Doing something for myself… what does that mean?

After our third daughter was born, I had to give up a lot of things in order to take care of three girls under the age of 5. It’s not like I didn’t try to keep this things going, I really did. It was just really hard to keep up with anything that I tried to do with so many people that I had running around.

No matter how much I tried there just wasn’t enough “free” time for me to do the things that I liked. I would try to read a book after I had them all in bed sound a sleep. But I often found myself waking up a few hours later with my book either on my chest or on the floor next to my bed and drool dried to my face. I just couldn’t seem to get past two or three pages even though I love to read! I used to read tons of books. I was just too tired to follow through with anything. No matter what it was or how much I wanted to do it.

So, if I didn’t have the time or energy for that I really didn’t have time to do any sewing or crocheting. I would start project after project, but none of them would get finished. I tried, I really did. I couldn’t get them done during the day because I had to keep stopping to take care of the kids. I would get a project out, convince myself that today was the day that I was going to get something done! Than I would hear “Mommy, she drew all over her self with a marker!” or “Mommy!! The baby stinks!!” or my favorite “uh-oh!” followed by the footsteps of children scattering.

During that time, I found myself getting into emotional states of blah. I didn’t feel like myself anymore. All I had known for three years is doing everything for everyone else. Stuff like knowing what extra stuff I had to bring when leaving the house with all of the kids. Staying up late to finish the chores that I normally would have done during the day. Life was just one blah me day after another. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life. I love my children. I love my husband. I just felt like I didn’t know who I was anymore.

That’s why I had decided that I am going to try to do at least 20 minutes of stuff for me every day. It doesn’t matter what that 20 minutes entails as long as it was something that I wanted to do for myself. It could be so simple as taking a nap in the afternoon, working on one of the many WIPs (Works In Progress) laying around my desk, reading one of the many, MANY books on my shelf or writing a blog post.

Since I started doing this, I actually feel a little weight taken off my chest. I feel like I am re-gaining a little bit of me and I feel like a regular person again. That is a great feeling to have.

I know that this is a common issue for a lot of parents out there. I have talked to many of them about the same kind of topics. Often I hear the same things, they are just too tired to do anything at night after chasing kids around all day, cleaning and cooking.

I think that a lot of us Parents get caught up in the every day family life. It’s good to step back and ask yourself what do you want to do today? Not your spouse/significant other, not your kids, but you…. what do you want to do?

Even for a brief 20 minutes a day. Do it for your sanity. Because it will make your soul happy which in turn will make the next day better and the people around you happier because they can tell you are too.

Starting Fresh

It’s been awhile since I’ve worked on my personal stuff. Since having our third child things had to be put on the back burner. Now that she is 3.5 years old I am going to give it another go!

I don’t know how consistent I will be able to post on here, but I am going to really put in effort to do so!

I am working on putting together my official first project post so keep an eye out for it!!

Breaking in the New Year!

Hello everyone! I don’t know about you, but this year has started off pretty good for me so far! We had our 3rd little girl in August so everyday is awesome with her. It’s so fun getting to see her grow, learn new things, meet milestones and just do day to day things. So now we have Miss M, Miss S and another Miss S. But I will be referring to her as Baby S.

I agreed to be an Assistant Admin for Melody’s Makings Facebook Group. I am helping out with her Mystery Create-A-Longs. Her first one of the new year just started this past Tuesday. She has sent out the first segment and will be sending out the second one tomorrow. Everyone’s projects have been coming out very well! I love seeing everyone’s projects and seeing all of their guess as to what it is they are making.

Here is a link to her Facebook page so you can sign up for it and join a long if you want. She offers it in both a knit and crochet version. This months is free to join! She has gotten a lot of new people to sign up for it… and everyone seems to be having fun.

Melody’s Makings Facebook

I have a few projects that I am working on; two blankets, a dress and a pattern test for Sweet Potato 3. I will be sure to share them with you when I have everything finished. What a great start so far!

How has everyone else been doing so far to start?

Star Wars Celebration – 2015

This one is a little late but I still had to write about it. Because my family and I just love going to all of these nerdy conventions and this one takes the cake!  We got to see a lot of really cool things Star Wars things. There were a lot of awesome cosplays too. But I didn’t have the camera, so I didn’t get to take any photos of them.

This is from the new movie!!

One thing that I loved was seeing all of the Storm Troopers just walking down the street casually like it was an every day occurrence! My kids loved seeing the remote control R2D2s rolling around. Miss S even got excited when she say anyone dressed as Darth Vader.

The first thing that we had to stop at for the kids was the Lego booth. Pretty unexplainable, I mean what kid doesn’t love playing with Legos?! While they were playing on the Lego tables, I was able to sneak away to get some photos of the Lego sculptures.

There were a couple more but I wasn’t able to get good pictures of them due to how many people were there.

The next booth area that we had to stop at was the Sideshow booth. We just love looking at their 6th Scale figures. Our favorite one coming out soon has got to be the little Jawas!

And of course I had to take a picture of this awesome Vader since I am pretty close to the guy who sculpted it.

We also had to snag a photo of our friends entry into the R2-Me2 competition.

We are a true Star Wars loving family. I will admit that they have only seen one of the actual Star Wars films. They have mostly watched Star Wars Rebels. But they are still hooked on it. Here are a bunch of my favorite photos from the Celebration.

 

I’d like to say Hello to 2015!

We are only 24 days into the new year and it has proved to be a very busy one for me for sure! I know it’s been awhile since I have posted on here, but I assure you I will be back to posting on a regular basis very soon!

I have been thinking of all of my fans a lot lately, really trying to think about where I want to go with this blog/business. I have a few things in the works currently. As well as some thing that I have finished and are just waiting to get posted about. I have been working on some new yarn crafts, sewing projects, kids and family stuff. So, yes… very busy! But hey I wouldn’t have it any other way!

What have you all been up to? What have you been working on for the new year?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My family and I would love to wish all of my fans a very Merry Christmas! I hope that Santa has treated you all very well! We decided to stay home this year (can’t beat the 80+ degree weather here in SoCal), and it was pretty nice to be able to do things on our own schedule.

I posted earlier this week about my Teacher and Classmate gifts that I made for Miss M’s preschool class. So, I figured why not tell you guys a little bit about one of my family traditions that I love dearly! This was done at my Mom’s house every year as well as in her home when she was little and I hope when my kids get older they will continue the tradition in their homes.

We put up our Christmas trees early in the month, I like to put mine up after Thanksgiving dinner (we use a fake one). Then as our family presents come in or get wrapped we place them under the tree. So, our tree has lots of pretty wrapped presents under the tree for weeks before Christmas. The kids might look at them to find what presents are theirs, but they never really bother them until Christmas. I believe that this is a very good way to practice patience with the kids. That is something that they have to learn and do their whole life so, why not start with Christmas presents.

Then on Christmas Eve, Santa comes and adds his presents to the pile. The girls know which ones are from him because they are wrapped all in white tissue paper and tied with red/green curly ribbon. I just love this look! It makes it so easy to spot the Santa presents in with all of our regular ones and I think it makes them get even more excited when they see them for themselves!!

What kind of things do you do for traditions in your family? Please share, I would love to hear some others!

UPDATE – Sharing some love this Christmas Season

So, I had posted earlier this month about a little girl named Addie and her wish of Christmas cards to fill every room in her house. I am sure that everyone remembers that touching story (if you missed it click here). Well, I was contacted by someone at American Greetings and they informed me about their awesome contribution to making little Addie’s last Christmas the best that it could be! On their blog they set up a way that you can sign a card (free of charge) and American Greetings will put your signature on a card for you! This makes it even easier for you to do it, so please please please head to their site by clicking the image below and fill out the five question form!

Of course you are also welcome to send your own personal card instead of using American Greetings form by mailing them to:

Box 162, Fountain Green, UT 84632.

Either way please take a few seconds and spread some Holiday love this year.

Sharing some love this Christmas Season

Each year I try to find some way to share some Christmas spirit and love for the holidays. It could be something like donating new toys to Toys For Tots, donating non-perishables to the local food bank or making preemie hats for NICU babies.

This year I signed up to make NICU hats for the little babies at our local hospital again. I still remember the feeling that I had when I received a knitted hat for little Miss S when we left the hospital. So, I will probably do that as well… every year that I can.

But this year I decided to do something extra… I am going to send a Christmas card to a little girl who is very sick. I found her story because my friend posted the news article on her facebook page. The story was so touching and it is such a simple wish that this amazing girl and her family have this holiday season that I couldn’t help trying to fulfill it!

Little Addie is 6 years old, and when she was just 3 years old she stopped growing which has caused her to only weigh 23 pounds. The doctors don’t know what is wrong with her… but they say she will probably only live roughly a year more.

Addie loves checking the mailbox and seeing if anything is for her… I mean what kid doesn’t! So, her Mother is asking everyone to send a Christmas card for her. They hope to cover every wall in their house with them!

If you would like to help by sending Addie and her family a Christmas card please send it to: Box 162, Fountain Green, UT 84632.

 

You can also read about her story here: http://q13fox.com/2014/12/01/little-girl-who-weighs-just-23-pounds-has-one-christmas-wish-before-she-dies-can-you-help/

Blizzcon 2014

Earlier this year, I went to San Diego Comic Con and shared my adventure with you. This time, I bring you Blizzcon! For anyone that doesn’t know what Blizzcon is… it’s the big annual Blizzard Entertainment Convention! This is the second one that I have gotten the chance to go to since moving the Southern California. It’s by far one of my favorite things to do and geek out about.

I love Blizzard’s games (especially Diablo 3) and I was very happy to hear about their new game coming out next year… Overwatch. This game is a first-person shooter, which in my mind, was the only type of game that they were missing. In my late teens to late-twenties I played nothing but first-person shooter games. Counter Strike and Day of Defeat were my late night obsessions. Guess that was better then going out and partying all the time like other people my age. hahaha

After Blizzard announced Overwatch, they unveiled their latest sculpture over by the Store. It’s an awesome piece of the games character named Tracer. (It was a little hard to get a perfect shot of this piece since it was on a rotating pedestal. So, please look past the slight blur.)

You can see the awesome trailers for Overwatch here:

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer  |  Overwatch Game Play Trailer

Anyways, back to Blizzcon…. I wasn’t able to go for opening day because Miss M had to go to school. But, I was there for the second/last day. Because I went on the second day, I wasn’t able to really see a lot of the cool costumes because the costume contest was on Friday. I still have a few good ones to share with you though. Plus, if you wanted to see all of the people that participated at Blizzcon, you can check out this link:

Blizzcon 2014 – Cosplay/Costume Contest

I did spend most of my time there, over by the Artists’ Stage… I love being able to see the Blizzard artists doing their magic. I highly suggest that you all go and watch some of the panels if you ever get the chance to go to Blizzcon.

After I got my fill of the Artists’ Stage, I floated around so I could grab some photos of the new products, the massive sculptures and to just soak in all of the awesome things Blizzcon had to offer.

I of course left the best (in my point of view) and newest large scale sculpture for last! This one was created my Steve Wangs’ crew for this years Blizzcon.

The Azeroth Choppers were on display, I never watched any of the episodes of the builds personally, but they were pretty cool to see in person. If you want to check out the process of how these jaw dropping bikes were made please head over to the website: Azeroth Choppers

Unfortunately, all of the Blizzard product that I wanted to get at Blizzcon was sold out by the time I got over there on Saturday. They have a pretty cute new plushie that will eventually make it’s home in my house.

I didn’t even attempt to take part in any of the game playing… the lines to do that were a little too long when all I had to do was go home and play it on my computer. I would have liked to try out the Overwatch, but I am sure you can guess that the line was SUPER long for that one.

One other thing that I wasn’t able to do while I was there, was check out the Warcraft Movie Trailer… again the line was long to see it and it would have been cool to see it at Blizzcon but I will just wait until it is out to the public.

I ended up leaving around 4 o’clock because I had to pick up the girls. The whole family had dinner and then watched the closing Metallica concert on the Live Stream. They put on a pretty good concert and the girls loved it. When Metallica finished playing their set and went off stage the crowd started chanting “One More Song!” I thought it was pretty funny that the girls started chatting along with them. When Metallica came back out both of them started screaming and then moshing in front of my computer when Metallica started playing again! It was a pretty awesome way to end Blizzcon!

San Diego Comic Con 2014

I will admit that I am a bit of a geek and I am not ashamed of it!! I love collecting action figures of my favorite things like Movie/TV properties and Gaming Properties. So, when my husband said that I could go to Comic Con with my friend Loren (Pandora’s Craft Box) without the kids, I was super excited and jumping for joy! Yes, going with the kids is fun too but sometimes it’s good to break away and “Recharge” a little bit. I am sure that everyone, that is a parent, will agree with me.

Whenever I go there I NEVER park near the convention center because it is to be expected that the parking will be slim since there is a HUGE amount of people at Comic Con. Instead I actually park past the Convention Center and take the trolley up since it stops right in front of the building. Another perk to this is that parking is free and I only had to pay $6 for a one day trolley ticket.

Any who, we got to the Convention Center around lunch time so after picking up our badges we snagged some food to fill us up a little. When we headed inside I went straight to the Blizzard booth to check out their goods. Got a nice picture of the unpainted Kerrigan from Star Craft.

While I was there I snagged a picture of an awesome Diablo Demon Hunter Cosplay!

Next up was the awesome stuff over at Sideshow Collectibles… They had some great Blizzard statues over there that I wanted to check out. Diablo from Diablo 3, an awesome painted Kerrigan and the HUGE Deathwing from Warcraft.

They had a new “room” in their area that was filled with some really coooool sculptures! The set is called “Court of the Dead” they are amazing in every way! I wanted to take pictures of each one but I there were too many people in the room at the time. I was able to snag a couple of pictures of some of my favorites though. Can’t wait to see some more stuff come up for these.

Another booth that I had to head over to was the LEGO booth!!! Who in their right mind doesn’t love playing with/looking at Lego sculptures?! They had HUGE bins of Lego pieces that you could make stuff out of and their were young kids and older adults digging in the bin to find the right piece for their creation! Believe me it was pretty hard for me to fight the urge to get my build on!

The Weta booth wasn’t that far away so we had to check out the sleeping Smaug from The Hobbit. The head was pretty cool just sleeping there but what made it even cooler was the fact that that dragon’s eye would open and he would kind of look around before falling back to sleep.

Tried to get some good pictures of the Warcraft props at Legendary‘s booth but there was a little bit of a glare on the glass. Still these were pretty impressive. Can’t wait until the movie comes out!

I took a picture of Sideshow’s Delorean and the Hover Board from the Prop Shop too! Just had to geek out on some Back to the Future stuff!

And of course who could forget all the Cosplay Characters walking around! I snagged a few pictures of some of my favorites!

All in all it was a great day! Loren and I enjoyed our time away from the hubby’s and munchkins. We checked out a bunch of artist as well… I even bought a signed copy of the My Little Pony Vol. 1 for my girls while I was there. Didn’t get anything for myself… Guess that you can’t completely leave the kids at home with Daddy.

 

(Please Note: All photos were taken by me which is why my logo is on them. I am not claiming anything in the photos as my work or anything my property)