Category Archives: Our First House

A New Couch

February 23, 2015 Pamela Stephens

When Matthew and I decided to buy our current house, we knew we’d need to get a few new furniture pieces for the home. This was for a few different reasons, actually. First, our rent house was a combination of his things and my things from before we got married. Most of it was either hand-me-down furniture or pieces that we’d each had for quite some time and that had miraculously survived the college years. It was time for some new furniture. Secondly, our current furniture didn’t really work very well with the new living room layout. Therefore, we knew we’d be purchasing new furniture soon after the move.

I began searching high and low for a new sofa and was rather unsuccessful for quite some time. Everything that I liked was either crazy expensive or didn’t really work any better with the layout. Finally, I decided that a 3 piece sectional would suit our needs the best. In the beginning, I was quite firmly against purchasing a sectional, because I really wanted something more sleek looking. Most of my struggle in the sofa search was that I really wanted something with a mid-century modern look but that was also comfortable. As far as I can tell, this combination doesn’t exist…at least not for someone with our budget. Finally, I decided that I would give a sectional more thought. It would really work best for the room layout and give us the comfort we were looking for. Besides, I’m wanting to host more parties, and a sectional would give us more seating.

After searching high and low on the internet, I finally decided to give our local Haverty’s a shot. I browsed their website and selected a few options to check out in the store. Both Matthew and I agreed that the Piedmont was our favorite. Here’s a tip to consider before shopping for furniture: always, always measure your space before you go. Practically every piece of furniture looks much smaller in a gigantic warehouse than it will in your home. We knew that the Piedmont would be a tad larger than what we were originally looking for, but it still fit our needs.

As soon as Matthew and I decided to purchase this couch, I couldn’t hardly contain my excitement. I really felt like this sofa was what I needed to finally pull our living room decor together. Wrong. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with the space when the sofa arrived, but none of it really worked out as I planned. Even though I was excited about our new sofa, I was struggling to pull things together in the room. If you’ve ever had a similar experience, you know that it’s pretty frustrating. I basically had to start from scratch.

I still haven’t quite decided what I’m going to do with the room. Do I want only black, white, and gray pillows? Do I want to add an assortment of colors as I had originally planned? Gallery walls? Book shelves? I’m just not sure yet. However, I’ve learned over the years that I can’t force myself to make such decisions right away. Instead, I’ll need to find that one piece that’s missing that’ll give me the necessary inspiration for the whole room. However, I’ll try to make it as beautiful as possible while we wait for my inspiration to strike.

Even though the new sofa has shaken up my decor plans a bit, I’m still very pleased with our purchase. I like the texture of the fabric and the color is just what I was hoping for (if we went with a neutral, that is). I also really liked that the pillows that came with it were the same color and fabric as the couch. Most of the time, sofas come with a patterned pillow, and they’re almost always not my style. If you’re in the market for a new sofa, I’d give Haverty’s a shot. I was thoroughly pleased with their customer service, delivery options, product selection, and price.

Now, who wants to come help me figure out what to do in this living room?? Also, if you’re interested in our other fascinating grown up purchases, be sure to read about our new mattresses…which I’m still sooo crazy about…and our first car to purchase together. Next up, a discussion on retirement planning and dentures! Just kidding…or maybe not.

Nail Holes & The Nesting Place

February 2, 2015 Pamela Stephens

This post is a bit of a combo post. First, I want to bring attention to the fact that I finished my first book in many, many years back in the fall. I honestly can’t remember when the last time was that I actually finished a book that I started. I was probably a little girl. It was probably Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley High. (Not kidding.) I’ve learned a lot about how I feel about reading lately, but we’ll talk more about that later. For now, let’s all celebrate the fact that I actually read a book from start to finish. Feel free to bring me celebratory cupcakes if you’d like.

Now, let’s talk about that book. I’ve been following along with The Nester’s blog lately, and I’ve seen her book mentioned here and there around the internet. Basically, this book is about designing a home that you love around things that you already have or can put together cheaply and easily. It’s not about going in debt to furnish a picture-perfect home and it’s not about following all of the rules.

Instead, The Nester’s motto is, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” Honestly, this motto is what drew me to her blog and the book to begin with. We all know that I struggle with perfection. It’s not uncommon for me to just not do something if I don’t feel like I have the time to do it perfectly. This is especially true for decorating our home. I have hundreds and thousands of ideas, but I delay implementing any of them for the fear of finding a better idea or not haven’t enough time to plan it out completely. It’s quite tragic.

When I stumbled upon Myquillyn’s blog, her message struck me. I shouldn’t be waiting on perfection. Instead, I should be creating a home that works for Matthew and I, and I can do so without a perfect plan. There are many beautiful things out there that aren’t perfect. As a matter of fact, I tend to find that the imperfections are what’s most beautiful. Why, then, do I put things off in a quest for perfection when I don’t even want a perfect home?

As I read more of Myquillyn’s posts, I knew that her message was exactly what I needed to hear. I needed someone to coax me into just doing things, both at home and in my life in general. I hesitated to buy the book because I knew I had a terrible track record of not finishing books. I also didn’t want to read a design book that “showed you how to properly mix patterns” or some other surface level design strategy. Finally, I broke down and purchased the book for my iPad and then struggled to put it down again.

After reading the first few pages, I knew that I needed to really hear Myquillyn’s message. I knew that this book was far less about how do decorate and far more about why. After all, I don’t feel like I need help with how to do it. Instead, I needed someone to steer me towards actually doing things instead of waiting for the stars to align in a scenario where I have plenty of time and money and inspiration. The Nesting Place helped to me see all of the scenarios in which I was accidentally waiting for perfection. I was waiting for the perfect moment or the perfect shower curtain, and in reality, I had practically everything that I needed to at least make things beautiful for the time being. If I found a better rug/chair/ottoman/wall hanging later, then that’s fine! I could simply change it later. If you find yourself struggling with decorating your home or if you want some creative ideas for creating something beautiful on the cheap, I highly recommend reading the book.

This brings me to the second part of this post. There’s a section in The Nesting Place dedicated solely to nail holes. I almost shiver as I write this, because the thought of putting an unnecessary nail hole in my freshly painted walls, sends chills down my spine. After all, I paid a pretty penny (I suppose “pretty pennies” are worth more than ugly ones.) to have all of the holes filled and every single surface of this home painted. However, Myquillyn says, “Is there anything less risky in life than creating a one-millimeter hole in a wall that can be filled with your finger and some putty in two seconds?” She goes on to say, “Nail holes are just a part of living in a house. I’d say that a nail hole is the lowest entry-level risk-taking action you could have in life, other than getting no whip on your coffee.”

As crazy as it sounds, this section of the book was a huge turning point for me. I was putting off hanging things on my walls (something that I’ve desperately wanted to do for months) for the fear of putting a nail hole in the wrong place. How silly! That very day, I went and put a hole in the dining room wall. I hung a wreath as part of my Halloween decor…it’s wasn’t even a permanent decor item! As silly as it sounds, this was a huge step for me. I made a decision to not let such a tiny, little obstacle hinder me from having a beautiful home right now.

Each day that passes leads me closer to the day that Matthew and I will move from this home. I made a commitment that I wouldn’t put off decorating this home as I had done with our rent house. However, we’ve now lived here for 5 months and most of the house isn’t decorated as I’d like. Some of this stems from needing lots of new furniture. Some of it is from a lack of time. However, most of my hesitation to decorating has been a fear of missing the mark. It’s from a fear of hanging something in the “wrong” place or purchasing the “wrong” rug. These fears kept me from finishing our last home, and if I’m not careful, I’ll see the same thing happen in this home.

After reading Myquillyn’s book, I realized that most of my hesitation surrounds nail holes. I also realized that nail holes are really such a small issue, both literally and figuratively. The reality is, there’s a large chance that I’ll actually like where I hang something. The other reality is, if I don’t like where it’s hanging, I haven’t made some huge, life-altering mistake. I can simply move it. I can just as simply fill in the nail hole. After finishing this book, I decided to no longer let waiting on perfection be an obstacle for me in creating a home that I love.

How many areas of our life do we approach in a similar manner? I think it’s safe to say that we often let fear of the unknown be an obstacle for us in creating a life that we love. Maybe we don’t go after that promotion for a fear of being told no. Maybe we don’t tell someone how we feel, because we’re scared of how they’ll react. Maybe we don’t put nail holes in freshly painted walls, because we’re afraid that it will be the “wrong” spot. Whatever it is, these little fears can quickly and sneakily be a total road block for us in creating the lives we want. Rather than holding on to fear and the struggle for perfection, let’s tackle life, one little nail hole at a time. Sometimes the risks we need to take are tiny. Sometimes they’re large. Either way, we’ll never know the outcome without first taking the risk.

What is one thing that you can do today to take a step towards the life that you want? Whatever it is, don’t spend too much time thinking about it. Just do it! For me, that means going to out another hole in the wall. Use this link to order the book and I receive a small commission!

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January Review + February Goals

January 28, 2015 Pamela Stephens

We’re nearing the end of January, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how I’m doing with my 2015 goals so far. In general, I’d say that I’m doing decently well with some and not as great with others. Some might find this discouraging, but I say it’s the nature of the beast.

Here are the things I’m doing well at:

Waking up by 6:00-6:30. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this one is probably the toughest goal that I’ve set. Maybe ever. I seriously hate getting out of bed in the morning, and it’s been quite a struggle. However, there have been two instances where I’ve slept well past the 6:00-6:30 goal, and it’s had a tremendous, negative effect on my day. I’m going to keep this one up, but I’d say that we have a love/hate relationship at this time.
Blogging 2x per week. I had to make 3 posts one week to make up for missing a post the week before, but I’ve met the monthly number. In my mind, that totally counts. I only made 4 posts in January of last year, so the fact that this is my 9^th post for the month feels like a huge accomplishment…that’s more than double! I attribute a lot of the success so far to having a good deal of help from my assistants. (Thanks, girls…you’re the best!!) I can’t wait to see how this plays out as my work schedule fills up, but we’re headed in the right direction for now.
Monthly quality time days with Matthew. I marked this one off too! I can already see that the first half of the month is going to fly by, and we’ll likely be squeezing this time in at the end of each month. However, the purpose of this goal is to make the time happen, so as long as I can mark this off by the end of each month, I’ll be happy.
Host a party. I wouldn’t exactly count this as a party, but I did have some friends over for my birthday. Since the big goal here is to spend time with the people I love, I’m counting this as a party…and filling in a bubble on my goal sheet. 🙂
Replacing mediocre things. I wouldn’t say that I did anything major towards this goal. However, I did make a pretty big step for myself. Hold on to your seats…this is a big one – I replaced the hand soap in our bathroom. Riveting, I know! On a serious note though, I was forcing myself to finish this bottle before buying a new one. The bottle was old and dingy. The nozzle was nearly clogged, and I didn’t like the texture or smell of the soap. The worst part was, it always seemed to leave little specks behind in the sink, so I was constantly having to clean the sink after washing my hands…so counterproductive! Nonetheless, it was still an unfinished bottle of soap, so I figured I needed to finish it before buying a new bottle. Not true. I threw this disgusting nuisance away and replaced it with a fresh, new bottle that smells lovely and doesn’t make a huge mess. One small step for mankind, one giant step for me!

While I did made some progress towards these five things, I didn’t do so well at working out regularly, random acts of kindness, or volunteering. Some of these are more annual or quarterly goals though, so I’m not too discouraged. Regardless, I feel like this month was pretty successful, and I’m excited to keep working towards all of these goals.

As we wrap up January, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in February. Honestly, I struggled to set goals for February. For some reason, I just couldn’t really wrap my head around what I wanted to do. Finally, I settled on a few simple goals for the month.

Leave with at least 3 big things (but no more than 5) from Family Reunion 2015. Family Reunion is the big, annual conference for Keller Williams. Agents from all over the world come together for a jam-packed week of training, networking, and planning. It’s nothing less than overwhelming. Since I tend to want to do all things at once, I hope to pick just 3-5 things from the conference that I want to implement in my business this year.
Actually celebrate Valentine’s Day. Since we’ve been married, Matthew and I have never really celebrated Valentine’s Day. Honestly, I’ve always thought it was a pretty dumb holiday. This year, though, I’d like to make a little bigger deal of it. I think Matthew and I will do something special! (Side note: I can totally count whatever we do as a QT day and mark it on my sheet!)
Hang at least 3 things on the walls. You’ve seen this pop up on several of my monthly goals lists. I have made a tiny, little bit of progress, but not near as much as I’d like. If I were being completely honest, I’d say that I struggle with just doing things. Instead, I have to plan everything out perfectly first. This is especially true for putting holes in my new walls. (Read: On Waiting for Perfection if you don’t believe me.) However, I’m growing a bit tired of bare walls. This month, I’m hanging some things. Period!

How are you doing with your goals so far this year? Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t knocked them out of the park yet. I haven’t either. We still have hundreds of days left in 2015, and there’s plenty of time to work towards whatever dreams you may have. Join me in setting a few small goals for the month, and let’s show February who’s the boss!

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DIY Wall Hanging

January 22, 2015 Pamela Stephens

When I saw this wall hanging on A Beautiful Mess, I knew that I needed to give it a whirl for my own home. Rope is one of my favorite things ever, and I’ve been drawn to anything copper lately. Perfect combination! Plus, the world is being taken by storm with textured wall art and weavings these days, which I’m totally fine with. There’s some pretty awesome work making its way around the internet, if you’ll look around a bit. If I’m not careful, my home might end up with a weaving or rope/yarn art on every wall!

I actually started on and completed this project months ago. It was finished (with the exception of trimming the edges to level them out) months before we decided to move from our rent house. Now that I think about it, I may have actually purchased these supplies this time last year! (Take you a year to get something completely finished? Me too…don’t feel bad.) I planned to hang this in our master bedroom….that I never finished. Instead, this little guy just hung out in a laundry basket until we moved. However, it was one of the first things I planned out for the new house. I knew right away that I would hang it in our dining room, and I was excited about how it would pop on the dark gray wall.

I’m not sharing much of a tutorial here since you can get all of that from the ABM link. I will say that all of the supplies came from TP Outdoors. The rope was a 3-strand rope, and I unraveled it to use the individual strands. I also taped the ends with scotch tape before cutting them to keep them from fraying quite so much as I worked. I removed the tape after hanging it on the wall. For the most part, I followed the directions pretty closely. The hardest part of this project was cutting all of the rope and getting the knots to line up. However, after you get going with a few strands, it’s pretty easy to work out a system. Don’t worry too much about the ends being the same length at this point. It’s much easier to make them a tad longer than necessary and then trim to the correct length after that.

This is one of my first DIY projects to make from ABM (They share so many good ones!), and it’s one of the first that I’ve done that turned out pretty much exactly how I’d hoped! It’s been a bit of a conversation piece in our new home and most people are shocked to hear that I made it.

How about you? Have you made any awesome DIY projects lately? I’d love to see them, so send me a link! I actually have another project that I made from ABM that I hope to share soon…just gotta get to work in that closet room of mine!

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Deck the Halls

December 18, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Deck the Halls Christmas is in full swing at the Petrus household, and I only barely got the Christmas decor up before the madness of the season arrived. Christmas tends to be a little hectic for us with so many places to be and things to do, but I love every minute of it.

PRESENTS! For the past couple of years, I’ve put up two Christmas trees and since the new house has more space, it was even easier to do this year! The big tree is my “themed” tree. Everything matches, and it’s more decorative. (Shout out to my sister for making me that “P.”) The second tree is more of a hodgepodge of old, sentimental ornaments…most of which were made by my mother. I also put my retro Santa with this tree that I’ve had since I was a little girl and used my Grandmother’s quilt as the tree skirt.

Vase with Mini Ornaments I snagged those Southern Living books at the Nashville Flea Market. Long live the 80s! The jar sitting on top was given to me by my mother-in-law and is filled with mini ornaments that were my grandmothers. I loved finding a way to incorporate those into the decor this year. That vase was something Matthew and I picked up on our trip to Memphis, and he surprised me with those flowers (and strawberry shortcake!) when I got home from a work trip recently. Using the vase here gives me a good excuse to keep fresh flowers through the season!

It took me what feels like forever to decide on mantle decor that I was somewhat happy with. I just couldn’t quite get it right. Those stars are from the same flea market as the books. Thanks to my sister (again) for the “Noel.” I really do hate that my sweet niece got the flu, but I certainly don’t mind all of the handmade decor I ended up with from my sister being trapped at home. Let’s call that a silver lining.

I wish I would have had a little more time to decorate this year because I would have loved to go “all out” for our first Christmas here. No worries though…I’m still happy with the decor that I was able to do and it’s plenty to enjoy while I drink all of the hot chocolate. (Seriously, check out my Instagram feed. I’m literally drinking all of the hot chocolate.)

Chalkboard Tree I hope your Christmas season is off to a wonderful start! And remember, be sure that you don’t get too caught up in the hustle and bustle…it’s time to enjoy this magical season!

P. S. If you’re looking for fun Christmas things to do around the Monroe-West Monroe area, be sure to check out the Christmas on the River website.There’s still a ton of fun Christmas events on the agenda. Oh, and shop local when you can!

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Moving Announcements

November 17, 2014 Pamela Stephens

A few weeks ago, Matthew and I mailed moving announcements with our new mailing address on them. The first set of announcements was sent to our family and friends. (If you didn’t get one, it’s because I don’t have an address for you. Send it over!) I mailed these announcements for a few reasons.

I love paper products and cards, so I’ll take any excuse to mail something of the sort.
I wanted to announce/celebrate the purchase of our first home together.
I wanted everyone to have the new address to make it easier for them when sending Christmas cards, shower invites, large sums of money, etc. (Kidding on the money, but please feel free to send some our way.)

This card was designed by the talented Nicole Meares at The Fletching Co. (Here’s the link to the actual product listing.) After Nicole finished the design, I had the cards printed locally at Associated Business Printing, and I ordered brown kraft envelopes on Amazon.

After mailing these to friends and family, I decided that it would be nice to mail them to my new neighbors, as well. I thought this would be a nice way to introduce ourselves and at least give the neighbors an idea of who we are. We’ve had a chance to meet a few people on our street but not many.

For this set of cards, I felt like there needed to be something else in the envelope. If they read the card closely, they’d be able to tell we were the new kids on the block by the address. However, I wanted to make it a little easier for them to determine why they were getting this card. I decide to include a little cutout that said “Howdy New Neighbor!” This cutout would go in front of the card in the envelope, so anyone who hadn’t met us yet would have an indication of why they were receiving a moving announcement from a stranger.

I must say, this might have been the most exciting part of this project for me. I used the A Beautiful Mess app to design the cutout and printed it on a dark orange card stock. My assistant cut them into little squares, and we were ready to mail! Isn’t that little guy the cutest?! There weren’t as many of these as the friends and family cards, so we hand addressed them and used this stamp for the return address. (Bo was incredibly easy to work with when ordering my address stamps, by the way. Highly recommended!)

Side note about the cards: Someone mentioned once that they’re jealous because I send out different cards and things like this. They said they felt like I “had it together” and they didn’t because of this. That’s definitely not true, and I never send out cards and such with the intention of making someone feel bad. Instead, cards and stationary are my thing. It’s what I love to do. I will almost always find time to do things of the sort because it’s my favorite. However, you’ll likely never receive a gourmet cupcake from me and there will always be shoes on the floor in every room of my house. The fact that I send out fancy holiday cards or moving announcements (which most of my friends had never heard of) isn’t intended to make anyone feel inferior. When you see someone doing things that maybe you aren’t good at or don’t care about, just remember, their thing is different from your thing, and you’re likely kicking their tail in some other area of life. Last week’s post on starting a family kind of touches on this. We’re all different but wonderful, so never forget how fantastic you are in your own way. You don’t have to send out moving announcements to rock at life.

I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve love, love, love cards and projects like this. I’ve been looking at Christmas card designs for months, and I may even be sending a few Thanksgiving cards this year. Did you ever have that aunt or grandmother that sent everyone a birthday card? That’s totally me…except I’m not doing too good in the birthday department yet. But a random St. Patrick’s Day card? I’m your girl. I actually just signed up for Happy Mail, and I’m so pumped! The thought of getting new cards and stationary in the mail every month makes me so excited. Most of you probably get make up. Not me. Give me all the cards!

Have you seen any other unconventional reasons for mailing cards? I look for any excuse to mail something fun, so if you see something interesting, please send the idea my way!

Update: Check out the sweet card we got from a neighbor in response to these announcements!

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I’m Thankful for a New Home

November 10, 2014 Pamela Stephens

The month of November seems like the perfect time to focus on things to be thankful for. I started a series a while back focusing on things I’m thankful for to help myself draw attention to the positive things in my life. A month or so ago, I started a note on my phone with a list of reasons that I’m thankful for our new home. I thought this would help me to not get discouraged with the mountains of boxes and updates we hadn’t gotten to yet. I didn’t really intend on this becoming a blog post, but since this is the month to focus on thankfulness, I thought I’d share with you.

Remember, just because I’m sharing some things that I love about my new home, doesn’t mean that there aren’t negatives. Instead, I’m just choosing to focus on the positive. Hopefully this post will encourage you to search for the positive in your homes too. Even if your current residence isn’t the house of your dreams, I’m certain that there are things you like. Let’s focus on those.

We’ve lived in our new home for a little over three months now. We’ve made a ton of changes in a short amount of time and still have lots to do. In this short amount of time, I’ve found several things that I absolutely love about this house. Here are a few of them:

Natural Light & Blinds: This house has a TON of natural light. The entire living area is filled with light the majority of the day. Windows are abundant, and the blinds are easy to open. I’ve learned that being outside and having lots of light is sort of the key to my overall happiness. I mentioned that a little in this post. If I were forced to live in a dark house with few windows, I’m fairly certain that I’d have to be medicated. Having this abundance of light and connection with the outdoors has been such a blessing to me.
Windows That Open: If you can’t tell, I’m really thankful for my windows…even if they are still dirty. Our old house had a lot of great windows, but they were painted shut. I didn’t have the opportunity to open them on nice-weather days and actually couldn’t hardly open the blinds on some of them. Even though it had decent windows, that house still had an overall darkness to it. I honestly think the windows here have increased my overall mood dramatically. I love being able to come home and open those windows on days when the weather is nice (which is like twice a year in Louisiana).
Hot Water: This may seem like a joke but I’m seriously pumped about the abundance of hot water here. At our rent house, I’d be in big trouble if I had to take a shower right after Matthew. If I needed to wash my hair and shave my legs, I had to prep for a marathon first. I’ve seriously never shaved my legs as quickly as I did in that house. Before you knew it, you’d be struck with freezing cold water. This was especially true during the winter because the water heater was outside and apparently not insulated very well. Today, I’m so thankful to be able to take a full shower without having to race to the finish line. I can even take a shower directly after Matthew and still have plenty of hot water! It’s the little things, folks.
Bathroom Heater: Speaking of bathrooms, this house has heaters in the bathrooms and that’s amazing! Our last bathroom didn’t even have electrical outlets so we didn’t even have the option to plug in a space heater, much less have one built in. Instead, we took showers in a freezing cold bathroom with little to no hot water. Doesn’t that sound like paradise?? I’ve already used the bathroom heater twice and I’m pumped about it…even if the master bath heater does rattle a little much. Noisy heat is better than no heat! (We also have plugins in both bathrooms….modern conveniences are amazing!)
A Clean Kitchen: Our new kitchen may have old cabinets and basic appliances, but it is soooo much better than our last kitchen. I’ve never shared pictures of that old beast because it was so dreadful. I can’t even appropriately describe its awfulness. Having a kitchen that is a good size and CLEAN without floor tiles on the walls has been a joy. I don’t mind being in there, and I’ve even cooked since living here! One day I may have the courage to show that old kitchen, but it’s still too fresh. Just know that it was bad. With a capital B.
Painted Walls: The walls in our rent house were all the same dreadful color of tan. Every. Single. Wall. was the same color. This wasn’t even a good tan. This was that tan that sort of looks pink. They were full of nail holes and bad patch jobs. Even though I had scrubbed every surface, the walls still had this dingy, dirty look to them. Our new house has fresh paint and no nail holes. Plus, the rooms are different colors! It is so refreshing to walk into a room that doesn’t look exactly like the room you just left. I already want to repaint some of the rooms here, but nonetheless, I’m pumped to have good paint on the walls.

As I’m writing this post, I realize that old rent house might have been sucking the life out of me. I knew that towards the end, I sort of hated being there and I was never, ever inspired by that space. Yes, I’ll always love that little house and the memories we made there because it was our first. However, I’m incredibly thankful to be in a new home that feels like it has endless possibilities. This house is so much more inviting and inspiring, and I feel so lucky that it’s mine. Again, it’s not perfect. However, my goal in life is to draw on the positive. I don’t want to focus on the negatives. I want to be thankful for this place and what it’s already done for me in this short time.

What do you have to be thankful for in your home? If your mind immediately starts thinking of the things you hate or wish were different, stop it!! Tell that negativity to leave and instead try to list some of the positive things. Focusing on the positive has a profound impact on your qualify of life. Make a list or leave a comment here with at least 5 things you’re thankful for in your home. After all, we all have so much to be thankful for.

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Happy Halloween!

October 30, 2014 Pamela Stephens

It’s Halloween! When I planned out my content for the past few weeks, I penciled in “Halloween post” for today. I figured I’d post pictures of our Halloween decor or details on our costumes, but as I began writing, I quickly realized that this post was going to be very different.

On Saturday morning, I sat down on the couch after cleaning up from Friday’s Halloween party. I could have written about how exciting it was to host our first get-together in our new house or about the fun we had with friends. However, after finishing the dishes and cleaning the spots of who-knows-what from the floors, I sat down and realized something profound.

This house is ready.

First of all, let me clarify what I mean by “ready.” In this case, ready does not mean perfectly decorated or organized. It doesn’t mean that everything has a definite place to go and all of the gold light fixtures have been replaced. Instead, it means that my dining room and foyer aren’t full of boxes. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t see a single piece of cardboard and that’s amazing! In this story, “ready” means we have shower curtains hanging in both bathrooms. Even if I don’t like them, there are curtains hanging. Today, “ready” means that even though closets may be stuffed a little full with things I still need to address, there aren’t piles of stuff sitting here and there on tables and countertops.

One of my October goals was to host a Halloween party. Of course, I wanted to have this party to be able to spend time with friends and to dress up because it’s my favorite. However, the main reason for my decision to host this party was to give myself a deadline for getting this house unpacked. Even though I was knocking things out one box at a time, I still felt like the boxes would never end. I’d never get around to putting away those paint cans, and we’d never get the floors clean enough to put those rugs down. I knew that if I agreed to invite 30-40 people to our new home, I’d really make some magic happen. And we did. The week before a party would usually be spent hanging holiday decor and planning a menu. Ours were spent reattaching light fixtures, moving in furniture, and trips up and down the attic ladder.

I’m certainly thrilled that everyone came in fabulous costumes and we spent the night laughing with friends. However, now that everyone has gone home and the remnants of a party are cleaned up, I’m so incredibly thankful to have made it this far in the process of setting up our home.

I’ve written a couple of posts that I’ve yet to share about how my goal is to get to a point where we’re not always working on and cleaning this house. Today, it feels like I’m there. I still have lists of updates to do, and I haven’t even made a small dent in the decorating, but now that the boxes are done, I feel like I can spend my time working on the fun things like searching for new furniture and pretty things. I’m thrilled that I can sit down on a Saturday and not feel guilty for resting. I’m excited that I can tackle one packed closet at a time until they’re finished, but there’s no immediate rush to get it done. I feel relieved for the chance to do fun things with my free time instead of feeling pressured to work on this house nonstop. If you’ve moved recently, you can probably relate to how I feel. And if you’ve accomplished something major lately, you can likely relate to how I feel in this very moment, which is amazing!

I mentioned last week that this blog is where I tell my story. I really thought that today’s post would show snapshots from last week’s party or links to some of the Pinterest projects I attempted. Instead, this Halloween party gave me so much more than material for a crafty blog post…it gave me peace of mind. I’m walking away from this experience feeling so incredibly accomplished and relaxed. I will still make this home beautiful over time, and I will empty those closets. However, I will take a deep breath before doing so, and I’ll sit back and enjoy how far we’ve come. Today, I’m thankful for progress and for motivation. I’m thankful for good friends who can look past works in progress, and a husband that’ll work nonstop to help me knock out my massive pre-party to-do list. I’m also thankful for the ability to host gatherings of this sort for my friends.

I hope you have the happiest of Halloweens. Be safe and make lots of memories!

2 Comments Home - Our First House #mapfirsthouse - 2014 - Halloween - thankful

October Goals

October 9, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Somehow I went to sleep one day in September and woke up to October 1st! I don’t know how it got here, but it’s October now and I’m excited about it. The weather was nice and cool in Louisiana for the beginning of October and it just felt right.

September pretty much flew by, so when I looked at my September goals, I realized I didn’t quite accomplish as much as I’d hoped. If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t really accomplish most of them until October 5…when I sat down to write this post to be exact. You appreciate my honesty, right??

My full disclosure above brings me to a couple of thoughts. First, sharing my September goals was a good thing because even though I didn’t accomplish most of those things in September, I knocked them out quickly when I realized I was going to have to report back to you guys this month.

Secondly, the timeline doesn’t really matter than much. I could easily have gotten discouraged because I didn’t accomplish everything in the time-frame I set for myself. However, the important part is that it still got done! Have you dropped the ball on something lately? Don’t fret. Get back on that horse and knock it out! (Not the horse, of course.) How you get to the finish line really doesn’t matter that much. The finished product is what counts, so set aside your frustrations or failed attempts and mark that item off your list!

Here’s what I accomplished from my September goals (even if I did some of it in October):

Closet: Lots of progress! It’s not a finished project, but we’re getting there.
Kitchen: Most of the boxes are unpacked, and we’ve cooked several meals in there. We still have approximately 5-8 boxes left to handle.
Unpack major boxes: I have certainly made a dent in the boxes. Our bedroom is clear of anything that doesn’t belong in there, and most of the dining room boxes have been emptied. Progress feels good!
Garage sale: Didn’t quite make it to this one. The new goal is October 18. (That’s my only free Saturday in October.)
Hang 5 things on the walls: We hung the first items on the wall on October 5. I’m totally counting that as a win!
Using the master bath: Didn’t quite make this one either but once we get the shower curtain up, we’ll be almost ready!
Settle on living room furniture placement: Is this even possible?? I’ve moved the couch 4 times. It’s staying where it is for now, so I’ll mark this one as a win too.
Purchase a shower curtain: It’s not the Anthro ship curtain that I’m drooling over, but I ordered one that’ll do for the hall bath…..on October 4.
Halloween party: We are having a small party, so I can mark this one off too!

Since blogging my September goals helped me get so much done, I’m going to try it again for October. This month I hope to:

Put up fall/Halloween decor.
Host a Halloween party.
Begin using the master bath. (Let’s see if this one gets marked off on round two.)
Empty every box in the dining room. (This is a big one!)
Bring the dining table in from storage.
Do something with the boxes in the foyer. (Most of the boxes are photo albums and keepsake-type items. It’s time to get serious about what “stuff” I keep in this house and decide what should get to stay. Even if these boxes aren’t emptied this month, I’d like them tucked away somewhere other than our entry way.)
Finish all kitchen boxes.
Put down another rug. (I don’t even care where it goes…I just want rugs on the floor!)

So there you have it! I’m determined to get this house in order. I’m also determined to not keep any of the extra stuff that we don’t really need. I’m ready to have free time instead of always having a house to work on. It’s time to make that dream a reality!

What are you hoping to accomplish this month? I also plan on drinking lots of coffee and wearing cozy sweaters. You too? Let’s be friends.

3 Comments Goal Setting - Home - Our First House #mapfirsthouse - 2014 - goals - monthly goals

One Box + One Thing

September 29, 2014 Pamela Stephens

Every time someone asks me how the new house is coming along, I say the same thing. I’m ready to be settled. I’m ready for boxes to be unpacked and things to be pretty. I had coffee with my assistant, the lovely Taylor McCarty, recently (for her to tell me she’s leaving me…boooo) and I told her the same thing. I’m tired of boxes and the sheer number of things left to do overwhelms me.

Honestly, this tends to be the case with everything for me. When the project feels too much or too overwhelming, I tend to avoid it altogether. Rather than chip away at it a little at a time, I just don’t bother with it. I put it on the bottom of my to-do list and then it nags away at me forever. I even have this approach to cleaning sometimes. Unless I have time to clean the entire bathroom, I won’t even do one thing like wipe down the sink. Reality is, I seldom have time to clean the entire house in one sitting, and I’ll likely not have time to unpack all of the boxes at once.

During our meeting, Taylor suggested that I unpack just one box a day. While I’ve had that idea before, it just sounds dreadful! However, I finally realized that this is really the only way that I’ll make sense of my new home, so I decided to give it a shot. In addition to unpacking just one box a day, I decided that I’d also do one “thing” a day. The list of “things” that need to be done in this house is simply astounding. It feels like it could go on forever. Instead of avoiding all of the things like I have been doing, I’ll do one “thing” a day and unpack one box a day. It’ll likely be painful at first, but I’m hoping that I’ll adjust to the new approach quickly. I decided that I’ll unpack one box and then wipe down the door, hang the shower curtain rod, or clean a set of windows, etc.

After a week or so of using this method, I realize just how helpful it has been. I’ve certainly not enjoyed teaching myself to be okay with not accomplishing everything at once, but I’ve seen progress in my home and that makes it worth it.

As a matter of fact, things are really coming together around the new house. With the exception of the dining room/kitchen/entry way, I don’t feel like the boxes are taking over. We’ve also hung some art on the walls which was one of my September goals. I’ve done quite a bit of moving things around and then moving them again, but nonetheless, I feel like we’re making progress. I suppose I’ll keep unpacking one box and doing one thing until this house of ours is squared away. For my sanity’s sake, let’s all pretend that day is right around the corner!

3 Comments Inspiration & Thoughts - Our First House #mapfirsthouse - 2014 - inspiration - organization