Well, unemployed.

Sort of.

I left my full-time position working at the rehab hospital in March. There were a lot of reasons I left, but after a year and a half the bottom line was that although I loved what I did at work, the company was unorganized and unprofessional. And sometimes, I felt, unethical.

The plan was to pick up more hours at my second job, where they pay me 30%+ more per hour. According to my math, I would need to work 25-27 hrs a week to bring home the same amount of money. They reason they pay me more is because it's a PRN or "as needed" position. This means no benefits and no guaranteed hours. While paid time off and money for continuing education was great, I didn't need health insurance through work so no benefits? No problem.

The kicker has been the no guaranteed hours. When I was working full time somewhere else, my second job was constantly contacting me and asking me to work because they were SO busy. Fast forward until I quit my full time job -- now they have a super low census and don't need me. Going on 4 weeks.

Ideally I didn't want to juggle multiple jobs, but I need to work! I am waiting to hear back on two other job opportunities that seem to offer good pay and flexible hours.

So here's a little smattering of what I have been up to:

1. The house is clean. Obviously something is up, because the folded laundry is put away, and the bed is made. I rediscovered my obsession with my cleaning list, and have been trying out some new cleaning supplies from The Honest Company (referral link). So far I am impressed. With strategy and coupon codes, they are reasonably priced and clean well without the heavy chemical smell creating an acid rain cloud in my bathroom. Also, no vinegar. Winning. 


2. I bought a bird feeder. This was at the beginning of my quitting days. Jon was all against this idea, stating "we're not old enough to start buying bird feeders" and arguing vehemently that this would cause birds to poop on his truck. I, however, am on a mission to bring our backyard up from its current level of lifelessness. It's somewhere around "surface of the moon" inching up towards "clay basketball court growing some weeds". I hung the bird feeder on our fence because sadly, we have no trees large enough to hold it up.

3. Watering straw bales. We're adding two straw bale gardens to the backyard this summer. I read about this in Fine Gardening. They have a twofold benefit of hopefully providing enough garden space to grow pumpkins AND satisfying my compulsion to create 2000 pounds of compost to spread on our clay basketball court lawn.


4. Painted the bathroom vanity. Hate. I am so disappointed with how this color turned out. I was going for something like this:

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but ended up with something more like this:


Except without all the marble and fresh flowers. I haven't even taken a picture because I am that underwhelmed. To make this even more frustrating, we made the mistake of venturing into the counter top section and discovering how much some fool paid for our current counter top -- a brown speckled plastic/resin with integrated sinks. Quartz. Was cheaper. WHO BUILT THIS HOUSE.

5. A year's worth of mending. Enough that by the end, I threw some things away instead of attempting to mend them. At least I rediscovered five pairs of leggings that had been languishing in the mending basket/pile long enough to be forgotten.

6. Which turned into an "I want to sew again" obsession. Something fun! aka not the busted out seams on 5 pairs of leggings. If you have access to an appropriate size child, I found this free dress pattern today at The Cottage Mama. You have to sign up for her email newsletter, and the pattern gets emailed to you.

7. Thinking about these muffins. From The Law Student's Wife. (not me). Chocolate chunk coffee muffins? Yes.

So! Hoping PRAYING work picks up. $oon.

Any inspiration of the sewing/eating/cleaning variety that you'd like to share?

I'm ready for another easy sewing project, and our freshly painted walls are looking pretty bare. It's curtain time!!

Here's a sneak peek of the fabric I have coming in the mail, since realistically it's going to be weeks before I have any actual curtains to show :)

For our Bedroom: Nichole Grey/Laken by Premier Prints (Hopefully I got enough to make cutains AND a little long pillow for the bed)


For our Dining Room Curtains: Braemore Gazebo Cloud



For the Living Room Curtains: Braemore Bethe Pearl



For Living Room Pillows: Java Pewter Ikat



Like I said, weeks (and weeks) of sewing in the forecast! Anyone else have big sewing dreams??

Some of you might think that once you stop losing your baby teeth you have to also stop wearing hair bows -- wrong!

Recently I made a few bows of my own for a Pinterest challenge (tutorial here) and here are a few of my favorite ways to wear them:


I just use a bobby pin to clip the bow in my hair.

If you're wondering why you can't see my face in any of these pictures, it's because I took them while I was just getting over the flu. It was a sickly, dehydrated, sleep deprived look that I took extra care NOT to photograph.

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Make your own unscented powdered laundry detergent

Yes, this was money spent. Yes, this will take up storage space. But I have so many projects ideas in this baby's future!!

It's a Janome HD1000 -- good reviews, made of metal instead of plastic, and I can name it Jerome. (A lot of reading went into this decision, actually.) I didn't want something with a computer in it, and I didn't need something with a bazillion stitches and features. I also didn't want to spend $150 and still get something junky...

So while I ended up spending a little more than I originally planned, I got a little birthday money early and just went for it.

For the month of October I'm doing one thing a day that is a step towards a simpler way of living -- less cluttered, less wasteful, less distracted. My goal through this month of less is that by taking a new step every day, I will be able to live in a way that is more organized, more stewardly, more purposeful. Read more about it here, and let me know if you're joining in!