Out of control creativity

For the last several months, my dining room has been my sewing room. I was so blessed through the holidays with many, many orders. I loved every minute of making the adorable Thanksgiving and Christmas clothes for the kiddos. I also loved getting to create matching accessories like foo foo bows and headbands. Unfortunately, the chaos that surrounded all that creating left me with a ribbon stash that looked like this....

So, here it is the end of January and I am still working around all this mess! I can't believe the orders haven't slowed down much! I'm thankful, don't get me wrong, but I have to stop for a second and re-organize my supplies. I am a slight OCD personality and I like order in my workspace. This past week, we had a lot of work done in my kitchen (a later post). We had the floor replaced and new granite countertops put in. I have been cleaning out cabinets and purging a lot in the kitchen, so today, I continued on to the dining room/studio!! It took me 2 hours to wind all the ribbon back on the spools and organize them. I tried to do it by color and size, but I know the next time I start getting them all out, that will go away!!! I think it turned out quite well. I'm satisfied for a while now!
I have to see all my options when I am making something. I like to see colors of everything and see what makes a popping contrast. I love just reaching in and grabbing a bunch of different colors and textures and putting them all together. It's funny how you can make things match! So, this 3 drawer tote is perfect for all my ribbons. I think I have a serious ribbon addiction!! Hahaha What do you think?

My favorite thing on the farm

This is my favorite time of the year on the farm. We have many baby calves making their debut! I love the babies! I could watch them all day long. They are so cute and funny to watch. They are a little shaky when they first get on their feet but soon they are bucking and running around. I mean, look at this, who wouldn't fall in love!

My other favorite thing is to go feed with Clint. The cows just see his truck and they come running. We drive along and he feeds out of the back.

How do I drive AND take pictures, you ask? I don't. Look who's driving us along?? Isn't he cute too!

CHANGE IS GOOD

Gosh, I didn't intend to stay gone this long...Sorry! I don't know if you can tell by the title, but my life has completely turned upside down in the last 2 weeks. Sometimes, change is good. I recently had some "changes" in my job. While I had thought I loved what I was doing, I don't think I did. Actually, just recently I had started not to love it. Does that make sense? I have worked in my department 3 years. For the last 6 months, the stress level was at gynormous levels, I don't do stress well. Stress causes all kinds of problems. Needless to say, since the change, I have been in a great mood. Tons of weight has been lifted off of me. I feel refreshed and awakened to a whole new world. I took a great weekend trip with my hubby. I didn't lug a bag of books, either!! I took craft stuff and leisure books and fun stuff. I have came home at night and cooked a great dinner for my family, did a few sewing projects, planned some fun nights with friends, and planned for the future without saying, "what if.. and maybe after..." Hopefully, we will be welcoming a little Pierce this year. I feel like I put many things on hold for advancment in my career and when I got there, I didn't like it. It was hard for me to admit, I don't give up easy. I like to "make" things work and that's not how it should be. Lots of things have occurred recently that made me realize that you can't put things off, live each minute to its maximum. There is a song on the radio that says "say I love you a million times a day." 2010 is going to be "my year." My year of accomplishments, new projects, and fun stuff. My year of spending time with my family over spending time in textbooks, being loud while playing games with my kids rather than sitting at a quiet table studying. I can't wait.
Funny how God orchestrates our lives with intricate details. How He knows what we need before we even have an urge. He has planned our lives to a degree farther than we could ever dream. My friend Stanna had a wonderful quote in her Christmas card this year, "Happiness will chase you if you follow Him." That is so true. I have realized over the last few years, I have tried to direct my own cart. What a failure that ends up like! With all that said, I have projects to finish!!

WICKED Girl's Weekend!

So, with the holidays behind us, I can finally settle down and give you the WICKED details of our WICKED girl's weekend! One word for the musical - no, not WICKED silly! AMAZING! We had such a great time!
We headed out after work on Friday at 5 p.m. It was a good 6-7 hour drive so we knew we were in for a long night!
We cranked up the 90's station on XM (love XM radio!!) and we sang almost ALL the way to KC. My adorable Mom sent us a care package of snacks. Ummm, her chocolate chip cookies are THE BEST! Well, she had tied up the canisters with this cute tulle bow. Being the silly girls we were, we decided it would be hilarious if Sherri put it on her head when we went through the toll booth (kinda a like an adult hairbow!) I think we made the toll booth lady's night! She thought we were cute!
Ok, down the road 3 hours --- TULSA, OKLAHOMA. TARGET. We needed white long sleeve shirts to wear under our cute WICKED t-shirts we had made. T-shirts, I know, we're crazy thinking t-shirts, it's Kansas, Hello, cold weather, really cold weather in December!!!!
We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Chick-fil-a! Yummy! THEN, our road trip turned interesting! We had done a Mapquest search a few months back while planning our trip and we didn't really pay attention to the route or, let's just say, how many lanes the road was. We ended up on a scary 2 lane road and it just went on and on. We kept saying, "Surely we'll get back on the 4 lane soon." No, never happened. We stopped somewhere just over the Kansas line at a QuickStop and we all went in together to the bathroom! We were sure we were lost, but we had a map and we had GPS. We scared ourselves in one town, we saw a really big old house or some kind of building we were sure was haunted! We just knew we were going to get stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Did I mention is was a brisk 22 degrees? Silly girls! We were getting pretty tired, I think! We finally ended up on a 4 lane road shortly before getting into KC. We had made good time and had a new burst of energy and excitement as we neared the downtown. AND THEN IT HAPPENED...bright red and blue flashing lights in our rearview mirror! OH, CRAP. Yeah, we said something like that.... I have to give a shout out to my girl Sherri, we drove her SUV and she can drive I tell ya, well, unfortunately, it caught up with us. Yeah, can you all say Kansas Highway Patrol. How about 150.00 speeding ticket? We could see the name of our hotel on the building downtown as we sat there getting a ticket. Oh, well, have to remember the trip somehow, right?

We got to our hotel shortly after that. Did I mention now it was 19 degrees. BURRRRRR.
We got up and at 'em Saturday morning. We were only gonna be there 1 full day and had a lot to fit in. We started out at Memaw's Bakery. mmmm...pecan sticky buns!
Then we were off to shop...I had seen a neat shop on some blogs that is in Kansas City called The Curious Sofa. Soooo, we looked up the address, typed it into the good ole GPS and off we went. Well, when you have a city such as Kansas City that is split into 2 different states, Missouri and Kansas, it is important to type in the correct state into the GPS! We were driving up in front of the "hood" looking at the bars on the windows as the friendly voice on the GPS said, "arriving at your destination." We were PRETTY SURE this was not The Curious Sofa!
We finally found it and went on to a shopping area that was all really cool, local shops that featured local artists. It was unreal. We stayed for a couple of hours, then headed to the Country Club Plaza. It was all lit up for Christmas, so beautiful. We shopped some more. Sherri had an old high school friend that met us there and stayed the afternoon.
We had a plan for dinner, Dave's Famous Bar B Q!
UMMMMM..... the ribs were fall off the bone tender and it was sooo good. It was slap-your-grandma good. I can't believe we were able to eat because we were so excited to see the play. It was so cold outside but we ran the 3 blocks back to the hotel to get ready for the play. It was just across the street from the hotel. We primped and changed and off we went to get there early to soak it all in. All we could say was....."I can't see, can you?" Ok. I am all about getting your monies worth, but seriously, folks, the lady in front of me, stood up, folded her coat up and SAT ON IT!! Hello, "no, I paid for this ticket, but didn't want TO SEE THE SHOW! That was so rude. It was like I was a bobble-head. Look to the left, now to the right! I even turned to the ladies behind me and in a very LOUD voice said, "I am so sorry I keep moving but the lady in front of me is SITTING ON HER COAT!" Other than that, if you get the chance to see this play, GO! It was so good, amazing, colorful, wonderful, splendid, work of music. It's definately a "must-see." It is going to be in Dallas this spring or summer and my mom and I are going! I can't wait. Have any of you seen it? Let me know your thoughts. Elba was THE BEST! Wrapping up our trip, we took a different route home, 4 lane all the way, baby! And no tickets!! It was a great girls WICKED weekend!

Happy New Year 2010 (a few days late)

Happy New Year from The Pierce's, Sample's, and Linn's! Make it a great one!!!