Pinterest Inspired Kim...

I've been faithfully pinning inspiration from Pinterest for a few months now and I'm finally starting to make recipes from Pinterest or use the photos I find it to inspire things in my life. Here's an example:

I saw this wreath from twojunkchix.blogspot.com and pinned it to my holiday inspiration board on Pinterest:

I love the neutral colors and the yarn ball look, but wanted to create something for autumn time, not Christmas.  I bought an 18" straw wreath at Michaels, kept the plastic it was wrapped in on the wreath and covered it with brown felt (on sale at JoAnn's Crafts) using my glue gun.

While I was buying the felt at Jo-Ann's, I also purchased some yarn in the colors I liked and some Styrofoam balls in three different sizes. I also bought some berry picks in different colors, but ended up only using one type.

I bought a box of acorns and mini pine cones at Pier 1 on sale, along with some adorable little animals, unsure of what I'd use and what I'd return. I also ended up incorporating a bag of natural jute/wood balls I found at Ikea.

Over several nights I perfected the art of wrapping yarn around Styrofoam balls. I pinned the end of the yarn into the Styrofoam using a push pin and some Aleen's Tacky Glue. After I got what looked to be the right amount of balls wrapped, and the wreath covered, I began to glue the yarn balls to the wreath, using the hot glue gun again, starting with the largest-sized balls and distributing the tones and colors evenly.

Once the were on, I used the smaller yarn balls and nestled them around the rest of the wreath hiding most, if not all, of the brown felt underneath. After that I glued in the berries and chose the animals I decided to use (the rest are on our mantle) and put them in place. The final step was distributing the acorns and pine cones around to cover any little holes left and voila!  A cute autumn wreath for our door!

Inside our home we have a felt leaf garland I made hanging off our upper rail and mantle, along with some little animals and flowers on the mantle as well, so the yard translates nicely to the inside.

I'm going to estimate my final cost for this wreath at about $40, not including the glue/glue gun cost. I bought the yard on sale, the Styrofoam and wreath form with coupons and the animals on sale as well. Because our porch is covered, I am hoping this beauty will last several years.

I am loving Pinterest for its inspiration and the ability to share ideas with others around the world.

Kim, Today. A through Z.

There's so much to say and no real time right now, so I'll do this for the moment and come back soon.

A. Age: 35 (my birthday was 8/24)

B. Bed size: King

C. Chore that you hate: Putting away clothes after doing laundry

D. Dogs: None, but we want one when we can have one... I prefer mixed breeds and dogs on the smaller side, though not too small

E. Essential start to your day: Kiss from my husband

F. Favorite color: Green

G. Gold or Silver: Prefer silver or white gold

H. Height: 5’5"

I. Instruments you play: None

J. Job title: Marketing Coordinator

K. Kids: None yet... ;)

L. Live: San Diego, CA (we love our new place)

M. Mother’s name: Maureen

N. Nicknames: Kim, Kimi, Geebo, Honey, Stinky

O. Overnight hospital stays: Seven days in 2003 with pulmonary emboli, Overnight in 1977 for club foot correction

P. Pet peeves: Selfishness (self-absorption), Stupidity, Abuse

Q. Quote from a movie: "Evil, like the fru-its of the devilll, evil." -- Mike Myers in "So I married an Ax Murderer."

R. Right or left handed: Right handed

S. Siblings: Two stepbrothers

T. Toys: Really loved Barbies and Legos as a kid, and I still have my collection of little teddy bears
U. Underwear: Nothing that goes up my crack -- gross

V. Vegetable you hate: Eggplant -- I tried to like it, but I just don't.

W. What makes you run late: Overestimating how quickly I can complete tasks, thus trying to pack too much into a set amount of time

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Hahahaha... left foot, left foot, left foot (x20), face, dental (a bunch), left arm, right wrist, neck, back, right shoulder, chest (x4), plus a contrast dye-scan of my chest (x5), a couple of MRIs and a couple of CT scans -- I'm surprised I'm not glowing

Y. Yummy food that you make: I can cook, for real. I cook the majority of time without any sort of recipe and like cooking that way and people don't seem to complain. I make really good pasta sauces, a really decent stir fry and also enjoy baking and cake decorating, though I don't do it often.

Z. Zoo animal: Elephants, followed by giraffes

Random bits about my days...

• At my new job, I listen to music on headphones almost all day long. This means that for several hours a day, there are tunes streaming into my ears and blocking out a bit of the world. Bajofondo Tango Club, Incognito, Basia, Stevie Wonder, The National, Beck, Ivan Lins, Madonna, Radiohead... the list goes on and on and on. The headphones I wear are noise cancelling and most of the time, they do block out the conversations around me, but not always. Sometimes I pretend I cannot hear what people are saying because they really shouldn't be saying it, or because it's a totally inane conversation. Just because you don't think someone can hear you, doesn't give you permission to be rude or dumb.
• I am very in love with indoor plants right now. I have three on my desk at work and I'm about to add a fourth. My favorite plant on my desk is a Maranta leuconeura erythroneura or a Prayer Plant. Its leaves fold up at night, as your hands might (or should) in prayer. People keep trying to tell me its dying, which I think is odd because it has tons of new leaves sprouting out right within view -- but they insist the leaves being down (during the light) means its on its way out.  Guess they don't pray at night?
• I bought a Smash book  to keep bits of things that I don't want to scrapbook, but don't want to throw away either. Right now there is a bunch of cool fortune cookie prophecies, a comic someone clipped about being a "prefectionist" and some magazine clippings. I'm enjoying putting things in the book without contemplating whether it's worth a full scrapbooking page.
• Sometimes, owning a camera and being good with it draws "friends" to you who aren't really friends at all. And when you're nice, you own a camera and you know how to use it, people try even harder to be your "friend" ... I'm just sayin'.
• At some point in the last few months I injured my rotator cuff and the tendon in my forearm. All of the abuse I subjected myself to when packing and moving made the injury worse. I'm now in week three of physical therapy to help with both injuries. Let's just say some days washing my hair is P-A-I-N-F-U-L.

The downstairs of our new place is pretty much done, so I will post pictures very soon. I'm currently trying to finish up the master bath organization and my office/creative space. I hope that I'll be done with those soon so I can just LIVE in the space and enjoy it! That's all for now...

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We See the Future and it Looks Good!

Wowza, another extended blog hiatus!  I go in to each blog post with such good intentions about posting more frequently and then, things just seem to go crazy for lack of a better way to explain it and then it has been four months with no updates. Darnit! I will try and be better, I will, I will!

The picture above is actually from the Central California coast when we visited during a road trip we took in late 2009... I just love how Steve is looking into the distance -- it warms my heart and reminds me of his inner spirit!

Things are good around these parts. I've been at my new job for about 100 days and so far, so good. It's obvious to me that I don't think I'm going to be doing work in this industry for the rest of my life, but for now, it is a good job with nice people and I have a view of the Pacific Ocean out the window in front of me every day, so things could be much worse!

Also, after much searching and praying, we found a new place to live. We moved on the weekend of May 21, so things are still really messy and in boxes, but we are happy with the new place. Honestly, it is truly amazing we found something that met our criteria (closer to work/with enough space/in a decent neighborhood/in our price range) as I saw lots of mint green walls, ratty kitchens and yards overgrown with weeds and San Diego is not a very easy market to find something affordable that isn't really run down. We moved about 20 miles south of where we were living into a two-story house in a quiet neighborhood. The house is just a few miles from Steve's office and just a few miles further than a few to my office. We feel very blessed to have found this place and we're slowly working to make it our own.

I should have some photos to share of our new place soon. For now, I'm going to try and keep unpacking, despite nursing an injured rotator cuff and arm, and keep on truckin'. More to follow (soon, I hope, but my track record isn't stellar).