Frantic: Oh the Places You Will Go

Remember that Dr. Seuss book? I know Dr. Seuss was a children's author but this was one of those "okay" books to read as an older kid too- it is a staple at every.single high school graduation celebration. Anyway, that book is kind of how I am feeling about 2012. Oh the places I will go!!! This is the first year in the past 4.5 where I haven't been pregnant, trying to get pregnant, the exhaustion and body fatigue of dealing with a newborn or the stress of an infamous PCS move. This is the first year where we haven't been expecting a major life change. 2012 is the year to figure out how I am. Please understand that I understand you can't figure it all out in a day, a week, a month or even in this one year, but I realized I needed to try.

There are some conversations you can't have with anyone but you and God. There are some nights you lay awake staring at the ceiling and this realization comes to you that you need to make a change. Something isn't working...the pieces aren't fitting. You have a great life. Beautiful kids. Kind and caring husband. But you need to make a change. It's a conversation I had with God. It was these little reminders, hints, messages in my face and stuck in my brain for weeks and weeks until I had that conversation in the middle of the night with God and He reminded me that if I don't like where I am at, then I change and He would help me.

My 2012 resolutions were so easy this year: focus on me. Trust me, it's not as self-centered as it sounds. I know, it sounds pretty self-centered. I need to focus on changing the way I approach my spiritual, physical, mental and emotional health and wellness. In the past 4.5 years, I have been so focused on taking care of babies, my pregnant body, our house to move that I have seriously neglected who I am and "neglected me" isn't as good of a mommy, wife, friend, sister or person that "healthy me" can be.

Part of this revolutionized me is actually doing some of the projects that have been on my "to do" list for quite some time. Here is one of them that I was pumped to do- Alaina's hairbow hanger. For anyone with a girl in their house, you know how many hair accessories these little girl's with barely any hair can accumulate so I needed to place to store them before they overtook boxes, shelves, drawers and anywhere else you can think!

I started with a white canvas (the cheapest I could find) and painted it pink with a sponge brush. I ended up having to do 3 coats to get a nice even color.

I bought a couple different spools of ribbon in different widths and figured out the placement.

Voila! A couple staple guns shots here and there and the hairbow hanger is finished! I can hang barrettes, clips, the oversized flowers, ribbons and headbands all in one place!

Cute, right?!? And since I was on a roll with little girl projects, I whipped this one out too. We had a very sweet 3-year-old's birthday party coming up and I wanted something unique that would be a ton of fun for her and this is what I ended up with....little people in a box! (I made a boy version for Connor, too.)

I penciled every little people with the design of the character.

Starting the painting process. The longest part of this project was that I had to paint in layers and wait for each color to dry before I could move on to another color.