i wake up exhausted...

i don't mean to sound all melodramatic, sorry about that, just a line from a tegan & sara song that i've had stuck in my head since realizing i was feeling pretty unrefreshed driving to work this morning. remind me in the future that it's not a great idea to get a permanent visa application together (about 200 bits of paper from the last 2 years...), plan a 10 day vacation with your mom and husband that doesn't require the dog to be in a kennel* for any more days than are necessary (currently 5 at this time of planning, which still breaks my heart just a little. poor sooky bax, he won't know what to do with all those other dogs barking and creating a ruckus...), and maintain normal life/blog/hobby practices all while putting together a huge project at work ALL IN A TWO WEEK PERIOD. next wednesday my life gets oh so much easier (for a few weeks anyway) - the work job gets sent to the printer, my visa application gets put in the mail and i pick my mom up from the airport.

in the meantime, i've had some amazing mail pop into my lap this week that has the 50 million things on my mind depart momentary and brought repeated huge grins to my face. first on monday, my Apak cards arrived and are amazing - how these guys can do incredible, three and four colour gocco prints and sell them for $4, i'll never know:



then yesterday both my fantastic moo cards arrived (highly recommended, by the way)



AND i had the bestest package of all - a jam packed bag of vintage fabric from the ever so wonderful shannon of aunty cookie fame:







so many amazing oobees coming up and this one, THIS ONE,



i am hoarding for myself and making cushions to sit prettily on my future danish sofa bed in my future wonderful, organized, tidy and endlessly inspiring craft room. thank you sooooooooo much, shannon, this is above and beyond sweetness and really made my whole week so much better.

*just a little note in baxy's defense: he only has to go into a kennel this time because my great pal and dog sitter, emily, is going to be away in canada at the same time we're traveling around victoria - not because he wore out his welcome last time : )