Friday, February 26, 2016

FASHION & FABRIC & FLOWER DISTRICT

Wrote about my trip to downtown LA and buying some things from Fashion, Fabric, and Flower District. If interested, click here.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

I should update you...

I made yet another blog. I have a general idea of which friend reads on which blog so I want to update all of you on what blog is what.

TUMBLR: I made this in early college (?) if not late high school, I think. I still have a few friends who read on there. Even until now, I love Tumblr humor and posts. So I often go there to get rapid-fire updates on what's cool in the Tumblr world.

BLOGGER: I made this at the end of college for friends who asked about my blog during the end-part-college of my life and I was too embarrassed to direct them to my Tumblr page. Basically, blogger and tumblr have the same posts. I'll write my posts on blogger, publish it, then copy and paste the text/pictures and post the same thing on Tumblr.

Now, a bit of background:
Russ was kind enough to make me an official website at the start of this year. At the end of December in 2015, I blogged about my new condo a lot and I got too many views on my katrinaandwords blog that it made me really anxious. Normally, by looking at the stats, I know how much my average views and reads are. And it pretty much correlates to how many people I know read my blog. But when I opened up my blog one day and saw a dramatic increase of view counts on my page, I didn't like it. Mostly because I didn't know who was reading my blog. I'm okay with one or two stray readers, but not a ton more. I told Russ this and explained that I didn't like knowing that there are people who find my blog now and are able to go back all the way to 2011 and see what I wrote. It's part of the reason why I made a blogger account years after making a Tumblr account. I get shy about what I've written in the past. It's basically a diary. So if I met you in the later part of my life, you get my blogger account URL without all the cheesy stuff I reblogged in my college days, when I used my Tumblr account primarily. Does this make sense? I'm rambling.

I blog in stages. Sometimes I feel like I outgrow an old blog so I start a new one. When I write in my personal journal, I get to end that diary when I write on the last page then I get to start a new one. I love the process of going into a shop, browsing different journals, picking the right one, and knowing that I get to use that journal for the next few months or even years. With the internet, I don't get to do that. I just get to write and write and write until one day I realize that I never got to end a chapter. It has pros and cons. Even with my personal journals, I hate going back and reading what I wrote years ago. I cringe. But I love the process of writing. I'll never stop loving that.

ANYWAYS, Russ made me a website where I feel comfortable sharing home renovation stuff plus crafts I'm doing. This site I blog more freely about house stuff knowing that if people run into that site, it's purely life updates/moments I don't mind sharing with strangers. And I get to be more artsy on it. It's a nice new grown up space. So if you're interested, check it out. Now I'm all shy. It was such a built up. Whatever. Here's the URL: TheHenryHome.com

Sunday, February 7, 2016

February Ramblings and Some Random Goals

Happy February, everybody! I know it's technically a week into the month already, but I haven't properly blogged in awhile.

Don't really know what to update, or what I feel like updating. I am, however, so glad that it's February. This means that Russ has managed to successfully - and independently - work from home. I haven't blogged about this yet, not sure if it's news that I necessarily want on the internets, but Russ and I were sort of plunged into a sharp career change. Sharp change because it happened so suddenly and all at once. The holidays were insane. But now I think we're getting a better handle on things. And things are starting to look up.

January consisted of a lot of networking. To have a successful company, or to even be a successful freelancer, you need a lot of contacts. This is not my strong suit. Thankfully, it's Russell's. He's been to loads of networking events, talking about our small startup and making connections with lots of people. It takes awhile for gigs to come in, but they're coming in. Hallelujah! It's manna from heaven.

Sometimes I'm stressed. Sometimes I'm happy. Many times Russ and I are both so excited. Many times I forget that I am excited and am back to being stressed. On these days, I moan to Russell about how unhappy I am and he sits and let's me feel those feelings, then he picks me back up and I am happy again. Honestly, it's so exhausting. Let's just say that I am thankful for 1) a strong, encouraging husband and 2) community group on Tuesdays. I'm humbled knowing that I am far from perfect yet I am loved just the same.

I'm talking writing rambling too much.

Here are my goals this month:

  • Make almond milk tomorrow morning. Got my almonds soaking in the fridge and am so excited to finally be making my own almond milk. I'll try to take pictures. Because I am that excited. (!!)
  • Sew more! I love it.
  • Write. Ugh
  • Get back on my devotion plan. Russell has been able to correlate the days I haven't done my devotions to the days when I am cranky. Ha.
  • Make more efforts to have a zero-waste home. I'm nowhere near to this but I have sewn us some reusable dinner napkins. One day, I hope to sew unpaper towels. I even got the snaps for them.
  • Declutter. Do you like getting rid of stuff? Because I do. I love going through cabinets and closets and getting rid of things. This week, my goal is to go through the kitchen cabinets and get rid of kitchen things I do not use. I'm eyeing you, you no good "nonstick" frying pan.
    Side note: Unfortunately, husband won't let me declutter his DVD collection on my own. Apparently that's one cleaning venture he wants to do together. 
Okay, okay, I need to end this blog post now because it hasn't gone anywhere and has simultaneously gone in 10 different directions.

Wishing you all a good February!