Semi-craving

So, I don't want this blog to turn into a narrative on pregnancy...however, I have to mention this story from my trip to the supermarket this evening.

It is My Love's 30th birthday - 30th!!!! Insanity! So, we decided to run to the local grocery store to get him some sushi, and me whatever I wanted, to have a yummy, casual dinner together at home.

While at the supermarket, I decided I wanted potato skins. TGIFriday's usually has a frozen appetizer available with potato skins...but I couldn't find them tonight...anywhere.

I walked up and down the aisles, staring into the shelves, willing them to appear. I looked in the potato section, I looked near the other appetizers, I looked EVERYWHERE.

My Love even helped me. Eventually, he went on to get the other items he needed.

But not me.

I continued to wander the frozen food aisles, scowling while also managing to look bereft; staring intently, trying to find the thing I was looking for.

While not like my other cravings, I can only imagine that this was one. Whether it was because they weren't anywhere to be found, or because it was a craving to begin with, I'm not sure...but I had to have potato skins.

Fortunately, My Love seemed to recognize the lunacy of a hormonal craving before I did, and came to the rescue, which spared me hours prowling the frozen food section, searching for food that would not appear; not to mention the humiliation of crying in the grocery store over them not having the food I wanted in stock. He let me order it to-go from Chili's, wonderful man that he is, and we got it on the way home.

And that is the story of my craving tonight :)

Live For More

So, obviously, I haven't been on here in a while. I'm hoping to remedy that.

Part of the reason for my absence is due to the aforementioned fact that I dropped my laptop on my foot and cracked the monitor. I have not set up my art room properly yet, so I don't have a space to even put the computer setup, were I to take the time to do it. I hope to remedy all this very soon.

As it is currently, I have My Love's laptop, and thought I'd make a quick blog update :)

Um, item one that I feel should be mentioned: I am pregnant. We're just past the 4.5 month mark, and everything seems to be going well. I will have some nursery decorating posts (as well as hopefully my other projects, house updates, Christmas decorations, garage organization, etc.) up in the very near future.

For today, I wanted to show you the necklace that I purchased on etsy. I purchased it from this shop, and couldn't be happier with it.

I don't know if you had the time, or have taken the time yet to listen to My Love's talk/sermon, but the purchase was inspired by that talk.

I have been so encouraged and inspired by the lives of people around me lately. Especially that of Todd (referenced in the talk), Amy (a dear friend of mine who passed away recently after a long battle with cancer), and Brenda (another family friend who passed away from cancer). Their lives left such an amazing impact on so very many...it was almost intimidating.

It hit me in particularly that night, as My Love was talking...sometimes it's so hard working with youth, being so involved in the church...it can be very draining. There are many times you pour yourself out into someone else, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Sometimes, it's tempting to feel discouraged, to want to give up. If you give and give and give, and don't see a return for your labor, what's the point? And by "return," I don't mean "thank yous." I don't mean rewards in the sense of recognition, praise, appreciation, or anything of that sort. I mean life change.

But, every once in a while, someone gets it. You see them get it, you see them change, and you can tell that they're grateful that they are making the decisions they are. And then, it's all worth it.

So, as I've been reminded by these people's life stories, and as I was reminded by My Love in his talk, it's worth it...to live for more.

And I was reminded of this story, which can seem a little cheesy, but has always touched me.

And so, I bought that necklace...to remind me to live for more...to remind me that every little bit can matter...and that to the one person it might make a difference to, that it's worth any and all effort I put forth.

I hope that's a little encouraging to you. It has really changed my perspective.

I really do plan on making another post soon...hopefully I really will ;)

Oh. My. Word.

I haven't been on here since May? MAY?!?!?!?

Goodness gracious.

I have stuff to say, but my brain is dead. Not permanently, thankfully, but temporarily. I'm just very tired from my long and crazy day.

I was going to write about my thoughts in regard to a talk My Love gave recently. I'm going to post a link to it...so, if you feel like it, give it a listen, and I'll share some of my thoughts on it tomorrow.

Live for More

Goodnight!

Grrrrr...

I couldn't find a youtube video of Harry from Home Alone where he grumbles in some sort of unidentified pseudo-cursing language...but, if I could figure out how to type that out phonetically, I would have made that the title of this post instead of the inarticulate "Grrrr..." option ;)

I can't get this computer to like me. I'm using My Love's computer, because I recently dropped my own laptop on my foot...cracking the screen...which now no longer works. Ironically, my screen became illegible a matter of days after I donated our formerly-not-in-use-monitor to Goodwill.

Now, I have at least two posts somewhat written, waiting to be shared with cyberspace, and this computer will not cooperate. It won't even let me save images off facebook to post on here.

I now feel like I should take a moment to recognize and acknowledge that, while temporarily frustrating, these "issues" don't constitute real, substantial problems, and I'm just whining.
I feel like I'm writing something for White Whine, that site My Love chuckles at.
So, seeing as that my problems aren't truly problems, or anything of substance, I think I'm done posting for the evening. I just have so many things to share, but I am not being permitted to do so at this juncture. Perhaps I'll be able to share tomorrow.

Oh, yes, and I've had this song stuck in my head all. night.
This is a bittersweet occurrence. I like the song just fine, but I can't stop singing it, and changing it depending on what I'm doing or thinking at the moment.
(i.e. "A drink, I really need a drink. What should I drink? Gotta find a dri-iink.")

Hopefully see y'all tomorrow with some new shtuff :D
G'night!

Knob RePurpose

And now, for a project I just finished. Remember the pretty faucet knobs I found at Habitat for Humanity ReStore?

I'm in the middle of painting our master bath a beautiful gray called Elephant Skin by Behr.
Our color scheme is gray, black, and white. I have random black and white pictures of various bathroom sinks, tubs, and whatnot...thus the inspiration for the knob hunt.
(I'll post pictures of the bathroom soon!)

Well, after careful consideration, I realized I couldn't justify spending the kind of money I figured it would cost to replace our sink faucets/hardware in our bathroom. Not to mention it wasn't top priority in the scheme of home improvements.

So, there I was, with four awesome faucet knobs, and no faucet to attach them to. What to do, what to do?

Well, I also happened to have a gift card to Michael's. That left many possibilities.
I opted for this wooden...um...sign? Something. I don't know what it's officially called. Obviously, I'd already removed the wrapping by the time I took this picture:



I spray painted it with RustOleum black lacquer, and let it dry.

Then, I took my four knobs, and Gorilla Glue, and set to work trying to space the knobs equal distance apart.

This was the hard part - waiting for it to dry and adhere to the surface. I am not a patient person.

Once it had dried and I could tell the knobs were secure, I got white craft paint and added a few white dots at different points to make a border.

Voila!

I'm going to hang it with 3M strips on our bathroom wall, and it's going to be the prettiest, most unique, most perfect towel rack ever! :D

What do you think?


Coming soon, other than the house update pictures, I just finished a quick revamp on an old dresser. I can't wait to see what you think! It's a little "louder" than I normally do things, but what's life without a little color? :)

Hello? Hello? Helloooo?

I'm back.

Goodness, it has been a long time.

I've done a lot...and yet, somehow, not enough.

This is me, on one of my more productive days:

Remember the mirror I got? Well, I finally finished it, and love it, but as I was putting the mirror back into the frame, it split - so I have to get a new mirror for it. Also, I think it's too big to put in the bathroom I had intended. So, I'm uncertain as to what I'm going to do with my improved mirror :/
Here are some progress pictures to tide you over until I figure out what I'm going to do with the final product!

Before I painted it brown:

After I painted it brown, before I glazed it:

I've been super busy on the house...taking on too many things at once, as is my unfortunate tendency. As soon as I get around to it, I'm hoping to do a series of before and after home-improvement blog posts.

For now, here are some pictures of my laundry room. Before, it was just standard builder-grade paint.

Here are the befores and afters. The color I chose is Opal Silk by Behr. It makes laundry a little more appealing...a little...it's a great color, but miracles and new personalities it does not make:

Messy, messy shelves. I need to look at this closer later to try to figure out how to reassemble them properly. I have them back up, but some of them aren't fitting where I thought they should.

After I took the shelves down to paint

Ta-da!!!



I forgot to take a before picture, but this used to be just one of the plain globes...I swapped it out, and I love the new one! I don't know what to call the shape, but it's the best!

More to come later!

Bloggers Day of Silence

I just stumbled across this in my feed, and feel like it's an admirable thing, and a good cause. I don't know how much my joining in will really help, but I like to think of all the people participating, and hopefully all of us are praying for and donating to help the people in Japan in any way we can.

Go to Ever Ours for more information on this event.
I'll post what were planned as tomorrow's updates on Saturday.

Pray for Japan. Pray for their people. Pray for their country. Pray that our world would unite together to help one another. Pray for healing. Pray that love and compassion would overcome all other obstacles...and that we would all be reminded that, despite political, religious, cultural, geographical, and social divisions, we're all human sharing the same small, blue planet.