Getting the most out of my day...

This has been the year of accepting that I can do it all, I just can’t do it all at once. I’ve learned  what I need to put on the back burner and what I need to make a priority and while I am still trying to find out how exactly to balance everything, it is getting better every day.

I’ve stepped away from creative things for a while because full time work and full time school required all of my attention. This was a choice I made because I know in the big scheme of things I will be much happier pursuing a career in education than I will be with any career I could have right now. My school is on a break until August, so it’s time for me to dig back into the creative things I love, like writing, sewing, and (most importantly) making music.

I am just turned 27 and the realization that I am now in my late twenties makes me fearful that I am ‘too old’ to start seriously pursuing dreams that seem designed for the young and hopeful. But that’s just a new excuse to make for myself. There are always going to be a million excuses: I don’t have enough money, I don’t have enough time, I’m too young, I’m too old. All of them are bullshit. You find what you love and you find a way to do it. Sometimes this means more long term planning and sometimes it means giving up something else in order to go after what you really want, but in the end if you keep making excuses and you keep putting it off you will never accomplish anything important to you.

xoxo,
kat

Thing I love right now...

Journaling Everything

I recently took a class on management skills for work and they talked about documenting what you do through out the day. The purpose of the exercise was to see where you were wasting time during the day but I decided to not look at it so negatively. While doing this did increase my productivity, it also gives me more of a sense of accomplishment. Working in an office is difficult for me. I have a hard time feeling accomplished doing this work, I have a hard time seeing the value. But when I bought myself a little day by day calendar and started documenting my daily tasks I started to get a greater sense of accomplishment and this reduced some of my stress and made me generally happier at work. Really, all list things I had done as I did them (Exampled: -auditing four files, -drafted resident letters, -sent balance due letters to x number of residents.) It's nothing fancy and it takes little to no time to do but at the end of the day I have a record of what I accomplished and it really makes this work that I have a hard time learning to feel less draining and slightly more fulfilling. 

 Being Outside

I just want to be outside all the time. I work in an office and when I am done at 6 it is too dark and too cold to be outside. I try and wake up early and walk my dog every morning but this past week it was even too cold for that (she refused to go outside, she is small, don't judge her inability to deal with the cold.) On weekends right now all I want is to hike and walk and explore and be outside, I just need California to start acting like California again and stop torturing me with cold winds. 

Being Back in School 

 

This was a really difficult decision to make. I have so little left to do to get my Masters that for most people the decision seemed really clear but for me the decision was extremely difficult. I thought I was going to wait another year before finishing but now that I am back in the swing of things and I know how close I am, it is exciting and just the best. I am so much happier waking up every day knowing I am working for this huge goal again. 

Cheap Dates 

This has become something important (being in school is costly and having big dreams and goals takes money) and also incredibly enjoyable. The surprising thing is a lot of these dates and adventures have involved being outside or doing things that are culturally interesting (yes, I am implying that an air show is culturally important...because it is.) Museums in our area are generally cheap (sometimes free), making dinner together is awesome, and then there are things like air shows which cost half the price of a movie and involve incredible views like this one. Cheap dates have also meant a lot of sharing each others interests (this is how I decided to face my fear and go rock climbing, which I will write about later) and that is really the best part. Instead of going out to dinner or to an overpriced bar we are doing things together that allow us to share sides of each other we wouldn't see otherwise. 

xoxo,

kat 

Crochet my life away: Captain America Edition

I am terrible at patterns. I always want to be able to look up a pattern and dedicate myself to it but it just never works out that way. I cut corners, I use tricks I know to create shapes, I make things up as I go along. That's how this hat happened. I kept looking for some kind of Captain America pattern for a gift I wanted to make and yet everything had intricate (though generally easy) patterns that I was just too lazy for, my attention span just did not want to deal. 

Instead I made this hat. This very silly hat (that I thoroughly promised the person I gave it to that they would never EVER have to wear in public - that is how silly it really is.) 

I was happy with how the 'A' came out but I think I need to work on a new more solid hat pattern using a different stitch if I am going to continue with more hats that require this type of detailing. Also, the little wings on the sides look like cat ears when this hat is worn so the good news is, when I start making animal hats for everyone this fall (sorry friends, that is what you are all getting for Christmas) I at least already know how to make cat ears.

For my next craft project: Owl Pillow (because I promised Michelle she would have them like three months ago.)


Do you use patterns when crafting or do you prefer to make it up as you go along?

xoxo,
kat

Monday Funday: A list of things to help keep it positive this week

Mondays have just about the worst reputation and I have started to feel really bad for them. It's not their fault that the weekend has ended and most of us have to return to the world of the 9-5. It's not Monday's fault that the weekends are a time of awesome and the week is generally a time of responsibility and hard work. So, from here on out Monday is going to be Monday Funday and it will include a quick little list (because who does not love lists?!) of things that are keeping me happy this week.

Let's start with Fraggles + Ben Folds Five + The Nerdist Podcast = THE BEST THING EVER

Fraggle Rock was my favorite show when I was a kid. I loved it WAY more than I loved any version of The Muppet Show (and that is saying something.) And Ben Folds Five...UGH, I am so excited they've made a new album.


Now, let's talk for a second about Axe Cop - a 29 year old artist was playing pretend with his 5 year old brother who created the greatest character ever: Axe Cop. The 29 year old brother knew it was his duty to take the brilliance of his 5 year old brother and create the comic Axe Cop - and yes, it is everything you want it to be and more times a billion. I laughed so hard I cried buckets of tears with each turn of the page. If you don't want to buy the comic book you can start off with reading some of the comic online.

And finally, the new Avett Brothers album. I am going to write a full review after I go see them in a couple weeks but for now, you should listen to it. You should listen to it right this minute.

(This is from the last time I saw them in Saint Louis, it is crazy to say that since this photo was taken I have seen them 3 more times and will be seeing them again in two weeks: obsessed? Yes.)


xoxo,
kat

Back in the saddle again (and again, and again)

Well, hello there lovely blog, how have you been? Oh, you've just been sitting here since July wondering when I am going to post a follow up about feeling overwhelmed and thinking a vision board might help me tackle some big goals?

Yeah, so have I.

This blog was originally supposed to support my (now closed) Etsy store and all the crafty adventures I was going to have. Then it was going to be about my three favorite things: crafts, books, and music. Yet, even that (somehow) lacked focus.

This blog has never felt like my own voice and it's never really been that exciting or creative of an outlet for me. Maybe it's because blogging is this really intensely bizarre world these days. I mean, take a look at A Beautiful Mess - many bloggers and blog readers can remember when she had a small little blog about scrapbooking and now look at this amazing site she has created. It is easy to look at that and think "WHAT AM I DOING WRITING A BLOG?!?!?! I DON'T EVEN HAVE PHOTOSHOP."

And then there is where my life is at right this minute. I work a job that requires sometimes up to 60 hours a week from me and I have one insane commute because I moved home a few months ago after a messy break up. That's right, I am 26 years old, living at home, spending 3 hours a day driving, working 9-7 most days, and I want to do a million and one creative things with my day, every day. 

But when I was driving home listening to "Call Me Maybe" on the radio for the ten millionth time because my iPhone was drained of all life, I realized that maybe this is exactly what I should be writing about. No, not Carly Rae Jepsen (we've all had enough of that for a while, right?) but my life as it actually is right now and the things that I am actually trying to do with it.

It's a terrifying idea because when I think of blogs that I love and turn to for inspiration and that make my day better - they are all freaking gorgeous. It's women wearing my favorite clothes, doing crafts I love, reading wonderful books, going on lovely coffee dates, listening to just the best records, and generally doing all the things I want to do every single day but can't because I am just not there yet.

I am sure all these bloggers I admire went through tough times (and maybe still are going through them) but that is not what they decided to show on their blogs. They decided to show the gorgeous and beautiful side of the lives they are living. I want to show that too but the thing is, even the really beautiful things that are happening in my life right now are pretty messy and rough around the edges. That's what keeps me from writing and posting and sharing, the fact that none of it is anywhere near what seems acceptable for a blog.

I could list about forty examples of the type of blogger I am talking about (and envious of) but at the end of the day my life isn't like that and I am not those people. Instead, I can share my stories about having a grown up job that is the absolute opposite of what I want to do with my life (seriously guys, I'm an accountant who failed math in high school...), I can share my pop culture obsessions (and probably talk too much about Joel McHale's arms),  I can write entire posts without forcing pretty pictures on them that are not actually relevant (I seriously spent an hour looking for a photo to go with this post...why?), I can admit that it's ok to not read a book a week, I can be honest about how the real world is affecting me (oh you know, there is just a really important election going on and sometimes news happens) and I can write about real life adventures such as going to Ikea and discovering it's free breakfast day (meaning Monday, apparently) because these are honestly the things in my life that I am excited about and that is what makes them worth sharing.

So here we go, another attempt at making this blog my own and giving myself the creative outlet I've been searching for. Hopefully this time around it grows into something for me and for you.

xoxo,
kat

That time I met with a psychic and other thoughts on life.

At work this weekend we had a holistic pool party for our residents. It involved massages, great healthy food, something called "body talk" that looked really cool, and psychic readings. On my lunch break from my tiny, windowless office, I decided to head outside and partake in the psychic readings. Ok, who am I kidding, the minute our activities director said there would be a psychic doing free readings I basically BEGGED to be signed up for one.

What's funny is, I am not a huge believer in psychics - I assume 99% of it is just people who are extremely well trained in asking leading questions and reading into peoples reactions. But, I wont lie, there is 1% of me that when faced with the option of a psychic reading goes "OH MY GAWD - SHE'S GOING TO TELL ME MY FUTURE!!!!"

While I am not going to go into the juicy and extremely interesting details of the session (I know, that was kind of mean of me) I was really inspired by the session to go back to something I used to do a long time ago, something that is basically the reason pinterest was created: a vision board.

(Screen shot from searching pinterest for vision boards looks just like pinterest all of the time.) 

There are so many things I want to do with my life and that makes it easy to get overwhelmed and allow scope and scale of what I want to accomplish to make it difficult to see what needs to be done to get there: the product gets in the way of the process.

xoxo,
Kat

Music Madness: The Lumineers

This has been a song I just. Can't. Stop. Listening. To. (You can find The Lumineers here with an official music video for this song.)

I love how much attention this style of music is getting these days. Last summer it was "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and now it just feels like it is everywhere on my radio (The Head and The Heart and Of Monsters and Men seem to be on my radio daily.) I mean, yes, Katy Perry is still producing number one hit after number one hit and none of this music is ever going to stop her but when music like this ends up on stations, even if just for a week or two, it gives me a tiny little bit of hope that we aren't all doomed.

Check them out and more at Record Store Day.

xoxo,
Kat