Hepburn and Houndstooth

Roughly six months ago, I posted a video listing 30 things that I wanted to accomplish before I turn 30 (giving me a year).  How have I done?  You be the judge!

I have a love/hate relationship with my hair.  It’s always either the wrong color or wrong length… unless it’s Tuesday, the third of the month, a 3/4 moon, or the seventh day of my cycle.  Seriously.  Right now, the plan is that I’m growing my hair long for the first time since having children.  My (unattainable) goal is mid-back by December 30 (my birthday).  Right now, it’s falling to my shoulders.  It’s at the awkward length where I always decide it’s time to chop it.  However, other women’s long, lustrous locks keep me going.

Gretchen Rossi

Jacqueline Laurita

Kelly Monaco

From Orchid Grey

Tiffany of I Am Style-ish

My gorgeous friend Stefanie

Sometimes though, shorter hair can be such a great change.  My friend Jessie recently chopped off her hair and it’s such a lovely transformation!

Regardless of how much I love my hair short, I’m looking forward to having it long again for a change!

1. My stepson Jude visited over the weekend. It was nice having him around and having a full house. However, I’m looking forward to getting back into our routine.

2. We are ready to start transitioning Harper to cups.  He is doing really well with cups already, but we need to put up the bottles until bedtime.  I’m more worried about how he’s going to do with giving up the pacifier!

3. There is a job I’m dying for as a photography assistant and the application was just posted yesterday.  I applied, the photographer knows how excited I am about this job, and now I’m having to just let it go and know it’s out of my hands!  That’s so hard for me!

4. I am constantly conflicted about something.  One week, it may be business ideas.  Another week, it may be what city I want to live in.  This week, it’s whether to keep growing my hair or to cut it short.

5. I finally got a boost in motivation, in the form of Jane Fonda.  When I was a little girl, my mom always did the Jane Fonda Workout (1982).  It was the first mass-produced workout video.  It is absolutely amazing.  I remember how it whipped my mom into shape. We had been searching for it on DVD for years.  It was never produced on DVD, but we hoped we’d find a homemade version somewhere.  Then, after years of searching, I found it… in YouTube installments!  I did the workout for the first time yesterday.  I am so sore… and itching for more!  Maybe Jane can help me lose all this weight!

6. My husband and I are working on our first blog collaboration, hopefully launching in June.  It’s a lot of work to run a blog that we hope people will use regularly and depend on it as an information resource.  We live in a small town that is so not connected to the internet.  The few hiring businesses want you to send in a resume… via snail mail.  People shop and do business in surrounding cities, because they don’t even know what’s available to them here.  And the local newspaper (published once a week, on Thursdays) is very sad.  The “writers” have very biased views… and they show in the articles.  I’m pretty sure you can pay for an article too (if you agree with the editor’s views, at least).  We hope to bring something new and fresh to the table, and we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback about our plans!

7. Harper started taking a few steps here and there in recent weeks.  Now, he is full-on walking.  He favors it over crawling most of the time.  I really can not believe this is my baby.  He may be our last baby, and I’m trying to soak it all up before it’s over.

8. Sometimes I feel like a big gray cloud hangs over our house, pouring down germs.  Someone here is always sick (and I guess with 6 people currently living here, the odds are against us).  A cold has circulated, dotted here and there with sinus infections and bronchitis.  There is poison oak or poison ivy in our house, along with a recent 24-hour stomach bug.  I have come to believe in the power of positive thinking though.  I started to get my second cold in a month 2 days ago, but started popping vitamins and listening to my body, and now I’m fine!

9. I need to post a wedding recap on the blog, along with some of the millions of pictures.  I just don’t think I can find the time (or patience) to really write out the details of the day.  And it was so simple, what is there to really tell?  I’m thinking I’ll let the pictures do the talking.  That’s what everyone wants to see anyway, right?

10. Just when I couldn’t think of a number 10, my dad comes in and suggests I just buy some kool-aid instead of juice.  I told him no, there’s absolutely no nutritional value in kool-aid and it’s all sugar.  He was surprised, people.  SURPRISED.

1. I have done it!  I have finally figure out what my business venture will be.  For years, I have struggled to figure out what sort of business I wanted to open.  There has never been a question about the fact that I want to be self-employed.  I just have so many interests and passions, it was hard to narrow it down.  I can’t say just yet, because I want to figure some things out first.  And hey, this is one of my 30 Things To Do Before 30.  Wahoo!

2. I’m already itching to change my hair for my big hair experiment.  I will be going chocolate brown whenever my roots start showing.  It is currently black and I will be lightening gradually – at home.  This should be fun.

3. My entire family has been sick for several days.  It seems to just be a cold, but I had it pretty bad, complete with fever.  Feeling a little better today and am hoping to get some stuff done around the house!

4. Nearly May.  South Mississippi.  I’m freezing.  What?

5. I’m a failure.  I signed up for Bobbi Sheridan’s Healthy Train.  The first weigh-in is Friday.  I have not lost a pound.  If fact, I may have gained.  Yep, failure.

6. Harper really wants to walk.  He has been standing for 10-20 seconds unassisted and you can see him shift as if to take a step.  Then he falls or grabs on to something and the moment is over.

7. I want to start using handkerchiefs.  I had been thinking for awhile about buying some to keep in my purse.  I hate when I need to sneeze and have no tissue to catch the spray.  Sometimes, I burst out crying for no reason.  I’m a big crier.  And now, surrounded my mounds of tissues from blowing my nose, I’m thinking it’s time to get some hankies!

8. I’m watching Molly Ringwald on Regis & Kelly.  I absolutely love her current show, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and I am so beyond ready for a new season!  I caught up on the entire thing on Hulu, where I’ll be watching it when it starts back, if we’re still at my dad’s.  We so don’t have cable.

9. Speaking of living at my dad’s, can we move yet?!  He’s not that bad, but we are super short on space.  There is nowhere to put anything, which is a huge problem with children.  Also, I’m just ready for the new life we have mapped out.  We are moving a few towns over and I think it’s really going to suit us.  I already have a church picked to try out, Dustin will be much closer to work, and my new business will thrive there (I’m hoping).

10. Back to hair.  Sorry, but it always comes back to hair for me.  I am not a highlights person.  I’m just not.  I had highlights a couple of different times.  I’ve had blonde highlights and I’ve had reds and coppers and lowlights.  I’ve also had crayola red.  Of all of those, the unnatural red was the only one I cared for.  I think really good highlights usually cost a ton and I still don’t really love it.  I’d prefer to just have an all-over color.  Luckily, even when I color my hair, all my natural dimensions shine through so it never looks dull and fake.

1. I had plans for today.  I was going to wake up early and run, wash my shower curtain and bath mat, shave my legs, and go on a job interview.  Last night I couldn’t sleep, I got up at 4 a.m. with Harper (and a major toothache), only to crash again at 5.  It was raining all morning so I didn’t run.  Unspeakable issues caused me to cancel my interview.  It’s 6:30 p.m. and I have not even showered.  My kids have made me cry and bleed – in the last twenty minutes.  This day is certainly not going as planned.

2. My kids make me crazy, but I still want more.  I watched the “Octomom” on Oprah today, and STILL came away wanting another kid.

3. No matter how much he annoys me and pisses me off, my dad is totally inspiring.  He wrote a list of all the stuff God has brought him through.  It is a whole composition book page full.  I am going to scan it and post it when I get around to it.

4. I just posted on Facebook about it being Glee night.  TWO friends asked me what Glee is!!!!!  Seriously!

5. My 4-year-old mama’s boy is becoming a daddy’s boy.  What happened?!?!

6. Looks like I may be judging color guard try-outs Friday.  That is one of my favorite things to do, and this time it’s for my own high school!  YAY.

7. I am so sick of being overweight.  All things told, I need to lose forty pounds.  I am trying to lose thirty this year.  I joined Bobbi’s Healthy Train (click here for more information).  The first weigh-in is on the 30th of this month and I haven’t really made any steps toward losing weight.  Um, hello self – time to get started!

8. Lately, I have been having the worst heartburn ever.  That usually means I’m eating crap.  Something must change soon (see #7).

9. Mother’s Day is coming up really soon.  It is one of my favorite holidays and has been since before I had children.  My mom and I have been close my whole life and I always love to celebrate her.  This year, I’m hoping she and I can take a beach weekend.  Ugh, that means swimsuit (see again #7).  Look for a swimsuit post coming soon.

10. It feels like my brain is just too full lately to form a coherent thought.  I struggled through this list of then things over the course of about 12 hours!  I keep coming back when I think of something “interesting” and looking back, it’s quite boring.  I hope to bring something better to this blog soon!  Bear with me.

I am one of the most indecisive people you could ever meet.  There are a few things I never sway on – love for my family, my need to be an entrepreneur, my love for music, and my internet addiction.  Other than that, it’s all subject to change at any moment.  I change my mind on my hair quite often, and if not for the cost, I would invest in tons of wigs.  Or maybe I would just be in the salon every couple of weeks changing my hair color.  I am currently trying to grow my hair really long.  I haven’t had hair much past my shoulders in years, because I get bored and impatient and have it all cut off.  Anyway, since I’m growing my hair out, I’m having to please my bored side in other ways.  Right now, I’m trying to come up with a new hair color.  I just dyed it a reddish-brown a month ago.  Bored of that now, so what’s next?

(Chyler Leigh, Lexie on Grey’s Anatomy. She convinced me that I may be able to pull of the brunette-to-blonde transition.)

I feel the urge to go very, very blonde.  Honestly, my only hesitation is the cost of upkeep.  It isn’t something I can do myself out of the box and it’s a color that is going to show very obvious roots.  I love when my hair is black, or nearly black, but I do that just about once a year and I’m trying to do something different.  I really feel like really dark hair suits my personality the best.  If not for trying to find a “grown-up” job, I’d definitely do black with crayon-red or pink peekaboo highlights (and a nose piercing, but that’s not what this is about).  It’s hard to explain, but I don’t feel like I look like the person I am.  In my head, I have really cool, funky hair, a nose piercing, a wrist, and big luscious lips. Ha!  I have the lips down, at least.  Anyway, in an attempt to make a decision, I decided to enlist the help of others.  I am BEGGING you to not only take THIS POLL, but to also give your input in the comments.

Since having my oldest son in 2006, I have been battling the bulge.  Actually, let’s not blame it on the kid, because I have been struggling with my weight for probably nine years (hi, Freshman Fifteen).  Everyone knows that the older you get and the more kids you have, the harder it is to get rid of those extra pounds.  I really should have started whipping myself into shape before I had kids.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda.  Anyway, I used to run and stay so active that I could eat whatever I want, drink as much as I want, and gain only a minimal amount of weight.  Now, I need a complete lifestyle overhaul to get anywhere in my quest for a healthier and lighter me.  Sunday, I started (again) to eat right.  I used an app on my HTC Hero called “Calorie Counter” to help track what I’m eating.  It’s really convenient, as it lets you search for items and even scan barcodes for nutritional content.  I am doing really well so far, not going over my recommended calories.  I have lost 2 pounds, and I’m sure that’s water weight, but you have to start somewhere!  I haven’t worked in much exercise yet, but am trying to stay active when I can.  I took a walk with Nick yesterday and have tried to get a lot of housework done.  Today, I hope to go for a run.  I need to start over on Couch to 5k, because I keep getting off track.

It is part of my 30 Things To Do Before 30 list to lose 30 pounds.  I think I can do it, but it is NOT going to be easy!  I now have 9 months to lose that weight, and that’s 3.33 lbs a month.  That sounds easy, and it probably would be if I went on a crash diet, but I want a lifestyle change that will make me healthier and keep the weight off long-term.

I took some “before” pictures, with plans to post those here.  I just can’t do it.  They are really, really terrible.  My midsection is jiggly and shapeless and I have serious muffin top.  I will probably post the “before” pictures once I lose the 30 pounds I have planned.  As a way to hold myself accountable and as a motivator, I’m going to post my progress here.  The only thing worse than failing at weight loss is failing publicly.  I’m not shy about my personal details, and so I share this with you.

Weight on Saturday, March 20: 150 lbs.

Weight on Wednesday, March 23: 148 lbs.

I will take any advice and tips on how to work exercise into your routine and for quick, easy, healthy meal ideas!  Let me hear from you.  I could use the support (and a cupcake).

Once upon a time, all of my jewelry was contained neatly in pretty little jewelry boxes.  Then, I became obsessed with costume jewelry.  Now I can not contain it in boxes without resulting in a huge tangle, much like this:

source

In fact, in recent months I have all but stopped wearing jewelry, because I can never dig anything out of the mess.  After months of wanting to create a solution, I spotted my old bulletin board in my brother’s closet and decided to finally take action!

I recruited Dustin to remove the stubborn frame (yeah, he’s going to kill me for putting this in here).  Initially, I had planned to put the frame back on after completion, but it broke a little too much for my taste.  In the end, I liked it without the frame.

I then placed the bulletin board, cork-side down, onto the back of the fabric (pulled from my closet), cut with 4-5 inches around the sides (i didn’t measure it.  You won’t see the back.).

I took out the heavy-duty staple gun and went to work, stretching the fabric tight and stapling.  I flipped the board over to check progress, only to find that I was stapling completely through the board! Oops.

Dustin suggested I cut a new piece of fabric, concerned that the staple holes would show through.  I decided to go ahead with the chambray fabric I was already using.  However, I switched to my desk stapler from college.

I finished stapling the edges on the long sides of the board, then went to work on the corners.  I folded them as if wrapping a gift, rather than cutting the corners.  I really hate cutting, because I always mess something up!  I tried stapling the corners with my desk stapler, but the staples bent.  I got crafty and put used the staple gun at an angle so that the staples wouldn’t come through the front.  Perfect!

After finishing all four corners, I stapled along the short sides and flipped over to check my work.  It’s definitely not perfect, but I was absolutely satisfied!

I then laid out the screw-in hooks (scavenged from my mom’s house), then screwed them in.  They were the perfect size screw, going deep into the cork board without going all the way through.

These are literally the only pieces I could dig out of my jumble to demonstrate how it works.

I am not completely done.  I want to put something at the bottom for rings and smaller earrings.  I’m thinking I will attach some shallow boxes.  I will update when I find something!  I also have to figure out how to mount it.  It won’t last leaning on my nightstand.  So far, I spent $0 on this project, so it will be ok if I have to spend a couple of dollars on the rest.

Check out the simpler version of what I did on According to Lia.   I would have done this if I had a closet door to hang it on the inside of.  Since mine is going to be on full display, I decided to cover it and use nicer hooks.  This is just a temporary solution though, because once we get out of my dad’s house and into our own place, I plan to put up a pegboard similar to this.  (Would also love to have a bustform!)

source

For now though, I’m content with my board and I think once I complete it, it will work for me for a long time!

I first posted these videos on my wedding blog, Life. Love. Lipstick.  It was making this video that inspired me to start a personal blog to document the journey I’m beginning.  At 29, as a mother of two in a long-term relationship, I have decided to create myself.

6-month update posted here.