time with family

 

happy monday once again! see, i'm getting better at keeping y'all informed about my amazing life, right?

my weekend actually started on friday because i decided to take the day off from work (which had been incredibly frustrating all week) and go check out a couple of beaches i'd been reading about.

as you know, i keep trying to find the perfect beach/town that is within easy driving distance so that i can run there whenever i need a beach fix but also that would be fun to take the kids on the weekends.

unfortunately, the first beach i got to - sunset beach - wasn't at all what i was looking for. you can probably tell by the fact that i wasn't really smiling in this picture that i wasn't feeling it.

it's on the gulf side which automatically means it isn't really going to have waves but it was also just a little round circle of sand so it wouldn't even be fun to walk and by 11 in the morning on a friday it was crowded so i didn't even feel comfortable sitting on a bench to chill because i could barely see the water through all the beach chairs. too bad because it was an easy drive.

i went to visit the next beach about 4 miles away and it was more of the same, just bigger, and there you even had to pay for parking. i didn't even stop to take a picture, i just drove on.

i was going to check out a third beach about 40 minutes away but i changed my mind and just headed back home feeling rather discouraged because this little outing did nothing to take away my beach cravings.

on the way back, however, i decided to stop at a hawaiian bbq place i've wanted to try forever and that didn't disappoint at all.

taz and i loved hawaii and ate at a few hawaiian bbq/plate lunch spots when we were in the islands and also had a favorite one in california but i haven't been able to eat that way in florida until friday so it was a little taste of "home" for me.

then friday night we decided to take the whole family out and that was fun and, because i didn't order much because i was still stuffed from lunch, it wasn't even all that expensive; normally i cry a little when we see how much it costs to feed the 4 of us.

we went back to the place with the koala ducks and i got 2 more so now i have one in my studio, one in the car and one in the bedroom. i had a whole thing for koalas when i was a kid and this koala duck has reignited that obsession so i see a trip the zoo in my future because we're lucky enough to live near a zoo that actually has the little furry guys.

saturday morning we were up bright and early for a daytrip to visit my sister and now i get to finally share the most exciting news ever - she and her husband bought a house in florida!

They currently live in alabama and this florida house is going to be their retirement place BUT they aren't really at retirement age yet so they're going to go back and forth. my sister works from home so she can work anywhere and will spend more time at the retirement place than her husband will for now. 

the reason this all is really great news for me is that it isn't too far from where i live so we'll be able to see each other way more often. like saturday, we went to see the house then had lunch then came back and ran around in their (new) golf cart and then we drove home, all in one day.

i haven't lived in the same state as family since my parents and i moved to virginia when i was in elementary school so having my sister so close (we can call up on a weekend and decide to get together for a cookout or shopping or a movie) is a game changer for me.

plus the house is amazing! it's big and beautiful, has land and the wrap-around front porch of my dreams. the kids love it too, j stared at it when we drove in and declared he never wanted to leave and that was even before he got driven around in the golf cart.

i have these stools that i bought for my old house and there really isn't a place to use them in my current house but my sister has an overhanging kitchen peninsula where they would be perfect so i'm going to bring them to her the next time she's down there. it's something she can really use (forever or until she buys ones she loves but barstools are way down on her priority list) and i'll get the pleasure of seeing them so it's a win-win.

we're going to get together soon and go thrift shopping for furniture and decoration for this new house and that will be super fun. i think we have similar styles and i have all sorts of ideas about this place.

i really want to decorate the bedroom i've chosen for myself and chris and make it a sanctuary for when i'm up there. i know i'll have to let her granddaughter use it when she visits this summer but the rest of the year - it's mine!

speaking of things that are mine - i got to spend some time in my studio yesterday, making a few pair of earrings for an upcoming trip and it was lovely. we bought c a sewing table of her own that will fit perfectly in her room and then she can either decide to start using the sewing machine or not - it's up to her.

but i am making great use of my studio and i was definitely inspired yesterday. in fact, the earrings i'm wearing in the picture at the top of this post are my own design combining 2 stones i really love - turquoise and pearl.

i sought refuge in my studio yesterday after a full weekend of peopling (this includes my own family) which was so much fun but i was drained and my battery needed recharging. and i wasn't the only one - charlie was quite happy to jump up on the trunk and take a nice long solitary nap away from children.

all in all, it was a fun 3 days and i look forward to more fun outings with my sister and her family for years to come.

but for now, i have several days with just christopher to look forward to as we're going to spend a whole week together on a road trip that we're calling our honeymoon since we only had a couple of days right after the wedding. it's not the beach but it's just as fun in my book.

can't wait to share pictures and tell you all about it!

studio

 

yesterday i promised i'd show a picture of my new and improved studio so here it is

that thing to the right of my table is the bunk bed frame turned up on its end and chris added a couple of boards to the front to stabilize it.

i want shelves along the back but on the sides i want pieces of plywood where i can put hooks to hang strands of beads on one side and leather, hemp, string and wire on the other side. chris wants to put doors on it so that you're not looking directly into the shelves. apparently he isn't convinced of my ability to keep the shelves tidy. i seriously can't imagine why. LOL

even today, just walking into that room makes me happy, it feels light and bright in there and full of possibilities. and i do have things in mind like starting an etsy shop and making up business cards so that if someone sees me wearing a unique pair of earrings and comments on them i can whip out a business card which directs them to my shop. it may never happen but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

i've been reading some of my old blog posts and sometimes it feels like i'm reading about someone else's life. i miss so much about my old life, especially my house in california and all the work i put into giving it a style. i have so many memories and i sometimes feel like i've already lived so many lives and now i'm the only keeper of those memories.

before i sink into melancholy, i need to finish washing the dishes, folding the laundry and fixing dinner (along with my full-time job) because school is almost out and everybody will soon be home. we're having a baked tortellini casserole with meat sauce for dinner tonight, what are you having?

clearing a space

 

happy monday to everybody!

i'm at work right now, literally, it's one of the 2 days a week that i drive 2+ hours into the city to work from my office. today has been interesting with employee drama and an unexpected visit from a former co-worker who we all thought had already left the state. usually it's just me and the boss at the office but today we had quite the cast of characters. it's been a fun day and right now i'm in the office by myself. now that the time has changed and we have more daylight in the evenings, i like to stay late until the traffic on the highway has cleared and my drive is so much nicer...plus, by staying that late chris has to feed the kids and i get home just in time to say prayers and send them off to bed.

i really wish i had some fun pictures to share with you of my exciting weekends lately but, quite frankly, the last several weekends have kind of sucked.

first there were a couple of rainy weekends where we didn't go anywhere and then a couple of weekends where i had things i wanted us to do but other plans and/or obligations kept getting in the way...or i thought they were going to get in the way and then they got canceled and it turned out we stayed home for nothing and that was even worse.

i guess i got into a real rhythm in my past life - taz always used to call me the director of fun and it was my job to find cool festivals or events or new places to explore and i took my job very seriously so we spent every weekend doing something fun even if it was just something little.

life doesn't work that way anymore. i still try to find fun things but sometimes chris has already scheduled something else, sometimes he works on the weekends when it's just the 2 of us, sometimes we go to do *my* fun thing and the kids complain so much that it isn't fun for me anymore and, of course, sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate.

it's kinda been a hard lesson for me to learn and i still haven't figured out how to have a better balance. i do know that i get super cranky when i feel like the weekend has been a waste and that's just not fun for anybody.

however, it doesn't really take much to make me happy - this past weekend it was just the 2 of us and i really wanted to go to the beach (still, haven't been in months even though i keep trying to plan for it) but chris, unexpectedly had to work in the morning so i took myself to a clothing shop and got something cute - definitely retail therapy at its finest - and sunday was supposed to be our beach day but chris had things around the house he wanted to do but a trip to outback steakhouse and an adult beverage that came with a cute koala rubber duckie made everything better. all in all it was the best weekend i've had in a long time.

here's an old picture of my studio. have you noticed that i carefully crop all pictures of the studio to only show my side? remember how i told you that chris had started making a sewing table for c out of an old bunk bed frame? i wish i had taken a picture of it because it was massive and was crowding out all of my space but that's the exact reason why i couldn't take the picture, it felt overwhelming to have it in my studio and i didn't want to document it. it seriously made me want to cry every time i walked in and saw it.

since c still hasn't even looked at the sewing machine since we gave it to her at christmas, shown absolutely no interest in it even though she asked for it, i saw no need for it to continue to take up space in the room. i also saw no need for 2 drawers full of j's toys and his lego table to be left in the room as well. chris agreed that c's sewing machine should really be set up in her room and we'll get her a nice little table for it and he also agreed that j's things really belonged in his own room.

but, he didn't bother doing anything about all of that so yesterday i decided that one thing that would really make it a great weekend would be to take those matters into my own hands so i moved toys, tables, sewing machine and sewing paraphernalia into their respective rooms and then i lifted the massive bed frame on its end and shoved it into the wall where it will be transformed into a storage cabinet for me.

it was a heavy beast but when i get an idea into my head, nothing can stop me. and now the room (which i wish i had a picture of but i don't so i'll post one next time) is so much better.

i feel like i can breathe in that room again. i hadn't even wanted to to go in there and create because it felt oppressive. i felt like something that had been created for me was being taken over and i was being minimized. i have a feeling it's kind of an analogy for my life so maybe that's why taking back the space has filled me with such joy.

so this past weekend was a good one and i plan on having many more good ones, i just have to clear the space for it.

there are exciting things happening in the coming weeks to look forward to, it's a new season and i'm going to make the most of it.

also, i'm just going to take a day off work and drive myself to the beach because i'm tired of waiting.