just one of those things about my life.

i slept horribly last night due to some major anxiety.  i know that dave's job promotion is a great thing overall for us, but i can't help but be stressed and nervous about the changes in his work schedule and the amount of hours he will be away from me.  i might sound like a crazy, over-reliant person, but i don't really have any friends where we live and it gets lonely for me a lot.  i love staying home with my kids and wouldn't trade the time i have with them for anything, but that doesn't mean it's easy for me.  the friends that i do have all live so far away and i basically survive socially through the phone and facebook.  i've been told (more like lectured) numerous amounts of times (by way too many people) that i need to join a mommy group.  i can't really explain why i haven't, but something holds me back.  i don't particularly like where we live and do not see myself here for the rest of my life.  maybe that's it.  maybe i don't want any attachments here because i want to get out so bad?  hm.

sorry to start this post off in such a depressing fashion, especially after not blogging for the past 2 days.  i'm sure you all feel like hearing about my issues.

a couple things.

first off, i just wanted to brag a little bit on my husband.  he just received a big promotion today and we're both so excited!  i am so proud of him for working so hard for me and the kids.  i feel so much of the time that there's no way i deserve everything that he does for us, but i love him so much for it.  he's been promoted 3 times in a 3 year span.  it's really unbelievable that he's come so far!

secondly, i want to let you guys know that cat from anthrosdottir is having a fun giveaway! 

So go check out her blog to find out how you can enter to win.  in the past few weeks, reading her blog has become part of my everyday online activities.  her reviews are amazing and she puts a lot of time into each post.  so... check her out, okay?  okay.  :)

ruffly things. shiny things.

good evening everybody!  i've been trying to sit down and write this post all day, but my kids weren't allowing me to do so.  first, my daughter (averie) got out of her bed like 6594  times (slight exaggeration) while she was supposed to be taking a nap this afternoon.  then she was trying to be really smart and comes running out of her room yelling, "pee pee on bed!  pee pee on bed!"  So I'm like, "forget it kid... you're not tricking me into letting you out of your room.  get back in there and take your nap".  that's when a tantrum began, so i had to pick her up off the floor and carry her back (of course she did that thing where she  makes her whole body go limp, so she felt like she weighed like 50 pounds).  well guess what?  i get her in her room (flailing and screaming of course) and she starts yelling at me, "pee pee on bed!  see!"  I look down, and what do i see?  yes, a big wet spot right in the middle of her pillow!

so i dealt with that and then of course, my boy (finn) was sleeping, but the second averie falls asleep, he woke up and didn't go back to sleep until about 9pm.  in between all that, i was doing laundry, making lunches, spending time with my husband and making dinner.  i just got done watching The Bachelorette, and everyone is FINALLY sleeping so here i am :)

i also wanted to show some of my favorite pieces of jewelry.   each piece is very special to me.

it's a little banged up now because i've worn it a lot.  but this is one of the last pieces i made while i was doing my apprenticeship.  this ring was SO hard to make, just in the fact that there was no room for error as far as keeping every aspect of it perfectly symetrical.

my impala bracelet.  i made this too!  i love wearing this piece - it's so art deco, and i always get compliments.  this one, too, could use a really good polish.  haha!

and this is my favorite of them all.  my gold/silversmith master made this one.  it's my engagement ring.  the stone in the center is a true mandarin garnet.  it's a VERY rare stone and can only be found in 2 mines in the entire world.  i wear it everyday and love it more and more as the years go by :)

OH!  one more thing.  dave has a job interview at 9am tomorrow morning and we're hoping this will be the promotion we've been waiting for.  he's been on 2 interviews in the past 2 months, only to come in 2nd place both times, so we're hoping the 3rd interview is a charm!  i'll let you all know what happens.  this promotion would be HUGE for us.  we've been struggling a bit lately and could use a bit of a financial boost.

well, that's all for the day.  i hope you all are getting off to a good start this week.  goodnight!

survivor things.

i can't believe i'm actually feeling really good today.  i couldn't fall asleep last night for the life of me and ended up nodding off at about 3am, only to be awakened 1.5 hours later by my baby boy who was hungry.  after i fed him, i attempted to try to get a bit more sleep, only to be awakend by him again 2 hours later.  i've got to be running on pure adrenaline right now.  there's absolutely no other explanation as to how i'm even functioning! 

on another note, my husband and i watched the season finale of Survivor last night (yes, we're big dorks, i know).  i'm a little annoyed at how these players were so experienced and yet they all based their votes on emotion.  if they based it on the motto "outwit outplay outlast", i believe the person who deserved to win would have.  it's a game!  not a populatirty contest, for goodness sakes!  ugh.  anyway... sorry for that, but i had to get it out.

things yummy. things pretty.

good morning everyone!  can you believe i'm actually following through with this blogging business?  i'm actually surprising myself right now because i haven't had any sort of hobby for a long time and i'm thinking that i've just started one!  this is all very exciting for me.  after the birth of my daughter 2 1/2 years ago, i kind of lost the desire to do things for myself.  i made everything about her and my personal life always came last on the list of priorities.  but here i am, 3 months after the birth of my son, putting myself first for a small portion of the day and it feels darn good!

anyway, people always tell me that they love me for my random ramblings and such, so i'll start you off with a little fact about myself that really isn't all that interesting, but hey... it's my blog and i'll write about whatever i want!

so chai is pretty much the only tea i drink and it's really strange because i compare it to the taste of pumpkin pie (which i hate).  but i love this stuff for some reason.  i had a big ol' mug if it last night while waiting for my baby boy to wake up for his last feeding of the night, and man was it scrumptious.  and it had just the right amount of caffeine in it to keep me from dozing off after an exhausting day.

yum.

okay, onto the next thing...

i'm not really sure how i want to do this yet, but i've been thinking that i want to start some sort of periodical dress up posts.  being a stay at home mom doesn't really allow for too many days of dressing up and looking pretty.  but, i really feel it's important for me to take some time every so often to do my makeup and get prettied up in a cute outfit.  i feel this helps me keep my identity and not feel 100% like a human burp cloth.  so readers, here's my first shot at this.  i'm hoping i can do this at least once every couple of weeks, and hopefully i can inspire other mommies out there to try this for themselves!

well, that's all for now.  hope you all have a great day!

things yellow.

good morning readers!  this morning has been rough, and it's not even 8am yet.  i woke up at 6:15 to hear my 3 month old son crying and ready to eat.  as i dragged myself out of bed, my 2 1/2 year old daughter simultaneously pops out of her bedroom... naked.  oh no!  where the heck is her diaper?  she isn't potty trained yet (ugh) and really has no desire to get out of diapers at this point, so where the heck did her diaper go?  well... i asked her 3 times.  nothing.  asked one more time.  she starts screaming like a banshee!  this has got to be bad.   oh, and it was bad, readers.  her bed... peed on.  all over. 

as i'm trying to gain control over this situation, the crying from my son begins to escalate to full blown screaming.  i decide that i need to take care of him first and deal with the bed issue later.  i pick him up from the crib and you'll never guess what happened.  as if one pee incident wasn't bad enough, i now had to deal with two.  yes, his diaper had leaked and there was a giant pee spot smack in the middle of the crib sheet.  oye.  i'm really hoping that was the worst of this day's happenings.

all things new.

okay, so i recently just got into this whole blogging world and really really want to give it a try myself.  only thing is... i have no idea what to blog about.  i suppose if i had the tools and the space, i'd blog about goldsmithing, silversmithing, jewelry, and gems.  but i have neither of those, so i'm sort of stuck.  i could blog about fashion and my most favorite store of all time (anthropologie), but there isn't much money flow happeneing in this place, nor an anthropologie within 100 miles of where i live, so that's partially out.  i could blog about home decor, but i'm not sure what i would say, except that i love all things pottery barn.  HELP!  what am i going to blog about?

maybe i'll just mix it up for all you readers (or lack thereof) and see where this thing goes.

anyway.... welcome to my blog!  my goal is to make this interesting to at least one person out there.  so here goes...