The lovely Cindy  has tagged me to tell you all 8 random things about myself.  I’m not even sure where to begin. 

1.)  I love hats.  I’ll try on every hat at a store and make whoever is with me take pictures.  How can you not love hats??

2.) I love snowboarding.  I’m the farthest thing from a daredevil, but there’s just something about flying down a mountain covered in ice and snow with the chance of breaking every bone in my body.  Once I reach the bottom in one piece, it’s like I’ve conquered the world.

3.) I don’t eat any pig.  I went to a nutrition seminar years ago and learned that because pigs don’t have sweat glands, all the bacteria in their body stays in their bloodstreams.  Hence, making them the dirtiest animals.  It has nothing to do with the mud they roll around in

4.) I have a freckle on my lip.

5.) I listen to death metal.  I know, I know…  It’s weird.  But I also listen to things like Imogen Heap, Ingrid Michaelson and Brooke Fraser.

6.) I have a “Save the Wooly Catepillars” Campaign going on at work.  For some reason, the fuzzy little buggers just love to infest our walkways.  They get trampled and it’s very disturbing.  I spend my breaks patrolling the walkways and transporting the crazy guys to safe, wooded areas around our office.  I’ve acquired quite an amusing reputation for my valiant efforts.

7.) I love backpacking.  When Tom and I first started dating, I took him to the Laurel Highlands trail in Ohiopyle to do the hardest 6.5 miles of the trail, sleep under the stars, then hike 6.5 miles back.  He said it was harder than his Air Force basic training.  Needless to say, I won his heart over.

8.) When I’m thinking or concentrating I blow bubbles with my tongue and roll them around in my mouth.  It’s so juvenile, but I can’t help it!

Now for the rules:

*link to the person who tagged you
*post the rules
*name 8 things others don’t know about you
*link to 8 other bloggers

So who shall I link to?  I have no clue, so if you want to join in, be my guest, but leave me a comment so I know and I can read your crazy random self-facts!

I have so much to “blog” about that I don’t even know where to start.  I’ll go with something simple.

My fiance just started a blog of his very own.  He’s going to be writing about projects we do around the house, his love for tools and all kinds of manly things.

He is, by far, the biggest inspiration for me.  I’m excited to see the things he blogs about.  To be honest, his first post is somewhat humiliating.  He changed our exterior lighting.  He has before and after pictures.  The before **groaning** are very embarrassing.  Needless to say, the outside of our house has a lot of work to be done to it.  Right now we are in the middle of planning a few additions to the house as well as completely changing the exterior.  Getting rid of the siding and replacing it with faux stone finish… Anyway, check it out and leave him lots of comments!

I overloaded myself with Christmas decorations that I wanted to make myself this year. 

My list consisted of:

Merry Christmas Banner
Felt Trees for dining room table center piece
Needle felted peppermint ornaments
Crocheted scarves for my fuzzy little owls

I decided that instead of taking down all my year-round decorations, I’d attempt to incorporate them into the Christmas theme.  (Hence the crocheted scarves for my owls.)

Those are the felt trees I made for the dining room table, also.  Those were a huge pain in the rear to make, but I’m so pleased with the outcome.

The Merry Christmas Banner

This took me hours and hours to make, but again, I’m very happy with the results.  I’ll have this for years, so the time spent was well worth it. 

Peppermint Ornament

I used wool felt to make these (12 of them) and used Martha Stewart’s holiday red and white baker’s twine to stitch them together.  I think I’m going to adorn gifts with these as a little special something with the wrapping.  ((I think I’m addicted to needle felting now… I’m looking for things to stab with those little needles just because I can.))

Now all I’m working on is cleaning and Christmas gifts.  I had the genious idea to host a Pampered Chef party 2 weeks before Christmas.  What was I thinking???  I’m planning a wedding, a shower, a pampered chef party and have 3 holidays coming up.  I think I’m a glutton for self-punishment.

So I’ve finally gotten off my toosh and uploaded the enormous amount of photos patiently waiting on my camera to my lonely and neglected macbook. I only have a few more holiday projects to finish (for myself) and the rest are gifts to be completed. It’s satisfying to actually check things off my task list. **A note about myself, I’m almost OCD when it comes to lists. I love lists.

This is the little project I started and finished just tonight. Ever since I was a little girl, every Thanksgiving it was my duty to make the place cards for the big family dinner. We normally had around 20 people there, so pre-arranged seating was a must. I’m 26 now and the tradition still lives strong. Tonight I got to work and made the place cards for dinner this year. Let me just say thank you to Martha Stewart for creating her stamps.

That’s all for now. I’ll post my holiday project pics another time. Goodnight!

I’m sure 99% of you can identify with me on the fact that this month and next month are going to be so insanely busy.  It’s double-y busy for me because I have a wedding to plan as well. 

I have been so busy lately that I’ve barely had time to read the blogs that I love, let alone update my own.  In the meantime, when I have some downtime I dive into my new favorite read, Craft Inc.
 

The introduction basically describes my life perfectly.  Sitting in a cubicle, dreaming of grandeur, just waiting for it to magically happen.  I’m changing my ways.  After the holidays and the wedding I plan to attack my dreams more aggressively and make something happen.  Why not?  There is no reason not to make it happen.  I’m young, I have the world at my fingertips.  If I don’t do it now, when will I? 

Enough self-motivation for today.  I have reports to do and documents to audit.  **sigh** 

Soon I will post pictures of all my holiday projects for the house that I’ve been working on.  Stay tuned**

I could not be anymore excited than I am right now about cleaning.  How weird is that?  Tom bought me this organizational unit for my studio for a Christmas present and I can’t wait to get it!

I especially can’t wait for the paper organizer part.  I have hoards of paper stashed all over the place, with no place to properly store it all, so this will be fabulous!

Anyway, I’m off to Philadelphia… yay!

I was rifling through a box of photos that my mom gave to me and I found these snapshots of past Halloweens.  I found  them incredibly amusing and they bring back such fond memories.

Me as a bunny, Ryen as an elephant, and Patrick as an astronaut.  Not too sure how old we are here.  Perhaps 11, 9 and 7…

We didn’t celebrate Halloween often.  Normally we would dress up as an indecipherable Bible character and head to church for the Hallelujiah Party.  All of the kids would be adorned in burlap and cotton sashes with a given name of Daniel or Gabriel for the boys and the girls would often be Sarah or Ruth.  My mother, always having to stretch the limits just a smidge, one year dressed my brother in white thermal from head-to-toe and saftey pinned felt fig leaves on the front and back of the pants.  Let’s guess who he was… yes, a 4 year old Adam.  Too bad I don’t have a picture of that.

To repay my parents for the years of humiliating costumes (that I loved at the time), here is a picture of them en masquerade.

Potipher and his wife

This wasn’t actually for Halloween.  For my mom’s 50th Birthday bash, we threw her a masquerade.  Our home was overrun with 60 adults wearing the costumes they wish they had when they were 7 years old.  It’s amazing what happens to grown-ups when given the chance to alter their identity for one evening (while accompanied with a karaoke machine).

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!