Make your bed.

I read a blog last week that has really struck a chord.  I follow "The Bloggess" by Jenny Lawson.  While she uses much more profanity than I am comfortable with, her humor drives me to tears.  I have her book "Let's Pretend this Never Happened" which had me rolling in laughter on a quiet plane ride.  I find myself breaking into sudden, snorty laughter, out of the blue, just THINKING about things that I read in the book.  While Jenny is terribly funny, she is also very troubled with mental health issues which she is very open and candid about.  In the link above, she talks about how she struggles to feel like she accomplishes anything some days.  It is very easy to feel like you suffer by comparison to others.  I think we ALL feel that way sometimes.  As she mentioned in her blog, looking at other's lives can make us feel inadequate.  Other people get up and run at 6am, they have perfectly cleaned and organized homes, they do all the Pinterest meals and crafts - life looks perfect.  She mentioned that while she knows she has accomplished quite a bit in her life and career, she only feels like she has really DONE anything a few days a month.  Truth is, I think we all feel that way. 

My "To-Do" list gets carried over daily. Between dishes, laundry, work, kids, housecleaning, working out, projects like 'cleaning the garage' and other Pinterest  inspirations, I rarely feel accomplished.  Her blog made me re-think a few things.  I need to quit comparing myself to the perception I have of other's which makes me feel inadequate, and start celebrating the small accomplishments in my day.

Life is a balancing act.  You try to keep MANY plates spinning at once and maintain the appearance of having it all dialed-in but the truth is, we all have plates dropping left and right.  I constantly compare myself to others.  Other women have immaculate homes, perfectly landscaped yards without a weed to be found, their kids make their beds every day, they have frozen crock-pot meals stacked and labeled in their freezers, their closets and pantry's are organized and color coded, even their junk drawers are neatly organized.  My life is chaos.  By the time the last room in my house is finally cleaned the first one is a disaster again.  Every cupboard is booby-trapped with junk ready to spill out if you open it.  The weeds in my flower beds are knee high.  My husband "weeded" with Round-up so everything around our house is brown and dead.  My laundry smells musty because the wash has been sitting wet in the washer for 3 days.  I can NEVER seem to get caught up. 

Instead of feeling behind the 8 ball, I choose to celebrate the small accomplishments.  I made my bed today.  I make my bed every morning.  I make my bed and open the blinds in my windows.  This helps me feel like I have done SOMETHING.  Even if I don't get anything else accomplished today, I made my bed.  Something about just doing that makes me feel like I have my act together. There are days that I may not make my bed until 4 in the afternoon, but I still make it! At least it looks like I have done something today. (Truth be told I am scrambling to make it before my husband gets home as he already thinks my days include soap operas and bon bons).

What do you do to feel accomplished?  Someday I hope to set a bigger goal and really feel like my life had purpose, but for today my sense of accomplishment comes from just making my bed.

Score!

We recently flipped our mattress, and when we pulled the bed apart, I took the bedskirt off hoping to touch it up with an iron.  Well, it sat in my laundry basket for quite some time as I found myself unmotivated to put it back on my bed.  It was so blah, I really wanted to get or make a new one to give the room a new look.  I considered making one, and while at the fabric store recently, I scoured the home interior fabrics looking for just the right color, pattern and weight.  I had decided on something red or cranberry.  I also envisioned red panel curtains to go with my red bedskirt and a few throw pillows with red in them.  Something to give the room a pop of color.  Nothing caught my eye at the fabric store.  I went online looking for just the right bedskirt, and of course when you are looking for something, you can never find it.  I constantly check out Marshalls, TJ Maxx and Ross for a great deal on the perfect bedskirt, but again - no luck.  It's been a subtle mission of mine for about 9 months now.  I don't set out to go shop for it, but I am always keeping an eye open for it.

The other day I FOUND IT!!  Of all places, I was at Goodwill.  Don't you just love a good bargain??  Here it was, a king size cranberry bedskirt.  It was perfect!

Just look at the price!!

Ta da!  Here it is on the bed.  Now, for those curtains and pillows!

I'm so excited to finish the look~

I love a good find.

The Heather House is all grown up,

 It started as an abandoned home, waiting to be torn down so a daycare could take it's place.  As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, this home became my first home - the only condition was that I had to move it!

And so I did!

I painted the door and trim pink...

And then blue with white heart shutters.

Unfortunately the people who rented it for 10 years, and then later purchased it from me

ended up completely trashing the home, and lost it in foreclosure.

The ads when it was listed read "Potential Tear Down..."

That broke my heart.  I had so much love invested in this home, the thought of someone buying it to simply tear it down was devastating.

We put a bid in on the home when it was for sale, but were outbid and did not get the opportunity to give it the makeover it desparately needed.

Today I drove past the home, fearing I would see an empty lot where the home once stood.

Much to my surprise, I found my baby - all grown up!!

The investors who purchased it fixed it up beautifully!  I was so pleased to see  my "Heather House" looking so polished and clean.  The yard was nicely landscaped, everything looked so fresh and new. 

It's like a child who got mixed up with the wrong crowd, involved in drugs and you lost for a while comes walking through the front door all grown up, clean and healthy.  You can see it's still them,

but they look so happy now!

That's the way I feel about my little house.

It went from a family home, to abandoned and near demolition, to a move across town, fixed up, then run down, close to demolition again, and now...BEAUTIFUL!

Welcome Back, Heather House.

Our Fall Home

Autumn has blown in and trees are looking bare.  Soon yards and homes will be lit up and decorated for Christmas.  I love this time of year.  The colors are so beautiful and sunny cold days are invigorating!

Farewell Summer.  I look forward to seeing you again in about 7 months!

Hello Fall!  Glad you could join us for a few weeks~

Hello November!

On your mark, get set... GO!  Let the November/December Holiday craziness begin!!  From now until January 10th or so, things are going to get wildly out of control.  First put away all the spooky Halloween decorations and costumes, then pull out all the turkeys and cornucopias.  Plan the Thanksgiving menu, start Christmas shopping, figure out who's on the naughty and nice list for Christmas cards this year.  Did anyone get bumped?  Maybe I sent a card last year and didn't get one in return... I guess we've "lost touch." 

Make a list and check it twice.  I must be sure the kids are even-steven with their gifts.  Then there are the cookie exchange parties, the white elephant gifts, the little gifts for mail carriers, garbage men, piano teachers, school teachers, bus drivers, the friends of kids, those hostess gifts, giving tree gifts - it seems the gift list goes on and on!

Decorating the house is a whole other chapter in the holiday prep process.  Ladders and lights, big trees, little trees, garland and bows, there is so much to do in these next 2 months.  Just don't forget to enjoy the journey.  Play a little Christmas music, enjoy a glass of wine or cocoa, just sit and look at the pretty tree with it's lights and decorations.  Have some family time.  Don't get lost in the hustle and bustle.

Happy November everyone!  Hang on and enjoy the ride~

Heather

Hanging a hammock!

I was inspired the other day by my second cousin.  She is a photographer, and in one of her photos she shows a beatiful hammock with pillows, kids giggling, and a candle chandelier overhead.  I remembered a hammock that we had tucked away in storage at our cabin which was never used.  I recently brought it home and was excited to hang it quickly before summer ended.

Here is the hammock - ready to hang!

I drilled a starter hole in the tree

Then I screwed in a hook.  Hindsight, I should have put in an eye, not a hook.  I'm going to have to swap it out as the hook is widening.  Live and learn!

I did the same on both sides and connected it with some chain.

Ta da!!

The hammock is hung!

Here is what you see when you are laying on the hammock!

Ahhhh

I hung it on the same tree as our tire swing.

Not sure if you can see it behind the tree, but it's there.

I love the tire swing and the hammock.  They both just scream summer!

I had a tire swing as a kid and spent MANY hours on that swing.

I'm glad my girls get the same joy out of theirs.

Oh, what a difference a day makes...

Yesterday was summer and I hung my sheets on the line to dry.



Today is fall, and the crock pot is cooking dinner, the rain is pouring down outside, and the fire is going in the fireplace.

It's not officially September yet (that's tomorrow), but I went to Michaels today and got some pretty fall colors to decorate my front door.

Earlier in the year, I picked up these 2 containers for about 4 bucks each on clearance.

They had a good sale on fall flowers, so I got a bunch of fun stems...


And TA DA! 

Once the pumpkins arrive and I pull the rest of my fall decor out from storage, it will complete the look.  But for now, it's starting to look cozy!

Happy Fall everyone!

It's a Happy Cloud

I often get told I live on a fluffy white cloud. I think it's the same one my Mom and Sister live on. I like to think of myself as a positive person - always seeing the best in people and things. One person compared it to the character "Kenneth" from 30 Rock, and how the world was viewed through his eyes ~everyone was a Muppett Character. It's a happy place here. Except when I look at the chaotic world around me and realize all I need to do. Dishes, laundry, dust, vacuum, toilets, did I mention laundry? All this coupled with working my Real Estate business, working my Scentsy business (which I LOVE by the way...), meeting an electrician at our apartment complex, getting softball gear ready for my youngest this afternoon, parent teacher conferences, posting rental vacancies on Craigslist, and now, blogging! What's one more thing to add to my day? We all have so many balls in the air - life is such a juggling act. I remember going to MOP's when my girls were little. We took a little time each meeting and did a craft. I was SO excited to do the craft, as it was a little block of time, just to have a creative outlet. I still have the ceramic white board with the pretty ribbon I made hanging in front of me. If nothing else, it's a reminder to take a little time in the crazy busy day and get creative. Make something pretty. Maybe this is what my blogging will be about - amidst all the chaos of life, finding a little bliss or a "Happy Cloud", even if it's just for a few minutes.