History repeats itself

Tonight, I am freaking stressed out about Peru.  All day really I've been stressed about it.  And it just dawned on me....this is EXACTLY what happened to me as I was trying to go to Australia.  Apparently I am hardwired to panic.

Didn't know I'm going to Peru?  Oh.  I got news:  I'm going to Peru!  For 7 weeks.  6 of those weeks I'll be teaching English for a volunteer program.

Now the problem remains....how do I afford it and get the most out of my experience.  (Isn't that always the case with travel?)  Earlier today I was depressed and resigned to giving up.  Now I'm feeling revived by kind words on Facebook, and a certain friend bringing the fight out in me and making me realize that I really do want this.  If I don't go now, I'm never going to go.  I might to vacation in Peru, maybe. But once I get that "real job"  its not like I can take 2 months off to go galavanting around South America.

**(side note:  I just googled galavanting to see how its spelled and was led to what looks to be an unbelievably awesome website called http://www.gogalavanting.com/, an online women's travel magazine that says this in its intro: "When it comes to travel, we believe people are interested in more than just the latest gear and reviews of ludicrously expensive resorts. We know that not every female is in search of the world’s perfect facial. And that people without trust funds travel too."  I firmly believe that that is an affirmative sign to go!)**

The bad news I received earlier is that the adoption agency I've been working for may not have the funds to keep me employed for much longer.  I'm pretty sure I can stay on until I leave for Peru but after that its a toss up.  The ironic part is that its all the work I've done there that has highlights just how dire things are.  Damn me, I shoulda done a shit job.  Regardless of my employment status come June, I only have barely enough money saved up to make this work.  That in itself is stressing me out, though I'm trying to remind myself that I made Australia work and that was a far larger risk.  I guess I know that I can make it work, its just a matter if I can manage to do everything I want to do.  I doubt I'll get another opportunity like this.

I learned that the biggest attraction in Peru, the creme de la creme, the Inca trail and Macchu Picchu costs upwards of $500.  And I don't have the time to search for the best deal because I should have booked it 3 months ago.  Irritated.  So I'm thinking now that I might go to Macchu Picchu for a day or two and hike a different mountain that is far cheaper.  But wouldn't that be like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower?  Or Big Ben in London?  Or eating a Philly cheesesteak in Philly??  So I should just suck it up and make it work.  I might have to go to extremes, but I should make it work.  By extremes I don't mean selling my body.  More like banking on a tax return, closing out a forgotten retirement fund (again), and/or not eating in Peru.  

All for this view:

This could be me!

She's Crafty: A cardigan

Getting into my craftiness a bit more which may or may not be attributed to the addition of pinterest to my life.  Today, I was overcome with the need to do something or get rid of a sweater my Mom got me for Christmas.  It's a nice sweater, but a bit too big and a bit too blue for me, and I lost the receipt so I couldn't exchange it if I wanted to.  I found a tutorial on how to make a cardigan out of old sweaters from this neat blog.  It was pretty straight forward, but I have to admit, I would have never thought to make a cardigan.  Sweater cardigans are not common in my wardrobe.  I usually opt for a hoodie, but for that reason and because I now work in an office where hoodie's would most certainly be frowned upon...a cardigan was a great idea!

So between Samantha's 4th birthday party and the superbowl party I ran to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up some bias tape, lace, and snaps.  I started around 4:30pm with this sweater:

By 6pm, as I'm rushing to get as much done before the Superbowl, it looked a little dicey:

I cut the sweater down the center, always the most stressful part.  I used 1" bias tape that I cut in half and wrapped around the edge of the sweater.  The first go didn't work so well, but thankfully, I just cut another line off the sweater and none's the wiser.

My stitching is never very good.  At least in my opinion.  There's always a lot of "well, that's good enough" when I start sewing, so I  picked up grey 1" lace.  Neat trick....it hides all my bad stitching!

During the first half of the game, I hand sewed snaps on the top.  I've never worked with snaps or buttons before (they intimidate me).  It was a bit trickier than I anticipated.  Took a little improvising to sew the snaps on without showing any thread on the outside of the sweater.

And ta-da...well before the Patriots tanked in the Superbowl, I was finished!

I may add some embellishments later on if I can find any I like, but for now, I'm pretty proud of it.