friday: interview, me.

Wow.

Today is a day for transparency.

It is one of those days that so many things come to head, so many things go wrong, everything breaks, every bill is due, and everyone elses life is going SPLENDIDLY. (or so it always seems. ya know, that grass is greener thing?)

So the only thing I could muster today is honesty. So, I’m interviewing myself. I hope all it doesnt bore any of you to tears, hearing about me and my life, what makes me tick, what I love and dont love.

 

Love:

I love being at home…I am a homebody. I love to have nothing better to do than clean and organize and decorate, then sit back and simply stare at it all. One of my favorite things growing up around the holidays was the night we picked up and decorated our christmas tree. At the end of the night when all the lights in the house were up, and the christmas tree was adorned with all our old and sentimental ornaments, I’d watch one or both of my parents just sit in the rocking chair with a cup of egg nog and stare at the tree. Stare at the beautiful twinkling lights. I started to do the same thing. For years now that I have my own tree, I either forget to do this at the end of the night, or I get caught up in making it SO pretty that at 2am its too late to sit and relax without passing out sitting up. But I love this. This takes me to loving lights. I love them. All kinds. Outdoor lights, lights with fire, indoor lamps and decorative lights, anything that gives off some mood. I love mood.

I really do love to get up early. Well, let me re-phrase; I love the way I feel when I’m up early in the morning. (I wish my body and my mind would simply cooperate..). The feeling that nothing is awry, everything is right in the world because there is fresh air outside…the wind that blows today is different than yesterdays. The sun is up and so are my spirits. I always get so much done, as opposed to starting my workday around noon when I dont get up early. (no, this does not mean I sleep till noon peeps, hello..I have 2 kids under 2! it simply means that by the time I do everything for everyone else, the workday finally starts at noon)

I love “window shopping”. Of course I’d love to buy as well, but I think I’ve “not had money” long enough in my life to where I actually enjoy just shopping without buying now. Cityplace is 5 minutes from our house, and I love to go and browse Anthro, Barnes and Nobles, Restoration Hardware, and Pottery Barn. Just walk slow, browse, ooo and ahh, look, love, and then leave. This is probably why I do not like salespeople. I know you peeps have a job you’ve gotta do, but I hate being hassled to buy things. (this should go down in the dislike section, but oh well)

I love switching my channel over to HD Theater when “sunrise earth” or any of those other fabulous nature shows are on. Like anyone else, its a huge dream of mine to travel. Not when I retire, but now. Every year, take a month and go somewhere awesome. I’d really love to take summers off, when we are at a point financially when we can do that, i’ll be the happiest woman in the world. I love how I small I feel just seeing the Sequoia National Forest on the television…I cant imagine seeing it in person.

I get so much energy from night drives. I love to take a drive at dusk. Whether its on A1A or just 2 minutes to Target, I love to get out and drive at night…favorite time being when the sun has just set and its a bit cooler out. I think when I was younger night was joyful to me. It meant going out, having fun, no worries, workday done…and now night times means workday just beginning, cleaning house, cleaning the kitchen, picking up after a toddler, taking care of a newborn…so if I get to take a bit of a “away time” drive, I feel much better about myself.

 

I got no love for:

People whose grass really IS greener. How many times growing up did you hear, “lifes not fair” in response to your “but mom, its just not fair”. well, it really isnt. Its just not fair how A-Rod can throw a ball around and make 80 million dollars, while I work my tail off to provide for my family and just barely SHMEAR by on a daily basis. Dont get me started on sports players. We’ll be here all night.

 

And thats as far as I get with the no love section…basically, I dont feel like giving my no love section the time of day.

Its another lonely night here at the hood house, with ben headed out to the raceway to take pics and the kiddos hopefully going to bed early and not being nightmares. Maybe that movie and wine will happen actually. Or maybe I’ll fore-go everything I know to be right and normal and I’ll work all night. Convince me otherwise ladies!

 

 

thursday:LLP’s, Jones Design Company.

I’ve mentioned on here before how much I love checking in on the ladies over at The Creative Mama for all things, well… mommy and creative. They continually bring something to the table that is fresh, and helpful, and beautiful to boot.

This morning as I fumbled around in bed for my phone, I saw the latest tweet and headed over to TCM blog to find an amazing woman being featured; Emily Lex of Jones Design Company.

Emily is a lover of all things creative, design, paper, home, and most importantly she loves Jesus and is a great mama to her kiddos and wife to her hubby.

The post on TCM has a few before and after room designs that she had done. They were stunning. But what drew me to click on her site was the sentence that read, “I also really love her post about time management.”

Dunzo. I was at her website within mere seconds.

I am a sucker for 1) all things self help and 2) a fellow mommy who blogs about her life struggle with the dreaded term, ‘time management’.

What I read, I wasnt prepared for. I was expecting a checklist of sorts, “do this, get rid of this, organize your entire life and then you can start this checklist, get a nanny and a housecleaner”, etc. What I actually came across were 9 totally do-able, totally down to earth, totally normal and ATTAINABLE goals to keep in mind when trying to manage your time.

Please,before going any further, read her post about time management and then come back to me.

There. Feel better dont you? a little more “as it turns out, im not as crazy and manic as i thought” huh?

1. some things can wait.

2. do little things as you go.

3. multi-task

4. stay focused when it matters most

5. delegate and ask for help (and then accept it)

6. create a schedule

7. limit tv watching and internet searching

8. let go of guilt

9. grab hold of the really valuable moments.

the two things that hit me most? First,  creating a schedule and sticking to it. Obviously I’m bad at this. And honestly, its really difficult when you’re children are young like mine are. Nothing is ever planned, there’s no schedule that they adhere to day in and day out. Its also difficult when you work from home, and when you’re currently living paycheck to paycheck i.e. needing to work your tail off whenever you have a spare moment.

Hopefully Ben will find a job. Hopefully I’ll learn to have a schedule around my kids non-schedule. Hopefully we’ll get out of debt and wont have to ship out everything we get in so I dont have to work all the time. But if none of that happens how we need it to happen, I’ll refer to #5 and #8 and it’ll all be ok.

The second thing, is how she referred to the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible when she was talking about taking a hold of the real moments. All of my life I’ve been afraid of missing out. Convinced I’ve been getting the shaft. Tortured by the guilt of trying to do it all and it never being enough. Wrestled with working my life away whilst the world happens around me. I know someone like this, exactly like this, and I pray for her…constantly. That God would release her from her chains that she’s wrapped around herself, that she would know real love and real peace and real rest and that Jesus would literally just give her some breaks now and again. That he’d bless her despite how much she worries He wont.

And I’m her. I am that very girl that I pray for. I am Martha.

2011 is looming and all I can think about is the many things that need to change around here. How I need to change. This new year I hope to actually be disciplined enough to keep any goals, let alone resolutions.

Emily, thanks for being normal.

And to close, the most amazing thing about this post on Time Management from Emily, is that she gives you two free downloadable pdf’s at the bottom of the page; how to balance work and children, and how to delegate.

And, the “I can not do it all” jpegs? Also available for download, so you can print them. I just placed an order with my print company for a million 5×7’s of these to put in strategic areas around my home. And one big one to go in my office. Obviously.

Emily and her husband also do a workshop called Be Inspired, all about starting and maintaining a successful small business. If any of you ladies are interested, definitely check on info for that here. I believe registration for the current one is closed, maybe you could contact her for info on the next one!

I hope her post inspired you ladies, I truly feel like it has changed my life. Or it will change it…very, very soon.

wednesday: design, homemade jewelry box

not sure how I came up with the idea, but I was brainstorming Christmas gift ideas and decided I was going to get my niece miss K a real necklace..a real piece of jewelry. She’s 6 years old now and I remember how special I thought it was at that age to get something of real value.

I’ve ordered her a pendant necklace from The Vintage Pearl…it has her initial on it and its sterling silver. I cant wait to get it in the mail!

Then like I always do when I simply buy something for someone, I think…”wow, how much more would I appreciate giving a gift to someone if I’d sacrificed my time and my efforts and talents or LACK of talent, to make that gift?”

And then it came to me. I’m going to make her a jewelry box. Out of an old book. A beautiful vintage jewelry box that I make myself, where she can keep said necklace.

Ingredients:

old book. I’ll be enlisting ben’s help to hollow out the inside of the book with a box cutter of sorts, leaving about an inch of book pages around the edges to form the wall of the box.

pretty pink fabric for the cushiony bottom of the box. I’m going to sew some cotton balls and good smelly stuff inside of the fabric.

razzle dazzle. i’ll be decorating the outside of the book with these beauties. every little girl loves rhinestones!

paint and glue. i’ll be painting the outside edges of the pages all the way around the book, in order to keep them stuck together. (a little emerald green and gold shall do the trick!) I’m also gluing the bottom pages to the back of the book so everything stays in place.

 

 

This weekend is my last weekend to get my crud together for christmas. It never fails…every year…something drastic happens to us financially around the holidays and we’re stuck waiting until the last second to get things done. Anyone else out there pining away for the day when they arent scared to fill up their gas tank for fear of draining their bank account? Such is our life right now. Ben’s still looking for a full time job and helping me out, and thats where life is right now…it just is. Christmas isnt about gift-giving though, remember? I did write a blog post about that. Guess I should down some spoonfuls of my own medicine.

I’ll let you all know how the jewelry box turns out. I cant wait to put it all together! Tomorrow we are back to our regularly scheduled programming, with Thursday’s LLP post! stay tuned!

tuesday: pic of the week, GNO.

thats right. its tuesday. and im doing a pic of the week.

tuesday is also known as backwards day. or forwards. whatever.

point is, today started as any other day…with a giant to do list. and then something happened that threw a bit of a monkey wrench in our day, putting everything else on hold, so I didnt get to my design project. TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY. And Praise the Lord for that!

 

For those of you who aren’t privy to RebekahHood’isms….GNO stands for girls night out. Every girl needs them. Frequently. I’m talking in short sentences a lot today.

Anyways, last night was girls night out for me and about 13 other SoFly girlies. SoFly is my women only photography group that I founded. Women professionals, girl talk, mojitos, cookie decorating….lets just say you’d love to have been a fly on the wall.

We had some really good discussions. About life, business, our struggles and a few triumphs. Then as the night wore on, some of us really opened up about how we felt about eachother. About our group, about our true feelings. Something so beautiful happens when women shed the “bottle it up” stigma and get real with one another. By the end of the night, I truly felt like I knew you ladies better, more intimately. Which is why I started the group to begin with. Beautiful things happen when honesty rules.

This is a shot of Sara’s sparkly heel. It truly exemplifies what the night was meant for…girls having fun and letting their hair down. Eating icing and baking cookies, slurping twizzlers and cheers’ing each other, laughing and maybe even tearing up…the perfect GNO. (*although next year my vote is for karaoke and a major dance party…ladies am I right??)

monday: hood life, hustle and bustle.

its that time of year.

parties. family. get togethers. constant activity. the time of year where I eat about 4985 times my share of a normal persons diet. awesome!

we’ve traveled almost the entire last 2 months…nuts! we miss church and our friends. It  was so good to go morning and night service yesterday and worship with our community. the best time of our week!

a few things that got opened up in my Photoshop today:

this is the craft table at my brothers xmas party at his apartment…he lives with 5 other boys. they are beyond hilarious. read the sign carefully, and proceed to die laughing.

this is my littlest niece, miss R. we were in Tallahassee the first weekend in December, and Bradley (my bro in law) initiated some s’more making at the fireplace. good times, even better s’mores.

this, my friends, is a reminder that christmas is in 12 days. lest you had forgotten….makes me uber sad. I wish Christmas was like, 3 months long. it is not a fun thought for me that my lights and decorations and cider making and The Carpenters Christmas Album playing has to be done and put away in 13 days. i dont like it one. little. bit.

and this….well, this is my saving grace. this, laid out on my kitchen table, is a small little reminder that “Real Simple Mag and the New Anthropologie Catalog are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”. Yea, you thought BEER was proof…nah, Real Simple Mag and the new Anthro catalog are proof. Ya heard? (yes! Katie Perdue my subscription came! aren’t you relieved for me!!)

 

I would insert a picture, now, of my awesome and totally ballin’ Kallima Xmas Party over the weekend…if I had taken a single picture, that is. On one hand I think, “man, that was dumb”…on the other, I realize that it felt AMAZING not to pick up a camera and to simply dance my tushy off for 5 straight hours to the musical stylings of the jammin DJ Sean Nyffeler. To those of you who missed…be sad. Be very sad. There’s always next year! Bigger and Better it will be.

Next up in the Hood World:

re-brand of the kallima blog and website before Jan. 1

xmas in deland

 

Will keep everyone in the loop, as always. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s design Tuesday, I’ll hopefully be outlining and photo documenting my adventures in making my niece her very own vintage jewelry box for christmas.