Mommy Debate: Taking on Extra Work vs. Spending Time with Your Baby

As a mom, I’m a busy lady. Actually, as a person in general I’m a busy lady.

I’ve always been that way though… I’m at my happiest when I have a bunch of stuff going on and I’d probably be totally confused if my brain only had to think about one thing at a time.

Last Fall, when I was dealing with the ‘oh crap I’m losing my job’ drama I started doing freelance on the side. My plan was that if I couldn’t find a job with my growing preggo belly, I’d at least have something to fall back on for a while. It wasn’t a long term plan at the time, because momma needs health insurance. However, one of my possible plans is to go strictly freelance at some point in the future.

I LOVED working on my own terms and kept on a few of my clients when I started my new/current position in December. However, when I popped out my baby everyone pretty much disappeared – which I chalked up to them giving me some space to bond with my mini me.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I got a call from my favorite freelance client. He had an event about a week away and really needed me to design an event program. I really, really wanted to do the job because I hadn’t used my design muscles in a little while. But, now that I have a baby and a full time job, I had to think of whether it was worth it to take on additional work.

In the pro’s list:

  • My brain was happy about the thought of doing design work again.
  • Extra money is always nice!
  • I truly enjoy working with the client.
  • The quick timing of the project meant that I would be doing the majority of work a couple evenings after my main job with edits over the weekend.

In the con’s list:

  • I was already working away from Jack 3 days a week, sometimes gone from 7:30 am – 10:00 pm.
  •  My husband also works full days and would need to pick up the slack by keeping Jack downstairs and happy while I shut myself in the office to work.
  • Our computer really, really needs an upgrade so it has gotten a bit frustrating to do design work with a bunch of programs open at a time. Of course, this could totally be solved with the extra freelance money being used to buy a new computer…

Also, I feared that passing up on this opportunity would prove to the client that I’ve lost my edge and can’t handle any freelance jobs now that I have a baby.

With all these thoughts in mind, I decided to commit to the project. My husband fully supported me and kept Jack occupied so that I could lock myself away for two evenings after work from about 6pm – midnight. Taking care of the additional edits was a breeze, since we were both home that weekend. The best part was that my client was extremely happy with the results and (even better) pays invoices promptly.

Would I take on extra projects every week?

Probably not.

As much as I loved challenging myself with the work, I was super tired after knocking out the project in addition to my full time job and nighttime feedings.

However, taking on a project every so often reminds me who the old Joules used to be before I had mommy brain and blathered on about how cute my kid is.

So what do you think –knowing how quickly kids grow up would it be worth it to you to take on additional work? As always, feel free to comment here, on my facebook page or tweet me @JoulesDellinger.

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Sunroom on a Budget

Since we moved into our new house at the end of January, I’ve been attacking each room one at a time to make it over. I like our home to feel more like “us” and I’m never satisfied with the way things were set up before.*

Most rooms weren’t too much of a challenge, since we basically moved furniture from our old house into our new house. Throw a little paint on the walls, arrange the furniture, dig up some décor from my stash and we’re good to go.

I kept putting off the sunroom though, even though I had to walk through it at least a half dozen times a day to let the dog out. I couldn’t paint it because it’s basically made of plastic – most of the window surrounds are plastic and even the one wall of the room which connects it to the house is a plastically kind of wainscoting. I was actually thinking of painting it anyways using a latex based paint, but decided against it as that could go horribly wrong and it would be virtually impossible to return the room to its current state.

The room is great though – all of the windows fully recede so that the walls turn into a screened in porch. The flooring is also nice, so I didn’t really have any changes to make there. What I really wanted was to have a seating area so that we could hang out with company on nice days with the breeze flowing through. I also wanted a table area for casual dining. Lastly, I didn’t want it to be too fussy because I envision Jack using the space when he’s a little older to color with crayons or paint with a watercolor set.

I’d love to be able to go out and buy an awesome patio set, like maybe a fun sectional from Crate & Barrel or West Elm, but frankly I’m too cheap to spend a couple thousand dollars on an outdoor couch. However, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for any super clearance deals at the end of the summer.

My parents inherited a beat up set of furniture and decided to take it down to our shared Ocean City house since they had a much nicer set on their deck. However, I begged and pleaded for them to give it to me (and then sent my husband over with his truck to swipe it) since I really needed extra seating for the baptism picnic we had a few weeks ago.

It was really dirty, but I scrubbed the crap out of it and under about 8 layers of dirt came up with a half decent set of furniture. Actually, it was a pretty expensive brand and was super comfortable to sit on. It was just really worn looking and had a super dated pattern on the cushions.

Close up of a chair arm — see how it’s all gray and worn?

After the party, we just kind of threw it in the sunroom with our existing leftover table and mismatched chairs. Not exactly a homey look.

So, I decided to do what I always do…bring out the spray paint!

And this is how I remade over our sunroom for less than $180.00

  1. Spray paint existing patio furniture (3 cans of spray paint and one small can of regular paint — Oil Rubbed Bronze color, same as our cabinet knobs) = $29.31
  2. Make super easy slipcovers** out of navy blue sheets from Walmart (2 twin flat sheets and 1 king flat sheet) = $25.97
  3. Bring in an awesome rug I found at Homegoods = $49.99
  4. Add three trays, also found at Homegoods = $18.98
  5. The place totally needed some fun pillows, so I bought two on sale from West Elm = $54.98
  6. Steal stuff from other rooms and my décor stash (green pillow, lantern, glass bowl with balls, yellow antique pitcher, handmade coasters, assorted candles and my fabulous gay sparkle squirrel) = FREE

= Total of $179.23

Here are the before shots:

The super dated patio furniture that I scored for FREE
The full room view with the seating area and the dining room table (bought off Craigslist a year or so ago for $40 and used as a sewing table at our last house)

And here’s the after:

Not so new, but greatly improved!
Same dining room table, I just added a fun centerpiece to tie into the rest of the room and removed the old rug.

Here’s a close up so you can check out my mad spray painting skillz

Since I made the slipcovers out of bed sheets, you can just take them off to wash them and then throw them back on again. Perfect for what I’m only assuming is going to be a very messy baby/toddler playing on them.

Anyways, it’s only been a few days but I’m totally loving the changes. I have a few more things I’m going to do — like switch out the dining room chairs and maybe make a fun table runner or placemats in a few shades of blue. This is a good start though, because now when I walk through the room to let Potter out it makes me smile.

Totally worth $180.00, right?!

*Unlike the people who purchased our townhouse. I went back a month after we moved to pick up some mail and the buyer wanted to show me around (even though I’d prefer to keep my memories intact with the way it used to be).  On the house tour I realized that they left everything exactly the same. Same paint colors. Same furniture placement. They even hung pictures in the exact same spaces and I had filled all the old picture hanging holes and painted them too!.  The really odd thing was that they had a picture in one of the bathrooms that was almost exactly like the one I had previously put there. Creepy or flattering… I can’t quite decide!

**To make the slipcovers, all I did was: 1. wash sheets, 2. pin the fabric around the cushion, 3. sew three sides so that it looked like a super long pillow case, 3. put the sewn slipcovers on the old cushions, 4. safety pin the bottom. At some point, I’ll probably buy some velco and use that instead of the safety pins.

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My name is Joules and I’m addicted to Instagram

My husband and I just got iPhones on Saturday night and I’m already addicted to Instagram.

I’m pretty sure that the Instagram thing has already gone from super cool to totally lame now, but I don’t even care. I love it so much – and not just regular love… more like that big, sloppy kisses kind of love.

I feel a little guilty about having googly eyes for Instagram, because using the snazzy pre-set filters feels like cheating to me. I mean, I actually took photography classes in college, learned how to develop my own film and regularly make Photoshop my bitch – it’s just too easy to pick “1977” and have an awesome picture!

But just like everyone else out there, I totally jumped on the Instagram bandwagon. And I’m pushing my guilt away and going for it, because it just feels too good to appreciate the beautiful sky of a cloudy day again.

Here’s what I shot so far:

The very first photo I shot — my baby was asleep so I chased my dog around.
This is my sister, Katie. I think we were talking about cannibalism and she said “I wonder what people taste like?” before biting into her sandwich. Yup, she’s obviously related to me.
This is my brother, Jason. I’m kind of obsessed with this picture and totally want him to make it his facebook profile shot.
This is my husband (Travis) and baby (Jack) — we were at a wine festival and they decided to take a little nap.
It is really odd to me that my siblings can drink, especially considering that I was 12 when my brother was born. FYI – this is not a full pack o’ siblings, we’re missing my sister Kelsey.
This is Jack, trying to crawl over his daddy. Unfortunately he doesn’t know that he can’t crawl yet.
This is Jack if he were a cop.
This is a rainbow we saw on our way home… I told you I was out of control with the pictures!
My friend and her son (you may recognize her from Live Wonderstruck…)
Me and my boy
Jack’s first shoes. Yes, they have tiny little skulls on them because he’s badass.

If you’re interested in following me and keeping track of my way, way, way too many Instagram shots in a day, you can find me under the username pocketfulofjoules.

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