Saturday, December 08, 2012

We Have Some Catching Up to Do

Hello readers and other long-lost friends. It's been awhile since I last posted. We have some catching up to do. Between June and December, the following happened ...

I turned 30.


We moved to Las Vegas, Nevada via an 1800 mile cross-country trip.

We bought a house.

I became a remote employee and started working from home full-time.

Big Spoon started his new job.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary.

I spent half of October away from Vegas on trips to Nashville, Dallas and San Antonio.


We sold our Nashville house. (Finally.)

And I've decide to put this blog on indefinite hiatus. There's a possibility I will be moving the content to Wordpress when I get ready to launch my business website, but that's still on the fence. It's been a wonderful journey, but with my inconsistencies in posting over the past year, our move to the other side of the country and the pace at which wedding trends change, I no longer feel like this blog is relevant in it's current state.

Thank you to all of our followers ... we appreciate your readership and hope that you will continue to follow us once my freelance design company is up and running.

Best wishes to you all,

Little Spoon













Thursday, June 07, 2012

Country Girl, City Girl

The more mementos I rummage through and organize, the more real it becomes to me that the next 30 years of my life will be spent in another place.

I had a happy childhood, complete with a farm, animals, grandparents, siblings and cousins. I have wonderful parents. I grew where I was planted, I've thrived in the Southern soil ... a slightly different sort of bloom from those around me, although I certainly had a kindred spirit or two on that journey. I didn't really feel the difference until I was in Jr. High ... even then, I couldn't pin-point exactly what it was. I just knew that I didn't feel like I belonged there and dreamed of the day I would escape that small town.


I probably was weird by most standards of that small, rural Tennessee town, but not because I suffered from some behavioral or personality flaw. I was smart. I liked unusual things - music, art, reading, writing. I loved books and often read encyclopedias for fun. I was hungry for knowledge. I had terrible self-esteem. 


In High School, I began a journey of realization centered around religion, moral perspectives and self-loathing that continued throughout college and beyond. Strangely enough, a series of bad break-ups, bouts of depression and major regret lead me down a path of self-discovery and finally, to a place of peace with who I am, where I came from, and where I wanted to be.

I learned to find happiness in myself and not outside myself. I stopped longing to escape the place that had always been my home. My confidence grew, I developed some standards and eventually, met my husband.

I am very fortunate to have met Big Spoon - our world views, values, priorities and humor are simpatico ... I don't believe in soul mates, but he's probably the closest thing to it I'll ever find. Every time I get mad at him (no matter if it be a big or small matter), I can always bring myself out of it by remembering how much it means to me that he chose me - in spite of my flaws, my background, our differences, my strangeness. He loves me. He knows everything about me. Cliché as it sounds, he's all I ever hoped for and more.

I've never lived anywhere but right here in Tennessee, so leaving is incredibly hard. Working through all these belongings and knowing that in just seven short weeks, I'll be saying goodbye to all I've ever known ... well, that's exciting and terribly sad at the same time.

I'm thankful to have had this time here - to have been born and raised here - and all things considered, I'm glad that I stayed. My birthday next week is more than a milestone now. It's the beginning of a whole new chapter in a brand-new place.


Friday, March 16, 2012

A Moment Changes Everything

"Come on, come on, come on, come on" ...

David Gray's song "A Moment Changes Everything" opens with a plea. It's an urgent, impatient plea that both Big Spoon and I have thought to ourselves many times this year. This song got me thinking about how everything really can change in a moment. Sometimes, you have control over the choices you make and sometimes, other people make choices outside of your control that still affect you.

All these moments ... the moment Big Spoon decided to email me on that dating website; the moment I said "yes" when he asked to marry me ... the moment we said our vows and promised a lifetime. The moment we discovered that a short-sighted college dean shut a door for Big Spoon.  The moment last week when another dean and another university's department opened a door for Big Spoon to walk into.

Tonight, as I tidy our house and look forward to a much-needed day-date with Big Spoon tomorrow, my mind keeps revisiting those "moments" that lead us to this one: we're moving to Nevada.

I've known for about a week. I posted it on Facebook and Twitter, but I haven't been able to bring myself to write about it. Joy and sorrow are two emotions that should not mix. Bittersweet has taken on a completely new meaning for me as my reality shifted from "we think we're moving, we just don't know where" to "we're moving to Las Vegas."

All the little moments from my past are keenly important to me right now. They remind me how I got here. This wasn't an accident ... I made the choices that kept me in Tennessee that in turn lead me to Big Spoon. I made the choice to become his wife knowing all the while that this outcome was a very real possibility.

Big Spoon has been super supportive and understanding this past week. I didn't act very excited when I got the news. You see, the vast majority of my family lives here. My grandparents, my parents, both of my sisters ... a great deal of friends ... my alma mater ... 30 years worth of personal roots. I'm sad.

And I'm terrified.

My emotions change from moment to moment. Yesterday, I was so excited to start packing, get the house here sold, look for a new house. Today, I'm grieving. I just want to be the best wife I can be right now for Big Spoon and it's really difficult to feel as though I'm capable of that when I'm experiencing so many conflicting emotions. I know I'll get more excited the closer the time comes. Everything is still really new.

So, there it is. Big Spoon and I get a bright, shiny new start near the West Coast. He starts his new job in August. I'm going to try to keep my job in Nashville and become a telecommuter.

Wish us luck :)

Saturday, March 03, 2012

The Exciting World of Pinterest


I discovered a quick way to find out if people have "pinned" your content to Pinterest via this excellent post.  All you have to do is add your website (or blog) name to the end of this url. Easy peasy, yes?


http://www.pinterest.com/source/WEBSITENAME.COM

I was flattered to discover a 2012 Nashville bride pinned some of our images from Big Spoon Little Spoon to her wedding board. Thus, I started a board devoted specifically to Big Spoon Little Spoon and our 2010 wedding. You can follow it here and feel free to follow me as well!

Pretty soon, Big Spoon Little Spoon will be transitioning to our next "level"of content, so to speak. There will be much less about weddings and more about our life in general with the potential of becoming a private blog. Pinterest will certainly play a roll in any upcoming efforts as I work on building up my personal brand (design website & blog, etc).

For tonight, I'll leave you with what has become a daily mantra for me :)



Friday, February 24, 2012

The Smart Bride: Nashville's Only Wedding Planning Bootcamp



*** Tickets to this event are FREE through Saturday, February 25 - SO HURRY! ***




Ladies and Gents, before you sign your first contract or buy those favors, I highly recommend grabbing a couple of FREE tickets this week and attending this fantastic event. I was honored to be a part of the panel last year as a newlywed. Ashley and her team have put together a very informative program that speaks to all budgets, all types of brides. 


Want more info? Check out the recaps from last year's workshops!




Thursday, February 16, 2012

Falling Down Ladders and Such

After reading my last blog post, Big Spoon gave me a "do you seriously think you can do all of this in two weeks?" look and asked me to be a bit more realistic about ... well, what I could realistically accomplish in a week and half.

He was right.

I did manage to get the half-bathroom painted, but not before I tumbled down a ladder onto the vanity and busted my ass. Paint tray goes *bloop* - face down onto the plastic sheeting. I was pretty sore for a few days and even now, my back remembers what happened.

Did I mention that I sliced through the top of my thumbnail the same week with a paper cutter at work? No? Oh, it's lovely, I assure you.

The half-bath needs another coat of paint, the trim repainted and the cabinets repainted (don't even get me started on the bathroom cabinets ....) In the meantime, I did do quite a bit of organizing and discovered Space Bags. Oh-Em-Gee. I lurve them. I crammed two vintage raincoats, two vintage winter coats and some scarves into a bag, sucked the air out and BAM! It slides under the bed. Amazing.

I'm not being paid to say this by Space Bag©, but if they'd like to, I'd be totally okay with that! I purchased a value pack at our neighborhood Big Lots (super big puffy heart that store) and they were worth every cent of the $15. I took a look at their infomercial website and for approximately $3.44 each (or $68.80), you can get a 20 bag set. I haven't bitten that bullet yet, but it's very tempting.

What do you use for storage and organization around the home?

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Spring Cleaning & Other Lofty Goals

This and other awesome cartoons available on Hyperbole & A Half
© Allie Broch

Hello again, blog world! As much as I hate to admit it, I can't do everything. I certainly try, but only succeed in having a ton of unfinished projects and a desire to sit on the sofa like a vegetable at the end of the workday. Blogging has certainly been on the bottom of my "to-do" list over the past year. In an effort to hold myself accountable for some of these unfinished and important "to-dos", I'm going to blog about it. Double whammy! Super exciting, I know.

I'm issuing a challenge (to myself) to get Big Spoon and myself organized, purged and cleaned for Spring. Or as I like to say "clean all the things!" Now, let's be honest ... I don't clean all the things. I work a 40+ hour job and Big Spoon works tons more than I do, so we have a once-a-month cleaning service. I keep things tidy the rest of the time and do all the laundry and cooking.

That service makes it a lot easier for me to actually enjoy doing the rest of the things - laundry, cooking, organizing, decorating, social life, etc. We may not be able to afford it forever, but for now, I love it.

Moving on ...
{via Deal Seeking Mom}
I (attempt) to organize a monthly ladies' brunch and our February brunch will be held at the Spoon residence. Yay! Which also means I moved the cleaning service up a few days and must get my butt in gear to as far as this "challenge" goes. Here's my tentative outline for the week:

Week 1: February 6 - 12


• Paint the downstairs half-bathroom - Walls painting 02/14. Trim & cabinets later.
• Pack up the dishes in the breakfront and move breakfront away from dining room wall - priority
• Clean out and organize the under stairs closet  - would be nice to complete
• Clean out and organize the coat closet  - would be nice to complete
• Prep the dining room to be painted - would be nice to complete

Week 2: February 13 - 19

• Paint the dining room (before & after to come!) - priority
• Work on the DIY dining room art (project recap to come!)  - would be nice to complete
• Achievable tasks left over from Week 1 - would be nice to complet
• Set up for ladies' brunch! - priority

We'll see if I can pack all of that in to the next two weeks.