Because I had a lot of free time this semester, my mom and I spent the first three months of this year (2018), slowly going room to room deep cleaning like we have never done before. We started in an attic, that has never been deep cleaned in my life. Some relatives came over one weekend to help clean out our storage room and garage. We sorted stuff, threw stuff out, donated, and created a garage sale pile for the neighborhood garage sale that was at the beginning of April. We are still going through stuff - just a few days ago, my mom and I went through piles and piles of music books (my grandma and great grandma taught piano lessons).

Left - Silver Bullet, Right - Natural Grey

Amazing what a new coat of paint can do. A month ago, my sister moved out. In out twenty odd years, neither of us have ever had our own room or place. So it was (and is) good for the both of us. I knew that regardless of when she was going to actually move out, the room was going to get repainted. It was time to get rid of that lavender purple, our high school selves picked out.

For the first time in years I actually got invited to a NYE party and guess what? It ended up that this was the year that first ice/snow of the winter came on New Years Eve... ha so the party got cancelled. Plus it ended up I got some sort of virus/food poisoning friday night and was still recovering on Sunday. My unexpected sickness also meant I slept the entire day on Saturday disrupting all of my year end cleaning plans, lol.
Right in the middle of changing out my desks, I had a moment where there was pure frustration, and anger. It was one of those moments, where I could feel the anger bubbling up inside and there was just a brief moment to decide - do I loose it and completely break down or how can I turn this into a "I WILL make it work" moments? I realized my almost twenty years of living in that room - I have never actually gotten to do a room makeover - my parents settled for new paint, comforters, and lamps, every so often, but that was about the limit. There was never a point where they surprised us (yes, us. I share the room with my only sister) with the option of choosing our own furniture and decor - it was just given to us. Even the first moment of freedom, we "got to choose the paint" between them and the painters, it got mixed up.

But think about the crucial transitional periods in anyone's life and it is no wonder, I was so naïve and babyish for so long. My dad would often tell me to "grow up" & "quit acting like a child", and yet how is one suppose to do that when they are stifled in their own room? It is easy to say it, but another to actually follow through and do it.  Trying to make a sacred bedroom AND an office in only half a room with a closet smaller than I am is a tall order. And no matter the book or article about simplifying or organizing a small space, nothing seems to work.

There was something I heard this past week. It was along the lines of: what if your child's most annoying feature is actually their biggest character trait? Basically it boils down to , figuring out a way to harness the annoying and turn it into what it was meant to be.

I use to be super annoying at organizing. I would take all of the books off of my shelf and sort them by  series and then by order. And even now my closet is organized by shirts, dresses, coats, etc. although in middles school it was even color coded.

I realize in order to achieve stuff there must be sacrifice. For me it is usually financial. Funny because up until college, I was such a budgeter. I would save most of my money, and use the rest for something I really really wanted. Now? I am sinking. Trying to figure out how to repay loans, redo my room, save up for conferences, trips, & just life.

Hahaha, wow, I got so off track y'all. But long story short, I wanted to completely redo my room, in a way I would love for the next couple of years and actually enjoy every aspect of it. Especially, because I have a home based business and spend a lot of time in there!


XOXO,
Suzanne Marie

After seeing everything that is happening in South Texas (and y'all it is NOT all Houston! Dozens and dozens of towns were COMPLETELY destroyed!), it is breaking my proud texan heart. But seeing the way literally EVERYONE come together to raise money and/or volunteer makes me soooo happy to call Texas my home and to be a part of this community. I normally do not stay up past 1:30am writing blog posts, but I half cry everytime I see videos and photos of South Texas that I wanted to round up all of the places you can donate or purchase to donate. (Not going to lie, I'm one of those people who no matter the tragedy, I can't make myself donate a ton of money, but I will if it means shopping. You can judge all you want, but that does not make me a bad person; I am only human).

Back in July I mentioned Norwex and their mission to change the way we clean. But after using many of the products, it makes sense - why have all these extra harmful chemicals around when you can seriously clean household items extremely well with just a cloth and water? Don't believe me? Read my other post here!

Now early last month I had a post just about essential oils in general, but In the essential oil world, there is a lot of controversy about the two top companies: Dōterra and Young Living. Debate about which one has better quality oils and better company has been going on for years.

Normally on my seasonal favorites I have at least a dozen items, but for what ever reason I was struggling hard core to just come up with this list. This is the first time in about three/four years where I have not had been taking summer classes and it has been super low key. Busy with odd jobs, but quite a bit of down time. Currently, anticipating our first family vacation in years and wanting to sink my toes in the sand.

Why is it that we associate different smells and tastes with the seasons? For the summertime, it is all about long days in the sun, fresh fruits and veggies, the sweet smell of grass, and splashing in cold water. I love to diffuse anything and everything citrus! It just smells fresh and sweet, perfect for the long, hot summer days.

For the past several weeks every fashion blogger has been posting like crazy about the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and I am sure y'all are getting tired of constantly hearing about it. I just wanted to pop on with one post and then let y'all shop the sale in peace. Every year Nordstrom has a month long sale and the first week is considered early access to card holders. And it is not very hard to get approved, plus you can get a debit card so there is no fuss with your credit.

Cleaning is hardly anyones favorite thing to do, but when you have less to use and an easy way to clean, its not that bad. Norwex is a direct sales company that started out in Norway, when the founder was trying to create a cleaning concept with just water and microfiber. While there are plenty of other microfiber cloths out there, Norwex's is a 1/200th the size of human hair and their cleaning cloths come with a technology called, BacLock, that incorporates microsilver to trap bacteria inside the cloth, so it does not get spread around while cleaning.

There are billions of ways to decorate a Christmas tree; it completely depends on the size, decorations, and theme. Growing up, we would always do a very traditional tree with novelty ornaments. Flipping through magazines, such as Southern Living, I was always curious how people would completely overload them with ribbons and picks. I'm going to share some easy DIY ways to decorate a chic Christmas tree, that will be the talk of your holiday party.