Twenty-GREAT-teen

Hey. It’s been a minute since I’ve posted, we’ve been through lots of changes over here.

My husband and I moved back to Texas from Atlanta right after I did Indie Craft Experience last summer.  He stayed in ATL to work and I stayed with family in Texas while looking for our new home.  I knew I had some sort of vitamin D deficiency from basically living in a forest for five years but I had no idea the impact it had on me. I can’t even tell you how happy I am to be back under the Texas sun.

We found a great home that fit all of our needs and, like our other homes we did some renovations. Here’s a peek:

Moving is so stressful and I hope we don’t have to do it again for a while. The movers literally TORE UP a lot of our furniture, and because almost everything we have is vintage or thrifted, it all went on the in-take inventory sheet as marred or damaged – meaning they wouldn’t accept a claim if something was scratched upon move in. Our first move went so well with the same company, I was just not prepared for the damage they did. Remember this makeover? I paid $26 bucks for the dresser and a matching end table, robbed the hardware from the end table and then sold it for $25, making this dresser one.whole.dollar. Oh yeah!

….aaaaaand look how they left it in our new home.

Didn’t even bother to turn it over – and when I asked them to turn it right side up they said “but if we turn it over, how are YOU going to fix it?” Uhm, hello… ME?! Ugh.

But I did fix it. I glued and glued and glued this bad boy. It’s now in my husband’s office where I don’t have to look at it. AND!! The best part is that they couldn’t deny this claim as previously damaged or marred because, duh, we obvs didn’t have it in our home like that – so they paid us $500 for it (!!) – this has obviously become my greatest thrift score of all time.

I had planned on using that campaign dresser in the living room as a media console but instead hubs and I built one that fit the space perfectly. Another peek:

Once we got settled and got the inside of the house done, my husband let me build a studio in the backyard. It was a “3-week project” that took almost 8 weeks.

I feel like I spent the second half of my year babysitting grown ass men. Why aren’t there more female contractors? Shit would get done so much faster.

The studio was finished at the beginning of December and it’s been so amazing. I can focus on all the fun sharty business things without thinking about laundry or dishes – I can actually focus. And the commute is dreamy. You can get a peek of the inside of the office on my IG highlights.

Since the studio has been completed, I’ve been hustlin’ my tail off. I got a new printer capable of printing greeting cards, prints and boxed sets. I was accepted to Etsy Wholesale and became a member of Etsy Dallas. I’ve invested in myself and will be heading to Cali at the end of the month to learn how to up my game and I’ll be at the Flea Style Spring Show in April.

Here’s a little peep at the Etsy shop and some of the new cards and shirts. I’ll have lots of this stuff at Flea Style along with some new patterned pouches as well as those tea towels everyone loves.

So far, 2018 has been great (hence the title, twenty-great-teen, get it?). I started working out regularly in December and lost two pounds – in three weeks. Terrible. I got serious about eating right on January 1st and lost 18 lbs in one month. I still can’t believe it, it happened so fast.  It’s been rough at times, but so worth it. Twenty more to go…

So, that’s what’s been the haps around here since I posted last summer – somehow I’ve been getting more subscribers per day than I ever got when I was actually blogging regularly so I felt like I needed to send out another reminder that I’m not all DIY projects anymore.  I would like to share the new home reno, the mid-century console we built as well as the custom cutting table we are building this weekend for the studio, so stay tuned for those things (don’t hold your breath), but again, I’m no longer interested in feeding the Pinterest machine. Sorry not sorry?