I need a break.

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been some great blog posts floating around about authenticity and honesty. Kristen kicked things off with a post inspired by this awesome article, and then Ayla and Heidi chimed in with their own thoughts. (All posts are excellent, by the way, if you haven't read them.) They got me thinking about a bunch of stuff, and while I originally had a completely different topic in mind for this post, I sat down to write and this came out instead.

I like to think that I'm pretty straightforward with you guys. I don't prance around thinking my life is all unicorns and cupcakes--though that would be awesome. Some blogs only look at the brighter side of life, and that kind of irritates me. Nobody is perfect, your business is never perfect, sometimes you look fat in your jeans--whatever. Don't pretend things are peachy when you're having a bad day. I'm not saying you have to be all doom and gloom, but don't lie to us, either. It's nice when people are real about their problems.

I've been in kind of a weird place the last couple of weeks. The further I get into my interior design program, the more involved my classes get and the more stressed out I am. My coursework isn't just time consuming, it's mentally draining. Going to school for a creative degree is demanding enough, but couple that with the fact that I already work in a creative field for my job, and sometimes I just don't have anything left halfway through the day. I kind of feel like my brain gets scooped out, or that slow feeling from looking at everything underwater. Over the weekend I was trying to plan ahead for some spring house projects, and I could barely make any decisions. Like, paint color decisions, for god's sake. It took me an hour to choose two colors. My brain is just wiped out, and I still have 8 weeks of school to go. And then possibly summer classes, but I might need to skip those for my own sanity.

Let's hope so!

It's been hard to think of new jewelry designs, hard to work on my new branding (uuuugh), hard to put much time into either of my shops at all, really, aside from things that are necessary. And I know that's not enough. I almost feel them slipping away from me, which of course makes me freak out more. They're like my babies, but I'm only. one. person. Perhaps I've finally tipped the boat and taken on too much at once? I don't know. And then there's my design consultations and this blog to think about. I'm not complaining about the work itself because I love what I'm doing, and I definitely don't want to go back to how my life was before I quit my day job, but right now I'm just overwhelmed. I need a mental health day, and I could kind of use a hug.

Anyway, I need to go work on my renderings now. On the bright side, once my head is above water again, you'll get a big juicy update on what I've been doing in school that takes up all of my time. I won't have a post for you tomorrow, but I'll be back on Wednesday with something fun. I think you'll understand.