My First Feature!

Ok, I'm really excited right now. Like dancing around, randomly giggling excited. You might think that's silly, but I believe in relishing the good moments in life. This one feels really good.

Today, my rosette magnets were featured on OnePrettyThing.com. OnePrettyThing does these wonderful round ups of projects from across the blogosphere. I get great ideas from them all the time. Anyways, after I finished the post... I casually sent it to OPT and BAM... there I am! In the "Weekend Roundup". It might seem like a small thing to some... but it feels really big to me.

I've honestly been doing a lot of thinking and praying about what I'm supposed to be doing and how I should be using my talents. I love to write and craft and plan and discuss and share... but sometimes, I wonder if it is important enough. This week, I was sent a few pretty clear signs that I should keep pursuing my passions... this was one of them. I feel totally blessed.

To my friends and family who have been so encouraging, thanks for all your love and support. I'm gonna keep doing what I love and loving what I do.

I hope you'll pop on over to OnePrettyThing.com and check it out! They have new inspiration every day!

Bored Crafty

As I've mentioned before, I've spent the last few years on a lot of important commitments that I made to others. Although I learned a lot, I had to sacrifice a lot of my own time and personal projects. I had almost zero down time, so there was no space for exploring some of the things I wanted to work on. This year, I'm really trying to let myself get back to my passions. Going from back to back meetings almost every day to winter break with a part time job is quite a transition. Mine went something like this:

-Forget I have nothing to do and continue to be anxious for a couple of days.

-Remember I have nothing to do and do what any kid would on break from school... watch A LOT of TV (We don't have cable so that would be Netflix and Hulu).

-Let the house get destroyed and not care for a couple of days.

-Miss my responsibilities... just a pinch.

-Watch more TV.

-Get bored.

-Get really bored.

-Hit the rock bottom of boredom.

-Get obsessed with cleaning the house.

-Get frustrated with cleaning the house.

-Get finished with cleaning the house.

-Finally go to the gym.

-Keep going to the gym.

-Discover hobbies you enjoy again...

And that about brings you up to speed. It required going to the depths of bored, but I've started to rediscover my hobbies. The first one to come back around has been crafting. Yesterday, I had gone to the gym, I was home from work, I had cleaned the house... and suddenly I just wanted to make something. So I did.

I've seen a million and one tutorials online lately about rosettes and pom poms. They're on necklaces and sweaters and just about everything else. I decided to give them a try. Here's how to make them if you have the urge to get crafty too.

1. Gather Your Supplies: I like this project because you probably won't have to buy anything. All you need is scissors, a glue gun, a fabric pencil (pen or regular pencil will work fine too), a scrap piece of felt and some scrap fabric.

Isn't this fabric pretty? I used it for another project and just love it. It might be hard to see, but it has silver all through it.

2. Cut Out a Felt Base: Cut a circle out of your felt. It can be any size you'd like. Your rosette will end up a little bigger than your base. You can trace around the bottom of something round, like a paint bottle or cup, or just free hand it.

3. Cut Out Your "Petals": Using your scrap fabric, cut out 12-20 (the bigger the base the more you need) circles the same size as your base. You can trace them and then cut, or just hold the fabrics together and cut around the felt like I did.

4. Get to Gluing: Using one circle at a time, put the flat end of your pencil in the center of the fabric and wrap the sides around. Apply some hot glue to the center of the fabric. Put your first circle in the center of the felt base and then build around the center until you get the thickness you want.

This is what they look like with one layer around the center.

This is what they look like with about two layers around the center... much fuller.

When you are done, this is what you will have left over.

After I had a whole family of rosettes, I didn't know what to do with them. I had just been playing around so I hadn't planned a necklace or sweater. Then, I got an idea. Magnets.

There are only two rules I know about magnets:

1. Don't swallow them.

2. The better they work, the more ugly they will probably be.

Everybody has ugly magnets and I had about as many as I had rosettes.

Sorry APhiO magnet, but I got a lot of other cool mementos from that trip.

Making them into magnets is super easy, just apply some hot glue to your magnet and stick in on the back of the felt.

Viola!

Anyways, it feels good to get a crafty craving again. I hope you had a great week and have big plans for the long weekend.

Be a Part of Something Inspiring Today

This video is from one of my favorite bloggers, Kelle Hampton. She writes about her family and inspires thousands of people with their story. A year ago, she gave birth to her second daughter, Nella Cordelia. Without warning, Nella was born with Down Syndrome. Kelle has dedicated her time and love to creating a better future for Nella. For her first birthday, Kelle has created "Nella's ONEder Fund" to support the National Down Syndrome Society. From her readership and influence, over $50,000 have been raised in just a few days. Jake and I have already contributed and we hope that if your heart is touched, you will too.

Nella's birth story is one of the most inspiring and honest things I have ever read.

Read it here:

Nella's Birth Story

To read Kelle's Blog, click here:

Enjoying the Small Things

To donate, click here:

Donate to Nella's ONEder Fund

How My Life Became High Maintenance

Just like the rest of America, one of my new year's resolutions this year was to take better care of my body. As a kid, I never had any issues with weight, but in the last few years of college, I've gained about 30 lbs. It was hard for me to cope with my deteriorating body image, especially with all the extra responsibilities I was putting on myself.

I dedicated the last three years to every extracurricular service and leadership activity you could imagine. A co-ed fraternity, student government, a sorority... president of this, chair of that, etc. etc. I learned so much and really developed myself, but being in charge of everything all the time can make it hard to take care of yourself. Now that most of those things have been passed on to new leadership, I've really been focusing on myself. It feels good to be including stuff like eating right, sleep and exercise into my schedule now.

This week, I finally got past all the stress and guilt of picking an exercise routine and just got down to business. Jake has been dropping me off at the school's gym when he goes to work around 7:40am. Then I do about 40 minutes of cardio on the elliptical (I can even read on that thing... kinda), walk home and get ready for work. I'm also eating very consciously and tracking my diet and exercise every day. I feel pretty charged up about this simple plan so far, but I'm not going to lie... it has been REALLY HARD. Funny thing is... it's not the exercise that is causing me grief, it's all the little stuff:

-Trying to convince myself to come out from underneath a warm blanket on a cold morning.

-Learning to read on an elliptical.

-Distracting myself for 40 minutes from the fact that I'm working out.

-Convincing myself not to quit when I gained two pounds in the first three days.

-Having the strength to get in the shower.

-Having the strength to get out of the shower.

-Having the strength to blow-dry and style my hair after the shower.

-Staying awake while I put on my make up.

-How the walk to work seems three times longer.

-Staying awake at my desk once I get to work.

-Being ready for bed at 9pm.

But, there is some really good stuff too:

-Getting up with my hubby in the morning makes him happy.

-Getting to eat breakfast.

-Being on time to work more often.

-Knowing that I'm doing my best.

-Feeling like I accomplished something every day, even if I did nothing at work or at home.

-Not feeling guilty about taking a nap when I want one.

-Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't kill their husbands... they just don't! (Legally Blonde, anyone?)

I know that results take time and that I will get more energy the longer I persist... I can do this. I hope wherever your new years resolutions are, you're doing well with them. Lastly, I just want to give snaps to all the moms out there who have lost their pregnancy weight after having a baby. I am so tired from waking up, working out, and carrying fruit around in my purse that if I even had to LOOK at an infant... I would scream. You are my hero.

On "Having it Together"

Lately, I've gotten a few sweet compliments from friends about how "together" I have things. Wow. That shocks me every time. I sent Jake to work with a thank you note for a co-worker who had given us a really sweet Christmas present and she happily responded with something like, "Oh, a thank you note! That's so Tobi." When Jake told me I was somewhere between laughing hysterically and correcting her. Truth is, I suck at thank you notes... the ones from our wedding took over six months to get out (to my horror). Just to add on to that... our fridge has a whole shelf known as the "sticky zone", I have at least one break down a week, and I spent ten minutes looking for my pants this morning (unsuccessfully).

"Together" is not how I would describe myself, but those kind of comments give me hope.

I have a lot of role models and some very big shoes to fill. My aunt has six kids (one more in the oven) and still manages to send them all to play dates, music lessons, church and scouts. Oh, and she feeds them all... she's a miracle worker. My mom owns several companies, works her butt of on a daily basis and still somehow managed to raise three kids and be one of the craftiest people I know. I won't even go into detail about my grandmother, who was a business owner, owns hundreds of pairs of shoes and taught me never to go out with wet hair or without my "face on". The women in my family have set some high standards.

I'd like to have it all together some day. I'd like to be a great cook, stay up with current events and be a room mom. I want to be a good woman in a storm. I'd like to be built for crisis. But more than anything I want to try to love myself as much as God loves me. I want to remember that even though the suggestion that my life is "together" sends me into fits of laughter now, I am enough just how I am. I hope you remember that too. You are good enough. You are loved immensely... more than you can ever understand.

He has a plan for each of us. He knows exactly how amazing we can be if we just rely on him. We'll all keep growing. Some days we'll send great thank you notes, be able to find our pants in the first place we look and make it to the gym. Some days we'll burn dinner, count french fries as a vegetable and step in gum. Regardless, we'll take the small victories and remember God loves us.

Taking Back the Closet

Have I ever told you I'm a bit obsessive? Well, I am. As a kid I had to match completely, down to my socks... except for this one day I decided that "rainbow" was a coordinating color scheme. When I get into a project, I can get so focused that I ignore people around me when they are talking to me (not purposely, of course). When I meet a new friend that I like, I basically talk about them non-stop. "So and so said they skipped third grade... can you believe that?!?" A couple of years ago, I decided I was going to wear nothing but cowboy boots for a week... then it was dresses... now it's scarves and cocktail rings.

Recently, my project has been organizing the apartment. Since we have such a small place and we brought home so much stuff from Christmas, I'm going through every cabinet, drawer and chest and getting rid of what we don't need. It feels refreshing. I've been pretty productive, but not quite obsessive... until yesterday.

I was completely avoiding the closet at any cost. If I went in there with my current state of mind, I'm not sure how I would react. Would I find myself throwing away half of my wardrobe? Would I sink into a deep depression about the state of my fashion sense? I felt like I was in a deep fashion rut and no amount of can-do new year's spirit could fix it. Then, as I was reading my blogs, I came across this post by a blogger I hadn't read before. She is a mom, pregnant and busy as heck... and fashionable! I found myself thinking, "I hope I dress that fashionably when I'm pregnant." Then I slapped myself and said, "You could be dressing that fashionably now!!!! Get your butt in gear, girl!" Thats when the obsessing began.

Suddenly, I'm looking for inspiration and researching how to get my wardrobe in gear. I even found a program online that lets you catalog your clothes and save potential outfits... kind of like in Clueless, but not quite as cool, cause it doesn't have a "Dress Me" option. I immediately texted my friend Megan, cause she's about as fashionable as they come. I asked her to help me assess my closet and see where I'm at. She came over today and took a look. Turns out, the situation is workable. With a little creativity and a little dedication, I can climb out of my clothing funk for the new year. We're saving up for our Italy trip at the moment, so it's going to require a little bit of thrift too. I do love a challenge.

So after a review of what I already own, Megan and I decided on a few basics that would make the stuff I already own go even further. Here are some things I'll be looking for next time I'm out:

A Black Blazer

Blazers go with almost everything. In fact, everyone I've mentioned this to is pretty much mortified at the fact that I don't already have one. There are long and short versions, I'm going to try both and see which is more flattering.

A Waist Belt

A lot of my sweaters, dresses and long tops could be revived with one of these babies.

New Jeans

Don't a new pair of jeans or two always breathe life into a warn out wardrobe? I think so. I'm going to look into getting a pair of skinnies like the ones above to go with flowy tops and boots and a more relaxed fit like the ones below for a different look.

I'm on the hunt and I'll keep you updated with how I do. I just want to end this post by saying, I have NEVER claimed to be a fashion expert... I'm just a girl trying to reclaim her wardrobe... one pair of clearance jeans at a time.

Images #1-4: Nordstrom

Image #5: Lucky Brand Jeans

The New Year's Revolution

Sometimes, new year's resolutions can seem trite and insincere. We pick five things and we forget about them by the end of January. It's a shame. In 2008, me and Jake and some of our close friends started the New Year's Revolution. The point was that the little goals we were making simply weren't cutting it. We had had a change of heart. Together, we wanted to use the new year as an excuse to become better people.

It's not easy to set lofty goals. In fact, lots of experts say that it's unwise. I could care less about what they say though, because I grew more that year with the support of my most beloved friends than I ever have before. Looking back at my list now, I realize how much of it became a factor of my life today.

The Revolution is a part of us now. We use it to remind each other; we use it to remind ourselves. Jake and I have started a new list this year. For the most part, it's not something we're going to share with the world wide web. It's between us and God and the people who will help us to be accountable to our commitments.

I've learned a lot since 2008 and we are going to be making some improvements to the Revolution. I don't claim to be an expert on goal setting, but I've at least earned a couple gold stars in it. Here are some things that we are doing to honor the Revolution. Maybe this will help you with some of the things you are trying to accomplish and maybe you'll choose another method (like this micromanaging method by unclutterer), but either way, we wish you all the best with becoming a better and happier person in 2011.

1. Dream Big

Lots of people will disagree with this, but I don't believe in limiting what you want from your life because of what you're scientifically most likely to accomplish. Forget the 3-5, or the size of the project and write up a list of who you want to be and what you want to accomplish. The list might be one that would take a lifetime to accomplish or just a couple very busy years, but there is always time to narrow it down later.

2. Chart It Out

Next, for every big goal, chart out the path. List the steps that need to be taken to get there. For example, in 2008, one of my goals was to treat my body better. Some steps to that would be making a meal plan, planning time to go to the gym, etc. This year, one item on our list is to go to Italy and Greece in August. To accomplish that, we need to work out a monthly budget, book the trip with an agency, get passports, and many more steps. You may also want to set a loose deadline for each of your steps. Keep in mind that some will take longer than others.

Don't be discouraged if your goals will take longer than a year to accomplish... all the more reason to get started now!

3. Get Acclimated

It is almost impossible to get started from January 1st with no prep time. In our house, we're taking the month of January to lay the ground work for our goals. We'll be researching, getting organized and plotting our course.

Don't worry if you are finally getting around to setting your goals on January 7th or March 31st, just get inspired and committed.

4. Put It In Plain Sight

Once you've made a plan, keep it in plain view! Maybe you frame a picture of the place you want to go in your living room, put out a cuss jar, or post a meal plan on your fridge. Whatever it is, make a visual symbol that means something to you to help remind you of your goals.

5. Be Conscious

The revolution, at it's core, is about being conscious. In order to make big changes, you have to make EVERY decision count. "Do I want this pair of shoes or a trip to Italy more?" "Do I want to spend an hour online or make a healthy meal?" From the second you wake up, to the moment you crawl back in bed, think about every choice you make and make it count towards your goal.

Happy New Year & Viva La Revolution!