Category Archives: Outside the Box

I’ve had incredible dedication to my 2010 and 2011 New Year’s resolutions. They were small, but challenging and attainable – flossing daily and not using any plastic bags. This year I’ve decided not to beat myself up and simply write down a few exciting things that I’m looking forward to in 2013!

1. Books into Movies. I love seeing my favorite books come to life on screen! Beautiful Creatures comes out on V-Day. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is being released Aug 23rd, our 10-yr anniversary! And, of course, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire comes out Nov 22nd.
   
2. Organizing our house and decorating a nursery. There’s nothing like putting a fire under you to do some much-needed home organization like a baby on the way! I’m not sure when “nesting” is supposed to start, but I’m already at full-steam ahead!
   
3. Having a baby. Ben and I are already preparing to have a completely natural birth using HypnoBirthing which we’re really excited about! We know that our lives will forever be changed, but we couldn’t be happier about this new adventure!
   
4. Celebrating our 10-yr anniversary. We spent our 9-yr on a beach in Mexico so that will be tough to beat (especially with a 2-month old baby), but Ben is surprisingly creative and romantic when he puts his mind to it. I couldn’t be more in love with this guy!
5. Becoming a full-time housewife/mom. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be excited about such a thing! I will be resigning from my part-time job after the baby comes (although I hope to continue staging). I don’t mean to brag, but I am a fantastic housewife and am looking forward to adding “mom” to that title.

There ya have it, my non-resolutions! What are you looking forward to this year?

Images found here and here.

I can’t even begin to tell y’all the fun things I’ve done this summer! You can see a glimpse in the pics above and here are a few surprises that I never expected:

• Running two 5K’s and being signed up to run two more races – am I becoming a runner <gasp>?
• Zip-lining from a 50 ft tower into a lake.
• Volunteering with SOS (Service Over Self) to roof a house for a day in 100 degree temps.
• Trying a bacon donut.
• Becoming a 2-car family again.

What haven’t I done while being so crazy busy? Blog. The creativity in me has been itching to get out, so never fear! #ilovemylife

We hung out with our friends Kevin and Holly last night who are passionate about coffee. As in they roast their own coffee beans that they order from all over the world and have their own mini coffee shop set up in their living room!
They recreated an amazing drink I discovered at Bongo Java in Nashville a couple of weeks ago called a McBowl (a hazelnut latte with Irish cream – yum!). Throughout our conversation it came up that they recently set up a coffee shop bar at a 700 person wedding and how much fun they had doing it.

This brings me to a motto we like to live by, “People who do stuff do stuff.” It is both exciting and frustrating to be surrounded by friends who do stuff.
Our friends Craig and Merschon pursued their dream of living in Europe and sharing their faith and moved to Dublin, Ireland to be missionaries.
Our friends Michael and Bobbie pursued their dream of living a simple life and moved to a town with a population of 100 and live on one part-time income.
Our friends Justin and Brandy pursued their dream of owning a business and opened a cafe and coffee shop that has a supervised play room.

What do all of these people have in common? They do stuff. Ben and I like to think that we played a part in each of these pursuits but, as awesome of friends as we are, we can’t take credit. They stopped dreaming, talking, reading, watching, researching and simply took action.
I feel like I am at the highest point of a roller coaster right before your stomach drops out from under you. I’m ready to do stuff. Wish me luck!

Roller coaster image found here.

I feel like I owe an apologize to my awesome blog readers for my unexplained slacking. I’ve been working a lot more at my part-time job and, as a result, my blog has been on the chopping block. Fortunately, my extended work hours are about to be a thing of the past – whew! So… what’s been going on?
We got our bowl on with friends. It’s seriously been years since I’ve bowled and my score definitely reflected that. I kept getting all the pins or none which I like to think reflects my personality a bit:)
We spent a rainy Sunday reading on our front porch (Cali napped). I finished my YA fiction series AND Mad Men Season 4 all in one weekend. Downton Abbey saved the day (love it!) and I’m still in the market for a new book.
We went to an album release concert in our friend’s backyard. Have I mentioned how much fun it is having friends who live in artsy Midtown?
We are still loving our new Paleo lifestyle! The pounds keep coming off and Ben keeps having to buy new dress pants (there are worse problems – ha!).
We splurged and bought a membership to the Memphis Botanic Garden. Side note: a 13yo boy walked up and started talking to me about the book I was reading. I was both excited and humiliated.
I like to call this one Super Cali – just look at those ears! She was very excited by a visit from her grandparents on their way through to Destin last weekend.
We saw Wilco at the Mud Island Amphitheater right on the Mississippi River – such a cool concert and venue!

I guess, looking back at the last few weeks, I have managed to squeeze in a lot of fun stuff. Maybe work has little to do with my blog-slacking after all;) Who has a good book series suggestion? Anyone else gone to 3 concerts in 3 days? Is it odd that we take pics of ourselves reading books in random places?

Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of Staging by M? Well, today is your lucky day! Here are a few highlights from my life lately…
We went to see the Blue Like Jazz movie which Ben and I were Associate Producers for. Yeah, our names were in the credits and we’re kind of a big deal:) I also got in another viewing of The Hunger Games which I liked way better the second time. Even though the midnight premiere was fun, I was exhausted!
Last Friday I reached my weight loss goal! I’ve lost 17 lbs and am well on my way to competing for the Best Beach Body competition between us and my bro and sis-in-law for our vacation to Mexico in August!
We spent a wonderful weekend in Oklahoma with family and friends. It doesn’t get much better than an OK sunset! I watched my brother run part of his third marathon AND witnessed him having a great attitude when he had to stop at mile 11 due to a knee injury. I couldn’t be more proud of him!
I couldn’t not show y’all a pic of my adorable 4 month old niece! We got to spend some 1-on-1 time with this little girl and she definitely gave me baby fever. Like her cute onesie? Check out my friend Jen’s Etsy shop to get your own!
Cali did not join us on our trip to OK. She opted to stay at what we call The Resort with some of our close friends:) Ben bought her some beef knees that a guy at our dog food store swore would last a month. It was gone in 2 days.

In my free time I’ve been working hard on our new marriage blog, reading The Mortal Instruments series, and we’re on Season 4 of Mad Men. What have y’all been up to lately?

“When you are in love you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss
“You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.” – Sam Keen
“Love one another and you will be happy; it is as simple and as difficult as that.” – Michael Leunig
“Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” – Rose Franken
“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” – Roy Croft
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Emily Bronte

A few weeks ago we had a photo shoot in downtown Memphis with our friend, and brilliant photographer, Jen. She was so much fun to work with! We were in dire need of some new family pics since between us we’re 40 lbs lighter (thanks to Ben’s willpower and the Paleo diet lifestyle). Have a great weekend!

Who out there spends way too much time reading blogs? Up until about a year ago I had all the blogs I read linked on the side of my blog. I would click on each one when there was a new post, wait for the page to load, read the blog, return to my blog and repeat the process 18 times. Friends, there is a better way!
Enter Google Reader. You can subscribe to all of your favorite blogs and read them all in one place! This was like a breath of fresh air the first time I used it. I currently subscribe to around 20 blogs, but I don’t feel overwhelmed whatsoever. I just check it a few times a day and it’s easy to keep up with.
It shows you all the pics and links just like if you were reading the actual blog. If I want to leave a comment, I can easily click on the blog title and it will take me there. We still don’t have flying cars, but this is the next best thing!

This.is.a.lifesaver. As an avid design blog reader, I can’t explain how much time this saves me! Any other Google Reader fans out there?

Everyone wonders what they would do with their time if they didn’t spend it at work. I have the unique opportunity to grab life by the horns and make the best of MY time! As I mentioned in my previous post, my 2 goals for this week were to complete my Storyline seminar workbook and read Anything You Want.

Done!

I started and finished the book on Monday (it was a quick read) and realized very quickly that I had already read it. Did that stop me? Not a chance. It was definitely good enough for a second read and especially with a different frame of mind. It made me want to strive to be different in my next endeavor.

Then I spent 4 straight hours at Starbucks Tuesday morning (when I normally would have been at work) hashing out that workbook. I’ll admit, my fingers ached from writing and my butt ached from the hard seat, but the new perspective I gained on life was priceless (besides the $3.22 drink)!

You start out doing a timeline of Joseph’s life and how the negative turns were just as important as the positive ones. Then you jump into your own timeline and start to see patterns and you gain clarity about the positive/negative turns in your life. Wow. It’s like the fog lifted and everything made so much sense!

Since I’m such a hungry, hungry hippo about life-changing material, Ben suggested I read another book today called Flinch by Julien Smith which is a FREE Kindle eBook. It’s a short and in-your-face read – loved it! I had an impulse to go donate blood and get on an airplane all in one day (2 of my greatest fears) after I finished reading it.

You could say I’m on a roll, but I’m hoping for more of a shift. Wish me luck!