Thursday, January 5, 2012

New Year, New Attitude

Happy New Years Everyone! Sorry i'm a few days late but it's been a busy week with work and reflecting on the past year and everything good and bad that happened. The main thing i've been trying to focus on is figuring out what I want to do with my career. I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own Interior Design Business to getting my Masters to even completely changing my career and going into the medical field. For most of 2011 I was focused on planning my wedding so I didn't spend as much time as I should have trying to start my career. I was working (still am) two jobs that I enjoy but don't want to stay at the rest of my life. Then after the wedding I focused my time on finding any job related to Interior Design. I was able to land an interview with a prestigious firm in Kansas City and they liked me soo much that they continued to consider me for 3 months. Then finally in December they called to let me know they went with someone else. Frustrating but I tried to look on the bright side and called the community college I was taking classes at to enroll in the Kitchen & Bath Design class for the spring 2012 semester, only to find out that the class was canceled due to low enrollment and I wouldn't have made a difference. I've continued to search and apply at firms and other design related places with no luck as of yet. Starting up my own design business has been on my mind for the last year or so, but each time I seriously consider it, I start telling myself that I don't think i'm cut out for it or I don't even know how to run a business let alone try to start one up from scratch or if I even have what it takes.

Several weeks ago I came across an article online about the top 5 occupations that only require a 2 year degree and pay very well. I decided to read it just for the heck of it and one of those jobs caught my interest, which was an Ultrasound Technician. I have family that's in the medical field and talked to them about it to make sure it's an in demand position and if they think I would be any good at it. Of course they said yes it's in demand and someone with that type of education is pretty hard to come by, and they think I would really enjoy it.

So one of the main conflicts i'm having right now is in May it'll be 3 years since I graduated from ISU and haven't really been able to use my design degree in the way that I would have liked to, and feel like it was a huge waste or I didn't try hard enough to become a designer. When I look back and see what my ISU classmates are doing, most of them are in the same boat, a few became designers right out of college (which I am very happy and proud of you guys!), a few more didn't until a little later (congrats! :)), others went back to school to get their Masters (you guys are rock!hehe), then the rest of them like me just aren't having any luck finding anything.

My other conflict i'm struggling with right now is I've always thought of going into the medical field, even before I considered design, and the more I think about it the more appealing it sounds. But I'm still not ready to give up on design just yet. The last couple weeks i've been looking into getting my NKBA (National Kitchen & Bath Association) membership, I would be able to see more job postings for kitchen design, get member discounts on classes and study materials for the AKBD (Associate Kitchen & Bath Design) certification. I was planning on taking the AKBD exam later this spring or sometime this summer, but since the class I was going to take got canceled, I won't have the credit hours to take the exam. So instead I researched the NKBA website to see what classes they offered and found out to get the credit hours that I need to take the exam I would need to shell out $1000, which I don't have, so that idea is on the back burner for now.

Then today to top it all off I came across another article on the internet about which degrees have the highest unemployment rates and the top degrees are architecture and interior design as well as other art related majors, and even going on to get your Masters won't really help you that much. Then in that very same article the occupations with the lowest unemployment rates are anything in the healthcare or medical field. Basically the pattern I feel like i'm falling into is once I decide to pursue a different way to use my design degree something always seems to happen to make it seem not possible or push it back for another year or more. And the healthcare and medical field seem to always pop up as an alternative. Right now I'm just very confused as to what to do and need a little bit of advice or guidance from anyone willing to give their 2 cents.

Like I said it's a new year and i'm going to be wearing a positive attitude and hope, no scratch that WILL make sure 2012 is the year that things FINALLY start to turn around for me!
Continue reading New Year, New Attitude

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with their families, we sure did! It was soo nice to see both of our families, especially since we hadn't seen them since our wedding three months ago.

I thought I would catch up on the photo challenge as well, so here goes! :)





Ok I didn't take this one, but it's from our wedding day and it's a great picture of my husband :)
Continue reading Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Name Change

Well I am happy to announce that almost 3 months after we got married I finally changed my last name to Martin! The reason it took so long in case anyone was wondering was we took a late honeymoon in October and since we've been back i've been in the middle of an interview process with a couple companies. I'm still in the running for at least one of the positions but got tired of waiting and changed my name anyway, hehe.

My dog Jett and I went on a walk earlier today, and the day that i've been dreading since we adopted him has finally come: he's just as strong as me now :(. He can pull me along and it takes me using most of my body weight to stop him, luckily he's usually really good on the leash. He's only 6 months old but I still can't believe how quickly labs grow up, I wish he could have stayed the size of a puppy a little longer, oh well :). At least I have a picture of him from the day we brought him home.
Yesterday was a busy day so I wasn't able to post, so here's day 2 and 3 for the photo challenge. Today was supposed to be a picture of clouds, but there isn't a single cloud in the sky today. :)

Continue reading Name Change

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

30 Day Photo Challenge!

I've been seeing the 30 Day Photo Challenge floating around on Pinterest for a little while, so I decided to try it.

Our honeymoon in Cabo was amazing! The weather and scenery were soo beautiful! On our third day we went snorkeling and got to see the famous arch, we also saw a sting ray and a marlin jump out of the ocean, which was so cool! Another day we were lounging by the pool at the resort and saw dolphins swimming around and having fun out in the ocean! Most of the time we just relaxed by the pool or went into Cabo San Lucas to eat out at nice restaurants. I wasn't ready to go home, but we did miss our puppy a lot and are glad to be back home with him:).

It may be a little early to start decorating for Christmas, but it's my favorite season to decorate for! While browsing on pinterest one day I found a project idea that I HAD to try. I took one of our left over wedding invites, cut it up into strips, wrapped it around a pen and put them inside a clear Christmas ornament. I found a little "M" charm at Michaels that I put on a ribbon and tied it on. I love how it turned out!
I also thought i'd leave you with an update on our adorable puppy, he's six months old now and no longer looks like a puppy, he's weighing in around 50lbs now. I regret not taking more pictures of him when he was little, but I plan on taking more of him now, because you can never have too many pictures of your dog, right? :)
A girl's best friend :)
Continue reading 30 Day Photo Challenge!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Master Bedroom Design Inspiration


 I hope everyone is having a great day on this beautiful saturday in September! Man time really flies! I can't believe that just 4 days ago, Matt and I have already been married for one month! It still seems like it was just last week! But one of the many things to look forward to is in just 3 weeks we'll be on a plane headed to Cabo for our delayed honeymoon! I'm soo excited!
Cabo!!
In the meantime while i'm dreaming about laying on the beach in Mexico, i'm also dreaming about my design ideas for our master bedroom. Here are some of my ideas for my inspiration board:


 
<>                                                    I love the canvas print as a headboard!
I love everything about this master suite, but my favorite would be the upholstered headboard!
This is pretty similar to the bed I want, & I think it's the same bed in the picture above!

We have this for the foot of the bed :)

We also have this and it will most likely go above the bed
I'm still looking for bedding and drapes for the windows, so i'll post options for those soon. :)
Continue reading Master Bedroom Design Inspiration

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Newlyweds!

It's been a very long time since my last blog so I thought I would update you on what's been going on in our lives. June 25th my oldest brother Jason married an amazing girl that I am excited and proud to call my sister! It was a very small ceremony in her parents backyard with me as her maid of honor and our youngest brother Paul as Jason's best man. I still can't believe that my brother finally found the one after 30 years! haha just kidding, i'm sooo happy for them!

July was a very busy month for me between two of my bridal showers, my bachelorette party, a friend's wedding and my dress fittings, I put A LOT of miles on my poor car! Matt and I also got a puppy named Jett! He's a black lab and of course has tons of energy, he's a lot of work but he's worth it :).

I can't believe I get to say it now, but we've been married for 2 weeks now and we're enjoying every minute of it! It really doesn't feel any different than before but it feels great to be married to my best friend and the love of my life! Thinking back on our wedding day, I don't think it could've gone any smoother, I thought it turned out to be a perfect day! The day before our wedding the forecast called for a 50% chance of rain on saturday, and on our way to our outdoor wedding rehearsal it started pouring. As you can probably imagine I was one stressed out bride! But, as soon as we got to Elmwood Grotto, the rain stopped long enough for us to do our rehearsal and didn't start back up again until we were leaving! Overall the day before the wedding was probably the most stressful for me because there were a few bumps along the way, but it all turned out in the end. :)

I was shocked that I was actually able to get some sleep the night before our big day. It really helped that my brother Jason and his wife were staying down the hall from us in the hotel and he brought a beer over to help me sleep, hehe. The next morning I woke up still feeling a little groggy but soo ready for the day to begin! One of my closest friends commented that I seemed so calm and collected while we were getting ready, and I remember feeling so happy and relaxed as if I already knew somehow that everything was going to go well that day.

One of the memories that sticks out the most in my mind was when we were driving back to the hotel from the hair salon, I started listening to a voicemail I received from one of my best friends that wasn't going to make it to the wedding since she was in another wedding that weekend. Little did I know that as I was tearing up listening to her message, she was on her way to surprise me! I don't think that I will ever forget the moment when my maid of honor walked up to me approximately 20 minutes or so before the start of our ceremony to tell me she has a surprise for me, then here comes April Nauss, one of my best friends with her hair still done up from the wedding she was in the day before! I shed a couple tears earlier when Matt and I had seen each other for the first time, but as soon as I saw April, I just lost it. The entire time i've been planning our wedding i've known that she wasn't going to be able to be there that day, and I always had a little twinge of sadness, but her making the drive that day was probably one of the best gifts and one of the best memories of that day!

Another moment that sticks out was right before my bridesmaids started walking down the aisle, my personal attendant Holly whispered in my ear, "Just look at Matt." Boy am I glad she said that! As soon as my dad and I started walking down the aisle to meet my groom, I looked out at the crowd and started tearing up and I thought I was going to cry, then I focused in on Matt and then everything was fine. I would like to thank all of our attendants, our pastor, the band, and everyone for coming to help make our day soo special. We would also like to thank our parents for everything that they did for us, all the love and guidance over the years that has shaped us into the people we are now. I personally thought that our wedding day was perfect and everything went smoothly and that our reception was possibly the best reception I had ever been to. The Pat O' Show kept everything running smoothly and it didn't follow the traditional schedule but it was refreshing and I loved it! I'm just soo excited to receive the rest of our wedding pictures back and for our honeymoon to Cabo in about 6 weeks!

One last update for this post, I started taking some classes to add to my skill sets and build up my resume. It's going well so far and I love my professor! I'm just excited and ready to start my kitchen and bath design course next semester! Oh and i'm also having a ton of fun decorating our house with all the gifts we received from my bridal showers and the wedding!
Continue reading Newlyweds!