Adventures in building...

How did I get here? 
Once my mommy and daddy shared a special hug....just kidding. How did I get here...to this point in my life? Long story short...I went to college. I moved to Texas for grad school. I graduated and took a job in PR. I took another job in non-profit education and PR. I moved back to my college town for a job in marketing and PR at my alma mater. And then four months ago...I accepted a new job as a marketer for a local hospital. And now, I have moved back to my hometown after being gone for 15 years.

A grown-up living space
When I moved back to my home state of Mississippi five years ago, my parents advised me to purchase my first home to begin building equity. Reluctant and scared for this HUGE life event, I did it. And I loved my first home. It was a great place to entertain and sleep. And it sold very quickly when I moved.

Now I'm in a more settled position in my career and financially. When I decided to go house hunting, I stumbled upon a new neighborhood being built in the suburbs of my hometown.  Something inside of me said "this is it." I can't explain the feeling, except that I fell in love. At first (online) sight. After a series of phone calls and emails with my parents, we found out that a long-time family friend was building in this neighborhood. A few talks later, instead of my finding an older house to purchase and do minor renovations to, I have decided to build. I'm building a house. Wow.

Why wait?
I recently had a conversation with a girl not too much younger than me, and she said she wanted to wait and build her dream home after she's married. My immediate question to her was "why wait?"

Why wait? Seriously? The decision to build was a lot easier than I imagined. I'm 33. I'm single. And I needed a new home. Never in a million years did I think I could afford this by myself, but it turns out I can. So I'm jumping off the ledge and just doing it.

If I waited around for that what if, for that husband and family that may never come, then I would just spend my life waiting around. I'm not that kind of girl. I'm proud of the life and career I've built for myself, and I'm not going to sit on my tush waiting for Mr. Right to come along and help me build a house. I'm going to do it now. For myself and by myself. (Well, and with help from my parents.) And I'll enjoy every square inch of it.

Dream House or House Dream? 
I wouldn't call the home I'm building a dream house. If you know me, you know I have Cristal tastes on a Korbel budget. I picked a set of plans out and a lot out of two choices from my building. I get to customize my colors and finishes, but I'm not building a custom home. I can't afford my dream house, but I can build a house that will be my dream.

I'm so excited to walk through the process, from dirt work to hanging the final picture on the wall. I have a vision of what I want, and I'm going to make this house everything that I want it to be. Within budget of course. (I'll probably need some help keeping the money on track.) And I know, that however it turns out, this will be a home that is my refuge, a place to welcome friends and family, and  place to create many lifelong memories.

I hope you enjoy the process as I go along. I know I will!

A blogger resurrected

A wise friend from grad school once told me that if I wanted to get serious about being a writer, I needed to start a blog. So way back in like 2004 I did. And I blogged for a long time about a lot of different topics. It went from theological discussions to craft projects to what I was cooking to what I did on a Saturday night. Then, in 2009, I took a job that required a lot of writing. So my blogging went away.

Well, it's 2014. I have a new job. I'm in a new/old town. And I don't write quite as much as in the past. In an effort to keep my skills fresh, here we go again...

Welcome to Spotted Arrow. The name comes from my obsession with Kacey Musgrave's song "Follow Your Arrow," and black and white polka dotted things. Also, the SP in spotted represents my initials. Eventually I'll design a cool header for the blog with my name and some sort of arrow design.

What can you expect from this blog? Well, my current biggest project is building a house. So expect a lot of home/decorating type posts. I also dilly dally with small design projects, and am considering selling my designs very cheaply on Etsy. And who knows beyond that. The point is to keep me writing and keep my skills fresh. It's really all about me.

Read or don't. I doubt I'll be super interesting. But maybe I'll put some helpful things out there about building a house. Or being a marketer. Or cooking, because I cook a lot. Or just general life things.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

SP

This shall eventually be launched.