Dream Job?

My husband and I got into a discussion recently regarding the scenario of "if you were to be given a million dollars with the instructions 'go start a business' - what would you do?" This comes from the recent sale of my family business (my dad's business) and his retirement this past month (he's really only been "done" for less than a week) and my statement that I wouldn't have minded taking over his business one day, except that Dry Cleaning did not hold my interest in the slightest. For my dad, it wasn't about Dry Cleaning, it was about business. He wanted his own business, and this one fell in his lap 26 years ago. So he ran with it.

My first reaction was "start a business? Um, maybe photography? Like portraits and weddings and stuff?" but honestly, that's not where my passion is. I love books - reading them, writing them, discussing them. But you can't really make it as an independent bookstore in this day and age and I don't see "becoming an author" as the same thing as "starting a business." I did add the caveat that if I was given a million dollars and told to go make a living, I would hire a nanny/housekeeper for my children/home and write full-time. I'd spend a lot of time not-at-home with a nice laptop writing and writing and writing. I'd start some writing groups or something because I also need that social interaction (or maybe I'd just continue to sell Thirty-one? I mean, I really do like that part and it certainly allows me to have that adult-social thing, plus - PRETTY BAGS! Shopping! Happy people!) but I want to write. Even if it's crap. (because sometimes, you get stuck and so you write crap. I imagine that even happens to seasoned authors.)

But this brings up a great discussion: What would YOU do if someone handed you a million dollars and told you to start a business/make a living?

Ranting/Venting No one wants to hear this

Man, I really hate myself right now. I want to look nice in clothes, but nothing fits right, nothing makes me look like something other than what I am - a fat cow. The fat just rolls over my waistband. I look awful. Tub of lard. I want my hair to look nice, but in the heat and humidity, my bangs curl up within about 5 minutes of walking out the door and I'm sweating a bucket, so I look good for all of 30 seconds. And even that "good" is a far cry from what I would prefer. I have no skill with the make up brush. Or maybe I do, but my make up isn't a magician and since what I want is to look better than I do, at my current "best" it simply comes across as no skill.

I'm fat, unhappy, and PMSing. I'm stressed. My house is a disaster, my schedule is one long list of things I need to get done, but don't want to do, things are just not that good right now.

Declutter, Day 2

Today we attacked Fuss's room. This is particularly difficult because I'm trying to make her a part of it in order to teach her some better habits than I grew up with (my mom will be the first to tell you that she is not a good housekeeper!) and she wants to keep it all. I understand this, because I'm very sentimental and also I like things around me. BUT she has SO much which was never my plan when we started having kids. I always planned to keep her toys and things to a minimum - enough so that she had plenty of things to play with, but few enough so she could really appreciate the things she had. We fought over every single "friend" (stuffed animals and dolls) and at one point, she cried when I told her she'd reached the maximum and she was going to need to say good-bye to Nemo.

We're not done. We have plenty more to do in her room. Her clothes need to be gone through desperately, especially since she'll be starting Pre-K in the fall. She's grown so tall this year that she physically still fits in a lot of her stuff, but it's much too short for her to be truly modest. Skorts, shorts and jeans all need to be weeded out and we need to take stock of what we need to get for school.

Happy Decluttering Month! Day 1

In the House of Fuss, I have declared that this is Decluttering Month. We have too much stuff. We have too much junk. We have too much CLUTTER! So I have declared war on the clutter and we are cleaning up and clearing OUT!

July 1st: I attacked the linen closet. I should have taken a before picture, but rest assured, the "After" is so much better! I wanted to use all my Thirty-One products to make it prettier, but honestly, the ones I need in that tiny space I don't have enough to show to my clients and also use, so they are on my personal wish list.

My husband worked on clearing out my (former) "Reading Nook" which had become wasted space/a 4x4 corner of our room that was just a catch all and was completely useless. We've purchased an exercise bike and set that up in that space and while we do need to rearrange things out there, so far, so good. I LOVE my bike - I'm so excited to get started!