The Journey

And So We Begin

January 7, 2015 by Michelle Leave a Comment

Late in 2013 a friend directed me to this post on a favorite blog. We talked about wanting to make 2014 the year of living deliberately. I was inspired to be more discerning in where I focused my energy and choosing to plan over my usual flighty approach to things. Shortly after the new year my world tilted on its axis and while there were some good memories made in 2014, I carried with me some things that weighed heavily on my spirit during the year. My eyes were opened wide with wonder for the new experiences I embraced, which was a much-needed counterbalance to my heart’s ache over the empty spaces.

It was only in the last weeks of December that I was able to pause and be still and sit with it all. What I learned in those solitary moments bathed in white twinkle lights was that it is truly time to slow down, to take care of myself, and to be deliberate in my actions. So much of my life is internal. I get caught in my thoughts and my dreams and my plans, but to really and truly live deliberately I have to put actions behind those intangible thoughts. I have learned that I am resilient. That even when it seems as if everything that was a constant in my world is stripped away, and even when it feels like God has hit me over the head with a 2×4 to get my attention, I’m still standing.

So now the challenge is what to do with what I now know? What do I want to create in 2015 for my life?

I want to focus on good stuff. I know that sounds overly simplistic, but that’s what I want to do. I want to be happy. I want to be my authentic self and all that that brings with it. I want to be excited about life and not just going through the paces. I want to open myself up to all that life has to offer – even though that means being vulnerable. I don’t want to look back on 2015 and say “I wish I could have…” And the critical thing for me lies in the act of doing, not just thinking about and planning, but the actual doing.

So here is what I’m doing –

★ I want to nurture my relationships. The past few years have been so full of protecting myself from hurt and anger and all those messy emotions that are just part of life. I shut down and insulated myself against anything that might find the smallest chink in my armor and unravel me. I want to allow myself to love and be loved, to reach out and connect and be open to giving and receiving. I’ve already started working on a clean slate and letting the past go and have reached out to a couple of people in the hopes of starting a fresh conversation between us.

★ I want to read more this year, and read more involved books and a little less of the potato chip variety. I set the same goal of reading 25 books that I had last year on Goodreads. I’ve started reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. After seeing the mini series, it was a perfect choice to pull off the shelf.

★ I want to spend more time on my spirituality. One of the things I thought about last year was reading the Bible. This weekend I downloaded the She Reads Truth app and started the Bible in a Year plan. It’s feeding my soul.

★ I want to be more active. I’ve spent so much time thinking about and goal-setting about losing weight and getting healthy, etc. but it’s time to focus on the doing. The 2,015 miles in 2015 challenge on Instagram immediately struck a chord with me. What better way to encourage myself to get moving? One step at a time!

★ I want to learn new things. In the past I have allowed myself to become paralyzed by not doing new things for fear of failing. But if I never try, I never practice, I never take that first step – I will never grow. I’m learning to knit and I’m practicing because it’s not perfect and I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing, but I’m learning. And I’m learning because it makes me happy.

I think 2015 is going to be challenging, but I hope also it will be rewarding. I like to think that January is an empty bowl, full of promise and possibility of what’s to come.

And so it begins…

August in Photos

September 10, 2013 by Michelle Leave a Comment

I always feel that my birthday and then Labor Day signal the end of summer – marking the change from longer days and saturated color to cooler weather and wardrobe layering. Even though I’m sure we’ll have many more 100 degree days in front of us, my thoughts immediately turn to the new season. And judging by the number of Pumpkin Spice Latte pics I’m seeing on Instagram, I’m not alone in this.

August is, of course, my birthday month and it brought with it a much-needed vacation from work and time to get together with friends. I’m still enjoying breaking out some statement jewelry pieces, which has been great fun. I was also treated to some new nail polish, new (much needed) perfume, and a blow out. I even made it to the gym again.

I finished reading City of Glass and moved right into City of Fallen Angels – both so good. I’ll have a review of this series up soon. One of my birthday outings was getting together with a friend to see the Mortal Instruments movie on opening night. So good. So much love for Jace. Go see it if you haven’t yet. I’m looking forward to reading the fifth book.

I also spent an afternoon with another friend and we met for lunch at Bluebonnet Bakery, which was absolutely delicious. I had their famous chicken salad sandwich and then we both topped off our lunch with a slice of Italian Cream Cake. To. Die. For. I haven’t had Italian Cream Cake that good since last April!

For my birthday, Eric bought me new perfume. As I’d mentioned on this post, I was in dire need of some new perfume. I ended up with D&G Light Blue for a lighter, summery scent and Thierry Mugler’s Alien Essence Absolue for my deeper fall/winter scent. I love them both! He also took me out to dinner at Ziziki’s, which I just can’t stay away from for my birthday dinner. Everything there is absolutely delicious. I had the first glass of wine I’ve had in awhile, I can’t go wrong with a Riesling and this one was fabulous!

We also hit a milestone with Ramses and Thutmose. We decided that they were finally old enough that our Moroccan pouf would be safe to put out again. It has been locked away almost since we bought it, so it’s nice to actually have it out in the living room again. If we can get to a place where the other kitty-proof measures can be done away with I’ll finally be able to share our living room redo.

August was a good month, and I had a wonderful vacation and birthday. Exciting things are on the horizon for my new year!

July in Photos

August 17, 2013 by Michelle Leave a Comment

This summer is just zooming by like nobody’s business. Frankly, July was a rough month. Started out fine but then it took a nosedive. My crazy work schedule took over again and a lot of late nights left me feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Near the end of the month I made some adjustments in my attitude and did my best to start looking at things from a place of gratitude and abundance. Amazing what a difference that makes. Two things that have really helped me are the IG posts from @tarotandtea, particularly her daily tarot advice, and Katie O’Keefe’s blog and IG. I’m loving watching her moving through #intentionalaugust and #mth (making things happen). Both are two roads to the same destination, a destination of re-engaging with myself and what means most to me. All a work in progress, but I’m feeling a lot better equipped to deal with the “stuff” that’s going on in my life right now.

So, what adventures did I get up to in July? It was so nice to have a long weekend for 4th of July, and you can see I celebrated with a fun mani. I spent a day with some girlfriends over that weekend too – I even baked cookies! Eric and I opted to not go out to see fireworks, but instead we enjoyed the evening at home and watched some of the specials on tv.

We had lots of rain in July and it actually made for a much cooler summer than we’re used to in Texas. I love it when it rains, so it’s always a little bonus.

As part of my attitude adjustment, I spent some extra time on myself – nails (of course), some new makeup (eyeliner and powder), dug out my favorite summertime heels (don’t those cherries kill you?), and some summery statement necklaces like my starfish that jingle! I even went through all the lipstick I have hoarded in my purse. Amazing what you find in there.

I had a little bit of relaxation time that I spent working on a gift for my Goddaughter (a summery yellow quilt) and catching up on my DVR’d shows, namely the red carpet from the Oscars. Yes, it was in February.

Eric and I also did something for ourselves, we finally ordered our frame for the photo we printed from our honeymoon so we could hang it over our bed. The frame is perfect and goes beautifully with the warm tones of the sunset from the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Apologies for the reflection/glare in the photo…but trust me it looks wonderful. And it allowed us to mark our bedroom as complete on our home improvement list.

So that was July, and we’re already halfway through August so I’d better start thinking about my August in Photos post!

June in Photos

July 21, 2013 by Michelle Leave a Comment

I really am starting to wonder where the time goes. It’s nearly the end of July and here I am finally posting about June. Better late than never though!

After the craziness that was May, June actually seemed to take a turn for the better. I felt like I was making strides in some of my projects at home and starting to feel a lot more focused.

I started the month off with a Disco Biscuit mani. I mean, how can I go wrong with that?! I also tried a couple of untried polishes this month. I wore Sinful Colors Sugar Rush on my toes and I also decided to give the white mani trend a try. I was a little leery trying it since the yellow mani was such a fail. But the white mani I absolutely adored. It was fresh, it was fun, and it was completely on trend. I will be doing this again for sure. I used OPI’s Alpine Snow for this one. Oh, and I went back to another old favorite – Jade is the New Black. It went beautifully well with my fabric.

I got to go back to Whiskey Cake in June to get together with some coworkers for Happy Hour. That Foul Corsair is absolutely delicious. I kind of wish I’d had the whiskey cake for dessert again though.

I actually spent a fair amount of time sewing in June. I worked on two mini quilts. One got completely quilted and finished and I was able to give it to my friend, Ava, for her birthday. I’m thrilled with how it turned out with the Kaffe Fassett fabrics on the front and on the back. I also started collecting fabrics for the full version of the Swoon quilt (I made her mini quilt out of one block). I’m going to use Anna Maria Horner’s Field Study line for my Swoon. So excited about it!

June unfortunately brought with it a series of car “things” that were probably directly related with Mercury being in Retrograde. I started off the month buying new tires since two of mine were completely bald in order to pass inspection. Middle of the month I got my first speeding ticket in like five years or so. And then at the end of the month I had a car accident on the highway because my brakes went out. I couldn’t tell you the last time I was in a car accident. But, luckily very little damage was done to either car and everyone was uninjured. But I had to get new brakes – my brake lines had apparently completely worn through.

But the biggest and most exciting news is that I am taking a trip in the Spring to see my sweet friend, Sylvia, in Germany. I will spend a few days in Germany, but the most exciting part is that we are going to Paris! It is an absolute dream come true. I can’t wait. I will be there for a total of 13 days I think. I can hardly believe it. But the flights are booked and we are renting a little apartment in Paris for the two of us. But part of my preparation was to get my passport out and make sure it doesn’t expire any time soon. I found my old passport though, while I was looking, and it’s one lone stamp. Of course, the stamp was for our honeymoon to Rome, so I’m ok with it being the only stamp in there. It’s a special one!

Before you know it, it will be August, so hopefully I can make it back here to blog more frequently in the next weeks. And I realized it’s been forever since I did a book review…so I need to get on that. Currently reading City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. So good!

May in Photos

June 8, 2013 by Michelle Leave a Comment

I’m looking forward to June and the start of summer. May was rather a rough month for me. It started off well, and then took a bit of a nosedive.

At the beginning of the month our guild had our first workshop of the year, and I got the chance to finally meet a friend in person for the first time when she came to teach. She designed a beautiful piece for us and it was lovely just to get to give her a big hug and visit while I whisked her from place to place. We had a lovely dinner that evening at Via Real, with margaritas, of course!

Our guild meeting on the first Tuesday of the month also brought another visitor from out of town, a woman who collects and lectures on Mexican Samplers. What a treat that was to hear her speak and get to see some of the antique samplers she brought.

Work got crazy busy around the 7th of the month – I was working 10-12 hour days plus three nights a week I was on conference bridges from 10pm to 1 or 2am and working weekends too with no end in sight. Despite being so tired I could hardly see straight, I tried my best to focus on little bits of gratitude in the every day, whether it be the first BLT I’ve had in years or an amazingly beautiful holo polish.

Eric and I were able to attend my niece’s choir concert. It was a great show, and what a throwback to be in the cafeteria of the same elementary school my sister and I went to. Nothing much has changed!

I finished reading the Jenny Lawson book that I started on our flight back from New York in April and I decided to pick up the last Dan Brown book. Figured it was time I read it, since the new one was being released. I have made little to no progress in it, not so much due to the book, more to do with my limited reading time. But Fridays at the allergists office always offered me a thirty minute respite from my day and time to read.

As you can probably imagine though, I made it through the month with LOTS of coffee and sometimes just sheer willpower. I am so looking forward to June and summer and re-engaging with life.

March in Photos

April 10, 2013 by Michelle Leave a Comment

Something crazy has been going on with my blog and/or WordPress over the past week. I keep trying to come in and do a new blog post and haven’t been able to! So, finally here is March in photos.

March was kind of a month of indulgences. Between the Mozartkugeln from Germany, the yummy homemade pizza, a good book and some nail polish, I was kind of on a roll! Really, I think a good part of it was a bit of escapism from some stuff that hasn’t been so fun to deal with this month.

One of the best things this month was going to the Dallas Quilt Show with a friend. I haven’t been to the quilt show in years, and it was such a fabulous day full of inspiration and even a little shopping. And the inspiration hasn’t left yet. I’ve been itching to sew!! Once I finished my Kate Spain quilt in February, I was dying to get back to my Kiss Kiss quilt. In March, I managed to get all of the cutting finished and also got all of my pieced blocks sewn together. Next up is starting to assemble the rows. I can’t wait to see this beauty come together! And I finished up a hexy pincushion for a friend’s birthday and sent it on its way. And a beautiful little thank you card came in the mail for the birthday gift I’d sent to another friend last month. Isn’t that little bird with the blue and white bowls adorable?

Some days it really started to feel like Spring, and the trees were blooming with glorious color. But we keep getting days of temps dipping back into the 30s and 40s, so I indulged in a little Mexican hot chocolate in the evening.

In family life, my boys are getting so big! They are a year old and we are feeling so fortunate to have them in our lives. Their daily shenanigans really keep us on our toes!! In June it will mark one year that we’ve had them, which I find hard to believe!!

As always, I appreciate you stopping by! I’m really enjoying sharing some of what’s going on in my world here.