DIY round up

in order to help me achieve #17 on my list - to become crafty - i decided to round up some of my favorite DIY's that i've seen in the past few weeks/months. hopefully i'll have a craft night sometime in the very near future and can post pics of a completed DIY project...it's been a long time since that happened.

1. diy cheese platter. (this also perfectly ties in to another 30before30 goal: start a sunday night supper tradition. cheese platters are the best way to start a dinner party anyways)

2. some nail art diy's that are so cute...i have a shaky hand when i'm painting my own nails, so this will most likely end up looking like an abstract painting, but it's worth a shot.

3. a diy color block recipe box. all my printed & written recipes are sloppily laying in a cupboard in my kitchen. i'm thinking that this will look much, much cuter.



4. diy votives. i'm thinking these also tie in to the sunday night supper goal - they'd be cute spread around the tables outside in the fall.

5. a pretty, diy way to keep away mosquitoes. mosquitoes absolutely love me. i'm that person that stands outside and gets 100 bites while nobody even notices there's a mosquito around. so this could really come in handy, since we're trying to spend lots of time in the backyard.

6. a very feminine, but laid-back diy updo.

i have such a hard time doing my own hair. meaning that i don't have the patience for it, so 99.9% of the time, my hair just air dries and i work with what i've got. but this, i could try for the next wedding we go to.

7. a diy cocktail serving tray. serving your guests their cocktails on trays just seems so much fancier than handing it to them, no?

what do you think - would you try any of these?

is anyone else trying (unsuccessfully) to become a crafty lady, like me?

(see my full 30before30 list here)

this struck home

even though i didn't know this exact quote before today, i can say that it was the feeling i had when i compiled my 30before30 list and decided it just had to get accomplished.

just the other day, i had a long conversation about this with the husband...i got this overwhelming feeling of, "what will i be doing in 10 years?", and the thought kind of took over my brain. i have this thought every several months or so, and it always makes me just as uncomfortable as the last time. i didn't finish school, but was able to get a job that i love with a company that i love, which is wonderful, but...will i still feel this way after doing the job for x amount of years?
i'm well aware that getting a degree doesn't guarantee anything (several of my good friends have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a degree to now be working in retail), but the main reason that i didn't finish was because i could not decide on one career path. that's one thing i definitely got from my dad, the guy who's run 6 completely different (but successful) businesses since i've been alive. i'll never throw the going-back-to-school thing out the window, but i don't see myself being decisive enough to agree to spend thousands of dollars and not change my mind halfway through.

and when these thoughts start taking over the rational side of my brain, i have to remind myself that whatever job i'm doing doesn't necessarily define me. i'm the type of person that takes a lot of pride in my job, so it is definitely very important to me, but it's not the end all, be all. which is where my list comes in. when i'm old and wrinkled, i won't be telling people stories about my accomplishments at my job or how much i was getting paid...i'll be telling them about the trips i took with my husband, the photos i took that made me so proud, and the traditions we started together.

i posted several months ago about my dream job, and don't get me wrong - i'm still enough of a dreamer to work towards that. but for now (and for the realist in me), my 30before30 list is enough to appease me.

(see my full 30before30 list here)

my better half series

i am back from the world's longest blogging hiatus!

so you would think that i'd have a really long, interesting post since i haven't had anything posted in over 2 weeks, but that's just not the case.

but what i do have to share with you today has made me smile a lot this morning, and has helped me compile a list of things i want to post later in the week. so this is what i've got for you (and if you're an avid blog-reader, you've probably come across this cute project already, but you should look at it again because it's just that good):

my better half series

some examples of what you'll see from the series:

it really combines a lot of things i love....photography + typography + hearing stories of happy couples. it's exhausting when you only hear the bad parts of a friend's relationship, no? it's always easier for people to see the bad than the good, but if you don't put work in to it, you probably don't deserve to see the good in the first place!

i'll be back later this week with a post, i hope you enjoy the my better half series as much as i did!