what i learned in school this year.

schools been out for a couple weeks now, and i think i can finally say im done recovering from the craziness and ready to relax and embrace summer break (well, as much as i can given how pregnant i am right now). the end of this last semester marks the end of my first full year of college in well, a really long time. even though i wasnt going to school full time, i did put a huge dent in the required classes for my degree, and (if im counting correctly) im right about halfway (units-wise, time-wise is an entirely different story...) to being an actual fashion designer and having a college degree that might actually get taken seriously in real life. 

i actually didnt realize that im halfway done until i typed that just now. which makes this post a bit more significant, i suppose. 

even though i started classes last spring, those classes were only 8 weeks so this fall and spring were my first whole year in college. and what a year it was. i took five classes, which maybe doesnt sound like a whole lot but they were five completely different classes and all except for one were studio classes (which in the creative fields is the same thing as a lab class in the science fields: twice as many class hours for the same amount of units). i was gone a lot, it was REALLY hard, and it ended up costing us way more money than id anticipated. but overall i dont regret it, because obviously, i learned a ton. 

i learned the things that i was in class to learn: proper sewing techniques, how to use industrial sewing machines, how to draw different kinds of fashion illustrations, lots and lots about the textiles industry, and how to use illustrator and photoshop. 

but going back to school as an adult with a life is different than going to school as a full-time student, and honestly the majority of what i learned had very little to do with my actual classes. 

this year i learned a lot about time management/scheduling/not overbooking myself. i learned that yes i can manage a lot on my plate but no i cant do a great job at everything all at once. i learned that its actually not that hard to schedule a few hours a week to do not-mom things and i can get a lot done in those hours, but that three days a week is way too many days (for me, at least). i learned a lot about different facets of the fashion industry and what areas im interested/not interested in pursuing. i learned that i work really well with schedules and deadlines and i do not work well under vague and inconsistent leadership. i learned that i really do love what im doing here with poverty luxe and that my dreams are totally attainable. 

but most importantly, i learned that i do have skills and talents and that they are useful and productive. 

see, ive struggled for a long time with confidence, with feeling like im not really good at anything that matters. i mean, i majored in fine arts, i didnt get great grades and i didnt even finish my bachelors degree. nothing says "yeah im basically 100% completely useless" like being a mediocre art school dropout. except for maybe being a mediocre art school drop out thats too sick to have a "real job" and stays at home but isnt even good at stay at home mom stuff. yeah ive always been good at sewing/crafty stuff but thats really not that important and it doesnt really come in handy all that often and its definitely not a job and i mean, anyone can do crafts, right? 

wrong. there is an entire worldwide industry built on the one thing im kind of good at, and yes, drawing and sewing is totally a real job. actually, its a real job that makes WAY more money than any of the jobs that the bachelors degree i was working on would ever make. and no, not everyone is naturally good at sewing/crafty things, not even in the fashion field. 

so while this year was REALLY long, REALLY hard, and REALLY expensive, i made it out not only still alive (ill be honest i really had my doubts a few times), but also confident that yes, yes i am good at some real life things. and that was the most important thing i learned this year. 

life lately.

its been over a year and i still havent really written a "life lately" post. i mean, its just not really the kind of thing that id really planned on doing with this blog. i guess i just always thought that id be able to stay on top of content development and post scheduling and whatnot and that youd never have to read a long rambling of my current thoughts. 

well, turns out, i thought wrong (as i often do). 

the past couple weeks haven't exactly been a time of productive writing (or researching, or planning, or crafting, or any kind of productive business activity). mainly because jamess school week, the end of my semester, and the beginning of my last homeschool co-op class all kind of converged into the same two weeks and i just didnt have any kind of mental energy to put into this blog. 

thankfully casey and jessica were so kind as to step in with some (rather lovely, i might add) guest posts, and the blog hasnt been COMPLETELY dead. 

but, since im just taking FOR.EV.ER. to recover and get back into a productivity groove, and may's editorial calendar hasnt even been STARTED yet (and were halfway through the month, epic fail), youre getting the life lately post. 

so here are a few things that have been happening/on my mind lately (in no particular order, please bear with the randomness and incongruity of this post): 

my first (ok, eleventh) semester of college is DONE and im all registered for next semester! ill be taking three classes (only seven units though), which im a little nervous about, BUT its really exciting to FINALLY actually be on my way to my dream job (which is, in case you didnt know, stay at home/homeschooling independent fashion designer). yesterday we celebrated with ice cream: 

i recently started using essential oils to treat my myriad of ailments (and poor little alices allergies that seem to last for half the year), and wouldnt you know it, theyre actually working. i dont even know how many alternative medicines ive tried over the years to no avail, and i was SURE that there was no way some little bottles of oil would actually be much help, but sometimes (actually, kind of a lot of the time) i feel like a normal person. its pretty awesome. obviously you can expect a full blog post about this soon. 

after a few months of nothing, things with my etsy shop seem to be picking back up, and now i have enough paypal money saved up to start actually planning poverty luxes first craft fair appearance (probably at the silverlake art craft and vintage, ill keep you local folks posted!). james still needs to build me some clothing racks though. 

james and alice gave me the best mothers day present ever on saturday: they went to the park so that i could have an afternoon by myself. it was lovely. as were the tacos at my moms house the next day: 

even a year later, im still struggling with my diet. for the most part ive gotten used to the gluten free thing, and recently it seems that my immune system has calmed down a bit and i can tolerate corn, nuts, and peanuts without an issue, and ive finally worked my way back up to a weight im happy with, but unfortunately it seems that in order to maintain this weight, i basically need to eat junk food ALL. THE. TIME. and well, thats starting to feel almost as bad as not being able to eat anything. so right now im torn between needing to clean up my diet and get more exercise, and being afraid that if i do that i wont be able to continue to stay at a healthy weight. 

weve lived in our current apartment for two years now, and it finally feels like home. when we moved here i had hoped and prayed that it would only be temporary, but it turns out, small spaces actually have a LOT of advantages. i will admit that its been feeling a little too cluttered and crowded lately, but thankfully my mom is having a garage sale this weekend, so were in MAJOR purge mode. and it feels great. 

i bought a plant today. if you know me at all you know that this is SO not like me. but i hate buying fresh herbs when we only need a tiny bit and the rest gets thrown away. so well see how this little mint does. and if i dont kill it, maybe well branch out to the rest of the herbs. 

i am so, so thankful that jamberry came along when it did, im in love with working from home, especially now that im back in school (also, holy not-spending-the-entire-summer-teaching-kids-classes-while-alice-goes-to-the-beach-with-my-family). today i made my second set of fast start goals (hello $100 credit!), and i am *this* close to making my second promotion (and still not far from the next one, which is the first level with a CASH promotion bonus!). i didnt think id do well with this, at all. but i am, and its awesome. 

i feel like a terrible blogger. to be completely honest i havent been reading or commenting on blogs much lately, and ive been letting my sponsorships expire and i just havent been that involved in the blog community and i feel bad. 

the time has come for some big business decisions here at poverty luxe. and by that i mean, i feel like its time to get really serious about growing this little business into something big. i scored a MAJOR discount on a lifetime handmadeology pro membership, which i plan on studying over the summer, and im also considering the new blog life ecourse from a beautiful mess (is anyone doing this, what are your thoughts? is it worth the money?). 

and lastly, it is too, too hot. it is literally hotter today in coastal southern california than it ever was when we lived in arizona (northern arizona, but still). james and alice and my sister went to the beach while i taught my color theory class, despite the fact that we went to the beach yesterday. its a rough life, i know. 

see, even alice is SO over this heat wave (i mean, what even is that face?). 

now that ive gone on and on about ME for so long, what have you been up to? what are you working on? how have you been? 

lets catch up, please. 

april in review.

is it really time for april in review? didnt i just do the march one? 

at least april was a little less crazy than march. actually that was a lie. april was pretty intense, but a totally good kind of intense because things are finally turning around for the meyers family. 

really, the most exciting thing going on right now for me is that james has for the most part been working full-time ALL MONTH LONG. and holy predictable paycheck, batman! well, the final dollar amount of the paycheck isnt always predictable but goodness gracious i am NOT used to this whole more-money-in-the-bank-account-every-week business that weve got going on. in the best way possible. 

what else went on in april? well, alice turned two and a half, and weve officially declared half-birthdays as a thing. 

and shortly after that, I QUIT MY STUPID JOB AT JOANNS! partly because it got to the point where it was truly causing more harm than good and really school is a more productive use of my evenings/free time, but also because (surprise!) im actually making money with jamberry. so, that was awesome. 

oh, i also got back on instagram, which has been a lot more fun and a lot less soul-sucking than last time. 

not working at joanns anymore quickly became even MORE awesome, since i actually had some time and energy to, you know, take alice to go do fun kid things. like going to a doctor who craft fair. and taking a field trip to centennial farm, where alice got kissed by a goat:

and was particularly enamored with the beehive. and i really, really didnt have the heart to tell her that people dont normally love bees:

 and going on a park date with our friends:

also, im starting to get used to this whole not working and going to school thing thing. plus, i might even be able to pull a 4.0 this semester, which would be a total dream come true (even if i am only taking two units, ive NEVER pulled a 4.0, ever). i know i havent been talking much about whats been going on at school, but i promise i will later, when i finish up my big projects. 

oh, and i painted slices fingernails for the first time:

(yes, she picked those colors, her exact words were "pink and black and pink and black on my nails please mommy", i mean, how can you say no to that?)

the last couple weeks have been crazy busy though, last weekend we went to san deigo for easter, then this weekend was jamess birthday. and now i need a nap. or three. or as many as i can squeeze in before i have to leave for class at 5. 

so that was our april, how was yours?

24 in 24 revisited.

yesterday our dear family friend michaela turned 18. and michaelas birthday means its halfway to my birthday and holy crap, im officially almost 25. but instead of spending this entire post all about how im SO old and it freaks me out because i TOTALLY REMEMBER MAKING MY STEPDAD A BIRTHDAY CARD FOR HIS 25TH BIRTHDAY, im going to take a look at the birthday goals i made six months ago and see how thats been going. the goals were:

1. find a better place to live. right after i made this goal our financial situation got EXTRA poopy, so honestly, it hasn't been a priority. 

2. find a new hobby just for me.  ok, so i went a little overboard here, and my new hobby is going to college. 

3. hit 25,000 blog page views.  maybe i set the bar a little too low here, because im already at over 34,000. so, yay for me!

4. do a craft fair. this ones in progress, ive got a couple events in mind that id like to apply for, i just need to save up for a few purchases (and application fees) and build up my inventory a bit more. 

5. quit my job at joanns. done and DONE. i am SO stoked about my new adventure with jamberry. 

6. write a business plan. also in progress, but right now in one of my classes im working on my professional portfolio so maybe thats a little bit more important (you know, so i can start trying to do boutique consignment)

7. take a family trip. we did stay a night in san diego at christmas, but i dont think that really counts. again, because of the poopy finances this hasn't been a priority. but maybe we can do something this summer? maybe?

8. find a new family hobby. im not so sure about this one. maybe our hobby is just disneyland? or possibly collecting shells at the beach. 

9. try a new restaurant. even though we still usually go out to our normal sushi place (or in n out) we did get sandwiches at heywood in silverlake, and i think were trying a new place this weekend. 

10. clean out my closet.  done. but also, i think maybe i could go back and do one more edit. i probably should...

11. make something just for me. not yet, BUT now that i dont have a job that makes me hate knitting, i think im going to start scouring ravelry for some cute sock patterns. 

12. make $100 from blogging.  this one was a HUGE surprise, but, i totally did! across ALL channels (adsense, passionfruit, and skimlinks) ive made about $141! i mean, thats hardly anything over the course of a whole year, but i feel a little less dumb calling myself a blogger. 

13. color my hair an actual color. so, i totally meant this to mean "an actual color of blonde" and then i decided that i REALLY want to do my hair pink and maybe also blue and thats a HUGE time and money investment so maybe once school gets out ill have some time for this one. 

14. take alice to the zoo.  mission accomplished!

15. sponsor some new blogs.  this has probably been my favorite goal to work on, branching out of my normal blogging circle has been SO much fun!

16. get better at sewing. (in progress) honestly, i havent had a ton of time to work on my sewing skills, BUT i did make bow ties and pocket squares for my friends wedding, and those projects definitely did stretch my sewing skills (but next semester im taking a real sewing class!)

17. publish my original knitting and crochet patterns. yep! well, a couple of them. the only ones that were really any good. 

18. host a dinner party. yeah..... we havent gotten around to this one yet...

19. take real family pictures. or this one...

20. purge useless files and backup our computer. or this one. actually, im probably never going to purge and back up the computer unless somebody stands over my shoulder and FORCES me to do it. any volunteers?

21. get a new tattoo. i actually know EXACTLY what i want to do next, i just need to save up the money (and find a free afternoon). maybe this summer. 

22. get at least 12 etsy orders. (in progress) um. ive gotten two. three if you count the wedding bow ties. but in my defense, i havent had a whole lot of time to devote to the shop, and my focus has been on building inventory rather than marketing, so, that was kind of expected. 

23. start doing yoga again. eh, not really. ive started walking more frequently (since, you know, my school is two blocks away), but not yoga. though alice has expressed an interest so maybe ill look up some kid-appropriate yoga workouts for us to do together. 

24. learn to relax. ok, well we all knew that this one was going to be a serious challenge. and honestly, im not doing so well. mainly, i keep taking on WAY too much responsibility/activity for my weak and sickly body to handle. but now that im only working from home, maybe i can start figuring out some better ways to use my free time for relaxing. 

alright, so the final count is 9 completed, and 5 in progress. out of 24. so, i guess im not doing that bad. 

i finally quit my job! (an outfit post + april monthly wishes)

outfit details:

top: h & m

skirt: vintage

shoes: vintage

necklace: macys

hair clip: etsy

glasses: zenni optical

nails: jamberry in imperial (matte)

everybody please ignore the stupid face im making in the first picture, and instead notice that my shirt has cats on it. for a long time now ive been wanting to get a cat shirt, but my sister is pretty much queen of the cat shirts, and i didnt want to look like i was copying her, so when i found this crop top at h&m with japanese lucky cats on it (which are one of my favorite things ever), i knew i HAD to have it. even though it was regular price and im probably way to old to be wearing crop tops with cats on them. but, cats. maybe it wasnt the most practical $10 ive ever spent. but again, cats. and when i wanted to wear the wrap skirt i wore to dapper day to church without looking all vintage-costumey, my new cat shirt was there to make everything better. so heres to you, cat shirt. also, i FINALLY just had to put new jamberries on my nails (after THREE WEEKS the old set was STILL going strong), and this imperial print is definitely a win (and the matte finish, im in love!). 

but enough about cat shirts. its monthly wishes time!

last month my goals were all about getting ready for my fashion classes to start: i wanted to finish my financial aid appeal, change my name on my school records, get a new student id, research/buy running shoes, get a bunch of meals in the freezer, take alice to the zoo, and decide what i wanted to do about my job situation. 

and im very proud to announce that i did everything except getting a student id! (which, honestly, was probably the least important of all of the goals i had). 

most notably, i took the plunge and quit my job at joanns! which is totally the opposite of what i thought was going to happen, but even though school is only two nights a week, my classes are turning out to be a LOT more involved than id anticipated, so, taking back the cut counter position did not sound appealing. obviously i was concerned about losing the (albeit, pretty pathetic) income, so i figured id just skate by on just my teaching position. but then something completely unexpected happened: my jamberry launch party, despite having a ton of issues in the beginning (because facebook totally rewrote the notification stuff), and taking FOREVER to get any orders, and feeling like it was just going NOWHERE, totally made what id make in a normal paycheck at joanns working both positions. 

so, this weekend, i was basically faced with this choice: keep the job that causes all kinds of stress and problems and scheduling difficulties that pays hardly anything and has NO opportunity for anything better than what im doing right now, OR, quit and have more hours to put into this new work-at-home opportunity that has already proved to be more profitable AND has a basically unlimited income potential (provided that i keep up with networking and booking more parties). 

if youve been reading for a while, you know that this has been a long, drawn out, complicated, and emotionally difficult situation (i mean, im terrible at being employed so the nearly three years i spent with joanns is roughly three times as long as i had my next-longest job). but, once i looked at things objectively, it was pretty clear that working at joanns was NOT worth it. 

so, saturday, i finally quit. i may have to go back next saturday to teach one last class that has one student enrolled (meaning, its already in danger of being cancelled), but other than that, im done. and its great. because really, that silly little poorly paid part time job was starting to REALLY get in the way of our serious long-term goals (not to mention my health and sanity). 

and now, we can move on to aprils monthly wishes (because its the first monday of the month and thats how we roll here):

for obvious, just went back to college reasons, aprils them is LEARN. 

honestly, with this month being a weird transitional time with school, and also containing jamess birthday (and requisite trip to san diego), aprils goals are a little looser and less structured:

my big goal for the month is to soak up as MUCH information as i can in my classes and immediately apply it to my blog/business where appropriate. one of my classes is all about building a professional portfolio, and SO much of it is relevant to where my etsy shop is struggling right now, so my number one priority this month is to focus and excel in my classes (which shouldnt be difficult, since so far im the only one thats even doing all my homework). 

my smaller goals are to finish all the online training for jamberry (their consultant resources are fantastic, and i have SO much to learn if this is going to be a sustainable business), put together an awesome birthday surprise for james, and to write out a BIG list of EVERY house project/purchase thats been waiting so that we can take care of them on days off. 

those are my goals for april, what are your plans this month?

march in review (another blogger meet up, an outfit post + weeklywishes)

is it just me, or did march TOTALLY fly by? i feel like we were SO busy ALL month i didnt even notice that it was almost april! since this month has been somewhat of a blur, im especially grateful that i had already to committed to this whole "month in review" thing to recap everything we did, otherwise i might have forgotten that march even happened!

seriously, SO much happened in march:

we got a really bad start to the month when we spent a whole week without hot water and i almost forgot to go to my friends bachelorette party. but then i remembered and everything was ok! 

plus, since my dear friend shannon got married, i got to do some embroidery:

which i really, really love doing but for some reason can only find the time when somebodys about to get married. (conveniently, about eight thousand people i know are getting married right now, so it looks like the future will hold a lot more embroidery! yay!). 

also, poverty luxe turned one year old! this is totally insane because i never thought id be doing this for a whole year. but still awesome. 

we took alice to the zoo for the very first time.

and we welcomed a new member to the meyers family. meet B:

(obviously alice is totally obsessed) remember that time my sister rescued a kitten and named it gaston? well, it turns out gaston is a lady, and one of my moms cats (a fat, lazy, potato of a cat named ronald) apparently CAN NOT handle sharing his litter box with a girl, and despite living in a one bedroom apartment, ive been getting antsy to have more cats. so B lives with us now. its great. 

and in big, exciting, life-changing news: i started college this week AND dove into a new business adventure as a consultant for jamberry nails. 

i really wish i had something more profound to say about starting college again after so many years, but, i dont know, im taking two one unit classes for eight weeks. it doesnt even really feel like im in college right now. come back in september and im sure ill have more to say about it. 

jamberry, on the other hand, i just cant keep my mouth shut about that. dont worry though, poverty luxe (the blog, or the etsy shop) isnt going anywhere. the only thing that might be going somewhere sometime soon though is my job at joanns. i wont say yet that im quitting, but i will say that my first week with jamberry had a rocky, underwhelming start and i still made about what id bring home on a good week at joanns. so...

oh! saturday i got to go to another awesome blogger meet up hosted by melyssa and the bloggers giving back crew! this event was called well boxed: 

 and we had pizza and wine and put together care packages for the troops stationed overseas:

it was an awesome time getting to do something nice for someone that probably really needs it, while also getting to spend some quality time getting to know some other blogger ladies better (AND even meeting some new friends!). 

now, i noticed that amidst all of the crazy busyness of march, i havent been doing much in the way of outfit posts. even though thats totally my favorite kind of post and i swore that id do more of them they just havent been happening. so as of right now, im stepping up my game. heres what i wore to the well boxed event:

                                       

outfit details:

top/bandeau: diy (tutorial coming next month!)

skirt: poverty luxe.

shoes: shoemint

bracelet: vintage (james bought it for me when he was a scrap gold buyer)

glasses: zenni optical

nails: jamberry in diamond dust and cup of tea

i dont really have a whole lot to say about this outfit, other than i did make most of it (and the shoes i won from another bloggers giveaway), so i didnt really pay for any of it, which i guess is neat. also, lately ive really been working on finding different ways to style my poverty luxe skirt, since, you know, actually wearing the things i make is basically the cheapest marketing there is. at the blogger meet up i got a lot of compliments on my top, which was actually a really simple diy project, so stay tuned, because in a couple weeks I'm going to show you how to make one too!

so there you have our highlights for the month of march. 

well, that and yesterday james did that thing we do now and again where we dress up as dr. who characters for no reason and it becomes glaringly obvious why exactly we dont have any adult friends:

(but, i mean, if i was someone else, id totally want to be friends with us)

now dont think i forgot about weekly wishes!

last week i wanted to get a good start on my classes and order my textbooks, and i did both! in fact, i was SO excited about having homework to do that i did ALL of my homework for both classes on thursday. plus i saved like $80 bucks by buying my textbooks used (and ill probably get almost as much as i paid for them when i sell them in a couple months, so stay tuned for a post about how to work the textbook system!)

whats up for this week? not much, really. obviously I want to keep doing my homework early, but my big projects for the week are finishing Aprils editorial calendar (and deciding if Friday posts are coming back or not....) and starting a big list of all the home projects that need done/things that need to be replaced (with James working full time and me NOT working three jobs, we totally have the time and money for projects for the first time in over a year so its already a long, overwhelming list...)

what was your favorite part of march?

5 money saving tips for already broke college students.

(note: this post was originally posted as a guest post on call me sassafras, but since i just started school this week and have a ton on my plate, i thought id use today to share this extremely relevant information)

spring is in full swing, which means time for college acceptance letters and time to start freaking out about how expensive EVERYTHING even remotely college related is. well lucky for you, i have LOTS of experience in being a broke college student (actually, i just started the fashion program at my local community college), and while i dont have any advice on how to make the college itself any cheaper,  i  do have a few (five, to be exact) tips to make all those little expenses a LOT more manageable. 

lets get started, shall we?

1. skip the school bookstore at the beginning of the semester. 

basically, your school bookstore is THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLACE ON EARTH to buy textbooks and you should avoid it at all costs. as SOON as you get your syllabi (yes, thats the proper plural of syllabus), head over to addall.com, and search the isbn numbers of the books you need to find the best price (actually, you may need to make a stop at the bookstore to get those numbers). the great thing about addall.com is that it not only gives you price comparisons on the book youre looking for, but it ALSO FIGURES IN SALES TAX AND SHIPPING so that you know that youre getting the absolute best price on all of the internet. 

2. talk to your professors about what books/supplies youre actually going to use. 

i know professors are sometimes scary (especially if youre at a new school), but if you really want to save yourself from buying a $100 textbook that wasnt even necessary (which, im pretty sure you do), ask them about the booklist. sometimes the book isnt very important and theres a reserve copy in the library, sometimes an old (and therefore MUCH cheaper) edition is ok, sometimes the book is on the syllabus but its not even really part of the class. any one of these things could end up saving you some money (and all of these have happened multiple times in my college career), but youll never know if you have other options book-wise unless you ask. 

3. bring your own lunch/snacks/water. 

i really shouldn't have to tell you that fast food/convenience food is way expensive (and way unhealthy) and that buying bottled water (or soda) every day adds up to a LOT of money. this gets even worse when you get onto a college campus. fun fact: i briefly attended usc (one of the most expensive colleges in america) and you know how much a bean burrito and small soda at the campus food court cost? $9. simple things like packing yourself a sandwich or an apple and investing in a reusable water bottle can save you TONS of money over the course of a semester, with the added bonus of helping you to eat healthier and avoid the dreaded freshman 15. 

4. actually, skip the school bookstore at the end of the semester, too. 

so, you know how at the end of the semester you can sell your books back to the school for about .5 percent of what you paid for them and it makes you want to cry? well, selling your books yourself on half.com (selling used books on amazon requires a merchant account, half.com doesnt) will get you a LOT more money (actually, there were times that i made a profit flipping my used textbooks). pro tip: look at the current selling price of your book and price yours one cent lower, chances are your book will be the first to sell. 

5. buy your supplies at office stores. 

at back-to-school time, the big office stores have ALL the basic supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, index cards, etc) on sale for SO CHEAP (sometimes even just pennies). it may not be the cutest stuff, but hey, why spend $5 on a notebook when you could get one for 50 cents? 

i hope that youve found these tips useful, they helped me immensely while i was in school, so i can personally attest to their effectiveness (and i plan on using every. single. one. this time around). 

do you have any tips for saving money at school?