Goal setting is not my forte.

I have a tendency to make lofty goals and give up after 5% of effort is given. Examples of this behavior include my New Year's resolution to learn the guitar (hurt my fingers too much), building Trash Can Terrace (Scott is doing an excellent job-my contribution is buying the supplies and hauling them home), and assembling any sort of Ikea furniture (which I start and he finishes.)

I am well aware of this flaw in my persona and really want to change it. Therefore, I only take on one project at one time as project manager. Currently, this project is giving some Craig's List patio furniture a face lift. When that is completed this weekend, I am going to learn to sew. I have made this proclamation several times now and even signed up for a class through extended education that was $5 for the whole semester. Well it met on Monday nights from 6-9 p.m. in Yorba Linda which is not far, but it felt like Egypt after a 9 hour work day on a Monday and at that time I lived in South OC and thus it really was a bit of a drive home at that hour. I dropped out. And yes I make excuses like an addict.

So, I am starting the search now, today, the eve of my sewing bonanza, to find classes. Naturally they are all in LA which might as well be Mars compared to Yorba Linda. Scott is a firm believer in YouTube how-to's but at this point in technology I'm sure that the instructor's hand cannot exactly reach out and fix the machine for me when it's jammed.

Sewing will open up an entirely new project category for me. Currently my "sewing" includes fabric gluing hems when needed or pawning off projects to my mom. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to take on a set of four custom patio chair covers...or does she :) Of course if and when we have kids, I want to be able to sew Halloween costumes and other crafts.

Here is the beauty:






Thanks Grandma!

Wedding Wall

I just love projects that I think are going to be a) easy and b) inexpensive. My wedding wall has turned out to be neither of those things.

We have a random plank of wood in our hallway that I painted to become our "wedding wall"--a wall of the weddings we have been in over the years. On Black Friday I went to the Goodwill to buy 5 different frames, all a little different, to hang the photos. Easy. And they were 50% off that day. So I spent $9 on 5 frames.

After settling on the images and laying the frames out on the floor, we decided to hang the frames from the middle-thus they are centered to the yellow plank, not by hanging from the typical top spot. Enter challenge to hang the suckers.

Because these frames were from all corners of the retail world, a few had the teeth, some had popout holes, etc. Either way, all were not in the right spot. I needed something to affix to the middle of the frame and then could stick to the wall. Enter 3M Command Strips. I know everyone swears by them, but they did not work. At all. ONE of the Velcro sticky variety claimed to hang up 3 pounds. I think most of the frames weighed less than one. We had up to 4 sets of those little buggers on a frame and they still fell from the wall. Sometimes during dinner, sometimes in the middle of the night which is always good for the heart. I'm pretty sure I spent about $25 on those damn things. And then my favorite frame fell and broke. Awesome, who doesn't like 5 trips to Michael's in one week. So I purchased a new frame. And then we tried the stick-ems another way and again, frame dropped, and broke. Make it 7 times to Michael's because I forgot my coupon the first time.

So, here we are, probably $40 later, but I do have the wedding wall, thanks to my resident handy man.

Wider shot towards the front door:

I excel at blurry photos in three feet wide hallways. Yet, the "wedding wall" does bring a smile to my face at each walk-through.