Tagged, um, a month ago. Oops.

 So Lucy at Charm About You, who is possibly one of my favorite bloggers (aww!) tagged me to answer 11 random questions. I'm supposed to tag people and then have them answer different random questions...but I'm lazy (as shown by the fact that Lucy tagged me on the 22nd of March - really? Come on, Steph.) and am just going to answer. So here goes.

1. What's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?


Uh. I guess join the Air Force out of high school? This wasn't particularly spontaneous, but I'm REALLY not a spontaneous person, AT ALL, and this was something unexpected.



Proof? Here's me (on the left) and my good pal Jody (check out her blog, A Servant in House Beautiful, for very moving/inspirational posts about her quest to adopt!) on the day we graduated from basic training.

2. What is your favourite time of day?

Whatever time it is when I get to leave work, which is usually 4:30PM. Seriously, there have been several occasions where I've run to my car after clocking out!





3. Which colour of fabric do you use the most?

White. Boring, huh? It's essential, though, for sashing and coordinating. Other than that, probably blue. I love blue. :)

4. Did you have a toy/blanket that you took to bed when you were little?


Yup, his name was Aetna Bear. What? Yes, my teddy bear was named after a health insurance company. My parents have worked for the company basically my whole life, and I got the bear from a raffle at some family day event that they had. It was wearing a little white t-shirt with the company's logo on it. I still have the bear, too, up in my attic.

5. What song always gets stuck in your head?

Lately, the song "Victoria," by Eve 6. It's their new single, I'm going to see them on 4/22 in Sacramento for my birthday, and I absolutely cannot wait! They're one of the few bands I've seen in concert and I think it's swell that they're coming to town the day before my birthday and their new CD (their first since '03) is coming out the day after. :)

6. What's the best concert you've ever been to? Um, Eve 6? LOL. Funny you asked! I went to see them in June of 2003, right after high school ended, on one of their last tours. I was RIGHT up front at the show (which was standing room only). Here's a photo I took of the lead singer, Max (who looks much better with the shaved head he's got now!).

7. What did you want to be when you grew up?

A better question would be what didn't I want to be, hah. Journalist, author, veterinarian (specifically for birds), meteorologist, paleontologist...lots of things described by big words. Needless to say, "paperwork girl at a car dealership" was not on the list. Oh well.

8. Camping or a hotel?

Hotel, hands down. I've been camping once and it was awful. Never again.

9. Do you have a nickname?

Other than Steph, my husband calls me Monkey. I call him Panda. :)

10. Can you play any instruments?

In junior high I played the clarinet and bass clarinet, but I haven't really played either in years. I can still tinker around on a piano, a little. Tunes like this one, from Big Bang Theory. ;)

11. Would you rather call/text/email or write a letter?

Definitely NOT call. I like texting, and a friend of mine and I have recently started writing actual letters back and forth to each other, which has been fun. It all depends on the situation, I suppose!

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So there ya go, 11 random questions about me. I'm sure it was more fun for me to answer than for you to read, LOL ;) 

WIP Wednesday - fugly edition

(linking up with Freshly Pieced for W.i.P Wednesday)

In honor of the Fugly Fabric Giveaway hosted by Charm About You (click here to find MY offerings!) I decided to whip out my fugly WIPs.

No, I don't ever intend to finish them. Don't worry.

Up first is, literally, a mishmash of all the ugliest fabrics that came in a fat quarter lot (which I got ridiculously cheap, I can't imagine why!?!?) on eBay. Note my terrible attempts at HSTs, back when I didn't realize that using an iron that was too hot would screw up fabric and before I knew what squaring up a HST was.

Keep in mind, also, that this was started about a year ago! What a long way I've come (I hope, anyway). Overall it's roughly, um...lap sized. If you have a lap that needs to be covered by something fugly.

Don't those fruits look delicious? Not. Also note my failure to follow my own made up pattern.

Then there's this. I'm not sure what it is. It's maybe a bit bigger than mini sized, and this was fabric from a lot of 3" charm squares, also from eBay. Not sure what I was thinking here, either, but I do like some of the combinations...

Like the one on the left here. The one on the right? Chunks of dalmations and cat bodies. No idea.

Just to reassure you, no,  I have no intention of finishing either of them...though I'm not sure what I will do. They're sort of quilt tops, and they definitely demonstrate my learning process! Any ideas what i should do??

Fugly Fabric

Everyone has it - the fabric you just don't like anymore, that you got in a sack of scraps that you never liked in the first place. I know I've got some, and I haven't been sewing all that long, so I'm sure you've got some, too.

I'm talking about fugly fabric.

Lucy at Charm About You had the great idea to host a Fugly Fabric Party - a link party in which you post a lot of fabric that you're just not that into, and make it available to one of your followers - maybe just a giveaway, maybe a FQ-for-FQ swap, who knows. It's up to you! She's proposed February 7th as the date for this. I'm pretty excited about it, as I've got some FQs to put up for grabs, as well as a big piece of backing fabric...so spread the word!

((It'll also be my first giveaway - hooray!))

WIP Wednesday

I actually have some WIPs that I can blog about now , so I can finally join in Freshly Pieced's W.i.P. Wednesday! :D For a while all I'd been working on were gift quilts (though admittedly I still am) but now I've started a few projects that don't have destinations or which, heaven forbid, are actually for my husband and I!

First, the longest-running project, the queen sized quilt for our bedroom - simple 4" squares, in a brick-like pattern, in a blue/purple/black scheme to match the bedroom we have not yet painted. I'm about 3/4 of the way through quilting it (straight line quilting, 1/4" from the seams). I'm definitely hoping to have it done, um, before winter. I think I can manage that timeline. :)

I'll admit, I love the fancy designer fabrics from Moda...but the clearance racks and remnant bin at Joann's are a bit more my budget. I found this adorable jelly roll there this past weekend, and grabbed it. I'm planning on using it for a nine-patch quilt - my first attempt at using one of those nifty, sew-strips-together-and-turn-them-into-fancy-things techniques that seem oh-so-clever!

 While on our way home from vacation, I had the brilliant idea to make a Tetris-themed quilt. After deciding to use the color scheme from the Microsoft Windows 3.1 version of the game, I bought solids (again, at Joann, which had them 50% off all weekend) - hooray! Looking forward to getting started on that one.

Okay, so my kitties aren't a work-in-progress (or are they?) but they're adorable so I included them. They LOVE hanging out by the front door when it's open - Jeff and I call it Cat-TV. :)

Ten on Tuesday - vacation style!

 

I'm leaving for vacation in less than 10 days, so my 10-on-Tuesday will be all about that! 

10 Things I'm Looking Forward to Whilst on Vacation

1. The Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History! My husband and I are huge science nerds - he's getting a Master's in biology while on his way to pursuing a forensic anthropology career, and I married him, so that explains me. ;) The Smithsonian's got a Human Origins exhibit going on right now, and we're really excited to see the casts of the different species that led to us! This is in addition to the amazing ocean exhibit and the dinosaurs that were there when we went last time. 

2. Getting time off work! It's been since our honeymoon two years ago since I got to take more than four days off in a row - this time I'll get, um, six. Hooray! :)

3. More museums! Going along with number 1, we're also heading to the Mutter Museum (warning: website not for the faint of heart!). It's a museum of medical history and oddities, including more skeletons and specimens and all kinds of things like these skulls: 

4. Visiting with my favorite aunt, who lives in Delaware. We chat via email all the time, complaining about all the usual things - work, husbands, family, etc. The best part? She's a crafter/sewist, too! Her fabric stash is huge - she's instructed me to bring an extra suitcase to fill with fabric so I can make more lovely jelly roll quilts (she's a big fan of the ones that I've made/started so far). Can't wait!

5. Going to my cousin's wedding. My cousin's fiance was finally able to get a visa to move to the US from Mexico, so they're finally able to be together! They were originally planning to get married back in April, but as with all things bureaucratic, it took longer than expected. It's probably for the best, though, since she's a teacher and will get to have a week or two off after being married to stay home and enjoy that! If you're interested in donating to a very worthy cause, check out her DonorsChoose.org page. :)

(Phew, 10 is harder than I expected, and I'm writing quite the novel! Oops!)

6. Food! There are a bunch of east-coast places I don't get out here in California, like Rita's Italian Ice, that I'm looking forward to!!

7. Podcast love! I have a TON - literally like, six months' worth, if I listened to them all day, every day - of podcasts on my iPod that I have to catch up on. Old episodes of Loveline (mmm, Dr. Drew!), lots of Adam Carolla, and all kinds of other things. Plane flights = iPod time, at least for me!

8. Not having to cook or drive: Not that I really cook, um, ever, and I don't drive much at all, either, but since we'll be staying with my parents and won't be renting a car, I won't have to worry about either task!

9. Not listening to talk radio: While yes, I will be listening to my own pod casts, as mentioned up there in number 7, I don't have to listen to any of hubby's talk radio - which means a break from Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern. I don't mind TOO much, but a break will still be nice. :)

10: Have I mentioned not being at work? I did? Oh. Well. It's important enough that it deserves two numbers!!! :)

Target Tuesday - Themeless!

This week for Target Tuesday, I'm going themeless! LOL!

I like these shorts (capris?) - I've been working out - lost two inches in my waist in two weeks - so new workout shorts would be a good positive reinforcement, don'tcha think? Of course, because I like them, so does everyone else, and they're out of stock.

Jeff claims that he'll go back to making iced tea if I actually get him ice cube trays he likes. These are silicone, which means they're bendy (they claim to be perfect!?) so that you can just pop the cubes out without ruining the tray itself. We'll see what Target has when I go there tonight.

My husband has a super nice D-SLR, but I have an ancient (by tech standards, anyway) point-and-shoot. I'd love to replace it, and who doesn't love electronics in pretty colors!? I don't like Target's website for judging whether or not to buy electronics - you can't tell if this one has a rechargeable battery, and I wouldn't buy a digital camera without one, but it's still pretty. :)

Blog hop: Fun Fridays

First time doing this blog hop, which I found from Dianna at Sweet D's Creations.

My weekend started today - normally I'm a 9-to-5 (okay, okay, 8-to-4:30), Monday-through-Friday gal, but I had today off! I spent it playing video games, going to Joann's for MORE fabric (always, always more) for some projects I have in mind, doing some sewing (including starting the mystery projects!), and working in the yard. After hubby gets home from work, I'll get to go pick up a friend from work, then probably have couch time with hubby and the cats while we finish up the current season of CSI - meaning we'll have watched EVERY EPISODE of the original in less than two months! Yipes!

More importantly, though, this weekend is my birthday! Hooray! I've been celebrating all week though, I'll admit! Saturday's the big day, number 26. I'll be spending it with my good friend Tamera and her daughter, with a trip to Starbucks for fuel-I-mean-beverages and then on to Lowe's, where the kiddo will get to make a birdhouse or some such light-carpentry project. Then I imagine will be lunch or probably home, where I'll eagerly await the husband's return - he's got a "business trip," I guess you could call it, which you can read about here.

Sunday's Easter, of course. This is the second year that I've shared my birthday weekend with holiday; once, when I was in high school, it was actually on my birthday itself. We'll head down to see hubby's family and a friend of ours, probably eat too much, most certainly sleep in the car (okay, just me, since he drives!), and get a bunch of reading done (just me again).


Have a good weekend, yourselves, readers!

Target Tuesday

Here's a link up I can get behind! I love me some Target, so here we are... Fabulous but Evil's Target Tuesday.

For my first one, I'll admit - I'm going to be pretty boring. I've been reworking the closet in my office/sewing room so that it can better hide-I-mean-store all my fabric and other quilting supplies... so this week... storage stuff. Lame, huh?

These cases would work pretty well: 

And the price doesn't seem *too* bad for a set of six.

Something simpler, though, might also work just fine:

And they're a much lower price, for more bins!


So that I don't seem like a total drag, this is the shower curtain I want for our second bathroom / the laundry
room:

Super cute, right!? I love dinosaurs, and we alread have a set of towels that are a similar shade to Mr. T-Rex there... ;)

I've lost track of what meme day it is.

I must be really bad at this, if I can't count. Hah. I'm either supposed to put in a photo of the last thing I bought (groceries, not exciting at all) or of my favorite place to eat, which I don't have a photo of. Sorry.

I love my kittens. Just putting that in there. I was worried that I wouldn't, or that they wouldn't love me, but Molly's pretty much a whore who will sit on everyone (except maybe Alex), and Wrench won't really sit on anyone (except maybe Alex).

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, and seeing Memaw and Bapaw (Jeff's grandparents) and then having orphan Thanksgiving with the leftovers. I'm reading the book Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family?. I've really enjoyed it thus far, as I feel like it's legitimized the way I live (or at least am trying to be)- far from my family, but with a handful of close friends. Having friends has always been a struggle, but I've got some great ones now (whether close by like Dianna or far like Renee!), and am slowly getting used to the fact that they aren't going to just ditch me.

It's time to hang out with the kittens, I think.

Yes.

Caught!

I got my husband to admit that the bone chip that was plaguing his gums did not just fall out on its own.

He used the scalpel from his dissection kit to score the bone chip, then tweezers to pull it off. He said it hurt immensely, and then nothing.

Sigh. I love him, but he makes me so angry! (Insert Desi-Arnaz-type "LUCY!" here!).

Monday opened with a trip to the DMV - yuck! An extra $31 for my registration because they didn't cash the check soon enough - I swear (no, really!) that it was post-marked in time. Next year, check goes straight to the DMV.

The meme I'm supposed to be doing asks for a song that fits my mood lately. I haven't been able to get Miranda Lambert's "The House that Built Me" outta my head for ages now. Since I'm in the process of remodeling a house with my husband, and haven't always had the best relationship with my folks... yeah. Here's a link to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96-P6eUjHXE

Have a great Monday. :)

Copycat, sure, why not

1. What is the best dish you can make?
Do toast, hot pockets, bagel bites, or fish sticks count? No? Well, I made a nice sloppy joe concoction the other day. I really don't cook.

2. How often do you change your sheets?
Honestly, since we moved, I haven't gotten around to putting sheets on the futon. (This is a terrible excuse, as we moved... last December).

3. What is the longest car trip you have ever taken?
From Chico, CA, to Couer d'Alene, in northern Idaho, and then back a week later. I don't remember how long it was. It felt like days. All I really remember is Oregon being really ugly, and having strange dreams after falling asleep to Marilyn Manson.


4. What is your favorite fruit?
Currently, raspberries.


5. Would you rather have breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?
Breakfast for dinner. We do that regularly. I love me some waffles. :)

Day 6: Pet?

My husband and I got married here in Chico, CA; since I'm from Pennsylvania, this meant that not all of my family could come out for the wedding. We decided to honeymoon on the east coast so that everyone could meet him.

Because we love going to zoos and aquariums and stuff, we went to both the Philadelphia Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington, DC. The National Zoo still had a bunch of pandas from China. While we were at the exhibit, we ran into a British family. The daughter kept saying, in an adorable little-British-girl voice, "Mummy, I want a panda!"

Thus the panda is my choice for "Animal I'd like to keep as a pet." Because that girl was adorable, and we still use her voice around the house occasionally.

Other, more relevant news: Jeff may not have to have oral surgery? The bit of bone that was sticking out above his gums is no longer sticking out above them, mostly because it's no longer in his mouth at all. While he claims innocence, I imagine that he was wrenching around in there with pliers or a chisel or something and got it out. Long story short, he says he feels much like the lion after the mouse removes the thorn from its paw: tiny sliver removed = immense relief. Further, his gums now close over bit of jaw bone that was sticking out. He's going to finish his course of antibiotics and then head back to the oral surgeon to (hopefully, fingers crossed) get out of having to have surgery at all.

Sigh of relief

Jeff's "surgery" won't be as dramatic (by that I mean costly) as originally thought. The oral surgeon's office called him back today and said that it shouldn't be more than $350 after our insurance covers their part. Unfortunately, it's likely he won't be able to get any additional work done (he's got a bunch of cavities to be filled) until next year, but I'd much rather have it this way than an enormous amount out-of-pocket.

Of course... on top of this news yesterday, we also find out that he owes an additional $360 in tuition to Chico State because, well, California can't be bothered to pass a budget, and everyone knows college students are made of money, right?

Today's meme assignment was to add my favorite photo of my best friend. So...there's a picture of me and Jeff on our wedding day, June 13, 2009. <3

Blog meme day one

Day 1: A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

Well there it is. Me, after a mind-numbing day at work.

Wait, I guess that's killing two birds with one stone, allowing the photo to do the talking. Alright.

Well, today was like any other Monday, though with the added bonus of the boss being out of town. I work at a car dealership (new Nissans and Hyundais, as well as used vehicles, parts, service, etc.) in the accounting department. I do all accounts payable work, as well as photograph the vehicles for our various websites, make sure the info on those websites is accurate, type emails and shit for the boss, create all kinds of mailers, and do pretty much anything else anyone can come up with for me to do.

Except today... as it's the end of the month, and there was little to no work to be done. Yikes.

The only good thing that happened today is...maybe...just maybe...the office's village idiot will FINALLY go away. Lying is bad, mkay?

Other events of today include getting the stucco around our new window patched (yay for seemingly endless home improvements) and acquiring some items for a friend of mine. More on that tomorrow (provided all goes well).