a few little things i've been up to...

remember that whole "new years resolution" thing? well, i've managed to keep up with one of them... the one about sewing at least one thing a month. boy do i love having a sewing machine! (not to mention do i love you, dear reader, for not getting on my case about my current disdain towards capital letters, since we know they slow me down)...

but i digress...

i triple pink puffy heart my sewing machine!!!!!!!

(here we are on christmas morning)

so (or sew) first i made a quilt front as a gift for a woman here at work (sidenote: 3 women in my building have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the last 9 months. CHECK YOUR BOOBIES!)... when it is finished it will be a prayer quilt. another woman here at work is going to do the back and whatnot, and then individual threads will be pulled through where each of the corners meet up and the quilt will be taken around our building and indviduals will tie a knot in the thread while saying a prayer for her.

next, i made her some burp cloths (she is 8 months pregnant) as a shower gift (i think they turned out pretty cute)

and finally, another friend is having her 30th birthday this weekend and recently started as a counselor, so these throw pillows are to cheer up her drab and handmedown furniture office...

so... fun stuff!

I done been tagged

Step 1: respond and rework—answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.



Step 2: tag—eight other un-tagged people.



1. What were you doing before you started this post? some work... specifically, signing up a guy for a marriage preparation workshop, which he will be attending alone (sad) because his fiance is in Nigeria



2. What is the last thing you read/are currently reading? oh, I just finished The Idiot Girl's Christmas, which was a very funny & quick read. about to start reading The Eyre Affair (have no idea what it is about, but it was a Christmas gift)



3. Do you nap a lot? sigh. no. Uusally naptime for the girls on the weekends is reserved for me to get something done around the house.





4. Who was the last person you hugged? a lady here in my office who was just visiting, she used to work here but she is retired now, but when she did work here she was one of my weight watchers buddies



5. What is your favorite TV series? I have such trouble picking just one, but I'd probably say Grey's Anatomy. Followed closely by Private Practice, Survivor, and reruns of Boston Legal



6. What was the last thing you said out loud? No, you don't actually need to bring the letter with you, but you do need to go in through this side (gesture to the north) of the buildling





7. What websites do you always visit when you go online? thepioneerwoman, nesting place, bye bye pie, my working mom's message board on google, facebook, then all my other fun blogs



8. What was the last item you bought? ummm... well at lunch today I bought stamps (exciting I know, but they are raising rates AGAIN!) yesterday I went to Target and bought: husband a reece's peanut butter cup, some food coloring for valentine cookies, and some reusable shopping bags (4 really cute ones on sale for THIRTY-SEVEN CENTS EACH!!!)



9. What is your most challenging goal? weightloss



10. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished- anywhere in the world, where would it be? oh... hum. I can honestly say I'm not sure. I don't feel like I've been to enough places to really get a feel for where would be a perfect spot to live. But, I know that I could be pretty content staying here in Oklahoma... does this mean someone will come pay off my house for me?



11. Favorite Vacation spot? oooh... florida is pretty fun. nyc is cool too.



12. Say something to the person who tagged you: CK- You are such a fun person and really very inspiring. I know that we don't know each other all that well, but I appreciate your friendship. You are super enthusiastic about life, very courageous (esp. what you went through w/military man being gone), and a gentle spirit.



13. Name one thing you just can't resist no matter how bad it is for you:

chocolate



14. What is your favorite item of clothing? definitely something comfy. i probably own at least 5 pairs of black yoga pants.



15. If you could have any career you wanted, education and money were not an issue. What would it be?: A high school english teacher



16. Name one thing you can not live with out: my family



17. Has a celebrity's haircut ever influenced you on your own hairstyle? yes. i long for meg ryan's cut in You've Got Mail



18. What is your drink of choice?: I love an amaretto sour, a malibu & coke, a good dark beer, or a good pinot



19. What is something you do every day? EAT! (hence the answer to number 9)



20. What are you wearing right now?: grey dress pants w/burgandy pinstripes, a white button up dress shirt, and a grey sweater vest. i'm a nerd



21. What's your favorite room in your house?: my bedroom



22. If you were to have a baby boy and girl tomorrow, what would you name them?: Boy: Luke Joseph (that was supposed to be oldest daughter's name), Girl: ??????



(CK- regarding your wish for twins... WHERE WOULD YOU PUT THEM?!)





I'm supposed to tag people here, but I don't think I actually have that much traffic to get people to post... we shall see:

Chris at Just a Girl

Angela at Painted House

Meredith at Like Merchant Ships

Chickadee at A Familiar Path

Amanda at Soule Mama





that's a good start

Bringing the pretty

My mentor in home decor, the Nester, is doing a FANTASTIC series about simple ways to address each room in your home, helping make it more beautiful, more functional, more liveable, more you. The one on Master Bedrooms really got me thinking, especially when she followed up w/a how-to beautify your bedroom on a budget. I was a woman on a mission.

The ideas she presented spoke to me. My bedroom needs to be my sanctuary. And it doesn't all have to be about spending a ton of money, finding what's 'in style', or even having to buy a bunch of stuff.

My goal in this project was to NOT spend a ton of money (for my birthday I had been given a gift card to Hobby Lobby, a little bit of money, and my mom had purchased me some sewing supplies to go with my new sewing machine). Some projects were in the works! And really, I'm putting myself all out there for you... my bedroom was a mess. It was the dumping ground for piles of laundry, shoes all over the floor, bed unmade... frump frump frump! So cleaning up and cleaning out was going to be a major part of this project... and here's the kicker... I had 1 day to do the majority of the work. I had taken a day off and while I COULD certainly spend more time on it (more time, more money, more STUFF)... I wanted to make this easy and simple. I knew this could all be a starting point and my mantra at Hobby Lobby was: you don't have to get that now, wait and see what you REALLY want in the room...

so, I present to you the before:

...I know. Its bad. All I can say is, I'm sorry.

And the after:

ahhhh.... OK, yes its just a starting point, but seriously? SO much better than the before, right? I bought the fabric for the comforter and curtains at Hobby Lobby, along w/a solid color sheet set at Target. Because I was doing this w/o husband knowing AT ALL what I was up to, I knew I needed to err on the side of caution with my fabrics and and not do any big floral prints. I knew there would be room for added touches of femininity as time went on. I hope to provide more posts later on as I finish out with a few more details.

For more information about bringing the pretty, and to gather some inspiration for so many others who are joining the Nester's party, click the button below...

Personal disclaimer: due to the nature of my project and the horrid mess I was starting with, my personal project took more than 10 minutes.

I've now entered the last of my twenties... Lord help us!

starting out

Well, I don't know what is leading me to blog, other than the fact that I've become addicted to reading other blogs lately. It seems like such a safe and healthy outlet although I'm sure I'll need some pointers as I go along if I plan to be anonymous and whatnot, which would probably be good b/c I'll probably want to gripe about my real life from time to time.

I figure that the main theme for the blog will be my life and how I find myself learning about how to be a wife/mom/employee/friend/daughter/sister etc.... hence the title 'its a slow learning curve'.

So, for my first offical blog, I will talk about my housekeeping skills (or lack thereof)... I am a terrible housekeeper. I have big dreams of having a really pretty- neat- organized- etc. house but I find myself getting too caught up in 1)the enormity of how far I need to come and 2)the enormity of how far my decorating/organizing budget still has to come. See, my dh and I, we are not big money makers. We do both work outside the home mostly for the sake of our sanity and for the 1 perk that comes from our jobs- amazing benefits. In the meantime, we are dave ramsey-ing (is that a verb? it is now!) our way to better finances, which finds me wanting to constantly start thousands of super cute projects (like The Nester- totally love her blog!) but always trying to figure out how I can do so super affordably.

Anywho- back to housekeeping. My number one least favorite task is laundry. I just had a 30 minute discussion with my cowoker where she told me (for the thousandth time- well, not the thousandth time from her, but the thousandth time that someone has told me this): just do a load of laundry every day. HA! Yeah, as soon as my dh doesn't have to work at night, and I'm not bf'ing, and trying desperately to potty train our 2 year old (I would seriously consider paying big money for someone to take said 2 year old and return her to me fully potty trained... any takers? no? that's what I figured.) on top of cooking nearly-healthy meals, do dishes, relax for a minute or two, pay bills, do some gardening, etc. Dh and I did a ton of laundry this weekend and we are down to only.... get this... 3 loads to go! That's pretty close to a personal best for us. So, YAY!

We'll keep on trying!