Did you hear that a new movie about vampires or werewolves or something like that is coming out this week?

Dude, of course you know that Twilight: The Movie is coming out on Friday!!

Of course!

Like me, you probably read the books in a few short weeks and then reread them and then maybe listened to them on your iPod.  (NERD!)  Heck, my love for the teenage vampire/warewolf love triangle love series went international this summer.  (Super Nerd!)

I’ve been perusing the interweb for new trailers of the movie and more pictures of Edward/Rob perfectly disheveled hair.  (I suspect it took Edward the first fifty years of vampire life to perfect his coiffure.)   (I mean seriously, look at his hair.  It’s so lovely and just the way I like it and you know it takes him hours to style even thought he probably says “I just wake up and go”.  LIAR.)

(Seriously, I would lick his hair.)

(Why all the parenthesis?)

(I can’t stop.)

I admit I hadn’t been that excited to see Twilight: The Movie.  (Oh yes, I must refer to it this way.)  (I think it’s funnier to refer to it as Twilight: The Movie.)  Mostly because I didn’t want the story ruined for me in anyway. But then I watched a commercial for it last night and decided that I’m just going see the movie and just enjoy the ride.  While it would be fun to see the movie on Thursday night with all the super fans, the reality of my life (hello, hello full time job and toddler!) I won’t be seeing it until Saturday afternoon. (I bought my ticket yesterday.)  But, thankfully, I will be seeing it with a gaggles of lady-friends.  And then we’ll be going out for a sushi lunch.  I imagine lunch will be quiet.  We’ll all be too busy thinking about Edward and trying to figure out how we can leave our husbands and find our own teenage vampire.  (I love pretty close to Forks. So I think I have an advantage.)

Right, as if I’m the only one with these thoughts.

(I lean a little more towards Team Jacob.  But I can totally appreciate Edward’s appeal.)

I’ve mentioned my penchant his messy hair, right?  Oh la, la, la.

So while I love, love, love The Hair I admit to being a little taken aback while watching the free Twilight: The Movie trailer on iTunes this morning.   I mean, since when do vampires sweat?

I guess it seems logical that if vampires have Super Sperm they would also have Super Sweat.  Maybe antiperspirant (and condoms?) don’t work on vampires awesome bodily functions.

So tell me, when will you be seeing Twilight: The Movie?  What are you thoughts on it?  And will you be wearing your Twilight inspired shirt your mom* sent you?  Oh, right it was my mom that sent me a Twilight shirt.  (Super Duper Nerd!)

* My mom has been a Twilight fan since years before it was cool to be a Twilight fan.  My sister recently borrowed my mom’s copies of the books to read.  Get this, my mom made notes in her books.  She highlighted Edward and Bella’s first kiss and wrote “First Kiss - Magical” in the margin.  I AM NOT KIDDING.  My sister reported that my mom also wrote “Edward is beautiful” during another pivotal scene.  Good Lord I’m glad I didn’t borrow my mom’s copy.  I could not handle that.

I’m not really a very creative person.  But I can follow directions.  I can also borrow other people’s super creative ideas.  I like doing creative things and tend to work on a few creative projects throughout the year.  Especially close to the Holidays.  Making handmade gifts for my friends and family is something I really, really like.  It’s sort of become a tradition around my house.

The problem is that my best friend May is the one that usually came up with all the awesome and creative ideas for our homemade gift projects.  And we all know that May deserted me moved to Reno last year.  This means I’m stuck coming up with my own projects these days.

Thankfully my church held a huge (10 area congregations) SUPER SATURDAY this weekend.  You don’t know what Super Saturday is?  Well, you might remember the last Super Saturday I went to a few month back?  Basically Super Saturday is just a day spent doing awesome (and some not so awesome) crafts with ladies from church.

Basically it’s a magical day that should be held ever Saturday.

And because I rule and I love the interweb so very much I made sure to document one of my favorite projects from the latest Super Saturday and will be presenting them to you in a step-by-step “How To” post shortly.  It’s the perfect gift idea for small children.  I personally made five of them on Saturday.  (FIVE!)

But seriously, how cute is this?

It’s a children’s apron made simply out of a kitchen towel and a hot pad holder.  (And some ribbon and thread, you know, to hold it all together.)  Babboo’s loves it and upon putting it on began requesting we cook something.

I took some crafting initiative after the awesome Super Saturday event and decided to try my hand at threaded necklaces (I’ve only ever done twisted metal ones before).  I purchased some new materials on Saturday night and then used some beads from a couple of necklaces Carrisa sent me from the $1 jewelry store in Tulsa.  Of course, I topped both necklaces off with some of the GORGEOUS pendants Kate sent me.

I love how both of them turned out. Not so bad for my first time making something like this (the picture does not do them justice).  I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to keep these bad boys for myself or give them as gifts for Christmas.

Don’t you love the way the pendants make the necklaces pop!?  If you haven’t yet, make sure you leave a comment on THIS POST to enter to win one of Kate’s lovely pendants that she hand makes out of fused glass.  (I will be holding a weekly contest every Friday until Christmas so check back each Friday to enter to win one of these beauties.)

I have some other fabulous crating ideas for Christmas gifts. But I don’t want tell you all about it just yet, you know, since some of you may actually be recipients.   Just know that they involve felt.  That’s because we currently have a butt load of felt at my house.  So every gift this year will be packaged using the super duper awesomely felt bags I just figured out how to make.

They have little button closures and everything.  They also take about six million years to construct, so I’m pretty sure I need to streamline my process.  (Yes, May came up with this idea!)

So tell me, do you have any crafting ideas for this Holiday season?  And please tell me that you’re planning on sharing your ideas…because I can use all the help I can get.

For the entire month of October I posted my daily outfits to Flickr as part of Definitely RA and Operation Pink Herring’s Mission: Put Together. (Check out all the participants submissions here!)

During this time I was contacted by one of my readers about my look. Kate had been inspired by my outfit posting and wanted to send me some of the AWESOME fused glass jewelry that she makes by hand. (Holy crap, some people are just so freakin’ talented!0 Kate was right in assuming that I needed a little something, something to help jazz up my typically all-black-wardrobe. I graciously sent Kate my address and in a few shorts days a package arrived in the mail from Wisconsin.

The package from Kate was full to the brim of a plethora of fused glass pendants she had made in every color imaginable. I was instantly in love with all of them (and maybe even in love with Kate, a little bit). I kid you not, I went straight to my closet and began deciding what pendant would go best with what outfit. I decided the next day I would wear a lovely green silk top. Alone the top is sassy, but dude, add a little fused glass and bada-bing:

It really just adds the perfect umph to my dreary work attire. Seriously, how freakin’ awesome is this pendant?

I couldn’t stop e-mailing Kate to thank her for the goodies and to tell her how impressed I was with her artistic talent. I’m not even sure how you make fused glass, but I’m pretty sure it’s a little harder then the things I know how to do. I eventually asked Kate if I she would be interested in doing a give-away on my site.

Because Kate’s so amazing and giving she happily accepted my invitation. But get this, she’s taking it to the next level. So starting today I will be offering a FREE GIVE-AWAY of one of Kate’s fused glass pieces EVERY FRIDAY until Christmas.

To enter, all you have to do is head over to Kate’s Etsy page and have a look around. Then come back here and leave a comment on this post about which of Kate’s fused glass pieces you like the most and why you like that specific piece. (I think my fave is this blue bracelet. I would marry this bracelet if that were even possible.)

Don’t forget to keep checking Kate’s Etsy page. She’s promised me she’s going to keep adding new stuff, including rings. Man, I’m dying to see her rings. I can assure you I will be ordering one for myself. And since her prices are super reasonable, I may just have to buy this barrette for my sister. And I know my mom would love this bookmark to keep with her scriptures. And I just love this yellow pendant. Especially since yellow is the new black this season.

There are six Friday’s until Christmas. Oh man, I’m excited for these give-aways!

The winner of this week’s give-away will be chosen at random from all comments received on this post. You have until Monday night at midnight (PST) to enter. Anyone can enter. Just be aware that any winners will have to give me an address to ship to!

I haven’t been feeling so good lately. It’s probably a combination of a few different things. You know, things like returning home from our month long vacation, work stress, marriage stress, upcoming holiday stress, church responsibilities, my upcoming (fourth!) colonoscopy, Babboo’s new school…..blah, blah, blah…..

Stop talking Isabel.

Can I be honest here?

Okay, it’s the damn weather. I hate that I haven’t seen the sun in months weeks days. I’m cold all the time. I’m stuck in a office cubicle with horrible florescent lighting. I wake up in the dark and go home in the dark. I’m just feeling myself lately. Add all the other issues on top of my need for a little vitamin D and you get a very unhappy Isabel.

I’ve been dealing with these dreary feelings in the best and only way I know how. I’ve been self medicating.

It seems the only things that keep me going lately are Coke Zero (this stuff is awesome), documenting my daily work attire for the interweb, copious amounts of rice crispy treats, watching season two of “Dexter” on The King’s iPod, and buying new patio furniture at ridiculously low end of season prices at the local outlet mall.

Dreaming of being able to use the new furniture on our new deck NEXT YEAR makes me giddy with anticipation. Of course it’s about 350 days before I’ll get the chance to use them. But still, knowing the sun will shine again helps. A little.

Okay, this only helps a teeny tiny bit. In fact, come to think of it, this actually might be worse. Seeing the patio furniture sitting in our garage just mocking me every time I come home from work is pretty miserable.

Music also seems to be a way for me to self medicate. I was fortunate enough to attend my third Old 97’s concert of the summer the night before we left for our vacation to Europe. Not only was this an Old 97’s concert, but it was a secret concert. They were billed under a secret name and only true fans knew about the show. (True Old 97’s fan = ME!) I went to the concert alone since someone needed to stay home with Babboo. Thankfully I was recognized by a lovely pregnant lady (hi Sarah!) from the internet who so graciously let me hang out with her and her husband for the duration of the show. I eventually decided to forgo trying to get a good picture of Rhett Miller and not just some dude’s head and just enjoy the freakin’ show already.

It may have been over a month ago, but the thought of seeing another Old 97’s show still has me thrilled.

And although my bestest friend May doesn’t know the full extent of my inner dreariness she has helped to make me feel a little bit of sunshine with the thoughtful mix CD she sent me last week. It isn’t just the music on the CD that makes me happy, it’s the fact that I know May loves me and misses me just as much as I miss her. (Curse you Reno, Nevada.)

Although I do have to admit, the music on the “I miss Isabel so I made her a mix” CD is pretty darn awesome. I had forgotten how much I loved Camera Obscure. And I’ve long been a fan of Mates of State since seeing them live a few years ago. I’ve become even more of a fan since I recently found out they have a blog about touring with their two little girls.

So thanks to May for allowing a little bit of musical sunshine to enter into my cubicle each and every day. I don’t think you know how much this means to me.

And don’t worry, appointments have been made with real live doctors and actual medicinal help will be shortly administered to aid in the lack of sunshine in my life. In the mean time I’m going to try to find happiness anyway I can.

So tell me, how do you self-medicate?

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Did you see me over at Alpha Mom this week?!  If you missed it head over to read How to Make Dinner with a Toddler Under Foot (in five easy steps).

I was asked to give a five minute presentation tonight for a church activity for the ladies in my congregation. (We call evenings like this Enrichment Night. You know, so we can go and get enriched on a Tuesday night.) My topic is “How to start your own blog”.

That’s right.

I’m giving a presentation. To a room full of Mormon ladies. On blogging.

That will only take FIVE MINUTES!

Okay, to be honest I was initially told I would only have five minutes but then they told me yesterday that I could take “ten, maybe fifteen minutes”.

TEN MINUTES to talk about blogging to people that have no idea what a blog is. Basically they want me to show step by step instruction on how to start your own blog. I figure I’ll tell them about blogger. No need to talk about domain names and servers and self-hosting. It will just be easier to tell them to start with Blogger.com. Don’t you think?

Since I knew I had a very short amount of time to share blogging with the ladies from my congregation, I figured the easiest thing would be to come up with a PowerPoint presentation. Not only will this be easier, it’s just more fun for me. This way I can use screen shots and add pretty colors and embellishments. (Too bad I can’t use glitter. As you all know, glitter just makes things so much more awesome.) (Oh my gosh, I should use glitter on the print outs I give them.) I’m hoping that the use of my laptop and my work’s projector will help the ladies better grasp the concept of blogging.

Below is a list of blogging items I plan on sharing with the ladies in an attempt to enrich them:

• Blogging is a great way to journal.
• Blogging is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends.
• Be smart about blogging. ( Be careful using real names, addresses, etc on the interweb.) ( Watch out for google stalking!)  (Oh my goodness, how I love google stalking.)
• Google Reader is your friend.
• Google alerts are pretty awesome.
• SiteMeter is also your friend.
• Technorati is also pretty friendly.
• Blogging is way better then Facebook. (Rumor has it that some ladies from church are always fighting over which is better. I’m here to tell them…blogging rules!)
• Be prepared for blogging to take over your life. In a good way.

Below is a list of blogging items I DO NOT plan on sharing with the ladies.

• www.holaisabel.com
• www.seattlemomblogs.com
• www.newtous.blogspot.com
• www.weheartlogan.blogspot.com

Yep, that’s the kind of information I’ll be keeping to myself.

I think I also want to tell the church ladies that they’ll be surprised at how much they’re going to enjoy the blogging community. I want to share with them stories about meeting bloggers in real life and the love and generosity I continually feel from those inside my computer.

Yes, all of this in ten (maybe fifteen) minutes.

So tell me, what else should I tell them about? Any secret awesome “how-to make your blog awesome” websites out there?

The Thursday of every month here in Seattle is First Thursday. This means that all the museums are FREE. The art galleries also premier their new pieces and stay open late serving wine and cheese. For most people it’s an excuse to stay in the city after work and look at the new art. Typically you see people in black turtle necks with berets and skinny jeans walking from gallery to gallery while smocking Clove cigarettes.

Okay, they don’t all look like a beatnik, but you get my drift.

Back before we moved into the new house and were living in a high rise apartment in downtown Seattle, we used to frequent First Thursday. This was much easier when Babboo was younger and not able to reach the canvas on the wall. From time to time we would even meet friends at the Seattle Art Museum and take advantage of the awesome Happy Hour menu at the Museums restaurant (that place is awesome, by the way).

When we moved into the new house we learned that our community also hosted a First Thursday, or sorts. Sure there was no swanky Seattle Art Museum to attend or any official art galleries, but there were some cool jewelry stores and real estate agencies that showcased local art for the event.

Plus, it’s a good excuse to get out of the house and be able to be apart of something cooler then cleaning bathrooms and going dishes. It’s always makes me feel like less of an Old Lady when I can say, “Oh we went to First Thursday last night” to my coworkers on Friday morning.

As far as I knew only the art museums were free on First Thursday. But guess what? It’s not just about art anymore. The Museum of Flight is also free as is the Experience Music Project. Holy crap, score!

Last week I went with the youth from my church congregation to the Experience Music Project, or just the EMP, if you’re from around here. I had been to the EMP years ago after someone gave us tickets for a wedding present, but that was a long time ago.

The King and also attended a special night with Rhett Miller, lead singer of the Old 97’s, at the EMP weeks before Babboo was born. This was something we bought tickets for without knowing what exactly we were buying tickets for. That event ended up being very, very cool. (But also hard for a very, very pregnant woman to sit through without multiple trips to the potty.) Anyway, The King and I had been able to sit in the audience while an interview with the lovely Mr. Rhett Miller was recorded for the EMP’s archives.

So last week I returned to the EMP. Not much seemed to have changed since the first time I toured it all those years ago. Except this time they had a wall documenting all of the recorded interviews they’ve done for their Music Archives.

You’ll never believe whose name I found.

Yes, I forced one of the 12 year old girls from church to take my picture.  Yes, I looked like an idiot.  Yes, none of the teenagers knew who Rhett Miller was.  And yes, I proceeded to inform them.

(Yes, I am a nerd.)

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Check out my latest post over at SeattleMomBlogs where I discuss my commute hurting my heart.