August 12, 2017
For those close to me, you already know how I have so many hobbies and interests and I have been told that some look to my social media sites to see what the heck I have my hands in next. I have chosen a new chapter of my life to help me expand on that and hopefully bring others on my journey too.
A brief introduction: I am a stay-at-home wife. We have zero children but 3 cats, 2 turtles, some indoor goldfish and some outdoor goldfish and also a yard full of wildlife. Many people wonder how or why I am a stay-at-home-wife-with-zero-children. I am not going to spill all my reasons but the bottom line here is that we gave this a try and six years later we are healthier and happier than we were when I worked a full-time job. I have a college degree, a really good one from an even better school, but my plan for that didn't exactly happen the way I wrote it. In other words, life happened as it does every day and those plans changed. I met my husband and continued a different and somewhat unplanned life for the both of us. I still use my passion that got me through college in my everyday life and no one can ever take that away from me and without it, I would never have met my husband and even if by chance I did, he probably would not enjoy our conversations as much. Some people say I am living like a 1950s housewife and I take that as a compliment because we have generations of people before us that seemed to live smarter than we do now. I know that isn't always true but compare your mother's childhood to your child's and you won't find many similarities. My husband and I can financially live on one solid income and we actually spend less money because having a job costs more money than people realize. I used to spend more on hair maintenance and products, nails, clothing, shoes, food, gas, car maintenance, doctor's bills, etc. I cook dinner nearly every night FROM SCRATCH and that is cheaper and we eat better food that we know more about. My husband often takes leftovers for lunch or I have nutrition choices for him to take. I get sick less often because I am healthier overall and am not forced to be around a building of sick people who won't stay at home when they are sick. I use less hairspray and makeup because I don't have look totally presentable every single day. I used to always shop for new clothes and I still do that because I am a female who likes clothes but I don't have to buy nice office clothing and can wear more casual items than before. I do not sit around all day watching television. My husband does not cut the grass unless I physically cannot do it. He has never cleaned or repaired a toilet. I don't do absolutely everything. I do leave some stuff for him but I do most of what needs to be done. I live Monday through Friday like I have a job and I am pretty strict about it. I need to be for my own sanity. I have normal daily house chores, yard chores, projects, errands, etc. and usually force myself to take the weekend off. I have learned that I am a tough boss and I don't always listen to the boss. My biggest difference is that I am not a morning person. I have been a night person since birth, you can even ask my mom. I've come to a point in my life that I sleep when I am ready and if anyone doesn't like it, that's not my problem.
Anyhow, so what is "Paula's Studio" all about? Well, its a mixture of things that I am working on and towards. I have a lifelong obsession with learning and a large portion of that is learning new things to do or more skills. I absolutely love to make things. I don't love to keep all of them. I will eventually start to sell items as I am working towards that portion of my Studio. My goal here is to provide you encouragement to learn new things -- don't be afraid to do those things that you have always wanted to do. We all have one life and we should enjoy that life to the fullest, however that may be for each of us.
A few months ago, I did a complete overall of my physical studio in my home. I used to have two craft rooms. The one on the main floor was supposed to be my office but eventually became the room I did all of my paper crafting in because I needed my computer for the graphic design portion of that. My upstairs room was everything else -- painting, lettering, sewing, drawing, etc. It drove me crazy having two rooms on two floors. Then one day, I gutted my upstairs craft room. My husband put up an enormous set of shelves he made for me, I ripped out carpet and cleaned up the hardwood floor and redecorated it into a Paris theme. I was never really into that but I like themes for my rooms and Paris has a lot of fashion and art that I just had to go with it. I resurrected an old computer for the paper crafts and moved all 80 trees worth (slight exaggeration, I am sure) of paper upstairs. Now the downstairs office is my true office. I am so happy to be able to sit in one room and be surrounding by all of my fabric, art supplies, paper, machines and all the rest of things that help to create.
