In the Year 35

Image from ETSY http://www.etsy.com/shop/finchandhawk?ref=seller_info

Inspired by this lovely gal at Making it Lovely, I have created my 35 in the year 35 list.

Nicole at Making it Lovely just turned thirty and she gave herself 6 months to complete 30 things before thirty. Amazingly, in addition to running her online business/website, expecting her second child, being a top blogger, and keeping an amazing home, she completed nearly all of her 30 items. (Her site is amazing, you should check it out!)

I have to be a little more realistic. I'm kinda lazy compared to her. I have a lot of things I'd like to do, but need more time to complete them. I'm turning thirty-five in October, so I thought I would try and come up with 35 things I could try and accomplish in the my 35th year. I'm having a bit of a mid-thirties crisis. It seems like a big number to me for some reason. I feel like I need to accomplish something concrete; move my (our) life forward. I think this list will help...If nothing else it will get a lot of things done around the house.

So with no further ado:

35 in the year 35

1.       Finish painting the trim in living room and hallway

2.       Paint bedroom

3.       Get two new dressers for our bedroom (Give back antique dresser to Mom)

4.       Paint afore mentioned dressers to match bedroom (green)

5.       Clean and organize craft closet

6.       Clean and organize hall closet

7.       Paint and cover hall closet doors

8.       Finish sewing curtains in bedrooms

9.       Find linings for living room curtains and finish sewing them too

10.   Replace air conditioner in living room

11.   Install air conditioner in Olive’s room

12.   Install ceiling fan in dining room

13.   Install ceiling fan in Olive’s room

14.   Paint bathrooms

15.   New mirrors, light fixtures, towel racks in bathrooms

16.   Replace all four doors in condo

17.   Price and save money for new toilets, sinks, and flooring in bathrooms

18.   Purge storage unit of all unused stuff

19.   Start using my aerogarden again

20.   Be a vendor in the Christmas Meet Your Maker with new product

21.   Finish up surplus craft projects

22.   Start embroidery pattern business

23.   Make my Blog bigger and better

24.   Spend a long weekend in a house on the beach

25.   Take a romantic overnight trip with my husband and WITHOUT the baby

26.   Get grocery spending down to $50/week

27.   Pay off credit card

28.   Start saving again

29.   Carve Pumpkins

30.   Decorate for Christmas

31.   Make all Christmas gifts with stuff I already have (or with very minimal purchase)

32.   Solve CD/record storage problem

33.   FINALLY get fish for vintage blender fish bowls I made 4 years ago

34.   Get sewing machine fixed

35.   Be ready to work on kitchen in the year 36

Bonus Tracks:

Curb my addiction to lattes (iced or hot)

Write a children’s book

Start exercising regularly again

I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing.

:) Cheers

Steal This Blog!

I have several hundred blogs in my Google Reader. I don't ever get around to reading them all, but there are a dozen or more that I read religiously!

Today I want to tell you about a blog you should be reading. A blog that I often wish was mine.

Candace at Sparkle Power combines the perfect amount of personal life, crafts, design, business, and great looking photography to give you a true sense of who she is and how she lives her life.

I must admit I'm just a little stalkery about her blog. It is one I always look for on my reader feed, and one that has inspired me to do many things. She is super crafty and has an amazing design sense.

I've purchased three prints from Sparkle Power's ETSY shop to put in Olive's room.

And another three prints from her husband Dylan's ETSY shop for our music nook in the living room.

And Candace's experience with swagbucks.com encouraged me to try it for myself. So far I have more than 2,200 swagbucks just by searching the internet and doing silly stuff online I would normally do. I'm going to trade them in for amazon.com dollars and buy supplies for my much, much neglected aerogarden.

Psst. (You can check out swagbucks yourself by using the little button here on my blog. If you do, use me as a referral and we¹ll both earn bucks just by dicking around on the internet!)

Finally, Candace is a mother of two beautiful little girls, and from what I can tell by reading her blog, a thoughtful, kind, and loving mother. But, also an honest one, who tells it like it is in good and bad times. As someone who is just learning this motherhood gig, it is so nice to read about the paths other moms have already forged.

So, check out Sparkle Power! I think it is worth it.

Cheers :)

Good Intentions

I have a lot of good intentions these days. I make a lot of efforts, but can't seem to feel like I accomplish any one thing. So it goes for most working moms I know. I truly admire the ones that seem to have it together. Or maybe things are not quite what they seem?

Anyway, I want to start writing here again. It is fun to do and I want to be more serious about it. I have several hundred blogs in my google reader that I drool over on a daily basis and wonder "why can't I be a better blogger?"

So, here I am, trying to be a better blogger.

Olive turned one almost two weeks ago. Looking back on the last year I can't believe we made it out alive. Becoming a family has been one of the most intense experiences of my life. I can truly say it is both wonderful and awful at the same time (more wonderful than awful, but there are some truly awful things about it).

Motherhood has been a hard adjustment for me. And continues to befuddle me at times. Some days I don't know how I get from sun up to sun down, but I do. Other days it is effortless and fun even.

Olive is a wonderful little girl. I can say that now. She is a little girl. No longer a baby really. She is on the verge of walking. And talking will soon follow. Some days I look at her and can't believe that she is my baby. Everyday she surprises me with how smart she is. The other day I realized she had figured out how to open and close a drawer in the kitchen without getting her fingers in the way. It astounded me.



I haven't been too happy with my workplace lately. I don't think it has anything to do with the business itself. Just with me trying to find my place in this world after Olive. But, I'm starting to wonder if it is the life-long career I once thought it was. There are so many other things I want to pursue that if given time and effort (there is that word again) could become my occupation.

Crafts have really taken a back burner. I have had a few moments to do some new t-shirts to consign at CD World and some little hankies for the store in Alaska, but many of the projects I want to do just have to wait.



Anyway, I hope this is the first of many more entries in this much neglected little blog. Please follow me or leave an encouraging comment so I feel like others would like to hear what I have to say.

I'm trying, really I am.

:) Cheers