Thompson Family-Life

new specs & a little heartache

Sorry for the crickets chirping last week! I always feel like I shouldn't feel the need to "apologize" when I don't post regularly, but I feel like you guys are "guests" in my online "home", so I feel bad if this place is quiet when you stop by. So thanks for stopping by if you did. : )

I feel like I only blog when I'm inspired to, and honeslty we've been so busy and my head has been all over the place, the last place I was thinking about is this here. I enjoyed and loathed last week simultaneously. Enjoyed just being in the moment with my family (a certain little boy named Campbell turned 5 last week!) and had lots of just general good times.. I also have a lot of loathing towards last week. Big-life-stuff went down. The kind where you spend the entire next day in bed just crying. It's a good thing that I work from home and am a stay-at-home-Mom. Goodness, I could've never gone into "work" with those enormous puffy eyes. I remember when I had normal jobs before kids and how rough it would be the next day at work, if something emotional had happened. Having to put on a happy face.

We made an offer on another house last week, a really great house with LOADS of space and just a lot of good attributes. A LOT of really great things about this house, that I won't go into, because that would be torturous. (ha) It came down to it one night that we could pretty much have the house for the price we were okay with paying... and then things took a drastic turn.

Some things in life should be private, so I won't go into all the details, but Ethan and I were basically not on the same page as far as being ready to move goes. It was devastating for me, because we were SO close. I've spent the past 2 months looking at houses, I've been knee deep in it, more than Ethan since he works and only looked at the houses that I knew were a possibility.

When it came down to it: He just wasn't mentally ready.

He feels awful and Lord knows I was angry and upset about it (only because when you put an offer on TWO houses, you figure everyone's pretty much committed to the idea of buying). But you know what? That is life. And I can sit here right now and say I'm honestly very happy. I had my big cry and got all of my big-baby moments out of my system. It took one night and one full day and I was pretty much over it. Because you just gotta move on. And I know that FOR SURE we will move this time next year. We have much more of a plan this time, which we didn't have before. We just want to make sure we're in a "good place" for the possibility of having two mortgages (because you just never know when your house is going to sell. It could be a month. It could be a year.) 

We've always played life very safe, in all the ways we need to play it safe. We've never lived paycheck to paycheck, we've never had any stress when it comes to finances. We've always always made good decisions, and I owe 100% of that to Ethan. It may not be what my heart wants, but it is what my head says is the right thing to do. And everything happens for a reason and I feel good about it.

But I won't deny that it hit me to my core.

House-hunting has become a more gut-wrenching experience than I ever could've imagined. All of you going through it right now, or have in the past, I know you know what I mean. It's SO different than renting, it's such a commitment. I am truly thankful that we are able to own because I know not everyone has that opportunity. But with owning, it just becomes personal, you know? You know you could possibly live in this one place for years. Decades. For us, it's been a decade and a half in our present home.

So it's a BIG DECISON.

So all of this talk totally doesn't go with these photos.. but if you wear glasses, you know that a new pair of specs is pretty high up there on our list of exciting things. I don't get new frames a lot (because it gets pricey!), but luckly there are SO many new places online that have such a variety of designs. There's just so much more to choose from. These glasses were actually a pair of reading glasses I found at an Anthropologie store! I loved the color and the look and knew I wanted to put lenses in them. So this week, I went to Sam's Club, had lenses added and I already got them back. I'll tell you, a new pair of specs can make a week's worth of crap go away in an instant.

Let's just hope they go with my new pink hair that I'll be dying this week.

O_O

What I wore: Glasses: Anthropologie // Shirt: Vintage (it was too small when I bought it from Etsy a few years ago, and then it was REALLY too small, and now it fits just right. Yay!) // Pants: Sears.com (I was really wanting to bite into the colored jeans trend but didn't want to pay a bazillion dollars for them. These were around $20. Although I'm not keen on how wrinkled they look in these pics, I do like them!) // Shoes: Saltwater Sandals

P.S. THANk-YOU for your kind words about my studio! It is such a happy place for me!

kentucky derby party inspiration

photo sources 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9

We were invited to our very first Kentucky Derby party! I've secretly always loved the idea of the Derby, all of the women wearing their fabulous hats. As soon as I got over my initial excitement of being invited, my joy was soon replaced by "Oh crap. I have to wear a hat!!"

I'm not one of those people that looks good in hats. No matter how hard I try, I just can't pull off hats. I just look silly. And now that I have hardly any hair, if I wear a hat it will cover up the little hair that I have! So I've spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks looking online at hats. And vintage hat inspiration. Here's a sample of what I've faved over on Etsy below. I realized that most of the ones I liked were velvet. There's just nothing like vintage velvet. Yum!

photo sources 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16

I thought the idea of wearing a headband type fascinator would work well with my hair since it doesn't cover up a lot. Although some Etsy shops do take returns on vintage, I didn't want to deal with shipping anything back if it didn't work, so I decided to look locally so I could try them on. I found two hats today at an antique mall that were reasonably priced. I couldn't choose which one I liked more, so I got both. I'll have to take pics of my outfit once I get it together. I'll of course have to pair my vintage hat with a vintage dress, so I'm sure the hunt for that will commence soon!

Have you ever been to a Kentucky Derby party? Have you ever been to the real thing? Do tell!

Tattoo Inspiration

Goodness. Where to begin with this post? Tattoos! Yes, it feels a bit like a creative-blogger-cliché, but yes, I want a tattoo. It's something I've been thinking about for years.  I went from "maybe", to "YES I want one now!", to "I don't think so" and that brings us to this year: "YES. I definitely want one".

I always wanted a piece on my upper arm because honestly, my opinion is, if you're going to do it - make it visible! What's the point of putting it in a hidden place? That is my philosophy of course. Everyone has their own thoughts about tattoos. Passionate thoughts! That is what I love about creative people. Especially creative people with tattoos. ; ) They LOVE talking about them! I've had many a twitter tattoo conversation. It is seriously fun.

I think it's taken me a good long time to get comfortable with the idea of getting one. There's such a stigma attached to tattoos but I think the world has come a long way on the idea of them. In my mind, as a creative person, it's essentially just a piece of art on your body. Seriously! That's it. How does it differ from getting at tan at the tanning bed, or piercing your ears or dying your hair? You're just altering your body in some way that makes you happy.

BUT I realize that is only my opinion. And people have passionate yay-or-nay opinions about them which I respect whole-heartedly.

sources: 1-2-3-4-5

I think being 36 years old also gives me a different perspective on getting a tattoo. A much different one than I might have had in my 20's. I think I have a very good idea of who I am and what I like. For me, any tattoos I get (and I don't plan on getting that many, maybe just one medium sized piece) will be strictly decorative with no sentamental meaning behind them.

I'm really excited and really nervous (mostly about the pain!). I will be happy to find some free time to sit down and really think about what I want. I'm not sure if I'm going to create the design myself first (using inspiration from various resources) or just take in some images to communicate what I want.

If you are in the Atlanta area, who are the best tattoo artists out there? I realize it's super, super important to find someone good. I'm in no rush and I want to do this right. Thanks in advance if you have any recommendations!

The images above are just a few of what I've pulled together as inspiration. Some I wouldn't use literally, but something about them I'm drawn to, like the shading, colors or illustration style. I've got lots of ideas (including incorporating stitching/needlework in some way!) but I'm keeping mum on them for now. And there might be an image above that I might have chosen to incorporate into my design! Can you figure out which one?

I've got more tattoo inspiration coming soon.

What about you? Do you have a tattoo? Please (!!) link me up in the comments section, I would love to see. I would also love to hear about your first tattoo experiences.

Vintage Kiddo Style

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've seen many a photo in front of this old red shed we have in our backyard. I keep saying that when we do move on from this house, I'm going to put together a photo montage of the photos I've taken of our family in front of this thing over the past 14 years.

It's a great backdrop, that good 'ole red shed.

 Anyhoo...

Here's Cam in his best vintage shirt gifted from my friend Heather and (fabulous kids' vintage shop owner!) I love the colors of this shirt. Just a simple shirt, but unmistakably vintage. Definitely something he can easily wear to school without looking over-the-top retro. The pants are also from Heather (gee I have a nice friend!) and the shoes were thrifted. I need to find some new vintage shoes for my boys. All they wear are those ugly sneakers. sigh.

See those beautiful curls? We lopped them off last weekend. :*( I know, it just seems wrong, and I love his hair long so much. But with the temps rising, it just seemed cruel to keep his hair long and all in his face. My boys' are sweaters. Meaning they sweat. A lot. So the hair had to go. The curls don't come out til it gets hot, so usually during the winter, his hair's kind of a hot mess. As much as I'd love to see a head full of curls this summer, I just can't do it! They don't call it HOTlanta for nothin'.

But I do have to admit, he looks two years younger with the hair gone!

Lately there's been a lot of this...

But when Mr. Grump is around I try to remember to do this...

Patterned papers from my digital kit here.

shoe crush & getting personal

First, let me say: Do you see little bit of leg peeking through right under my skirt? That is not me trying to be sexy. That is just a very big hole in my tights.

Ahem.

Needless to say after I took these pics, into the trash those tights went.

I purchased these shoes from Ruche several weeks ago and I have to say, I'm quite smitten with them. Okay, not just smitten, they are my dream shoes. I don't buy shoes very often and I mean that very honestly. I buy shoes maybe 4 times a year. Because they're so expensive! Lawd. I need to get better about checking shoes at the thrifts, although shoes from the thrift are kind of like stuffed animals at the thrift for me. They hold a bit of that ick factor, but I really need to get over that.

The colors, the heel that is just the right height for me (how on Earth do people - I'm talking to you bloggers - wear those freaking HA-UGE healed/platform shoes? I must not be a true girl because I just cannot walk in those), the suede fabric, the perforated parts?.. they're just so pretty. And of course obviously vintage inspired which is probably why I was drawn to them.

On another note, and I have been debating whether to share this here. I've share a little bit about it on Twitter, but very little. I think I'd like to share it, if only just for me (okay, probably only for me!) because I'm proud of myself.

I've lost 20 lbs. over the past two months.

This doesn't negate how I felt before I lost that weight. I was perfectly happy with being curvy and I'm still curvy and I don't plan on eliminating all of my curve! I'm not sure how much I want to go into this because I know people don't want to hear about weight or weight-loss. I know I certainly don't when I read blogs. I don't like drawing any sort of attention to the importance of how much someone weighs. Because it's NOT important.

I did this for various reasons, but mostly because I wanted to prove to myself that I could change my lifestyle when it comes to food. To prove to myself that I had the will power deep inside of me to make healthier decisions. And lo and behold, I found out that WOW, you can actually still eat GREAT tasting food.

This was also something that Ethan and I wanted to do together because we both use food in the same negative ways: to get through stress. And without the other doing it and keeping each other accountable, it just wasn't going to happen. I wanted to teach myself to redirect my stress in other ways. I also was using going out to eat as a way to run away from our house and the responsiblities I had there. Like, um, COOKING. ; ) For me, going out to eat is not just about the food, it's about being pampered. Someone waiting on me.

I wanted to learn how to save all of those great eating-out experiences for just a couple days out of the week, instead of almost EVERY DAY. I've never ever in my life monitored what I've eaten. I've eaten whatever the heck I wanted to at any time of the day. For me, that is something I wanted to change before I got to the point where I was unhealthy.

And I was. I was feeling awful before I started this. My body was just not happy.

Anyways, I've already said more than I wanted to. But I just wanted to put it out there that if this is something you want to change about yourself, too. You can do it. It has been eons easier than I ever thought it could be. It's not a diet, it's just a lifestyle change (as cliche as that sounds). 

I also allow myself to have those full-on meals where I eat everything in sight and everything I want! You have to for your sanity. I allow myself that a couple times a week (sometimes more). It's all about checks and balances. You eat more on this day, then you hold back a little the next. For me it was about finding the WILL POWER to do that. That was my biggest obstacle.

And to be more specific about how I do it: I just count calories, which isn't as miserable as I thought it would be. And I still go out. The great thing about many restaurants is that they provide nutritional info about their dishes online so you know JUST what you're putting in your mouth. Panera has been a great friend of mine. ; ) Also this chocolate has been my savior.

Although I still loathe taking self-portraits, I wanted to show off these shoes. And I found an old vintage dress that I could fit into again.

I do promise not to talk about this again. Because it's not a topic I really like to draw attention to. But thank-you for letting me share in celebrating an important goal that I've been working towards.