If There Were 50 Hours in Every Day...

...I would:

Master fondant
And gum paste (whatever it is)
Learn to sew men's wear
Paint the closets
Write a cooking blog
Take up screen-printing
Landscape
Tile the laundry room
Make Blurb books for my family
Learn to make bread, pizza dough and biscuits
Reread all my favorite books
Discover new favorite books
Make mixes of all my favorite 60s bands
Upkeep my Etsy shop
Tailor all my vintage clothes

What would you do?

A few things this week...

Few things going on this week...

1. Matt and I are having Easter lunch with my family at our house. It's my first ever holiday dinner. Whaaaa? I have massive cleaning to do. I got a few things done this weekend but there's still some work to do done. But then again if people come over and our house is gross, I might not ever have to host a holiday again...

2. I need to finish fixing those chairs so people can sit on them.

3. A friend of mine who has literally been a part of my life since the day I was born asked me to take some candid/photojournalistic photos on her wedding day. I've also been recruited to photograph her shower, rehearsal everythings and maybe some engagement pics. Sweeeeet. It's great experience and I know she won't kill me if the pictures don't turn out. They have an official wedding photographer who is doing the wedding so the pressure is off of me not to eff it up.

4. Matt and I have been talking about moving lately. We're giving Omaha until he turns 30 (in two years) then we might move in pursuit of our careers. The top runners are Nashville and Portland, with San Francisco and Colorado also being considered.

Nashville is the most comparable to Omaha as far as cost of living goes. I also like the idea of living in between our families in Nebraska and Florida. Plus, Matt knows a semi-famous musician in Nashville who owns a recording studio so he has industry friends down there.

However, Portland is completely rad.

Colorado is freaking beautiful.

San Francisco is Mecca.

We'd go straight to SF were it not for the fact that we would have to choose between living on the streets or selling ourselves for rent. (Hello 520% housing cost increase.)

Checklist, Check.

I'm working on a photo checklist. This winter has been ridiculously long and I can't wait for it to warm up and turn green outside. It sucks when everything is cold, overcast and muddy.

So, here it is. I expect it to be one of those lists that keeps getting longer and longer. Sort of like that home improvement list that I haven't looked at in six weeks.

• Nebraska sunrise and sunset
• Sunrise and sunset on the beach
• Tablescape
• Vignette
• Wide-angle city blocks
• The geese at work
• Aquarium at the zoo
• Elephants
• Neon lights
• Fog
• An open field
• Tree with Lights
• A wedding
• A picnic
• Lion fountain
• Vintage cars
• Newborn twins (Newborn identical twin nieces to be exact!)

Very Organized Start to 2009

I am kind of a nerd. No secret there. Last night I made a spreadsheet planning out all the minor and major home repairs we would like to take care of in 2009. They range from patching nail holes we punched in the walls to carpeting bedrooms. I listed everything and then broke it down by month based on our budget and estimated costs.

GEEK!!!

It was so satisfying to see everything listed there. It seemed overwhelming when everything was just floating around in my head, but down on paper it was perfectly manageable. Everything is spaced out over the next year and we know how much money we need to have on hand every month to take care of this stuff.

For the month of January I have planned to patch nail holes, paint patches and scuffs throughout the house, and paint the bathroom. I figured I'd start off small. And cheap since we sort of lost our minds this Christmas. Plus it means that I get to go buy Paint Buddies which I'm really excited about.

I just realized that I forgot to put "install water softener" on the spreadsheet. Damn! That's a pricey one too. We were told that our water heater stopped working because it had huge deposits of calcium in it. The repair guy's jaw dropped when we told him that the water heater was less than a year old. He strongly suggested we get a water softener if we don't want to have our water heater breakdown every six months.

Oh yeah, I also forgot "get new thermostat" since ours only goes down, not up. The temperature in our house drops to 62 every night and we have no way of turning it up. (I would advice everyone not to buy a digital thermostat.) It sucks when I'm freezing at 2am, but I guess it's sort of nice when we get the gas bill during these winter months.

Isn't owning a house awesome?

Almost. But not quite.

I tried to cheat and get a head start on my 2009 to do list, but the universe Metro Community College wouldn't let me just yet. I found a couple one day and one month classes at Metro that I wanted to take but enrollment isn't open yet. I have to wait until January 14th.

I did another little photo session with my friend's nephew last weekend. I'm hoping to get those pictures up tonight or tomorrow. Or Friday. It's a four day weekend. There's lots of time to get things done.

Speaking of taking pictures of peoples' kids...

Sissy's baby should be here any day now. That is going to be awesome. I was offering to photograph the actual birth in all it's terrifying glory, but in the event that she has a c-section I don't want to be anywhere near her hospital room. I just watched a c-section birth on National Geographic a few days ago and it was pretty alarming. Let me tell you something, pregnant chicks are tough cookies. I can't even get an IV without crying and here this woman was laying awake on a table with someone's arms in her gut. The lady on NatGeo kept pulling the little partition down so she could see what the doctor was doing. I was screaming, "PUT IT BACK UP!" at her the whole time. Oh, and she gave birth to twins so I got to see the freakfest twice.

And when I say "freakfest" I obviously mean "beautiful miracle."

Progress Report!

Let's recap a couple projects I've been working on:

1. Nursery Mural - No progress to report. Its in the same state now as when I last saw it Saturday. I didn't get a whole lot done that day so needless to say I'm a little behind. In my defense though, I was a little hungover that afternoon so it's amazing that I even made it to her house. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did if my dad hadn't shown up with some Heineken's.

2. Scarf Orders - I'm still working on Elisabeth's scarf order for her shop. I took a peek at it on Facebook and it is darn cute. I can't wait to send these guys off to her. I'm also making her an additional scarf for a silent auction during a benefit concert. I still owe Matt and Kate each a scarf, as well as Cols asking for one. So in all, 3 scarves down, 6 to go.

3. Mastering the Art of Photography - I bought a couple books and signed up to take the first in a series of digital SLR workshops. So far I haven't mastered it, but I'm finally learning things I should have learned nine years ago but never did. The only problem is that now, I want tons of equipment and crap that I'm reading about. Lenses, filters, tripods, flashes. It makes me drool.

4. Stop Spending MONEY You Fool! - Aside from the huge salon bill and groceries I haven't paid for anything this week. Not bad actually. Not. Bad. At. All. But we're going out of town this weekend so I'm sure that's not going to last.

5. Rehab the Living Room - Going great! Everything has been ordered and most of it has arrived. We finally hung up the curtains. FINALLY!!! It only took two hours, one argument and countless utterances of the eff bomb. It's just about ready to be photographed and shared with the world.

Crafty McCrafterson

I have a million ideas in my head right now. I've had a massive creative burst the last few days and I'm mentally trying to keep track of everything I want to make.

01. I ordered some little greeting cards with a really cute photo on them that I took in San Francisco. (The heart truck on the bridge.) I want to line the envelopes with heart paper and turn them into little love notes. I opted for cheapo shipping on my order so they should be here in 21 working days. (WHAT!?!) How can printing take that long? I cry foul! They're just trying to jack up rush costs to make more money since their printing fees are so low. I'm not biting.

02. I found my two boxes of yarn and knitting needles. There's lots of pretty colors and fluffy, soft yarns in there. Perhaps I shall put them to use? They've only been sitting around for the last 4-6 years. Bout time I did something with them. The last time I used any of it was to make a scarf for my ex-boyfriend's sister when she was a senior in high school. I believe she has since graduated from Creighton, it's been that long.

03. Gift tags! The holidays are coming up. I'm a big fan of pretty wrapping and tags. This year I'm going old school and using butcher paper to wrap everything. It's kind of charming in an understated sort of way. And it's cheap. You can buy a 1000 foot roll for $40. (But why would you? That's a lot of paper.) The best way to snazz up boring paper is with a nice tag. I want to sew some trees and various Christmas crap on paper tags. Super cute!

04. I had an idea for some cute little coin purses. I don't know if my sewing skills are up to par for it though. It involves sewing in a circle. Humm. Might take some practice.

05. I'm obsessed with screen printing right now. I might pick up a couple cheap little kits from Dick Blick.

06. At some point between now and January 15th I have to paint a mural in my soon-to-be nephew's nursery. That can't take more than 50 or 80 hours for me to finish so it shouldn't be a problem...

07. Make a couple more owl scarves because they appear to be kind of a hit.

Weekend's To-Dos

Once again, a list of things to do this weekend that I neglect during the week:

01. Seriously, mop. Need to do this.
02. Finish 2 or 3 small design jobs that I'm sitting on.
03. Get out the Halloween stuff.
04. Go to an antique store on Leavenworth that I always used to drive by but never went into.
05. Oh yeah, call Cox.
06. Have honeymoon pics printed.
07. Finish cleaning out my office.
08. Perhaps clean out the inside of my car.
09. Put away everything in the backyard.

Monday Morning

Monday mornings are nearly unbearable these days. The excitement of the wedding and honeymoon have passed and there's little to look forward to to help pass the time. So, I am now blogging aimlessly to waste time until lunch.

I got quite a bit of stuff done on my list this weekend, considering I couldn't walk on Sunday. Running a half marathon without training equals massive, massive pain. But oh the glory...

Left to do:

01. Call Cox and get a new cable box, cancel crazy expensive Stars channels
02. Get Matt new tires (awesome car-savvy bro-in-law is helping us with this)
03. Finish hanging the pile of curtains I bought (Involves power tools, a job for my manly husband)
04. Mop the whole house
05. Finish unboxing wedding gifts, find everything a home in the kitchen

I've found that staying in on Friday night is a good way to get things done off of my list, and it frees up Saturday and Sunday for slacking. Bonus points for still getting to drink at home while I do house work! I got laundry done and cleaned up the kitchen. I also baked some awesome cookies and cooked myself some terrible tacos. Even Taco Bell would have been a tastier and more authentic Mexican meal.



I also wanted to stay home Friday night to watch the presidential debate. Then, Matt got off work and we went for a quick drink later on. One thing I don't miss about San Francisco is how expensive drinks are. I think I paid $10 for an Absolute and cranberry in SF. I'm more than happy to be back at our neighborhood bar where a Boulevard and a Grey Goose costs $7.75.

Weekend To-Dos - EDITED!

It feels like it might be time to start a new to-do list. This one is short term. Hopefully I can get most of this done this weekend.

01. Call Cox and get a new cable box, cancel crazy expensive Stars channels.
02. Take the dog to the vet
03. Get Matt a new wheel and tires
04. Finish hanging the pile of curtains I bought, may require a trip to Home Depot
05. Buy a Dyson (Matt is going to have to pry me away from the thing)
06. Mop the whole house
07. Finish unboxing wedding gifts, find everything a home in the kitchen
08. Play MarioKart on Wii, play it some more
09. Do the never ending dance of laundry

I think thats enough for now.

**Oh wait... I forgot one important thing.

10. Run a half-marathon on Sunday. I know. Seriously. I'm out of my mind. It didn't seem like that bad of an idea three months ago when I was supposed to start training. But then I never trained for it. Kate and I ran seven miles a couple weeks ago and my running shoes have hardly seen pavement since. Wish me luck. Luck that I finish, luck that emergency medical services are not needed to carry me away from the course...

Fun Things I've gotten To Do On My Birthday

Current as of 8:50pm

01. Eat surprise pancakes for breakfast
02. Run a malfunctioning traffic light while it was red.
03. Drive the wrong way down Walsh Drive. WEEE!
04. Open cards full of money
05. Buy season one of My Boys with Matt's money
06. Make my first purchase at Forever 21
07. Eat nachos and buffalo chicken fingers in the same day (not so fun afterwards though)
08. Leave work three hours early
09. See all my family members
10. Drink a latte with extra shots and be unable to stop talking to Matt about books while cruising Target

Fun Things I've Gotten To Do on My Birthday

Current as of 10:40

01. Eat surprise pancakes breakfast
02. Run a malfunctioning traffic light while it was red.
03. Drive the wrong way down Heroes Boulevard. WEEE!

Expect more to come. Much, much more.

Weekend Update

Here's what I've got done so far...

1. Vacuum the inch of matted dog hair off the bedroom rug.
2. Paper the bathroom shelves.
5. Weed the front flower box and maybe replace the flowers I let die.
6. Make the guest room look like more than just a room where crap goes.

Can you believe that? Turns out that all I have to do in order to make actual progress on the weekend is to tell the cyber-universe that I'm a lazy pig... And just like that! Motivation!

The rug actually got vacuumed last night due to an incident with Ringo. We left him out while we went and hung out with Ryan, and when we came home Ringo had dragged trash all over the living room and kitchen. He ate anything resembling food and left mostly paper. The worst thing though was that there was five days worth of coffee grounds in the trash. We swept and vacuumed and still there is coffee all over the floor. The gritty feeling on the bottoms of my feet drives me nuts.

The bathroom looks pretty great. It started off looking like this:


And ended up looking like this:


I have since peeled off that label on the basket. It was driving me crazy after I noticed it in the picture.

It took way too long to do, but I think the end result was worth it. I also papered under the sink and in the cabinets. It's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic because I spent nearly half an hour under the sink trying to smooth out all the air bubbles in the paper. I can't stand leaving air bubbles in that stuff. Anal people should not be allowed to use contact paper to cover shelving. Then again, who else but an extremely anal person would even bother with papering shelves?

I fixed up the front yard earlier, and actually weeded the garden on Thursday. It was such a pain in the ass. Bag of crap I pulled out of the garden:


I also bought some cheapo geraniums that didn't look so hot in the store for 29 cents each. I brought them home and planted and watered them, not they look fantastic.



As an added bonus, I went out this afternoon and only spent $11.50. That is a Saturday record low for me. Saturday is usually the day I get into trouble with the spending. I bought an over-the-door robe hook for $5, six clearance geraniums for $2, a nick-nak bowl for the bathroom for $1.50, and had a free lunch with Gloria that only cost me a $3 tip.

Weekend To-Dos

1. Vacuum the inch of matted dog hair off the bedroom rug.
2. Paper the bathroom shelves. I found some awesome polka-dot contact paper at Target. $6 well spent!
3. Complete at least two wedding chores.
4. Finish a web layout that should already be finished. Make that two.
5. Weed the front flower box and maybe replace the flowers I let die.
6. Make the guest room look like more than just a room where crap goes.

Hump Day!

Things going on:

1. Got a job interview after work! How exciting! Hopefully it goes well and I might never have to step foot in a cubicle again.

2. I am swimming in ideas for a certain someone's baby room. It started out with her asking me to paint a mural and ended up with me wanting to make curtains and the whole shebang. No word on the sex of the baby yet, but I'm pulling for a girl after today's conversation about room themes. Before I was partial to a little boy's room, superheroes, a skyline and Shea stadium. Oh my! But we talked about a girl's room today and came up with polka-dots, stripes, a tea party, butterflies, cupcakes and bumble bees. CUTE!!! Maybe if she has a boy I'll just go ahead and decorate my bedroom in those things...

3. Jonathon said he would help us finish up on the massive paint job we started in our home. The basement is 95% finished, then there's the guest room and the bathroom. The kitchen needs to be finished too. The old owners painted red halfway across the wall and stopped partway into the kitchen. It doesn't look bad, but it bugs the crap out of me.

4. Weed that garden already! Technically my garden isn't full of weeds, it's full of crapgrass. (Typo but I'm keeping it.) I would rather have weeds than devious crabgrass that will not go away no matter how much of it I pull out. Somewhere in that mess I call a garden are cucumbers, watermelon, tomatoes and peppers. Possibly some onions too. It's really, really bad in there. I'm sure the neighbors hate me for it.

5. I officially started my 1/2 marathon training last night. It was unbearably hot outside when I ran after work. I purposely chose the flattest route I could find. I managed to make it all three miles without puking and rewarded myself with a cold shower and an even colder beer.

6. I have so much freelance on my plate right now I don't know where to start. So I'm not. Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate.

7. Project Runway is tonight! Last week Jeff and I watched it together and played, "Guess Which Designers Are on Coke!" Tonight Brandon will rejoin us and we'll watch it at my house for the first time ever. Reminds me of the time Jeff and I watched a Season One marathon at my apartment back in the day. The day went: breakfast, Project Runway, St. Pat's parade, beer (so what if it was 10am, there was an Irish parade outside my window!), Project Runway, lunch, Project Runway, nap, Project Runway, Funnybone. I would love to relive that day over again. It was more fun than two people should be allowed to have in the span of 24 hours.

Savings and Chutzpa

Sometime I think I have a real problem with focusing on and completing things. Small things, large things, big picture things...

Thing to complete #1 - Save some more money.
I don't think I have a problem with spending money, but I definitely have a problem with not being able to save money. I pay all the bills before they're due and we always have money for food and gas. I think my problem is that I don't save the money upfront. I always think I'll wait until the bills are paid before I put some money into savings. But that never really works out, as I'm sure anyone can tell you. We always end up using the money we're supposed to be saving.

Thing to complete #2 - The mountain of projects I have started.
I also have about 1,000,000 unfinished arts and crafts projects stored up around the house. I think about how much more personality our home would have if I completed the paintings, arrangements and decor that I set out to make. I have a closet of 1/2 finished paintings that have followed me through three apartment moves. I have a box of glass paints that I bought four years ago to make a wedding present with. I did finish one thing recently! I had a table sitting in my parents' garage that needed to be refinished. After three years and my parents finally refusing to keep it any longer since I now had a house of my own, it ended up in my living room in all of its worn out ugliness. I had it repainted within the week. I painted it turquoise blue, a shade darker than the living room wall it sits against. I still want to paint cherry blossoms on it, so I guess it's not technically finished.



Thing to complete #3 - The house.
I really love our home but it's not quite there yet. Hopefully after the wedding we'll have some money to put into the house. I am a freak for window coverings. I looooove them. They can really transform a room. Yet, I have none in my house. We have slate blinds that the previous owner installed but there's nothing pretty about them. They're purely functional. I long for curtains. I also want to put up moulding on the walls and crown moulding. How pretty would that look? (Very pretty.) We also desperately need to replace the windows. The sooner the better. They don't open and it drives me nuts to use the AC on nice breezy days. Plus it's a complete waste of energy and money not to replace them. I try to make myself feel better about spending the money by telling me that we'll recoup the investment in heating/AC costs and when we sell the house. Also upon replacing the windows, I want to paint the exterior of the house, the shutters, and the front door. A little landscaping wouldn't hurt either. And then there's the epic battle of converting the lonely toilet in the laundry room into an actual full bath. The list goes on...

Things to complete #4 - Finally being comfortable and in love with me for being who I am.
I had a totally tragic dream last night that Martha Stewart came to give me a makeover and I broke down in tears and started bawling. She asked me if I was happy with myself and I let out a wailing "NOOOOOOOOO!" while pulling on my hair and trying to hide my face. DAMN! Am I trying to tell me something? I generally internalize all of my insecurities and try not to let people really know what they are. Insecurity is not attractive on anyone. Anyone! I have a bad habit of comparing aspects of myself to those of other people, and then I end up feeling really bad about myself. I need to stop doing that. It's bad news.

I'm not really talking about comparing myself to a model on a magazine and then wishing I could lose ten pounds and grow five inches. I understand, and accept, the stranglehold genetics has on my body. I'm insecure in the intellectual and creative sense. I always think I fall short on creative chutzpa. I always want more out of myself. I feel like my portfolio is just a big book of near failures. I always look at other peoples' creativity and think "GOD! I would KILL for her use of the color pink!" I'm also painfully aware of the fact that although I am a champion of trivial knowledge, I have no applicable higher-academic book learning. I went to college but chose to study art, design, and food and never felt a real need to get beyond an Associates degree. As a result, I can make the prettiest cupcake in the world but have close to zero knowledge of world history and I never learned a foreign language. That might not bother most people, but it bugs the crap out of me.

So, there we go. Four things to work on...