I've Been Busy

Lately, I've had almost zero free time. Or if I do, I end up being too tired to do anything with it. Life lately has been pretty stressful with hair school. It's kind of taken over my life. I'm enjoying it, but it's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Not that I thought it would be easy, I just thought I would learn quicker. I've got to say, it's honestly the hardest thing I've done in my entire life. Even more difficult than accounting. I've kind of questioned whether or not this is the correct career path for me, but I honestly can't see myself doing anything else. I'm going to make it happen. Even if I fail a million times, I'm going to make it happen. I'm not giving up.

Besides that, I'm longing to be in a cabin again. Flannel has been on my mind a lot. Fireplaces, wood walls, coziness. I need a vacation, and in the mountains is where I want to be right now.

The Time Has Come

Tomorrow is one of two exciting things! Most importantly, tomorrow is my first day of cosmetology school! I'm so, so excited! A bit nervous, but mostly excited! There was a very long time where I thought this day would never come. I can't wait to take the first step towards my future career. The staff at the school has already been super welcoming! I have a feeling I'm going to go broke though, because there's a Panera right across the street for lunch breaks and a Starbucks in the same plaza as my school lol. But I'm going to be going to school Tuesday-Saturday 8:00-3:30. I'm a bit worried about balancing work and school, but I'm going to try my best. Anyway, I'm super excited to say the least.

The second exciting thing (but not that important) is that tomorrow is the first official day of fall! We're going to celebrate by having a fire in the fire pit with a friend or two. We're not actually celebrating fall, lol but to me we are. It will be a commemorative fire to celebrate fall and my first day of school.

I'm excited about what's to come over the next few months! Lots of exciting things to look forward to!

New Job

So I don't think I've mentioned this, but I got a new job! I'm pretty happy. I'm a server at a restaurant. It's only like my second week. But it's nice because I got close to a week off after I quit Tanner's, because I was waiting for the restaurant to open.

It's crazy, because I realized something tonight. I'm happy. I felt like something has been missing in my life for a while now, and I couldn't quit put my finger on it. I'm happy with my husband, my house (for the most part I'll get to that in a sec.), my job I obviously wasn't though. This job is so much better. I haven't quite started making "bank" yet, but overall, I'm sooooo much happier. My managers are awesome, the people are awesome for the most part, and I don't feel like a reject. At my old job, I didn't make the cut to be a server, and it got to me. I felt terrible about myself, like I wasn't good enough. I shouldn't have let it get to me like that, but it was hard not to. At this job, I was trained to be "front of house checker". Which doesn't sound like much, but basically I was the one that had to check every other servers sections and sign them off. I had to mop the entire dining room, which sucked. I enjoyed having the responsibility though.

One thing that's been stressing me out though is MOLD. So a couple weeks back. Daniel and I tore into the wall, sprayed the mold with mold killer, painted it with kilz and ran an air scrubber for 3 days. My cough seemed to get worse some how. I had a feeling there had to be more mold. (Daniel didn't believe me.) We were trying to avoid ripping out more drywall. I was so stressed, because several people who we had do estimates on the mold, told us that basically they wouldn't do it, because the job wasn't big enough. We really didn't know what our next option was. So when Daniel texted me a picture of mold at work, I actually got excited. He had torn into the wall and found more mold about as big as the first section we found. I was basically ecstatic, because that meant we could fix it without having someone come out. So he just went ahead and ripped the moldy drywall out and sprayed down everything else. We're still going to have to rent an air scrubber again. Which will suck, but it's better an spending $1000 to get someone to come out and do it. $1000 was everyones minimum to do the work. I've been feeling like a crazy person about this whole mold thing. It feels so good to finally have some closure. I've only been home like an hour, and I feel like I can already see an improvement. It will be even better once we do the other two steps.

So yeah, I just had to blog about that. Exciting things happening.

Fall Fever

Every year, way too early on, I start getting excited for fall. The weather hasn't been helping either. It's been much cooler and cloudy. Since last year, I've wanted to make a fall bunting. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do paper or fabric. I decided on card stock since I've never made one before. Also, I decided to make a Halloween themed one. I may make an actual fall one too. So I went to Michael's and bought card stock to make it. I've cut everything out, but haven't attached it yet. I'm thinking about possibly buying a skull stamp and stamping the orange ones, but I haven't decided yet. Also if you're wondering why they're shaped like that, it's because the flap gets folded over the string.

I also bought some black striped burlap, which I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that yet. In addition, I bought lots of black card stock, and fall colored card stock as well. I figured I'd start working on all the crafts/ DIY stuff I want to do for Halloween now, since I never feel like it or get too overwhelmed when Halloween is actually here. That way I can just put up whatever I made in the beginning of October. Last year I started decorating wayy too early. I literally decorated for fall on the first of September lol. I can't be that eager again lol. What I did was decorate for a fall theme, then put up Halloween stuff, and once Halloween was over, I put the fall stuff up again. As you can tell, I've never been much of a summer girl.

Our Dining Room

Daniel took this lovely panorama of our dining room today! :) We finally put our rug down that we bought a month or so ago. We still haven't got the mold cleaned out though :( We just decided that we'll sleep in my bonus room until we do. I'll get to that in a second. Anyway, I feel that this room is really coming together! I feel it needs a "bar" possibly. Maybe an accent table somewhere. But I'm really liking the way it's tying together. I never would've picked red to decorate with. However, that Stella Artois sign really inspired me and steered the design of this room. I'm so happy I found that rug. For the longest time, I couldn't think of what could possibly look good in that room and tie it all together. But I saw that rug at Target and it instantly stood out to me. 

So yeah, mold. We had ANOTHER person come out to do an estimate since the other guy stood us up. He told Daniel in a round about way what he "would do in our situation." He basically told us exactly how to remedy it, since it's not a very big area. We'll have to rent an "air scrubber" though. I'm totally fine with that though. If we do it ourselves, we can do it in every room as well. 

Just thought I'd share that.

Wasted Money

One thing I don't like to think about is the amount of money that I've lost buying things that I don't use. Namely, clothes. So I ended up taking my clothes to that store and received $19. I'm not surprised at all. They had an option to pick up the stuff that didn't sell, or donate it. I chose to donate it. There were a couple pairs of shoes in there that were a bit dusty, but worn maybe one time, and those didn't accepted because of condition. That kind of bugged me, because I know I had to at least have spent like $40, if not more. But I don't have the patience to sell all those things. I guess that's the price you pay to get something off your hands quickly.

For some reason, I've found that a lot of the time, when I buy clothes new (as opposed to used), I don't end up wearing them! I don't know why! I wear maybe about 30% of the stuff I buy "new". It usually ends up shrinking or I don't like it as much as I thought I did. It just sucks, because those are the clothes I lose the most money on. Luckily, I discovered how good H&M really is, so I'm going to have to start shopping there more.

Oh guess what? I got a new job! I haven't started yet, but I put in my two weeks at work. It's at a restaurant. I originally didn't want to work at a restaurant, but I gotta stop being so picky. Also, I know you make better money. I'm going to be a server though, so I'll make much better money on top of more hours. So I'm really excited. It'll definitely be nice to have some extra cash. However, when I start going to school (whenever that is) I may have to change my availability. Because I'm not going to be able to go to school full time as well as work full time. It was definitely time for some change.

Stuff

I spent some much needed time going through clothes today. I did this with a couple drinks in me, because I find I'm most honest with myself and more ruthless when I'm in this mindset. lol. So I'm going to go to this store tomorrow called Uptown Cheapskate, which is a place to buy and sell used name brand clothes. I've been meaning to go for a while and sell some stuff that I know I'm not going to wear. I added some stuff to that pile today without sitting on it for a while. Usually, before I get rid of stuff, I like to put it in a maybe pile for a while. But I'm honestly tired of doing that. I need to be realistic and realize that I'm not going to wear that particular item. I still have some stuff that I'm probably not going to wear, but they're more special occasion type clothes. So I'll have to think about those. Anyway, whatever doesn't sell I'm going to take to Goodwill.

Sometimes I think about how small the world really is. There have been multiple times where I've found pictures on Pinterest (that presumably came from Tumblr) that I like or "Pin", then later on end up realizing that I'm following that person on Instagram or have seen them somewhere else on the internet before. Sorry for that run on sentence. It's just crazy to me.

Anyway, I'm excited to take that stuff tomorrow. I'm ready to have less again. Even after I take this stuff, I still won't be as minimal as I once was. That's ok though. Needs change. I'm still working on dwindling though.

Cabin

I'm quite excited for the end of this week, because we'll be going on a cabin trip! We're going to Gatlinburg. I'm tempted to start packing now. Well, I've packed some already, but I had to do laundry before packing anything else. One thing I don't like about packing is the in-between time before you leave. Cause you want to pack, but you're going to either be wearing some things or washing them before you pack them. I guess I don't like that most times you can't fully be packed until right before you're about to leave. (hairdryer, make-up, etc.) But man I'm excited. I'm not really in good shape like I was last time, but that's ok. I'm just happy I can finally stop making myself feel like crap every time I don't eat healthy. It's going to be a ton of fun though, just like it always is. I wish we could go more often, but obviously our schedules aren't always allowing.

Cleaning and Organizing

I got a bunch of cleaning done today, which feels good. I hate cleaning, but I love when the house is clean. I also organized our junk drawers. The drawers look so much more empty! It's amazing how reorganizing can make junk look so much better. You wouldn't have thought we'd had any room in the "desk" (one of those built in things, usually with cabinets above it in kitchens). But now, the bottom is organized. I just gotta work on the upper part soon. I organized it a couple months ago, but it's messy again. I also organized all the camping equipment today.

It's such a nice feeling to have all that done. I don't really have too much else going on right now. I'm just listening to music and blogging.

Camping

So I had an amazing weekend. We went camping with a friend at the Amicalola Falls State Park. We got a late start on Friday night. I wanted to get there at like 5 and we got there at like 8. And on top of that, it was pretty darn cold. It was an adventure on its own trying to find a jacket since Daniel and I both forgot one. It's been in the 60's - mid 80's lately, so neither one of us thought we would need it! We were very, very wrong. I ended up getting a grey hoodie at Wal-Mart on clearance for $7. However, for Daniel's jacket, we had to attempt to sleep through the low 40's night, then the next morning, hike 1.5 miles both ways to the visitor center gift shop. The way back was entirely up hill. And there were well over 500 steps (we had to take two sets of stairs). And his was $40.. Anyway, negatives aside, the trip was super fun and much needed. Daniel and I realized the hard way that our 6 man tent was entirely too big. It takes like 3 people to set it up easily. It also wasn't fun to take down in the rain on Sunday morning. We also had a tarp that was wayyyy too big.

So being inspired, Daniel and I drove home, got cleaned up and went to R.E.I. I don't think either one of us were planning on buying anything, but they had a rare sale going on for their 25 year anniversary. So we bought a tent. Our tent. It has great reviews and it was about $80 off! It's a 3 man tent. And omg it's amazing. We excitedly set it up in our living room and it literally took less than 10 minutes to set up. I know it will take even less in the future, since we know how it works now. It's a backpacking tent, so it only weighs 6 pounds. And it is so easy to put together. On top of that it came with a footprint, which is basically a mini tarp the exact size of the tent, to go underneath the tent. So we don't need a tarp. I can't wait to use it!

I just love camping so much. It's so much fun and it makes me so happy! I have a feeling for Christmas, or maybe sooner, I'm going to want to get some nice jackets. I'd like a warm, hooded fleece one. And a warm rainproof one. I may look at Plato's Closet for a used North Face jacket.

Hair

It's that time again, when I get bored and want to change my hair. What I'm thinking of doing this time is what I wanted to do a long time ago, but never went through with. I want to bleach my hair light and let my roots grow out, like an ombre. This picture is my inspiration, since my roots are the same color.

Honestly, I'm just tired of my hair never looking right when I dye it dark. It always fades so easily and just never soaks into the shaft well. But if I do this, this time I would get it done somewhat professionally. I would go to the hair school I want to go to, and get one of the students to do it for cheap. In the summer time, if I dye it dark, it just fades even faster. It's been forever since I've had real blonde hair. Since my junior year in high school I think. I don't know when I'm going to do it yet. Probably within the next couple weeks.

I've been trying to embrace my natural self more lately. I haven't been wearing as much make up. The only ear piercing I have in is my tragus. I just starting looking at all the pictures of women I "pin" on pinterest, and the majority of them don't have much make up on and have a "just woke up" look to them. Kind of shabby and grungy.

But hopefully, I actually go through with it. I gotta change it up a bit.

I don't know how to be the person I want to be

I'm not even sure what kind of person I want to be. Obviously, if I could change one thing, it would be eating healthy/working out. I didn't do too bad today. I worked out sort of. I didn't do any squats though cause my legs are still really sore from yesterday. I would probably instantly fall.

I would like to go camping/go for hikes more. Mostly what gets in the way of this is work. If I have a job where I get two days off a week, I could probably do it more often. But when I only have one day off, I don't get to go anywhere.

I wish I were more motivated. Mostly in the job department.

Ok I'm going to make a list mostly for myself of things I'd like to change:

1. Eat better/work out more (I'm starting to get better)
2. Find a different job
3. Start going to school (still don't know what I'm doing financially)
4. Keep up with the house (this will be difficult to do until we get a house with carpet)
5. Go camping more/go for hikes
6. Hang out with family more

I'm starting to realize a pattern with a lot of these things. Most of these things are things I don't have much control over. I can't go to school, because I'm trying to figure out what to do about money (I'll just say this, it's not up to me.) It's impossible to keep up with the floors and table surfaces. The black shows every particle of dust. I would literally have to clean both twice a day for it to look good. I can't go camping or go hiking, because I can't get off of work. And I can't hang out with my family, because they all work ALL the time. We all do.

This has been kind of a sad post, which I hadn't planned on. I just have to slowly figure things out.

//

I worked out tonight for the first time in a really long time. All I did were squats and bicycle sit ups. The squats were more like duck squats and I did 3 sets of 25. I actually collapsed when I was going down the stairs. lol and that's not an exaggeration. I have to side step down. I also ate fairly healthy. The only bad things I had were a cornbread muffin and a side of mac and cheese. I'm trying to get serious, because we have a cabin trip coming up in June. Not that I'm trying to impress anyone, I just want to feel good about myself and not paranoid that someone's looking at the cellulite by my butt when I get in the hot tub or go swim. I seriously need to get going on a healthy lifestyle change and stick with it this time! I'm gonna buy Yuengling Light for the trip, cause it's pretty good for a light beer. I can't drink a bunch of sugary girly drinks like I did last time. Those things are NOT low in calories. And you get hung over easier from all the sugar.

I'm so happy, because I should be able to go camping this weekend! I asked a girl to cover my Saturday night shift. She's home from college and trying to make some money. Or else I wouldn't have asked her to cover it.

Right now, I'm sitting on the back patio enjoying the night. For some reason, I love when it's a tad humid outside at night. Or during the day, but not with the sun out. I'm not really enjoying the mosquitos though, but that's the only bad thing. I love being able to hear the frogs. I can't wait to go camping! I'd like to go a little further north than we usually go.

H&M

I think my new favorite clothing store may be H&M. If you want to know my clothing style, just imagine the "basics" section at any clothing store. Plain Jane is what I like. It's what I gravitate towards and what I always wear out of my closet. Daniel had an eye appointment today at the mall, and I decided to go with him. But during that time I looked around at the mall. It was really nice. Usually, Daniel makes me feel overwhelmed when I shop and he rushes me. This time, I got to really take my time. I was really pleased with what I found. They had great basic tops, but had little details to them that made them not as basic. I ended up spending about $50, but love every piece I purchased. I know it's stuff I'll wear.

Oh yeah, bad news, we have mold :( But luckily, it's not black mold. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before or not, but I've had a cough basically since we've moved into the house. I think this may explain it. Long story short, the previous home owners screwed us, we got a bad leak and mold started growing behind the wall in our bathroom. The type of mold is called "penicillium" and I'm allergic to penicillin which comes from that mold. We're having someone come out Thursday. I'm not sure if they're doing an estimate or of they're just going to get to work. But I just got finished moving every item out of my closet and moved it into my bonus room. I'm hoping it will "detox" it. I should probably wash all my clothes as well.

We've been sleeping on an air mattress in our dining room. I actually don't mind it. For some reason, I just really don't like our bedroom. Maybe because I don't like the bathroom in there, I honestly don't know. But I've almost felt happier since I haven't been using that room.

Man I'm so ready to have this mold thing taken care of so I can breathe normally again.

Succulent Probz

My simplicity is starting to get to me in the succulent department. I never thought I'd say it, but I kind of want less of them. It is an addiction though. I actually found myself getting the slightest bit anxious yesterday when I went to Home Depot, and the succulent selection wasn't very good. That's sad! But then in the next breath I want less. I'd probably be happy with all the ones I have, but they're just not doing good! No amount of light to water ratio is working for them yet. I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that most of them were indoors for an extended period of time. I was reading something the other day about them having to adjust again when you bring them back outside. That would explain why they got sunburned after leaving them outside for only two days. One of my plants literally died the day after I bought it. I bought it, put it in the sun the next day, and the day after that it was so burned that it's basically dead now. That one pissed me off. I didn't even get to enjoy it. That's actually what I was looking for yesterday when I went to Home Depot was the same species to replace the one that died.

But anyway, they're becoming more trouble than they're worth. With them not being able to be watered often to the intermittent frost, it's getting to be a lot to handle. Every time it rains, I have to worry if it will kill them or not. And when it frosts, I have to bring every plant (roughly 15 if I had to guess) inside. I'm just going to have to wait until we move into a house with an environment they can thrive in. This house is not that. It's way too dark. The only place that's good for them is in Daniel's room, but he doesn't like them in there.

What I'm thinking of doing to alleviate some of the stress is getting a pretty big pot and adding 4 possibly 5 plants to one pot. That way I won't have to move as many around. Now I'm getting all excited, but it's 10:19 on a Tuesday night, so I don't think I'll be hitting up any hope improvement stores tonight. But tomorrow...possibly.

Garden

I finally planted a vegetable garden! I'll have to get a good picture, but I couldn't be happier. It's the perfect sized, wooden, raised garden. I've planted onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow bell peppers, "big Bertha" bell peppers, zucchini, squash, and two types of jalapeños. I didn't realize how much room the onions would take up though! It's about 50% of the 3x5 space. But, we do use a lot of onions. It's crazy to see how fast everything is growing! I can already see new types of leaves forming from the plants I planted on Friday, as well as the ones I planted yesterday. The first batch of cucumber plants didn't make it though. It looked bad to begin with, but it was the best one of the bunch. 

I'm going to start composting soon. I have to get a container and worms, but I'm pretty excited. I've wanted to compost forever! I'd like to get a metal trash can. However, you can use a plastic tub, but I prefer the look of the metal. But we'll see. I looked at target today, since we were in the area, but they didn't have what I was looking for. 

I'm in love with this weather. I've been outside for at least a few hours everyday since the weather has been nice. I just love nature. I feel so happy when I'm outside among green things. 

I really need to go to goodwill. It's just kind of far away now and I never remember to go when I'm available to. I need to go soon though.

Subtract

I really want to get back into being more minimal. I mostly need to go through some clothes. And take what I've already gone through to first try and sell, and then donate whatever doesn't sell. I have a few beauty products, perfume, and make up that I don't really want. But I don't hate the product so I guess I may as well use it. I've been a bit stressed out though because Daniel has been bringing a bunch of tools and stuff from his moms that we REALLY don't have room for. I've been dreading this from the moment I saw there was a workshop in Daniel's basement. Because I knew eventually his mom was going to move out, not need all the tools and end up giving them to us. I know tools are useful, they're just not the prettiest things and we just don't have to storage for them right now. I guess if I can at least keep the inside minimal, then we'll be ok.

Man the thing I hate about going through clothes is that I don't want to get rid of something that I wear, but only every once in a while. Cause sometimes you do have to change it up.

Cabins and North Carolina

Lately, I've been obsessed with everything cabiny. I'm longing to be in a cabin. Or maybe just the mountains. I love being in the mountains so much. I've often wondered if I could live in the mountains though. I mean I love it, but usually there aren't many places to work besides touristy places. Also, I hate to admit it, but I like being close to malls and Target lol.

I'm ready for warm weather. My plants don't like it inside.

Daniel fried up some sausage in a pan for dinner tonight and he used the oil that we bought from the fancy oil and vinegar store in Blue Ridge. It was a good smell. The oil brought me right back to the cabin we stayed at for our one year anniversary. It took me to the funny story of how we tried to make pancakes with that oil because the pans there were terrible and we forgot to buy butter. The single pancake that did turn out tasted like it would be served as an appetizer at an Italian restaurant.

My days lately have consisted of laying on the floor with many blankets and pillows browsing on the computer or reading. Tonight I'm doing that while drinking a beer that I brewed. It's a brown ale. I'm thinking of taking a bath soon with some of my lovely Lush bath products. I used to absolutely hate baths until I discovered Lush products.

Last night was absolute Hell

So my stomach decided it wanted to do one of it's upset for 6+ hours thing again. I'm not entirely sure what caused it this time, but I have a pretty good idea. So I bought these Lara Bars in the flavor cherry cobbler on manager's special. I decided to take a bite of one of them and my tongue literally started burning. Not in a spicy way, but an itchy, burning sensation. Then my gum felt like it started throbbing. I also felt what seemed to be numbness trickling down my throat. It was a very scary feeling. I was worried my airway may collapse, but luckily it didn't go past mild numbness. I checked the ingredients and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It actually had very minimal ingredients. The only two ingredients that I wasn't sure about were brown rice syrup and dates. I'm not sure if I've ever had dates before, but I know I've had brown rice before. I'm not sure what else would go into the syrup though.  But pretty much as that sensation was starting to go away, my stomach started feeling TERRIBLE. This lasted from like 11pm-3am then it came back when Daniel left for work around 6:30. I ended up having to make myself throw up a few times, because the pain would just not end. I seemed to feel mostly better after the second time, but like I said it ended up coming back. Oh I should also add that I couldn't fall asleep because I was in so much pain. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30. It was just all around a really bad night and I feel like death today, because of it.

Succulents

So some of you may or may not know this about me, but I love succulents and cacti. I think I finally figured out why: they relax me. I love watching them grow and seeing the new things they do. I actually get feelings for them, as weird as that sounds. Like I was genuinely sad when a few of them died (due to lack of sunlight). But I'm slowly learning which ones work and which ones don't for my house (it's been a painful process).

But anyway, I just bought 3 new ones today. I'm a bit sad though, because once I got home and did some research about one of them (3rd pictured), I discovered it was severly etiolated. Etiolated means that it stretches and becomes thin, due to lack of sufficient sunlight. Basically, once the branches and leaves begin to do that, there's no turning back for that branch. So I'm basically going to have to wait for it all to grow back in again, because 98% of the plant is like that. Also, the other plant I bought was like that about 40% (1st pictured), but I believe that one will grow back quickly. I knew it was etiolated when I bought it, but tried to pick the one with the least amount. I really wanted that particular one.

This is what the plant is supposed to look like:

It doesn't even look like the same plant. I actually thought they labeled it wrong on the tag, but its just that stretched out. So I'm hoping that one will grow back fast now that it's getting better sunlight. I actually just went ahead and put them outside since they're all more hardy than I thought.

Monomeal Detox

I'm thinking of possibly doing a "monomeal detox". Monomeals are basically where you eat one type of fruit or vegetable for a meal, until you are full. A lot of people do mostly fruit. I'd like to do maybe 50/50 if possible, because I know it's not good to eat lots of sugar. But anyway, I'm not sure when I'll start this yet. I'd like to do it anywhere from 3-7 days depending on how well it goes. Lately,  I've just felt so sluggish, tired, and just generally bad. I've been eating horrible. I just need something easy to cleanse my body. This monomeal idea is simple. There's really no thinking involved. Just pick a fruit or vegetable and eat. No juicing recipes, no salads, no ingredient substitutions: just simplicity.

However, the reason I'm not starting this ASAP is because Daniel's mom bought me a giant Reece's peanut butter heart for Valentine's Day. I'm really not a sweets person, and I don't have the heart to tell her to not buy me candy. I could give it to Daniel, but I feel bad doing that for some reason. Maybe I'll give him half who knows. I just think it would be fun to do the cleanse together, but he probably wouldn't even want to do it.

I  just know I'm tired of feeling like garbage and I need something to kick me back into healthy gear. Summer isn't too far away after all.

Coziness

I'm not sure how to make our home more cozy without breaking my style. It's something I think about quite often, but I'm not sure how to achieve it. I know we need more rugs. We literally only have one rug in the house right now (besides bath mats and welcome mats). Perhaps a leather couch isn't the coziest.

Harvest Moon and Junk Food

Lately, that's all I've been doing besides work. I've been so lazy. But I guess it's better than going out and spending money! But, I can tell I've gained a few pounds. I've been really careless about what I've been eating lately. I don't like it, but I guess we all go through times where we don't. I have some lentil soup in a can that I'm going to eat for lunch. Today, we're snowed in. Or iced in I should say. Luckily, I didn't have to go into work.

I've been kind of irritable today and I don't like it. It could have something to do with the fact that I've been up since like 6:00 am and never got back to sleep.

So hopefully, I can find something to do today. I'm sure I will.

ATM

At the moment, I feel somewhat overwhelmed. I'm not entirely sure why. We just got back from looking at two houses for Daniel's mom. She's trying to downsize somewhat. The houses we looked at weren't a ton smaller, but they didn't have a basement like she has now. Maybe I'm feeling overwhelmed in a sense because of the size of the homes. If I had to guess, I would say they were between 2,600-3,000 sq. ft. Also, both of the houses needed work. I guess I'm vicariously overwhelmed lol. But then that got me thinking about our house. It really doesn't need a ton done to it. We need all the trim and floorboards cleaned and painted. But painting is such a pain!! Mostly because it's oil. Also, the bathrooms aren't very updated, and neither is the kitchen. But that's basically it! So it's really not too bad. I'm just a perfectionist so it feels like a lot. Also, there's things I want to buy. Like we need rugs basically throughout the entire house.  I just get overwhelmed very, very easily. It sucks because when I get very overwhelmed, I basically shut down and don't do anything. Our house is really messy right now, which is adding to why I feel the way I do. I could clean it, but it's my only day off, so I just want to relax.

Consuming

Lately I've been being a bad consumer again. Lusting after products. I don't like it. Probably, because I've been watching YouTube again. But I think it's ok to treat yourself sometimes isn't it? I haven't actually been buying as much as I've been lusting. My biggest weakness is lush. I bought A LOT around Christmas,  but most of it was buy one get one free and payed for with a gift card. So I didn't actually end up spending that much. Here's a picture of my stash for reference

I've been slowly going through things, but I also like having them on hand. But here's the thing: these things do make me happy! Is that when consumerism is ok? I just feel so good when I use them, I enjoy smelling them, looking at them. It doesn't bring an emptiness to me. Had I spent full price on them it may have.

A couple days ago I bought a few make-up products. I bought a Sonia Kashuk pressed powder, because I was out of my pressed powder. I also bought two nail polishes. With the thought of spring around the corner, I've really been wanting a mint green nail polish. (It's one of my favorite colors too) I bought one like two years ago that I ended up giving to my sister, because it just wasn't the "right" shade, so I ended up not really using it. It was more of a light turquoise. But this time I found it! And I'm excited to say I found a cheap one for $2.99 AND it was a small quantity which I was happy about! Most nail polishes come with so much actual product, and it ends up getting gross before you're even half way done with it! There was another one I found first which was almost the exact same shade but it had more product and it was more expensive. I was also looking to replace my black nail polish since mine was pretty gross. I had used it recently and there were a TON of air bubbles in it. So I picked up a bottle in black from the same line as the mint green one. I think I treated myself without going over board.

For me, when even I get that lusting feeling, it's because I'm on the computer and have nothing better to do. So that kind of sucks. Maybe once I'm working full time I won't have that boredom as much.

Learning

I feel like actually learning about things is a somewhat lost art. I've been thinking about some things lately that I want to learn about. These things being: homesteading/gardening and Scandinavia. I know I'm never going to live off the grid or anything, but it would be nice to know the basic skills involved.

This isn't really related, but since the "economic collapse" or whatever you want to call it has happened, I've thought a decent amount about it and it's relations to minimalism. Minimalism definitely isn't the fix to our economy, but the exact opposite. But what I keep thinking about is that something needs to happen for it to get back on it's feet. Or maybe it's what has already happened. People were living above their needs. Think about it. People with mortgages they can't afford, buying things with credit cards they can't pay off. Eventually, somethings gotta give. It shouldn't even really be surprising that this has happened. Companies have had to close stores and go out of business. I feel like eventually though, it will balance back out. People will get back to where they should be based on what they can actually afford and possibly have some extra money to spend. But obviously I'm no economist. I just wonder about our whole capitalist economy. I mean I think it's the way to go, but at the same time, there's a limit. At least in my eyes there is. Some people may not see it that way.

I don't know. I constantly wonder where I fall on the political scale. I consider myself a libertarian. I don't really know where I'm going with that. I just think about these things from time to time.

On to a different note, I'm happy because I've finally started using my multipurpose room again. I've starting getting back into my succulents and cacti, which are in that room. Well, about half of them are in my husbands music room because he gets better sun in there. I've repotted a few of them with better soil that's actually made for succulents. The ones I didn't do are because I don't have a bigger pot for them. But yeah, so for this room, I really would like to get a rug, possibly a love seat, and a 3x3 storage bookcase type thing. A couch might be weird, but I spend most of my time on the floor with a pillow. I really want the storage thing because I just like having all my stuff in one spot. I'd like one section for my records, one for books, one for my sewing box. Not sure about the rest, but I'm sure I'll find something to put in them.

So one of my plants is starting to grow babies out of where the leaves have fallen off. Last time I counted, I had 9 growths. If they get big enough in time, I'd like to give one to my mom and mother in law for Mother's Day. I'm hoping I may get more growths. I'm also hoping to propagate the leaves. I have them all sitting out now waiting to see if they develop roots. If they do, then I'll have babies.

I'm actually getting excited for spring. I pretty much only like fall and spring. But tomorrow it may snow! I'm so excited! I don't think it's snowed at all the last two years. I'm such a little kid when it comes to snow. I can guarantee Daniel and I will be outside tomorrow once it starts accumulating.

Bucket List

For some reason lately, I keep thinking about what I want to do before I die.  I'm not entirely sure why. I'm very thankful that I'm going to be able to do one of the things that's in my list that I mentioned last time, which is to see TSOAF live. The second biggest thing I want to do is to go to Iceland and Sweden. Pretty much everywhere and anywhere in Scandinavia. Iceland looks so beautiful. I've dreamed of going there and Sweden for sometime now. Call me crazy, but I've even imagined going there in my dreams and it was amazing. I think I wrote a post about that actually. I mostly want to go swimming in the blue lagoon and see the aurora borealis. Another thing I really want to do is get a tattoo. For a couple years now, I've thought about getting a feather. I still want one, but I'm not sure the exact details of it. So I thought of another idea. Something that really hits home for me in more ways than one which is getting the words "lagom är bäst" on my ribs. The word lagom is a Swedish word that best translates as "just enough". Not too much, not too little. It relates to minimalism and how I live my life. "Är bäst" means "is best". I still haven't decided about whether to just get the word lagom or get the full phrase or not yet. That phrase is apparently a Swedish proverb and is how a lot of Swedes try to live their lives. Another thing I want to do is obviously become a hair stylist. I cannot wait until the day I can call myself a hair stylist. I think about it every day. 

Ok just going out on a whim here, because why not. My dream is to 

- own a beautiful (but simply) landscaped, small craftsman style home with a vegetable garden (the above picture is essentially my dream house)

- be a hairstylist

- have a Mini Cooper

- travel

- have a couple tattoos

- have great hair

These are the basics. I could totally add more, but for the sake of simplicity I'll stick with those. 

Do you ever wonder how often people actually think of their dreams? Or if they even have dreams? And if they do, why aren't they working towards them (if they're not)? For me, it's totally a financial thing, but I'm going to make it happen. I'm not sure how soon, but I'm going to make it happen. I just feel like there's so many people today that don't have dreams. Nothing to look forward to in life. It may be a generation thing. I'm worried about our future generations. Honestly worried. I can't imagine people who are worried about twerking and swag (sorry I had to) have any interesting things they want to do in the future. I could be wrong though. It's nice to dream every once in a while. 

It's Been Forever

I honestly haven't had much to write about lately! Or maybe I have and I've been too lazy. For one MAJOR thing (to me anyway) is that Daniel and I are going to see The Sound Of Animals Fighting live in March!!!! I am so fricken happy about that. It's one of the things I wanted to do before I died if I had the opportunity. After all, they are a band that "stopped existing". It's going to be in Philadelphia. I cannot wait. It seems like a dream. I know it won't feel real until I'm there. We were going to go to the NY venue, but it's much bigger. I wanted a closer, and more personal experience. The Philly venue is much smaller :)

The last few days I've been getting back into my minimalism a bit, or maybe simplifying I should say. My bonus room has just been a mess and I really haven't been using it since summer. I used to do make up in there until my kitten knocked over, and broke my mirror. Since then, I've just stopped using it and started filling it with "stuff". But over the last couple days, I finally started sorting through things. Right now I have a few piles. 1) goodwill 2) stuff to take to my moms 3) stuff to try and sell at a used clothing store 4) stuff I'm not sure about yet 5) stuff that needs to go into the attic 6) stuff I want to try and sell on Amazon. As you can imagine, that's pretty overwhelming. I'm going to try and attack them in this order. 1) take stuff to moms 2) try to sell clothes 3) goodwill 4) put stuff in attic 5) sell stuff on amazon 6) figure out what to do with stuff I'm not sure about. Most of the piles are pretty tiny. Luckily the only stuff in my "Amazon" pile is 2 c.d.'s, the pair of shoes I got married in, and a book that I ironically bought off Amazon. I have a feeling I won't end up selling any of those things on Amazon, but we'll see. I can't wait to get rid of that stuff. It's been weighing on me for a while now. I really need to be more mindful of what I'm bringing in. I've been slipping since I've moved in the house, but I gotta get back on it. I just hate when you buy something that you honestly like and think you're going to use and then you don't. It's so frustrating, because it's just a waste of money. I mean I've definitely gotten a lot better about it over time though.

I bought an orange Crosley record player! I used to have one a couple years ago, but ended up giving it to my brother. I ended up really missing having one, and wanted a modern one with internal speakers. So I got one off target.com with free shipping for $80! Not bad. I'm kind of sad though because there was some dirt in it when I received it. I tried to get it out, but of course it smeared on the cream colored felt. It's not super noticeable, but I know it's there. I also bought 3 records from a band called Boards of Canada. One of my favorites. Also my favorite band for listening to at night when I'm doing stuff in my room.

I keep thinking about tattoos lately! I would love to get one I just want to be 100% sure. I know I want to get a feather, but I don't know the exact placement and the particular way I want it shaded in. I've just felt rather boring lately with my appearance and feel like I need to change something. I need my hair cut too, but it's finally getting long so I don't want to cut it! I know it'll look better though. I want to get a v-cut in the back. But I'll probably only get like 3/4 of an inch taken off the length. Getting it cut into a V will naturally cut off a lot of my ends anyway.

Well I guess I should head to bed. I'm starting to get hungry and I really don't want to eat before bed.