It’s my favorite holiday. Maybe it’s because it’s also my best friend’s birthday (aka my mom’s – who was also born in Bethlehem!) but I just love the holiday. It makes me happy… well at least when I avoid shopping during this time. Nothing will get rid of my Christmas spirit faster than going to Wal-Mart, I tell ya.

Anyway, this year, I decided to do some stuff to get the Christmas spirit going in this house. I made my first advent ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I love Christmas.

It’s my favorite holiday. Maybe it’s because it’s also my best friend’s birthday (aka my mom’s – who was also born in Bethlehem!) but I just love the holiday. It makes me happy… well at least when I avoid shopping during this time. Nothing will get rid of my Christmas spirit faster than going to Wal-Mart, I tell ya.

Anyway, this year, I decided to do some stuff to get the Christmas spirit going in this house. I made my first advent calendar. It was almost free. I won’t go into a huge, in-depth tutorial, because there’s so many ways to make these, and this is my meager contribution. All I did was wrap a piece of scrap wood with some felt I had on hand, and hot-glued handmade cards to it for the kids to pull out every day. I will say if I do this next year, I’ll use colored construction paper, and I’ll print the darn things off instead of hand-lettering them! (I will say – so I remember later – that the font I used was Mardi Gras!) The card template I used (with a few edits) was the “4 and 3/4″ square envelope template” from here. I could get one card and one envelope from a single sheet of 8 1/2 x 11″ card stock paper that I have lying around.

The kids are already excited for tomorrow, so they can finally start pulling out cards and see what they say. They’ve never done an advent calendar before (heck, neither have I!) so they’re wondering what will happen. I’d explained that usually, it’s “open a door, eat a piece pf candy” sort of thing, but I wanted this to be more interesting. So instead, I made a list of one Christmas-y thing per day we can do. if you’re interested, my list looks like this:

1. Write a letter to Santa.
2. Pick 10 toys (each) to give to Goodwill.
3. Decorate the house for Christmas.
4. Make Christmas cards.
5. Make and hang up paper snowflakes.
6. Play a board game.
7. Make snow globes.
8. Shop for Fred and Fezzik. This is our goldfish and our new puppy!
9. Read a Christmas story. This one will also introduce Christopher Popinkins to the house – so that’ll be ongoing fun!
10. Go ice skating.
11. Make presents for teachers.
12. Put up the Christmas tree.
13. Roast marshmallows in the fireplace.
14. Visit Light Fanstasia.
15. Play “Christmas Pictionary.”
16. Watch “Polar Express.”
17. Camp out under the tree.
18. Make gingerbread house and cookies! I think I’ll provide a tutorial for the house, too – we make it every year!
19. Go visit Santa.
20. Drive around and look at Christmas lights.
21. Wrap Christmas presents.
22. Do a Christmas “word search” game. I think this will be more of a scavenger hunt, but we’ll see!
23. Listen to Christmas songs.
24. Prepare and set out cookies for Santa and yummies for his reindeer!

It took me a while to make up this list – hubs wasn’t much of a help at all. He couldn’t think of anything! I also had to carefully arrange what was chosen on what nights – stuff like “Camping out under the tree” and “make a gingerbread house” were relegated to weekend projects. My husband is also out of town for a week in December, so I had to carefully arrange things that I could do on my own with the kids while he was gone. And the 22nd and 23rd, we’ll be on our way to my mom’s in West Virginia, so we had to do something we could bring along in the car.

Anyway, I thought I’d share. Maybe it’ll give inspiration to others!

I can’t help it.

If my honey actually ever reads this, please don’t think this is a negative reflection upon you. It is not.

See, my honey does the woodworking around here. He’s got all kinds of awesome tools out in the garage, and when I want something, I draw p the plans, and he makes it for me. It’s actually a pretty great system. Back when I was a kid, I use to take shop class, and I loved woodworking ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I am feeling very frustrated right now.

I can’t help it.

If my honey actually ever reads this, please don’t think this is a negative reflection upon you. It is not.

See, my honey does the woodworking around here. He’s got all kinds of awesome tools out in the garage, and when I want something, I draw p the plans, and he makes it for me. It’s actually a pretty great system. Back when I was a kid, I use to take shop class, and I loved woodworking myself, but it’s been many years since I’ve attempted to use a miter saw or table saw on my own. And since Mike loves doing it so much, I’ve never bothered trying ot take it up again.

However, I’ve mentioned before that when we had our roof done, it seemed to awaken some “design monster” in me. We’ve lived in this house for almost 6 years, and haven’t done a damn thing to it. Part of the reason was lack of time and funds. The other part (which I should finally admit out loud) is because in our old house, I redid the bathroom to what I wanted it to be, and I’ll be damned if Mike didn’t have to get transferred up here to Yankee country almost immediately after we finished the project. So part of me (the crazy part) seems to hink that if I start on projects in this house, then it’ll trigger some grand universal gun that’ll make us have to move again.

But I love this house, and it’s time it actually became a home. I’m tired of looking at the uncontrolled messes in this house, of the mismatched…everything. (And Mike is sick of not having curtains.)

Don’t get me started on the kitchen. I may burst into tears.

So we’ve been doing stuff. I’ve been hoarding from craigslist and eBay, stalking Pinterest and decor blogs (see ‘em all in the sidebar there in the “Decor” section) for ideas and DIY projects. I’ve been using my iPad to lay out each room of the house.

Right now, I have my kids’ rooms designed and laid out, the living room and the kitchen. But I can’t work on any of them until other projects have been completed. And there are a couple of projects I REALLY want to have done – but they won’t be. I’m in that “move!” mode – ready to sprint off and GO, but I can’t.

It’s eternally frustrating.

I can’t think of anything else except what I can do to finally get this going.And until I can get it going, I feel like all I do is think, and I can’t concentrate on anything else. I’m now in that portion of this “Hurry up and wait” process where I’m itching to do something but I can’t figure out what.

::sigh::

I have to go do something before my head explodes.

He’s 20% Siberian Husky and 80% Native American Indian Dog. I’m severely allergic to dogs (not cats though – which I never understood, because I can’t stand them. Yet they love me. WTH?) – if I spend any time with a dog of any kind, I itch, sneeze, get stuffy and occasionally break out in hives. However, this pup? The NAID ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> So, I had a 4-day weekend… woo-hoo! It was packed full o’ stuff to do. One thing that occupied most of my time was the new addition to our family:

He’s 20% Siberian Husky and 80% Native American Indian Dog. I’m severely allergic to dogs (not cats though – which I never understood, because I can’t stand them. Yet they love me. WTH?) – if I spend any time with a dog of any kind, I itch, sneeze, get stuffy and occasionally break out in hives. However, this pup? The NAID in him has made him hypo-allergenic. All weekend, this pup has been crawling all over me, licking my face – he even slept on me a few times. reaction? Nil. Nada. Zip.

Nothing.

YAY!!

Anyway, that’s how most of my weekend went. But the other parts of my weekend were sanding (we’re still working on the linen closet – it’s coming along, slowly but surely) and working on small projects for my daughter’s room.

Remember this?

See that mirror? It’s a piece of junk. I knew it was a piece of junk when it arrived at my home. The entire bedroom suite was purchased from Wal-Mart for a grand total of $250. Bed, dresser, tall dresser and mirror. It’s nothing but particleboard. However, the glass mirror in that piece of junk is nice. I wanted it – but I wanted to do something different to it to make it “go” with my vision for this room. So yesterday, I took it apart – it’s was incredibly easy (seeing as how it’s nothing but particleboard and staples). All I had to do was slide a flat-head screwdriver between the back and the frame, and lift gently. POP – they came off. The mirror wasn’t even glued there – slide right out.

I should have taken photos of the process, but honestly? It went so fast I didn’t have time. My husband cut the back board down to only 1″ larger than the mirror. The frame was already routed out to hold the mirror, so we just cut the non-routed sides down to about 1 1/2″. I painted the frame pieces, glued and screwed a cleat on the back side (to use for hanging it with), cleaned the mirror well, and then we put the mirror on the backing. We glued and clamped the frame bits around the mirror and let it sit overnight.

This is the result (note, I JUST removed the clamps. The glue still need to complete it’s curing, so I can’t stand it upright yet – but this should give you the end result):

Those little hearts? As we were dry-fitting the pieces together, I thought it would be nice to do something a little extra to it. So I used a piece of card stock to cut out simple heart templates, and laid down newspaper to protect the rest of the mirror. I put the template down in the blank space left (just randomly laid them down) and held a can on silver spray paint (the stuff I used on the hardware for the desk I redid) high above the mirror, and lightly sprayed. I just wanted a dusting of the spray paint to fall into the template – I wasn’t looking for solidity – more of a “frosting”.

The cool thing, apparently, about spray painting a mirror is if you make a boo-boo, you can take a clean rag and carefully wipe off the paint. A couple of my hearts weren’t as crisp as I wanted them to be, so I just rubbed around the edge to sharpen it up, and it came right off. (But now that it’s dry and set, it’s not coming off any more!)

Anyway, that’s what I did this weekend. Simple project that takes 24 hours, but only about 30 minutes of actual activity! And it looks MUCH better than it did before Such a simple change, but BIG effect!

Anyway, the image (in case you missed it) is this:

It’s from Pottery Barn Kids, and is the “Pink Daisy Garden Bedroom“. (A warning: I don’t know how long that link will be good for.) When I saw it, I knew my youngest would love to have her bedroom look like this. She loves the ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I probably should have saved the image from my last post to put into this one. However, it was the image that prompted my start of redecorating our house, so I guess it fits.

Anyway, the image (in case you missed it) is this:

It’s from Pottery Barn Kids, and is the “Pink Daisy Garden Bedroom“. (A warning: I don’t know how long that link will be good for.) When I saw it, I knew my youngest would love to have her bedroom look like this. She loves the color pink, and is always dancing around the house, declaring her princesshood. Now I don’t want *exactly* this room, but it’s definitely close. I love the colors and the bed, but I want wainscoting around the room, and I plan do to a better closet organizing system in there, redo the doors for her closet, a chandelier, and a small desk/chair area or built-in bookshelf (or both) for her, as well.

You know what’s funny? I didn’t know Pottery Barn was a real store. I always thought it was some made-up store for the TV show Friends. It wasn’t until a couple of years after the show went off the air that I found out it was a real store.

So, if you missed it, Kate’s room currently looks like this:

Not that great. The “water” theme was my oldest daughter’s idea. This used to be her bedroom, and she wanted a “sea” feel. When we first moved here, she was only 10 or 11, and my husband painted the room with a very light (almost white) beige color. The “waves” were created by starting at the top of the room, and using a light blue mixed with glaze. As I went around the room, I’d add more paint to the glaze to deepen the color. It was pretty cool, but it’s pretty tired at this point – it’s been up there for 6 years, and my “Little Princess” wants something more…. princessy.

The furniture is cheapie Wal-Mart iron-on veneer-over-particleboard crap. I think I dropped all of $250 on the entire set – the bed and two dressers. (There was a nightstand, too – but it’s in another room.) Behind the bed – not quite sure if you can see it – was a headboard my husband made for my oldest daughter. It had doors on the front that opened, so she could store folders, paper, books, etc for schoolwork. She never used it. I finally took it down, but I didn’t have anywhere to put it, so I just kind of shoved the bed up against it.

Now, this Pottery Barn room – what I fell in love with was the room color and the bed/bed linens. To get that bed, the frame itself would cost me close to $800. The bed linens: $89 for the sheets, $99 for the duvet cover, $159 for the quilt (and it’s on freaking sale right now), and $52 for two quilted pillow shams. That’s $400 for just the bed linens. ::choke::

(Just for fun, the rug would be $129; one nightstand is $299, and I’d want two; $59 for the curtains; $79 for one shelf; $84 for the little lamp; $24 for the under-the-bed baskets; and between $12 and $55 for each picture frame; $51 for a gallon of pink paint, $41 for a gallon of primer. Oh, and we’d also want to add the Petal Canopy, but I’d want it in pink, and it’s $99. I may go into a coma.)

Now. We went to Lowe’s yesterday, and bought a can of Valspar Primer (the kind that puts on a heavy coat) and Tulip Petal pink paint. I got both gallon-sized cans for a whopping total of $34. I also looked at the pricing for beadboard wainscoting (which I love), but my husband convinced me that it’s too “bathroomy” looking. We’d need 8 sheets of it, and they’re $20 a sheet. So instead, we’re going for a “box” wainscoting look, which befits a bedroom better. Turns out we can also pull it off cheaper by painting the lower half of the wall white, and popping in the boards. My husband is positive he can make that bed – he plans on buying a couple of sheets of pine or maple (I always liked maple better for some reason) and cutting it into a box. We’ll use the slats from the curent bed to offer support for the new one, and the posts on the bed? Easy-peasy. They’re simple 4×4′s with some half-round detailing, topped off (and bottomed off) with stair railing post caps. He thinks he can build it for around $100.

I also see myself doing some crafty work – which I’m kind of excited about. I have some other ides of how I can get this room “on the cheap,” and if I’m successful, I might be able to talk my husband into a new bathroom. or kitchen. (please, oh Lord, a kitchen.) I will be updating as I go along!

When I was growing up, I had something instilled in me: the drive to never quit. Meaning, if I committed to something, if I promised I would do something, then I would see it through to the end.

I remember when I was in 9th grade, I was a cheerleader. At the beginning of the school year, there were 14 of us on the squad. When “yearbook picture time” rolled around in mid_march, there were three. Everyone quit. Various reasons, really – but ... read on, Fisherboy »]]> I’m tired.

When I was growing up, I had something instilled in me: the drive to never quit. Meaning, if I committed to something, if I promised I would do something, then I would see it through to the end.

I remember when I was in 9th grade, I was a cheerleader. At the beginning of the school year, there were 14 of us on the squad. When “yearbook picture time” rolled around in mid_march, there were three. Everyone quit. Various reasons, really – but mostly because the assistant “coach” was a royal bitch, to say the least. She would tell us all we were fat (and pinch said fat to make her point), and yell at us for eating lunch, or not being flexible enough, etc. etc. She was a terrible teacher, and an even worse cheerleading coach. So most of the girls quit. The first few because of her, and as it progressed, the last few because they were to embarrassed to stay on a cheerleading squad with so few members.

But I signed on for a year. I committed to it. So I stayed.

And I think I’ve discovered the point of this 100 Days challenge: it’s not about what’s right (when it comes to balancing work, etc.)… it’s knowing when to quit.

I’ve quit jobs before, I don’t deny it. I’ve always had a good reason for it, and I’ve always hung on for dear life for as long as I possibly could, to give it second, third, fourth – even fifth chances to try and redeem itself to me. But there was always some catalyst that made me very aware (to the point of no deniability) that it was time to turn in that two weeks’ notice.

I’m hard-pressed to find that catalyst now. All I know is, I’m tired.

I’m so exhausted.

I’m tired of feeling like I’m incapable of anything. I’m tired of feeling like I have to defend every single word I want to say to people who I don’t even know. I’m tired of being so overloaded and so overwhelmed that I don’t even know where to start. I’m tired of wanting to do things, but having to stop before I even begin because I have to deal with something else first. I’m tired of comparing myself to how I perceive others to be and find myself falling short from every angle.

Perhaps this bone-deep exhaustion is my catalyst. I am just so weary of it all. But I can’t help feeling that if I quit, I’m failing. What will I do? I don’t know. But the idea is so tempting… I just don’t know if I can.