living life

Coming up for air

Lazy Baby in her new backyard.

Lazy Baby in her new backyard.

Remember last year when I said my life was getting hectic, well, it stayed hectic for a while.

The view from my new job (this was around christmas time).

The view from my new job (this was around christmas time).

First, I quit my job of almost 11 years to take a new position. I was the Assistant Creative Director at a weekly alternative newspaper, and I loved the work. I got to design different styles every week and knew the ins-and-outs the paper and its deadlines. Then, the paper was sold to a bigger corporation and things just didn’t feel right anymore. The benefits weren’t great, the dynamics were shifting and I took this time to face the reality that I was as far up the ladder as I could go (the Creative Director was not going to be leaving anytime soon). Not to mention that working for a newspaper, I was woefully underpaid. So, I started to look for new opportunities. I had a couple of interviews at some tech firms in the city, but I suspect I was overqualified and under qualified at the same time. Then I interviewed at an architecture firm and got the job. This is a different world, filled with new terminology and responsibilities, but I am starting to get the hang of it. I think. If nothing else, they seem to like me.

That was last August. While all of this was going on, Mr. LL and I were house hunting. We finally had the money for a decent down payment on a house, and Lazy Baby desperately needed her own room. At the end of January we closed on a house in the suburbs near a park that we frequent most often. It needs some remodeling, but everything is functional and it has plenty of space for our family. There was some minor plumbing issues, but we agreed to move on with the transaction-just putting some of the money in escrow for the repairs.

Ha ha. Don’t ever do that. Those minor issues turned into bigger issues and two months after moving in they were finally done, but not really. I am not going to go into detail because I was losing my mind over it and I am not ready to relive that trauma. Too soon.

But we are finally settling into the place. We have art on the walls, and Lazy Baby is enjoying her own space. We have an honest to goodness dining room table. I told Mr. LL that I needed the rest of 2019 to settle. Settle into my job and into this house. We’re working to rebuild our savings and plan for our first remodel project which will be the guest bathroom. We also want to redo the master suite bathroom (y’all I am loving having two bathrooms), open the living space and remodel the kitchen. I think, down the line, we’d like to create a studio space in the back yard (think tiny house). However, right now I am just focusing on getting used to the new job and meeting the expectations they have of me; and when I am home, I want to soak up every second of Lazy Baby, who is growing up so fast, and spend quality time with Mr. LL. Home is my happy place and I want it to be theirs too.

So, that’s what’s been going on in the Lazy household. I am working on coming back to the blog, but slowly. I will have another post this week, a product review, and then I will probably just post once a week for a while. I hope you, dear reader, haven’t given up on me yet!

Oh hi, stranger!

JUST SO THIS ISN'T ALL TEXT. LOOK HOW BIG MY BABY IS!

JUST SO THIS ISN'T ALL TEXT. LOOK HOW BIG MY BABY IS!

So hey. How's it going? I've been a neglectful blogger, and I'm sorry. Life has been crazy. My work has been busy, for me anyway, Lazy Baby started daycare – and subsequently got sick almost immediately – and Mr. LL and I have been sick off and on for the past month. However, overall I'd say the family is doing well and adjusting to the changes we are going through. In just the last two weeks, Lazy Baby has slowly stopped losing her shit when I drop her off at day care in the mornings, so that's a good sign that things are getting better in my book.

I've been wanting to do redesign the blog, and that's been holding me back from posting. Finally, I've just gotten to the point where until I know I can dedicate a decent amount of time and energy to working on a redesign, I need to just post and worry about that later.

So, here I am, posting. I've got some family-oriented posts coming down the line, like baby's first Easter, Lazy Baby's FIRST BIRTHDAY OMG, and some family budgeting that Mr. LL and I have been working on together. I also plan on getting back to doing Culture Creature and Friday Favorite posts. Be on the look out!

They call me a rambler

I meant to have the next phase of my Marie Kondo method done by now and I was going to post it today, but life had different plans.

Nothing Earth shattering happened, or anything like that; I just simply got busy and forgot about it. Life happens, you know?

So, instead I thought I'd just do a general catching up, rambling kind of post. If that's not your jam, I understand. I'll have a post about getting geared up for International Tabletop Day going up on Wednesday and the new prompts for May's Instagram challenge – plus a recap of April's – going up on Saturday, so you can come back for those!

What's been going on...well, I got two new LV Book Design clients! In the same day, too! That's been exciting and I've really enjoyed working with both of them so far. It's actually made me think about adding another package to my current offerings.

I took Wonderlass's free live list building workshop this weekend and decided to invest in myself and my business by going through her Side Hustle to Success course. I've been hesitant to pay for courses or anything like that because 1) I don't have the money and 2) I'm very much a "do it yourself" kind of person; but I like how she breaks things down and she gave special deal to all who were taking the workshop so it has a lot of other content added in for free. So I decided to see what I could learn to help out my business.

Tuesday, I'm taking a vacation day from my day job to go to the Collision Conference here in New Orleans. I have a free ticket (for all three days, but I can't take off that much work and Tuesday has most of what actually interests me anyway) and I'm excited to go and learn from pros.

What else....hmmm. Oh, Mr. LL and I are planning our vacation we are taking in May for our 3 year wedding anniversary. It's looking like we'll be going to Houston to check out a Flatbush Zombie show and hit up some flea markets along the way. The concert is his thing, as the older I've gotten the less I want to deal with crowds, lol. So I get to pick something for us to do on the trip. I haven't decided what I want to do yet. If you know of any fun, cool things to do in Houston, I'm open to suggestions! The flea market stuff is something we both love doing. We call it treasure hunting.

Other than that, we've just been trying really hard to see our friends and family more. This past Saturday, our friends who live in Slidell stopped by for a visit and that was fun. Then we went and visited with Mr. LL's dad for a little while. We have plans to have my mom over in a couple of weeks. I haven't been able to see my friends (who are scattered across MS and AL), but I've been getting on Ventrilo when I'm working on freelance so I can chat with them. That's been nice.

So, that's it from me. Just been working on Lazy Lady, LV Book Design, doing the day job and living life. Hope you have a great week!