I really liked it. 3 thumbs up.

Dear Grandpa,

This is the first year in my life that this has been Valentine’s Day and not your birthday.  I learned I don’t care that much about Valentine’s Day.  Here’s to the 96 years we got to celebrate you and the life you lived.  And here’s to today and sharing memories with grandma about what we loved most about you.  You are still so loved.

Bec

I shot this video on my iphone with the 8MM app and edited on my phone with the Splice app.  Weather courtesy of Mother Nature. Music courtesy of Paper Route

My mom also came to visit and we spent some time at the hardware store picking out different elements for several remodel projects at my parents’ house.  Lots of time spent in the tile aisle and lighting!  So fun to get to pick out some of the elements.  My parents’ built their house and I grew up in it my whole life so it is fun to still be a part of things.  We had the cutest cashier in the world.  His name was Bob and his cousin is from my hometown and my parents know him well!  Too funny.

In the midst of our crafting frenzy, Seth broke the news about Whitney Houston.  I loved Whitney and was saddened in the past few years by her struggle with addiction.  We took a mid-crafting break to belt out “I Will Always Love You.”

After my first project was completed, I dove right into the next one which is already showing promise.

Now I am giving my fingers a break and trying to mentally prepare for crosswalk duty tomorrow morning when it is supposed to be absolutely freezing and possibly snowing.  SICK.

Hope your weekends were fabulous!

I was able to move the majority of my craft supplies out of our spare closet which means 99% of my supplies are accessible in this space!  The bins and shelving to the left were originally in the closet.  I went through all the drawers and re-organized my scrapbooking/paper crafting supplies as well as pared down on some of the stuff I don’t see myself using.  The rest went into the desk drawers.

I was able to clear out a drawer to give my massive ribbon collection a new home.  No, it doesn’t bothered me that they are so messy.  I’m in and out of this drawer enough that it would never stay organized – even if I tried!

I cleared out a smaller set of drawers that used to hold all kinds of old pens and pencils.  Most of those got pitched or reorganized into another space.  I emptied out the contents of my sewing basket into the drawers and now everything is much easier to find/accessible rather than digging around in the basket.

But, because I love my sewing basket (it was hand made by a lady in Alaska!), it got a new life as my button basket!  My collection has been slowly growing and the basket is roomy enough that it makes it easy to dig around in.

The last thing to get a new home were my paints.  They had originally been crammed into one of those tiny white drawers you see under my scrapbook papers.  Talk about crowded.  I got a bunch of Martha paints for Christmas and there was just no way they were all going to fit anymore.  I found this bin at The Container Store and it nicely holds all my paints (with a tiny bit of spare room) as well as my watercolors and all my brushes and painting supplies.  It slides easily under the bed in here so they are just a step away from my corner.

So there you have it – a personal tour of my new favorite space!

We’ve been having some gorgeous winter sunsets around here.

After the most mild winter I have ever experienced (last week was mostly in the 60′s), we finally got a massive snowstorm.  Yuck.

Now that I have a craft corner, I’ve been working on getting every little crafty supply organized and into its new home.  No small feat when you dabble in just about everything!

Our past 2 weekends have been super busy, but this week is a short one at school so I look forward to the upcoming long weekend.  Hoping to get to spend some creative time in my new space rather than cleaning/organizing it.

1. Hoover Dam

The history nerd in me says this id a definite must see.  Plus my mom might kill me if I was that close and didn’t go see it.  And the regular nerd in me says “that’s where they hid Megatron and the All Spark!”  Yep.  I love me some Transformers.

2. Bellagio Fountains

Everyone that I’ve known who have gone to Vegas say the Bellagio Fountains are a must.  I’m easily entertained so lights and dancing water will be a big hit for me.  Well, as long as they are as fancy as everyone else makes them out to be.

3.  Neon Graveyard

I’m going to be doing engagement photos for Katrina while I’m out there and I think this place would be AMAZING to get some shots at.  And I just really like old stuff in general.  Especially quirky, old stuff.

4. Tattoo Parlor

JUST KIDDING MOM!

5.  Aunt Jean and Uncle Ray

Aunt Jean is on the far right.  She’s now 93 and Uncle Ray is 97.  They’ve been married over 70 years.  The best part?  In a city the size of Las Vegas, they live about a mile away from Katrina (right across a golf course).  So, I’m hoping to visit with them while we’re there.  They’ve never met Seth and I haven’t gotten to see them for years.

We’ll do all the normal Vegas strip stuff as well, but these are the things I am most looking forward to.  Feel free to add your suggestions if you’ve been!

So, back to the living in an apartment being not wonderful.  If Seth didn’t have so much computer stuff and I didn’t have so much craft stuff, it would be fine.  Since Seth’s computer stuff is work related, we’ve always had a designated area for him.  We haven’t been able to make a place for me to craft that doesn’t include the dining room table or the living room table.  Therefor, in an effort to keep the apartment cleaner, I haven’t been creative lately.

This past weekend we took some steps to work towards me having a creative space and still make room for guests, our own sleeping space, and Seth’s computer stuff.  For a couple of hours, this was the reality that was our apartment.

Our master bedroom was the bigger of the two bedrooms.  It is also attached to the master bath and walk in closet.  It made sense when we moved in to use that as our main bedroom.  Over the past couple of years our guest room has become more crowded while our bedroom stayed basically empty (bed, dresser, nightstands).  Over the weekend we swapped the rooms.  Since all we do is sleep in our bedroom, it makes sense to use the smaller of the two rooms to sleep in and the larger room to have our computer area and crafting area.  We’ll sleep in the guest room (our old room) when guests come so we still have access to our bathroom and closet so there aren’t really any negatives to this move.

Some people might think we are nuts, but when it comes to being wise with the space you are given, we were wasting space.  We are hopefully getting another desk in a couple of weeks to switch out with Seth’s so I can have a craft desk and then I’ll be able to show final reveal pictures.

Are you using your spaces wisely?

Then it happened.

The second day of this brand new year.  The day before winter break was to end and I have to go back to school.  I decide that best way to spend my time is to make cinnamon rolls to send to work with Seth and I in hopes it will help cure the first day back blues.  I realized I was short a few ingredients so I made the 3 minute trip to Wal-Mart.

What you need to know about January 2, 2012 is that it was a wickedly windy kind of day.  Like knock your breath out kind of wind.  Like probably should just stay home and forget about making cinnamon rolls kind of wind.

I got excited because there was a decently close parking spot.  No sooner had I hit the door handle to open my door, the wind took it from me and slammed into the car next to me.  Shoots.  Major shoots.  It hit so hard.  I was so sure there was going to be a mega huge dent in their car and definitely in our door.  I got out to survey the damage – nothing. PHEW.  I could not believe my luck.  So, I scurried in to Wally Land, got my ingredients, and headed back out to my car.

As I came around to my door, my heart sank.  The mirror on the other car was hanging off and just dangling in the wind.  My door must have knocked it loose and then the wind knocked it off while I was inside.  My heart sank.  I got in my car.  I’m ashamed to say my first thought was, “get the heck out of here before anyone sees that!”  Then the adult in my brain took over and said, “you know what to do.”  Now, Walmart is pretty huge and ours doesn’t have the PA system like the Walmarts of old (or at least they never use it).  I figured the next best thing would be to leave a note (tucked safely under the wiper of course to protect it from the gale force winds).  I said what had happened and then gave my name and phone number.

As I drove home, the guilt crept in.  I’d just broke someone’s car.  Someone who had two baby seats in the back of their car.  I had no clue what a new mirror would cost, but I sure bet it was at least the rest of my Christmas money.  Would they call the cops?  Should I have stayed?  When I got home, Seth was convinced we needed to go back.  My parents’ were split – 1 saying the note was fine, 1 saying we needed to go back.  After a slight emotional breakdown, we hopped in the car and headed back over together in hopes that we could just wait until they came out and then explain what happened.

Just as we were pulling up to the end of the row, the car I had broken pulled out.  A whole family – mom, dad, and two little babies were nestled in the car while their poor side mirror dangled precariously on the side.  I started waving and Seth started honking.  They didn’t seem to be noticing.  Or maybe they noticed and thought we were nuts.  Either way, I am pretty sure I jumped out of the car before Seth got it fully stopped and chased after them.  That was enough to get them to stop and roll down their window.  While my eyes started to water, I admitted “I broke your car.”  The lady (who couldn’t have been much older than me) turned to me and said, “it’s ok – it was an accident.”  Being the emotional person that I am and feeling extreme guilt, I blubbered out, “Let me know how much the repairs cost so I can help out.”  That’s when I lost it and the tears came spilling out.

And the lady said to me, “Hey.  Look at me.  It is forgiven,” and then she smiled at me.

They rolled up their window and drove away and I took a minute to go over what she had just said to me.  I had been so wracked with guilt and worry that I never thought to think that maybe they would forgive me and move on.  Especially not so quickly.  I mean, I broke their car.  How could they forgive me so quickly while I still felt so bad about it? I haven’t heard from them so I hope they were able to get it fixed and it didn’t cost them an arm and a leg.  They definitely don’t know that their mirror getting busted was, in the end, a wonderful thing to have happened to me because it taught me something else about forgiveness.

See, the funny thing about forgiveness is, sometimes you have to forgive yourself first before you can accept someone else’s forgiveness.  And sometimes the Big Guy knows just how to teach us that lesson.

All around blogland I see people picking their “word for 2012.”  I don’t want just a word, I want an action.  Something I actually have to put effort into.  So, for 2012 I am choosing forgiveness.  While 2011 has given us some hard moments, God has also chosen to bless me and my family in many ways.  I need to repay those blessings by learning to forgive.  I am one of those people who can hold a grudge for forever.  Literally.  I need to forgive that middle school bully.  The friend that stabbed me in the back in high school.  The person who cut me off on the interstate when I was in a bad mood.  Even people within my own family circle.  Saying I’m sorry can be so easy, but meaning it can be so hard.

So 2012 is the year I will work to let go of my grudges and truly enjoy those around me without having that burden of bitterness to carry around.  Because I’ve seen first hand what holding on to that bitterness can do to a person and that’s just the type of person I’m needing to forgive.

What will you be making of this new year?