Some know my story…some don’t. I’ll give those that don’t a re-cap. 2 1/2 years ago we had our beautiful baby girl Sydney. You know how they say you’re never ready to be a parent…couldn’t be more true. This little ball of fire entered our lives full force. We loved her from the minute we saw her but she cried…cried a lot! Turns out she had colic and continued to for the first 5 months of her life. At the same time, the economy was in the gutter and Brad, a bartender, kept having every place he worked close down on him. Prior to knowing how upside down our lives would become, we decided that I would stay at work and he would watch Sydney during the day and still tend bar on the weekends. Only weeks after we started down this new schedule, we knew it was not going to work. The screaming all day was excruciating for him so we made the decision that Sydney needed her Mommy as much as possible. No more working at the Showroom during the week for me. Our finances took a hit and we then decided that it would be best for everyone to move in with my Mom. It gave me the ability to stay home with her until she got a little older and we’d have the help from my Mom. During that time I really worked my butt off trying to build my own business. Late nights…whatever it took. I wanted the best of both worlds. To be able to work in the design world as well as be with my daughter as much as possible. This became grueling. But somehow, I managed to get The Bean to her toddler years while taking on bigger and more challenging design and event projects. Brad and I were also working hard to be able to get us back in our own place and that….we have now done! After being on the waiting list for a brand new apartment our number came up. We just moved a week ago, are living in a mountain of boxes, but are loving that we are finally our very own family again. Something we hadn’t had since our daughter was 3 months old. An apartment isn’t exactly where we thought we would be at this point but it’s a stepping stone and we are fine with it.
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{Birth photography by Jennifer Skog}
The next big change is that Sydney just started Pre-School, the last puzzle piece to getting things back on track for us. Juggling a business and staying home with a toddler is CRAZINESS! I was counting the days until she could start school so that I would have a little relief. We were on the waiting list for school too…guessing that her number wouldn’t come up until June and then…a week before we moved we got the call that she could start! Hallelujah Momma was relieved. Not only for myself but for her, who I knew was more than ready at this point to venture out from under her Mother’s wing.
Here she is on her first day…such a big girl I can’t believe it! She ran off as soon as we walked in the door and Brad and I had to drag her back to get some goodbye kisses! She could care less if we were there or not…our independent child.
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And here she is after school…deliriously tired since it was a big day for her. Messy little pigtails…I LOVE her!
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And not just a moment later full blown meltdown. Nap time!
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So why is all this taking place on my business blog and not The Bean Blog? Well for one, I’m learning that I just can’t do it all. Although it was a huge part of my life for so long and I enjoyed writing it so much, I have to let it go. It’s hard enough to keep up writing one blog let alone two. I promise to keep the primary direction of this blog design…but I still might add some posts here and there of Miss Beans…hope you don’t mind =)
So let’s splash a little design into this post. With all of these changes I decided why not change her room? We lived in our old house for such a short time before we moved in with my Mom that she never actually slept or played in her old room! My workroom had so generously gifted me custom drapery panels as a gift for her original nursery. Well I just went to hang them up here and they were WAY too short. The windows are very tall here and the old panels weren’t going to cut it. Rather than try to add on to those panels I said “screw it let’s start fresh!”Image may be NSFW.
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I still wanted to use the artwork and I also had tons of black and white items I wanted to keep. I was on the hunt for a fabric that I could wrap around an old canvas I had. I found this print by Mirimekko and I fell in love. Bold, colorful and modern…oh and would go with my black stuff! It’s on it’s way and I can’t wait until it gets here. I’m thinking of pulling the black and white, wide stripes out of this and using that pattern on drapes. I’ll post a progress photo when it’s up! I’m really happy with all of these new changes in our lives. Where some people hate change…I thrive on it!
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