The More You Know...

I learned a hard and unfortunate lesson last weekend. I thought it would be good to wash the curtains in our living room. They've been hanging for two years now, so they are probably musty and such.

Here's the thing. I don't care if someone has spilled sour milk on my curtains. I'll never, ever wash them again.

If your curtains get nasty enough that they need to be washed, save yourself the trouble and buy new ones instead.

Or at least read the instruction label before you throw them in the dryer on hot. Oops.

A summery wreath

I have been thinking about making a new wreath for our front door since springtime. I have a few things I like that I alternate throughout the year, but nothing that really stands out for spring/summer.

I like my wreaths to be cute and themed, but also somewhat neutral. I need to be able to forget to take it down after the season ends and not have it be totally out of place!

I was extra inspired when I asked my friend Mandy what she wanted for her birthday - and she wanted a summer door hanging. Done and done!

I came across this wreath on my friend Biz's blog and knew it was the right one for both of us. I won't bore you with how I made mine because her instructions are great. I actually went to Hobby Lobby and bought the exact same supplies she did!

It's a pretty simple creation - a wreath from Hobby Lobby, wooden letter painted in whatever color, and some fabric rosettes.

They're pretty easy to make, though be prepared for a glue gun burn or two and it does get kind of tedious to make a lot of them. Biz has the cutest video tutorial if you haven't made them before.

Here's what it looks like on the door. I'm happy with how it turned out!

What do you think? Does it make you want to come inside and visit??

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

Where does your effort go?

Finishing school has left me with so much extra time and energy - way more than I even expected. And it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

One unexpected (or expected if I'm honest with myself) is the amount of self-reflection this new free time has brought to my life, and my family life. Guess I should be honest again - more reflection is being done by me than Zac but he's happy to participate when I ask him to!

We started out with a re-evaluation of our budget. We've been using a budget strictly for almost a year and a half, and it's been such a blessing to us. I say strict because we strictly track our expenses, but it isn't a super strict budget - we have included room for fun things like dinner out, hobbies, and house projects.  Building an emergency fund has meant that car repairs haven't broken us, and when we've needed money unexpectedly, we have it. We sat down last week and realized that we still aren't satisfied with the amount we're saving. Our emergency fund isn't all that full because we seem to keep having "emergencies." Plus, we have some things we'd like to save for - mama needs a new car pretty badly!

One area where we noticed we could cut expenses was to stop having a cleaning lady. When I was in school, we decided that this expense was worth it. Our dirty house drove me crazy but I didn't have any time to clean it, and I just felt like it wasn't fair to ask Zac to pick up yet another thing around our house. It was worth it when I was gone all the time... but now I'm not gone anymore. I have the time to clean our house and I do a better job of it anyway!

This has led me to reflect on where my effort goes. We all have a limited amount of time and effort... where do you choose to put yours?

I'm trying to make where I put my effort a conscious decision. I hate when I get home from work at 5:30 PM, climb into bed at 11:00 PM, and can't figure out where the hours between those went.

Here's what I've learned in the past few weeks of cleaning again, and apologies in advance to those of you who are thinking, "Duh! Tell me something I don't know!"

• It's worth taking 10 minutes each night to clean your kitchen so you never have to really clean your kitchen
• Doing one load of laundry each night seems a lot less oppressing than 5 loads on a Saturday
• It only takes me 30 minutes to vacuum and mop our whole downstairs. That's do able
• Dusting is a chore that should be delegated to husbands
• You can make a lot of your own cleaning products via Pinterest or Martha -- or experiment yourself and add vinegar to things and see what they clean
• When our house is cleaner, we tend to keep it cleaner. Victory
• The cleaning "schedules" I've found online seem backwards to me. Vacuum on Monday and mop on Thursday? Wouldn't you have to re-vacuum on Thursday, too?

I guess I'm realizing that while I'm consciously redirecting my effort, a small portion of it can be redirected to keeping our house clean and tidy. I'm also realizing that our house must have been disgusting when I wasn't doing this?

The past few weeks of focusing on our house has also made me feel a little better about not being able to do a great job of it when I was in school. I just didn't have the time - and it takes quite a bit of time to maintain a house!

Do you have any tricks to share that help you keep your house cleaner without spending a million hours on it?

More pallet art

I have a confession to make. Sometimes we do big house projects and I don't show you right away because they aren't "finished." And then I never show them to you because they're never finished. Case in point - our bedroom. We spent a weekend doing a bedroom makeover in January, and I still haven't shown it to you yet. Oops. We still need to add the finishing touches that really tie the room together - art, etc. - and we talked that a bit over the weekend.

I'm obsessed with the pallet art I made last fall, and ever since we found another pallet, I've been itching to make another one. Pinterest inspired me with things like this:

and this:

Zac made the pallet into a sign just like he did last time, and we went to work. I was planning to cut the letters from cardstock or contact paper, but my friend Clare caught me in time and cut them for me on her Cricuit. That saved me a ton of time. And made it look like this:

She cut the letters out on colored paper and we taped them to the pallet.

Our next step was to trace the letters with a pencil. Zac's more precise than I am, so he took care of this part.

Derby, meanwhile, was super helpful. But oh my goodness is he cute.

Tracing the letters turned into this...

which then turned into this.

We wanted a "rustic" look, so I used a paint brush to fill in the letters. I used a paint pen where I needed it, but for the most part I just used a brush.

Here's our finished product:

If we did it all over again, there are a few things I would do differently (like not use black paint), but overall, I'm happy with it.

Here it is in the overall room:

I really like the contrast between the silk curtains and the rustic art. What do you think? Fingers crossed that I'll show you the whole room over the next few days. We love it and I hope you will too!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

It's been a busy week!

Oh man, we have had a busy week around here. We're hosting a Mother's Day Brunch tomorrow for my mom and Zac's mom, and we've been working double time to make it extra special.  We were able to get all of our landscaping ready for this year, including creating a new bed (pictures to come!). We had to get our hose fixed because we forgot to drain it last fall. Oops - it's an expensive mistake we'll never make again.

We celebrated at our end of the year banquet for our students and families.

I was inspired at the YWCA Career Women of Achievement Luncheon. This is keynote speaker Deborah Roberts, of ABC's 20/20. Thanks Francie, for inviting me!

I worked with students at a local high school to create a service learning reflection quilt. More pictures to come!

We got a special delivery from this big ol' truck!

There's lots to tell you, but right now I need to focus on the tornado that seems to have gone through my hours, and all kinds of brunchy stuff - mini coffee cakes, anyone??

This post is brought to you by the letter N.

Isn't that from Sesame Street? It's what went through my head the whole time I was making this letter!

We have a fireplace in our living room, which is great. It's the mantle from you know where, which is not great. I know no one ever believes me, but it's awful.

Here it is empty:



Those columns are the death of me. I painted them to blend in with the wall, but they're always in the way. Putting things on them makes them too high, but if you just decorate the inside of the mantle, it's too narrow. Oh the problems I have.

As a reminder, this is what I did for Christmas:

                                  

I think it worked to be crazy overdecorated at a time of the year that you crazy over decorate things, but for every day? I'm not so sure.

I gave you a sneak peak above, but the only permanent additions we have so far are the mirror and the yarn letter "N."

Note to self: immediately take a photography class. I found these daisies at Michael's a few weeks ago, and I thought they were worth a shot to add to the mantle. I don't usually love fake flowers, but these are big enough that they don't look like I'm pretending fake flowers look real. This is what you would see as you walked in our front door.

I swear it doesn't look this cluttered in person. Yikes. They do add a fun pop of color though, right? Although like my living room needs any more pops of color. It's borderline over the rainbow at this point.

Aww. Aren't they pretty? Maybe I just need twenty more daisies??

So here's where I need your help. I still hate the mantle. I still think it looks empty and boring and un-inviting. I still think it needs other things. But I don't know what.

Here's a straight on shot so you can get an idea. And give me ideas!

What else do you think it needs??

A Journey to the Past

Have you heard about the 1940 census documents being released recently? The government has decided that most of the people whose information was included are now either dead or old enough that it is okay to release it.

You can search the records online, and it's FASCINATING. Start your search here. It's a little tricky to find an address - basically, you'll just search through photos of pages until you find it. Searching narrows it down to one set of 40 pages, though. And what you'll find is so worth the effort!


Our house in 1940 belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Carroll, who owned the house. He was 68, she was 66. So they were born in 1872 and 1874. He had a 6th grade education, he had a 5th. He worked as a plumber, and made $520 in 1939. The value of the house was assessed at $5,000.

There weren't a lot of kids in our neighborhood at the time - a lot of older couples. The income disparities on our street were unreal - ranging from $308 to $5000 made in 1939. We were definitely a working class neighborhood at the time - electrician, printer, a few machinists, a manager at a meat shop, and the purchasing agent for the city, who made the big bucks.

Don't get started on this unless you have a few hours, but it's so exciting to look at the past! I'm about to call my grandmother and see where she was living in 1940!

If you look up your house or family, let me know what you find!!

C-A-T-S, Cats Cats Cats!

We're watching the UK game today in our house... Go Cats!
             
                                       

I borrowed this image from a college friend, Mary Ellen, who designs gorgeous custom invitations, greeting cards, etc. You can visit her shop here if you are interested!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

My Strengths

I wrote a little bit about the StrengthsFinder here, but I didn't get into too much detail. A few of you were interested in learning more about it, so here you go....

The strengths finder test was developed by Gallup to help people uncover their talents. You buy the book (it's relatively cheap - usually $12-ish), take the online test using the code that comes with your book, and then read what your results mean.

And for me, it was life changing. That's not an exaggeration.

                                 

After you take the assessment, you receive a profile of your top 5 strengths. You only get 5, but trust me, that's enough. According to Gallup's statistics, there are only 8 other people in this world that have the same top 5 strengths in the same order as you do. Eight. And one might be a 93 year old woman, or a six month old little boy. Want to get really crazy? In the entire world, there is not one single other person who has the same 12 strengths as you do in the same order. NO ONE. As if you needed another reason to believe that everyone is here for a purpose (and the stress that comes along with finding out what that purpose is. Oh, is that just me??).

Here are my top 5 strengths with their short definition.

                                                          

1. Responsibility. People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
2. Activator. People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.
3. Individualization. People who are especially talented in the Individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.
4. Achiever. People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
5. Input. People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

If you have a similar experience to me, reading this list will be very validating to you. Your strengths are likely things that you value, and also things that you assume everyone else has because you have them so strongly. 

The most amazing part is really focusing on where your strengths show up. My responsibility strength is probably why I feel so guilty if I don't blog on a regular basis. Individualization? The amount of time I put into picking out the perfect Christmas gift for everyone. Responsibility + Activator + Achiever + Input = my inability to say no to any opportunity. Ever.

Focusing on my strengths has been tremendous for my happiness, my career, my marriage, and my civic engagement. I've been able to narrow down opportunities that don't play to my strengths and focus more time and energy on things that do, which makes me happier and more productive (which makes my Achiever happy).

Most recently, the life coach I've been working with (who is a close friend of mine) helped me work through what's next for me professionally. I had applied to a PhD program to continue my social work studies on a part time basis. Would it feed my Input and Achiever needs? Absolutely. Would it be energizing to me otherwise? Probably not. Together we were able to work through that it wasn't what was best for me at this point, and the weight I felt lifted after making that decision was tremendous. 

Do I sound excited? I want you to catch my enthusiasm. Hopefully you don't think this is too hokey, and I also hope that you'll purchase the book for yourself. Oooh - Gallup, if you read this, maybe you should donate some books for everyone who wants one!! Worth a shot, right?

If you do figure out your strengths, make sure you use them. We'll talk more about that, don't worry. Tomorrow I'll fill you in on the exhausting process it was to get Zac to take the test, and how it's been really awesome to understand each other's strengths. Don't lose sleep waiting for it...

I got a serger!!!!

You'll have to excuse the zillions of exclamation points that this post will include, because...

I GOT A SERGER!!!!

I am so excited. I have no idea how to use it, but I love it. I can already tell. I mentioned this briefly a few weeks ago, but you would have had to be reading pretty closely to find it. How many of you actually read that closely? It's okay - you don't hurt my feelings!

My mom's friend Judy wanted to get rid of her serger because she wasn't using it, and she let me have it for a steal. She's the best. Like, the best, best, best, best, best.

You'll have to forgive me while I spend the next few days (weeks? Months? Years?) learning how to use it... anyone have any great serger wisdom to share, or sites or tutorials that will help me learn to use it?

Picture Wall Close Ups

Yesterday I promised you close ups of some of my favorite things on our picture wall. This wall is a mix of things, but I do have a few that I just love the most. Let me warn you now that I take terrible pictures normally, but pictures of pictures taken at night time are especially awful.

This is my very favorite shot from our Trash the Dress session, which gave it the prime spot on the picture wall. This is a bridge that usually has cars on it, so we had a lookout at either end and did this shot quickly!! The wind blowing my dress is my favorite part!

This is one of the very first pictures we ever took together, and it makes me smile!

Oh, I love everything about this. The day of our wedding it downpoured. I mean, rained cats and dogs. Rained so so hard. We had to take pictures inside at a Conservatory, and there was a woman there sketching. She walked up to my sister and handed her this -- it's me! Isn't it amazing??

Just when I think the last one was my favorite. This is a picture of Zac's grandfather taken more than 50 years ago. My favorite part? How much it looks like Zac! We've had three friends ask what Zac was eating in this picture -- I love how they resemble each other so much!

This is my grandmother and her brother when they were younger. Isn't the reflection so neat? When you're looking at it in person, it's really difficult to tell which side is right side up.

So there you go -- a close up of our picture wall. Is there anything you display that you love that I haven't thought of yet??

Picture Wall Re-Do

Our family room was one of the first rooms we decorated when we moved in. There were some things (like buying a couch) that just couldn't be avoided unless we wanted to sit on the floor.

I love this room. It's where we spend most of our time, and I really do think it's comfortable. There are a lot of bright colors (the pillows, the rug, and the pallet art), but the neutral walls and television cabinet provide balance.

There's only one part of this room that's always felt a bit off to me, and that is the picture wall. We had envisioned a wall of photos that wrapped around our sectional similar to the way the couch wraps around the wall. But, and I'm not completely sure why, we just never accomplished that goal.

Here's what I'm talking about:

As a side note, we paid $8.99 for the lamp hanging over the couch at IKEA. It's the best lamp ever.

Do you see what I mean about the picture wall? We thought that the mix of frame colors would be awesome, but it wasn't. We thought this would be the punch of color the room needed, but it wasn't. We thought this would be a lot of pictures and make the wall feel full, but it didn't.

We went to IKEA to get some more frames. We went like fools and didn't measure or count out how many or anything. We just bought a bunch of different sizes and got SUPER lucky. We were short two small frames, but that was it.

The next step was to create newspaper templates of all of the frames. This didn't take very long at all, and it was well worth the effort.

Hey there, pre-Christmas advertisements.

I know some people lay out their frames on the floor, but that doesn't work for me. Fun fact you probably didn't know - I am terrible at visualizing things (which is probably why I struggle so much when I'm sewing patterns). This helps me get a better idea of the actual layout.

Looks easy, right? WRONG. Fast forward SEVEN HOURS LATER, and we finally got to this point:

This process was exhausting. We started with the large frame, and worked out. We didn't want the frames to be completely symmetrical, but we also didn't want them to be too wonky, either. We initially wanted the whole thing to be a large rectangle, but ultimately we had to give up and allow the bottoms to be staggered. I'm really glad we did this -- it's one of my favorite parts about it now!

We pulled some pictures from the old picture wall, ordered some new ones, and found some other frame-able things laying around.

Together, they make magic!

Side note about the naked lady? I bought her at a farmer's market in Seattle. I brought it home and showed it proudly to Zac. He said, "You bought a naked lady?" and I said, "What naked lady? I don't see a naked lady?" He turned it right side up. And I said, "Ohhhhh...." And I took these pictures before putting in the last two pictures. Oops.

We are thrilled with the results. I think the change to all black frames (so they pop on the white walls), putting them closer together, and adding more frames solved our earlier problems. The wall adds a lot of color to the room, and also lets us display some of our favorite pictures and memories.

Hope you like it, too! Tomorrow I'll share close-ups of some of my favorite pictures, but in the meantime, click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

And just for fun, a blog picture outtake...

See Ya Later, Gluten!

This post will likely seem random to a few people, because if you don't know me in real life, you don't know that my stomach hurts. A lot. Like oh, every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. And for my entire life. As in, as a baby, I had stomach aches on breast milk, which is supposedly quite rare.

I've tried everything. According to the GI doctor, there's nothing wrong with me, this is just my lot in life. So pro is that I'm not dying. Con is that sometimes it sure feels like I am.

My younger sister gets similar stomach aches and decided to try going gluten-free just after Christmas. Within a few days, she felt completely better. She has hardly had any issues in the past month, which was good enough reason for me to try.

And it's about all I have left to try. I tried tracking my food, giving up dairy, every OTC product that exists, and to no avail. Which, if I have a gluten sensitivity would make sense, since gluten is in almost everything.

                                                         

The last time I ate gluten was Monday night (February 13).  The last time I had a stomach ache was Tuesday the 14th. I won't say that I'm 100% yet (apparently it can take a little while to "detox" from the gluten) but I feel so much better. Amazing. Enough for me to have drank the kool-aid (not literally. That probably has gluten in it).

My friend Ashley has Celiac. She has it rough. Like, so so so so much worse than me. She's been gluten free for over a year, so she sent me some great advice. If you're curious about giving up gluten, read on!

"First off, gluten affects people differently. The one thing that I think is pretty obvious when you start looking into it is that we are a society eat way more gluten than we should--and in that way it affects everyone to some degree. You will start to find out really quickly (if you are being very strict) that we use gluten as a filler in a lot of our foods. So, the good news is that I think most people that cut gluten feel better to some degree because we just consume more than we are made to in the first place. Some people, once they "detox," can reintroduce the gluten foods they like, and just scale back on the amount of (what I would call) "bad gluten" you eat without even knowing it. Some people also have a gluten allergy--which can lead to the GI issues--some have an intolerance, and then others have Celiac which leads to more violent reactions that get worse over time because the disease causes damage to your intestines when you eat gluten. Good news--when you cut gluten you will see more benefits than just the tummy problems clearing up. Another friend cut gluten and her mental health drastically changed! I know I noticed I had a lot more energy and was less "foggy" and she noted the same things.

Okay, so what is gluten? To really detox you have to be really diligent in checking labels. It's annoying at first, but quickly becomes second nature. Also, you just stop missing the things you cut out, I promise! Gluten is a by-product of wheat. Wheat includes a lot of things like barely and some other grains.  

Here are the things to look out for (some you will know, some you may not, all of which have gluten):

Wheat (Duh)

Flour

Barley

Malt

Oats (You can find gluten free oats--it depends on how they are processed.)

Soy Sauce (I put this because it is used in a lot of meals--more than you think!)

Any Wheat Germ, etc.

Caramel Color (Found a lot in soft drinks, juice drinks, baking supplies (vanilla extract, etc.) and candy)

Modified Food Starch (Found in almost everything. Used as a filler. Check the Allergy Info or Research.)

Modified Corn Starch (Same as above. Non-modified of both of these are fine!)

You'll find that although that list is short, it rules out a LOT of food because of the last three--which is kinda disturbing when you think about it because none of those are naturally found in food. 

What you CAN eat:

Rice (Any Kind)

Any Rice Noodle

Quinoa 

Glutamate (You'll see it as an ingredient. Not actually gluten.)

Obviously anything listed as gluten free

Any and all alcohol EXCEPT Beer and Malt Beverages. But all liquor is good because of the distillation process it does through. :)

Safe things to eat out:

Mexican food is relatively safe--just substitute corn tortillas.

Thai food is relatively safe because they don't usually cook with soy sauce.

Meditteranean food is pretty easy. They really don't use flour too much in anything other than soups.

O' Charley's potato soup. I list this because it is important to me.

Chipotle Bowls. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT to me.

Balsamic Dressing (Most other dressings are a no go.)

Skyline. Seriously. Gluten free chili, baby!

Coke Products!!! (As of April 2011 they changed their process to make everything gluten free!)"

Ok, it's Tara again. It sounds like a lot, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I actually had a much harder time cutting out dairy. You can still eat potatoes, corn tortillas, some chips... and honestly, I didn't need to eat that much bread anyway. And I feel better, which makes it easier to keep going.

So, it's early. And who knows where this will go, but for now, it's helping so I'm going to stick with it. I guess I just want you to know so that if you bring me dinner you'll make it gluten-free.

Did I trick you? Were you really going to bring me dinner?? Because my poor husband could probably use a night off from cooking, and pizza is out of the question now!

Simplify: Week 2

Last week's simplify challenge was to show up early. I've spent the past week focused on getting places with breathing room to spare. And honestly? It's been great.

Keys to success? Setting my phone so it reminds me 45 minutes before an appointment and then again 30 minutes before. That's my key to start wrapping up whatever I'm working on, and with 30 minutes to go it's usually time to pack up and head out the door.

I will definitely try to make this a habit. It's nice to drive to a meeting and not worry about being late. Plus, I can usually knock out a task or two on my phone if I arrive at my destination early.

So... my second week's challenge.

Ramsland defines two minute pickups as tasks that are too short to write on a to-do list, but that slow the pace of your life if you ignore them too long.

Examples? Unloading the dishwasher. Adding a frequently called number to your phone. RSVPing to an event. Filing a paper on your desk. Labeling a binder. Hanging up your coat. And so on.

I can easily see the benefit in this if I just look at my house. If I take the time to put things where they go, my house is clean. Small tasks done multiple times quickly are much easier than the time it takes to dig out from under them.

For the next week, I'll focus on doing things now that can be done quickly. I won't walk past something that needs to be taken upstairs when I'm going that way. I will hang my clothes up when I take them off. And dang it, my life will be better.

Or something like that!! Does this task fit your life? Are you super good at two minute pickups already (hey Mom!) or could you use some work in this area too? Any tips for success?

What I'm Pinning

I love Pinterest. Words can't even describe how much I love Pinterest. There are so many things that I love about it - seeing what my friends are into, saving ideas, becoming inspired for projects.

The thing I love best however, is that it's an insight into my psyche. Just kidding - that's creepy. But a little bit, it is! I like to look back on what I've recently pinned to find patterns. Oh - every room that I've pinned has grey walls? Note to self, paint a room grey. Things like that.

Here are a few of my most recent pins so you can psychoanalyze me!

Funniest thing EVER. You mix water and chicken stock, freeze some treats and toys inside, and your dog will behave for hours. Sometimes I just pin things that make me chuckle.

A guide on what vegetables to plant next to each other in your garden. I am yearning for spring. And cheaper vegetables.

I am looking for an excuse to drink more wine.

I have been running for six weeks. That totally justifies a pan of these, right?!?
Quick, someone have a birthday!!!

I have a new found love for crocheting. And at least twice a week I say, "Zac, have you seen my crochet thing? I think it's blue. I don't remember where it is. Do you have it?"
He does not. Nor does he find looking for it amusing.

Who actually has a house like this? WHO? Because I want to move in with them.

You can follow me on Pinterest and see what else I'm loving these days by clicking here:

I'd love to see what you're pinning! If I'm not already following you, please leave me your Pinterest name in the comments so I can!