaths hanging with red velvet ribbon from each window, and candles in the windows as well. When I walk home from the metro, I go by it every night and think about the sort of people who live there. A little part of me wants to knock on their door and tell them how wonderful their home looks, but I think that might be a little creepy, so I don't; I just walk by and think it to myself.
• I got two new Vera Bradley bags for Christmas and haven't used either of them yet.
• As an impulse, I bought a package of strawberries at Harris Teeter tonight. There were samples out and they were so sweet and juicy that I couldn't resist.

What makes your week random?

busy schedule? fine with me!

I've come to the conclusion that I am happier and more productive when I have a full schedule. Like anyone else, I like my downtime, but too much of it, and I become a lazy blob.

Example. My senior year of college, I was taking six classes (18 credits), was on the equestrian team, babysat twice a week for six hours each day, worked part-time at Bath and Body Works, volunteered on a campaign that fall, was chair of one club on campus and Executive Director of the state chapter of that club and something else that is escaping me. My day planner was a million different colors and I liked it that way. I felt like I accomplished a great deal each day and had a great time doing it.

When I moved to DC, I worked full-time and that was about it (at first, anyway). Two years later, I began the second Master's, at GWU, so I had classes at night and often meetings with people for projects and such. It was a good thing. The thing is, for as much as I complained about how tired I was, and how much work I had to do, I really enjoyed my classes and liked being in school (nerd alert). Now I am missing that. I liked that element of my life; going to class, meeting new people and sharing ideas. I felt so inspired by some of the people I met and hearing about the amazing things that they've done. Now? Not so much. I'm missing that interaction, wishing I was still there. In my heart, I am contemplating what Master's to get next (ha!), though my head knows that a third Master's and another $30K in loans isn't the best way to go.

Trying to find inspiration and passion isn't easy; it is something I feel as though I've struggled with for a long time. There are things I love and things I want to do, but I feel like I lack the ability to get there. Some days, I am not sure how to get there, what steps I need to take. I've begun to do some volunteering in the city. I found the Washington Literacy Council and once a month, have gone to a local elementary school to read with students. I also went to an info session for Greater DC Cares, which has all sorts of different volunteer opportunities, from working in soup kitchens, to reading with students, to working at a horse barn (which I am totally going to do, by the way!) I've also found a pottery studio where you can take classes, so I am thinking about maybe trying that as well.

What do you do to stay busy?

Christmas, New Hampshire style

Somehow during my week at home, I didn't manage to take a picture of the outside of the house or the approximately two feet of snow we had in NH! Oh well...look my mum's snowmen and pretend they are outside!

12 in 12

Happy New Year, all! Hope you had a good evening. Me? I was asleep by 10:30. Seriously. I'm not sure what came over me, but I was exhausted. Frankly, NYE has never been a huge thing to me, so I was okay with that!

With regards to resolutions, I try not to make them- mainly because I always break them! Instead, I've made a list of 12 goals that I'd like to accomplish in 12 months. Some of them will take longer then others, which is why I've given myself a year!

So, here goes---

• eliminate ALL credit card debt- difficult, but can be done if I really work at it
• take a yoga and a quilting class...then maybe stick with one (or both!) of them
• learn to knit and make a scarf and matching mittens
• get hired directly by the agency I work for, rather then continuing with contract I'm currently on
• visit three new countries and six new states that I've never been to
• send three chapters of my book to a publisher- this is something I haven't talked much about...I have a general outline for a book I'd like to write, and it's long been a secret goal of mine, but it needs a lot of work, and I mostly ignore it, but shouldn't
• try and then stick to the Sonoma Diet- I need to be making healthy eating habits...healthy that doesn't include cool ranch doritos! besides, the Sonoma diet includes and encourages drinking wine, so that is a diet that I can enjoy!
• find and attend a church in DC that I love and feel a part of
• buy a small condo for an eventual rental unit- yes, this may be a pipe dream, but it's something that I'd really like to do, if possible
• cook at least three times a week from existing cookbooks- I have way too many that I rarely use!
• stop referring to Steve's ex as a dumb ugly whore (among other things...)- I despise her for various reasons, but they are still friends, so I really should be nicer, right?
• plan a trip to Albania
• give Steve a backrub once a week without him begging (haha, he added that one...)

(yes, that's 13...but I added one, since Steve did, haha)