Pass No Judgement Today

Buttons for my IT team today. A little Halloween gift.
Printed paper logos glued to craft foam finished with sharpie on the edges and a clear gloss on top. 

There is a standard broach pin hot glued to the back

Today will be the day that no one shall pass judgement on the way others will conduct themselves. Halloween is a the only day that you can be a doctor or hooker and no one will care whether you have the proper education or lack of to hold either of those status'. I have chosen to be a Geek Squad member today. I went into a store last night to pick up a white collared dress shirt and told the sales rep. my plan. She laughed and said, "Don't forget your black tie. And if you really want to be a geek then you should put white tape on your glasses." I stopped myself from telling her that I am a geek and if my glasses were broken I would take them to get them fixed. I realized before the words came out that she was trying to help me pull it off by stereo typing. She wasn't judging the geeks of the world. She was having fun!

Dress up today and be someone you aspire to be or someone you want to exaggerate to be funny. Get your point across by being eccentric. There aren't any wannabe's today so don't worry. That's why its fun.

For one day, go out there and be someone else.

Sewing Cafe?

Oh please take a look at http://sewoverit.co.uk/ cutest little shop in London. The tug for this is now... The timing for this is wrong for me. I'm ready to log in through the VPN and start coding this morning not sewing. What's a girl to do? The gals at work yesterday asked me what's the latest creation. I only had a hemming project to reveal. That's not fun at all. Enough of this woe I'm off to work. 

Someday my day could consist of 70% sewing and crafting and 20% for coding (10% for other stuff).

Soggy Pumpkins

I thought we would have a better success rate with Jack-O-Lanterns this year since we had a little cold front recently. But nope. The pumpkins were carved on Sunday. I pulled out the plastic battery operated candles this morning to turn them off and the lid of one slipped out of my hand leaving a mushy mess on my finger tips  Next I had to pour "juices" out of the candle's battery chamber which was still miraculously lit. The neighborhood gnats know where their bread is buttered. 

Dear Halloween, please come quickly so that my front door doesn't start to stink.

Thank You Monday

Thank You Monday for showing up and putting every thing back into perspective. The Monday alarm is reality speaking to me in Morse Code through every pulsing beep. 

MEEEEEP, MEEEEEEP, MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. 

First I had to establish where I was. 

E's room, yes, I remember her asking me to come in here at 2:30 AM. Great. Now find where the beeping is coming from. The dining room. Right. Because of the phone issue. Alright, I'm up now. 

Put on a pot of coffee and take a peek at the weekend damage - I mean budget. 

6:30 AM - finished and that wasn't so bad. I didn't have to make any rash decisions. I would be so lost if I didn't plan with/for our money. Our purchases and schedules are not easy to keep up with especially after a whirlwind of vaccinations, Halloween purchases, Birthday's, and Homecoming preparations all since Friday. Whoa! I feel like I'm back in control this morning and that's what's important. 

The weekday's have structure. Predictability. Minus my daily tasks while on the clock. The shear nature of IT is unpredictable so I loose control again around 8:45 AM every day until 5:00 PM. Really, now that I think about it, I don't have much control over my life - ever. I'm more REACTIVE than anything else. Some decisions I make are very intentional for the future but the rest feel willy-nilly and on-the-spot.

I'm over thinking this. I want to get back to when I was grateful for Old Faithful - Monday Morning. I want to put my reality aside and find my alternate reality of a structured normal Monday just to help me cope with my chaos.

This seems like a movie... Matrix?

Sew Much to Do

See what I did there?. 

Seriously, I haven't sewn a thing this week, again. The projects I mentioned earlier this week that are for E's Birthday will not get finished I'm sure of that. I guess I could try to finish the blanket but she's getting a whole new set of bedding I ordered from Amazon. so I probably won't. The bedding I bought seemed perfect for a "Big Girl" it has purple and green owls on the comforter and a sweet dust ruffle. She's going to love it. I can't wait to tuck her in to her new "Big Girl" bed. Maybe I can make her a cute wrap around skirt with the Ninja-Turtle fabric instead of the fancy 3-tiered dress I imagine I would do. I don't have to be so elaborate all the time. I can serge a wrap around in about 30 min. I think. I'll time myself. 

G's Homecoming is next week and I have to hem the chiffon drape-age. It's a full length gown but I'm afraid her stupid stiletto's will snag the chiffon and she'll trip. I'll be making a trip to fabric store to pick up thread. I'm still undecided about whether I should serge the chiffon (which is what the manufacturer has done. no surprise there.) Or should I do a rolled hem. The chiffon is pleated so I'm afraid if I put something with too much weight down there then it won't fold the way it was intended to do. Any ideas? 

Words I Don't Know

I'm not sure how I got behind on vocabulary. I didn't realize this void until I met W and quickly found his vocabulary to be superior to mine. Is it a Southern thing? Now I'm profiling, I know, but I can do that since I spent many days playing in the fields barefoot during hot hot summers in the Sunshine State which is technically not the South but I do own 2 pair of cowboy boots which were not purchased in the South either but rather the West so I'm not sure if I'm even on to something here. The Vocab discrepancy, however, usually rears its ugly face during a game of scrabble or more recently, Words With Friends with W. That app will allow you to play all kinds of weird words including ones that are questionable so I never know which ones are real and which ones aren't. My crafty word opponent shot me a look when I laughed after playing a word that I was sure was not a real word but some kind crazy dialect-y adjective and I'm all "I can't believe it let me play that!" He's all, "What are talking about? There's nothing questionable about that word." 

Oh I don't know. I guess I'll have to accept my handicap and compensate in crafts or painting or some other attribute that I am less deficient where I don't find it embarrassing to be a little sub-par. I tried reading books like Moby Dick but after 6 months and somewhere around page 100 I stopped reading it because the characters only just stepped foot on the ship at this point. It's a little too slow and tooooo wordy ie: circumambulation (spell check doesn't even recognize this word). There are so many of these types of words in a sentence or paragraph that it is difficult to grasp the the main idea out of context. Lately I've been reading easy self-help books that lack luster in the vocab area but the Scarlet Letter was AWESOME and not too long that it was intimidating. 

I'll continue to attempt to beef up my word-base but it's a slow process. I'm too old to absorb and too busy to study but I said I'd try.

Merriam-Webster Online's word of the day: scintilla - a very small amount: a spark: a trace

For Lease Findings

Yesterday, driving was quite a challenge. Not because of traffic but because it is impossible to read 10 digits off of a sign on a door from the street every 100 ft or so. Some commercial properties have large signs when they are managed by a larger company so I memorize those and try calling when I think about it but they have bankers hours or they NEVER return your call. Yeah, I want a property manager like that. There are so many store-fronts available within a mile of my house its crazy. 

Our area has been labeled as an "industrial" type area but if you travel a little farther past the Electric Company Headquarters and the Dog Track you will start to find a lot of small businesses and a lot of empty buildings. By opening a store a really feel like I will be doing my community a favor even if the studio is never successful it will be one less opportunity for a liquor store to go up.

There are actually several possibilities right in front of the High School. This got me thinking...

Hummmm. 

Maybe High Schooler's are a targeted market for me too! In my mind, I see many types of people popping into a studio/gallery because they can't help be see what they might be missing. Put a couple of easels in there for open painting or show case a student's art every month! I'm naive and overly optimistic, I know, but as Miley says, "We won't stop". If I get 1 member out of all of this studio non-sense, then I will consider it a success and I not going to count my mom, or sister.

Unsettled Attitude

I may or may not be getting too cocky for my own good. I'm making a conscious effort today and for the rest of the week to A) relax a little B) be humble C) listen more.

My post yesterday made me sound like I might be fed up with my job and that I can sew great things and me, me, me! I realize that my attitude sucks. Truth is, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for a great job with great people and that I'm able to assist with providing for my family. I'm excited about finding a way to share my ideas with others by planning to open a studio but it will not do any of the above things for me. Heck half the people to walk through the door of the studio for the first 6 months work with me. I cannot keep those things by yammering on about how stressed I am or how much I missed out on. I need to get back to my center. 

PS. I promise to listen & do less talking. I feel like the opposite went down this past weekend and I'm ready to make it right. At work and with family.

How can I code when I long to sew?

I was awake at 4:30 when a special tiny girl came running into my room and nuzzled up with my right arm. It was completely dark so I only imagined how tiny her hands and arms were wrapped around my bigger, but lets face it, not so very big arm itself. The sweetness wore off when the clock was rounding 5 and I was unable to fall back asleep. I realized how uncomfortable things were in our full size bed - left over from my 700 sqft apartment before we were married. A larger, new bed would be nice but not a necessity so I'll just get up and face the day now.

I grabbed the newspaper from my lawn and a lovely cup of coffee just the way I like it and began to read about ObamaCare and captured escapee's who were released from a life sentence in prison based on a forged document. I linked the two stories to "trouble with technology" (an issue I'm very familiar with) and I quickly lost interest. I then turned to my laptop to try to forget about programming and digital signing and encryption, storing documents, insurance, Obama...

I opened a few of my favorite blogs to see what others have been doing while I've been stuck at my machine insanely trying to get two types of programming languages to behave for 15 hours of my weekend. Beautiful wool coats and red pleated knit dresses. I started to get a bit envious had to stop. I didn't create a  single a thing this weekend, well, except for creative cooking which only happens when I can't find the time to get groceries. W loves it but the kids merely accept it. What choice do they have?

Things I wish I spent my time on:

A wool pencil skirt. I've had a yard of lightly woven woolish fabric from the Bargain Bin for over a year. It's winter white with asparagus green plaid strands and maybe a thin line of lemon yellow. I haven't pulled it out in a while so my memory may be playing tricks on me but this is a wish anyway so who cares.  An easy long pencil skirt with a small slit in the back would be lovely. 

Finish E's baby blanket enlargement project. Since she's getting a new bed for her B-day, I wanted the quilt I made for her to grow with her so she and I picked out fabric, several weeks ago, to extend the four edges making it more of a throw. I'm about 65% through this project and I only have a week left.

Start E's Teenage-Mutant Ninja Turtle tiered ruffled dress. It is supposed to be a B-day present too.

Instead of creating these wonderful things I spent the whole weekend sitting in a chair pressing the "run" (debug) button to step through code, hitting a wall where the application would crash, tweaking the code a little bit to handle the new scenario and then start over hoping that I would get a little bit farther into the program to find the next wall to handle. I'm definitely burning out with work and my sewing desire is growing. I know that the one cannot live without the other. I need one programming to survive and the other to cope.

Helping Hands

I attended a "New Business 101" workshop last night. It was a very high-level presentation of starting a business. Topics ranged from picking your business type to researching demographics. This was a free workshop hosted by the Seminole County Library System and Seminole State College's Business Development Center. I want to tell you how I made it to that workshop and that it actually wasn't until 10:07 pm last night that I realized how I made it to that workshop but I'll take you back to 4:30 pm first...

I had email after email yesterday at work about how things were going wrong. I'm the Director of IT and Software Development, something is bound to break at any given moment and I'm the first one people try to get a hold of when it does. Around 4:30 I was having a conversation with the System Admin who actually forward me someone's issue that came from Accounting that came from a claims third party member but it should have went right to me. Anyway, we were trying to figure the whole thing out when the the VP of Underwriting walked into my office and patiently waited for us to stop talking before she presented her issue. 

I knew that I needed to leave work on time yesterday because the workshop was to start at 6. However, yesterday I had a few errands to complete before the workshop because the workshop was kinda getting in the way of the fact that I offered to help with a baby shower set for today. I just kept glancing at the clock as our conversations rolled on about the problems at hand and it turned out to be a user error from Underwriting so the VP caught up on the scenario and freaked out about so many people having to get involved because of one silly mistake.

I finally jumped in the car at 4:58 and ran into the grocery store to get leeks, potatoes and canned pumpkin for the baby shower. I was asked to make a soup for 15 people, 6 tissue paper pom-poms for the cake topper and as last minute request, I needed to make mini pumpkin pies because I was originally only supposed to pick up the 4 oz mason jars but the girl who planned to bake the pies did not work in the office on Wednesdays so she called me that morning telling me that she would try to bake them in the office on Thursday in the toaster oven! My boss would love that (sarcasm there) so I took the task.

I walked into the house at 5:14 pm then started to wash and cut up the leeks. My husband said he would worry about dinner and I asked him if he could watch my soup if threw all the ingredients in. He also offered to cut up the potatoes for my soup. 5:55 came around and the soup had not quite reached a boil but everything was in the pot so I took off to my workshop. I sat down with the other entrepreneurs at 6:09. Right on time.

I learned a lot even though I was just gathering general information and I just keep circling around to one question, "Can I really do this?" I'm worried that I won't have time. I'm worried that my job, or worse, my family, will feel neglected. Starting my own business is not a leap but rather a hobby that should support itself until I'm ready to make the leap.

8:10 pm was when I returned home from the workshop. I devoured a plate of delicious stuffed shells and sweet peas that my husband left on the counter covered for me and started right away at mixing the pumpkin pie filling. I asked B to help with the tissue paper flower/pom-pom toppers before I left for the workshop and requested that she make them a small as possible. She showed me her prototypes at this point and I approved them so she went back into her room to construct the 5 needed pom-poms.

I called G out to the kitchen and asked if she wanted to help me by putting the pie crust into the tiny mason jars so that I could fill them and bake them. She washed her hands and we started chatting while we both pressed thawed pie crusts into the 4 oz jars. Meanwhile, I tasted and added a little to my soup that was just about finished so I turned the burner off for the favors to mingle and B brought out a couple more pom-poms. I told her that I was almost ready to put the jars into the oven and when I did I would join her to help her finish up.

Pies, jars and 1 pie for the family, went into the oven at 9:07 or so and I headed for B's room. She had her little musics going and tissue paper all over her bed. She was also wearing Spock ears which doesn't have any relevance to this story but I thought it would be good to note it. We chatted and laughed and finished the last two pom-poms until the oven timer went off around 9:40 pm.

Everything was done. It was time to clean up and put the foods away while I tucked E into bed several times because I was making a lot of racket in the kitchen next to her room. I reflected during this time (almost 10:00 pm) and I realized that everyone played a part in my chaos and were very supportive to my needs. No one grumbled or groaned and best of all, we all spent 1 on 1 time together. Maybe having a craft/sewing studio will go down the same way. Maybe everyone will just pitch in instead of being resentful. Maybe my worries are lies trying to get me to quit. Taking the time to be thankful for my family has really put things into perspective. I can't do this business venture without them and I believe that they want me to do it because that's what families do. They support one another.

She's Growing Up

E is having a Birthday soon and I'm shopping for a new comforter and sheets for a twin size bed. She will be upgrading from her toddler 3 in 1 crib to just the back side panel as the headboard. It's very exciting for her and us but it hasn't been easy deciding what bed to buy for her. I was actually trying to sell her crib but when the matching rocking chair went out the door to a lucky Craigslister she was really upset and yelled at us to not sell her crib. 

Anyway, I'm searching for a comforter and sheets and I'm struggling with deciding between themed characters and something more generic. She likes dinosaurs and Sofia the First so which do I choose. And what about when she grows out of those. A generic print will last longer. I know these aren't severely important issues to us but they are to a person at her age.

We are also planning to set her up with a ballet and jazz class. We'll wrap the leotard and slippers as the gift and she'll love it! The other kids have had extra curricular activities and now that she has a little more control over her arms and legs we think it is time to dedicate an hour a week for E. 

It's hard to let them grow up. Especially the last born. She has her own social life with weekend Birthdays to attend and the occasional play date. She always wants to spend the night at Grammy's. She orders her own food at restaurants. She dresses herself and brushes her teach. She's been working on getting the shower started. She's so big and so precious. Everyday she gets older and more wonderful.

Things To Teach in Schools

Why won't public schools attack any of the "real-life" lessons to be learned. I have a small list of items that should be taught to children at a young age. And if you say it's up to the parents to teach them then you are wrong. We as parents cannot teach subjects that we have not had a single lesson on except for experience. 

1) Finance - life expenses, kids, cars, insurance

2) Budgets - priorities

3) Relationships - boyfriend/girlfriend, parents/kids, siblings etc.

4) Retirement planning - whoa there's a big one

I don't think it would be too much to ask to have a trained professional teach our children or even mention the above topics. It may go something like this, "Hey kids, today we are going to learn how boyfriends should treat us." Or better yet, "Credit is not free money!"

Kids need to see/hear about life before they are old enough to experience it for themselves. We as parents are so busy working life or hide behind some kind of privacy clause that we omit exposing our children to important subjects that will affect them throughout the rest of their lives. 

Learning about the Earths layers of crust is great but it won't help them to become responsible adults. It won't allow them to maintain dignity when raising their own families or retiring.

I'm thinking something as simple as a list of monthly expenses and a modest dollar amount - hard earned income and not government assistance - and see where the kids plug the numbers. They need to understand that when the money runs out then so does every thing else. Very few people are great at all the items I've mentioned above, myself included. So why don't we think it's important to teach them?

My Alarm Didn't Go Off

There seems to be a malfunction with my alarm last Friday and this morning. I haven't changed a thing and it just decided to stop working. I think my phone is literally dying. I can't plug it into a wall outlet to charge anymore because the operating system does not recognize the process  My desktop computer was zapped a while back due to a few brownouts and so my work laptop is where the phone sits plugged in to charge. It charges most of the way until the laptop decides to hibernate and then kills the charge. It will charge a little longer if I leave the laptop open and let it go to screen saver first then hibernate. Its all very last resort but I just don't want to pay any more money for a stupid phone! I'm so over cell phones. 

Anyway, waking up late really cuts into my blogging time so I wanted to keep this short  Maybe I'll browse Craigslist for a phone today...

Dealing With Life on Life's Terms

This is a quote from the book for the AA program. I've never actually been a part of the program myself so I'm what the 12 steppers call a dry-drunk. Its been almost 5 years since I'm had a drink but man life makes it really tempting to just pick up a glass... 

This quote obviously applies to everyone (using or sober) and yesterday it popped into my head which made me reflect that maybe I over-reacted to a bad choice that was made in my household regarding one of my teenagers. It is so hard to arm yourself with premeditated actions before walking into those kinds of situations and yesterday was a fine example of that. I have to do better when the next opportunity arises. I'm not satisfied with my approach.

I was calm at first when I confronted my child with the issue but soon she shut down and expressed a "what-ever" attitude which set me off so all I wanted to do was get her to react at that point and I started to loose my head. There wasn't a whole lot of honestly going on either might I add. I took things away and I left it alone for a few hours then felt bad the punishments. My husband validated my feelings about the punishment and that's when I decided to sit down and talk about why what she did was a bad choice. The water works turned on and we had a "good talk".  The truth came out and an appropriate punishment was put in place. Why couldn't I get this kind of remorseful reaction out the first time so that the lesson could be learned. Did I have to over-react to "wear her down"? Maybe. I'm open for suggestions.

Studio Neglect

Ever since the space we looked into for the studio rented to a deli, I haven't put much thought into the studio. I signed up for a new business workshop coming up next week but other than that I guess losing the cute space in Historical Longwood has really shut me up.

I knew it was too soon to jump into but something inside of me kept saying, "do it or lose it" and "this is your dream, it's supposed to be scary at first". It was probably my heart that said those things to me and it was probably not consulting with my brain because the opposite side of that voice would say, "are you CRAZY!" and "how will you maintain two full time jobs?"  This was my brain not consulting with my heart. If I can't get the two of them to work together on this than how can I make anything successful. I'm hoping the workshop will help my brain voice to relax a little and help my heart voice to step into reality a bit. 

One idea I had was to only use hard earned money to bring the studio to life. A small savings and a modest budget should get this thing off the ground for a couple of months without any debt or stress. My biggest concern is that the studio will not do as well as I'd planned - or worse, it will do well an I can't devote the time needed to continue to do well even with my written business plan in place, and I will stress about spending more out of pocket to keep it alive or at least keep my commitment to the lease. This would certainly cut into my day job which I love with all my heart too. I'm so torn between logic and hypothetical that I choose to neglect the idea entirely so that I can move on with my life. I don't want to forget it though. I just need some time to sort this out. 

Waking Up Even Earlier

In 15 min. increments, I've worked my way up to 5:30 AM from 7:00 AM to start my mornings. I know what you're thinking - why not just set the alarm for what ever time you want and get up at that time. I felt that waking up early was more habit forming than an automatic. I really enjoy waking up earlier and earlier. If you've been following my silly blogs since the beginning of August (Thanks Mom!) then you can remember me having an epiphany which was I'm a morning person so why am I not use my mornings more efficiently? Well two months later... I pop right out of bed and sit in the dark writing blogs. I guess this isn't really using my time efficiently - and actually I just wasted a half hour on Etsy.com - but my point is I believe it is now a habit.

I challenge you to find something undesirable and change it into something to look forward to by changing your mind about it and how you do it. For instance - dishes: I didn't understand the concept of washing dishes until 2004 or so. I loathed washing dishes and felt that I could always do them later. That all instantly changed when I went to visit a neighbor, Wendy, whose house was spotless sometime in 2004. I guess it had never occurred to me that poor people could have nice stuff too. I mean everything was undisturbed and a lovely fragrance wafted my way upon entry. She had a beautiful tea light holder on the wall with candles burning that created a simple yet lovely ambiance. She wasn't expecting me and decided to put on a show just for me. She created that space for herself. Later that day I went out to Target and bought an expensive $10 scented candle (that was expensive for me in 2004) and put it in the kitchen on the window sill. I told my self that I could only light that candle if and when I did the dishes because Wendy would do it that way. I stood there at the sink and took my enemy by the horns while that candle's flame danced in front of me. I still remember the sense of satisfaction once the last cup was washed and I sat down to enjoy the fragrance now starting to fill the room. 

Ever since that day, I changed my mind about why I should be doing something and did not focus on how to do it. I should be washing the dishes for me. For my family. How I wash the dishes doesn't matter as long as it gets done. How I wake up in the morning doesn't matter either. All that matters is what's motivating me to make the change.

A Message of Grace

I'm not one to preach to anyone on the topic of religion. I do love a good financial or child rearing soap box but faith is not one of my stronger attributes so it does not come out nearly as often or bold. I am very careful as to who my audience is when discussing my beliefs and I always avoid heated discussions on the topic but this morning I feel it is necessary to share the message from a speech I watched last night on the internet. The speech is called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox.

The real reason I find it necessary to share the message from the Wilcox speech is because I found it to be extremely relieving. I often hear of "The Christian Way" of doing things and living life but this speech was different. There was no hell fire and damnation. There was no live-your-life-entirely-the-way-Christ-would-or-don't-even-bother. I gathered that I do not have to live someone else's religious lifestyle and mimic the way that they worship to be worthy. I can show my gratitude for life by practicing a "Christian" lifestyle, which by the way, is not supposed to be easy.

Practicing is: repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it. 

Over the weekend I was asked what are my spiritual goals? I'd never contemplated this before. It had not occurred to me that faith was no different than any other area of "growth". I can set goals. I do that all the time. I love the feeling of achievement that follows the success of the goal so why didn't I apply this concept  to spiritual growth? I cannot answer that last question but now that I have the understanding then it is my responsibility to act on it. I don't have to be best at going to church every Sunday despite popular belief. I don't have to pray every single morning and every single night to be "Christian". I do however have to set personal goals to achieve proficiency in one thing at a time. 

Grace is designed to allow those who have not diligently practiced to have worth. 

As long as I am accepting of who I am and working towards improvement then that is all He wants from me just as any parent would want for their child.

As of this morning I choose to not stay stagnant in perhaps the most important area of life. I do believe there is a greater purpose to life on Earth then we can begin to understand and that by practicing spiritual growth everyday we can build our religious muscle and learn to speak boldly on the topic when the opportunity arises.

Halloween Decor Garbage

I went looking for my one Tupperware bins full of Halloween stuffs the other day and couldn't find it with Christmas bins. We used to keep all these bins together but somehow they were separated by the move. The 2 covered Christmas bins made it to the hall closet but the topless Halloween bin made it to the shed. 

W pulled the bin out of the shed yesterday and I noticed a lot of new "debris" in it. I wasn't sure what would pop out so I carefully lifted each item out to see what I could salvage. I've decided that's time to retire the vinyl vulture. He has been around for a least 10 years and I am sad to see him go. His rubber wings are falling apart and the beak seam has separated exposing the ugly yellow foam inside. That was a $30 purchase 10 years ago so I'm pretty sure I got my monies worth.

The only thing really worth salvaging in there was the Apothecary sign I painted last year, it seems to be OK. One corner of the sign has been chewed off by some deviant creature but I'll use it this year. There were a couple of ceramic pumpkins and spooky vases that of course were not harmed but my black spray painted newspaper wreath did not make it. The Styrofoam supporting the wreath showed signs of havoc from the same creature as my Apothecary sign. 

I cannot just NOT decorate. I'll have to put a little money aside for new decor this year. Things aren't so bad  though because I threw a bunch of old stuff out last year and I knew I would have to acquire more anyway this year. The problem is not the budget, it's quantity. I don't like cheesy smiling-pumpkin decorations. I prefer Gothic or spooky Victorian stuff and I just can't find that kind of stuff in abundance anywhere. We'll make a couple and use what we've salvaged but this year will be a modest Halloween.

Wall Color

We are planning to repair, sand and primer the kitchen walls before installing freshly painted (white) baseboards. This is very exciting for me because it is technically the first home project since we've moved in. We've been talking a little about color and I think we are on on the same page as far as tastes go so I'm looking forward to picking out the paint with W.

I'm kinda torn between a hint of gray and a nude color. The floors are a dark walnut so I'm thinking too dark on the walls will be over bearing and anything but white please. The house was freshly painted - poorly, I might add - by the bank before we moved in so paint wasn't a high priority. The current color isn't bad but it is throughout the house which is a little redundant in my opinion.

The kitchen walls are a little quirky. Meaning, one wall is shared with the dining room and the others are covered with cabinets so there is only a foot of wall exposed above or beside the cabinets. There is a low wall that splits the dining room and the kitchen a the ceiling is lowered as well that match the opposite lowered ceiling above the cabinets. This area will get weird if we try to do different colors so one color it is. We want to eventually do a back splash but not until the counter tops are replaced so we won't even worry about that now. 

Painting will be fun and seeing the rooms with fresh paint and new baseboards will be a dream. I can't wait. We will finish out the house with baseboards in the weeks to come but the other rooms will not receive paint at this point. The projects to follow will be counter tops then bathrooms. 

Smack Hams and Cry Laughs

I'm going to have to say one thing about the store before I start into the smack hams. It's been rented to a deli so it's completely out of the equation. The lessor took two days to answer my question of lowering the cost for the first three months while we got settled and made some up dates in there. She finally answered me in an email, "we can't take anything off the rent (not what she told us in person) but we are doing a special where the first month is free however that unit has been rented." Stoopid. First month free is less money than what I suggested!

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G introduced "smack cams" into the household by way of Vine. This is where you post a video of smacking someone in the face or butt with a smear-able substance on your hand. We were trying to figure out why she and E were running around the house with flour all over their faces, hair hands and buttocks. E starts screaming, "I'm going to give YOU a smack ham!" 

While in the van last night on our way to IHOP, I brought up the smack hams. E smiled and said, "Oh, cry laugh!" And proceeded to contort her face into a terrible whiny looking grimace while making a huahuahua sound. Things are getting really hilariously weird around here and E's got to find some friends her own age.

Wishing I Could Sew Today

Browsing some of my favorite sites does not always inspire me. Sometimes they leave me with a sick sadness of jealousy and insecurities. Like today, I decided to see what one gal who blogs about fashion was up to. She makes some of the items that she blogs about but most of her blogs are about low-end fashion trends. Today she posted pictures of a week-long sewing get-away with girlfriends. There are so many things wrong with this and why I can't do something as totally awesome as a week long sewing get-away with girlfriends. 

1) I don't really have any girlfriends to do this with

2) I have a job

3) I have a lot of kids

4) So much other stuff to do....

I'll stop there. 

What really irked me was when I took a glace at her Instagram images and I found pictures of her two really cute (small) kids. I've nothing against her kids. It's her house! It was gorgeous! It was CLEAN! She had a nice shaggy rug in her living room and the tidiest play area. Oh that sort of thing makes me feel inferior. Excuses #2, 3 and 4 prevent me from keeping an immaculate house.

I don't like those insecure feelings and I might have to pay a visit to tinybudda.com to expunge them. Even though I'm dying a little inside thinking about going to work instead of heading out the door to a sewing summit with friends, I thank my lucky stars for excuses #2, 3 and 4. I can say with confidence that most of my Hierarchy of Needs are met and I can always sew when I get home (or bring my embroidery project to work).