My Happiness Experiment

Animal House!

2012-09-06T23:53:00.000-04:00

I love my crafts and DIY house projects I really love knitting too but there is something else living at our house that has stolen my heart as well! I love animals. When asked as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up the answer was without question a Veterinarian, of course after I grew out of my ballet obsession. Which no one understood because I never took a ballet lesson. Not even one! I did get a glimpse of a class once and it was fantastic!

So throughout my life I have always worked with animals in some fashion. I volunteered as a young teen at a vet clinic, worked for a vet as an assistant and then went on to do grooming for Petco and lastly for a Vet clinic. All of this was before I had my wonderful children.

So last year when I saw an ad for a Sun Conure naturally I was curious about it. I had hand fed baby birds when I worked at Petco some years before and when I found out the lady had already homed the bird I was sad to say the least but right before she hung up she offered me the number of a breeder that had some Conures she thought were available.

I heehawed a little before calling but thought it was a good sign when she answered right away and told me that she had a baby that was being fed 3-4 times a day and was around 4 weeks old! I was so excited I almost couldn't contain myself. I promptly said I wanted him and told my husband. She even offered to meet me half way as it was a 2 hr drive. How nice of her!

So this was about a year ago and Rio who I handfed with formula 3 times a day until he was weaned and taught to step-up and several other tricks is a big part of our family everyday now. Sorry about the run ons in this! lol I get excited and spew out all my thoughts at once!
Here is a picture of Rio taken a couple days ago I will post some baby ones too.

My most recent moment with Rio, on his cool window perch above my kitchen window.

Rio stealing my pen top while I am trying to write!

This was him before all of his beautiful feathers came in.

This is how Rio Slept as a baby! He still does sometimes!

It's September!

2012-09-01T23:42:00.003-04:00

I don't think I have ever wanted to welcome fall the way I do this year. For some reason I was super excited about summer this year, probably because my oldest started Kindergarten last year and I couldn't wait for him to get a long welcomed break from the dreaded routine. I don't know which one of us is worse with routines!

So I pulled out some of my little favorite things and dressed up my mantle in anticipation of fall! Even though it was almost 90 degrees here today I forged ahead with fall things. I did pick up my lovely pilgrim people on the right at Hobby Lobby. I could spend a fortune there. I dont know what everyone thinks about the light up wicker pumpkin but cheeky be damned I love it, and I am not afraid to plug it in! LOL!

Yes the top pictures are not that great but show the overall look, my favies are with the candles lit.

Leave me a comment with a link and I would love to come check out your fall decor.

My Little Farm

2012-08-24T12:53:00.002-04:00

Using my Dad's camera I have taken some pictures around our little home in the woods! I was so proud when I took these pictures of all the hard work it has taken to get to where we are with this house. The yard is no exception. This year has been full of first's with us. We started chickens this year for the first time and we also started our rabbitry this year which will take it's own post to share! I love just checking out pictures sometimes! I am no professional photographer but had fun with this!

Pottery Barn Type Boys Headboards

2012-08-20T17:08:00.002-04:00

All finished! I made two of these! One for each boy!

I meant to publish this post many moons ago but I have been carried away with so many things that I am just now finding the time to get to it! My boys love them!

Time Flies!

2012-08-20T17:06:00.002-04:00

It has been so long since I have made a post that I log in to find that blogspot has completely changed their entire set up! I cant' say I am displeased but it will take me a little time to get used to the new layout!

Ugh... I started this blog if I remember correctly to help myself grow and keep track of things along the way, one major thing was of course getting over some really negative things that have happened to me in the past. I fear in this very moment I am not quite where I wished I would be by now. But who am I to set a time line to heal from fear and anxiety, and a disastrous marital separation?
So I am reevaluating where and what the hell I am doing day to day and where I want to end up cause I gotta admit the path I have been on as of late will lead me no where but back to the ER with heart palpations and severe stomach problems. (Stress of course)!
I have found myself at a point where I am overwhelmed, unhappy, and physically sick from it all. This is not the description of the woman I dreamed of becoming when I was a child. So why am I describing myself as this at all?? Very frustrating to say the least but it is my fault after all I have taken on way too much not taken time to forgive and move forward. Mostly for a lack of not knowing how to heal from some major emotional blows, yet another reason to revisit my purpose of this blog and what I am going to do to heal myself.
I appreciate comments and helpful suggestions of course, tread lightly I plead because I am very raw, honest and vulnerable through this!

p.s. the pic at the top was a tatoo I was wanting to get! I know doesnt really go with the text but it's all about random thoughts and growth right?!

Obsessed

2012-01-23T22:42:00.004-05:00

I sat down to do what I find myself doing almost obsessively lately. Scouring the internet and my mind for ideas and things that I might possibly do to make money.

None of which seem to fit into my lifestyle.

There are a few that stand out to me sometimes, like blogging and freelance writing online but let's face it... actually making a living from this type of work is sorta like being able to sell an original art piece I made this year for money!

I feel almost plagued with ideas of things that are just out of reach, such as a brick and mortar store, one where people want to come and buy things from me.

Or when I wanted to hand raise birds. I constantly have some sort of idea that fits what I want to do but I am lacking some fundamental thing required to pull it off. Just an hour ago I thought about going to cosmetology school.

My latest and one that has stuck with me was to start an "ask" column but it sounds romantic in my head and seems that people don't really rely on such things anymore since there is you-tube and Google.

I know it's bad and I should probably start some sort of online group for people that also share in the fact that they cant stick with one crazy job at a time.

I find that I feel obligated to make money even though my main job and concern is my two young boys. I just hate the strain I feel I put on my husband. I know he supports me in staying home with them and I feel it is the right thing to do but flawed as I am still feel like I could do more and do better and by that I mean make some money.

All is not lost I hope, I know there is something out there for me. Something that will keep my mind busy and occupied and something that will not demand me to travel, (your thinking across state or country and I am thinking more than 5 miles outside my home). So if you pray please pray to whom ever is in charge of such things as career and health and wealth.

Little Tutu's!!

2011-11-09T13:25:00.006-05:00

This is a removable headpiece I made to go on a shirt front or headband. I love the feathers!
This pic was taken with my phone and little blurry! Not to mention the extreme mess! It does not look that bad now... we had just moved in and I was trying to finish projects and unpack at the same time.

So over the summer I worked on little girls tutu's for a photographer friend of mine and she has posted some pics of some of her photo shoots with the little ones in them! There are more than what you see here and when she posts the pics I will too! I did the hair piece in the top one, it has feathers and is really cute. It is a little cute off in the photo so you cant see the whole thing but it's cute!

I don't want to forget to say thank you to Graphite Photography for shooting wonderful pics! You can find them at Graphitephoto.com.

Headboards Galore

2011-07-13T17:24:00.004-04:00

Some very fancy work, so romantic.

This is sooo creative and I love the casual look to it.

Seriously thinking about doing this! I love the little ledge they built for the lamp!

Today I am not feeling well... I caught the dreaded summer cold that my kids are still recovering from. For anyone who knows me well I hate to get sick! I feel like I am not accomplishing enough when I have to rest and try to get well.

To cheer myself up though I was wandering around Better Homes and Gardens online looking at headboards. I recently built my little boys two twin headboards from bead board and crown moulding. They are not finished yet (being painted) but as soon as they are I will post pics!

Until I can get some pics up on the ones I am working on here are some great ideas from Better Homes and Gardens that I love. I might save one of these ideas for my bedroom soon!

Ugh.

2011-07-11T15:32:00.006-04:00

Ever have one of those moments that turns into several days where you feel unmotivated and libel to spontaneously jump up and run out the front door get in the car and drive until you forget about everything?

Well I am... and it has been 4 days of that. I keep fantasizing about driving east until I literally run into the ocean and just collapsing on the sand while everything in reality stands still or even better yet melts away. As motivated as my mind is to do that I break my daydream and look around to find a house that is slowly falling down around me and kids running around screaming and not taking turns with anything.

I feel like there is lead in my butt. Yes I think that is a new technical term... lead butt.

All is not lost though, poison ivy can only last for so long right? After reading this post everyone is probably wondering why it is not named desperate housewife?! I feel slightly better, thanks for reading.

Coming Soon

2011-07-09T22:35:00.002-04:00

So I have been working on a ton of cool things lately... my favorite right now being little girls tutus! I have to admit I have no girls and never really thought in my testosterone ridden home I would ever have the need to design and make tutus but it has happened.

I traded services with a local photographer and my end of the deal was to make two tutus from some pics that she chose as inspiration. I was sooo excited but never imagined how much work these would be. As soon as I get the pics from her I will post them on here and my etsy store! Until then...

I have been looking on you tube for cool videos of new things to do with my hair. I stumbled on this particular one Here.

This very talented woman has a bunch of videos on youtube and she is crazy talented. Check out some of her how to's.

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T23:08:00.003-04:00

I felt the need to make a post that was relevant to Memorial Day because although my husband is safe and made it through 3 tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait many others did not. I had a lot of time today remembering what it was like to worry about him overseas and imagining how we would go on if something happened to him.

I am beyond thankful that he made it through those grueling times and came home safe to us. I pray for the families of those who never had that reunion with their loved ones and tonight while he is out still protecting and serving his country at the county level, I wait patiently for him to walk through the door safe and well.

God bless our soldiers and the people who make our country what it is today.

I am back!

2011-05-27T00:30:00.002-04:00

There are a million things I have wanted to say but made numerous excuses as to why I shouldn't. For some time I have been going through some very rough issues and tried desperately to not deal with them and after a long time of not feeling well and several doctor appointments I finally figured out why I was so sick and now after quite some time and a big move I am back.
Ok, I will kill the suspense and share that the doc says to stay off gluten and after 10 weeks of no gluten I have felt a ton better.
I have to admit that before my little break I was pretty depressed about how I felt I was not measuring up in the blog world and now that I am back it is my goal to not tell myself that what I am doing is not as great as the next persons. I am aspiring to own my own business and struggling with how to make that happen.

If you read this far... kudos to you~ Thank you for your support! I will post pictures soon of the new house and try to redo my blog!

Spring Done Pottery Barn Style

2011-02-17T13:48:00.003-05:00

You can't help but love Pottery Barn when you see wonderful things like this. I can't wait for spring to come! I am excited as all get out to be moving into a house finally! Just a little over a month left and I will be in my new home. I cant wait to start spring off in a new place with a wonderful yard to work with. This would look great in my new garden! Lol... my husband would not want to see the price tag of this thing! It will remain a dream for a while I am sure!

~Jessica

Police Man

2011-02-12T01:02:00.003-05:00

I am sitting up very late again tonight unable to sleep... missing my hubbie. I don't think I have ever mentioned this before but my husband is a police officer. Bless his heart, he works soooo much and takes part time jobs to make extra money to help us get our family to where it needs to be. I am so grateful for his hard work and we work together to make it all happen. We miss him at dinner time and bedtime and story time. We miss him on holidays and weekends and little league soccer games. Some days it feels impossible to pull this schedule another day until I say a little prayer that my husband comes home safe and I realize that even the little time I have with him is worth it all.

He has to sleep in most mornings since he is out really late and my favorite thing to do is to creep into the bedroom and sneak under the covers to curl up next to him for a few minutes before I have to get dressed and go on with my day. I wrap my arms around him and squeeze him tightly and kiss his neck and say a little prayer that I get to do this forever.
I realize how short life is and how quickly it can be taken away. I think about his on a daily basis, wondering if my husband will come home safely.

I do my best to keep my head up and think positively. I love my husband and I am so grateful for him in my life.
The next time you see a police officer, remember that they have a wife and children at home that are missing them while they are out driving the roads and responding to calls. Please respect them when they are trying to uphold the law and keep the peace. They more than deserve it for the terrible hours they work and the ungrateful people who snub them or are rude to them. Without the police our world as we know it would not be possible. Just remember they risk their lives on a daily basis to provide safety for the public. Oh... and they do not get paid nearly enough for this!

Ok I am off my soap box. Good night.
~Jessica

Grocery Bag Thingy!

2011-02-07T12:39:00.003-05:00

I know that is probably not the technical name for what this is but that is what I have been calling it ever since my husband came home and said "What is that?" In a condescending voice no less. To which I answered... " A grocery bag thingy!" So now that he has seen it actually working he smiled at me the other day and said "now I get it!"

It is pretty straight forward. I wanted to make one of these for a long time and kept putting it off. I don't even know why. But better late than never! I decided to give this a little quilted look so I used some scraps I had from various projects.

First I cut all of my pieces. I made them all the same length but different widths. I wanted a finished size of 17 inches on each side of my square. So I divided 17 by three and got 5.6 so I rounded down to 5.5 and made the scraps 5 1/2 inches long and varied the width. After all were cut and pressed I sewed the strips together and pressed all of my seams.

If your like me you have to square things up when your done sewing! So I did and pressed my square. Then I just made two pockets for elastic, 1/4 in elastic to be exact. I made one opening larger for the top and the bottom smaller where the bags will be pulled out.

Then with wrong sides together sewed it up the side, turned it right side out and made a handle out of more scraps. Once I sewed on the handle I was finished! I wanted to take pictures throughout the project but my batteries in my camera were not charged and my old little tiny camera is awful as you can see in these pics!

I hung this in my pantry door organizer and I love it! So much better than staring at balls of plastic bags everywhere. What do you think?

House Blues

2011-02-07T12:16:00.005-05:00

This house hunting thing is becoming a nightmare inducing experience. I am so stressed about it.

At first I was so excited and couldn't wait to go looking at houses, now I am dreading having to go back out today. It is very cold and none of these places have heat so we are freezing walking around trying to look at them. There is a pattern emerging after seeing 25 houses in the last 2 weeks and that is everything I like or think has potential my husband either doesn't like the neighborhood or hates the yard. He wants a house with a big yard that is fenced in and private, and level which is near impossible here because it is so hilly ( I don't know about that word!).

So needless to say I am plain exhausted and feeling the time crunch as we only have 3 weeks left in this apartment.

Crafting Halt!

2011-01-28T23:50:00.003-05:00

I know that I just made this big deal about starting to work my way through a sewing book that I had neglected for quite sometime, and it looks like it will again be returned to the shelf or more like a cardboard box for an undetermined amount of time.

My life has taken many unexpected turns over the last five years and it looks like this will be move number six for me and my family! We are looking for a house but running out of time in the apartment we are in. It looks like we will be moving to another apartment temporarily until we can find a home and close.

House hunting is becoming quite daunting and disappointing. What you want is never within your budget of course... that is to be expected. But I found two this week that I was willing to put an offer on and they were snatched up before I could even sign a piece of paper! I am learning to be more patient but hate moving with my little ones so much.

I know I have to relax and not worry so much about it. But knowing and doing are far from each other. So all of the plans I had for Valentine's Day crafts will put away most likely until next year while I am packing. I wonder what I am to do while I am unable to have access to my crafts stuff. I will have to bore people with my rambling about daily things and my house hunting escapades! I hope everyone is having a great day and staying warm in this awful weather.

~Jessica

Big Man's 3rd Birthday!

2011-01-17T22:49:00.002-05:00

The Birthday Man!!! Turned 3 officially at 11:19 pm on the 17th of January! I know it is cliche to say that time flies; but it really has. I got a set of face paints and painted a spider web on everyone's face. It was really fun and I cant believe I never did this at any of the other birthdays I have done for my older son.

These were the frugal treat bags I did for all the kids to collect the pinata candy in!

I wish I could take credit for all of the baking but I definitely had help from the baking guru aka: my hubbie on this one.

The piece de resistance was this cake! My hubbie deserves all of the credit for drawing this awesome spiderman face on this cake! It was a huge hit. Everything went wonderfully without a problem and I am so grateful to have had all of the wonderful friends and family come together to celebrate my little man's day!

2011-01-14T23:54:00.002-05:00

I just had to feature this idea today! This is from Madelyn at Sharing the Wealth! I know I am slow to jump on the "featuring" bandwagon but better late than never! I just love how simple but how adorable this project is. I will have to make this! I want to hang it in my kitchen.

New Year New Projects!

2011-01-13T19:06:00.003-05:00

( My big boy helping out)

So it is a new year and with it already so many new challenges. Like the snow/ice storm that has stalled all of Atlanta since Monday. I am getting a major case of cabin fever from this! I haven't been able to get out of my drive way all week. It makes me wish for the middle of summer. Although the middle of summer is super hot here; such drastic temperature differences from season to season.

I thought I would try out a challenge that I enjoyed, and chose this book that I have been promising to pay attention to for a while. I figure one yard of material or round about would work out well as I am trying to be frugal these days. Haha... that is another post all together. So I figure one project roughly every two weeks would be easy enough to keep up with. I will post pics and make comments on how well I think the instructions work! Some projects come with little patterns that have to be blown up! Lol! I don't have a great track record with blowing things up. Unless they are birthday cakes in my oven when I am 8 months pregnant and in a hurry! Lol, that is yet another post all together. So wish me luck. I am excited about doing this. I have a tendency to start things like this and end up quiting for one reason or another but I really want to finish it! All encouragement is welcome. :)

January

2011-01-02T16:02:00.002-05:00

I have not had the energy or the time to post lately due to the holidays and traveling and unfortunately being very sick. It started with the kids and worked it's way to me, and it is lasting a while.
I had a bunch of Christmas projects I finished and took pics of but didn't get around to editing or posting any of them! I guess I will be totally prepared for next year. January and February are always my least favorite times of the year, mostly because of the short daylight hours and the cold. Everything seems to come to a stand still. I almost wish I could be like a bear and find a cave to hibernate in until it's all green and sunny again. There is one good thing about January and that is it's my littlest ones birthday month. He will be 3!!!, on the 17th. I cant believe it has been three years already. I know it sounds cliche to say that time has flown, but it really has! Three years ago feels like a year... maybe. It's kinda sad that the older I get and the more I learn to slow down and enjoy moments the faster they seem to go. I guess that is just the way things work.
Well I have a lot on my plate! I have a 3yr olds birthday party to plan! I hope everyones holiday was wonderful and brought everything they desired. Happy January!
( that was my attempt at being positive about it being my least favorite season and month!)

Christmas Ball Tree!

2010-12-17T14:38:00.004-05:00

I know this is not the best picture, but when I am working on craft projects it is usually late at night and I have to use a flash which is terrible on my camera! If you can get past the bad photography I kinda like this project. I used a foam cone and wraped it with garland and then just randomly glued some christmas balls all over. To top it I found a cute star thingy ( that is a technical term) and literally stuck it into the styrofoam. I am really thinking about giving this to my mother -in- law. Let me know what you think and leave me a link in the comments if you made one. I love seeing what you are all up to :)

Featured!

2010-11-30T18:21:00.002-05:00

Yay, so I was featured! Thank you so much, it really made my day!
I am always in awe of how wonderfully creative and talented the ladies on here are and feel so great that someone chose me to feature. Thank you ladies!

What to do?

2010-11-28T15:50:00.004-05:00

I have been so busy lately with the Thanksgiving holiday and the end of another quarter at school... which I think I decided will be my last for a little while. I have agonized over this decision for weeks now. Knowing that winter break was coming soon I knew I was going to have to make a decision to transfer to another school or talk some time off. My children are still rather young and I feel so guilty taking away from them to work on school. I also have no family help and rely on just my husband and I to take care of my children, which has become too much seeing as how he works all the time! I am running out of time to study and have no down time anymore. It's just too much for one person. I spend so much time trying to balance it all and I just wanna drop it and do nothing lately. Well not nothing... that would probably drive me batty too. :)

I also have been agonizing over what to do about my son going to school. My husband and I are not in the home and or area we wanted to be in by the time we were ready to send my oldest to school. Things happen I guess but I don't know if I should put him in the local public schools ( they are terrible) or if I should home school him. There are so many pros and cons to both. I am having trouble figuring out what to do. If you have any thoughts on the subject please let me know. I could use any and all advice right now. I love the ladies out in the blog world. You guys always have some great advice and supportive things to say.

Christmas Wreath!

2010-11-21T15:18:00.003-05:00

I wanted to share my latest project. I am so excited about finally finishing this! I totally underestimated how many Christmas balls I was going to need and ended up having to send my poor husband to the store twice in one evening. What a sport he was about it too! If you read this... thank you babe! You make all of my crafting creations come true, without you I would not be able to indulge in all of these fun things. So back to my wreath, this was something I saw a picture of in the holiday edition of Good Housekeeping and of course fell in love with. So I cannot take credit for the idea, but it's still awesome!

For this I used... and I lost count by the way but somewhere around 90 balls altogether! Thank goodness Walmart has a great price on Christmas balls. I used a rather large floral wreath, flat on the front and back. How could I forget about 2 packs of hot glue sticks, and a huge helping of patience. I still after all of the hot gluing of balls had some tiny spots between that I didn't like so I cut some garland into small pieces and stuffed them between in random spots. That satisfied me, and to finish it up I added the little joy sign! So it's completed and I am very pleased. What do you think? If you have made one I wanna see it too, so leave me a comment and a link and I would love to check it out.