I’ve been looking up all kinds of crafty things to do this winter, mostly because I can’t stand being bored & being inside can drive me nuts pretty quickly. I’m also thinking ahead to gift-giving & hoping I can cut a few costs that way. I’ve seen a lot of super cute ideas out there, mostly involving decorations and such (a few involved complicated instructions dealing with spa filters and artificial snow), but I know I can find ideas for gifts somewhere, even if it means heading back to Craftster and browsing around (which I adore, but it sucks my time away!)

Part of my problem is that I don’t know who in my family I’ll be buying for yet, because we won’t draw names until Thanksgiving, if we do this year, and I don’t know which friend I’ll draw, either, so I can’t really start on anything right away. I’m not crafting for the kids this year, they have already given me their requests & I’m working on getting those things for them. I don’t even know if Erin will be here or not at this point.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to, how about you?

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I’m having a Windows 7 launch party on October 25 at Dawn’s house and I’ve been making some cute little origami boxes to put a small favor in. I’m not sure yet what I’ll be putting in them, but I’m going to go to the store later today & see what we can get fairly inexpensively to go inside. I want it to be some sort of little gadget, since it is kind of a geeky party theme and all, so we’ll see what we can afford. I’m enjoying it, I haven’t done any origami in awhile & I’ve always loved doing it, I think I need to more often.

I mentioned yesterday that there’s a very real chance of Troy getting laid off in the coming months, we’ve kind of gone into what I call “bunker mode,” where we’re trying to save any extra money and cut costs and all of that. Along with that we’ve been looking at smaller houses and apartments, in case we need to move. So far we haven’t found much that’s cheaper than where we live & very few that will allow our pets, too. We won’t give them up, it isn’t their fault the economy sucks, so we’ll do what we have to in order to keep them. It has been a little frustrating, it’s a goof thing I don’t have my heart set on moving right now or anything!

There is a very real possibility that sometime in the next few months Troy could be laid off. The company he works for has already laid off more than 10 people and we have no guarantee that they’re finished. We’re trying very hard to plan ahead and think intelligently so that we aren’t caught unawares and then aren’t able to pay our bills and buy groceries. We are putting all of Troy’s overtime & holiday pay into our savings account, at least for the next few months, just to try to build up a cushion to take care of our needs if it happens. We’re evaluating our bills and deciding what’s necessary and what isn’t, so we’ll know what corners to cut if we need to.

I’m thankful, at this point, that we don’t own a house, because we have no mortgage or home insurance to worry about not being able to pay. There are a lot of things we can do without, like my car and most of the cable channels we have. I need to keep the internet portion of my cable, because I work online and run my business, too, and anything that generates income right now is a necessity in my mind. We can cut down our food budget, too, but I won’t give up my Weight Watchers, I need to be healthy and that helps keep me that way. We’ll be okay, at least we have more warning than the guys they let go on Monday, and I’m very thankful for that!

I have always wanted to build a doll house. Not one for anyone to play with or anything, just to build and decorate. Back when Rhi was a baby, her donor started one for her, but never got it anywhere near finished and I couldn’t stand to look at it after we split up. I had one that my brother made for me when I was growing up, and it was definitely made to be played with and trust me, I did. I loved that thing. Now, I’d like to make one just to look at.

I’d love to build a beautiful Victorian home, with lots of gingerbread and cupolas, but instead of it being period, I’d like to update it and fill it up with beautiful contemporary art and modern furniture, I think that would be a great dichotomy to the eye. I’d want it to have a wrap-around porch with a swing and awesome outdoor furniture, with nice plants and things like that. It would be my dream house, but in miniature!

Every year, the cooling weather & changing leaves seems to inspire me artistically & I start looking for projects to start, gifts to make and things to create and sell in the booth. I love this time of year. Summer is my favorite season, but only because the days are so long and life feels laid back and mellow. Autumn is a very close second, I love the colors, smells and flavors that seem to be so abundant right now. I’m planning for the holidays, shopping for my family & getting everything together so we can be done by about mid-November (I hope!) and just be able to enjoy the season without stress.

I’m thinking about redoing the inside of my car, and have been looking at all of the matching car accessories I can find here locally. I’m not sure what colors or themes I’m going for yet, but it’ll be different from what I ave now. I had black & pink with a fairy, and the fairy on my steering wheel cover came off after a few months & was really disappointing, so I want something that doesn’t use a decal this time. I wish I could make my own set, I know I could make seat covers, by just taking the ones off my seats right now & using them as a pattern, but I don’t know if I’d be able to match them with a steering wheel cover and that.

Troy & I have spent the past few hours trying to figure out what I did wrong when I was installing my copy of Windows 7 (yes, I know it hasn’t been released yet, but I have a copy that I received to host a launch party with). We did finally figure it out, but it was pretty frustrating there for awhile, but I was afraid we were going to have to get on the phone & take advantage of their call center services to figure it out.

Rhi lost her job the other day, and it happened to be the same day she was having problems with her phone, so that was a super crazy day. Her cell is pretty much her lifeline & has been since she got her first one & any time something happens to it, it’s like the end of her world. There was much wailing & gnashing of teeth, which escalated into an argument between she & I, but it all worked out in the end & her phone is fixed now. I’m hoping she’ll be able to get another job soon, or at least sooner than she got the last one.

The wind has been blowing like crazy since last night. We were both woken up sometime in the middle of the night by rain battering our window, I’m serious, it sounded like someone tapping on the glass. It’s been blowing ever since, I’m sure there’s a bigger storm on it’s way in, that’s the only time it ever does that, so I’m not really looking forward to seeing that. I love autumn, but I’m not a fan of being cold, so it’s a tough time for me.

I’m very excited that the Rockies won the National League Wild Card & will be in the playoffs starting this week, I hope they make it all the way again & have a much better showing in the series than they did in 2007. I’ve also been surprised (and pleased) at the Broncos this season, so far. We’ll be watching them play Dallas this afternoon, so we’ll see if their luck continues to hold.

I can’t wait until October 25, we’ll be hosting a Windows 7 launch party for all of our friends that day. I’ll be getting my limited, signature edition this week and will be installing it shortly after. I need to clean up some files and back up some things just in case first, but shortly after I’ll get to try out the new Windows OS and see what the fuss is all about. We plan to have some door prizes, show everyone how to manipulate photos and have a general round of geeky fun together. I think it would be fun to have a LAN party for it and give away a rack mount and some software, but I don’t see that happening. I know of one guy who’s having a party elsewhere who’s giving away a custom built computer, but I can’t afford to do anything like that (I do wish I was going to his party, though!)

I love October, it’s one of my favorite months & I’m always sad to see it leave. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I’m one of the first people out there buying decorations, t-shirts and costume pieces. This time of year is really the only time we can buy decor items for our booth, too, since we really try to play up the fairytale witch image during the Renaissance Faire, because we find it fits better into the theme of things that modern Pagan might. I have bought some really nice things to decorate it with for next year, but I still need to go & look at fabrics and pick out the colors I’ll be making our booth walls out of and maybe some to make table runners out of, too. I just want the booth to look nice & attract people to it.

I have a meeting this morning with an Avon representative to get starting selling. I’ve loved Avon most of my life & have never been able to find a reliable representative so that I can buy things when I want to, so I’m just going to do it myself & that way my family and friends will have someone to go to, also. I’m excited about it & ready to get started on it.

The weight loss arena is frustrating right now. I gained a pound last week, and stayed the same this week, this is usually the time I give up, start dreaming of weight loss pills and then stop my efforts completely. That isn’t going to be happening this time around, I know the weight will eventually come off as long as I keep following my program. I made some less-than-terrific choices last week involving funeral potatoes, dinner out and then movie theater popcorn & I’m sure those are the culprits, right there. So, I’ll go back to the basics, weigh & measure everything, track every bite and life will get back to normal again.