Fun and Mental Changes

I have been SOOOOO behind (as I've already complained about in previous posts) putting the new house together, painting, unpacking boxes and whatnot... add to that my husband's slow recovery from surgery and a sprinkling of family drama and you've got yourself a girl who is completely behind in EVERYTHING.  WHY am I so fatigued and WHY is it so difficult to catch up?  Maybe I just needed a little R&R, a little "me" time to veg in front of the TV.  So off I went, remote control in hand ready to sit and veg except...... OH YEAH, that's right!  I'm behind on housework as well and the dang handprint someone left in the dust on the TV is suddenly a distraction that cannot be ignored.  In fact, its the only thing I can see when I look at the screen.  Time to clean, and clean I did!!!  In fact, I've never cleaned faster and I want to share my 5 tips to speed cleaning (plus a bonus).  And once I got started, a little burst of energy was a welcomed perk.

Well... I am putting things together in the new house.  We've moved and I'm starting to find stuff in the mountain of boxes... unfortunately, my camera cord is not one of them!!!  So sorry in advance for the pics that are coming in the next few postings while I look for it.  But with Kevin's surgery over with and getting out of cramped quarters in the apartment, I'm finally getting my life back and into the swing of ORGANIZING the new home!!!  Needless to say, after such a long time of not posting, I have a few things to show you.  But I'm going to start with the pantry. When we first purchased the house I had grand designs to turn this DEEP pantry into a step in-pantry by removing the shelving that is currently in there and replacing it with thinner shelving (going from about 20" shelves to 12" shelves).  There is nothing worse than a pantry that hides stuff because things get buried in deep shelving.  But after paying movers and buying window coverin

You got it... ANOTHER house post.  The countdown is on for us to close on our new home.  I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!  Of course I lay up at night designing and decorating my new home over and over plotting and planning every detail.  Of all the details, storage and "hiding spots" is always at the top of my list to keep my Chi flowing and my mind sane (well... as sane as it CAN be).  There is nothing that gives me greater joy in fulfilling all of that than an armoire.  This work horse does it all and wraps it in a beautiful package!!! HELLO WORK HORSE!!!  Check out ALL that storage!!!  This gorgeous armoire comes with interior drawers and one exterior drawer accented with metal knobs.  This SOOOOO appeals to the decorator in me... that is SO my style!!!  This armoire also came equipped with an electrical outlet strip attached to the inside as well as a place to install a clothing rod: And if you click on the second pic to enlarge it, you will see a panel in the ba

HOW does someone leave her blog for so long and actually accumulate more followers???  You guys are WONDERFUL!  Thank you for all the kind words and emails I've received over the past few months!!!   I have not fallen off the earth.  I really am thinking of all of you... I promise!!!   Today I want to share probably one of the COOLEST alteration projects I've ever done, but first I want to share where I've been and what I've been up to because it plays a HUGE role in this project I'm sharing coming to fruition!!!  In a nutshell, we are buying a new home. Welp... after months of working to sell the home we were in, moving into an apartment (that is screaming to get us on an episode of Hoarders), we are finally getting ready to call the newly built house our home.  Yes, I will have TONS of pics to share as soon as we close and get settled... God-willing we'll be leaving this apartment in three weeks!!!  All the female decorator cells I have in my body are buzzin

So this post is inspired by the pic above.  It was posted by one of my facebook friends and my response was, "um.... good point!"  And that led to me thinking about WHAT is marriage?  Well, I am a Christian and my Christian friends would say that marriage is a holy and divinely established covenant.  That the "holy" and "divinely" would exclude gay people from marriage based on the whole "and when a man lies down with a male the same as one lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination...Lev. 20:13" keeping the union from being classified as :"divinely ordered".  But then, couldn't the same be held true for divorce?  Why are Christians allowed to divorce?  Doesn't the Bible also say, “So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate . . . And I say to you:  whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery” (Matth

My cleanse ended YESTERDAY!!!  I officially made it 15 days on the juice cleanse.  Here's my take-away: Pros SOOOOO much easier in the beginning than The Master Cleanse ever was... as in NO HUNGER!!! SOOOOO much tastier... as in there are about a MILLION different juice concoctions you can come up with! SOOOOO not boring...Drinking the lemonade on The Master Cleanse gets VERY boring after about the 10th day. Weight loss was a steady 1 pound a day. Staying hydrated was a snap! Monster Energy.  There are always sluggish days on The Master Cleanse.  This juice cleanse had NONE!!! Skin glowed. NO SALT WATER FLUSH... those of you who have completed The Master Cleanse know EXACTLY what I speak of here. Cons Cleaning the juice machine after EVERY "meal" of juicing got to be annoying. I found that I had some serious cravings... and for bad food!  On The Master Cleanse all hunger and cravings pretty much disappear after the first 3-4 days. NO SALT WATER FLUSH!!

Ok you guys... I just saw Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead!  WOW!!!  THIS is the fast I'm doing this year!!!  In the past, I've always done The Master Cleanse, but after watching this movie... I'm ALL OVER giving this fast a try.  I LOOKS DELICIOUS!!!  Instead of daily salt water flushes and choking down the lemon/maple syrup/cayenne concoction (which I won't lie, I personally enjoyed but had heard COUNTLESS complaints) I am going to be undertaking 20 days of fresh vegetable and fruit juices.... only fresh vegetable and fruit juices.... starting tomorrow. The movie made the fast seem very doable and the juices they consumed looked yummy so I'm hoping I won't suffer the INTENSE feeling of hunger I alway have to go through the first few days of The Master Cleanse.  They did mention that you don't feel very good the first few days of this juice fast because of detox symptoms, but I'm hoping that because I fast pretty regularly, I won't have the same issue. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?  I get a freaking virus RIGHT before I'm to leave for Vegas?!?  Ok, so before I go on my rant, I just want to say that I was able to restore my system quickly and easily, but (as is ALWAYS the case when a virus "surprises" us) I was freaked out for a good 10 minutes this morning.  And I will add that with my HUGE to-do list.... yep, I did it up last night.... I was more than a little irked to have to add "Remove Virus Scam" to it.  But there is a little lesson here to add to my last post... Allow flexibility in your scheduling - hard and fast rules for your daily schedule should just not exist.  There are some appointments or tasks that need to be completed timely and on-time, but allow a bit of wriggle room in your schedule.  That, too, lends itself to relieving a little bit of stress. Now, with that out of the way... UGH!  I DID NOT NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!  THE DANG THING LOCKS YOUR COMPUTER!!!  But luckily I only melted down for a

Yep... I've FINALLY discovered the MAGIC that is the Google Calendar!!!  I had NO IDEA that it actually synced to my phone!!!!  FREEDOM!  SWEET FREEDOM! Now for those of you who are NOT schedulers, let me tell you why schedules are so important and why this discovery, in particular, is so empowering to me. Schedules free your mind - when you get your thoughts out of your head and placed into some kind of order (or plan) on paper, your brain is not taxed with the job of remembering. Plans allow you to reach your goals quickly and efficiently - a plan maps out the best course to get you from point A to point B.  For example:  you know that you have to meet Judy on the west side of town for lunch, then be on the east side to pick up paperwork at the office, west side again to pick up flowers at the florist and finally north to pick up dry cleaning.  Well, planning your day allows your brain to go on auto-pilot.  All it has to do is follow the plan once it is made.  And the

... and for those who aren't so crafty but are curious.... THERE'S STILL TIME!!!!  Tim Holtz (a ROCKSTAR in the art and papercrafting world) is giving away new release items from CHA 2013 and there's still time to enter and win.  His last post shows his new Stamper's Anonymous lines (Tim Holtz Blog HERE ), but be sure to read his last few posts for an awesome recap of the CHA show.  Honestly, I think I developed a permanent stutter as I looked at Tim's CHA recap... my tongue didn't work and I began to drool.  I'd be quite embarrassed if it weren't for the fact that it was going on 1 a.m. and the house was dark.  But I gotta say, the Blueprint Series is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!  Check out what Chelle Fowler created for the CHA show!!! Click HERE to see the rest of her AMAZING creations!!!  When life slows down and I can play in my craft room again, I'm SOOOOOOO scrap-jacking this wonderful card!  Have a great one gang!!!  Good luck to everyone!

Too often we say "I love you" with food.  For some time I've been trying to break that nasty habit in my household, but this way of expressing "I love you" is something that has been done to me, and I've done to other people, for my entire life.  And is it just me, or does EVERY celebration have to revolve around food???  Tonight I am committing to ending this behavior once and for all.  The trick is figuring out how to quit associating food gifting with love giving.  Here's a great example: Once, my husband brought me home a banana split... smiling from ear to ear.  I PANICKED!  For a split (pardon the pun) second I FREAKED OUT in my head thinking, "I've eaten a perfectly clean diet all week.  I'm in the home stretch.  WHY would he do this to me?  Can I REALLY turn down a banana split?  Will I hurt his feelings by turning it down?"  I honestly went through a pretty manic minute and half before asking him, "why did you buy me a b

I cannot tell you how many times in the past four weeks or so I've heard that question.  Truth is, I honestly haven't been anywhere... still here.  Just VERY busy focusing on making this new year count as things are shifting for me again. A few years ago I started this little blog adventure because the real estate market was shifting (oh was it shifting... and it seemed like the end of the world) and my career seemed like it was coming to an end.  In an attempt to focus on the positive and reconnect with myself, I started FunAndMentalChanges.com (click HERE to see my very first post from November, 2008).  Well, things seem to be shifting again in my life, I've been busy prepping to move forward and was reminded this evening how important my blog was during the first shift so I thought I owed to myself (and my lovely blog family) to update my blog a bit more regularly going forward.... cuz these changes are, yet again, FUN and COMPLETELY MENTAL!!! WOW!  That was quite a r