Sometimes, the weekends are so jam-packed, I actually look forward to regularly-scheduled Mondays.

We saw The Hunger Games yesterday afternoon with some of our friends… LOVED it! But I think I need to stay away from stressful movies for the rest of this pregnancy. Seeing intense movies in the theatre tends to give me a little anxiety in my non-pregnant life anyway (I guess because it’s just so big and loud and in-your-face in a theatre.) But these crazy pregnancy hormones just amplify all of that by a million. I haven’t cried so much in a movie… ever? I cried reading the book too, but I mean tears were just streaming down my face for at least half of the showing. I could barely hold in the sob sounds. I was also holding my breath for almost the whole movie and my heart was pounding so hard and fast I felt like I was going to pass out. (Can you tell that I’m a sensitive person?) But I definitely loved the movie. I felt like they took the images right from my imagination – I love when that happens. Except I imagined Katniss to be a lot skinnier. Not that the actress is large in any way, but I imagined Katniss as this poor, starving, frail girl. Other than that, everything was so spot-on. The boys (who hadn’t read the books) even liked it! Now Greg wants to read the books.

Somehow our refrigerator door wasn’t shut all the way on Friday night, so when I got up on Saturday to make breakfast, everything inside was totally warm and we had to throw almost everything out. Fun times!

I started a new cross-stitch project – Alicia Paulson’s Winterwoods ABC Sampler. (Now I have FOUR in-progress cross-stitch things going on at once… go me.) So far I’ve organized my floss and stitched one cute boot.

I vow to finish one cross-stitch project in 2012.

My quilting business is really starting to pick up, so I’ve been spending a ton of time in my studio. I kind of hate being in there because it feels so stale and blah instead of cute and cozy, so Greg and I did a bunch or rearranging and a little decorating this weekend. Eileen Quilts world headquarters is in this random area that someone built in the middle of Greg’s building (which is also home to Press Press Merch screen printing, the letterpress studio for Appalachia Press, and the woodworking shop for Benchmark Builders.) The room is full of decorating obstacles. One wall is crappy brick with these weird big doors, there are two random, small windows up high on another wall, and two regular drywall walls, but with this weird moulding that starts and stops at different points in the middle. It has a hideous tiled drop-ceiling with the worst ever fluorescent tube lighting. And there’s a support beam running right in the middle of the room. Right before I got my longarm, we did a quickie floor stain and white paint job. Actually, here! This is what the room looked like before I moved in, before we painted or anything. You can see some of the obstacles I have to work with:

It looks much better now (with much cleaner and prettier floors!) but still feels really stale. Oh, and aside from being an inspiring place to work, it also needs to be kid-friendly, since Vada (and soon baby) is almost always with me while I quilt. So yeah, I’m having a really hard time figuring out what to do in there and it’s bumming me out. Life would be easier if Ikea wasn’t 3 hours away, that’s for sure, because I could use some cute furniture… But we did make some progress this weekend, which makes me feel a little better. I’m deciding on an accent color for a wall (so that’s sure to take me 3 weeks and then I’ll hate it and end up painting it 2 more times before I’m satisfied…) I also got my giant 8′x8′ quilt design wall and my big cork board hung up (both relocated from my previous sewing room at my house, which is now Vada’s bedroom.) I hope to do some more work in there throughout the week and I’ll do another quilting studio post with some updates once I make some!

I’m ready for Monday, now. ♥