No more mistakes

We have a new policy in the B.S. household:  No more mistakes.

Yes, we will probably make a lot of mistakes.  But we are not allowed to look at any decision and think "OMG!  We made a horrible mistake!"

Because that's what I've thought about every single decision I've ever made.  It might sound like an exaggeration but it's not.  I still second guess purchasing the car that I've owned for five years.  I recently decided that living like that is exhausting and leads to a lot of regret.  Which sucks and is no way to live.

So no more mistakes!  If something doesn't work out, that's fine, we'll regroup and work together to figure it out.

We're approaching a time of MAJOR transition.  Things aren't exactly falling into place for our move and it's really scary and now we have to make a lot of decisions with no clear path.  So...there is a lot of second guessing going on but we're putting a stop to it.  No more mistakes!

Anything that happens, any direction we go, it will be where we need to go at that time and if we need to make a change later, it's okay. 

Didn't get the job? 
That just means that there's a better one out there.

Nothing falling into place where we're going? 
Maybe we need to broaden our search.

Timing doesn't seem to be working out at all? 
Oh well.  No biggie.

I'm probably still going to do a lot of second guessing, but I'm working really hard to just live my life rather than analyzing it with "what ifs" and "OMGs!"  So far, it's going pretty well.

About those onesies....

When I posted for Sarah a week ago, I shared some photos of the onesies we made.  Well, we didn't make the onesies, but we did make them cute.  Strike that, baby Audrey made them cute; we just put designs on them.

Side note, as noted by my friend Elizabeth, "onesie" is technically "onesie (tm)" and trademarked by Gerber corporation.  All other "onesies" are "bodysuits" but who wants to put their baby in a bodysuit much less decorate one?  What is this?  1993?

Most of our designs were inspired by this post from I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar.  One design we ripped off wholesale from her freezer paper stenciling video tutorial (linked in the post).

By the way, freezer paper?  Who knew this existed much less it's endless design possibilities? 

Blog proprietor Cheri is one of those Mormon moms with an endless supply of creative ideas and, apparently, time.  Where do these LDS women get it?

Also, can one of you make me this with the jersey knit fabric I have sitting in my closet?  I'd make it, but a) I don't have a sewing machine and b) I'm terrified of making things that someone would actually wear.  I do have a sewing machine on my Amazon wishlist.  If one of you wanted to get it for me, I might learn how to use it.  Thanks in advance!

Transitions are not fun

I love to move, I love change, I love starting new things...

I do NOT love not knowing what's going to happen!  In fact, I legitimately hate it.  I do not love feeling like perhaps we are making all the wrong decisions.

We're moving in OKC in less than a month.  S will be in grad school.  We are living in the house my parents still own.

That is all we know.  We do not have:
1. jobs
2. direction
3. sanity

I "do not like button" this.

S and I are spending a lot of time sighing and looking off into space.  Let me tell you, we're really fun to be around.  We also fun bloggers right now, no?

Here's what I hope to share in the next few weeks:
1. We got jobs!
2. We have direction!
3. Hello sanity!

In the meantime, help?

In other, more positive news, my brother is engaged!  My brother is engaged to my best friend's sister!  Congratulations Philip and Courtney!

This is for Sarah

This post is for Sarah -- 

Who checks my blog religiously even though I've been at her house for three days and she knows I haven't posted anything.

Who has been my best friend for over half my life.

Who reminds me that we haven't changed too much since high school.  We still get the same haircuts, buy the same clothes, and are great craft buddies - though onesies weren't in our line up 16 years ago.

Who believes in the power of sugar.

Who is a wonderful mom to this little girl who I love and who is totally rockin' her new onesie. 

Who makes me laugh and about whom I have stories that still make me giggle.

Who really needed something to read so she became the subject of an entire blog post. 

This is for Sarah. :-)

Blogging or mind control?

I read a lot of crafty, creative, decorating, making-your-house-a-home type blogs.  I'm really into nesting right now.  And I can't afford to travel, my other favorite, so I'm trying to bloom where I'm planted, as they say.

Based on my research, I think that Target should give every blogger in the world a treat because I think they probably sold eleventy billion of these and at least half of that is probably because of all the bloggers who raved about it.  Seriously, if you are going to be a home decor-anista (I just made that up) in your 20s, this is a required accessory.  Don't believe me?

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Doesn't it kind of make you laugh?  Don't get me wrong, it's a great accessory, but I chuckle.

I do like seeing how different people use the same pillow with different color combinations.  The first one is by far my favorite!

Hey, mom, you know how I said that gray and yellow combines were totally hot right now?  See what I mean?

My Current Obsession

I am currently obsessed with Ana White.  This Alaska lady has an entire blog dedicated to putting out easy plans for people to build their own furniture.  How empowering, right?  Get some tools!  Build a table!  And most of the "do-ers" are women, traditionally not the tool-buying, table-building demographic.  She and other guests post plans and then people post their "brag blogs" about what they built and how it turned out and it usually turns our magnificently.

We're getting ready to move into my parent's OKC house for about a year and while we're there we're going to get things fixed up and ready to sell.  One of our projects is an island for the massive kitchen.  We also need to repaint the cabinets (after removing several layers of paint), change out the hardware, replace the nasty old carpet, replace the dishwasher, and perhaps replace the stove and oven.  But after all that...then we want to add an island.  But we won't want to spend a lot of money.  So we can build one!  I popped "kitchen island" into the search bar at ana-white.com and come up with these beauties.

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The first one's actually a counter-height craft table, but I think it would make a stupendous island.  We'll paint the island the same color as the cabinets and probably top it with a butcher block countertop from Ikea.

We also will need a desk.  We have an inherited computer desk that works well but is U-G-L-Y and extremely awkward to move.  When we moved to Atlanta I made S promise me that this was the LAST time we would move this desk.  Goodbye ugly desk!

But S will be in grad school and I'll be getting ready for grad school so we need some sort of desk set up.  I know!  Let's build one!  Ana?

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I like the first two because they could be reincarnated as something else someday - a console table, an entry table, etc.  I like the last one because it's beautiful.

But if we build a desk with less storage then we need a place to put everything that we currently store in out ugly desk.  I know!

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Don't you love that color?  And the filing cabinet-inspired details?

All together now...

Can we build it?

YES WE CAN!

My creating self

A while back I posted a short list of small projects.  And then I did them!  Well, most of them.  So here's where we stand.

• a pillow  One here
• another pillow and here
  
• a couple of finished pillows still here
  
• some fabric for a pillow (sensing a theme...) yep, still on this one
  
• reigniting my love of tolerance for crocheting I'm even working on some "inventory"!
• a scarf for S It looks like this.  Too bad S doesn't wear scarves.  Oops.
• some beyond precious crocheted baby things These booties launched several more pairs.
• spray painting a lamp My old "ancient Greece-inspired" Pier 1 lamp is now blue! More specifically, it's Rustoleum's "Night Tide."  More on that lampshade in a minute.  Do you see that dresser top?  Numero uno on my to-do list after we move into a house with a garage this summer!

• recovering the lamp shade  Oh, look, we're already to the lamp shade.  So I read about a thousand different blog posts about how the "easiest way to update a lamp is to recover the lampshade with fabric and a hot glue gun!"  It's supposedly super simple and amazing.  These people?  They are liars.  It is not easy and my lampshade looks like poop.  But it's still hanging out on my lamp because it's the only one in the house that looks good on that lamp.  It didn't help that the shade I chose to recover was ancient and cracked and discolored and I chose to cover it with transparent white fabric.  Oh well.

• a spring wreath I have yet to make one for the outside of the front door, but I was inspired by these pomanders to create this!

 Let's see, I walked by the TV and saw some women making a tray out of a picture frame now my lotion and jewelry and such sit on this.

I also used the flower punch from the wreath project to add some white flowers to some branches I found on a Buddy walk.

And since I had some burlap on hand, I copied this project almost exactly.

Now this pile of goodness is waiting for me!  I have some "commissioned" pillows to make and that dang spring (uh, summer?) wreath that's been waiting for two months to be made.  With only two months left until we move, it seems a little silly to be starting something new, doesn't it?  Spring Summer wreath, you might have to wait.