For weeks I have been looking for the perfect print for my yellow and grey kitchen area. I think I have finally found it. I found it on this etsy account today while searching yet again for a yellow and gray that worked for me.
I am absolutely in love with it. Once I get it, I can get the perfect gray paint for the table legs and I can find a yellow that matches for the seat cushions. Then it's just completing my refinish of the buffet and actually doing the projects.
This kitchen is going to come together soon and I am really excited!
I don't like to spend my time blogging about political messages or serious situations, but last night's episode of Glee made me really think about who I am in this community.
Bullying in schools has got to stop. There has to be some sort of consequence that will stop this from happening. Teen suicide rates are rising rapidly, and we as a society need to let our teens know they are loved -- no matter what their skin color, sexual preferences, weight, height, mental capacity -- they need to know they are loved.
As I watched Glee last night, it sent shock-waves through me. It sent me back to a time when I seriously thought life might be better for others if I was gone.
I was bullied in high school. Certainly not to the extent Glee's Dave Karofsky was bullied in last night's episode, and not to the extent that Dave Karofsky once bulled Kurt, but I was bullied. I was pretty low on the food chain and while I had friends that were wonderful, there were plenty of people who weren't. Up until my Senior year, I pretty much hated high school. I wanted to transfer to the catholic school in town because I had some friends who worked with me and I felt like I would be more accepted there. I wouldn't have been.
There's just something about living back in Jefferson City. When I was in college, I would look in a mirror before I left my Springfield apartment for a weekend at home and I would feel gorgeous. I was happy. I would get home, look in a mirror and I would feel like that episode of Seinfeld where the woman was gorgeous sometimes and in other light, not so much.
It has only been in the last three years of living here that I have become comfortable with who I am. I am a communications professional. I am incredibly talented at what I do and I never really gave myself credit for that. Instead, I focused on feeling left out. And I still do feel left out to an extent, but much of it, I expect, is my own doing. A large chunk of my high school class is living in this community and I never feel quite good enough to try to join any of the young professionals organizations in town. I fear the rejection that might come with trying.
But Glee, yes, that show about singing teenagers, taught me something last night. It taught me that until I love myself and show the confidence that I really am good enough to be someone in any community in which I live, I won't ever be that person. I won't ever join a young professionals organization. I won't ever serve on a committee aimed at making a difference in this amazing town in which I live. And I won't ever have that large group of friends that I had in college when I did have that confidence -- when I was far away from this town and all the memories that go with it.
So, in the spirit of Lent and the Easter season, I'm issuing a challenge to myself and I hope it's one some of you will take on as well. I am going to be happy with who I am -- limitations and all. And I am going to truly accept others. I am going to let go of the anger and fear I have had about this community. And I am going to be the best and happiest me I can be.
I should preface this blog post with the disclaimer that I rent my duplex, thus, while I could probably convince my landlords to let me paint, I don't care enough to add color to my home with paint, so I'm doing it with accessories and various other pieces.
This segment on the Nate Berkus Show inspired my design for my dining room. I have a table that we bought from a moving neighbor. I knew I wanted to redo some of it, but I was never really sure what I wanted to do with the room. This segment gave me the perfect idea. I'm a very yellow person. I love the color yellow and the sunshiney feel it brings me when I see it. So my kitchen/dining area is going to be very similar to the dining room Nate put together with the yellow seat cushions. I'm still looking for the perfect fabric for curtains for my dining room area. That same fabric will be used on some lampshades for my sidetable I'm putting in the room.
As far as the side table goes, it's currently a dresser in my bedroom, but I never use it except to throw crap on it, so I want it out of my room. No need for it. This is the dresser that I have been talking about redoing since October. Maybe by next October, I'll actually finish it.
While formulating the plan for this room, I began formulating the plan for every room of my house. We have been looking for new living room furniture but just weren't sure what we wanted in that room. Now, I know I want dark brown furniture with turquoise accents. Our current tv stand, which we plan to replace, will be repainted turquoise and become a home for Alex's various living room items, like books and crayons and even the legos. There's a corner ready and waiting for it now!
I intend to use this tutorial to turn our two small side tables into ottomans, so I will likely re-stain them with a dark stain and use a turquoise and brown fabric for the tops.
I'm not totally sold on this piece of fabric and have been thinking about something like a damask or other turquoise and brown fabric. For now, this is a prototype and this room will evolve over the next few months, I'm sure. I also haven't shared some of these plans with the hubby, who does have a say in how our home looks, so you know, I have that to consider!
As far as art in the living room, I have a plan. I am going to buy three nice sized canvases and paint them the same turquoise I paint the shelving unit. Then, I'm going to buy this wall decal to put across the canvases. Then I'll paint the canvas over again in brown, so the Birds and tree branch will be a pop of turquoise. If anyone has any better techniques on this project, I am open ears!
My bedroom is already black and red and white, and it's staying that way. I will do some wall art, or purchase some wall art for the room, but I haven't figured out what yet. I am also going to be doing some bookshelves in the room that will hold wall sconces which will plug into the two outlets on the wall where my bed is. We are looking for a new bed (mattress set and frame) and are likely going to make our own headboard. All projects which will take considerable amount of time considering the schedule I currently keep. I need some time off from life to get all this done.
Those are the plans so far. I am excited for the projects and taking things one room at a time. I tend to look at the big picture like it's an elephant and I can't get through anything, so I am looking at one project at a time and hoping to get some weekend time to finish things up.
So, do you have any yellow and grey fabrics you love? Any turquoise and brown? Help. That's the first thing I have to do so I can match paint colors and other items!
I'm sad that this blog has become about weight loss and not all the awesome crafts I'm doing. Oh wait, I barely have had time to breathe, let alone craft and then blog about it!
It's been a busy couple of weeks. I have been working crazy busy hours and both jobs and interviewing for a new job and trying to lose weight and not generally being very healthy.
I haven't been getting enough sleep nor watching my nutrition very well. I have stuck to my calories (except for one slip which shall remain named Chicken Quesadilla Grande from Applebees and OFF LIMITS!) but I haven't done much in terms of working out or nutrition. I did dance tonight to Glee. It got my heart pumping, but not a real work out. I didn't lose any weight last week, but I didn't gain any either, which was good considering I wasn't the healthiest dieter around.
Oh, yeah, probably the big news of my week is that I got a new job. I know. It's the third full-time position I've had since I moved back to Jefferson City, but I wasn't really looking for this one. Yes, my hours at the station are long and sometimes frustrating, but I was pretty happy. This job came to me and was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I applied, got an interview and was offered the job last week.
Otherwise, not much happening on the home front. No crafting, but hoping once I get settled into the position, I'll have more time. I have about five projects half done. Would be nice to finish them.
This has been a bit of a routine lately -- coming in to Learfield on Sunday, weighing myself and then eating breakfast while I write about the goods and bads of the week.
I do promise to get back to crafting at some point, but lately I've been working a lot with the legislature in session as well as college basketball in high gear. Soon, soon I will finally finish the dresser I've been working on since ... October.
I lost another 4 pounds this week, which is good since it was a REALLY rough week. I didn't keep up with my partner in this trek to health, partly because I wasn't able to work out at all this week, but also because I ate out way too much.
In fact, on Tuesday, I more than doubled my alloted calories for the week. It just shows that pre-preparing lunches and snacks for the week on Sunday is more important than ever. It was a long day at work, and no time to even take a walk around the building.
I almost didn't input all the food I ate on Tuesday into My Fitness Pal because I was afraid to find out what I really ate, but I did, and it encouraged me to make sure I made better choices the rest of the week. In fact, even long days at work when I didn't have time to make something and ate out, I made better choices the rest of the week, and it obviously paid off.
Monday is a new day, and while I won't be able to start my day at the gym, I am going to be able to start it out right, with a good breakfast, a 10 a.m. meeting and then to work for the rest of the day. Tonight, I'll begin preparing lunches and snacks for the week. I already have one good snack made. It's a great trail mix that is rich enough, I'll never eat more than a half a cup at a time.
It's also probably the easiest trail mix you'll ever make.
I've lost 6 pounds in the last couple of weeks since I really started working to craft myself a new body.
No, I don't mean crafting a new body like in Silence of the Lambs where he's sewing an outfit out of skin. I mean that I'm creating a new me.
It's not just about my body. I am working on my mind and who I really am. I often talk about how much hate there is in this world and how much anger everyone has. I really think our world would be a better place if we worked together more instead of hating each other. I want to spend the next year doing that ... helping others.
In February I will be participating in the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics. From time to time, you'll see on my Facebook page a post about donating to the cause. This particular cause is special. Special Olympics works to show people everywhere that it doesn't matter if you have a learning or physical disability ... that you can do anything you want to do. I really believe that is true. Every day as I watch my two-year-old do and learn things that are seemingly two years away, I see that with motivation and encouragement, anyone can participate in everything they want to do in life. It's not always going to be easy, but it can be done.
Anyway, if you want to help me participate in this amazing event (that I'm completely terrified of) head to http://somo.org/teamKRCG. You can click on my name to donate specifically to me.
I've always done really well at sticking to a 1500 calorie diet and am hoping to even be able to knock that down to 1200 as my weight loss continues.
I'm also looking at the types of food I am eating. I am eating more wraps and less sandwiches. I'm eating more fruit and less processed snacks. We are frequently out of bananas long before the week is up and we ate an entire bag of oranges this week. I am still craving the occasional sweet item, so I am using sugar free hot apple cider and low-fat hot cocoa to cure those urges. They usually happen at night.
I am also looking at the ways I can take my leftovers and remake them into a new meal. So next week, (like seven days from now), I'm going to go through and make wraps out of each of my meals. I'm going to get a variety of tortillas to use for the wraps. Each day, I'll post about the meal the night before and how I re-worked it into a totally new meal.
I've wanted to do something new with my bedroom for a long time. I've been trying to figure out the best thing to do for awhile, but I think I've finally figured it out.
Inspired by a photo I saw this weekend (but clearly cannot find now for whatever reason), I am going to give me room an entirely new look. I told Rob awhile ago that my plan was to redecorate one room at a time in our home while keeping in mind that we rent and are on a very limited budget. I have ideas for each room already, and am hoping to be able to flesh out many of them with homemade projects.
Our bedroom has always bothered me. For a long time, we've had our mattress on the floor with no frame, and I have always said it's a little bit of Zen in the room, but really it's because I haven't found a bedframe I really like that I think will stand up to time. I found one this weekend at Nebraska Furniture Mart. The frame, head and footboards are all black.
I'm also going to add lighting to my room by putting some wall sconces onto the side of two bookshelves on either side of my bed. I haven't decided if I should use wired sconces and drill a hole down the inside of the shelves where I can hide the cord or if I will use wireless sconces that may not shine as bright. You can help me decide that!
I have some more wall art that I've been working on that I hope can add to the room some. My bedding is red, black and white and is full of circular images. I have decided to make something that looks like this:
Instead of dealing with welding and metal rings and all that, I found a tip to use needlepoint rings to replace the metal. Gorilla Glue will stick the rings together, though you can cut slits in the wood so they slide together and are at the same depth. I haven't decided if I will do all the rings inside the larger one, or make a wider piece of wall art to stretch between the two bookshelves. Eitherway, the rings will all be painted red, black and white. I have white walls, so I think the color will add something to the room.
I am moving a long dresser out of my room to be painted and turned into a dining room piece. I will likely move the other dresser out of my room as we rarely use our dressers, but live out of closets (or hampers in busy weeks. The dresser will be in our office, but will probably be re-purposed at some point as well. That furniture has been in my room since 2004 and has served me well, but it's time for it to be used in a different capacity.
What do you think of the plans for my room? Should I use wired sconces or wireless? Any other ideas you've seen that you want to share? Help!
