Sunday, January 22, 2012

Opportunity...

Recently I have been reading the book Transform Your Life by Penny Ferguson and one section in particular has really stuck in my mind...
The book goes on to say that "your attitude towards the things you have to do makes the difference between getting the most out of them and seeing them as chores that are impossible to enjoy." So true.

This year I want to look at every situation and every day as an opportunity to fill my glass and make the most of it...
  • When I am extra busy at work, I want to see it as an opportunity to learn and develop.
  • When I have to clean the house, I want to see it as an opportunity to show my gratitude for beautiful home and help my husband.
  • When I am feeling down about living so far from our families, I want to see it as an opportunity to build my marriage even stronger and enjoy all the wonderful things our new city has to offer.
  • When I am stuck in traffic, I want to see it as an opportunity for a few extra minutes to enjoy the music on the radio.

Every day is an opportunity...to learn something new, to show kindness to others, to give God the glory, and to love my family fully.
[Want more inspiration for 2012? Check out the Word of the Year party.]

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

2012 | Home goals...

It's January. So, of course, we should talk about goals. :) I have goals for pretty much everything - literally, reading goals, fitness goals, work goals, relationship goals, life goals, everything. But I'll start with my goals for our home during 2012 as part of the Home Goals Party at the Nesting Place. 
I also shared my home goals in 2011 and promise to share a full update at how I did soon. But this year, my goals are all about showing some love. 


*Show our loves...
This year I want to continue to make our house reflect us. I want our home to be full of things that Nick and I love - our faith, our families, our passions. I want our decorating choices, artwork, etc. to show how important these things are to us. 


I do not want our house to be full of stuff that we do not need or truly care about, which brings me to my next goal...


*Show others some love...
That same stuff that we do not need anymore could be just what someone else needs. I want to focus on cleaning out and donating things that we no longer need...including those boxes that have been in my car to take to Goodwill for, oh, about nine months now. Oops.


*Show our house the love...
I honestly love everything about our home. But...I don't always show our house the love in the form of cleaning. This year I want to get into and maintain good cleaning routines, rather than the massive rush when company is on its way. :) 


I also want to show our house some organizing love. There are areas of our home that are super organized [like our bathroom], but others that still have unpacked boxes [like our offices]. This year I want to organize the house as much as possible. Being organized makes me feel more relaxed, which will only allow me to enjoy and love our home even more. 


*Show the tools the love...
This year I would love to do some furniture makeovers and build some shelves. More on those ideas soon. :)


*Show y'all the love...
I want to take more pictures of our home and projects to share with y'all and to have this little journal to look back on someday. I also want to share all my project ideas. I definitely have more ideas for our home than I have hours [or money] to do them, but I'm going to share those ideas here anyway. :)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

A little sparkle...

I love a little sparkle. Seriously, how can you not smile when you are wearing something sparkly? I've been wanting to participate in Bloggers Do it Better for a long time but never have. But say "sequins" and I'm there! :)
Bloggers Do It Better
My sequins outfit is super simple...a cute little comfy top from Kohls. And my photo is super awkward...I'm terrible at being the only person in a photo. And it definitely didn't help that we took these photos at night. My husband is going to looove that I made him lay on the floor to take a photo of my whole outfit and then I got picky about the lighting and how I looked and didn't even include those photos. Sorry! 
Since you can't see it all, I was wearing the sequin top with cuffed jeans and a cute pair of suede heels. And to help make up for my bad photo / modeling skills, here is my new Pinterest Sparkle! board. It's full of all sorts of sparkly fashion, DIY, and decor ideas. 

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Confessions of a missing blogger...

So...it's been a long time. A really long time. I've  missed this little blog of mine and decided it was well past time to get back to it. But before I get back into the swing of things, here are my confessions as to why I went missing...
Confessions of a busy blogger...
Honestly, over the past year I have been very busy at work and with work trips. It sounds a little boring, but it did result in five work trips to the Bahamas. No complaints here. However, but it definitely took my time away from my blog. Don't worry though [okay, who am I kidding, nobody is worried about me now that I said I went to the Bahamas five times...], there was also plenty of fun mixed in over the last year. :)


Confessions of an over-thinking blogger...
There were a lot of times over the past year that I wanted to start my blog back up...but then I would start over-thinking it. Conversations like this were happening in my head:
Paige - "I really miss my blog and have a great idea - I'm going to go post it!" 
Over-thinking Paige - "That's a nice idea, but remember how you might want to open an Etsy shop someday? Are you sure you want to name it A Paige in History?" 
Paige - "Well, I'm not sure...but that won't happen for a while. And what does it have to do with my post?" 
Over-thinking Paige - "Don't you remember anything from all your business classes? All of the names should be the same to help with your marketing. Maybe you should start a new blog. And does that post even have to do with your message?"
So, I think you get the point. And it's not that I'm a crazy person with conversations in my head. :)


Confessions of a perfectionist... 
There were also times when I would look at my blog and just not think it was good enough. Take the header for example...
Yep, it's pretty annoying how it didn't line up right. But should it keep me from ever posting anything? Nope! And check it out, it wasn't at all difficult to update my header. 


To summarize...
  • Sorry I went missing for so long! As much as I will try not to disappear again, I also know that with my busy schedule it is definitely a possibility. But, I also know that I really missed my little creative blog outlet, so I'll try to find a balance.
  • My posts may not always be perfect. But, I promise they will be me. [Well, the part of me that's not busy over-thinking everything...] 

Friday, February 18, 2011

Projects teaser...

 Here's a little sneak peak at some of my upcoming projects...


These are clearly all before pictures. I have big plans for them though and, of course, the plans include some spray paint love. :)

My list of projects for after I finish my test is growing quite long...sewing, these three projects, some organizing, some artwork, some decorating, some gifts, and lots more. Time to go study so I can actually work on all these projects sometime.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

I heart you...

Mr. W was out of town the day before Valentine's Day, so while he was gone I used post-it notes to make this message on his mirror.

I wrote cute little notes on the leftover post-its and left them all over the house...on the door from the garage, the microwave, the fridge, his closet door, his pillow, everywhere. Very simple, but a fun surprise for him to come home too.

We also had been needing a new wine stopper for a while, so I picked one up from Pier1 and left it on the counter with a post-it saying "Your smile can stop my heart." Awe.

We had a wonderful evening together with a delicious meal at a Brazilian steakhouse. [Yum!] Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day also!

P.S. Our walls do not actually look yellow-ish like they do in this picture. That's just my not-so-awesome photo taking skills at work again. :)

P.S. [Again] I think it's funny that you can see my peaking out from my closet where I was trying to hide from being in the mirror.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

World Market + Polyvore = Love...

I love World Market. I love Polyvore. Put them together like they did on the World Market website and it is amazing. I couldn't resist playing around and making a few "vision boards" as they call them. Actually, I couldn't resist making five. :)

Each "vision board" I made is an idea for an entryway into a house. I love homes with pretty entryways - it is just so inviting and a great way to show off the home's character the second guests walk in the door. Our entry way is currently empty. Completely empty. We even have an art niche...with no art. Hopefully, that will all change soon. :)

In the meantime, here are my five entryway "vision boards." [Click the link below each to go to Polyvore for the product details.]






A few notes about the "vision boards":
  • I want to go buy the media stand in the first board right now. I love, love, love it.
  • The five boards are posted in order of how likely they would be to end up in our house. Okay, more like how much I would like it if they were in our house. [This is primarily based on the color scheme of our house.]
  • Did you notice that there aren't any products used in more than one board? That's because I'm a crazy person who randomly gives myself rules like that. :)

10marifet.org...

Yesterday my Google Analytics malfunctioned. I truly thought it had a glitch and was making things up because it said that 83 visitors had come from 10marifet.org. Let me put the confusion into perspective for you, but be prepared for some major jealousy due to these awesome stats. Or maybe not. :) Anyways, the most visitors I have ever had in a month was 425 visitors in January. That is an average of 14 visitors a day [if I round up...], so basically the amount of visitors coming from just one site yesterday was about six normal days worth of visitors. And actually was more than the total number of visitors for some months.

See why I thought Analytics had lost it?


Also, I had never heard of 10marifet.org...probably because it is in Turkish and I can't understand anything it says. A quick translation search told me that the blog slogan translates to "yaratici becerileri handmade and ideas hayatinizini will colour jinn". Uh...turns out that didn't help all too much. But I do understand [and like] the words "handmade" and "ideas". :)


A little more searching and site exploring told me that the site is full of awesome crafty and DIY projects. And somehow my bench makeover was selected to be featured. Woohoo! Check it out here.


Again, I had to do a translation search to see what the site said about my bench before and after. It came back as "is with roses empty beautifully but is blue has become very chic." Somehow I get the feeling this may not be a perfect translation, but I like the "very chic" part. :) Thanks so much to 10marifet.org for including my bench on the site - so fun!

Speaking of fun, check out these great posts I found via the site:

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Fabric delivery...

My big box of fabric has arrived!

Let me back up a second...For Christmas my wonderful parents gave me my first-ever sewing machine. I haven't mentioned it yet because I have forbid myself to even open the box until I finish my Certified Internal Auditor exam. I did not, however, forbid myself from buying fabric in the meantime. :)

After I take the last part of the exam in March, I will be all set to start sewing with these awesome fabrics [nevermind the fact that I don't really know how to sew yet]...


I ordered the five fabrics from www.fabric.com for a great deal with some coupon codes. And yes, I realize there are only four above, the fifth appears to be sold out. Here's what I got:
  1. White cotton with royal blue stripes
I have plans to make napkins, placemats, pillows and other things that only require limited sewing knowledge. The zig zag fabric may not ever make it to the sewing machine though, because once it got here I came up with a new idea for it. Stay tuned to see where they all end up. :)

The summer camp feeling [and a slightly random post transition]…

Throughout college, I worked for my school newspaper [the Washburn Review]. I started at the same time as two other girls and we decided it would be fun to write a column called “The Freshmen View” to talk about our experiences as freshmen on campus. In one of the columns I wrote, I talked about my transition from living at home with my parents to living in a dorm three hours away. I compared it to feeling like I was just away at summer camp. Between classes, extracurricular activities, hanging out with friends, and everything else, it just didn’t really feel like I had moved. I was so busy that it hadn’t actually sunk in that I lived there and wasn’t just away at camp for a few weeks.

Since moving to Houston [nearly six months ago now], I’ve had this same “summer camp feeling”. A few examples from the past couple of weeks:
  • When filling out a form for work, I put that I was from the Kansas City office…oops.
  • I told someone that I have only ever eaten at the Grand Lux CafĂ© when I was out of town. This was the day after I ate lunch there in Houston.
  • When a friend asked me how long it took for our new house to really feel like it was ours, my response was that the house felt like ours pretty quickly. But that it still feels weird that the house is in Texas.
Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely loving living here - it is just taking me a while to realize that we live 13 hours [approximately 800 miles] away from the place we had always called home. It still feels more like we are just here at summer camp for a while.


But one clear sign that Houston is becoming more like home was how excited I got that an amazing new e-zine was founded by someone from my cityMy city being Houston. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to go read the premier issue of High Gloss right away. It is amazing. All 181 pages are packed with great style tips, beautiful home decor inspiration, fun party ideas, gorgeous photos, interesting articles, and just all around incredible-ness. My favorite articles were:
  • Modern Makeover
  • Putting on the Glitz
  • Striking a Balance
  • Valentine’s in the Valley
  • La Vie en Roses

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Baseball gallery wall...

Baseball gallery wall = DONE! Yay! :)

In laying out the pattern for the wall, I had a pretty good methodology. I started in the middle with the biggest piece that we wanted to be the main focus. From there, I put the other pictures in order of largest to smallest. I started with the largest, picked a place for it, then moved to the next. I tried to somewhat keep in mind things like not having too many horizontal [or vertical] frames in a row, the colors, etc. But the main thing I kept in mind was not to over think it, since I generally tend to be super planned out and symmetrical [which is not what we were going for].

As far as actually hanging the frames, I couldn't really decide on a good method.

I've read a bunch of places about using wrapping paper to make cut-outs of each frame to arrange on the wall first. But I also had read that the wrapping paper rolls up and is annoying. So, I thought I would use the random stack of yellow paper we have. Well, you can see how long that lasted before I got bored of doing that...


Then, I decided to just make pencil marks on the wall of where the edges and middle of the arrangement should be. That was definitely helpful but didn't really give the same effect as seeing something on the wall [teensy-tiny, little pencil dashes don't count as seeing something on the wall in my book]. So, I decided to use tape to mark out some key parts of the arrangement to make sure it looked right. It looks pretty random, but was helpful. After seeing it on the wall, I knew I wanted to move the arrangement up some from what I originally thought.


Then, I was almost ready to start actually hanging things on the wall. Again, I knew I wanted to start by hanging the big piece in the middle to anchor the arrangement. I numbered each piece to know which should go next, which was very helpful. The sides of my arrangement are in a line, so I numbered in a way that I would do those and then space the frames in the middle so that they would fit in between. It was probably especially helpful since I didn't have any real measuring going on. Sure, I knew I wanted some things three fingers apart, but I don't think that counts as real measuring. I actually think my lack of real measuring helped make it easier though, since then I wasn't worried about hanging things so they were exactly two inches apart or something like that.


Okay, enough babbling. Here's how it turned out - first, the view as you walk up the stairs...


Next, as you round the corner into the upstairs area...


And then, the view from in the rec room...


And just for fun [and because I'm very proud of it :)], here is the before and after...



 

Friday, February 4, 2011

Frame "shopping"...

I showed you that we have been working on a gallery wall of pictures for our rec room. The rec room is also known as the baseball room. Yep, we are really cool [and obsessed with baseball], so we have an entire room dedicated to baseball. When I last updated you on the progress, I had just laid out all of the pictures for the baseball gallery wall. Most of the pictures were already framed, but there were five things that needed frames.

So I got busy shopping...our house.

All of the pictures and art already coordinated [since it is all baseball-related] but I wanted all of the frames to also be black to help tie it together even better. Here are the results of my frame "shopping"...


The first few were pretty easy. First, there were two frames that were in the guest bedroom at our old house but weren't currently being used.


This one was used for this picture...


And that one was used for this picture...


Then, I found this frame in our office with a picture from The Today Show during our service trip to New York in college...


I'll find a different frame for that picture, because this one was the perfect size for this...


The last two were the perfect size too, but not quite the perfect look. It was nothing that a couple quick coats of black spraypaint couldn't solve though. First, I took a brown document frame from scholarly to sporty...




Then, I changed a cute, pink and black frame to a cool, black frame...




All in all, I'd say it was a very successful "shopping" trip. :)