Putting My Feats Out There

My friend Rachel suggested I look into a local party planner called Homespun Parties, so I looked up their Facebook page and started following them. I thought they might be a good source of inspiration, but I also knew they might be a good place to connect with people.

Last week they posted something directed toward "wedding and event professionals + handmade artisans" regarding their second annual Expo called "This Ain't Your Mama's Wedding + Party Expo 2". I thought, "Humm, I've really been wanting to feature one•little•m at a bridal show of some kind, but I feel it has to be just the right kind of show for my first one. There has to be something about it that makes me feel very comfortable and confidant to attend." So I "liked" the announcement and figured I'd think about it some more. I also did some research on their site about what's generally involved.

Then I received an email from Ayesha Reynolds, who I discovered is one of the two ladies who started Homespun Parties in 2010. She wrote that she found my page through theirs and "How am I just finding out about you!!! Your stuff is amazing. I wanted to see if you would want to be involved in our indie bridal show?"

Here's a video from their site to give you a feeling of what the show looks & feels like:

I'm meeting with Ayesha this week on Thursday to discuss my involvement and to gain insight since it would be my first-ever show of this nature. From reading up on their vendor documentation, it appears that typically for new booth applicants you submit your information and they have to approve you before you can attend as a vendor... but I got a personal invite to become one! and an interview of sorts! Maybe they do this for all new applicants - but it makes me feel special, chosen, and comfortable.

The show will be Sunday March 11th, 2012.

Jon and I have already been brainstorming how to design our booth, what to put on display, and what to make new. I've very much been wanting to make more bridal gowns, as I have only ever done my own (which I could display, but since my skills have improved since then I would like to make something new).

I've chosen another Givenchy/Hepburn piece to recreate : The gown she wears during the wedding photo shoot in Funny Face when she dances with Fred Astaire as he sings "He Loves And She Loves".

I already have the pattern created for the bodice :•)  It has very flattering features that I'm pretty excited to tackle, including a unique hood-styled "floating" veil of dotted lace that attaches to the back of the dress, an angled drop waist, and a very full, romantic dotted lace tulle and satin tea length skirt.

Getting to Humility

Oh, sigh. I haven't kept up with this dang ol' blog like I said I would. I said I'd use Facebook less and write here more and I haven't. Can I have a do-over? I want to try to work on this more in the new year.

A friend of mine said this today on and about Facebook, "So what's the long-term plan here? Do we keep posting updates, witticisms, and links to videos for the next 60 years?"

He usually has very thoughtful, out of the blue remarks like this that make you think. It made me think. I guess technology makes anyone think about how long it can really endure. The thing with this social media stuff is that everyone wants to be important, and it's so easy to be the center of attention... for the duration of time until more people also want their center of attention and it pushes your precious news away. Thing is, there's only one center  :•)  and we can't all have it. I think I've discovered that Facebook makes people too self reflective and self centered, the ones that use it too much like myself. I think it's better to have humility. Facebook makes it almost impossible to be humble. 

The other thing is, do we ALL really need to be so connected? I think about who I actually chat, phone, or visit in person the most. Do these people matter or mean more than everyone else? It's a good question, and it's hard to feel like you're being exclusive. If I were to answer that though, I would say Yes, those people do mean more to me, because they reciprocate the closer connection initiative. New people can join the initiative too, of course.

Anyway here is my honest attempt, people. I'm going to start thinking and writing about my life rather than segmenting it in short meaningless instances that drown amongst other people's cries for attention. I won't remove myself totally from the Face of the book. Only big news, I think, will be re-shared there.. and I'll keep up my one•little•m page, because that helps business for me :•)

Okay now! I wrote this down, so now it has to happen. Lemme just go tell Facebook I'm going on hiatus ha. Baby steps...

Might Need Notecards..

This Friday we are taking the day off to go to the Financial Peace University HQ in Franklin, TN to do our debt free scream live on the Dave Ramsey radio show. You can listen for us from the website here. I don't know what time we'll be on air, but you might just get something from listening to the entire show as you wait for our cue, *wink, wink*.

So of course ~ I'm nervous! Jon will do most of the talking, because he's good at that. Usually Dave asks the wife "What was the hardest part about getting out of debt?" So I've been pondering this question for about a month or so. I want to give a good answer (so I'm writing this post as a sort of practice run).

On the surface, getting out of debt wasn't really that hard for me. I've been used to living frugally and giving up things to save a buck here and there. Initially it was hard for me to accept that we wouldn't be moving from our little apartment after we got married into something larger and more centrally located. But we chose to use those funds to achieve Freedom sooner. Cable was a piece of cake to give up. We realized quickly how rich our time together was without it. My drive to work, well. It's still kind of intolerable. I guess it's been hard for me to step out the door every morning without whining about the drive. But I realize sometimes the space between events on a busy day is nice. The drive is a forced detachment from the rest of the day.

So those are the things I've dealt through without much difficulty. The difficult thing was more in relating to others... And not just in the sense of turning them down to go out to eat or something. For me it was feeling like being viewed as limited and unable, in a perceived state of living like poor college students for some unspecified or forever amount of time. People focus on what seems from the outside : that we can't afford things, that somehow we're in need of aid. We are not in need of aid, and we CHOOSE not to afford certain things in order for that money to make a bigger difference in an area that matters more.

Why care what others think? Usually I don't. But for this I care that they don't understand us, and that I'm discouraged by their close-mindedness to new ideas that could change their lives as well. I'm discouraged by their disinterest in helping themselves.

It's almost like being in a rocket headed for amazing blessings and success, and watching the other people pass by, amazed maybe, but not along for such a fun ride. I want them all to experience the fun ride!

So that's been the difficult thing for me. Struggling with misunderstanding, trying to be an example while still amongst our mess.. until the payoff  :•)  So I really want our being debt free to encourage others to know it's possible for them personally.



Annnnd, I have no idea how to say all that in person! Maybe I should just read my blog on air haha. Or just be like.. "umm, something.. understanding.. abstract, thingamabob... Back to you Jon!" Just kidding. I'll figure it out. But I'm definitely bringing a note card!

Grandmother's Rose

My talented sister took this photo of Jon and I in Coolidge Park during her visit with my family over Labor Day weekend. The necklace I'm wearing belonged to my grandmother, who passed shortly after Mother's Day this year. I feel very blessed to have received such a lovely gift! It has to be my most favorite (pre-) birthday present ever. I remember her wearing this necklace a lot and I always loved it. It's not very visible here (which I hope to remedy with a detail shot soon) but it's a dainty little rose carved into pearl, hanging on a very delicate chain.

I really miss my grandmother. Since her death I've had dreams about her regularly ~ once a week it seems... All very wonderful where the both of us (sometimes with my grandfather) are sitting together, just talking. I feel as though I have more time to be with her now than I had while she was living during her later years, with our distance between Missouri and Tennessee. 

I don't think we can really control our dreams, but I'm thankful for these and I hope they continue. It's very special to me. 

Freedom!

We finally made it! We are 100% completely DEBT FREE, as of August 8, 2011!!  It's been a long road - but through sacrifice, communication, determination and taking on as much extra work as we possibly could, we paid off about $52,000 in 26 months!!

I've been thinking about how I want to summarize this experience ~ but my husband did such a great job doing so on his new blog so I'll let you read his. But I will say, I am very much looking forward to finally moving on in life, and always doing so while applying the principals we've learned from Financial Peace University, which has immensely affected our lives, and I hope it shows.

What's also exciting to me is the ability to share our achievement, that hopefully it will encourage others that it can be done in a very real and effective way, no matter how big the numbers may seem. Living the way our society tells us to live in many financial aspects is really kind of a scam, that most of us are unaware of unless you actually assess the numbers associated with it.

"Be not conformed to the traditions of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Rom 12:2

"Owe nothing to anyone, except for your obligation to love one another." Rom 13:8

I'm very excited to employ these ideas into my life, and I can't wait to see how much fun it will be :•)

Jumbled

Wow. It's incredible the things you don't remember about yourself sometimes as you get older. I was just looking through the old blog I used to keep at xanga.com/melllisssima. I used to write about the most pointless of pointless things. Mixed in with some point-ful things ~ such as the day my husband first found me there, on September 8, 2006.

Back then I wrote a lot about stress, school, funny things with friends, and weird things that somehow came to my mind while I was bored. I had so much fun with it though.

This current blog definitely has less of that feeling to me. And I don't post to it as often as I did with my old one. I don't seem to CARE as much. Am I less inspired by things? Are new ideas and concepts that much farther in between now?

Sometimes I feel I've become more cynical about things. I'm not sure of the cause. What if it's Facebook? I read a status posted by Chris Maier there that really made me think. He asked:

"is there more or less emotional responses to be experienced now that a large amount of time is spent communicating through technology. Let's say we were talking in person and different things like body language......, atmosphere, surroundings, etc. subconsciously factor into that experience of conversing. In a text or email, the only thing that exists is the text and what we try to read into it. Will there be less options for us to react by due to this simplification of our communication?"

I definitely think this media and other technologies has slowly been taking over something within our souls lately. It's become so all-consuming and "necessary" for communication. But it's cheap communication. As Chris mentioned, while in a group with folks when a question is posed, someone instantly will whip out a smart phone and locate the definite answer right away - leaving no room for a healthy, human discussion on the matter.

What have we done to ourselves?

I believe I'm being affected by it too. Not via smartphone, as I refuse to be THAT connected as the person with their face in a tiny screen all the time. If I'm seeing you in person, I don't want to see your face being illuminated by the deathly glow of a device. If I could ever have a large group party at my future home one day, I would have a basket as people come in that says "drop your device here, or go outside to use it" ha.
 
Perhaps I need to feel more loneliness. In the past I have often taken to writing when I felt alone. I was still writing online where others may see it, but I wasn't surrounded by hundreds of other folks doing the same in a briefly thought-out statement about what they were feeling at any particular time. I take too much of my empty time to be online: checking up on other people and trying to maintain certain (shallow) relationships through the Facebook medium.

How do you keep up with a lot of relationships at once though? Facebook makes that so easy. I've struggled with relationships in general a little lately though. I've written about how friends moving on to other life stages beyond the one I'm in has taken a toll on how closely I can relate to them anymore. It has become very shallow trying to be everyone's friend, too. I've lived in Chattanooga for nearly 4 years now. If you asked me who my "best" friend is (other than my husband) I couldn't tell you. 

When I think of a best friend I think of someone who calls you out of the blue just to talk about nothing, or to ask if we can get together one on one. Who will drive 30 minutes to your place to hang out with you on a regular basis without complaining about the drive. I don't have a best friend anymore, but I used to. Erin McGuire was my best friend through college. I really miss being in her town sometimes.

Maybe I shouldn't worry about relationships so much. Maybe it's okay to only have shallow relationships with people; that I'm just not accustomed to it as I've always had either a best friend or a sister actually present to share things with.

This post feels really jumbled to me. I think it's an indication of how I feel about it all.

A Sight for Four Eyes

I have to blog about my dear husband getting contacts yesterday. Somehow it feels momentous! I mean, when I got them in the eighth grade I thought "This is the best thing everrrr!" When you're older I guess it doesn't tend to weigh as much. But I think it does  :•)

I went in for my exam, without my contacts in, which is very dissociating talking to the doctor without being able to see his face, heh. My vision is like a weird dream that looks like a Monet painting. It's incredibly poor. - 7 in each eye now, which apparently was the worst the optometrist had all day! Most people are between 3 and 4, he said.

Anyway. I get my new contacts in and wait in the waiting room while Jon goes in. I hear him chatting away with the assistant as she measures his eyes, takes retina photos and does the ever-annoying pressure test. He comes out after the full exam and we (Jon, the assistant and I) cram into the little side room where he tries putting contacts in for the first time. *Flashback to eighth grade trying to get a hang of this feat right before graduation, strongly desiring to make it work so I didn't have to wear my ugly glasses while being all dressed up for the occasion.*

But I had forgotten how difficult it was to get these things in! The finesse it takes has become almost innate to me now. Long eyelashes and eyelids that don't want to stay open worked against Jon's first few attempts. The whole time I was thinking "I wonder if it would help if I tried?" Then the assistant suggested I do haha.

For some reason this scenario seemed very comical to me. By this point the assistant and the optometrist are standing there watching me pry my husband's eye open to get the lens in. I'm sure it was the most entertaining thing they'd seen all day.

Surprisingly, popping them into someone else's eye wasn't difficult at all for me. (At first I thought I'd have a problem with it, because when I got them, through the many attempts at sticking things in my eyes, I had started to feel faint about it all). I can't say I've ever touched someone else's eyeball before - but there's a first time for everything!

I think Jon is enjoying them though. In-focus peripheral vision is a totally new thing with contacts. And I imagine that being able to drive with sunglasses + contacts now would be a definite benefit (no weird glares and such with the sun). He may still need reading glasses though, which to me is just as inconvenient as sunglasses, so no big deal. But I'm really enjoying his appliance-free face, and seeing those big brown eyes staring back at me without a reflection in front of them :•)