Take life with a grain of chocolate

Exciting Update!

2011-07-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Click on over to my new Wordpress location for an exciting update.

This Blog Has Moved

2011-06-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

For a long time now I have been contemplating moving to Wordpress. Well, I went ahead and did it. Please click the link here to get to my new home. I hope you follow me over!

Viva Mexico!

2011-06-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have never had a honeymoon. We REALLY need a vacation. When we were hanging out with our friends over the weekend one of them said he thought it would be great if the three of us couples went on a trip together. His parents have a time share in Mazatlan.

Nuff said......

Tonight we got the call that next August we are set for two weeks in the Mexican sun. I may or may not be able to go the entire two weeks but ten days could be possible. All I have to do now is get my passport and buy our plane tickets. All the more reason to get a job fast since I have the money in savings right now for that.

I googled the time share and the photos are amazing! There are five different sites. I don't know which one we are actually staying at but for your viewing pleasure....

I'm so ready for sunsets on the beach, fruity drinks with umbrellas, sun and sand and surf and relaxation.

Viva Mexico!

Graduation Season

2011-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we went to a friends son's highschool graduation. We have known his father since highschool ourselves. Obviously the boy in the graduation cap and gown is our friends son. The girl on the right is my SD and the boy on the left is my SS (sorry about the glare from theoverhead lights - this was taken with my phone and photo opps were few).

Our son's friend is headed for the Navy August 3. He's pretty smart and his job is apparently classified. We are lucky and proud to know him and looking forward to hearing about his life in the "real world" as it unfolds.

My SD will graduate next year - I can't believe it.

Congratulations class of 2011!

F is for Freedom?

2011-06-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, hi there.

Life has been pretty crazy around here.

For a while now, things have not been going well at my job. This is the job I was not looking for. This is the job that was supposed to be such a great opportunity for me. This is the job that was going to allow me to pay off my credit cards - FAST!

I have not been enjoying this job and I definitely feel this is not the place for me. I have felt trapped because I am not in the position to quit due to our finances.

Today I have a paid day off as yesterday I was "let go".

It's a weird situation though. Essentially my company is allowing me to choose my end date. They asked if I would like to work for a few more weeks while I look for a new job and would accommodate any interviews I get lined up.

I'll take it.

So today I spent lounging around at home doing whatever I pleased. I made bruchetta for brunch and got caught up on blog reading while lounging in my new jersey dress from Old Navy that arrived yesterday in the mail. I may even have a glass of white wine that arrived in the mail today from my wine club.

I did look for a new job too.....

So now what? I can't say I didn't think this possibility wouldn't happen. I was preparing for it and socking away money in savings - when I could have been paying off my credit cards. The end date I am choosing will allow me to get paid two more times not counting the paycheck this Friday. That will allow me to put an additional $2000 in savings. I will be able to collect unemployment if I can't find something new by then.

I'm actually pretty optimistic. I have other things to keep me busy right now. I'm taking this great class on reorienting my career (don't laugh) and I couldn't be taking it at a better time.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that I started a production company with two friends I met on the set of the award winning indie film I worked on? We held our first auditions last Monday and the second auditions will be Saturday July 2. We have a Kickstarter video planned to raise the money we need to shoot our project which is scheduled for a weekend in August.

So not entirely freaking out here and am wondering what the universe has in store for me. I'm thinking positive and have great references lined up. It's summer and I plan to enjoy it as much as possible.

We got our car back last night too - it had issues for the second time and the dealership covered it all - huge sigh of relief there.

So universe - throw me a bone will ya?

Obsessions

2011-06-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for not posting on a regular basis lately. I have been super busy. Two weeks out of my month I work at least 50 hours a week. I am taking a class right now and trying to get my business off the ground.

Yesterday we went to a friends son's highschool graduation. There is a house down the street from them that I am totally obsessing over. It's 101 years old, has four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The front and back porches are nice and deep with a shed out back.

The price has come down $60K since September. It's totally doable for us provided we could sell or rent our condo and we could even do a 15 year mortgage probably. I am REALLY considering this but it makes no sense right now. We are not prepared to buy a house right now. We have no down payment unless we make money on our place. Our commute would be longer. I have enough going on already and yet.....

I can so see my self living in this house. The kitchen and bathrooms would need some upgrading eventually. The upstairs bathroom is tiny, the tub, sink and toilet are crammed in there. It's a four bedroom house with all the bedrooms upstairs so it would be easy to borrow room from one of the bedrooms to make the bathroom more workable. Its double the square footage of our current home and right about what we want size wise anyway.

There are three options to a house that I would want. A converted industrial space loft, a one floor ranch with an open plan and an old house like the one above. Yesterday while at our friends house we walked down and took a peak in the windows. While I am not thrilled about the wood stove in the dining room - that can be taken out. It's double the square footage of our current place too.

This house makes me even more determined to get in to a house by next year if we intend to stay in the area. If we know we are going to move out of state in three years then buying a house makes no sense.

I guess a girl can dream.....

Green Means Go!

2011-06-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited.

Over the past couple months I have had a project in development. It's getting traction and gaining momentum.

I started a production company with two gals I met on the set of the independent film I worked on a few summers ago.

We recevied almost 20 screenplay submissions and found two we really love which we have optioned. Our first project will start filming in late August. It's a short film but we thought it had potential to be made in to a trilogy which the screenwriter loved. So, she is going to work on developing two more scripts.

Now down to the nitty gritty of casting actors (only two), location scouting (we think we have a place already), getting crew (this is low budget so free is a good thing), finding the equipment we need (currently we don't have any) and getting funding ($$$).

We have a twitter and FB page and will probably use Kickstarter for help in fund raising. Stay tuned, more updates to come!

2011-05-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's a great little site that allows you to collect ideas and photos for inspiration. I totally should have thought this website up since I have been doing something similar in folders on my hard drive or tear sheets from magazines in an accordian folder .

It works a little like Facebook where you can follow people and share ideas. Here's a peak of what I like. Pinterest describes themselves as..

a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.
People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

You need to request an invite from Pinterest or someone you know who is on it. Send me an email and I would be happy to send you an invite. This is my new favorite place on the web, a great way to post inspiration.

Happy pinning!

Butterflies...............

2011-05-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

I love this photo!

The color of these butterflies are amazingly intense!

May Ramblings

2011-05-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello blogger peeps!
I really feel bad for not posting a lot lately. I just havn't had much going on. My couch slipcover is in stall mode until I can have a weekend free of plans to tackle sewing the slipcover which I spent three hours pinning as well as the back and seat cushions.

I'm excited about a few things though. I was a little premature but updated my sidebar for some of our debt. It's not official or anything but this month we will have not one but two cars paid off. The ironic thing about this is neither of them are driveable. How crazy is that? We are using our tax return to pay off our old daily driver my 1999 Subaru Forester which just went through engine number two and is sitting waiting for the title so we can sell it to someone who wants it for parts (car universe, please grant my wish). That will be paid this Friday. Our last payment to my dad for our 1987 Porsche will be a week later. Problem is it needs a little bit of work to make it driveable.

We got our new to us Saab back last Friday after it needing a new engine (what is it with us and engines?). The dealership paid to have a used one with less miles put in. We had only owned it less than 48 hours when that debacle happened. I'm really liking the Saab. It's super comfortable with leather seats, dual climate control (front and back), heated seats all around (the SK's are loving that!), a sun roof (oh how I missed that), a killer stereo system, hand controls on the steering wheel for the stereo and more. This is more C's car than mine so I will bide my time and save my pennies until I can get this...

I'm not gonna lie. I kinda dig the racing stripes. Never thought I would say that. I DON'T dig the four fog lights on the front of this one and I would certianly love a sunroof too. This car is so me. Grey is my go to color in so many ways lately. We painted the living, dining and hallway of our condo in grey. Our Saab is silver with grey interior and I want me a grey mini cooper!

By the end of the month I will have put $950 on CC # 4 which is scheduled to be paid off in July. In fact, all of our credit cards should be paid off by year end. Yee Haw! Once that happens I can relax and plan a real vacation. A vacation to somewhere like Hawaii or Mexico. Pretty much anyplace full of sun where I can stick my toes in the sand, drink fruity drinks with little umbrellas and relax.

I am starting a career development class in 13 days (yes I am counting) that I am super excited about. I have a big birthday coming up at the end of July. I am contemplating going here for the Saturday before my birthday. Wine and Yurts, what more could a girl ask for? They have a spa too!

The Yurts featuer King sized beds, sky dome in the center of the roof, private bath, refrigerator, iPod docking station, sitting area, patio deck, wifi and vineyard or river gorge view.

Meanwhile, I am totally addicted to this design blog House Tweaking. Dana and her husband just bought a new (to them) house. They have decided to downsize so she can stop working and take care of their two boys full time. The new house is lovingly named The Underdog. It's a mess they are remodleing while still living in their old house that is for sale. I am really intrigued by this because my husband and I are looking at three years until his youngest graduates from high school. One of our ideas is to buy or build a small open floor plan house.

Another is to sell our condo and live in an Airstream trailer like this guy (Apartment Therapy is so cool!).

Buying a rambler we could make our own is certainly something we consider. We are thinking of moving to a warmer climate so the house buying may possibly be put on hold for a few years. When I look at photos online of houses for sale in my area I really try to look past the old cruddy kitchen cabinets and hideous flooring to see the potential for the four walls I am considering. Watching Dana and her husband as they turn their Underdog in to the home of their dreams will be certain inspiration and a great guide.

Speaking of addictions, I am currently adddicted to the TV show Supernatural. We borrowed season one from our neighbor. Right now we are on season two which we have to get from Netflix via DVD (how old school) since it's not streaming.

Today was a nice sunny day here in the greater Seattle area. It got to 60 at least. I am so ready for the grey gloomy days of winter (and even spring) to be gone. One thing about our area is even when it's warm during the day it cools off at night unless you are in eastern Washington or it's August.

Well, I have rambled enough. Hope you all are well and more more consistent posting coming soon. Like the reveal of my slipcovered couch!

Career Exploration

2011-05-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

For a while now I have not been satisfied in my current job. Althought I did not finish my degree what I do for a living is not even remotely what I went to school for. I have a significant birthday looming in a few months and I am feeling the need for a change.

Last Saturday I took a one day career development class to focus on a career change. This led to signing up for a nine week intensive that starts in a few weeks. I'm pretty excited about it and am really looking forward to exploring my options.

I know that I am a late bloomer. I went to college after high school but I really didn't know what I was doing there and chose a major more out of what I liked than what was ideal - because I really just didn't know what I wanted to do. Even reading books like "What Color is Your Parachute and going to the career counseling office was a struggle. They gave you tests and said you should be a writer or an architecht - yadda yadda yadda.

The opportunity to spend serious time focusing on the right career for me sounds a little selfish. The philosophy behind the place I am going focuses more on what's really important to you personally and helps you create a vision statement for the ideal job for me.

The only thing I wish is that I had done this a few years ago. Wish me luck!

Good Juju

2011-04-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

So a few posts ago I wrote a little about our recent car troubles. What happened since then could literally be one of those priceless adds. We heard from the dealership and the news was bad and good. Essentially our new to us car needs a new engine and since we had it less than 48 hours they are taking care of it themselves.

So it looks like I will be able to take that $3200 burning a hole in my bank account and pay off our old dead car as well as put a healthy chunck of change on one of our credit cards. It's tempting to put that entire amount on our credit cards and just continue to pay the car payments for the dead car (there are seven left) but I just don't think I want to do that. I am waiting until we get the car back which will be next week.

Also, I am looking for a new job. I left my old job of 4.5 years for my current one of which I have been at for six months. I am sorry to say this job is just not working out like I thought it would. The pay is better and C and I can carpool but it's just not the environment for me.

I am putting this out there in the universe for me to be able to find a new job and for the transition to be pretty stress free. I am not certain how this will be accomplished but I am trusting that it can be. My deadline is my birthday at the end of July but if it happens faster I will not complain.

Seven Things About Me

2011-04-27T20:06:00.001-07:00

I received a Versitile Blogger Award from a groovy blogger/twitter friend Crystal over at Twenty Eight and a Half. I am to name seven random facts about myself and pass along to seven other bloggers.

Seven Random Things About Me

I have exactly 2.5 hours flight time in a single engine plane.

I had a pet frog for 13 years. It was a joke birthday gift called "Grow A Frog" and a tadpole was literally mailed to me in a bag of water in a styrofoam container. When it arrived my mom tossed it up the stairs at me. It lived in my mom's house after I moved away and finally passed away.

While most people go gaga over meeting famous people, when I have the opportunity I get all nervous and quiet.

When I was just about to turn two my parents and I were visiting relatives in Texas. My cousins were bouncing on a trampoline with me sitting on the opposite end. Then bounced me right off. I go tup and wandered in to the house. Later that night I woke up screaming. Apparently I had broken my leg. I spent the rest of our trip in a cast and walked around so much I wore down the heel twice. I remember when I got the cast off the doctor put the saw on my hand so I would know it wouldn't vut me. I tried to stand but fell over because I was used to the weight of the cast.

The furthest away from home I have been is Hawaii to the west, The Bahamas to the East, Cabo San Lucas to the south and the Arctic Circle to the north. Time to get off this continent!

I costumed an indie horror film summer which got me a credit on IMDB.

I love vegetables but absolutely detest peas. I will eat them in fried rice or a pot pie but I will not eat them alone.

Passing the award to...

Kilted Travel Agent (refered to here as C)

The Girls Guide to Homelessness

Holding Pattern....

2011-04-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

Putting this out there for some good juju.

This past week has been interesting. After our car essentially dying and being replaced, our new car has a small issue which is being diagnosed. I am sitting on about $3200 that I would really like to use to pay off the old car (that died) and put the rest on a credit card.

Untill the new car get's the "all clear" I want to hold on to that money "just in case".

I am putting it out there that everything is fine and I will be able to pay off that old car and the rest will pay one card in half which will then be paid off next month.

How is that for specific.

Send me your good juju!

2011-04-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have a new obsession. It's called Pinterest. They describe themselves as a social catalog to collect and share things you love. They have created a website that allows you to tag photos you see online and create boards with them. I have been doing something similar for years either saving to a folder on my coputer or ripping pages out of magazines.

Right now it's an invitation only site. It didn't take me long to get mine. Or, leave me a comment with your email address and I will send you and invite!

When Life Gives You Lemons........Make Saabs!

2011-04-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

This morning as C and I were stopped at a light on our way to work I noticed what looked like steam coming from the hood of our car. It was not too obvious but it was there. In the last few days we had been smelling a coolant smell and we knew this was not good. We turned around and hightailed it home.

We had known for a while the car needed work and we were hoping to get it paid off and some credit card debt paid down before we needed to replace it. Well replacing it happened today. The car is not worth a third engine and with our tax return being deposited in our bank account (hopefully tomorrow) we had planned on paying the car off.

We got home, walked to the park and ride where are neighbors car was parked (she let us borrow it) and drove to our bank. We were approved for an auto loan and went home to scour the internet. We found a used car at a local dealership which had all of the criteria we were looking for in price and mileage. The bells and whistles are a plus.

Say hello to our new baby.

A 2000 Saab 9-5 with only 85000 miles on it. It has a sun/moon roof, dark grey leather interior, heated seats (even in the back), dual climate control for the front and seperate climate control for the back as well as controls on the steering wheel for the stereo. They only had one key and a second one cost us $238.11 plus a $55 fee to sink it to the car. Wow, I didn't know about that niftly little feature.

It had literally been put on an internet special this morning knocked down an additional $5000.

This was not necessarily in the plans right now but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I Heart The Internet - Another Recipe

2011-04-13T21:12:00.001-07:00

A quick note before the post. What is UP with blogger and clumping all of my paragraphs together?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Not only has the internet given me super cool twitter and blog friends like Crystal and Crazy Aunt Purl (it's all about the wine diet). It gives me yummy food I can cook at home whenever I want. I made enchiladas not once but twice last weekend from this recipe (one beef and one chicken - I liked the chicken best). The SK's (step kids) LOVED it so I know I have a keeper recipe when I can please my entire household with one dish! The latest intsalment of the Paisley Cooking Chronicals is roasted asparagus compliments of Small Notebook. You can get the recipe here. Not only is she living in Italy (a dream of mine) but she is sharing yummy recipes too! Folks, my husband (C) does not really care for veggies, and asparagus has taken him a bit to get used to (he likes it smothered in holandaise) and he REALLY liked this dish. I think it was the prosciutto that did it. I don't even think you need the cheese. The roasted potatoe recipe you can find here (thank you Tyler Florence). I had planned to have chicken with this but I didn't really need it. It was Yum-Oh and really filling! If you try this, tell me what you think!

Enchiladas Por Favor

2011-04-09T09:32:00.001-07:00

Last night I made a recipe for Enchiladas I found at one of my new favorite blogs, Dream Book Design. My step son helped me make them. They were a little messy in the prep but so very good even without the green onion which I forgot to put on them. They are so yummy in fact that I may make another batch in chicken so I will use all the green onion I have. I can just store it in the freezer and use them for lunches. Click here for the recipe. I am off to make chocolate croisants for breakfast!

Grand Plans

2011-04-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

So with my post yesterday about the likely probability of a sabbatical in the future, I am now in full fledged planning mode. This of course includes multiple screenings of Eat Pray Love and Under the Tuscan Sun. Afternoons with homemade bruschetta and red wine and intensive yoga sessions. It started with grand visions of international travel, living in exotic locales and jet setting from country to country with our little dog in tow (sensitive stomach and all). But that is really not enough. That is not what I want. My sabbatical idea has already morphed in to the concept of intense periods of work followed up by mini travel sabbaticals of three or four months. The intense periods of work are not at a typical day job but making films. I like this concept alot since it essentially extends the sabbatical over the course of several years and allows these mini retreats to be here in the US or abroad but we always have a "home base" to come back to. This allows me to travel and see the world which is really what my passion is. Unless I replace Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel. So what I am really planning for is transitioning from the current way I earn a living in to another means of earning a living. Something that flows a little more with my goals. The key is planning. I am a planner. I can obsess over a spreadsheet like nobody's business. I love a good list too. I want to start traveling as soon as I can.

In a perfect world, C & I would have some sort of alternative income stream. Something that could bring in enough money per month to meet our living expenses so our savings would be there if we need it but not necessary to dip in to for silly things like groceries or to pay the phone bill.

It's not that I need massive amounts of money to buy all sorts of lovely things. I just want the security of the available funds to know that I don't need to go back to a mind numbing horrible day job ever again. I don't mind living modestly. After all, you can't take it with you.

Our "home base" woube be a small structure about 1500 square feet such as a Katrina Cottage. KC 1185 would do nicely square footage wise. Some small adjustments like bedroom # 2 would not exist and the kitchen would use that space plus there would be room for a pantry and eating nook. Bedroom # 1 would be the TV room. It would be great if it was on a lake and some what private.

I plan on investing in a good camera to take photos of all the places we visit. I plan on packing my laptop to chronicle my travels and possibly write a novel that has been rattling around in my brain. I plan on connecting with my husband and hope that friends and family members will meet up with us along the way.

Sabbatical

2011-04-02T09:37:00.001-07:00

For a while now I have had the thought of a break rolling around in my head. In truth, I have been working full time for the better part of the last 18 years since I left college. I go to work every day for the paycheck, I really don't have a passion for what I do. I'm good at it, I like the people I work with and my salary is pretty decent. I did not go to college for what I do but kind of fell in to it. I take pride in doing my best every day. But I'm tired. I have a passion for other things. Other things like travel, independent film, cozy surroundings. Things that I want to be more central in my life. Other things that I would like to earn a good living at. Things that are not material stuff but experiences. Call me a late bloomer (pretty accurate really) but I feel I have finally figured out what I want out of life. Enter the sabbatical which literally means "a ceasing", a rest from work, a hiatus, lasting from two months to a year. I am planning one of those. A year off to transition in to the next phase of my life. If you have seen the movie Eat, Pray, Love this is kind of the idea. This move is based on a real book that a real person lived through. The book is amazing and inspirational and a must read in my opinion. The author took a year off to really discover who she was while living in Italy, India and Bali (all places I would love to visit). I want to travel, experience new cultures, learn new languages, eat new food, take beautiful photos, imerse myself in something different to gain new perspective. Really become centered and setteled. I am inspired by others who are following a somewhat similar path. People like Rachel from Small Notebook who with her husband and two small children are taking a year off to live in Florence Italy. Crystal at Twenty Eight and a Half who left her job and is following her writing passion. She also will be traveling to Greece and Italy this summer for the better part of a month. A friend "IRL" at Unemployed Winner who was recently laid off from her day job and is making a go of her Etsy store (she's an incredible knitter) as her full time job. Frugal Babe who has no debt and works from home with her husband. They are trying to be self sustaining through their rather large garden and other home improvements. Stephanie at Brooklyn Limestone who started her blog detailing the rehab of their home and also posts about her extensive international travel (jealous). Laurie at Crazy Aunt Purl who turned her newfound love of knitting in to two books. These women and many more are inspiration for me. This sabbatical will not happen for a couple years, probably five. We have debt we need to finish paying off, we have two kids to get through highschool. Kid # 1 will graduate in 2012 and kid # 2 will graduate in 2014. We have to save money for this endeavor. But we are going to do it. My husband at A Kilted Travel Agent is a daily inspiration for me. He recently started learning how to tattoo which is a passion for him and combined his love of art and drawing. He is starting an internship today. While we are on sabbatical he wants to learn new ways to perform this craft from other cultures like the Balinese. I have already started this journey by simplifying my life. We are agressively paying off our debt. We are decluttering our home and our "stuff". About a month ago I ventured in to the world of film by starting a production company with two friends I met on set of the indie film, The Book of Zombie I worked on in 2007. I was the costumer and an executive producer. We will sell our condo before this all starts. The money we make will go in to an account for a down on a place after we are setteled from our sabbatical. We will place the items from our home we are keeping at my FIL's house while we are gone. Our cars will stay at my parents. The only other thing I need to research is traveling and living internationally with our dog. Looks like we will need to get him a Visa and an International Travel Health certificate. Have any of you out there in blog land taken a sabbatical or are thinking about it?

Transitions

2011-03-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hello my bloggy buddies! It's Friday and C, our neighbor and I are about to get take out food from a yummy Italian place. We have fun plans for the weekend and the weather is still pretty nice here in Seattle.

I wanted to direct you to a brand new blogger. I have been friends with her for about four or five years. She is an awesome person and amazing knitter.

Like many of us now a days, she was laid off from her job last Thursday - St. Patrick's Day. She is taking it all in stride and determined to make a dream out of her part time business.

Click on over to Unemployed Winner and give her a wonderful welcome to the world of blogging!

Have a great weekend!

Oysters Rockefeller

2011-03-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was St. Patty's Day. C and I went to FX McRory's for dinner and to watch our friend who plays tenor drum in a bagpipe band. I was up for something new so tried the Oysters Rockefeller. To die for! I immediately had to make it for myself.

Saturday C and I went in search of Oysters on the half shell. The lovely lady behind the counter showed us how to shuck an Oyster and we brought home two dozen beauties. It took longer then we planned to get all the Oysters shucked and dinner was a little late that night. I used a recipe I found online by Tyler Florence but added Hollandaise to the top before placing them in the oven. Divine!

Aside from the cost of the Oysters (one of our dozen was $8.99 and one was $7.99) and Pernod the other ingredients are inexpensive. I would love to make this as an appetizer for our Easter meal but it's a little time consuming.

Oh yeah, and while I was working on my living room....

2011-03-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

I paid off a credit card over the weekend! Woo Hoo! Two of six cards paid in full. No balances! WooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello World

2011-03-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a bit since I wrote here. I have been busy.

****************************************WARNING***********************************

Photos below may not be "pretty" as they are "in progress". You have been warned!

*************************************END WARNING*********************************

Our living room is REALLY hard to decorate. I have lived here for going on ten years and we FINALLY think we have a solution. I will NEVER live with angeled walls EVER AGAIN!

Walls, crown and baseboard trim all completely painted, we mounted our TV on our angled fireplace wall (the bane of our existence - see note above) last weekend. We mounted two floating shelves to the left of that wall to hold our components (top shelf Wii and modem, bottom shelf XBOX, wireless router & Blue Ray player). We will probably get a guitar mount for the Wii Guitar leaning against the lower shelf.

Now we are dealing with wires. Lots of them. (Notice how the power cord for the TV does not reach to the outlet and we have that very attractive surge strip nesteled in our fireplace tools? I think it really adds something). The mantle in the photo below is part of our old one and will be replaced. The tan tile surround will be replaced with grey and white Carrara marble tile.

Hiding the power cords is going to be a challenge. There is no option to go in to the wall. So far my husband has used flexible hosing to "hide" them and plans to paint them to match the wall. I still don't think painting them will completely hide them. We have not built our mantle yet so I hope we can encorporate hiding the cords in to the design. Especially on the right with the surge strip. Even if the surge strip was mounted to the side of the mantle "legs" and the cord hidden by one of those squared off cord covers you can mount to the wall and paint your wall color. This actually looks better then it did when first put up. Don't even get me started on a surround sound system which we have yet to purchase. This living room project is going to take a bit longer than planned I think.

C and I both tought the floating shelving would make the room feel less cluttered but I am sad to say I don't feel that way right now. I thought about a small lingerie chest that could sit there and cover the outlet. We could change the drawers to flip down when we needed to access the components. I dare not suggest to C since he worked so hard getting it this far. I just really need camoflage for that wall under the shelf. It's complicated by the angled (and unfinished) hearth.

Any suggestions would be appreciated as well.

Because we mounted our TV we were able to move our couch to a wall instead of blocking traffic flow through to our dining room. This makes me incredibly happy and almost makes up for the cord situation. Last weekend we scored two IKEA chairs through CL for half off. I bought some great brown and cream zebra printed fabric yesterday to slipcover two pillows for the chairs. You can just glimpse our DVD storage in the background - oops didn't notice the storage box behind the chair. In my defence I did warn photos were not pretty.

The room feels really roomy and I am loving it! With the curtains open and the couch facing the window it feels much brighter in here. There is no glare from the window on the TV anymore either. We have furniture we were sorely lacking for a family of four as well.

We have a few more tasks to complete before the big reveal. We need to take the rest of the old tile off our hearth and replace it with yummy grey and white Carrara marble and redo our mantle. We have decided to purchase a surround sound system first (our old one died about a year and a half ago) so we can design the mantle after we have ALL components. I also need to make a slip cover for the couch and I have an art piece I want to do to go on the wall over it.

Down the road we will be purchasing a rug but not until after our cat is gone. She is responsible for ruining our last one. We will eventually replace the sofa with something nicer and do some in ceiling can lighting.

What Have You Been Up To?

2011-03-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have not been posting much lately. I have been super busy at work and I have a lot going on at home too.

C and I are working on our living room. We finished painting the walls and moldings last month and now we are working on the fireplace wall. Demolition of the old tile on the hearth is taking longer than we planned even with our brand new Dremmel Multi Max. Once the old tile is off we will put down Carrara marble tile, install a new mantle and mount our 50" TV above it.

We are holding off buying new furniture and I will be recycling my current couch, post to come soon. We will be building two ottomans and purchasing two chairs. All of this furniture will privide plenty of seating for our family.

In other news, C has taken on a second career learning how to tattoo. He has always wanted to learn and bought some tools and supplies and is working on getting an apprenticeship which will be an unpaid second job for him.

I have some other exciting news but am not quite ready to post about it. I have a second job of my own in the works. One that I hope I will be able to transition in to a new full time career.

February Update and March Goals

2011-03-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

February flew by and I am so ready for spring. We met some of our goals for February and are crossing things off the lists. One thing you can count on is our ever changing goals list or at least where/ we are focusing. On to last months goals.

Paint living room walls and trim. This is done. We have two and in some cases three coats of paint on the walls and trim.

Make DVD shelving. This is done. They have been sanded and two still need to be painted but they are living in their new home in the hallway. We also took back the feet I had purchased for the shelving and recouped about $50.

Tile hearth did not happen. C and I have been having an ongoing debate on how exactly to do this. I wanted to get the old tile off and he wanted to tile over the old tile. We ended up using some of our condo money to buy a new tool called a Dremel Multi Max. This baby is so awesome and takes the tile off the hearth like buttah! We were trying with a hammer and chisel and not getting very far. It's time consuming though. We have some of the old tile off but need to pace ourselves as the tool get's hot quickly. We hope to tile the hearth this month.

Buy a couch is not going to happen right now. We decided the tax return (which we don't have back yet) would be in a better place if we put it in savings towards a new car (my car needs to be replaced). The couch we have will be "revamped" (post to come) and slipcovered. We have a goal to eventually buy a new couch but for now we are fine with this decision.

Put $200 in savings. This didn't happen because I forgot about getting my dogs teeth cleaned. February is national dog teeth health month and we saved about 50% getting his teeth cleaned. They have to knock him out to do it. Boy was he funny afterwards. Kinda stoned.

Put $300 divided between three credit cards. This was on top of minimum payments. We ended up putting an extra $185 on one of our cards. We decided rather than get all five of our cards to 50% we would pay off the smallest balance first and so on. We should be able to pay off CC #1 in March.

Use Wii fir three times per week. I got sick last month with the kind of cold that the cough lingers. I'm still coughing. Working out was kind of hard because it made me cough. I did do some but not as much as planned.

Lose five pounds. I lost a couple but without working out and being sick it was harder.

Next months goals...

Finish fireplace wall; hearth, mantle, mount TV

Slipcover couch

Make and slipcover a custom ottoman for couch and chairs

Put $200 in savings

Pay of CC # 1

Put an extra $400 on CC # 2

Use Wii Fit at least three times a week

Lost five more pounds

Stay tuned for some update posts of our living room! So loving the grey color!

Love Lavender?

2011-02-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

Good Saturday morning! If you love levander then you must click on over to Lilies and Dandelions blog as she is hosting a give away. Lavender goodies and a Restoration Hardware pillow.

Be sure to check out her post on cleaning with lemon and lavender too. I know one of my current goals is to replace all the harsh chemicals in my house with natural cleaners. I'm sure this post will help get me started!

Dream House: Part IV - Master Suite

2011-02-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

This is the last space of my dream home. From the great room you enter a hallway flanked on both sides by book shelves.

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Once you pass through the hallway you enter the master suite with a room with a sitting area for reading. Near the sitting area and opposite the bed is a dual fireplace shared with the bathroom and filled with flameless candles on a tiered metal stand.

A private patio just off that with a hammock stuffed with a feather bed, monogrammed pillows and a throw for afternoon reading.

A bed alcove created by curtain panels with a king size bed. The linens are all grey egyptian cotton with touches touches of a peacock blue velvet throw. A chandelier over the bed with chocolate brown crystals.

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An open closet area with metal racks for shoes and hanging items. A dresser for folded items and chez for easily slipping shoes and tockings on and off. A luggage rack with vintage luggage to hold my collection of scarfs. A dress form used as a valet and a dressing table near the window to apply makeup and hold jewelry.

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An archway leads you to the spa. French doors open to the private patio and lead back to the library area. A copper tub sits on the room near the dual fireplace with a surround of linen curtains.

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An open shower area with a drain on the floor and plenty of natural light to bathe by with a small half wall for the toilet.

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What does your dream house look like?

Dream House: Part III - Media Room & Patio

2011-02-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I posted about the entry and Friday I posted about the great room. Today it's all about the media room and patio.

Off the great room are large metal barn doors that lead to the media room. They can be closed for movie viewing or fully opened to be included in the larger great room space. Panels of burlap are a backdrop for a rotating group of favorite movie posters.

The media room has shelving around the top for our collections. This and the larger pieces in the great room are the only collections we have.

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A large garage door opens on to the patio space in nice weather that enlarges the great room space.

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More eye candy tomorrow!

Dream House: Part II - Great Room

2011-02-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I posted about my dream house, specifically the entry. Today we move in to the great room. I like the idea of a great room because it seems very efficient to me. Kitchen, living and dining all in one space.

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From the entry you pass through a large arch in to the great room. Immediately to your right is the kitchen area which is essentially a wall for the refrigerator, sink, small pantry and open shelving for my collection of hotel dishware, silver and glassware. Industrial containers store mother of pearl handled cuttlery. All of the china, serving pieces and cutlery have been collected over the years and only match in patina and color. A rolling library ladder rests just to the side and is ready at a moments notice to reach the uppermost shelf.

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Imagine the bar in the photo below replacing the wooden island in the photo above. On the great room side it would be at bar height to eat and drink at. On the kitchen side it would have a cooking and cutting surface.

The light fixture over the bar and kitchen area is perfect for task lighting and enjoying a beverage.

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The dining space is informal as the table is often being used for a craft and sewing station. A long table with a missmatch of burlap and velvet covered chairs surround it. Over the table is s trio of black crystal chandeliers. A bar in the corner is a converted dresser.

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The great room propper is seperated in to intimate spaces of chairs, sofas and tables by house plants, screens, curtain panels and large objects of art.

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Yes that really is a peacock perched in this room. I think that would be awfully fun as long as the species were not endangered and it was not killed solely for this purpose.

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The above photo are nesting tables made from thrift store frames, table legs and personalized artwork inside. I'm going to try this idea in my current home.

Next post will be a couple rooms off the great room.

Dream House: Part I - Entry

2011-02-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

I was inpired by a recent post at La Mason Boheme the other day; collaging her dream home. I love the internet and all the eye candy of things you can find. I have been collecting imagines to inspire my current and future homes that I keep in a file on my computer. In viewing the photos I have come across several themes.

Natural fabrics - linen, leather, velvet, cotton, burlap, muslin
Neutral colors - grey, chocolate, khaki, cream
Colorfull accents - peacock blue eggplant, burnt orange, chartreuse
Natural elements - metal, wood, mother of pearl, copper, brick, marble, silver, plants
Ephmera - globes, letters, travel, books, film, sewing, gears, clocks, symbols

A lot of the photos are bare bones, somtimes messy and casual if not slightly tatty (that word sounds so English). Industrial, repurposed mixed with comfortably worn elegant fabrics. A very bohemian, eclectic vibe.

Let's take a virtual tour shall we? Please take note I have tried to note all sources but don't have them all. If you happen to see a photo and know the source, please send me a message in the comments and I will update.

My ideal space would be in a converted warehouse with high ceilings, exposed ductworks and beams with a brick wall here and there. Three main rooms (one outside) with some extensions here and there. Lots of cozy nooks and corners carved out of larger spaces. I'd settle for an old villa in Tuscany or a tree house as well.

The entry is really not a seperate space but a wide hall area seperated from the main great room space by a large archway and pillars. The space below represents my vision. I love the staircase as long as access to my space is not as easy as walking in the front door.

Having problems finding the source.

Hanging in the center of the entry is this electric chandelier.

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A chair or two for taking off muddy or rain soaked boots.

A campaigne table for resting your purse, keys, mail and charging your phone.

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A tray with chocolate colored glass covered by iron fencing to let them shooes/boots drip dry.

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A mirror to check your lipstick one last time before leaving the house with hooks for outter wear, purses, etc.

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Luggage for storing mitten, gloves and scarfs.

Metal dress form to hang items from.

More to come tomorrow.

January Update & February Goals

2011-02-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

I have come to think that writing goals down are a good thing. Writing them here on this old blog makes me more accountable. Writing them down and then trying to follow them since they are aggressive can be hard when "life" get's in the way.

Goal 1 - Complete Hallway: This was finished in the first two weeks of the month. You can see the finished photos here. We already had the wall and trim paint but I believe we needed to buy another gallon of wall paint, we purchased switch plate covers, molding to go around the doors, a curtain for the laundry center and new paint brushes including a really cool one for cutting in. We spent a total of $249.01 (part of this is shelving for our living room).

Goal 2 - Put $200 In Savings: This was a failure. We did actually put $200 in savings but had to take money back out due to my overzealous credit card payment budget. I will learn from this.

Goal 3 - Put An Additional $600 on CC#1: It was actually an extra $400 but I am happy with that. CC#1 is 62% paid off which makes me pretty happy.

Goal 4 - Actually Use Our Wii Fit: Yes we did use it last month but not nearly as much as I would like. That ol' perfectionism streak just kills me every month!

Goal 5 - Lose A Couple Pounds: I did REALLY well at this my first week losing around 8 pounds (I'm sure quite a bit was water) but I have yo-yo'd since and in total lost 2.4 this month. Not as good as I would like but still a negative number.

I have learned that I am too agressive in paying off the credit cards and that leaves us with not enough money until pay day and needing to dip in to our savings account. Thankfully we DID NOT use our credit cards at all this month. I have updated our debt percentages on my sidebar and made some adjustments to our budget for this month.

Goals for February

Paint living room walls and trim (trim is done and C is starting on the walls tonight)
Make DVD shelving
Tile hearth
Buy couch (if tax return comes in)
Put $200 in savings
Put $300 divided between CC #'s 3, 4 & 5
Use Wii fit three times per week
Lose 5 pounds

C and I discussed what we have that is important right now and how to divy up the $1200 we have at the end of the month after bills, minimum payments and silly things like food. Some may wonder why we are doing things like working on our living room and buying a new couch when we have debt to pay off.

Our living room is where we spend 95% of our time and it's been half finished for more years than I like to admit. Originally I wanted to complete the living room this month but that would not allow us to put money in savings or any extra on the credit cards (there is that overzealousness again). Plus, the projects in the living room will cost more than what we spent on the hallway.

Our couch is OK as far as comfort is concerned. It was a thrift store find for $30 that I was going to slipcover. It fits three people, two comfortably. We are spending part of our tax return for a new couch and the rest will go to savings. The couch is fine when it's just C and I but when his two teenage kids are here it's quite cramped quarters.

Our hearth has had cracked and missing tile for years and its a total eye sore. We also need to beef up our mantle, mount our TV over the fireplace and mount shelving for our components (already purchased) but that will be reserved for March and then the living room will be done.

My concession is to wait and finish our master bedroom and bathroom until after the credit cards are completely paid off.

My car will be paid off in November of this year, it's not running the best and right now our only transportation. At least we can carpool. We suspect C's car needs a new head gasket. C's car is really a two seater so it makes more sense to pay off mine and replace it. That being said, we want to save at least $5000 for a down on a new car. We do plan to hang on to my car but we need to be prepared to replace it in the event we need to.

The ultimate goal is to have the credit cards paid off ASAP but our first baby step goal is just getting all five of them under 50% of the credit limit. If you combine the amount we need to do that plus a down payment that is a pretty significant amount of money.

So, this was quite a lengthy post. I feel good about the February goals and watch for living room updates to come!

Grey & White

2011-01-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

I saw a glimpse of a bedroom over on A Beach Cottage and I am in heaven! It's summer in the land down under and the light is much different then in the winter. Below is a photo of her bedside.

I am loving the grey polka dot pillow along with the grey striped pillow on the white chenile bedspread. LOVE taking a nap in the sun wrapped up in a chenile blanket!

Here are some other great grey & white photos from around blog land. From flicker a shot of grey and white buildings.

Birch trees are such a great grey and white background.

For you Harry Potter lovers our there, Hedwig.

Knitting

Grey and white Carrara marble.

Grey and white houndstooth trenchcoat from Soia & Kyo. LOVE!

Reclaimed wood.

Paisley

River rock.

A pile of grey knit blankets.................

I never realized how many images I see that I like that are strictly grey and white.

January Goals

2011-01-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

OK, so this post comes three weeks in to the new year and new month. I have been debating on weather to post goals at all on my blog. In 2009 I did a monthly financial roundup and then stopped. Well, I am back to it but not sooo involved.

This month our goals are....

Complete the hallway
Put $200 in savings
Put an additional $600 on CC # 1
Actually use our Wii Fit
Lose a couple pounds

There you have it. Nothing too exciting but achievable. I have to say our progress is moving along nicely on our goals. I will update at the end of the month.

Valentine's Day Subway Art

2011-01-19T19:00:00.001-08:00

Run on over to craftily ever after and check out her latest subway art for Valentine's day! I printed our her Halloween and Christmas subway art and even got Halloween framed which you can see here.

The Hallway

2011-01-18T20:05:00.001-08:00

It's funny to call the hallway a finished room since its really a transitionary space. However, we can officially call it done! It was completed last night and it feels so good to have another few items knocked off the condo project list. Remember Quinn and Finley from an earlier post? They found a new home here.

On the other side of this wall is our kitchen which you can see a sneak peak of on the left. On the right and around the corner to the left you go to the front door and back in to the kitchen. Down the hallway on your right are the bedrooms and bathroom. I have mentioned before our space is small? (Sorry about the glare from the light. I needed it on to take the photo.) Below a photo of our two new light fixtures. They coordinate with our dining room fixture.

The yellow in the two canvases go well with the candles on the sconces. I have had the sconces for at least ten years. They as well as two of the candles are from Partylite. The candles are electric. They are set on a timer so they are on right before we come home and go off sometime during the night after we are asleep. It's great to not have to worry about fire, candle wax dripping, etc. I have a total of six in the house. I found the other four at Costco for a steal compared to the two from Partylite. They are made by the same manufacturer.

These are my mothers parents. The photos are both when they were in the army and they signed them to each other. They are hanging above a 48 star flag that belonged to my husbands grandfather. Right now it's hanging on two nails but we want to have it framed.

We originally bought the crown molding for the living room to hide surround sound wiring. Because there is no clear change between one of the living and dining room walls and then between the dining room and the hallway we ended up buying this dental molding for all the public rooms in the house except the kitchen. The surround sound system died Christmas eve 2009 and the molding was completed soon after that. When we first started to put it up the saw we were using was off and the corners never met correctly. So, we bought these corner pieces to help us along.

Yes we have popcorn ceiling. Textured walls are not fun to paint! Even after two coats we still see small spots we missed.

Cutting in used to not be one of my favorite things. Our friend who works at Home Depot recommended an awesome paintbrush for cutting in. It was only $6 and totally worth it!

Can you believe we lived without molding around the three hallway doors for almost two years? This photo shows the last wall color we had

Here is a progression of wall colors. What isn't showing was the yellowy cream color we started with when I moved in.

Our first color choice was a light mocha called Colchester Taupe which I chose because I wasn't sure how C would like it and we were renting so it was a "safe" color. The molding was painted two shades lighter called Lighthouse which was a white with a little mocha tint to it.
We were getting bored with the color so we decided to change it up, we wanted more brown in it. The color we chose was just one shade darker on our strip called Worn Glove.
Finally our current grey which is Creek Bend.

All three colors are by Behr. Colchester Taupe was renamed Gypsy Moth.

I really like the velvet curtains we got from Cost Plus (for some reason they don't have grey on their site at the moment). At $35 a panel for velvet like curtains I thought they were a good deal. You can see one peeking in this corner. We are actually using it to hide our laundry center since the opening needs a custom door. We have two in our living room and will get two for our dining room. They might be a little too dark for my grey but I like them!

The entire hallway cost us about $200 for what we did. We already had the IKEA Expedit bookcase. There are only two switches and one outlet in the hallway and the grey they have at Home Depot is practically a perfect match.

The dining room has already been painted and we will start the living room next month. Both in the same grey color.

Linking up to Good Life Wednesday at A Beach Cottage.

What Would You Have in Your Airship?

2011-01-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

Restoration Hardware is one of my favorite sights to browse and get ideas.

A friend sent me a link to this chair. It's called The Aviator and I love it.

I can totally picture this in a cool bar or lounge. At $1195 on sale (regularily $1495) I don't imagine two of these coming home with me any time soon.

C and I are contemplating trying to make something ourselves.

Wellies - The New Galoshes

2011-01-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you but around Seattle we get quite a bit of rain. Last night it snowed but it all melted this morning and there was water EVERYWHERE! I have been wanting a pair of Wellies for a while and thought I would Google to see what is out there.

First up, Ralph Lauren Chocolate Wellies on sale!

Or classic Burberry plaid (sadly not on sale).

Or your classic Wellington boot.

Hands down my favorite are the chocolate brown by Ralph!

New Wall Art

2011-01-10T19:12:00.001-08:00

I was at Bed, Bath & Beyond a couple weeks ago with my C and my neighbor. She wanted to pick up some mirrors for a wall in her condo. I came across these two canvases and just had to have them. They were on sale too!

Their names are Finley & Quinn (what do you mean you don't name inanimate objects in your house?). Can you guess which is which?

Right now they are hanging on my dining room wall one over the other as you see it here. I would prefer to hang them side by side (the woman on the left and the man on the right) but need to find the right space.

It's funny because I have no yellow or purple in my house. The background is slightly yellow and you can see purple in some of the clothing items.

They look great on our grey walls!

Score!

2011-01-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

Life is so crazy.

I was reading a blog the other day about how someone made their own bed frame which is something C and I have been wanting to do. Their inspiration was over $2000 and they paid $200 for the materials plus a jigsaw.

Check out the post for their do it yourself bed here.

This post has inspired C and I and we are going to do something similar. It probably won't happen for a bit because we need to finish up our living room.

Last night a friend was going through his tools and came across three jigsaws. He gave us one. Woo Hoo!

Giveaway from Brooklyn Limestone

2011-01-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

Starting off a New Year with a giveaway from one of my favorite blogs in blogland, Brooklyn Limestone. Jump on over and oogle her photos from her world travels.

Word For 2011

2011-01-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

I have come up with a word for 2011. I am not completely sold on it as "the word" and reserve the right to change my word if I feel the need.

My word for 2011 is: Minimalism

You might think this is a funny word for me to use or that I have already been trying to practise this so why put it out there as my main focus for 2011?

I thought about a word that would represent all that I want to accomplish this year. Many of the things I want to accomplish this year are the same things I have wanted to accomplish in past years. I realize I have been going about things in a very agressive way that doesn't seem to be serving my purpose as I am not checking cetain goals off the list because my perfectionism get's in the way and I take on way too much which results in overwhelm.

So, minimalism will remind me to take small bites instead of trying to change everything in a big way right now. Minimalism I will be able to use for all that I am focusing on in this year. Gradual changes will make my results more achievable than my perfectionism streak which gets in the way.

On New Years Eve Eve C and I went to this great little bistro in our town called The Loft. We can't wait to go back and we will definately be dining on their patio in the warmer months! As we looked around the small over a glass of red wine we got to talking about how important "space" was for us. Not necessarily the amount of space but what made up the space. As well as all the stuff we have that we don't need.

The ideas and all that we talked about morphed in to future plans and what we want in the next three to five years. So by focusing on minimalist ideals and taking small bites, this will snowball in to larger achievments.

Do you have a word for 2011?

2011 Bring It

2010-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

It seems the trend for New Years Resolutions is chosing one word that represents your focus for the coming twelve months. I thought that was actually a pretty powerful way to keep your focus. I have been trying to think of my word for 2011 and its been something of a struggle.

For 2010 I used the idea of Simplify which is a word that served me well over the last year. My husband and I purged a lot of the "stuff" we just don't need. We have not completed purging but it has become something we identify with more than it was a year ago. This is evidenced in the way I decorated for Christmas this year. A tree, simple stockings and a few other festive items around the house.

I am still working on my word for 2011 and hope to have it tomorrow. For now I leave you with something simple that brings me joy every day.

The CUTEST dog in the world! Happy New Year!

Sepia Christmas

2010-12-19T20:30:00.000-08:00

Decorating for Christmas is pretty minamalist this year and I love it! A small tree, stockings and few things around the house.

I don't generally decorate in traditional Christmas red & green but in colors that coordinate with my home. Chocolate, grey & cream with accents of green & peacock blue. Lots of velvet, burlap, silver and feathers. My tree is about three feet tall and sitting on one of my pieces of vintage luggage. I didn't like the tree base so I wrapped it with burlap.

I have started wrapping my gifts with packing paper and a collection of ribbon and embellishments I have stashed in my craft cabinet.

This year I purchased a fake tree (the horror). It's white and prelit with white lights. All the decor are in tones of chocolate, cream, champagne, white & clear and I already had everything so I didn't need to purchase anything.

Chandy crystals make GREAT ornaments don't you think?

I love skeleton keys, this is one from my small collection.

I had four of these Chinese coins set aside for a project. I think they go great on the tree!

A few creamy peacock feathers placed in the tree. The sparkly balls above remind me of champagne. I made the ornaments below with some burlap and a small crystal embellishment.

I also have velvet chocolate colored hydrangeas, small silver balls, swirly & sparkly twigs tucked in the tree. I think this tree could use some silver spoons too.

I have been meaning to make new stockings for about three or four years now. I finally got around to it this year. I really love the green color of the velvet trim on these burlap stockings but am thinking I should have chosen chocolate brown. I do like this pop of green color.

In my hallway I have a shelf with a little bunch of branches, my Charlie Brown tree and a vase filled with cinnamon sticks. I have a small collection of silver and crystal pieces that I use for my candles.

Above my Charlie Brown Christmas tree and below cinnamon and candles.

I still have a few other things I would like to complete but it may not happen for Christmas. We are planning on keeping the decor up through the end of January when we have a small party. It's festive and fun and since I got it up so late this year I would like it to stay around for a while.

Amazing Rehabed Building!

2010-12-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

An article from the New York Times has me dreaming of finding a great old building I can make my own.

It has taken a total of $250,000 of the owners money to purchase and partially refurbish this old building in Selma. When can I move in?

Cool Finds

2010-12-16T13:23:00.001-08:00

Even though I have been working a TON and haven't been posting much I still blog stalk. I came across a great little blog through Door Sixteen & Design Sponge (also great blogs) called Jersey IceCream Co.

Percy, the gentleman behind Jersey Ice Cream Co. rehabbed this 1915 house in just a little over 13 months. I absolutely LOVE the simplicity to his design style. The bedroom walls are personal favs of mine.

You can see photos of part 1 and part 2.

Not only that, his blog is dedicated to selling antiques. Go check him out!

13 Days....

2010-12-12T20:27:00.001-08:00

Threre is 13 days until Christmas and I feel VERY far behind. I have been working at leat 50 + hours a week between my new and old jobs. That doesn't leave very much time for anything - not to mention blogging.

I have ordered a few gifts online which is nice, no waiting in line, no crowds, no parking hassles. I have not even gotten my Christmas decorating done. I did cut out our stockings Friday night. Might start sewing them tonight.

All this week after I get home from work I will be going through all of our Christmas decorations and decluttering down to what we need and will use. There are quite a few things that I just don't use anymore.

I am not traditional when it comes to Christmas decor. I tend to decorate to coordinate colors with my interior decor. Because of the lateness of the month I am probably going to be pretty minimal as well.

My big dilemma this year is to get a fake tree, a real one or a tree at all. Home Depot has great selections of 6 foot trees for $20. There is also a lot near my house that has reasonable prices. I am very tempted to buy a prelit fake tree so all I have to do is haul it out of it's bag and place some ornaments on it.

Then I think I should go really non traditional and get something small and set it on top of some old suitcases I have or just forgo a tree completely.

So many decisions, so little time.

For now I leave you with the link to the Holiday Home Link Party for inspiration and perusal. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-25T09:50:00.001-08:00

Have a wonderfula holiday weekend!

Velvet Morning Giveaway

2010-11-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

Click on over to La Maison Boheme for a lovely giveaway from Velvet Morning! could make a great Christmas gift for you or a friend.

Holiday Give Away

2010-11-18T08:30:00.001-08:00

Click on over the Mrs. Limestone for a chance to win the new Holiday with Matthew Mead. Which she just so happens to have contributed to!

Go - go now!

Planning for a new Home

2010-11-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

C and I have been doing a little home window shopping. We have popped in to a few open houses to see what is out there, what we like and what we definately do not like. After living in our condo for the past nine years (C for 16) we have fully developed our want list.

No angled walls
No shared walls (with other units)

No HOA's

Open floor plan for family living spaces (great room - kitchen/living/dining)

One and a half bathrooms
One floor (no stairs)

Character

Garage

Fenced back yard

Storage
Lots of natural light

Things we thought we needed are not as important like a fireplace (we wouldn't complain if we had one though) or more formal spaces. Where some people are looking for more square footage, we are looking for the square footage we buy to be efficient with small luxuries.

As long as the footprint is something we can work with, I aspire to have an aesthetic that is a combination of vintage/old world/industrial/minimalist. Ultimately we want an open great room with a half bath. This will be connected to a small master suite by a den/library/craft room as the pass through.

A tall order - but we are pretty certain what we want does not exist so we will have to tweak whatever we find with the right bones.

In our journey towards minimalism some people might wonder why we are buying a house in the first place. Owning a home is definately on our minimalist list but no too much house.

It's no wonder then that a lot of the photos I see at greige really represent what I am looking for in a home - decor and space wise.

The inspiration for the master bath is a combination of the two bathroom images below. I love the sky light, tall ceiling height, steel beam, walls and open shower area (look above the little bench for the shower head and on the floor for the drain) of the first photo.

The only thing I would change about the above photo is add the tub from the next photo and possibly paint the outside. I do love the shutters on the window too.

Or a nice copper whirlpool tub.

I would really like an open concept "great room" for my living, dining and kitchen areas. Kind of like these photos from Gerard Butler's New York loft.

Some inspiration for the great room and kitchen (again Greige and Gerard Butler).

Inspiration for the bedroom and den/craft area (Gerard Butler and Cher's LA pad).

I think a minimalist environment can be acheived with using only furniture pieces you need and getting that luxuriousness from things like paneled walls, velvet fabrics and copper ornamentation.

Halloween Inspiration - Mad Scientist Lab

2010-10-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Click on over to Brooklyn Limestone for GREAT Halloween inspiration.

BOO! - Pay It Forward

2010-10-22T15:58:00.001-07:00

Here is a fun Halloween prank to play on your friends and neighbors. I found this idea over at Anders Ruff and just HAD to do it!

This little treat didn't even cost me that much. I purchased three Chinese takeout containers (.99 cents each) in orange and a bag of black Shredz ($1.99) at the Paper Zone and a bag of mixed candy from my local grocery store ($3.00).

Total cost was $8.00 but I have half the bag of candy and shredz left over. I didn't use all the print outs from Anders Ruff. Just the instructions, door tag and little circular label. The label I cut out and ran through my Xyron machine to make in to a sticker.

The instructions are really simple. You make two (I chose to make three) and deliver them in secret to a neighbors or friends house. The recipient has two days to make copies of the instructions, door tag & labels and deliver them in scret to a friend or neighbor. If there is a door tag on the door, they have already been Boo'ed and you have to deliver to someone else.

Since I took a few days off work between my jobs I snuck up to their doors and hung them on the knobs. The neighbors I left these for sometimes read my blog. So hopefully they discover them on their front door before that happens. :)

This is as fun as pulling up to your local Starbucks and having them tell you the person in the car paid for your drink!

Halloween Art & Inspirtion

2010-10-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

First of all, did you check out the CSI Project yesterday for amazing Halloween ideas? This is how I got three items for my Halloween art project below.

So far the only decor in my living room is my mantle. I felt like I needed a little more. I have a blank wall that was just begging for something to be hung on it. The best part? It was totally free!

I already had the three picture frames and burlap. All I needed to do was print out the free wall art, place it in the frame, back with burlap, close it all up and hang it.

I found BOO at Anders Ruff and the Subway Art and Eat, Drink and be Scary at Craftily Ever After.

Thanks to these two lovely ladies, I have great Halloween wall art for the cost of ink. There are soome GREAT inpirations out there in blog land too.

Creepy Lighted Halloween Portraits at Heart Tree Home
Witches Spellbook at Through My Looking Glass
Dr. Jekyll's Laboratory at Three Pixie Lane
Bat-iful Party Invitations at My Insanity
Ghostly Mirror at Flamingo Toes
Apothecary Jars at The Autocrat
Black & White Decor at Madigan Made

And so much more. I urge you to go to the CSI Project, there are over 200 entires/ideas just waiting to be discovered!

Pumpkins & Feathers

2010-10-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Reposting this today to link up with the CSI project.

**********

Over the weekend we got our dining table sanded and painted with a few coats of glossy black paint. Once I get the final coats on I will show you how it turned out. I am loving it!

In my travels to Micahels for craft supplies for my black and white pumpkins, I spied this great wreath with peacock feathers. Peacock blue is one of my accent colors. I even had a 50% off coupon and I love it against my grey walls. It's hanging over the bar.

I did one more black and white pumpkin in preparation for Halloween. A small white pumpkin with a black fleur di lis.

Here is my black and white pumpkin trio sitting on the sideboard. The first two listed below were inspired by a magazine. All of the craft (fake) pumpkins were orange to begin with and I simply added about three coats of white craft paint and the stems got a coat of my grey wall color.

Off With Your Head - Black velvet ribbon held in place with pearl topped push pins. The lettering are glitter stickers.
Paisley - Most of the design is puffy paint as I could just not afford little sticky crystals to do the entire design. Grey and black sticky crystals do add a little sparkle though.
Fleur di Lis - I just took black craft paint on a Fleur di Lis stamp and stamped it on and then filled in with paint. I think this might need a little bling and I have some sticky crystals left over to may place a few on here.

I would like to add some color in the form of ribbon on the stems. We shall see...

I also bought a bolt of burlap at the fabric store. Several projects to come from that. Today after work I plan to hunt for some twigs to put it in a vase on my bar. I have a few clip on ravens and some sparkly bits I want to tuck in to them.

How are you preparing your house for the fall?

Halloween Decorating

2010-10-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

We actually got most of our Halloween decorations up the last weekend of September. I finished my last minute stuff yesterday before my girly candle party. Not all of our decorations were brought out as we decided on a slightly new direction to go this year. Our goal? Slightly tattered and some what Victorian. We didn't even buy too much new stuff this year which was nice. We have a few ideas in mind for year to build on our theme.

Remember how we used to have a lot more bookshelves in the hallway? In our decluttering efforts we are down to just the books on this shelf. The only thing here that is new is the skull with the brain peeking out. C and a friend were out looking for a skull he could use for this and happened upon this one already cracked. Perfect!

Here is some detail of the some of the items sitting on the shelf. C made me a casket case filled with potion bottles and some very scary looking wine selections. Like Vampire wine. Truly a good red!

I found the label for the Graveyard Spirits here. I just printed it out on paper and used my Xyron to make it in to a sticker. And hey, that brain isn't going to get any fresher!

The pictures hanging over the shelf change as you walk by them. Who knew Great Uncle George had a Beastly side?

Moanin Lisa

The mantle this year has all the same stuff from last year. Don't you think that one bust on the left looks like Vincent Price?

In the dining room you can see my new grey walls too. LOVE! Just ignore the printer in this photo. It's going to live in the credenza below, I just need to get a hole drilled in the back to accomodate the cord. These are the pumpkins I slaved over last month. The photo is actually my grandmother when she was around 3 circa 1920. The lampshade I covered in burlap and added a black gross grain ribbon.

This gentleman visitor just doesn't like my cooking apparently.

The shelf over the garden window in the dining room. A combination of critters, books and other items. I didn't get around to writing up creepy book titles for my books so just took the dust jackets off of books I had that were black. I have seen a trend recently to take book covers off and just have the yellowed pages of several books stacked on each other. Could be a fun way to add to the look. I have more of the flame lights like over the mantle here too. Because of the light it's hard to see they are on.

There used to be this great shop called the Salvage Studio in Edmonds. That is where I bought the Scrabble letters that spell out Halloween. Two of the previous owners have their own blogs, check out Beth and Lisa.

The top shelf of the bar houses the Dan Aykroyd Crystal Head vodka.

Wich apparently this creepy crawley is interestded in tasting.

Knock and enter...if you dare.

We weren't too savvy when we shopped for our condo. Who knew it would be located IN a graveyard?

Conveniently located near a Morgue.

Vampire bats are known to inhabit graveyards. So far we have only found one - but it's BIG!

An inspiration of mine in blog land. If I could only channel Mrs. Limestone. Her blog started out telling the story of their renovation on their early 1900's Brooklyn Limestone. I highly recommend ready the entire thing. She's hugs in to Halloween so check her out. Her decorations for the last couple years have been great and I can't wait to see what she comes up with this year!

If you like the effects on my photos. Check out a free site called Picnik.

Crystal Skulls and Celebrities

2010-10-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

OK - let's play catch up shall we? What have I been up to?

C and I are getting ready for one of our favorite holidays - Halloween. The new grey dining room walls are a really great backdrop for our spooky, slightly aged and tattered holiday decorations.

We took a break from decorating a few weeks ago to go in to the city and meet Dan Aykroyd. The reason? To purchase some of his Crystal Head Vodka. Vodka is my distilled spirit of choice. When we found out he was going to be here to sign them we just had to go!

The vodka is quadrupple distilled through Herkimer diamonds and yes it really is sold in a skull shaped bottle. Talk about smooth! Normally I don't do vodka shooters but wanted to taste it in its pure form. Nice!

The next night we headed to the Chateau St. Michelle for the Harry Conick Jr. concert. A birthday gift from my husband. Like last year we sat as close as possible in the cheap seats (pie shaped grass sections on either side of the regular seats). We like the that section better. You can spread out more. They allow you to bring in food and low slug chairs just not alcohol.

We had a picnic of grapes, cheese, chocolate, bread and of course red wine purchased at the winery. Sorry I don't have photos. It rained on us (actually pretty hard at one point) but once Harry was on stage we had a pretty clear evening. The show was amazing and Harry was pretty darn funny!

New Job

2010-10-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

Out of the blue I received an email from a recruiter friend of mine about a job opportunity. I was absolutely not looking.

This job is a GREAT opportunity. Way more money, back in Seattle, I can carpool with the hubs.

All adding up to paying off CC's faster and getting out of the condo and in to a house faster. Not to mention taking that very past due honeymoon.

I told my manager today and it was hard. Way harder than I thought it would be. I have invested a lot of time in my current position and I have been with the company for just over four years.

Because I am the only one that does my job and they will more than likely not fill my position before I leave, I will return a few times after they hire my replacement as a consultant to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.

I am really excited about the new position and can't wait to start. The big day is October 25th.

Minimalist Book Sale

2010-10-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

In my recent adventure in to minimalism I have been introducted to many individuals online who are living and writing about their lifestyles. I have been reading many of these blogs on a daily basis and following them on twitter.

Karol Gajda is hosting an AMAZING e-book sale through Wednesday October 7 EST. You can get $224 worth of e-books for $27. Click on the link here for your opportunity. For the first 24 hours of the sale he is donating all his earnings to Kiva which provides loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Here are some of the titles in the budle I am excited to read...

The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life by Leo Babauta
Smalltopia: A Practical Guide to Working for Yourself by Tammy Stroebel
Unautomate Your Finaances by Adam Baker
You, Simplified Handbook by Charley Forness
The Luxury of Less by Karol Gajda

There are many more. Teh cool thing about e-books is they don't waste paper as you read them as a PDF download on your computer.

Cleaning Up

2010-10-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

I know I have been a bad blogger and have started a couple posts that I will get to in the next few days. Got to upload the photos still.

Last night I got home from work and spent several hours (5.5) cleaning my house. I am tired of the stuff stacked around the place that we might get to some day. Frankly, our condo was starting to look like a storage unit. When we had people over, our bedroom was the dumping ground as everything got chucked in to and the door closed.

All this clutter also prevented me from accomplishing things I want to do. Things like, relaxing on the weekend with some knitting or sewing or baking, Enjoying time with the bonus kids. Having enough room to work out. Sitting and watching a movie or reading a book. All without feeling anxious without all the stuff all over the house.

Well - no more!

I cleaned the heck out of my place last night. Anything that did not have a home and was not going to be donated ended up in the dining room. This morning we are going to schlep it all out to our onsite (does not cost extra) storage unit. I would rather have the clutter out there until I can go through it. We do have our storage unit pretty organized and this won't add too much to it. We just don't have to live with it on a daily basis.

For those of you out there looking for more ideas on living simply, decluttering and decorating well, check out these posts....

Remodeling This Life is doing a 31 days of simplicity.

Dear Lillie's decorated her patio for fall in Apple Pie on the Porch. LOVE!

Tightwad has Ten ways to make use of your old magazines.

Rowdy Kittens is talking about Bike commuting with baby.

We started our Halloween decorating last weekend and plan to finish this weekend. Photos to come soon!

Also, some hopefully exciting news. Just putting it out there for positive thoughts. I will find out on Wednesday and will let you all know!

Breast Cancer 3 Day

2010-09-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

All across the country there are large groups of ladies (and some men) wearing pink and walking for someone they know who has breast cancer.

This weekend in the greater Seattle area my sister is walking for our friend Sherri.

If you know someone walking or who has this terrible disease, please donate. If you would like to donate to my sisters efforts you can click here and enter Denise Hall.

Yard Sale Recap

2010-09-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our yard sale that almost didn't happen. Friday night I had the kids help me lug all of our items out of our storage unit in the basement of one of the buildings. My living room looked like a really messy flea market.

Promptly around dinner time the skies opened and a torrential downpour started and lasted four hours. I went to bed wondering if I was going to be able to have my yard sale.

The next morning I was pleased the sky was blue and it seemed like it was going to be a nice day. We had four people move their cards from an area of the carport and started setting up.

The sale was to start at 8 but we had early birds starting at 7:15 asking us questions about what was for sale and your Craigslist note said 8:00 AM. Of course, the more questions we were aked the more we were going to be delayed. Most irritating!

All the work was worth it and the nice weather I was hoping for did happen. It was sunny and nice all day. We made about $140 which was really nice. We still have plenty of items we can sell piecemeal on Craigslist. We even sold another book on Amazon this morning. All of the money we are raising is going in to our savings account so we can build a little up and focus on paying off our credit cards.

After the sale we had a community BBQ which was a lot of fun. We got to meet neighbors we didn't know and get to know others better.

Yard Sale Tomorrow

2010-09-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I am having a yard sale. Well, some people in my condo community are having a yard sale and I am participating. There is a 50% chance of rain but we will be under cover.

If you live in the greater Seattle area drop me an email at paisleypenguin@gmail.com and I will send you the address.

A Glimpse

2010-09-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

A double post day!

Don't you just love it when you hear about someone who loves what they do? Like their job was meant for them?

Well, that is the case for Anna over at Door Sixteen. I have been reading her for aboujt a year now. She is a gal in New York who is slowly bringing back to life a house in Newburgh. Although her style is different from mine I really enjoy her design perspective and writing style.

Her real job is so very cool too! She is a book design cover. I have pondered a change in career direction and graphic design is at the top of my list. Not certain that is the way I will go but the thought of having her job for a living would be so very.

For more information on her job and how she got it in to it, link on over for part one and two.

Holiday With Matthew Mead

2010-09-16T07:06:00.001-07:00

It's never too soon to think about the Holidays in my opinion. When I think of Holidays it starts with Halloween and goes through until New Years.

The specific Holiday we are talking about is Christmas and Matthew Mead's site is hosting a give away from one of my favorite bloggers, Brooklyn Limestone. Click here for the giveaway.

Halloween Pumpkins

2010-09-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

I am getting a jump start on Halloween projects in preparation for one of my favorite holidays. To go along with my grey and white dining room I have painted up some black and white pumpkins. I saw the idea for these in the Better Homes and Gardens 2009 Halloween issue.

I already had the larger pumpkin (it was orange) and purchased the smaller pumpkin (also orange). I painted both of them with some white craft paint and used some of the grey wall color to paint the stems. The larger pumpkin has black velvet ribbon attached with pearly stick pins. The smaller pumpkin has swirls painted on ith black puffy paint and black and grey stickey backed "gems".

I have a small collection of silver and glass items I keep around to use for display and when I have parties. The larger pumpkin is sitting on a cake plate and the smaller pumpkin is sitting on a small glass plate which is resting on top of a small glass bowl. Both the plate and the bowl have a silver base.

I have a few more tricks up my sleeve to get prepared for the Holiday. I am having a candle party in mid October so I want to be ready.

How are you getting ready for the holiday?

Dining Room - Update

2010-09-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Remember my inspiration post from a few weeks ago?

So, this last weekend C and I painted the dining room. The color of choice? Grey. Now, considering the weather is turning and we are headed in to fall, you might think that choice is gloomy and depresssing. Au contraire mon fraire!

We went from a dark olive green (forgive the blue painters tape in the photo below) to a room lightening grey with a slight brown to it. A "warm" grey if you will.

We LOVE it!

Sorry I don't have a more detailed photo of the dental molding. Suffice it to say it was really fun to paint! The owl is a halloween decoration that never went in to storage. I kind of actually like him hanging around. Stay tuned for more of this wall in our mysterious Buca di Beppo project.

We decided to keep our dining furniture brown. I will need to sand and re stain the dining table and sideboard as they are both in need of some updating. I am hopefull I can get that accomplished this coming weekend. The finishing touches I am in need of completing are new curtains, a table cloth and napkins which I plan to sew myself. I found some black and white toile at a yard sale for .75 so I am hopefull I can get at least four napkins out of the yardage.

I had originally thought I would do the accent color in blue but am leaning more towards green. Not certain yet. I think the main colors will be neutrals of black, brown, grey and white and I can add touches of any accent color I choose.

Living Room Inspiration

2010-09-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

I am in a constant struggle between my minimalist ideals and finishing decorating my condo. My surroundings are very important to me. I don't want clutter or a lot of tchotkes and I don't have collections. However, I am a home body and want to look around me and see beautiful things that inspire me. I want to feel cozy and want others who visit our home to feel that way too.

I am not looking to spend inordinate amounts of money and would prefer to repurpose as much as possible. Repurposing makes sense to me as it's great on my wallet and someones else's trash becomes my treasure. I just love the idea of it. My dogs bed is an old suitcase of my grandmothers. My coffee table is my Grandfathers WWII army trunk. A lot of my furniture I bought at the thrift store and put my own "stamp" on it.

I do tend to have Cavier tastes on a Beans n' Weanies budget. That is where creativity and my sewing machine, knitting needles and paint brushes come in handy! This is also where all you bloggers and sites like Junkmarket are so inspirational.

The living room at my place is the room we spend the most time in. It's also the most challenging in that fact that on one wall we have a sliding glass door and on the connecting wall we have a fireplace angled at 45 degrees. Our dining room and hallway also open up to this room. We have no over head lighting but have to plug in torchiers. Right now we have one couch that can fit four people if it needs to. My goal is to mount our 50" flat screen over the fireplace to free up more space to get a couple comfortable chairs to go with the couch and finish the mantle and hearth project that seems to have taken forever.

I am not above finding chairs at the thrift store. I have big plans for our couch (a thrift store find for $30). I am working on a slipcover for it.

Here is some inspiration for my room. Burlap curtains to replace the ones I accidentally shrunk.

The wall color will be a neutral that goes with the grey we are putting in the dining room. My husband wants to make the walls look like leather. I would love to recover two matching chairs in a brown and cream houndstooth like the chair below.

A large art piece is in the works. Recently my husband and I were able to get some old movie reels for free and I would love to have a large map like the one below.

Followed by a little accent of paisley and leopard

.

These sepia and black tones are really neutral but I love them!

Dining Room Tweak

2010-08-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Remember this post from a few weeks ago? I am inspired to change my dining room color and this photo is part of the inspiration.

Although I love color, but deciding to make the walls of my home more neutral will be more soothing. I can incorporate color in my choice of accessories such as pillows, rugs, candles, etc.

This weekend I am painting over the olive green in my dining room, which I have loved for a couple years now. The new color choice - grey. The accent colors will be sepia in the form of burlap and muslin. I will keep the crown and baseboard moldings white.

I don't have chairs like the one above but I think I can incorpoate this look with my current chairs by making slipcovers and padded cushions from old grain sacks. Or, to get a grain sack look, I can purchase muslin and paint right on it. Muslin is an inexpensive fabric that is easily washable.

I like the idea of stamping the backs of the chairs with a symbol or letter. In the sample above, the home owner assigned each person in the house with a number. I like this idea but I think I might just do T on all for the first letter of our last name or stick with an idea like the top photo.

We have been using our formal china for every day use for about a year now. Nothing has broken yet. I have always like the look of formal and very informal together. Our china combined with the rough texture of burlap as a tablecloth I think will look great.

I already have quite a bit of silver and crystal which I incorporate in my decor even for the holidays. I love my flatware but am always on the lookout for something a little more special like the pearl handled choice below. I like the knife and fork, not too keen on the other fork and spoon.

The dining room is one of the easiest rooms for me to change in terms of decor as I really only have to buy a gallon of paint and some muslin or burlap.

I love the quirkyness of the birdcages over this table. I think this could be fun to incorporate but I also like the idea of a candleabra over the dining table.
What could go better with my china, silver and crystal than small collection globes?

Can You Smell That?.......It's Fall!

2010-08-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Seems like summer was way too short here in the Pacific Northwest. August is almost over and we are "turning the year" so to speak. Kids are getting ready to go back to school, football season is starting and fall (my favorite time of year) is in the air.

I am starting to think about Halloween and how I am going to decorate my house. Over the years I have collected and made many decorations. I am not a fan of "kitchy" decor. The way I decorate my house would be best described as "Tattered Conservative Gothic" with a little bit of Steampunk thrown in. Distant relatives of the Adams family.

There are several sites out there that have great tastefull Halloween decorations such as Pottery Barn and Grandin Road. Some favorites of mine from Grandin Road...

Some of my favorites from Pottery Barn........

For more inspiration, there's Martha Stewart's haunted house party.

Some of the decorations I saw I think I can make on my own. These photos inspire me to make as many as I can to add to what I already have.

How are you decorating for Halloween?

Eat, Pray, Love....in My Backyard

2010-08-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

I was on vacation last week and truly didn't really want to do much of anything but relax. We were supposed to visit family in eastern Washington but the dog got sick the day before we were to leave. That essentially cancelled our plans so we had a staycation. I kept up on blog reading but didn't FB or even email much. I have been engrossed in a series I am borrowing from a friends mother called the Midsommer Murders. I also got some more decluttering done - even sold two books on Amazon!

We went and saw Eat, Pray, Love last weekend which I read two summers ago. I really liked it. This will be a purchase when it comes out on DVD! Wonder if they will follow it up with a movie to her sequel book, Committed.

Ever since I moved in to this condo (nine years ago) I have wanted a patio oasis of sorts. It finally started to come together. We found ourselves at Cost Plus and picked up some Indian tea light holders.

A few weeks back we went to several yard sales and I picked up five pieces of screening for $20. I had some sari fabric so we connected three of the panels and stapled the sari fabric to the back.

I also had the brass Morrocan tray and insence container. If you look closely you can see a little bronze status of a monkey holding a stack of books. I am fascinated with monkeys. Especially ones that wear fezes.

We have a couple tiki torches that we set up. Of course, mine is a monkey one..

There will more to come. I am not in love with the dismal blue grey paint color on the exterior of our building. I have lots more sari fabric and some other that I can use to make our back patio (which is covered) to feel like a tent.

Now if I could just afford the $6000 + for two round trips tickets to Bali.....

Freedom From the Cage

2010-08-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a great blog post by Simpler Living on reasons to live debt free. The tradoffs we make for things weather it be a car, a home, an education or simply that new dress we just had to have and how long that itms takes to pay back vs quality of life.

I thought the read was a good one and like her my husband and I are movings towards being debt free. If we won the lottery we would probably not stay at our jobs, we would move on and we would find interesting things to take up our days with.

Link Love Giveaway

2010-08-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

Head on over to Blogging Away Debt for a chance to win a free three month subscription of E-mealz.

E-mealz is a weekly planning resource with over 28 menu options to choose from. They provide menus for people on the Weight Watchers points system, meals for two, meals for four, even gluten free meal plans. You download a weekly meal plan and shopping guide once a week and head out to the grocery store. It's even endorsed by Dave Ramsey if that makes a difference to you.

According to Blogging Away Debt she has reduced her grocery bill to half of what she used to spend.

Even if you don't win E-mealz is still reasonably priced at $1.25 per week. If you click from her blog post on the link you can immediately get 10% off.

How to Incorporate Collections in to Your Minimalist Lifestyle

2010-08-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are on the recent path to minimalism. We currently live in a small condo and want to eventually live in a small house. We do have "things" to contend with though. Both of us are HUGE in to film. Not just watching movies, but making them, owning them (although a digital way would be much preferred over DVD's we have to store) and collecting useable film items.

Case in point. My husbands father recently found some 8mm equipment (camera, projector and editing machine) he will receive in a few short weeks when we go over to visit him in Eastern Washington. Storing and displaying these new items was big on my mind until I saw this room below.

This is a beautiful way to incorporate a collection in to the decoration of a room. There is a very definite theme but it's not over the top. The grey walls and monochromatic color scheme enhance the collections on the shelves. Yet the collection is not in the way of the rooms function. I like this version of monochromatic especially with the addition of dark peacock blue (one of my favorite colors) pillows on the couch. (Photo found on greige).

I want to incorporate this idea in to my home. I would probably leave the walls a little more bare as far as framed photos go. I would remove some of the smaller pieces against the walls to show off the collection that really is the centerpiece of the room. It's hard to tell what the flooring looks like but I can just picture dark brown wood floors with a huge peacock blue woven Chinese rug taking center stage.

I don't have a monochromatic color scheme in any of the rooms in my home. I really love color and I could certainly tone things down with more neutral colored walls (right now my living room and hallway are the only neutrals in a light mocha color) and add color in the form of accent pieces such as rugs, pillows, candles, artwork, etc.

Another great detail is the plain coordinated jacket covers on the books. Another way to incorporate the monochromatic color scheme is to reverse the spines on your books as in this blog post from Steampunk Home.

How do you like this room?

Link Love - Photos from Brooklyn Limestone

2010-08-04T08:39:00.001-07:00

I have been following Brooklyn Limestone for a while now. She and her husband rehabbbed a completely desolate limstone townhouse in Brooklyn, New York and it is beautiful! Her design sense is amazing!

Mrs. Limestone and her husband are quite the travelers and her photos prove her wonderful eye, sense of scale and composition. Just check out this post of South Africa for proof!

She sells her beautiful photos here at this site if you are at all interested. I have several favorites and can't wait to purchase some for my home!

Happy Birthday To Me

2010-07-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

Last wednesday was my birthday. No significant number was reached but I am really close to one next year.

A huge coincidence was Chrissie Hynde performed at my office that day. What a great birthday gift! My hubby and a couple friends were able to come. My friend Rory got his guitar signed and she even played it a bit.

She has a new band called JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys. We got to hear four of the songs off the record. It's great. Go check it out!

Moving Towards Minimalism

2010-07-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

C and I have been focusing lately on the minimalism movement. This really seems to fit our ideal way of life sans children. We have been chucking unecessary items from our life for a little while now and it feels good.

We have a bit more to do and there is the inevitable question of how minimalist we want to be. People like Everett Bogue who has only 100 personal items. Or, Rowdy Kittens who has lived without her car for a while now. Both of which make their living from their blogs and ebooks. Or Frugal Babe who owns a home and grows a lot of her own food.

In the future C and I want to live in a small house like this on a lake making our living in the film industry.

Will we give up our 50" flat panel TV and extensive DVD collection? Will we give up our car? Will we end up living in a tree called Earthchild like Butterfly and Flower in Without a Paddle?

To find out, check out the new blog, Enuff Stuff C and I are writing together.

Link Love

2010-07-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

I came across this blog a while ago called Better After. This gal has people submit before and after photos of repurposed items. Brilliant. I have seen some totally awesome and inspiring items from her blog.

Today is dedicated to "the boys" and I am so digging the silver dresser with the green glass nobs!

Go on over and check it out!

All The Cool Kids Are Doing It - 20 Questions Link Back

2010-07-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, you know the drill. Fill out the questions and link to Under The Sheets. Leave me a comment so I can see your link too!

1) Dressing up or casual? I am a casual girl though when the occasion calls for it I love to dress up.
2) Most original Halloween costume?
3) What would your talent be if you were participating in a beauty pageant? Flag twirling.
4) What do the words retro boutique design mean to you? Out of the box, vintage/hostorically inspired, creative, cool and right up my alley!
5) What do you see as your greatest achievement? Trying to raise two teenage SK's.
6) What household chore pacifies you? Folding laundry and watering my yard.
7) Favorite type of weather? Not too hot and not too cold - how is that for vague?
8) Do you sleep with the sheets tucked in or out? Out - when its hot there are no sheets.
9) Do you have freckles? A small amount.
10) Favorite kind of sandwich? Roast beef, Reuben Chicken Bleu
11) Can you hold your breath without holding your nose? Yes
12) What’s your name spelt backwards? Nerak - Anyone seen The Watcher in the Woods?
13) What message is on your voicemail machine? You've reached Karen, I'm not available but please leave a message!
14) What was the name of your first pet? Brandy
15) Do you believe in karma? Absolutely!
16) Do you believe in luck? Absolutely!
17) Do you have a nickname? Karna (pronounced - care na) & Penguin
18) Are you a shopping addict? Nope - its taken a long time though.
19) Favorite superhero? Wonder Woman & Laura Croft
20) Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate

Run now and post your blog post!

The New Bar

2010-07-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

We have had this dresser for several years that has morphed from being a craft cabinet to a bar and many things in between. We decided it was too big and took up too much real estate in our dining room. Not to mention the amount of clutter it collected. So last weekend, armed with a tape measure, we went in search of a new bar.

I thought I would end up with a smaller dresser that didn't have cut outs on the side like our old one. I really was not sure what I was picturing but when we saw it we knew immediately. We were at a yard sale and there sat a little shelf no more than a foot deep and the perfect height. I so would have paid ten bucks for it - alas it was not for sale.

After a few more yard sales, our last stop was Cost Plus World Market. What do you know, there sat the exact same shelf. The price was a little steeper being brand new and all but at least it was on sale.

Below is the old bar. As you can tell, I am not a huge fan of dusting. C has a bunch of model cars all over and those little cut out shelves received several of them. This is not the most flattering photo since the top and sides are a mess from moving stuff to the new bar area. It's totally cleaned out inside though. I have to find homes for a few items and then post it on Craigslist (with a better photo of course) and then we will have as easier time getting around the dining table.

Here is the new bar in all its cleaned and organized perfection. This is where we had our little computer desk before our PC died and we went with a laptop. **Side note. My curtains do not go all the way to the floor which I absolutely hate. The reason for this? A baseboard heater below the garden window with an outlet directly over it in the center of the wall. Try hiding that cord!

I actually like that it is open because we can see exactly what we have. I think I am going to put the four glasses in the middle shelf in our kitchen cabinet for regular drinking and put our four martini glasses down in their place. I am not too thrilled with the stack of stuff on the bottom shelf to the right. There are two cigar boxes that hold bottle stoppers, corkscrews, C's flasks, etc. There is a tin case that holds coasters, a wooden match box and a leather cigar case.

However, I love that it takes up less of a footprint and moving this little shelf will be so much easier than the old dresser!

Decluttering - The Aftermath

2010-07-09T11:01:00.001-07:00

So, last month I spent A LOT of time decluttering the things from my life. Our condo is looking and feeling bigger than ever now that we have the items we love and use on a regular basis where we can find them.

I came across this blog post which could not have come at a better time since I am now contemplating all the books on our book shelves. What to keep and what to sell.

I do like the idea of putting everything you don't use often somewhere to come back to later and sort of wipingthe slate clean. If you need something you can retrieve it. I do think I was pretty ruthless when I went through my closet but I bet there are still items I can pluck from the rods and shelves that I know I could donate and probably not think about again.

My personal email box is so full its not even funny. I have over 400 emails. Tell me, when amd I possibly going to get to all of those? I already have folders that I can file most in and for the rest I can just create a "if I need it" file to go to later. I really should delete some of my folders too. A clean inbox is a wonderful thing.

I have a little time this weekend. I could probably take all the books from one cube of my book shelves and make decisions on them. I know the ones I am not keeping are going to be posted online to sell. I have a lot of hard back books I would like to make some money on so I can put that on the credit card balances.

Sunday it's a world cup party at my sisters house.

Have a great weekend!

Happy 4th!

2010-07-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

Have a fun and safe 4th of July wherever you are and whataver you do! We are headed out on a friends boat for the day.

July Goals

2010-07-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's a new month full of fun and projects.

Fourth of July
World Cup Finals
My Birthday

I have my decluttering done so I have a few projects that came out of it.

Photos - scanning, sorting and giving away
Scrapbook pages - for the niece and nephew
Backyard - pavers for the grill area and new deck

Bring on the fun and sun!

June Is Over?

2010-06-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it but we have reached the end of June already. I had two goals for this month, blog every day and declutter my condo. I am happy to report that I completed both goals.

Blogging every day was a challenge for me to keep writing even when I didn't feel like it. There were a few days where I had no idea what the heck I was going to write about. Then I would have a conversation with a co worker or friend, or I would read a col blog post or news article and suddenly there was a posst waiting to happen. There was even a couple days I posted twice.

In decluttering news, its done and now I am left with new projects to take up my time. I already feel so much lighter with so much stuff gone. We have another trip to the thrift store to donate ahead of us but I am looking forward to the three day weekend and having fun.

Tomorrow starts a new month and new projects. It's also my favorite month of the year as it has one of my favorite holidays and my birthday in it.

Emergency Kits

2010-06-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a co worker today on our daily lunchtime walk and she mentioned she and her husband have a place they have agreed to meet in the event of a disaster. It's across the state.

That got me thinkingthat my husband and I should have similar plans should a disasterous event occur.

I also thought we should probably have something in our cars and in our home in the event of en emergency.

After Googling "make your own disaster kit" I found several links but I thought this one was a good one. After reading about how bad it is to drink from water stored in a plastic water botle in the car I need to look for alternatives to that but I do think water, ready to eat food (for pets and humans) along with a can opener, a first aid kit, tools, supplies and sanitation needs, important documents and clothing are all important.

A few sites have comprehensive guides for you to follow to get these items together. Especially if you don't have a lot of time or can't even get home its a good idea to be prepared. Flylady has a detailed guide on things from decluttering to preparedness for evacuation.

I think one of my goals for the coming months will be to get these kits together. We have first aid kits in the cars and houses but not to this extent.

The Beach Files

2010-06-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

I am feeling quite inspired by these beachy blogposts.

A guestroom on Design Intervention. A living room at a beach condo in Brooklyn Limestone. More beachy at Just Beachy. A pink chair at the beach from A Beach Cottage.

For a little more upscale fun, Polo in the country at Eddie Ross.

Lounging

2010-06-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was supposed to clean out the storage room off the patio. C was supposed to help but got a better offer of a car show yesterday and tinkering to make Steampunk Rayguns today. I opened up the patio door determined but just could not bring myself to do it.

Its rare I have the house to myself and I thought it was a perfect weekend to lounge, watch girly movies and drink copious amount of tea.

Technically since I am not getting the patio storage done this weekend it means I won't make my decluttering goal. As C pointed out yesterday, the patio storage is on the OUTSIDE of the house and therefore does not count to INSIDE decluttering. Since I get to make the rules and we do have some stuff to get done in the yard I am running with that.

I still have my pantry to clear out but it should only take an hour later this afternoon.

The morning has been spent reading through some of the books I am going to post for sale. I have three Shabby Chic books and I never thought I would get rid of. I am not too in to flowers and pink but there are some of her ideals I still agree with.

She doesn't see a reason for collecting things unless they serve a purpose or make her happy. I am practical minded like that. I don't collect anything. I have always liked Rachel's idea of buying missmatched china to use for every day. The only thing they have in common are their colors.

This setting above has four different plates and yet they go together fine by their combination of blue and gold. I especially love that nothing is overly flowery and there looks to be a toile piece tossed in to the mix.

C and I got rid of our every day dishes about a year ago and have been using our formal china we got for our wedding every day. I was concerned at first because its expensive if anything broke. We have been lucky and nothing has. I think if we stick to blues and greens and greys we should be able to get a nice collection together of plates, bowls, cups and saucers. I plan to keep my iced beverage glasses and my silver and crystal stuff as I do use it for every day. Once we have a good collection of china we can sell our more formal stuff.

The second thing she says is furniture should be comfortable as well as functional. I am in total agreement there and still can't believe we spent $900 for a couch that was decidedly NOT comfortable. Our $30 thrift store find is GREAT! I will post a photo when I get the slip cover made so you can see a before and after.

If you buy things that you like and use them then "Whenever you'd like to get together with a bunch of friends, you can be spontaneous because you will always have a source of decorative items".

I am at odds with my genuine desire to live minimally but to surround myself with things I love. I think for me living withing a small open floor plan with minimal stuff and repurposing is the way to go. I am rambling now so will sign off.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Hamburger Harry's

2010-06-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight C and I went on a date to Hamburger Harry's for dinner. Yum Oh! If you are in the greater Seattle area you must stop in. C had the Peanut Butter Burger. Yes, you read that right. A hamburger patty with peppered bacon and peanut butter of all things on the bun. I tasted it and it was great!

As for me, I had a relexing day plant shopping and watching girly movies. I so needed it!

Homemade Yogurt & Granola

2010-06-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

I have contemplating recently about doing home made yogurt and granola as an option for my breakfast. Wouldn't you know Sarah that A Beach Cottage went and beat me to it! So, I plan to use her recipies which you can find here and here and if you have not perused her blog. Please do!

And if that is not tempting enough - here is some eye candy from her blog!

Have a great weekend and wish me luck as I clean out my patio storage!

A Light at the end of the Tunnel

2010-06-24T17:54:00.001-07:00

Sunday night my family was over to celebrate Father's Day and my sister went through the bag of craft supplies I was going to get rid of. What is left I am giving to my neighbor.

Tuesday night I went through my clothing in our master closet. I took everything out of the closet and laid them on the bed in two piles. Clothing I wear all the time and clothing I rarely wear.

Can you guess which pile was taller?

You guessed it, the pile of clothing I rarely wear.

After placing the clothing I wear all the time back in the closet I started sorting the other pile. Items that I never wear due to not fitting right or repairs that I will never make or don't go with anything else went in the donate pile. That just left costumes and formal wear or dressier items. I carefully scritinized these items before making a decision on weather to place it back in the closet or in the donate pile.

After all was said and done I have two garbage bags full of clothing and shoes ready to be donated this weekend. It was a little underwhelming as I thought I was being pretty ruthless and thought I would have more but I suppose two bags are nothing to sneeze over. C still has not gone through his clothing but that is not on my list for this month and doesn't prevent me from reaching my June goal.

I am down to two areas in my house that need decluttering. The pantry and storage off the patio. The pantry will probably get cleared out tomorrow night and the patio is reserved for this weekend. I also have our bar but decided to hold off on decluttering until we find a suitable smaller replacement. I will put some of the glasses I like from the bar in our cabinets and get rid of some other glassware that has seen better days.

I think I just might make my goal for June of getting all my decluttering done.

Funky Junk Sisters Giveaway

2010-06-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

If you have never had the pleasure of checking out the Funky Junk Sisters. Well, now is your chance. They are having a giveaway. Run on over and check them out!

Iconic Photo

2010-06-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Edith Shain, the nurse in the iconic photo above, died Sunday leaving a legacy of three sons, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Her identity was not discovered until the 1970's and the identity of the sailer in the photo was never known.

Summer Is Finally Here!

2010-06-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first official day of summer and we in the greater Seattle area have been desperate for some sunny days. Today so far is really nice. I took a walk with a co worker for my lunch hour and it was so nice to get outside!

Wherever you are - go outside and play!

Home Stretch To Clutter Free

2010-06-21T16:40:00.001-07:00

My goal this month is decluttering all the little hidden nooks and crannies of my house. I am down to four and of those there is one only really large one.

I need to go through our bar because there is stuff in there we never drink. Even when we have a party and tell people its a free for all at the bar. We are also going to replace the bar with something smaller. Currently its a dresser that sits in the center of the dining room wall. It's a little hard to squeeze between it and the dining table with a chair pulled out. Our replacement is actually going to go in a corner of the dining room that doesn't get much use and doesn't interrput the flow of traffic. We don't have a replacement yet but are on the lookout.

I need to go through my pantry which is actually my coat closet with shelving that C installed. I keep my large kitchen appliances and vases and such in there. Most everything is staying but there are a few items I never used and with people putting things away in there incorrectly, its hard to get to everything.

I want to go through my closet again and purge even more clothing. I know there are things that I never wear that are too big and they just need to go.

Finally, there is our storage off our patio. Mainly this is used for gardening stuff but so many other things have migrated to it. It needs a severe clear out.

The patio storage project is reserved for this weekend while the other three areas of the house I can tackle during the week after work. If C has his way we will get the patio storage done and we will lay pavers for our grill to sit on and get it off the patio.

So, my deadline of June 30th seems reachable.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T09:03:00.001-07:00

Happy Father's Day too all of you out there in blog land!

The Red Baron

2010-06-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

I started watching part of The Red Baron today. I am not normally in to war movies. The costuming is awesome and I am inspired for one of my and C's Steampunk outfits. The aerial battles are amazing too.

The story is about Baron Manfred con Richthofen. Here is a review by Militant Ginger.

Steampunk Motivation

2010-06-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago our friend Tony (aka Shamus Tinplate), who makes the BEST Steampunk Rayguns got a bunch of us together to do a photo shoot. Below is C modeling one of the groovy rayguns.

The motivational poster is not part of the photo shoot but something C made up himself last night.

A Raise!

2010-06-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I got back to work, the director of my department asked me to come in to his office. Good news he says. I got a 7% raise for basically kicking but the past year and working my tush off.

I do have plans to eventually not work at a J. O. B. but in the mean time, this takes the sting out of it.

Yeehaw!

Practise the Art of Simplicity

2010-06-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

A post on Unclutterer today caught my eye. The idea that you can practise something as opposed to being 100% good at something all the time.

That is something that I am trying to be better about. I am almost decluttering my house but if I don't keep up the practise of taking care of the ways that clutter can slip in yo my life I will be back at where I started.

I am practising things like folding my clothing and putting it right away or in the laundry instead of tossing it over something. Admittedly I no longer have anything piled up in my bedroom that I can toss things on. C has a valet that I think invites clutter.

I need to be better about practising (even remembering) eating leftovers in the fridge before they go bad. I have decided that a certain shelf should hold the leftovers and once its full its time to eat that stuff rather than make more stuff.

I am practising cleaning up after meals or projects or just upkeep on chores so I don't have to dedicate my entire weekend to cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and doing laundry. I would much rather spend a weeknight on something like that and enjoy my weekends.

I am practising keeping a to do list and actually crossing items off. Once projects are done not going back and messing it up again. Getting things clean and keeping them organized are way easier than fighting piles every day. I feel much saner for it.

I am practising putting small amounts of money away every month and extra amounts on credit card balances. This builds up our savings and pays down our debt faster. Soon we will have no credit card debt and a lovely amount in our savings account.

I look around my house and its so nice to see how its coming along and how close we are to being done and just enjoying things.

Minimalist Business - How To Live And Work Anywhere

2010-06-15T14:34:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon this blog by Everett Bogue called Far Beyond the stars. He has written an ebook called Minimalist Business: How To Live An Work Anywhere. This is the second release of his ebook and will only be available until tomorrow morning at 10 AM.

This is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Something that I can do from home to earn extra money to pay off my debt and then live off of so I can pursue my interests outside of a 9 to 5 existence.

I downloaded the book this morning and I urge you to go check it out.