Decorating Daydreams

We are moving one week from today!  I am so excited, I can't wait to be close to things again!  Yesterday for example, Brendan wanted to go get a suit for the wedding he's going to.  The shop we wanted to go to is a 20 minute drive from our current place.  But our new place?  A ten second drive!  Yay!

So, instead of focusing on how much stuff I still need to pack up, I'm imagining our new place and what I want to do with it.  I have Ingrid's room all planned out--her new bed, her bookshelf, and some throw pillows.  I found some fabric I think I need:

I want to make a small quilt for the bed, floor pillows, and curtains.  I think the walls are a creamy color, so hopefully I won't have to repaint.  I love to paint, but I'm getting sick of making a place my own and then having to move a year later...

The other place I have ideas for is the basement--our new playroom/sewing room!  We have a little Ikea couch with a red cover, I want to get a cushy rug to put in front of it, we have two red shelving units to put toys on, and then Ingrid has her kitchen set.  A friend has a bit of chalkboard paint leftover so we'll probably do a square of that on the wall, and have her little coloring table for an art corner.  And my sewing area!!  I finally get a chance to leave my sewing machine in one place!  And have a stand up ironing board that I don't have to move.  And all my fabric can be out and inspiring me, instead of being balled up in a linen closet.  Maybe this way I'll use the fabric I have and quit buying more.  ha!  I doubt it.

Yep, don't want to deal with packing, so I'll just keep on daydreaming.  I hate moving, I can't wait until we buy a house and won't have to uproot ourselves every year.

A Part of Things

This weekend I took Ingrid to the Easter egg hunt at a local park.  The whole morning made me realize how awesome it is to be a part of things wherever it is I live.  We went to a little restaurant coffee shop to meet up with friends, and who should we see in the parking lot but other friends that were just leaving!  We chatted a bit, then went inside to get some muffins before venturing to see the Easter bunny.

After coffee we went to the park and met some more friends, and as we were walking around I heard my name being called.  It was someone from our apartment complex, the woman who helped us with our lease when we moved.  She has always been super friendly and when she sees us she calls us by name.  So sweet!  And I saw a few moms I recognized from story time at the library.

When I got home, I was just feeling so good about how we moved here not knowing a single person a year or so ago, and now I can go out to a community event and run into people I know.  It just makes me feel confident that once Brendan gets his job and we move, we'll be able to make our lives comfortable and meet new friends, no matter where we are. 

My new daydream is small town living.  Brendan applied to a job about an hour north of Milwaukee, so we'd be close to friends and family but not have to live in the city.  I have realized since having Ingrid that I don't want to live in a city.  I like the idea of museums and such, but I hate the noise and the traffic.  So this small town is close to a city but far enough away that we would be able to have a house with a nice back yard and a small little downtown.  The town is right on Lake Michigan, and the houses--oh my god!  They are so inexpensive!  Theoretically we could buy a house way sooner rather than later, and actually get a house we liked, rather than one we could just afford.  And with a small mortgage payment we could travel, which is what we want to do.  The town is also close to our favorite state park and other hiking areas.  The more we talked about it the better it sounded! 

But again, every time Brendan tells me a place he applied to, I look up where the town is, what the house prices are, go look on craigslist to see what kind of rentals they have.  And I start thinking about how it would be to live there and I can find a list of positives.  I have gone from Colorado and the mountains to Southern California and palm trees to small town Wisconsin and Lake Michigan and I can see us living in all the places and having a good time.  So we'll see. 

Wherever we end up, though, I am excited to meet new people and start to make our lives there.  No more limbo, I want to know I'm going to live somewhere for more than a year...

Berlin

On the side of my Facebook page there was an ad for Urban Apartments Berlin.  After looking at the website I am longing for an adventure!!

Brendan and I got engaged in Germany.  Our trip was awesome--we met a friend in Cologne, stayed with him and his family in Duesseldorf for a night, then we all drove to some small town where they were getting married.  After that we took the train to Berlin, where we stayed in a friend of a friend's apartment.  It was amazing--everything was so close by, we had an S-Bahn station right around the corner, and it was free.  We offered to pay money but were told a bottle of wine and a thank you would suffice.  After that we went to Prague and stayed at a hostel (we were definitely too old to enjoy it properly...) and then we went to Munich and stayed at another friend of a friend. 

The whole trip was amazing because, although I'd been to Germany a couple times before that, Brendan never had.  So we got to travel together and see things together.  And the other times I'd been there I didn't do much, just hung out with my friend Heike and her friends.  Not a lot of sightseeing was done!  This time we got to go to museums and churches and parks.  And it was so great that people that didn't even know us would let us stay at their apartments.  I thought that was the most amazing thing--they just opened up their houses to us.  And at the place in Munich we met some neighbors.  The woman was German and the man was from none other than Madison, Wisconsin!  It really is a small world!! 

Anyway, back to the apartments in Berlin.  I looked at some of them and recognized where some of them were.  And they aren't that expensive.  Suddenly the daydream of just jumping on a plane to Berlin and staying with Ingrid and Brendan in a little flat was in my head.  We'd suddenly remember our never used German skills, we'd get coffee and pastries for breakfast.  We'd buy cute German things for Ingrid.  We'd hop on and off the trams and trains like old pros.  We'd show Ingrid a different place and have a great time as a little family. 

Ahhhh, sounds awesome! 

But, alas, we have no money and have to think about moving soon.  I should be saving all our money instead of daydreaming away our savings on imaginary plane tickets and cute Berlin apartments.  Blah.  It's not fun being responsible sometimes...

Daydreaming about Fabric

Is it stupid that I'm totally daydreaming about all the fabric I'd buy if I had the money?  I love love love to look at fabricworm.com and see what's new, what's on sale, and think about what I'd make with the fabric if I bought it.  Here are some of my new faves: 

Aren't they so cute???  Maybe if I actually sell some stuff I can justify buying more fabric, but right now I know I shouldn't.  Dang it.

My Etsy Dream

For awhile now people have said I should start an etsy shop. I've really wanted to but just never had the motivation. I thought it would take too much time, and with me being at home with Ingrid it just wouldn't be possible. But lately I've been sewing a LOT and making dresses for people on swapmamas. I realized I've made like 10 dresses in the past week or so. And I've made at least 5 owls, a baby blanket, and a couple bibs. Hmm, either I'm getting better about working while Ingrid is napping or I'm neglecting her. Or a little of both?

I don't want to neglect Ingrid, that's my biggest fear, that I'll get so wrapped up in my sewing that I'll stick her in front of the TV or I won't take her outside as much as I should because I have three dresses needing to be hemmed, or I'm just finishing up an owl and need to get it done. Really, Ingrid is very good about being by herself in the mornings, she actually prefers it. If I try to read to her or play with her, she pushes me away or goes into another room (nice and subtle...) So most mornings I do get an hour or so to get things done while she plays in her room. And then it's nap time and I can really get crackin'.

So I made a list today of what I want to have made for my shop.
I want 2 dresses in each size done,

five or six owls,

and five bibs.

I also would like to try to get two blankets done since I have the fabric for it, but I don't know if that will happen or not.

Plus I would like to get cards made to send along with purchases, and I'd like to get some pretty tissue paper to wrap the items in. I just love when I get something in the mail that is nicely packaged! And I'm working on a name for my store, but that's taking time. Everything sounds so stupid when I try to think of something! I really want a German word but I haven't come up with anything good. Any ideas??

It just seems so amazing that I'm finally doing this! It really feels good that A) I've had so much motivation lately, and B) I've gotten so much positive feedback from people. As soon as I've posted a dress on swapmamas I get three people asking me if I can make one for them. And same with the owls, people have really liked them. I post things to my facebook page, too, and also get people asking me if I'm going to sell my stuff. The weirdest thing is people say I have talent. I have NEVER had a talent before! Other people would act or sing or play an instrument, or they'd be really into something like art or science. I always just floated by not knowing what I wanted to do, kind of dabbling in things but never really having a talent for anything. It's like I'm finally finding out what I want to do, which is very strange. I'm a late bloomer :) At 32 years old I finally know what I want to be when I grow up. Cool.

Stay tuned, I should hopefully have a couple names you'll have to help me choose from. And then by October hopefully I will have a link to my super duper etsy store!

Morning Walks

I love our morning walks. I get Ingrid in the stroller and Cody on his leash and we take off. We usually do the same 2 mile walk along the street in front of the apartment complex. It takes us by the lake and through big old trees and we always meet the most random people. Today it was an older gentleman with ankle weights and a weighted vest walking along using ski poles. Another day was a man on a bike pulled off to the side eating berries of the vines that grow all over the place.

While I walk Ingrid usually just goes along for the ride. She points out planes in the sky or birds that fly in front of us. I end up daydreaming about where our life will take us. Usually I daydream about where we'll move to when Brendan is done with his fellowship. Will we go back to Milwaukee? Will he get a job with the government and we'll end up in the DC area? Or will he look for a job in Colorado so we can live by mountains like we want to? So many possibilities!

Other days I daydream about buying a house and fixing it up. I am not one to look for a turnkey house. I really want an old house with good bones that I can strip off wallpaper, paint the walls, redo the floors, paint the cabinets, put in new countertops. I want to be able to see my work when I'm done, feel like it's our home because we put so much of ourselves into it. Of course, I've never taken on a project like that, so we'll see if/when it becomes a reality how jolly I feel about it...But it's great to daydream.

I love that anything is possible in daydreams. Yeah, we probably can't afford to put in new flooring throughout the whole house when we buy a house but I don't care! We totally will not be able to afford living in the DC area, but I don't care! I think it's good for the mind to wander and have a chance to go over things. That's what my morning walks are for, and if Ingrid gets fresh air and Cody gets to pee on everything, then that's just an added bonus :)