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What is your “awesome”?

Posted by Nat on Aug 18, 2011 | 2 comments

(Note:  I’ve come to realize that I really like to write, I have a lot in my noggin, and this is a great place to let it all out.  Those of you who have been around a while may have noticed that I changed my tag from “I fully admit I have no idea what I’m doing” to “Life is crazy. Craft it well.”  I’m shifting the focus of my blog to include many things, not just crafting in a literal sense.  I’m trying to craft a wonderful life for myself and my family.  I hope you’ll enjoy reading in weeks and months to come about how we do just that.  Thanks!)

 “I’m not a teacher anymore.” 

This phrase has gone through my head numerous times since May 13th, when I walked out of my classroom and headed to a farewell happy hour.  I was pregnant with Emily and done.  D-O-N-E done.  My doctor wrote the note, and it was as easy as pie to head out the door.  But I wasn’t just leaving for maternity leave.  Weeks prior I turned in a letter of resignation to my administrative office.  I will not be returning next week the way so many colleagues-who-are-now-just-friends will be.  I am now, “Just a mom.”  And that, my friends, is awesome.  For me.  Would it be awesome for you?

My husband and I worked hard to get to the point where we were ready to jump off of the two-income cliff, down to the one-income plateau.   It’s a huge leap for us.  We tried during the 2008-2009 school year to make a go of living on one income.  I took a leave of absence and got to be at home with the kids, but financially we weren’t quite there.  My heart has been at home since the birth of my daughter, Anna, in 2007, so returning to work after a year of doing what fills my heart was hard.  Two years later and we are making the change we’ve both wanted for our family.

It was interesting, though, once we were sure we could and would make the commitment, to hear people’s reactions to the fact that I was leaving my profession behind.

They ranged from disbelief….

“No!  You’re quitting?!”

“Shut up!  For reals?”

“Can you afford it in this economy?”

…to dismay…

“But you’re such a good teacher…”

“When will you come back?”

…to happiness…

“I’m so happy for you!”

“That’s wonderful!”

“Finally!”

There were many more that tore at my heart strings in both good and bad ways- many I’ve since forgotten, but in the moment were at times hard to hear.  Having so many different reactions to my choice to leave was so interesting.  No one’s reaction truly bothered me, they just made me think.  A lot.

It seems like there is a continual debate about what the “right” choice is for women.  One trend is to have a full-fledged career, work long hours, and show our kids that women can have careers just as big and bold as men.  Another seems to be a “back to basics” trend of having the mom give up that second income and stay home- essentially, what I am doing.   Whether they realized it or not, many people displayed their opinions of what the “right” choice is through their reaction to my departure from my teaching career.  It was fascinating.

What is the right choice?   I think the reason that everyone argues about it so much is that there is no one “right answer” and the only thing that’s tried and true about this issue, regardless of you choice, is this:  parenting is hard work.  If you’re doing it right, then you are exhausted at the end of the day, whether you are a “FTWM,” “SAHM” or “WAHM” (or any other acronym that applies to you).  I admire women who are passionate about their careers, love going to work, and manage to still be there for their children.  I equally admire women who give up their careers to be there for every minute of their kids’ lives, whether they are infants, toddlers, or school-aged kids.  We all make the choices that work for us and our families, and some of us don’t even have a choice in the matter.  I hope that we can eventually reach a place where we aren’t judged by whether we stay home, work, or a combination of the two.  I’d rather be judged by the kind of children I’m raising, working a paid job or not.

What do you think?  Is this debate ever going to go away?  Are we ever going to just appreciate our different life choices or will there always be comparison and judgement?  I’d love to hear your experiences and thoughts.

Well hello there…

Posted by Nat on Jul 27, 2011 | Comments Off on Well hello there…

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks.  I’m having to reassess my ability to jump back into things in the blogging world.  In the meantime, please meet our newest addition, Emily Lou.  If you’d like to read more about her, click here.

I have lots of things in the works… in my head.  Some are already finished and I just need to write them up.  Others are projects that I’m longing to do, but just haven’t found the time yet.  I am also attending BlogHer next week, and that is going to take some prep work.  So, please pardon the sporadic posting, and hopefully BlogHer will give me the jumpstart I need to… do whatever it is I’m going to do with myself. 🙂

More to come!

More Mod Podge Projects

Posted by Nat on Jun 21, 2011 | 9 comments

This post is going to make me look like a Mod Podge addict, which I very well may be.  But in actuality, I did these projects randomly over the last six months, and I’m slopping them all together into one post because they all work in relatively the same way.  I love how a little bit of fun paper can add a pop of color and make things so much nicer to look at.

Project #1:  Bathroom stool

Anna uses this stool from Target to make it easier to sit on the potty (I just tried to find it on their website and the only color that shows is blue, and it’s out of stock- sorry!).  The only thing I didn’t like about it was that it was all-white, and it got dirty from her little feet so easily.  So, I just traced the top on some 12×12 scrapbook paper that I liked, and found a complimentary page in another pattern for the sides, and presto:  new look.

Project #2:  Ikea Stool

Similarly, we use this step stool from Ikea often and all over the house- in the kitchen, in the laundry room.  It actually now sits in the front hallway most often, but since I’ve Mod Podged it I don’t feel so bad because it’s kind of cute now.

Project #3:  Tubs in the Laundry Room

Lastly, you may have seen my post, Operation Organization, where I Mod Podged a bunch of tubs to help organize our hall closet.  We still plan on adding more tubs to that closet, but in the meantime, our laundry room was out of control.  I’m sorry to say I don’t have a “before” picture, but the two shelves over our washer & dryer were just covered with all of our dangerous chemicals, cleaners and such.  It’s the only place in the house I’m okay with having heavy chemicals because the kids can’t reach anything up there. So I headed to Ikea to get more of the big tubs and set this up.  It’s helped so much- we can grab what we want easily and it forces us to limit what goes up there.  There are a few things in the middle that are too big for the tubs, but that’s okay.   Still looks a LOT better.

The process for all of these was the same:  layer on Mod Podge.  Add paper.  Let dry.  Mod Podge the top.  Let dry.  Done!  I did use a brayer for both of the stools- I love the brayer!  If you have questions about any of these shoot me an email!  Also, I have noticed that the tubs in the laundry room are rippling a little bit- I imagine because it’s rather humid in our laundry room when the washer & dryer are going, but it’s not horrible.

I’m linking up to Today’s Creative Blog!

I’m so happy that Briana from Sweat Peas and Bumble Bees also asked me to link up to her party, What I Made Wednesday.  Thanks, Briana!

Lastly, I’m linking up to Fingerprints on the Fridge’s “Feature Yourself Friday”!

Coffee Table Upgrade with Mod Podge

Posted by Nat on Jun 18, 2011 | 12 comments

What else would I use to upgrade something?  I mean, really.

So we bought this table from West Elm right after we got married in 2005.  I cannot say that I recommend West Elm furniture for families with small children- it just didn’t hold up.  I loved the table when we first got it- it’s not too big, round (I love round tables for some reason), looked cool for a long time.  But our first condo faced west and the sun hit it during sunset, which took its toll.  Then Anna came, and she did a doozy on it.  I didn’t help either, what with my in-home-acetone-using-French-pedicures (ahem).  So, it was looking pretty sad.  We are now in abode #3, and it was really looking bad.  But we didn’t/don’t have the budget for new furniture right now.  We do, however, have a budget for craftiness and fabric- couldn’t possibly cost as much, right?!  Hmmm… not so sure, but I sure do like how this turned out.  Here’s the before:

I went to my local JoAnn Fabrics, spotted the fabric and loved it right away, so I bought 3 yards, and some black upholstery/pillow trim.  I stocked up on staples for my staple gun, made sure I had plenty of Mod Podge (fabric and hard coat) and a brayer (new fave tool!) and off I went.  In case you aren’t in the mood to scroll, here’s the finished product:

I apologize for the lack of photos- this was done months ago during my blogging break, but I will describe it as best I can.  I won’t say this is a tutorial, but if you ever ponder doing the same thing with one of your pieces of furniture, please shoot me questions and I’m happy to answer them.

First I poured a pretty hefty amount of Mod Podge (fabric) on the table and spread it out as evenly as I could over the top, but not the sides.  Then, I carefully laid the fabric on top, like so:

Then I used the brayer to roll the fabric out as flat as possible until I could see no air bubbles, no bumps, etc.  With the pattern in the fabric my eyes did cross a bit from time to time, and eventually I had to sit down and take a breather.

I waited a bit, and then I carefully trimmed off the excess fabric.  This is when the stapling began.  I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do this part- it was definitely a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants project.  But I ended up being happy with the results.  Basically I pulled the fabric straight down and stapled until I absolutely had to pleat it because of the direction the fabric was pulling.  It seemed scientifically impossible to get it all to lay flat on the sides.  You’ll see in the collage below that there are just some pleats here and there- I stapled them as tight as I could- my fingers were nearly raw by the time I finished.

Finally, I added the trim with a hot glue gun.  I think in hindsight I should have stapled at least the beginning down with a staple or two, but it’s holding up great so far, so maybe it’s not completely necessary?

I wasn’t done yet, though.   I started the Mod Podge process with the hard coat formula using sponge applicators.  I have only been able to find MP hard coat in the smaller jar, and I started with two jars, but ended up buying two or three more.  I always did these coats after the kids went to bed so it could dry over-night.  I decided to go with the “built up finish” because I knew this table would be put under great duress by us and the kids, and the more layers, the better.  This equates to a minimum of 5 coats.  After 5 coats, I didn’t feel it was done yet.  There were lots of ripples in the MP, and I was curious to see if they would go away with a few more coats.  I think I probably did 10 coats or so- it was a lot.  It was also a bit tacky, as MP sometimes is, and I didn’t know what to do about that.  In the end I first sanded it a bit with a really fine-grain sand paper, then sprayed the top and sides with two coats of clear acrylic spray.  I’m actually not convinced I’m done with it, but it’s holding up great until I figure out what to do- maybe I’ll put some custom-cut glass on it someday when the kids are a bit older?  Or maybe by then we’ll be able to afford a new table… Hmmm…     Anyhoo, here are some more shots of the finished product:

Picture Frame Gallery

Posted by Nat on Jun 3, 2011 | 2 comments

We have a ranch-style house (I think).  It’s all one level, which I love, and it has a loooooong hallway down the bedroom side.  We’re talking 30+ feet.  Really long.

When we moved into this house, which my husband grew up in, we had tons of projects, so for quite a while this one sat by the wayside, waiting to be done.  I had lots of thoughts about how to hang pictures, but it wasn’t until I saw this idea on Martha’s website that I got my rear in gear and starting putting this together.

Here’s the before, with just our small photo gallery that my mom gave me from Red Envelope.  (I actually need to email them because some of the frames aren’t holding up…)  Many apologies for the lighting- there is very little natural light in this hallway.  We hope to put in skylights someday, but until then…

And here’s the after:  voila!

I really love the end result.  Here’s a little bit about my process.

This was a very overwhelming task now that I look back and think about it.  Because of the layout I decided to do things in a way that felt a little bit backwards- I didn’t even think about what pictures to use- I just collected frames.  I wanted the frames to be uniform in color, and most of them were black.  But we were definitely on a budget and I didn’t want to buy frames unless I needed to, so I went through our huge collection of unused frames and pulled any that were black, or useable, but not black.  Then I spray-painted the ones that were not black.

I did have to make a trip to get a few more- I chose to hit up Wal-Mart.  My theory on frames is that once they are on the wall, it doesn’t matter if it was $3.00 or $30.00- it’s a frame.  This was a good thing, because Wal-Mart has some cheap frames!

I followed the directions on Martha’s website pretty much verbatim.  The one thing that I was very glad to have was the laser level with 3M Command Strips- that way I could easily make sure the dividing line was/is level.  Lots of painter’s tape was involved as well.  Lots.

Once I had the frames ready, I taped off the dividing center line.  Then I grouped the frames into four groups so that I wouldn’t have two identical frames right next to each other.  This made hanging go a bit faster because I didn’t have to stop and think-  just measured, taped, nailed and hung.  It took several hours to do.

(horrible lighting- sorry!)

Once the frames were up it was time to think about pictures.  I didn’t want them to be haphazard- I wanted each row to have it’s own theme.  I came up with this formula (pardon the elementary-ish Photoshop skills):

Then I started a folder on my laptop and dumped photos into it whenever I had a chance.  I used Photoshop Elements to print a contact sheet with little thumbnails of the possible pictures, and I taped them onto the frames so I could go over them with Michael and we could decide.

(our whole hallway looked like this for quite a while)

I had most of my family history pictures, but I had to coordinate with Michael’s mother and father to get his side.  Once the last few pictures went in it was like our house was complete (in a few ways, at least).

Did I leave anything out?  Let me know if you have questions- this was so great for this super long hallway.  How do you like to hang your picture frames?

Martha! I Made It! Sewing Notions Organizer

Posted by Nat on May 30, 2011 | 8 comments

Whew!  I’m back!  I’m sure there are still several things to tweak on this new (and hopefully improved) site, but I need to get posting, wouldn’t you say?

I completed this project months ago and am so happy to a) have made it, and b) never have to make it again.  Ever.

You may have seen in my post about our house that we have an office.  It looks much different than it used to because now it’s a guest room AND my craft room AND an office.  While I didn’t need the office desk anymore, I did need help with all of those sewing notions that pile up.  I hate digging for stuff.  Maybe it goes back to my lovely run-in with scabies in Italy (shall I post about that sometime?  You tell me….), or perhaps it’s just that when I have to dig for something it’s a reminder that I should be more organized in whatever area it is I’m digging in.  This project eliminated a lot of that.   I am also a huge fan of taking advantage of vertical space.  Hence:

These sit above my sewing table, and they hold not only the things I use most when sewing, but also some crafting tools, as well.  And of course, it’s all because of Martha….

If you consult your Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, you’ll find this one on page 267. I apologize in advance for not taking great pictures- this was definitely in my “blog break” time and I was really doing this for myself.

I’ll walk you through what I did and what I used- I used the instructions in the book as a guide, but really had to wing some of it.  As a result some of my pockets didn’t turn out super swell, but that’s okay- they work.  You’ll see in photos below I actually made three of them, and the middle one has office supply things in it, which is nice.

In the book they suggest using homasote fiberboard.  When I went looking for homasote fiberboard I could not find it in a small enough size.  The one size I saw at Home Depot was big enough to warrant bungee cords on top of my car, and that felt a liiiiiittle over the top, so I opted for some plain pieces of wood.  The two squares are 24×24, and the middle one is 12×24. I then used some quilt batting and spray adhesive to give them a softer look.  I wrapped them up with the fabric and taped them in the back temporarily while I figured out what was going to go where.   Then I pulled everything that was driving me crazy and laid them out like you see here just above.  This took a long time.  I really wanted to get it right, so I debated for probably-excessive amounts of time making sure I could fit everything I wanted. I really took the photos of the layouts so that I could refer back to them while I was in the process- if you decide to make one or more of these I highly recommend it!

The most time-consuming part, however, was cutting the fabric for the actual pockets.  The book gives you a formula for adding length and/or height depending on the pocket you want to make, so I followed that and for the most part it worked out just fine.   What was challenging was keeping them all straight so that I didn’t a) get them mixed up and b) remembered where they were supposed to go.  You also have to press them and sew the tops over so that they look nice (who’d-a-thunk- Martha wants something to look…nice?). 

Here is a collage of some of the process.  You can see that I ended up using some office labels to keep everything organized.  This worked nicely because they stuck nicely to the fabric without ruining it, so once I had the pocket in place and ready to go, I could toss the label and it was like checking off an item on a to-do list.  Done!

The bottom left photos shows the middle panel I made for office supplies- and you can kind of see that I taped a border around the edge.  I did this to help myself remember where the edge of the wood would end up being- sort of helped me keep everything level, I guess.  And the bottom right is just a sketch of each board so I could write down measurements, placement, etc.

Once I had the pockets sewn on I stapled them to the wood on the back with a staple gun about 8 million times.  My husband helped me place the hanging wires on the back and, since we used wood which is much heavier than the fiberboard, we made sure to hang them on studs in the wall so that they wouldn’t fall off eventually (crossed fingers).  Here are a few more pictures of the final product as it looks in my office:

It’s hard to tell in these photos but my office is still a dusty lavender- quite similar, actually, to my new background color on this blog.  I love it.  And the gray of the fabric and the print really looks nice.  You can also see that I made some little cups to hang- it looked sort of empty in between and I had a ton of fabric left over, so I made six little hanging….cups(?) to put things like buttons, pins and safety pins in.

How do you organize your sewing notions?  If you decide to make something like this, give yourself plenty of time and don’t rush.  I didn’t rush this one and I still made a few mistakes, but I still love the final product.  My pockets don’t look nearly as perfect as the stuff in Martha’s book, but it’s so very nice to have this stuff right in front of me whenever I need it.   If you have a question, if I left something out, please leave a comment!  I’m going to link up to some link parties, too, as soon as I get a chance!  And if you’re all the way down here at the bottom, thanks for reading this far!

I linked up to:

Night Owl Crafting

Sew Much Ado

Creations by Kara