365 CHALLENGE | Day 1

ON MY WAY out the door to pick my daughter up from the airport, I almost forgot about this challenge. I'm too young for my mind to be this bad, but I've been this way for as long as I could remember. I think the hardest part of this challenge will be to come up with creative ways to show pictures of yourself; what in the worl... It'll be fun to see everything I've come up with by year's end, but that's in 364 days, don't wanna think too far ahead.

THAT 90s SWEATER

SO I'VE COME to the conclusion that I will probably never take outfit photos inside my house until I've learned how to properly use my camera and learn all its functions. I just really suck at this. My daughter is out of town visiting family so I'll have to wait until she gets back before I can resume picture taking, but I'm gonna have to pay her; its a deal I made and she happily accepted. I'll just have to plan ahead, this seems like a part time job. Anyway, this sweater was given to me by my grandmother whom I love dearly, but granny wants it back and this is one time I'll have to tell her no. 

I really would like to post sharp, crisp, clean pictures, but I really don't know how to achieve that without taking them outdoors just yet. So thank goodness for all of these photo editing sites chock full of photo filters. 

BANNER PROBLEMS

SO BASICALLY, LAST night I was up bored out of my mind, trying to come up with a new banner for the blog. After sleeping on it I decided I couldn't live with that banner pictured above. For now I'll keep it simple; the current one doesn't bother me as much. I think I'm just missing color on this blog. I don't know, I'll figure something out; I'm just not too pressed too much thought into it. 

THE COSBY CAUSE

THIS OVERSIZED 80s sweater is so full of goodness; I feel like its smothering me with every ounce of vintage love that it has to give. I especially love this particular sweater b/c its boyfriend sized, perfect for cold wintery days. Today I decided to pair it with my favorite pair of skinny jeans that I got from Forever 21 and some taupe pumps that I snagged from ALDO.

So, I've been battling the bony gene my entire life, but its gotten ridiculous this past year. My appetite isn't the best, but I notice that when I'm at work I'm always so darn hungry, like I could literally eat the whole 1st isle of a grocery store. Anyway, one New Year's resolution will be to gain a few extra pounds, or a dozen.

365 SELF PORTRAIT CHALLENGE

THE LADIES ON A Beautiful Mess have presented their readers with a bit of a challenge; a 365 day self-portrait type of challenge. I’ve seen this before; a friend of mine from high school started one earlier this year; however I’m not sure what ever became of it. I admit I don’t visit Facebook as often as I should, rather as often as most; so I haven’t been following her challenge. I do remember thinking that was a pretty cool idea, but by the time I had discovered it, we were well into the second month of the New Year.  So now I’ve got an early start and can plan ahead for it. At least I can plan on actually doing this challenge. I’ll go ahead and let you know, I plan on taking pictures of shoes, jewelry, things that I put on my body and not just my face. I’m not particularly fond of being in front of the camera, it’s a shame really b/c I’m never really in any family photos. The only time you will see me in front of the camera is when I’m “modeling” for my company, but I’m currently trying to lose that job and hire someone much more qualified for the position.

Anyway this seems like it’ll be a fun thing to do; it’ll force me to update my blog at least once daily. I have started 3-4 blogs in the past and failed miserably b/c I had not been updating the blog as I should. Part of my problem was I wasn’t writing about things that I really wanted to write about, it was more of a “Monkey See Monkey Do” type of thing. While this blog is the official blog for American Wastelands, it will be used for my own personal musings as well. I have lied to myself so much in the past before thinking that I would be able to maintain more than one blog and I just can’t do it. I think it’s safe to do it this way but we shall see. Anyway, get ready to see my mug and other randomness in the days to come.

NEW YEAR, NEW OFFICE

SO GUYS AND girls, I’ve been living in a home with a cluttered garage for about 3.5 years now and I’ve had it up to my flat chest with it! I plan on converting the garage into ¼ laundry/storage for the house, ¾ office/slash playroom for the kids; keep in mind it isn’t but a snap big. So I’m not really “converting” the garage, I’m really just going to be moving things out, bringing things in and making it as comfortable as I possibly can. I will use this space to blog, do projects and perform my customer service duties American Wastelands. Also, it’ll be a great place for my kids to hang out whenever they have company or want to play the XBOX when I want to watch television. Our home is on the small side, so while it’s not ideal to have them romp around in my workspace, I gotta make do with what I’ve got. I’ve tasked GA (GA is my other half and I just prefer to call him that for purposes of blog writing, also this is what his friends call him. Yes, he’s from Georgia), but I’ve tasked GA with taking half of the stuff lying in bags to our local Goodwill Donation Center. Job well done GA, b/c you could barely walk in that space yesterday; gosh I wish I would have taken a picture. Here are a couple pictures of inspiration for my “Small Garage into an Office” project; all photos can be found on Elle Décor.

I’m most excited about this project b/c beautiful spaces allow me to get my creative juices flowing. I have so many plans for American Wastelands and I need a little rabbit hole to sit in while I come up with new ideas. I have a few other projects in mind too and doing all of this at the kitchen table is not conducive to a productive lifestyle as it relates to being a small business owner. I also need a space to shoot photos for the shop. This is really gonna be a 10 in 1 type of place.

WASTELANDS WANDERLUST | Christmas Edition

                                                                 1. Ornamental Spirit

                                                     2. Must see Christmas movie for all 80 babies... Aaaargggggh!

                                                 3. Here's to surviving another Christmas Eve at the mall

                                                      4. Good music is just as good as good food

                                                           5. Who doesn't like gold crystal!