A Heart Divided

When we drove to Nashville last month for our reunion, we made sure to make two very important pit stops. We hit up both the Tennessee and Texas welcome center for these babies.

I had seen a really cute map art on Pinterest using various places that are special to you.

Source: studiocalico.blogspot.com via Kristin on Pinterest

Source: everythingfab.com via Kristin on Pinterest

So, since my guest bedroom is shaping up to take on a "travel" theme, and my heart will always be divided between Nashville and DFW, I thought these would be a cute addition. 

I grabbed two wooden shadow boxes for 50 percent off at Michael's and started by painting them white.

Then, it was time to get my maps ready. I was hoping the scale of the map would be the same, but since Texas is much bigger than Tennessee, it was a much "denser" look. 

I used my Cricut to cut out a heart. The biggest I could get it to cut was five and a half inches, which was not quite big enough for my 12 x 12 box. So, I then had to carefully trace about an inch from the edge to make my heart a bit bigger. I was a little nervous but it worked pretty well, and once I had one done, I could use it as the template for the other.

My plan was to actually keep my shadow box white but because much of the map was also white, I decided it needed a bit of color behind it. Luckily, I had a blue paint sample from trying to find a color for my bedroom (more on that tomorrow).

So, I pulled out the Behr Sonata and painted the background of the shadow box. Then, I used a little mod podge to get the maps to adhere. Now, can I just tell you, I've never used mod podge. I know! I think now that I have, I can call myself a real crafty person! 

After all that, here is what I have ...

What do you think? I'm excited to get them hung on the wall!

Patience is a Virtue

I promised when I first started blogging that I would be brutally honest with you. I'm about to be true to that. 

I apologize in advance for the "verbal throw up" I'm about to give you. But, I figure some of you might be feeling the same way. You see, here lately, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed.

When I decided to start blogging, it was because I was inspired to make my nearly 30-year-old home. my dream home. I started blogging because I thought it would be fun. I've now been blogging six months and I feel I've done very little of what I originally wanted.  I read other blogs and they are constantly spitting projects out. I feel a bit lazy, and as a result, a little guilty because lazy = no blog posts.

Like many, I'm addicted to Pinterest. I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I admit, I browse the site each night, sometimes with a specific purpose and other times just for the heck of it. But, as much as I love Pinterest, it also drives me crazy. 

It's too much. When I look at all the amazing things on the site and then come back to reality of my own living quarters, I realize there is so much I want to do, but I don't know where to start. 

This feeling has been around for some time, but, last week, I was reading Young House Love's blog. I have been following them less than a year, and I'm blown away by their ability to get things done and pull a room together (yes, I know that blogging is their full-time job, but still...). 

Young House Love just recently moved into a new house, so they decided to do a comparison between their new and old house. As they walked through the pictures of their first house at the eight-month mark, I realized how much time it had taken them to get it to the perfect place I had seen when I became their blog reader. In the beginning, they didn't have matching furniture,  perfect paint colors or all the little details done. 

And this gave me hope.  

I can't have it all overnight. My mentality is I want to get every DIY project done. I want to paint everything. I want to re-do cabinets and vanities and furniture. And I want to do it all now. But, all of this takes times. Patience is a virtue I need to put into practice.

So, I decided to take a small step back. A few weeks ago, as this overwhelming feeling was upon me, I took a trip to the library and decided I would check out some decorating books. I just wasn't feeling like I had the natural "eye" for design and thought the best way to learn was to study up. 

I ended up with four books. I quickly went through two that were not very helpful, and just when I was about to give up on getting any help, I discovered these two little gems.

I should have known these would be worth the read, because several bloggers had them on their list of best books.

I don't want to get your hopes up. These books didn't make me an overnight designer. Matter of fact, all they really did was give me some common sense tips. But, that's exactly what I needed. 

I needed someone to help me get a grip on all the ideas floating through my head. I needed someone to help me figure out what is best for me, my style and my lifestyle.  

One of the main things I took away from the books is to have a plan. I decided to take this to heart and start a to-do list. So, over the weekend, I sat down and made a sheet for every room of the house. On that sheet, I wrote down every "project" I wanted to do for that room and everything I wanted to change. This even included the DIY projects I had in mind.

Some of the things on the list may get accomplished this weekend, but some may take years. And that's okay. 

This simple task made me feel so much more organized. And, out of it, I feel I have a bit more direction. 

So, all that to say, I've been given some renewed hope and have re-gained the excitement I once had. I've come to the conclusion that this is not my job, it's my hobby, and it should be fun, not stressful. But through it all, I will keep my perspective and not let this become my obsession, because my worth is not in my house. And at the end of the day, all these "earthly" things can be taken away from me in an instance.

I have already created a list of things I'd like to get done this long weekend, but if I don't get to mark everything off the list, no sweat, because there is always another day.

A New Display

This post has been a long time coming. I actually received a gift in the mail a few weeks ago and am just now getting around to showing you. What is it, you ask? It's a homemade quilt fresh from Miami!

This was made by my mother-in-law who lives in Coral Gables. You may remember she also made the quilt in the guest bedroom. Yes, she has a knack for this!

She actually made this one as a tablecloth but it's so pretty, I don't think I can risk getting food all over it (because I'm sure I would)! 

The backing is black and white, so I could also use that side.

I think I might display it instead, at least for now. I may pull it out as a tablecloth for a special occasion. Either way, it's a great new keepsake!

Much Needed Organization

Landon and I did some much needed organization over the weekend. We decided it was time to get rid of some of our book collection. We had so many that will probably never be read again, so we actually thought it was a good way to make a bit of money. 

We filled three bags of books and took them over to Half Price Books, which will buy gently used ones. We knew we probably wouldn't get much for them. Most of them were pretty old and random. 

When we got to the store, they said it would be about 20 minutes until they would have our offer ready, so we perused the store waiting. In the end, they offered us $13. We knew we wouldn't get much, but I was at least hoping for $30! So, we decided that process wasn't hardly worth the time. I think next time they will get donated to Goodwill or some other charity.

But, one good thing did come of all of this. It cleaned out some room on our very full bookshelf. So, I started moving some things around and reorganizing. It doesn't look as nicely staged as so many on the blogosphere, but we still have to be functional at my house. And it looks better than it did.

I really need to think ahead when I start doing these kinds of projects. Because the "old" bookshelf looked so cluttered, I realized I never took a picture of it. I avoided it at all costs. So, I can only show you the "now" pic. But, just imagine this with layers and layers of books crammed in each "cubby."

We also decided to clean out the drawer of our guest bedroom desk. This drawer had turned into the "I don't know where to put it" drawer.

Let me just tell you a few things I found in this drawer -- old Christmas gift receipts, movie tickets, bills that had been paid, lots and lots of post-its. You name it, I found it. Landon and I actually had a good laugh going through it. There was so much random junk! Luckily, it looks like this now:

Much better! Now, if we can just get those college diplomas framed, we'll be golden!

10 Years Ago

I know it's been a while since my last post, and I feel like I must apologize. Not that I think you are all waiting around with bated breath for my next post, but I do feel bad I've been away for so long. Good news, though, I have many projects I'm ready to tackle in the next few weeks so I should have plenty of things to tell you about!

One of the reasons it's been so long since you've heard from me is that Landon and I took a trip to Nashville last weekend for our 10-year high school reunion. We are very lucky that we both graduated the same year from the same high school. It makes it much easier when it comes to reunions.

I was actually on the planning committee of the reunion and if I were perfectly honest, I would tell you that by the time the day of the event arrived, I was not very excited. Even though we had a great group on the committee, the planning process was a bit difficult due for a number of reasons. We weren't sure how many people would show, if we would break even or if anyone would have fun. So, after driving 11 hours to Nashville, I was a bit ready to just "get it over with."

BUT, I can't even begin to tell you how much fun the reunion turned out to be. After all the stress of planning, it was so much fun to hear the stories of where life has landed everyone and reminisce about our time together a decade ago. I think everyone had a great time, and I was proud to have been part of the team that made it happen. I am very glad we chose to go and can honestly say I look forward to the next one!

I'd love to tell you I took tons of pictures, but I didn't! So, here's one of me and Landon getting ready to go. I'm not really sure we've changed that much in 10 years, except, of course, a little weight gain!

Did you go to your last class reunion? How was it?