FlyBaby

Lately I've been working on refocusing my energies on my family and our house. I still need to be able to take time and recharge my own batteries and cultivate some "non-essential" talents. But I'm trying to go about daily life more on purpose than I used to. Basically I was miserable for about two months after we got Alexander's diagnosis. Then I realized that a lot of my old habits just aren't sustainable amidst these new challenges (ex. sitting on facebook for extended periods of time does not give me a boost of energy or help me feel motivated to "get back to the day." It sucks me in and I'm lucky if I resurface before the boys have added 25 more things to my cleaning list.) I simply have to grow or I'm going to be crushed by the onslaught of "stuff I have to do" and suffocated by my own feelings and reactions. This does not mean that all of the sudden, two weeks ago, I became a perfect, glorified being. Everybody else, even Kevin, may not have noticed that big a difference in me from February to March. But I've noticed a difference. I'm not "happier than I've ever been" but I'm definitely happier than I was a month ago.

I signed up at FlyLady.net and diligently implemented the first two baby steps (Shine Your Sink and Dress to Shoes). Since then I haven't even visited the site again but I also haven't needed to. I have NOT kept my sink shiny-clean the way she says to but I have embraced the Getting Dressed to Shoes concept. It really is just like she says, I think twice before laying down for a snooze on the couch if I have my lace up shoes on. And I don't have any excuse for not going outside to play with the kids, or running to the store, or walking the trash can to the curb. Once again, people may not notice a difference when they come to my house in the level of its cleanliness, but I feel like there's a difference. I've gotten several Spring Cleaning/Organization projects done and I really feel like I owe it to my shoes. The dishes and laundry still pile up a bit but I feel slightly more empowered to handle it. And let me just tell you, spiders don't give me quite the same panic attack when I'm wearing my sneaks.

There's also a different mindset that comes with getting fully dressed as if I was really going to work (teeth brushed, makeup and deodorant on, the whole nine yards). I get in a groove, I put on my Hilary Weeks or Josh Groban Pandora station. I'm better at plowing through the chores and minutia and just getting it over with instead of letting it take up the whole day. This obviously leaves more time for other more pleasant endeavors. I've played outside with my kids more in the past couple of weeks than I ever have before. The early arrival of Spring, I'm sure, has also contributed to this development, but I'm just more motivated in myself than I've been in a while.

I guess you could say I look at all of this as evolution. My to-do lists have changed, my goals have changed, even my prayers have changed. They kind of just had to. And I'm grateful for the grace I know I've been given. I couldn't have gotten even to this point on my own.

"I ain't as good as I'm gonna get, but I'm better than I used to be."

Drawing Talent

I was "tooling around" Pinterest yesterday and found a pin for free online drawing lessons. One link led to another and I found myself at fivepencilmethod.com. I signed up for the free email tutorials and started watching a few of the videos. So far I really like the format and I think I could definitely get something out of this. I think the teacher used to be a drafter and I like how thorough and systematic he is (like, he starts with the proper way to remove a sheet of paper from your tablet). I like having things broken down into finite steps, I'm all OCD like that.

Drawing is one of those things at which I "used to" have some talent. I say this about drawing (and painting, singing, playing the piano...) because when I was about 10 I was considered talented at these things but then I eventually stopped practicing and my talent stayed where it was.

Anyway, after getting a little inspiration from Mr. Darrel Tank (he is SO from Idaho) I pulled out my old sketch pad and a picture of Jacob as a little baby (he's a toddler now) and put pencil to paper for the first time in years.

Results

Both of the sketches are from the same picture. The one in the middle-left of the page was my first try, but I wasn't satisfied at all so I drew the one below it. 

Definitely not a spitting image but I was happy to see that my second try really was better. Looking at it on the computer like this is actually helping me see where some of the problems are (I'm so going to have to go back and fix his left eye now). And of course, this was just sketch paper and a #2 pencil. I've told myself that if I'm good and practice with what I have, I can save my pennies and justify spending money on nice pencils and other supplies. We'll see how that goes. 

I guess I should probably go practice the piano while the little man from the picture is napping... Either that or fold laundry. Why is it that laundry is always more pressing? I know, I'll put on Pandora and clean while I also practice my singing. :-) That should do it.

Entryway Ledge Reveal

Before

After

I haven't decided how big a fan I am of the "Love" tile being up there but that's pretty much the only place I have to put it in my house where my son can't reach it. I'm also thinking the display might need some fabric of some kind added to give a little more softness and dimension. But there's the general idea.

Yeah, looking at these pictures, I'm pretty sure that tile is going to have to come down...

Thanks to my hubby for setting up the ladder for me and cutting the legs off my new easel when I discovered it was to big to fit up there and for generally being the best husband ever!

Teddy Bear Heaven?

Over our front door is this ledge -

We've lived here for almost 4 years and I've been planning on making some sort of decorative display for this ledge since the day we decided to buy the house. I refer to it as "Teddy Bear Heaven" because when I was growing up my best-friend's mom had a similar ledge that she decorated with elaborate teddy bear display scenes (that she changed with the seasons and holidays) and that's what we all called it. 

As of tomorrow I will have the last necessary piece for my newly re-planned display. And yesterday my wonderfully obliging hubby ran to Home Depot to grab one of these babies on sale before they were all gone.

Werner 22ft Multiposition Ladder

I know the online ad says free shipping but once you read the fine print you will see that it's just free shipping eligible if your total comes to more than $250 of eligible stuff. So Kevin drove the 0.81 miles to our lovely neighborhood Home Depot and was back in about 10 minutes with our fabulous new ladder.

4 years of waiting are finally over! Stayed tuned later this week for the before and after reveal!

Preview of Coming Attractions

My sister has been in town for the past week and we've been having a lot of fun working on different projects. She's helping me at least make some decorating choices before she leaves so I don't have to start from scratch on my own. I probably won't be able to go into detail about all of them until after she goes home on Wednesday so here are some photos of things to come.

Guest room before I cleaned it up for her to come to visit.

Guest room decor concepts (Gotta get something on those blank walls!)

Tissue paper canvas art 

(link to my sister's tutorial)

Stay tuned here for tips! (aka: learn from my mistakes)

 Three main reasons we haven't gotten more done this week.
Pretty heck-a-cute reasons, no? 

Fake Cupcake Display!

Check out this fantabulous before and after my sister did in our parents' basement. She includes a tutorial on how to make faux cupcakes.
Here's a preview of the before:

click to enlarge

Can you guess where she put the cupcake display? That's right, she made over the fish tank! She's got tons of other plans and let me tell you she's on a roll! Apparently watching Top Chef is fuel for some pretty brilliant ideas. :-) Love you Boo! I think it turned out great!

Lined up

I enjoy organizing, but I hate cleaning. Anyone else know what I mean? Organizing is fun because it’s creating a pattern, almost like art. You can line things up by size or color or frequency of use. You can create cute little boxes or baskets to put odds and ends in so they’re not just an eye sore. Fun times. Cleaning, on the other hand, is not like art. It’s like work. Pain in the butt work. Dishes, laundry, toys: piles and piles of stuff that multiply and never end. I’ve found that I can happily clean while I organize but I can’t organize while I clean. This is because the cleaning will never get done. Meaning, if my goal is to organize, a good deal of cleaning will obviously happen in the process. But if my goal is to get everything clean, stopping to look something over and decide whether or not to keep it and where it should go and then moving other things around to better locations to accommodate my new system: doesn’t work.

Just ask my mom.

I used to drive her nuts when I was supposed to be cleaning my room and I would spend a solid 5 minutes starting at each individual item I had picked up, reminiscing about where and when I got it, etc., before moving it all of 6 inches to the left. She also used to hate taking me shopping for clothes. I always had a definite picture in my head of what I wanted to get and we never could find a store that could read my mind.

But I digress.

My awesome SIL spent the past few days organizing most of the closets in her house. She posted pictures of the before and after this morning and suddenly I remembered how much I like organizing. So after half a morning in our master bedroom closet, here is a before and after of my own.

Before

      

My heck-a-cute kids

After

A couple weeks ago I did some work on my side (the garbage bag in the first picture has a bunch of my clothes in it to donate.) So today I did Kevin’s side, which included sorting through all the baby clothes I’d thrown in there as the boys grew out of them. See how pretty?

All color sequenced  

Told you I love a good pattern. Of course, most of these shirts had been in that pile on the floor for a while. But wrinkled is the new ironed right?

I don’t think you can see very well in these pictures but I have only white hangers for my side and only blue hangers for Kevin’s side. I did that last year and I think it really helps make things look nicer when there aren’t 15 different types and colors of hangers floating around the closet. Only problem is, if I ever need to jimmy the lock on my car; no wire coat hangers to be found. Ah, well, c’est la vie.