Tuesday’s Lists

I feel like lists are ruling my life. I think that’s good, but even though this list mixes its paragraph forms and it’s bulleted forms, it’s really still a list. So, here it is.

For now, the sewing machine crisis has been averted. My cousin is letting me borrow hers and I’m going to pick it up, this evening, after a trip to the grocery and amidst all the crazies who think snow = impending horrific car accident.

This week has been busy and it’s only Tuesday! My sister and her family are in the process of moving into their house, here, in our hometown. I think that all members of her family are happy to be leaving my parents’ house and getting into spaces of their own. I think my parents are happy to have their house back, as well.

 

As for me, I’ve been a planning maniac, this week. The Fiancé and I decided on and booked a DJ through a cool website I found -  GigMasters.com. It’s kind of like Etsy alchemy, but for music. You list your event and details and area musicians respond with bids. So – we’re booked with On Your Mark, Set, Music. Now, to complete the song lists – both the DO NOT PLAY UNDER SEVERE PENALTY OF PAIN list and the Rock On and Play These list.

 

I asked my mom if my dad would like to pick out a Father/Daughter dance song for us or if he’d feel more comfortable choosing from a list. She said the latter, definitely, which I pretty much expected. Before our Saturday basketball and gumbo gathering at their house, I put together a list of potential songs, their lyrics and burned some .mp3 files to a disc for him to listen to and decide. Let me just say that there is a clear front-runner on the list, for me, but that I’ll be happy with any of them that he chooses. I even gave him different versions of some songs to choose from!

 

I asked my first cousins, once removed, if they’d like to be a part of the wedding. From both, I got an initial and resounding, “No.” However, their mother soon reassured me that they are teenagers and revel in being difficult and contrary. Upon further talking to them, I think they’ll do it – but ONLY if it’s “not embarrassing.” The boy will be our program table attendant. I know that’s a sucky job, but I didn’t feel like he’d want to read. I told him he’d get to look really handsome in a suit, that he could bring a date (with the proviso that it isn’t his best friend next-door neighbor, but a real, actual date – he’s 13), and that all he’d have to do is stand there, really. The girl, who really wanted to be a junior bridesmaid and has lots of wedding experience as a three-time flower girl, will be our reader. Since I’m 90% sure I’m making the bridesmaids’ dresses, I’ll make her one, too. I also told her she’d get to walk down the aisle ahead of the ladies – hey! Maybe I can wrangle her brother into escorting her. Ha, ha! Now…to find a non-embarrassing reading. Her mom says it is a must that she doesn’t have to read the word “lovers.” Hmmm…

 

I also assigned some of the To Do List to The Fiancé, much to his chagrin, apparently. He doesn’t want to be responsible for screwing anything up. However, I have total confidence in him and know that I’ll be happy with whatever choices he makes. His list, so far, reads:

• procure a ceremony sound system from a local music-geared rental shop that includes an amp/speaker with laptop or iPod hookup capabilities and a microphone

• procure a transportation service for limousine transportation of the wedding party to the ceremony and to the reception in additional to happy couple transportation to Cincinnati after the reception

• think about, decide on and coordinate the clothing of the male half of the bridal party

Still on the agenda for the coming week…

• Finish the gifts! 

• Wrap the gifts!

• Secure a potential rainy wedding day location.

• Get my ass to the gym to work off another 5 pounds, this week (which is really in preparation for a bridesmaid’s dress that doesn’t currently fit – not my own gown, which fits perfectly right now)

• Avoid the cornucopia of junk food at work to celebrate the Baby Jesus’ Birth (actual wording on the flyer announcing the potluck)

• Drink wine and eat cheese at the annual Wine & Cheese Party

• Go out with various female relatives to drink cocktails and gab

 

Handmade Holidays

Another result of the less-than-stellar economy is that people are shopping less for the holidays, although you’d never know it by the size of the traffic jams in Lexington near the major shopping centers. Over the past few years I have tried to cut back my holiday shopping, in general, and urged my family to do the same. Gift giving was getting out of hand at my parents’ house. I migrated to shopping only online, but that wasn’t enough for me, this year. I really wanted to make a lot of the gifts, myself.

So far, having a (mostly) handmade holiday has been cheaper and more rewarding. It is, however, MUCH more time consuming. I think that’s part of what makes it so rewarding, though. It’s worth it to me to spend time on something that my loved ones will enjoy.

Now, I cannot reveal all, as of yet, because there are recipients that read this blog, but I will say that I’ve made the following gifts for this holiday season:

• two large-size purses (these things are huuuge!)
• one small Sha-Sha Dream Bag in an adorable pink and brown polka dot
• one self-designed bag that turned out looking like a lunch tote, but also has a coordinating trifold long wallet
• a zippable pillow cover with pockets

I’m in the midst of making:

• two red plush fabric Santa bags for my sister to use for her sons’ gifts rather than wrapping them
• a quilt (which HAS to get done this weekend)

The two other presents that I’ve acquired have been purchases. One is something that I simply couldn’t make well, yet, and is something this person has been wanting for a long time. The other is semi-handmade. It’s something that I made part of but had to purchase services and goods from an online provider to make it complete.

I promise full disclosure after the holidays since NONE of the gifts have been wrapped, as of yet.

This weekend holds lots of further craftiness and wrappiness.

How are you changing your holiday gifting habits, this year?

Etsy-licious

I’ve recently fallen in love with Etsy.com. If you haven’t heard of it, you should check it out RIGHT NOW! It’s a handcrafted lover’s paradise. After perusing the shops and many of the resources, I want to quit my job and work all day from home on pretty little embroidered/drawn/painted/lettered/sewn things and make oodles of money. That’s currently Alternative Life Plan #90 (give or take a few).

Since it’s not feasible that I’ll get there anytime soon, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite items listed (just three, for now, or I might not quit). Browse to your heart’s (or wallet’s) content.

• The hand-embroidered PBR can card. Pure genius! Something I wish I’d found before Father’s Day, as I know my dad would love it. As the seller says, “Much more refreshing than the mail you usually send.”
• Polka Dot Sunsuit, Reversible with Matching Bloomers. If I had a child, and that child was a girl, this would be her outfit for the entire summer. What is cuter than bloomers? Polka dot bloomers, I say!
• Kentucky Map Pendant. I don’t wear a lot of jewelry, but I like it. This pendant is really cool, but I love my state. The seller probably has your state, too.

This I Believe

Edward R. Murrow used to have a series entitled “This I Believe.” NPR picked it back up in the past year or so. It’s normal people, stating things that they know to be personally true. I like the idea, although, I’m pretty sure that I know nothing so profound as those featured in the mass media. However, there are some things that I just know about myself. Usually, they are pretty cut-and-dry, maybe without explanation. Anyway, I’m going to start putting those out there, for those of you that wish to know more than 10% about me.

So, This I Believe:

• I don’t want diamonds or roses. I once told this to a boyfriend who decided to interpret it as I don’t like gifts of jewelry or flowers. He then further interpreted it as I don’t life gifts. It was pretty simple for him, but it wasn’t really great for me. I don’t want diamonds or roses for a number of reasons. First, it’s cliched. Be original. Think about something that fits my personality. Just because Maxim or Reader’s Digest or your dad tells you that every girl wants diamonds and roses doesn’t make it true. Do you think of me as every girl? Second, diamonds = death. I’ve thought this for a long time, before it became popular or mainstream, I guess. It’s a good thing they never offered me the Rhodes Scholarship. It probably would have embarrassed my family for me to turn it down. Third? Diamonds and roses are both ridiculously overpriced. Diamonds are always overpriced, roses are when you’d be most likely to buy them for someone.
• I like warm and snuggly bed situations in the winter.This includes heated mattress pads, a down comforter, or my favorite warm body next to me. I sleep with covers up around all of me but my nose. It’s always freezing cold in the mornings. I hate for my feet to stick out the bottom of the blanket, but I also hate for them to be restricted by tucked in sheets.
• Diet Dr. Pepper really does taste as good as regular. I know that it’s full of chemicals and I know that I should just drink water, instead, but it’s just so good! Nothing wakes me up as well in the morning, nothing sets my taste buds into throes of ecstasy like Diet Dr. Pepper. I love it.

No Bah Humbug, Here!

Do you ever have those moments in life that just make you happy? Something totally brightens up your bad mood or makes you laugh when you felt like crying the minute before? I had one of those, today.

I’m in full Christmas mode, right now. I’ve got a gift spreadsheet with the following columns:

• Giftee
• Gift
• Purchased at:
• Amount
• Status (Ordered, Shipped, Received, Wrapped, Given)

I guess I’m kind of like this all the time, but my Dad definitely knows this about me at Christmas. He asked me to buy a gift for him and I did that last weekend, right under the recipient’s nose (my mom)! In the midst of an email exchange, today, I let him know that the present was bought and is sitting at my house, wrapped and ready to give. All he needs to do is pay for it. Here was his reply:

Thanks for the wrapping. What do men do that do not have great daughters like you?

How sweet is that? I mean, I know my dad loves me, but he’s a man of few emotional words, so things like this are few and far between. It totally brightened up my day.

See! That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. It should bring out good things in people like the selfless wrapping of another giver’s gift and the appreciation for that sort of thing.

I was going to write a totally judgmental post about people my age not knowing anything about their history and how most of them probably don’t know what happened 66 years ago, today, but you’re all saved from that by one little sentence from my dad.