DIY Push Pin Boards and Random Other Things

So since the holidays are now over (thank goodness) I can show you guys how I made my dad's gift. He really wanted push pin boards for his Tigers Room, but he also wanted them to be Tiger's themed. I was going to do it all easy and just glue fabric to it, but I COULD NOT find any Tigers themed fabric that wasn't fleece. I did happen to come cotton fabric but it was on ebay and stupid expensive. So I decided to try out spray paint, the stencil way. And I did all this just with buying the paint. I had the paper and pin boards on hand already.

The Tin and ADHD

So I’ve been really busy lately or… not busy at all just lazy. I’ve actually been trying to work on a new system for me and all my projects and things that I want to do. Not many people know, but I have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I was supposed to grow out of it but I don’t think I did. And for a while I went through the whole “there’s no such thing, ADHD isn’t a real, it’s just hyper kids with no outlet”. From High School till my last year of college that’s how I felt about it. I simply thought my parents hadn’t put me in enough activities, or that none of my teachers really put in the time to help me understand things. I placed a lot of blame where it didn’t belong, and now 2 years out of college, with no homework or college life to keep me distracted and in line, I find myself bouncing around blindly from  task to task.

I do believe I grew out of the hyper part of ADHD, I’m actually super mellow. Now I just think I have normal ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), which is the same thing but no large amounts of random energy. Though I still have a problem with restlessness and impulse actions, must of the time this becomes an issue if I become highly frustrated or annoyed. But I digress, what I’m trying to say is people with this disorder have a very hard time staying organized and on track. The ironic part about all this, is that I love organization… or the idea of it anyway.

I know myself well enough to know when I’m fooling myself, and because of this I “mom” myself a lot.

“No Kelley you can’t do that”

“Kelley why haven’t you started on that project yet”

“Kelley get up and stop watching TV, you don’t even like this show”

“Why are you still on Facebook, it’s nothing but complaining anyway, what are you looking for?”

It’s goes on and on, but you get the idea. I’ve been working really hard to try and find a plan that works for me, something to keep me on track and focused. Because I know how bad my life can be if I didn’t care, I know how unorganized and how unhappy I would be if I didn’t do anything. And to me, that’s the scariest thing there is. That’s my version of a nightmarish hell. I watch shows like Hoarders or Buried Alive to remind myself of this fact. I’ve tried a lot of different strategies to keep myself focused, most have derailed… and it doesn’t take much for me to get derailed. I could say my boyfriend moving in or my grandma giving me 12 mini canvases to paint or the kitchen being to messy derailed me from my blog and whatever scheduled lifestyle I had then, but it could have been something else entirely.

If I’ve learned anything about myself, it’s that I like things to be planned ahead of time and scheduled. If some event jumps out of nowhere, I have a hard time dealing with it. I’ll have days where nothing is planned and days where my day is booked and if something comes up out of the blue on a booked day, two things will happen.

A.      I will try my hardest not to go to said event, if it’s not extremely important that I be there  or…

B.      I will go, but be annoyed at first. Do whatever the event is and then there’s a 75% chance my scheduled life will slowly decline to laziness nothing or I will rush to finish the things I was supposed to do that day. 50/50 chance if that works and doesn’t all fall apart.

And with saying all that, I should add I’m surround by spontaneous people whether it be friends or family. My life would make a wonderful comedy sitcom. I do love them all dearly, but sometimes it does make having a concrete schedule a little difficult. I imagine things might be easier in the future but until then the experiments will continue.

So currently I had an idea to organize everything! It was an amazing idea! I would just write down what I wanted to do, put it in a Tin/Jar and then pick at random! This was my great idea, and honestly it sounds silly. But honestly I think it might work. The whole concept behind it was to free my mind of thinking about all the thousands of other things I wanted to do, and the guilt of picking a crafty idea over an organizing one, or a workout idea. I would literally feel bad for taking some relaxed activity over a blog related one. It drove me crazy and in turn I did nothing. I couldn’t even enjoy a video game, because there were to many games to pick from. So I started writing everything down, I didn’t even know what to do at that time. But writing down all my ideas whether it was as simple as doing the dishes or as complex as saving $500, it just made me feel way more in control and less overwhelmed. Then without thinking, I started to cut them into strips and folding them, I had a random tin near me and started throwing them in there. I didn’t want to throw away my thoughts and plans, I wanted to save them. I wanted my life to be planned but not planned. The tin holds all the things I want to do, but in what order I do them is a mystery. And the fun thing is, I can’t pick a new task until the one I picked is completed. I figure this forces me to do one thing at a time, while leaving room for random life events.

Here’s to hoping I’ve found my balance!

Do you have ADHD or know someone who has it? Do they have a hard time staying focused or is life more laid back for them? And what are some strategies you use to stay focused and on task?      

Pretty Serious

So Tom and I like to bake...

I prefer to drink and bake. 

But needless to say, we're pretty serious about it. 

This are our serious faces, that's how you know we're serious!

P.S. It's 3AM here, and I thought this would be funny to share. :P

Office Life : Pros and Cons

I've been working in an office for almost a year now. This is my first ever office job. I remember times when I was working at the movie theater or that fast food place, thinking…


How awesome would it be to work at an office right now? How awesome would it be to NOT wear a fricken uniform?! How awesome would it be to finally have a sense of fashion? Or getting to sit down?

And of course the final question.

How awesome would it be to sit at a desk and just work with a computer / pick up phones?!?! 

How do you wrap it?

I love gifting!


But I'm pretty sure I love wrapping the gift more then giving the gift. I don't usually buy bags and wrapping paper and tags. I don't have the money, I don't want 20 rolls of different paper, I don't want all these different little things that I'll drown in.

I don't have the time, money or energy to deal with all that.

So I usually make it all myself! I'm really into reusing newspaper and ad papers. FREE PAPER!!! Come on guys what could be better then that? Sometimes I will paint or draw something on the paper to make it more festive. 

Gift wrap I used for my friends Valentine's Day gift. 

I make all my tags from old christmas/b-day/whatever cards. I do love getting cards, but I can't keep them all and I feel so bad throwing them away. Check out my tutorial for tags!

TAG TUTORIAL! 

Wrapped a bottle of Grey Goose for my friend Jackie's B-Day. :D

I also use boxes from noodles and cereal, along with any paint or knick knacks I have. I love to make it personal, you can't find that in a store! I also keep any tissue paper I get. Usually from Victoria Secret. *Snicker*

All the gifts I made for my friends for Valentine's Day

So how do you wrap it? 

So what you're saying is: we aren't gonna live together anymore?

Have you ever dated someone for so long you ended up living together? I'm sure many of you have, but what if you moved or something came up and in the end…

you weren't living together anymore…

Now I'm not saying bad things happen or whatever, I'm just saying your not living together anymore. Well if it hasn't happened  or if you think it may in the future, let me introduce you.

Gamer Girl Favs

Games I LOVE to play! 

Any Harvest Moon games! 

Any Sims games! I even have the Sims app for my phone! lol 

Black and White

Don't Starve

Chibi Robo

Animal Crossing ( I'm so jealous of everyone that could afford the new one!)

Marvel vs. Capcom

Dead or Alive

Tetris

Galaga 

Pro's and Con's of a Keurig Coffee Maker

I'm going to start this off saying I'm not hating on Keurigs in any way. This is just my opinion with my experiences.

And with that here we go!

Now I'm a novice coffee snob and I'm pride to say that! WOOT!! So I love specialty coffee machines, as well as old school French Presses. Currently I own a Keurig and a Nestle Pixie, used to have a French Press before it broke ( I was really sad).  So with that being said how does this work with my environmentally side? Well it's actually a balanced in it's own way. But that's for me, not for everyone and I'll tell you why.

Cup I designed! 

Pro's


-Quick and fresh
 Some days I don't want a whole pot of coffee, some days it's just me and me wants just one perfect    cup.

-Great for trying out different kinds of coffee! Buying a big bag of gourmet coffee can be scary! Especially if you have no idea if you like it or not. Keurig offers lots of different coffees and teas! And that's exciting for someone like me, who wants to constantly tastes new flavors.

-Great for hosting! Say you have a friend or two over and say they are not as adventurous as you with coffee. Well you can still have them feel nice and comfortable with there own special cup! Great way to let them know you care.

-Easy clean up!

Con's

-Expensive! Those K-cups can really put a dent in your wallet if you drink a lot of coffee. I would actually recommend using a multiple cup coffee machine if you have a large group of people over, or if you feel an all nighter coming on.

-Wasteful! I've seen a lot of articles pretty much saying that K-cups are filling up landfills like crazy and I can believe it! And that's why the the My K-Cup was invented! (well I believe anyway) It's a reusable K-Cup, so use the normal K-Cups to find out the things you like and then I would suggest buying a bag of it for your My K-Cup. Might even be cheaper in the end.

Well I was going to think of more Con's to make it even but I really can't. I love my Keurig, even if some would find it wasteful. But really, I do my "hippie" part, I try to look into USDA coffee's and support Fair Trade to the best of my wallets ability. I can't afford to drink my fancy coffee everyday, but when I do I try my best to make it count. Making my dollars count and my Keurig helps me do just that.

Now that the table's open, what's your option on the Keurig? Do you like it? Hate it? Experiences?

10 Questions

1.How old are you?
  23 years old.

2.When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
     A librarian, roller skating waitress, vet, artist, doctor, detective, spy, anthropologist, scientist, witch, teacher, dancer, singer, movie star…I wanted to be every amazing thing I could think of when I was a kid.

3.If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go?
    EVERYWHERE! I would love to travel everywhere!

4.If someone asked you to give them a random piece of advice, what would you say?
    Don't ever let anyone say you can't, because you can.

5.What’s one of your favorite habits you have?
     Ripping a small bag of chips completely open, so that my hand doesn't touch the sides.  

6.Do you like to plan things out in detail or be spontaneous?
It's a constant battle between the two.

7.Would you rather live in the country or in the city?
In the country close to the city.

8.What do you think people think of you?
I would hope they thought I was the most awesomest thing since frozen pie.

9.What were your grades like in school?
Lots of B's and C's, with a helping of D's on the side. ( and that's elementary through college)

10.If you could learn one random skill, what would you learn?
Riding a horse bareback. Hey you never know!

Why Tea is just THAT amazing!

That's yummy beet sugar on the bottom!

I like tea, sadly it's not my "go to" drink(I prefer coffee). But hope I can change some of that this summer. I started prepping my tea early in the week, and I'll put it in mason jars. So now when I open my fridge, I don't just have "milk" or some type of juice(I'm not a big juice person unless I do it myself/organic). I have teas ready to go, and I can either drink they cold or warm them up! So that gives me time to do other things besides waiting for my tea to set. 

Now I'm sure we all know that there are benefits to drinking tea, health and beauty wise. Come on ladies we all know we want to look fabulous! I know I do, and drinking more tea will give you those wonderful benefits. One cup at a time! 

So lets get started on health! 

Green Tea 

• Has dietary ingredients for younger looking skin, hair and nails. 
• Powerful Antioxidants that help fight against bladder,breast, lung, stomach, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers! 
• Helps you relax, burn fat, and fights against nerve disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. 
• Also great for your heart! 

Black Tea

• Highest caffeine count! (may be a good replacement for coffee hmmmm)
• Helps protect lungs from second hand smoke
• Also good for you heart! 

White Tea

• Has the most potent anticancer properties! 
• Also delicious!

Oolong Tea

• Lowers cholesterol (drink enough of this you might be able to kiss those cholesterol pills goodbye!)

Pu-erh Tea

• Type of black tea, but pressed into cakes
• Less weight gain
• Lowers cholesterol

Facts!

• Tea can boost exercise endurance!
• Tea is great for hydrating the body! (please stay away from the soda/pop this summer! Well not give you that wonderful summer shine and luster)

Things to do with tea (that isn't drinking it)

• Reduce Razor Burn!: Apply wet tea bag over affected area and then replace that razor blade, because it did a horrible job at being awesome.
• Smelly Feet!: Give them smelly toes a daily tea bath, your feet with love you forever! Just make sure it's strongly brewed tea and that you let your feet relax in it's nice special bath for 20 minutes! (Light some candles and play some soft music while your at it)
• Plants!: Use new or used tea and sprinkle around rosebushes for a midsummer boost! Cover with dirt or mulch to hide the tea from hungry animals. When you water the roses the nutrients will help the roses grow. Roses love tannic acid that comes from the tea.
• Eyes!: Of course everyone knows this one, but in case you don't. Your skin around your eyes loves tea and all the wonders within it! So get some wet tea bags warm/cold and place on your closed eyes for 20 minutes! Your eyes will feel refreshed and will also help with any bags under the eye area. 

My friend Ashley lllooooovvveeesss tea! LOOK HOW MUCH SHE HAS!!! She's like her own little tea store! She also introduced me to beet sugar! I had no idea what it was, but it's yummy and better for you then normal white sugar(which isn't vegan anyway). But there you have it! The wonders of tea! 

                    What are your favorite types? I personally love fruity teas or  floral teas.    

New Layout!

Well not a new layout, and not interiorly a whole new look. But I'm working on it. Still trying to figure out exactly what I want this blog to be about. I mean I have some what an idea.....just taking me a little longer then I would like. I'm grabbing lots of inspirations from lots of other blogs.

Blogs like:

• Zerudas Wonderland - Love how simple and clean it is.
• Yes and Yes - I really like the messages she gives to people
• Miss Indie Designs - Love how everything looks personal and unique  
• Cupcakes Clothes - Everything just looks so cute and bright! 

These sites are usually my inspiration, most post daily, so I read them almost everyday. I hope to be as great as them. But it's just taking me a little longer. WHICH is okay! I'm thinking of lots of things to post and cool pictures to take! I'm hoping someday I'll have some people look up to me, the same way I look up to these ladies. Someday...

  

Hope you all have a great day or night. It's night time here at the moment. 

Yarn

Yarn......seriously....I'm thinking about it.