All the Coffee, Please.

For the last few weeks, this has probably been my most-used tool in the house:

I no longer remember what I did before this existed in my house.

Long story shortest: this time of year is a large pile of things I don't want to have to deal with.

Long story shortish: Between license renewals (I'm even having to renew my driver's license and passport this year), a fair amount of extra paperwork, and lots of little nagging things (Charlie needs to go to the vet, I need new tires, etc.), having a May birthday feels like a countdown to a financial bomb going off. It's also coming up on a year since Granny's passing, and I'm fully entertaining the possibility that I might be that person who loses her cool at a time when it makes the least amount of sense (though hopefully, not at anyone in particular… just, you know, buying a candy bar at Kroger, and I'll be the one sobbing into her Snickers).

Also? I recently got into a car accident. Both the other driver and I are thankfully fine, but something like that is never not scary, and I'd say that probably pushed April's stress level up to 11. Which, you know - helps loads for me feeling like I've got my shit together.

The good news is, I'm slightly more than halfway through the madness. I also know that I've been through stressful days like these before and turned just fine, so it's often a matter of perspective and pushing forward. Eating the elephant and all that jazz. And of course, all the coffee.

grab this print here

I have a number of things I've been working on that I want to share with you as soon as tonight/tomorrow, but since I'm already feeling the lag of the day (it's currently 1 AM as I'm typing this), I'm going to start by briefly sharing a small before and after that I was reminded of thanks to Facebook's Timehop feature (say what you want about FB in general, but I would argue this is definitely one of their more fun updates). If you can believe it, this was 2009… the very first glimpse I ever had of the endless supply of weird smells, strange new vocabulary words, and lots of reasons for cursing that became my home:

And now, I get to take photos of it that look like this (I still have to fill in the window nail holes and build a new coffee table, but  you get the idea):

Pillow from Target (similar). If you've been reading a while, you may have recognized that wooden couch sleeve above. The tutorial for that is here.

So, happy Monday- er, Tuesday, I guess :) And here's a sneak peek of what's coming up in the next post (I promise, it isn't a crime scene):

The post All the Coffee, Please. appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+