THE STARTING LINE

One of my father's favorite quotes in his enormous quote repertoire is, "It's a marathon, not a sprint.".

Patience.

Patience is an ideology that seems to be a hazy, distant, and dated notion in today's day and age. If you want anything (and I mean anything) in the year 2019, you can most usually acquire it instantaneously. I haven't set foot inside of a Target or Walmart in nearly 2 years, kudos to Amazon Prime. I am a person who can easily become fixated on an idea, if it appeals to me when the stars align correctly on a rainy Wednesday night. If I have something I want to do or accomplish, plans begin post haste and I can't sleep until I see forward progress in the right direction.

About 4 years ago, I found myself at a crossroads. I was recently single and I felt the urge to find my own independence, and in turn, discover how much sacrifice I could take on in order to make some of my lifelong dreams come to fruition on my own. I was at the starting line of my life's race, and all the events in my life that had happened up to this point in time, were training me for this metaphorical marathon. The good, the bad, the ugly. I realized I needed to learn from it all, listen to advice my parents had been ingraining into my mind for 26 years, and buckle down to make things happen.

I decided my goal was to stop renting, to move back into my parent's home, pay off my debt, and save up to buy a house. I didn't have a college degree. I didn't have a job that paid a salary anywhere near what my friend's salaries were at the time. I had a dog, I had a family who was supporting my dream, and I had a desire to make a better life for myself.

And so, one by one, I started knocking out goals I had set for myself. Every time I would jump over a hurdle, I felt myself running faster and looking forward to the next. I got my house, and although the process to even get it move-in ready was nothing like I had ever imagined, I realize now that the same changes and the time spent transforming an 825 square foot house, were also taking place within myself.

This is my story. I've created this space as a vessel to share my decorating ideas, personal experience, provide tips and advice, and to be real about my life at home. My house is cluttered and messy more times than not, and that's the honest truth. I'm about as frugal as they come, and I almost never buy anything at full price. Most of my kitchenware and cutlery came from a thrift store. My two dogs have destroyed my hardwoods. I got the worst case of poison ivy that you could possibly imagine while creating landscape space last summer with my boyfriend. But my desire to create something out of nothing has been with me in my mind since I was a little girl, cutting Better Homes & Gardens magazine pictures out and gluing them with exact precision to pieces of bright colored construction paper. I could talk about this stuff all day, so stay tuned for future posts, as I'm sure they will be flowing from my hands until my fingertips are callused.