Bobby and I just got an email from our adoption agency that we are "in the book"! This basically means that we are now in a waiting game - hoping for a birthmother to select us. The final step for us getting "in the book" was having our birthmother letter accepted. It took a few revisions, but we finally got there. Here is the final version in case you want to see what it looks like. (FYI, the big blue square is where we glue the picture of ourselves). Earlier this week, Bobby and I spent an evening gluing pictures to 105 letters and then hand signing each one. IAC got the copies today and have said we are good to go. They've added a link to our website on their site which will hopefully give us more traffic and higher search rankings.

So now we wait. IAC will now start sending out our letter to birthmothers who request them. Hopefully, someone will like our letter and give us call. And hopefully that will lead us to a match and child of our own. I'm so nervous now when the phone rings. It could be the mother of our child. What do you say? What do you not say? How do you express how much you want a child, are ready to raise a child, how grateful you are for them considering adoption, how much respect we have for her? I guess like most things in life, you fret and try to prepare, but in the end you pretty much just wing it.

Thanks to everyone for their support and well wishes through the process so far. And a BIG thank you to James for his help designing our birthmother letter and Brian for taking such wonderful pictures of us. Because of them, our letter turned out amazing! People kept asking who we hired to have it done, and got to smile and say, "Nobody - we just have very talented friends."

I let January get away from me without doing an Inspiration post. I'm not going to let February slip by. This time around I have a couple of great recipes I discovered in the blogosphere that I can't wait to try and something to spice up my couch.

So far 2008 has been a good year for me finding great music. If you are looking for some new tunes to craft or cook with, check out these recommendations:

Kylie Minogue: X - Once again, Kylie has released a pop/dance album that is full of catchy, uptempo tracks that will have you singing along while you cut out patterns and your feet dancing while you sew. Just be careful with that foot pedal! My favorite tracks are Speakerphone, 2 Hearts, and Rippin Up The Disco. The last song isn't on the album, but is a free download off the website once you buy the album.

Valente: Escape Artist - I discovered Valente through ArjanWrites. Escape Artist is only a 3 song EP, but they are 3 amazing songs. I would describe Valente as a male Frou Frou or perhaps the new replacement for Postal Service. My favorite song is Shattered Glass. His voice is so soft and pained. The music is subdued, yet strong. It is just beautiful! Remains in my minds for hours after hearing it. You can download his music off iTunes.

Yoav: Charmed and Strange - I learned about Yoav because he was the opening act for Tori Amos's most recent tour. I am a big Tori fan, so I decided to give Yoav a try. If Tori thought he was good, I might as well so I swung over to his website to listen to clips. At first listen, I wasn't very impressed. But I got busy working on a project and his clips stayed on repeat. It wasn't long before I fell in love with the music. I then went and got the entire album off Amazon and it has been playing in our house ever since. My favorites are Adore Adore, Sometimes..., and Wake Up.

 

My sister sent me pics of my nephew Caden wearing the earflap hat I knitted for him.  He looks so adorable in his hat.  Of course, he looks adorable in anything!  I'm glad it fit, but it looks like it won't be long before he grows out of it.  It also looks like I made the hat a little too long where there is a bit extra sitting on top his head.  Good things for me to note when I make the next one.  Thanks for the pic, Kara!

Real Simple has posted an interesting article titled "Skip that Step: Recipe Shortcuts". It takes a look at some common tasks in recipes and tells you their purpose. It then discusses if there are quicker and easier ways to accomplish the same thing.

Today,  came home from a long day of work to discover 16 feet of our fence laying in the driveway.  It had been blown over due to the high winds we are having this week.

Lisa at U-handblog was nice enough to create a wonderful ironing board cover tutorial.  And best of all, she made it especially for me because she "loves it when fellas drop in for a read"!  So cool to get some linkage love from other crafters out there.  And Lisa is one great crafter.  Her site is chocked full of tutorials and patterns for making beautiful bags - everything from a messenger bag to simple totes to clutches and purses.  I created my own messenger bag awhile back and I've always wanted to make another one.  Perhaps in the future I'll even branch out into handbags; I know a few girls who would love that.  I'll definitely be using U-handblog as a resource.

Oh, and I do plan on trying out her IBC (ironing board cover) tutorial.  Our IBC is old and covered in burns and stains.  It is time for something fresh and new.  And Lisa's tutorial makes it so easy to make a new one.  Now I just need to find the right material for the job. 

I've been thinking about it for about 6 months now, and I finally decided to do it. I've shaken off my old Trashy Diva persona and stepping into something new - So Very Varied! 

I've been busy the past couple of weeks preparing for Christmas.  All the Christmas shopping is done and the gifts are wrapped.  I'm now working on making a number of gifts.  I knew I couldn't make all my gifts this year (I didn't plan far enough in advance), but I wanted to be able to make a few of them.  I'll post more on my gift making after the holidays (don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone).  For now, the blogosphere has provided some great ideas for future gifts or general projects.

I discovered a new music site this week called TheSixtyOne.  It is a great place for finding new artists and helping them get popular.

TrashyDivaLiving is back!  After resolving a couple of issues with our hosting provider, the site is back up and running......with a couple of improvements.  On the front page you'll now see a nicer view of the latest posts.  You'll also notice that the site now has comments!  So please feel free to give me feedback on recipes, projects, or whatever.  I'm especially interested to know if you've tried the recipes and how they worked for you.  So tell me what you think  :)

Things have been a little quiet here at TDL for the past couple of weeks.  But don't despair!  Updates are coming soon.

My sister sent me an email today asking how to make her own marinated olives.  She's been seeing the olive bars popping up in grocery stores and really likes them.  But the price is a little high for them.  She thought there must be a way to make them herself.  Ending up with less cost and better flavor.  And, who does she turn to for advice?  The Trashy Diva, of course!