Month: January 2022

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DIY *EASY* & *CHEAP* Waldorf Rainbow Desk Organizer

This post will have links to outside sources, such as Amazon. These links do not affect your prices.

There is an entire paragraph of things I could write to improve metrics and make sure this gets out, but unlike those recipes that leave you thinking, Just get to the recipe, already, I’m not going to drag this out.

Let’s get started!

Materials:

Do the thing

  1. Start by measuring the hoop. When you find the widest point, mark it for cutting. Double check yourself and don’t be crooked like I was the first time when I took this photo.
  2. Cut along the lines on all five hoops. Check to ensure that they all align at the base the way you want. Make more cuts as needed.
Bases all aligned where I want them. Yay!

3. Start painting! Give it at least two coats and plenty of time to dry in between.

While the paint is drying, it’s a great time to move onto your next step, which is

4. Make poms poms!

Make pompoms. Make all the pompoms. Making them in varying sizes gives the clouds a nice puffy effect as opposed to them all being the same size. A good and sharp pair of scissors makes this task go by a lot more quickly!

Once your paint coats are dry and your pom poms are ready, it’s time to heat up the glue gun.

5. Glue the painted arches of your rainbow down, one side at a time. Do one arch completely before the next to ensure you get them straight. (Sometimes hot glue likes to move while it dries, so you may need both hands to hold the arch in place.)

6. Glue the next arch behind the previous, leaving a space of about 1-2 fingers width. (Enough to hold some light mail easily.) Repeat until the rainbow is complete.

I used chipboard to extend the base of my wooden hearts.

7. Once the glue has cooled and your arches as stuck tight, begin placing your pompoms. Go ham. Fluff it up as much as you want!

Once everything has cooled, you have yourself a fun, lightweight, and totally brilliant desk organizer (or even just a cute piece of décor)!

This project is super easy and can easily be done in a single day. If you want to speed up the process even more, you can purchase premade pompoms. Special thanks to Amber (wow, great name!) from Damask Love who inspired this project with her Waldorf Rainbow DIY.

Have you tried this type of project before? What other crafty ways can you think of using embroidery hoops for something besides embroidery? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below. As always, so glad to have you here. Keep crafting!

"XOXO, Amber" in hand-styled script
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Seven Items to Help You Have a Better Period

Whew. In my general menstruating experience, periods suck. To be fair, I have extra issues to deal with than your monthly bloat, moodiness, and general crummy feeling. I have endometriosis and PCOS, both of which take your period from being an unwelcome house guest to being GODZILLA DESTROYING TOKYO.

About a two years ago, I even had surgery to alleviate some of my uterus blues. So when I say I’ve tried it, I mean it.

Thankfully, while many of the “surefire” tricks have been nothing more than gimmicks, some have actually helped. And by that I mean improved my ability to deal with debilitating cramps, bloating, pain, or alleviated a period associated annoyance entirely. So, without further ado, here are my favorite seven items and three bonus items to help manage your period.

This post will have links to outside sources, such as Amazon. These links do not affect your prices.

TriggerPoint Massage Gun

Leak proof Bambody Period Panties

Sunbeam Washable Heating Pad

The Period Repair Manual

Pure Enrichment TENS Unit

Blackout Sleep Headphones

Waterproof ipad/tablet case and 2-in1 Bath Caddy (while you’re there, get yourself a nice pair of shatterproof wine glasses and some webcam covers. (You don’t want glass shards happening from a soapy hand, and Big Brother knows too much already; they don’t need to know how many freckles God gave me.)

If you don’t have any of these, you may want to try them! I can’t offer medical advice, but I can tell you that they help me great. My period panties are serious all-stars. Nothing like the comfort of wearing underwear while staying protected, or combining them with other protection methods to ensure zero leakage on heavy days. It gives me peace of mind to sleep soundly.

My trigger massage gun I use multiple times a week, EVERY week. My husband uses it, too. Anytime anyone at my house complains of a sore neck or back, I whip this baby out and impress them. It really feels great and works to relieve tension. (It’s also great for post exercise release.)

My TENS unit is a champ. I’m really surprised how long those batteries last AND how effective it is. It’s really powerful for an at home TENS. Seriously, don’t put it too high or you’ll give yourself the twitches of the century. A BONUS item I’ve come to love is a belt attachment. The one I have isn’t being made anymore, but this is almost the exact same thing. It makes it so much easier to apply to when you’re by yourself!

And the washable heating pad? That thing has been going strong for TEN. YEARS. Granted, it’s just now starting to get a liiiiiiittle too hot with it’s age. Poor thing is losing it’s mind. (As in, suddenly painful heat.) But it’s has been used and abused for ten years. It needs to retire.

And I will replace it with the exact same thing.

There you have it! My favorite items that I use on the reg to improve my period. What works for you? Tell me in the comments!

"XOXO, Amber" in hand-styled script
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This ONE Planning Hack Will Save You Hours

Raise your hand if you love using a planner.

Ok, now put it down.

Now raise your hand if you love the idea of using a planner but is seems super complicated and every time you try, it is great for like a month and then you just drop off the planner train, landing on your caboose.

Does that sound familiar? Me and my ADHD definitely have walked that path before. Overall, planning has really helped me when anxiety or ADHD see a task and MAGNIFY it to impossible proportions. And being able to look at my tasks at a glance and know what is expected of me helps both my anxiety and my ADHD a great deal. I can worry a lot less about forgetting things. I can lessen the overwhelm by seeing tasks I don’t want to do (like dishes) next to things I enjoy (like crafts) and see that the dishes will take me half the time as my embroidery for the day. (YAY!)


This post may contain affiliate links. (Spoiler alert: it does.) For the legal jargon (and my personal stance on recommendations) click here. 

A friend introduced me to this concept about eight years ago, and ever since then, it has remained the one planner hack that I go back to every single time. In my planner, this is a non-negotiable!


This hack saved my anxiety and ADHD, plus helped me save so many hours a week!

First, you need to decide what categories you are going to put your activities under. It can be as many as you want. I tend to find five are what most people use. If you want to borrow my categories, you can save the image below, print it out, write it on a sticky note, or copy and paste it into your digital planner.

Income Generating Activities (IGAs) are any activity I do that contribute to my business. This could be designing a pin, scheduling posts, or designing something for my shop. You would have to decide how you want to use this if you don’t have a side hustle.

Family time – this is time spent with the family! This could be everyone at the dinner table without devices or playing a game together. (May I suggest the latest Mario Party?) It is really important to add this onto your planner. Even if it moves around and you have to retro-actively highlight something in the past, I recommend it. That way, at a glance, you see what your weekly balance is like. Because this color tends to have the least amount of space in my planner, I also include things like doing my Bible reading or going to Bible study in this. I consider my church friends family, so this fits for me!

Self-care – these are things that are good for you, but aren’t necessary to simply being a live. (At least, that’s how I code it.) Things like doing my nails, getting a haircut, etc. If it’s necessary to me not dyeing, I color it orange.

Work – if you have a job or volunteer on the reg, you can consider using this to mark out hours. Don’t forget to include drive time as included hours when you’re highlighting!

Hobbies – yay! This one is pretty self-explanatory. But basically, if you look forward to doing it, it’s fun, and not necessary, it should go here. If you simply LOVE working in your garden, or even going to the gym, it should go here.

Health – I mark everything from cooking, eating, exercise, to medical appointments here. I even include my shower time!

So how does this help you save time or manage anxiety or ADHD?

Well, firstly, I can’t claim it will do any of those things for you. I can, however, attest that it has made a big difference for me and my individual needs. I tend to get anxious when I worry about having enough time to get things done, worrying that I forgot something important, or in general getting discouraged when I look at a generic To-Do list that seems big enough to bury me alive. And it turns out that worrying and redoing a task five times (ADHD yaaay) wastes a LOT OF TIME. If your needs and challenges are similar to mine, give it a try! I’ve heard from a lot of people even without my particular challenges that this method helped them a great deal.

How to Plan

With the color coding system, I like to add a week at a time on a weekly spread. For things like doctors appointments or set dates, I use the monthly spread, and then just add the appointments to my week when I get there. Things changes so often, so I don’t like to write things down in my weekly spread until I’m about to start that week.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT. Use pencil, erasable gel pens (there are also super cute ones, too), or go entirely digital, like I’ve recently done. Pen is a NO-NO! If there’s one thing that irritates me to the point of not being able to concentrate, it’s an illegible planner. You might also want some white out tape, which I prefer, because you don’t have to wait for it to dry! Simply drag it over your mistake and get back to working. Nice!

Once you have your basics penciled in, start with highlighting! Then once you have everything colored, you can now see at a glance if you have an imbalance. Did you not schedule enough family time this week? Is it something you can adjust, or is it something to amend next week? Too many green slots and not enough orange? You can fix that, too!

And that’s it! This little trick has saved me so much time and greatly lessened my mental load.

Have you tried this? Or maybe something similar? What works for you? Let me know in the comments!

Happy planning!

"XOXO, Amber" in hand-styled script