What I've Been Up To...

I'm pregnant! 

It's been a pretty crazy few months which is why I've been a little slow on the blog.  My life has been turned upside down with a crazy toddler and having very bad morning sickness.  It's been a struggle to even get through the normal day-to-day when I'm so sick.  But now that I'm in second trimester, things are starting to calm down.  The other big change is that I've been in transition to a new job!  I'm still at the same company and still doing graphic design, but I've switched to product design and product management.  The last few months have been a big blur to me, but I hope to have my life back to normal very soon.

As always, feel free to read my baby blog where I post way too many photos of my son and my pregnancy-related stories as things progress.

I wish all of you and your families a wonderful holiday!

Lisa

Surfing Santa Hawaiian Office Christmas Decorations

I've seen a few different blogs that talked about decorating for the holidays at work.  It's hard to come up with something unique, but still appropriate for work decorations.  At our office, we started a department decorating contest last year, and we all work really hard to be the winning group with a really unique idea.

After many brainstorming sessions, we decided to go with the Tiki Tidings & Surfing Santa theme.  This was a huge labor of love and we spent many, many hours perfecting our design.  I'm so proud of how it turned out!

The surfing Santa is on foam core and hanging from the ceiling.

Santa Seahorse with his sleigh of fish

North Pole Beach with suntanning Santa

Melted snowman hangin' out on the beach...until he melted!

All of the interior aisles with cubes were decorated like this with the sand, water, green fringe, colored lights, and random fish with Santa hats.

Did anyone do anything really creative for their decorations this year?  We already need to start planning for next year!

Work Cubical Photo Display

A couple months ago, I blogged about looking for ideas on a creative way to display photos at work. My desk is quickly becoming covered in baby photos and I need a way to keep them looking nice. After some different trials and spray painting gone wrong, this was my final decision.

I used some hemp (thanks to my coworker who was cleaning out her childhood bedroom) and some clothespins to hang them from my cube wall. I love that I have room to add two more rows as I accumulate more photos. It looks really organized and everyone comments on it when they walk by!

Creative photo display ideas?

Like every new mom, I'm obsessed with taking photos of my baby and showing them off to anyone who will look. My tribute to Connor at work is getting a little out of hand already! (I didn't do that desktop photo though. That was my coworker's idea to welcome me back after maternity leave)

To the left of my computer, I started adding more and more photos each week as I pick my favorites. I think it's getting a little crazy and I need a way to display them in an organized way. (Remember, I work in a cube with gray fabric walls, so it's not like I can do all this crazy stuff in there.) I had fun doing some internet browsing one night for some ideas.

Here's what I found and PLEASE leave me some comments with your ideas as well!

Clothespins
I figured I'd see a lot of versions of the clothespin displays. It's easy and cheap!

Ribbon Wall
Photos on ribbons is a good idea! Wouldn't it be nice if I could have the cupcake tower at work too?

Gutter Topper
This caught my eye because it was made from gutter toppers. I don't think that's the technical name because I'm not sure what they are and I frequent Home Depot a lot. Still, it's a very interesting idea that looks great.

Tree
Not appropriate for work, but I still loved the idea!

Silver Clips
This caught my eye because these silver clips from Ikea look like binder clips. And binder clips are very work-friendly, right?

Clipboards
This is really creative! It takes up a lot of space, but it would be fun if I had a big open wall.

Cable Display
This was a Pottery Barn knock-off idea that looks really nice. I like that they used it for kids' artwork too!
So what display ideas have you tried in your house or at work?

Blogging with one hand...

Yep, I've done a lot of blogging and commenting on your blogs with one hand in the last 3 months - One hand on the keyboard and one hand holding the baby while I breastfeed.

The last 3 months have gone by way too quickly and now it's just about time to get back to "normal" life or my new normal which is life as a working mom. I go back to work on Tuesday. :::sigh::: I know a lot of you are working moms and I don't know how you do it. I really thought it would be a lot easier than it's turning out to be.

While I don't want to go back to work, I do miss my coworkers and the gossip. I also miss blogging and being about to chat with YOU more often. (Ok, I admit it. I blog at work when I have time.)

I know I promised this blog would remain a fun crafty, DIY & cooking blog, so I won't overload you with the baby gushing. I decided to make my baby blog public (for now at least), so if you're interested in reading it, go here.

But before I end this post, I can't help but add a few of my favorite photos from the last three months!

Balance - How do you manage?

How do you find a balance between life and work?
Since I started graduated college almost 6 (wow, has it been that long?) years ago, I've had 3 jobs. I struggled with trying not to get too bored each day and feeling like I had an impact on the work that was being done. I used to wish that I could have more responsibility and that people would rely on me to help them get things done. I worked my 8 hours a day and didn't think twice about it.
As we all know, the recession has made everyone's job very difficult. You can't be picky about your job IF you have a job. And you're probably overloaded because some of your coworkers got laid off.
In December, my job changed as I was put in charge of something new in our department. All of a sudden I had to take on a leadership role (without extra pay or a promotion) doing something no one has any clue about. I've really struggled with how to pull this off when most of my coworkers hated the idea and constantly complained to me about it. I was trying to juggle my normal work along with this new job and it was becoming very overwhelming.


There are days when I cry as soon as I sit down in my car to drive home at night. Some days I come home with panic attacks and wonder how I can handle everything. I constantly dream about work and have a recurring nightmare where the pile of folders on my desk keeps getting higher and higher. I don't feel like I can take a day off of work because there is no one to cover for me and I know I'll come back to a huge mess. I get so burnt out and stressed that I don't know how to relax anymore.
I talked to another coworker who is struggling with the same thing and she reminded me how life is not about working. There are more important things than work and we have to remind ourselves of that. But it's really hard to leave work when you have a stack of work on your desk that HAS to get done by tomorrow.

So how do you find a balance between life and work when you have too many responsibilities?