Reconnecting

As I sit here on a Sunday morning, waiting on my steel cut oats to cook and drinking a Chai tea latte, I'm allowing myself a few moments to sit down and reconnect — with you.
I haven't had, or taken, the time to sit down and write a post in so long and I miss having the outlet.
My job as a small-town, community newspaper editor nearly consumes my entire Monday-Friday of each week, sometimes spilling over into the weekend, but that's the nature of the beast. News never stops. And sometimes, neither do I.
In my previous job as a news editor of another community newspaper, each week I had the opportunity to basically put a "lifestyle blog post" into the paper as a column. My boss handled the hard-nosed criticism of local government officials, so our columns together seemed to balance each other out.
But now, I'm the boss on the news side of things and his job on the opinion page is now my job. My point is that I don't have that outlet anymore to just write whatever I want. So, in theory, I would bring it here... (here comes the caveat:) when I have the time.
My husband would tell me I always have the time, I just don't take the time. Instead, I take a three-hour nap, but a girl's gotta sleep.
Seriously, though, I'm starting to see how important having a fun, creative outlet is. One of my outlets is my Etsy shop, Yellow Lily Jewelry, which allows me to express creativity I didn't know I had until about six months ago, but this blog is another type of outlet that meets my need to write for fun. So, I'll try to keep it up.

Fun reconnecting facts:
•I made an appointment to reconnect with my hairstylist this week. Hey, trims are important!
•A Facebook post from a dear friend, whom I only see about twice a year, inspired me to sit down and write this morning.
•I'm meeting another dear friend, whom I haven't seen since her wedding three months ago, for an early dinner tonight and I'm so excited.
•I do not wish to reconnect with snow any more this year, but alas, my corner of the world is under a winter weather advisory tonight. Yuck.

See you again soon, ok?

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Feeling blue ... and that's OK!

So, I'm wearing this skirt today:

J. Crew Factory

And, I love it :)

That is all.

H54F

Hooray, I'm off work today and it's time for a H54F post!

1. I launched an Etsy shop! Check it out and buy some earrings: Yellow Lily Jewelry

2. And...I had my first buyer! A friend came over last night and purchased three pairs of earrings. It was a pretty cool feeling! Pictured above is one of the pairs she bought.

3. Hooray for infinity scarves!

4. And hooray for baked potatoes! My favorite, and this one was delicious.

5. My baby, Lily, sleeping. Isn't she just too cute?

Find more H54F posts over at From My Grey Desk Blog and say hi to Lauren!

A busy bee with a new Etsy shop

Hello, friends! I've been away for too long, I know, but never fear — I'm safe and sound and back.

Work has been as busy as ever, so I haven't had too much time for blogging. Plus...I've turned my jewelry-making hobby into an Etsy shop that just launched today.

Check me out at www.etsy.com/shop/YellowLilyJewelry

www.etsy.com/shop/YellowLilyJewelry

I hope you enjoy, and I'll be back writing soon, I promise.

Sick day

Today is a sick day. As in, my nose was so stuffy last night that I couldn't breathe or sleep, so I stayed home sick today.

When my alarm went off this morning, I was already awake (as I had been most of the night), so I sent a quick voicemail to my boss letting her know at the very least I needed a couple more hours sleep before functioning today.

Including my "extra" sleep this morning, I figure I accumulated a total of 4, possibly 5, hours of sleep overnight. Coupled with my cold/sinus issues, I am not well-rested. Ugh.

Finally, I can breathe this morning/afternoon, but my throat hurts, my ears hurt and I'm still coughing occasionally. Ultimately, I decided to stay home from work and keep my germs contained to my house.

(Don't worry, my husband has already had this stuff. Hey — I had to get it from somewhere, right?)

Anyway, allow me to share some internal musings. I've said this plenty of times before, but I started this blog, in part, to allow myself the chance to write for fun. *Again,* I'm a writer/editor/photographer/designer at a weekly newspaper for a living, so although I write weekly, most of it is not what I would consider fun writing.

One of my personality flaws is that I don't do things if I can't excel at them. I never learned to whistle or ride a bike because I wasn't great at either during the first few tries. Endearing, I know. Most of the time I excel at writing and editing, hence my job as an editor. But I also enjoy writing, hence my desire to blog.

However, I often get discouraged with my blog/blogging abilities because I fail to keep it updated on a regular basis (because my day job takes A LOT of time) and, let's be honest, because there are probably only three of you reading this. I could call you by name, but I won't.

I would love to present this incredible declaration that I'll find a way to better manage my time and save time for the blog to let my creative juices flow, but I believe I've done that before as well and, obviously, it worked wonders.

So, I'll pose the question to you: what are your tips for time management? How do you manage to find time to do things for you (whether it be blogging or something else)?

I would just love some tips on how to devote more time to the blog instead of only writing a H54F post at the end of the day on a Friday or rambling almost uncontrollably on a sick day. Any advice?

Hiatus

Sorry I've kind of been on a hiatus as of late. As mentioned previously, my mother has been ill and is still seeing doctors and having tests run. I live 130+ miles away from her, so trips home to check on her and my dad are pretty exhausting, especially when they start and end within about 24 hours. My hubby is currently snoozing on the couch because he's battling a sinus infection and feels terrible. Quite honestly, I don't feel so great myself, so I'm going to grab a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream, wrap up in a blanket and watch what's left of Thursday Night Football.

Happy October, folks! May autumn be kind to you :)

I leave you with this picture of eternal cuteness — one of my dad's 5-week-old puppies lapping milk from a saucer:

This is Betty Jo, named after one of my late aunts. Her momma wasn't feeding her enough, so we gave her some milk, which she LOVED! Cutest, tiniest puppy ever.