Ta-da! My fresh start!

Welcome! Returning friends may notice some changes over here on my blog. Don't worry, it's still me! I've just decided to make a fresh start with a new identity. Hope you enjoy it!

For any new-comers, first off, thanks for stopping by! I'd like to share a little background with you and help you get to know me, here at Chronicles of June.

I'm June. I started blogging in February after a good friend revealed to me the glory that is the blogosphere! Since I started, I also joined Twitter, and have really made some wonderful friends! Friends that help me get through the struggle of a job I have right now. My greatest aspirations are to quit my day job and open a store on Etsy. I would love to be a stay at home/work at home mom. Well, to do that, I guess I would need kids, huh??

Haha!

I've been with the Ward for just about nine years now. We've been married about 3 1/2 of those nine, but we've known each other since we were about, oh, five years old! Awww...so sweet! I know, right? :o) We've decided this year that it's time for this two of a kind to get working on a full house! No luck yet, but you better believe I'll keep you posted on all that's going on.

I say this is a fresh start, but feel free to browse any of my older posts. They're all still there!

I became June once I realized that what I really wanted out of life was to be home to cook and clean and iron and sew and bead and keep house and provide a nuturing home. I know it may be old fashioned, but I guess that's just me, an old fashioned girl taking this modern world by the reins and running with it.

What a Weekend

Wow, I feel like I’ve been away forever! Guess it’s good it’s only been a few days. Ended up having a bunch going on this weekend. Don’t think I got on the computer at all all weekend! Crazy, huh? Well, here’s a little recap for you:

 

Friday: I hosted a Girls Night In at my house with my two best friends. We made spaghetti, French bread, and cookies and watched the movie 17 Again. We hadn’t gotten together just the 3 of us in a while so it’s was nice to hang out a bit. We had a good time and the movie was really good! And Val brought over this new red wine that I actually liked! (I’m totally not a big wine drinker, red especially, but this was awesome!) I tried to buy some at Kroger yesterday, but they didn’t sell that brand. :o( I’ll probably go to HEB this weekend for groceries, so I’ll pick some up there. They have a MUCH larger wine selection.

 

Saturday: Even though I didn’t get to bed until after midnight, I got up early so B and I could go do some shopping first thing in the morning. We went to Hobby Lobby and Michael’s and I got a whole bunch of bead supplies (and $0.99 Simplicity patterns!) so I can start stocking up for my Etsy store. This week all the chains and findings and metal things are on sale, so I’ll go back and get that type stuff sometime this week. Then I should have a pretty good amount to start with and can actually start making some stuff with which I can finally OPEN the Etsy store! On my way home from shopping, my MIL called and my SIL and her fiancé were in town and they were going to see the movie Nine and wanted to know if I wanted to go. So I went down to MIL’s house and we went to the movie (which was pretty good) and then ran some errands then went back to her house and we had dinner over there. I didn’t get home until almost 9pm so I ended up being gone pretty much the entire day.

 

Sunday: Hubby finally got home! He got to the house about 6:30am and just came up and got in bed. (Yeah, I was totally still sleeping) We ended up both sleeping until after 9am, I think! Guess I really needed the sleep! We got up, had breakfast, and made a grocery list. Then we took the dogs down to MIL’s house and had lunch over there for her birthday today. Then we stopped by FIL’s apartment to say “hi” since hubby just got back. We got back home, dropped off the dogs, then went to Houston Garden Center to take advantage of their 70% off sale. We finally bought a tree for the backyard! And thanks to 70% off, we got a 20 gallon, $130 tree for only $40! Hubby and I went back and forth for like 20 minutes over which tree to get. He really wanted the Sweetgum and I really wanted the Chinese Elm. We ended up getting the Chinese Elm since I told him, based on my research, that it had a much better chance of survival. And maybe later on we can go back and get the Sweetgum, too. But we’ll see. We brought the tree home and then I went to the grocery store while hubby started digging the hole to plant the tree. Turns out in this DROUGHT the ground is WAAAAAAY hard so it’s not planted yet. He had to have his brother bring back our post hole digger to try to use that to help out, but he didn’t bring it up until after 7pm when he was on his way back to school, so maybe he can work on it tonight. Good thing we bought some good Miracle Grow garden soil for planting it. From the looks of it, our backyard dirt is pretty nutrient poor.

 

So that was my weekend. I have another post brewing in my head about some other things going on, so maybe I’ll be able to get to that today. I at least have to start writing it before I forget! It’s just nice to finally have my husband back. For a bit, at least. He apparently might have to go to the UK in a couple weeks, but just for a couple days IF he goes. But he shouldn’t have to go back to Brazil until closer to the end of October. Gosh, I can’t believe there’s only a week and a half of September left! Good thing I started ordering Christmas gifts last night! Where does the time go??

 

I knew there was something...

Well, I found out last night one of the main reasons that my husband is so reluctant to let me quit my job. He’s worried about the future of his company. But really, he doesn’t need to be. I know his company will be fine. His boss has told him that he’s fine, they’re fine, it’s all fine. But my husband is not so much the optimistic. For some odd reason he is convinced that his company will just run out of work to do and they’ll have to shut down. Umm…doubt it, but whatever. (He’s in the oil industry…really?) He did say, though, that if we won the lottery tonight (uh, for which he has yet to buy any tickets…) that I could quit my job tomorrow. And I quote, “I’d feel much better if we won the lottery.” Wow, really? Because that’s what happens to most people…they win the lottery. Good grief. He’s got his sights a little skewed here. He’s pessimistic about the future of his company and his job (which is not in jeopardy) yet totally optimistic about winning the lottery (which is so not likely to happen). Huh. Okay.

But at least that gave me the perfect opportunity to yet again mention the fact that now would be the prime time to be saving all the money we possibly can. Wouldn’t you agree?

And he just rolls his eyes.

Whatever.

For now, I will focus on getting my Etsy store up and running, scrutinizing every single penny we spend, and hopefully building up a nest egg large enough to convince him that we’ll be perfectly fine if (and when) I quit my day job.

Speaking of my Etsy store, while I have not opened it yet, I did finally decide on a store name. Two Lazy Daisies. Cute, huh? And no, there’s not two of me, nor do I have a partner. It’s named for my two dogs. Every time I see them just sleeping the day away, I always say they’re being a bunch of big lazy daisies. Now that I’ve finally nailed down a name, I have to start thinking about my “image”. Oh yeah, and start actually making things to sell! My goal is to open shop by November so try to keep pestering me to make sure I’m on track with that!

Thanks!

Bummed

Y'all, I'm bummed. I'm bummed that I don't get to spend as much time reading your blogs as I'd like. I'm bummed that I don't comment on said blogs as much as I'd like to. I'm bummed because I feel like I could make some really great friends through these blogs, but I'm not putting forth enough effort to make it work.

One thing I am thankful for is the fact that I do have you guys on Twitter. Something I can spend a little bit more time with. I'm trying my best, y'all. I really am. I'm kind of stuck in a catch 22 here. I want to spend more time with you guys so that I can make more friends (since hubby is away so often), but with hubby being away so often, it's when I have the least amount of time to spend (since I have a whole life to take care all by my lonesome during those times).

Especially with me wanting to start up my own Etsy store (and actually be successful!), I know that lots of friends and support is exactly what I need for that endeavour.

God, I really just want to quit my day job. That would (almost) fix all my problems. It would not fix the issue of not being able to pay all our bills if I did! But I might be a little more happy.

::shrug::

So yeah, I'm a little bummed right now. Hopefully a lovely day at the beach tomorrow with good friends and the dogs will help me out. :o) Nighty night!

Ah ha! It's genius! (I hope)

So my good friends Val and Bailey started thier own Etsy store. They've had a few sales so far, too! Well, I too, have always wanted to open my own business and Etsy seems like a great place to start. Granted, I'm nowhere near the point of opening anytime soon, but I had an awesome idea for what I could sell in my store this morning! I wanted to share with you guys to see if you think it's as brilliant an idea as I think it is. :o)

Let me take you back...

As you know, I have two bigs dogs. They both just turned 2 years old this summer so in the past 2 years we've gone through lots of toys/beds/carpet cleaner as they went through their peeing/chewing/eating stages. A while back I had bought 2 new crate beds for them. And if you have dogs, you know how expensive those bad boys are. I think for the both of them I spent almost $100 just on the crate beds. Crazy, right? Well, turns out Cocoa was not a fan of zippers, so she proceeded to eat the zipper off her bed and then started eating the foam out of the bed! (On a side note, she also ate the zipper off a big pillow of hers, too, which I proceeded just to sew shut instead.) Major, on the other hand, was fine with his bed, but he would have accidents every so often and pee on it. I of course just kept washing the bed lining and putting it back on the foam for Major's bed and just tried to keep Cocoa from eating anymore of the foam out of hers. These were expensive beds, I wasn't just going to throw them out! Well, after both beds got peed on, again, while we were out of town, I decided it was time to throw out the foam inserts, but I had plans for linings (since I just threw them in the washer and cleaned them up).

Val and Bailey have recently gotten me into doing more crafts so this past week I decided I was going to fix those two dog beds. I went out and bought new foam for both of them and bought some velcro to keep Cocoa's closed since she didn't like the zipper it originally had. (I'm also going to replace the sewn shut pillow opening with velcro so that it's easier to wash...) This morning, I went to work refurbishing them. I cut my new foam to fit Major's bed and stuffed it in the liner and that one was finished. Then I took the old zipper off Cocoa's and replaced it with velcro. Then cut the foam to fit that one, stuffed it, and presto! Two new beds! (basically)

WELL, the point of this story is, that while I was stuffing Cocoa's bed, I started thinking about how that foam is kind of expensive, but I was able to stuff two (pretty big) beds with one $16 roll. So, not too bad. That, of course, got me thinking...anytime I needed a new dog bed, why couldn't I just make my own? That's when the lightbuld went off! I could make homemade, custom even, dog beds and sell them in my store! (once I open the store...obviously...) They could be the same quality materials as the ones sold in the pet stores, but I know for a fact I could make them for way cheaper!

What do y'all think? Would it sell? Would people buy them??

And once I started thinking about that, I thought of all kinds of other things I could make to sell, too. Like aprons and other sewn things. I like to sew...I'd like to get better...but I like to do it. I have a sewing machine and a mother AND mother-in-law that are great sewers that could totally help me out in the learning department. How fun would that be??

I keep saying that I would love to stay home once we have kids, but I know that I'll get bored. (and my husband is worried about losing that extra income) I like to DO things. Maybe this could be my thing to do. I could stay home with the kids, while also making things for my store, and if people bought these things, I could also be making a little money on the side.

Would you buy something from my store? :o)