You guys. These couple of weeks are just really amazingly busy. I hate the word busy, but seriously it’s like, woah. I think I’m being LESS productive because I have so much to do that when I find myself with a spare hour, I choose to plop in front of the TV and turn my brain off, instead of continuing down my list of to-dos. Anyone ever experience this?

Rando- picture of shoes, because I love them.

So anyway. Just kind of wanted to check in and say what up. Next week I’ll be back with more awesome projects + fun times for you. In Le meantime, this is what I’ve been spending my time on:

• Rehearsal Dinner invitations for my favorite family
• Special surprise paper project for my favorite bachelorette
• Curtains
• Painting every single wall surface in Man-Piece’s new house. [I am now an expert at painting, if anyone wants some painting assistance, I will now accept payment to paint houses. That's how good I am.]
• Spring greeting cards collection for Le Shop
• Invitations for Le Shop [Want to get some for free? Join Le Newsletter!]
• Using “Le” in place of “The” way too much
• Taking unnecessary naps
• Getting my bod ready for Spring and Summer

So. I’m Trying (get it!?) to keep up with life. Stick with me. And don’t forget to join the newsletter for some free invitation printables coming soon! If you’re not on the newsletter, no freebies. That’s why it’s special. Duh.

How are you preparing for the arrival of Spring? Any fun crafty projects? Health challenges? Party planning? See you in the comments! 

Recently inspired by all of the retrospection and introspection on some of the blogs I read regularly, most notably the ridiculously talented Hilary at Dean Street Society. I decided that it was time I do the same, as a healthy exercise for my brain and to help keep me accountable for the coming year! I liked Hilary’s format so I’m copying shamelessly.

2012 was quite a year for little me. I had a long list of struggles and trials and crying / sobbing / hysteria sessions for things both important and unimportant. As I write this I am with family celebrating the life of my Grandmom, Helen, and reflecting on the last week we got to spend with her. The reflection time with her as she neared the time to enter a new painless + endless life reiterated the fact that as 2012 comes to a close, many of the things I cried over are solved, behind me, or helped me grow and that is a fantastic thing.

2012 was the year I:

• Realized I had the power + took action to change my future
• Finally quit a job I disliked strongly.
• Found a new job to give me flexibility and ability to work from the home I love.
• Slept in on a Monday without guilt.
• Lost 10 pounds of unneeded icky-ness and put myself back on the road to health and personal fitness.
• Cried too much; acknowledged things that were not right; made plans to change these things.
• Did not wallow [too much] about said things that were not right.
• Actually followed my plan to change things, and subsequently…
• Cried way less as the year went by.
• Celebrated one whole year of being with my very own Man-Piece.
• Redesigned my blog. Again.
• Celebrated one whole year of living in the same apartment.
• Painted lots of things in said apartment. It’s mine + I love it.
• Got my apartment featured on Apartment Therapy.
• Road tripped through the southern Outer Banks and visited every lighthouse.
• Celebrated our nation’s freedom on the beaches of Destin, FL with family.
• Hugged Mickey Mouse.
• Lost my American Icon, Carl Joseph LaMonica aka Grandad.
• Designed + built a whole website for someone other than me.
• Exercised my right to vote for the leader of the free world.
• Realized I want to be an entrepreneur and began surrounding myself with people who will help and support me.

Amazing, right!? It feels great to write down all of these things and feel good about what I’ve accomplished personally and “professionally.” When I think about all the “issues” I had, I can only be grateful that I have friends and family to support me in hard times, and give me perspective when I was being a unnecessarily sad. I can also be grateful that I have the fortitude and strength of character to recognize when things are not going the way I want them to, and actually do something about it. It’s so empowering to look back on this year and see what changes I’ve made for myself to get me on a path I like instead of just letting the Ship of Life take me out to Unfulfilling Sea of Boredom. Life’s GOOD, ya’ll.

In 2013, I will:

• Celebrate the new year with old friends.
• Sell stationery and prints in my Etsy shop.
• Continue to post weekly fun projects on my blog.
• Find other fun bloggers to collaborate with.
• Turn my “hobby” into a business, and thusly become a real entrepreneur.
• Teach fun crafty classes at a local shop (to be announced after first of the year!).
• Celebrate 2 whole years with Man-Piece.
• Go to the wedding of my biggest brother and party with family!
• Keep on being healthy and staying fit / Refuse to let the powers of 5 guys + cheese fries take over my body.
• Run three 5ks, and one 10k (to thwart powers of said burgers + fries).
• Visit my sister-friend in Boston.
• Sleep in on a Monday sans-guilt.
• Improve my photography skills.
• Improve my blog + site.
• Work in my slippers.
• Go somewhere I’ve never gone.

I bet I could think of more, but this seems like a good list. Thank you to pretty much everyone I know for being awesome this year. Even the Debbie Downers serve a purpose.

Now it’s your turn! What are you thankful for this year? And what have you accomplished that is totally awesome and great? What things are you excited for in 2013?? Let’s chat in the comments.

Due to family travels and spending lots of time with Grandmom before her peace, I have obviously not finished all of my fun December sprucing projects. I’m a tiny bit bummed but super grateful to sacrifice those for a week spent with Grandmom! Family rules. Anyways. Merry Christmas to everyone. More fun crafty biz soon. Take the time to enjoy your closest friends and family, for they are our beating hearts. 

A very dear friend recently told me she would love to see a tour of my apartment on the blog to get a better feel for how things flow, and to see the status of the many projects I have accomplished over the past year. Yes. I shockingly realized that October marks the 12th months of residence for me, and I must say, I am no where close to letting this place go nor am I close to being “done.” Haha. So here we are, tour of my apartment beginning at the front door…

This is what you are greeted with upon opening the door. Stairs to the right, open floor plan to the left, “foyer” and landing spot for my keys and other random things. Also I’m hiding packages to be mailed, books to return to the library, and tools to return to man-piece in that storage ottoman (which I made for my room, but have moved downstairs for a bit):

Around the corner from the entrance is the kitchen nook, in which you can see I still have lots of work to do to tone down those highlighter yellow walls:

And this next photo was my attempt at doing a panoramic shot of the first floor, which you can see only sort of succeeded…but I think you can still get the picture (no, I don’t actually have slanted walls or funky caved-in cabinets):

That’s the guest bathroom down the hall, which is also awaiting some love.

The living room probably wins the prize for “most work left to do” [aside from the bedroom...yeesh]:

Both of these chairs in my old-school corner are getting reupholstered (which I will obviously share with you – during reupholstery month perhaps?):

I made those three pillows and lost momentum on pillows…they need some work (sewing month, duh). Oh, and do you spy a sewing machine?

Why yes, you do! There are lots of unfinished projects back here, and some un-hung art, but I try to keep it as neat as possible. Very glad I did not sell that desk (which I slaved over redoing last summer – it used to be bright red with water spots galore).

Another view of my desk workspace, which is where I spent a lot of my time…paying bills, blogging, designing things, and facebooking of course.

And last but not least for this tour is my upstairs studio-ish area that I recently featured when I added the bright orange peg board, which I love and am excited to spruce up by adding more storage thingies to.

And the bedroom and closet area are just not ready to be revealed, and also there are some in progress things I don’t want to share yet. Haha. Sorry. So that’s the end of the tour! Who wants to visit? For fun, you can check out this old apartment tour I posted when I first moved in. In addition to terrible photos, things have really changed!

Project Roundup

• Entryway spruce up
• DIY mail slot
• Entryway landing spot
• Entryway spruce up
• Ottoman reupholster
• Painting the kitchen
• Flea markets finds + useful desk additions
• Chair + ottoman reupholster: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 (big undertaking!)
• Sofa reupholster: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 (another big undertaking!)
• Future chair reupholster (the beginning details)
• Sweater pillow DIY
• Choosing the right rug for renters
• Peg board organization

There are many other mini projects that have gone into making this apartment my happy + joyful place, and I’m stoked to get another year to make it better. Won’t you join me?