How are we already more than halfway through July? Time seems to have sped up the past few weeks. I've always thought that summer flew by, but this summer seems to be hitting warp speed. I thought that it was time I do another update since it has already almost been a month since I last checked in on our day-to-day lives.
Honestly, it's been much of the same... Eliot and I have continued to work on mouse ear and desk accessory orders. Thankfully, ear orders have picked up a bit now that Walt Disney World has re-opened. We've started to get a few requests for items that we were already planning to make for our new home decor business, so that's been really exciting! (People already want the products we were planning to make!!!) In our spare time, we're still watching plenty of Hallmark movies- even catching a few of our favorite holiday movies during Hallmark's Christmas in July special this week! I also continue to treat myself to an at home ice cream sundae occasionally.
On the personal note, things are still a bit rocky with my Mom's health, but I'm hanging in. Jeremy was home last week to help my parents with the end of tax season, so at least that big deadline is no longer looming over us. My Mom's final surgery was postponed. She called me earlier today to let me know that they scheduled it for mid-August. So now we sit back and wait...
Thankfully, these past two weeks or so have been much more exciting than our current "usual" routine. Tuesday July 7th, Eliot took the day off to go to IKEA in MA. (We had originally planned to go down on Friday the 3rd, but Eliot didn't want to use his holiday day to do that.) After a productive, yet relaxing, 4th of July holiday weekend, we were ready to go pick up a few things that we needed.
We've been putting off this trip to IKEA for months now. We had every intention of going down this spring after receiving our tax refund. However, COVID-19 happened and we haven't been able to go. After double checking that Massachusetts was allowing Maine residents to come over the border, we planned our day trip.
Our trip down and back was uneventful. Shopping at the store reminded me much of our experiences at Walmart. Everyone wore masks; there was social distancing, lots of signs, hand sanitizer, wipes and tape on the ground. The store was pretty quiet compared to other trips we'd been on. Everyone was trying to avoid each other in the showroom which was awkward at times when you got blocked in.
Eliot and I found most of the things we needed, plus a few other things. We always find cool stuff in the Marketplace area on the lower level. Before we knew it, we'd loaded up our cart with treasures. We had a lot of small kitchen tools and things for our businesses. I was pumped to get some reusable rainbow bags. I even found a few bell jar glasses to make my own enchanted roses like in Beauty and the Beast!
After leaving the Marketplace, Eliot grabbed a furniture cart and we gathered the items we needed to get. Unfortunately, one of the things we needed two of only had one left in stock. Eliot looked all over the store, but he couldn't find one. We also didn't get the red storage boxes I wanted for our master bathroom, but they were getting more in stock soon. I guess we'll be going down again sometime! (Next time, I'll call ahead to make sure they have everything we need though!) Regardless, it was a nice day trip and good to get out of the house for a bit.
On Sunday July 12th, Eliot's sister Elissa came to stay with Eliot and me for a week before heading back to California. (She's stayed out here on the east coast since college ended back in May.) With the coronavirus, trying to figure out how to move her back across the country has been a little more difficult than usual. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to move her back across the country this week during their sister Sara's vacation week. It was the plan that made the most sense. Sara was going to drive her back as far as Colorado, then they'd quarantine for 2 weeks, and Eliot's Dad Rick would drive out to CO and drive her home to San Jose from there.
Eliot and I enjoyed having Elissa here to visit. We also had a good time hosting MJ the rat. (Elissa adopted a white rat from her animal behaviors class... that's part of the reason we had to work out the across country plan.) At first, Eliot and I were a little apprehensive about it, him more than me, but we ended up loving her. She quickly got to the point where she was climbing the cage anytime we walked by. After a few days, she let me pick her up and hold her. She enjoying crawling on my chest and arms.
While Elissa was here, I made hair appointments for both of us at the JCPenney salon on Thursday, July 16th. I've needed a haircut for months. I actually needed one before our trips back in November, but we were so busy traveling that I put it off. Then, I was really sick in January and February. When I was finally feeling better, it wasn't long after that COVID-19 struck and we were in quarantine.
It was so nice to get my hair cut. I probably had 8 or 9 inches cut off. It feels so light now! Elissa also got quite a bit cut off. She's always had long hair but decided to get it cut up to her shoulders. She was somewhat shocked when it was done. I've never seen her hair so short and she hadn't either- but it looked great! Plus, this was the perfect time to do it since both of us will be quarantining before seeing our families.
Eliot and I spent most of this past weekend finishing ear orders and working with Elissa to clean and organize our house. Elissa's extra set of hands were really helpful. She was able to help us tackle quite a few projects that we'd been avoiding. Now, we're in much better shape to continue and finish things! Plus, Eliot and Elissa brought up the (really heavy) IKEA glass cases that have been sitting in our basement. They put those together so we can start to organize and display some of our collectibles!
Sara flew out from Denver and landed in Portland late in the afternoon Monday. Eliot and I met her over at D'Angelos to have sandwiches for dinner. (Elissa was visiting with a friend.) The three of us ended up eating there in an empty dining room off to the side of the main lobby where everyone else was getting to go orders. It was the first time that Eliot and I have been out to eat in a restaurant since COVID-19 began. I didn't feel unsafe as we were the only ones in that room... but it was honestly a little weird. After that, Eliot, Sara and I headed to the hotel to check in.
I probably should preface the rest of the this post by admitting that we didn't comply with Maine's current COVID rules about out of staters quarantining. I have mixed feelings about this. Obviously, I want them to do so as it will help protect us. However, I'm not completely naive enough to think that most tourists are actually doing it. I know they aren't. They've been on our local news channels admitting that they aren't. So, Eliot and I decided that if so many other people weren't quarantining on their weekend trips into our state, why the heck shouldn't Sara be allowed to go out for the less than 42 hours that she was here in Maine? We aren't sure when we'll be able to see her again because of COVID, so we decided to take advantage of our short time together. Anyways... I just wanted to be real and honest about it. Now, back to the actual story.
The three of us hung out and caught up at the hotel until Elissa got there. Then, the four of us talked for a few minutes before quickly realizing that it made sense to go supply shopping Monday night since we'd be busy on Tuesday. We hoped into the rental van and headed over to Walmart. After getting Sara and Elissa some more hand sanitizer, water, drinks, and some road snacks, we headed back to the hotel to separate. Sara went into the hotel to study and get some sleep, while Eliot, Elissa and I headed home to pack up Elissa's stuff that was at our house.
Tuesday was moving day... so we all got up bright and early with plans of attack for our day. The universe had other plans for us though. Eliot and I had our bi-annual teeth cleaning at the dentist at 11 and I didn't want to postpone since they are having a hard enough time getting everyone in from COVID re-scheduling. Instead, we scheduled our plans around the appointments. Of course, Eliot's Jeep chose the opportune time to not start up right after Eliot and Elissa packed all of her stuff into it. I couldn't get it to turn over, no matter what we did. (So much for our great plan, but we rolled with it.)
After a quick phone call to Sara, she agreed to come to our house instead of meeting us at the storage unit. Eliot and I stayed with Elissa until we had to leave for the appointment, and she stayed to wait for Sara. They moved everything from the Jeep into Sara's rental van before heading back into town to the storage unit. Meanwhile, Eliot and I went to the dentist for our teeth cleaning.
After our appointments, Eliot and I went over to Amato's to pick up lunch. (None of us had eaten anything since we had to scrap our breakfast plans when the Jeep didn't start.) At that point, we were all pretty hungry. Sara and Elissa had packed most of her stuff into the van by the time we got there. After moving a few more things around, we all sat down to eat lunch outside of the storage building.
The girls left to go back to the hotel after lunch. Eliot and I stayed and took care of the final payment on Elissa's storage unit. Then, he and I stopped into Auto Zone on the way to the hotel. We picked up a battery for Eliot's Jeep, as well as some freon for the air conditioner in my car. (It hasn't been pushing out cold air for a few months.) The employees showed Eliot how to put it in my car, and thankfully it worked! The air is now so cold that I have to keep turning it down. Thank goodness because the past few days here have been hot!
Meanwhile, at the hotel, Elissa and Sara had both showered and were getting dressed to take photos. Since Elissa never got to have a college graduation, she wanted to go over to the UNE campus to take some photos in her cap and gown. The four of us got into our nice outfits and we drove over to the college.
We spent the next hour or so taking photos around the campus. I had a few ideas of locations: in front of the main sign and the wall where we took her photos when she visited for accepted students day. Elissa wanted to take photos in front of the new building and garden. We also took a few photos in front of the alumni office sign- which used to be the admissions office and where I first took her for her campus tour there five years ago. Finally, we recreated the photo Eliot and I took on the front step of her dorm from freshman year when we first dropped her off.
I was really glad that we got to get photos of her in her cap and gown on campus. We also got a few group photos with her... as well as some funny candids of us trying to avoid the bugs. (I swear the bugs knew they had fresh blood to eat. Ouchie!!!) Of course, we also got a few photos of her wearing her face mask. What Class of 2020 graduation photos would be complete without a few mask photos?!?
After perfecting the art of the quick change back into normal clothes, we all jumped back into our cars and headed for Old Orchard Beach. Sara wanted to do something fun while in Maine. She's only been here twice- both times during Thanksgiving. We thought the beach would be a fun option.
When we got down to the parking lot where Eliot and I usually park, it was completely empty. The other parking lot was also empty. The side street we park down also had plenty of metered parking available. We set the meters for 90 minutes, and started our walk to the downtown area. We all had our masks, but it was pretty apparent when we turned the corner that we were over-prepared.
Maybe 10% of the people on the Main Street were wearing masks... if that. There wasn't social distancing. It looked like a normal summer night in Old Orchard Beach, other than the social distancing stickers on the ground outside of the food places.
The four of us made our way over to get a large box of Pier Fries to share. At least in line, people were keeping their distance. I liked the customized stickers and signs that Pier Fries had to remind people to stay separated. Then, we waited for a picnic table to open up so we could sit and enjoy our melted cheese and fries. Eliot also got me a cold lemonade and it was like a little slice of heaven. (It was still really humid even though it was later in the day!) The lemonade was delicious!
We then walked over to the beach and made our way under the pier to the "far" side that's usually quiet. Even though it was probably about 6:30 at that point, the beach still had a lot of people on it. We found a quiet section and took a bunch of pictures.
I had heard that Pirates Cove mini golf was open, so I thought that might be a fun thing to do outside. We headed over there after the beach, picking our cars up on the way over. Pirates Cove was also busy, but since mini golf makes you golf in distanced groups anyways, it seemed like a fairly safe idea. We waited our turn in line to go in to pay and get our balls and clubs. (That's how they also kept people spaced out... only one group could enter at a time and they spaced us all out.)
The four of us had so much fun golfing. We've gone mini golfing with Eliot's family a few times since Eliot and I started dating 12 years ago. We always get a few good laughs. We're all fairly competitive, but none of us really take it seriously. We had a few hole in ones; Eliot and I actually got one on the same hole!
Elissa had to leave a few holes early since she was spending the night with a friend before she left for California, but Eliot, Sara and I had fun on the last 6 holes. The three of us took some photos while on top of the giant mountain. I also hit 10,000 steps on my Fitbit right after climbing up there. It was poetic really. With all this time I've been at home, I have never hit 10,000 steps in one day on my Fitbit since I got it earlier this year. Apparently, it does a little vibrating buzz thing with some bright colors when you hit 10,000 steps in one day. It felt like a really big accomplishment for me, especially since my knee has been giving me trouble on and off this past week and I could barely walk at all the other day.
At the end of the course, we dropped our clubs and balls off at the outdoor return station that was set up. Sara and I ended up tying for the win with Eliot not too far behind us. We made our final plans for Wednesday morning before Eliot and I said goodnight to Sara as she departed for the hotel and we headed home.
Wednesday morning, Eliot and I got up early again. We showered and got ready before heading into town to pick up IHOP on our way to the hotel. We met Sara and Elissa there and had our breakfast. Then, we looked over the room, checked out, and made sure everything in the car was secure.
Eliot and I said goodbye to MJ. She climbed onto my arm and curled up on my chest one last time before Elissa put her back into her cage. We checked to make sure MJ was secure and that there wasn't anything near her cage that she could chew on. It took a few tries to get everything all set but she seemed to settle in ok.
After that, the girls checked the front seats and made sure that they had quick access to everything they needed to. Eliot and I gave them both big hugs and told them to be safe on the road. (We didn't prolong the goodbyes because I knew I'd end up losing it.) They hopped into the van, plugged their destination into the onboard GPS and were on their way. Eliot and I waved and took a few photos as they departed the hotel parking lot and started their road trip back to Colorado. After the van was out of sight, we hugged each other and both promptly burst into tears. It was hard to say goodbye when we don't know when we'll see them again.
It's been a rough few months, but these few days visiting with the girls felt like a little slice of normalcy. It might be the only semblance of summer that I get, and I really enjoyed it. It was great to visit and spend time with with Sara and Elissa. And as you can see, having them here was pretty much the most exciting thing to happen to us since we first went into quarantine back in mid-March!
I'm not sure what the rest of the summer will bring, but Eliot and I are hoping to make the best of it. Fall is right around the corner so we're trying to take advantage of the nice weather while we have it. I love the fall, and it's my favorite season, but I still don't want to wish my summer away. Maybe we'll go back over to Old Orchard Beach for some Pier Fries and play more mini golf at Pirates Cove. I'm still hopeful that we'll get to spend a weekend in Bar Harbor. Regardless, I'm sure I'll be back here to check in with tales of our adventures a few weeks from now! °o°
Well, it's official... as of yesterday afternoon, Maine's Governor Janet Mills issued a shelter in place order and as of 12:01 this morning we've joined the other states in an "official" quarantine. I've been feeling a lot of feelings... but mostly I'm feeling relief that it's finally official. (It feels like Eliot's parents in CA have been at home forever...) I'm hopeful that this means people will stay home unless they absolutely have to leave their house. And a bit selfishly, I'm also hopeful that this will allow the store shelves to be replenished. (Anyone else in need of TP?) But most of all, I'm hopeful that this will help stop the spread of the virus and our healthcare system from being overrun.
On the down side, Eliot still has to go to work. His company is considered "essential" as they make small electrical components for pace makers. He, as an engineer, could do at least 90% of his work from his computer at home, but his company wants them all there. I'm terrified that he's going to get sick. I'm so scared of him bringing it home to me. I'm also very upset that this means I really won't be able to go home to see my parents or Nana at all for who knows how long. Every single time Eliot walks through the front door, he's bringing home God only knows what. It's upsetting, annoying, hurtful, confusing, depressing and most of all incredibly frustrating.
But, at the same time, I'm so thankful that he's still able to work. We're blessed that he is still bringing money home. Small businesses are really struggling and we're no exception to that. Obviously, no one is traveling so my travel agent job isn't bringing in any money right now. Another depressing side effect is that no one needs mouse ears for non-existent Disney trips. Happily Ever Hatter has had a few sales, but we're definitely behind where I'd like to be and we're not bringing in what we need to.
On the plus side, Eliot's been able to work on some new designs for his own Etsy shop Snowblade Creations. He's had the business card holders for a while now, but he's been working on a few new designs for other things people can use at home. We figure that if everyone is going to be spending more time at home, they could use a little bit of Disney magic to brighten their day! We've spent the past few days printing samples of these new products. We're hoping to get them completed and listed online in the next week or so! I'll be sure to post about it on here so you can see them!
Obviously, I've been on a bit of a rollercoaster emotion wise. I think we're all going through a lot of emotions. I don't consider myself to be a control freak, but I definitely like to be more in control than I am right now. It's a lot and I'm learning that I just need to ride the waves of my emotions as they come. I need to acknowledge them and own them and allow myself to feel them. As I said before, we're all in this together. We're all feeling a lot of feelings. And we'll all get through this. Somehow.
As for my everyday life, my everyday lifestyle hasn't actually changed much at all. I work from home and don't leave the house that often anyways. The biggest difference for me is that I'm a little more paranoid about leaving the house. The only time I have left the house (since the weekend before last) was to get groceries. Eliot and I went shopping last Tuesday morning, and again Sunday afternoon to get a few more things.
In fact, I really don't have a reason to leave the house at all at this point... especially as my sewing class hasn't been happening since we had the first one. We were going to be postponed for two weeks, but we got an email from my instructor last night that the soonest we'd start is when school is "supposed" to go back in session on April 27th. I highly doubt the kids will go back to school though. If they aren't in school, we aren't having class. On top of that, we were only supposed to have one more class after the week of the 27th to begin with. I'm pretty bummed because the 8 week spring session of my sewing class probably won't happen at all at this point, but I'm hoping I can get myself set up to work on a few projects at home. (Hello beautiful tote bags and valences!!!) Plus, this will make the fall session of class that much sweeter!
As of right now, Maine's shelter in place is supposed to go through April 8th. I'm sure we'll know more once we see how the curve looks with everyone staying home. I know the top health officials are saying this could last months. I'm going into it expecting "social-distancing" to last at least through April and May.
I'm not making any big plans for the next few weeks. However, I am going into this with a lot of ideas to keep me busy. I certainly won't be bored! Even if we don't have many orders to work on, Eliot and I have at least 40 sets of sample ears that we're in various stages of working on. Those will keep me very busy. Plus, creating new designs is very relaxing and rewarding for me. It will help keep me calm and focused.
In addition, Eliot and I still have a ton of small projects, cleaning and organizing that we're working on in our house. Eliot's parents just bought a ton of plastic storage containers for us and his sister Elissa who had to move off of the University of New England campus last week. We ended up with all of the extra containers so we've got a lot of stuff to work with. Plus, we still have a lot of painting that we started and never finished the touch ups. I'm hoping to get working on all of those as soon as I can. I'd love to have a few projects get finished. I guess this is the silver lining of being stuck at home... that I'll have more time to work on the house!
I've also been working on a list of ideas of things to do while under quarantine. I'll be sharing those here over the next few days so you'll have some fun ideas of how to spend your time! I've seen way too many people online complaining about being bored so I'm here to help. I've always got some creative idea up my sleeve!
So... now we've officially entered quarantine. It's going to be a lot of highs and lows but I'm keeping my faith that we'll get through this stronger than before. Keep your chin up friends. This won't be forever. We can do this and we got this. °o°
Hello! I hope you're having a wonderful week! I'm having a much more enjoyable time today as it's finally cooled back down to a comfortable temperature. Unfortunately, we were part of the incredibly uncomfortable heat wave that swept across one third of the country the past few days. As many of you probably experienced, temperatures were almost unbearable at times. Even here in Maine we weren't immune. It hasn't been all bad though! Eliot and I have still been able to get a few things done the past week.
Mid-last week was quite pleasant. Disneyland's 64th birthday was last Wednesday and it was also World Emoji Day! I celebrated both occasions by finally re-starting my Disney Emoji Blitz game. I haven't played since before we went to Walt Disney World in back in January of this year. I stopped playing during our trip and I've been so busy that I didn't bother playing it for the past six months.
I thought it was appropriate to start playing it again on World Emoji Day. There was also a free emoji power up available that I wanted to get. Then, I also got a bunch of Collection Prizes for new groups that were added since I'd last played. I got a ton of prizes. Then, I decided to play for a little bit. I was a bit rusty, but it was nice to play again! I enjoy taking breaks to play a few rounds throughout the day.
I continued my regular work week working on mouse ears, cleaning the house and watching a movie here and there. The heatwave started to creep in on Friday with comfortable temperatures but high humidity. I could feel the moisture in the air even while inside the house. I didn't do too much but by Friday night I didn't feel right. I ended up laying on the couch resting all evening while Eliot was at a friend from work's house for a pool party. Freeform had been showing all five of the Twilight movies last week so I'd DVR-ed them and I spent Friday night watching the final two movies.
Then, Saturday and Sunday were both almost unbearable for me. Eliot and I left our air conditioners running (even through the night) all weekend but they still couldn't beat the humidity. The air conditioners made the living/dining room, kitchen and bedroom bearable though. I spent the entire weekend in one of the rooms that were "cool". The rest of the house was like walking through an oven. We both drank a ton of water. We tried to power ourselves through it; we still didn't get too much done though. I tried to give myself a boost by having a "cook-in" and making myself burgers and potato salad but I think trying to cook only made it worse. By Saturday night, I wasn't feeling well again and I spent the entire night on the couch until it was time for bed.
After feeling like we got nothing accomplished on Saturday, I wanted to do something Sunday. Eliot and I decided to spend the middle part of the day in the basement where it was naturally cool. Half of our basement is finished but we've been using it to store a lot of our containers that we haven't unpacked since moving. Over the past few years, they've been stacked haphazardly throughout the room so we went through and organized them. By the time we called it quits, I felt like we'd made a pretty good dent in the basement. I'd even cleared off one of the shelves on our built-in bookcase so I could organize the children's books that I found in one container.
Sunday night the weather finally broke and we were happy to usher in the cool night air. Eliot and I opened windows in a few of the rooms upstairs. It was nice to get the hot air out of the house. Thankfully the heatwave is over now!
Yesterday was in the mid-70's here, and it rained on and off all day. I spent most of the afternoon upstairs in our master bedroom organizing. We're really trying to focus on getting the master bedroom organized and finished so I spent about three hours poking through stuff and making a list of where I plan to move everything. (We have a few more storage units that we're planning to purchase in the next few weeks so I wanted to have a plan of attack.)
I also finally tackled our 3D mouse ear collection. Since we make them, not only do we have ears that we've personally made for ourselves, but we have more than usual because we also have samples. (Ok, so maybe the "samples" are just a fancy excuse to have a ka-jillion mouse ears... don't judge me.) Regardless, we have a lot and I finally organized them into two storage chests. One of them is completely full and the other one will be once I put the Halloween ears back into them. (During my stacking frenzy, I set those ones aside so I can take some more seasonal photos for our social media accounts.) I'm thrilled to have them organized! No more reusable bags filled with mouse ears! I've also got about 40 more that are in various stages of production- I think we're going to need to buy another one of those storage chests...
Eliot and I haven't had the most productive week, but I do feel like I accomplished something. I have a plan for the master bedroom. The containers in our basement are a lot more organized than they were before. The mouse ears are organized. I even started playing my favorite game on my phone again! Hopefully the weather stays at a temperature where it's manageable with our air conditioners. I'd really love to get a few more things done around the house! °o°
Hey Guys! After 10 days of resting, relaxing a bit and getting healthy, I'm back. My double conjunctivitis is gone and I can once again see clearly (for the most part). I've been having a hard time using my computer for long periods of time so I've had to stay away from blogging. Now, I'm feeling much better, and the only blurriness I have is from the fact that upping the lense prescription in my glasses is very over due.
Eliot and I continue to follow each other to the walk in clinic. Last February, we both went in within the same week due to sickness. This year, it's pink eye and a crushed toe. No sooner was I in the clear with my pink eye, then Eliot stubbed his little toe on our giant 4x4 IKEA bookshelf. It looked horrible and after about 48 hours, we decided we better get it checked. After an x-ray, it was determined that it wasn't broken. But he's got to take it easy on it for the next two weeks.
Other than the pink eye and toe mess, 2017 has treated us well so far. Eliot and I have continued to be pretty busy, but that's normal. Our lives continue to be filled with work, creating new ear designs, making soap and working on our house. I know our day to day lives don't sound very glamorous, but it's all of this hard work that allows us to enjoy time at our favorite place with Mickey. So it's all totally worth it!
Speaking of Mickey, it's hard to believe that 40 days from now I'll be getting on a plane to go visit him again. I've been down in our basement training for the Princess Half on our new treadmill. I'm not doing anything crazy, but speed walking a few miles a day is better than nothing. I'm hoping to graduate to jogging a little next week. I'm terrified of losing my balance with my bad knee, but I'm getting more comfortable each day. Plus, this is the most committed I've ever been to training! Hopefully it'll pay off next month!
Of course, with a Maine winter, you're bound to get a little snow. Right before the end of last year, we were pelted with a snow storm. It varied a lot town to town, but our official town amount was 2 feet of snow. We've had two days of January thaw this week, and it was in the 50's! Most of our snow is melted down now. And our driveway finally seems to be ice free... for now anyways!
Eliot and I continue to work on organizing our house. We're still trying to get stuff unpacked and put away. It's slowly starting to look how we want it to! I'm hoping that we'll get a lot done this winter. The cold winter weather is the perfect excuse to stay inside and get stuff done! It's going to be another house project filled weekend!
We've also been busy watching the San Jose Sharks. As I've mentioned, Eliot's a huge fan. And let's face it, I've become one too. They play every few nights and we usually stay up to watch the games. Of course, tonight, my New England Patriots have their first playoff game of this season. They're #1 in the AFC East again, and they're projected to win tonight's game. Nevertheless, it's not over until it's over. I'm sure I'll be sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire game. Go Pats!!!
And I haven't forgotten about my Christmas or New Year recaps. Now that I'm able to be on my computer for longer periods of time, I'll be sure to tell you about those! I've got so many things I want to write about! I'm so glad I can see clearly again! °o°
As I mentioned yesterday, the past few weeks have been busy. In fact, Eliot and I have been busier than ever- if that's even possible. Our work schedules have kept us busy, and when we haven't been working, we've been trying to get everything else done. I'm coming to the realization that I'm always going to feel like I'm behind. I've got too much that I want to do, too much that I want to create. There will never be enough time to get "caught up" and I'm just going to have to get used to it.
At my chiropractic job, we're back to our five day work week. I'm back to my normal schedule of working four days a week, but my work days are a little bit longer than they used to be. But that's not a problem. My co-worker retired this past spring and the important thing is that I'm getting things done and the work load isn't as overwhelming as I thought it was going to be! Plus, extra hours means a little extra money!
Eliot's been busy with work too. He's got a deadline coming up before Thanksgiving, so that's going to mean a lot of late nights. But, I'm used to being home alone for a lot of the evening, and it doesn't really bother me. I wish he was able to help me with a few things around the house, but hopefully his project will get done and be over soon!
When Eliot hasn't been at work, he's been designing new IllusionEars. I think I've created a mouse ear making monster. Not only has he designed a few new ears, but he's also gotten deeply involved with the painting process. Most nights, I find him at the table painting something, but at least he's having fun with it. Plus, it means that we'll have that many more designs that we can debut in my shop soon!
Speaking of Happily Ever Hatter, I'm working on a few custom designs for my travel agent friends. Tis the season and custom mouse ears are the perfect gift for a Disney fan! I've also got a few holiday designs in the works for one of my past customers. I'm really excited to be working on new designs. I can't wait to see what I come up with!
I'm definitely getting into the Christmas spirit. In fact, Eliot's already brought home a few Christmas things. A few weeks ago, he came home with a bag from Target and he told me that he'd "been bad" and spent more than he should have. However, I couldn't be mad at him. He had bought himself a Santa Mickey shirt, pj pants, and a Mickey Christmas sweater, and he got me the Mickey Christmas sweater I'd had my eye on.
A few days after that, he brought home the Santa Mickey door greeter that I'd spotted in Walmart. When he purchased Mickey, there were still two Minnies left, but of course, when he went back to get her she was sold out. Thankfully, my Dad and I found her at our other local Walmart last Friday!
Eliot also surprised me with a Tsum Tsum stocking. It was perfect timing since he got it right about the same time that my custom Tsum Tsum Christmas fabric came in the mail. They almost match each other perfectly!
Speaking of Tsum Tsums, I finally settled on a bathroom theme for our downstairs bathroom. We were going to do a general Disney theme and use the shower curtain and stuff that I had when I got my first apartment. However, I know Eliot doesn't really like that set, and I wasn't 100% feeling it myself. The other day, I came across some Tsum Tsum towels from Kohls. I kept it in the back of my mind. Then, I discovered that Bed, Bath and Beyond had an actual Tsum Tsum bath collection. The set is adorable and it's perfect. I'm so excited to finally have a theme for that bathroom!
In fact, this past weekend, my Dad came down to help Eliot and I work on a few projects around the house. Daddy helped me clean out the downstairs bathroom, behind the washer and dryer, and inside the washer components. We organized the laundry closet, painted the bathroom, and started to paint the garage entryway.
We got a television mount for our master bedroom. We installed the fancy new shower curtain rod in our master bathroom. Dad and Eliot put all the summer stuff away for the winter. And most exciting for me, we picked out a shiny new kitchen faucet and Dad and Eliot installed it Sunday afternoon! We're still far from finished, but the house is feeling more and more like our dream home every day!
Most recently, I've gotten really excited about the upcoming Beauty and the Beast live action movie! Have you seen the trailer yet? (If you haven't, you must see it!) It was released on Monday and it looks amazing. I'm so excited to go see it in March. I'm hoping there will be tons of Beauty and the Beast merchandise released like there was for Cinderella. Eliot's favorite princess is Belle and I'm sure he'll be thrilled!
As you can see, it's been pretty busy around here! The rest of this week will be no exception. My birthday is this Sunday. (I can't believe it's already here!) In addition to that, Eliot's sister Sara is flying in on Saturday and will be joining Eliot, Elissa and me for Thanksgiving break. Eliot thinks it's been at least 10 years since he was in the same place as both of his sisters for Thanksgiving so this will be special. Thursday, we'll be joining my Mom's side of the family for our annual Thanksgiving meal. Then, Eliot and I are hoping to do something fun with the girls that weekend!
I'm sure it'll be a whirlwind, but I'll be sure to check in when I can! °o°
