These are a few of my favorite things.

I really enjoy crafts and hand-making things, from hair clips to jewelry, to my day planner.

I decided to document my favorite items I've made. some of them are on my Etsy website, and some I use every day. I wanted to document them as a reference for myself and for anyone else who'd like to see crafty little things, whether for fun or for inspiration.

A more recent item for sale on Etsy. I love this lace! It's almost tacky, but still cute if used right.

This one was so easy and fun. Someone bought it off my Etsy store just two days after I posted it up!

I like this one. It's very earthy and reminds me of autumn and Thanksgiving. 

I'd seen some flowers like these before, so I tried to see if I could make them on my own. My first attempt resulted in the ones on the bottom left. I really like how they all turned out!

I actually made these for Bob over a year ago, while I was still in Tennessee and working at the bead shop. One day he asked if I could make him something other than jewelry. I came up with these. We have them on display in our front room because we like them so much.

I have always struggled to find a planner that I like. They either have too much or not enough. So I took a mini three-ring binder and made it my planner. I made my own cover just like I wanted, and I've never had a better planner! Not too big, not too small. For a while I even printed my own pages to go inside, but then I found some I actually really love.

I found these yellow and black swirled beads in San Diego over Christmas last year. I love them! But I don't know that I'd ever wear them. So I decided to at least make something someone else could wear.

 I'll put others up on occasion as I make them.

I've debated on writing up instructions or tutorials for how to make some of these. I'll consider it if anyone leaves a comment asking for it.

Which one(s) do you like?

They hired the right girl.

I've been a little stressed and overwhelmed by my new job, even though I love it. I worry that they're gonna decide that I'm not capable enough for it, because Marcel (the other designer they hired that I work with daily) is really good at it. So I've been trying to keep from being an annoying overachiever or just shutting down completely. Polar opposite reactions, I know. I'm a little nuts.

So yesterday at work we were dissecting part of a working prototype to look at its components. It was a simple handle that was screwed into the side of this product, and we were looking at how it works exactly. We needed a philips screwdriver, and Zack went to look around for one. He came back with a really insufficient, too-small flat head hoping it would work because it was all we had.

And then I hoped beyond anything I'd ever hoped for that I hadn't unloaded my backpack completely from when we went camping a couple weekends ago... I usually keep it in there anyway....

"I might have my Leatherman in my backpack," I said as I dashed back to the other room to check a certain pocket on my backpack.

Zack looked up with an expression of complete awe on his face and said, "If you have one I'll be really impressed."

Needless to say, he was really impressed.

They did hire the right person for this job, girl and all. So, Russ, it looks like I am getting paid to be awesome.

The best Christmas present ever.

To love life...

I used to live life just wishing and dreaming about the future. I never paid much attention to how life was in the moment or how I was doing in the present--I'd done that during my high school years, but it never seemed to make me any happier. But when I started living to reach future goals, I at least had more hope in my life. And then I started living life for nothing but the future because I hated how things were in the present. It's like I went from one extreme to another in search of happiness and peace of mind, still never finding it. I mostly just ignored myself because I didn't like me, and the best way to distract myself from me was to think about where I was going instead of where I was at the time.

It wasn't until my therapist pointed out to me that I need to be sure that I like where I am now that I started realizing those one-way thinking habits. As obvious as it is, I never recognized that I needed a "happy medium" of both to be happy myself.

I am now pleased to say that I love who I am (perhaps for the first time in my life). I have goals I'm working towards, complete with a healthy view of myself right now. Here are some of those goals and how where I am now is helping me to reach them:

1. Graduate with a BFA in Industrial Design. I'm getting valuable experience at work designing products of all sorts. I'm finishing that incomplete I took in one ID class last fall. I'm going to finish freshman level ID classes in the winter, apply and be accepted into the upper level ID classes.

Final assignment from one of my ID classes last year. Not bad, for a freshman, though it could be better.

2. Live in a nice, comfortable house/home. We just found a different place to live that's still in our ward boundaries. It's the main level of a house, with lots of windows and lots of sunlight, a bigger kitchen, large living room, and lots of closets with storage space. No more dark basements for us. And rent is even cheaper than what we're paying now. We're trying to be careful with our money so that we can begin saving up to buy/build a house that we'll actually own one day. We have family photos (our extensive 2-person family of Bob and I) and hope to get more, as well as images of Christ and the temple to put up as daily reminders and to invite the Spirit into our home.

3. Have kids... several kids... Even though we're not trying for it right now (and if we get surprised I think well be okay), we're both learning so much about how we're going to parent. Some things I hope to do/not do: Not lay my infant child on the floor at church during Sacrament meeting, show them how to enjoy the outdoors, not put them in front of the TV as a quick fix to keep them entertained everyday, let them help me to cook meals and treats, teach them how to sew and make simple crafts as young as they want to start learning, assign chores they can do--with or without my help--at certain age marks, begin teaching them what it means to be chaste and to have morals as young as eight years old, show them how to love and be generous to others by my example, instill a love for music, singing, and instruments in them from infancy.

4. Play the piano... Again. I still have an electric keyboard I got for Christmas one year when I was a kid, and it still works. I'd also like to take a piano class at BYU before I graduate. I started one last year, but I was taking too many credits and had to drop it. I still have 3+ years to try it again.

5. Open my store/bakery. I started my Etsy site. I took a couple of classes at the LDS Employment office about being self employed and starting a small business. I have tons of fabric and some other supplies to help when I want to get it up and running. I've looked into small business loans and calculated out how much money I'll need just to get it going. I've got a business plan started, and I'm almost ready to get the business actually started. It's just not the right time yet. But it will happen.

Chrissy Konachamp won the Iron Man World Championship in 2007.

6. Finish an Iron Man race. I've been riding my bike everywhere--to work, to run errands, to look at potential houses to move into, etc. I went on an hour long ride the other morning before the sun came over the mountains and made the midday heat unbearable. If I can strengthen my knees on my bicycle and by swimming, I'll be better able to run long distances without blowing them out. I've also been monitoring what I eat. I've been eating far less meat, partially because it's expensive and partially because too much meat isn't healthy, and replacing what I'd normally put meat in with rice or beans or something similar. It's been both cost effective and I'm feeling great.

7. Serve a full-time mission as a senior couple. Bob and I went to the temple last night, and it was a wonderful experience. I've been trying to make prayer and morning scripture study more of a priority, though I'm not perfect at it yet. We've been trying to be better about fulfilling our callings, especially since we're ward missionaries. And like I said earlier, we're really pushing to keep a specific budget, including saving for later in life.

I have more goals, but these are the ones that were on my mind as I recognized myself again this morning. I decided to write them down so that I could get them organized into reality and reflect on them later. Plus, it feels great to see my successes and accomplishments and let those be my focus rather than my failures. And even my failures have resulted in some success. For example, I considered dropping that piano class last year a failure, but had I not done that, I wouldn't have taken other steps to get to where I am now, and where I am in my life is a really big accomplishment for me.

It's nice to see the big picture and see things, and myself, accurately.

The newest employee of ETS....

So I've been looking for a job ever since I quit mine back in April. I was so tired of stage managing. It was a great job with great co-workers, but I was stagnant. I was making as high a wage as possible, I wasn't learning anything new, and I was just feeling very stuck. It was even affecting other aspects of my life as well--I was feeling stuck in school as well as in my relationship with my husband.So I quit--I was just done.

Then I went to Singapore for three weeks, which put job searching on hold. I returned at the beginning of June, and from then on I'd been submitting applications, creating resumes, going to the LDS Employment office, started my Etsy business, and I've been thinking for some time now that I should just really get focused and settled in a job of some sort. 

Last week I got a response to an application I had submitted for an editorial position for a company that publishes scrapbooking magazines. They wanted me to complete some writing exercises to see if I was cut out for the job. I enjoyed doing them--it was fun and I felt like I was pretty good at it. I submitted them on Monday, and they told me I'd find out either way in the next week or two. 

I also started taking a series of self employment classes at the LDS Employment office and decided to get my business plan up and running again for my gift shop/bakery. At the same time as that, I realized that Bob really needed to get a move on in regards to his schooling. In order to do that, I had decided to postpone my schooling for a bit and work full time so that he could focus on school and get done that much sooner so that life could progress a little more (aka having kids). I was totally fine with that, stopping my schooling a bit and then finishing it later. I even decided to move forward with my business because the location I was looking at for the store became available again. So I was pretty excited. It seemed like everything was supposed to go in that direction.

Not even an hour after talking that choice over with Bob and settling on it, I get a phone call to schedule an interview for a position I had applied for weeks ago. It was for a company of student engineers who were looking to hire some industrial designers. I decided to go ahead with the interview, if nothing else just for the experience. I doubted they'd want to hire me--I'm still just a freshman in the program. 

I went to the interview yesterday. A fellow classmate, Quinn, from my ID classes last year was interviewing before me, and on his way out we chatted momentarily. Then I turned to walk in for my interview. I introduced myself before even looking at who was interviewing me. It turns out that it was Zack Bomsta, the guy who married a former roommate of mine two weeks earlier, whose reception I'd attended. Small world! He laughed and said he was already aware of who I am, though it didn't register until just then when he saw me. He asked me questions about Quinn, who--I'll be honest--is amazing and extremely talented. I admitted that he was one of the top 10 students in our classes when it comes to quality of work and talent. Then we went on to questions about me and my capabilities. On my resume I included my study abroad course to Singapore and the experience I now have with international relations and collaborating with others to create a product. We discussed that, and he said that it made my application stand out from all the other ones. I had forgotten about that. I suppose that would make me look pretty awesome.

After the interview, I still didn't feel super confident so I basically forgot about it. I continued on in my business things and preparing to not take classes come fall semester. Then today Zack calls me and says he wants to hire me. I asked if I could talk it over with my husband and get back to him about it. I talked to Bob. I prayed. I read my scriptures. I called my Dad. I prayed some more. And then I called Zack back to ask more questions about the job.

I learned that it pays $15 an hour and I'll be working anywhere from 10-20 hours a week on average. He even said some of the current employees have time for full or part time jobs in addition to this one, as well as school. Also, they have two ways of hiring people: either through BYU or through a different agency if any of the BYU students don't have enough credits to be employed by BYU. 

Well, that resolved all my problems and concerns. I can go to school while taking as many or few credits as I need, and I can have a second job on the side if necessary (or if I get that editorial job). Not only that, but I realized that when I'm done and finally get that evasive Bachelor of Fine Arts degree I so much want, I'll have experience in the exact same field I'll be going into. What company won't want to hire someone with both a degree AND experience? Seriously! If I can keep this job until I graduate (which I think I want to already) I'll have 3-4 years of design experience in the workplace!

I'll be working on a panel of four industrial designers--including Quinn and two other upperclassmen, one of which I've heard great things about. I go in tomorrow at 11am to get hired with the other three, and then we're getting right to work. It looks like I'll be taking classes this fall after all, and it'll probably be only 6-9 credits worth.

It seems like it's too good to be true. But if it's really as good as it all sounds right now, can I just say jackpot!!

The Lord really knows what He's doing. When I think I have something figured out and it seems right and I go that way, he always stops me if I'm wrong. Thank goodness that he never lets me down and He never leads me in the wrong direction.

In other news, Bob auditioned for a short movie today. Neither of us really think he'll get the part, but it was fun anyway! In the Craigslist ad it said to bring a headshot and resume. Well, considering that Bob has no acting experience, a resume seemed a little ridiculous. But we decided a head shot would be good. So I took some photos of Bob this morning, and here's the one we picked.

I think he's dang handsome. 

<3

My Etsy store!

So if you don't know already, I've been wanting to open a little gift shop/bakery for most of my life. I had a location picked out and I was hoping to get it going this fall. But I didn't sign the lease for the location soon enough. I walked by there a couple of weeks ago and the "For Lease" sign was down and there were some things in the windows. Talk about disappointment! I was super bummed out.

I decided that maybe it just isn't time to get it going yet.

Bob took me out to some fun little boutiques last week, Cherry Lane & the Flower Basket. I loved them! I wish I could work in one of those shops, or at least sell some of my creations to them for resale. But I wasn't feeling very good about my abilities since I hadn't gotten any responses on my job applications or resumes that I'd turned in a few days earlier. So I didn't bother asking anyone about it.

Instead I just decided to get an online shop going. Thursday, the same day that Bob took me out to those boutiques, I logged into my Etsy.com account and created my shop, and posted a few items for sale.

On Friday I got a message from a lady who just happened upon my page, and she gave me some wonderful suggestions and feedback on it. Then on Saturday she bought one of my items! Holy cow--my first sale not even two days after I opened my shop with only three items for sale! I was so jazzed when I looked at it tonight that I posted a few more items and improved my bio and policies page among other things.

So now I'm really excited about selling my creations! If you haven't already, go and take a look at it. And if you have an account, please make my shop a favorite (only if you like it, and if not, let me know how I can improve!).

If I can't go to work, I'll let work come to me. And I'm going to have a blast doing it!