student

It's official. I am now a 'student'. And if anyone was thinking that I was going to have more free time now that I quit my full time job..... I think that is very far from the truth. In fact I will have less free time....and it is a bit overwhelming.

Still no news on the new job.... it's making me crazy because I have no sense of how much time I will have to do school work and if it will be the "right" time...like when the drafting studio is open.

School is EXPENSIVE. I spent mucho dinero today on lots of art supplies....UGH. I need that job to start soon.

I'm excited about my classes just feeling stressed about figuring out this new schedule and how to manage my time. Needless to say my blogging might be light for awhile...until I get settled in with the new life.

Who knows....maybe I'll get tired of blogging now that I'm out of that nasty cubicle. Blogging was my escape from a job I hated... and now I don't need the escape anymore...I'm too BUSY! Hopefully this won't be the case. But for now I barely feel like I have time to read about Mesopotanian furniture.

New 1/2 Bath

Well my week off between my old life and my new life certainly flew by and it certainly didn't feel like a vacation. I was in overdrive mode to do lots of house projects before our housewarming party on Friday.

My biggest accomplishment was working on the half bath downstairs. Unfortunately I forgot to take "before" pictures back when we first moved in!! I always remember about 20 minutes into the new project.... Oh well, trust me...it was ugly. Dark forest green ceiling and walls; gold fixtures; gold, hollywood lighting about 1 inch from the top of the 9 ft. ceiling; yuck, yuck, yuck.

Andrew's dad helped us with the fixtures last weekend and Thursday and Friday I worked on the painting.

I got my inspiration from the Weego Home logo.


Taping took me 3-4 hours.....


The color is on



Taking the tape off...


Touching up...



The final result!!

Transition

Well, that must have been the fastest week of my life! Time flies when you are quitting your job, looking for a new job, saying goodbye to friends and celebrating change.

Thanks to everyone at my old corporate job! For all the complaining I did over the years I really did work with the NICEST people and I was very lucky. They took me to an awesome lunch on Friday and presented me with lots of school goodies! Notebooks, paper, pens, crayons and such. So cute! Everyone also had such kind, supportive things to say about my big decision to go back to school. I really appreciated everyone's good wishes. Thank you!

Last week I was also busy finishing our linen closet in our guest bedroom (because Andrew's parents were arriving on Friday). I added more shelves made out of scrap wood I found in tha basement and I also added doors. Here is a before and after shot.




Andrew's parents arrived on Friday afternoon and kindly waited for me to race home so I could be there to show them our little pride and joy.

THANK YOU SO MUCH MARK AND LYNN!! Andrew's dad did an AMAZING amount of work on the house.


Securing our floor joists, securing the cement under our fireplace, fixing our bathroom sink, installing a new light fixture. We had MANY trips to Home Depot. Too many trips! Poor Lynn was stuck comforting Kula from the big storms we had and I forced her to watch multiple episodes of Debbie Travis.




It wasn't all work and no play however. We introduced Andrew's parents to our neighborhood pizza joint, had a fun trip to St. Charles and Lynn brought me some great old photos of Andrew's family to scan into my computer.


Andrew and I had a lot of fun and were very sad to see his parents go.
Thanks again Mark and Lynn! We miss you!

Apply Yourself

[Mikaela; 22nd Annual Schrembs Family Pool Party, July 2005]

So I managed to apply for two jobs last Thursday. I was very proud of myself because the week before I was paralyzed with fear at even the thought of filling out an application. Now it's Monday and I'm paralyzed with fear that I haven't gotten a phone call yet. ACK! I need a job people! The more time that passes the more panicked I become....and the more fearful I am of having to get a job that I really hate out of desperation.

I'm trying to hold it together...really, I am.

My goal is to apply for at least three more jobs today. I just finished one application that I will drop off after work. I am going to finish another one online this afternoon and then stop at another store after work and hopefully pick up an application, fill it out and turn it in before I leave the parking lot.

Tomorrow will entail calling the temp agency I used to work for after the last job I quit and considering other places that I can apply. Ugh.... I knew this would be the most stressful part of this process. I should have started earlier.... It is really difficult to keep my spirits up at this point. I need to know that I will have income coming from somewhere!!!....it's frustrating not knowing where. Worry, worry, worry....

Jen Gray keeps me going.

Kate Spade

This is what I got for devoting 5 years of my life to corporate america...



A nylon Kate Spade handbag.

It was kind of funny really. My five year anniversary was July 31 and I resigned August 1. My boss sent out two emails within two hours, one saying congratulations and the other saying good-bye. (I made sure to pick out my handbag before I handed in the resignation letter.)

Since I didn't need a grill, silverware, an alarm clock, stereo or camping equipment the only thing left was this handbag. It came in a fancy green box with a white cloth bag to put the handbag in! This must be some important handbag I've never had a bag for a bag! And I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about over a nylon bag...but I suppose it felt nice and fancy anyway.

I actually really love bags (ask my mother). For WEEKS I have been dreaming of two vintage clutches at my favorite antique mall. One white, beaded crocheted, and the other black crocheted. My only dilemma was spending $40 for them. Then Saturday night Andrew and I stopped at the vintage store down the street from our house and I found these two bags.



The black one is almost IDENTICAL to the one I was dreaming for. A little smaller and without a side panel but otherwise the same. Here is a close up of the black bag.



The white one is nothing like my dream clutch but it had a fancy clasp and a sweet little chain handle. Both of these purses would only cost me half of the dream purses. After some deliberation I went for it.

Lo and behold...the universe doesn't like me. I go to that antique mall today...and gosh darn'it the dream purses are 50% off!!! ACK! It was tough to recover from...but I'll have to live with what I got. Is the universe trying to teach me a lesson to be patient? Or a lesson on being happy with what I already have? Probably both I'm assuming but I sure do miss my little white beaded clutch....

chaise lounge chair

[by Julie Meredith, of www.etui-etui.com]

I have a lot of design ideas that pass through my head from time to time but my mind usually criticizes them before they get very far. Yesterday, for the briefest moment standing in the shower I had the image of a chaise lounge chair in my head. Now I wasn't really sure why I was thinking of a chaise lounge chair in the shower but it seemed like an interesting idea for a brief moment. But a second later it seemed like a ridiculous idea. Who would want to look at a picture, painting or card with a crappy, cheap chaise lounge chair on it? What would be the point? How silly of me. I must suck at design.

Do you know what I found that afternoon? A card with a picture of a crappy, cheap chaise lounge chair on it. So the good news is....not all of my ideas suck...and maybe I can design something. The bad news is....someone beat me too it (my mind's other reasoning for never wanting to try anything...someone must have done it already, and done it better than I could).

How bizarre though....this episode with the lounge chair. Is this a sign from the universe? A sign for what exactly? That I suck, or that I don't suck... Or that maybe there is at least some hope that I won't suck at design. Maybe a sign that I need to trust my instincts? Or a sign of congratulations for trusting my instincts and taking a step in the right direction?

I suppose I'll never know.

I'm still feeling happy and excited this week, although things have gotten busy. Lots of filling out job applications (but not really submitting them), knitting baby blankets, measuring chairs for slipcovers... Too much to do. I hope I can give you some more home improvement shots soon. Stick with me.... have a seat on the chaise lounge chair.

What's next?

Q: What are you doing next? {thanks for asking Alex…I wondered if anyone was curious.}

A: I am signed up for 4 classes at Saint Louis Community College at Meramec.
1. Interior Design 1
2. History of Cultural Environments ( basically the history of furnishings)
3. Architectural Graphics (drafting)
4. Graphic Design 1

I will also be looking for a part time job because I obviously will still have bills.

The idea is to “try” these things that I have been interested in for YEARS to see if
1. I enjoy it?
2. if I am any good at it?

The outcome might be I like interior more than graphic; or I like graphic more than interior; or maybe I won’t like either one. If that is the case I will cross that bridge when I come to it….but I’m assuming I would go to graduate school to follow up my bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources. We’ll see. I’m still hoping and praying that somehow I will just stumble upon the career of my dreams and all will be right with the world.

BIG news

It’s here... (although it looks awful in this picture! I need a new camera.) The couch we ordered all the way back in April is finally here! It is such a strange process to order a piece of furniture, dream about it for 14 weeks and then have it appear and look totally different than how you remembered it. Actually it doesn’t look that different, the color just looks different. I was thinking more off white and it’s a bit more yellow. Surprisingly it matches the color my mom and I selected for the fireplace really well.

It’s not as comfortable as I remember…but good enough, at least it’s deep. When Andrew sits in it he looks huge and the couch looks like it was made for midgets. Bob says it looks like a couch that would be purchased by people who know what they are doing, because he would never know where to buy a couch like that. I guess that was a compliment?

Now really, the “BIG news” is not the couch.

Today I submitted my resignation. I have 2 more weeks left in corporate America!

I feel relief and terror! It has actually been really nice today. I have gotten many, many well wishes; “I’m proud of you”; “Follow your dreams” and it has felt good to finally be able to tell people and see and hear their excitement for me. I needed that.

Last week was ROUGH. I was on my very, very last nerve. Insecure, fragile, overly sensitive, doubtful, sad, scared, etc, etc… Andrew is the most patient, calm and understanding human being on the planet! If it weren’t for him this transition would not be possible. Thank you, Andrew.

And a SUPER big thank you to all of my friends who have been gently pushing and supporting me through this decision over the last 6 years. You all have incredibly strong shoulders! And I am blessed to have friends with such big hearts.

So… now that the worst is over (what I hope is the worst at least…) and the decision is made I will hopefully come out of my depressed hiding and get on with being excited and busy. There has been lots going on in the house and lots of things to share so stay tuned.