Kindness Gives me Hope

Friday morning I woke up a little too dreary and draggy and decided that I'd make it one of my "treat" days and grab a coffee at Starbucks. I'm not really a coffee drinker (unless there's a good amount of other flavors to cover the taste up) but I love the white chocolate mocha there.

I pulled into the drive thru and put in my order. I barely noticed that the lady in front of me was having a bit longer conversation with the barista than normal. She was probably just asking for a napkin or extra whip cream or something. When I pulled up to the window to hand the man my change (yes, I was paying with change cause sometimes it piles up and you need to lighten your purse) he made the following statement: "That lady that was in front of you? Her name is Leslie and she just paid for your coffee." I was shocked. All I could spit out was "What? Really? Wow." Profound, I know.

Of course I've never had anything quite like that happen to me before. But I was immediately wrapped in the thought of how it's the people like Leslie, who perform random acts of kindness for strangers, that really give me hope that the world isn't an entirely demoralized and bad place. That there are more people out there than I usually think that care about others at least as much as they care about themselves and sometimes just take a notion to make a perfect stranger smile.

Granted, I can't say that I've ever done such a thing as Leslie did for me that day, but I can say that I try to show my appreciation and kindness for others in the tiny, mundane things throughout the day. A door held open, thank you and please spoken to the person at the restaurant that takes my order, allowing people to pull into a lane of traffic during rush hour. All things that most folks don't really think twice about, but things that those that pay attention appreciate and reciprocate.

I've always enjoyed the stories of how just one smile at a perfect stranger you pass on the street can turn into a whole string of smiles going out to strangers who may have just really needed it right at that moment. Or the thought that if only one person sees you lend a hand to another, they'll be inspired enough to do one thing for someone else that day and so on and so forth. Hope is a powerful thing. And sometimes it's all you have to get through the day.

So thank you Leslie, whoever and wherever you are. Thank you for your kind gesture, for making me stop a moment to mull things over and put a few more ounces of myself into the part of my soul that holds hope for everything going on in life. I'll definitely not forget this.

It's Just a Little Crush

After hearing the name Halestorm being tossed around for upcoming concerts, I decided to take a gander at the band. And now I'm crushing :) They're first single "I Get Off" is an awesome summer anthem (in a voyeuristic kind of way) but this is the performance I'm totally in love with.

Here's Halestorm's acoustic cover of Heart's classic "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You"

The Whole Shebang

I looked forward to this past weekend so much. It was a special one, three days, and I was sooo ready for that Friday spent sleeping in instead of dragging my butt to work. And then I remembered the list. You know, that mental list you keep of all the things happening on any particular day? Yeah, that one was pretty full for this weekend.

Friday afternoon found me at home visiting my family and that night attending my cousin's 6th birthday party. Good food, cute kids and three hours later I was headed back to Lex to hit the bed and start all over the next day.

Saturday morning found Justin washing my GTO to prepare her for polishing (I have pictures of her sitting in the garage cause I"m pretty sure it'll be the first and only time for, well, ever). I was starting on laundry and digging a small trench out along the sunroom to bury our cable and telephone lines that have been laying on top of the ground for forever. After lunch Justin started digging the holes for our fire bushes we bought a few weeks ago and we were successful at planting three before the rain started. Yep, rain on the 4th of July. Two years running now.

Saturday evening we headed over to Gtown to spend time with The Maxwells and The Thomai (and yes, that is the new plural for Thomas'). Unfortunately the rain never let up and poor Nick had to grill in the wet. After a great meal and some fun playtime with Bailey, we all headed over to the park for their fireworks display. Timing apparently isn't the forte of many people setting off firework displays as it was supposed to start at 9pm (and the rain had stopped). Instead, it was sometime after 9 and the rain had started again. Figures. But the show was pretty and I'm glad that Justin and I were there to see it.

The night took a turn for the worse however upon arriving home a little after 11. Our neighbors were throwing a party, and as a result there were cars parked on both sides of the street. You would think it common knowledge (and math skills) that if you park vehicles on both sides of a subdivision street it's going to make it nearly impossible for those not at the party to squeeze through in order to make it home. Or not. After some griping on that front, Justin and I settled down on the couch for a bit to wind down before bed. We were going to have to get up early Sunday morning to head to God's country for his family reunion. Had we really wanted to go to bed by oh, say midnight thirty though, it would have been impossible. Said neighbors decided to celebrate the 5th of July by starting (not continuing, just starting) their fireworks at 12:15am. And not end them until after 1am. This girl was not a happy camper (and I'm not usually the nicest of people past 11:30 anyway). To make matters worse, we walked out the next morning to firework residue all over Justin's car and truck. Round two of not happy campers. Have people really lost all respect? Wait, don't answer that.

Sunday was spent hanging out with Justin's family, eating tons of awesome (and totally bad for you) food and doing a few odds and ends around the house before hitting the bed last night to prepare for work this morning. And I don't care how busy you were on the weekend, having to go back to work on Monday morning is always the hardest part.

Not Enough Time in the Day

It seems like we've been going non-stop over the past month with projects, social outings and such. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have asked to do it differently, I just can't figure out where the month of June went to amongst it all!

Our Project:Revamp Kitchen has been going very well. My dad was able to lay all the tile and grout one room in 3 days, while Justin's dad came up the final day and helped grout the other room (since Dad wouldn't take any money from us, we figured we'd save him one trip). We couldn't be happier with how things have turned out!

the sunroom

the kitchen

We're still in the process of getting the trim around the bottom down, the door and window framed back up and trimmed around and probably a new ceiling fan put in, but we're taking it one little piece a day at a time.

Justin was able to get the garage cleaned back up and put back in one piece a few days ago, thanks to some help from the newest addition to his garage organizing shelves. I bought him a cabinet for his birthday last year and he bought a floor cabinet the other day to put underneath it. I'm pretty sure his Camaro was happy to be back in her home after being parked in the driveway for so many days in a row (and now I won't set her security alarm off every morning when I start the GTO).

I've been spending time building up some inventory in my second attempt at a shop on Etsy.com. The first time around I really didn't know what I wanted to do and after a few months of selling random handmade things, I cleared it out and was just a buyer for a while (I bought most of my Christmas gifts from there). When I found the pattern for fabric flowers, I knew they were going to be my new direction. And I've recently expanded from the full sized flowers to include miniatures that can be used for brooches, magnets, embellishments or hairclips.

And this weekend is a 3 day long holiday one, which I'm very excited about! I didn't realize until this morning though everything that we'll be doing. Tonight is a birthday celebration for our friend Brian, then I'm having the Krav girls (we're like a gang, lol) over while the boys are out doing they're thing. Tomorrow I'm heading home to visit the family and attend my cousin's 6th birthday party. Saturday we'll be planting the fire bushes we bought last week and then heading over to Nick and Nicole's for a 4th of July cookout. And Sunday is Justin's family reunion. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it, lol. But it's going to be so much fun packed into every day that it's entirely worth the needing to take Monday off to rest up :)

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. Never seen a Not Me! Monday! post, not sure what it's all about...here's what MckMama has to say... "Are you feeling guilty for pretending not to notice your toddler playing with the dogfood? Feel like a slouch for staying in your jammies all day? We'll don't! Not Me! Monday was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!"

I did *not* leave Justin and my dad, on Father's Day nonetheless, to work hard at laying tile in the kitchen in order to help my friend Nicole shop for pretty flowers.

I also did *not* leave the leftover pizza from lunch out on the table overnight because its easier to heat up from room temp than out of the fridge.

Lastly, I did *not* compare my boyfriend to Jacob Black (after becoming a wolf in the second Twilight book) because he's always warm like Jacob is. I also did *not* continue on to explain the difference between a werewolf and shape-shifter, citing the Animagi from the Harry Potter series as examples.

Becoming Part of the Herd

On April 21, 2007, I purchased my first car. My first new car. My first owned only by me car. It was almost exactly a year after graduating college and finding a big girl job. And was a goal that I'd had set to accomplish by that time. A year of saving and about a month of looking bought me a silver 2007 Toyota Rav 4. And she was beautiful.

This past Monday I passed my Rav's keys over to the nice dealer man at the Toyota lot and in exchange was given a set to a 2005 Pontiac GTO. A pretty 2005 Pontiac GTO.

Admittedly, I was a bit emotional. There were several instances of Justin and I standing outside on the lot talking about the trade when I'd have to stop in order to keep myself from shedding a few tears. Because my Rav was a great car. But as much as I loved her, there were other interests at play in my mind.

For a few months now I've been set on finding a vehicle a bit more on the sporty side. Blame it on Justin, blame it on watching Fast and the Furious too much, say what you will. The bottom line was that I wanted something with a little more ass and rumble to it. And Justin happened to find it for me last weekend.

Painted in Impluse Blue Metallic, my new Goat drives and rides beautifully. She's pretty much everything that I was wanting in my toy yet serves well as a daily driver. Although my Rav was nowhere near being old (nor was I anywhere near really needing a new car), I felt that this was the point in life to have a few more liberties with things such as cars as later on in the future practicality would reign supreme. I don't feel that I gave a lot up in trading the Rav (albeit slightly odd to be back on the ground again in a car). And I've definitely garnered several compliments from Justin's car buddies over the choice of machine and color.

Just a few little things over the next little bit to add to her (tinted windows and an exhaust) and she'll be perfect. Oh, and did I mention she's also getting a personalized license plate? I won't spoil the suprise, but it was one of Justin's more creative moments in coming up with the idea :)

Bringing out the Crafter in Me

I'm a crafter at heart. Well, really I'm an old lady at heart. Give me a blanket to cover up with and something to sew and I'm golden. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I take several pieces of regular fabric and turn it into something beautiful like a baby quilt or my newest hobby, fabric flowers.

Last year I experimented a little with the website Etsy. I had been an avid reader of the Weddingbee blog and many of the brides to be would brag about their finds on Etsy. In case you're not familiar with it, Etsy is basically like an internet shopping mall full of items that are handcrafted by each store owner. You can find pretty much anything and everything that you could think of there, and have the satisfaction of knowing that someone put their heart and passion for creating such things into each item in their shop.

After taking some time away from the site (as a seller, but definitely not a buyer lol), I came back a few weeks ago to revamp my spot and take a gander at selling something a little different than before: my fabric flowers

These are two of my girls, all named, all different personalities and all waiting to find that perfect home with someone. They look great as embellishments on pillows or purses, hung on walls for your very own flower garden, or attached to a dowel rod wrapped in green to create a bouquet for any room that never dies :)

Because I'd pretty much taken over the kitchen table as my own for the past few months, I was finally convinced by the boy that a good use for my birthday money was purchasing a craft table. He had seemingly gotten tired of having to move the sewing machine every time we sat down for a meal. After being kind enough to help me put the thing together, we moved it into our sunroom which has now been dubbed "The Shana Cave"

It's got great natural lighting through the two huge windows and in about a month, I'll be rockin' some brand new tile on the floor as part of a general house renovation project. It's exciting times.

So if you want to see a few more of my creations (and more awesome handcrafted items on the website) check out http://justshana16.etsy.com/ and then browse around to your heart's content. And while you're around, check out christiecottage's BNS in the Promotions Forum. I've been involved for only a little less than a week but can vouch that there's great stuff in each of those shops listed and they're all great people :)