What I want from life

Right now.

If you would like to buy me any of these tops I would be more than happy to accept them with open arms.

And I would offer them a good home, with lots of love and affection.

via Kiki La' Rue

via Kiki La' Rue

via F21

via F21

via F21

Just Sayin'.

My big dark secret!

If you are going to follow this blog, I feel like I have to tell you the truth about myself.

Are you sure you're ready for this?




I am not cool.
I know, I have ruined all of your hopes and expectations you had of me.
I am weird and awkward.
And I am definitely not up with the current slang lingo kids are using these days.
Or abbreviations and things people are using on facebook.


For example,
I just figured out what YOLO means! JUST as in 5 seconds ago!! I've been seeing this for months and every time I just think what the h does that mean??
{for those of you that are like me I think this means "you only live once", am I right?}

Also when people say things like: legend, savage, boss, etc... {I don't know any others} I usually look at them like the hell are you saying?!? You might as well just say things like "this picture is so grasshopper" because that makes just as much sense to me... Which is NO sense!!

I stopped being "hip" and "with it" about 23 years ago.
I was a pretty awesome two year old that's about it.


So let me ask you this, how am I supposed to go back into college with all of these kids that are fresh out of high school and some how try to make friends? I wont understand a word they are saying.

Can you guys help me out?
How do I be cool?

Because I don't think things like this...

Are working for me.

Alright, I'm going back to being an old cat lady and laying on the couch with my migraine.

Maybe I will even go to bed... at 9:30.
In two weeks I will start pretending I am a young hip kid.
But for now, let me enjoy being an old lady.

Friday's Letters

dear weekend, Come to me!

dear husband, I can't wait to sleep in with you on Sunday! By far my favorite part of weekends.

dear work, only 10 more shifts and we will be going our separate ways.

dear people, remember a few weeks ago when I said I was going to start writing a book? Well I sat down and wrote like 3 pages and I haven't even touched it since... maybe that book isn't going to happen. I thought something like that might happen.

dear pen pal (aka: Lauren), I will finally be mailing out your letter today. I'm sorry I'm such a bad person!

dear nephew (Hatimu), I know that you are only 7 and you don't read my blog or even know it exists, but Happy Birthday!! I can't believe how fast you are growing up!

dear other nieces and nephews, I've never mentioned you in my blog before because I am a bad aunt. Plus I'm not sure I ever write posts on your birthdays. Plus none of you are going to read this anyways so I figured it didn't matter. 

dear readers and other people, I'm going to be launching something new soon.... hopefully it is successful. More details to come!

dear friday letters, I'm thankful for you right now because I didn't have any post planned for today, and I only had about 30 seconds to write this before I have to run off and start working more on that thing that I mentioned above ^^ that I will be launching soon.

dear anyone who actually read this, I'm done now. Thanks for reading.

linking up with:     

Tampons and Birthday parties

I just spent the last half hour trying to get my internet to work.
I was just starting to think that maybe it was a good thing it wasn't working when I finally figured out what the problem was and fixed it.
Lucky for you guys I can now spend the next hour writing and reading your blogs!
Unlucky for me I will now be horribly unproductive for the rest of the day.

I have to tell you guys about something embarrassing that happened to me last night.
It was one of those moments when you realize how much easier life might be if you weren't living with a guy.
Although it would be much less interesting and enjoyable.
Last night Alex was working with one of his recording clients when I got home from work.
{For those of you that don't know my husband is an audio engineer in his free time, meaning he does recording for bands and cool stuff like that in a spare room in our house.}
I got inside and just vegged in front of my computer for a little bit, when I noticed the giant box of tampons that I had bought on Tuesday sitting out on the coffee table.
Which really wouldn't have been that big of a deal if Alex didn't have a client over.
I figured they probably hadn't come into the living room at all so the guy probably hadn't seen it.
When Alex was done with his recording session I said, "You guys didn't come into the living room, right?"
Alex- "Yeah, we did..."
Me- "Seriously...?"
Alex- "Yes, why?"
Me- "Do you not see the huge box of tampons??"
Alex- "OH!.... whoops... I'm pretty sure he didn't notice."

Right... the huge white box with pictures of tampons all over it, which was the absolute only thing on our entire coffee table, went completely unnoticed.
Also there may or may not have been a pair of my underwear on the floor in our bathroom.
At least the guy spared me my dignity and didn't say anything about them.
I think I need to be home at all times when anyone is coming into my house so I can make sure all the unmentionables are cleaned up.
Or maybe I need to be a cleaner person so things like this don't happen!


Moving on to less embarrassing topics... or maybe more, depending on my dancing skills.
I forgot to tell you guys about my weekend!
Which was pretty much amazing!
Remember how I told you that some of my friends came into town from Washington to celebrate their birthdays?
Well it was probably the most fun weekend I have had maybe ever.
I'll let the pictures from my phone speak for themselves.

It was such a good weekend!!

Happy Birthday Sara!!

Thank you for being such an amazing friend!
My life has truly been blessed by our friendship and I'm so grateful to know you!

And, you are seriously gorgeous!!!

Alright, I'm out to catch up on some of my blog reading.

Love you guys!

This desk makes me crave orange creamcicles

I'm pretty excited about my soon-to-be orange creamcicle desk!
The color is probably way more intense in these pictures than it is in real life, although I can't really tell because I'm sitting outside.
One more layer of paint and this baby is ready to be decorated and fancied up!
BTW, we were lazy and didn't feel like building a real drawer (because we have never built a drawer before, and this was just supposed to be a quick project) so we made a faux drawer.
Completely nonfunctional, but at least it looks cute!

Alright, off to add another layer of paint!

Linking up with:

Birthdays and building projects

Hey everyone!
My bet is that you are all wondering what I am doing this weekend.
Am I right?
I couldn't possibly be the only one that sits around and wonders what my plans are.

{btw, writing a post with a cat on your lap is not the easiest thing in the world.}

Ok, since you are all dying to know, first and foremost I will be hanging out with some top notch people! My beautiful and amazing friend Sara and her husband Collin are coming down from Washington to celebrate their birthdays with us... and I guess their family and other friends as well.

Happy birthday to both of you! Alex and I are so blessed to have you in our lives! Collin- I'm sorry I didn't leave you an FB wall post on your actual birthday, I hope this makes up for it! Also, I told Alex to text you like 15 times, but I'm not sure if he ever did? Hopefully this makes up for that also.

We are also going to try to finish my new desk this weekend!
And for those of you that don't know (because I think I've gained like 100 followers since my last project) Alex and I like to build furniture in our free time.
Key words being free time which we don't always get a lot of.
For those of you that follow me on instagram (@tanyagrasley) you probably saw these pictures

This is what happens when you don't have a truck.
Lumber in the car.

This is going to be my new homework desk for the living room!
I'm so excited!
All last term I did my homework on the couch or the dinning room table, and it was not pleasant.
I have a personal office/ craft room upstairs but I don't like doing my homework up there, it gets lonely!
So a living room desk was the solution to all of my problems.

I'm super excited to decorate my little corner and make it an inspiring place for me to sit down every day and be productive.
I'm painting it Caramel Sugar by Valspar.
This little paint sample from their website isn't very accurate.
In real life it is more of a perfect mix of orange and pink.
I'm so excited to be adding this beautiful color to my living room.

Source

Here are some pictures I am drawing inspiration from.
The color is very similar to the orange on this first desk.

Source :: Designer Meredith Heron

Source :: Etsy shop owner at Poppyseed Living

Source

Source :: Home of Monika Hibbs at The Doctor's Closet

Source

I'm going to be installing some shelves above my desk to store a few necessities since my desk is on the incredibly smaller side (which is how I wanted it).

I can't wait to show you all some pictures of the finished product!
This may end up being the cutest spot in my whole house.
Hopefully that will make me want to sit at it for hours working on mind numbing homework.
And a great place to write my blog posts! Instead of sitting on the couch with a cat snuggled on my lap.

Have a great weekend!!

Thankfulness

I'll be honest, I have no idea what to talk about today. So I am just going to try to be random.
Which usually doesn't really work out very well for me. I'm just not a very random person.
Well, I bet my husband would disagree, but that is just because he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Alright I just sat here for about 10 minutes trying to think of something to talk about.
Actually, that's a lie. I got on PicMonkey (pretty much one of my favorite sites) and put a beard on a picture of myself.
Since yesterday I said that is what my husband looks like...

I think I was wrong about that, by the way.
Also, this beard is made from a bunch of mustaches.... incase you wanted to make your own?

Well, since I can't think of anything random to write, I guess I will go with what I was originally thinking of writing about today.
Yes, I had a backup plan, it probably should have been my first plan. I was just going to see if I could write a really great post about nothing.
I didn't.

Moving on.

{Here is the serious side of today's post.}
I'm trying to focus on being thankful lately.
Because I find that being thankful really squashes the bitterness and resentment that I find myself carrying around from time to time.
I'll be the first to admit that I am a grudge holder.
When I feel like someone has wronged me I hold onto it for a long time, even after I have "forgiven" them.
This isn't something that I particularly like about myself, it's just a fact I have come to recognize, and hopefully something I can overcome.
Part of me overcoming it is to learn how to have a thankful heart.

When you sit down and quiet yourself to think about all the details of life, sometimes it can hit you in a flood of emotion. We have so much to be thankful for.
I have so much to be thankful for.
Every day I wake up beside an amazing man who loves and cherishes me, more than I have ever known.
I have at least a small portion of time to dedicate to myself nearly every day.
My life really isn't that hard.
Maybe I haven't had everything I've ever wanted handed to me, but I think that in itself is a blessing.
We pay all of our bills.
We have all of our needs and many of our wants met.
And I'm thankful that I have a place I can come to and make a fool of myself and still be accepted and appreciated. (ahem, I'm talking about this blog guys!)
What more could I really ask for?

I suppose there is a lot more that I would like from life than to just have my needs and wants met, but that is something I can plan towards.
That is what goals are for.
To be thankful for what you have now, but recognize that there is more to this journey than just being content.

I know that my life is going to keep growing and changing, but I'm learning to be thankful in every step of the journey.
I want to appreciate where I am now, instead of striving to be somewhere I am not yet.