Moments

Once again, it's been too long since I've met you here.  I love blogging, (when I have the time). I love painting (when I have the time). I love making signs (when I have the time) and I always love meeting with you all, regardless if I have the time. 

However, the clock and calendar continue to move, and I have been trying to be intentionally present to celebrate every day ordinary events and important milestones and sometimes that's hard to balance personal and professional endeavors. 

I had a client tell me once that if I had a business mind, like my creative side, I'd be a millionaire! Ha!
Not much of a business mind here, but a mind/heart who enjoys living with fewer regrets in her 40's than her 20's and part of that means prioritizing moments with my family while they're still here. 

Here are a few gems below:

Brecken and Friends at our town's Memorial Day parade:

 LeBlanc cousins at a Chinese restaurant celebrating Pata and Mata's good health.

 My nephew, Chase's graduation from high school!

Kennedy's 17th birthday-day trip with Ken, her boyfriend Jordan and I to Chicago for the day. Making a wish that they will be able to stay together even after he moves (this week to California). :(

 Braces off for Brecken!

And signs, signs everywhere there's signs:

 I made these two below and rented them out for a rustic/barn-themed wedding. They're available to rent if you have a use.

 

 This desk already sold, but I've got my eyes peeled for more.

 Custom gift for a high school graduate:

In the booth today.

Come check out Not So Shabby soon. Lots of great signs and I marked down some furniture that's been sitting there for a bit. 

Ready to clear out inventory and redesign the booth a bit for upcoming fall inventory. 

Hope you're enjoying the big and little moments in life too. 

Love you Champs. 

C-

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Timing Is Everything

Do you ever experience situations in life, where the timing of things seem off? 

Like your husband scheduling his knee surgery for Memorial Day weekend which was slated to be a weekend of home improvement projects? :)

or after 8 years, the stucco exterior of your house starts to crumble and desperately needs paint when you just resigned to put away the brush and rollers for a while?

Or your oldest daughter meeting an incredible young man whom we all have come to love, but who is moving to California in two weeks?

(cue Alanis Morissette's song, "Isn't it Ironic")

But.....don't ya also have it sometimes when the timing just seems RIGHT?!

I had that happen a few weeks ago, when a mutual friend, I'll call her "Rebeckles", introduced Katrina and I through Katrina's new house closing.  

Rebeckles, the realtor, gave Katrina a gift certificate from my Room for Change business to be used toward some custom furniture built by my better half.

Katrina ordered a bench for her entry way, and then went on to order a couple more signs to personalize her new home.

Here are the pieces below.(Bench and planked sign over door).

(Fresh Market Sign)

After some phone conversations and some email dialogue, we decided we'd meet for coffee. Long story-short, we discovered that while I've been feeling overwhelmed by my work load, she is great at home staging and decorating, and would love to do more of this in the future and had some (not a ton, but some) time to spare.

After chatting, brainstorming and even praying together, we decided that maybe we could do some projects together in the future. 

Fast foward a week later, and we did just that. 

Spent the day working together...

She tagged along to my Friday's appointments (actually she did much more than that...she offered great insights with clients' decorating dilemas and helped me stage my friend Tracey's built in bookshelves). 

We had a great day together and I look forward to more collaboration in the future!

Meet my new pal, Katrina!

 

Staging Tracey's room with new pillows, tray, lamps and accessories.

New wall color freshly painted too...I took it from a goldenrod yellow to "Jackson Tan". ( I didn't paint it-I only picked it). :)

After a busy morning of staging and consults, we gave each other tours of our own homes as we had never been before. We both assumed that we would appreciate each other's style and while I'm not sure what her thoughts were about mine, I loved hers! :)

This girl loves accessorizing. 

No wonder we clicked.

 Here's some vignettes from her house:

 Bragger alert:
I'll point out the items I spied that she bought from my booth prior to me meeting her. (another reason I love her). :)

The rustic barnwood "love".

 The metal "love letters" on twine:

 

The "and they lived happily ever after" on pallet wood sign:

 How great are these frames? Wish I could take credit here, but no can do.

 Check out the pallet shelves. Nope, didn't make those either, but want to now.

 How cute is this?

 Selfie time! And that's a wrap.

Well almost a wrap...

Postscript:
According to both of my fashion-forward teenage daughters, I should be thankful this wasn't a full length mirror. 
I came home that day wearing the shirt you see, with red skinny jeans!! They were mortified. They said the shirt was coral and they laughed out loud when they saw me. 

Upon further observation in this moment, I have to say I agree and publicly apologize to Katrina for forcing you to be seen with me that day.
Come to think of it, we haven't talked since. 
Maybe this collaboration is over before it even began due to my fashion faux-pas.

I promise you Champs, I'm much more precise and trendy when it comes to color on your walls, than I am with clothes on this middle-aged body. 

Please don't judge a book by it's cover! :)

And K.T.-please give me another chance. I promise to wear all black next time. 

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