Heeeeeeyyyyy

It's odd that I posted my final Things I Love: Letterboxing and then promptly fell off the face of the blog planet. 

I can't really explain why, other than feeling a mixture of a few things:
-a dry season personally as a late-30's single gal
-dealing with death (family members, dreams, plans, budget)
-the realization that only my mom and close friends seem to read my blog, so why am I writing it all out when I can just say it out loud?
-lots of 'unrelated' health issues with big question marks from doctors
-putting feet and action to some bucket list items {#38ventures}
-the fact that I wanted to focus on my fictional book writing and other writing projects instead
-putting all my energy into my M-street fixer upper

Well, what can I say? I didn't do ANY of those last few really.

I'm coming out of the dry season but I still feel like I'm perpetually grieving. Is that a personality disorder in me? Is that everyone? I long for a season of FAVOR, but I seem to keep getting a life of ALMOSTS. Maybe everyone identifies, but I feel alone at times in this near-miss of blessings and almost-but-not-quite-yet dream delay. And though I'm usually a joyful person, hope deferred has made my heart pretty darn sick. {Proverbs 13:12}

I'm not really focusing on my book writing as I'd hoped, and I wish it was because I was rockin' the crap out of DIY land. I'm not. I still have Frog tape on my baseboards from 6+ months ago. You think I exaggerate, but I cannot tell a lie.

I didn't complete ANY of my #38ventures (birthday bucket list for my 38th year) due to a partially dislocated shoulder. Oh, did I mention I finally have answers about why my joints routinely pop out of place while sleeping or putting on a dadgum jacket?? It's called Ehler's Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and I'll file that little pain nugget away into: another post, another time.

Welp, now you know what I DIDN'T do. Here's the upside on what-the-hey I actually DID do: 
-I did the Whole30 elimination diet to figure out what is making me feel so bad (done!)
-I joined a gym to stop pretending like I was going to run/walk outside in Texas (let's get real; no excuses now!)
-Started attending D-Group Bible study and joined the prayer group #theFives to battle my unbelief and lackluster faith in the goodness of God (on the mend! My faith/belief is stronger than ever.)
-I read...a lot! And now, I'm ready to stop reading only and start writing. Start doing. (We'll see how it pans out.)
-I gathered supplies and knowledge for my house stuff and stopped waiting for others to help me. It is all smokescreens & excuses to not get crap done. I mean, somebody's got to scrape those poopy-droopy half-stripped kitchen cabinets...and that somebody is ME.

I can't judge myself for the last few years (or decades if I'm being real.) But what I can do is move forward from here in HOPE. In decisiveness. In trust; that even though I'm doing this stuff alone, I don't have to feel lonely. I've got more to say on all of this but for now, this is my springboard to break the blog silence.
Consider it my confessional.

{T.I.L. #24}

Happy melted ice day! It was icy earlier this morning, I promise. 

Again, I kinda did nothing all day and it was glorious. We have a chance of ONE.more.day off as it is supposed to snow in the early morning. *fingers crossed* I'm obviously praying for safe-but-impacted travel because I'm a 1st grade teacher and that's just what we do. Plus, it is a nice nudge for parents to keep buying teachers' Starbucks. You think 3 kids snowed-in with a whole house & yard is bad? Add in 17 more kids, reduce it to one room and very limited outside time...that's our school day in winter.

Why yes, I WOULD like a Grande drink instead of a Tall, thankyouverymuch.

On to the Things I Love post for today. I briefly mentioned this love in this post when I posted this picture:

I grew up in Mississippi and they may not have top-notch education or lots of money for the masses, but they have one thing really right: exposed brick.

{T.I.L. #4}

If you have gone in sequential order, you should know by now that I bought a house cottage in an older part of town...the kind of area with big trees (which means lots of acorns) and walkable streets with little shops & bakeries. I mean, it's no 'You've Got Mail' scene, but it is what I'm after.

I know that my house was built around the 1960's (that was probably when it was last painted too. Jeez it's bad.) Because of this, I wanted this to be the opportunity to capture some of that character when decorating or adding to the house.

This leads me to what I've been researching for the last year and to the next thing on my love list:

{T.I.L. #3}

In yesterday's post, I started at Taco Casa and wormed my way around to the fact that I am now a homeowner. 

Though there is much more to this story and deserves its own series of posts later on, I'd like to add my new house to the list of things I love.

Side note: I call all houses 1000 square feet and under, cottages. Mine is close enough, therefore, a cottage by definition. Plus, I secretly want to be British.

I should've also mentioned that this post relates to my first post about the show Fixer Upper because my house is adorably small and not-so-adorably in need of some fixin' uppin' (only there's no Chip & Jo-Jo with a 40K reno budget to come in and save the day...)

I will post more detailed pictures later on, but this is an example of how it has not aged so well. Here is a pic of my cottage in its glory days:

I call this the Before-Before

And here is what it looked like when I bought it this fall:

This will serve as the Before...where did all the grass go?

Cute, huh? What you can't see in this picture is the flaky facade it has...I mean, I love chippy wood antiques as much as the next 36 year old Texas woman but I draw the line at the chippy wood being the outside of my house. 

Still, I love it and I'm thankful it is mine {well, I guess it'll be mine in 14.5 years.}

More Mustache Love

I finally got around to taking a picture of my mustache B in its perma-home. This is the reading area in my classroom (obviously. And wow, I need to organize this sucka!) I apologize for the lighting...it was taken with that ol' dinosaur iPhone 3GS. And by dinosaur, I mean 2 years old.

 

My classroom theme is non-cartoony vintage owls. Specific, I know. {And she wonders why she's single.} Not really sure how mustaches come in to play, but who cares?! Look how perfectly random it fits in there. I found a black metal tray on sale at Hobby Lobby and spray painted it glossy white. I used to have the most darling burnt orange ceramic owl from Dollar Tree in place of the plush owl puppet from IKEA, but it got broken when I had a sub. boo. Some would say that you shouldn't put glass or breakables around children. I would say, children need to learn that the world is full of breakable and beautiful things. So if my $1 loss is this child's gain, then it was worth it. He (and the other witnesses) will be better off seeing me react with disappointment and grace; and this sheltered lesson on taking good care of things may help them think twice about running around stores or museums like bafoons.

If the thought of having glass around children bothers you, then you are gonna poop when you see the left side of this shelf. eek.

Mini-Mustachios!

I'm kind of in love with mustaches. Not the real ones that make just about any guy under the age of 35 look pervy...the cute little cartoon drawing ones. My friends know this about me and several friends share in this love with me by buying mustache-printed items as well.

I pretty much hope this fad doesn't die out any time soon. In fact, I just recently purchased a new pair of gray Tom's with teeny embroidered mustaches on the sides (I know, stop already with the Toms! is what you are thinking. But did you hear me? There were tiny mustachios! I couldn't help it.)

Anyway, I passed by this patterned duct tape at Office Max (of all places) and well, it ended up in my cart without question. But what was I going to do with mustache duct tape?? Where is my dad when I needed him? He always made the most random 'fixes' with duct tape {As well as sporting the perv-stache. But we won't hold that against him.} We are STILL finding his duct tape creations in the nooks and crannies of our junk drawers. 

As I was fixing up my classroom in August, I thought it'd be fun to feature it there in a place I look everyday. That way, it can bring joy to me every morning! So, I settled on this project. Super easy & a fun outcome. 

Here is the roll (adorable, I know!):

I bought a chipboard 'B' at Hobby Lobby:

I unrolled a line of tape and smoothed it down...folding the ends over the edges. I had to do some fancy cutting on the corners to make it lay flat. Think 'making a bed' and do the corners the same way.

I decided I didn't feel like cutting the tape so that it would line up but not overlap. I went ahead and overlapped it so that all the mustaches would be perfectly in line. This saved me from fighting with duct tape and scissors. I was grossly underprepared in the tool department on this one. I mean, I LITERALLY was laying in bed when I decided to do this and didn't want to get up...see the pink decorative pillow from my bed underneath? Yeah, I'm not kidding. I leaned a little farther than I wanted, just to grab the scissors.

So, if you are feeling more adventurous (and by that, I mean Type A and/or willing to actually get up and fetch an exacto), feel free to do all that and prevent an overlap of tape.

Once I covered the whole 'B', I used scissors to poke a hole in the middle of each cutout in the B-Bumps (the B's lady lumps?) and started folding the pieces around to the back. Like I said, save yourself this step using an exacto.

Here's the finished Mustache Duct Tape Letter B for my classroom! To be honest, I kind of like the inside curves of the B to have tape on them as well. If I had used an exacto to trim, I would still probably have left a little edge to fold over. It's much cuter in person!

Stay tuned for a pikkie of it sitting proudly in the reading/bookshelf area of my class. The kids love it too! They helped me find ANOTHER place I can use my Mustachioed Duct Tape...and.it's.adorable too.

Anybody else love mustaches, real or cartoon? How would you use this tape...I need some more ideas!! You know I bought a whole roll, right?

Project 3-6-5

Sometimes, I get writer's block. Ok, who am I kidding, my LIFE is writer's block. There is something in me that feels like I can't write until I am struck with idea lightning and I can only pen it if the product is going to be earth shattering. I mean, it's not like I'm trying to write the President's inaugural speech or anything. But sadly, it often feels that way for me. 

Most of my blog posts, ideas for books, poems, etc. come into my brain already written out. That's just how I think. In high school and college, I would procrastinate until the night before and then whip out the 10 page paper, all the while thinking it was glorious inspiration that allowed me to do that. I told myself that I work better under pressure. Riiiigghht. Have you ever gone back and re-read some of that procrastinator's gold? Some of it was brill. Most of it was cheese.

As I've grown into my writing a bit, I've wondered, 'What would the finished product have been if I'd written a little bit each day--  re-reading, revising, editing--until the deadline?' It seems like an obvious answer, doesn't it? English teachers everywhere are shouting "A-men!" Of COURSE that is how you are supposed to write. But for someone who loathes doing things twice, this sound advice from my AP English teacher makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit. 

I think that's why I like blog posts. Short enough to write in one sitting, but still exercises the writing muscle. Which brings me to the reason for this post: 

I've had a few friends who have done a {365 project} where they choose one thing to do every day for one year. Doesn't just reading that make you feel exhausted? Yeah, me too. 

I must be crazy because I decided to join in this year with my own Project 3-6-5: Writing every single day of 2013. 

"Well, that's probably not that hard for a writer, Katie." I know. But as you read my dilemma above, it is. Many writers are still waiting for the burst of creativity before they can finish that novel or write that screenplay {guilty.} Or the thought of being a 'disciplined writer' somehow cheapens the masterpiece {guilty again.} But think about it this way: do singers wait until they have found the perfect song before they'll sing? No way. They sing in the shower, at parties (I just witnessed this!), and in restaurants (shout out to my brother's operatic ex who once embarrassed me with her white-girl rendition of "No Scrubs" in a NYC fast food joint. Yes, that happened.) Point being, they exercise their voice...the good, the bad, and the ugly. They stretch it and grow it and try new things. They polish and perform, but there is so much behind-the-scenes work that goes into the final product. 

THAT is how I'm going to approach writing from now on. Writing every day doesn't mean that every piece will be seen (though I'm obviously shooting for a blog post week-daily...I realize my previous once-a-season posting made this blog a snorefest.) And just like Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball picks up steam little by little, I think my writing projects will as well. I'm sure my style will look more like a random tornado than a perfect snowball when it comes to my creative side, but the end result is the same. Action breeds action.

And seeing as how I'm 4 days in, I'm already feeling the positive effects of Project 3-6-5. I guess this project's nickname will now be 'the tornado.' Anybody else crazy enough to do their own Project 3-6-5?

It only took me 7 years...

I'm no computer simpleton, but I tell you, some of the 'easiest' things for others are VUURY difficult for me. Well, I just tackled one such thing. Like, I tackled it, wrestled it to the ground, and pwned it.

Thanks to 7 years of ambition (and fear!), one google search, 10 minutes, and some trial and error, I finally transferred my domain name so that you can type in the blog address WITHOUT 'blogspot' attached to it. Whaaaat?! Yes.

I know, I know. This may be dumb to you, but this little irksome bit has been a real downer since I started my blog; a constant reminder that I struggle to carry through with goals/visions I have when they feel fraught with obstacles. Maybe I am making it more than it is, but this was a huge success for me (and if you know me, you get what I'm saying. Maybe you even clicked your heels for me just then. Too much?)

Basically, I'm excited because I just downgraded this mountain back to a molehill...

Celebrate with me & share this-->www.princessandthe-p.com with a friend! Now that the glorious summer of driving is over {more on that later}, I'll try to write more frequently.

If only I could get the pet bed girl to realize that she doesn't need to renew princessandthep.com, I could lose that darn hyphen! (Though it IS kind of growing on me. If I get rid of it, people might wonder who 'Thep' is, and why he's with Princess.)

Princess and the Project: Cuz I'm a Sloth, Yeah-Yeah-Yeah

It's official: I'm a sloth. Of the ten-toed variety. I spent my whole Sunday looking at blogs/design ideas/websites/yaddah/yaddah...I guess I feel I 'deserve' it after a long week, I dunno. (BTW...the title comes from this 80's tune for you to sing right along. Don't ask why THAT tune popped into my head for the title, cuz I don't know!)

After looking through all the darling blogs and getting a wealth of ideas (Can you say 'Princess & the Pirate?'), I realized that I might actually have to get off my rear end to try some of this stuff. What good is it to collect a ton of inspiration, only to live life on the sidelines while others play the game?

My first honest-to-goodness thought: 'Who in the hey has time to get all this done in a day/week/month/lifetime? And then I felt even worse with my second thought: 'One thing that the blog ladies have in common--KIDS.' Man, I'm single with no kids. I don't even have a Peacock to impress with my DIY craft loveliness or take up all my free time. I have no excuses. So, here's to healthy guilting & to getting up and trying things that make me happy. 

But first, I guess I'll start with the laundry.

Katie

PS. What are your tips for gettin' stuff done?