since a full blanks + insta + links post seems a little far off (i have 80 things on my to do list tonight & friday.) here are some links from a few weeks ago.
a lovely idea, could be very sweet for an anniversary.
flower seeds in the mail.
ha, ha maddie. there are some great shots this weekalways.
matt loves sandwiches, i'll be following this project closely.
catstagrams from last night.
windows open.
looking for a little zen as our biggest decision creeps up on us.
1. Today is a great day because it's Friday! Last weekend we were away which was great, but I'm ready for a weekend at home. I hope to work in the yard and get on top of some house cleaning. Also bunches of relaxing but I may plan that into my weekend so I don't totally bum around.
2. Tomorrow I will clean the bathroom if I get up after Matt, make breakfast (bacon!), veg for an hour or so, weed flower beds for a few hours, wash floors, dust upstairs, maybe another hour of yard work, shower, VEG.
3. My favorite time of day is the evening becauseMatt and I are both home, usually, and we're together, eating something yummy and making fun of the cats and laughing.
view from the bed at the H last weekend
4. Sometimes you just have to plan the crap out of your weekend even if all activities occur at home to ensure maximum productivity AND maximum couch potato-ing.
5. A song that I just can't get enough of lately is... well, here's the one I've been wanting to hear:
6. My favorite accessory is a good necklace, I'm usually wearing one, unless my top comes all the way to my neck. Also hair ties, 99% of the time I have one around my wrist.
7. My favorite thing about this week {so far}was serenading Matt in the car on the way home from dinner last night. It was pretty hilarious.
waiting for dinner at Cafe Zinc
Craving: bacon & pizza, things I've dreaming about all week and will be having this weekend
"Everything is flawed. Spending a lot of time on something is not going to make it perfect. Worrying about it and obsessing over it is not going to make it perfect."-Elise
Loving: Getting geared up for Send Something Good & Week in the Life
Feeling: Well, a bit of that malaise is still hanging on, but mostly I'm feeling optimistic for a productive and relaxing weekend.
"The animals photographed for this series are real live animals, raised (and most rescued) by loving and dedicated animal keepers and handlers who care for them as their own and ensured their welfare while being photographed (in studio or outside at the facilities where they live, then photoshoppped into the backdrop). Through this series, we help support organizations devoted to animal rescue, educational programs, and nurturing wildlife."
I made my first Fab.com purchase yesterday and how cool that it was for a good cause. It finally kicked off making purchases for a terribly naked wall in our living room.
I'm not sure what you'd consider what we did pick, but we like it.
This stag fits well with the owl above, and will bring a bit more masculinity into myour colorful, (my) girly living room. I have to give Matt props, he never complains about the girly-ness. I just want to blend our two styles, vintage eclectic and quite modern.
Thanks to the discount of the good cheer deal {there are still some left!} we were able to get a second piece. This one is for the bedroom. I narrowed it down to these two...
It will be a busy weekend with Festival but we were at the Masonic yesterday, and I think it will be nostalgic and sweet to be thinking about where it all started.
My plans last weekend for a major Fall switch and house clean kind of fell flat. The decorations are mostly out, but the house is quite dusty and the clothes are still packed away. Anyway, unless I have some treasure hidden away that I don't remember, I'd really like a new Fall purse. The one above will do.
Both of these items were found via oh, hello friend'sYellow Weekbig giveaway! It's open until... well I'm not sure but it says she's drawing the winner the 28th. So until then I guess.
"When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. Clutter makes you distracted and unable to process information as well as you do in an uncluttered, organized, and serene environment."
These two posts came within days of one another. It was a little sign that it was tackle the clutter in my life, followed by more and more.
The other day Kate of Kate's Irrelevant blog posed a question about what makes you happy.
"A lot of things make me happy... but a lot of things stress me out too. I think I'd like to take one of the things that causes me stress, my messy desk, and make it a day brightener with just some simple tidiness. Easier said than done."
On Monday it looked like this:
and on Thursday before I left for the weekend it looked like this:
Such a relief. The space, feels usable and open instead of cluttered and unproductive.
This is something I'm not alone in struggling with.
Ashlee of Where My Heart Residesposted this book{from Diana}and it instantly went on my wishlist. I love that two weeks later she posted that she was still struggling with the clutter battle! It definitely kicked her into gear though, impressive decluttering of the bathroom!
So how did I do?
22. downsize, declutter / 12. organize my life and keep it picked up
Oh friends, I tried. I would go on cleaning binges and get it to where I thought I would keep it up and then the CLUTTER seeped back in. Oh, I hate you clutter. Why do you knock me down so? This should be a top goal for my entire life.
I'm trying.
high on my organization list is this:
The thing that stinks, it will be SO NICE once it's all done. I don't know why I don't just do it.
I keep thinking it's Friday, probably because I'm probably taking tomorrow off. woohoo! (bowling banquet = too much fun)
It's Maundy Thursday. I like that term. Maundy. I first came across it in The Girl Who Played with Fire which takes place over Easter weekend if I remember correctly. Only 245 days until the release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!!! Can't wait to see Rooney Mara as Lisbeth.
Tomorrow I hope to clean and organize and purge my closets. With Matt moving in, well I suppose the boy's going to need some space. There will be lists.
I am having a crisis in bedding. {There's no such thing as an entertainment emergency.}
I need to find something that suits Matt and I, doesn't feel too fancyschmancy, but isn't too young. We spent several hours on Friday evening searching the major department stores, but I (both of us) get nervous when it comes to making such a major commitment to something we aren't IN LOVE WITH. Then this past weekend there were several posts that excited me.
(particularly the the urban and anthro lotus together.)
Still I have hesitations, and they still come from fear of choosing the wrong pattern and spending too much money or putting together the wrong set. Also, I have a pillow top mattress and that just complicates things. What if it's too small?! ugh. Why must buying a bedding set be so intimidating?!
I want to create an beautiful bed. I want my bed to be a place I look forward to diving into, that is a place I want to spend hours just relaxing in. It needs to feel like home. I feel that way about the company I share my bed with most weekends and I'd like the bed to reflect that.
What do you have? How do you find the balance between buying an adult bedding set that's not too foofy? Where do you shop to avoid spending half a paycheck?
sleeeep. i guess i needed it. fell asleep at about 10:15p watching an old L&O: CI and with the exception of feeding the cats at 10:30a didn't wake up until 12:45p. holy moly people. i'm a solid nine-hour sleeper when i have the chance, but nearly 15 hours! yikes. you'd think i'd just played nine hours of tennis!
this really through my plans for the day out the window: bank, laundrymat, general productivity, as i still needed my slow weekend morning/afternoon to wake up. i made breakfast, read my book, snuggled kitties, sent an email that needed to be sent and caught up on my google reader. i successfully wasted five hours! (before heading out to post golf-outing dinner!)
i hope for a restful yet productive weekend:
tape, tape, tape. empty and wash shelves in dining room and library. wash bathroom and library walls. see family and go deaf at river roar. (which i can hear from my house! well the concert tonight, i'm not sure about the boats.) see friends and relax.
all the paint and primer i bought a few weeks ago, waiting to go on the wall! it'll be good times.
it's been six months since i started bookmarking inspiration - the only thing i was good at for style school! and i have so much. the two-five is just a month away and there is much to do (big party/open house the day before). i think boiling the inspiration down is a great place to start.
i really, really love the pieces of original art and how rachel displays them. i think i'm going to take the art that inspires me and create my own version. my personal version. because that's what i can do at this point, i absolutely want to purchase original pieces some day but that's in the budget at this point.
i wound up with a house that has more shelves than even i can use, including a library! i love the idea of a quote there, in playing with the ideas of painted shelves, and have an amazing curly cue tree that is losing it's branches!
happy tuesday. pink tights and a pretty dress make katy a happy girl. it's the little things that i find happiness in and without them, well life just wouldn't be as great.
it's the fourth day of may already, but it took me awhile to nail down just three words for the month (remember i did this back in february, maybe a reflection post would be nice.)
MAY
myself,awesome, art journal, yard
myself: you know, i'm a pretty selfish person and i mean this in the best of ways. i stick with what makes me happy, what makes me feel comfortable, what i know. but what i want to accomplish for myself this month is to improve. to improve my ability to carry on a conversation without relating it to myself, just listening. and to really focus on eating right and moving my body. just starting in small ways is all i can ask for now.
awesome: eh, kind of a cop-out word, but who doesn't want life to be awesome? i really want a well rounded, awesome month.
art journal: i bought acrylics and two fancy pens. now i just have to follow the prompts and see where this can lead me. yes i signed up for another elsie (&rachel) class! now i just need to get my but in gear! hehe
yard: eek! there is so much to do. weeds to be pulled, dead to be cut away, dreams to be had underneath the white blossoms of a crab apple tree. i have to be patient because it is just may. i can't do any planting, but i can get it ready. i can plan.
If you had told me a year ago that I would be living back in Bay City, have bought a house and be working at Delta College. I would not have believed you. Not a chance. I wouldn't have been surprised to be back in Bay City, because I'd made the decision to move home just over a year ago. The rest of it, you've got to be kidding me.
This year has been fantastic. I thouroughly enjoyed the first five months in New York. I wrapped up my time at Corra, volunteered at the ASPCA and The Reading Time, explored the city more, saw great shows on Broadway, and many more amazing things.
Now it's New Year's Eve of 2009. We're about to enter a new decade. I'm going with twenty-x if anyone was wondering ie. twenty-ten. Welcome twenty-ten!! I hope you are a wonderful year! I can't imagine it not being one. That's my style.
Every NYE I tend to get the feeling that it will be a reflection of my year to come. We could go back to 2000 with this, my earliest memory of looking back and saying, wow my year was a lot like how I spent NYE. That will be my post for tomorrow.
I've never been good at making resolutions, probably because I don't keep them. Inspired by other bloggers though I'm going to just that this year.
10 things for 2010!
1. Wear more orange! This is totally random, but as I was picking the color for the title of this orange definitely popped in my head. obsessed. without reason. embrace it.
2. Embrace life. Don't chicken out. Put yourself out there. Be strong and laugh loud.
3. Rock the crafty nerd that's inside. The end of the year approached that nerd started to creep out, and why not grab it and have fun. Who knows where it could take me...
4. Take more pictures. With the gift of the camera this should be easy!
5. Keep my home organized. It will be a more peaceful and homey place if you do. Willie wouldn't appreciate choas in her house.
9. Compile all of Grandma's recipes for a book with photos for the family, or just have it online. Also finally have EIW journal printed!
10. Get fit! This has been on my "resolution" list since I quit playing basketball at 14. That was 45lbs and 10 years ago. It's time to get serious and get active. (oh that's cheesy) I'm serious though, little steps each day and I can do it. I work 100 feet from a Fitness Center for goodness sakes!
