Saturday, June 25, 2011

What's Been Done?



So, what's been doin' at The Do-tique? 

Yes, dear readers, it has been a while! I didn't know how loved this blog was until it went quiet for a while and the emails and requests for more started coming in.

To be honest, the picture above from the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" pretty much describes it all. Here's what has been happening:


Yves St. Laurent Tuxedo            Image courtesy of Retro Threadz

There hasn't been quite as much baking, crafting, decorating or home projecting this spring at The Do-tique. The DIY projects have all been centered around building a format for my "real job" which is philanthropic advisory - helping charities ask for support and showing donors how to plan their giving. 

I wanted to take the time to learn about and create an online marketing strategy for my planned giving work through LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging and a website. It's been an interesting journey so far and the best part has been the chance to meet and work together with people from across North America. I didn't realize at first that such amazing connections could develop out of Twitter!

You can check out my DIY website project for this whole initiative at www.christinaattard.com
(On the overall, I'd get a web-expert to set up the site for me next time, but more on that another time!)

Usually, I'm blogged and tweeted out by the end of the day and have neglected to post updates here.


Roger's House Truck                        Image via House Trucks

In other news, we learned at the end of May that my husband was going to need to move to Regina, Saskatchewan this summer. That meant prepping, staging and selling the house in a very short amount of time and setting up a crazy shopping trip where I had only a few days to buy a house in city I'd never visited before. (It's left me a little in shock!) Luckily, everything worked out and we'll have a whole new set of home projects starting this August. 

Lessons learned: a deadline can make Hubby move very, very quickly on all those little house maintenance and touch-up projects that have been sitting around for two years. Our basement was looking wonderful and I think that effort did, in the end, add great value to the house when it came time to sell.

I'm battling my DIY mentality and struggling with whether we should hire the moving company to do a full-pack. It will all be in the numbers in terms of time vs. money / sanity.

Finally, the leader of the Junior Small Society here at home, Baby, is really not much of a baby any more these days! We're also having a lot of fun going to the park, taking her for bike rides and generally running around after her. 

What's been happening with you? Anyone want to challenge the DIY mystique and share a guest blog post on their most recent projects? (I'm hearing of other house moves, people getting chickens, bathrooms getting renovated...so lots to share, dear readers!)

Submission guidelines: 1-2 photos, paragraph describing what you did or decided not to do, DIY rating.


DIY Rating: 10

Really, can you stop life from taking over sometimes?

Promise to get back to this blog, 
but also feel great about my new ventures over at 
www.christinaattard.com/blog.html