Organizing and stuff

About once every year (okay, you caught me! at least three times a year... ) I find myself bitten by the decorator/organizer bug. I find myself dreaming of a future home (that I own, not rent) that I can paint, decorate and organize to my heart's content! As the days go on, I start getting more and more lost in magazines, online blogs and online catalogs from stores like IKEA and Pottery Barn and The Container Store.

Some people might find it tedious and boring, but I really do LOVE organizing.

I just re-organized my cabinets, for instance.

I put down more cabinet liner in our wonderfully deep (okay, so it is not my favorite cabinet layout) corner cabinets, climbed up and down from our counter tops (yes, I am short!) and managed to almost completely resort several bins of things like rice and sugar and protein powder (which would belong to my husband) to other cabinets. The space was so ill used! (and I think I found some old spice sample packets that belonged to a previous owner...)

So, I did the smart and prudent thing the moment my husband got home: I showed off my hard work! Partially for praise (oh, how I love his compliments!), and partially to make it less likely that I will spend the next three weeks helping him find where I have 'hidden' his things.

But this organizing and decorating bug has never had the chance to get lost on Pinterest before.

Oh, what a time thief!

Super fun to explore around, but so easy to get caught up jumping from board to board to find more photos of beautiful rooms and ideas for decorating!

Over the last two days I have added countless pins to my own boards, and my mind is swirling with ideas! Many of which I can't implement until I design and build a custom home ... sometime in the probably never future.

I suppose it is nice to have dreams swirling around, but:

There is one horrible thing I have learned through all of this.
Everyone is super absorbed with THINGS!
Tons and tons of things!
Don't get me wrong, I get totally excited about organizing all of my own things (and love looking at ideas for future awesome bookshelves in designated 'library' rooms ... yes, plural), but it seems overly worrisome how so many of our 'dreams' (for our future, our home, our lives) involve accumulating more and different THINGS. Especially, it seems, when it comes to women's clothing closets...

I know I more than tripled my husband's belongings when I moved in (before unpacking our wedding gifts), but is this seriously where our collective 'hope' has settled these days? Mere things?

As strange as it might sound to you (especially coming from an artist who loves to keep things if I have even an inkling I can use them later), I am super blessed by a husband who desires to be a minimalist. Not in the 'all things are only for evil' sort of way, but in the 'things are really not that important' and 'it's easier to be calm' when there are less things to clean and fewer things to get lost in fewer places. He's taken my pack-rat side and turned me into a seasonal 'cleanser'. Every four months or so, I search our whole house (thankfully it's not too large) and come up with a bagful of stuff to donate or toss ... or give to friends, depending on the stuff. (I try for more, but it's usually only one small bag)

I use the term 'cleanser' instead of 'cleaner' for a reason: it really helps cleanse ME. It helps me keep from being tied down by silly things!

My husband has given me a Godly view of things. They are temporary and completely unnecessary. They are temporary fixes for the deeper desires of our hearts ... to follow God and store up our treasures in heaven.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Matthew 6:19-24

I am so blessed to have a Godly man leading me as my husband.

Especially during my decorating/organizing binges!

Health rollercoaster

In case anyone noticed, I haven't been doing a very good job at writing in this blog recently.

If you were hoping for witty and informative posts last week, Sorry!

For the past several months, I have been going through an annoyingly long process to try and find some form of 'treatment' for my chronic pain. I put treatment in quotes only because any sort of medicine or aid will only be impacting the symptoms, and not actually treating the root issue -- my CMT.

Unfortunately, my efforts (and the research of my nice neurologist) have not allowed me to find anything helpful. I've read before that treating chronic nerve pain is not an easy task, and that many with it spend years before finding relief, if not longer. Hopefully that won't be my path, but it is starting to look that way . . .

As of right now, I am slowly working my way off of a prescription pain killer that has managed to somehow increase my pain (go figure) and give me wonderful side-effects while going through the process of removing the medicine from my system (ie. slowly decreasing the dose) . . . I am definitely looking forward to being done with this medicine. The pain and frustration has been quite distracting for me, and making it rather difficult for me to find things to write about.

Hopefully I will get my photos edited soon so I can show you an awesome way to make canvas wall art with crayons!

Also, I wanted to let you know that I am still prepping for the March sale in my Color Me Crochet Etsy shop, so I hope you are excited!

Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Last night, my husband and I spent about an hour punching out the little folds of tiny paper V-day cards, to stick Nerds in them! (the candy, fyi) We were both thankful that we didn't have to work on them alone (or try to figure out on our own how those little things worked . . .)
And today, he handed them out to people at his work! Maybe a little corny, but I think it's a fun tradition from childhood that everyone can still enjoy! (and who doesn't love candy? Well, aside from my brother-in-law and his wife . . .)

Speaking of sweets, this morning a sweet surprise arrived at my doorstep . . .

© Jessica Van Eaton 2013

. . . these beautiful flowers from my husband!!

He always does such an amazing job at picking out the perfect bouquet for me. :-)

I still remember the bouquet of roses he got me for our first Valentine's. Beautiful red, white and pink roses: miniatures! There were way more than a dozen, and they worked perfectly for hang them and make them last forever! I'm sure I have a picture of those somewhere . . .

. . . moving on.

I am having an awesome V-day, and I hope you are too!

(Also, it is snowing here! Has been pretty much all day!)

To be honest, it makes the roads pretty annoying (and scary) to drive on, but it is so beautiful when all you need to do is look at it!

© Jessica Van Eaton 2013

Have a safe and wonderful Valentine's day!!

Sweet surprises

God is so helpful!!

:-)

Let me explain a little bit. . . . Today I delivered a lovely prayer shawl to a sweet woman in my Bible study. She had ordered it for a friend, and I had it all wrapped up and ready to deliver . . . when I remembered that I had forgotten to put in the 'added bonus' flower pin (a crochet flower with two buttons on the back) for her friend's new shawl! I had already taken the time to tape the box nice and tightly closed (in case I needed to mail it), so I just decided that would be alright (especially since I hadn't even told her that I would be including it).

At our brunch today, I brought my own prayer shawl (with my own crochet flower) to share. Our study is following the book Praying the Names of Jesus, so we were all encouraged to make or buy a prayer shawl for ourselves. When I showed it to the ladies, my sweet friend asked me to pull out the shawl she had ordered so that she could share it as well!

While she was trying it on and showing it off, she asked if she could try it with the crochet flower to see how it might look. So, I took the opportunity to simply give it to her with the shawl! It was even the same color flower pin that I had been planning on giving with the shawl.

I wrapped it all back up nice and neat, and stuck in her box to take home for her friend.

God just always seems to know the perfect way to orchestrate even the tiniest of details!

What I've Learned

Once again, I just want to say 'Thank You' to everyone who participated in my Color Me Crochet 2013 Contest!

By the end of this week, I'll have taken down all of the Contest-related stuff on this site, my FB page, and my Etsy page. Ergo, the contest is officially done and over!

I've learned quite a bit from everyone who entered, and am excited to make several changes to my shop. First and foremost, for the month of March I will be having a Shop Section specifically for items on sale -- 20-50% off! Totally stoked to do this, as it will help me clear my inventory to make way for new items. And you get to buy stuff from my shop On Sale! :-)

Not sure if you are as excited as I am, but I hope you will definitely check it out once it is set up!

(And seriously, I cannot believe it is already February. Or that Valentine's Day is this Thursday. Where did all of January go?)

Giving

My sweet friend Hannah is hosting in art exhibition and auction this coming March!

"All proceeds from the auction will benefit non-profit organizations that provide shelter and design services for the materially poor."

Isn't she so awesome?

I've decided to donate this cool afghan that I designed:

Be sure to donate some of your own artwork, or visit the exhibition in Iowa to join in this charitable auction!

Check out the website: FO(u)R WALLS

Mysterious ways

I just have to start out this post by saying ...

God is Good!

I went to Jo-Ann's this morning for some yarn, and in search of a tube of sorts that I could wrap a nameplate around for shipping. I didn't find anything that even came close to what I needed!

As I was leaving, I spotted a man at the checkout counter who was buying a roll of some sort of fabric, and sticking out of the middle was a cardboard tube.

At first, I didn't really think much of it except, 'That is probably close to the size I could use.' Then it clicked: If Jo-ann's doesn't always sell the whole roll (like only the fabric, off of the cardboard tube), they would end up with random amounts of unusable cardboard tubes! So, I decided to go back inside and try and find someone who wouldn't be too busy to answer my rambling and random question about leftover cardboard tubes.

To my luck, there was one waiting for me under the counter at the fabric section! It is far longer than what I need for one nameplate, but once I figure out how to cut it smaller I will be able to use it for more than one nameplate!

I am super stoked about how God orchestrates even the little things in our lives!