Single + Childless = Boring?

**Disclaimer: this blog isn't the happy peppy, Becca that you all know and love! This is more getting something off my chest. I promise that my next blog won't be so bitter and gloomy.*



Over the past month, I've had two situations occur that have made me scratch my head and wonder why people have said things the way that they did. The first time it happened, I was curious as to why that person had said what they did and it made me think about it for weeks. The second time, I realized that these words more than made me think, they actually hurt my feelings a smidge.

I've recently had people pass judgment on me and my life because I am not in a relationship/married, and because I do not have any children.

*A friend asked me if I had the opportunity to watch a particular movie over a period of a few weeks. I had told him no, I had not watched it yet and immediately I was told "How do you not have any time to watch it? You don't have any family or kid type responsibilities to worry about."

*Last week at work, we had a Cupcake Bake-Off for our department. I was appointed the person to organize it and get everything set up. I had sent out an email to our entire group 3 weeks prior letting them know the details and all that good stuff to participate. The night before I spent (along with my sister and one of my best friends) cooking cupcakes, decorating cupcakes and making everything perfect for the competition. I spent a good amount of money, and a great amount of time in making them to perfection to win a prize for the bake off. I took them to work the next day, and many people who said that they would participate backed out at the last minute. That's fine, I understand that life can be busy and things come up. No big deal! However, someone saw my cupcakes and the only thing that came out of her mouth was, "Wow. We can tell that someone has a lot of time on her hands with no kids or family to worry about."

These two statements truly made me think about not only my current life, but my future as well. I don't know if they think that it is a choice that I have made to not have a significant other in my life, or if I don't want a family - but that couldn't be further from the truth. Honestly, I could potentially have a significant other and children in my current life, but I have chosen not to marry any of my boyfriends who I knew that we were not meant to be life long partners. I am not going to run out and find just anyone to fill a missing void. I want to know in my heart the person that I am going to spend the rest of my life with is that person. Until then, I will continue to be the single girl that I currently am.

However, does being a single girl with no family make me boring? I do not spend my time as a single girl going out to the bars drinking every night. I do not go out with friends every night. I do not spend my time in my bed crying that I am alone. Instead, I spend my time bettering my career and working as hard as I can from the hours of 8:30am - 5:30pm. When I leave work, I either run errands, come home and cook dinner, clean my place, spend time with my family, spend time with friends, go to Weight Watchers, go to the gym, and yes maybe I spend some time sitting on my couch watching my favorite tv shows. The weekends are busy doing housework, grocery shopping, helping my parents remodel their house, volunteering for the Food Pantry of Delaware County, etc.

Does this seem to be the life of a boring person who has all the time in the world on their hands? Additionally, why am I being judged for being single and alone?

I look at all of my friends who are married, with or without children, and I am the FIRST person to congratulate them for their relationships and growing families. I am happy for anyone who is able to create that cute little family and I am honored to watch their families grow. Everyone deserves to be happy, and everyone deserves the best life possible. I just hope that at some point those all around who have those single friends remember that being single isn't always a choice, and many of us want what others have. Until then, I will continue to keep busy with my "boring, single girl life with no responsibilities." Sigh.

In the words of my favorite "single" role model, Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City:

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.” --Carrie Bradshaw

Whooooo's Having a Baby???

There is really only a few times a year that I feel like I have "creative juices." The #1 event that would involve my favorite use of creative juices would be Christmas. I love Christmas cards. I love making my Christmas card. I love taking the annual picture to put on front of my Christmas cards. Let's face it, I just love cards in general. I also love that people look forward to seeing what my card will look like and look forward to receiving it! Makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

A friend of mine recently asked me if I would be interested in making some Baby Shower invites for her dear friend who is expecting twin boys. I thought to myself, eh - why not!? I enjoy this time of stuff and another event to hopefully bring a smile to people's faces with the final product. I agreed, and am thrilled that I did with the way that the final product came out! Thankfully, my dear sister helped me with every aspect of the invites - we were a fantastic team of two!

The inspiration of the card was the Baby Boy's Nursery. The Parents-to-be decided to decorate in green and browns with owls. I won't lie, I was scared out of my wits when I heard the decor in wondering what creative juices I had to create these invites!

Kate and I went to every craft/scrapbooking store in Central Ohio to find all of the perfect supplies that would create an invite that would make the Mama-to-be cry! :)

After about a week of non-stop working on the invites on the weekends and after we both came home from work, they were finally complete!

This is the front of the invite, with the ribbon that you actually pull off rather than un-tying. We have the two owls on the front to represent the Twin Boys Johnson.
And... the inside! This is the part that took a TON of time but at the end of the day, I couldn't be more pleased! Every leaf under in the center was handcut, the branches were hand drawn, the little placed owl was handcut and glued one by one! Green and brown are the dominant colors to represent the colors that are being used in the nursery.
Today, is the baby shower!

I received a surprise message from the hostess today which made me smile ear to ear! They used the front two owls of the card, the branches as well as the brown and white polka dot ribbon as the inspiration for the cake! Everything matches perfectly!
Though it was a long and stressful time getting all of these complete, I wouldn't trade it for the world! On the flip side, it was so much fun and seeing the final product complete made me realize how I wouldn't mind doing this again! Kate and I always joked around about how we should do things like this, but I am serious! I loved it and would do it again anytime!

I hope that the shower today went off without a hitch, and everyone enjoyed the themselves and that the soon-to-be baby boys know how lucky they are to have such loving people in their lives!

The Pacific Northwest Collection

If you were to ask me, "Becca, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" Most people would likely say a sunny tropical beach, a little French village, a rustic Tuscan Vineyard... but if you were to ask me right now, I'd say Seattle, Washington.

As many people know, my family is originally from the Pacific Northwest (Washington & Alaska). I was born the Seattle area in 1981, and lived there until I was in the 4th grade. We packed up and moved to Sacramento, California until the end of my 8th grade year. Once again, live moved us to Columbus, Ohio. I hold very special thoughts and feelings for all of the places that I've lived and wouldn't trade my life in each place for anything. (However, I won't lie... there were PLENTY of things I'd like to erase from my time in Sacramento. Damn those middle school years!) I am now inching towards the ripeful age of 30, and as much as I love my life in Columbus, my heart wonders what it would have been like to have lived my life with family near by. So many Thanksgivings, Christmas's, Easters, the Warren clan was just us four. Occasionally, we would have family come to visit, or we would go to visit them. Although, majority of the time - it was just us. My Dad, My Mom, My Sister and myself.

My family is growing older. My cousins are having babies and our families are expanding. I'm missing Wedding Showers, Baby Showers, and major Holiday's with my family. I will admit though, I am very lucky to have the ability to go back and visit my family minimum once a year. Sometimes more. I've learned from my Mom, that a new piece of art everytime I go back is a way to bring a little piece of "home" back to Ohio. It's a horrible habit, really... and quite frankly, just expensive! I love the hunt during my trips to find just the perfect piece of art to hang on my walls. I joke that my bedroom is called the "Pacific Northwest Greenhouse." All of the art are flowers, from the Pacific Northwest and up until this past weekend - my bedding was green. (Hello, Crate & Barrel and new bedding this past weekend!)

Featured below, every piece of artwork that I have in my room alone that brings "home" closer to me.

Piece #1: This is my newest picture which came from Alaska. My parents went up this past Summer, and my Mom had picked this picture out for me. I still need to have it framed, but it is still pretty nonetheless!

Piece #2: Another Alaska piece: Pressed Alaskan Wildflowers. This picture is actually hanging up in my bathroom. I've decorated around it, and everything in my bathroom is yellow and green.

Piece #3: Nothing screams Seattle, like the Pike Street Market! If I lived in Seattle again, I would find anyway I possibly could to get there every weekend! The fruit, the veggies, the flowers... by far the absolute best Farmer's Market in the world. Oh, and did I mention the Original Starbucks directly across the street? The atmosphere is so lively and fun! I would be crazy not to have a piece of Pike Street in my collection.
Piece #4: Nothing screams Seattle to me than Springtime flowers. Whether it be tulip fields, daffodil fields, blooming daliahs, or budding hydrangea bushes... the more flowers in my life, the better! This picture is clearly still waiting to be framed, but will be by this winter. When it does get framed it will look like................

Piece #5: This! Same artist did both of these paintings. My favorite thing about this picture is not only the flowers but the mountain! I heart Mt. Rainier. As much as I love looking out my window in my current condo and seeing my pond and fountain, I'd rather prefer to look out my window to see the mountain. Awww, the mountain. This picture used to be the focal point of my bedroom... until........

Piece(s) #6: These came along! I bought these pictures of Alaskan Fireweed in Homer, Alaska last Spring. They were sold individually, but they were all so eye catching I could not decide between the three and buying just one. In typically Becca Fashion, I bought all three. These three pictures were the inspiration in purchasing my new bedding this past weekend.

I'll post pictures of the bedding and pictures together later... if you saw my room right now, you'd think a tornado just came barreling through Dublin.

Growing up, I have had tons of collections. I've collected Dreamsicles (my collection of 15 has now minimized to the meaningful ones given to me), I've collected [shamefully] Winnie the Pooh memorabilia (don't judge me! I was much younger and do not collect them anymore!), I've also collected college hoodie sweatshirts. However, as much as I still love all of my hoodies, my pictures are by far a few of "my favorite things."