I have been one busy bee. I have been working, window shopping, brainstorming, crafting, playing Super Mario Galaxy, working on a more festive layout, working on some behind the scenes things, etc. etc.

EDIT:

Somehow I got the idea that I would have time over thanksgiving break to complete these things. I scrapped my original layout design and started over. Definitely be up by December 1st, but I didn’t want to put up something half-assed just to meet a deadline that I made for myself.

/EDIT

On Friday, November 23rd: On or before Saturday, December 1st
- New site layout!
- New quilting bee layout! (done!)
- Recap of all of the giving of thanks
- Tales of adventurous excursions to the mall with friends in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday
- Pictures!

Coming soon to a SillyLittlePanda.com near you!

ALSO! I’m so excited to be decorating my own Christmas tree this year. Sam and I don’t have any decorations so far, and I don’t like the idea of just buying a bunch of the same thing. I love having sort of an ecclectic collection of different things. I like how my family’s tree always has so many different things that my brother and sister and I have made. I can look at it for hours and still find new things hiding in there.

SO, I’m going to do a Christmas ornament swap. I’m making a lot of my own ornaments, and I would love to send you one. Lots of my friends in the quilting bee are participating, but anyone can join in the fun! My email address is on my contact page. Just email me your address and let me know you’d like to swap, and I’ll send you my address back. I’ve been working on this project and will post a picture of my ornament design soon.

Thank you, lovers!: Hev, LauraLove, Jessica, missy, Randi, J, aichee, Minna, Christine, Mallory

[update on my car: I took it to the shop and it cost a little over $450 to fix my timing belt and radiator pump. My parents stepped in and loaned me the money. They are such angels.]

Sam and I were watching some tv the other night when we saw a commercial about arthritis medication. The woman in the commercial was scared to even look at the yarn and needles sitting in her craft basket because of her pain, that is, until she was heavily medicated and could then continue on knitting with her friends. This got me thinking. I would really like to have a group of friends that I could just sit around and crochet with. I mentioned this to Sam, and his response was, “Uh, wait twenty years.”

Why is it so terrible to want that at the age of only twenty? I love to crochet (let alone most any other crafty activity in general), and I hate being made to feel all “grandma-esque” about it. I said I would like to have a group of friends to hang out and share this activity with. I didn’t say we would drink tea and bake cookies and play bridge. Come on, I don’t even know how to play bridge. Maybe rummy. I meant more like some girls my age that liked to create things. I’m not ruling out cigarette breaks and drinking vodkas and seeing which lady friend can partake in the most vulgar language. Although the vodka would definitely have an effect on the quality of the stitches, I suppose. And also the quality of the vulgar language, come to think of it. But that’s all part of the fun, right? We get busy on our individual creations, we drink and gossip and listen to loud rock music. We start out with a lovely pattern knowing very well that we will be correcting the last of the stitching at the beginning of the next meeting.

Although, I’m thinking all of the aforementioned activities would be more fun should there actually be grandmas involved.

Who cares if I love to crochet, go on trips to the library and go to bed before the time associates with the AM? What’s it matter that I love knitted sweaters, cats, and baking anything requiring just short of a dump truck full of sugar? Where’s the problem in my Good Housekeeping magazine that I keep in my purse should I have time to read it at lunch? I’ll be the first to admit how much I can’t wait to make little booties and sweaters for future babies should they come into the lives of my friends or myself. So what?

I love other things too, you know. I love fashion, make up and getting all dolled up for no good reason. I have 11 piercings and am designing myself a tattoo. Blink182, Taking Back Sunday and System of a Down are all vital to the life of my ipod, and I’m fairly certain that my grandma wouldn’t be caught dead listening to such “trash” (or even having an ipod now that I think about it). I happen to be very fond of tequila sunrises and almost any kind of beer. I’m pretty sure that I would look down upon any chick-lit novel without at least one good sex scene in it. I love to dance, show off my cleavage (I did spend several years waiting patiently to actually have cleavage, why not appreciate those babies and thank them for not leaving me out in the cold?) and I generally curse enough to make a sailor blush. I know the time and the place for such things, however I know the best ways to enjoy them aswell, my friends.

But I still don’t think that “grandma-esque” is a word.

ps: Thank you very much Ms. Mallory Maloney for this wonderful halloween gift!

Thanks Lovers!: Nanda, Christine, emma, Randi, aichee, Britney, Minna, Synergy, and Mallory