Ugh I had a post and stupid blogger lost it

Well, point was I am married now and signed up for ravelry. I am Tifffany there. Stupid blogger, no wonder I stopped updating

Life Changes

Well we're all moved down to Tampa. We've been here for about 2 weeks and settled into our apartment for one (the first we were staying in a hotel). Life is nice here - warm days and lots of sunshine. I've been watching the weather reports on Hannah and now Ike hopeing to postpone my first hurricane for as long as possible.

I've totally lost all time for my exercising. I was up to week 4 or so of the Couch to 5K but then I had 2 trips to Tampa, a convention in downtown Cleveland, visit to Matt's Parents in Pittsburgh, my wedding shower, and moving to all squeeze in to a tight time frame. I have missed several days of work for all that stuff and have so much to do so I have been working long days, including through lunches. Oh well, it is worth it. And I have been swimming in the evenings so that helps. After this week I have a week off for our long anticipated trip to Disney! We will be driving now of course since it's only an hour away but it should be just as fun! This will be the first vacation time I've taken off since february (when I had a half day) so I can't waiiiiit.

Last weekend we went to the Tampa zoo since we had reciprocal membership from our Cleveland Zoopass which was expiring. It was fun but not sure I would have wanted to pay $20 a person to get in. I did pay $2 to feed a cracker to a giraffe - it licked my hand and was totally cool!

That's all for now - here's wishing for a short week and a loooong vacation!

So I said I was going to post weekly and then just totally fell off that wagon. I do have excuses, I have been busy. Like who hasn't, tho?

After our trip to Niagara Falls (which was great), I found out they were thinking about hiring someone down in our Tampa office. Someone on the inside knew I'd be interested, and threw my name in the ring. So now I am heading to Tampa in a week for my final interview. But it doesn't really seem like anyone else is interested. And even if someone was, I'd have a really good shot. The hiring manager already told me that "if" I get hired they will pay for my relocation, so we are getting prepared (mentally and otherwise) for a big move! I've been working in my Xmas sweatshop to try to get things made before I possibly go... wrapped and ready to be stored at my mom's. Since we have several trips already planned we wouldn't have time to come up for Xmas, so trying to get that squared away. Also, I booked an overnighter for Xmas Eve at Disney. We figured if we can't spend the holiday with our family then we may as well spend it with our friends.

Oh yeah and I started running. Not that fast or far, but I started week 3 of the Couch to 5k challenge today. Matt has been joining me but had to beg off today cause he's injured his ankle. That's all for now!

OK so I said I was going to post this last Saturday and I totally missed it, but with good reason (kind of). I was all set to go and take a picture of an amigurumi I had made and some that I was working on. But when I pulled out my camera, the (rechargeable) batteries were dead. All the other ones were dead too, and I know that the ones in the pocket of my camera case were fully charged. I don't know if the batteries are just losing charge or what. So I didn't have the patience to wait for them to charge and take more pics. But I am working on some more little critters and I will try to arrange a photoshoot with them when they are all (or some of them) completed.

So anyways! My birthday is this coming Sunday so we booked a quickie weekend trip to Niagara Falls! We tried using the priceline name your own price thing for the hotel... but it kept rejecting us even when I wasn't much less than their listed price. Like they had something for $160 and I bid up to about $120. You can save 50%, my foot!

So then we went to hotwire and I took a $139 a night deal for a 4 star but it turns out the hotel used to be like a 3star so they bumped it up. Not sure I am so happy with these newfangled hotel bidding tools, I think I will just go back to buying a hotel the good old fashioned way. Because after I looked up the hotel we got and found out our room type, it would have been CHEAPER to just book on their website, argh! But it should still be fun and I will try to remember to charge my camera batteries AND take the charger with me.

Until then... knit on!

So I know I said I would post every Saturday, but I just didn't get around to it yesterday. I was all set in the morning to hunker down with some dvds and crafts, but my mom gave me a ring around 830 or so that she was on her way out for pre-vacation shopping (she leaves for Vegas tomorrow!) so I got ready and went with her. I got home just a bit before Matt came home from work, so the day was pretty much done. Plus I spent some time playing with my new toy, which is:



the Kindle reader from Amazon! This little baby is pretty fun - and very easy to use. I've already downloaded (bought) my first book, Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. He also wrote fight club and several other novels, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I especially love that I don't have to buy a hardback which tend to be so heavy and a pain to take along with me.

I have been doing a little crafting but haven't taken any pics right now, so I will have to work on that later! That's all for now - back to playing with my new gadget

As promised...

I am posting on Saturday! I almost forgot so then I grabbed my camera to take some pics and OF COURSE the batteries were dead. Somehow my rechargable batteries just discharge over time, even when they are not in the camera. So I had to recharge them before I could take pics, but luckily I picked up one of those turbo 15-min chargers a couple of months ago on clearance. Otherwise I would've been waiting hours and who knows if I would've remembered.

So anyways... today my mom and I went out to get some flowers for my balcony. I have a windowbox that my aunt gave me and I needed flowers for that:



I also picked up a nifty plastic pot and got some more flowers for that:



I helped with the picking them out and placement of them but my mom planted them for me. If I touched them, they would probably die in protest. Hopefully I can keep them alive through vigilant monitoring and watering, though.

Also today, I picked up some stickers from Joann's. I had bought a package of blank invitations a couple months ago (on clearance + 40% coupon... I got the 50 pack with envelopes and return cards/envelopes for < $10!). So I got these stickers to maybe spruce up either the invites or the envelopes, I think they look decent together:



I will probably just use 1 or 2 stickers on each invite. I bought 3 packs of them (all they had) and there are about 24 per pack.

And in crafting news, here is the English Garden doily that I am just about finished with:



I just need to weave in the ends, possibly put the french knots in the center of the flowers, and block it. I started another but only have 1 flower done so far.

I've also been working on these funky slippers:



Easy to make in crochet and self striping yarn, these should be done soon!

Well that's about it for this installment. Hope I can keep up with it!

WOW I didn't realize it had been SOOOOO long since I last blogged. I just feel like there's so many other things I would rather be doing. It's not that I am THAT busy it's just that I am rarely bored. However, Matt is now working on Saturdays (whereas I am off) and I am going to try to commit to a weekly update. That shouldn't be toooo hard. I don't have enough time to craft anymore to update more than that anyways. I just finished a doily this past weekend. Well I need to weave in the ends, block it, and think about doing the french knots for the flower centers. I am working my way through the book Doilies in Bloom. I had done the first one some time ago but then set it aside. I am also trying to do as much Christmas crafting as possible (and without spending money - just using stash) so that I can get rid of some stuff and save some money for the wedding.

Speaking of wedding. We have set the date to be Nov 25th. We will be heading to Vegas on Nov 23rd and getting hitched somewhere there. We haven't booked anything yet but are looking into a Red Rock Canyon wedding. I was planning on doing something at one of the hotels on the strip, but you don't get much for the money there. At least this one includes extensive time in a limo and a really cool outdoor location. Does anyone have any tips on that or other suggestions? I'm hoping to keep it to around 1k (including all the wedding stuff except for rings, clothes, and possibly a tip for the driver).

We will then be coming home the day before thanksgiving and having our reception the Saturday immediately following here in Ohio. We've booked the community center at my mom's condo community and got someone to do the catering. We still have to get a cake but my cousin who is an AWESOME pastry chef and decorator volunteered for that. I think we are going to do a vegas themed reception (veryyyy casual... maybe we can play a lot of sinatra music during dinner). So any crafty ideas for the reception is helpful too. I think I am going to look for card suit cookie cutters for cheeses. Also might ask for the cake to have the suits cut out of fondant and put on... on a basically white cake. I am also toying with the idea of putting the King and Queen of hearts playing cards as a topper somehow.

As far as favors we are still throwing around some ideas. I'd like them to be vegasy and either edible (chocolate) or a xmas ornament.

Not sure about table centerpieces either.

Well that's all for now. I plan to update this on Saturday, if I remember. It will be a lot more than just crafts, probably, since I don't spend that much time crafting anymore anyways. (Another reason for this is that my wrists have started hurting a LOT because of all the computer time I put in at work. And then I do stuff at the gym that puts a lot of strain on them too. So most of my crafting is on the weekends.)

There, I think that post was definitely "rambling" enough for the blog. Hope to see some of my old bloggy-pals soon!