Sunset on Distant Castle

Our little bundle

2011-09-29T14:41:00.000-05:00

Picture property of Ms. S

...arrived on August 24th and has been keeping this mama busy ever since. Not that I'm complaining. He's really quite precious, and I absolutely love being little Pumpkin's mama.

Since Pumpkin arrived, some things have changed around the house. At least two loads of laundry are done everyday, for example (cloth diapers). Dishes are done more regularly - sometimes by me!! Mr. S is thrilled. I don't get the chance everyday, as often just when I'm about to start someone wakes up from his nap. Oh well. The bathroom is now usually cleaned in stages. One day, the shower will get cleaned. The next day (or the day after that) the toilet will get cleaned. And finally, the sink will get cleaned. Sometime. And that's ok...mostly because it has to be ok. A child quickly teaches you to roll with the punches. And the rest of the house is in a general state of disarray. We pick up when we have the chance. Ok, more like when company is coming over.

Bottom line is this: we're having so much fun.

Photos of the projects going on...

2011-05-08T22:32:00.001-05:00

Bedroom/Nursery before getting a new color on the walls....

My mom's hard work! We're SO pleased with how it turned out.

With the curtains hanging...

And with (some) of the furniture...

Still need to put the cradle and changing table in there. But the cradle is still in Iowa with my parents or grandmother, and Mr. S hasn't had the chance to work on the changing table yet. We still have a few months.

Gearing up for another set of curtains. Note my new workspace! Mr. S made us a fabulous desk out of an old door.

To add some color to the walls, as well as help me better organize my thread stash.

The new workspace in all its glory. Isn't my husband amazing?

The newest set of curtains was for this space. You're looking at the before - an awkward three panel set up that was driving me CRAZY! We weren't maximizing our natural light because that middle panel refused to move anywhere out of the way. Refused, I tell you! And then it would get stuck on the rod. Bah! It had to go.

To be replaced by something brighter, more cheerful, and more easily mobile. Just two panels here that slide like grease along the rod, and actually move completely to either side so we can maximize our daylight. Love!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! We've been busy over here and have more projects coming up we'll be able to share. :)

~Ms. S

Words from the Pregnant Lady

2011-04-14T20:35:00.001-05:00

I could (and should and will) update you on the lovely painting job my mom did in our bedroom earlier this week. The bedroom that all three of us will share - Husband, Baby, and me. I could also tell you about the new fabric I picked up tonight to make new curtains for either our kitchen or living room (haven't decided for sure which place they'll go yet). However, what's really on my mind is the need to vent a little and impart some (hopefully humorous) words of wisdom when encountering a pregnant lady - or at least this one.

1. Do you know how many times a day a pregnant lady is asked "how are you feeling?" Mmmm....it depends on how many people the lady encounters, but suffice it to say too many. I know and understand it's meant to show you care and most of the time it's truly a sincere question. The problem is two-fold. First, I feel like I've already told everyone and their mother how I'm feeling, so I just get tired of sharing because my answer really doesn't change. And second, you don't actually want me to always be honest with you. For example, I'm not about to say, "Great, except it's harder than heck to poop!!" Or "I'm experiencing something akin to menstrual cramps but 20 times worse as my stomach stretches, thanks for asking." Don't think I haven't been tempted, though! ;)

2. Why are people obsessed over pregnancy cravings? I swear my co-workers (often the same ones) ask me something about this at least 3 or 4 times a week. Do you realize not everyone craves anything let alone weird things? In fact, at this stage in pregnancy food is SO uninteresting to me that the only thing that bothers me more than having to eat it is talking about it.

3. People (lots) are starting to ask me if I'm feeling the baby kick. The question is well-meaning, which I appreciate, but the problem is I have no idea how to respond. The truth: No, I don't, actually because my placenta is between my outer belly and the baby, cushioning it's smaller movements. I only feel the big ones. But my baby is healthy and thriving. What I usually say: Oh yes.
Who wants to hear (or cares) about the placement of my placenta? I'd rather not explain, give a quick answer, and have people move on.

4. I haven't experienced morning sickness. And after 3 or 4 weeks, my answer still hasn't changed. Plus, do you really want to know? Really???

5. Nope, we're not finding out the baby's gender. Nope, neither of us feels a compelling need to know. In fact, we WANT to be surprised. So please can any complaints about not knowing what to buy or the colors you feel you're now limited to. We happen to like green and yellow; we'd happily dress a girl in blue; and did orange, red, purple, brown, black, white, and gray suddenly disappear from the color spectrum? Green and yellow are not your only options. Just sayin'.

6. Baby names. Oh, dear me, baby names. This is something that everyone seemingly wants to know about. We aren't sharing or taking suggestions. Period. And we have good reasons for it. Allow me to share a few of them.
   a. Everyone has opinions about names, but this baby is ours - not everyone else's.
   b. Choosing names is an incredibly personal thing for Husband and me, and it's a way for us to bond over and get to know our little one before he or she arrives. That's for us. Not everyone else.
   c. Humans are, by nature, judgmental creatures. We don't want to know what your opinion is about a name we like before we decide to give it to our child. You'll know when our child is named.
   d. We have a list and some favorites, but ultimately, we want to see our baby first before we decide on a name. And therefore, aren't looking to be swayed by anyone but that precious babe on its birth day.

7. Then there are ultrasound pictures. Something just as personal, if not more so, than baby names. Can I just tell you that these are the strangest looking pictures ever? On the screen, we had little trouble identifying what we were seeing. The print outs look like alien blobs. These alien blobs are not something I want to share on facebook or with the world. We'll show our parents and siblings...maybe others? Besides the pictures being small and hard to see, they represent an intensely personal moment for us as parents - it's the first time we saw our baby. Our baby who is still growing and squirming in my belly. Our baby who isn't fully formed. Our baby who will be here in a shorter time than we think. So, forgive us if we aren't quick to share this with you.

8. There seems to be a hazing ritual that occurs between established parents and new parents that differs for each sex. Established fathers tell fathers-to-be how much life is going to change (ultimately for the worse) once the baby arrives, and how much harder it's going to be in a seemingly light-hearted, half-joking kind of way. Established mothers share childbirth horror stories and/or child birthing tips. Does it occur to those fathers that Mr. S is excited to be a daddy? Does it occur to those mothers that my child birth experience will be unique because my body is different than theirs? If either Mr. S or I want to know something, we'll ask. Otherwise, what happened to the mantra "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all?"

*9. (Added after initial post). Parenting starts even before the baby comes. We've been making some decisions already that will impact the way we raise and live with our little one. Decisions like OBGYN vs. midwife, hospital vs birthing center vs home birth, whether or not to breastfeed, how we'll sleep, etc. These decisions were very carefully thought out and come to with the help of information provided by our midwives and the reading we've been doing. And some key friends whose opinions we solicited. Giving us your unsolicited opinion about what we've decided as far as sleeping arrangements go is akin to me coming into the lunchroom and telling you the diet you're on is all wrong. What do I know about your diet? Why should I care about your diet? What do you know about how we want to raise our baby? What do you know about our sleeping habits? And why in the world do you care enough to offer an opinion? I don't mind sharing this information with friends who are honestly and sincerely curious about what we've decided and why we came to that decision - they aren't looking to offer an opinion or pass judgment. They know we're thoughtful people and there's a reason why we chose one thing vs another and want to be more informed and enlightened. They respect our opinions even if their own opinions are different.

Ultimately, it's not that we don't want you to share in our joy or be curious. It's that pregnancy is an intensely personal experience. Under normal circumstances, I don't share every detail of my life. But as a pregnant lady it seems expected that this should change and I don't entirely understand why. I try very hard to be respectful of people's curiosity and sincerity, and I never intend to offend. Please try to extend the same courtesy to us. Soon enough, our baby will be here for us to pass around and share - fully formed and outside of my body, a delightful, curious little person. When we can place our child in your arms, we'll be happy to share him or her with you, but for now we're let us enjoy and bond over this experience sharing with you what we choose - what isn't too personal.

~Ms. S

There's a baby on the way!

2011-03-28T22:30:00.001-05:00

And that, my friends, is why I have been absent for...3 months? Has it really been that long?! Well, let's just say my energy was completely zapped by the bean-sized embryo taking charge of my belly. All for a good cause, of course. However, this means a host of fun projects to share! Including the most recently completed project - curtains for the nursery! (Did I mention we moved since the last time I think I posted?) We have a nursery, and the curtains were the first step.

I'm pretty proud of myself, because I didn't use a pattern and am happy with the result. And they were easy, to boot! Not to say I wouldn't change some things next time around, but overall, they're exactly what the room needed - a bit of what I'll call 'inspired cuteness.' I found an adorable print by Kokka at Crafty Planet with different fairy tales on it - Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Thumbelina, The Musicans of Bremmen, and Puss in Boots. We're not finding out the sex of the baby beforehand, so it was important to find something that would work for either. This print fit what we were looking for.

Materials needed:
Fabric (I used 3 yards)
Coordinating thread
Grommets (mine came from Joanne's)
Scissors
Iron
Measuring tool for seams

The windows in this room already had curtains, so I measured the curtains that were already there to determine how much fabric I needed. And by measured, I mean I took the 1/8 of a yard sample and counted how many of those I would need to get my yardage. There are easier ways. Like a yard stick. Which I don't have.

Moving on! I washed and dried my fabric to pre-shrink it. How many times do you wash your curtains? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too, but when I DO want to wash curtains I certainly don't want my seams to pucker due to shrinkage.

Then ironing! Secretly, I find ironing to be quite relaxing. We actually couldn't find our iron for the longest time after moving here, but it turned up in the one box we hadn't actually opened up. Imagine that. I pressed the wrong side of the fabric (the side really doesn't matter) using high heat with steam since the fabric is cotton. The steam really helps ease those creases out of the material.

Once the fabric was pressed, I folded it in half and cut down the middle to get my two curtains. The pattern I used was printed differently than most are, so if you decide to do this yourself, you should make sure when measuring for your fabric that you're measuring the way you want the pattern to appear (hopefully that makes sense). Then I spread my material out on my table and placed the curtain I was using as a pattern over top to determine how large my seams could be.

Next I measured and ironed my seams. On the bottom and top, I folded the fabric up 1/4 inch and ironed in place, and folded over again - this time 1/2 inch. Once the seams were marked, I went to the sewing machine and sewed a 1/4 inch seam...afterward realizing another go-round would ensure my seams were secure and laid flat. So I sewed another seam - approximately 5/8 this time (you'll see in the picture).

Repeat process for side seams. Although for the sides, I folded up 1/2 inch, ironed, and folded up another 1/2 inch. Sewed the double seams...but this time there were corners to contend with. How to make corners look decent? My method is one I made up, so if you're an experienced sewer, use whatever works for you. If you're looking for tips, here's what I did:

1. Fold up and press your first 1/2 inch; open

2. Fold in one corner until it meets the crease you just created; press

3. Keeping corner tucked in, fold up and press the second 1/2 inch

Voila! Sew your double seams. In addition to sewing the length of the fabric, I sewed the corners shut, too. Maybe that was overkill, but I didn't want those corners moving.

Then for the finishing touches. I pressed the curtains again, this time on the right side of the fabric, and placed one on my table to prep for grommets. I got these grommets at Joanne's and they were super easy to use. Four for each curtain. I placed the ones on the ends first and worked my way in following the instructions on the back of the package. Cut out my circles, placed my grommets in the circles and snapped them into place. All done! Word of the wise: place your end grommets within an inch and a half of the edges. My table wasn't big enough to not have some fabric hanging over the sides of the work area - so even though I placed them an inch and a half in, there were 2.5 more inches hanging off both sides of the table. Oops! Not a huge deal, and I could bring in the side seams (particularly the ones in the middle) a little more. For now, they're fine.

The rod that's in the nursery right now is one that wraps around at the corners. It works, but I'd like to get a straight rod that matches the grommets as I think the curtains would hang just a little bit more nicely. I'm pretty happy with the end result though! Easy curtains for the home.

We're moving!

2011-01-18T19:42:00.000-06:00

The list I posted at the end of the last post IS coming, I promise. We're just in the middle of packing up our apartment to move into a lovely new place on Friday. That, coupled with an exceptionally busy previous week, means I haven't had time to write up anything worth reading and neither has Mr. S. But fear not! We'll be back after our move. And thank you in advance to family and friends for their help in this endeavor - we greatly appreciate it! :)

~Ms. S

Welcoming in 2011

2011-01-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

How were your holidays? Ours were delightfully spent with family and friends. Christmas was split between Iowa and Minnesota (which was wonderful, but exhausting), and New Years was spent with our potluck crew - probably the most fun Husband and I have had on New Years Eve. Now that the holidays are past, I can finally share some of my crafty projects with you!

First up, Christmas stockings! Admittedly, there is no reason why these couldn't have been shared earlier. This lady was just busy, busy, busy and very tired. Anyway...I think they turned out perfectly!

Here they are under our tree. I didn't get a picture of them hanging before Mr. S packed them away.

After reading an article last year about different ways to decorate for Christmas (I cannot for the life of me remember what magazine this was in - Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, or Martha Stewart Living), Mr. S and I had a conversation about what color we wanted to emphasize in our decorating. The article mentioned how there is usually a large focus on red, but there are so many other ways to decorate for Christmas that incorporate some red without letting that color take over everything. So we decided on green, a color both of us like a lot.

I knew I wanted to make our stockings, so made a trip to my local Joanne's and found a McCall's pattern I liked that looked easy enough. The hard part was finding the fabric. I've mentioned Crafty Planet before - they're my favorite fabric store in the Twin Cities. Without a doubt, I wanted to get the fabric for our stockings there, but it took a lot of patience and multiple trips before I found what I wanted. Nice, Christmasy greens were hard to find, so I decided on a slivery gray for the main body that would allow me to easily accent with green. The final result was so satisfying! The only problem - I only made two. Here's hoping Crafty Planet stocks the same fabrics around Christmas time next year so I can make two more for future children. However, I'm open to kids' stockings being slightly different from ours. We'll just have to see.

Next up: Secret Santa gift! We did a Secret Santa/Snowman exchange at work in December. Being in a crafty mood, I decided to make the first gift for my gift recipient. This clutch was made using two matching quilting remnants I'd picked up from Joanne's a few years ago. I sewed a simple rectangle, tacked up one half, sewed the sides, and added a button from my button box. Needing a little extra touch, I found some pretty green yarn from my stash and two extra ornaments to add a bit of flair. Inside, my recipient found some dark Lindt chocolate with a hint of orange and almonds (SO yummy!) and a Christmas cd of an artist she enjoys.

"A little music to make the mood merry,
A little chocolate to make your day bright!"
Secret Santa

Now Christmas is over and presents have been given. Not to worry, though! The need to craft isn't gone. In fact, we'll be moving to a new place at the end of the month and I already have plans for curtains, place mats, table cloths, maybe a shower curtain, and such. Oh, and did I mention we'll be within walking distance of Crafty Planet? Mr. S is (understandably) concerned about the effect that will have on our pocketbook. I, however, am not! :)

Things to look forward to in the coming weeks:
1) Pictures of the monstrous snow storm we had the weekend before Christmas
2) Guest post (maybe two!) from Mr. S
3) Organizing and cleaning tips for moving
4) How to be creative with living spaces
5) A little surprise! :)

Keep coming back! I've missed this place.

~Ms. S

Crafty Is On The Way

2010-12-05T22:42:00.000-06:00

So, my weekend (actually, the past several weekends) was filled with crafty things. Right now, I need to get to bed, but rest assured there are pictures on my camera and special things to share. Tomorrow night we're going to dinner with some friends, but hopefully I'll have the chance to post something once we get home. Like our Christmas stockings!

May your week be merry!
~Ms. S

Change is in the air

2010-11-14T12:54:00.000-06:00

I have intentionally left this place for a while in order to give some serious thought to what I want this space to be and how I want it to function. After reading a guest post on a friend's blog a while back about starting a blog, I decided it would be beneficial to:
1. Think about my subject and decide whether or not that was the direction I wanted to go
2. Think about my audience
3. Revisit how often I post
4. Start my new job and evaluate how much energy I would have at the end of the day to create posts

There are some changes in the air for this little space of mine. In thinking about my subject matter, it occurred to me that I still really dislike cleaning, and that this blog hasn't really inspired me back into the neat-freak I happened to be when I met my husband. What has happened since starting this blog is a growth in my craft projects. And I enjoy sharing them here because I'm proud of the work I do, and like sharing pretty things with you. But...I don't want to simply focus on my projects because that's not me, and because I'm also proud of some of the home fix-it, cleaning, and organizing tasks I accomplish. I'll get to what this means for the blog in a minute - after addressing numbers 2-4 above.

Thinking about my audience was the hardest part for me. Who reads my blog now? Who do I want to read my blog? How do I get those people to follow my blog? Those are big questions to answer, and my (albeit short) experience working at a branding firm reiterates the importance of answering those questions. As far as I know, friends and family are the only people who read this regularly, but I don't actually know that since visitors rarely comment (I don't hold that against anyone, by the way, though comments always make my day). And I could say that I want people who enjoy Martha Stewart, Design*Sponge, Amy Butler, Hygge & West, etc to find my blog. But I started this blog for myself, and if this place isn't about me first and what I feel compelled to share, I will quickly lose motivation to update it. So...I blog for me. Is that a bad thing?

Three and four kind of go hand-in-hand. I have traditionally been posting when motivated and when I had the energy. My new job doesn't leave me nearly as exhausted at the end of the day as was the case last year. So having the energy to whip out a post is quite likely and completely reasonable. I will be starting classes this spring, but I don't anticipate that being so overwhelming I can't maintain this space.

So what does this mean? It means I will be sharing home organizing/cleaning/and fix-it stories and tips as I see fit - reviewing things I try, sharing my (often creative) steps to fixing certain items, and sharing solutions to issues I find helpful and useful. In trying to get away from the monotony of telling you about how many dishes I had to wash, or how, yet again, I failed to stick to my 'chores' schedule, or how the bathroom really needs to be cleaned, I've decided it would be a welcome break for me to be able to focus more on sharing my sewing and craft projects. With the Holidays coming up, you can expect to see more crafty things here. :) I still plan on only promising one post/week. Mostly because weekends are when I have the most time to work on my projects. But that's not to say I'll hold back if I have more to share.

Hopefully these changes will be just what's needed for a fresh start here. With snow on the ground here, I'm off to finish and begin some Christmas projects...and dig out our Christmas music (inspiration never hurts, you know)! Enjoy your Sunday.

~ Ms. S

Finally!

2010-10-10T18:42:00.000-05:00

Some good news to share. As of Friday, I am officially employed! Yay!! The life of Ms. S will get infinitely more interesting on Tuesday when I start said job. I am hoping it will mean more motivation for projects around the apartment, and therefore more posts, too.

Yesterday I tackled a task I've been avoiding for, mmm, forever. Cleaning out my closet and dresser. It was surprisingly less scary than I anticipated. I knew I had a lot of clothes and that I never wore half of them. I didn't know I had four grocery bags full of unwanted clothes and one bag of shoes!! Whoa!

The inspiration for finally doing this project: a paycheck and the need for more work appropriate clothes. Not wanting to go shopping until I knew what I had (or didn't have), and until I had made room for new clothes, I decided I could no longer avoid my closet. And since I haven't really been clothes shopping since before I got married, I was kinda excited about the prospect of finally getting to do so. *This is the first time in our marriage that both of us are employed to our full potential, with full salaries and benefits.*

I started by taking all my clothes out of the dresser drawers and sorting them into piles: keep, maybe, give away. When all the drawers were done, I emptied out the closet (and remembered the clothes stored under the bed). Once all my clothes were in one of the piles, I looked at everything in my 'maybe' pile and determined if it would be kept or given away, and did one final look-through of my keep pile just to be sure. My give away piles went into brown paper grocery bags - four of them! I figured while I was at it I might as well do my shoes, too. One bag of shoes joined the bags of clothes.

Then!!! Mr. S and I went shoe shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I adore shoes. A lot. And have rarely stepped into a shoe store for about 4 years because we didn't have the money for me to indulge. Don't get me wrong - we didn't go crazy. Remember the last post about our cash budget? Yeah, we're still doing that (I managed $51.60 today!!), and are still intending to save - more aggressively now than we thought we'd be able to. But we both needed a pair of new shoes: Mr. S a pair of loafers, Ms. S a pair of brown dress shoes for work. My shoes are super cute brown suede wedges by Me Too. I'll take a special picture Tuesday - my first day of real work since August, 2008 - with my shoes so you can see them, too.

In the mean time, enjoy your weekend! We've certainly been enjoying ours.

~ Ms. S

Cash Budget

2010-10-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

In yesterday's post, I mentioned having something more about grocery shopping later. Well, here it is!

Money is a little tight around here lately, so Mr. S and I have been examining our budget to determine what we can cut and where we can trim. I do most of the grocery shopping for our house (mostly because I can get in and out of the store more quickly than Husband most days), but both of us are pretty bad about spending more than we planned at the store. We love food, we love good food, and we both enjoy cooking. Needless to say, we both have ideas and upon entering the grocery store are totally enchanted by some of the things we see. All this to say, the grocery budget could definitely be trimmed.

We decided to put a couple systems in place. We've never been meal planners - that is to say, we rarely sit down once per week and figure out what we're going to eat everyday for dinner. This meant a lot of forgotten leftovers in the back of the fridge that had to be tossed, and remaining unaware of things already in the pantry to be used for that week's meals. Obviously, this needed to stop. I sat down yesterday and planned out our meals for the week, including space for consuming leftovers.

A lot of people go grocery shopping with a list. My mother, Husband's mother and sister, many of our friends. For whatever reason, we've never been list people. Even on days we tried to be good and go with a list, we'd end up with quite a few items in our cart that weren't on the list. (I did tell you the grocery store is an enchanted place for us. I wasn't lying.) Now our rule is you must make a list before setting foot in the grocery store, and you must stick to it!

The final system we put in place is a cash budget. As we thought about different ways to trim the grocery budget, we both knew if we pulled a certain amount of cash out of the bank each week and said, "That's all we have for groceries," our chances of actually trimming the budget might succeed. So, we now have an envelope on our fridge with our grocery money. On the front of the envelope we wrote: Week of: October 2-8, etc and a place to write down how much was spent that week. We've budgeted $50/week for groceries. For this first time around, we pulled two week's worth of cash for the envelope - nothing worse than getting to the checkout and needing an extra 4 dollars or something as you try out the system.

Alright, so we put these systems in place and I tried it out for the first time yesterday. I planned out this week's meals with our pantry in mind. We have lots of rice, pasta, and potatoes on hand, some fruit and veggies in the fridge...so I wanted to only pick up ingredients from the store that would round out our pantry for the week. I made my list and grabbed our envelope. During my shopping trip, I paid close attention to the cost/ounce or pound of the items I purchased, wanting to get the best value. Only one extraneous item made it into my cart - sweet potatoes because they were on a good sale this week. How did I fare? $55.13 for my first time out. Not too shabby! "But it's over your budget," you say. That is true, but some of the items like milk and cereal will last us for two weeks. Also, it was my first time using this system and most of my grocery trips were at least $70 or $80. I'm pretty proud of myself and Mr. S is proud of me, too. Mostly, I'm proud of us for finding a practical solution to this problem.

How do you budget for groceries? Do you have any systems in place?

Uninspired

2010-10-03T21:18:00.000-05:00

Apologies for the lack of updates lately. The stress level in our house has been unusually high. People keep telling us, "You'll get through this." We're aware and appreciative of the insight, but it doesn't really help us right now. Most of my energy lately has gone into finding full-time employment. Therefore, my attention hasn't really been here. I'm hoping I find something amazing in the next few weeks and can refocus my energies to our Castle.

That's the other thing. Our apartment has been significantly more messy than usual due to our stress level. I know, I know. The mess = contributing to stress. Believe me, I know. So here's my assignment for tomorrow:

Dishes
Meal planning for the week
Grocery shopping (we have a new budget for this...I'm saving to post about later this week)
Clean our bedroom

It's a very doable list. And I'm keeping it doable because I need to feel like I'm accomplishing things. I'm also going to start a new sewing project so I have something to focus on besides staring at the computer conducting a job search/waiting longingly for an email reply or phone call.

How do you cope with stress? What do you do to stay sane?

Busy, busy, busy

2010-09-24T12:30:00.001-05:00

Sorry for my lack of posts in the past two weeks. Life has been throwing us curve balls, and we've been scrambling to keep up. Do you ever experience those times where you feel like life couldn't possibly get more hectic, crazy, stressful? I'm not so good at dealing with it when it all comes all at once.

I finished filing our paper work from the past 4 years! Woo-hoo!! Thank goodness that's done. There are a couple things left before the project is complete, though. As you can see, I have two very full brown paper bags - one for recycling and one to be shredded. And I still have to figure out an in/out system for mail. Those are certainly small tasks in comparison to all the filing! Admittedly, when I finally sat down and did it, even with 4 years worth of paper it only took me an hour and a half to find the correct place for everything. That's not so bad.

I wanted to be sure to share the final results with you, and just recommend this system again. You can read about it here!

Happy weekend, all!

~ Ms. S

Sometimes this lady feels like a fool

2010-09-13T19:50:00.000-05:00

Today I was reading a post over on Freya's blog at Brit Chick Runs laughing at her funny/random searches she found in her stats, and wondering how I could view stats on MY blog. Um....how 'bout by clicking on the huge 'Stats' tab, Ms. S!! Oh dear. So now I'm wondering: is this tab new or have I really just always overlooked it? Maybe I'm actually happier not knowing the answer to that question.

Having discovered this new-to-me tab, though, I'm blown away by the page that shows me where my readers are! Ok, first of all - I have readers!!! Who knew?! I was very much under the impression that my friends and a few family members were the only ones who trekked this way. But no. From Canada, to the UK, to Demark, Germany, Austria, Latvia, China, South Korea, and South Africa! Wow!! [Side note: Latvia stands out to me because my brother in-law spent a year there as an exchange student and loved it; and I actually studied in Austria for the month of January my sophomore year in college - gorgeous!] This is one of those times where logically I tell myself that when I post something on the world wide web, it can of course be viewed world wide, but continue to pinch myself nonetheless.

It's probably a good thing I discovered this tab. Knowing there are more readers out there than I thought provides excellent motivation to update more frequently. Though it should be noted: I love comments! It's how I know you come to my space and read the words I write. I'm a friendly person, I promise, and enjoy 'meeting' new people. So don't be shy! Let me know you visited!

In other news, I've decided with this much time on my hands I should learn how to do some basic redesign for the blog. Really, I decided this yesterday and spent hours trying to download GIMP with no success because X11 isn't on our computer. And the installation disc is at home in Iowa. Download it from Apple's website, you say? Oh no! After I'd spent a good number of hours trying to get it to download properly, Husband took a stab at it with no more luck than me. *sigh* I guess I'm just going to have to wait a little bit, but I am very excited to get to work. Mostly, I have plans for the header. Maybe if that's successful I'll venture into other things.

And finally, my project for tonight. Filing. Honestly, it's going to be a tedious task - we have stuff from 2006 all the way up to today that needs a home. I've had this project ready to go since ~~last year~~ a really long time ago, but have put it off because looking at the stack of papers makes me want to fly in the other direction. Of course, that just means the papers keep piling up.

I was inspired yesterday to tackle something bigger today after reading this blog post from Real Simple that seemed to be written just for me. In her post, Erin Doland talks about common excuses used for putting off home organizing and cleaning tasks. I'm guilty of using the first two: I'm messy and I don't have time. But here's the thing. I, Ms. S, am prone to messiness - my family (husband and myself) is not, as Mr. S is quite tidy. And not having time? Yeah, being mostly unemployed I have plenty of time.

This morning I had to go through our files to find some information for a job application. Rather than putting everything back where it has been, I decided to leave it out to put it away properly tonight. What does 'properly' mean in this instance? An excellent question.

My sister in-law provided me with an article last summer about creating an easy home organizing system after she used it and liked it. The article is from the April 2009 Better Homes and Gardens magazine called 'Paper Trail' by Joanna Smith. I tried searching for the article online, but didn't find it. It's a 5 step process, so it's easy to follow. And what I like most is that reader Bobbie Ambuske, who shared this system with BHG, recommends using 12 pocket accordion files for your permanent storage. Here's what I like about this system: it keeps all important items from one year in a single, compact place, and once you enter into your eighth year (it's recommended to keep up to 7 years on file), you can easily reuse the accordion folders - all you have to do is change the year the folder is labeled. So simple! I've filed all of our paper work from 2009 using this method and really love it - I've just been bad about keeping up with 2010 and moving all the paper work prior to 2009.

Here's how I make it work for me. The categories I file are: Income - pay stubs; Investments - 401-K, IRAs; Giving - all charitable giving; Insurance - car, home; Medical - bills & statements; Taxes - once completed; Banking - statements once reconciled (yes, it's a good idea to print them off); Receipts - big items or returns only; Utilties - water, electric, gas; Paid Bills - internet, phone, Netflix, etc; Credit; Loans. You should only use categories that make sense for you. This is the part I'm good at - determining what categories work best for us and then filing appropriately (and shredding whatever is unnecessary to be filed). Additionally, we keep the article at the front of the folder for the current year, just so be sure both Mr. S and I are clear on how it all works. But there is another component to this system that I have yet to implement successfully.

The article recommends having two trays or baskets - one for receipts, the other for bills to pay - and placing them in a spot that's easily accessible and visible. The idea is to "follow the "touch it once" rule for receipts and mail." In other words, upon receiving and opening mail, you place it in its appropriate place: basket, recycling bin, or shredder. Brilliant, right? Following this would lead to a life of significantly less paper clutter. I just haven't hit on the implementation of this system that works well for me, and therefore works well for Husband.

Do you have any suggestions for such a seemingly simple task? Are you good about immediately filing paper work at home, or do you let it pile up? What kind of a system do you use?

~ Ms. S

Check out Iowa Girl Eats!!

2010-09-09T19:36:00.000-05:00

Ack! My guest post appeared on Iowa Girl Eats today and of course I haven't been here to write in a week! Silly me. Well, as Kristin and Ben travel in Italy, she has been posting others' favorite vacations. I wrote about our recent trip to the Oregon Coast, but you will also find two other amazing vacations - a trek across Europe and a honeymoon to Italy! Go check it out! Her readers have been just about everywhere, it seems.

Alright, quick update. The house (ok, apartment) is a disaster as Husband and I have been out of two many weekends in a row and have been bad about unpacking upon getting home. For example, we finally put the camping gear away from a weekend away literally right before leaving for a weekend in Iowa. Now all the laundry I did at home (in Iowa) is still sitting in the laundry baskets in the living room. So this weekend we will be purging a bit. Because it's become a sty! *and no pictures were taken because they'd be way too embarrassing...even though you've seen my underwear drawer.*

Here's to a lovely evening. And cheering on the Vikings!!!

~Ms. S

"What's wrong with kids these days?"

2010-09-01T19:01:00.000-05:00

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to call today's post. Probably because there are a million thoughts running through my head (like last time) and I haven't actually decided what to write about yet. Does that ever happen to you? Too many thoughts to focus in on just one? It happens to me more often than I'd like.

Still no luck on the job front, though I have landed two very part time gigs and one of them actually involves cleaning! A friend of a friend from church just had a baby via C-section about two weeks ago, and she also has a 13 month old son. Needless to say, she needs some help with household chores for the next month, as well as with her oldest child since she's restricted in how much she can lift and bend over. She is also legally blind - she and her family moved into a new townhouse literally three days before she gave birth, so she hasn't yet completed learning her new home. So far I've helped her sweep, mop, clean the bathroom, and vacuum. But I've also gotten to play with her oldest son and feed him breakfast. Truly a lovely woman with two adorable boys.

My other job is helping out with an after school program working specifically with preschoolers. I know. Haven't I been trying to avoid that? Well, let's just say that it's not my ideal job, but I love working with this age and it's such a short amount of time and not in a classroom setting that it's all good.

Today, though, I think I want to address something I overheard on my way to work today. As I was waiting for the Light Rail train to take me to the after school program, I heard two ladies talking and couldn't help but over hear part of a conversation about Christmas gifts. One of them was telling a story about an expensive gift she'd gotten for a nephew who'd "always been a brat." He didn't like the particular gift she'd given him, so she told him not to expect anymore Christmas cards (which I assume also meant gifts) from her. She was disgusted and went on to say that her other brothers kids were always grateful for whatever they received. The woman she was talking to just shook her head and said, "What's wrong with kids these days?"

They didn't ask me, so I kept my mouth shut, but the beauty of this space is that I can open it and answer them anyway. :)

I don't understand this particular reaction from people, because in reference to this specific story there are plenty of examples of children from hundreds of years ago who weren't thankful for a gift they received. So what is so different about this situation that makes all kids today thankless, as the question implies? The context is different, perhaps, and people tend to have many more gadgets, possessions, and 'things,' but all of those together only illustrate how surroundings are different.

Having heard something during this story about buckskins that had been in the family for years, I put some pieces together for myself (not sure if they're correct). Did the woman telling this story gift a buckskin to this "always been a brat" nephew? Let's pretend this is the case. Part of being a good gift-giver is doing your best to give something you think the recipient will like and/or want. That can definitely be challenging sometimes, but you know, there's nothing wrong with asking if there's something that someone wants if you're a little stumped. It may not be quite as much fun, but you can be sure your recipient will be thrilled. Whereas, getting them something you would want without thinking about their interests....well, no one can really blame them if they aren't interested. Ok, so the buckskins were clearly important and of value to this lady, but they might not have been to her nephew (understandable, in my opinion. What in the world do you do with buckskins?!). Does his lack of interest in this gift really warrant a grand sweep of something being wrong with all kids these days?

Maybe this kid really is thankless and has been for a long time, but maybe he just thinks his aunt is really weird and that her gifts are a bit strange. I wouldn't blame him. But I also wouldn't lay the blame on him if has "always been" the "brat" his aunt claims he has been. In my experience, most bratty kids are the way they are because of parenting choices made by those raising them. *Please note, I said "most." There are certainly exceptions.* Kids are by and large a product of their surroundings. Manners and grace are learned qualities and different from culture to culture, society to society. Was this nephew ever taught to how to gracefully accept gifts - even those he was less excited about? Did his parents teach him to write thank you notes for gifts he received? Maybe not, and if so that's hardly his own fault. Did his parents talk about the 'crazy' gifts they always received from someone? If so, and if he heard that from a young age, it's no wonder he came across as thankless.

I'm would never call myself an etiquette snob, though I am a stickler for manners. Comments like "What's wrong with kids these days?" just irritate me because it implies superiority to all young people in the person who said it. In my experience, those who choose to make such a comment are rarely justified in their superiority.

Thank you for letting me rant just a little.

~Ms. S

Hodge-Podge

2010-08-25T18:46:00.001-05:00

This will be a mishmash of a post, mostly because there are a number of very unrelated thoughts going on in my head at the moment. So consider yourself warned.

First up, two fix-it projects. Remember the under-the-counter lighting Mr. S installed a while back that he was so proud of? Well, one of the brackets that holds the cord up underneath the cabinets kept falling out. We'd stick it back up only to have it fall out again in a matter of days or hours. Mr. S assured me he was going to make a trip to the hardware store and pick up items to fix it...but then a week passed, and another one, and I got impatient. I also got creative.

To fix this problem (it is rather annoying to have an electric cord hanging down on your counter, after all), I grabbed a twist tie, a thumb tack, and a hammer. I folded the twist tie in half around the cord and twisted a few times to make a slightly loose loop. Then I put the two ends of the twist tie together, and twisted them to make another, smaller loop - smaller than the base of the thumb tack. I lifted the whole contraption up, moved the twist tie along the cord under the cabinet until it was in a spot to hold the cord up and off the counter. I placed the thumb tack into the middle of the empty loop and hammered that baby into place under the kitchen cabinets. Fixed in less than 5 minutes and didn't cost a dime!

The second fix-it project (I don't have pictures of - sorry!) involved the door handle on our bathroom door, which decided to fall off and not go back on. After at least a month and a half of 'just dealing with it,' Husband asked me to call our landlord to come fix it (and in the same breath mentioned it was likely something he could do himself, but what good is a landlord if you don't put him to use?). Personally, I'd rather do it myself if I can. So I did. We have a door that closes off the main living area from the hallway to the bathroom and bedroom. I noticed on the back of that door there was an 'extra' handle that matched the one on our bathroom door (but, oddly enough, not the one on the other side of the door it was originally on). I took the handle off the back of the hallway door and put it on the bathroom door instead, then took the old knob from the bathroom door and put it on the back of the door we rarely use. Genius!! Problem solved.

Alright now for something totally unrelated. Who wants to talk about chickens?

Source: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What? Yes, chickens. Husband been talking for some time now about wanting to raise chickens once we have a house. With a yard. To be perfectly honest, minus a few reservations I was mostly on board with the idea. I like knowing where my food comes from, how it was raised, and that it's healthy. Additionally, I enjoy animals and think the prospect of going out into my own back yard to get eggs for our home is pretty sweet. I'm slightly worried about bothering neighbors, and raccoons bothering a hen house. But then I read this post yesterday by Rachel from Memories of Mine to Thine and decided my hang-ups were way lame. You really should read her post - not only has she given significantly more thought to the subject (and done more research), she owns a brood of hens! After reading her post and watching the video she included, raising our own chickens is a no-brainer. But what to do in the meantime (because we don't have our own house, let alone a back yard yet)?

Rachel mentions some good options: checking out farmer's markets and building a relationship with the farmers there, Googling the brands carried at your grocery store to find out more about the source and ultimately finding a safe one. There was one she didn't mention, though, and that's Co-Ops. Here in MN, at least, farmer's markets are seasonal, but many of those very same farmers source eggs at the Co-Ops in town. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the Seward Co-Op has a great page explaining what a food cooperative is and how it works.) We aren't yet members of Co-Op, but there are a number close-by from which to choose.

For now, we'll be frequenting our neighborhood Co-Ops more regularly and purchasing all our eggs and meat there. It's a bit more expensive than our grocery store, but we don't buy that much meat. And more importantly, I'd rather pay more to support farming practices I agree with and have a better idea of where my food is coming from than continuing to overlook the problem. What do you think? Would you raise chickens?

I don't remember the last thing I was going to write about. I know it had something to do with another blog I'd read yesterday... Yeah. Not coming to me. So you're saved from one more random thing being added to this post. Has it cooled down where you are? It sure has here, and I'm enjoying the fall-like weather. I hope you are, too.

~ Ms. S

My Fairy Godmother

2010-08-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

Normally, I'm not a superstitious person, and I rarely feel desperate for luck. But my phone interview proved to be a different boat. Having had two unsuccessful phone interviews prior to the one on Thursday, I kicked my rear in gear to prep for it and was totally exhausted by Wednesday night. I was also completely stressed out! So I popped Cinderella into the DVD player and pulled out my Disney Princess Coloring Book and colored pencils. (If you know me well, this is not strange.)

As the movie started, I tried to decide on a picture to color. For some reason my mind immediately told me "You should color the picture of Cinderella trying on the glass slipper with the mice and birds cheering around her, because that slipper is like the job you're interviewing for - it's the perfect fit, you just have to make them see that, too." That's the pictured I colored while singing loudly along to "Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day it's Cinderelly..." and all the other songs. :)

Throughout the movie I kept wishing I had my own fairy godmother who could accompany me to my interview. (My cellphone doesn't get great reception in our apartment, so I went to Mr. S's work place and used one of their empty rooms.) Then it occurred to me: I DO have a fairy godmother!! And she can totally come along!

This dear lady usually sits on my bookshelf, but it was terribly important she sit nearby during my phone interview on Thursday. Do I sound like a crazy person yet? I feel a little bit like one. Anyway, my fairy godmother traveled in my purse and perched on the desk in the empty office I was using. And a good thing, too! When my call came, it became clear I had been incorrectly informed about the position for which I was interviewing. To keep things simple: I applied for two jobs in the same department at the same place, but the positions are totally different. They were conducting phone interviews for both this week, and my scheduler had told me my phone interview was for one position when it was actually for the other. Whew! My fairy godmother waved her magic wand, muttered 'Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!' and helped me change my frame of reference.

Overall, the interview went well. It was nowhere near perfect, and since I'd spent my time preparing answers for a different position, my thoughts weren't quite as concise as I would have liked. Oh well! It is what it is. Hopefully I'll get a call about in-person interviews next week. That would make me feel a lot better.

Since the bathroom is clean and the dishes are done, I think I'm going to find another picture to color. Have you colored any pictures recently? If not, I highly recommend giving it a try.

~ Ms. S

Phone Interviews

2010-08-18T16:47:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. Another post seemingly having nothing whatsoever to do with organizing or cleaning. It's just that this is what has been consuming my week, so bear with me because, while it may not involve any cleaning (in fact, it has become a hinderance to it), it does involve organizing.

This is what I have been working on all week in preparation for tomorrow's phone interview for a position I really want. I've had two phone interviews so far for different positions and haven't made it onto the next round. This time I want it to be different. I found a website that lists common questions asked during a phone interview along with links to what they consider to be good answers. To prepare, I have been typing out my responses to nearly every question - even questions of a similar nature. I'm hoping this will help me keep my thoughts sorted out, minimize long pauses and 'um's, etc, as I plan on printing this out keeping it and a copy of my resume in front of me.

Fingers crossed.

Have you ever had a phone interview? What are your best tips?

~Ms. S

Friends

2010-08-17T10:12:00.000-05:00

This morning we got up early to meet some good friends for breakfast. They're here from out of town - well, a lot of friends are, actually. You see, there was a wedding on Sunday. Correction. There was a lovely wedding on Sunday of some dear friends which means a whole slew of college friends have been in town recently. Mr. S and I aren't complaining. Have I told you about our weekly potluck? I can't remember, so humor me.

Mr. S lived with some good friends his senior year of college, and a number of those friends (plus significant others) now gather every Thursday for a potluck dinner. Someone emails the group early in the week to "claim" hosting duties and generate a theme. (As a very random side note, we just lost power for no apparent reason. I love it when that happens, don't you?) Right. Anyway, over the course of the past (two years? I don't actually know how long this has been happening), some of the potluck crew has moved away for various reasons, but mostly grad school. Always, others have come along to replenish the numbers so that potluck regularly consists of about 18 people total.

The couple married on Sunday is part of the potluck crew, and is part of the original crew, I believe. Suffice it to say, many college friends were reunited this weekend. There was an epic potluck on Thursday with more people than ever, an engagement announced, a celebration of three other recent engagements (I know! Wedding explosion!!), lots of wedding talk by the ladies, lots of beer consumed by the gentlemen while avoiding the wedding talk, and general enjoyment of being surrounded by good friends again. Friday was the bachelorette party. Sunday was the wedding (so. much. fun.). Last night we gathered for a birthday party (same group, plus a few more) and to say goodbye to some of the potluck crew moving away. And then met with one of the couples for breakfast this morning. Whew! I didn't know we had it in us to be this social. But truly we wouldn't have it any other way.

So today I'm choosing to write about friends instead of telling you how miserably I've failed at keeping up with The Cleaning Schedule for the last week and a half. And we won't mention the bathroom - besides finding a spider in the shower! this morning! Eeek. Or the dishes I was supposed to do yesterday that are still sitting on the counter. Or, or, or. *However, I DID make the bed this morning!* Nope. I'm writing about friends because it feels good be surrounded by such wonderful people; because I'm sad about our friends who are moving away, though happy they'll be in the same city as our sisters so we'll see them more often; because I'm so happy for our friends who were married this weekend - their wedding was beautiful and they were so visibly happy; because I wish this entire group could all live in the same neighborhood so it could be kind of like college where you could always find a friend by walking across the hall, except we wouldn't be in dorms and we'd be more grown up (well, at least older). While the latter isn't likely to happen, I will continue to wish it. In the meantime, I will enjoy these moments when we are all together. Good friends can be hard to come by. We are lucky to have so many.

~ Ms. S

ps - try as i might to find a photo of all of us (one does exist!), no one has yet uploaded it to facebook. once that happens, i will update this post with a photo - and hope no one in the group minds. :)

A little procrastination

2010-08-11T17:08:00.000-05:00

Right now, I'm supposed to be working on a cover letter for Mr. S to proof-read tonight. The body is done with revisions made, but I have yet to write the intro and conclusion and reached a bit of a wall. So I decided to procrastinate a little bit and update you on life since my last post (which was only two days ago, you'll notice!).

Cleaning duties listed, whose turn it is to do dishes (color coordinated), and events for the week.

Let's take a little time to visit the Cleaning and Job Schedules. I haven't been great about keeping up with the daily cleaning. Part of this is because Monday's task is to clean the kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table. It was Husband's turn to do dishes on Monday and they didn't get done (note: this is merely a statement of fact rather than a passing of judgement), which meant our limited counter space and the sink were full of dishes. I determined these tasks could be lumped into another day this week thinking it would be yesterday when it was my turn to do dishes. For whatever reason, it didn't occur to me to do this yesterday, so instead I did a small load of dishes this morning and cleaned our dish drainer!

The dish drainer project was long overdue. I filled our sink with hot water, some dish soap, and a couple splashes of bleach (probably about 1-2 Tb). Once the sink was full, in went the rack, the utensils holder, and the plastic tray. I let them soak for ~ 1 hour (mostly because I was working on other things and forgot about them), then scrubbed them with a rag until they were clean, and dried them before putting them back.

Sparkling clean and ready to dry some more dishes!

However, the dining room table DID get cleaned on Monday - mostly because that's where I've been conducting my great job search. Please note the sarcasm in the word 'great.' See last post if you're at all confused.

Yesterday was laundry day. Here's the deal with laundry in our building. You have to sign up for time slots. In theory it sounds excellent - you're guaranteed four hours of available wash and dry time/week. In practice it sucks. We used to be signed up for a two hour slot on two different days. Two hours was never enough time to get our laundry done, and our Saturday time was inconvenient. So we are now signed up for two back-to-back slots on Tuesdays from 6-10. Better, but not perfect.

Still damp and drying while spread over some chairs.

Last night, for instance, I had a church committee meeting at 7 (these meetings always last too long), and knew that pretty much shot my laundry time. So I took advantage of being of 'housewife' for the time being and did our laundry during the day when no one is signed up. I have to be honest - I did not wash the load of clothes that need cleaning (and have needed cleaning ~~since our vacation~~ for too long). Nope. Instead I washed our comforter which was starting to look...well...not white anymore. Out it came fresh and clean to join our new white sheets which were on sale at Target. :)

Now I have to tell the truth about another thing - the job schedule. While it worked fabulously on Monday - I spent ~ 30 minutes looking for jobs, put together a spreadsheet of jobs needing app materials, prioritized which ones needed to get done and when, and even managed to write a cover letter and get it sent off with my resume for one of the four jobs - I was an utter failure on Tuesday. This is the problem when you're the kind of person who is most productive when you're busy: when you don't have a job, there is no momentum to keep you going. And frankly, when you want a job as badly as I'd like one, it's easier to spend all day checking email endlessly hoping you'll have some news - any kind of news! So yesterday, Ms. S did not rock the house like Monday.

Today, as you can see, I've been mildly and comfortably productive. And am hoping that this post will help with my writers block for my cover letters. Especially since finishing the one I'm currently working on means I get to reward myself by painting my nails. A little self-pampering never hurt anyone!

~ Ms. S

Just buckle down...

2010-08-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

Since most of you reading this are family and friends, you know that I am in the midst of a frustrating job search. Frustrating because of its length (6 months, not that I'm keeping track), and because in that amount of time only two first-round phone interviews have come out of it. Possibly better results than others have had, but I'm getting impatient and itching to have a job to go to.

What does this have to do with cleaning/organizing? Well, very little and a lot at the same time. Very little because it is not at all related to home projects of any sort; a lot because I haven't had the motivation to DO much cleaning and organizing as I sit in front of the computer all day with my phone nearby waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Not very productive. Hence the formation of 'The Cleaning Schedule,' and now a 'Job Search Schedule.' Sometimes you just have to buckle down and tackle the problems head on, right?

In an attempt to maintain a few shreds of sanity, I will be giving myself an allotted amount of time each day to spend searching for new jobs, and an allotted amount of time for preparing necessary application materials, and finally, an end goal for turning in said materials. Gee, anyone else see the former project manager in me? The rest of my day, then, is free for me to tackle any chores from 'The Cleaning Schedule,' run errands, and finish projects that have been set aside for the time being. Here's today's schedule:

11:30 - Noon: find new jobs for which to apply
- break for lunch -
1:00 - 2:30: work on materials for applications
Plus today's cleaning chore: scrub kitchen sink and counter, wipe down dining room table, and disinfect the dish drainer
Plus a quick errand for toilet paper - never a good thing to run out of entirely.

I'm not going to give myself tons of time for the application materials bit because I have a couple really good cover letters written already that make it fairly easy for me to piece things together. But I'll give myself enough time to write a draft of a new paragraph or two. We'll try this and see how it goes. The crazy heat isn't helping things. Thank goodness for our window unit and fans!

*Sorry for the lack of pictures. I haven't really been sure what to pair with these two 'schedule' posts, so I promise pictures in my next post.*

~ Ms. S

Cleaning Schedule

2010-08-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

Alright, dear friends. Sometime ago I mentioned putting together a cleaning schedule to try out. Well, after much procrastination, I finally did it and will be putting it into effect this week. Before showing you precisely what the schedule is, let me share a little bit of my thought process that went into the making of 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

My natural tendency when it comes to cleaning is to wait for things to pile up and do everything at once. Generally, I think it's fair to say that 'deep cleaning' is what comes most easily. However, I've found that this approach to maintaining even our lovely little apartment just doesn't work. There's always something that needs to be done, and waiting for it to pile up for a purging session makes cleaning an incredibly daunting task. So I'm taking a que from my mother.

My mom stayed at home with my sister and I growing up, and in doing so, came up with a fairly regimented schedule that she still sticks to today. She did 'deep cleans' every-so-often, but they never took very long because she had a daily schedule of smaller things that helped keep tasks reasonable. Since I'm currently unemployed, I figured now would be the perfect time to get into the habit of doing things on a daily basis to continue even when I am employed. Without any further ado, here's 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

Mondays: Scrub kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table, and disinfect the dish rack
Tuesdays: Laundry
Wednesdays: Sweep and mop apartment (we have wood floors or tile throughout)
Thursdays: Clean bathroom
Fridays: Pick up clutter and file papers
Saturdays: Dust
Sundays: to be filled with whatever needs to be done, even if that's nothing
And most importantly: dishes every other day (with Husband taking the days opposite me)

I implemented the dishes schedule two weeks ago and it has been working quite well, though I've done most of the dishes this week - including everything from the potluck we hosted on Thursday. Not that I'm keeping track, or anything. :) But I'm quite excited for the rest of the schedule, too, as I'm hoping it helps us maintain a semblance of order without going crazy. My problem is, at least while I have lots of time on my hands, I'm much better at creating messes than getting rid of them.
Anyone else have that problem? It's terrible, let me tell you.

Do you have any kind of a cleaning/organizing schedule?

~ Ms. S

Too Darn Hot

2010-07-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

I'm melting, people. Melting, I tell you. Humidity was 88% today with a heat index of 105 well into the evening. The S house doesn't have air conditioning. Well, we'll receive a window unit from my father in-law tomorrow (thank God!), but that doesn't really help today. Before bed tonight, a cold shower will be in order, otherwise I don't think sleep will come.

It's days like this I long to transplant our lovely little life to the lovely Pacific NW coast. And considering our past week was spent in the coast's cool ocean breezes - wearing long pants and sweatshirts, and sometimes even a stocking cap - this weather is a punch in the gut. So rather than telling you about the new cleaning schedule I've finally come up with, or the laundry I put off today, or the three loads of dishes I did yesterday without being asked, or the fact that I'm in the middle of job hunting...instead I'm going to take you to the coast. And let you enjoy the cool breezes as I reminisce about a lovely vacation.

~ Ms. S

A very happy Mr. S

2010-07-12T20:41:00.000-05:00

Though I have been doing a lot of cleaning today in preparation for our upcoming Oregon vacation (SO excited), this post is not, in fact, related to cleaning or organizing at all. I simply thought you might like to share in the child-like joy of Mr. S enjoying his brand new grill.

Now there are a few things you should know.

This grill was Husband's birthday present...his birthday was in May.
The grill was on backorder when I ordered it and they projected 2-3 weeks before we'd get it. WRONG!!!! Try more like 6.
There is no possible way to describe just how excited Mr. S was upon finding out he was getting a grill. It's almost like he was finally, really, truly becoming a 'man.'
He immediately read all of the online reviews about it, so he was ready from the day he opened the card.
We couldn't pick it up the night I got the email saying it had arrived at REI. This meant Saturday was an extremely exciting day - new grill and a good friend's wedding.
Once we got the grill home, Mr. S intermittently read the set-up instructions and attached a few parts until it was all put together.
After fixing an issue attaching the mini-propane tank to the grill, on went the chicken breasts and zucchini for a delicious Sunday lunch.
I told Husband he wasn't "official" until he had his beer in his hand.

With all of this, you get the picture below. Priceless. That's one happy husband.

Cleaning Cloths

2010-07-08T10:01:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day weekend was spent down in Nashville, TN with my aunts. As reading for the flight down, I picked up (among other things) Real Simple's book, 'Cleaning.' In it they suggest purchasing a set of microfiber cloths for the bathroom and a separate set for the kitchen, as it minimizes the spread of certain bacteria from one place to another. Made perfect sense to me! So when I came across this brightly colored kitchen set, I immediately put it in my basket. They are now hanging inside the door of the cabinet where our trash can is with the color code hanging up behind it. Mr. S would like to find another place for them, but for now they have a functional home.

~ Ms. S

Dishes, dishes everywhere

2010-06-27T14:57:00.000-05:00

Last week (maybe two weeks ago), we had some friends over for a semi-potluck dinner. It was quite delightful as these are friends we live close to, but our busy schedules tend to keep us apart for longer stretches than we like. Here was our menu:

Course 1: Cesar salad with homemade dressing
Course 2: Homemade veggie lasagna and red wine
Course 3: (brought by our dear friends) Homemade brownies with Izzy's ice cream and white wine

Everything was delicious! And I'll take this time to tell you my darling friend's brilliant idea for pre-portioning brownies. She used her muffin tin (standard size). Duh, right?! Brownies don't rise like muffins do, so you just fill each cup about 1/3 full, bake monitoring the brownies carefully (don't want 'em to burn), and let cool before removing from the tin.

Once our friends left, however, a rather horrifying stack of dishes appeared. *Knowing how much I hate doing dishes, I will never ever ever ask company to assist in doing the dishes. So anyone how comes (or has come) to my house, don't feel bad. That said, I'm happy to assist others if they request help with dishes while I am enjoying their kitchen.* It was late and we were tired so we called it a night and went to bed. Normally, this doesn't bother me. I'm very comfortable leaving dishes for ~~the following day~~ Carl to take care of later. :) But this time....whoa. However, it gives me the perfect opportunity to show you how I like to organize my dishes when I DO decide to tackle the task.

Before I even begin to fill the sink, I arrange/organize my dishes according to their shape and size, as this dictates the order in which they'll be cleaned. For example, all the big plates go into one stack, small plates in another, cereal bowls in another, and tupperware is stacked according to shape and size. Not only does this let me see how much of everything I have to wash, I can maximize our counter space (we generally have a pot still on the stove, our pull-out cutting board out and full, and/or a few dishes still on the table).
This next step might be different for some of you, but we have one giant sink (never again!). So we have a plastic tub that sits in our sink that we fill to wash dishes. After sorting the dishes, I put all the silverware in the tub, throw in some dish soap, and start the water.
As the tub is filling up, I wash the silverware and place it in the drying rack.
Next come big and flat items - biggest plates first, smallest plates second.
Then soup/salad bowls, followed by cereal bowls.
Small tupperware containers and their lids.
Big mixing bowls, baking pans, pots, etc.
Glasses.

This system allows me to maximize and creatively fill the space of our drying rack. If my drying rack is full and I still have a number of dishes left, I'll let my first round dry and put them away, coming back later to do another round. Now, if you were to talk to Mr. S, he'd tell you a completely different method for washing dishes (cleanest to dirtiest). There isn't a right or a wrong, simply a different.

How do you tackle dishes? Do you spend any time sorting and organizing before you start, or do you just dig right in?

~Ms. S

Please let it not be as hard as it looks

2010-06-16T18:14:00.002-05:00

So I may have gotten myself into quite a mess while perusing my favorite fabric/craft store. You see, I got myself this Amy Butler mini dress, tunic, & tops pattern (plus fabric to make three of them). They will be amazingly cute once put together and I'm excited about that. But, once I got home I read the pattern. Yeesh! I think my mom may be getting a lot of phone calls to get me through this one. And you'll be reading updates of all my mishaps. You're welcome.

~Ms. S

The Dreaded Shower Curtain Liner

2010-06-15T21:45:00.000-05:00

I had one of those moments last week, as I was turning on the water for the shower, where I saw the tub for the first time in a long while. And looked closer. Grabbed my glasses, and practically smashed my face to the floor to get an even closer look. It was filthy!!!! Grime, slime, and muck lined the lower walls, and the corners (which is what grabbed my attention in the first place) were just plain scary.

No time to clean the shower right at that moment, but it had me paying attention to other things...like the shower curtain liner. Knowing the state of the tub, I dreaded taking a careful look at the liner. Yep. As predicted, it was a horrific mess.

Have any of you run into this problem? Please don't answer that question if the answer is 'no.' I have a hard time figuring out the best way to clean the liner, and have tried all sorts of things before with no luck. Too bad they don't come with a manual full of cleaning instructions. (If they do, now would not be the time to tell me!)

Our liner has magnets or weights in the bottom corners to keep it closed even when the water is hot and steamy. The problem, as I see it, is that the weights don't allow the curtain to air out, and they cause the curtain to trap gunk up against the walls of the tub. This also means the bottom of the liner gets gross easily. Mine was bad enough I was ready to toss it and just buy a new one, but my practical side got the better of me. I mean, I don't just toss my jeans in the garbage when they get grungy and need a good wash. Therefore, the shower curtain liner deserved a chance, too.

I cleaned the tub really well, and I thought maybe I could sponge most of the gunk off of the liner, too. But that didn't work well at all. I contemplated risking throwing it in the washer, but decided we don't have enough money to replace a washer if I ruined it. So I did the next best thing I could think of - filled the tub with hot water and a mix of non-chlorine bleach and Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner. Couldn't tell you the ratio, as I initially measured, but then just poured...and poured....and poured. I let the liner and our bath mat soak in this solution for 1.5 hours. As I pulled them out to dry, I could see that this had done the trick for the curtain liner, and helped (but wasn't as effective) the bath mat. The best part is that this method didn't require hours of scrubbing needlessly. The scum just came off as the liner soaked. Hooray!

Do you have any methods for cleaning your shower curtain liner? And do you clean it regularly?

~Ms. S

WHAT?!

2010-06-08T22:40:00.000-05:00

O.M.G. people. OMG. I did not realize it had been over a month since my last post!!! My most sincere apologies and gratitude to those of you who still check periodically. Life has been crazy busy what with school winding down, buckling down seriously with job searching, and taking a couple weekend trips. I really haven't done much interesting by way of cleaning or organizing because I haven't had the time or energy to do it. Which is kind of unfortunate because our house could use it at the moment - especially our dining room table. It has been sorely abused and neglected for the past several weeks. Never fear, table of ours, Monday is my last full day (bonus: no kids that day) and after that I have some projects lined up.

Here are some things to look forward to in coming weeks:

Deeper clean than usual (likely to include tips, reviews of tips read in magazines, and things gone horribly but hysterically wrong)
Finally pulling together a cleaning/organizing calendar
Baking projects, as it's been far too long since I've done this thing I love so much
Sewing!!!! Can't share all of them, as some will be gifts, but will be sure to document the processes, as I tend to do things more creatively than necessary

I probably need to channel the energy of one of my students who last week, upon being told that she would be a kindergartener when she came back to school after summer break, leaped to her feet, threw her hands in the air, and exclaimed, "I'm SO ready for kindergarten!! I can do anything!!!!" Maybe with that can-do attitude rooms in our house will look like the ones in the magazines. Maybe. Though I'm starting to believe the only people whose rooms actually look like that are 1) people with waaaaay too much time on their hands, or 2) people with waaaay too much money to pay lots of other people to make their rooms look (and stay) that way. Or maybe both.

What do you think?

~Ms. S

Back to School...

2010-05-02T19:34:00.000-05:00

OMG! I'm so drained. I have a tooth that's bugging me, something that resembles a sinus infection (I think - I've never had one before, so I'm not sure), and a job application to complete. Blech.

On the plus side, last weekend was super productive with a fun project! Remember back to your years in school when you had to make a poster? Yeah, this was nothing like that. The lead teacher I work with wanted two posters made: 'The Life Cycle of a Tree' and a weather chart. So I got down to work and what you see below is the final result.

I'm pretty happy with the end result (didn't know I had the ability to paint trees!), but there are a few things I'd do differently next time, of course.

Buy a bigger brush. Even better, a number of different sized brushes, because painting the entire poster using only the brush that comes with Crayola watercolors is...tedious, at best.
Start earlier. The bulk of the work was done on Sunday, meaning the project crept into my bedtime.
Always pencil in words first. 'Weather' on my weather poster was not penciled first, and ended up taking up too much room. Oops!

Well, we're off to try to enjoy the last rays of light with a walk tonight. Hope your weekend was swell!

~Ms. S

Break through

2010-04-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

This'll be a quick one...

Just wanted to note that THREE times this week, I came home and immediately did the dishes. What? You're not impressed?! Do you know me?!!! Ok, let's review. I, Ms. S, loathe doing dishes. It is my least favorite home related task, hands down. But, for two reasons I am making an effort to be better.

1. I know how it feels to be the only one who does dishes when you're living with someone, and that feeling sucks. Mr. S has voiced his frustration, so I'd better do something about it.

2. A counter and/or sink full of dirty dishes is just overwhelming. Logically that means doing the dishes when there are only a few is much simpler, easier, quicker, and satisfying.

Hopefully my streak will continue.

Also, I mopped the bathroom floor (and kitchen floor) today. It felt SO good!! I may not like doing dishes, but I get great satisfaction out of cleaning the bathroom. :)

Will have more tomorrow! For now, sweet dreams...

~Ms. S

Brilliant

2010-04-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

Image from the Container Store

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. There was a debacle at the end of my spring break where we switched internet providers and ended up without it for an agonizing 72 or so hours - during which time I replaced all of (our only two) phone jacks in an attempt to fix the problem and avoid paying the new provider $85!!!! Who wants to pay that much for a service you haven't even enjoyed yet? Thankfully, I inherited some of the stubborn, practical, do-it-yourself-if-you-can mentality from my dad's side of the family. Had I ever done anything with wires before? Nope. The salesman at Menards assured me it was a very straight forward task to replace phone jacks, and for just about $6.00 I decided I could give it a try. I have to brag a little bit because not only did I replace the jacks, but in the process found a wire with a lot of its colored coating left on and thought, "I need a wire stripper!" Pretty sure I've never used one before. Have no idea when or where I would have learned to use one, but I found the wire stripper right away in our tool box and put it to good use!

Enough on that story. It didn't fix the problem, by the way. But we did eventually end up with internet again (obviously), and didn't have to pay the fee. And since spring break my social life has picked up exponentially. More accurately, my social life now exists! How exciting, right?

This post will be a little short, but I just wanted to share something with you that I think is *brilliant*! As I was visiting with a good friend last week, we got onto the subject of kids. She has two stunningly adorable little boys - 1.5 years and 2 months - and she was wondering when we might be starting our family. As much as some of you family that read this might like to know the timeline for the S clan, we're keeping that under wraps. My friend, however, has a close group of girl friends and all of them have had babies in the past 2 years. So, she bought plastic tubs - one for each friend - and labeled a tub with their name and gave them the instructions to label and keep their maternity clothes in these tubs.

I'm not super familiar with maternity clothes, so Gretchen filled me in - you don't want to buy everything for yourself since it's just 9 months. Supplementing a personal stash with some borrowed clothes is the way to go. Her bins are just fabulous for this, and clearly shows she's a thinker! Now, as this group of girl friends' extended friends begin to start families, they know exactly where their maternity clothes are and can give their friends the entire bin. Once their friend has had her baby, the bin is returned. Genius, I tell you! Not only does it keep you organized from the get-go, it's an amazing reusable gift for your friends.

Till next time....
~Ms. S

More Pillows!

2010-03-29T19:37:00.001-05:00

Today, I made some more throw pillows. Three to be exact - two 16x16 in, and one 12x16 in. When I got up this morning, I threw the fabric in the wash while I made my patterns for the pillows. Though they still took me longer than expected, I did not run into the same issues as last time; and my zippers went much more smoothly.

The great thing about doing a project like this is that you learn something new every time. Here's what I learned this time around:

Patterns help tremendously with having two pieces of fabric that are the same size. In the future, however, I'd love to get one of those huge cutting boards so that for something as easy as squares or rectangles, simply placing the fabric on top of it doubled over would be a breeze.
Referencing your user manual solves problems that don't need to be problems. I know, I know - imagine that. But the issue I had with my needle not automatically adjusting to the zipper foot after I had to replace my first needle, was a user issue rather than a machine issue.
This pattern requires you to move the zipper pull back behind the needle once you near the end both times. It's not easy moving that zipper pull either time, so I messed around with a few things today to see if I could find an easier way to get it all the way past the foot. *Crayola skinny markers work great! Here's what you do: while your foot is lifted, but your needle is still in, open your zipper a bit and leave the pull sticking out toward you. Using the capped side of the marker, push the cap against the zipper's pull and voila! No need to kill your fingers.

You'll find the final results below. My apologies that it's a little dark - it isn't quite summer with endless light yet. I'll leave you with a question. I'm not hugely fond of the plain green pillow - it needs a little something more. Any suggestions/ideas/inspiration?

Goodnight.
~Ms. S

Throw Pillow Cover

2010-03-27T13:58:00.001-05:00

The missing power cord for my sewing machine was found yesterday afternoon! You'll never guess where it was. Are you ready for this? It was on the bottom shelf of the microwave cart collecting dust - a logical place for it, no?! Thank goodness it turned up because I desperately wanted to get going on this throw pillow found on Design*Sponge via guest blogger Brett Bara.

In this post, I mentioned how excited I was to give this a try, as there was no pattern and it looked SO easy. Ha! Upon getting up this morning and finishing breakfast, I began working on this thinking I'd be done in an hour - hour and a half tops. Well...2.5 hours later when Mr. S got home from a morning workshop, I was just making the bed to see how the whole ensemble looked. (It's fabulous, by the way). Not quite how I'd intended my morning to go, but thankfully today was flexible.

Close-up of the fabric

If I'm being completely honest, this was my first "major" sewing project. And seeing as how even experienced sewers dread projects with zippers, I'd say I fared relatively well, though not without a few mishaps.

I didn't cut my pieces perfectly evenly, so that made keeping track of a 1/2 inch seam hard.
Even following the directions as carefully as possible, I managed to bend my needle beyond saving when it hit the zipper pull. Oops.
After sewing the remaining three sides, the instructions tell you to turn your cover right side out and iron your seams flat. My zipper was zipped closed when I sewed my remaining three sides, so finagling the thing open far enough to reach my hand all the way in was comical.

Here's what I'd do differently next time:

Make a pattern - I have lots of tissue paper, so I'd use it to make sure my pieces match
Keep my zipper open upon finishing that step
Be more anal about measuring my seams

Other than that, I'm quite happy with the end result (though I'm hoping the zipper won't take me two hours next time), and Husband was quite impressed. Here's to the next set of pillows; we'll be shopping for fabric this afternoon! :)

Happy Spring!

~Ms. S

Revealed: The New Bed

2010-03-21T12:19:00.001-05:00

That's right! Our new bed was delivered Friday afternoon by my awesome father-in-law. Mr. S and I were so excited we could hardly contain ourselves. And I have a confession to make - the bedding arrived on Monday!!! I was going to write a little post about it, but upon finding out the bed itself would likely be here soon, everything was saved for a 'reveal' post. :)

Just so you remember what the bedroom looked like before...

Alright, these photos are from this past summer, but if I'm being completely honest, the piles of clothes and general messiness never fully went away. And you can't really see them (due to the embarrassing amount of clothes strewn everywhere), but there are boxes to the right of the dresser that had been there since we moved in last June. Suffice it to say, we were grateful to be forced into dealing with cleaning and organizing issues we had continually pushed aside.

The king sized bed required rearranging the room to maximize the amount of usable space. We switched the wall against which the bed sits, moved the rocking chair to a better corner - by a window, and rethought our hamper usage. We now each have a (small) laundry basket on our respective sides of the bed - hidden from sight initially, but easily accessible for us so that we can get rid of the navy and gray 'darks and whites' hamper you see in the picture above. I'm hoping this will encourage me to stay on top of laundry better than in the past. Additionally, we inherited an old wicker hamper from Husband's boss which we have placed in the bathroom for dirty towels, washclothes, placemats, napkins, etc. I'll have to let you know how this system ends up working for us (well, for me really, seeing as how Mr. S tends to be laundry adverse).

With no further delay, please enjoy the pictures below...

~Ms. S

The bedding has arrived!!

And it's beautiful.

Before the 'Emporer' found his clothes...

Tranquil, peaceful, and serene; and the cleanest, most organized this room has ever been.

Calm enough to enjoy a long nap yesterday...

Desk Transformation

2010-03-14T22:07:00.000-05:00

My goal for the day: clean off this desk and repurpose it to be my sewing desk as opposed to being a (paper) work space. A rather lofty goal considering you truly can't see the top of this desk, and haven't been able to for...I don't even know how long...a REALLY long time. Why the change? Well, let me share my motivation!

I ordered our new bedding a little over a week ago. (Exciting!!) Hopefully it will be arriving shortly, as there is a chance our big bed will be delivered on Friday, courtesy of Husband's dad. Since we're changing up the look of our bedroom, and I've been in the mood to do some sewing, I decided to make us some throw pillows (so much cheaper to make them!). And as I trolled my blog role, I stumbled upon gold!

Design*Sponge guest blogger, Brett Bara, posted a lovely piece about making pillow covers. Wah! Butterflies started fluttering in my stomach. Not only were there step-by-step instructions (critical for me), it actually looked easy! AND there would be no pattern involved. I can't tell you how much I hate cutting out patterns - so much so, actually, that I have a pretty impressive stack of fabric I've done absolutely nothing with for lack of motivation to cut the pattern.

Anyway, I had some time yesterday and stopped by the best craft store in the world. Crafty Planet sources some of the most gorgeous prints I've ever seen. And the best part, in my opinion, is that they're all cotton prints (aka: easy to work with). I spent a good 45 minutes picking out two prints for contrasting pillows and picked up the other necessary materials elsewhere.

When I got home yesterday and sorted through my finds, I realized I didn't have a great space to work. So, after church this morning, I decided to turn my desk (which has never been used for office/school work here) into my sewing station. There was a ton of paper to sort through. Most of that was recycled, and the rest is in a pile to be filed away. And I went through the uppermost drawers to make space for some sewing supplies. 2.5 hours later, I was super pleased with the results and ready to begin on my project. But I couldn't find the power source cord for my machine!!! I still haven't found it and I've searched everywhere.

(the blue blob is an unfinished skirt - soon to be finished!)

While I'm bummed I didn't get the chance to start, it turns out that's not such a bad thing. During dinner, Husband and I were talking about the fabric. I had chosen one print with a dark gray background and fabulous baby blue polka dots, thinking that shades of blue would be an excellent pair with our new white coverlet (and remembering Mr. S mentioning wanting blues as our accent). Come to find that Mr. S associates light blue with his sister's bedroom and wants nothing to do with it in ours. Huh! Good thing we had that conversation. :) Thankfully, he does like the other print I picked - a soft gray with white dandelion-inspired flowers/floating seeds on it. So, he'll be coming with me on my next trip to Crafty Planet, though we've decided to hold off on that until we have our bedding.

Exciting things! Cant' wait to have pics to post of the new bed when everything finally arrives and comes together. In the meantime, I've got some other things up my sleeve.

Goodnight, and enjoy the lovely spring weather (it got up to 63 today)!

~Ms. S

Antiques Shopping

2010-03-06T07:36:00.000-06:00

Today will mark our first day of serious antique shopping with the goal of finding something as beautiful as the piece above. I'm hoping the day will promise lots of pictures to share and at least one story to tell. It would also be nice if we happened to find something awesome for a decent price, but i won't hold my breath on that one. So, here's hoping my luck (or lack-thereof) from last night doesn't carry over to today!

~Ms. S

Plum Luck

2010-03-05T23:49:00.000-06:00

Tonight was date night - something both of us had been looking forward to all week. Last night we discussed where we might like to go. I had a hankering for Chinese food, but Mr. S wanted a venue with a particular beer. Not being too hung up on my choice, we opted for his and decided to try out a place he'd heard fantastic things about from his co-workers. Dinner would be around 7, followed by a movie at one of our favorite local places, The Riverview.

Between work and dinner, I ran a few errands, including a stop at Target to see if they had restocked the Sally Hansen 'Complete Salon Manicure' nailpolish in 'Plum Luck' that I've been kicking myself for resisting for a number of weeks. Every time I've looked until today, every Target in our area has been out of that color. Thankfully, I was lucky tonight! And even picked up an additional color to try. Anyway, I hurried home with enough time to paint my nails before going out. :)

From this point on, date night went downhill. Buster's doesn't have a parking lot, so that meant parallel parking. Let's just say parallel parking has never been my strong suit, though I did manage fairly well. As I made my way to the sidewalk, I broke through the ice into a huge puddle (the street wasn't well lit, so I couldn't see what I was stepping into). And then there was a line out the door at Buster's. Alright. Not the end of the world. Husband was definitely more excited about the place than I was. As an alternative, we settled on a Minneapolis favorite - Pizza Luce.

I absolutely adore Pizza Luce. Their pizzas are creative, amazing, and yummy. However, it required another parallel parking job as this location did not have a parking log either. And upon entering, we could either sit at the bar (nope) or at a side-by-side table right by the window. Now, I like sitting next to my husband. However, I like sitting across from people better in one-on-one situations, as it's more conducive to conversation in my opinion. So, this table was fine, but not ideal. (They were really full, otherwise we would have requested a table.) It should also be stated that Mr. S and I are not exactly compatible pizza eaters. Tonight, he wanted 'something with Italian sausage, red sauce, and cheese; and the more toppings the better.' He was very uncompromising. So we went with 'The Classic' - a pizza with Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, black olives, pepperoni, cheese, and red sauce - with no onions. But even without the onions, totally not my kind of pizza. Not really a fan of sausage, green peppers, or any color olive. I would have been very happy with either of the potato pizzas (YUM!!!), but decided I could compromise tonight. Let's just say I only ate two slices of our small pizza and Husband had the rest. Needless to say, I was still hungry and looking forward to popcorn with our movie. Husband was getting a kick out of my 'luck-less' night so far and asked rather tongue-in-cheek 'What else could possibly go wrong with your night?'

We made our way to the movie theater where Mr. S showed me to a parking lot!! This was a new discovery and saved me from parallel parking for a third time. We were walking toward the theater when I looked at the bill board. We were supposed to see 'Invictus' at 9 pm. According to the bill board it started at 7 and 'The Messenger' was showing at 9:25!!!! We went inside just to make sure that was correct. It was. And 'The Messenger' didn't really intrigue either of us. No movie. No popcorn. So much for 'Plum Luck' on all 10 of my fingers!

We went to a coffee shop down the street from our place instead. What a night.

~Ms. S

Shopping Advice

2010-03-01T18:07:00.000-06:00

I have a confession to make. Since knowing that we'll be swapping beds with the gigantic one at my in-law's, it's pretty much all I've been able to think about. Words truly cannot express how giddy the whole thing makes me.

And because of this, my post for tonight is rather short. I simply have a question and would dearly love any feedback you might have.

What is your favorite place (website or store) to purchase quilts/comforters/coverlets?

Thank you in advance for your help.

~Ms. S

Bedding Galore!

2010-02-21T14:12:00.000-06:00

Mr. S and I are super excited about our 'new' bed! Not only are we excited about a more comfortable sleeping arrangement, we are also looking forward to the chance to start over entirely on our bedroom itself - furniture placement, bedding (colors and accents), artwork, etc. Pretty much, we'll be taking everything out and only putting what needs to be there back in.

In anticipation of this event (which currently has no timeline except 'as soon as possible'), I've started the process of looking for bedding. As stated in my last post, I want to do my shopping for bedding differently this time around. No Target; no JC Penny's; no Bed, Bath, and Beyond; no Kohl's. Not that those venues aren't good places to shop, but because we are looking for something completely different than what each of those stores offer. We want to invest in high quality, long lasting, timeless yet modern, sleek bedding.

Currently, we have a Thomas O'Brien chocolate brown duvet cover with matching shams from Target. While I love the color, and Husband told me I could pick our bedding when registering for our wedding, Mr. S doesn't share my love. More importantly, we are SO sick of the duvet. It needs to be re-fluffed/re-cornered everyday, and let's be honest - that's high maintenance for this household.

In light of said feelings, here's our plan moving forward:

quilt or coverlet
white
colored sheets in yet-to-be-chosen accent color(s)

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find anything that fits the bill? Yikes! I happened to be at Target today shopping for my sister's birthday present, and found myself walking the bedding aisle because my search so far had yielded absolutely nothing. And I found a white quilt that wasn't so bad! Arg! I reminded myself Target is off limits for this purchase and forced myself to walk to the check-out.

A friend pointed me in the direction of overstock.com for sheets, but I had no idea where to begin for quilts/coverlets. So, I let some blog friends help me out. This design*sponge article is a treasure chest of information! To begin with, I read through the entire post thinking something would have been recommended specifically that picqued my interest. That wasn't really the case, so instead, I focused on the websites that were mentioned for finding said bedding. And that, my friends, was where I began to get somewhere.

I checked out every website listed, but my favorite one was PillowsandThrows.com. The website looks spectacular, selling the look Husband and I are looking to bring to our bedroom, and is incredibly easy to navigate - huge bonus! After scoping out everything offered, this coverlet is a front-runner (actually, the only runner for the time being). Beautifully simple, elegant, clean lines, white with texture added for intrigue, cotton (not a requirement, but I think it feels nice), machine washable!, and affordable. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the bloggers at design*sponge for putting together such a wonderful bedding guide.

What do you think, dear reader? Do you have any websites to recommend?

Till next time,

~Ms. S

Wardrobes and nonsense

2010-02-15T10:47:00.000-06:00

Nonsense first. Husband deceptively brought home his PS2 system from his parents' house when we were down Superbowl weekend. To his credit, he does not quite play nonstop. And if there's an important conversation going on, he will stop and talk to me. Mostly I just don't understand the appeal of video games. At. All. Books, movies, board games...those are all understandable forms of time-suckers. Video games are simply a lost cause in my case. Does anyone else feel the same? It's not like I'm that old - there were definitely video games growing up (though not really in my house). So I'm just curious.

Ok, glad that's off my chest! Moving on...

Our bedroom closet is horribly small. When my friend Sara told me about her big closet make-over, I thought maybe Mr. S and I could manage something with our closet. Yeah, not so much. We've come to the conclusion investing in a wardrobe would be a better use of our money. I was hoping we might have some time this weekend to check out some antique shops, but we didn't; nor have I found anything online I'm that fond of. So, pictures along these lines aren't here yet. Sorry.

In other bedroom news, I think we're going to be getting a new bed! Well, it's not really new. We're going to trade our double bed in for the king that Husband's folks put together for us at their place. Our current bed will stay at the in-law's for us to sleep on when we come to visit and we'll bring the bigger bed up here so that both of us will hopefully sleep better! This means, though, I'm in the market for new bedding. Now, I've always purchased bedding from Target or Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but I know there are other decent (better) places to check out - I just don't know what they are. Any suggestions?

Well, I certainly hope that some of you are enjoying a day off! I'm hopeful a birthday package will finally be delivered from UPS today, so I'm stuck around the apartment to clean and such. And maybe enjoy some Olympics?!

~Ms. S

Shower Upgrade

2010-02-09T21:16:00.000-06:00

It's been way too long, I know. I've failed on my promise to update weekly, but on the plus side, I haven't updated because I've been busy meeting up with friends (long over-due get togethers) and trying to get more hours in for my AmeriCorps position. Also on the plus side, I currently have a shower upgrade to share, but an even more exciting project will begin Saturday (I hope)!

Without wasting anymore time...how do you all feel about your shower? Is it an oasis where you can relax? Does it ease you nicely into your morning? Can you always find everything you need for your routine? Before our shower upgrade, here's how I would have answered the above questions.

Not really all that unhappy about the shower, but it could be better
Definitely would not call it an oasis
While it eases me into the morning, it doesn't do it 'nicely.
No

The problem? Well, I am a person who tends to have multiple shampoos/conditioners, multiple body washes, and multiple face scrubs. This was never a problem when I lived by myself, but when you add another person who also needs space for soap, a razor, and shampoo the storage space gets a little cramped. Husband and I needed some kind of a system to rid our tub rim of its contents. Literally every single corner was filled with something.

When my friend Sara moved into her condo a couple years back, she invested in a tension rod with shelves to remedy this exact thing. Since we're practically the same person, I didn't really need to think about the best solution for our shower. We needed a tension rod. Thank you, Sara, for making that decision for me years in advance. :)

I made this decision about a month before taking on the project because I wanted to find a good tension rod. Have you ever used a metal shelving system in your shower? It's supposed to be rust-proof, right? Yeah. I used to have a metal thing that would hang over the shower head. Not only did it fall at least once every other week, by the time I moved it was in bad shape! So I wanted to find something with plastic shelves at the very least.

The Saturday Mr. S helped friends of ours insulate their attic, I decided I would take on my project. A trip to Menards provided me with the shelf I was looking for, so I came home to put it together. Upon reading the instructions carefully, I assembled the pieces and took it into the bathroom. It didn't fit. It was too tall and no matter how hard I pushed, I couldn't force it into place. So I took out the smaller extension and tried again. Too small - there was no tension whatsoever to hold the rod in place. Gah!

My idea was to buy a smaller spring to use with the rod in its tallest form. Thankfully, Husband had a better idea. We went back to Menards (the next day) with the intention of purchasing an additional spring, but they didn't have the right kind. Instead, we purchased a dowel rod that would fit into the rod on top of the spring to provide the necessary tension with the smaller extension rod taken out. We realized after getting this home that we didn't have a saw. Oops. So we ended up using a 'State Fair' knife to cut our dowel rod to the appropriate length.

We now have a fantastically organized shower with nothing on the sides of the tub! It's glorious and wonderfully relaxing. Admittedly, it still surprises me nearly every morning that everything is in one spot. My shower has never, ever been so organized. It's a project I highly recommend undertaking as it's cheap and super easy!

Now, the project in the works! For my birthday (which is on Friday the 12th), Husband has decided to get me a wardrobe for our bedroom!!!!!! In my next post, I will showcase our completely inadequate bedroom closet which will explain why I am so excited about my present. You'll get to come along on some of our antique shop trips and auction and estate sale trips, as our goal is to find one to fix up. Hopefully it will be exciting. :)

Check back soon!

~Ms. S

Confession

2010-01-14T19:42:00.000-06:00

(photo courtesy of: home-decorating-co.com)

Last night, before retiring for the evening, I re-checked all the blogs I follow just to see if anyone had posted something interesting. I'm still not entirely sure I'm glad I did this re-check, but before I get to the point of the story, I need to give you some background information that is more than slightly embarrassing (and due to this fact, the information doled out is not entirely accurate - a right I reserve to prevent what judgment I know is coming). Let me tell you about bedsheets.

I like bedsheets. They provide a soft place to sleep at night, and generally keep me well insulated. However, I do not like washing them in the small little washers here at our apartment, where I can only fit a single set (and nothing more) inside. They become a large pain. Therefore they are not washed as often as Husband or I would prefer.

Getting back to the point of this story...

Last night, while perusing the blogs, there was an entry that seemed to scream, "read me!" from Apartment Therapy. I did what was only natural - I read it. Lo and behold, this entry began by informing me that most people (ie: everyone but me) wash their sheets weekly. ACK! Then went into the whole bedding schedule - for cleaning. And I thought I was just going to enjoy going to bed last night.

After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I grabbed our flannel sheets out of the linen closet and proceeded to unmake and remake the whole bed. Let's just say that the sheets coming off of the bed had been there far too long and leave it at that. Go ahead, gasp, cringe, make a 'grossed out' face, judge me horribly for my domestic short comings. Goodness knows, I do it to myself. It was high time to put fresh sheets on...I just hadn't planned on doing so at 10 PM last night.

But I should back up a little. Upon reading this, I mentioned it to Mr. S and got into a very defensive discussion about the acceptable timetable for bedsheets. Are you ready for my ridiculous excuse? It impresses even me. "Well, if we finally used our laundry time slots regularly, and therefore had fewer clothes, I could prioritize washing the sheets! But since our washers can only fit one set of sheets, they take last priority." Mr. S proceeded to tell me I should take our sheets to the laundromat. Which, today, presents itself as a good idea, but last night was frustrating.

Needless to say, the bed got fresh sheets. I will be making weekly or biweekly trips to the laundromat seeing as how there is one just down the street from us. But the kicker to the story is this. When I searched for the article tonight, so I could provide a link to what had spurred me into action, I couldn't find it! 'It couldn't really have just appeared last night long enough to make me feel so guilty I spent about 20 minutes changing the sheets on our bed!' I thought. But it certainly looked that way for a good 15 minutes or so until I used the 'search' function in Apartment Therapy to find it. *huge sigh of relief*

The article is great - based on information in the January issue of Martha Stewart Living about washing pillows. So, when I make that trip to the laundromat, our pillows will likely make the trek with me.

Thank you for amusing me and ~~listening~~ reading my whole story.

Ms. S

Socks

2010-01-12T20:47:00.000-06:00

Who knew the proper way to fold socks...is rolling them?! Good Housekeeping, of course. Upon doing some research, I came across this article. Well, it's not really an article so much as an answer to a question - the exact question I had! How convenient. Guess I'll be revisiting my sock compartment this weekend.

~Ms. S

1 Organized Drawer...

2010-01-05T20:29:00.000-06:00

I was all excited about updating you tonight on the amazing transformation of my underwear drawer when Husband unexpectedly sprang a conversation about budgets on me. It was actually a fairly mellow conversation regarding a few ideas he has about future expenses - and I'll concede his ideas are smart ones. Nevertheless, the conversation made me turn to eating chips directly out of bag. Without counting or paying attention to how many I consumed. Harumph.

With that out of the way, last night I finally implemented my plan to reorganize my underwear drawer. And it turned out wonderfully! The three pieces fit the width of my drawer perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that when Husband entered the room and saw what I was doing he asked if I'd measured the drawer and subsequently the bins before making my purchase. That probably would have been a smart idea, but no, I was just amazingly lucky. Actually, Mr. S said, 'Well, at first I just thought you were brilliant...' Thanks, smart ass.

So, my socks and undies are in their cute pink bins flanking the clear plastic bin that sits between them for bras and nylons. Besides determining I need to learn the 'proper' way to fold socks if there is one, it went quite well and all three bins are seriously organized. I feel one step closer to Martha Stewart already. However, I'm not sure how long folding thongs is going to last. Seriously. Who am I, right? My only slight complaint (besides neurotic folding of underclothes), is that the pink bins ended up being barely taller than my drawer, so it doesn't quite close all the way. Oh well. It's so much better than before, I'm willing to give it a long try.

Husband had his smarty pants on last night in a big way. In addition to the above conversation, upon looking at my finished product, he informed me that he uses dividers in his dresser drawers, too. 'This side for white socks, that side for dark ones three stacks deep.' Since he was being so helpful, you will also find pictures of two of his drawers below. Apparently his underwear drawer was 'too messy' to be included since it's being used to store many things other than boxers. (Eye roll). Whatever.

Enjoy the pictures...one before and a couple in process to the finished product!

~Ms. S

Husband's drawers....

New Year's Resolution

2009-12-30T16:42:00.000-06:00

Normally, I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. One, I come up with seriously impractical and impossible goals which makes maintaining any part of the resolution a complete pain in the neck. And two, I just don't function as a goal-setter in this particular way. The last time (and only time) I tried writing out my resolutions in light of the new year was way back in 1994 when I was about a month away from being 10 years old. This year, however, I'm making an exception to my rule and writing out ONE resolution for 2010. Are you ready for this?

2010 Resolution: Weekly blog updates!!!

My thinking behind this is two-fold. As it currently stands, my mentality about updating is that it should be as much as possible. Yeah. That hasn't happened, and frankly, it needs to change. So that's one thought. The other is that part of what I've been trying to 'force' myself to do more regularly is create a cleaning schedule. It occurred to me earlier this week (when I realized I had not fulfilled my promise of an update) that the schedule should include updating the blog. And since cleaning (to some extent) happens here on a weekly basis, it makes sense that weekly updates are necessary and doable.

So, here's to no more broken promises!

On a lighter note, there was a Target trip today! My Target trips have a tendency to turn up an interesting ratio of 'practical' vs. 'impractical' items with a heaving tendency toward the 'impractical.' But not today! I was inspired while at home for Christmas with my family when my sister received a gift card to The Container Store. Upon perusing their website, I came across dresser drawer dividers/organizers. Now, I had seen something similar to this in an article somewhere (of course now that I'm mentioning it, I can't give credit where it's due!), but small baskets were used.

I immediately thought of my underwear drawer. Anyone else's underwear drawer a disaster? Mine is horrible and stems from a couple problems.

My dresser drawers are wide, but not deep.
I have way too many socks (because I never throw old ones away).
Same problem with underwear.
I have an aversion to folding undies.

The drawer dividers intrigued me. "Maybe I can actually organize my underwear drawer and keep it that way!" I didn't see quite what I wanted at The Container Store, so I decided to check out Target just to see what they might have. The basket idea was particularly appealing - cute and organized. I like the idea of opening my drawer and thinking 'cute!' Anyway...

Basket selection? Blech. So it was a good thing my heart wasn't sold on the basket itself. Especially since I found something better. Have you found the itso section of the storage and organization department at Target? If not, you should check it out. Here's what I purchased (photos courtesy of Target):

A clear, itso 'narrow tray' (definitely not orange) for my bras...

and two 'medium fabric bins' in pink (though the red is pretty) - one for socks, one for undies.

Now, I haven't yet implemented these because I was too excited to update here first. But since tomorrow is also a day off for me, you'll likely be hearing more! Hopefully these small little bins will sit nicely in my drawers and keep my underwear drawer from being a complete disaster.

Till next time...

~Ms. S

Oh dear!

2009-12-16T23:09:00.000-06:00

Even after multiple not-so-subtle hints that I should really update more often, I have managed to put it off. Call me a terrible person. Or simply know that after working with 40 four year olds all day, I come home exhausted and wanting to do just about anything but clean. That said, Mr. S and I will be visiting our families soon, so there will be some major (and admittedly, much needed) cleaning going on this weekend that promises pictures galore! Yay!

Now, just because my updates have been pitiful lately does not mean I've not thought about this blog. I happen to have a few note cards tucked away with some ideas for future topics. My hope is to morph this place slightly so that rather than simply giving my opinions and insights, I also include some information from outside sources more often. (Real Simple showed up on my Christmas list in various forms this year...but my eyes have been open for other blogs, articles, and magazines.)

Two topics to look forward to:
Organizing dresser drawers/dressers vs. armoires
Closets, closets, closets!

Check back in this weekend - I promise an update.

~ Ms. S

Visiting Home

2009-11-21T17:58:00.000-06:00

This weekend finds Mr. S and I visiting my parents since Thanksgiving will be spent with other relatives. My parents' house is huge compared to our apartment, but it's also wonderfully warm and clean. And it always smells amazing (with the exception of the cat, sometimes). I don't have my camera here with me to take pictures, but have some ideas for my own home.

Breaking the cleaning into smaller chunks so it happens continuously over the course of the week. My mother has the system down pat. It helps that her job, for years, was raising my sister and myself, but today she's just as busy with other things and still manages to find time to get things done. So, I'm determined to try this myself and see how it works.

Less is best.
My parents' house is beautifully furnished and comfortable without feeling overdone. Nothing is overcrowded. This simplifies cleaning - less furniture to move while vacuuming or sweeping, less things to clutter space, less to find storage space for. Note taken.

A clean kitchen makes a place feel cleaner than it might actually be.
My mother would be the first to tell you she's not the tidiest person in the world, but there is one thing that is guaranteed to drive her bonkers: a dirty or messy kitchen. You can just see her start to itch all over when she enters my sister's abode (my sister is notorious for letting dishes pile up), and mine prior to marrying Mr. S. Anyway, a few weeks ago, Mom informed me that she had 'deep cleaned the kitchen.' She took everything out of the cabinets, getting rid of rarely-used or never-used items, and purged the counters of unnecessary nick-knacks (of which there were many). I didn't realize just how big a difference that would make until coming home and finding a beautiful kitchen with even more counter space than I remembered. (I haven't seriously checked out the cabinets yet, but will before I leave.) While this tip may not be most useful to me right at this moment, I can definitely see how a clean kitchen (which is where Mr. S and I, and our families, spend most of our time together) can do a lot to give off vibes of a clean home.

When a home smells good, it inspires cleaning.
I am not particularly fond of the smell of cleaning chemicals. Therefore, I do my best to avoid products that smell at all chemically. My dad - who is obsessed with vacuuming and vacuum cleaners - uses lovely scented powders on the carpets when he vacuums every Saturday. It sure makes the house smell amazingly clean. And my mother is a fabulous cook and baker. At the moment there's a pot roast that's nearly ready to be eaten and it smells wonderfully scrumptious! Their house always smells clean and delicious. Mr. S and I don't have any carpeted surfaces, but seasonally appropriate scented candles take the place of Dad's vacuuming powders; and Husband and I both enjoy *cooking and baking, which permeates our apartment in lovely ways.

*However, I would recommend not over-using garlic in an apartment, as Mr. S's recent garlic humus is potent enough to kill any living thing that crosses its path.

Some inspiration

2009-11-10T22:16:00.000-06:00

Having been sick recently, not too much cleaning has been done on my end of things. Husband cleaned thoroughly and all by himself this past weekend while I was cooped up with a nasty cold that's still lingering rather powerfully. But I have resolved to do a better job of up keep here, and this is my inspiration for doing so:

"I ought to have done it long ago but I've just kept putting it off...it's such a detestable task. It's a very bad habit to put off disagreeable things, and I never mean to do it again, or else I can't comfortably tell my pupils not to do it. That would be inconsistent." ~ Anne Shirley, Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

And with those words of the immortal Anne Shirley, I am off to make our bed before promptly falling into what will hopefully be a deep (and most welcome) sleep.

Goodnight.

~Ms. S

It's SO clean!!!

2009-10-16T19:42:00.000-05:00

Well, that's been a long time coming, huh? Let me tell you, the pictures will not disappoint. Mr. S and I are hosting a house warming party tonight for some friends who have yet to see our place. Understandably, Husband decided it provided the perfect opportunity to clean, clean, clean. Here's a run down of what happened today.

ALL floors swept and mopped
ALL dishes washed
table scrubbed
stove top cleaned
counters scrubbed
bathroom cleaned
ALL clean clothes put away (this was an enormous accomplishment for me)
bed made
desk top cleaned
living room decluttered
all remaining boxes put downstairs minus the two next to the desk

It's impressive, people. And we're exhausted from all our hard work before our party has even started! But!! We have freshly baked cookies, mulled cider, apples and caramel dip, cheese and crackers, beer, and wine to look forward to; plus excellent company and some exciting games.

Something that Mr. S has been dying for me to update you all about is the under-the-counter lighting he installed for us two weeks ago. The light that had been above the sink burned out a while ago, so we replaced the bulb only to discover that the light itself was broken since it would not turn on with a brand new bulb. I wasn't heart broken about it - the light wasn't that great. It was a florescent of some kind and really didn't project much light, which made it most unhelpful. Needless to say, Husband is quite pleased with himself because the under counter lights are amazing. We love spending time in our kitchen that much more now that we can actually see what we're preparing or cleaning!

The only other thing I'll add (besides pictures), is that I got to purchase the gargantuan sized box of baking soda! :) I'm a happy camper. Enjoy the photos...

~Ms. S

2009-09-14T18:13:00.000-05:00

It's been far too long, I know. Between starting a new job (teaching preschoolers) and getting lost in a book series (I read an entire book Saturday and another entire book yesterday - they were the final two in the first part of the series), I have completely neglected the blog. Not very kind, huh? And how in the world will I gain readers if I can't manage to keep up the blog? Yeah.

Thankfully, there has been a lot of cleaning going on in the past two weeks. Here's what I've learned:

Having my husband help when cleaning the whole apartment is required makes the job seem reasonable. So, I do much better when it's not all up to me.

Seriously, the help makes a huge difference. First of all, you don't have to look at the whole mess and think, 'I have to do all of this?!' Instead, you get to divide and conquer. Not ever something you want your children to do to you, but when it comes to tackling cleaning it's a life saver.

The second reason help is so wonderful is harder to describe, so I think it's necessary for me to make it a little personal. As a woman, I like being domestic - but only when I want to be, or choose to be. I do not like feeling like it is my responsibility to clean the house (or cook, or wash dishes, or do laundry, etc) simply because I'm a woman. When I feel as though the cleaning has been left entirely up to me, I tend to react rather irrationally and point out to my husband that it is not just my job to do the cleaning, he can help, too. Of course, this drives him a little nuts because he never intends for me to interpret his comments, statements, or requests that way. :/ Oops! What can I say? It's a particular quirk of mine. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

I think society is at a point where gender roles are mixed up and transitioning from what they have traditionally been. My mother set a very good example at rebelling against doing things simply because you're a woman and that's your job. She may have done most of the cooking, all of the laundry, and stayed home with my sister and I, but she never did those things out of a sense of obligation. She enjoys cooking immensely, so she was happy to have supper ready; she is insanely annal about sorting laundry and never completely trusted the rest of us to do it properly, therefore, she did laundry; and she felt it was important to stay home with my sister and me. I need to figure out how my mom so gracefully continued to do these traditionally female roles, while still so adamantly rejecting the notion she was doing them because she was 'supposed to.' Because I just feel incredibly torn about the whole domesticity thing. While I enjoy cleaning, there are times I don't want to do it because I (unjustifiably) feel it is expected of me because I'm a woman. Cooking is another place where I'm horribly torn. Some days, I really feel the need to 'be a good wife' and have dinner ready for when my husband comes home. Other days, that idea irritates the hell out of me, especially since he enjoys cooking more than I do! Am I alone in my confusion? Does anyone else out there feel this way, too?

That was a lengthy little tangent, huh? I'll probably return to that again at some point since it bugs me fairly regularly, but for now, we'll call it quits.

We've managed to more or less maintain the standard of cleanliness after our big clean two weeks ago. The biggest problem at this point is laundry. In our building, everyone signs up for a time slot (or two) to use the washers and driers. One of our slots is Saturdays. Well, we have been out of town or busy for the past few Saturdays, and our Thursday slot has never worked for us since we're both at work. So, needless to say, laundry - and sorting a minimum of two weeks worth - is an issue. Does anyone have any suggestions? A new time slot opened up that worked better for us, so we do have a new time on Tuesdays that we should actually be able to use! But I'm particularly curious as to how you store your dirty laundry. Do you use baskets? A sorting bag? A mesh bag? A sorting tote? What is your system?

For now, that is all.

~ Ms. S.

Current State of Things

2009-08-27T16:59:00.000-05:00

Alright, so here's a rundown of the current state of things:

1. Husband has hijacked the camera. I saw it sitting on our little table at some point this weekend, but when I looked for it on Tuesday I couldn't find it anywhere. Husband is in Boston this week wrapping up his year-long service job which means I can't upload the pictures I promised from my last entry, nor can I take pictures of what I plan to do tonight. (big sigh)

2. I am a terrible person - well, not terrible...more like hypocritical - because I make these lists and promote them because lists ' hold you accountable,' and then I just don't do anything on my list. This needs to change.

3. We cleaned, cleaned, cleaned about two weeks ago and got our home in lovely shape! It wasn't perfect by any means, and it wasn't 'done,' but it was the best it's looked since we moved in. Let's just say we've reverted back to the pre-clean, clean, clean state.

4. I have not necessarily done much, but I DID manage to fix the drain in our tub so that when we shower we are no longer standing in four or five inches of water. :)

So, first and foremost I apologize for the lack of pictures again. It's truly unacceptable. Don't try and tell me otherwise. I have been told by a very smart and savvy lady who is something of a blog connoisseur, that pictures are a must. I must confess, I hope Mr. S does actually have our camera somewhere and know where it is because if he doesn't I'm kinda SOL!

To combat my apparent aversion to following the lists I make...well, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do about it. Mostly, I think it's a mind over matter issue. As a start (and because our apartment looks horrendous at the moment, and we have company coming Sunday and Monday), I have a list I plan on accomplishing tonight. Tonight, I need to:

clean the bathroom
bleach the tub
sweep and mop bathroom and kitchen
do dishes
bleach kitchen sink
put away the cooking/baking supplies that are currently on our table
tidy up the bedroom - put clothes away

The other thing that will help me with my lists is a schedule. I have actually been giving a lot of thought to the schedule, and am glad there has been one deep cleaning with very little maintenance done afterward so I have a better sense of how often some things need to be done. Here's what I've determined so far...

Sweeping should be done a weekly basis - really more frequently, but at a minimum, once a week. We have hardwood or tile throughout our home, so dust and dirt accumulate easily. In the kitchen, whenever either of us works with onions or garlic, we always seem to end up with paper peel bits all over the floor (even though we're pretty clean cooks). And it's surprising how much and how quickly hair accumulates in the bathroom!! Sorry if that totally grosses you out, but let's face it - hair in the bathroom is a fact and whether you like it or not, are grossed out by it or not, at some point you have to deal with it. And dealing with it more frequently means you'll have to confront less of it all at once. Which is, I think, less gross than mass quantities. Ok, I'm done with hair! Stop freaking out.

Scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom sinks and tub with baking soda should be done on a weekly basis - it's amazing to me how quickly grime builds up. Baking soda really does a great job of fighting the grime and keeping things sparkling. As an added bonus, our sinks and tub are white which tend to show scuffs and marks really well. The baking soda works miracles in erasing those marks without being too abrasive - or leaving a different colored mark, which has happened to me when I've used a blue 'non-abrasive' sponge. Don't create more work for yourself, folks. Just use the baking soda right away.

Oooo! As a complete aside, I was at Rainbow earlier this week (a grocery store, for those who aren't familiar with the name) and found GIANT boxes of baking soda!!! I can't wait to run out of my current stash so I can buy the ginormous container. It's seriously the biggest thing of baking soda I've ever seen. I had no idea they sold it in such quantities, but it's such a wonderful idea since I use a lot of it when I clean, but still need it for baking, too! Moving on...

Dishes should be done daily - ideally, multiple times a day (once after breakfast, once after dinner), but if we're being realistic - and I am - maximizing morning sleep is more important than waking up with enough time to do the dishes before dashing out the door to work. Admitting dishes should be done daily is actually a huge step for me. Husband will be so thrilled when he reads this. I've never been one to let dishes go too long, but certainly a day or two. The thing is, dishes are the first thing to clutter counter space in a kitchen, and any of us who enjoy spending time in the kitchen know that counter space is precious. Especially when you don't have much of it! Dishes are also one of the easiest things you can do to eliminate clutter. It never takes nearly as long as you think it might to get them done; the work is painless; you can listen to music while you do it; and it's something you can do as a team (though I prefer doing them myself). Also, think of the other benefits - doing dishes the same day the are dirtied means A) they don't smell as bad, B) they're not as gross because nothing has dried on the dish, C) they're a heck of a lot easier to clean (see point B)! Why wouldn't you do dishes daily?

As a side note, I'm totally jealous of those of you who have dishwashers. Also, I feel this is a good time to remind you that this is a judgement-free zone!!

Sinks and tubs should be bleached bi-weekly - the bleaching process described in Real Simple's Solutions really adds the extra polish to your weekly baking soda scrub. It helps in combating the grime, is simple to do, and makes your water-holders look fabulous! And I found a chlorine-free bleach by Ecover the other day at Kowalski's (another grocery store), which means I don't feel nearly as bad making this part of my regular cleaning routine.

Kitchens and bathrooms should be cleaned weekly - we're talking your normal maintenance routine - sponging down counters, the stove top, and the table, cleaning toilets, mirrors, etc. It's not a 'deep clean,' per say. You do the deep clean every other week, but use this to maintain your work so that your 'deep clean' is simply adding the bleaching and mopping (which we haven't gotten to yet). Just keeps things simpler and easier.

Hard floors should be mopped bi-weekly - unless it's been a particularly rainy week, our floors don't need to be mopped on a weekly basis IF they are being swept on a weekly basis. On rainy weeks, I'd probably choose to sweep and mop even if my schedule didn't call for the mopping. I do find, though, that if I don't sweep regularly, mopping is always necessary because there is much more on the floor that ends up sticking, staining, and making a mess.

So those are the things I'm noticing thus far. Has anyone noted a trend in my observations and posts? Remember my intent is to clean and organize our home. 'And organize' being the key words there. Everything I've really 'accomplished' so far has revolved around cleaning. I don't really love cleaning or organizing, but I sure as heck like cleaning more. The tasks are very straight-forward, there is a huge sense of accomplishment at the end, and the results are immediately visible.

Organizing is just something I find to be insanely daunting which is a little weird because I'm super organized at work. I cannot function if my desk is a mess and I can't find things. I am an expert filer - both online and actual folders, everything has a place on or in my desk, there are systems developed for papers and projects, etc, etc. Somehow, this doesn't really transfer to home. Maybe because it's such a large space comparatively, requiring many more systems in order to form some semblance of order. This is where my husband shines. Mr. S loves systems - creating them, developing them (as in, changing them when they don't work quite right), using them, maintaining them. I think it gives him a sense of peace. If only I were like that.

Well, that's probably enough babbling for one post. Especially one that does not include pictures! Now it's on to conquering my list. Have a good evening, dear readers (if there are any of you out there)...

~Ms. S

Progress

2009-08-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

I will post photos tomorrow, but enormous progress was made on cleaning this weekend! All because the husband stepped in to help. With the pressure of his Godmother, her kids, and his parents coming up with the explicit purpose of seeing our place (and us, too), he decided we needed to get our rears in gear!

Here is the list of what got done:

dishes
swept kitchen, bathroom, and living room floors
cleaned dining room table
cleaned counters
cleaned bathroom
tidied living room (including placing some boxes in storage!)
organized and cleaned bedroom

Let me tell you...our place looks amazing at the moment! Minus the pile of crap on my desk, but for now, we'll overlook that detail. The biggest changes happened in the living room and bedroom. Husband's sister has been staying with us while finishing up her job before her move to WI. Well, she left Saturday after our get together, but packed up all her stuff long before which meant we could fold up the sleeper sofa. We got our living room and couch back nearly with the snap of our fingers! It was pretty incredible. (But, dear Sister, you are welcome back any time. We really enjoyed having you.)

The other change, that is sure to drop jaws once pictures are posted - the bedroom. Let's just get one thing out there right now. Thou shall not judge. I know our bedroom was ridiculously messy. I realize, as Husband regularly points out, that it is not, in fact, that hard to put clothes away - I just really dislike doing it. :) So, my friends, we come back to the real point of the blog: Ms. S desperately needed a project, and knew this would be a healthy thing for her to take on. She would never in a million years claim to be a cleaning/organizing expert. Hence, the blog.

Ok, now that that's out of the way...our bedroom is now very neat and tidy. All the clothes are put away in dressers or the closet, the bed has the lighter summer quilt on it, *you can see the floor*, and even though we don't quite have a spot for everything yet (we do still have boxes in the room), our stacks are well contained within a small area of the room.

It's fair to say I would not have made this much progress on my own. The checklist I had made for earlier in the week? Yeah, it totally didn't get done completely. So the fact that so much was accomplished means I must give credit to Husband and Sister (in-law) for their help. Thankfully, our hard work payed off. Our guests were impressed and pleased with our place. So are we! And it truly feels wonderful to come home to a clean house.

My goals for this week (main focus: Desk):

tackle the mess that is my desk
begin the new filing system (pictures and explanation will be provided!)
maintain this level of cleanliness throughout apartment
begin to develop long-range cleaning/organizing schedule
implement one or two new ideas from Real Simple Solutions

TTFN!

~Ms. S

A small dose of reality

2009-08-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today, my friends, marked the first day since finishing summer classes that I have really had anything of importance to do during the day. I began training for the job I'll be doing for the upcoming academic year. So upon completing my shift at the child development center (my summer job), I came home, got cleaned up, had a quick bite to eat, and it was off to a windowless room for 4.5 hours. Needless to say, it was good to have this experience now. Why? Because I did not get any cleaning done today. In fact, all I did was contribute to the mess of dishes.

Though today was busy, it was nothing like life will be come the second week of September. Not only will I be working 40 hours/week, I will have 6.5 hours of class/week, plus church choir and a church committee. Therefore, today was an excellent learning experience.

Lists are important, like I said in a previous post, because they hold you accountable. If I am going to be successful in this endeavor, I must create lists. And I must make the lists at least the night before I want to do them - a key point. My biggest problem with organization/cleaning lists tends to be that I'm over-ambitious. And let's be honest, it feel so much better to cross everything off of your list and feel like you really accomplished something, than to have even one item remaining. Knowing that I'll have about an hour - an hour and a half of time to devote to cleaning and organizing each day, my goals should be realistic.

So, for practice, my day tomorrow is even more full than today. Here is my list:

1. Do dishes

2. Unpack remaining boxes in living room and/or put them in storage (get them out of living room)

3. Sweep & mop kitchen and bathroom (because this is a very doable task that makes me feel good)

4. If time, clean and organize top of desk in living room

We'll see how tomorrow goes!

~Ms. S

Lack of Motivation

2009-08-10T21:29:00.000-05:00

Fine, I'll admit it. I did everything possible to get out of cleaning today. This does not bode well for actually completing the project at hand. I speculate that part of the problem was that today, I had to finish my list from Friday. Everything on the list involved reorganizing and sorting. 'Reorganizing' and 'sorting' are words that make a lightbulb go off in my head, and that, in turn, elicits my flight response. Yikes. Hopefully I'll get over it?

On the plus side, I did complete the rest of my list minus the 'determine cleaning schedule for kitchen and bathroom to maintain cleanliness.' The aforementioned schedule is something that needs to wait a few more days anyway so I can see how long the cleaning I did on Friday wears over one week's time. Back on topic, though.

Today, I began with the shelf in our dining room.

The counter space our kitchen has is excellent, but there just isn't that much of it. So when my husband found this set of shelves sitting out by our dumpster, he brought them in thinking we could use them to store some of the things that would otherwise end up on the counter or in the cupboards. However, not knowing exactly how we were going to use it right away meant it was the designated 'toss-me-here' holder - a mishmash of unsorted/unfiled mail, empty dry-goods containers, old cookie decorations, uneaten cupcakes my sister brought up for a going away party this past week (in my mother's cake container), etc. Sounds like a fun shelf to tackle, huh?

Well, I'm pleased to say it wasn't as bad as initially anticipated once I actually got going. And here is the end result:

Then I did the bathroom shelves. You won't notice much of a difference because I mostly cleaned out one of my bins. It had some junk in it that would never be used, so that stuff got tossed. That was about a 5 minute project. Not even. But I will take this time to say that I wasn't sure about having these shelves in our bathroom initially. It's an awfully tall unit, and as you can see by the 'before' photo from the shelves in the kitchen, shelves like this tend to be a 'catch-all' for moi. Unlike the shelves in the kitchen, though, we organized this set from the get-go and knew precisely how we wanted it to function from the beginning. Since we were so intentional about those shelves, neither of us has had any trouble keeping them organized. It also helps that we purchased the colored bins - my husband's idea, because he hates looking at all my hair tools and products. The bins mean we can toss stuff around in there and no else has to know! Brilliant, if you ask me. You can find these colored bins at Target.

Finally, I tackled the top of the refrigerator and the spices. The fridge was not a big task, but the spices were. For our wedding, my mother in-law got us a really nice set of Tupperware spice containers. We haven't had the chance to use them until now since we've been traveling for the past year. Anyway...I have many, many more spices than there were containers for, which meant deciding which spices were worthy of containers. And then making labels and transferring the spices to their permanent storage bins. I'm very glad that task is done, however, it made me realize we need some miniature shelves for organizing the interior of that cupboard. One thing at a time, though, right?

On Saturday, I went to the Farmer's Market with my sister in-law where I picked up these lilies for our dining room table and bookshelf in the living room. They're absolutely gorgeous and smell amazing! Fresh flowers always spruce up a room.

Oh, I should mention that I told Husband about this blog and its purpose on Saturday. Do you know how excited he was? There truly are no words to describe the look of utter disbelief combined with sheer delight that transformed his face with the words 'clean and organize our home to be magazine snapshot worthy.' Do I know my husband or what? He thinks this project is absolutely amazing, so he of course wanted to check out the site immediately. The first thing he commented on? My 'About Me' section. Why? Because it's so darn true! He nearly went so far as to say had he known my true identity (aka: not an organized neat-freak), we probably wouldn't be married today, but thankfully those words never actually came out of his mouth. We simply have a mutual understanding they're there. So here's to rediscovering the neat-freak buried somewhere deep inside of me.

~Ms. S

Lists & Lessons

2009-08-07T17:55:00.000-05:00

Day one. The cleaning process began around 11 this morning and continued until 4:30 this afternoon. It should be noted, this is the longest stretch of time I have ever spent cleaning. Normally, I get distracted after about 1.5 hours with something much more interesting and appealing - like catching up on missed episodes of tv shows online, writing in my diary, reading a great book (or a bad one). Basically anything that is not cleaning. But today was different. I woke up this morning knowing today would be a day spent cleaning and wanting very much to accomplish as much as possible. I did not get as much done as I had hoped, but it was not because I got distracted - there simply was not enough time.

Today, after arriving home from work, I began by choosing a focus, a target area, if you will. Trying to clean and organize your home to the point it's magazine ready is no easy feat. In fact, it's insanely overwhelming! Why am I doing this, again? Right, to see if it's possible. Thinking about our entire apartment and everything that needs to be done to all of our 4 rooms makes me want to fly in the opposite direction. You would, too, wouldn't you? And some of you probably have houses with more than 4 rooms! (Maybe you shouldn't attempt this until I've determined whether it's even worth it with my meager amount of space.)

Ok, back to the subject at hand. My focus area for today was: Bathroom and Kitchen. Bathroom because it's small and always needs cleaning; kitchen because that's where my husband and I spend most of our time (we thoroughly enjoy cooking and baking). I already knew what my very first task would be: bleaching the kitchen sink and the bathroom tub. Following instructions from Real Simple's Solutions, I filled both as full as possible with hot water and added 1 cup of bleach to the sink, and 2 cups of bleach to the tub. Then I waited for 1 hour before doing anything more with them.

In the meantime, I had a quick lunch and decided it would be smart to write out a list of things I wanted to accomplish for the day. Here's my list:

It doesn't look that big, but I learned today that cleaning and organizing are processes that take more time than I think they will. I was able to check off the following:

Bleach tub
Bleach sink
sweep and mop both rooms
clean dining room/kitchen table
clean counters
clean toilet and bathroom sink

To be fair to myself, that was half of my list. Not bad on my first day.

Once I was done writing the list, I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, and was about to begin on the bathroom floor when I encountered a problem. A major one. My tub with the bleach solution had completely drained!! It was dry, dry, dry and the hour soaking time was not up. Oh dear! Well, I only had 1/4 cup of bleach left, so I didn't fill the tub full again, but only filled it half-way and let it soak for another 40 minutes or so. Note to self: in the future, when doing something that requires soaking, make sure to check said space early and frequently to ensure there are no problems.

It was time to complete the kitchen sink, which had not encountered any problems in its soak. After draining the water and rinsing the basin, I sprinkled Baking Soda in the bottom to use as a non-abrasive cleaning agent (recommended by Real Simple).

I have to tell you, I've used baking soda when cleaning cookie sheets, drains, and other household items before, but never the sink or the tub. You need to add it to your cleaning supplies! The stains in my sink scrubbed out so easily with the baking soda. It was truly a glorious and exciting moment! (Who am I?) After a final rinse to remove any lingering baking soda, my kitchen sink is beautiful, white, and sparkling. I also had equally wonderful results with the tub.

By this time, I needed a little break from the cleaning. Not to worry! I found myself a little decorating project to occupy my time. Before my husband and I moved into our place, we lived with his sister for about 2 months. She had a little set of hooks hanging on her wall which she used to hang her keys. It was brilliant! (Ok, I know other people have these - I'm not intending to imply the key hooks are unique. Simply that we appreciated them immensely.) So one of our first purchases for our apartment was a set of hooks for ourselves. Well, we've been here nearly two months now and neither of us has even mentioned hanging them up. You see where this is going.

I placed the hooks on the wall and marked the places where holes needed to be drilled for screws. Luckily I found an electric drill in our closet - I have no idea who lent it to us because it's not ours! And then I panicked slightly when I realized I haven't had a shop class since 6th grade - about 13 years ago. 'How do I get the bit to stay?' 'Is there a little attachment for the different sizes?' My husband, dad, and grandfather would be so proud to know I figured it out on my own, and managed to use it successfully! Our key hooks are now hanging on the wall with the door harp my grandfather made resting gracefully right above them.

To complete my day of cleaning, I washed the table, the remaining dishes, the kitchen counters, and the bathroom. It was an exciting day and I feel good about what I managed to get done...but there is still so much to do! I guess there's always tomorrow. Until then here are some lessons I learned from today:

1. Wear shoes with good support. Your feet won't hate you if you do! (Mine hate me right now. Flip flops = no support.)

2. Determine a focus or target area and only worry about that room/task/area.

3. Make a list. It holds you accountable.

4. Play music loudly!

5. Take before and after pictures - you'll be impressed with yourself.

6. Tell someone what you've done so they can be really impressed, too! (Admittedly, I have yet to tell the husband, but my sister in-law was uber excited for me.)

7. There's always tomorrow.

~Ms. S

A purpose has been found

2009-08-06T19:34:00.000-05:00

Alright, so I've traveled to this place a number of times since its creation, only to realize I had no idea where to begin and what to write. I wanted and needed a purpose to make a reason for coming here to update this blog. After weeks of my brain pretending it was dead - always at its worst when on the topic of 'potential purpose for blog' - it finally perked up.

A goal of mine has long been to be more organized, neat, and tidy in my living space. I firmly believe I would be a calmer, more relaxed person this way. An added benefit is it would shock the pants off my husband, who is far more organized than myself. I must confess I managed to do this my senior year of college (when I met my husband, actually). I lived in the tiniest room you can imagine and maintained its spotlessness for a full 9 months, as anything out of place - even a rubberband - made the room feel cluttered and messy. It felt great to keep my living space that clean! And my husband (mistakenly) thought I was the neat, tidy, organized person I happened to be for nine months, all the time. Ha! Joke's on him. :) But I feel if I did it once, I can do it again.

Now, I also feel the need to point out here that I am a neat freak when it comes to my work space. I absolutely cannot function if my desk is not organized and de-cluttered. Which makes me wonder why this doesn't drive me bonkers in my living space...but it doesn't. At least, not until it gets really, really bad.

All of this, plus reading Real Simple's Solutions tonight, led me to my proposed 'purpose' for this blog. I think the living spaces seen in magazines like Real Simple are so...sexy, amazing, clean, perfect. Every time I see pictures of them, I think to myself, 'I'd l.o.v.e. to live in a house that clean, tidy, organized, etc, etc, etc.' So, I intend to see if it is possible to get a house to that point of organized, neat, and tidy, and then if it's feasible to maintain said standards over an extended period of time. Will it be easy to get our home that standard? How will it make me feel once I get there? Will sustaining that level of organization and tidiness increase happiness and decrease stress, or will it drive myself and Husband bonkers? At the moment, I have no idea, but I intend to find out and document the process. My hope is, at the very least, this will get me off my pathetically lazy summer bum (as of late) and help keep me accountable.

Pictures and stories will start tomorrow. Uff-dah!

~Ms. S

2009-07-18T20:58:00.001-05:00

Right now, I should be finishing cleaning up the bedroom before Husband gets home. Instead, well, I'm doodling away here. I'm particularly fond of cleaning, you see. And since there was a lot to do...yes, I am just making excuses. I don't like cleaning. That's the bottom line. Riveting post so far, huh?

How about this: tomorrow is our first anniversary. It's so hard to believe we got married one year ago already! On the one hand, the time flew by; on the other, time has moved so darn slowly. That is neither here nor there. Being that we're so busy, we don't even have solid plans past church in the morning. But there has been mention of brunch or dinner which would be absolutely delightful! I have no idea where we'll end up going - much of that clearly depends on which meal we'll be eating out.

I think this post is not going to get much better. So for now, we'll call it good (mediocre, actually), and I shall post more tomorrow when more interesting thoughts fill my head.

~Ms. S