This is probably not what you're looking for.

Sorry it’s taken so long for me to get this post up.  I had been in a funk since last Saturday’s Walmart extravaganza and I didn’t really come out of it until today.  I’m not sure if it was an overdose of ugly consumerism masked with holiday cheer or just exhaustion, but after the news broke on Friday about the tragedy in Connecticut, I was pretty bogged down.  I knew if I didn’t shake it soon, it could turn into a downward spiral that might take me a little more than a quick dose of retail therapy and a binge session with Mr. Ben & Jerry to come out of.  

Thank goodness for some great friends who didn’t mind helping me shed my crappy attitude.  After a late night road trip (“late night” for me means anything after 9:30) to Lincoln to see Good Show Great Show, I felt much better.  If you’ve never heard of them, you need to go check them out.  If you only listen to one song, it should probably be Buffalo Ring.  If you listen to two songs, check out Francis, for sure.  But really, you should listen to the whole thing.  It's pretty awesome.  They describe their music as “whiskey flavored,” and as a consumer of both music and whiskey, I have to agree.  It was definitely what I needed to pull me out of my rut and put some joy back in my life.

(Big GSGS fan! Check out their album, Larry Turquoise available on iTunes)

In my last post, I promised I would have a different gift tag idea for you (one not requiring a Cricut).  Unfortunately, the idea I had in mind ended in terrible failure…. Not quite “burn the kitchen down” failure, but definitely “make a mess so big it takes more than a little elbow grease and 409 to clean it up” failure.

Luckily, I’ve got several other ideas that I worked on this weekend.  I promise I’ll have a post about it tomorrow, complete with idiot-proof instructions (ie: 3 steps or less for most of them) and crappy cell phone pictures.

I just want to end by saying that right now, in the midst of our nation’s grief over the incredible loss of innocent life, try to go out and help someone.  Even if it’s something as simple as holding the door open for the person behind you or buying a stranger’s coffee.  We need to get some positivity going.  Say a prayer, if you’re a prayerful person.  If not, just try to send some good thoughts to everyone affected by this senseless tragedy.  We need to come together as brothers and sisters, and give each other a shoulder to cry on, and a hand to hold.  

Personalized Gift Tags

Well, I made it to Monday!  It was looking a little grim on Saturday as Tots and I were taking turns strategically invading the Wal-Mart toy section and then coming back out to the curtain aisle to regroup.  It was madness!  So many tantrum-throwing toddlers (not excluding my own), fumbling parents (again, not excluding myself), eye-rolling teens and tweens, and bickering couples.  Yikes.  Merry Christmas?  On a slightly unrelated topic, if you’re looking to buy curtains, now is the time!  That was the least crowded aisle we found.

After exerting all of that energy, sacrificing my Saturday (and my sanity), and spending my hard-earned money on all of those great gifts, what’s next?  Well, if you’re an over-achiever or a glutton for pain and punishment (and trust me, I’m really not either of those things… so it’s ok if you’re not either), hand-made gift tags, of course!

Are you rolling your eyes at me yet?  Because that’s probably what I would be doing right now if I were reading this.  And then I would probably quickly click out of that blog and find something a little more my speed, like “How to make your store-bought pies look homemade,” or “The domestically-challenged woman’s guide to not sucking at Christmas” (I don’t know if either of those blogs exist, but I’m probably going to look for them after I’m done typing this).  Stick with me.  I promise this won’t be too painful. 

Every year, Tots and I end up overestimating the time we have until Christmas, meaning we shop at the last minute and then rush home and wrap everything the night before our big gift exchange(s).  We buy sticky labels and quickly scribble names on them or (gasp) skip the labels altogether and sharpie the name of the recipient onto the wrapping paper.  At our Christmas gatherings, we would show up with our shamefully wrapped gifts, and every year I would swear to do better next time. 

Even though the packaging isn’t the important part of the gift (and arguably, the gift isn’t even the most important part of the gift; isn’t it supposed to be the thought behind it?), nice packaging makes the gift seem more thoughtful and personal, in my opinion.  After receiving several nicely wrapped gifts with handmade bows and name tags, I decided that I wasn’t last minute sharpie-ing it this year.  It was time to upgrade. 

Don’t worry, these name tags are super easy, as long as you have a Cricut machine or something similar.  If you don’t have anything like that, you could take the time to hand cut the letters (which I don’t recommend), or wait for my next post, where I’ll show you some other name tags I’m making.

Here’s your material list:

Wax paper

Hairspray (Spray glue would probably be better, but I didn’t have any on hand so I used my cheap super-hold freezing hairspray.  I swear this stuff is just glue that washes out with shampoo.  Also, I’m not sure about flammability/meltiness of spray glue.  Since I didn’t use it, I can’t vouch for its effectiveness)

Card stock or decorative paper

Iron

Tea towel

First, cut your letters.  I went ahead and cut all of my letters at once, so I could clean up my Cricut and put it away before O got too interested in what I was doing.

Next, arrange your letters on a small piece of wax paper, and dust it with a light coat of your spray glue.  I found it was best to hold the hairspray can as far up as my arm would reach, and let the spray fall onto the wax paper, so the blast of air didn’t move my letters once I had placed them.  You know you’re doing it right if you feel ridiculous.  

Now, cut another small piece of wax paper, and put it on top of your sprayed letters, like a hairspray sandwich. 

Cover it with a thin towel (I found that a tea towel worked well), crank your iron up (I had mine on the highest setting), and iron your wax paper hairspray sandwich for about 15-30 seconds.  You’ll know it’s done when you see the paper has fused between all of the letters.

Then I added some red card stock around the edges of the wax paper, and stuck it to the gifts.  

There you have it… really easy, right?  Let me know what you think, and post your pictures if you do this too!  I would love to see what you guys come up with!

Weekend Madness!

Hi everyone!  I just want to thank all of you for stopping by and checking out my blog.  The outpouring of support I’ve seen in the last couple of days has been amazing, and in all honesty, completely unexpected.  

It took me about a year to finally work up the guts to get this blog started.  The biggest hurdle that I kept stumbling over (again… and again… and again…) was the fear that my friends’ and loved ones’ perception of me might change based on what they read and discovered about me.  So, to all of my readers who know me in person (which, let’s face it, is probably all of you), I really hope that doesn’t happen.  The very last thing I want is for anyone to tip toe around me or think of me in a different light.  I’ve got pretty thick skin… don’t worry about me.

It’s been a busy week, but I’ve got some great holiday ideas brewing.  I’m hoping to put them into action this weekend so I can have a brand new post for you on Monday!  Until then, have a great weekend.  It’s going to be all about holiday shopping, Christmas decorating (would you believe it’s already the 8^th and I still don’t have all of my holiday décor out?  I’m pretty sure at least one of my Christmas boxes went missing.  I blame “creepy Santa,” the sadistic figurine given to us as a wedding gift from a well-meaning but out-of-touch distant relative), and family photos.  Happy weekend!

Stripping is for suckers.

If you read my “about me” section, you already know I enjoy working with furniture.  Building, painting, staining, distressing… really everything, with the exception of stripping.  I detest the furniture stripping process with every fiber of my being, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil.  That’s actually what this post is about.

I’ve dabbled in this hobby for a few years now, but it took me some time to work up the courage to actually strip a piece down to bare wood.  Why did I dance around it so long?  Intimidation.  And rightfully so… there’s a reason there are a ton of youtube videos and step by step guides on the stripping process.  It’s not always easy!  However, in true Jessie fashion, I got sick of being such a wuss and I decided to jump in, head first.

It all began in early May.  The city we live in has great city-wide garage sales once a month in the summer, and let me tell you, it is a BIG DEAL!  I’ve been lusting after new furniture ever since we moved from our apartment to our house, but unfortunately, our budget just wasn’t quite big enough. 

Rather than continuing to want something I couldn’t have, I decided it was time to change my perspective.  When we pick out furniture, aren’t we trying to find something that reflects our personality?  Something that is an extension of our individuality, right?  If that’s the case, why would I want brand new, manufactured furniture?  Anybody else could go out and buy the same pieces I picked out….. what does that say about my individuality?  Isn’t it better to have furniture that tells a story?  I decided it was.

After consulting some of my thrifty friends for their top garage-sale success tips, I set out with a plan.  I didn’t get a ton of stuff, but I did score a really sweet narrow console table for $10.  I think it was a steal… some of you bargainers might not, please don’t rain on my parade!  Isn’t she gorgeous? 

Ok, so maybe not so much.  The doors didn't shut, she was wobbly, and the color scheme was less than ideal.  But I had a vision for her!  Strip her down, paint her up, and switch her knobs (did I leave out any other horrible innuendos?) and she would be perfect in my home!  Tots and I went out and bought a detail sander, some cheap stripper (I don’t remember what the brand was, just that I bought it at Menards), and black gel stain.

The next day, I started sanding.  This wouldn’t take too long, right?  Wrong.  Good thing I bought the chemical stripper, right?  Sort of.  Again, I jumped right in.  I can be a pretty impulsive person, if I get an idea in my head, I typically just go for it without slowing down… luckily I had some gloves on hand, or else I would be typing this with chemically burned fingers.

I sprayed the stripper all over the top of the table and anxiously waited the 15 minutes, as directed on the can.  Ok… so maybe not the whole 15 minutes.  Again, I’m pretty impulsive and I tend to be a bit impatient, too.  I waited almost 15 minutes, and then took my plastic scraper to the bubbly, gooey mess.  

Much to my dismay, it didn’t really take that much off.  After scraping and scrubbing, I still had a nasty, stubborn layer of varnish.  I sprayed it down again, and this time decided to wait the entire 15 minutes.  I had to distract myself… I went inside, made a cup of coffee, checked Facebook, and came back outside to find (once again) a nasty, bubbly mess.  After scraping it down again, and repeating this process once more, I have up on the idea of using chemical stripper.  Maybe enough varnish was gone, and it would be easy to sand it down to bare wood, I hoped.

I let the table sit for a WEEK so the goopy varnish could harden, and then I sanded it down.  After hours with a sander (and countless clogged sanding sheets), I realized that I wasn’t going to get this piece down to bare wood.  I would have been pretty disappointed about it, had I not already been beyond tired and frustrated, with my right hand numb and tingly from hours with the sander.

I searched the web and found some great step-by-step directions for painting finished wood.  I went out, bought myself some Rustoleum primer and flat black spray paint, and didn’t look back.  After 2 days of painting and 4 new knobs, my piece was ready to find her place in my home.

Did I mention that Rustoleum makes a no sanding/no stripping primer?  No?  Well they do!  If you’re planning to paint a piece of furniture rather than staining or varnishing, I would say go out and buy yourself a few cans of that primer.  I promise you won’t regret it!  There are tons of great blogs you can check out, if you’re a little nervous about the process.  For this project, I referred to this post from I create… with love (which I found on Pinterest, of course).  Although I didn’t use the product she recommended, it gave me a good general idea of what I was doing.

*It took me a few months and a new project that was (is) very special to me before I was finally ready to revisit the whole stripping racket again, and I’m happy to say it’s going much better this time around.  I’m still working on this new piece, but my goal is to have it in my house and ready for use before Christmas, so hopefully that blog post isn’t too far off.* 

 The moral of this story?  Avoid stripping at all cost.  Just kidding.  But seriously, if you’re going to paint a piece, you don’t need to strip it. 

Welcome!

Welcome!

Who am I and why do you care?

My name is Jessie, and maybe you don’t care…. And that’s fine.  I’m an open book, but since nobody reads books anymore, I thought it might be time to start a blog.

I work full time while juggling my roles as a mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and occasionally, a hurricane. We'll get to that. 
 
Along with all of those things I'm also a few others, but I try not to let them define me. I've always been pretty candid about my life (ask me anything and I’ll tell you. Probably in greater detail than you would like), but there is one subject I’ve kept pretty quiet about.  Until now.
 
The truth is, I’m also a depression and anxiety sufferer.
 
 I was actually nick named Hurricane Jessie by an ex (um, thanks for the excellent nickname and blog title, wherever you are these days). It was his way of describing my occasional bouts with depression and anxiety, when I would "cloud over."

Since those days, I've become better at managing my storms, but I still struggle from time to time.
 
Why am I baring it all now, for everyone to see? Because I know I that am not alone. I know there are many of you out there like me, who are hurting, struggling, or worse, considering hurting yourselves. I'm hoping that by coming forward and sharing my stories, I can help someone see that they're not alone.  

I've suffered from some form of anxiety ever since I can remember.  It wasn't until high school that it became clear to me that it wasn't a "normal" thing that everyone dealt with, at least not in the capacity that I experienced it.  After I had my son, O, my anxiety skyrocketed, and I began experiencing some different symptoms, and was eventually diagnosed with postpartum depression.  It should have come as no surprise to me, considering the anxiety I had experienced before, but it was difficult for me to come to terms with, nonetheless.
 
Because I've tried not to let my struggle claim too much of my life, it won’t be the main focus of this blog. Yes, this blog is about my stormy days, but it’s also about my coping mechanisms. I'll share with you what gets me through my rough patches (my hilariously naughty dog, my beautiful son, my enduring husband, crafts, music, beating things with hammers, etc.), things I love, and I'll probably do some bitching about things I hate too.

Stick around, maybe you’ll learn something. We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll drink cheap wine… I guess I’ll do all those things. You decide if you want to join me.  It’ll sure make me look less crazy if I’m not alone!