let the countdown begin...

we are *so* not ready for the garage sale tomorrow. i tried to get some pricing out of the way yesterday, but there's just no room to move around in the garage, so i ended up just kind of gracing the top layer of stuff with price tags... until we have it all spread out in the yard, there's just no way to accomplish this.

on another note, michael's is having their big "dollar days" sale and that fun cotton "sugar spun" yarn, as well as photo stickies, are rediculously cheap.

and, because i'm all over the place today, check this out. how cool is that? i'll be attending next year. ;)

lucky week...

i'm being published again - this time in the april 2006 issue of PaperWorks magazine. i'm very excited!!

on the other hand, we made no progress with the garage sale stuff last night, except to get change for petty cash... matt will hang up the signs today, and we'll start pricing tonight. here's to the task ahead!

dreaming of dollar signs...

the closer we get to this weekend's garage sale, the harder it becomes to avoid putting a 'number' on it - know what i mean? i want this to be a very profitable weekend, because we could really use that money right now... but i'm trying so hard not to set my sights on a specific amount, so at this point, we just need to pray.

in the meantime, our family is inundating us with donations, which is lovely, but we're officially out of space in our garage, and i still have no idea how we'll be displaying the stuff during the sale. i have a sneaking suspicion we'll just have too much stuff.

last night, matt brought down everything - and i mean everything - from the attic so that i could pick through it and sort out what will be sold, without having to tolerate the hot, humid air up there. again, i'm startled by the amount of material goods we've accumulated. now, my attic is {mostly} organized, but the ever-growing stacks of miscellaneous sale items threaten to takeover the garage.

tonight, we clean up the items, and price them... if you don't hear from me tomorrow, send a search party.

being published again! a layout entitled "Wonder", that i created about my 2-year-old nephew, kayden, is being published in the Brainfreeze Rescue Kit project by Lisa Bearnson et al... got an email yesterday about it - i'm very excited! this is my first layout in a print magazine.

so, i'm trying to get back into the pattern of posting a little every day, rather than these looooong messages once or twice a week. thanks to my readers, however few ye may be, for putting up with me. ;)

the Big Garage Sale is this weekend. still, shocked about how much stuff i have, and we're acquiring more "contributions" from our family, so it promises to grow even more.

am getting very excited about the 3-day next year. i need to start training, but go lightly, so as not to get bored too quickly. i also need new shoes, and an ipod. ;)

as a part of going slowly, matt and i will be walking for the American Diabetes Association in October, a small walk, but something to help me get excited about the event, and participating will help keep me on track.

garage sale preparations...

well, it's been a few days since i've posted... life is slow in the "dog days" of summer...

matt and i are getting ready to have a garage sale in a week, and consequently, we're travelling room by room through our house, purging those things that simply don't need to be kept.

it is *shocking* how much stuff a young woman my age can accumulate. and while i'd like to blame matt, i know it's not him... nope, this is my crap. in fact, most of it is from before "his time"... before we met... from my first apartment, things that were boxed up when i moved in with roommates, and rediscovered when i moved into our first house.

i have an amazing mound (okay, make that mounds) of stuff: furniture i've inherited from my mother who has also recently purged, extra dishes and kitchen objects, books, cds, videos, clothing, craft supplies - egads, the craft supplies, including, but not limited to several skeins of yarn purchased circa 1980, before my own arrival on this earth. as the living room is the only mostly-organized room of our house right now, everything is being stored there (thus, making it terribly unorganized), a veritable jungle of discarded, unwanted, unloved goods. i fear i may lose a cat in that mess.

next - tonight, i hope - we organize the garage. this was also done several months ago, so while it might look terrible, it shouldn't take too long to get back into ship shape again. then i can move my Garage Sale Jungle out to the garage, to make room for a stamp camp i'm hosting this saturday...

on another note, i forgot to post about my class last weekend.

friday night, allie came over to help me prepare... we headed out shopping first, and needed to make four stops. the first: purely selfish, a stop at Lasting Memories, to peruse the table of 75% off items, marked down for their moving sale. discovered some amazing finds, including several large Second Avenue rub-on monograms. didn't get any useful letters, but found some fun stuff (x, i, and o, which i think i can use eventually, and n, which i sent to nicole who was sweet enough to help me by scanning an article from a mag that i'd lost). the second stop: jo-ann's who, much to my dismay, *still* hasn't restocked their paper from the last time i cleaned it out, and thus left me out of luck for the cardstock i needed. we decided to scoot to our third stop, so that i could buy the necessary paper... however, upon arriving at Inspired Memories, we discovered that they had just closed... frantic phone calls to all of the other LSSs uncovered that they'd *all* just closed at 8pm... oh boy was I out of luck. back to jo-ann's... after plenty of "hmmming and hawing", we finally decided on some patterned papers that "worked" for each layout design. i wasn't thrilled, but it would do... we were up until nearly midnight, cutting, packing and arranging...

the day of went smashingly... only 3 of my 5 students showed, but that's okay - we managed without the others. had lots of fun, got mostly positive comments, and while it won't pay big bucks, it will be a nice surprise to get the check in the mail. additionally, i was able to take back most of the supplies we didn't use, so i didn't lose much on the supply fee. now, i'm beginning to consider october's class series, since august and september will be busy for me on the review team.

stopped by paperzone the other night and saw a sign requesting demonstrators... got to speak with the manager, who sounded very interested in my work. i should be receiving an application from her via email, and i can't wait to show her my portfolio. maybe next week... if you haven't heard, they're having their "white sale" this weekend, so anything white in terms of paper and envelopes is on sale. i love their products...

if any of you in the western washington area love stamps and want to make some new friends, you're welcome to join us on saturday at my stamp camp from 2 to 4pm. shoot me an email. ;)

she's gone...

saw my aunt for the last time this visit, today. bob brought her down to the office to have lunch with mom & i. good hugs as she said goodbye, she leaves tomorrow morning for the next leg of her galavanting around the US. i miss her already.

am nearly finished preparing for my class. good thing, too, since it's saturday. i just need to print out my handouts, buy the rest of the supplies i need, portion them out, and pack up. wheeeee!

i keep getting this strange urge to can. i know i've mentioned it in recent blog entries, but man am i eager to do something productive with produce. i'd like to make freezer jam again this year, at the least, if i don't get around to actual canning... we're still working through all of the mixed berry freezer jam i made last year with $10 worth of jam. mmmmm. jam.

cha this weekend, and tons of my pub buddies are there. so jealous. think of all the fun they're having.

oh that reminds me, i need to make business cards before the class on saturday. another thing to add to The List.

preparations...

i learned today that i have 5 students enrolled for this saturday's travel scrapbooking (which should probably be titled "scrapbooking your travel/vacation photos" so as not to imply that i'm teaching how to scrapbook on the go... which i'm not, as it's a skill i haven't been able to master myself)...

anyway...

at first, i was disappointed. i'd been praying for 10 students, then the month's finances got a little bit sticky, and i started praying for 20. but pondering the situation for the last hour or so, i've decided i'm thankful. 5 is a good number on which to try out new material. 5 is a good number to get acquainted with. 5 is a good number because i'll have an opportunity to decide whether or not i really want to teach, without wasting a bunch of people's time if i really suck. {ok, i'm pretty sure i won't suck, because i've taught before - other subjects - and have always enjoyed it, and felt like a positive influence... but you get my drift.} 5 is a good number to be sure everyone gets attention and no one gets left behind. 5 is a good number, in that i'll be paid enough to be reimbursed for my time. 5 is a good number.

so, i can return some of the excessive amount of supplies i bought, when i was preparing for 15, and i don't have to worry about the fact that JoAnn's is out of a paper we were going to use, because now i know for sure that i have enough of it.

and on another note, a gal on 2Peas created some terribly clever business cards, as she'll be attending CHA {*so jealous*} and i'm very inspired. {if you haven't already popped in to tell mary how cool her business cards are, please do so.} i'm confident that i can create a fistful too, {to hand out on saturday} without spending a dime, which is what has been stopping me from printing them. too much moola. so tonight, i think i'll give it a whack.

wheeeeee!

sometimes i feel like abandoning scrapbooking altogether. i think about how much money i could get, selling off all of my supplies. i think about what i could do with the extra bedroom i'm occupying. i think about the extra time i'd have... to clean my house, to cook real food, to spend time with matt, to work in the garden (and i use the term "garden" quite loosely) and the yard. the voice of doubt creeps in and i say things to myself like "i'm not good enough to 'go pro'" and "what's the point? at the end of the day, it's paper and glue." and "why is this better than putting my photos in nice 2-up albums, with captions written above and below?" sometimes i feel like i'm spinning my wheels, like it's a rat race (let's see, how many cliche analogies can i squeeze into one sentence) and like i'm not making any headway, or working for anything worth the effort.

eh.

it's funny (or ironic, you could say) that the biggest challenges come up when you're trying your best. for instance, you don't get invited to mexican food for lunch until you consciously decide to go on a diet.

this month, we're seeing this in our finances. at the end of june, i was super motivated to help us get our finances in-line. i updated our budget, created a spreadsheet for tracking our spending, and we sat down together to talk about trying to stick to our budget for the entire month of july. we decided to test two aspects of our financial life: 1. is our budget realistic? 2. are we spending realistically?

right away, we were thrown a curveball, and it seems to me, they're just continuing. it's like a board game:

matt gets pulled over for expired tabs (which we haven't renewed simply due to laziness) - $200.
renew matt's tabs - $60.
renew my car's tabs - $213 (good ol' monorail project...)
matt drops his bottle of insulin on the tile floor at work, and insurance won't pay for a replacement - $70.
kate oversleeps and has to drive to work, but is so distracted by running late that she forgets to pay for parking at the lot, and gets a ticket - $25.

sure, none of these fees seems insurmountable individually, but add them up and factor in our mini-vacation to eastern washington next month, and we've decimated our recently-created savings, AND put more on a credit card than i ever wanted to have to add to our previously-existing mole hill of debt.

on a different, but similar, note: my travel-photo scrapbooking class is coming up this weekend, and i'm nervous, but mostly prepared. whenever anyone in our family has been looking for a new job, my dad and step-mom ask us how much of a salary we *need*, and then help us by praying for that specific amount. matt and i have taken this very good advice and put a spin on it: we're praying for how many students i need at this class. i get paid 50% of the tuition that the school brings in, plus a $10/head to cover supplies, so in order to break even for the time i've put into it, i figure i need at least 10 students.

Lord, i'd like to ammend my previous prayers. could we make that 20?

i love a nice quiet weekend... matt took yesterday off, so that we could drive down to mt. rainier and see my mom finish up her climb but it had been cancelled friday, before they'd even gotten to camp muir, as the weather was turning bad. with the several recent accidents, i'm thankful that they knew to turn back. so, having the whole day to ourselves, i accomplished quite a bit in the scrapbooking department, ran a few errands, spent some time with matt, and even made a tasty dinner of honey chicken kabobs with grilled veggies and corn, with a banana coconut cream pie for dessert. impressive, huh?

this afternoon, we went out on our weekly "date", this time to Dick's to get burgers, then to Carkeek Park to eat, and enjoy the weather, despite the threats of rain from the clouds above.

i printed out 48 photos this afternoon, so i have my work cut out for me. most of them are for projects i need to work on in the next week or so, but a handful of them will be saved for later projects, as i accumulate more photos, and ideas, of course.

am having a small crisis, in that my first scrapbooking class - Scrapbooking Your Travel Photos - for north seattle communtiy college, is sneaking up on me - next saturday. i have run through my entire lesson plan, and the lecture portion takes all of 40 minutes, plus i have a 10 minute (or so) icebreaker, and then the projects... that means that three layouts and an accordian tag album have to fill up over 3 hours... i don't see how it'll happen. eek!

i mentioned earlier that my aunt JoDee, my mom's little sister, is visiting from England this week (and last). last night, she and i went out to dinner, then to Paint The Town to paint a salad bowl (me) and two cat dishes (her, but for me!) it was so great to visit with her one on one. she's such a lively gal, and i love her spirit. she's terribly smart, witty on top of it, and is currently studying for her ph.d. in acquired linguistics (huh?) but mostly, i love her because she's such a good friend on top of being such a great aunt.

what is it about fireworks...

that both excites and soothes at the same time?

we went out on the boat with mom & Bob and my favorite aunt, who's visiting from England, on monday, to lake union for one of the best fireworks shows in seattle. parked right under the display, i captured a handful of really great pictures, and thoroughly enjoyed the time to visit with my family.

{our boatload - clockwise from bottom left: bob, me, jodee, matt.}

watching the fireworks was exciting - never knowing what might next explode in the sky, and yet, laying there on the back of the boat, cuddled up in blankets with my hubby, all of my cares in the world were washed away as we were mesmerized by the pyrotechnical genius at hand.

but as we drove home, i couldn't help but feel that disappointment... the same disappointment you feel after all of the gifts have been opened on Christmas day... it's all over... tomorrow, i go back to work, and that's it, for another year...

i'm so glad my photos turned out... last year, they were terrible, and i was so disappointed, so i spent some time learning about how my new digital camera works, and then studied some techinques from the pros, found on the good ol' internet, and used the manual settings to do the work... will try to remember to post the settings later...

my favorite aunt is visiting from england, where she lives with her husband and is going to school. she's in the states for a conference and managed to squeeze us in as well... had dinner at mom & bob's with the whole family (siblings) tonight - was fun to have everyone together, and the games are always a riot in large groups. am so glad she's home, if only for a little while... more later...

a word to the wise...

$70 for tabs is a heck of a lot easier to swallow than a $200 ticket for not having the $70 tabs (and then having to buy the $70 tabs anyway...)