Valentine's Day

I have to say this was the first Valentine's Day that I've ever "celebrated".
Many years of single-ness, one boyfriend who dumped me like 2 weeks before (which I'm sure was intentional so he wouldn't have to buy me anything, haha!) and then last year we didn't do anything special. I was in the middle of exams and we were packing to move!

Hubs and I didn't do anything extravagant. He had flowers delivered during the day to me :) The first flowers he's ever got me.

I made heart shaped pizza- apparently so did the rest of the blogging world- and peanut butter cookies. We snuggled up, watched some shows on our PVR, and had a quiet night in. It was perfect! 

My Valentine Craft Swap package came on Monday and she got her's that day as well! Amazing timing. 

Debbie (from Pot Luck Designs) made me these super cute wrist warmers and a sweet little owl pin! I love them both. The wrist warmers are great since I live in a place with a super long and super cold winter! This was the first swap I did and I had a great experience :) 

Hope your Valentine's Day was spectacular!!! 

52 Weeks of Organizing- Week 6

This week I managed to work on bits and pieces of a few projects and finished one!

During week 4 I started sorting my mail and the various piles of paper I had throughout the house.
This was just the "mail bin" that was accumulating any and all papers that entered the house in the last 3 months. There were some other piles but I didn't take any photos of those.

They are finally all contained in a nice file box.

I am not quite done with all our of paperwork as I am waiting to buy a few boxes to help with the storage but I feel that this is a good start!

I also worked on DVD storage, filling and organizing our new entertainment unit (!!!) and a few spots in the kitchen. None of those are completely done but when they are I'll post them here!

Wise Words

One of my favourite parts of the 52 Week Challenge has been checking out everyone else's projects. There are so many great ideas, pictures and inspirations from all the participants. 


While looking at Yvette's (she's one of my followers, yay!) responses to Laura's questions I experienced yet another a-ha moment. I literally read and re-read her post because of how powerful I found her words. 


I smiled when she first said that she saw the common theme of people wanting to "be in control" as I had noticed that too. I thought about that as one of my reason's at first but then realized, for myself, that could lead down a road I don't want to go. I have had to learn I can't always control everything that goes on in my life and that it's not healthy for me to attempt to. It shoots my anxiety through the roof and makes me a very unhappy person. It also just reminds me of all the accounts of eating disorders where it starts with the person "just wanting to be in control of something".


I loved, loved, loved Yvette's statement: 


"I want to get be organised because"


I've been thinking of being organized as a place to get to. When I'm organized I'll... But getting to a place where you are organized, staying there and BEING organized is so much more important. Looking at it as a way of doing things and living your life. A way of being. 


One of her reasons for organizing was:


"we can use what we have without duplicating unnecessarily, better for our environment (personal and global)"


While I haven't vocalized it this is another my reasons for being organized as well. We've been focusing on purchasing only what we NEED as opposed to buying for the sake of buying. I've also been thinking about this a lot in relation to pregnancy and our baby. I have very strong feelings about bringing a "little stuff consumer" into the world. Being organized, I'm hoping, will help keep our consumption of this world to a minimum. 


I'll also share a little bit of her a-ha moment because it sparked another of mine!


"We also cling to things that represent who we used to be or who we would like to be"


I know I do this. I know other people who do this. I'm pretty sure we all do this. But wouldn't it be so much better to have our spaces represent who we are RIGHT NOW and in the best way possible. I am not a 16 year old girl in high school anymore so why would I want to have a nightstand cluttered with the jewelry I bought back then but never wear. I'm not the 19 year old party girl I once was so those pictures shouldn't be the only ones in frames. I am a wife, a new home owner, a reader, a crafty person, a soon to be mom and so much more. My space should tell those things about me, about who I am right now! 


I highly recommend you go and read Yvette's post. These are just a few of my thoughts on what she has written and I'm sure she'll inspire you as well! 

52 Weeks of Organizing- Week 5

Laura's post this morning had some great questions that really got me thinking about the organizing that I've done in this last 5 weeks.


1.  Name ONE reason you want to get organized.  It will be neat to see the variety of answers.
For me it's become the sense of calm that organizing our space has brought me. Life for the past 5 years has felt like constant chaos. Being in full time university, working, volunteering, student teaching, and planning our wedding means life was never very simple or calm. Getting rid of clutter and utilizing our small space more effectively has allowed me to regain that sense of calm. I want this calm feeling to stay with us as we transition into being new parents this summer and I know that continuing to organize and maintaining this new way of living will achieve that.


2.  What did you organize last week & were you happy with the way it turned out?



I did a very quick "front of fridge makeover" last night. 

Before: 

A very messy and cluttered fridge.

After:

A neat, organized and calm fridge.

I am most proud of this little space on our fridge. 

Our city gives us a 12 month garbage/recycling schedule.

You can see in the before picture that it is big and took up a lot of space. 

Once a month is done having it still on the fridge seemed pointless. 

I cut out the individual months and stacked them under the magnet. 

Now when each month is over I can recycle them! 

It also takes up about 1/16 of the space it did before. 

All the extra magnets went into a basket in the cupboard or on the side of the fridge.

3.  Have you had any breakthroughs or a-ha moments yet?  I would love to hear them!

My biggest a-ha moment has been realizing that maintaining the organized spaces is just as important as organizing it in the first place! I've been able to keep all the spaces I've organized in the last 5 weeks looking the same as they did the moment after they were done! 

Don't forget to check out all the other great projects from this week over at Org Junkie!

Lately

Things have been pretty calm around here.

We got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time on Tuesday. I can't really describe how I felt hearing it- it was pretty amazing. This whole pregnancy thing feels a little bit more real now!

We've been dog-sitting for my inlaws since Sunday night.

He's pretty cute with his little sweater that he loves to wear! 

He even puts his head through to help me put it on him. 

I got to spend the afternoon with a lovely friend of mine. She was the first teacher I worked with and we've become great friends over the past 4 years. Her daughter is having a baby about 3 weeks before me so we had lots to chat about. 

Last night I decided to learn how to make a granny square. 

I think it's pretty good for a first attempt. The tutorial I used wasn't the clearest and I found another one I'd like to try out tonight. 

It's been warm enough to actually go outside for more than 5 minutes so I took advantage of the sunshine yesterday and went for a walk around our neighbourhood. Hopefully the weather keeps it up!

Last night we watched "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" last night which was a lot better than I thought it would be. I actually put down the laptop to watch which shocked the hubs. I'm normally a multitasker when we watch movies. We also watched "The Tooth Fairy"which was a great little mindless comedy. We're enjoying all the movies we can before baby gets here ;)

So that's what's been going on around here lately. 

PS. Still no camera cord...

101 List Update

Its been a month since I posted my 101 list for the first time. 
In January I....


#6. Worked on organizing my craftroom.

In the middle of sorting. 

It looks a lot better now! I swear!

#22. Cook 1 new recipe every month. 


I made a few new things this month- cornbread (delicious) hamburger buns (massive fail) and salmon (a new favourite). 


#23. Have a date night once a month. 


Hubs and I went on a few dates this month. I know that finding time for date nights is going to be more challenging once the baby arrives so getting in the habit now will make it easier!


#24. Use up all existing yarn before buying anymore.


I've been loving the look of crochet lately, so I've been slowly teaching myself. 




#33. Scrapbook all printed out pictures.


I've been sorting, cropping and corner rounding. Only about half the pictures done but I'm getting there. Now to get them onto paper and into albums!


#38. Declutter everything!


Through the 52 Weeks of Organizing I've managed to get rid of some items we don't need. 


#52. Update progress on list once a month. 


You're reading it!


#55. Read 30 books. 


I read the #8 Sookie Stackhouse book and the Hunger Games this month. Both were great!


#67. Organize every room and space. 


Working on it with the 52 Weeks of Organizing challenge. 


#69. Edit Google Reader once every 3 months. 


I did this early in January so I'm not due to do it again until April but I might just do it again soon. I find I have too many blogs I just skim over or don't read.


#76. Go through PVR once a month. 


Got rid of about 7 movies that were sitting on there since October that we OBVIOUSLY were not going to get around to watching. 


#86. Organize iPhone every 3 months.


Feels so nice to have a clutter free phone.


#93. Organize iPhoto. 


This has been probably the most frustrating thing I've dealt with lately. After spending a good 5-6 hours trying to sort it all out I got so frustrated that I copied all the photos onto a file on the desktop, twice, and then deleted my iPhoto library. I've been slowly adding in photos to avoid getting overwhelmed. I had 11'375 photos in the library to begin with so we'll see how many are left after I'm done!


While I haven't been able to actually cross anything off the list I have managed to make progress on a lot of the items which feels like big success to me!


If you are working on a 101 list or something similar leave me a link as I'd love to check it out!

Organizing Update

I am still unable to get pictures uploaded from my camera. Hubs is going to take a look for the cord out in the garage tonight.

I've been keeping up with the 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge and have completed two more projects.

I made a space for towels in my kitchen as opposed to them being stored in the bedroom like before.

Our mail/paper work is in the process of being sorted and filed and made to look as beautiful as bills can be made to look.

Under the kitchen sink is now another one of those places I love to look at just because it is clean, containerized and organized!

The new entertainment unit is taking a bit more time that originally anticipated. They are almost two-thirds done so hopefully in the next week or two it will be moved into the house.

I will do the before/after posts when I get pictures!

In the meantime I'll be madly clicking through posts over at "IHeart Organizing". Jen's blog is full of amazing organization information, ideas and inspiration. I definitely heart it!