Everyone at my office has been so sweet to me today. ^_^ The title company we work with here sent flowers and a cake (!), my bosses called to wish me a happy birthday and got me gorgeous earrings, new real estate agent Noelle found out it was my birthday and immediately went out and bought me this beautiful little compact mirror, AND Brenda ordered a special cake custom decorated for me from one of our clients who has a custom cake baking/decorating company (featured in the photo).

..... I don't know what I'm going to do with all this cake...

.....

Oh yeah. Eat it. ^_^

Even though none of my coworkers even know this blog exists, love to everyone I work with. *hugs*

Maya is a bitch.

I was going through a drawer in an old four-drawer storage unit that got dragged out of my closet when I was making room for Bob's stuff, and we all know how fun going through old drawers can be! I found movie ticket stubs from when matinee prices were $4.50, a couple of old concert ticket stubs (Dimmu Borgir, Type O Negative, Dropkick Murphys... so much fun!), notes for stories had started writing years ago, boomarks, cards from my 21st birthday, old photos... and among the many other exciting relics of my past, I found an old cross stitch kit that I had started years and years ago.

It was an underwater scene, stitched on dark blue aida cloth. I immediately picked it up and tried to resume where I had left off. I quickly discovered that my younger, less competant self, had made multitudes of mistakes. If I wanted to do that undersea pattern, my best bet would be to simply get a new piece of aida cloth and start over.

So I put it away.

BUT.

Cross stitching was not to leave my mind so quickly!

It's not very often that I get really into the "womanly" arts. I crochet sometimes. As proof I have made several enormous granny square blankets. And by "enormous granny square" I don't mean lots of normal sized granny squares put together, I mean one enormous granny square. Because that's all I know how to do. ^_^ All three enormous granny square blankets are hideously ugly... which I did on purpose. Yes, I found the ugliest yarn that would clash the most and made blankets out of it. I have dubbed them "The Ugly Blankets". They are awesome. But the point is I'm not a real handwork kind of girl.

Anyway, the idea of cross stitching stuck in my head for a whole hour or so until Bob and I ran off to Michael's to find cross stitching kits. We found a bin of teeny tiny ornament sized cross stitch kits on clearance for $1, so we grabbed one that featured a little chipmunk and two bees. Then we got a bigger but still small/beginner level kit that featured a ridiculously cute little kitten hanging from a tree branch with the words "Hang In There!" on the bottom. Yes, we've now moved past motivational posters to motivational cross stitch projects.

I successfully completed the chipmunk. It's hanging on my bulletin board until I can find a teeny tiny frame for it. And hell yes I'm framing it. It's a huge accomplishment! I've been working hard on the kitten, and I'm maybe close to halfway finished. And it looks fantastic! Woot for my new favorite hobby!





The photo is the "Hang 0n Kitty" stock image from the Michael's website.

My place is a mess. It's not dirty and disgusting, but my god is it messy! Stuff ALL over the place, on the floor and every semi level available surface. It was great when I got back from Boston, Bob had picked up a lot and it was actually clean. Two minutes later I had trashed it. I'm not quite sure how I managed to trash it so quickly - I'm just talented I guess.

Anyway. I haven't really cleaned the whole place since I got back. Sure, the living room, dining room and kitchen have all been clean, but not all at the same time. The bathroom looks like a tornado went through it, and you couldn't see the floor in the bedroom. At all. Actually, it was getting kinda hard to find my dresser, too. Bob (now officially my boyfriend and officially moved in! O_O) casually mentioned cleaning a couple of times, and on the weekends I said I would clean. My good intentions were usually thwarted by the siren call of World of Warcraft.... Obviously not my fault!

It had gotten so messy that yesterday I mentioned I was planning on cleaning and Bob's face lit up like I had told him that we had won a million dollars. He let out a startled, yet hopeful, "yay!".

And for once, I did not disappoint! After hours of arduous labor, by the end of which I was sweating like I had just finished a 40 minute cardio workout, my whole BEDROOM was clean! Yep, all the dirty laundry was waiting in neat piles next to the washing machine to be cleaned, new sheets were on the bed, I had moved the bookshelf into the back room (and put all the books back on it!) then moved Bob's dresser in to replace it, and I hung up all of Bob's clothes in the closet. Dresser tops and nightstands were cleaned off, and I vacuumed!

When Bob got home from work his eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. Then he laughed delightedly. "It's so... CLEAN!" he exclaimed, sweeping me into his arms. "You're amazing!"

I'm skeptical about the amazing part. I think that if I can managed to get the whole house clean at the same time, then I'll be amazing. ^_^