Ahhh...serenity.

Today I will be alone for HOURS. No work, no in-laws, no hubby... Just a few chores (that I may or may not do). I had planned on doing the usual day off stuff: recyclables to the dump, clean the house, bathe the dog, menu planning for the week, banking, call the insurance guy...you know, boring stuff I don't really like wasting my day off with.
So then it hit me. This is the first full day alone (usually hubby works only til 1 on Wednesday, but now he's working his computer job which goes til 5). I can actually get into the studio and crank out some stuff! I'm not feeling fully charged with creativity but I have a couple things downstairs that are begging to be finished...to have their purposes exposed.
So after a few things that can not be left undone today, I will be spending time on myself, for myself in my tiny studio. Breaks for a workout and lunch, of course, but hopefully at the end of the day I will have some great stuff to shoot for my next post and to put up in my shop.

Happy thoughts

When Hanzo needs something in the morning, he will not let me sleep. I try hard to make sure he has a full bowl of water and food and a fresh litter box every night; but, last night was Hubby's birthday dinner, so Hanzo was angry with me this morning. Not being able to get back to sleep, my head was swimming with thoughts. Happy thoughts...here's a list of some little things making me happy today:
1. It's September...and it's chilly but not a cloud in the sky
2. Moxie went the longest she has without needing a pill...Tuesday through half the day Friday!
3. We had a lovely dinner with Hubby's parents last night. Lots of laughing and delicious cocktails and food.
4. Once again, I realized I had more coffee beans than I thought...just enough for one more pot.
5. No plans for the day, just hanging out with the fam again.
6. New job is making me happier already.
7. September also means the beginning of a new season of all our fav. shows...I can't help it, I like TV!!
8. I'm having fun thinking of new ways to use my paper...now if I could just make more time for the studio to actually put some plans into action!
9. I'm officially down to the lowest weight that I can remember being...I actually weighed more in 6th grade than I do right now! (But that's another story for a different blog!)
10. The house is quiet, the wind is blowing, and I am looking forward to our morning walk!

I hope everyone else is having as lovely a day as I am!

And the verdict is...

...'the cake was great'. And there were comments around the table to the effect of 'how did you not notice that cake in the fridge??' Hubby's reply being 'she could've put it on top of my head and I would not have noticed.' I believe he may have been pulling my leg to make me feel like I pulled off the surprise, but that's okay.
The turnout for poker tonight was small (yeah!), but I still decided not to play. I worked all day, came home, showered, and people started to show up. So I decided to just relax, have a whiskey, and blog a little.
A very little, since I really don't have much to report. I am thinking of uploading my pics of my new bowl and Halloween cards and listing them on etsy tomorrow. I have been contacted by an old friend from back home, via Facebook, and am very excited. There are few people I care to keep in touch with, but this guy is one of those genuine people you hate to lose touch with.
My first day of work at the animal hospital was fine. Not much to it, really, and I think it'll be a fine 2 day a week job. Maybe in the future I can advance, get some teching in and go from there.
Tomorrow I have off, then back to the bagel shop until Saturday, at which point, the in-laws will arrive for their annual 2 week stay.
For now, I think I'll try a piece of my cake!!

when is a surprise not a surprise?

...when there is no way to hide it until the moment of 'surprise' is in order.
I wanted so very badly to surprise hubby with a homemade birthday cake this year. It just so happened to work out that we will be hosting poker this Tuesday (tomorrow), which was sort of last minute as we thought someone else was hosting this week. No big deal, except that hubby has been talking about wanting to have a party of sorts for his big 4-O this year, but there is just not way to get it done this time of year. Anyway, the point is, now with us hosting poker this Tuesday...the last poker game before they get here...I thought it would be fun to throw a cake together, put up some balloons maybe, you know, your basic birthday stuff. But I start my new job tomorrow and will not be home until after 6pm, poker people begin arriving around 7pm, and to make it even more impossible, Hubby will be home from 2pm on, anyway.
So what's a girl to do? Well, give up any hope of a surprise first of all. This weekend I had a little good luck and a little bad luck. Unfortunately, we have been looking forward to spending a fun-filled social 3-day weekend together, but while we were out at a small music festival (Hubby and his friends wanted to see Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes), I was feeling very run-down and tired. I realized the next morning that it was because I have come down with a bit of a cold or something. I have been taking medicine which makes me feel a little better, but also even more tired. At any rate, the good luck is that a friend of ours had also invited us over for an end of summer, sit around the pool kind of party today. I convinced Hubby to go, which gave me a chance to make the cake. A sweet little 2-layer number with a layer of chocolate whipped cream between and a raspberry whipped cream to finish it off. Yes, he's a boy and the cake is a dark shade of pink, but he LOVES raspberries so he'll just have to deal! It's about a half-sheet size though, so as soon as he needs something from the freezer, it will no longer be hidden, and I will have to explain myself. Oh, well...at least there will be pizza and cake on Tuesday and what more could one ask for on their birthday?? (oh, yes, there will also be beer)
So, now the long weekend is over, and I start my new kennel job tomorrow. I am starting to get that anxious feeling inside, but I am very excited. I have to say, though, I could get used to just staying home. Oh, yeah, I also had to clean house top to bottom (which took all of about an hour), and I did several loads of laundry, and gave the dog a bath in preparation for the in-laws visit. It would've been a great week if not for this sore throat!

Oh my, what is going on?

This has been kind of a strange week for me. It was a week ago tomorrow that I informed my full-time boss that I would have to cut back to just 3 days a week. I was anticipating being very tired this Tuesday and Thursday after working my first job from 5:30am to 1pm and then starting my training at my new job from 2pm to about 6pm. Long day, for sure.

In the meantime, all of my friends keep inquiring 'how is your new job?' I just keep saying, 'I haven't started yet.' And all that was going to change after today.

BUT... there was a mix-up with the scheduling and the person who hired me and told me to come in this week is on vacation. After speaking with a couple of the girls there, I decided to just wait another week and just start all-out, 'guns-a-blazing' next Tuesday. Still excited, but 'starting my new job' is becoming a joke among my friends. lol.

So to keep myself busy, I have been doing a little crafting here and there. I want to make some paper bowls and have started experimenting with glazes. Here is a larger bowl I made out of my latest batch of pulp...kind of a light green, really pretty. I glazed the inside only and am still on the fence about glazing the outside. I just used a ModPodge Hard glaze for paper and it really stiffened it up. I like the rough feel of the paper without the glaze though.

I also used some scraps of the same paper to make some cute new Christmas tags.

(Sorry, I forgot to Photoshop before posting...oops!)

For fun, I made a few Halloween cards, too. Hubby, who worked for a bit at a greeting card company, informed me that Halloween is the second biggest holiday for cards. He could be pulling my leg, as he often does just to see how much he can trick me :) but I decided to have a little fun anyway. I had these bright orange blank cards laying around so I thought they'd be perfect. Here's what I came up with:

I thought the bride of Frankenstein turned out super cute!

So that's what I've been up to. Now back to watching Hell's Kitchen. Man, those people take a lot of punishment!