So a few months ago I dropped a big bomb of joy on you guys, announcing that Dave and I had gotten engaged, but since then I haven’t really talked about any of our plans, have I? Rest assured, they are well under way. In fact, we’ve decided to document all the ins and outs of our wedding planning over on our Wedding Blog!
In fact, I posted over there today, all about how we came to pick our wedding venue. So while I may mention some wedding-y goodness over here from time to time, most of the big details will be found over there. Don’t worry, though. I’ll always let you know when I’ve posted something good. So go on over and check out the details of our amazingly gorgeous wedding venue!
As it usually goes when the weather gets cold, I yearn to knit. And I’ve actually been knitting up a storm recently. Baby blankets, to be exact. I’m planning on doing two of them, and am about, oh, 40% through the first.
I really love the checkerboard pattern I chose for this first blanket, though I’m not sure if the suggested yarn really is the best option for knitting it up. Perhaps next time I’ll use one that’s less nubbly. It may be soft and organic and lovely but its unique ply does distort the pattern a bit. Maybe for the second one I’ll use something with a more standard ply. And I’m thinking I should probably switch to metal needles as well, rather than the bamboo ones I’ve been using. Bamboo+cotton seems to cause too much friction to gain any knitting speed or momentum.
I’ll have to see what they have when I make another run to the yarn store today. I’m hoping to have both blankets ready to go by the beginning of March, since both new arrivals are expected in April and I do have a bit of a due date to stick to. (Some pun intended.)
Details for the first blanket are ravelled here.
“Have nothing in your houses that is not useful or you do not believe to be beautiful.”
~ William Morris
Did you know? “Melissa” is Greek for “honeybee.”
You know that movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, where he gets stuck in a repeating loop and every day is the same? That is a little like how I felt last week. Every day I’d get up, work, eat and print. And print, and print, and print. It took me a week to finish all these, but I successfully printed 50 baby shower invitations for my sister’s upcoming showers.
Floating in a sea of baby shower invitations.
I’m actually hosting two showers for her, one for family and one for all her friends. But it was definitely a lot of printing. I’ve done much smaller print runs on my Gocco before, but this was a lot. And after every step I needed to let the cards dry before moving on.
So what did I do? Well, for the front I used two older prints I had and combined them to create the image you see here. Then I custom printed two different insides, one for each shower. Then, as some extra cuteness, I printed a little message on the bottom of the back of each card in a tiny font (just like real greeting cards do). And to top it all off, I printed more grass onto the envelopes and hand addressed all 50. A week’s worth of work but so worth it when I saw the final product.
I hope all the guests like them, because I put a lot into these. And I can’t wait to start planning the rest of the details for the shower. I’m thinking sunflowers and pink roses. Because babies and parties, two very excellent things. But when combined? Pure magic.
Resolution #5: Keep up the good work.
I think it’s safe to say that last year’s gym/weight-loss resolution was, by far, my most successful. However, it was a huge financial burden for us. So, now that we have pretty much reached our goals (and since we can’t afford the gym anymore with the wedding coming up) it will be up to us to keep it up ourselves, in our own home, without the gym and without the trainer.
Does that mean no more chocolate cake?
This will be a true test for me since I have never been this fit before and I have always let my weight creep back up in the past. But not this time. This time, I resolve to keep it down and if anything, to help it to fall even further because I’ve got a wedding to look gorgeous for and I have already ordered the wedding dress! It’s gotta fit, so I gotta stay slim. Pretty serious motivation, I’d say.
Well, that brings us to the end of my 2010 Resolutions overview. Here’s to good luck on all our resolutions, whatever they may be.
It’s still time to stop falling asleep with my makeup on. Resolution Number 4 of 2010.
“wah-wah” says the sad trombone.
As you’ll recall, this was one of my resolutions last year that I utterly failed at. Blarg. I just couldn’t seem to stop with the go-go-go early enough in the evening to get ready for bed properly, rather than just collapsing in a giant heap in the bed when I was too tired to even think about standing over a sink for 5-10 minutes.
So this year, I’m gonna try again. I think that this resolution may actually tie into the previous one about staying on top of things, because theoretically, if I can keep everything under control then there will be fewer nights where I drive myself to the point of being just so tired, and more nights where my poor skin can go to bed happy, actually able to breathe a little.
…and instead, put my life on a successful and fulfilling career path. That is Resolution #2 for 2010.
I’ve mentioned many a time how hateful I find my current job. Over the past year I must have applied for 50 jobs. But despite my education and work experience, nobody is hiring in this economy, not even entry level positions with salaries that would leave me barely able to pay the rent. It’s depressing. I should know, because I let this apparent failure on my part depress me for a good chuck of last year. I felt like I had no options available to me, like I wasn’t even hireable for the crappiest crappy job that was really no better than the crappy dead-end job I currently have. Worst was that few of the jobs I was being rejected for were even things that I really wanted to do.
So I started thinking real hard and doing some soul searching. After a while the answer became so clear that I wondered how I couldn’t have known what I wanted to do with my career the whole time. I’m going to be a Professional Organizer and Interior Decorator.
I’ve always been madly obsessed with organizing and making things more useful and functional. I’ve also always had an eye for aesthetics and seem to know when things go together and when they don’t. Looking at catalogues or magazines, I put together possibilities in my mind’s eye. In every room I enter, I look at what works and what doesn’t and how it could be made better. It’s what comes naturally, and what I should be doing as a career.
So that’s my second resolution for 2010: to stop being afraid, to take the plunge into doing what I love and to work at it every day until I have successfully established myself in the field. It’s gonna take a lot of hard work, maybe some night school, and a lot of believing in myself even when I have nothing to show for it. But if I’m ever gonna have a career it has to be started now. I just gotta remember to take baby steps until I get there.
…let the Year of Change begin!
How did 2009 go by so fast? Wasn’t it just summer? Didn’t we just move into our new apartment? The Year of Freedom turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be. Yet, it was definitely a year of growth. Looking back, I know I am not the same person I was a year ago. And I can honestly say that the differences are all for the better.
I have already dubbed 2010 The Year of Change, and so it shall be. There are two babies scheduled to arrive in our families come April. I’m going to become an Aunt (for the first time) twice in the span of one month. Exciting! Plus, of course, I’m getting married. By this time next year I’ll be a wedded woman, with a completely different last name. That thought is still taking some getting used to. If it felt like 2009 went by quickly, I just know that 2010 is going to go by even faster.
But I can’t just let it fly past. I need to have a direction and a plan for this year so I can tackle all the wonderful changes as they come. Which leads me to New Year’s resolutions. Everybody has an idealized conception of the person they could be if only: If only they weighed less, ate better. If only they were more spontaneous, or more organized, or more motivated, or more something. But is holding onto this ideal so wrong? I don’t think so. (Unless the goals are ridiculously unattainable and/or unhealthy, that is.) I always make New Year’s resolutions, and this year I’m spurred on by last year’s resolution successes.
I think it’s healthy to see yourself as a work in progress. To know that every morning, or once a year, we have a chance to make a fresh start. It’s a chance to get one step closer to that ideal person we wish we could be, knowing that having an ideal is not necessarily the same thing as having an end goal. Ideals change and grow just as we do as people. So though they can never be completely reached, they are always good to have.
So yeah, I think I’ll do the same thing for this year’s resolutions as I did for last year’s resolutions review — one a day for five days. Sound cool? Okay, then check back here tomorrow for the first of my 2010 resolutions!!
This is it, the end of the line. The last look back at 2009 before looking forward to the new year ahead.
My last resolution of 2009 was to get a “financial” life. And how did I do? Well, not so good. But not for lack of trying!! I reconsolidated my student loans (but they’re still there, looming). My employer put a pay freeze in place for 2009 (which meant no raise for me). And the gym/trainer turned out to be a huge financial investment (though WELL worth it). So, as you can probably guess, there really wasn’t any extra money floating around last year.
Still, I didn’t give up and I not only reduced my credit-card debt, but I cancelled my crazy high-rate card and switched to one with a much lower interest rate. Less interest means debt gets paid off faster! So I guess I will have to call this one another tie. I may not have gotten all the way to my goal, but I was able to make some progress.
Final Tally: Sarah – 3, Bad Habits – 2.
Well, it looks like in the grand scheme of things I was able to kick more of my bad habits than not last year, and to make some good progress on a couple more. Yay! I think I would call 2009 a successful year, resolutionarily speaking. (Is that a word? Probably not. Whatevs.)
And I’m looking forward to 2010. I’ve already decided on my resolutions for this year, but that’s a post for another day.
This brings us to my penultimate resolution of 2009: To join a gym and get in shape. So, how did I do?
I am more than proud to say that despite how may times I had made and failed at this resolution in the past, in 2009 I finally succeeded. For those who know what this gobbledy-gook means, I reduced my total body fat by almost 10% and my overall weight went down by 15lbs. So if you remember that muscle weighs more than fat, you can understand what a drastic change this has been for me.
I’m a tiny person (5′ 1″) and to drop two whole dress sizes in less than a year has been huge. And to be able to look this way on my wedding day is going to be just the best feeling in the world.
Sarah – 2.5, Bad Habits – 1.5. Score one for me!
Tomorrow we come to the end. My last resolution of 2009: Get a financial life.
My third resolution of 2009 was to take more pictures.
I think I started out strong with this resolution, but midway through the year my vigour wained. There’s probably a direct correlation between my lack of photos and my amount of stress at work, leading up to the Month of Freedom. After that, the rest of 2009 moved by in a speedy blur and just as I started wanting to take more pictures again, I realized that my good camera had broken (most likely during the move) and all I was left with was a crappy point-and-shoot that couldn’t take a sharp photo to save my life.
It was excruciating, and I tried to make it work, but it didn’t really. So I finally gave in and got my first DSLR at a Boxing Day sale. Hopefully, this means I’m gonna be taking copious amounts of photos in 2010. Just oodles and oodles.
But for the purpose of tallying my 2009 resolutions, I’d have to say this one’s a tie. Sarah – 1.5, Bad Habits – 1.5. Hmm…we’re neck and neck it seems.
Coming down to it now. Tomorrow, Resolution #4: Join a gym and get in shape.
Okey-doke. Moving right along. How did I do on my second resolution of last year, namely:
2. Stop falling asleep with my makeup on.
Wah-wah. That’s the sound of the sad trombone. Here, I am sorry to say, I was a total failure. Total. So total, in fact, that I’m putting that sucker right back on my resolutions list for 2010. With the wedding coming up, I really need to get my skin in better shape and this is definitely Step 1.
Sarah – 1, Bad Habits – 1. Blarg.
Next, Resolution #3: Take more pictures.
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