.. with a different blog.  I’ve been debating this for a while, so this week I finally decided to just go with it.  With some frustrations with my current blog software and other personal reasons, I’m changing blogs.  If you would like to follow me over, I would love to have you.  Please update your bookmarks or feeds.    I will be blogging at melissaann.typepad.com from now on.

We are renting a rather small house right now.  I actually think it’s pretty cozy, but sometimes it makes setting up personal spaces quite difficult.  I could, however, do without the wall paneling.  Before Bella, I had this one room all to myself.  How did I ever have so much ‘stuff’ I’ll never honestly know.  My sewing area was drastically downsized and squeezed into a corner of her room.  She doesn’t actually even use it.  The whole house is hers.  She has a bed that she has only ever slept in maybe twice.  Had a crib that she never slept in.  We co-sleep, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.  When she’s ready for her own space, it’s there.  I’ll just keep borrowing a corner of her room until that time comes,  or a new home comes into the picture.

Over the weekend I threw in the towel.  If I’m going to make changes to be the person I want to be, I had to start with surroundings and only use what’s most important to me.  This corner was my sewing table, but honestly I don’t sew as much as I would like.  My fabric stash was turning into an unorganized mess that I rarely use, and growing by the minute because I would buy fabric just because it was pretty.  It was a mess and every time I came in here my head was overwhelmed with options.  I can’t handle too many options.  So, I changed it.  I cut my stash down by at least a third, my quilt shop pal is going to help me sell it.  I should add that the top picture was taken after I began sorting through everything.  I’m not that cluttered normally.

As for my ‘new’ space, I love it.  It’s fresh and really opens up the room.  Moving my sewing machine off of the table to make a desk of sorts felt like a breath of fresh air.  I don’t feel pressured to sew when I really just want to upload my photos and read or study. We’re going to save up for a desktop, so I’m setting up my laptop here as I use the space.  I am just very thankful for my corner and hope good things come out of it.

. It was dreary all weekend. Deciding to stay home and do nothing was the best decision.

. Sleeping in on a saturday morning is rare, it was delightful.

. Bella refused naps, no matter where we tried to make it happen.

. The monster had a fit for ‘baby pizza’, hence the pizza hut. It wasn’t very good.

. Bought a little charcoal grill and put our old one by the sidewalk, it was gone within an hour.

. Charcoal grilled turkey burgers are delicious.

. Bella destroyed every room in the house at least 50 times over 48 hours.

. Tried a gluten free pancake mix this morning for breakfast and I think I like them more than ‘normal’ ones.

. Updated my iTunes and playlists. I don’t know why I haven’t done that, ever.

. Loving this song right now.

. Rearranged my sewing table/corner to be more of a desk/creative area and I’m loving it.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

The house is quiet, all except for a new playlist playing in the background.  As nice as it is to have some alone time, I’m feeling pretty lonely.  David is off to work and Bella is with her nana.  I could be using this time to do some cleaning, or something else productive, though I’m not.  I just feel drained, blah, and down right lazy.  It seems like all we do is work and work some more.  We need our vacations.  We need some time out of the house to just get away from it all for a while.  Disconnect and unwind.  It sounds so magical, or mystical, seeing as time off seems so far away.  It will happen, and it will be pure bliss when it does.

Wow.  Where did the last half of January and first half of February go?  Life passes way too quickly.

I’ve spent a lot of time the last few weeks thinking about the direction I want to go or who I want to be as a person.  I feel I have a pretty good grasp on it.  I’m basically ecstatic over the possibilities.   It feels good to not only dream, but to find ways to make those dreams come true.

While I’m over here dreaming, I’m also loopy from being a bit under the weather.  One day the weather is warm and sunny, the next it’s snowing.  Literally, it snowed here the other day.  It never snows here.  So along with the flurries came the sniffles.  Blah.  That’s how I feel.  I tried to cheer myself up by loading my very first slr film camera.  I’m nervous about using it.  Silly right?  I did grow up using cameras before the digital age.  It’s different now, though.  I took one photo of my tea kettle.  How exciting, I know. I’m a thrill seeker.  Hear me roar.  I even worked at one of those drug store film developing centers after high school.  I hated it.  I smelled like chemicals at the end of the day and I was so tired of loading canisters.  Who knew that 15ish years later I would wish I could remember what I learned back then about the processing portion.  Actually, I forgot I even had that job until recently.  It’s  official, I’m losing my mind.

Last year, my instagram feed was flooded with the talk of Project Life.  I wanted to do it, though felt like I had to start right at January, so I waited.  Waited a whole year.  I don’t have any fancy scrap booking supplies, plus I feel like I have zero scrap booking creativity.  Actually, I don’t even get a fuzzy feeling at the thought of scrap booking.  Yet there was something about this project life stuff that caught my attention.  I’ve googled and used pinterest to try to find some simple inspiration.  I think I have figured out how I want to document a year of our life.  I want simple and uncluttered. I can’t get into all the frou frou ribbons, bows, and the multitude of full blown scrapping.   It’s just not for me, so please don’t take offense if you’re into it.  I just want to keep it simple.  Photos and words.

Speaking of projects and photos,  I have several photo based projects going on at once.  They are mostly part of my 2013 goals, but they all work together.  I decided to attempt a 365 project once again.  I have tried it twice and have twice failed.  I think I over thought my previous attempts.  Thinking that every photo had to be perfect, had to have meaning.  Really and truely, I’m too busy to do that every single day.  Some days I barely remember to wear shoes out the door to work.  So this year, it’s going to be simple.  I also started a 365 project using my phone.  Which I find is absurdly easier for me to accomplish than the other.  Maybe it has something to do with the reminders I have set up on my phone.   Either way, using both of these projects will allow me to fill up our Project Life album without an issue.  I like that.

I am hoping to do a weekly share of the layout from each week.  I’m going to tinker with my printer today to see if I can manage printing on my own.  Otherwise I am using Mpix for my prints.  I am over the moon with choosing them.  A side note – to anyone trying to learn photography and become better – if you’re discouraged by the way your photos look after being printed at a pharmacy or what not, try a more professional lab.  I had no clue that these 1-hour printing labs automatically added contrast and color boosting to your photos.  I was so upset that my pictures looked so terrible and I thought it was me.  It wasn’t.  I’m willing to now pay a little bit extra and wait a few days for prints.  Completely worth it.

Anyone else doing Project Life or something similar?

Today was the day that I was finally fed up.  I woke up with a half contrived plan to get our house in order.  It wasn’t dirty, just messy.  Okay, maybe you could draw a masterpiece in the dust, completely beside the point.  The table and tops of the bookshelves had become a storage area of emptied pockets, mail, crafting supplies, and whatever else we were too lazy to find a proper place for.  It all drives me mad.  I’ve often wonder about this clean for a short period of time daily business that I often read about across the net.  Maybe something like that would work for us.

Until I get a steady routine, however, I’ll just continue my every so often manic, all day, cleaning party.

I love the feeling of time slamming on the breaks right when January hits.  Life seems to take a turn for the slow lane.  The hustle and bustle from the holidays are over.  It’s like breathing a sigh of relief.  No deadlines to make.  Work somewhat returns to normal.  I can relax.  We can relax.  New and promising projects are thought up and nurtured.  Resolutions are carefully planned out with good intentions, always promising to never let them fall to the wayside.  Maybe this year they won’t.  Who knows, I promise I will not beat myself up if they, by chance, do.  I love a new year.  A clean slate to write another chapter of life on.

I can finally share some of the gifts I was making.   Bella gave my mom a candle so I made a sweet little candle mat to go with it.  Add to that a set of Calla Coasters, the pattern from Purl Bee.  I was almost greedy and kept them.  For my sister I stitched up a mug rug using the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery pattern.  I was sleepy and made a few mistakes, but she still loved it.  I also made her a coffee cup cozy that I guess I never took a picture of.  For a simple gift for other family members, I topped this summers jams with a cupcake liner and tied a bit of twine around the lid.  I wish I could say I was brilliant enough to think that up, but I had seen the idea somewhere, I just can not remember where at the moment.  It was most likely pinterest.

My wonderful sister also went the handmade route.  She made a painted canvas for me that had a wooden spoon attached and she stenciled a Julia Child quote on it.  I cried.  It made me realize that she does know me.  Sometimes I feel like we’re so far apart from each other, she proved me wrong.  I love her more for that.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this holiday season, however you celebrate it.  As crazy excited as I was to see it come, I’m happy to see it over.  It was fun and sugar filled.  Memories have been made, traditions started, and plenty of photos to document and cherish later.   Now it’s time to kick my feet up, munch on a peppermint white chocolate oreo, sip on some hot tea, relax, and enjoy the quiet for a moment.