DO YOU KNOW YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE?

I have always been fascinated by personality tests.

I love learning more about why I do the weird things that I do. I love hearing all of the wonderful things about myself (and conveniently skipping the "weaknesses" section, haha...am I right? that part always kinda stings). I think we all like to hear that we're not crazy, and sometimes taking a personality test will explain your little quirks and make you feel so much better about them.

I think I have mentioned this before, but I was a psychology minor in college (I was obsessed with my psych classes), and I remember reading about one of the most scientifically accurate tests, the Myers-Briggs. I recently retook the test and wow, it really is just scary-accurate.

My personality type is INFP.

Here are some of my traits, according to the test:
- intuitive about people
- prefers to work alone (as I sit in my apartment with my dog)
- not detail oriented (amen.)
- creative, passionate
- have a hard time choosing a career (uh...yeah)
- idealistic, won't do something just to do it, or for the money alone
- hates conflict (I'm the biggest pushover, seriously)
- super hard on themselves, perfectionists (see this post)
- does not take criticism well (might explain why I hate the "weaknesses" section...)
- wants to help people

...I mean, I could not have written more accurate statements about myself. There were so many times, when reading over my type that I was physically nodding my head. It's like "someone finally understands me!".

I highly encourage all of you to take the Myers-Briggs and see what it says about you. If you're still in school or considering your career path, it might even help you to avoid things that are not a good match with your personality type. I could have eliminated several career options from my list in college, had I taken my type seriously!

Let me know your type, and whether or not you found it to be accurate in the comments section. xo

WHEN LIFE GETS CRAZY: 4 TIPS

I am not the kind of person who glorifies being busy. I always strive for balance. I enjoy working on things that I love, and then relaxing with the ones that I love: "work hard, play hard", if you will.

So, when I tell you that the past month has been crazy busy, you know that I am not saying that as a humblebrag.

On top of doing a partnership with zulily, taking a weeklong trip to visit family, working on reorganizing my shop with a new company, and having my website redesigned, Wes and I moved to a new place.

That's a lot of stuff for one little month!

Yes, we did move out of our house after having it for less than a year. And yes, we are crazy people (more on that later).

Now that we are all moved into our new place and my workload is calming down a little bit, I thought I would reflect on this crazy month, and let you know what I learned about keeping your head above water when you're totally stressed.

1. Work in "chunks"
When my to-do list is running off of the page, emails are awaiting responses, the dog is barking, and I have errands to run, I have this "fight or flight" response that makes me just want to throw in the towel and lie down! I get paralyzed by being overwhelmed with stress, so it really helps me to break my workload into chunks of time. I will set the timer on my phone for an hour and work non-stop at something for that amount of time, and then I'll take a ten minute break. This helps keep me from going from one thing to the next, checking Facebook, wasting time, etc.

2. Cut back where you can
I hated to do it, but for about a week and a half, I shut down my main shop as well as my Etsy shop. I just couldn't keep up with orders on top of everything else that I had going on. Sometimes, you just have to cut something out and come back to it later. I don't regret it one bit, and I would recommend doing the same if you can!

3. Prioritize
This is obvious, but you have identify the crucial tasks on your list, and tackle the most important things first. When we were selling the house, there were things that had to be done to prepare, and everything else had to be put on hold.

4. Identify what you're in control of
I am an anxious person anyway, so when I'm stressed, it just goes to another level. When my eyes started twitching from the anxiety, I realized I needed to take a stress inventory. It really helps me a lot to look my fears right in the eye, make a mental list about them, and identify which of them are in my control. Sometimes I  worry about things that are completely out of my control, which is such a waste of time! Identifying these fruitless worries helps me to make my peace with them, and then that's one less stressor on the list.

I hope that was helpful for any of you who are stressed out at the moment - I have learned a lot from this crazy month! Oh and if that doesn't work for you, I recommend wine. ;)

Let me know how you deal with stress and being busy in the comments below! xo

BUSY, BUSY

Whew! It's been crazy around here lately, you guys.

About a month ago, the online daily discount site, Zulily, reached out to me about featuring me in three different collections, including an entire Charm & Gumption collection (which will be happening next week)! I mean...whhaaaaa???

This is one of the biggest things to ever happen for me with Charm & Gumption and I have been just so honored and thrilled to be a part of this big name site.

So, my days have been spent literally just keeping up with orders. Lately, I have been feeling like I really need to figure out some way to get my time freed up a little bit. I need to have enough time to grow the business not just keep my head above water. I'm still working on that.

In the evenings, I have been on a serious cleaning and organizing rampage. I don't know what's up with that, but I do get in those moods from time to time. A couple of nights ago I got up out of bed at 11 pm and started cleaning out my closet until 3am. Seriously...who does that?

from my personal instagram

(ps. cut up a pool noodle and put it in your boots to keep them standing up! thanks Pinterest!)

If you have the same organization-freak tendencies, might I suggest this youtube channel, made by a girl who is the real life Monica Geller. Every single square inch of her home is perfectly organized and labeled. She's my hero. She opens her filing cabinet, and I swear the angels sing. Warning: it fuels the fire. I find myself thinking things like "I really need to organize my coffee and tea packets". Not normal!

Anyway, I thought I would check in and give you a little update! I should have a new video and post up on Friday. xo!

LIFE LATELY | gardening, grilling, summertime

I hope you guys had a great week! Here's what I've been up to lately, according to my iPhone pictures.

Last month, we planted a tiny little garden in our flower bed, and it has been so exciting to see everything start to grow. There's just something so simple and wonderful about growing and eating your own food. I've especially been enjoying homemade caprese salads!

For Christmas, my parents got us a grill and we have definitely been putting it to good use lately, with watermelon for dessert, obviously! Mmm I love summertime...

cheese-stuffed grilled peppers. yes.

I've been finding lots of 4 leaf clovers...

top is from j.crew factory

& these two have been cracking me up, as usual. :)

Have a great weekend! xo

MEET MY SISTER, HEATHER!

When I was in Ohio last weekend, I convinced my sister, Heather, to film the popular "Sister Tag" video with me for my Youtube channel. We had so much fun! Check it out below and be sure to watch the bloopers at the end, especially if you're a Friends fan! ;) haha

Have a great weekend!

Here is the list of questions if you would like to film your own:

1. How old are you both?

2. Describe each other in one word?

3. Do people ever get you mixed up?

4. What is something that annoys you about one another?

5. What is it like being sister with a youtube "guru"?

6. Do you ever argue?

7. Whats the best thing about one another?

8. Ditch the dirt?

9. Fave inside joke?

10. Fave memory together?

11. Full sisters/half/step?

12. Guess each others fave singer?

13. Who takes longer to get ready

14. Heels or flats?

15. Pants or dresses?

16. Favorite animal?

17. If your house was burning down, and your entire family was sure to be okay, what would you save and why?

18. Comedy, horror, or chick-flick?

19. Blackberry or iPhone?

20. Favorite movie?

21. What is something weird that you eat?

22. Do you guys have anything matching?

23. What's your favorite TV show?

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

This past weekend, Wes and I went up to Ohio to visit our family, and I thought I would share some of our trip.

On Saturday, I went with my sister, mom, and mother-in-law to get mani pedis and frozen yogurt and we had so much fun. It's nice to have a girls' day every once in a while!

On Sunday, Wes' aunt had a cookout at her house. After eating my weight in pasta salad and watermelon, I took some clips on my camera (which I'm still getting used to using) and made it into a video, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

It was a weekend full of food, babies, and sunshine...what more could you ask for?!

What did you do for the holiday weekend? Let me know in the comments!

MY EDUCATION & CAREER BACKGROUND / COFFEE CHAT!

A lot of you have asked about my educational background, and wanted to know what jobs I had before opening my own business. I will warn you: I wouldn't look at my story as a road map to get to entrepreneurship. haha - I kind of "took the long way around".

For me, my career has been a process of trial and error; narrowing down what I wanted to do based on trying things and identifying what I definitely didn't want to do. It's not the most efficient way of doing things! But I always find it interesting to hear other people's stories, and if this is of interest to you, grab yourself a cup of coffee and check out my casual "coffee chat" video below!

INSTAGRAMS OF THE WEEK

Next week I'll be back to my Friday outfit posts, but I was still pretty swollen this week so I thought I would just share my photos from Instagram, in case you missed them!

I was so excited to see our Bartlett Pear tree in full bloom! Spring has sprung :)

sometimes I match my mug with my top...

I recently got a few things from Sephora and they always send the best samples! I love Prada Candy so much and I can already tell that it will be my next perfume. Do any of you have it?

I was so excited to lighten up my hair with some balayage highlights at Element Salon here in Nashville - I feel like a new person and so ready for the warmer months!

My flashback pic of the week is from 4/4/08 the night that Wes and I started dating - 6 years ago! I can't believe it's been that long.

I'm obsessed with Jennet's Instagram feed (@jennetsaitquoi) and this inspiring lettering that she created - amazing.

Follow along with my Instagrams @charmandgumption! Have a great weekend! xo

A LITTLE (NOT SO FUN) ANNOUNCEMENT: SEPTOPLASTY

Hey guys! I hope you're having a fabulous week so far! Today, I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow afternoon I will be having a septoplasty / sinus surgery to fix my deviated septum and do other various things to my nose so that I can breathe normally. Right now I can barely breathe through my right nostril and I get about a hundred sinus infections a year so this has been a long time coming.

I wanted to let you know because I may be a little MIA on here (though I am going to try and schedule a few posts for the week) and on Youtube, and I will be putting my Etsy shop in vacation mode for a little while (maybe up to a week?). I really don't know what to expect because I have done hours of Internet / social media searches (typical me) and some people say that it is the worst experience of their lives and others say it really isn't too bad.

Unfortunately, there is no way to put my boutique in vacation mode so if you are planning to place an order on there, it may take slightly longer than usual for it to get to you (although I'm hoping it won't!). Luckily, being nose surgery, I will be able to be up and moving around once I feel better and am no longer heavily medicated so hopefully I will be able to be back to work fairly soon. I'll definitely be back to filling orders and blogging probably a week before I'm back to vlogging because it will take a little longer for my swelling to go down and such and I don't want to scare any of my Youtube followers - ha!

If you have recently placed an order, don't worry! I am getting all of the orders filled down to the last second before I put my shop in vacation mode and made-to-order items will have been sent to the printers already.

So, that's what's going on with me! Pray for me tomorrow if you think of it! I'm a little nervous...

NEW OFFICE ORGANIZATION

I can't even tell you guys how much my life has improved since getting my own office in the new house! Just having a place to keep everything for the shop out and organized makes my day so much more efficient (I used to work in a corner of the living room in our old apartment).

Yesterday, the mister and I put together this new Ikea Expedit Workstation (which consists of this shelf and this table). It is perfect for containing all of my shipping supplies and prints, and the attached table is the perfect shipping work area. I already had the smaller Expedit on the left, so I put it next to the larger one and made a giant shelf wall for all of the boutique items. I highly recommend the workstation for any other shop owners out there - it is the best solution I have found.

I want to get about 8 more of these under shelf baskets as well because they double the storage space:

I also hung this pretty garland up on the opposite wall, which makes the room a little sparklier. I can't wait to hang more art up in the house! I've been waiting until other priorities are done, like painting, but hanging art always makes a house feel more homey.

The second I got the camera out, Chester posed for me, so I had to take his picture too of course (such a little diva, this dog). :)

I hope you guys have a great week! xo

GOODBYE LITTLE APARTMENT

We're officially moved out of our beloved little apartment where we started our marriage and lived for the last three years. We are both so excited about our new house, but couldn't help but be a little nostalgic and sad about leaving this little space. We also couldn't believe that we lived there for so long once we saw how tiny it looked with no furniture! haha

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

About a year ago, we were looking for a house to rent. But we couldn't find anything in our price range and the right location, so we decided to just make the most out of our current apartment. That turned out nice and worked for a while, but we obviously still needed more space. After a period of considering moving back to Ohio, we decided to stay here for at least a few more years so it made sense to make an investment and buy a house!

The new house is further out of town than our current apartment which is right in the middle of the action. But after living here for a few years, it is worth it to us to live a little further away and have more space for our money.

Having our own house is such a dream come true! I'm so excited to move out of this tiny space, which feels tinier than ever right now! We close on the new house in about a month so things will be a little bit crazy for a while, but I will try to keep you guys updated as much as possible. xo!

NEW WEBSITE IS LIVE!

I've been the absolute worst blogger ever lately! So sorry, you guys. I've just been super busy with business stuff and I've been working on my fancy new website! I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. I designed a few wedding suites, baby announcements, shower invitations, and such with many more designs to come in the future. I still have a lot of tweaking to do on little things that bother me with the site (stupid perfectionism!), but the site is up and working so I thought I would show you, and let you know that I'm still alive haha. I hope you've had a great week - TGIF! xo

Check it out here!

JUICING, AND MY FAVORITE JUICE RECIPE

Wes and I recently bought a juicer, and we're loving it! I thought I would share my favorite juice...

Every morning I've been making grapefruit apple juice rather than my old breakfast beverage (coffee or an energy drink). You just juice one grapefruit and one apple - it's super easy. It's actually really energizing, and about a million times healthier. Wes likes to make green juice in the morning, which I also really like.

There's a lot of hype about juice cleanses right now too, but I don't really think that's a good idea for me. I'm sure it's super healthy, but it seems a little extreme. I think I might go crazy. haha Have you guys ever done a juice cleanse?

If you've been thinking about getting a juicer, I highly recommend it! You get all of the nutrients from consuming all those fruits and veggies, without actually having to eat that many fruits and veggies.

We have this juicer, which is pretty pricey, but everything that we read said that the cheaper juicers don't work well and you'll end up buying the more expensive one anyway. It also comes with a ton of juice recipes, which is great for people who don't know what they're doing (like me!). 

Do any of you have a juicer? What is your favorite juice recipe?

PS. Lots of great recipes here!

PORTER FLEA AIRCRAFT 2013

This past Friday and Saturday, I was a vendor at Nashville's Porter Flea for the first time. It was so much fun and I met so many great people!

(more after the jump!)

NEW APARTMENT LAYOUT

*I apologize for the dark photos! It's impossible to take nice pictures of our apartment because of the large plants outside of the window!

see the before and after, after the jump!

PORTER FLEA, HERE WE COME!

I was so excited to get the news yesterday that I was accepted to be a vendor at this summer's Porter Flea here in Nashville. The Porter Flea is a big craft show of carefully curated modern, handmade vendors. I have been anxious to be a part of it for a couple of years now. It seems like such a great opportunity to get my business' name out there and to meet tons of other small business owners in Nashville. This weekend, I'll be planning some ideas for my set up and deciding on quantities to produce for the show with Wes, who has already agreed to help work my booth. :) If you live in Nashville, I'd love to see you there!

This weekend we are also going to (finally) finish up our Spring Cleaning Project and take photos, so I'll have that to show you next week.

Happy Friday, and have a great weekend! xo

NEW IKEA MICKE DESK!

As part of our spring cleaning project, we are rearranging our little one bedroom apartment to make it work better for us. The first thing we did was took down our floating desk and bought a smaller, space saving desk: the Micke, from Ikea. Wes had his doubts that I would be able to put it together by myself while he was at work on Friday, but I got out my handy tool box and electric drill and built that bad boy (thank you very much!).

I love this desk because it has a super sleek design, it's white (I love white furniture), and it has a really nice cable compartment at the bottom to keep all the computer cords and such hidden and out of the way. Also, it's a small thing, but I love that it has drawers! Our previous desk didn't, and it was easy to get the tabletop really cluttery after a while.

I'm excited to show you guys the other things we've been working on. I plan to have posts on space saving tips & tricks because we've learned a lot over just the past few days of working on it. Have a great Monday!

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND WITH THE FAM!

This weekend, my family visited us for my birthday, and because my sister and her boyfriend were on spring break at school. The weather couldn't have been more perfect - 75 and sunny all weekend - and we had such a great time! We ate at some of our favorite restaurants, went to a few parks, and spent a ton of time outside. My dad kept checking the weather to see what they were missing back in Ohio (cold & clouds) so I think they were happy to be in sunny Tennessee! We also happened to come across an animal rescue set up at a local park, and I think they were all tempted to take some puppies back to Ohio with them. My pants are definitely a little tighter today from all the barbecue, biscuits and burgers, but it was totally worth it. I was so sad to see them leave on Saturday night! Chester was showered with attention while they were here so he seemed pretty depressed when they left too. Here are some pictures from the weekend!

CURRENTLY CRAVING: AN OFFICE OF MY OWN

I love to daydream about my future office. Some day when we get a house, I plan on creating a functional, inspiring space where I can spread my supplies out and get really organized. Currently, all of the stuff for my shop (boxes, paper cutters, product, letterpress, tools, supplies, computer, etc.) are all squished in the corner of our living room. It's not horrible - I'm able to work while spending time with the hubbs and I can keep tabs on Chester (that rascal) during the day. It's not really that I'm wanting more privacy, I would just like to have enough physical space for each item to have a place. Right now, I don't feel like I'm as efficient as I could be because I'm always having to dig and shuffle around when I need to ship something out/photograph products/etc.

Like I said, I don't hate it but a little stretching room would be oh-so-nice. If I had to create my ultimate dream office it would be something like....

YESSS. Dream Office would have a desk for my computer & printer PLUS a table for product shoots, crafting, and shipping. It would have a wall of storage because I'm a clutterphobe. Big ol' paper drawers would be nice for storing my inventory and keeping everything covered up. And I think we can all agree that we're happiest in rooms with a lot of light (which is something that I do actually have now with the wall of windows in front of my desk).

What qualities would your dream office have?

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