Weekend Happenings

I had a pretty busy weekend.  Busy enough that I didn't work on anything crafty.  BOO.

Yesterday was my and my husband's 6th anniversary.  We celebrated on Friday night by having dinner at the restaurant where we had our first date.

Saturday morning, I spent some time gathering project photos for a meeting at Miracle Hill Thrift Stores.  It was kind of mind-blowing to see all of the pretty things I've made, and luckily sold.  It means other people think my stuff is pretty too!  I say mind-blowing because I've never really seen everything all together before, and didn't realize just how much I'd done over the last few years.  It was also really motivating because for the last couple of years, I'd lost steam with working on this kind of thing, and have had it on the back burner. I've mentioned before, having a garage full of stuff that I need to get moving.  Seeing all of my finished projects has given me the push I need to get my 2nd shop, Sweet Caroline at Home, stocked with more upcycled/repurposed items.  I see A LOT of paint in my near future! 

I didn't work on anything crafty this weekend, but I did manage to get some thrifting in, and got some great stuff!  The best find was a 1st edition printing of Rebecca.  I picked it up because it looked shabby and I knew it would go well with some of the other books I've got sitting out.  I went to check the title, and seriously felt a jolt when I saw what book it was!  Rebecca is my no.1 favorite book, EVER!  

I also launched my Sweet Caroline at Home Instagram.  It'll mainly be covering the thrifting and upcycling/repurposing stuff I do, and will be linked to the Sweet Caroline at Home Etsy shop.  I'd love for you to follow me!  

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My other Instagram account is more personal.  I share a lot of pics from my personal life, as well and any crafty stuff I work on.  Right now, there's a lot of quilting going on in my feed.  

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Today, I'm starting on a quilt for my niece who is having her 4th birthday party.  Of course, she's into princesses, and loves pink and purple.  Shocker, right??  I found some really cute fabrics to use, and can't wait to get started.

Until next time...

A New Blogging Journey

me and my girls on Easter 

I've been struggling with this blog for almost three years now.  Back in 2010/2011, it was mainly a trash to treasure makeover blog.  At the time, I was also selling most of what I made. I was constantly going to thrift stores to find items that I could upcycle and resell.  I would occasionally blog a craft or project.  

In the Spring on 2011, I began to struggle with what I was doing.  Most of the craft projects I blogged, ended up being donated to Goodwill either because they didn't fit in with my decor or I just didn't have room for the volume of finished items.  I'm going to just assume that this is probably common among DIY bloggers.  That just seemed like a big waste to me.  Like I was just throwing money away.  The bigger issue was that it seemed like my thrifting was getting out of control.  I was buying faster than I could makeover and sell.  Around this same time, I went through a Hoarder's marathon on Netflix, and totally saw myself in some of these people, scouring thrift shops for cool stuff. At the time, I'd taken over most of the garage, and our spare bedroom with items that I needed to re-purpose.  You can imagine the uneasiness I felt creeping into my thoughts.  

About a month later, I found out I was pregnant.  This was a complete surprise.  It'd been 13 years since my last pregnancy, and we'd assumed that there were no more babies in our future.  Needless to say, we were ecstatic! I couldn't think about anything else.  I was going to have a baby!!  I completely lost interest in my Etsy shop, and stopped doing my makeovers.  I stopped thrifting.  We cleared out the spare room to make room for baby, and I donated a lot of stuff back to Goodwill.  I was too tired to do any kind of big projects around the house and I didn't want my blog to be a baby or mommy blog.  So, I basically stopped blogging.  I did a few posts during this time, on the baby's room, but other than that, it was silent around here.

Zoe was born in Feb 2012.  A few months after she was born, I felt like I wanted to get back into doing my Etsy thing so I started chipping away at my mountain of thrifted items.  Still, I wasn't really blogging.  Just a post here and there.  I still didn't want to have a mommy blog, and I just didn't know what to write about.  With a new baby, it was hard to be able to do a lot of projects, and I just didn't have the time to sit around and come up with blog post ideas anymore. 

The whole time that I'd been not blogging regularly, I still thought about it, and missed doing it.  I would think about how I loved the blogging community, and about how many friends I'd made while doing it, and I missed that!  At the beginning of the year, I decided I would start blogging again, and so I did! Most of my posts have been filler posts, which I really don't like doing because there's no substance there.  I've done a few project posts, but I've found that I sometimes don't have time for that.  Anyone who is a DIY blogger knows how much time goes into a project post.  Stopping before every step to take a bazillion photos, going through all of the photos to find just the right ones, editing photos, then doing the post.  Then, to get your post out there you have to do the link parties.  Oh gosh!!  Sometimes it's just too much.  I just don't have the time to blog like I used to.

So now, I'm here, trying to figure out what I want this blog to be.  I'm mainly sewing these days so I think any projects I blog, will most likely be sewing-related.  My life these days is very much Mommy so as much as I didn't want to have a mommy blog, I think that's the direction I'm going in.  Not so much a mommy blog as a life blog.  I'll be sharing pieces of my daily life with some recipes and tutorials mixed in.  I still have a lot of stuff in the garage, leftover from my thrifting days, so I imagine there'll be some makeover posts thrown in too.  

I hope that I can build my little blog back up, but I've found that where I used to crave a quantity of followers, what I really crave now, is quality.  I want to make connections with people I have stuff in common with. I really enjoy the friends I made through blogging, years ago. They're some of the people I interact most with on my personal Facebook page, and I've even met a few IRL.  I want more of that!!  So please, join me on my new blogging journey!  If I'm still in your reader, and you see this post, pop in and say hi, and leave me a link to your blog so I can visit you.



Until next time... 

She's Here

Zoe Brenna Quinn Thompson

Born 2/16/12 at 6:30 AM

Weight - 7.13 pounds

Length - 19.5 inches

Oh, Baby!

If I've seemed MIA the past few weeks, it's because I've been working on a new project.

(Charles made these tickets which we included in our dads' Father's Day cards)

That's right, our family of three will become a family of four sometime late next February.  This was a huge surprise for us and we couldn't be more excited.  We have some pretty big adjustments to make as it was only Han and I for the first five years of her life, and then we were joined by Charles about eight years ago.  Han will be 13 when this baby is born.  Long gone are the years of not leaving glasses and other breakables lying around, and not having to be conscious of basically every move we make.  What a difference this baby will make!  It's surreal to think that this time next year, when we have dinner (in or out), there will be another body to fill in the empty space that's always there.

I haven't been pregnant in nearly thirteen years and I can basically say that this feels like my first time being pregnant.  I've found that I don't remember much at all after all of this time.  Some things, I remember once they happen this time around (hello, crazy boobs!).  Mostly, I'm feeling VERY impatient for that sweet babe to get here, just like last time.  I always thought that if I ever did get pregnant again, I wouldn't rush it and would enjoy it.  Yeah right!  ha ha

Lucky for me, we might be practically rearranging our whole house, which will give me something to occupy myself. Yay!

Of course, I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't already started daydreaming about a nursery.  Here are my mood boards so far.  I'm sure this will change 10X over before the time comes to actually do the work.

GIRL:

 

SOURCES:

1- Fabric - Michael Miller

2 - Artwork by Emily Martin (theblackapple on Etsy)

3 - Fabric - Michael Miller

4 - Artwork by Emily Martin (theblackapple on Etsy)

5 - Fabric - Michael Miller

6 - Artwork by alittlesweetness on Etsy

7 - Artwork by Emily Martin (theblackapple on Etsy)

8 - some sort of white ceramic lamp

9 - Fabric - Heather Bailey (she's expecting too!)

10 - Fabric - Michael Miller

BOY:

 

SOURCES:

1- Fabric - Michael Miller

2 - some sort of green ceramic lamp

3 - Fabric - Michael Miller

4 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

5 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

6 - Fabric - Michael Miller

7 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

8 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

Why is it so much easier to plan a girly room?  We're still looking around for what furniture we want to use.  I do know that whatever we get, it'll be white.  I have a big red chair that is in my studio right now, that we'll be using in the nursery.  I think that's why there's so much red on the girl's board.  I'm not sure how red would do with the colors for the boy board, but I guess I could always slipcover it.  Anyway, I'm just rambling now.  I think this will be the only nursery post for a few months.  I still have several months before we get started on it, and I'm not really counting my chickens, even though it kinda seems like it.  I just couldn't help it.  The designer in me just needed to get this out of her system.  Plus, it sure is fun to put those boards together!

She Can't Resist

Our bedroom is on the main floor, right off of the living room.  This is where Dax spends her downtime.  She usually lies at the foot of the bed.  The only exception to this is if there is a big ol' pile of pillows up there at the head.  If I've made the bed look all nice and pretty, chances are I'll find her right smack in the middle of the pillow pile every time.


Linking to:
Everything but the Kitchen Sink @ A Little Knick-Knack

A Stack for the Short Stack

Molly

Creative Burnout

Well, Etsy burnout is probably a more appropriate title. 

I opened my shop last August with some hats I'd knitted.  They just sat there.  I began incorporating pieces of jewelry, and they just sat there.  I started adding some vintage goodies that I'd thrifted and I finally sold something in September.  I began adding some of the odds and ends I'd been thrifting and making over for this here blog, and I began selling a couple of things each week.  

Then it was October, and Christmas was coming.  So, I started spending more time working on new items for the shop, so that I could be prepared for the Christmas rush.  The more I made, the more I sold.  So I focused more time and energy on my shop.  I was prepared for a slowdown in January, but it didn't happen.  I was selling even more items weekly.  Then in mid-january, I was featured in an Etsy newsletter and my shop blew up.  I wasn't prepared and my inventory was pretty much depleted.  I didn't want that to happen again so I gave my shop more time and more energy.  

I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next.  Yep... burnout.  It's so much fun to transform tired, abandoned objects into something people want to buy, but after awhile, it really started to seem like a job and it became something I no longer enjoyed doing.  I thought maybe it was because once I felt like it was something I HAD to do, it became something I wanted to avoid.  Nobody likes to do something they feel like they have to do, right?  I just couldn't accept that, the feeling that I was bucking my success because it had become a chore.  I thought about it and thought about it and I finally figured out what it was.

I'd become so focused on helping others make their nests pretty, that I'd stopped making MY nest pretty.  Not only had I begun selling pretties that I wanted for myself, I'd begun neglecting my home.  I abandoned the master bedroom makeover that I started in November.  I didn't do a whole lot of cleaning.  I didn't cook anymore.  Dinner became something from either a box in the freezer or a box from the pantry.  This was not why I chose to leave my job and stay at home.  No way.

So, I've decided to back off on Etsy, just a little bit.  Don't get me wrong, I'm VERY thankful that my shop has been successful.  I'm not planning to give up on it either.  I'm still shooting to add a few items each week, but I'm not going to kill myself with trying to maintain a certain number of active listings.  

For now, I'm working on tidying and prettying my house.  I've moved my supplies off of the dining room table and we have been eating dinner, prepared by me, not Betty Crocker, at the table every night for the past two weeks.  It has been awesome!  The house has been neater and because of that, I feel less stressed and I'm pretty sure Charles and Han do too.

This week, I'm finishing my master bedroom makeover.  I'd planned to finish and post it today, but I've come up with a few more finishing touches I'd like to add.  I'm going to shoot for a Thursday post.  In the meantime, I'll probably post a couple of small makeovers that I've done for the shop.

Since I'm taking a mini Etsy break, I'm also going to shelve Treasury Tuesday for awhile.  I love making treasuries, but they take a long time to make.  That's time I could be using for something a little more productive.

If you're still reading, thanks for taking the time to be my diary.

I'll leave you with a few snip-its from my new bedroom. 

Facebook - A Great Tool for Forming Friendships

The Speckled Dog is now on Facebook.  You can find that page here.

But this post isn't about that Facebook page, it's about my personal Facebook.

A few months ago, I added a Facebook badge for my personal Facebook to my blog.  When I did it, I had to wonder if I was crossing the line.  I would be putting myself and my personal ways out there for complete strangers.  Would I end up with some crazy internet stalker on my hands?   In the end, I figured nobody would pay much attention to the badge so I left it there.   

I ended up receiving a handful of requests on Facebook from people I didn't know and I was right in assuming that they were women who found me through my blog.  (Sorry, no crazy internet stalker story here).

I have to tell you that I interact on Facebook more with some of these women than I do with the people that I "know" in real life.  Do you know why?  Because we actually have something in common.  Most of the people I'm friends with on FB (I've got over 480 friends) are people I either went to school with and haven't seen in 17 years (people I didn't even hang out with back then) or people I worked with for the past 11 years.  That's about all we have in common, work and school.  

I do get compliments from a lot of them on my work, but it's different than it is with my bloggie Facebook peeps.   With these gals, there's a lot of back and forth about things and it's not just about crafts.  We go back and forth about TV shows, husbands, kids..  just life.  It's the crafting, the DIY and the blogging that initially made us cross paths, but after all of that, I feel like I kinda "know" these women on a different level, and I think that's pretty neat.

I've "met" so many people through this blog and I do have some faithful followers, ones that comment on almost all of my posts (I love that!), but I feel like you guys really can't get a feel for who I am from this blog and that's because I pretty much only blog about projects.  This isn't one of those blogs where I tell about some crazy thing that may have happened to me during the day or what I had for dinner or what movie I'm watching.  That's not what this blog is about and so I don't talk about those things here, but those things ARE me.  Those things are my daily life.  

Basically, what I'm getting at is this.  If you are at all interested in forming a more personal friendship with me, I invite you to send me a friend request through Facebook..  You can do that by going here. 

I understand that this may be too much for some people.  Some people are just private people and they don't want to invite complete strangers to read about how their dog just barfed on the sofa or how they have a 10 year old who is running a fever, and I'm cool with that.  I just feel like it's those kind of things things that let people know each other on a more personal level.  You really CAN get to know someone through Facebook. 

OK, I'm all done with that.  :-)

I may be back later today with a project related post.  I've been busy filling up my Esty shop and so I've got a lot of before and afters to share.  I've also got a couple of posts knockin' where I'll show some of our past Halloweens here at Casa de Thompson.

The Massacre @ Three Coins Ct

As I was driving home today, after picking up some new fall decorations, I remembered something that happened to us almost a year ago.  Here is the article Charles wrote about it on Facebook last year.  Hope you enjoy!

Fountain Farm Couple Arrives Home to Discover Massacre

by Charles R. Thompson on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 7:25pm

Sept 21, 2009 - After returning from a day of work a Fountain Inn SC couple was horrified to find the mutilated remains of a fall pumpkin strewn across their bedroom.

"It was horrible. I saw it first" said the husband, still visibly taken aback. "I entered the house and I knew something wasn't right. The couch was in disarray. I looked down and saw a trail of, of, I don't know... I couldn't tell what it was... leading to the bedroom."

Mugshot of "Dax the Dalmatian" ... currently being held in connection with fall massacre.

Upon entering the bedroom the husband was shocked to discover a far more disturbing scene. "It was everywhere. The floor, the rugs, even all over the bed. I'm not sure I can sleep there tonight. It's going to be awhile."

"It was only with us for a few days." the wife added, holding back the emotions of the recent loss. "It was here for the holidays you know... why just yesterday I placed it on the coffee table... and now this. Now it's gone. I'm still can't believe it."

Authorities are currently holding a 2.5 foot tall canine who answers to the name of "Dax" but have not excluded the possibility of a long nosed accomplice going by the name of "Molly" who is often seen lingering in the same area.

The fall Halloween pumpkin is survived by another fall Halloween pumpkin of the same type, but slightly lower in height as to give a two-level effect. Neither of the suspects are considered dangerous as they are currently not allowed in public unchaperoned.

September 24, 2009 at 12:32pm

Update: Yesterday the slightly smaller fall pumpkin was the victim of retaliation when guards lost track of Dax upon release for good behavior.

In Other News...

My morning got off to a great start after Dax had a freakout and ran into this table

and sent glass and marbles flying everywhere.  Here's to hoping the day gets better from here!