Life's Tidbits

And no we aren’t talking about the book in this post.  Although I have heard fantastic things about the 5o Shades of Grey trilogy; I just haven’t had time to read the books yet. They are at the top of my list after I finish the Book Thief!

Instead we are back to the painting theme of the last few weeks and referring to the 50+ different paints I looked at in various shades of gray for the living room and hallway.  I honestly had no idea that gray could have hints of blue, purple and brown. It’s crazy how one color can have three “looks”.  A color online is different from the color swatch and then the color swatch can look different depending upon lighting and decorations within a room.  It’s really crazy how a color that’s considered neutral can take on a life of its own.  We had to stop looking at color swatches in our old place, because they looked so different in our new place.

Read the rest of the blog here.

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During the wedding planning process I started reading a lot of blogs.  Sooooo many brides were doing DIY projects.  The wedding blogs really got my planning/artistic juices flowing.  I would read about how simple it is to make X all on your own and immediately I would want to take on the DIY project.  I would gently remind myself I am not the artist in the family, that would be my sister, the MOH.

My friend from work was kind enough to share A LOT and I really mean A LOT of her wedding/party planning expertise with me.  One of her suggestions was to check out her friend’s blog called Aisle with Style.  As I was browsing the posts I found a post for the wedding invitations my friend had done for her brother’s wedding.  When I stumbled upon the blog post I instantly wanted to make my own invitations.  I emailed my friend and asked her for the details on the invitations she made for her sister-in-law’s wedding.  Then I forwarded the post to my then fiance and mother.

Both liked the invitations; however neither was excited about the DIY part.  My husband was very concerned about hidden costs of DIY as well as the time it would take us to do the invites.  I started pricing out invitations online.  The non diy invitations would still cost a pretty penny even from the online vendors I found.  While visiting my parents for Thanksgiving we spent sometime doing wedding stuff.  Sunday we went with my mom to register at Bloomingdale’s.  There just happen to be a paper/invitation store in the same complex so we stopped in to check out the invitation designs as well as pricing.  As I had assured both my mother and husband the invitations were expensive! Both were finally, mostly, on board with a little (or a lot as the case maybe be) DIY action.

Read the rest of this blog post about DIY wedding invitations here.

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A year ago I married my best friend and love of my life.  Our special day feels like so long ago and yet at the same time like it was yesterday.  It is one of those days I would absolutely love to relive.  Exactly a year late my husband and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in style!  After a romantic weekend away in Charlottesville we celebrated the actual big day with a glass of wine on the balcony followed by dinner at Tosca.  Tosca has some AAAmazing Italian food!!  If you go to this place you MUST MUST MUST try the Rosemary and thyme fettuccine with a roasted leg of lamb ragu and braised artichokes … it’s absolutely to die for!

Read the rest of this blog here.

I’ve been focusing on studying for my PMP these last two weeks. After attending a week long “PMP Boot Camp” and then studying in pretty much all my free time I finally took the exam on Thursday and ….. I PASSED! I can’t remember the last time I was that nervous. We are talking the kind of nervous that includes your whole body shaking and heart beating in your stomach kind of nervous.

So what’s a PMP you ask? Project Management Professional (PMP)^®.

In any event this certification was something I’ve been thinking about getting for years … literally. After planning a wedding and buying a home in the past year I figured I should probably check this certification off the to-do list before any other life things get in the way. I’ve had this book “How to Pass the PMP on Your first Try” for the past two years, but I just never seemed to have made it through the book. Sometimes I would read it in my downtime, but studying on my own was well just not working.

Here are some resources and my study process:

Week 1:

• Attended a 5 day - 40 hr - boot camp class

The next week and 1/2:

• Reviewed the notes from class
• Took Online Free 200 Question Test - Have to register
• Took Online Free 75 Question Test
• Took Online Free 175 Question Test
• Retook the practices questions from the Boot Camp class
• Made copious amounts of flashcards
• If I got a question wrong on a practice test I would write out the correct answer and details on paper. I ended up with a large pile of papers with tons of little notes.
• Memorized page 43 in the PMBOK

Our kitchen table became my own personal study center. Computer open, books, flashcards and notes everywhere.

The night before the exam I was literally dreaming about the 42 processes! After I clicked submit on the computer it took at least a minute until the results came up. It was the longest minute EVER! When it said Congratulations I wanted to scream, but I was in a testing center so that wasn’t really appropriate. Needless to say I am thrilled I passed the exam. Not only because it’s great for my career, but I put in a lot of work and it would have sucked to have failed.

When I posted on Facebook that I passed a few friends said they thought I wrote pimp not pmp … so I’m pimping as a pmp!!! LOL

In any even … I am back! I apologize for my absence. I have quite a few posts to write including, but not limited to our DIY wedding invitations and my first rodeo!

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