Joyful Abode

I’m packaging up all of my new note card sets. The holiday ones have white envelopes, and the Bright Organics have orange, green, and blue envelopes. They’re all packaged in clear boxes, ready for display. I have to put little stickers on the boxes, but that’s about it now!

Some will be going to MAUstudio (which I am VERY excited to soon be a part of!), and the rest will be traveling with me to two holiday sales here in town, and they’ll also be at my open house coming up. I need to update my calendar, eh?

I’m so excited about them! It’s so satisfying to see them all stacked up in their boxes, ready to be sold.

We LOVE this house, don’t get me wrong. It’s big and open and has a fantastic kitchen with a huge walk-in pantry.

The only thing that’s been kind of awkward is the living room/dining room area. It’s basically a long rectangle. On one side, there is a 5 foot wide entrance to the kitchen, and on the other side, there’s the hallway. The living room is carpeted, and the dining room is not.

We like for some manner of flow-age to be able to happen, so when we have dinner parties or game nights, extra chairs can be easily incorporated and everyone can see/talk with/ play games with everyone else, regardless of the room they’re in. Our last house (in Milton, FL) was perfect for this. The kitchen was even part of the action, because it was only separated from the “great room” by a counter/bar, which also offered more seating.

So… this was the first arrangement of our living room. a few feet to the right of the window is the front door. Then, on the wall to the right of this photo, we had the school cubbies/bulletin board, etc (second picture). Then we decided to move the TV console to the area between the window and the front door (flat against the wall). Zora’s crate went in the corner in this photo, with a wicker storage box for more school stuff beside it. That worked well to better utilize the space, but the couch’s position really cut the living room off from the dining room.

So today we sacrificed our coat closet, and moved the couch in front of it.Our TV console went where the school stuff used to be (I love that since we don’t have cable, we have more flexibility in furniture placement.), and the school stuff moved to the area between the window and the front door. This really worked well to allow flow from the living room to the dining room and vice versa. However, because the couch wasn’t visually dividing the living room from the hallway, it looked kinda weird. We decided that a rug would help to better define the living room (and also be prettier than the industrial carpet in our house).

Armed with Bed Bath and Beyond coupons, a list, and paint chips (remember we’re planning on painting too?), we headed to BB&B and Lowe’s. (The crossed out thing on the list is drop cloths… we figured we could just use the tarps we already have.)

The rug is wrinkly though, from being rolled up, so we’re trying to flatten it now with the school table. Zora is really intrigued by it. It makes the floor soft! She lay on it for a while just enjoying its plushness.

This is where the school stuff used to be. We moved the airplane picture (a T-34 turbomentor) from the dining room to in here… and where it WAS in the dining room, we’re going to put framed pictures of our families in a wall-collagey type thing. That’s what the picture frame set on our list was for. Right now they’re on our island/buffet in mis-matched frames (which has been bugging me), and a lot of the pictures are really outdated. So I sent out an email to lots of family members requesting current photos. It’ll be nice to have the wall-o-photos of people we love, all in matching frames.

And this picture frame is exactly where it was before, but it was all alone before. The wall shelf thingy helps to make it more of a focal point, I think. Plus I got a yummy spiced pumpkin scented Yankee candle. It was a good excuse to get a new candle, right?

So here’s the room as it is right now (well, we did move the coffee table back in front of the couch). This room is going to be painted the terra-cotta color that was in the paint chips above (the middle shade, not the light one). We’ll paint next weekend! The green color is for the dining room (just 1 wall in the dining room, plus the adjoining wall that points into the kitchen).

Also on the list I posted above was a hook thingy for Zora’s leashes. We found one and put it up near the back door, and hung my new painting above it (which I bought at the art show I meant to write about 2 weeks ago). I wonder what my preschoolers will think of the new setup and the new rug tomorrow! I’m looking forward to their reactions.

It’s exciting to get everything really well positioned and decorated! I am hosting the spouse club meeting in a couple of weeks, then having an Joyful Abode open house the next weekend, and after that is Thanksgiving (where we invite everyone we know so anyone who doesn’t have family coming or isn’t traveling can come and have a family dinner here).

I have an issue.

Sometimes I’ll start something, work on it with huge amounts of gusto and zest, and then right before I finish whatever it is, I stop. And I can’t go any further. I have a draft of a post I wrote TWO WEEKS AGO just rotting away in my wordpress admin page… Why?

Is it because I feel like a post has to be “finished” and polished before I can publish it? Is it perfectionism? Maybe I’m afraid it won’t be up to par? Or maybe it’s one of those stupid-sounding “fear of success” things. ha.

Or is it procrastination? … Usually if you’re procrastinating, you busy yourself with other things, right? Well I’ve been super-busy making stuff lately.

I have a stack of brand new baby blankies I haven’t photographed for the shop yet.

I have a WHOLE LOT of aprons that haven’t been photographed… granted, I’ve tried to photograph them, but it hasn’t worked out in my favor (or in the aprons’ favor).

So what is my roadblock? I guess I need to figure out what it is before I can climb over it, right?

In either case, I think participating in NaBloPoMo this year will help me out. That stands for National Blog Posting Month, and the idea is that you post something on your blog every day in the month of November, even if it’s just one sentence or a picture.

I also came up with another couple exercises I need to try, to see if I can work through this habit - whether it’s procrastination or perfectionism.

1. Write up a daily/weekly schedule. Include house chores, business chores, crafting goals, etc. Put input in comments for me, por favor!
2. Aim to have new items added to the shop every month (maybe on a certain date, like the 1st of every month).
3. A little art project I won’t share with you right now. haha. But it’s sort of a daily crafting thing that I came up with, with a theme.

What do you think? What’s my problem, and how can I work through it?

And to intentionally make this post imperfect and to bring up some procrastinatey things…

Here are some skeleton key napkins I made for myself. I thought they turned out really well, and planned to make a few more sets in different colors for the shop, but haven’t gotten around to it. Nor have I posted them here. So here they are. Do you think anyone would like to buy them if I made them?

Here are some chocolate dark-chocolate-chip muffins I made a lonnnnnnnng time ago. I took pictures, edited them, and got ready to write the recipe and my post, but I didn’t. It’s another one rotting away in my wordpress queue. What is wrong with me?!?! How can I keep these delicious things to myself!?

Another secret I’ve been unintentionally keeping? Homemade focaccia that only takes a couple hours and one bowl. It’s super easy and pretty darned yummy. We liked dipping “stick” shaped pieces in marinara sauce. mmmmm. Make me write the recipe down for you, please!!!

And the worst one???

I took some photos of my craft show essentials (this is just one of several photos) LAST SPRING… as in either February or March of 2008. Now if I could find my list that is on paper (I think I have an idea of where it is), I could write the craft show essential checklist. We’re coming up on a year for this one, folks.

Added: The sick part? I just went back and proofread this post before I could hit “Publish.” Something is really not firing in my brain, I guess.

Well, they’re here! After long hours with a pencil, then a pen in hand. Then, you know… a mouse.

My brand new notecard sets! Let me introduce you!

This is my holiday note set. It includes 4 cards each of 3 different designs (12 cards and envelopes in all). $10 for the set.

The first design is “bird tree”… a little stack of birds holding ornaments in their beaks makes for a sweet little tree!

Next is “Over the River and Through the Woods”… Well, my grandparents’ houses aren’t snowy at Christmas. In fact, one of my grandmothers actually DOES live over the river and through the woods of Columbia, SC. Here’s my little tribute.
Last is “a partridge in a pear tree”… and I’m sure you can see why!

The next set, Bright Organics, includes 3 flat notes each of 4 designs (12 cards total) and are paired with bright envelopes. Right now they’re on sale for $10 (regular price for these is $12) so get yours while they’re hot!

And I’m pretty sure these cards don’t need any fancy explanation.

I hope you like them!  Let me know what you think. And I hope this makes up for my little absense from the blog.

By the way… I think I’m going to give NaBloPoMo a try this year. I think I did it successfully last year, and it’ll hopefully get me back in the blogging groove again.

I just realized I’ve been REALLY bad at this blogging thing lately…

It’s not that I don’t have things to write about, or that I don’t want to, or that I’m not thinking about it. It’s just that when I sit down to write lately, my mind goes blank and I don’t know what to type… and then I have to go draw or sew or something. It’s like the entire left side of my brain (that’s logic, right?) has shut down in favor of the more artsy right side.

I’ve gotten my Military training aircraft holiday cards designed, and they’re in the shop now!

So what’ve I been doing?

• Drawing and designing. I have TWO new notecard sets that will debut tomorrow in my shop. One is a holiday set and the other is all-occasion. Keep an eye out for that!
• Sewing! I’m making a new line of smaller, more affordable baby blankets. These would be perfect for snuggling or dragging around as a “lovie.”
• Planning an open house! I’ve never had one before and I am quite excited. I’ll have to write later about all the details.
• Applying for two craft shows that happen in November. It’s kind of a stab in the dark, but hopefully they’ll be good. The general wisdom is to attend a show one year, and then if you think it’s a good fit, to apply for the next year. As the wife of a student Naval Aviator, that’s not really possible at this stage… so I’m taking a chance.
• Preparing to paint. Just two walls, but I’m excited because I think it will really warm up the place, as long as we pick the right colors. So I’ve got paint chips all over the walls, and I’ve been writing notes in pencil beside them throughout the day. “9:00 am - Looks great!… 1:30pm - Baby poo color” etc.
• Teaching my preschoolers. We have a lot of fun. This week they’ve been learning the /k/ sound (for letter C) and the /m/ sound. We’ve also done some cooking… we cook every Wednesday. Much fun.
• Playing with my adorable dog.

So… Are you ready for the new notecards? Too bad! You’ll just have to wait till tomorrow. Unless you’re on my mailing list (signup on the left side of the page), in which case you’ll see them tonight AND get a coupon code! If you’re not on the list and you want to make sure to get the insider info and coupons next time, make sure to sign up now!

But I’ll give you something else. I’ve been working on making my product images a little cleaner. Check it out… what do you think?

I was looking for recipes for a good sandwich bread to make in the bread machine, and came across this recipe on allrecipes. At 4.5 stars and almost 500 reviews, I decided to give it a go! Of course, after reading some of the reviews, I decided to try a honey wheat version instead, since we usually buy honey wheat bread from the store.

I’ve now made this recipe about 5 times, 1 of which I actually did the white version (still with honey though). Every time, oh yum!

So here’s how I do it:

Dissolve a little over 2 teaspoons of yeast in a cup of 110 degree water (Fahrenheit).

Add 2 generous squirts of honey, stir. Let sit for 10 minutes to get foamy and exciting.

Dump it in the bread machine’s well.

Add 3 cups of flour (either all 3 bread flour, or 2 bread flour + 1 wheat flour)

Add 1 teaspoon of salt (I just eyeball it)

Add 1/4 cup veggie oil

Set the machine to the sandwich bread/white bread setting.

4ish hours later, take the bread out and let it cool. In order to get good slices, you really need to let it cool completely before slicing it.

I love it slathered with nutella…mmm.

And what does the family think? My husband says, “I like it. It tastes like…good bread. And the pieces are big, so I can make bigger sandwiches.”

And Zora exercises extreme goodness (yes, goodness) and patience even for the tiniest morsel of bread… so I know she likes it!
(Also, please excuse her eye slime… she just woke up.)

The one thing I don’t love about the bread machine is that it makes weirdly tall loaves of bread that have a slit/hole in the bottom (because of the kneading paddle thing), although the convenience of throwing things together and leaving them alone is definitely a plus. Still, next time I might set it on the dough setting, then transfer the dough into my own bread pan and bake it in the oven. I bet it would also be great with sunflower seeds inside it. Mmm.

A little bit ago, I got on a serious fruit kick. And one day, I went to the grocery store and I swear I bought out their produce section.

Which led to a lot of very happy fruit consumption, but it also led to some fruit looking a little sad by the time I got around to it. These grapes were getting to that point. So I wanted to use them up quickly in a way that would let their flavor shine, but not necessarily in raw form (chicken salad with grapes and pecans, fruit salad, etc.). So I went a-googling, and came up with…grape pie?

Iiiinteresting. Some of the reviews said that it tasted kind of like a tart cherry pie (yum!). So I figured I’d give it a go. I read about 10 different recipes, and picked one that sounded decent (and for which I had all the ingredients on hand).

So here it is. Start by making a flaky pastry pie crust (double crust). And preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

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This is another one from Real Moms Real Fit. I made these one day as a yummy between-meals snack.

You’ll need:

• Sweet potatoes
• cooking spray
• olive oil or olive oil spray
• cinnamon

I also added Kosher salt, because I’m a fan of sweet/salty.

I washed and peeled my sweet potatoes first. You don’t need to peel them if you don’t feel like it, but I felt like these particular potatoes needed it.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

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