Home Office!

What a wonderful Friday! I'm excited to celebrate Dan's birthday this weekend - the big 3-0! He, however, is not excited to celebrate, so I'm trying to get all of my glee out before he arrives. He doesn't want to talk about it, he doesn't want to do anything special. I'm trying to be understanding, but I can't not acknowledge it. So there will be dinner (at home) and a little present (nothing extravagant) and possibly a movie (something we do together on many occasions, not just special ones.) He might bring up the Wii, so maybe we will have fun playing Mario Bros. or some other silly game. And by silly game, I mean totally awesome.

I get to meet with my wonderful friend Trish today to look over my fabric. She is hoping to have some things made up, and I know it will be fun to put together. Her wedding is next September, and one of her endearing qualities is her ability to plan ahead and get details out to those of us (me) that need a lot of time to do projects.

I was looking though one of the books my friend Audrey gave me- I forget the name but is by Sark - and in it the author explained how she overcomes her affinity to procrastinate. She uses "micro movements." I have found the same process works well for me, but I hadn't put a name to it. So in many micro movements, or small goals that take about 5 minutes to complete, I get all of my projects done. Even if the micro goals all happen in a connected span of time, usually in my brain, I have deconstructed them and felt the excitement of having completed my (many) goals.

It is already December 3rd!

Couple of cute ones of the couple

This last weekend I had the pleasure of taking a few photos of my dear friends for their engagement. I've been going through them today a bit, and am getting ready to send them up to Trish and Crissy. Here, take a peek!


I had a little extra time today to play with the files, as I caught The Sickness and worked only as the register girl and delivery driver. Home by 11:30 is nice!

Tomorrow I hope to share the two custom pillow orders I sewed together, and maybe a cute pic of the kitties. Thankfully, always something going on!

Trish and Crissy

Trish and Crissy are getting married next September. The 3rd of September, to be exact. They unveiled the date and their wonderful blog Serendipitous Soulmates at their engagement party last night. In T & C fashion, the food was wonderful, the venue was fun and festive, and their friends and family were a fun bunch to hang with.

While taking their photos yesterday morning, T & C were explaining some of the events for the evening and the "games" they would be playing. All the guests were encouraged to come up with a new last name for them, as they are hoping to come up with something that would blend both of their current names. It was a hoot! Heffren and Malott were twisted and rearranged and the things that came out made for some great, infectious laughter.

To get the crowd mingling, they also had a human scavenger hunt. There were descriptions of people with things about their life or a fun trait. My clue, for instance, was "sews with a cup of joe." One other that stuck with me was "deflects with carrots." The idea was a friendly way to learn something that might not come up in a mingling conversation, and in fact, was quite detailed info of stranger. Brilliant!

I'll post some photos from the morning's shoot after I get them cropped and sent off to the ladies. It wouldn't be fair to share them with the world first.

The weekend has been super fun and rejuvenating. I love my friends and have had the distinct pleasure of giving and receiving support. How do people make it in the world without friends? I hope I never have to find out.

Renters, movers, eaters...oh my!

I was successful in renting my apartment! I have Simon and James living in my cute little place until November, with the possibility of the month of November being added on if their contract continues.

I spent the weekend running all over, all for happy reasons, but now, sitting at the Coffee Hound in Normal, I'm feeling the tired. Not a good sign when I have four hours of driving a head of me.

Other huge things that happened this weekend: 1. Audrey and Greg got married 2. Trish and Crissy moved into their beautiful new house together.

I got a chance to talk with Audrey and Greg this morning (over coffee!) and heard the whole story of how they decided to tie the know four months before their intended wedding day. The whole thing has a few sad details about issues with health care and irresponsible bosses, but they are happy and are still planning on having a party in September. I'll be making Audrey's bouquet out of cloth flowers, one of which she saw and loved as I was wearing it as a brooch on my sweater. It will be fun to play with how they'll fit together, along with the butterflies (which will be all over everything for her decorations).

After Kristy, Cori, and Linda (Cori's mom) were done yard-saleing in Hudson on Saturday morning, I helped Trish and Crissy move into their lovely house. I am looking forward to seeing how they put it all together, as there are reading nooks and lots of fun corners. They both have a fun style and enjoy hosting get-togethers, so any party they have in the future will be pleasant for multiple reasons. It's been a while since I've been covered in that special kind of sweat that seems to be unique with moving, but it felt good to help friends with a task which is universally despised.

Add a bbq, shampooing carpets, moving a queen bed into the apartment, listening to a band (sort of) and the various emails with the company from England, and my weekend is happy to be over! I have a bag of peaberry beans roasted by Steve to take home to Dan, and some new music from Jessica to listen to in the car. Adios amigos.

Bloomington Weekend #2

I'm at the Coffee House in Normal this morning. Rain forest crunch granola and coffee. I'll go home today after I meet Kristy and Trish for lunch.

I started the day by cleaning out the last of un-necessaries from the second bedroom, and collected some books I've been wanting from the shelf. I noticed I still had Bob Steinman's copies of Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed and She Came to Stay.

It seems the universe and I were in tune for a while. As I was driving through the maze of streets that Normal has deemed it's "uptown," I saw Bob and Anne pulling into the Medici. I quickly pulled over, popped out, grabbed his books and said hello. It was a nice couple minutes, with hugs and questions about Alaska. After all of the drama with Medici, I'm glad Bob and I came to an understanding about many things, and I can honestly say I'm friends with one of the crankiest men in Blono.

My reason for coming up this weekend was to say goodbye to my friend Danny Reid. He and another friend, Sam, are moving to Fairfield, California, where Danny's precious girlfriend is stationed. I'm completely excited for all of them!

A perk of being up for the weekend (besides seeing some of my favorite people) was attending ISU Pride Drag Show for the first time. It was amazing to have student performers gathering the courage to get in front of such a huge crowd along side some truly talented professional queens. I didn't take photos, but wow. Afterward the party was at the Bistro, where I stayed only long enough to have a picture taken with Kristy, get her chest unwrapped, and visit with Trish for a bit. The picture is a bit creepy, as Kristy was still in her John Wayne Gacy outfit - so be warned:

I'll drive back down to Carbondale, listening to podcasts and the beginning of Neil Geiman's The Graveyard Book. The four hours will go fast, I hope.

Holy canoli. What a week! I was up in Bloomington last weekend to celebrate my wonderful friend Trish, and the beginning of her adventure into her 30's. She made a huge effort and planned her own party, renting out Kelly's bakery for a few hours for dinner, and then inviting those that wanted to, out on the town for drinks and silliness.

In fact, here we are! With drinks and silliness to boot!

That glass, by the way, holds a delicious raspberry long island iced tea. Ciara, you should look into that recipe for a future party.

Below, a picture to illustrate part of the relationship Kristy and I have: sometimes we act like we're 12.


The next night, Kristy was preforming in The Bistro's holiday drag show. I got to see her get her outfits lined up, prepare her makeup case, help with some of the set up, and during her show, I scurried on stage for the last numbers to pick up her tips (as she couldn't bend over from having her chest wrapped from collar to waist.) The queens were amazing. Many were title holders from around the state and they put on an incredible show.

Fund raiser

Just got a message from Trish letting me know how my trio of photos did at the ABC fund raiser last month - my trio ended up going for $100! That makes me so happy! I was hoping they would go to a good home :) The picture above is a view of how part of the silent auction was set up.

Trish was amazing to put this fundraiser on. I didn't get an exact idea of how it all came together in the end, but I know it went off well because that awesome lady was the mastermind behind it. I was thrilled she asked me to donate something.

These are the three I donated.

Today I have off! I'm playing with the idea of finally getting the new running shoes I've been needing. My feet have brought it to my attention that my current pair should be retired, but I procrastinate so much when it comes to shopping. Maybe I'll just go for a run instead :)

Happy Friday! It's already the 10th of July! Dan only has 11 more days in India!