The Ugly Truth

You guys...this post...it really pains me to show you this. But something has to be done and I think putting it out there in blog land will help me to get motivated to get it done sooner. Plus, I don't ever want any single person for a single second to feel like we are living in a home that is rainbows and unicorns and everything is perfect. We are an ordinary family that makes messes and has our lazy moments.

This is the ugly truth, my Monica's closet...

Yes...I use our dining table to work and create. I have an office that we re-did for this very purpose. Do I use it for that? Simple answer, no. Long answer, I spent too long making sure it looked pretty that I never made sure that it would function for what I needed it for. This mess gets pushed to the side every time we eat dinner. I have been known to be racing around trying to move everything and add a final coat of paint to boards and get dinner on the table that sometimes dinner time straight up stresses me out. I should probably add that I am a messy crafter. I work like crazy not thinking about the mess and then take one day off and spend it cleaning, just to start the cycle again.

And you would never know it, but under that mess is a beautiful table my husband built. A table that I look at Pinterest and just know would look just as beautiful as some of the tables I have pinned with their beautiful center pieces, burlap runners and gorgeous place settings.

The good news, I do have a plan. Shortly after my husband made our table he also built a desk for the kitchen so that we could use the computer we had as a family computer.

The hutch on top is from our tv stand that was once my parent's bedroom furniture. I'm not sure what I am going to do with the hutch part yet but the desk is a perfect work area for me. This piece will be replaced by this...

The kitchen hutch that my in-laws were getting rid of and I just knew that it would be beautiful in my office. This is one of the pieces that is not functional for me. The storage underneath? Full of scrapbooking supplies that I don't need. This piece will give me the extra storage I need in the kitchen and can house the computer for the kids. And I've always wanted an old hutch in the kitchen, so this girl is getting painted white with distressing and the glass is getting replaced with some chicken wire. You know, the faux vintage effect that fits so many of our budgets so well!

The desk will move in to this spot and I plan on adding some open shelving above to store signs as they are drying, that way I can still work on more than one order at a time and not take over the entire house.

So stay tuned, hopefully everything will be moving soon!

Ramblings For 2013 and 2014

I've been struggling with getting this blog up and going the way I would like. That seems to be a theme in my life, hard to get something new started but once it becomes part of my usual routine my true inner self shines through. So I'm going to experiment with this for a while. I have so many blog post started but they feel so forced. I apologize in advance for the randomness and ramblings that may occur for a while. {p.s. This post will be one of those rambling post.}

December went by in a blur. Thanks to Thanksgiving being later than we are used to meant that people began shopping online later and there was a sense of urgency all around.

This was on the downward slide of Christmas orders to be done and shipped. My husband started a new position in the company he works for and had to travel off and on so I would take advantage of having the garage to my self and cut and sand as much as I could before I felt that the neighbors would call the cops for the excessive buzzing sander noises.

December 1st brought back Elvis, our Elf on the Shelf and boy did he make an entrance!

Luckily he wasn't as mischievous as he has been in the last few years.

I also took advantage of some tutorials on Pinterest and had some fun with my camera.

And I just realized that this is pretty much the only photo I took during the holidays that has any type of holiday feel to it! I don't think I touched my camera at all after taking this. If I couldn't snap a quick photo with my iPhone, I didn't get a photo of it.

Major news that I shared quietly on my personal Facebook page, but left me feeling like I had hit the big time also happened in December...

Sale #1,000! It has always been on my list of goals to accomplish, I just never thought it would happen as soon as it did. I did a quick little happy dance in my head, shared it on Facebook and then got back to work.

I also turned 34 in December. Growing up my Nana would call every year and ask if I felt like I was however many years old I turned that year. This year she was here {along with my Grampie} and I was ready for her to ask because my answer was yes...yes, I feel every single day of my 34 years. Luckily I didn't have any big plans in place. My day was spent with this sleeping beauty.

She had finally succumbed to the stomach bug that was being passed around at school. 

Christmas was the usual chaotic day for us, but the girls enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

New Year's Eve came and went quietly. Kind of. We managed to stay up past midnight {Yay!} to ring in the new year, but I spent most of the evening in bed with severe back pain that went down my leg {Boo!}. Turns out sitting on a hard floor for hours putting together desks from Ikea doesn't agree with my sciatic nerve. Add my already bad posture to that and it didn't help at all. For days ibuprofen, a heating pad and YouTube videos on how to massage areas that were sore were my best friends!

Now we're in to 2014 and I've been thinking about my list of resolutions things I would like to continue working on. The word resolution seems so overwhelming to me so I'm going to focus on areas that need improvement and work on them gradually. Like I mentioned before, one of them being this blog.

I have so many things I want to share and Facebook used to do it for me, but as we all know, Facebook has been frustrating the past year for businesses. I want to share news about my business and tutorials for DIY projects but I also want to give you all a glimpse in to my day to day life. I follow so many other blogs that share all of the above and I truly feel that if I was to meet one of these lovely ladies, I would immediately feel like I was reuniting with an old friend {once I got over the school girl giddiness of actually meeting them!} and I know there may be some awkward phases as I figure all of this out and find my happy medium.

But most of all, I am so happy that you are here to watch me go through it. I'm hoping that 2014 will be my year to inspire you in to trying something new!

p.s. I would really love to be able to add the thingy in the side bar that allows for you to sign up for email alerts of new posts {and so many other things} so if you have any experience with blogging, any help is greatly appreciated!!

Growing Pains

Things have been painstakingly slow here lately at block.paper.scissors.. (Sorry for the false advertisement of my title if you were expecting to talk about one of my favorite shows growing up!)

One secret of having a great online presence is having great photos. I got my DSLR camera for Christmas which helps, but doesn't guarantee great photos. I have tried reading websites and the manual to the camera but after the first few sentences my eyes glass over and everything looks like it's written in a foreign language.

A few weeks ago I found this blog post written by Miss Mustard Seed. If you have ever been interested in amateur photography, trust me, this blog post is worth your time. It's written for those of us that are trying out photography for the first time. I finally broke out the tripod, switched that camera to the big M and started messing with the different buttons and dials. 

It helped me take this:

(The color of this sign is butter pecan but it leaves you to wonder if it's beige, maybe gold? And what's with the super bright center?)

To this:

A butter pecan that actually looks like pecan! (And it doesn't look like it's radiating light on it's own.)

And what kind of pink is this?

Bet you didn't guess dusty rose!

So, I am now retaking photos of items in my Etsy shop which slows me down quite a bit. No pain, no gain. Right?!