Something New and Different for Us!

...sort of.

First off, a little background:
I am a lady who loves crazy ideas. My use of this adjective ("crazy") is largely to appease my husband. I, personally, think I'm brilliant, and the ideas of a brilliant person are nothing but. Tomato, tomato...that doesn't work so well typed. I know why he prefers this word; I throw myself into these ideas. I plan, I chatter, I print out pictures, I chatter, I make lists, I price components, I chatter, I ask questions, I craigslist (a new verb) my butt off, and most importantly, I chatter. Excitedly and at great length. A goodly portion of these ideas do not come to fruition. For example, I was adamant that I was going to turn our garage in Boise into a pottery studio and build a kiln in the backyard. It seemed like a great thing for me to do. I love pottery; I'm good at it. Clay is cheap. Unfortunately nothing else about pottery is cheap, and we ended up moving to Coeur d'Alene four months after signing the lease to that house. So there is a little taste of life with Jamie (this was the most grand, but not by far the only one).

Now, we come to the point: I have another idea. The thing I want to do. I have been struggling to meet people with whom I can connect; I much prefer to spend my spare time with my family besides the fact that I am always pregnant and therefore overwhelmed. It's a new place, and aside from moving across the country in the first place, I'm not entirely adventurous. I wish I was, but the fact remains. Anyway, back to the point. My new idea, the thing I am going to do maintain identity in a world full of loud children, is thrifty interior design and general craftiness. Living in a two bedroom house with four people presents its challenges, especially when 50% of them are so demanding. We recently made the decision and effort to switch bedrooms, putting the two kids' stuff in the much bigger room and forgoing space for coziness for ourselves. Long story short, I had a blast putting my bedroom together. Well-thought out colors and matching this and complimenting that. Hanging frames and art in the just the right place, even employing the talents of a level to do so. It is far from a page out of Martha Stewart living, but I want to be in that room all the time (not just the exhaustion talking). It is orderly and calming. There is nothing chaotic about that space. I want every room in every place I go to make me feel as peaceful as that room. (Don't worry; I know you're drooling for pictures.)

I started reading an interior design blog (Young House Love) that I stumbled across when trying to garner inspiration for a kid-friendly, pretty and functional joint nursery for my little ones. Turns out, they happened to post frequently about progress in their then-expected daughter's room. I just loved one of their ideas, and I went off on tangents through their website. I found myself googling again (this time I don't remember what for...) and happened across www.potentiallybeautiful.com, and she had some nifty ideas for remaking a bathroom quite thriftily. She also mentioned Pinterest, which is a site for people to collect ideas to save for later use and share with other idea-lovers. So, I am combining two things I love: artsyness and thriftiness to make myself over a little, to give myself a little push back into who I was before I was covered in baby poop.

Now, we'll just have to see how long this lasts when I have two babies flinging.