Today I turned 25 years old. The day has been thus far AMAZING! My husband made me the most delicious Chocolate Nutella Cake from scratch last night, then treated me to breakfast in bed this morning. He even drove me to work and bought me a coffee (swoon!). What a man, I tell you.

I feel as though this monumental birthday (heck, I can rent a car and find better rates on car insurance now) deserves to be commemorated with a list of goals for the year.

Throughout my life, I have been a list maker. However, I hardly ever stick to them. I tend to change directions easily (have you seen my ever changing blog layout, for example?) so sticking to a plan is tough for this indecisive mama. Some of my goals will be serious, but some are just things that I never make time for. So without further adieu, here is my list of goals for the year.

1. Launch a developing (but still secret) business venture
2. Dye my hair blonde (much more blonde than the subdle highlights I have been sporting as of late)
3. Save more money
4. Read a great book (I have not picked up a book in AGES)
5. Invest in friendships (time = money stronger friendships)
6. Sell our Springfield, MO home (that one may be out of my hands, but still it is a goal)
7. Plan a 5 year anniversary trip with Nathan
8. Eat more veggies (cheese is not a vegetable, apparently)
9. Expand the Gingiber Product Line
10. Play a round of golf (I used to play on my men’s golf team in high school)
11. Start a great skin care regiment (I never EVER wash my face before going to bed)
12. Make more time for dates with Nathan
13. Organize and donate items in my garage (I want to de-clutter my life)
14. Volunteer for some community organization
15. Have a more positive outlook on life (Hi, my name is Debbie Downer, blargh)
16. Find some new TV shows to watch (I’ve watch every episode of Gilmore Girls at least 10 times)
17. Get the windshield replaced in my Honda (There has been a crack in the windshield for 4 years)
18. Spend more time with my sister and her soon to be born daughter, Charis
19. Spend more time with ALL family, for that matter. Yes, I am talking to you, Texas family!
20. Invest in some properly fitting clothing, and finally throw out those size 8 jeans
21. Sketch more for me, not just for my business (it is quite therapeutic)
22. Help Nathan search for jobs as we approach graduation
23. Begin *thinking* about expanding our little family (this cannot happen until Nathan graduates)
24. Get a family photo taken (we have never had one made)
25. Start taking Violet to the park
26. Grow my wholesale and consignment business

So there you have it! Wish me luck as I embark on these exiting goals!

Stacie

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This week I focused on painting the bead board, cabinets, and trim in the bathroom.

Last week I said I would go into more detail about installing the bead board. I don’t have a ton of pictures of the process, but we simply bought some board from the hardware store and had them make the major cuts to size. We brought the boards home and my husband made the more detailed cuts (like where the light switch is and corners of the counter top). We then applied liquid nails to the back of the boards and affixed them to the walls. We actually used shower curtain rods to create tension and help hold the boards in place while the glue dried. I painted the bead board with white paint made especially for bathrooms (to prevent mold and mildew) and that was it! All that is left with the bead board is to seal the edges with waterproof silicone caulk to prevent moisture from getting behind the boards and topping it off with some trim.

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Stacie

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I am not well versed in the language of French. I took 2 semesters of French in college, and was told that I spoke French with a German accent by my professor. Yikes. Yet there was one reason that I chose French as my foreign language requirement during my time at college: “Mon Petit Chou Chou.” It translates roughly to “My Little Cabbage”. And it is a term of endearment.

I learned this phrase when I was in the 1st grade while attending a small private school in Dallas. We were a refined bunch of children, learning the french words for “bread” & “potato”, all of the necessities to get by if by some chance we found ourselves overseas. Around Valentines Day, my teacher, Mrs. Antos, decided it would be great fun to assign each one of lovely little phrases to say to one another. I was given the phrase, “Mon Petit Chou Chou” and was ecstatic to call all of my friends cabbages!

I decided to commemorate this memory in the form of a new print in the Gingiber Shop, available in 2 colorways: Red and Green

So this Valentines Day, as you are sharing a single meatball and extra long piece of spaghetti with that special someone, stare deeply into their eyes and let your little cabbage know how much you love them.

Stacie

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Hello! Lots has been done in the old bathroom! I painted the counter tops a light grey using an actual laminate paint. Let me tell you that paint is STINKY! We all slept on the other end of the house with the windows open so that the fumes could air out. But it was worth it. The counters look really good for a $20 can of paint!

I also filled the holes in the cabinet drawers where the old handles used to be. No luck yet finding new drawer pulls, but that can wait until the end. I cannot wait to take a paint brush to these dingy old cabinets and make them shine!

And yes, that is bead board where the old tile used to be! We had some left over from a previous project, so we slapped that board up with some liquid nails adhesive and some special panel nails. We have yet to paint it, so it is very very bright white at the moment. I will go over the bead board instillation in greater depth next week.

 

We also finished removing all of the tile from walls surrounding the toilet area. And my sweet Nathan spent hours over Christmas Break scraping away ever last bit of the 40 year old flooring.

I don’t have a great picture of the before, but we discovered soon into demolition that there were a few layers of linoleum on the bathroom floor. Now we are down to the cement slab, but WOW it really smells so much better in this bathroom without the previous flooring.

So what do you think so far? It is rough right now, but just you wait! It will look faboosh when this is all said and done!

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Remember my blog post about Violet’s 2nd Birthday Party back in November?

Well, it is a Violet Polooza over at Ohdeedoh this week! Violet’s 2nd Birthday Party was just featured on their blog.

Please check out her “My Party” feature and leave a comment if you please!

Thanks, Ohdeedoh!

Stacie & Violet

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Nathan and I were reminiscing about last year, and we fondly looked back at all of the delicious food we ate while visiting Austin, Texas for a friend’s wedding. One of our favorite snacks was a Cake Shake, so we decided to *attempt” to re-create the greatness!

We had no directions, just an instinct that you cannot go wrong with blending ice cream, chocolate cake, and milk together.

1. Bake a box cake mix for ease
2. Grab a big old hunk of chocolate cake and put it in a large cup
3. Add a scoop or 2 or vanilla ice cream
4. Top with a little bit of milk
5. Blend with hand mixer

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Is it just me, or does anyone else have great difficulty setting goals for a new year? I am inherently quite hard on myself, both personally and professionally. Thus, I hesitate to put goals down in stone, for fear that if I do not complete them, I will be ridden with personal guilt for not hitting the mark.

Perhaps if I were to make 1 single goal for 2011, it would be to not be so hard on myself. Give myself enough grace to make mistakes, and to not dwell on the past so much. I often let my shortcomings haunt me like ghosts.

Not surprisingly,  my feelings of personal guilt go hand in hand with my inability to control all aspects of my life. Yes, I said it, I am a total control freak. I wake up and have every minute of my day planned out. Sometimes I can’t roll with the punches. Like, say, if on my only day to myself over Christmas Break, I wake up with a fever and a throat infection. So instead of spray painting my daughter’s bed and working on the bathroom, I am lay in bed, thinking about all of the things that I had planned on accomplishing (as I am shivering with fever chills and a pounding headache).

If I could rewind back to that sick day, perhaps I would realize that my body was forcing me to slow down! I would try to sit still. I’ve heard that taking naps during the day is actually relaxing…. maybe I should have tried to take one? Who knows… but I think that my patterns are becoming unhealthy, and I need to break them, if not for me, than for my daughter, so that I can set a healthy example for Violet.

It is okay if my business does not grow as fast as I want it to, because I know that I am constantly working and trying to learn how to make better decisions. All you can do is your best, right?

It is okay that Nathan and I will need to wait to have more children until he completes his Ph.D. program, no matter how much I desire for my family to grow. I must remind myself that this family is not just me, but Nathan and Violet. What is best for Nathan is for him the room he needs to finish his degree with confidence. And let’s be honest, I ADORE the time I get to spend with Miss Violet as mother and child. I will blink and she will be 30! Yikes!

So here’s to a new year. 365 days of personal growth. Another day to wake up and strive to be a better version of myself.

I will allow myself to make mistakes. I will push myself to make more friends here in friendly old Arkansas (maybe?). I will cherish the present, but always hold the dream of my family’s future in my heart.

2010. My heart is humbly thankful for all that you brought my way.

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First, I must say this – I hate pop music. No judgment upon those who listen to it, but the bright bouncy sound and repetitive vapid lyrics overwhelm me with a wash of sickly sweet. And I must escape it. That being said, I have to now admit … I cannot quit listening to Kate Nash.

Who Is She: Forget Katy Perry. Cast aside images of Natasha Beddingfield. This is Kate Nash. And she’s nothing like them. Irish born and London bred, Kate is a precocious 23 whose girlish grit is catchy and shockingly smart. She’s a bullet – centered gob stopper and her own brand of glittery kitsch. Her English accent bleeds through every song and I love it.

Favorite Song: From the clever beats of “Skeleton Song” to the cheeky “I’ve Got A Secret”, both her albums are a treat. And the shatteringly blunt and beautiful slam poem that opens “Mansion Song” never ceases to give me goosebumps. Her irreverance isn’t flakey and her feminine wit doesn’t feel like fluff. It’s a fine line, and she lights it on fire.

Makes Me Think Of/Feels Like: 1960s bee hives and knee socks, Topshop, and everything English.

Kate Nash made me a believer in pop music … and strangely enough, proud to put on some eyeliner and be a real girl. It’s pretty awesome.

– Jenna

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