Graduation Shoes

I was thinking today that it's been a year since I graduated with my Master's Degree.  You know, a lot of people paint their mortarboards or bedazzle them or put cute sayings on them (and I did that when I got my undergrad degree, so I wanted to do something different...).  So, I thought about how I've always wanted shoes with the painted soles (a la Louboutins -- let's be honest, who doesn't lust after those shoes?) and I sort of ran with the idea.  Since I was graduating from Clemson, I figured the perfect thing was to have white shoes and paint the soles orange and purple.

So these are the shoes I bought:

The soles were originally brown, but I painted them a base coat of white.

I figured it would be fun to have the tiger paw on the soles of the shoes and it would be easier to paint the soles white and put a template down and paint over it.

Two coats later, the orange shoe is done!

So I started on the purple shoe.

It was a little splotchy after the first coat...

...so I put a second coat to even it out.  It looks really dark, but I promise it's purple!

After I got them painted, I figured they could use a little more pizzazz, if you know what I mean.  I put purple rhinestones on the orange shoes and orange rhinestones on the purple shoes to outline the tiger paw and make it stand out more.

Voila!

Obviously I could only wear them once before all the rhinestones came off, but I really only painted them for  graduation anyway so I don't feel too bad the rhinestones came off.  So, yeah.  Enjoy the shoes!  I still wear them when I need cute white shoes (and I got them on sale for about $10, so I don't mind that they're painted and the rhinestones fall off...).

Things That Go Bump In The Night

You know, I assumed once you passed puberty you'd sleep better.  Well, maybe not better being an adult and having all that extra responsibility and stress and all, but I figured you'd at least grow out of being afraid of the dark.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid of the dark, per se, but I'm afraid of what happens in the dark: sleep.  Let me back up and tell you all when this whole shebang started...

I know in college you don't get much sleep (I think I averaged about 20 hours a week, but it's kinda my fault 'cause I always took 21 credit hours - the maximum you can take - each semester).  So after undergrad and grad school, I was accustomed to only getting about 20-25 hours of sleep a week and I've operated very well on that amount for the past 10 years.  That is until I got engaged 3 years ago.  Now I know planning a wedding is stressful and it's bound to take a toll on your body, but this was excessive.  See, I had my gallbladder removed about 5 years ago and my body now throws hissy-fits that put shame to a spoiled little kid in the grocery store candy aisle whenever I eat anything with protein, with dairy, or is fried (so basically everything delicious).  Don't get me wrong, I still eat all of that (I mean, I need protein and all the vitamins and nutrients there within...and I really like tasty food...) but I have to assess my daily plans to decide if I have the time to lay on my couch in pain for hours at a time before I indulge in that.  Well, apparently stress exacerbates this otherwise minor digestive issue.  Now combine that issue with the stress of graduate school and planning a wedding and you have one very sick bride (i.e. me).  So at the urging of my then future-husband and my mother (and my maids-of-honor, my then future-in-laws, my professors, my coworkers, and basically everyone I knew), I went to the doctor who thought my caffeine intake was partly to blame for my lack of sleep and my increased stress (keep in mind back in college I would have about 3-4 energy drinks in a day as well as 3-4 triple shot espressos to keep me focused), so I stopped all of my caffeine consumption that day.  Cold turkey.  Completely stopped.  Even sweet tea.  I'll let the gravity of that last statement sink in (for those of you not from the south, sweet tea is the nectar of the gods and it makes the world turn).  Turns out I'm pretty much immune to caffeine.  After going a few months with not a single drop of caffeine I was sleeping less, I was losing more weight (during the months leading up to my wedding I went from a size 10 to a size 4 - keep in mind I was not trying to lose weight...I'm just fairly tall and size 10 is about average for someone my height), I was less productive during my waking hours, and the night terrors started.

Now, I just assumed it was the stress of everything coming down on me (word to the wise, elope), and I figured they were just your typical stress-induced nightmare so I just learned to deal with them when they happened.  (I also had a small sleep test during my no-caffeine run just to make sure everything was working up in the ol' noggin.  Everything came back fine, I guess, because they never told me otherwise.)  Anyway, I figured once the wedding was over and once I got my Master's Degree the terrifying nightmares would go away.  How wrong I was.

I can't even begin to count the nights I've woken myself up screaming or trying to run from something in the dark.  I've even woken up in different clothing and/or with food in my bed with no recollection of changing or getting up for a snack (which is not really unheard of for me...I have a very high metabolism and I'm almost always hungry).  Some people told me I needed to get more sleep which just seemed to exacerbate the problem (I usually have an episode when I get more than 4 hours of sleep) and others (namely, my husband) thinks my affinity for ghost-hunting tv shows could be to blame (and I would agree if what was terrifying me in my dreams was a ghost, but it never is).  So, I went to the great Google to do a little research and came upon this Wikipedia article.  While it was a great start, it posed more questions than it answered.  So back to Google I went.  The Mayo Clinic was fairly useless, as were many other sites I checked, and some even contradicted the information on medical sites.  So I kept looking.

After a while, I started to think that maybe I was just having very vivid nightmares which seem to be much more common and less of an issue than night terrors.  I mean, I work two jobs to pay the bills and I'm trying to find a job that actually uses my degrees (which is a job in and of itself) and I'm trying to do a little freelance and I'm trying to help my cousin get into college (she'll graduate next year from high school, so we're on kind of a time crunch...), so I know I'm under a lot of stress and maybe that's why I don't sleep well and why when I get more than 4 hours of sleep I have nightmares - I'm guessing my brain thinks I could be using my time more wisely by job hunting at 3 AM...  So I figured that was that and I was just having normal nightmares...that is, until I came across this site, among others, that differentiate between nightmares and night terrors and also sites like WebMD and this site from the UK that lists all kinds of sleep issues and now I don't know what plagues me in the night!  I guess that's what I get for trying to figure it out on my own and trying to make it stop by myself.  (In case you guys are wondering, I don't really like doctors...at all...so I always go to the almighty Google first to try to figure out whatever ails me and I try natural remedies first.  If that fails, then maybe I'll consider seeing a doctor...maybe...)

So yeah...this has just been on my mind for a bit -- especially since I woke up terrified this morning with some fresh bruises that I'm pretty sure weren't there last night when I went to bed.  If anyone knows of anything I can try at home to stop this whatever it is, feel free to let me know!

Spring Cleaning - Laundry Room & Bathroom

So I'm still doing my spring cleaning this year (and I'm super motivated thanks to Pinterest) so I decided to focus a few days on the laundry room and the master bathroom.  First up is the laundry room.  This is what it used to look like (I warn you, the picture is horrific!)

Don't say I didn't warn you ('cause I did...).  Now, you can imagine how much I looked at that and almost turned away and decided that that was a project for another day.  But I pushed on and promised myself I'd get it done.  So I forged ahead and cleared everything out (aside from the washer and dryer, for obvious reasons...).

Look at all the space in there!  I couldn't believe there was so much room in there!  I'd forgotten all about how big my laundry room actually was!  So after spending an hour removing everything from the laundry room, I organized everything into different groups: tools, cleaning attachments, cleaning supplies, etc.  So once I put everything in labeled boxes, I found a home for everything.

Unfortunately, it looked a bit dark...

...so I fixed it!  I split the hangers on the two sides so the light was better.  Also, I'm sure you've noticed how obsessive I am about color-coordination.  My husband disagrees with my color-coordination choices -- he says they should be chromatic, but I like them alphabetical (I put grey after green, because I spell grey with an e, not an a...just so you know).  Anyway, I put the emergency light on the top shelf next to the iron because it needs to be easily accessible (so behind the hangers is not really the best place for it...).


Next up is the master bathroom.  I forgot to take a before picture, but let me tell you that it was not organized well (I found stuff I didn't even know we had) and it was so cluttered!  Half the countertop was covered in stuff!  This is what it looks like now:

As you can see, my sink is on the left so all of my stuff is there and his sink is on the right so all of his stuff is there and all of the communal stuff is in the middle (toothpaste, mouthwash, hand lotion - usually for the winter months, etc.).

In order to get all of my stuff off the counter yet still easily accessible, we bought a bathroom rack to store stuff on.  The top shelf has all my headbands, hairbrushes, and hair products (leave-in conditioner, mousse, hairspray).  The next shelf has all my makeup (with my blow dryer hanging off the side for easy access).  The last shelf has my nail care stuff (nail polish, nail polish remover, emory boards, nail clippers) and my small hair accessories.  The very bottom of my little tower holds all of our towels.

All of our extra stuff is under my sink: curlers in the back; curling irons in the Woodchuck box; alcohol and hydrogen peroxide up front: and extra face cleaners, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shower gels and all that on the right side so I can find everything when I need it.

Under my husband's sink is other household stuff: hand soap on the left, shower cleaner and bleach next to the soap, all the small everyday stuff next to that (cotton balls, eye care products, q-tips, dental floss - each in their respective drawer), and toilet paper on the far right (that way it's closer to the toilet for when my husband forgets to the replace the toilet paper roll - or when I forget, but who's really keeping track, right?)

So that's the latest in my spring cleaning spree!  I hope this inspires someone to take a little time to reorganize and find space that was hiding in plain sight!

Spring Cleaning - Closet Style

It's that time of year again when "spring fever" hits and everyone starts their annual spring cleaning!  Let me be honest - I HATE spring cleaning.  I have always hated spring cleaning.  But this year, I have kind of gone off the deep end on spring cleaning.  I think I've just had enough of the stuff that we never use but I have to keep clean and organized (I use the term "organized" here very loosely...).  So this year I have gone all gung-ho on cleaning and organizing (let me put this in perspective...I've spent a week on my closet and an entire day on my linen closet...), and while cleaning I said to myself, "Self, I wonder if there's a way to display all of my scarves and all of my husband's ties without having to buy one of those expensive specialty tie/scarf hangers, because having them folded up in a drawer, we can't see what we have so we don't wear them..."  Keep in mind I was standing in my closet looking around while saying this to myself and then it hit me!  Most closets (mine included) have those wire rack thingies that you hang your clothes on so you can put stuff on the shelf created above, but there's about six inches of room between where your clothes stop hanging and your wall begins.  DING!  There went the lightbulb in my head.  I don't know why I didn't think of it before (and I'm sure if I'd searched for it at Pinterest I would have come up with this solution earlier...), but I felt like a genius when I hung all of my husband's ties behind his clothes:

It didn't hit me until a day later that the same could be done for my scarves!  So here's a top view of how I looped my scarves over every other rung (so they would all have room without crowding and getting smushed and whatnot):

And here's what they look like hanging behind my clothes.  Don't worry, they're color-coordinated so I can find a specific color quickly...pretty much everything is color-coordinated in my closet except the hangers...:

With the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from hanging all those scarves and ties, I decided to tackle my linen closet as well.  This is what it looked like before:

First, I just removed everything from the closet so I could start from scratch.  Then I organized everything into piles according to its use.  On the top shelf (since it's the highest one and not as easily reached) are a few extra blankets (all the heavy comforters and quilts went in the top of my closet since I wasn't using that space); the beach blankets and towels; and extra curtains, bed skirts, and table covers (they're not really table cloths since they're just fancy knitted/crocheted coverings to make the table pretty...).  On the second shelf from the top I put all the stuff that goes with the guest room.  On the left are the guest towels and washcloths, and on the right are extra sheet sets.  The next shelf down holds all the stuff that goes with the master bedroom.  Since we keep our towels on a rack in bathroom, this shelf holds washcloths and extra sheet sets.  The very bottom shelf holds extra fancy towels (I guess for when guests come over?) and some towels I was given when I went off to college that have my monogram on them and extra paper towels (I know the paper towel supply should go near the kitchen, but the kitchen is overcrowded as it is - I haven't gotten around to cleaning it yet for spring cleaning, but I will!).  That left room in the bottom of the closet to see the floor and put away my vacuum and steam cleaner.  So this is the finished product and I am so proud of myself:

Oh, and those extra sheet sets are organized as well so I have everything together right when I need it.  *Thank you Pinterest*  I pinned this about two months ago when I was trying to get myself ready for the "dreaded" spring cleaning (which has turned out to be very fun and rewarding, to my surprise!).  I don't know why I never thought of putting everything needed to change my sheets into one of the pillow cases in the closet...it seems like a no-brainer now that I know about it!  So, that's it for my first bit of spring cleaning.  I'm sure I'll bring you more updates as they happen.

Adventure Kit

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about my younger cousin's prom.  Now, in between her mother's funeral and her prom, my younger cousin moved in with my parents two states away.  For the past two years, she'd been living with another cousin of ours (who is ever-so-slightly older than me) and this particular cousin had tried to explain the move as an adventure.  After talking with my older cousin, I decided an "adventure kit" was exactly what my younger cousin needed while making this transition.  Since my husband and I live equidistant from my older cousin and my parents, we all decided that a week at our house was just what my younger cousin needed to decompress and deal with the complex emotions (and it helped my mom get some much needed rest after a hectic two weeks during tax season -- did I mention she's a CPA and this was not a good time for her?  Not that it's a good time to die for anyone, but dealing with everything else that happened as a result of this death was a little much...).  So, while my husband and I let my cousin just sit and veg out on couch (in between some shopping for blue jeans and a first ever 3-D Imax movie for my cousin), I thought more about what my older cousin had said about making this an adventure.  This gave me an idea: I made her an "adventure kit!"

This is everything I put in her adventure kit:

There's the suitcase/box (at the very top); a journal and colorful calligraphy pens (top left); directly to the right of that is (in her favorite scent from Bath & Body Works) lotion, body scrub, and a loofah in her favorite color; a hibiscus water bottle from Target (also in her favorite color - top right); "I Love You" hand sanitizer (from Bath & Body Works) and a hand sanitizer holder for her purse/bookbag with a toy compass on it (center, left); zebra print duck tape (center); a handmade card (bottom left); Bath & Body Works flavored lip gloss (bottom middle-left) - because in my family, if you go out looking "ugly," everyone in the family will call you Elzie Marie or Bueler May (real people in my family that apparently went out "looking ugly" at all times...); patterned Band-Aids (bottom middle-right); and a pair of underwear in her favorite color (bottom right) - because my mom and aunt have always told us kids to carry a pair of clean underwear with us at all times "just in case" (my mom's reasoning was, "What if you get in an accident?  You don't want to be wearing dirty underwear when the paramedics cut off your clothes, now do you?" To which I replied, "I'm pretty sure my dirty underwear is the last thing on the paramedics mind if they feel it necessary to cut off my clothes.")


This is what I wrote inside the card to tell her why I put everything in there:

For those of you that can't read my handwriting (I'm sorry, I write like a 5-year old...), it says:

"Everything You Need For Adventure
 A map for exploring
A compass to find your way

Hand sanitizer to keep you clean

A water bottle to keep you hydrated

Clean underwear for your purse

Lip gloss to always look your best

Duck tape to hold life together

Bandaids for life's little accidents

Lotion and body scrub for the rough patches

A loofah to wash the grime away

A journal to write your story"

This is the box I put everything in.  It's a decorative suitcase I got from the craft store that has a map on the inside and the outside:

This is how I arranged everything so it fit inside the suitcase/box before I put the journal on top:

I put the journal in last on top of everything else because I wrote in the first page things I think she needed to hear at this stage in her life, but also things that I think she'll look back on during the next year.  I know it's going to be hard on her, and she'll need reassurance often, but she's a little shy to open up about her feelings to people, and I want to be there for her even when she doesn't want to ask me for guidance.

So that's my cousin's adventure kit.  I thought it would be great to put this here since I shared the pictures with the teenagers at work and they thought it was a great idea (and now want their own "adventure kit"), and especially since I couldn't find anything helpful to me when I put this together.  Most everything I found when searching for ideas for this were for "children's adventure kits" that were centered first aid kits geared for mothers to pack/carry for their preschool-age children.  Hopefully someone out there will find this post helpful if they find a teenager in need of some smiles and uplifting words - and maybe just for people in general that need to be reminded that someone cares for them.

DIY Shoe-gasm

So, I love shoes.  I mean, I really love shoes!  I currently have between 65 and 75 pair of shoes.  And not a single one is the same as any other.  Sure, I have a lot of black shoes, but they're not all just straight black shoes;  I have a pair that is black and white checkered, a black a white houndstooth pair, 4-inch black shoes with bling (a wedding present from my husband - he knows how to please a woman!), and so on.  Again, no two pair of shoes looks the same.  That being said, I love each and every one of my shoes (I probably have an unnatural affinity for shoes that borders on unhealthy...but no one's perfect, right?).  So, with my love of shoes, you can imagine how upset I was years ago in college when I was dog-sitting for my mom.  I had just bought these shoes and worn them once and they were quickly becoming one of my absolute favorite pair!

So,  I went to class and everything was great.  I got home and this is what the dog-shaped spawn of satan left for me:

I was so upset I nearly cried.  I didn't know what to do.  But I knew I wasn't throwing out an otherwise good pair of shoes.  I decided that at least I could find someone to put some new fabric on them or something one day...so I held on to them.  Thank everything holy that I did!  (I'm gonna go ahead and put Pinterest into that category, since without Pinterest and the three hours I spent browsing one night, I wouldn't have come across this pin that inspired me to do something similar with my own shoes.)  Thus, the glueing began...only after about 12 hours of sorting through the giant bucket o' bling from the craft store.  Then the fun began.  After only about 30 minutes, this is how far I had come (I started on the non-satan-spawn-destroyed shoe, to make sure the modpodge would hold...):

 

So far so good.  So I took another 45 minutes and worked my way up to the fabric:

Finally after a total of almost two hours I finished one shoe!

Now came the hard part -- I had to work on the almost destroyed shoe.  To start, I had to get all the extra strings cut off the fabric and smooth out the heel.

It only took about 2 minutes to cut all the strings off, but it took about an hour to smooth out the heel with a nail file (seeing as how I still live in an apartment, there's really no reason for me to own any sandpaper at this point in my life...or so I thought.  After that hour, I wanted to go and buy a box of every type of sandpaper there is for whenever I could possibly need it...)

There was still some size difference between the top where there was a little bit of prettiness left on the heel and the bottom where there was nothing but sadness and despair, so, to even these two zones of the heel out, I applied a very thick layer of modpodge and let it sit overnight to dry:

This is what it looked like in the morning after the glue dried (I was so excited to see that it dries clear so that once I got all the bling on my shoes I could apply a layer on top to make sure all the bling stays where it's supposed to):

And after applying all the bling onto the second shoe (which took longer than the first since I had to go back and try to place all the different sized bling in the exact same position so they'd look the same), this is the final finished product before the final coat of modpodge (which is going to dry clear - yay!) so enjoy my first DIY shoe fix!