The Chic Life

Tackling the Basement + Shrimp Linguine

My cleaning/organization frenzy continued when I decided to tackle a monster project...

The BASEMENT! Dum dum dum! The basement is where most of our stuff remains unpacked and where we left them on move-in day.

I haven't taken much time tackling these boxes since we don't really have any furniture for me to unpack stuff into. But, today, I decided that the best idea for us would be to unpack our stuff, group like items, and then take a look at what we have. Once we know what we have by group, we'll be able to better figure out what furniture we need to store our stuff.

I got some good work done in the basement which was good, but by the time I was ready for a break, I wasn't really feeling like cooking. We couldn't eat out since we're doing Eat in Month, so I decided to find an easy recipe that would cook up quickly. Hubby was sweet and went to the grocery store for us while I researched recipes for the rest of the week. I was looking for recipes to use up the mascarpone and parmesan I opened yesterday. I found a few potentials. So many good ones!

I decided to make an old favorite - Ina Garten's Linguine with Shrimp Scampi. I usually think of this dish more as a summer dish, but I thought was perfect for tonight since it's so easy, uses few ingredients, and cooks up quickly.

I was craving fresh pasta, so hubby picked up some fresh egg linguine pasta from a local shop that specializes in fresh pasta.

From the same shop, he picked up some rosemary foccacia. This stuff is heaven!

I refreshed the bread by drizzling it with EVOO, topping with a sprinkle of sea salt, and baking at 350 degrees F for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cooked the main attraction.

Vibrant lemons and pretty green parsley from my mom's potted plant.

This dish took about 6-7 minutes of cooking time and 2 pans. Nice, no?!

Hubby and I enjoyed dinner whilst watching The Proposal. There were some really funny scenes. Overall, it was pretty cute!

Yum yum! Round #1.

Seconds.

You know...I may have been hoping for take-out tonight but I need to remember how easy a delicious and nutritious home-cooked meal can be! I felt very satisfied for staying in for dinner tonight. :) Thank you Eat in Month!

Speaking of Eat in Month, I updated the page and we have 12 fabulous participants! It's not too late to join in on the festivities if you're interested!

The last of our cinnamon rolls for dessert. Hubby and I shared it.

Even Bailey got in on the deliciousness with a Bowser (Dog) Beer (it's beef broth basically).

Nom nom nom!

Omg, just realizing that my staycation is almost over...so sad! I have so much more I still want to do! Back to work on Monday!

Anyone have any interesting eats tonight?

Dessert, Dinner, Doggie

Downsizing My Clothes

I was looking forward to leftover cinnamon rolls for breakfast today. They re-heat surprisingly well!

I made a fried egg to go along with my roll. Dee-lish! 1/2 Christmas Blend + 1/2 Peppermint Creme to drink.

Hubby noticed someone had gotten quite comfy on our bed while we were busy eating breakfast.

I took a moment to start reading Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. I only read one chapter. I know they're basically only a page or two long, but what I'd really like to do is take the time to understand the chapter and really think about it for a day or more before moving on to the next.

I enjoyed the book with some hot tea. I combined Teavana Mate Vana with Rooibos Caramel and organic cane sugar...mmm. Isn't the amber color of the tea in sunlight beautiful?

Besides making resolutions and setting goals, I also like to take advantage of the fresh start of the new year to motivate myself to get organized. I decided to try to downsize my clothes since hubby and I are in the process of picking out wardrobe/clothing storage furniture. The less clothes I have, the less/smaller furniture I need (which means saving $).

I started by tackling my "sweater bins." I have 3 - 2 for normal sweaters and 1 for casual/work-out sweatshirts/fleeces. As you can see, my bins no longer actually contain all my sweaters/sweat-shirts.

After carefully going through each bin and trying to pick out the items I truly haven't worn in the last year, I created a pile of items to remove. I also pulled items that don't fit me well or styles that I've outgrown.

The single white sweater will be donated. The rest will go to my parents house. See, I have a terrible time parting with my clothes, so as a compromise to get the clothes OUT of my house, I've decided to move them to my parent's house. This way, I will have emergency clothes when we visit, in the event I forget to pack something AND it will buy me some time to think about my decision. If I miss the clothes, I can always get them back. If I don't miss them at all, then after a year, it's probably time to donate them.

Bins AFTER. Muuuuuch better!

After my success with the sweaters, I tackled my closets (yes, our house has no WICs so I have to use more than one).

I followed the same guidelines (not worn in a year, outgrown, doesn't fit well) and selected several items to move to my parents house, donate, or try to consign.

Sadly, my closets don't look much emptier for all my hard work but I do feel good about the work I got done today.

I'm considering selling some of my clothes in the best condition online. Anyone interested?

Lunch was leftovers. I ate the rest of the collards, black eyed peas, and tossed in some pretzels (not literally) because I was craving something salty.

Honestly, I also kept lunch light so I could indulge in another cinnamon roll. I mean, I don't want them to go bad so they MUST be eaten! ;)

Now we only have one left! Gasp!

Perhaps I should make more sooner than later, eh?

Does anyone else have any Northface fleeces? They are so darn bulky! I'm wondering how to store mine. How do you store your fleeces?

Books, Breakfast, Doggie, Lunch

More Window Shopping, Less Buying

So, I kind of want to cry right now because I'm EXTREMELY sleepy and just want to go to bed and just poured an HOUR into a fabulous blog post, only to have this stupid publishing tool delete the WHOLE THING! Waah...ok, I'll try to re-create...ugh!

This may be an abbreviated version of what was an awesome post.

Woke up at 1am to nausea and had to yak. Not sure why, but hoping it was just something not sitting right on my tummy. Woke up again at 9a to dog walking all over me trying to wake me up without being loud. Silly guy.

Made fried eggs for me and hubs for bfast.

I had mine candlelit with some GReat Harvest Honey Whole Wheat toast with Earthfare organic pomegranate jelly and coffee.

Post breakfast, I worked on my other bathroom to give it a mini makeover.

I washed out the cabinets and applied more of that pretty decorate paper.

Bailey inspected my work and gave me the A-ok. Not sure what to do about that stain in the back of the cabinet, though. I couldn't scrub it away!

With my cabinets ready to use, I decided to organize my beauty products.

I got all my beauty products out and was SHOCKED at how much I have. Granted some were free samples from when I wrote reviews for a popular online review web site, but still!

I'd really like to work on simplifying my life overall and I see a lot of room for improvement here.

I sorted out products that were expired or almost empty and tossed them.

I grouped what was left, organized them into caddies and placed them in my newly made over cabinets.

AFter the bathroom/beauty product prjoect, I broke for lunch: toasted turkey sammie and edamame with water and OJ.

I met our new neighbors during lunch:

Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel! Aren't they cute?

Not as cute as this guy, though!

Since I had today off, I wanted to spend the ENTIRE day cleaning and organizing but hubby had other plans, so after lunch, hubby and I headed out for some more shopping for the house.

On the way to the stores, we stopped by a local bakery to pick up a snack - I had 6 donut holes and a bite of hubby's cinnamon swirl roll. They were delish, but didn't sit quite well on my stomach.

We hit up the Habitat ReStore, but didn't find anything. :( While we shopped around, I started feeling dizzy and icky, so decided hot tea sounded good. Luckily there was a coffee shop next door.

Check out their mug chandelier.

I got some lovely Moroccan Mint with honey. yum!

Next up, we hit up Bed Bath and Beyond.

We liked these curtains but weren't ready to buy them.

I thought this candle had a great message: "Everyday holds the possibility of a miracle."

Hubby and I found some stuff we liked but decided to get them when we were ready to make a big trip of it (we have a 20% off our entire purchase coupon - not easy to find).

Since it was almost 9 pm by the time we were done shopping, we had to do another dinner out. Man, all this shopping is taking all my organizing and cooking time away! Grr...

It seems we're doing more window shopping and less buying, but I'm starting to get tired of all the window shopping! lol

Ok, guys, ecto is really not playing nice with me tonight, so I'm going to complete this post with a separate post momentarily. Hopefully, my posts don't get deleted this time!

Breakfast, Dessert, Doggie, Doggie, Life, Life, Lunch, Shopping

Pumpkin Bagels/Schmear + Gmail Major Organization!

This morning started off quite brilliantly. I brewed a pot of coffee....

...and was sipping on nice, hot mug of Fresh Market Breakfast Blend when I remembered today is Bagel Day Friday! Starbucks Monday I almost never miss or skip, but Bagel Day Friday hasn't been seeing as much love. I skipped eating at home to save room for bagels.

On the way to work, I made a pit stop to pick up my new love - Pumpkin Bagels! Not only does Einstein Brothers Bagels make Pumpkin bagels, but they make a Pumpkin Schmear, too!

I tried my first Pumpkin Bagel, toasted, with Pumpkin Schmear earlier this week and couldn't resist getting another today.

If you like pumpkin oatmeal or pumpkin pie, you will LOVE this pumpkin bagel/schmear combo. When I first tried this breakfast, I didn't notice a lot of pumpkin flavor in the bagel. That was probably because the pumpkin schmear was so flavorful. It reminded me of pumpkin pie filling...yum! I loved the fall-spice flavor. Not sure what they used, but I definitely got some cinnamon.

I enjoyed my bagel with a nice, hot cup of Autumn Roast (chestnut) coffee. Mmm...breakfast put me in a GREAT mood today!

I was hoping to go to zumba after work, but my leg is...not hurting, but kind of bothering me still. After waiting several weeks before being able to go back to class, I'm not going to risk re-injury for ANYTHING! I figure better safe than sorry, right? I am still dying to show my potential choreography to my instructors for Te Aviso, Te Anuncio!

Have you seen Kath's Nerd KERF Gmail Tutorial? It's pretty sweet! I was totally inspired by Kath's tutorial. Stuck at home with no zumba, I decided to tackle my horrible gmail inbox. See, I spend almost every day in front of the computer for my day job, so the last thing I want to do is read the hundreds of emails that have poured into my inbox (except for the comments...I can't get enough of those! ;) ). I haven't been keeping my email box organized at all, which has been driving me CRAZY. A lot of things around me related to organization are driving me crazy at the moment, so I've decided to tackle these things, 1 small win at a time.

I also multi-tasked by working on clearing out my DVR list. I have more Food Network DVR'ed than I could possibly watch, so I figured rather than delete all my old episodes, I'll just play them in the background when I'm blogging, etc so I can catch snippets at least. I had an Everyday Italian marathon and drooled over Giada's kitchen. I hope I can channel her kitchen while we're remodeling ours.

Besides re-organizing my email and clearing out my DVR list today, I also managed to take my starred emails down from 180 to 20 and I've sorted and archived hundreds of emails. I feel so productive...yay! I had a shocking 1500 unread emails in my inbox, and most of those emails were read but marked unread since I use unread emails like a "to-do" list sometimes. I've decided to use my starred emails as my to-do as far as my email goes. I think my newly organized system will keep me productive!

Now if I could only managed to get the 1,261 emails sorted with a snap of my fingers. Oi!

Hubby and I are going to a wedding tomorrow night, so between packing, gmail organizing, and other errands, we decided to do something simple, easy, and affordable.

We decided to make Breakfast for Dinner. We had eggs, cheese, spinach, and bread, but hubby wanted to pick up a couple things for the weekend and grabbed a red bell pepper while he was out.

I was already hungry when I left work and knew I didn't want to wait till hubby was home to eat. So, I decided to have an itty-bitty yogurt parfait using Stonyfield Organic Oikos Greek Yogurt in vanilla with Bear Naked Fruit + Nut Granola with a sprinkling of chia seeds.

This was the cutest parfait - check out how small it was compared to my hand!

Hubby picked out a great red bell pepper with a nice, tight skin. I actually got all the pepper I needed for our Egg Scramble just using the ring around the top, sans the stem.

I sliced the rest of the bell pepper up - this will make a great snack tomorrow.

Dinner came together quite quickly, which I was pretty happy about since I have only 1000 unread emails calling my name.

We had an egg scramble with: cage-free eggs, red bell pepper, organic baby spinach, and TJ's shredded cheddar cheese. We also had some Great Harvest Bread Company Dakota toast. I had 1/2 with real butter and 1/2 with Dark Chocolate Dreams PB.

Hubby turned his eggs and toast into a sandwich. I swear, the mean will put anything and everything on bread! lol

We ended up watching a re-run of last night's Flash Forward. Does anyone else watch this show? It's pretty good so far. I'm curious to see if their visions are their true futures and if they are, if they'll be able to change them.

Phew, well, I have some more emails to tackle and then I'm off to bed.

What are you guys up to this weekend? Any one headed to the Farmers Market?

Breakfast, Dinner

Impromptu Trip to the Rents' House

I've been working hard on downsizing and de-cluttering in preparation for our (hopefully) big move in a month or so. I've filled about 10 Trader Joe's paper bags full of stuff to donate or move to my parent's house over the last several weeks.

Yesterday, as I enjoyed some leftover Smoky Tomato soup and a smoked gouda panini, I was remarking to hubby about how I wished we could take all those bags of stuff to my parent's house (a day trip away). He said, "Let's go now."

So we did.

I took a couple bags of craft supplies and randomness that I thought my crafty sister may enjoy.

I also took several bags of clothes, which are the clothes that I wasn't quite ready to donate but didn't really LOVE. I purge my closet (and apartment) on a regular basis, and I've donated a ton of stuff so far this year. My goal is to have a smaller closet of clothes I LOVE instead of a larger closet of clothes I just like.

Thoughts of the clothing I dropped off:

• The clothes I dropped off I just "liked"
• They will help me out in the event I go to my parents' house and forget to pack something
• If within a year, I haven't worn these clothes, haven't missed them, and haven't thought about them, I will consider consigning or donating them.

As usual at my rents' house, we ate a ton of food. Here are some photos of our weekend eating adventure:

Dinner

Breakfast

Lunch

So nice to clear out some stuff from our apt...so nice to have such good eats...so nice to see my family. The next time we see them, we will, hopefully, be HOMEOWNERS!!!

Breakfast, Dessert, Dinner, Life, Lunch

De-Cluttering the Junk...err...Craft Room

So embarrassing to share this with you (and I think I even may have before), but my craft room is a bit of a disaster.

Exhibit A - Junk Craft Room

Some days, I don't even know how this room got to this point. When I graduated from college, I had almost nothing. Now, I have stuff busting out of the seams of my tiny 2-bedroom apartment. When hubby and I first started out house-hunting, we wanted a "big" house to fit all our my stuff. But, these days, I'm starting to think that a big house isn't the solution. Is the problem that our space is too small or is the problem that I have too much stuff? I used to lean towards the first answer. Now, I'm leaning towards the latter.

I think the real issue is that I simply have too much.

Hubby and I spent a couple hours today sorting through the craft room.

We managed to pull out a huge pile of stuff to donate. I like to think that donating my stuff allows people who really need it (there's some useful stuff in there!) to have it rather than me just hoarding it away in storage.

One thing I learned awhile back on neat is that sometimes, you have to learn when your inspiration is blocking your creativity.

One prime example of this is my collection of Martha Stewart magazines. I love Martha's ideas, but keeping so many magazines is taking up a lot of prime real estate in my apartment and quite frankly, my apartment is so clutter-y, I'm too busy de-cluttering to even look through these! I think they need to go. In their place, I hope to buy the Martha Stewart Best of books that compile the best ideas from her magazines into small and neat books. I actually already have a couple and love them. She also does compilation magazines once in awhile, too!

In general, I think I have so much stuff in the way everywhere that I can't function efficiently. My goal for this year is to simplify my life and my stuff. I'm taking big strides to down size this year. I'm hoping this will make my life healthier and happier and allow me to have more time to just live.

Hubby and I were so happy with our progress today, we celebrated with Ben & Jerry's (my current summer treat obsession). He got a smoothie and I got the Half-Baked Froyo...yum!

Does any one out there have a "simple life"? What are your tips and tools you use to keep your life in order?

Life

Honey and the Purse

Random title, but it sums things up niceley.

 

I fiiiiiinally remembered to pick up some honey when I went to the store today on my lunch break.  It will be so nice to be able to add honey to my teas at work now.  I read in my 150 Healthiest Foods book that there is a big difference between regular-ole honey and the natural, unprocessed stuff, but since I couldn't remember exactly what to look for, I just defaulted to my tried and true honey bear.  It's probably still better than granulated sugar, at least.  I figured the bear would get along just fine with my Happy Bunny.

 

Does any one else like the Happy Bunny?  I think they are hilarious!  The e-cards on this site are awesome.  I wish they had more than 10-ish options for card sayings, though.  I just sent one to a friend...haha.

 

I had a few minutes of down-time today, so I quickly sorted my purse.  Can you believe this pile of stuff was in 1 pocket of my purse?  Only 1!

 

I tossed a TON of useless receipts and kept a few other things, including some gift certificates I forgot I even had.  How sad?  I did keep a couple recepts that I'd like to check against my bank account.  I don't usually do that, but I hear it's a good habit since stores do make mistakes.  Not to mention there was the one time I found out some chick in FL wrote in a $1 tip for a coffee that I never gave.  B!

 

The one-pocket quick organizing break was so successful that I went through the rest of my purse, which (happily) was relatively neat.  As simple as this exercise was, I feel a lot better that my purse is uncluttered...like a breath of fresh air.  If only I could get my apartment done this quickly/easily.  

I am left wondering, though, how so many lip glosses got in my purse.  Hmm...

Progress Report - Pantry Addition

Well, the organization process is coming along slowly, but surely.  Today, I tackled a project I've been wanting to do for awhile - our pantry.  See, our apartment pantry is tee-niny.  I've been holding on to the belief that we'd be in a house by now or very soon, but it's looking like we have at least a year before that dream will come to fruition.  The last couple years, we've held back on decorating, buying new furniture, using our new dishes...all that fun stuff...because we were waiting till we had our house to enjoy those things.  Well, I'm not waiting around any more.  I'm not going to go crazy and buy all new furniture (even though I really want to!), but I'm going to spruce things up and get comfy where I am.  I'm tired of living in "limbo."

 

So, in addition to having a small apartment, we have a small pantry.  A small pantry is a bit of a challenge for someone who likes to cook/bake as much as me.  I decided that we need a little extra storage room, so I tried to get creative to find a solution.  Take this cluttered looking door here.  This is our coat closet.  The items hanging on the door should probably be placed elsewhere anyways, so I figured I'd move them and make room for some extra pantry storage here.

 

I went to the organization store today and was torn between two over the door pantry solutions.  One was a solution in a box - it had the hangers, the wall pieces, and even the baskets and it was pretty affordable, too.  The other solution was a completely customizable set.  you bought the wall piece, the hangers, and even the baskets separately.  It was more expensive, but I chose the latter when I figured out I could add more baskets and had 2 inches more width space per basket, too.

   

I installed the door piece first and then the baskets.  I can fit a few more on here, but I figured I'd start with 4 and see which ones seemed most useful for my pantry items.

 

The new pantry space will greatly improve not only our pantry area, but our countertops, as well.  I've been storing my oat-goodies in this fruit basket, but it's not really the best place for it and it doesn't look very attractive.  I also had a couple other items that needed to be moved to proper places.

 

I moved some items out of my pantry and moved ALL those oat goodies to my new pantry addition.  It helped a bit...mostly to give me a better visual grasp on what I have on stock.  I need to get a couple more baskets, though...maybe I'll get 3 next time? :)

 

With all the oat goodies out of the way, I was able to pick up more around the area and it looks sooo much better!  Now, I have somewhere to put my fruit!

Progress Report - Thank You Cards - Not So Check...

I've spent most of today just working on those darned thank you cards.  They are taking considerably longer than I originally anticipated, which is fine, because least they are getting done.  I'm feeling a little bit accomplished, but I know I will be thrilled when everything is done. 

I'm taking a quick break to have a snack.  Hubby has class tonight and won't be home till after 9pm-ish.  He's also been dropping hints lately that he's like it if I waited for him to eat, so I'm hoping this snack staves off the hunger long enough.  I started with a little bit of smoked gouda, which was on sale earlier this week.

Then I had a few Kashi TLC Crackers in Country Cheddar.

I like to end things on a sweet note, so I had a tiny bowl of Kashi Honey Sunshine.

Ok, guess it's time to attempt to finish these thank you cards and fold a load of laundry.  Ta-ta!

Progress Report - File System - Check!

It took a few hours, but I finally completed my filing system for 2009.

I learned this file system technique from my parents, though I'm sure it's quite common.  I created hanging folders for my various categories, i.e. "Arts/Crafts Shows" and then I put tab-folders inside.  Each tab-folder gets a year, i.e. "2009."  At the end of the year, the tab-folders are moved to storage and new folders are created for the new year.  The hanging folders remain until they become obsolete and new ones are added as needed.

I stayed up late last night to watch Privileged and work on thank you cards.  We're so late getting these out but I'm determined to complete them this week.  Part of the complication is that we're trying to add a special surprise to the cards (can't say now since some card recipients read this blog) and it adds an extra couple steps to the card writing process.  I think it will be worth the extra work, though.  Anywho, I ended up sleeping in this AM since I stayed up so late.  I really need to work on going to bed earlier!  I like waking up early and getting lots of good work done in the AM.

For lunch today, I had a turkey and cheese panini.  We had Black Forest Turkey with Muenster cheese on that Flax Oat Bran bread.  Yum!

Neat is on, so I'm going to go get inspired to de-clutter!

Progress Report - Living Room - Check!

Good news, guys!  I finished cleaning/organizing the living room today!  I tackled the easiest room first, figuring that it would be a good moral boost to see something complete, and it was!  I feel better already.

I started by picking up around the room.  I located items that didn't belong and put them in their proper place.  Note, I said proper place...I tried my hardest to not just move the mis-placed items to another room to create more work for myself later. 

Other good tasks completed so far today:

• Cleaned/dusted coffee table.
• Vacuumed carpet
• Sorted/trashed/stored old magazines
• Finished the dark load of laundry
• Washed placemats
• Ate lunch
• Had some Honey Lemon Ginseng Tea
• Watched the inauguration
• Brushed Bailey's hair (did this before vacuuming)
• Did some blog posts
• Checked email

Ok, I'm off to tackle the dining room!

Snow Day...Again! Time to Get Organized and De-Clutter!

It's snowing again today!  This is a bit unusual for us southerners to have a couple snow days in a row!

Luckily for me, I already took today off.  Actually, I took the whole week off...sorta accidentally.  See, I was supposed to take a week off during Christmas, but didn't get to due to my short time on a client site and the large amount of work they needed me to complete.  I decided that instead of taking Christmas week off, it would be a good idea to take a week off in January to get my life back in order.  Anywho, I had been bouncing the idea around and mentioned the dates to my boss who emailed me Saturday with a vacay summary that included me taking this whole week off.  I never actually, completely requested these days off (at least I don't think I did), but maybe this is a sign I should take them?  Hubby wants me to save my vacay days for later in the year, but I think I really need this week to get things in order.

You see, my life is in a bit of a mess right now.  I don't mean anything tragic is serious is going on, I just mean, literally, my house is a wreck!  I originally started this blog with the intention of only showing the good or "chic" things in my life, but now I'm thinking maybe I can use it to help me journal my journey of getting organized?

And since every journey has a beginning, here are some photos depicting the state of things in our house.  And, yes, I am QUITE embarrassed to be sharing these, so neat people, please don't laugh at me too-too much (though, some giggles are certainly deserved).

 

 

 

 

I've been trying to figure out how it got to this point and all I can guess is that I'm just a hoarder, like my Dad.  I have a hard time letting go of things.  I also have a lot of interests, so I have lots of things for my various interests.  You should see the craft room!  We aren't going to go there today...lol.

Anywho, today, I'm going to buckle down and try get lots of good chores & errands done around the house.

This week's To-Do:

• Laundry
  • darks
  • lights
• Finish packing up old plates
• Thank you cards
• De-Clutter Calendar
• New File System (for new year)
• Empty dishwasher
• Pick up around house
• Sort things to keep, donate, trash
• Vacuum House
• Swiffer Floors

And since this is my vacation after all, I'm hoping to do a couple fun things, too.

For fun:

• Watch DVR'ed FoodTV, Cold Case shows
• Knit/Crochet
• Make granola bars
• Try Namaste Yoga on FitTV
• Read
• Sew

I have a lot of work ahead of me, so wish me luck!  I think I'm going to need it!

Out with the Old, In with the New?

I got to work from home again today (woohoo!), so that was nice.  No commute time means more time to get stuff done around the house.  Hubby and I started today with another bowl of peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal (microwave version this time and smaller portions).  I actually left the PB off of hubby's bowl and was surprised when he complained about not getting a spoonful.  Who knew?  I figured he wouldn't like the fresh-ground almond butter since it had no sugar, but I guess he missed it after all.

Hubby also picked up some more MateVana for me yesterday so I was able to enjoy a mixture of MateVana + Rooibos Caramel...mmm.

We started unpacking our new plateware and flatware from Crate & Barrel last night.  We got one load in the dishwasher and hubby wanted to load a second round during lunch.  Check out the packaging job C&B did on our plates...I have to say, I'm pretty impressed!  Our spice rack was not so lucky - it arrived in the mail with the glass spice jars broken to bits (I didn't even have to open the box, I heard the tiny pieces rolling around inside), but hubby is going to exchange that later this week.

As excited as I am to finally be able to use our new plateware, it's all a little bittersweet to me.  I'm a little sad to pack up our old white-orchid plateware - the set has served us quite well over the years, though we are planning on holding on to them for those big-event entertaining times you need more than a set of 8.  Also, I'm coming to the realization that I'm going to have to giveaway some of my prized thrift-finds to make room for the new stuff.  What do you think about these yellow plates?  Keep or donate?  What do you think of the yellow floral plates?

 

Here's some stuff I decided I can definitely part with.  Two silver-toned platters, one vintage-y white platter with yellow decorations (in bad condition with cracks and stuff), and a pretty flower bowl from the National Cathedral. 

 

Here's a tea set I got from a garage sale for $5.  I'm contemplating giving this away, but it's so darn nice.  It's actually marked "Made in France" and says "Salins des Bains" on the bottom.  I'd like to say it may be worth something one day, but I watched a show today that makes me think this isn't a good reason to keep it.

I've been watching FitTV a lot lately, and they have some darn good shows! Today, I watched 2 episodes of a show called neat which is sorta like Mission Organization or Clean House.  The lady has some fab tips and I like her de-cluttering style.  On one show today, she made a list of 5 excuses that do not cut-it to "keep it".

excuses that don't cut it when it comes to keeping clutter (from neat):
1. I'm going to fix it some day.
2. I need it "just in case"
3. I'll sell it in a garage sale or online
4. This will be worth something some day
5. Maybe someone else can use it

I'm going to keep these in mind while I work through the rest of my clutter.  There, I said it!  Yes, I have clutter...and lots of it.  I'm feeling a confession post coming out soon, but this is a sneak-peek, if you will, for now.

 

During the normal work-week, by the time the work day is over, I want nothing but to come home as fast as humanly possible so I can relax and put on some PJs.  Since I worked from home today, I took the opportunity to stop by Great Harvest Bread Company to get a nice hearty loaf of bread for tonight's dinner.  Hubby and I decided that we need something on the light side after consuming 4 back-to-back meat-based meals, so veggie soup it is.  For me, nothing goes better with soup than a gigantic hunk of hearty, whole grain bread...yum!  I had two samples from the GHBC sample breads (pictured above) - Flax Oat Bran and Oat Bran. 

They were both delicious, but I was feeling the Flax Oat Bran for today, so that came home with me, along with some Whole Wheat pancake mix, which I mentally noted to get upon Kath's recommendation awhile back.  I'm hoping to mix this new pancake mix with the Buckwheat stuff, since hubby didn't like it as much as I hoped.  Bailey made sure to inspect everything and gave the ok to keep it.

 

Once Bailey ok'ed it, I couldn't help but dig into the Flax Oat Bran bread for a little snacky-snack.  I sliced a piece, toasted it, buttered it, and enjoyed it with a cup of vanilla soy milk leftover from that rice pudding a couple days ago.  Just look at all that whole grain goodness in there!  That should hold me over till the soup is ready!

A Day of Corrections

I took today off to clean, organize, maybe do something I just feel like doing, and in general, work on getting my life back in order.  I slept in till 10 am (woohoo!) and woke up to what appeared to be ruined pots and pans.  Egads!

Do you see those stains and discoloration?!  I almost freaked out.  Hubby and I have been talking about how much we want to take good care of these pots and pans and for them to look like this after ONE use?  Oh my!

Luckily, I referred to the documentation that came with the pots & pans (which, mind you, Hubby wanted to toss) and read that I could use one part vinegar to one part water to soak in the pots and pans to remove such spotting and discoloration.  Well, much to my relief, it worked!  Phew...that was close.  Let's hope we don't have to do this every time we use these pots and pans, though.

After not having to worry about the pots and pans, I went for breakfast.  My favorite breakfast to eat, in general, is oatmeal.  Well, that's not 100% true.  I also love a good eggs, bacon, and hash browns kinda breakfast a whole lot, too, but I like that one when I want a really big breakfast.  All that food tends to be a bit heavy on the tummy, so when I'm wanting something filling that is healthy, light, and good to give me lots of energy for the day, I always turn to oatmeal.  For this AM, I made a modified version of Ellie Krieger's Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal. I used 1/4 cup quick cooking oats, 1/2 cup water, a handful of chopped, dried cherries, a pinch of flax seed, and a pinch of wheatberry pre-cooking.  After, I stirred in a teaspoon of seedless strawberry jam (which I bought awhile back to make those cute cut-out cookies or thumbprint cookies), a dash of vanilla extract, and about 2 tablespoons of milk.  Everything was delish, though, I wish I had some slivered almonds to top off the oatmeal.

 

After breakfast, I headed to Charlotte Yarn to see if someone could perform emergency life saving techniques on my knit hat WIP.  I brought it with me on the Christmas trips in hopes of getting a lot of work done on it (so I may actually be able to wear this hat this winter), but I had a hard stop on an error when I was supposed to purl 3 and I only had 2 stitches left on my needles for the round.  Luckily, (really, really, really luckily) my fave instructor Sandy was able to fix my WIP and get me back on track.  Phew...close one, again!

 

Of course, I found a few more things I'd like to buy while I was there, including this beautiful sportweight blue sky yarn...

 

...and two books that Sandy showed me:

• Ocean Breezes: Knitted Scarves Inspired by the Sea by Sheryl Thies
• Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant

These have both been added to my amazon.com wish list.

Then, it was back home to eat lunch (a late lunch at 3PM).  I had leftover collard greens, leftover black eye peas, leftover cornbread drizzled with honey, and a nice, hot cup of Green Tea Kombucha by Yogi Tea, to ward off the cold weather blues.  Yogi Tea is quickly becoming my favorite brand of tea.  So far, I've only tried 3 of their flavors, but I just signed up for a sample packet on their web site (here) to try some more.  I can't wait till they're here!

Ok, I'm off to go "correct" my apartment, and by that, I mean clean/organize.

New Year’s Resolutions 2009

I figured I'd take the first day of the year to go ahead and outline my New Year’s Resolutions for 2009.  I decided to group them by those resolutions I consider concrete (those that have a measurable or specific goal) and general (those that are more related to a general idea).

Concrete
•    Work out once a week, even if it’s only a walk with Bailey.
•    Plan meals ahead of time by creating menus for the week – at least 3 days worth.  Bonus points for planning meals around sales/coupons.
•    Pay off all credit card debt asap – definitely by end of year.
•    Set aside at least two times a month for date/family time – date nights, taking Bailey to the doggie park, etc.
•    Clean and organize craft room by end of year.
•    Create a cleaning schedule and stick to it.

General
•    Eat more veggies.
•    Eat more fruit.
•    Eat healthier in general.
•    Use food leftovers and ingredients more efficiently (added 1/2/09)
•    Use money more efficiently - spend less (added 1/2/09)
•    Volunteer more.
•    Spend more time with friends.
•    Save for a house.
•    De-clutter house.
•    Make more “me” time.

This morning, I woke up with a huge headache, which seemed weird to me considering I didn't have a drop of alcohol last night.  I couldn't figure out if I had a headache because I slept in and my caffeine addiction was kicking in or if I had been grinding my teeth again in my sleep.  The cause was probably due to a little bit of both.  Hubby made me some coffee, which I drank while checking email and my google reader.  It definitely helped out my headache, but I still felt in a bit of a daze the rest of the afternoon.

In an effort to kick off the new year the right way, we decided to try to tackle some errands and open items.  I gathered our Goodwill/Salvation Army donation bags (which I typically fill while I'm organizing/decluttering), the boxes from our new pots and pans that actually contain our old pots and pans (since Mom gave us new ones for our wedding prezzy), and three bags of plastic bags to recycle.  Hubby loaded the car while I got ready to go.  When I was ready, I packed a cream colored, short pea coat I got on sale recently at J Crew. 

I've been trying to talk myself into returning that purchase and got the coat and receipt ready to return.  We headed straight for the mall, but by the time I got there, I had talked myself out of returning that darn coat.  Ah well, I've really wanted one (this style and this color) for a long time and I got this one at a pretty good deal.  Besides that, it won't put me in debt, so I figured I can keep it.

While hubby went to Jos A Bank to exchange a belt for a different size, I hit up Borders in search of the Marie Claire Idees magazine and a chai latte.  I found the latte, along with a couple cool desk calendars, but no Marie Claire Idees...le sigh.

We hit up the other stores Mr. Chic wanted to visit at the mall, and I didn't even go into any stores I normally frequent except one - Sur La Table.  After seeing these amazing looking donuts, I was itching to try the recipe, so I figured I'd better go ahead and get a donut cutter for when I'm ready.  

After we left the mall, we hit up the grocery store for a meat to go with the collard greens and black eye peas I purchased earlier this week for our New Year's Day meal.  We got NY strip steaks, bacon, Jiffy cornbread mix, a baguette, and my favorite AM coffee - Fresh Market's Breakfast Blend.

 

After we got back from errands, hubby went to a friend's place to watch the Rose Bowl and I worked on some more chores and had a snack of baguette, Port Salut cheese (the one I got a couple weeks ago), and Celestial Seasonings herbal peppermint tea.

Other Stuff I Got Done Today
•    Cleaned my bathroom - swiffered floor, washed bath rugs, scrubbed/cleaned shower, cleaned top of toilet, cleaned countertop, cleaned sink.  Tomorrow, I'll scrub the toilet and clean the mirror, but I get wary about using different cleaners at the same time since I heard it was dangerous if the fumes mix.
•    Signed up for the 2009 Declutter Calendar and weekly simplicity tips available at http://www.mysimplerlife.com/blog/.  I highly recommend signing up for this - it's free and awesome.  I just downloaded and printed my calendar and it has daily tasks for you to get your world organized.  I can't wait to get started!
•    Cooked a traditional New Year's Day dinner - but that's for another post. :)

Overall, I think today has been a pretty successful kick-off for the new year.  I am looking forward to working on my resolutions and tacking my 2009 Declutter Calendar tasks.  2009, here we come!

Chic Knitting Needle/Crochet Hook Storage

I cannot take any credit for coming up with this idea, but can I tell you I saw the cutest way to organize knitting needles and crochet hooks?  I saw this idea when I was visiting my local yarn store awhile back and knew I had to replicate the idea at home to keep my needles and hooks in order and where I could easily find them.

Supplies Needed:

• Glass Container (or whatever type of container you want - clear containers show the glass stones better) - I got mine from Michael's
• Smooth Glass Stones/Pebbles - I got some pretty, turquoise stones, also, at Michael's
• Your knitting needles and/or crochet hooks

To Set-up: 

• Take the glass container, tilt partially to the side, and carefully and very gently place a handful of smooth glass stones in the bottom, releasing the stones near the bottom of the container.
• Continue to carefully add more and more stones to the container being careful to place the stones as close to the bottom of the container as possible.  If you drop them in from high, you risk breaking/cracking the glass container.
• When all the stones are in the glass container and fill the container about 5-6 inches from the bottom, stick your knitting needles, crochet hooks, scissors, pens, etc into the stones.

Voila!  This is currently the "centerpiece" of my coffee table.  I'm sure it will eventually move to the craft room, but it's pretty handy with the crafting season upon me.  

How do you store your knitting needles and crochet hooks?