New Year Goals, Planning Part 2 January 30, 2010

Continuation of breaking down my yearly goals into attainable steps.

Stop playing with my hair.

• Realize the triggers for playing with my hair
• Make steps to stop, redirect or hinder those triggers

Baby? Maybe?

• Breathe, take a deep breath as a realize that I am old enough and mature enough to be at this point in my life. Then laugh uncontrollably before telling my heart to start back beating.
• Discuss with my doctor what to do before conceiving and address any health concerns
• Reconsider and make a long list of things I would like to do or have accomplished before having a child.
• Find an OB/GYN
• Realize I have accomplished most of the stuff on my list. Try to think of new things. Bali! I could go to Bali! What’s in Bali?
• Start trying, or stop not trying

Find a way to make cleaning faster and easier and less work.

• So much easier than the baby?maybe?
• Download Real Simple’s Quick Cleaning Guide and try it for two weeks.
• Make modifications to list based on laziness and ashmatatic cat who likes to help mommy with the dusting.

Review my old stories.

• Pull out old stories
• Reread old stories and try not to cringe at the craptastic value of them.
• File, for sentimental value, if there is no artistic merit to them (maybe my future children will get a kick out of reading them).

 Perhaps restart an old story or start planning a new one.

• Decide if any story has merit to continue.
• Decide if any story has any barebones that can be salvaged into another story.
• Start preplanning for that story or a short story to get serious writing feet back wet.

Drink more water (what is more water anyway)

• Drink more unsweet herbal tea-it’s mostly water, right.
• Alternate every other juice drink with glass of water

Cut down on vicious candy habit

• Cry
• Suffer withdrawal symptoms at the thought of reducing candy.
• Sniffle as realize that it’s to cut down-not eliminate.
• Decide how much to cut down? Number of pieces per week?
• Pursue natural sweetness in the form of yummy fruit

Get the bathroom redone into my own personal spa so I can relax.

• Redone is overkill, not talking major remodeling, just rearranging.
• Determine what I would like in a spa and realize that a personal massuase will not fit in the bathroom.
• Make a design plan and execute it.

How are your goals for the new year going?

Repurposed January 27, 2010

I reuse a lot of containers and a few people were interested in some ways I use the containers. I have a few in my kitchen to help me with my morning routine.

You can see what makes my morning tick. The sugar jar, a repurposed pickle jar, holds sweeteners for the hubby’s occasional cup of coffee. The silver tin underneath holds the filters for these days  of coffee drinking. The medicine container holds my vitamins (currently held in a repurposed pill container) and some of my tea bags are in the tea container. The tall silver tube…empty at the moment.

How do you reuse containers?

Home Office Organization, Part 1 January 25, 2010

I just enjoyed a quick dinner with a friend and we spent some moments chatting about her house. She mentioned her desires concerning enlarging rooms and tearing down walls. The highlight of the evening came when I saw her soon-to-be office. She talked about her need to organize it and my eyes lit up.

“Can I help?” soon turned way to measuring the space and exchanging ideas about the function of the space.

It’s a large room ~15.5 by 16.5′ that will be used to store equipment for her business, her business office and space to scrapbook. I think it will be a fun project and I can’t wait to get to the drawing pad and sketch out some ideas for her to chose from.

New Goals, Planning, Part 1 January 15, 2010

Since I need to break down my larger goals into manageable chunks in order to succeed in them, I will do the same with my new year goals. 

Use all-ok, most-of the yarn I have for crochet patterns before buying new yarn. 

• Take inventory of current yarn, including colors. 

  Most of the yarn is of the pastel range from the various baby related projects I started in high school. The other half includes some primary Halloween colors, purchased to make a Dragon Ball Z blanket for brother-wonder if he will accept one more than 6 years later, and some holiday colored yarn (deep wine & sparkly gold) 

• Make a list of projects that will utilize current yarn inventory with little purchasing 

  Obviously a baby blanket with all the pastels. This should be easy since I started a blanket and can keep adding colors to it to create a multi-colored gender neutral baby blanket. Hubby says to make two, just in case we have twins…ummm, maybe. 

  Another obvious project is a Christmas project. I have no clue since I don’t have a lot of the holiday yarn, but I could supplement it with some white yarn from the inventory and make a scarf, ear warmer combo (no hats-my afro will be smushed). Another thought would be a nice holiday jacket for the kitty. 

  Make another baby blanket with remaining yarn-except holiday yarn…or maybe a jacket for the kitty. 

• Find/design the patterns for the projects.
  
• Practice any new stitches needed for the patterns.

Finish the bedroom make-over 

I would love to have this project finished by the time my hubby returns from his international trip. Which means, I have about three weeks to get ‘er done! 

• Sew curtains
  
• Sew pillow covers
  
• Sew duvet cover
  
• Purchase sheet set
  
• Create and hang artwork

Get to the gym at least once a week or cancel the membership and find a dance class instead. 

• Be honest, you hate the machines, so partner up! 

  I do hate the machines. I get bored. I love to be active-as long as it doesn’t seem too exercisey, things like dance classes, caperioa, pole dancing, etc are right up my alley. Walking to nowhere on a treadmill, nope-not even close to my street, much less my alley.  I could re-establish meeting at the gym with buddy on Wednesday (or was it Thursday) evenings for cardio and strength training on the machines, that way I’ll have someone to chat with while walking to nowhere. 

• Ok, you still hate the machines, so look into classes. 

  I hate the machines, but the class offerings are not that great either. I don’t want to step or spin, I’m still going nowhere and have no reason or purpose behind the activity. 

• Look up class schedule and chose three classes you’re interested in. 

  Yay! The gym location near me has changed up the class schedule. Ok, Hip Hop on Fridays, Kickboxing on Wednesdays and Pilates on Monday. 

• Set-up class schedule 

  I’m starting slow. I will start going to one class a week for at least three weeks. Then I will add another class a week for another three weeks, and then add third class after another three weeks. BAAM! Within 9 weeks, I’ll be going to the gym three days a week-well, four if the machine relationship is re-established. Yikes, that’s a lot of working out. I didn’t attend that many classes (or rehearsals) even when I was in the dance company. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll do Hip-Hop first, then add Pilates and then Kickbox Cardio. 

Whew, that’s enough planning for one sitting. I need a break 🙂

Prepping for the In-Laws, Part 2 January 10, 2010

The in-laws are coming for a visit which means the guest bedrooms that were formally home to my crafts and my cat, must now go into guest mode. We have four extra people coming and three spaces to prepare: guest bedroom/craft room; guest bedroom/cat room; living room (temporary sleeping quarters)

The craft room/guest room is the easiest to prepare.

Simply stash my projects away, re-make the bed (this isn’t the final look, my in-laws did get a comforter),

lean mirror against my work desk so desk can now serve as a vanity area,

add lamp and scented candle

add instant calendar art and add welcome baskets and towels. Done!

The cat’s room/guest room was harder. We had to move all of our baby’s toys to the laundry room and throughly vacuum and clean the room so that it was cat-hair free.

Add some instant art in the form of scrapbook paper,

fabric on the wall and calendar images,

lean a mirror against a wall and add a welcome basket. Done!

(ignore the kitty crap, this was phase one of the revamped room. Don’t worry, everything was washed and vacuumed beforehand.)

Living room, a bit harder. Add a large plastic tub full of bedding supplies. Cover plastic tub with extra pillows from sofa set. Stash tub in the corner. Done!

I wish I had a photo of the welcome baskets. Inside each basket was a personalized welcome note, towels, shower caps, soap (that I hand wrapped in gift wrap and added a little “welcome” tag), shower loofah, and some token gifts. For instance, my mother-in-law received a coloring book and crayons and two small puzzles to help her relax and my father in law received local magazines to browse through.

New Year, New Goals January 5, 2010

With the start of a new year, most people are working on New Year’s Resolutions. I usually don’t do those, but decided that a few goals for the upcoming year might be nice to have.

1. Use all-ok, most-of the yarn I have for crochet patterns before buying new yarn.
2. Finish the bedroom make-over.
3. Get to the gym at least once a week or cancel the membership and find a dance class instead.
4. Stop playing with my hair.
5. Baby? Maybe?
6. Find a way to make cleaning faster and easier and less work.
7. Review my old stories.
8. (Really should be 7a) Perhaps restart an old story or start planning a new one.
9. Drink more water (what is more water anyway)
10. Cut down on vicious candy habit
11. Get the bathroom redone into my own personal spa so I can relax.

I’m a planner and goal setter, but I have to break down my goals into chunks to make them a reality for me.

That’s my list, what about you? What are your goals for the new year?

Prepping for the In-laws, Part 1 December 30, 2009

The in-laws are coming for a visit which means the guest bedrooms that were formally home to my crafts and my cat, must now go into guest mode.

With four extra people coming to the house, I want each and every person to feel special. Usually when guests come, I provide a handwritten note of appreciation and some little tokens depending on the purpose of their visit.

For my mother’s first visit to the house and our city, I left maps and brochures detailing excursions in our city as well as some coffee crafted with the flavors of the city.

image from neatocoolville

When my family came for the holidays last year, I provided a basket with shower supplies and not much more since their stay was short and they already had their own agenda mapped out. I also provided more coffee, since my mother fell in love with it.

image from HEB

For the in-laws’ visit, I plan on each person recieving a plastic basket with their towels and extra shower supplies. This will serve double duty, since all four people will be sharing one shower, as a way to carry items to and from the bathroom quickly and easily, as well as holding all the token gifts.  Inside the basket, I plan on adding a small bottle of water and snack to the basket.

Preparing for my brother-in-law will be the hardest, since he will be sleeping on the downstairs sofa, which naturally is the gathering space during the day. His set-up will have to be temporary and easy for him to use.

I love hosting and sharing my home with others. This visit will be interesting since it comes at a time when we’re redoing the master bedroom, so I’ll have a lot of free shopping going on.

Mission: Laundry Room Makeover, Part 3 December 20, 2009

We already discussed how I wish I had a laundry room like this from Classy Closets.  

Image from Easy Closets

 and the blessing of my current laundry room’s floor plan:   

My Laundry Room

 

 Last time we looked at the entry/mudroom “portion” of the laundry room. Since then, we decided that the shoe rack was too cumbersome for the laundry room and since it didn’t get a lot of use, it was banished and sits near the front entry for guests.   

Today, we’re looking at the laundry portion of the laundry room. You may recall that my wish list included:   

• A space to sort dirty laundry as it comes in since we only wash full loads.
• A space to iron occasionally since hubby sometimes doesn’t get the laundry as soon as it’s done which results in wrinkles.
• A space to hang freshly dried clothing to reduce the amount of ironing (see above)
• A space for folded laundry to hang out while waiting for hubby to put them away.
• A space to store laundry detergent and essentials.

  

A quick shopping trip around the house yielded:   

Three laundry baskets (well, two since the cat has claimed one as his occasional bed)

  

    

• Rubber modular shelves 

   

• Fabric from a curtain project
• A fabric placemat
• An old calendar
• IKEA bed slats 

I combined the first four items by placing a basket on each shelf and covering the shelves with fabric. Placing the placemat on top creates a table like effect for placing those morning cups of tea.  

I still needed a place to store laundry essentials and hang clothing. Thanks to mom, who sent me a garment rack that fulfills the “hanging clothing storage” issue, however this doesn’t fit between the washer and dryer like I had hoped. BING! I put the garment rack under the shelving unit, it’s not like I’ll need all the vertical space for hanging clothing.  

 I also wanted a between the dryer/washer rolling cart.  

  

However when I went shopping for one, those things were just too expensive. Especially since they’re nothing more than an open bookcase on wheels. BING! I could build one! I stopped my friendly Lowe’s worker, purchased some 8 x 0.5 cut into 4-3 foot lengths, l-brackets, 2 casters and screws and happily jetted home.  

Round 1: The open bookcase is far too long. The 3 feet long cart sticks out from in-between the two machines by a good foot. Ugh, disassemble and start over.  

Round 2: This time using some scrap wood taken from a slotted IKEA bed base for the shelves. The new dimensions are 3’x2′, much better. There is no overhang into the laundry area. Start loading the cart-realize that products can fall off the edge and in between the cracks of the shelves.    

Round 3: I’m impatient by this time and want this project to be over. I rip some cardboard off and lay it on the shelves. I then staple yarn around the unit to serve as bracing. Not the prettiest sight, but it works. To beautify it and feel better about being so darn impatient, I cover the front of the unit with a nice piece of fabric.  

Looking at the IKEA wood, I realized that I had some leftover closet brackets. I bring them downstairs and build an instant shelf over the washer to keep additional detergent and supplies. After living with it for a while-try six weeks-I decided that the shelving unit was far too tall. Enter silly brain fart. I actually went shopping for a laundry hamper organizer/ironing board. Thankfully, the store was out of stock and being the impatient person that I am, I went home and started working with what I had. BING! Take off one of the shelves silly! So I did that and it was now lower and provided more space to hang more clothes, but I lost a basket to hold dirty laundry. Another shopping trip around the house yielded a pop-up hamper that with the addition of some floral wire and leftover IKEA plank, it no longer self collapses after a curious cat pounces on it.  

Now, I’m done…for now.  Here are a few picks of the finished laundry area.    

My rolling cart. The top shelf holds the current powder detergent and a small trash can for lint and items from pockets. The rack above it is for the dryer so that you can dry delicate items without having them tumble around the dryer. I use it as a bra drying rack so the wires and pads don’t get warped.

A view from the side. Can you see the fruits of my impatience? Now that I have a nail gun, I will probably add IKEA wood to the sides to form the braces instead of the delicious looking yarn.

 

My laundry sorter/entry table, this is the view when you entry the laundry room from the garage.  It’s nice and stable for those morning cups of tea.

 

This is the view as you enter the laundry room from the house on your way into the garage. You can see the garment rack and additional laundry basket in this view. Can you find the floral wire holding the basket to the garment rack?

 

 

This is the laundry sorter side of the whole thing and the view from the laundry area of the laundry room. You can see the scrap wood keeping the pop up hamper from collapsing.

 

You can also see the “brand new” rug that I brought from the wonderful store of home. Hubby’s mini-ironing board sits in the space between the wall and entry table/laundry sorter. When it’s time to iron, this moves to on top of the washer/dryer.

 

 

The quick and dirty shelf. It’s four IKEA wood slats, the ribbon is still attached to the wood, simply placed on top of two closet brackets. The basket is supposed to hold items pulled from pockets…however I don’t pull items from pockets, hence the great number of candy wrappers found in the dryer. The artwork is from the old calendar I found. 

That wraps up the laundry room makeover. The cost breakdown for the makeover:

• Over the door hooks=$18
• Wood, brackets and casters= $8
• Laundry baskets=$3
• Rectangular laundry basket = $3
• Total = $32

Not bad for a 6 x 10 room. In the future, I wouldn’t mind adding curtains to hide the contents of the upper shelf and add more color to the room, but since there’s not much up there, it doesn’t bother me.

What’s your dream laundry room?

Mission: Laundry Room Makeover, Part 2 December 15, 2009

 Recently I talked about how I would love to have a laundry room like this one from Classy Closets.  

Image from Easy Closets

 

However I have been blessed with a laundry like this.  

My Laundry Room

 

However, I’m determined to make this into my dream laundry room, without expanding the space.  Using my dream list of what I want from my laundry room I decided to look around the house for materials that can be used, also known as free shopping.   

My Finds     

• Brass cafe curtain rod brackets

 

• Bronze wall decals from Dollar Tree that say “live well laugh often love much“
• A green and bronze runner rug
• Three silver framed mirrors with gold detail, also from Dollar Tree.
• Ikea shoe rack
  

 

Armed with these items, I knew I had plenty to make the entry way part of the laundry room. However, I still needed something to hold those heavy work bags and coats.  After a quick trip to Target, I found the perfect item. No need to drill holes and heavy-duty enough for those heavy work bags. 

  

 Combining all the items, I decided to stick the decals around the walls such that we would be greeted by an inspirational saying regardless of the wall we faced. The mirrors found a home on the wall behind the doors for that last-minute face check, while the brass cafe brackets were drilled into the wall by the house entry door. These brackets serve as hooks for my keys, coupon bag and occasional purse. The shoe rack sits underneath them for the time being. So far we’re not using it that much and it’s in the way of loading and unloading clothes of the dryer. The rug stretches the length from door to door and creates a hallway effect while the hooks are on the back of the house entry door for our work bags and coats. 

Here’s a few shots of the entryway section of the laundry room.  

 

This is the last thing we see on the way out. 

 

The mirrors for the last peek before leaving. 

 

Finally the workhorse of the room, plenty of spots to hang my keys and coupon book. Over the door features plenty of room for work bags and coats. 

Next time, we’ll look at organizing the laundry room section of it.

Mission: Laundry Room Makeover, Part 1 December 10, 2009

How I wish I had a laundry room like this from Classy Closets.

Image from Easy ClosetsImage from Classy Closets

 Everything is light and airy, there is plenty of workspace and it’s so organized!!!

 Instead my laundry room’s floor plan is this.

My Laundry Room

Not airy, or light.  Those two doors make it impossible to do much in there. The bottom door leads to the garage, the top door leads to the house. So in addition to serving as a laundry room, this is also our mudroom and entry area for the family.

I’m determined to make this into my dream laundry room, without expanding the space. So I made a dream list of what I want my laundry room to look like, function as, and feel like.

• A space to sort dirty laundry as it comes in since we only wash full loads.
• Aspace to iron occasionally since hubby sometimes doesn’t get the laundry as soon as it’s done which results in wrinkles.
• A space to hang freshly dryed clothing to reduce the amount of ironing (see above)
• A space for folded laundry to hang out while waiting for hubby to put them away.
• A space to store laundry detergent and essentials.
• A space to drop off keys (mine), bags (hubby and I) and jackets (mostly mine).
• A space to put my morning cup of tea as I grab my jacket, workbag and keys while opening the garage door so I won’t spill it all over my outfit resulting in a last minute change in the laundry room, except clothing is wrinkled which means a quick run upstairs for more clothing. (Don’t ask)
• A spot to kick off shoes and put on flip flops.
• A mirror for that last peek before leaving.
• A place to stash some tools so I won’t have to run into the garage everytime I need a screwdriver.
• Inspirational artwork or decals since this is the last place we see when we leave and the first we see when we arrive.

A pretty long list for a 6×10 room.