Uh Oh Less than 4 months away...

So about a week ago I got an email from The Knot congratulating me that the wedding is 4 months away. I kind of panicked. I mean 4 months isn't a long time considering that there are 2 months of holidays in there.

In order to calm myself down I wrote out my To-Do list completely and have started marking down when I'm going to be doing what. It has helped me to calm down a bit but in the mean time I looked at how long and when we were going to be gone for the Bachelor/Bachelorette party and decided I couldn't handle having that length of time unavailable to do things. Maybe I'm over reacting, but I would just be much more relaxed knowing that we have that time at home rather than away.

Not much else is going on, we need to start buying all the supplies for the DIY projects. I also need to start on all the DIY projects. My list of DIY Projects Includes:

- Escort Cards
- Center Pieces
- Menu Cards
- Ceremony Programs
- Reception Directions
- RSVP By Cards (since I forgot to put an RSVP date on the RSVP cards)
- Bridesmaid bouquets
- Bridesmaid gifts
- Bride Bouquet

That isn't much, right? I mean I have a little less than 4 months to do all of that. That is basically all I have left to do...kind of.

It's been awhile...

It has been a long time since I last posted and a lot has happened, mainly I'M ENGAGED!!! That's right, I am marrying my best friend. We are very excited to publicly declare our love for each other and to really show how our two lives are becoming one. He is Chinese and I am White American. As you can imagine those are two completely opposite cultures and traditions when it comes to weddings. I feel like our planning this wedding is defining how we will combine the two cultures in our lives together. And let me just tell you, while it has been extremely stressful at times to try to accommodate both cultures it has also been amazing to see the pieces fall into place.

Our colors will be pink and brown because well I love those colors together. We will be serving the traditional ten-cours Chinese banquet at the reception. Our centerpieces will be bamboo. We will be doing the traditional Christian ceremony followed by the Chinese tea ceremony. I will be wearing my gorgeous white dress all day long.

Basically, we are doing this wedding our way and we are paying attention to what we want as the Bride and Groom. We are also listening to both sets of parents for their opinions, but in the end the decision is completely ours. I am grateful the Mr. Mango has been accepting of what I want and has stood up for what I want. This whole wedding planning process is making me love him even more.

I think that is the biggest new thing. Hopefully I'll start posting here more again. I kind of like the process of writing what is going on.

Lavender in the Cottage

So ever snce I became seriously passionate about knitting and about yarn I have had this fear of moths coming in and attacking my stash that is slowly building. I know that I'm careful not to let any into my cottage but it is still a fear. Tonight I decided to do something about this fear. I went to Target and bought some cedar blocks, cedar hanger things, lavender hanger things, lavender candle and lavender wall plug. As soon as I got home I thew the cedar blocks in with my yarn and hung the cedar hanger things up. I also threw one of the lavender hanger things in with my main stash. It is odd but I now feel like my yarn is protected and I think I will sleep easier tonight. Of course I may hate the smell of lavender in a week too. It is really unknown at this point in time.

Ack! Grr! Time for a Yarn Diet

So this year I set out with a huge goal of not pulling money out of my savings to cover for the short falls in my spending money, and also to not have to pay off my credit card. My plan was to have money set aside every paycheck as my spending money and to have to plan out how that was spent. I also was planning on not using my credit card any more. Well then life got in the way. So far this year I have had to get a handle on my credit card debt and pay it off before the interest rates shot up, pay for my 30,000 mile tune up on my car and pay for my registration. I've also had a little bit too much fun spending money on knitting things.

I looked at my savings account tonight, to transfer some money over to my checking so I could pay for my dental bill, yet another expense, and I was saddened by where it would be after this transfer. Now I put money into my savings account every pay check and I have money going into a 401(K). The initial saving of the money isn't hard for me, its the not spending of the saved money that is hard for me. I keep getting frustrated with myself because I'm supposed to be saving money for a wedding and for life after the wedding, yet I can't seem to stop buying things, mainly fiber related items.

All of this is leading up to say that I am putting myself on a yarn diet. I will allow myself to buy something knitting related every two weeks if money allows, but if I'm low on funds then no yarn for me. After all I have enough yarn to last me for quite awhile.

In other news I bought the supplies to start making stitch markers tonight. I think I am slowly building up the skills to start selling things to help support my yarn addiction.

I cabled!

It isn't much and its just a start, but I started my first scarf using cables on Wednesday. Its a lot easier than what I thought it would be and I'm enjoying watching the progress. I think I keep messing it up a bit, but that is okay because the scarf is for me and no one else will know. Pictures to come...

Helping someone that helped me

I don't talk about my experiences in high school much. Part of it is because it is the past, and part of it is that it seems to make people feel bad for me when really they shouldn't. I am a cancer survivor and a much stronger person because of my experiences. I met a lot of great people and am who I am today because of the cancer and the subsequent events that followed.

While I am really positive about my experience with cancer I will admit that there were some tough times and I am thankful for my friends and family that helped me through those experiences. I am posting this blog because of a group of people that made having cancer less scary.

I went to Camp Okizu my first summer after getting diagnosed with cancer. I had just gotten out of the hospital and was at my lowest point health wise since getting diagnosed. In spite of all of this my doctors encouraged me to still go to Camp. I'm so glad that they did! I may have been really sick for most of the time and had to spend time in the infirmary, aka "The Inn", but I had a blast. I was put in a cabin with an amazing group of girls and we called ourselves the "Superstars", I swam in a lake, I did archery, I learned how to make some new friendship bracelets, I developed crushes on some of the boys, I went to a dance, and I spent every night under the stars. Basically I experienced all of the same things that a normal teenager would at a summer camp. All the girls I was with had been through cancer and chemo, in fact all of the kids had. We could easily ask each other about our experiences, we could say how much it sucked, or how awesome our doctors were. After having these talks we would then move onto other things like the cute guys at camp and who was hooking up with who. It was amazing to go from normal teenage things to talking about cancer then back to normal teenage stuff.

After I left camp that week I had a whole new perspective on my experiences and I looked forward to the following summer, which I did go again and had a blast again. In fact that was the summer that I met some more really great friends and really built up a group of friends that I wish I was still in contact with. Some of those friends have passed on due to their battles with cancer and the others have moved on to live great lives, but we will always have the great times at Okizu.

You may wonder what is so great about this camp and why I want you to vote for them on Facebook so they can get some much needed money, it is because all of these experiences were completely FREE! They didn't charge any money for those experiences, but offered the chance to escape for a little while. They offer three different types of camps, cancer kids, siblings, and family camp. It is a little bit for everyone, and let me repeat this, FREE! But it is only free because of the support of both private and corporate donors, so please click on the button at the top and vote for Camp Okizu. Thank you!

Resolution Update

I feel like I am chugging along with my goals, although the whole keeping my place cleaned up thing has been a bit of a struggle. I did do my dishes last night which is huge for me, and I took out my trash this morning which cleaned out part of my fridge.

I casted on my first “sock” last night. It is actually the Loopy’s Red Sock Kit from Loopy Ewe so it is a teeny tiny little sock, but its a sock and I think it will help to teach me method before getting into the whole actually fitting someone part.

Another little plus for me is that I finally called to cancel my gym membership last night. Since I started going to my gym at work I don’t need to keep paying for a membership. That should help to balance out the difference in my paycheck with my change in health insurance. And I actually worked out during my lunch hour today all by myself!

Hey she's Knitting!

Tonight was a wonderful night out with my boyfriend and some of his friends. It started with going to a really delicious revolving sushi restaurant and then we migrated over to a British pub. While at the pub most of my DBFs friends were doodling on some paper (they are all into the art scene and really good at what they do) and DBF was talking to them and well, I was kinda just sitting there. So I nudged DBF to get the car keys and I went and grabbed my current knitting project. Can't say what it is because its a gift. But when I pull it out one of the girls goes " Hey she's knitting!" I almost, in a smart ass way, said "Hey you were drawing!" Luckily I held my tongue and just said yes I am. I just thought it was interesting that it was perfectly normal for them to be doodling in the pub while it was odd for me to be knitting. Then again I guess it was an unusual thing for me to be knitting...in a British pub...eating Spotted Dick...with a group of Asians...after eating sushi made by Mexicans. Okay...the whole situation was just interesting.

The above situation reminds me why I love knitting out in public, or KIPing. It is always interesting to see peoples responses. It ranges from people telling me about there experiences with yarn crafts to guys hitting on me because I'm knitting to older gentlemen telling me about the amazing blankets their grandmothers made and are now family heirlooms. I also really enjoy the compliments on the objects I'm working on and have to suppress the urge to show them all of the other projects I have with me. I have to remind myself that not everyone wants to see every single thing that is on my needles or that I have knitted and that there is a fine line between interesting girl knitting out in public and well...that crazy girl who obsesses about knitting and won't shut up about it if you say anything to her. I mean I may be the crazy girl obsessed with knitting in my head and according to DBF, but if I want to make any friends in this world I do need to act somewhat normal while KIPing, otherwise I'll give a bad name to knitters everywhere and I really don't want to do that.