This year I had hoped to make some gifts at home in order to save money and expend a little creative energy. The point was not to go out and buy a ton of supplies, but rather to use up things I already have. My goal was to create gifts without buying lots of extra stuff. If I can get my act together these are the projects I would like to complete:
1) Doll T-shirt kit. I already bought fabric paint and some embellishments at Michaels on black friday, and am working on making little American girl sized T-shirts for Trouwbottom's daughter to decorate. All you need for the T-shirts is one or two old T-shirts and some velcro. We'll see how it turns out!
2) Husband quilt. This idea was born out of a bag of my husband's old clothes that I couldn't put in the clothes closet (what our church calls the room full of free clothes) because of small rips, stains, etc. Some of the clothes I had really liked and I hated to trash them, but I also knew that keeping them around indefinitely was totally crazy. And so the Husband Quilt was born! I bought an inexpensive twin sheet at Walmart for the backing, picked up some crib-sized batting at Michaels on black friday, and whipped up a lap quilt top out of 5 old shirts. Now all I have left to do is quilt it, and sew up the binding.
3) In the same vein, I would love to sew up some little stuffed animals out of the fabric I have lying around for my cousin's kids. I already have the stuffing, and plenty of embroidery floss and buttons for faces, and a ton of fabric scraps that would be perfect.
4) I also want to finish a pair of these little cross-stitch ornaments I've been working on FOREVER. They aren't really that creative (cross-stitch never is), but I would be making them out of supplies I already have, so I guess they count too. I'm hoping to get them finished before the 26th, so I can give them to my aunt and uncle who I'm visiting that day.
Hopefully I'll be posting pics of these completed projects soon! (fingers crossed)
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Life Exploding
So much has been happening in the past couple of weeks, it's becoming hard to process.
The biggest change has been that my husband and I have decided to seriously consider opening up our own law partnership next year. Greg has always wanted to go into solo practice eventually, and I guess it's always been a back burner dream of mine as well, although until now I always felt that it was too risky of an idea.
Greg has been applying for jobs, but almost everything is very narrowly focused, meaning he would likely only get experience in one specific area of law, and not necessarily an area that he wants to practice in down the line.
The possibility has rocked my world. The plan before this was for Greg to work at a firm where he would probably never see the light of day, let alone Henry and me. A job this intense (probably one with a significant commute) would mean that I would be relegated to the house for another year, because sans full-time nanny, there would be no support for me to go back to work.
We've been running the numbers, and it seems like if we can keep the overhead down, he could definitely make as much as he is making now (which isn't much, but enough to survive). Not to mention I would probably be able to glean work from the practice if we were actively seeking clients. Even if I worked a couple of days a week and during nap time, it would make a big difference to us financially.
My level of excitement over the possibility of hanging our shingle is rising every day as I research how to make it happen. Of course, it's risky. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that we will fail. But I keep coming back to the fact that we have so little to lose at this point. We don't own a home, we don't have huge savings accounts or trust funds. And if we keep the investment low, (working from home, going paperless, utilizing the public law library), I'm confident that we'll be turning a profit in a matter of months.
Tonight we're going to a CLE class, and as I pull out my old suit and rummage through my bathroom for some lipstick, I can't help but get a thrill out of the rediscovery of the person I was before morning sickness and stretch marks. I know Henry is over a year old, and I've been clinging to those sweatpants and ponytails for far too long. It's time to get back out there and release the smart, business-savvy mama who's been hiding under piles of laundry and bangs that are down to my collarbone. Here we go!
The biggest change has been that my husband and I have decided to seriously consider opening up our own law partnership next year. Greg has always wanted to go into solo practice eventually, and I guess it's always been a back burner dream of mine as well, although until now I always felt that it was too risky of an idea.
Greg has been applying for jobs, but almost everything is very narrowly focused, meaning he would likely only get experience in one specific area of law, and not necessarily an area that he wants to practice in down the line.
The possibility has rocked my world. The plan before this was for Greg to work at a firm where he would probably never see the light of day, let alone Henry and me. A job this intense (probably one with a significant commute) would mean that I would be relegated to the house for another year, because sans full-time nanny, there would be no support for me to go back to work.
We've been running the numbers, and it seems like if we can keep the overhead down, he could definitely make as much as he is making now (which isn't much, but enough to survive). Not to mention I would probably be able to glean work from the practice if we were actively seeking clients. Even if I worked a couple of days a week and during nap time, it would make a big difference to us financially.
My level of excitement over the possibility of hanging our shingle is rising every day as I research how to make it happen. Of course, it's risky. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that we will fail. But I keep coming back to the fact that we have so little to lose at this point. We don't own a home, we don't have huge savings accounts or trust funds. And if we keep the investment low, (working from home, going paperless, utilizing the public law library), I'm confident that we'll be turning a profit in a matter of months.
Tonight we're going to a CLE class, and as I pull out my old suit and rummage through my bathroom for some lipstick, I can't help but get a thrill out of the rediscovery of the person I was before morning sickness and stretch marks. I know Henry is over a year old, and I've been clinging to those sweatpants and ponytails for far too long. It's time to get back out there and release the smart, business-savvy mama who's been hiding under piles of laundry and bangs that are down to my collarbone. Here we go!
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