Brain Dump

I keep going to sit down and blog, but of course I get sidetracked. With my small amount of time, here's a few random thoughts for the day:

• As the days go by, I get more obsessed with my shop- designing, promoting, studying SEO- but then I realized the correct word may be passionate. I guess that's a good thing, right? It started as a hobby, but now something I'd like to take more seriously. I take pride in my work and my customers even more now!
• Micah's getting to the point in his age where I am starting to freak out about making sure he's doing enough "developmental" things. I mostly let him play, explore, cause trouble because I don't want to frustrate or bore him. He still sticks crayons, markers, paintbrushes in his mouth because he knows he shouldn't be! When does this everything in the mouth phase end!?
• I've been doing really well on being aware of wheat and what I'm eating. I haven't had a straight up piece of bread, but it's been long enough that I haven't that when I eat something that may contain a trace amount of wheat my body can tell. And the feeling sucks! I still am trying to prioritize recipe planning and thinking outside the box. 
• I'm starting to get so excited for Spring Training! I drive past the Brewer's training complex every day on my way to work and I get a big smile on my face. Most of all by cousin and her husband will be here so I'm super excited for that. And we're not planning on moving in the middle of when they're here next time.
• Also looking forward to this. No, it didn't fit in with my budget, but it's also been on my Arizona bucket list, so I couldn't pass up the 1/2 off Deal Chicken deal. Sometimes bucket lists outweigh budgets.
• Excited for a weekend of rain! I love overcast skies and having an excuse to lay around and cozy up. 

Have a fantastic weekend!

My Faves on Etsy: Kid Edition

I thought it would be fun to give a shout out to some fellow Etsy shops every now and again. Etsy is just the greatest place to get sucked into and discover such cool things you never knew could exist. Etsy is the perfect place to get baby shower gifts and unique items for your little guy or gal.

This shop has some adorable little hats for the baby sports enthusiast. Now if your little one won't wear hats, they're great photo props. Here's an adorable Brewer's crocheted hat. ADORBS!

I love this personalized wooden bowling ball set from KeepsakeToys. You can purchase them as is or add letters of your child's name to each pin. So cute! Again, great gift idea!

These aprons are super cute and are great for your child to help you in the kitchen or do arts and crafts. Cute! They remind me of dolls for some reason...

I'm in love with these colors together. If we ever have a girl, this is my color scheme (for now, anyway!).

Do you have any favorite Etsy shops that have great kids items? I love new finds on Etsy :)

I'm Back!

Who's happy? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

With my Etsy shop taking off (using that term very loosely) I wanted to have a little bit more of a personal touch to people buying my stuff. Don't you always wonder about the person behind the things you buy? Since I've neglected this blog a bit, it's always here for me. I want to try to add a little bit of this and that and share bits and pieces of things that I love, do, make, and see. 

On that note...

How's 2013 going so far? I'm enjoying it, if I do say so myself. I've made quite a few goals for myself (not resolutions, just goals) as always, and I thought I'd share some.

Personal:

• start saving more money. I've put myself on a cash budget for groceries and "fun" stuff. So far so good. I've started putting more money away automatically every two weeks. Outta sight, outta mind ;) Jonathan and I have separate accounts, which works for us, and everything evens out pretty well. 
• bike more. We've moved to a fantastic area, got new bikes, and a bike trailer. We've had a terrible cold snap but I'm excited for spring and the places our bikes can take us!
• be more cognizant of my diet. I go through phases and my pants can tell! I just started Wheat Belly and I'm excited to learn some great info from this book. I have the knowledge, I have the skills, I just need to have more willpower! 
• get family photos taken. We have a great set of pictures taken by Christina Heaston, who unfortunately does not live here. These pictures are also over a year old. I need to do some research to find an affordable family photographer in the Phoenix area with the "eye" we are looking for. Any offers?! ;)

Professional:

• find a new career. Without getting too much into detail, it's time for me to move on and out of K-12 education. It's a hard place to be. You need a thick skin, among other things, and me not having to power to change things I see going wrong is really frustrating. I'd like to get into higher education and get my feet wet. From there, who knows?
• make more money. Goes with the above. I hope to start out about the same salary, but I need to go somewhere with opportunity for growth. With my degrees, I should be able to make more than I am, or at least be able to make more than $1,000 a year by getting another masters degree! Or perhaps, make more money based on my performance at a job (wait, wha?!).
• have 300 sales this year on my Etsy shop. I think it's possible and I will do everything in my power to make it happen!

So those are my goals, my biggest is probably finding a new job, which I've been pretty active at so far.

What are your goals? Looking forward to a great year!

Life and Etsy

It's funny how we always have our little place on the internet to come back to.

I wanted to share a little of what I've been up to lately.

Jonathan has been going back to school two nights a week for about 6 months now. I dreaded those Tuesdays and Thursdays in the beginning, but so much has changed in those short 6 months. Micah is at an age where I can actually get stuff done, like make dinner, go to the bathroom, etc. The change from 10 months to 16 months is quite dramatic! He'll play with himself and generally stay out of harm's way. We no longer have to make bedtime an hour long process. We brush our teeth, put on a fresh diaper and pj's, read a few books, sing a few songs, and turn off the lights. I honestly never thought the day would come where I could put him to bed AWAKE (gasp!).

So then after Micah falls asleep, now and then I'll do womanly duties such as the dishes and laundry, but sometimes I just want to relax. It was so long since I sat and watched anything on the TV (well, I'm still only watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy) but it's so nice. I'm the complete opposite of Jonathan in that I like to be alone sometimes. Nothing is more fantastic than sitting on the couch with a glass of wine, wondering why you aren't winning thousands of dollars on these game shows!

In this quiet time I've had, I wanted to be doing something. I've always tried my push out a more creative side to myself. I've always enjoyed doing creative things, even though I don't have the most creativity. I started creating some canvases and then moved on to digital prints. I love teaching myself how to do things. It's a big source of pride. If I don't know how to do something, I try to figure it out. Simple enough, right?

I created an etsy shop called Hola, Sunshine. I have been creating things that I would want in my home, whether it be for Micah's playroom, bedroom, or even just around the home. I know it's not necessarily a new niche, but I hope some people can find joy in my affordable, and I think cute, prints. I've had 5 sales in the last month, which may not seem like a lot, but I think a great start. Here's a sample of a print:

Even if I have 5 sales for the rest of the year, I'd be happy. I'm not 100% in love with what I'm doing work-wise right now and I think it's time I make a change. In the meantime if I'm doing something that I actually enjoy a lot, I think it can sort of balance it out. Hopefully :)

I hope you'll stop by my shop. And hey, if you like it and know anyone else who might, please share! I love the power of the internet and internet friends. It's crazy! And you could even give my Facebook page a boost to be informed of special deals!

Thanks for reading. I hope to update here a bit now and then. I still love reading about everyone else's lives :)

a new decade

Well hello there.

It's been a while. Truth is, I haven't felt like updating a whole lot. I do owe Micah a ten month post (seriously, I go back to them when I fill out his real baby book months behind...). No real reason, I just feel like sometimes blogging to the empty space that is the internet is pointless and takes away from real life. I did feel like I needed to document my new decade of life that I will be starting tomorrow: 30!

It's really weird. I feel excited about turning 30 but it's so much different than I could have ever imagined years ago. I don't know how to explain it, though. Maybe I just felt like I would "feel" older. I mean, how much older can I feel with a husband, baby, home, cars, career? I'm very glad and very blessed to be where I am in my life. I'm ready to turn 30 and embrace it.

I spend the last weekend in my twenties in true twenties style: had a girls weekend at the Hotel Valley Ho!

We swam, drank, went clubbing, drank, saw celebrities, drank. The usual, right? My sweet husband stayed at home with the baby. Wonder what kind of trouble they got into?

While my body is still physically recovering from being up past 2 a.m., I did enjoy myself. It's not something I do all of the time, but I have come to appreciate those times more (not necessarily the drinking but the alone time with humans taller than 2.5 feet). It also makes me appreciate my little family even more.

So, 30, I'm ready for ya. And I'm also ready for you, summer. I'm looking forward to trips, pool dates, baby pool dates, lazing around, and 115 degrees (okay, not really, but I'll take it if it means I get to stay home with my little guy every day). And a certain someone's 1 year old birthday. What! What the what?!

Help.

sometimes

Sometimes life gets busy. Sometimes you get stuck into a routine and can't get out of it, no matter how hard you try.

Sometimes you count down the hours until you get to go home, and sometimes you count down the hours until you get to go to work.

Sometimes you wonder if you will ever have a minute to yourself again. Sometimes you wonder if anything will ever get done.

But then...

Sometimes a picture fills you up with so much love, you feel like you're going to burst.

Sometimes you don't want moments to end.

Sometimes you look down the street and think, This is where we're supposed to be.

And everything else can wait.

micah: nine months

Nine month seems to have a significance. Maybe it's because that's how long Micah hung out before he was born and now he's been on earth nine more months. Whatever it is, it's crazy that we have a nine month old! Again, the doctor confirmed what we already knew: he's perfect. And only in the 50% for weight?! Everyone makes snarky comments about how we should feed him (sadface). At least he's staying in the 75% for length!

Micah has the greatest smile known to man, but only two teeth to show for it. And he already is biting (and it hurts!). He'll bit down on my arm or shoulder. Most of the time I think it's sort of an "I'm tired and frustrated" thing, but hopefully it doesn't become a habit. He's cruising along with crawling and standing up on his own while holding on to things. Once in a while he'll let go and stand up by himself for a split second, fall on his butt, and laugh.

Recycled picture. Finally got a new laptop but who has time to upload pics?

He definitely loves to eat still, and doesn't ever seem full! Even with the craziness of our move, I've kept up with making his food. Well, mostly giving him food that's easy, like kiwi, banana, and avocado. I have to work on the veggies beyond sweet potatoes and carrots or we'll have an orange baby on our hands :) You know what else he likes to eat? Dog food. Who doesn't, right? Still trying to figure out how to feed the dogs but not have it be accessible to Micah as he crawls around. Any ideas? We can gate off from the kitchen to his playroom and the great room, but we spend a lot of time in the kitchen and can't always see him. Once we get everything settled in, hopefully we'll figure out a system.

Micah has adjusted pretty well to his new surroundings. He is enjoying all of the space he has to run crawl around and his new playroom. I will be excited to post pics once it's "done." It's a fun little space :)

I won't talk about sleep until he's sleeping...It's been hard for me because he finally got the hang of it, then we upped and moved and disrupted his sleep. When he's been waking up, I've been going to him for comfort. Well I "stopped" that yesterday and he seemed to do just fine. I've come down hard on myself and decided no more night feedings (is that mean?). I was doing just one either really late or really early, but I know he doesn't need it, it was just an easy way for him to get back asleep. We'll see how this goes. I'm committed!

Micah is FUN and LOUD and thinks we're pretty swell (for now). We think we will keep him...

I'm very much looking forward to this summer (8 weeks or so?!). Even though it'll probably be miserable I'm hoping we can find some friends to hang out with. Poor Micah doesn't get to spend much time with babies/kids and he loves them we he sees them! I'm sure a little social interaction wouldn't hurt ;)

These nine months have been so fun/exciting/draining/rewarding/frustrating/amazing and I know that we have lots of amazingness coming up. We love you so much, Micah, and you have brought all of us lots of smiles.