So, like, um, weren't you, like, writing something?

Ok, this is the part where I talk about how I am so busy, I have too many projects going, the kids have been sick, I've been sick, I've been having goodbye lunches with friends, blah, blah, blah.

Honestly, I have been procrastinating on just about everything I am supposed to be doing with my life. Just about everything I should be doing, and just about everything I want to be doing. I have this issue. This perfectionism avoidance issue. My life can't be perfect (or this or that section of my life can't be perfect) so instead of doing it unperfectly to the the best of my ability I avoid it.

Like the plague. Like a stalker ex-boyfriend. Like Star Wars prequels.

You get the gist.

A very good friend of mine (you know who you are) shares this perfectionism avoidance issue. She sent me a link to this blog post with the comment "Oh my gosh, it's us!" And oh my gosh, it is indeed us. I may have laughed until I cried, felt deep shame and kindred spiritness with the author all at the same time. Or I may have just scoffed and said, (in a very superior adult tone) "really, who lives like that?" Ok, it was the first, definitely the first.

All of this is leading up to the admission that I haven't been working on my novel Sleeping Beauty 2.0 (working title). If you are my friend (or my Mom) you will probably say to me after reading this post "Cut yourself some slack, you've got a lot going on." You wouldn't be wrong, but you'd also be enabling me.

I'm not trying to set myself up for failure, or trying to accomplish too much (a la NaNoWriMo), but I really do want to write. To chip away at the mountain that is a novel, even if a little teeny tiny bit at a time. To keep my sanity. For a creative outlet. Because Alexandra Martin (and her adventure) is knocking around inside my skull, and if I don't get her out on paper she may never leave (I realize that last bit sounds a little bit kooky, if you're a writer you will understand, or maybe you won't, maybe I am just a little bit kooky).

So, in the interest of getting the project restarted I have accomplished two very important things today (three if you count this blog post, which honestly, you probably shouldn't).

1. I had a very satisfying girl's lunch with Sarey and LaLa, two of my fabulous bridesmaids in which I discussed bus lines and museums in downtown LA, as well as the hinky, shady profession of gemology . . . for all of 5 minutes. It's the quality, not the quantity that counts here people!

2. I spent some serious quality, and quantity in this case, reading time on this amazing site. If you want a total Sleeping Beauty head trip, here is your opportunity! My favorite similar tale, just for it's amazing Irish insanity, may be The King of Erin and the Queen of the Lonesome Island. Any story that starts with the chase of a black pig is a-ok in my book.

While neither of these is a huge milestone in the life of my novel, I hope that if I take enough baby steps in fleshing out my story my writing will come easier. It has always been for me, whether with school papers or stories, that they need to percolate through my brain for enough time before they can come out on the page. I feel like today I've added at least another scoop of grounds to the percolator . . . and on that horrible analogy I will hie me of to bed, hopefully it will all just come to me in a dream!

CSN Stores Winner!

Thank you all for your entries in the CSN Stores giveaway!

Mr. Random selected:

The $25 CSN Stores gift certificate goes to . . .

Congratulations Carolsue! I have sent you an email.

Thanks again to everyone!

Having Way Too Much Fun With Instagram

Today is the last day to enter my CSN Stores giveaway!

I am loving the free iPhone app Instagram! I downloaded it a week or so ago and I am having way too much fun with it!

You can take pictures (or select from your library), add fun filters, and share to your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous, and Foursquare all at once, individually, or in any combination you choose. I mostly share to Twitter and Facebook. You also have an Instagram stream of all of your shared photos, and can follow and comment on other's streams. In case you want to follow my stream, my user name is - wait for it, it's a shocker: narniamum.

The filters are all super cute, most of them with a vintage feel.

You can magically transport your kids to the 1970s . . .

Make any photo look artsy . . .

Make girl's night drinks look as good as they taste . . .

Make your every day life look postcard worthy . . .

(In-N-Out, yums)

Have you tried Instagram? Are you having as much fun as I am?

Big Girl Kinda Stuff

Don't forget you can still enter my CSN Stores giveaway until Monday, January 24th! Scroll down or click here.

I've been putting it off for months.

Because we are moving I thought maybe I should put it off even longer.

But she is definitely ready.

It isn't fair to make her wait until I am ready.

So, today Maddie is rockin' her big girl Tinkerbelle panties.

Wish us luck!

CSN Stores Giveaway

You may remember my obsessive stalking of CSN Stores giveaways before Christmas . . . I was so determined to win at least part of the cost of the awesome play kitchen we got the kids for Christmas, and I am so glad I did because they love it! CSN stores doesn't just have awesome products for kids, they have over 200 sites and carry everything from great cookware and chic lighting to modern dining room furniture.

I may be in need of some dining room furniture soon . . . we have never had much of a dining room to speak of, and I am hoping we find a place that allows us to get some really great dining room furniture. CSN carries tons of gorgeous sets:

I kind of love the Hillsdale Verona 5 Piece Set . . .

I'd die for a great yard, and how awesome would this Big Top Sandbox be for my two rambunctious tykes?

I am super excited to be able to partner with CSN Stores to giveaway a $25 gift certificate to CSN Stores. I absolutely had the best shopping experience with them, and I am sure you will too!

Mandatory Entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite item from CSN Stores.

Extra Entries (please leave a separate comment for each extra entry):

2. Follow this blog and leave a comment that you have (or that you already do).

3. Follow me on Twitter.

4. Follow CSN Stores on Twitter.

5. Tweet about this giveaway - make sure to mention @narniamum and link back to this post.

Here is a sample tweet, but feel free to write your own:

I entered to #win $25 to @CSNStores on @narniamum and you can too! http://bit.ly/gpj6m0 #giveaway

6. Post about this giveaway on your blog.

This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. I will leave the giveaway open until Monday, January 24th. Thanks for entering!

This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering!

The Big Announcement

"So far as I know we did not set sail to look for things useful but to seek honor and adventure. And here is as great an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honors."

- Reepicheep, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

We are embarking on a grand adventure as a family. . .

Ed has accepted a full time Worship Pastor position at a church in Helena, Montana.

Yes, you read that right - Montana!

We are excited, and nervous, and happy, and scared all at the same time!

Yummy Fabric and Some Other Randomness

I have to apologize to you all for being MIA throughout the last few weeks. We have some very exciting, life-changing, and a little bit scary news to announce soon . . .

In the meantime I have some exciting things coming up on the blog!

I am working on my first tutorial! The tutorial itself is pretty much done, I just need to get some halfway decent pictures to go along with it.

I also have a giveaway from CSN Stores coming up next week! I am super, super excited to be giving away a gift code to their online stores! That giveaway will go live on Monday so make sure to check back!

I thought I would share with you some of the yummy fabric I got for Christmas! My Mom, Dad, and brother Andy got me a gift card to Lola Pink Fabrics, my favorite online fabric store. I was able to get a bunch of fat quarters from Pat Bravo's Paradise line, as well as 4 1/2 yard cuts of Ty Pennington's line Impressions, and 2 fat quarters of my all time favorite Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane!

Here is the Paradise:

And here is what I got from the Impressions line:

Oooohhh pretty!

I am super excited to start working with these gorgeous fabrics!

Did anyone else get any sewing related goodies for the holidays?

Adventures

Airports

Hotels

Winter Coats

Snow

Melendez Family Adventure 2011

Church Nursery Redux - Part the Third

The church nursery redecorating extravaganza is chugging merrily along . . .

And by merrily I mean me on a ladder and Ed on a chair with two screaming toddlers thrashing around on the floor beneath us . . .

Ah, good times.

I've been so excited to get these up on the nursery walls, are they not awesome?

Vinyl polkadots in teal, green, light blue, and white. They are so pretty on the grey walls!

We put them up on the top half of the wall (leaving room for the blinds, mirror, and several other items that need to go up on the walls) and I think they are fab-u-lous!

I ordered them from Right on the Walls. They have some really neat vinyl wall art, including great shapes like the Outlined and Solid Polkadots we put up.

The bathroom has also been painted (pictures to come soon) and I'm getting another sheet of white polkadots to go up in the bathroom, and I think we will get some more white ones to fill out the nursery walls as well.

So what do you think? Have you ever used vinyl wall art? So far I am really pleased with it!

Church Nursery Redux - Part the Second

If you didn't get to see the adorable bear wallpaper we are replacing in our church nursery, make sure to check out my Church Nursery Redux - Part the First post. I would really, really hate for you to miss out on the privilege of seeing the rollerblading bears.

After we steamed and scraped off the wallpaper we discovered large portions of damage on the walls, so we had someone come into re-plaster the walls.

Then several ladies and I went into prime and here is what happened:

Oh.

My.

Sweet.

Tea.

As soon as we primed, everywhere the wall was repaired the plaster started bubbling up. It was so not pretty. I may have cried.

After repairing the plaster (again), we were so blessed to have some professional painters come in and put up the paints I had already purchased. There is no way we could have done this great a job.

Here is the new color of the nursery:

Yes, it is grey (and fyi I will always use the British spelling of grey because Grey happens to bemy Mom's maiden name).

In fact, it is two tones of grey, a slightly darker on top of the chair rail (which is a really bright, clean white), and a lighter below. If I was a home decor blogger, which I am so obviously not, here is where I would tell you the name of the colors . . . um, I got the paint at Lowe's, they;re Olympic colors and I picked them out on the fly . . . that's the best I've got folks.

The main design challenge in the nursery is the purple carpet - the other design challenge is the horribly dark wood ceiling and doors that I am apparently not allowed to touch, but I digress. I was excited to use the grey as a neutral that would work with the purple/mauve carpet. I got a little bit of feedback before the paint went up that it would look green next to the carpet, and I am pleased to report that it does not.

So, why the darker on top and the lighter on the bottom? There is a method behind my madness! Stay tuned for Church Nursery Redux - Part the Third coming in just a few days!

Haircut!

I decided it was either take scissors to my own hair or let someone else do it. It needs to look decent the next day with no hairbrush handy (mine was dunked in the toilet by those who shall remain nameless).

Maddie is going through a stage where she makes funny faces when she can see herself on the iPhone camera. I don't know what to tell ya.