On Black Friday I imagined us spending it at home recovering. Recovering from all the eating, the I ate so much I felt nine months pregnant eating.

I didn’t want to get near a shopping mall or crazy shoppers. We talked about all the people lining up early and going shopping at 6 a.m. in the morning or midnight or whatever crazy not regular shopping hours. We were not going to be one of them. We would be snuggled up in bed or lounging about spending the day at home. No shopping for us.

But we screwed up. I forgot that we had a birthday party to go to on Saturday. We had already bought some books for the birthday boy weeks ago but wanted to get some clothes too. If I had planned better I could have bought something online or made something. But I suck. So out we went. Have I ever mentioned that I hate the mall? And the thought of going to the mall on a busy shopping day? With people, people everywhere? Accck!! I started drawing while Alan was getting Isabelle ready.

Aaaahh the prospect of going to the mall, the horror!

Of course I dragged my feet.

Why? oh why? Oh yeah…cuz we forgot to buy clothes.

I drove. That’s how we ended up parked so far from the store we were going to. I have the worst sense of direction.We had to walk half the length of the mall through throngs of SHOPPERS. The mall was full of them! Ok not full. It wasn’t too bad. Shoppers shopping! And oh my god I just realized I was one of them! If I were the type to hyperventilate, I so would have. I was grumpy, anxious, and unpleasant. It took the whole walk over and a kiss from Alan to calm me down.

When we got there the shopping went nice and quick. I got everything we wanted plus extra for Christmas gifts. And since it was black Friday I got 25% off. Yay! Hey, that’s why people go shopping the day after Thanksgiving! I’ve turned. I’ve become a shopper!

No just kidding. Never. Next year you’ll probably find me huddled in front of a fire, snug as a bug in a rug, at home. No crowds, no strange people, just family and leftovers. Yeah.

And tomorrow a post about the party. We were dizzy and lightheaded from the fun.

I was tagged by Samantha, from The Handmade Dress, to share five weird/random things about myself. I couldn’t think of anything weird. I am sooooo normal! So I called Olinda to think of some weird things about me. So here’s a couple of things she said about me.

1) I think I am normal. She thinks that’s weird. I think that’s normal. Everyone thinks they’re normal right? And I argued with her quite passionately about how normal I am. And she replied, who has to convince people that they are normal? Hmmm… I had no reply to that.

2) Then she said sometimes I think of something out of the blue and laugh maniacally. It scares people. I’m sure other people do that, right? That’s TOTALLY normal I said to her. I mean she does it too!

3) Then she brought up that I see ghosts. Ok I had no reply to that.

4) See that’s all Olinda mentioned. And I just asked Alan. He can’t think of anything. I am SOOOO NORMAL. Ok how about some random things. I am a little obsessed about the dish sponge. This is normal and not a weird thing. It’s a random thing. I need the dish sponge to be squeezed completely dry. I am crazy anal about it. I tell Alan that it shouldn’t smell like anything, ok maybe smelling like soap is acceptable but anything else and I get so grumpy. It really drives me crazy. That’s understandable.

5) Ok what else? I’ve always wanted to color my hair blue or maybe hot pink, or some crazy color. Any tips on how one would get that done when said one does not like going to the salon and only had her hair colored once and it was at a salon? Here I’m throwing in an extra random thing about me here because it relates, I don’t like having strangers touch me. Hell before I didn’t even like hugs. DO NOT TOUCH ME. Maybe that’s why I haven’t ever had a manicure before. That would mean I would need to be touched. And you know, when I was pregnant with Isabelle I always worried that people would touch my belly. It never happened. Maybe I had the touch me and I’ll break your fingers look on my face.

Whoo hoo 5 things! DONE! And who to tag? How about I let anyone who wants to play go ahead and then link back here so I can read it. Yep sounds good to me.

And is it weird that the outfit I drew myself in sort of appeals to me? Oh and party post coming up in a few minutes since I timestamped it. Oooh two posts in one day, can you stand the excitement?

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for Alan’s cousin. He turned one! They had one of those jumper houses with a slide. Ooooh fun (for me)! It’s the first time Isabelle’s been in a jumper house.

She wasn’t sure about it at first.

So we gave it a rest and let her try a lollipop from her favor bag. It was Isabelle’s first lollipop. She pulled it out and said “pop“. Where did she learn that word from? We don’t eat lollipops. I never taught her that word. She loved it. She slobbered all over it and got sticky drool all over her hands and down her shirt and then we took it away and she cried and whined.

She was fine after a bit. She saw the birthday boy after he woke up from his nap. “Baby!” she kept saying.

Since she was in a better mood we gave the jumper house another try. Oh my god she had so much fun. It started with Alan sliding down head first on his back with her. She laughed the whole way down. So then she wanted to do it again and again AND AGAIN. Sometimes she didn’t even want to wait and tried diving down herself. Or if I had her in my lap and wasn’t fast enough she’d try to push against me to make me slide down backwards. She didn’t want to stop even though by then it was dark and cold. It was so much fun. Dizzy lightheaded fun. Wish I had pictures but it was sooo dark and I was lightheaded and not thinking about pictures.

We finally got her inside with cake. She is my girl after all. And we’re not going to turn down cake, no we aren’t. I don’t think she had any real food at all at the party. Too much to look at and play with and who wants real food when there’s cake?

After all that gorging on food, shopping, and partying, (basically doing nothing creative, well not counting drawing) I HAD TO SEW. I wanted something simple and fast so chose project 1 from ISBN 4579111494. Then on Saturday night I tried it out on muslin. When I was done I wasn’t sure about it. I was thinking maybe I’d do it shorter. I was going to ask you, the internets, before I made it with real fabric.

Alan thinks it looks like a shapeless sack. But it’s not. It’s not that awful potato dress that I WILL NOT link to. This actually has shaping. It’s subtle but it’s there. I love the neckline but I wasn’t sure about the length. I kept asking Alan what he thought, trying to convince him that it didn’t suck. And on Sunday as we were getting ready to go out to buy our Christmas tree I put it on and asked Alan again for the umpteenth time. His response was, “get over yourself and let’s go.” Not much help there. So I threw on some pants and said, “ok, let’s go!“. He’s all like, “you’re wearing that out?” I looked in the mirror. It didn’t look bad. In fact it had grown on me. So yep I wore it out. Just threw on a little camisole underneath since the muslin is a little see-through.

“See? It doesn’t look bad does it?” was what I was saying in this picture at the Christmas tree lot. I didn’t mind wearing it there. I kept my coat on. But then we ran errands. We were inside and it was warm so I took off my coat. I felt so self conscious and all of Alan’s comments came flooding back: I was wearing this muslin, shapeless, long thing. So what do you think? Should I make it again? Yay or nay?

Ok let me “get over myself” and talk about our Christmas tree. We usually buy it late and then piss and moan that we don’t get to enjoy it for very long. So this year we got it together and bought it early! EARLY EARLY EARLY! (Actually I looked up the post from last year. We got it early last time too and you have to go see how small and still baby chub Isabelle was).

We go to a Christmas tree farm to get our tree. I’ve become very particular about this. One of Alan’s coworkers just buys a tree from the supermarket or Target or wherever. Nice and cheap, doesn’t see the point in spending the money. But surprisingly enough this is one of the things I don’t go cheap on.

I was wondering why that is? Then I realized, it’s a tradition we’ve started. It’s a warm fuzzy Christmas memory. Where’s the warm fuzzy feeling from grabbing a Christmas tree from Target? It just isn’t the same.

I like going to the family owned lot, walking down the green aisles while oh so helpful people ask if they can haul my tree away. I look forward to drinking their warm spiced cider, maybe riding the little train, and looking at their ornaments. This year Isabelle ooohed and ahhed over the tiny lighted houses and watched with interest as they shook all the bugs and loose needles out. And then they baled it up and when Isabelle gets older we’ll have her baled too. And she’ll remember all of that as part of the holiday season.

Here’s another strange girl for you, a messy haired bee girl. And speaking of, I’ve been a little busy bee here. I must have been on the computer more than regular without breaks or something because my hands are hurting. I will be taking a little computer free time until my hands are feeling better. Or I should say I WILL TRY.

Enjoy your weekend and bee back soon!