D I Y Hanson Home

My husband is incredibly good with his hands and has that natural knack at fixing and building anything he puts his mind to (or that I ask him to help me with)! Together we love being creative, crafty and as thrifty as possible, why spend $80 on something when I can make it for $10.

 Over the last year we have made some really fun pieces some big and some small to decorate our home. I thought it might be fun to share with you how we did three of my favourites.

First off our pride and joy pieces, Stag & Bear stencils on wood pallets;

>> Carl made our wood bases out of pallet wood; he dismantled the pallets, cut the boards to the size we wanted then attached two more pieces of wood to the back to make a frame and nailed them together.

>> I looked up silhouettes of the stag and bear on the internet. I purposely chose simple designs as we wanted them to be easily identifiable and easy to cut out.

>> I printed the silhouettess out on 11 x 17 paper and cut the stencil out with a steno knife.

>> We picked out our colors cream and green in matte spray paint.

>> We removed the inside stencil so the stag and bear would be in color, then using double sided tape stuck the paper to the wood,

>> First spraying the stencil lightly, that way the paint would not run underneath the paper and then we slowly added more layers til it was dark enough.

>> Waited 24 hours then removed the paper.
>> We used nail polish remover and cue tips to smooth some lines where the paint had run a little.

>> We used heavy duty picture hooks to hang them on the wall.

Easy & decorative. 

Second, our most recent finished piece for our bathroom;

>> Again, Carl made our wood base out of pallet wood the exact same way as above.

>> We bought four mason jars (or if you already have some), four hose clamps and picked out two hanging hooks

>> Next we lined up the jars exactly where we wanted them, nailed the hose clamps to the boards, aligned the jars to the same height and tightened the clamps.

>> Carl then screwed in the two hooks.

>> We wanted to darken the wood a little so instead of spending money on wood stain we stained it with my left over morning coffee grounds (I was happy to help) rubbing it in with steel wool so it would really get into the grain. Then swept it off when it had dried.

>> We tried to use the same picture hooks as our other project but it didn't work as there was no supporting beam where we wanted to place it. So we bought wall anchors and key hole mount brackets and they worked perfectly.

Simple & Functional

Thirdly, a cute romantic picture;

>> I printed out two maps from Google one of the United States and the other of the United Kingdom.
>> I drew half a heart around the cities were my husband and I were born.
>> Cut out the half hearts.
>> Got a sheet of 81/2 x 11 cardstock and printed our wedding date at the bottom.
>> Using regular kids glue aligned the hearts and stuck them down.
>> Next I used a reg gel pen and drew a little heart over Orange County and another over Glasgow.
>> Found a cute frame from TJ Maxx and place it inside.

Geographical & Romantic

We have many more projects up our sleeves with some really fun Christmas ideas, so maybe I will do a DIY part two post in a few months. 

Go and be creative.

Rollercoaster status

As you know I am originally from Scotland, and for the last five years I have been in the process of becoming a permanent resident (not a citizen).

Let me start from the beginning; I moved out here when I was 21 years old holding a 10 year visa not sure whether I would live in California for that long or move back home to Edinburgh. I unexpectedly was offered a job at my church to be the general office manager assistant, moved in with a family, who are now my American family and before I knew it had started to put down roots and make California my home.

About four years ago I started researching what it would look like to be eligible to file for a green card otherwise known as permanent residency here in the united states. A year of on and off research I hesitatingly decided that I would hire a lawyer and with their help try to get a green card.  Never having a peaceful feeling about moving forward but with much encouragement and support from friends and family I decided to go for it. So I filled out the paperwork, signed the check, waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...two months later I still had not heard a word back from the government. I thought,"This is strange, surely I would have received something by now," so I checked in with my lawyer who had been terrible at communicating. I spent the next four months getting his full mailbox, out of office sick or on vacation messages, vague email responses that were far and few between or unanswered, a few text message responses, then finally he fell off the grid. I was a victim of fraud! Still now when I think about it I am in disbelief, he had come highly recommended and been a former member of my church. So surely I had thought he was trustworthy but instead he abused it and taken my money never submitting any of my applications. Now looking back, having forgiven and let go, I realized that the turmoil that I had had in making the decision to go for it was a little red flag from God that I had proceeded to ignore. Piece of advice, always trust your gut, that is usually were God directs me. My spirits were down and hopes of staying in the states had dwindled. On a happier note I had three years left to enjoy life in California, then I planned to move home and be with my family (hey, it was a great conciliation).

A year had passed all the while planning to move home at the end of 2014, little did I know what was to come, God had a different plan. Over the next two years my friendship with Carl shifted from friends to best friends then we began dating (there is a lot of history with us, anyone who knows us and our story knows it was not fairy tale material potential, perhaps Rom-com though, but I will keep our romance story for another day). I had forgotten about the fact that I had to leave in Jan 2015 as I was completely enveloped in my love bubble with Carl, nothing else mattered at the time. On March 17th 2013 in the middle of Tuolumne Meadows, Carl asked me to marry him, elated, excited and so in love I obviously said, "YES!" There it was, problem solved, we were getting married which means I can automatically stay in America right? Wrong! After we had the wedding of our dreams on April 5th, 2014 so forth began the paper work, gathering evidence, medical screenings, vaccinations, and check writing once again. This stuff stresses me out to the max, any small mistake like misspelling a word or accidentally checking the wrong box means having to re-do the entire form. I had warned Carl that I get overwhelmed and frustrated with it all, bless him he stuck in there with me with all my bad words, snippy remarks and hissy fits. Over the course of a week or so we had filled out all the forms, done lots of photocopying, been to doctor appointments and had blood taken we were ready to submit.

Only having to wait two weeks before we got notice that I had to go have my finger prints taken and retinas scanned, it was all happening so quick I was shocked this was all actually happening. Then about a month and half later we got our second notice for the final in person interview. I gathered and organized all of our documents and copies in to two file folders, dressed nicely and off we went to the UCIS building. We sat in the waiting room for just over an hour in complete peace acting like children; giggling, annoying each other, using the bathroom too many times and showing public affection whilst everyone else sat in silence looking forward waiting for their names to be called. I made a bet with Carl that they would mispronounce my name because apparently no one knows that GE makes a J sound instead of a G. The door opened "Sarah Hanson" it took us a minute to register that she was calling me, she completely bypassed my first name because she didn't know how to pronounce it (ha I won). Forty five minutes later after verifying dates, times, looking at photos and personal questions, I was approved!!!

 I was happy and relieved but felt confused, like shouldn't that have been a little bit harder? Having had a few days to process it over the weekend I came to a conclusion that for the last three years I have lived in a state of uncertainty. I was bound to the US for the last three years and now I am free. I have a choice. I have freedom. I have control over my life again. It all sounds a bit extreme and dramatic but we couldn't travel outside of America which meant our honeymoon had to be in one the 50 states, if I had moved home I was no longer able to come back into America, if I had not been approved we were forced to move back to Scotland but now Carl and I have freedom to choose. It feels liberating yet feels the same all at once. 

We had booked flights to go home over Christmas, I haven't been able to return there for the past three years, Carl has never been and there a few relatives still to meet. Our officer said that it may be cutting it close as the process of getting your actual card may take a month or more. Exactly a week later low and behold my green-card arrived in the mail and it is actually green!!

Thank you to my loving & supportive husband, family, dear friends and above all God!

If anyone is reading this and is in a similar relationship and status but not sure of what is needed or stressed out on the process please feel free to email me at followingthearrows@gmail.com. I'd love to help in any way I can or just to chat.

Roo's

I am so happy that I got to have my girly roommate years before entering married life. I lived in a spacious two bedroom apartment in downtown Yorba Linda with two of my favourite people for five years. Not only did we have so much fun but we came out of it better friends than ever, which we had only been warned that living with friends does not always end well.

We were 21, 22, and 23 years old when we decided to step out on our own into the big bad world,  I had already moved countries but was living comfortably with a family and now I was really doing it independently. Finding a sweet little two bedroom in Yorba Linda thanks to friends who lived in the neighboring one bedroom, we began our new lives together. We combined our styles and furnished the place with much thanks to Christine's grandma who had many hidden treasures in her garage, figured out each others schedules so we all could get in the bathroom in the morning, navigated who's food was who's in the fridge, and discovered new bonding activities like watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S., painting our nails, drinking margaritas and our obsession with the Christmas season. You think that living together would mean seeing each other all the time, well we quickly noticed that wasn't true, someone was either at school, at work, on a date, running errands, at homegroup or out with another friend. That's when our tradition of roomie breakfasts started. We would make a huge delicious breakfast with eggs, potatoes, sometimes german pancakes or waffles, fruit, mimosas and of course coffee and catch up on life's dramas and happenings. Now that two of us are married and the other is on her way we try to continue that tradition or get together for a pow wow now and again.

The three of us became so integrated into each others lives being a part of the really awesome highs and the deep painful lows. It was not always easy but we quickly learned how important communication and confrontation was for a healthy friendship and home. Where each of us could have ended up without the crucial advice that was given or the words of encouragement to risk baffles me. If it happened to one of us it basically happened to all of us.

I am really thankful that I get to have all our fun crazy memories of camping trips, all of us squishing in to the bathroom to get ready for church, coming home late after the most wonderful date and telling them about it, borrowing each others clothes, parties and so much more. More importantly I  learned so many life lessons like how to manage my money, what it looked like to adapt to living with someone else, respecting others stuff, how to care for someone in hard times and even learning from their mistakes. You just can't learn that on your own.

I love looking back on photos and reminiscing! The horror of some of our fashion choices, hair styles, the late night donut runs, old cell phone videos of us dancing or singing together, the hours of  crying to sad romantic movies, and so so many more wonderful hilarious memories. I love you girls, I am so thankful for those years, I miss them!!

Roo's for life.