Testing, testing… is this thing on?

Hello my friends!

I don’t have much to report in the way of project-sharing right now, but I kind of thought if I didn’t check in soon… ya might wonder if there really was a Fox Hollow Blog, or if you imagined it all.

I am sure like many of you, I find the days fly by as fast as can be! I find they just keep slipping through my fingers. The weekdays are full of housework, laundry, errands, bill paying, grocery shopping, pet care, loving on my family and work.

Working from home includes maintaining the blog (a lot of which, oddly doesn’t manifest as an actual blog article), working on projects that will soon appear on the blog, planning for projects and working out details for collaborations when I’ll be working with a brand, fulfilling obligations for few clients I lend a hand to for social media help. On a side-note, my blabberchattiness has turned out to be a real asset, so take that every teacher I ever had. hehehe. I also work on items that will make their way down to our booth at Vintage 101, like cleaning junque finds, painting furniture and hand crafting signs.

Excuse me for a sec, I’m going to go take a nap.

I actually do grab a nap a few times a week, but mostly because I sleep so haphazardly. I can be up late, and then awake very early… or be up in the middle of the night wide awake for a few hours. My sleeping is horrible sometimes but other times, I go to sleep, stay that way and rest wonderfully. I’ve learned to go with it and if I need to catch a nap, I refuse to feel guilty or lazy. Well, I mostly don’t feel too guilty. I’m working on that one.

During the summer months when junque-hunting is at it’s best with lots of garage, barn & estate sales, my hubby and I go out very early every Saturday to find the good stuff! We love this. So much! We both enjoy looking for treasures, things for the booth, our home and little bits of this & thats that can make a project really special. The details and embellishments. When we get home, we unload and start storing, cleaning, prepping and prioritizing what we’ll work on and take down to the booth next. Sunday’s are hit and miss. Sometimes we work on our house, yard, take stuff down to the booth… and sometime we fall on the sofa and veg hard!! I tend to get bored really easy, and I’ll usually fiddle with something or another. My hubby works full time during the week (and then comes home and works on projects after work many evening too!) and even though I work too I don’t consider it the same as what I do. I’m not clocking in & out. Do you know what I mean? Anyhow, I often encourage (make him) relax and take some time to recharge on Sundays after politely reminding him that he should probably take a look at his companies Employee time tracking system to realize just how many hours he does each week!

And then… it’s Sunday night, like it is right now, and tomorrow is Monday and I wonder how it happened? How did another week… or heck, month go by!? So fast!!

We know we need to find a better balance, I know I need to find a better balance! When I’m not blogging, I miss sharing so much. Being able to touch-base on Facebook, Instagram and now Periscope let’s me feel connected to ya’ll, even when I don’t have blog-worthy project to share. Blog-worthy to me, means I’ve placed it somewhere pretty and arranged a pretty scene and taken pretty pictures. If that doesn’t happen I don’t feel like it’s good enough to officially share. Who wants to see a project on my gravel drive with sun-glare and my cat in the background? I don’t even want to see that! hahaha

Back to the balance thing… while we are trying to work while the working is hot right now, I think we’ll take a nice 3-4 weekend off in late fall and run away from home for a few days. We’ll need it! At the moment, the hunting is good and the days are long and sunny, perfect for getting a lot of work done.

We Outgrew Our (makeshift) Shop

Shop News – If you’ve been following along as I speak about our work shop build, we have good news! We have a contractor locked-in and ready to start the excavating and our retaining wall project. Next we’ll have the foundation poured and the shop built. I’ll be sharing that with you with some before, during and after projects. That is going to be a game changer for us, because we won’t be so pressured to work so feverishly, taking advantage of the good weather. We’ll be able to work 365 days a year with our new shop space, and I can not wait!! We go soon to pick out style, size, colors, windows… and all the etc’s. We are both really excited!!

The Bonus – Yes! There will be an extra bonus to us having a proper shop. I will get the little cottage back!! I plan to use it as a guest house/studio. Somewhere I can share completed projects with you, painted furniture makeovers, crafts and decorating ideas. I’ll be free to stage pretty photos I hope will be inspiring, without my tiny house being in constant disarray. Will I be spoiled? Absolutely. And let me tell you I fully realize that and I am so thankful!!!!! I have a lot of feelings about this and I’ll expand in a future post.

When we bought this house. We downsized. Big time. The winning reason this house was selected was because of the little cottage out back. (intended for my mother in law, and she did live in it for many years.) I never dreamed that sharing things on this blog here, would turn into this. I’ve always loved to decorate. Always. And I’ve always had seasonal and extra. I have acquired even more in the years I’ve been blogging though and even dedicated a room to store it all in. (Please recall we don not have a garage so everything is in that room, including Christmas totes and all holiday decor).

Click HERE to Tour My Home Decor Storage Room (with Ideas & Solutions)

I always feel like I need to defend my slightly excessive bit of home decor… lol. Decorating is my hobby and I really get a lot of joy from it. And where other girls might be buying clothes, shoes, jewelry, make-up… etc… etc… I am shopping for my home. And I don’t use charge cards, I don’t spend much, and I’m not putting my family in debt. But it’s my thing. For sure!!

Anyhow… that got off-track, but I feel like you tune-in, you see so much of our life and I want to share a clear picture, not a little tiny peek that is completely controlled and managed.

There are others thing I might share soon, thoughts I have about this whole blogging venture and my feelings about our home, happiness and contentment.

I hope you have taken some time to enjoy this beautiful summer. I will be honest, I have not. Oh, I’ve tried to be thankful and really notice a lovely breeze, the sunshine, the flowers, the sky… etc… but it’s flown by and we have not nearly had the fun we should have. I’m going to make sure that does not happen next year. I’m developing a plan. (Remind me to tell you guys the anniversary story!)

Looking forward to the change of pace, and getting back to blogging on a more regular schedule very soon. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of your day to stop in and read and share some of your life with me!! It really amazes me the connection we have with the internet, it sometimes stops my in my tracks, the messages and comments I receive from you and the sharing we do on social media. I’ve always been friendly, always. My mom had to watch me when I was little, I tell you what! But seriously, I love visiting with you all.

Blessings!! xo ~Shannon

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