Wicked, Happiness, and Creativity

Sorry but this will be a long post. Hope y'all don't mind ;-) But I have pictures for you, so bear with me. Or just scroll to the bottom, but only uncool people do that!

Wicked = AH-MAZING!! If you've never read the book shame on you. If you have never seen the Broadway (after reading the book of course) you MUST!!! So incredible! And hilarious, was NOT expecting that.

The usage of all caps should be proof enough that I want all of you to see it. So go find tickets and go see it. It's worth it, I promise!

Some of you know, and some of you don't, that I've read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. If you ever need proof that you can change your life without being super drastic this is it. Taking New Year's resolutions a step farther, she decides to break down her year into monthly categories of things she'd like to improve her happiness in. Then she breaks it down into tangible ways of doing so. For example, one of her monthly categories was pursuing her passion. She loves books. So for that month she read children's literature (one of her favorite things ever) and did the whole write a book in a month thing (I don't believe it was during the actual National Write a Book in a Month though...that's in November right? Pretty sure she did this in a different month...).

Anyway, seeing progress in her happiness and ways she cultivated her life to more fully match the way she wanted to live I decided to take it on myself. I started May first and I'll go through the entire year. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to chart my progress (she has a website but I'm not the biggest fan of the way it's laid out) but I'm pretty stoked about taking on this challenge. For the month of May I'll be focusing on my energy because that's something I tend to struggle with. My resolutions for this month are:

* stop stressing and give it to God

* taking my time (I tend to rush EVERYTHING)
* give up something stressful, time wasting, or against my core values
* two minute rule

The two minute rule is something I need to follow. Pretty much, if I can do it in two minutes (put the mail in the recycling, wash my dish when I'm done, vacuum, etc) I will do it. Less stressful than putting it off. I've already decided to give up two things. I'm not going to watch Glee anymore. Mainly because it's just not as awesome as it used to be. I feel like they're trying too hard to keep things dramatic and it's getting to the point where either all the characters are gay or completely clueless about their relationship's dynamics. I'm beyond bored with the whole Will/Emma thing and I'm glad Santana can threaten people with "razors in my hair" but please, she's not gay. She's just mad that Brittany isn't following her like a puppy anymore. The second thing I'm giving up is reading, to an extent. I have a bad habit of reading ALL DAY LONG. Which isn't bad, except for the fact that it means I'm lying all the couch all day, being lazy. Not exactly productive for someone who wants to have an Etsy shop and wants to get out in the beautiful sunshine (when it's out). So when JT's at work I'm only going to read a maximum of 2 hours a day. Once he's home I'll read all I want because I don't think it's fair if I tell him not to bring work home and then I go off to work. But when he's gone it's work time. And yes, I totally count this blog as work, even though it's not my actual work blog.

Funny thing is, so far I've managed to keep up on these resolutions! Shocking for me! But that's another super long story and I know you wanna see pictures.

After many long days of Sarah cracking the whip on me and having random adventures which ultimately didn't get us what we wanted but still got us awesome things, the craft room is FINISHED!!!

*THROWS CONFETTI!!!*

More people need awesome friends like her. She' made my room look so pretty. Seriously, the majority of the creative looking stuff was all her. I just cleaned/organized/shuffled boxes around. I think I crafted one hour for every three of hers on this room. Anyway, you wanna see pictures?

Do ya?

Thought so.

Go look at the before picture and come back to this. HUGE difference! There aren't that many boxes left in the room (I don't know how many you're able to clearly see but there's only 11) and they'll be gone soon. We're going to get a bookshelf/cubby shelf and put the yarn in those boxes in the cubbies. And the books, that's what those boxes on the left have in them. Harry Potter and Eragon...yeaaaah, JT and I are nerds. Love it!

Amazing to think I had a real desk underneath all that stuff! True, a good portion of it wasn't moved very far but still, it's organized now! I have my ATCs on display on the binder in the corner (may have to think of a pretty, more out there way of how to display those, more on that later); all those lovely plush, most of which were created by amazing people on Swap-bot.com; BOTH sewing machines have a place, and wait...what's this?

These are my ribbon containers! Aren't they cute? Well...ribbon and embroidery floss. But they add a lovely splash of color. Sarah was mentioning how funny it was that we didn't start out with a color theme but how it all naturally worked out to match the letters/box (which we kinda made color themed...very loosely). Just goes to show everyone naturally gravitates towards certain things, and for me that's COLOR!

This pretty baby was a real find at Creative Crafts. We painted the insides and it has an awesome 80's theme (might post pictures of what it looks like empty later but alas, my phone does not like Blogger and that's where the pictures are). Glittery sticker paper and glitter glue (not together) for the win! So here is where I'll be keeping my safety eyes, mini clothespins, floss that I'm using, miscellanious parts (those little things that look like cut off forks are feet...there's also noses in there), and bottle caps that will become magnets assuming I ever find where I put those darn things.

Button, button, who's got the button? I DO!!! And tons of them too. That huge bucket is full of them, as well as the two little spice jars next to it. The three in front are whimsey jars (also from fellow Swap-botters) that I wanted to display. Easier to remember that there's things in them to use! The altered Altoid tin and cute tins in the back have random office supplies in them like paperclips and pin back buttons. That's right, pin back buttons are office supplies. What now?!

Excuse my weirdness...

Moving away from the desk, this is where most of my fabric, paper, and all my stamps/tools are being stored. The fabric sections are stuffed to the brim if you can't already tell. This to me means two things: 1) I need to sew and 2) that's all the fabric I have? I know, I have a problem. If you can tell me though that awesome crafty people need a Fabric Stasher's Annoynomous with a straight face I might believe you. But until then, I'll continue hoarding and sewing, thank you very much.

Isn't this wall purdy? *insert cheesy grin here* Like I said, Sarah is a genius. Why she doesn't do interior design or an art minor I don't know (hint hint...girl I know you're reading this!). All of this was completely her idea. I might take pictures of the letters individually later but man, they remind me of happy things! Girliness, orange creamsicles, lemonade stands, asparagus and artichokes (which are delicious in my opinion), denim, and easter eggs. Happy colors! The ribbon going down the wall is covered in greeting card fronts, a postcard, and a Harry Potter Quidditch Cup patch. Don't judge.
















Aaah, inspiration boards! Aren't they lovely? All sorts of pretty things on them! Alice in Wonderland, free art from a website that has magically disappeared from my favorites list (which means it's probably lost somewhere in my crafts folder...worse than my craft room as far as organization goes!), happy puppies (missing one though...), birthday present ribbon, and fortune cookie fortunes. Doesn't get much better!

The inspiration board by my desk is filled with all sorts of happy. Including Gir, a quote from Yoda, and my pictures of my boys. Bliss.

So that's the tour of my craft room. And I promise, I'll learn how to make these posts look better sometime soon. Sarah's blog, Scarves, Sunflowers, and Splatter Paint, is much prettier and she's agreed to help me work on mine. It's sad how hopeless she realizes I am. So much for coming off as cool ;-)

Now, off to my sewing machine where awesome Etsy shop stuff shall be made! Or my superhero plush, since that swap is due soon...