Unsure.

A reception for my sister & her new husband shouldn't cause me so much turmoil, but it is.  I'm so on the fence about going.  The wedding was eye opening to the fact that she really hasn't changed as much as I wanted or hoped she had changed due to the divorce she went through.  Then add the fact that she completely skipped out on Bryce's birthday.  No phone call.  No card sent.  Nothing.  That was upsetting to many more people than just me.  Then, when I sent her a couple of pictures, she posted them to facebook like she had been there.  Quite similar to the way she'd post pictures I would send from the NICU.  Now, that just pissed me off.  I also have quite literally spoken via a dozen or so texts to her in about 2 1/2 months...and before that?  We went a solid month without communicating at all.  Now, tonight she's raving on facebook about his family and how awesome & helpful they've been.  Honestly, I feel like my entire family has been slapped in the face.  It is important to note that this is the same family that has put her down so bad that she used to call me crying and upset (they've also made rude - very very very very rude - comments about the rest of my family, including my prents).  I live my relationship with her in a constant state of being torn between wanting to be there for her in every aspect of growing up & living and then wanting nothing to do with her. 

As to if I'm going to the reception or not....I still don't know, every person (including my mother) has told me not to go.  What do you think?

Bookworm Wednesday (v.14?) (Loaded w/pics!)

I had a lovely post all written out in my head of the books I was doing this week....and then I went to B&N.  Instead, I've decided to share what I do sometimes there....walk around and take pictures of books.  I'm sure this is illegal somehow, but I'm only taking pictures of the covers so that I can make a list of books I will buy or get from the library.  Poor girl "book shopping"?  Absolutely.  A great hobby of mine?  Yep.  (Sorry for the random shapes & blurry-ness of these....they're all phone pics...)

Love.

I could spend hours lost in bolts and bolts and more bolts of fabric.  Literally, I can spend an entire day in this one fabric store a few towns away.....it has what seems like *millions* of prints.  And you have to look at them all!  Then, sometimes I find some that speak to me on such an instinctive level that I have to own it. 

Embroidery.

I've had a bit of a bug lately.  The embroidery bug that is!  (Side note....texting with Camille this morning has given me a super bad quilting bug!)  So, here is the progression of my last piece, finished this evening...some pics you can't see much change, but I swear it is there!  Haha

Bookwork Wednesday (v.13)

Not all of my books are....how should I say it.....well, throught provoking.  Sometimes I just need to be distracted from whatever drama is going on in my life, and these books did just that.

The Book of Awesome is, well, awesome!  It is full of all the random things we've been given in life that make us smile.  Unexpected snow days.  That $5 last year's self left for this year's self in a winter coat pocket.  Memories of your family car from you childhood.  Pushing down the buttons on pop lids from restaurants.  See?  You're smiling aren't you?  Haha

My Booky Wook isn't as mindless as I thought it would be, but Russell Brand has a sense of humor about his own life (both the ups & downs) that make me want to view my life the same way.  After reading this autobiography, I'm not sure how a person can't kinda love him, at least a little bit.  I, however, adore him.

Can I share a secret?  One (just one...) of my guilty pleasures of books is Jackie Collins novels.  I eat them up as quickly as I can.  But, I never get them from a library, I only read the ones I buy - and most of them are no longer in print to where I can find them....you see one?  But it for me & I will pay you back!  Haha.....Hollywood Divorces is about just that....divorces.  In Hollywood.  Involving actors & actresses.  It has scandal, sex, drugs....everything I could ask for from a Jackie Collins novel.  LOVE.

A little holiday planning.....

Yep!  I'm already planning for the holidays!  They'll be here before we know it.  And - as an unemployed girl with very little cash flow, I'm most likely going to be making ohhhhh about 99% of the gifts I give.  As odd as it sounds, these are the moments I'm thankful I have a very select (read = tiny) group of friends.  I only exchange gifts with like three friends that I see all the time and I will be shipping to my ldb for sure along with smaller gifts to a few others.  As for family....well when I comes to my parents, I could give them the tiniest thing & a hug and they'd be happy, my brother gets beer (it has become a tradition since I turned 21 :) ), then there's a few others that I will exchange with. 

So, I'm officially on the hunt for ideas.  I looked around the internet today for some things but nothing caught my eye.  I was talking to mom tonight and I kind of decided that I would do better if I could find things to sew since I'm quickest at that than anything else.  It is time to open my mind and let the thoughts flow. 

In other news - I designed a layout for my next quilt top.  These aren't the colors I'm using, just place markers for different fabrics. 

So, I'm what I like to call "multi-craftual"

Meaning?  I do lots of crafty things....knitting, crochet, sewing, qulilting, embroidery, etc.  If someone asked me what my favorite one is, it would be like picking my favorite child.  Just couldn't do it.  So, with that said here are some new inspirations for me that I found while looking through my grandma's catalogs when I was there the other day.  I will be making all of these at some point I think....