A Real Life Toy Story 3

Overwhelmed.

Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed when I get home. Especially when I go into my bedroom. Since I was a teen my bedroom has been my getaway. My place to escape and also my storage spot. When I was a kid though I used to drag all my toys into the livingroom and play there, not my room. Finally my parents, being fed up with their couch being a toy box, told me to go play in my bedroom.

But now when I walk into my bedroom there is no place to play even if I had the urge to break out some toys. (Okay I KNOW a few of you are thinking dirty just because the words bedroom, play and toys were in the same sentence. Oh and the word urge. Don’t go there!) I have piles of stuff with two paths, one to the window/air conditioner and one to my bed and closet. This is no way for a grown woman to live. Though I fully admit I’m not a grown woman. That is another blog post though.

Embarassed.

When I tried on my dress a few weeks back I prayed my mom (who helped me into it) would not say anything about my room. My parents have the habit of KNOWING I’m not a grown woman and calling me out on stuff like you would a 16 year old. Ugh. Anyway as she was helping me and having a hard time she kept backing up into the piles of stuff. I was embarrassed. Then a couple weeks later Mindy came into my room to help me into it again so she could see it. Again I was embarrassed. There is a reason ‘bare ass’ is in that word. That’s how you feel like you are. I felt shameful like I was naked and ‘bare assed’.

Denial. Not just a river in Egypt.

Let me stop here because I don’t want you to have the wrong impression. I am not a hoarder. You watch the show Hoarders and see gobs of flies sitting on old rotten food and find animal carcasses both domesticated and feral under piles of junk. I may be in denial and I know not all hoarders keep garbage but my problem is I happen to just be lazy with occasional fits of cleanliness. All my stuff is clothes, knick knacks, books and whatnots I’ve acquired or I’ve been given over the years. I don’t keep every pizza box, clean it and shove it away in case I need to deliver 27 pizzas somewhere. Honestly I talked to a couple in St Cloud at a garage sale and they said his mother did just that.

Saying goodbye to old friends ala Toy Story 3.

So let’s get back to staring at the massive amount of stuff in my room. As I stand there looking I get overwhelmed so I put it off. But lately I have had an itch. I read a saying that said: “Live Simply So Others Can Simply Live.” Have I been living simply? No. I see that in the piles of stuff I haven’t taken care of. In the jewelry that falls behind the shelf and stays there because there is just too much stuff in the way. I see it also in the large Rubbermaid tubs where I keep old memories, toys, books and clothes that never get used. Sadly they may never get used or looked at again if I just keep feeling overwhelmed. So I sat down on the floor Sunday morning and started. Slowly at first I went through what I found on the floor by a bookshelf. I put things into three piles: toss, donate and keep. Then on the bookshelf I pulled off the books, categorized them and re-arranged the shelves to fit some large scrapbooks on them. I carefully worked my way down one wall. Then I worked on what was in the tubs so I could have room to put away things in the keep pile. I re-arranged parts of my room while doing this. I found it got easier and easier as I tried to look at everything with an analytical eye. I tried to distance myself emotionally. It worked for the most part.

Partius Interruptus.

Soon it was time to go to a birthday party and my cleaning was interrupted. After that I met up with my parents. A friend texted me to tell me she was in town but my room was even more of a disaster than when I started. I told her no and sent her a picture. But by then the disaster was orderly piles instead of disarray. Hurrah! Then the feeling of being overwhelmed came back extra strong. I must have been emotional because I fell asleep on the hard floor for a half hour. Holy crap. The hardest part of it all is parting with gifts and things from my childhood. Three porcelain dolls I have was hard. But I consoled myself knowing that maybe some little girl would cherish them as I did when I was younger. I have no room now to display all my knick knacks and they would make someone happy.

So the next two nites I kept plugging away at the piles, at the tubs, the bookshelves, and the closet. On Tuesday nite a bit before 8pm I loaded up my car full of stuff. My whole back seat and the floor (my trunk is a gateway to Narnia so I can’t use that…..) and the front seat piled a foot from the ceiling and the floor as well. Just to give you an idea that my car does in fact at this point look like it belongs next to that “van down by the river”. I decided when I started this that I’d like to give most of it to the Place of Hope or Expressions of Hope on East St Germain. They are a Christian church that has a thrift store. So I drove through downtown, over the bridge and found that they were closed. Blah. So much for giving it to them. I called up Savers at 8:10 pm and found that they only accept donations til 8pm. Crap. Crap. Crap. I have a car full of stuff that like a bandaid I just want to rip off and have a clean break. The next nite I worked at Fashion Bug so I didn’t have time then.

So for the last two days I’ve had a car full of stuff. I do look like I’m homeless. Great. Just the look I was going for. I should throw some Mcdonald’s wrappers in for good measure.

Hopefully tonite I will have my not-so-clean break and give it all away. I started out wanting to give away a third of my possessions and so far I’d estimate it was more like a sixth to an eighth. Good start but hopefully I’m not done. God granted me the strength to start now I hope he’s got more for me to continue.

True friendship is a poke in the butt

The women in my life.

This last weekend my sister and I saw the movie Grown Ups. Even with me being a huge movie buff I count this as my new favorite comedy. It seemed like a cross between Indian Summer, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and Now and Then. It felt so real like someone’s home movies. It didn’t feel like acting and I can see the actors had a lot of fun making it. This got me to thinking about my group of friends and the friends I’ve had in my life. So today I want to talk about are the girls in my life. If it wasn’t for the girls who have supported me with their tears, my tears and our laughter I would be a different person today. Ask my mom, friendships mean a lot to me.

Let me explain. Back in school I was a bit of an outcast. Remember when being an outcast was bad, not good? Yeah, those days. Anyway I was a weird little kid, weird shy preteen and weirder teen. (I’m not throwing my own pity party, just stating facts.) In high school I finally started to get friends. In the 6th, 7th and 8th grades my friends were sort of the outcasts drawn together. I am thankful for those friendships, they got me through a lot. But in high school I started to get close, lasting friends. Also I started to grow up. My social finesse was quite lacking. For instance take how I met my best friend in high school. I came up to her in choir, introduced myself and asked her what she liked to collect. Then I said…… I collect rocks! (Pause for laughter) Yes, and she ended up my friend (still is!) even after that!

Then in college things changed. I really grew, I became less shy. Thankfully no more talk of rocks. Also I could talk to guys who weren’t close friends. Whoa. What’s happening?

So what I’m saying is I don’t take friendships lightly. Pretty much someone has to ignore me for a long time or say I don’t want to be your friend for me to not count them as a friend. Maybe that’s good, maybe that’s bad. It also means I don’t walk away from toxic relationships either. Thankfully though I think all of my closest friends aren’t toxic. Maybe fattening and cholesterol filled but not toxic. NOM NOM NOM French Fries and chocolate…..nom nom nom

I have so many close friends that I can tell anything to that I feel blessed. I have many not close friendships too and some acquaintances as well. But it is those close friends I hold in my heart. You know you’ve got a close friend when you can poke her in the butt walking up the stairs and all she does is goes slower on purpose or yells at you to knock it the hell off.

Ah, true friendship is a poke in the caboose.

Not a surprise, I'm cheap.

In an ongoing effort to NOT keep things secret and NOT a surprise I bring you my latest find!
I ordered these off the fashionbug website and had them sent to the store for free shipping. Well yeah, I work there so I’d be going there anyway! Ha ha
They were originally 12.99 and on the website they were marked down to 5.35 AND buy one get one FREE. My total was 16.70 for six pairs! That figures out to be 2.78 per pair! WAHOO!
I’m giving them to all of my bridesmaids. I order half Large, half medium. Only thing I’m worried about is one BM Nellie. She wears a size 11 and the large is a 9-10. They had no XL left. Boo. Well, we’ll see. If they don’t fit her I’ll take the diamond off them and add it to a pair of black flip flops in her size. I’ll make it work dangit.

Moissanite. My space rock.

Moissanite.

Last year (2009) when Chris and I started getting serious he started showing me pictures of rings. Then we’d go to jewelry stores and I’d oogle all the rings. It seemed each time we went we’d both get a bit disheartened, sad or downright depressed. Firstly none of the rings I was seeing really caught my eye. I guess I’m picky about what will sit on my finger for the rest of my life! Go figure. All the rings seemed gaudy to me. Too big, way too small or too…….. silver. Wait, no, that’s white gold. Erm I learned early on not to say silver. Sorry. I wanted “yellow” gold. Like yellow snow apparently no one wanted yellow gold either. What I wanted was something simple and "swoopy".
But the biggest setback was cost. It was all too costly. Neither of us has much money. That’s why we have second jobs.




We were discussing how expensive the rings were and I came up with the idea that I'd be very happy with an amethyst instead of a diamond. Everyone has a diamond and with the blood diamond controversy I didn't want that hanging over my head either. But all the jewelers told us an amethyst is too "soft" and we'd end up replacing too often. (reminds me of poor Mindy who couldn't get her pearl engagement ring because pearls don't last with everyday wear)
Then one day Chris asked if I knew what Moissanite was. I’d heard of it somewhere but didn’t have much knowledge of it.




What is moissanite?

Back in 1893 a man named Henri Moissan was researching the minerals from a meteorite that landed in in Canyon Diablo in New Mexico over 50,000 years ago. He found minute traces of Silicon Carbide in the samples. Ten years later it was renamed Moissanite. Mostly found in meteorites and underground the mineral is so rare in its natural form that all of it in the world would not make a full pair of earrings. It took until the 1980s and 1990s to find that lab creating it and using it would make a brilliant gem. Cree labs partnered with Charles and Colvard and is now the exclusive manufacturer and marketer of Moissanite gems.




How it stacks up.




Diamonds are a girls best friend. Because of what?
Rarity.
Check.
Brilliance.
Check.
Color, cut, Mohs hardness.
Check check check.





So overall since the price of a Moissanite is approximately half the price of a diamond, has more brilliance, (they can give it more facets) and is so close in hardness to a diamond why wouldn’t I want it? Oh and its rarer in its natural form than a diamond. (Even the lab created gems are more rare than diamonds.)

Yes, and the best part?
I can say I have a space rock on my finger!!!
How many can say that?! *big grin*

DIY all day long

DIY all day long.

The list of my DIY projects is long. Very long. Like 19 different projects long. At this point you’ll react to that in one of two ways. If you are a crafty gal/guy you’ll say, “ That’s all? Really, only 19?” You Martha Stewart types must require little or no sleep. However on the opposite token most people will say “OMG, you are insane, how do you expect to get it all done?!” With time and patience and a lot of other commodities that get switched out when you have little to no money.
With Chris trading his computer skills for the reception site and dj I feel the need to contribute some of my skills too. So here is the list of crazy crafty torture projects I’ve come up with:
Invitations
Save the Dates
Response Cards
Envelopes
Paper flowers
Sundae Sign
Popcorn sign
Krazy straw tags
Programs and cds
Pew décor
Pretzel rods
Bridesmaid jewelry
Bridal jewelry
Bridal tiara
Scrabble place settings
Cake topper people
Cufflinks
T-shirt poster
Garter belts

Oh boy. And I keep adding to the list.

Honestly I need to stop. STOP! But I can’t. I will need to find a cheap way to do something for the wedding but at the same time I find more projects to do!
My best friend Mindy is getting married and I’m trying to put all my craftiness into her wedding. So she thinks I’m being nice in helping but really I’m just trying to not come up with more projects for my own!
To be perfectly honest some of these I’m getting help on. My mom is going to help me with the pretzel rods. The other day when she showed me a cool bag she did up for our popcorn I said to her, okay you get to do that. Only because I can’t take on more projects til I get more done!

Chris is going to be making the cds we are giving out at the ceremony. I’ll make the holders though.

I already did the girls’ necklaces and my necklace and bracelet. I have enough left over to make them all bracelets and make some extras for my personal attendant and various helpers.

My necklace? We'll see.

One of the girls' necklace.

Along the way I’ll enlist my friends. Though I’m the kind that likes to do it all myself. I know I’ll eventually need help. In fact I’ll probably be yelling HELP! Along about April and May. That’s when we’ll be doing another project: moving. Ugh. I hate moving. Until then I’ll be working on my diy list and having fun.
But you know what? Though I sound like I’m complaining, I’m not. I’m so excited about doing all these things. I am literally like a kid in a candy store. I have book bags with certain projects in them that I bring to work to do on my lunch. Free time sees me making flowers, necklaces or pondering over invite designs. Wow, can we could get married every year? This is fun!