Allright, Allright...

...I've been thinking of posting for a while... feeling like I should...

Same with the laundry...

I don't feel like I've been home much lately. We were in Eugene for family festivities for Christmas, then again on New Years. Then there was our spur-of-the moment visit to Portland to see Steve and Holli and Saturday night. I think that is what I want to post on.

We were taking out stuff out of the airstream and packing it into boxes to store. You must know, I loathe packing boxes to store. I am always plagued with so many uncertainties. Do I want to keep this? What the heck IS this? When will I ever unpack this box? Should I just give it to St. Vinnies and buy another toaster when I live in my own place?

On top of all these questions, there was the maddening truth that we have absolutely no more space to store anything. Holli called while Matt and I were at the height of our frustration with our earthly possessions and offered their basement as a safe and spacious hiding spot for all those boxes of questions. Thank God. Instead of exhausting our imaginations by trying to find places for junk, Steve and Holli took us to the Cheesecake Factory where I ate my weight in wasabi crusted Ahi. I've never felt so good before...

Then we went to their place and played with Jackie-O(my dog), Parker (their lab) and their cute little labradoodle puppy, Trumund! He is so stinking cute. Jackie thinks he's annoying but she will hopefully learn to love him since she will be staying with them for 9 days while we are in California next week!

Here's another post about Jackie... and another one..

In case you were missing Jackie, here's a refresher on how amazing she looks.

Matt and I spent the weekend in Eugene and Portland. My mom took us to see the Nutcracker in Eugene which was awesome. It was my birthday present this year just as it was when I was 8 years old. Oddly enough, it actually did change a decent amount since I saw it last. It was still awesome to see.
Then we went to Portland to Steve and Holli's where we enjoyed hot mulled wine, christmas cookies, and hours of Mario on the Wii.

We are now ready for Christmas. Our family drew names this year so there wasn't a whole lot of shopping to do (thank God). I was busy sewing this year so I didn't really get out much. It was great to have less to go out for.

Here's a photo of my November and December Activity:
I'm a little dissapointed that the Christmas season is over for my business, but I'm more relieved right now. I even had a crazy thought last night about possibly moving all of my sewing stuff against the wall and setting up my easel so I can paint for the next few months. Who knows, I might get really crazy and do some laundry!

Addictions are the new black... right?

Here is a personal blog post about me:

My name is Brielle and I'm an addict.

There is a reason that I don't smoke. Actually there are a couple. My Da has spent the better part of his life scanning peoples hearts who have smoked and it's not a pretty sight. My Mama always said that I came from a long line of addicts so be careful. I tried, Mama.
So I don't smoke. I actually think that if I did take up smoking, I would never stop. Not even if I wanted to more than anything. If you popped open my coffin at the end of my life, you'd see me with a pack of cigarettes. Yeah, so I don't smoke.

In place of that addiction, I have chewed my nails for the last 20 years. So bad that at times I needed band aids. Now THAT is a nasty addiction. I finally, and perhaps in honor of my 26th birthday party last week, have stopped chewing my nails. I still nibble a bit here and there but between Matt helping me and working around people who have the black lung everyday, my nails are no longer on my endangered species list.

Here I'm talking myself up a bit so that I can fall so hard. There are a few other things that I'm addicted to like coffee (not a big surprise), black licorice... And now I have one more thing to add to the list. HBO's sordid vampire series, True Blood.
I'm not proud of this, nor would I recommend the show to anyone(one last thing in my defense, at least it has REAL vampires in it!). Matt and I got it on DVD from the rental place and watched the whole season in 2.5 days. That was a week ago and I can't stop thinking about it. When I was at work, which is usually crazy busy, I would just stare at the computer screen during down time and think about the show. A few times when I was snapped back to reality I realized that I had goose bumps. I can't sleep, I don't want to go out, I keep googling season 2's DVD release date and here's the worst part: I watched the actor's interviews at the ComicCon on YouTube. I may need to just check myself in to an institution. Thank you all for listening

Christmas is getting closer!

December always goes fast. No matter how hard I try to prepare, it races past. I've been trying to get some of my sewing into shops this year so that I have more fronts that I am selling on, but it has been fairly unsuccessful. I did a good job of stocking up my online shop, which seems to be going well, but it always takes longer to tag things and deal with the logistics of consignment. Then you have to worry about it getting stolen or mangled or dirty. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble right now.

Family Weekend With Hues of Turkey

We are having a spendid time in Eugene with my family. We spent the entire day yesterday cooking, eating ,talking and relaxing. We only left the house once to go for a rainy-day walk.

Jackie usually sleeps 17 hours a day but after all the festivities yesterday, she's planning on a solid 21 today. I'm not sure how that math is going to work out but she seems confident.

A Whirlwind of Adventures

We had a great time in Sacramento last weekend. We got to explore the local food and fare with our friends whom we were there to visit. We were also introduced to the local wine sub-culture of Port lovers. I'm not sure that I'm ready to get initiated into the lifetime club, but it was enjoyable. (I'm not that into sweet things. That's my excuse)

Things are still clipping along with my flatware sets. I'm enjoying the holiday season picking up. I don't know if I will be as busy as last year, but I'm sure a lot more prepared.
Speaking of which, I made a little appearance on a cool handmade-promoting blog: http://lilithevy.blogspot.com/

My father in law is visiting from the other side of the country so when I'm not at work, we are going on small adventures around the area. Unfortunately, it is raining. I say unfortunately not because I feel unlucky that he is visiting during our usual, reliable 9-month stretch of rainy season. I mean unfortunately because the poor guy has never been to Oregon when it has done anything but rain.

I promise that Mr. Sun does occasionally visits us.

We have no sales tax, isn't that enough for you?!

So our next adventure is to go down to Eugene for a night to see some of my side of the family. Maybe the Sun is hiding in a nook down there and we will get a glimpse of it.

We are far too young and clever...

So, Jackie was a skunk. Or she was a dog with a make-shift cap and leg-warmers on. So she was Paula Abdul. No, no, she was a skunk.

She looked pretty cute, even though she hated the hat. I took her to the local feed store where she was photo'd and immunized for a discount because she was so cute. mmhmm, looks ARE worth some green.

Matt and I didn't really do anything officially Halloweeny. I got some good work done that day, walked the 4 miles with the skunk from downtown back home, and then made pumpkins bars. Some friends called at 6pm and asked if we wanted to go out for dinner so I braided my hair and put on my best Wednesday Addams outfit and Matt pulled out his old standby costume, the butler, Lurch. It was a good time.