Paisley Ann Design

I cruise the Internet all of the time.  Mostly looking for creative souls with whom I can conspire.

I came across Amy’s Creative Side, a blog about a woman living in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I wanted to share this post with you, because I think it sums up our biggest failure as women/mothers.  that is that we don’t take care of ourselves. I’ll let Amy , a mother of four, who was used to working full-time, tell you about how she lost herself and then she found herself again–in quilting. She now sells quilting patterns online, and has a great community surrounding quilting on her blog. I love the tutorials, you might find something else you like.

Feb. 4, 2010

More About Me

by: Amy

I have a question for you, but first, I thought I would tell you a little more about me.

Life of a stay-at-home mom (sahm) is not all bon-bons and manicures is it!?  Prior to our move to Utah 7 years ago, I was working full time in a Financial Aid Office at a private university in Orange County, California.  There was always lots to do, recognition for a job well done, and I had a great boss and co-workers. Joe was working through the Master’s program and home with Ella.

Moving to Utah was good, but hard.  Our small town has 2 grocery stores, no mall, and snow for half the year – big shock to the system!  Couple that with now being the one to stay home – I was ecstatic, but a little lonely.

Since being home I’ve always looked for ways to help with the “bottom line” of our family finances.  And done lots to help with the church Joe was pastoring, financial books, bulletins, etc. . . in the midst of having babies, and taking care of stuff - I lost myself.  I was the one taking care of everyone else, leaving no time, no energy for myself.  Sound familiar?

When I started quilting in earnest, I found more and more of myself.  Uncovering the layers, if you will.  I found this amazing online community, shortly after loosing our church community, and dove right in.  I set up this blog, an etsy shop, and began leaving comments everywhere!  There is so much inspiration to be had in the community, and I’m doing my best to soak it all up, and make connections.

As I became more and more inspired, a sketch book started filling up with quilt ideas, stuff I haven’t seen online.  In these moments of sketching a goal formed, a goal that supports my desire to help support the family, and find self-fulfillment at the same time!   My goal to sell patterns lead me to writing a book, and the ideas haven’t stopped flowing yet!

So my question –

Do you have goals?  Do you have a dream?  Aim high and make baby steps toward it!

I would love to know your dreams.

Amy

The pictures are a few that Joe has taken around town this week.

__________________________________________________________________

My Dearies,

I Hope you enjoyed hearing her story.  What are you going to do this week to get out of the slump of taking care of all of the “stuff” that goes along with being a mom?

If you are not a mom, I love you too, what are you going to do to take care of yourself, your health, or your craft?  You deserve some time to yourself.

I would love to hear from you. Tell me what you do to stay sane while being home with the kids all of the time.  Please feel free to leave your comments below.

xoxo,

Ashley

Simple changes I have made to take care of myself:

-Reading Primal Blueprint:reprogramming your genes

-Walking/hiking three times a week

-Only buying organic food dairy, veggies, fruits, and meats.

-Sewing/Crafting

-Starting a new monthly booklet called The Freeway, a voluntarist movement.

-Going out to coffee with a gf tomorrow night

-Joined The Flock- an online Soul Care group ($20/month) This is super supportive!

My newest Etsy crush hales from Arizoooona! Yes, where the sun done always shine.
She makes these rad iphone cases. These were the four I could not resist.  You know my fascination with the color red and geekery. The UK phone booth is absolutely my fave. But how hilarious is it that she makes so many nods to 80′s culture? The 80′s boom box and the Princess Bride reference!? Even the fact that they are printed on some sort of vinyl makes me feel giddy like when I first saw Lisa Frank stickers and notebooks with unicorns–oh yes and those clear vinyl backpacks. Haha-I specifically remember the high school girls who hung out at Holiday Skate Rink in Orange, Ca, who would put their female hygiene products in the front pocket, merely waving it in our middle school faces that we were not quite women yet. Luckily they got what was coming to them, when a group of boys totally called that out. Woops.

Who do you have an Etsy Crush on? The beautiful thing about us women is that we all have slightly different taste. I would love to hear what sellers make it very difficult not to pull out that little plastic debit card and charge away.

Click here to go to her Etsy shop.

Of course Spring is always the time to work on those things that you couldn’t work on when the temp was hovering around 45 degrees. With a 75 year old house, there is always stuff to do. We have taken a break from doing housework and instead, this weekend we framed our chicken coop. The girlies are getting rather feisty and sick of being in their red light district box in the house. And I am sick of feeling guilty and letting them roam around the neighborhood (which is our den, kitchen, and living room). Honestly, they expel contents from their “vent” a lot more frequently than I would have guessed, so after they have had a good thirty minutes out Eric or I have to run around the living room with a spray bottle and a napkin to pick up the shrapnel. Glorious, isn’t it? But we wouldn’t trade them in for anything. Funny story. Last night Nadia (the most courageous of the four of them) jumped onto the coffee table (they are just now exhibiting behaviors that lead me to believe they might escape soon) but when she walked towards us as we were sitting on the couch, she slipped on one of the playing cards we were using to play gin and fell of the table. It was the look on her face that was so hilarious. Sheer surprise. She thought she was getting away with murder, until she hit the equivalent of the banana peel on Super Mario Cart. Muah hahahha! They constantly crack us up. FUN!

Anyways in these pics you can see Lauren and Ben joining in on the work of the chicken coop. Its amazing how much ownership the kids are taking of our new pets.

Lauren also helped me paint sticks for my bird mobiles that I will sell at the Taylor Street Market on Saturday. And we got to hang out with my MIL and FIL this weekend too. Family time is nice.

Anyways, this is a beautiful life. What did you do this past memorial weekend?

Love,
Ashley

Oh my! I can’t wait until next Saturday.  The Pickled Tink ladies coupled with Tracy of Vintage Empire are having a street market.  This shit is going to be goood! Ceramicist Amanda Rookey is going to share a booth with me.  I am so excited. Of course the thing I am most excited about is the massive amounts of freaking awesome vendors that will be there (I think there are 22 others already signed up).  Now, where find to a pocket full of money by Saturday. Ooh I I know maybe I can start selling weed.  Ehh, that’s so already been done.  Ooh, maybe I can detail cars. Yaah–but that place on Wells already cornered that market, and I am not sure where I would get eco-friendly spray cleaner that would be shiny enough to make tires look like leather.  Meh…oh well, i might have to settle for one or two treasures to bring home. At least I will get a morning of inspiration. Early Birds get the worm. I will be there setting up at 6 am.
Please stop by and pick up a bird mobile or an owl, or any of the gorgeous hand threw pottery Amanda will be showing up with.

Much Love, Now I have to get back to sewing, you all know how well I do at crunch time. That’s right, I will be spending the next 8 days, kicking some major craft ass.

This weekend the weather is supposed to be nice. So hopefully, we will get to start building our chicken coop. Seriously, not totally excited about the multiple trips to Lowes that I am sure it will take, but nonetheless, glad that it will be done and look all cute in our backyard. I need your help: Tonight we will be drawing the plans, and I just can’t decide which one I like best. Charlie,  Jack, Locke, and Nadia are getting their tail feathers, the time will approach quickly.

And have a great 3 day weekend.

Love and Kisses,

Ashley

Please vote for one of the three in the comments section below:

1. Lauren, Ben, and Eric making breakfast for dinner last night to give me a break.
2. Our new space.
3. Thrift stores near my house.
4. my new self-healing fabric cutting mat.
5. my computer and the email from loopshot customers. i love people interaction!
6. podcasts that i can put on my iphone for the long drive to pick up the kids from school.
7. daily design and spiritual inspiration from other bloggers-dottie angel being today’s happy-maker.
8. my husbands scent in the morning as he lie next to me, that reminds me I am not alone.

I am uber frustrated with my productivity today. It feels like I am stuck in knee-high mud. Yucky mucky.

This list is from Magpie Girl.

These pics are not mine. I can’t claim them. Dottie Angel’s is whose they be. I can’t wait for our very own little chicklets to get here. I think it will be Friday. Fingers crossed. Woohooo!

This Etsy Crush I have comes from Melbourne, Australia. There are some great designers there. I am guessing many more per capita than the U.S.. It’s like Iceland and their rad musicians. I am trying to ponder how that happens?!

My folk lover is awesome! And guess what, these already reasonably priced prints are half off on May 17th and 18th. Seriously….I am eating that ish up. She blends three of the hottest trends right now. The dreamy faces and surreal additions of owls and birds, matched with the pops of color that resemble patchwork quilts. And yet it looks so fresh. Two prints for $20. I mean, seriously?

You can visit her shop here
You can visit her blog here

Have an unbearably awesome weekend. I am off to pretty up our backyard before our chickens come home.

Love and Kisses,
Ashley

I have not seen this show, but the beauty of their style and nonchalance, is totally exhausting. This husband wife duo moves into a house, renovates, re-designs, and sells the house for top-dollar. They have their fingerprint on whole blocks in Manhattan–and apparently they mate like rabbits. Exhausting, because I think of the shear time they must put into being that frickin’ cool. Plus, working and having kids, is one thing, but doing both well is quite difficult. It makes me wonder if there are like four nannies just outside the view of the lens.
Why the negativity? I generally hate reality shows, because they are so darn inauthentic, and by golly how could they not be? When a camera is aimed at me, I become immediately self-conscious and awkward and not at all funny or charming.

Frankly, I can’t speak for this family. I have yet to see the show and I hear that it is addicting. There might actually be hope for them, that they could pull off the impossible task of making me excited about a reality t.v. show. I haven’t seen it yet. I guess I just liked them better, when they were extraordinarily ordinary.
Read all about them. Their new show on Bravo debuted on April 15 @ 10 p.m

This-is-our- current- kitchen. A week into the move, the old school stove and oven went out in the middle of cooking cornbread for my modern quilting class. I have been cooking on our camping stove for 2 weeks. Yes, I know, it’s pretty bad. And see that sink, yesterday morning right before we started cooking for a last-minute mom’s day breakfast with Eric’s mom, that sink started regurgitating the food that went down the disposal. Yesterday worked out, thanks to our handy dandy waffle iron, and our flexibility. Washing dishes in the tub is sort of awkward.

Needless to say, our kitchen is living on borrowed time. We were hoping we could get through the first year with the old appliances. Now, we are considering re-doing it sooner rather than later. I have seen so many magazines on kitchen re-dos and books and blog posts. This pic below pretty much sums up the elements we want together.

We like the ideas of open shelves, especially because it opens up the kitchen. And thanks to some generous gifts from our family we have all bone colored dishes from fish’s eddy. So it wouldn’t look too chaotic, if we were to do so. And the subway tiles are extraordinarily inexpensive, which helps.

Apartment Therapy has some ideas on how to “not screw up” the open shelving system.

*Walnut counter tops are sweet! Especially when played against the white. Then picture a black and white vinyl checkerboard floor. Like the subway tiles, inexpensive and classic.