Surprises: I May Be Obsessed

I surprised Zeb with Ladysmith Black Mombazo tickets last night.

I'm big on surprising him and perhaps I do it a little too often.

"Surprise, I brought home ice cream!"
"Surprise, I'm home early from work!"
"Surprise, I made dinner!"

I don't know why I wanted this concert to be a surprise, but I bought the tickets last minute, labeled the evening as a 'surprise' and we were off.

We arrived at the beautiful Kauffman Center, Zeb got his snacks for the show, and then we headed to our seats.

The show was so great, and a little unexpected. I knew I was going to be hearing some beautiful music, but I was not expecting all the comedy and high kicks, a lot of high kicks.

If they come your way, take advantage of the opportunity.

I wonder if he gets tired of acting surprised all the time....

Forever Lazy

Whenever talk of Christmas came up last year, Zeb made sure that his mom and I knew that he wanted a Forever Lazy.

I'm not sure how the obsession began, but it continues today. He was so surprised on Christmas day that he received it and now he wears it around the house all the time. He loves that thing!

For this page, I used the sketch from The Green Frog Studio.

The Walled Gardens

Here is another page from Ireland.

This stop was on the tour we took of Connemara. We visited the Walled Garden at Kylemore Abby. I think Zeb and I could have spent a lot of time here looking at all the different plants, flowers and landscaping detail, it was amazing...a beautiful place on a beautiful day.

I used the sketch from Elle's Studio for this page.

On Saying 'Yes'

I'm more of a person who says 'no'.

I turn down most people when I am asked to hang out.
I'm always concerned I won't have fun, won't have anything to talk about, and I dislike having things on my social calendar.  Here's a little taste of how the inner dialogue goes down:
Sounds fun!
What if it's not fun?
What if I don't have anything to talk about?
What would I wear?
What if I get hungry?
What if I get tired?
What if I say 'yes' now, but when the time comes I feel more like staying home and reading a book?
What if I have to get up early the next day?
What if I don't know how to get there?
Where will I park?

I am an extreme home body, an introvert, and I'm also quite socially anxious. Take away the alcohol of my early twenties and I'd rather stay at home with my knitting or my scrapbooking or a movie. I didn't even go out on New Year's Eve like I said I would. 

So I quite surprised myself on Wednesday night, as I was training a client I've had for a couple of years, she asked me to accompany her to see Mandy Patinkin and Patti Lupone perform at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. She had an extra ticket.

My first thought was 'no', of course, but I continued to say 'yes' aloud.  In the back of my mind I knew it was a great opportunity to see these two perform and see the new Kauffman Center.

Now, I had little to no idea who these two were before their performance, and when she said we should have dinner before I made myself say 'yes' again. I wanted to say 'no' to dinner very badly.

Her sitting across from me for an hour....What on earth would I have to say for that length of time? Sure I've been training her for years and she's a great friend in that environment, but sitting down and looking at each other from across the table made me nervous. *

So I said 'yes' to both and enjoyed myself very much. (surprise!) Dinner was great with great conversation and the show was enjoyable. I did enjoy Patti Lupone's performance a lot, Mandy's less than that,  but it was a great show and I didn't fall asleep. It even sparked my interest in seeing Evita and Carousel.

So I said 'yes' and I want to try to say 'yes' to more things in the future. It may seem like a funny pep talk for an almost 30 year old to have with herself, but it's truly hard work for me to be social.

*Let me say now that this post is all about my fears and has nothing to do with this friend of mine, she's wonderful.

Let's Swap

Let's trade ad space for the  month of February.
I'll be accepting ads that are 120x120.
The only catch: my ad goes on your blog too.

Interested?

Email me at cheryl_birkey(at)yahoo(dot)com

Pages Pages Pages

Part of what's helping me achieve my 2012 organizing goal is actually completing scrapbook pages that sit around in my craft room half finished. I spent all day Saturday finishing pages from Ireland.

For the last page I used the sketch from The Green Frog Studio.

Almost Halfway There

So I made it my 2012 goal to get this house more organized and more aesthetically pleasing. I would love to give our bedroom a more put together look with a headboard and perhaps some pictures on the walls.

So far though, I have begun to tackle our office/craft space.

I have several small tables put together that serve as my work space, but I usually end up sprawled out on the floor so that I can really spread out. I am in the process of looking on craigslist for a desk/table that would be more appropriate for this space.

I'm happy to report that this weekend I bought a ClosetMaid cube organizer for my fabric and yarn stash. It has made a world of difference in there already. I'm all about efficient storage and I think this piece represents that. Everything has a spot and it looks really cute too.

I'm not finished in there yet, but it feels good to get started.

Looks good, right?