A New Twist on Christmas Crafting

Every year but one since we've been married I have decided to make all my Christmas gifts. I spend a great deal of time and effort making things. I call it Stephanie's Christmas Workshop normally, and it's very festive and fun and I really do love making things for people. I really really love it. But this year I think I decided to not make my gifts.

I KNOW! It's hard to believe.

But what I AM doing this year, is crafting all sorts of lovely handmade Christmas decorations. I have ideas for ornaments, little table decorations, fun garland additions, etc. etc. etc. and I've never had the time to make any of them because I'm busy making gifts. I've finished a handful of ornaments already that I'm super excited about showing to you. So this year, I'm opting for store bought gifts and homemade decor. I'm unnervingly excited about it. (Though... shoot... I just realized that the only gift I've purchased so far is for my lovely mama. But also I made something for her a couple months ago that I forgot about. Well, mama, looks like you get two gifts this year!)

And before you all get your panties in a wad because it's ONLY NOVEMBER 15th and I'm skipping Thanksgiving and corporate America is the devil for trying to jump from holiday to holiday and the world is coming to an end because someone mentioned Christmas before November 26th, let me say this: It takes a long time to make as many decorations as I've got floating in my head. I need a whole month. Ok? Fine.

So here's my round-up of inspiration and things I plan to make. Sources for the ideas are below each picture. Also... all the Christmas decorations I bought on clearance last January are brown, gray, white, red, and a little dark green. Very traditional looking. I'm planning to stick to that color scheme.

Source

I want SO MUCH to hang that red coat and that little deer on my tree. Aren't they the cutest?

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Hobbies

My husband is the one who takes all the pictures. He read the camera manual when we bought it and now he's all, "shutter, aperture, ISO" and I'm like, "why is this picture so wiggly looking?"

He spends a lot of time in the studio (maybe I've mentioned that before?) so almost all of his pictures are of studio stuff and holy cow does he like taking pictures of studio stuff.

Because I've been sketching like a madman for the past few days, I don't have much of my own to talk about. So here are some of Dave's pictures. Pretty talented guy, right?

This one is one of my favorites! Why do I love blurry pictures so much?

The Magic Friend-Maker

Two things. 1. This is not a blog post looking for coddling or fishing for compliments. Really, it's not. It IS a blog post trying to explain blogging to people who don't "get" blogging though. And 2. I have some secrets.

The first secret is this - I am fairly socially awkward.

I can't carry on conversations sometimes. I can't make new friends as well as I'd like. I'm quiet, I'm shy, I'm pretty self-conscious sometimes, and every once in a while I feel like I have nothing worth-while to say. I most definitely am not going to spark an interesting debate or reach out to someone in a public setting.

But the cool thing is my blog kind of does that for me. My blog has proven to be a conversation starter on more than one occasion. People who normally wouldn't come up and start conversations about infertility can. Or people who see me across a room can come up and say, "hey, I saw on your blog that you like to paint! Me too! I like to paint too! Let's be friends!" The blog gives people a reason to get to know me when they normally wouldn't have a reason. I like that. It takes a little social pressure off of me.

My second secret is this... this little space gives me confidence. Once a day, I get this chance to put something into the world that I've spent time on. Something with too many grammar mistakes and strange sentence structures. Something that I care about. And sometimes, shockingly, other people care about it too. For someone who has struggled very much in the past with self-worth (and who is getting better day by day), having 5 or 30 or 50 blog visitors a day is a very, very cool thing.

Some people think that last sentence (and blogging in general) is about ego. Some people do see my blog as egotistical, I suppose. But for me, the few paragraphs a day I send out into the world is not at all about ego, but about telling myself every day that some people do care about me. It's not to stack up compliments onto a healthy confidence, but to build up a foundation where once there was a very unhealthy hole. As pitiful and cheesy as that may sound, it's true.


So thanks, if that's you. Lovely, faithful blog reader. Thanks for helping me get up out-the-hole.

Things That Go Together List

So, it's Tuesday. It's time for random list making!

pretzels + coffee

yellow + gray

ADD + twitter

plaid + fall

denim + lace

chocolate + hazelnuts

moss + stone

you + me

glitter + color

mushrooms + everything

4:00 + weekdays

college-ruled paper + lists

soup + garlic (not fully pictured)

It's About That Time

Sneaking up ever so slowly (or not so slowly if you watch TV or go to the store or listen to the radio...) is The Holiday Season. Obviously that warrants uppercases.

Last year, Mr. Hagen and I negotiated a fantastic treaty that includes me getting a real tree this year, which I've been begging for since we got married. Also, we have a fireplace and I bought buckets full of 75% off Christmas decor last year. Those things combined have really got me itching to start Christmassing up the house. But I won't. I will ignore the stacks of wonderful Christmas music and the containers of garland and lights and I won't start making holiday snacks yet.

I won't.

Really, I won't.

But with all the gusto I can muster (that phrase is just asking to be put in a dance song) I plan to prepare for The other Holiday Season. Thanksgiving falls between Halloween and Christmas. Did you remember that? Because I think Wal-Mart forgot. My Thanksgiving will be different this year and I'm really excited about the whole week. Air travel, hotels, Cracker Barrel, beaches, new dresses... basically just a lot of awesome things.

And there's really no point to this blog post, but as I just discussed with my mom, most blog posts really have no point anyway. So there's that.

Random Observations for the Weekend

Friday brain is very similar to scrambled eggs. So today's blog is very similar to a breakfast platter... random things put all together in one place.

- All I want to do this weekend is sleep, watch movies, cook, and relax.
- The idea of the heater being on in my house right now + the fact that Dave is home until lunch = I very much want to cuddle on the couch under a blanket and take a nap.
- I'm shrinking. My diet and exercise plan is going well... my pants are all too big.
- It's only seventeen days until I go to Texas! Three cheers for a sweet beach wedding, a new sister, dress up clothes, and vacation!
- I wanted to put a swing in the living room, but my husband "logisticsed" me out of it.
- Bluegrass and fall are soul mates.

- In an act of some weird male solidarity thing, my husband and the guys he's working with this week have decided to all sport mustaches while they're tracking bass guitar.

- It's a good thing my husband has been getting home after dark because I don't particularly enjoy the "solidarity 'stache."

- The music business is a strange bird.

- Hurricane Tomas is about to hit Haiti and there are 1.2 million people living in tents. Tents don't hold up well to hurricanes, I'd imagine. Pray for Haiti, please.
- This Sunday I'll be attending an adoption/orphan care picnic at church that I'm really excited about!
- The next Sunday is an adoption fundraiser where we'll be selling tote bags, t-shirts, and coloring books all designed by me to help these nice folks.
- The two instruments that I like the most: piano and ukelele. My two least favorite instruments: harpsichord and accordion.
- My two new obsessions: sunflower seeds in salad. Lots and lots of sunflower seeds in salad. AND Kings & Queens "Queen Elizabeth Sugar" body butter. I put it on my hands and just sniff my palms all day long.
- Apparently guests who bought the former lotion from Target also bought bicycles. Hello Kitty bicycles to be exact.
- I need to stop rambling.

The Idea Bank

I have about 400 life-changing ideas a month. I always think, THIS IS IT! THIS is the idea. And a mind-racing obsession begins. And I think and think and plan and think until I get stuck or until I have another life-changing idea.

So I had another one. But I really mean it this time.

This idea is actually an idea that puts my too-many-ideas issue to use. (Are you sick of the word "idea" yet? Because this is only the beginning, folks.) This idea is one that supports all the things I love, works with my past and present passions, and even (believe it or not) turns the things I'm not good at into an asset. Doesn't that idea sound awesome? Well you're right. It is.

Because I don't want to release this idea until it makes complete sense and seems like an actual possibility, I'm not going to tell you what it is. I need help with it, so I've told a few people and I needed to talk it through a bit before it made complete sense. So I've been doing that this week.

What I can tell you is this: it's a non-profit organization idea. I've wanted to start a non-profit organization for years and the sudden collision of several of my life-changing ideas recently led me to this one, all encompassing, idea. Starting a non-profit is even on my Project Life List (#37)! Right now I know nothing about starting a business and that's the scary part. I know a little about running a business but that's about the end of my expertise. But even with that in mind, I feel motivated, hopeful, and inspired.

Sorry if that's too cryptic of a post. I hate it when bloggers do that. But it's on my mind in a big big way and it's all I can think about today.

Surprise!

This week marks the anniversary of my first date with my husband 8 years ago. That first date was a group trip to the Elk's Lodge to play Bingo. A few things I remember about that date: 1. Courtney won 2. I sat across from Dave and 3. man that room was smoky.

In the 8 years since that date, I've tried to surprise Dave with all sorts of different things. He figures it out every time. Which really sucks all the fun out of surprises.

As a small celebration of our first-date anniversary, I planned a fun surprise for Dave. One of our favorite bands from Missouri, Ha Ha Tonka, is from our college town. We've talked a few times about the fact that we wish they'd come to Nashville, but they never had. When I realized that they were finally coming to Music City AND that it was the same week as our first-date anniversary, I immediately snatched up two tickets. Interested tid bit: Ha Ha Tonka is also the name of the state park in between my childhood house and Dave's childhood house (about 10 minutes apart) that we've driven past about 40 million times. Nostalgia all around!

So about a month before the show, I asked the Mr. to leave work early that day because I was planning a surprise. Mwaahhah. He picked me up and we made our way inside Exit/In. Rocky Votalato was the headliner, so even as we were entering the venue, Dave didn't know why we were there. When we got inside, Dave saw "Ha Ha Tonka" scrawled next to the guest list. SURPRISE! It totally worked.

It's My New Thing

If every thing on Earth had a fan following, I would be voted President of Super Fans for the "lists" Fan Club. I like lists. I like them in poetry and lyrics, grocery lists, to do lists, packing lists, etc.


My friend Lillian, who is mentioned on this blog so often she needs her own category, tipped me off to this site with the cutest ever daily journal pages. And you'd think with how excited it made me that I was also the President of Super Fans of Daily Journal Pages with Parts to Color and Silly Doodles. And I printed two copies so I could go ahead and do them all in one afternoon, but I also could do one per day, like one is supposed to do. And then THAT site lead me over to THIS site that just happens to be doing a list thing every Tuesday that convinced me that I needed to start making this blog more awesome by adding lists and doodles and parts to color every Tuesday as well.


So, here we are. Run on sentences later. And sentence fragments later. Lists and Doodles and Parts to Color... it's my new thing. I'd like to do one per week. We'll see. I don't normally participate in things other blogs are doing every week, but I think you know how I feel about lists. On the list of members of the Super Excited About This Fan Club, I'm like junior vice president or something.


Here's the first page.

Youth Camp

Friday evening I packed into a bus with 200 high school kids and went to youth camp. Cool things happen at youth camp.

Like zip-lining.

And serious messes.

And spending time praising a really cool God.

And bedtimes of 3 am.

And dance parties. Lots and lots of dance parties.

Power

Preoccupied is probably a good word for it. Maybe lazy, maybe boring, maybe busy? Whatever you name it, it is the same thing. It's an empty blog. Sorry things have been so quiet this week. I just didn't really feel like I had much to say. But today I kind of do.

I had ONE difficult day this week in regards to all the non-pregnancy stuff and I've been thinking a bit lately about my purpose here on Earth and how I'm not sure I have one. Like maybe I'm not meant for something really. Which I wholly believe isn't true, but sometimes you have those days, you know? Where you don't feel you're getting to use your talents or your interests except for a few hours a week? And surely God wouldn't have given me this heart and this mind if all I was supposed to do was doodle on a note pad while I'm answering phones at a desk job or just visit other people's kids now and again but not have any of my own. Surely I wasn't meant to be where I am. But this sounds like whining to me, so let's move on.

Even though I had those heavy thoughts lately, they didn't pull me under like bad days sometimes do. They didn't grab hold and seep their sticky sadness into the rest of me. And that got me thinking about the fact that I have really been in a great place lately. It's been a long time since I've been dragged down by depression. Like... longer than I ever remember going before between bouts of sadness. Like... over a year maybe. And friends, I cannot tell you how excited I've been by this realization. Progress maybe? Hormonal changes maybe? Diet and exercise lately has helped, I'm sure. Maybe I'm just growing up.

Sure I have bad days now and again like I did this week, but they don't seem endless. And they don't seem so absolutely insurmountable. And they don't seem all encompassing. They feel like something I can handle. The amount of thankfulness I feel about that can't really be described to you. I can tell you that I'm tearing up as I'm writing this because I'm so overwhelmingly full of thankfulness. I can tell you that I want to hug the neck of Christ and jump up and down with Him saying, "thank you, thank you, thank you!" over and over like I'm 8 years old and He's just given me a new pink bicycle with sparkles on the handlebars and a little basket in the front for keeping dolls and treasures. I can tell you a lot of things about the way it makes me feel, but I won't do it justice.

When I was putting together this blog post, I was looking back through some older blog posts about my history of depression and I saw this post about a sense of peace and contentment I had exactly this time last year. And then when I read the last paragraph of that post in October 2009 I wanted to tell the world that prayer is a mighty warrior when you don't feel like standing up to fight for yourself.

So I guess that's what I came here to say today. I had a bad day. I'm doing fine. Prayer works.

About the Man

A while back, I posted a lot of random things about myself so you could get to know me better. Today I'm doing that again. Except it's about my husband, whom you really should get to know.

- Timely: Dave refuses to admit that he is sick when, in fact, he is sick. His voice is about 2 octaves lower right now and he can't breathe through his nose. But he is. not. sick. dadgumit.

- He's one of the hardest workers I've ever met. He doesn't ever complain about working 90 hours a week. I work 40 and I'm all like, "ugh, I never have any time to do fun stuff. I'm always at work!"

- He's very proud of the shape of his fingernails. He likes, "how they go all the way to the edge."

- He can sing the whole Ninja Turtles rap by Partners in Kryme.

- He WILL sing the whole Ninja Turtles rap if it comes up in conversation.

- He loves to ruin a picture by being ridiculous. These ridiculous pictures make the world a better place.

- In the morning, when he is half asleep, he loves to talk about the weird dreams he's just had. His half-asleepedness turns each explanation into a 10 minute long far too detailed description of each specific part of the dream.

- When I was in middle school (before Dave and I knew each other very well) I had 3 dreams that Dave rescued me from different things. 2 tornadoes and one flood.

- He's a super fun uncle. One day he'll be a super fun dad.

- Mr. Hagen really enjoys a good cliff to jump from. He's quite the daredevil.

- One year he got a remote control plane for his birthday in November. At the beginning of December he asked for a remote control helicopter. Because a helicopter is so much different than a plane.

- He LOVES his career in the music business. He's realized some pretty amazing dreams in the past few years, he's had some pretty crazy schedules, he's worked with some really cool people, and he's learned a lot. His passion for his work makes me proud and excited for him. And jealous, but we won't get into that here.

- He knows the quickest way to make me angry. And he uses it because he thinks it's funny. It is not funny. But sometimes it IS funny. He's the only person who can make me laugh by making me mad. It's not fair play.

- When he's bored, he starts little projects and obsesses over them until they are finished and working correctly. We are the same in that.

- We do NOT work well together on little projects (staining fences, for example.) Sometimes we forget this and work together on something. Quickly we remember.

- He lost his wedding ring in the lake a couple summers ago and spent an unhealthy amount of time at the bottom of the lake looking for it. So long that his ears became swollen and sore for a few days because of all the pressure change. He never found it.

- In the middle of the night, he sometimes talks in his sleep and says really funny or really frightening things. Like, "why are you here?" or "spoon with me."

- He can eat so.much.food. Especially breakfast food. He loves the fact that IHOP has unlimited pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns for $4.99. He would love to tell you about it if given the chance.

- He's always wanted to adopt, but I didn't know until we were in Haiti and he casually brought it up.

- It's hilarious to watch him try on a pair of shoes at the store. I can't even explain it other than, he's very thorough in his trying on.

- Best snuggler ever.

- He reads my blog. Love you Davie! All your rotten obnoxiousness, all your goofy faces, and all your other stuff.

The Wild Woods

Saturday we took off toward Montgomery Bell State Park for a small camping trip with friends. The weather was absolutely perfect, the trees were just at their peak of changing, and the mix-tape was excellent (if I do say so myself.)


We did some hiking, some sitting around the campfire, and the tiniest bit of fishing. Which was mostly watching our 4 year old friend do the fishing since he's the only one that didn't need a fishing license.

Sunday morning I woke up to this beautiful view. I just sat still in my sleeping bag staring up at the trees and the open tent top for a good 15 minutes. It was amazing. I tried to stitch several pictures together to get a good picture of the whole tent top, but it came out a little strange.

I think I'm ready to go camping again. Who's in?

Fall Staple

Every year around the middle of September, I start to think about the pumpkin patch. And by "think about the pumpkin patch" I mean "obssess about and talk non-stop about the moment when I will be AT the pumpkin patch."

When I was younger, we'd go to Rombach Farms. My great-aunt and uncle owned the farm and pumpkin patch just outside of St. Louis and going there each fall was a serious treat. We'd sit in the giant pile of pumpkins and get our pictures taken, we'd go through the field and pick out the biggest, most perfectly shaped pumpkins we could find, we'd walk through the barns and drink hot chocolate. Magic, I tell you.

Though I haven't been back to Aunt Maggie's farm in a while, I still get the itch to go to a pumpkin patch every year. Since living in Nashville, we've been to Gentry's Farm in Franklin each fall. I'm fairly certain that I'm the most excited to go every year out of all the kids I've gone with.

These are my friends, the Griffins. They're awesome. Maybe even more awesome than the pumpkin patch. Maybe.

Early Fall Jams

It's PLAYLIST TIIIIIME!

My pictures from the pumpkin patch this weekend haven't been uploaded yet, so I'm posting the other fun I had this weekend. My playlist!

I make 2 playlists per season. Like, "early summer" and "late summer" and this is Early Fall.

Works well with the windows down on an evening road trip out the studio - it's been tested.

Enjoy!

1. Victim of Circumstance - She Bears
2. For Us - Pete Yorn
3. A Million to One - Autovaughn
4. Coney Island - Good Old War
5. Begin Again - Farewell Flight
6. Something In the Water - Brooke Fraser
7. Love You Strongly - Amy Stroup
8. Crushes - Andy Shauf
9. Static Waves - Andrew Belle
10. Sun Hands - Local Natives
11. Go On, Say It - Blind Pilot
12. Break Me Out - The Rescues
14. The Guy That Says Goodbye - Griffin House

My New Favorite Things

Today I'm feeling a short and sweet blog post. Friday Favorites. Just a list of a few of my new favorite things.

1. Quirky nail polish colors. I am a whole-hearted lover of all colors, but when it comes to nail polish I'm normally a pink-only gal. This new color on my fingertips thing is really growing on me, though.

2. Something In the Water by Brooke Fraser. The song is catchy, the video is cute. How can you go wrong?

3. This amazing little boat automata found on Etsy.

4. The smell of the heater kicking on again this fall. Am I the only person who loves the smell of newly revived heater?

5. This post on twitter from my hilarious husband:
If it's true that beards are hip and my clothes aren't, then I'm only a hipster naked. Don't picture that. Sorry if I cause a brother to stumble.

6. The fact that my little sister, Christina, is up to #4 (as I type this) in a battle of the bands with over 500 other bands. She's super duper talented, and totally deserves every single vote. (VOTE FOR HER HERE!)

7. Seriously every single thing in this shop. But especially this print.

8. The words of encouragement I've received over the past couple of weeks. I've had the teensiest little struggle with feeling like I have a purpose. But, I have been flooded, flooded, with kind words about this little blog space and my artwork. Thanks, to those of you who were a part of that. I want to hug you.

9. Knowing that I'm going to the pumpkin patch this weekend, which is one of my very favorite places to be. THE PUMPKIN PATCH, Y'ALL!

10. This quote by E.B. White: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

Have a great weekend! Enjoying the world or making it better.

Playing Dress Up

In a few (hopefully short) weeks, I'm heading down to Texas for my brother's wedding/Thanksgiving/beach vacation.

I had a dream a few nights ago that I had brought my entire family to the store with me to find a dress for the wedding. It was 7:23 and the wedding was supposed to start at 7:30 across town. The whole family was mad at me because I hadn't found a dress yet, and I was wandering the store crying. I was saying things like, "I can't afford the dresses that I liiiiiike" and "these aren't even in my siiiiize" and it was all very stressful, as I'm sure you can imagine.

So the next day I began my hunt for a dress for the wedding. Which then turned into figuring out what I'll wear the whole time in Texas. Mentally packing, if you will. Which then turned into an all-out Polyvore fest. Which became these:

Do you think 5 weeks early is too early to start packing?

8 Days a Week

Ok, actually only 7. But, for some reason a title for this blog post escaped me and that's all I could think of. You've heard over and over from me that I get ideas in my head that will.not.leave. until I make them. For about 3 weeks I've been desperately needing a trip to the craft store to get balsa wood. Well, I made the trip, and immediately got to work on this nagging idea.

A calendar! I saw some birch desk calendars online here and thought they were the cutest things. Then I was introduced to Lisa Rupp a couple days later and fell in love with her art. Her designs have a very similar feel to my designs, and I thought, if she can do it... I should at least give it a shot! So I did. This one is for my own personal use... so I created some designs that are very similar to hers. If I were ever to sell a balsa wood calendar, I'd obviously create new designs. I was just desperate to complete this project and get it out of my head!

I love it. I can't wait until January when I can start using these little pretties!

Oktoberfest

Saturday was Oktoberfest in Music City. Oktoberfest means beer and lederhosen for a lot of people. I don't actually care for beer and I don't have the figure to pull off lederhosen. Though after seeing several people wearing them this weekend, I can quite confidently say I don't want to. It's just not a good look, you know? This guy made it work, though. I think the wind-up monkey helps.

When nearly all of your friends have children, you end up standing in line for pony rides instead of lines for beer. I much prefer the pony line; there is considerably less f-bomb and considerably more giggling. It pays to be friends with parents.

And instead of the normal sauerkraut and bratwurst treat that many people were interested in, I treated myself to a Sampson's Darkest Dark truffle. Ok, maybe 2. I found a new Nashville crush. His name is The Cocoa Tree. I'm not generally a sucker for sweets, but truffles make me weak in the knees. And cheesecake. And Dr. Pepper. But generally I'm not. I'd love to go back and try Hazel's Salted Caramel and Julie Anna's Orange. TRUFFLES, guys! Alright, I just had to get that out of my system.

Birdy

I've been in the early fall clean, organize, purge mood that I have every year. Something about fall makes me nest. I flit about the house setting out bits of old junk and piles of books and I decide that my house is just the greatest thing and that I should never ever leave.

Because I don't have much to say today, as I've been entirely too sleep deprived (nightmares about shopping! did you know that was possible?) and I don't have much time for blogging right now, I'll just put up some pictures of my home. My homey little nest that I love dearly.

I've got my fingers crossed for some more nesting at home time this weekend. What about you?