Happy New Year!!!! (12 days late)

Holy cow, can't believe we're almost 2 weeks into the New Year! I hope everyone had safe and happy celebrations.

We laid low with the pups at our favorite couple's house. We woke up to Sidney getting a little sick (someone had too many puppy treats the night before) about 7am. Once we realized we were awake for the day and no hope of going back to sleep we went home to tackle our To Do list. By 10 we had undecorated and packed up the Christmas tree and were on our way to my Mom's house to store it for the year. We helped her get her tree down and were back to our house for more work! We touched up some spots with paint we had noticed over the week and finished just in time for the Penn State Bowl Game!!! It was a stressful 2nd half and I was so happy to see them pull out the win!

After the game there was still more work to do. With the new paint colors husband started seeing our little apartment as being a bit more grown up. This meant no more kegerator in the middle of the living room (THANK GOODNESS). We borrowed a neighbors car and got that sucker loaded up and took it to the storage unit to swap for the oversized chair that matches our couch. Now we have even more incentive to get that new house! Hubs wants his man cave complete with his kegerator!

Hopefully the year will continue to be as productive as that first day was! We love making lists and crossing chores off, it's a great sense of accomplishment.

Good Progress, Not Finished

Whew, got a lot of work done this weekend. It felt GOOD to get rid of so much! Unfortunately our place is so small, that it is still packed to the brim. I have to do this more often and really reduce what we have and need to keep up with at the house. I only completed the bedroom closet and linen closet in the bathroom. Those both took ALL day Saturday and by Sunday I was burnt out. Tony is out of town this weekend, so I'll be able to get more done!!! Now I'll leave you with some pictures, all by me.

Bedroom closet befores...

Bedroom closet after...I can see the floor!!!! We share the smallest closet and even after getting rid of two boxes, one shopping bag, and two duffel bags, still packed in there.


Linen closet befores....

Linen closet after...again, still packed to the brim, but a lot of unnecessary stuff is GONE.


Next weekend it's back to work on the rest of the house. The dressers are a work in progress, can't wait until I can see those and maybe even decorate a bit!

Very Exciting (For ME) Weekend Plans

I am so very excited about this weekend. Why, you ask? Well I have a very busy weekend planned. It is going to start in my kitchen, move to the bathroom, through our bedroom, and into the living/dining room.

What is going on in each of these rooms? Cleaning. Well, really purging. I'm so freakin' stoked about bringing home empty boxes and filling them up and taking out all of that crap we have accumulated over the years.

I want to get rid of AT LEAST 10% of my clothes. Anything that I'm absolutely determined that I'll fit into again is getting boxed up and kept for one year. Just one year. If in one year I have not made any progress towards these clothes, they get sold or donated. Everything else is getting stored until the spring when my mom, sister, and I will do a joint yard sale.

Why am I doing this now and not waiting until spring? My house is exploding on every surface, in every corner, in every room. I can't wait. This is all a result of reading unclutterer.com and all the design blogs I've found my way to. Their rooms and spaces just seem so much nicer when you can SEE them.

Did I mention I can't wait?

I'm kicking the hubbie out and getting to work. There might be wine involved. Who knows where this will take me.

Can't wait.

Le Sigh

I've really been hoping and wishing for a new house much more frequently these days. Today on decor8 she posted a palette of blues/aqua/white and sand. It made me dream of having a kitchen and/or guest room in these colors. There were even fabrics that I immediately imagined into a quilt for our guest room in the house that doesn't exist yet. It gives me motivation to really save every penny to get that down payment!! Dream away with me.....


Source Here

One Month Down

So the first month of the challenge is done. I've completed three tasks and started 9 others. By creating the list it gave me the motivation to get to some of those things I've been putting off.

The three things I completed are:
1. Starting a blog, as seen here
2. Get an iPhone, got that 2 weeks ago and love every single minute of it. I even bought a case off of etsy.com from SeaSide Sew that I love.
3. Drink red wine from our fancy decantor. We accomplished that last Monday while we were also starting the list of Top 100 movies.

Items I've started:
I've run 36 of my 1001 miles. I bought a new pair of sneakers and running is completely different when I'm not getting shin splints after one mile.
We started the list of Top 100 movies, Citizen Kane was very good, The Godfather is waiting to be watched this week.
Tony and I went out to a fancy pants dinner while in vacation in Barbados.
I took my mom out to lunch today (cutting it close on the once a month deadline)
Read four books while on vacation.
Put in a hefty chunk of change into our downpayment fund.
Visited the dentist and scheduled my next 6 month cleaning.
Did all of the laundry (even folding and putting away) in one month.
and finally took the dogs out for 2 long walks during my lunch break.

Having items on the list that I want to accomplish several times really motivated me to get out an get started. Like taking my mom out, I love spending time with her and having girl time, but as a newlywed, I tend to pack my weekends with couple activities. It was nice to get out for a bit this afternoon to see her. The dogs benefitted when I got off my butt and take them out instead of watching Bonnie Hunt.

I think this month I'll try to get my closet cleaned up and donate some clothes. I'd like to knock out at least another 40 miles. Our weekend schedules are slowing down, so I can pick out a recipe to try for Tony. I definitely need to get our wedding album approved, I want that beauty at my house already!!!

I'll leave you with some pics of Tony and I at The Cliff in Barbados, amazing dinner.