A Return to Being Personal...

LOL well, in this blog anyway.. I figured I could use this blog to vent and ramble a little. As most of you know, I got laid off on June 6th. I had been working at the same job for 10.5 years. The sad thing was that I wasnt upset about it other than missing the money and benefits. I despise Mohawk and all that it does to its employees. A stray dog gets treated better. Anyway, Now I am on Unemplyment and dying of boredom. Basically I have enough money for bills and food. well, a little for food.. My friends and family have been awesome. I may have about $20 a month to spend on me.. And thats if I get no gas LOL.. So it's sucking right now. I hav about 100 resumes in though, so I hope something good comes along soon.

Since I've been laid off I've done a TON of craft and decorating projects that I had left undone.. There's still more to do, but I'm getting there! My friend Kay has been coming over and helping me with a lot of them.. I've also started tutoring Kay this week. I'm tutoring her in Criminal Law. I had that class and aced it, so I'm helping her right now with her class. Her professor sucks, though. She doesn't even make up her own exams. She uses the ones from the book. How lame and lazy is that? But I am enjoying it so far. I like to teach people things. and I am good at it. I was always the trainer at work too..

Anyway, tomorrow I go for this Orientation at the Department of Labor for an on the job training program. I'm hoping that I can get my foot in the door somewhere with that program and go from there. Basically you work and still draw your unemployment. You get a small amount more. And after 6 weeks they decide if they want to hire you. If they do, you decide if you want to take the job or not. If you don't want to then you still get to draw your unemployment benefits.It sounds like a good program to me.

Well I guess Id better stop rambling and get to bed so I can MAKE it to the program in the morning lol.. Wish me luck that I get on with a good company!

My First Trip to IKEA...

When my friend April found out that I had never been to IKEA before she said that she HAD to take me! We made several planned trips and something always came up, but FINALLY this past Saturday we got to go! I was kind of in awe.. I guess I'm a small town girl.. I had never been to a store that big! It was amazing.. I had an awesome time just looking at everything. It's mind-blowing what they can do with 250 sq ft..

The only downside to the trip was that my coat got stolen.. It was hooked onto the little cart thing and I had my hand on the cart the ENTIRE TIME! Whoever took it had to be as bold as brass to take it. Thanks to that I had to walk around the rest of the night with short sleeves in freezing weather! But I had a great time with April and at IKEA..

Of course, I bought too many things, but they were all great bargains.. I bought 3 of the Ung Drill Frames (1 for me, and 2 for my dear friend Kay@Country Sunshine).. They are goegeous in person and HUGEEE! I also bought 4 of the stomach sleeper pillows for 99 cents each, 3 small red wooden mirrors for $2.99 each, a ton of candleholders for gifts, some knives for my friend Amber for her birthday, and one of the $9.99 down alternative queen size blankets to use on my bed for summer. They arent extremely heavy and since I get hot hot hot when I sleep I thought one of those would be a good solution for my bedding issues.

Anyway, I'm going to do a project with the mirrors for my livingroom so stay tuned for that..

Finally got a Haircut!

Well I finally broke down and weighed my fear of having a different stylist cut my hair against being annoyed at my hair. I decided I was more annoyed at the state that my hair was in than I was terrified of a new stylist.. SO, I kept asking around and couldn't get a good answer about stylists.. I kept hearing commercials for Great Clips on the radio talking about how they keep notes about your styles and such, so I decided to go there. I was terrified and I told the stylist this.. I think it made her a bit nervous but more careful. She did a GREAT job AND she told me I have beautiful, shiny hair lol.. I'm a happy hair camper once again..

Hair Gone Wild.. UGH

I am usually pretty anal about my hair.. I figure that my hair is the one thing I can control about my looks.. I cannot control oily skin or blemishes, but I CAN make my hair shine-and I do! BUT.. and this is a HUGE but.. lately my hair has grown out of control.. It's literally hair gone wild. For some strange reason I cannot reach my stylist and havent been able to in a few months.. She is the only person to cut my hair since 1999 and I am TERRIFIED to let anyone else cut it.. Therefore, crazy hair.. I've got curls going everywhere and I cannot control them at all. It's driving me insane! AND since I just moved to this city not long ago I have no clue where to go for a really good haircut.. Add that in with the fact that I'm terrified of other stylists anyway and it's a recipe for hair disaster.. Here is the evidence..



(Notice the hearts on the door in the pic.. that's our office at work. Kay and I have decorated for Valentine's Day and it's driving the men crazy hehe..)



Pray to our father in Heaven above with me that I find a good stylist in town VERY soon!

Auctioning for my Birthday! What Fun!

Since Saturday was my birthday, I got to pick the activities.. My friends and I (including my MIA friend Amber, who I hadnt seen since Halloween) ended up going to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner and then to an antiques auction here in town that they have once a month. I had never been to an antique auction at all. I had been to a merchandise auction before but not since I was in kindergarten or so.

We took a quick look around before the auction, and I found several things I really wanted. As the auction got underway though I noticed that a couple store owners in town were there and buying a lot, including anything other people showed a major interest in. It got annoying really quickly because they seemed to have an endless money supply-something most of us do not have. I got outbid by them twice on the items I really wanted most, but such is life. I got some really nice things for some good deals though!

I got 3 mirrors (yes, my obsession, 2 chairs, 2 pictures, a lap desk, a magazine rack, a pretty shelf, 2 chandeliers (for $1!!!), and a mish-mash of things on a table (funded by birthday money from my Aunt and my friend Jennifer). AND my friends April and Kevin got me this amazing accent table for my birthday!

I got a really nice birthday haul too.. From Amber I got dinner at Ruby tuesdays, an owl pocket planner (I love owls!), an owl pen and paper set, and one of those cool little gadgets that unfolds and holds your purse into a table (in zebra print). (also late Cmas gifts of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince DVD, complete with Marauders Map, and a Collector's Edition Lord of the Rings Checkers/Tic Tac Toe game..) I got 2 really cool Iron fleur de lis finials and a handmade Coca-Cola cake from Kay. I also got a cool stone trivet with fleur de lis (another obsession) that came from the Shakespere's Tavern in Atlanta from Kevin and April.Add that to the money that supported my auction buys, my accent table, and the Clawfoot antique dining table from my mother and it was an awesome birthday..

My birthdays have this tradition of going notoriously wrong! Disasters, plans gone awry, and much worse.. This was the best birthday I have had in years!!!

A Wish... Thrift Stores...

I wish that our local thrift stores were cheaper! I look around at all the blogs online and see the amazing deals that people get and I think "WOW, are our thrift stores overpriced or what?".. I went to a few today before work.. One has SOME cheap things, but it's broken down into booths and people make their own prices. The other is a charity thrift store and their prices on some things can sometimes SHOCK.. A lot of times they are more expensive than a regular store.. *sigh* Maybe I will run across some better stores one of these days.

Happy New Year!!!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. May this year be one of your best...