A Post-Dated Goodbye

I was in the middle of working on a great craft post (future link here) on Wednesday when I had to drop everything, spend 30 minutes packing, cleaning out the fridge, writing directions for feeding my dogs, turning off the thermostat and trek out into the snow for a cruise.  Yes.  Trek.

Let me back up.  Atlanta SHUT DOWN on Sunday when about 8" of snow fell in about 3 hours.  We canceled school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was Wednesday at about 4:30 when my Blackberry alerted me that they went ahead and closed Thursday AND Friday as well.  Although crazy....this was perfect for me!  I had taken two personal days (Thursday and Friday) to go on a cruise for "staff training" for my 4th side job of working for Waters Mill Events Facility.  (Yes, I have an awesome boss!)  Thanks to the snow, my personal days were converted to FREE snow days!

Our plan: leave about 2 A.M. on Thursday morning to drive to Port Canaveral to board the boat.  Reality: Atlanta was about to freeze over again for Snowmageddon 2011 part deux.  Rusty made the manly call at 4:00 to leave at 4:30.  P.M.  On Wednesday.  Hence the 30 minute frenzy of throwing stuff in a bag.


Back to the "trek".  I choose my words wisely.  Since our driveway was more fit for a performance of the Ice Capades than a parking lot, we knew we weren't getting our truck out of there or our friend's car up there.  We left for the Bahamas in hats, gloves, coats, scarves and boots and TREKKED out of our neighborhood and to the main road to catch our ride.  Yes, we were committed employees ready for our staff training.  :)

I blame the ugly face on the cold.

Action shot!

Bahama Bound.

Selfishly, instead of finishing up my craft post tonight that I was working on on Wednesday, I spent about 1 1/2 hours catching up on my nightly blogstalking of the great authors I follow which was compounded by the 4 days I missed while I was gone!  So, for those of you who I was planning on politely saying goodbye to, Hello!  You all did some great posts that I am about to go back and comment on.  I have plenty of time to play tonight considering I took about 4 hours of naps in the car and have no kids at my teacher work day tomorrow!

Note: I am not this tall..  I am wearing some fierce 5" heels.

The sun was so bright it was hard to smile, lol!

I love how I experienced such extreme opposites of ice/snow and The Bahamas all within 24 hours!


What's the craziest vacation experiences you can look back at and chuckle about?  

Breaking it Down: Cleaning 365

After 9 months of living in our home, it is not feeling as new as it did the day we moved in.  I don't know when it happened exactly, but I am a little devastated about the reality.  Things stopped looking as shiny.  Stuff started building up in the corners. BOO!!!!


So.  Since I had Rusty trapped we were blessed with a snow day (3 so far), we divided up what we thought the big maintenance cleaning jobs were into the 12 months of the year.  We are hoping that we can check these items off each month and keep our home feeling move-in-day new.

January

• Change air filter
• Dust ceiling fans
• Run self-cleaning oven
• Scrub outlet plates/light switch plates

February

• Clean air vent covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Magic eraser doors

March

• Change air filter
• Dust ceiling fans
• Clean front of cabinets

April

• Clean out light fixtures
• Dust ceiling fans
• Have carpets cleaned
• Dust baseboards

May

• Dust ceiling fans
• Dust plantation blinds
• Clean inside of windows and sills

June

• Change air filter
• Dust ceiling fans
• Pressure wash the house, porches/desks and fence
• Run self-cleaning oven

July

• Wash Pottery Barn Slip Covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Magic Eraser doors
• Touch up all trim with paint

August

• Clean air vent covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Scrub outlet plates/light switch plates

September

• Change air filter
• Clean out light fixtures
• Dust ceiling fans

October 

• Dust ceiling fans
• Dust plantation blinds

November

• Dust ceiling fans
• Dust baseboards
• Clean front of cabinets

December

• Wash Pottery Barn Slip Covers
• Dust ceiling fans
• Clean inside of window and sills

My mother would be so proud!


Now - the list might look like a random mess, but hear me out.  I run my whole life on a school calendar.  My doctor appointments are always June and December when I am on breaks.  My motto: never take a day when the sun isn't shining, you aren't feeling well or for a doctor's appointment.  Now that I have a house, that list MUST be extended to include cleaning and home projects.  Sick days are made for shopping or going out of town!


So, you can see I am loaded up on tasks during summer, spring break, Thanksgiving break and Christmas break.  I also put things on either a monthly (fans), 4 x a year (air filter), 2x a year (washing slipcovers, etc) or 1x a year (pressure wash, touch up all trim) rotation.  Then I built my schedule around weather (you want clean windows when it gets to be great weather, and you can't pressure wash in the winter) and what fits together (if I am painting trim, I probably want to Magic Eraser the doors to make them all look good together).

So, you veteran homeowners, what all am I leaving out?  Do you have a master plan to keep your house looking new?  Or maybe you just spend a week or two in the spring and summer doing my whole list at once?  I just have to break things down!

These cute calendars can be found here.  Etsy, of course!

Getting the Pottery Barn look, Jan 2011

It's always a great day when you open the mailbox and see the newest Pottery Barn catalog.  I managed to keep it closed during dinner and until after I washed and dried my hair.  Then I sat down with my tape, scissors, pens, sharpies and post-its.  Yes, I studied this catalog.  I studied like a college freshman about to lose The Hope Scholarship.  It was my textbook.


I was determined to find some "themes" that will inspire me to write a new list of items to look for while thriftiquing, at Goodwill, at yard sales and at Home Goods.  I needed a focus, and I knew Pottery Barn would provide.


After studying "the good book", I have noticed a few things that PB thinks are hot.

1.  Put everything either UNDER or IN glass.

2.  Fill your vases with HUGE blooming BRANCHES.

3.  Collect TRAYS and put them EVERYWHERE.

4.  EVERYTHING needs a BASKET under it.

5.  DECORATE with NATURE or NATURAL things.

Even in the pictures I have posted so far, you can see where they use nature in their accessories:

• Corks
• Stones
• Shells
• Plants
• Split Wood
• Nests
• Fruit/Veggies (popular right now are lemons, oranges, green apples and artichokes)
• Nuts in the shell
• Driftwood

Don't get the catalog?  Sign up for it here or flip through a virtual one here.


Which one of these Pottery Barn inspired themes match your style the most?  I'm thinking I can move around a few things that I already have and get the look today!

Guilt Free Office

It's no secret.  There is no bun in my oven.  My oven is not even on pre-heat.  Let's get real.  Not only have Rusty and I not even been to the store, we haven't even made the shopping list!


The good news?  Our 3rd bedroom is a GUILT FREE office.


Back in June, Rusty and I commissioned Black Mountain Furniture to design our custom built-ins.  We desperately needed them.  Between the two of us, we had enough books to fill up the bed of Toyota Tacoma.  It quickly became an issue when we got them all in one room.

http://www.davidrobertbooks.com/books.jpg

Since Black Mountain Furniture is local, they came out to our house to measure and draw out plans.  After asking us a few questions, they had a complete vision and got to work.  After about three weeks, they were calling to set up an installation date.  Thankfully, Rusty and I had gone through our books and pared them down.  We forced ourselves to only keep one or two copies of Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm and Atlas Shrugged, and I finally talked Rusty into only keeping his favorite Dean Koontz books instead of every one he ever read.


Here are some pictures of the built-in bookshelves and free standing desk:

Since the owners of BMF just happen to be our good friends, Craig and Reginia, they stayed over for dinner and Reginia staged them really quickly to get some pictures for her website. 


*Note - these would be about 1/4th of the books we kept.  What did we do with the rest of them?  Well, we boxed up the manuals, textbooks and other resources and stored them in the basement.  We donated about 2 boxes to a book drive at our school.  The BEST thing we did was list them on Paperback Swap and earned credits for new books we were dying to read.

We absolutely love the built-ins.  The detached desk is a great feature because it allows us to be flexible where we want the piece to go, and it allows for us to open the room up as a make-shift guest bedroom.


Do you have a space that you think would benefit from built-ins or special storage? What ideas do you have in mind for them?  

Home Goals 2011

I am so glad that one of the amazing bloggers I follow, Nester, started a Linky Party yesterday!  I have been wanting to do some kind of 2011 post, but couldn't figure out a focus.  Well, she set one: Home Goals 2011.  


(I rushed home after school to try to get some good shots in natural light, but with the snow clouds we have up here, that wasn't too successful!!!)


1. "Tchotchke" up my shelves

Months ago, when I started Blogstalking YHL (if you follow the link, you have to promise me you will still return to read my blogs...they are good and will hook you....), I fell in love with their floating shelves.

Rusty took me to Ikea, and we had them up that night.  After about 6 months of staring of them and fighting the commitment issues of putting stuff on them, I have decided that they compete with my mantle.  Take a look at this picture, and you can see that I have this weird half wall dividing my open living room and dining room.  

The shelves look great in just the dining room, but my beautiful, dramatic mantlescape needs the full attention of everyone.  It told me.

So, here is the full picture of what I am dealing with:

Specific mini goals:

• remove the top shelf and use elsewhere
• paint the shelves high gloss white to match my trim (they are a little off white)
• decorate them with items that are less dramatic than what is going on on the mantle and help out with the "dining room" feel.

2. Swankify our master bedroom
I love our bedroom.  It is perfect.  It's got a great vibe.  It's got a lot of potential.  The color is perfect.  The furniture is lovely.  I have tray ceilings.  I have a dramatic mantle.  The sun shines just right in there.  Got it?  I'm in love. However, it needs something to take it to the next level.  After seeing this picture at Bower Power, I knew what I wanted to do.

A wall of fabric right behind our bed.  I really think it would give it that swanky, luxurious, hotel feel.  So, here are my options:

• buy more Ikea white curtains and do the wall
• take the two sets of white Ikea curtains out of the living room and dining room to use in the bedroom and replace the living room and dining room curtains with print
• buy print fabric or curtains and do the wall

3. Cover all "builder beige" walls
So far, I have eliminated all builder beige except for the kitchen, guest bathroom and guest bedroom.  I am on schedule for painting the kitchen in February.  My goal is to paint the guest bed and bath in 2011.  Nuff said.


4. Crown Molding
My good friend, Lisa, gave me about 160' of free crown molding!  We painted the office back in June knowing we were going to put up crown.  Well, it still looks like this:

In 2011, it must go up!  I will also put the rest of the crown in the guest bedroom after we paint it.  I am hoping it will really make the ceilings look higher since the room is only 10' x 10'.  I am even thinking of trying this technique that I saw at Bower Power:

5.  Light Fixtures
At least once a day, Rusty laughs at me because he catches me looking at our current light fixtures in disgust!  He just rolls his eyes.  Of course I am going to try to find some deals, but this is what we have and what I am dreaming of...today, at least.
Entryway:

www.timberlakelighting.com

Breakfast Nook:

www.shadesoflight.com

Dining Room:

I'm not too sure what to put here.  Possibly a drum shade!


Well, there they are.  My 2011 Home Goals.  I'm comfortable with the word goal.  It says, "I have a end at which my efforts are directed."


Resolution.  I hear, "In 15 days, when you fail, you will never live it down."


What are some of your 2011 goals?  Or maybe you call them resolutions!

A post about promised posts

I used to sleep with a writing tablet by my bed.  I drove with one in my car.  I carried one in my purse.  I worked with one at my desk.

Now I have notes, notes and more notes saved in my Blackberry.

One is titled "Blog Posts".

Here is what is on the list and my added annotations:

(these are in the order that they came to me)

(some are titles and some are ideas)

• Decorating with White (inspired by the newest Country Living magazine)
• Laundry Room Before and After (more of an organizational posts, but the project is slightly incomplete)
• Good Will Finds (this one will be easy to post as I have taken a picture of EVERYTHING I buy there and plan on going there tomorrow)
• Complete "Our Dog" page (DONE!)
• Mantle in my master bedroom (this one is ready, but I have to hang up all of the clothes drying on it to take pictures of it)
• Decorating with Books (could be completed in 15 minutes after I buy paper)
• Complete "About Us" page (DONE!)
• The {un}Made Bed (no comment...)
• Getting that Pottery Barn look (inspired by the Jan. 2011 catalog)

Ok.  So I have some homework.

Who's with me?  Do you have notes everywhere with ideas or to-do lists?  Or have you gone electronic with them, too?  What's on them?

*Get that super cute notepad on Etsy!

Taste Test

Oh yes, I have fully discovered Etsy.  I am now on a mission to get others hooked!  Remember when I did this post a few weeks back?  Well, all of my purchases came in, and they look great in their frames.  Now that people are asking me where I got everything, I get the chance to be a disciple.


Today, my friend over at Mia's Pizza and Eats told me all about the Etsy Taste Test feature.  I must share!


To really get familiar with Etsy, you need to go to Etsy Taste Test.  Period.


Once there, you will be prompted to choose between two series of three pictures.  Don't worry that one says "mens' favorites" and one says "womens' favorites".  Just go with your gut!

If you don't see something you like, you just keep hitting that "Refresh all items" button in the upper right hand corner until you find a trio that catches your fancy.


Then, you will be asked to pick the one item out of six that most suites your taste (again, you can keep clicking on "Refresh all items" to get to one you like).

You will keep choosing one out of six items as the Taste Test feature tells you how close you are to finishing up your test.

See - I am 50%  closer to getting my personalized Etsy shopping recommendations.

I love how, at the bottom, Etsy tracks all of the individual items that you selected in case you want to check it out at the end of the test.

As Etsy is compiling your data, they offer the most interesting quotations. (My favorite was "Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?" from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass)   By the time you are done reading them, your results are ready!

After your Taste Test, you will have a great start to exploring a focused version of Etsy.  You can begin getting lost in its web just like me!


So, everyone has one of those friends who gets you hooked on an addiction.  A healthy addiction, of course! What have your friends hooked you on?  Have you gotten lost in any webs?


(Thanks, Clori!)