When my husband and I were engaged, I created the Save the Dates, invitations, and thank you cards. I had people in Kinko’s compliment me on my work and suggest I should do this for a living, and I even tried to sale a printable Christmas card on Etsy.

However, as you may have read through my blog, I never designed anything as a professional graphic designer before. Meaning I never got paid for it. I was contacted once before by Gamma Alpha Lamba to do some pro-bono work. They wanted a whole reconstruction/reorganization of their website. However they wanted to keep their current design with pop-up windows and Flash.

I was still working full-time and pregnant while trying to finish my associates degree in Graphic Design through Penn Foster. With the amount of hefty work that they wanted me to put into this website and to do it pro-bono, I had to decline it. There was absolutely no way that this was going to fit into my schedule. I gave my advice on where else they can look for help to completing their massive project.

Now I’m a SAHM. I’m finished with my degree program, and my child is almost 2 and my other one is almost 1 years old.

Today, I submitted my first professional graphic design for payment. I stumbled upon 99designs several months ago. It’s this awesome website where web designers can compete and submit their graphic design ideas for real companies who need some help with a variety of design projects. 99designs is a great way to build a portfolio.

I sat down and came up with some designs for two different companies that were needing a logo. The first one is for Juliet Gold Design. They are an interior design firm based in New York. They wanted an elegant, classy and modern design. Which means straight lines and professional colors (Gray, Black, White).

I tried to design the most sleek design I could come up with. However the only thing that I could come up with that was sleek enough was to use a comic sans font and that was it. Talk about boring. What I came up with was what I think is a mid-west version of elegant, classy and modern that doesn’t match the logo for Chanel. I did not submit my project because I had to face reality. My graphic design style doesn’t consist of designing for glamour and class. I create fun, colorful, and functional designs. No way am I saying that those designs for Juliet Gold Design is boring, but if I was the interior designer I would not be looking for something so sleek, simple, and plain-jane glamour/classy.

This is what I love about working for myself, I get to pick what things I can design and make. I am skilled in certain areas. I’m not skilled in absolutely everything that graphic design has to offer.

The second project I worked on today was for a cleaning company called Foundations Health Solutions. They primarily clean for hospitals and do maintenance. I didn’t feel comfortable putting a hospital sign in their logo. If I saw a hospital emblem (the famous “+” sign) I would be confused thinking that Foundations Health Solutions was a company that helps hospitals with back-end administration instead of cleaning toilets and repairing holes in the walls.

Instead I came up with a logo where I used shapes instead. You can find the design here. I wouldn’t mind if you went and “starred” my design either. Let the company know you think my design rocks. If you do, he’ll favor it if his customers will favor it.

Since we’re down to one income for now, it’s important to me that I start learning how to coupon all over again. Yup, you guessed it. I jumped on the coupon wagon. Although I’m disappointed that couponing isn’t what it was like two years ago. I use to to go to Dillon’s and double my coupon along with an e-coupon. Now I have to use one or the other.

However Dillons was having a Mega Sale this week and I jumped on the opportunity. Almost everything they were selling were things we actually eat. Even if I didn’t have the coupon for the sale item, I purchased it anyways. I ended up saving almost $18.00 + by shopping at Dillons vs walmart. For example, I purchased Dillons bread for a $1.00 vs $2.29 at Walmart for Sara Lee brand. I also calculated that if we get our milk from Dillons every month, we will be saving $16 a month. $16 to us is a lot! Especially when we can make two casserole dishes for about $16.00. By making ht extra effort to budget wisely and to shop the sales, we’re already saving $32-$36 a month.

So what was my grand total of what I spent pictured above? Right under $100. Not bad, but I still rather be spending a lot less! I don’t think we can get our groceries down below $350 a month, but my husband would like for us to get it down to $200 – $300.

Lately I’ve been cruising Pinterest for some favorite casserole or big dish recipes to help keep the budget at a decent level. Last week was the first time I tried a Pinterest dish (White Enchiladas), and it was a hit! My goal is to keep trying a new dish every week to expand our menu of cheap affordable items to be able to reach our grocery budget goal.

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I know there’s plenty of websites out there that can help us with this journey. However each family is unique, and I certainly know that mine is. I know the general price of a food item with our local grocery store and I also know what my husband will and won’t eat for left overs, and what food my children eat.

Our next meal we’re going to try this week is;

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The time has come. Recently my family and I have decided to have me quit my job and to stay home with our 8 month old and our 19 month old. This wasn’t a sudden decision for us. We tried many ways for me to stay at home with the kids. Unfortunately none of them worked out. Once we realized where the Lord was taking us, we took a leap of faith and jumped into the unknown. We realized that God was closing certain doors and opening others. My time at my recent employer was running out. I’ll be blunt about it. I’m certainly not one who would like to ruin my chances or get “dooced” (lose my job from talking about it). Since I have already left my employer, I may as well explain a bit of what brought us to the sudden decision.

For the past year we’ve been praying about ways where we can remain financially stable and to survive on one income. We thought of many ideas. We tried those ideas and they failed. It was very stressful for me to keep up with being a corporate employee and a mother/wife. I had to fit my family and my household duties in as little as two hours a day. I felt like a complete failure in my marriage and motherhood. My husband worked Saturdays, and Sunday we go to church. We never saw each other, and we never did family things. There was no time for a social life.

I now have a lot of ill feelings towards my latest supervisor at my last employer. My employer was great and I loved my job. I was good at it. With the change of tide a new supervisor came in riding her wave. When it comes down to it, if I was to still be employed, I could get an employment lawyer and file a lawsuit and win with the amount of stuff she tried pulling over my eyes. The lies, the retaliation, the unequal rights as an employee. I’m still in shock over everything that happened in the last two months.

Now here I am, pursuing what God has given to me. I’m now a SAHM. I want to explore the world of web design. I want to be a better mother. I want to be a better wife. I want to be a better person to myself, and I want to do what I love and get paid for it\.

So here we go folks. Subscribe to this blog and you will be automatically updated on my challenges. Learn along with me on how to do it. Watch me if I become successful or a failure. I’m interested to see how this is going to turn out, aren’t you?

Due to some unforseen circumstances, it seems like the blog has come to a grinding halt! I just wanted to let you all know that is not the case. We still have big plans. My husband has some ongoing job training that has left me pretty much feeling like this:

And this;

And I mostly do this before I had into work but with two babies:

We’re hoping the on-going job training will lead us to new opportunities for me to stay at home with my girls. Wouldn’t that be nice if we can live in the American Dream, with no debt? Can I get a “heck ya!” Come on, are you with me?!

Pss – We purchased some wood to get our shelving on in our laundry room. You’ll see the detailed progress at our new blog, once we get everything going over there. But no worries, you won’t miss a thing! Right now the wood itself is sitting dormant in our garage until things slow wwaaayy down back to the normal daily grind.

The last couple of days I’ve been busy trying to keep my house spotless and my sanity in tact. My in-laws were in town after Christmas for half the week, and what a tremendous help they were! Since my arm was still on hiatus during most of their visit, my mother in-law helped me do some much needed cleaning. When I got home I felt like I was in an oasis! And with that oasis, I was able to finally sort through two gigantic boxes of baby clothes age 0-6 months.

I tackled my youngest daughters closet next and moved all the 6-9 month clothes into her dresser and onto some hangers. Unknowingly, I had another huge amount of clothes to sort through from her hangers and dresser. I ended up piling them in the office while I take a breather. It took me almost two hours to sort through it all! I’m hoping to give it away to a family member come June. If not, I will be selling it at the Springfield JBF sale. I’m not looking forward to tagging all that!

In other weekend news, I’ve been watching and listening to what you want the most from this website. You’ve been curious about decorating and small kitchens. You’ve mostly been curious about how to make your house a home, and so therefore, that is what I’m going to bring to you. I’ve been working on some things on the back end and we’re going to make fallfordesign.com very similar to 7thhouseontheleft.com and younghouselove.com. After all, we’re blogging to get out dream house so why not make it all about our current house so we can get the dream house, right?! Does that make sense?

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We did for sure. We love seeing Chloe play with all her new things. Is anyone hitting u the after Christmas sales? Did you snag any good deals? We unfortunately wont be snagging much of anything. We spent Christmas Eve in the emergency room. My arm decided to quit working and I can’t lift anything. I’m typing with one hand and it’s extremely difficult! The ER doc says I have a sprained rotator cuff. We will hopefully know more later this week in regards to how I’m going to get fixed. Meanwhile, things are going to slow down here drastically until my arm gets better. I’m not talking about the blog, but im talking about projects to our house, Bummer! Keep us in your prayers!

As much as I’ve talked here and here about our dream home, it’s a pretty much given fact that we are inspired to put our house on the market. Our house isn’t exactly ready to sale. There’s a house down the street from us that has been on the market for over 6 months. There’s nothing wrong with it, and their house is clutter-free and they have a flowing design throughout the home. That’s the only difference between our house and theirs.

We once had all our rooms that were fully decorated. Yet hand me downs were given, furniture was passed on, decoration was given. Instead of gracefully declining to the gestures, we now filled our house with furniture and decoration and a lot of miss-matched ugly stuff. Plus, there’s this one specific wall art hanging in the hall way that I loathe each time I walk by.

The home I’m about to show you is the house that is for sale. We have the same floor plan, but our floor plan is switched. Their kitchen is on the left of the house, and ours is on our right. The bedrooms are opposite as well.

Here’s the picture of our comparative house. It’s clean and crisp and not a clutter in sight. It’s an open floor plan, where you can see the kitchen that has a bar with barstools. What’s wrong with our layout? We have two babies with toys spread through out the floor, DVD’s stacked in different places because Chloe likes to pull the DVD’s out of the TV stand and get inside to the DVD. We haven’t even thought twice for investing in bar stools.

This is our kitchen to a T. It’s about as small as a kitchen built in the 1940′s. I was fooled by the open counter space and the bar thinking I was upgrading my kitchen space when we purchased the house. Once we moved in, I realized I lost a whole set of cabinets. However our two pantries make up for the lost space. Just look at the black appliances and the color of the cabinets. The cabinets gracefully blend in with the floor and the countertops blend as well. Can we say yuck about the cabinets? In our comparative house, they have some sort of one-rack lamps over one side the bar and the kitchen sink. Can we saw awkward?

Here’s a view of the dinning nook with the kitchen bar. Beautiful. Our table is pushed against a wall due to a treadmill invasion (trying to kiss my baby weight goodbye). Our kitchen table is only used to gather three diaper bags, two lunch bags, a thousand coats and diapers and my purse and all sorts of bibles.

Our comparative house has a bit of a wider laundry room. They also have a shelf used for rags and decoration? We do not have any shelving unit, but I would absolutely love one. Our washer/dryer houses empty laundry baskets, my coat, purse, and laundry supplies. I would love a coat rack.

We use our pantry in the hall next to the kitchen for the same reason our comparative house uses theirs. There’s nothing fancy about this pantry, but ours looks like a bomb went off and we have cans stacked upon cans and boxes stacked upon boxes and things fallen over in there.

The comparative house uses their second pantry for pots, pans, and the place where their dog/cat sleeps? Our second pantry looks similar. We did have a third rack below the two racks you see in this picture. My husband removed it so we had a place to hang our coats. While this pantry is less cluttered, ours looks like a bomb went off in it as well. Call it a second explosion. Our first rack is full of bakeware that we hardly use, but we do use it from now and then. It’s also full of utility items like light bulbs and batteries. Our second rack is full of additional laundry things (fabric sheets), plastic/paper cups, spoons, forks and then your typical cleaning supplies. Under neath our coats is more cleaning supplies (it was a huge sale and we walked away with those things for free), paper towels, and a tool box that has been opened and never closed so we have a thousand nails laying all over the floor. Not to mention, any broom we have is laying against the wall in our second pantry, including our ironing board that is just laying there.

Our bedrooms are the same. This one is obviously less cluttered than theirs. When my husband redecorated our living room two summers ago, some of the extra items ended up in our bedroom. Now our bedroom looks like a lions din with all the tall fake plants. Not to mention we have a bookcase in their that has been cluttered over time. I will admit it that I have been known to have a water bottle collection (I’m thirsty what can I say), so the water bottles tend to collect on the nightstand on my side of the bed. Although I can proudly say there are only TWO water bottles present right now.

Our bathrooms are pretty much alike. Our comparative house has a bigger shower stall, our shower stall is pretty much made for a skinny person. Our tile is also an almost-white, but it’s certainly not the almost-tan to dark grey mix ‘n match that our comparative house has going on. So far I think our bathroom wins with the TV that’s hooked up perfectly positioned above the counter top. We can take a nice relaxing hot bath and watch our favorite TV show thanks to Dish Network’s wonderful technology of splitting our cable from the master bedroom to the bathroom.

Phew. We have a long way to go. We need to get our house up to par in regards to cleanliness, less clutter, more organization, and a few minor upgrades that should make our home number one compared to the house down the street. I mean who wants a kitchen where the cabinets match the floor? Yuckeroo!

PSS, Every morning I have a thousand bags that get piled into the car when I’m off to work the 8-5. One morning, one of the bags swung over the kitchen counter and grabbed the camera and knocked it down to the floor (naughty bag). Our camera has never woke up from the traumatic event. RIP little camera. I’m secretly hoping that Santa will bring me a new one or he’ll give me some cash to do so. I’ve been waiting for a better and clear/precise point and shoot vs. the repeated retakes to get the perfect picture. Thankfully the camera that is currently in a coma wasn’t a $1500 expense. I do have all kinds of ideas and pictures of our house to show you, but we will have to wait until after the new year for a camera to come into our possession. Boo. I know, right?!

If you have read our about section, you know that I’ve been around the blogging world since Dooce made it popular. Over time, I grew and with that growth so did other bloggers. I’ve lost internet friends due to the fun adventures of life that kept me out of the house and away from the computer, and blogs slowly disappeared. I couldn’t find bloggers that were in between being a young 18-year-old to a 27-year-old.

Now that I’m 29, I’m finding a plethora of bloggers out there who happen to blog in my niche. They blog about things that I want to know about. I should do more practice and more in life like these bloggers are, but I enjoy getting inspired by seeing how others do it. I’m going to nominate my top favorite blogs that have made it to my top 10 list in 2011. Why? Their my favorite because I’m a tad bit obsessed with DIY, home organizing, stay at home bloggers, kitchen remodels and house flipping for cheap. The best of all, these other women are mom’s too. Can’t get any better than that!

Best Home Decorating/organizing | iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

Best inspiration to be SAHM bloggers and DIY freaks | younghouselove.com

Home Remodeling with somewhat of a speed | 7thhouseontheleft.com
Makes you wonder that someone makes some big dough in that house!

These blogs are drool worthy. I wish that I could do that, or I can have that. The only thing that stops me is that the realization that hey, my debt is probably a lot less then theirs! I don’t know for a fact, but it could be since we aren’t doing any major renovations. We’re too busy cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, and working our tails off to keep the roof over our heads.

I’m curious, what are your favorite blogs and why?

Pss, For some reason this past week someone has pushed the Fast Forward button on my life. I was still stuck on Tuesday of last week and the rest slipped by me. Woops! Just so you know, I’ve been working feverishly on a subscription feature so you will be automatically updated once a new blog posts comes live. It’s better then hitting the refresh button! Stay tuned. We’re almost done!

What’s the point of making your own Christmas tags, or buying them for that matter, when they are FREE! Check out these beauties that are in abundance! I wish I had a laser printer so I can print these in their true beauty!

Black and white simple winter home Christmas tags

The Gifted Magazine has several printable Christmas Tags, like the example below.

Simple Reindeer Winter Christmas Tags

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Original Christmas Tags

Modern Christmas Tags

Black and White Christmas Tags

Green and Charcoal Christmas Tags

Christmas Shopping Gift Tags?

This year I designed our own Christmas cards. I handed them out at work today, and they were a hit! I received a lot of compliments on Rudolph. I’m calling this design “Rudolph Wishin’ you a Merry Christmas.”

I opened up an etsy account, and you can have the card yourself! Since it’s so close to Christmas, I made it available to e-mail you the template and you can print it at your local kinko’s store. Once you’re done printing you can trim the edges in the store. I designed it as a postcard so everyone can save a tree and not use an envelope.

I want to know, what is your favorite Christmas Card?