Trip Planning & my Bujo Planner

Does anyone get anxious before a trip?? I know I do all the time.  I get myself so worked up with everything that needs to be done for the weekend away that sometimes I opt out of going away at all and it’s like a huge sigh of relief, but even after all of that worry I know it’s worth the planning when I reach my destination, see all my missed friends and enjoy the adventure the weekend brings and I’m so glad I decided to go.  

I think to learning to embrace my enneagram 7 personality type is also helpful.  I plan on going into that further in another post, on another day, but one of our main commonalities is our ability to worry about everything and we are always looking for a safe place. 

 I am loving my "bullet journal" weekend list of the items I need to prep and don't want to forget.  I'm realizing I'll need to make a section for my volunteer slots.  I signed up for 2 spots, so I want to make sure they are easy to find along with a place for my hosts address and food plan. 

This past weekend was another one of those weekends for me.  I was super anxious about what is going to happen, who will I be housed with, will I be able to find my host and my way to and from the venues?  Will I be able to find an IKEA nearby so I can return the mirror they mailed me and it broke, super not happy with this.  All they need to do was wrap the mirror in a few rounds of bubble wrap and this could have all been avoided.  Now I have to drive there to exchange it and hopefully get it home without the glass breaking again.  Plus, I wanted to pick up some shelves for my kitchen wall.  That's my next step in organizing my kitchen.  However, I've been waiting for this mirror not so patiently for about 2+ months now and I really want it installed in my bathroom, like ASAP!   Anyways, these are some of the things I planned to do while some of the workshops were going on , workshops that I opted not to take for a few reasons, one just being it’s just to much to squeeze in a weekend for me anymore and so I let the kiddos who have tons of energy immerse themselves into the wonderful knowledge of our instructors in hopes that it rubs off on me while we dance.  Wishful thinking, I know. 

Haha.  Just realized I haven’t mentioned what I was doing this past weekend, my bad.  I made my way to Philadelphia, the city of love, for a workshop weekend for the DJX Fusion Exchange.  Though as I mentioned above I opted to skip the workshops.  Not that I don’t need them.  I would LOVEto take them, but money and time are just not in my favor.  I was really looking forward to spending that free time with some time with my Philly friends while the workshops are happening, sleeping in a little longer and reading my book, The Joy of Less, which has been sadly neglected this last month.  I want to finish it  so that I can graduate to the Kon Mari book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which I’m super excited to start reading. I've been hearing some really great things about her methods.  She's so good she's never had a repeat client.  

I am also loving my weekly - to do list - spread so far.  i still need to work on my doodling, but the layout is def a plus for me.  

please note that none of my links are affiliate links.  They are just items I like and recommend.  also this was written prior to my trip and I choose to wait and publish it after my trip.    

a fresh color palette

The last few days have been pretty productive for me in the home to do lists, including finishing my half bath.  I honestly can't believe it's done especially since I've really been dreading re-painting the walls, but it was inevitable with all the holes that needed patching from changing out the towel bars and hooks and then a few weeks ago my cats decided to climb the curtains and yep it all came crashing down.  

Such happiness seeing  my IKEA print shining brighter against crisp white walls.   

The desire to change my walls from Behrs Peanut Butter to Martha Stewart's Vapor came about when I was inspired by the color scheme in this red, white and teal laundry makeover.  My favorite part of the design was the red knobs.  After scowering her post I found out where she had bought them, but after getting to the check out I stopped when the shipping for a pair of $3 knobs was going to be $10.  This meant I was going to DIY my own red knobs.  It was actually pretty practical since I already had the primer and red spray paint on hand and my cabinet already had the same shape knob only it was a pink flower ceramic knob.  It took several layers of primer even after lightly sanding it down for it to stick and then a few coats of red before I was happy with them. I do still need to add a layer of a clear sealer so they are more shiny than rough. 

I also had high hopes of using the sew now, sew wow fabric by Alexander Henry that Anna used for the ironing board cover, but outside of a toilet set cover I couldn't think of anything in the room that I could practically use it for and I didn't want to just frame it.  So you can image my happiness when I came across this $10 dove poster art on one of my trips to IKEA

 source 

I've yet to hang up a towel rail or hook, because after sealing seeing the bathroom so clean and crisp I didn't like how my IKEA ENNUDEN towel rack looked.  Plus, I really love the ceramic hook that Anna had in her laundry room, so until I can find one similar I'll continue to drape the towel over the cabinet door.

I used command strips to hang the mirror and IKEA RIBBA frame so I didn't add more holes.  I really should buy stock in them, because most of my frames and art are hung up by command stripes.  They really do save me from having so many holes in the wall from the countless times I've changed my mind.  I just used the Velcro stripes for the IKEA frame.  I always cut the Velcro in half vertically and use 1 strip for each side.  this way I get more use out of each strip, especially with the back edging being so thin.  However, for the mirror I opted to use another version, one that the wire could hang from.  

  

I also think that I will opt to using bar soap rather than a dispenser.  I really hate dispensers, especially if I decide to change out the soap.  Plus, I think it will keep it simple.

I'm quite happy with using my vintage telephone / record stand since it's not been very useful in the living room.  It's far to light and my cats like to catapult from it, which usually results in it falling down and anything on it.  This way they can't knock it down and it holds all my extra towels instead of them being on the back of the toilet tank.  I've also added the air fresher on top since taking the photo. 

The MYRVIKEN hand towels and PERSBY area rug are both from IKEA..  I tried looking on their site, but it looks as if they are no longer available.  I did just purchase sometime after summer and the hand towels were a new design then so they may still be available in stores. 

I didn't take out the anchors for my IKEA ENUDDEN toilet roll holder as I new I wanted it back and love that it holds to rolls so we don't have to change it out as often.  I also like that it has a "top shelf" which allows you to utilize the space.  At one point I had the air fresher there, but I really like my ceramic dogs so for now I have them resting there.

I do love how the whole look came out and it's far more refreshing and open and better liking to my Scandinavian design tastes compared to how it looked prior with the Behr Paint as you can see before with my last photographed update in May.

May 4th update

Below you can see my priming progress.  It was definitely a challenge painting this small and cramped space, but after two coats of primer and a coat of Vapor I'm sooo glad I did it.

I decided to just paint the bath walls white, but the only white I had was a matte finish, so I thought this could be a good way to veer from the Picket Fence by Martha Stewart that I painted the dining room, because it was stark white so I decided to go with my original white Vapor which has a slight gray tint to it.

I'm also glad that I  figured out how to paint behind the light fixture without having to disconnect the wires. It wasn't fun, but I'm glad for it.   

It feels good to finally have the walls painted.  I only needed one coat of Vapor, which I was very thankful for and after adding all the hardware and accessories I'm very happy with how it looks.

creativly speaking

Lately I've been calling my 3rd bedroom my creative space, which seems to fit all that I want the space to be; housing my workout gear, craft supplies, my workout gear, and home management system, and of course write my blog posts.  I'm pretty excited about my current plan, which I'll talk about later in another post, but I'm pretty sure it will make you laugh at how OCD I am when it comes to planning.  

It's been nice seeing the progression of the room even just over a few weeks.  Each day I have been working on a new task that moves at least one item out of the clutter zone and it's made the biggest difference.  It's also nice having some of my favorite things in use, like my vintage shelf that now houses my ceramic rooster, diy sun shine art, vintage deer stapler, and simply DIY art.  In the near future I plan to paint the vintage shelf love-in-the-mist (light blue) by Martha Stewart. 

Some other projects that will have to wait for another phase is painting my IKEA RIBBA frame Love-in-the-Mist.that I have show casing  an Eames print.  Can you tell I'm obsessed with this color blue?  Along with wrapping this pretty floral print from Joann's around a cork board.  I would prefer to hold off for now until I actually have my desk systems in place so I have a better grasp as to what size cork board I'll have room for. 

I would like to paint 2 of the walls the Love-In-the-Mist as well, and add in Moonglow (light green) and the pink from Cave Girl Office Reveal as my accent colors. 

At this point I don't have a deadline for the space to be complete as I know it's going to take some patience on my part to allow for time to find the exact pieces, in the right color and a convenient location.  It would definitly take less time if I bought the items new, but I just can't afford to do that right now so I'll be keeping an eye out on craigslist. 

For now I just have to use what I have on hand and try to make things work, but it's not been easy.  My desk is held up by two end tables so it's not quite table height so I end up hunching over in my chair to work. 

{10 minute} Fabric Letter DIY

There is nothing like a little color to put a smile on your face and that's just what this little project did.  Yep, I'm smiling one because I completed a DIY project and two I have color on my walls!  It all started with in April when I finally installed my Run Strong gallery wall.  It included a few inspiration quotes and images that revolved around running.  I was was over joyed at how it turned out, but a few weeks ago I was trying to think of a way to add some color since mostly everything is white.  

Well, as I was sorting through a few things in my spare room I came across a few pieces of vintage fabric given to me earlier this year.  I wasn't sure what to do with them so I had them in my spare room and just this last week I knew exactly what I wanted to use one of the fabrics for as soon as I read this fabric wrapped letter DIY.   So the other night I gathered all of my supplied and while watching a movie I began wrapping my R. 

Supplies:

* batting

* fabric 

* scissors 

*staple gun
* cardboard or wood letter

I also came across this Fabric Letter DIY Fabric Art that makes using the cardboard letters a bit more interesting. I will definitely have to try this when I find a coordinating fabric to wrap around the sides.

I first started by wrapping the batting around and stapled it to the letter, though I think using spray adhesive would have worked nicely to.

As you can see it doesn't look very pretty from the backside, but the good thing is that no one will ever notice unless you take it down and show them.  I had already had a command strip Velcro attached to the letter so I made sure not to cover it so I can hang it back on the wall.

 

You can still see where the fabric was to short to go around the thick side of the letter, which is why at some point I will do some coordinating fabric to adhere around the edges so it doesn't look so rough.

 Ah, now isn't that better.

2013-01-30 sell, sell, sell

This last year has gone pretty fast, and it seems like we've not really done much in terms of downsizing, but really we have. If you saw my house when we combined households you would have had a heart attack from ALL THE STUFF and really there's more like 2 storage units full awaiting their turn to be sold and I hope to never lay eyes on it again.

My mom wanted to do this selling business many years ago and never really got around to selling anything, but she didn't stop buying anything so we have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will be helpful with the amount of things I would like to do with the house so I'll be thinking...sell, sell, sell and hopefully most of the items will sell and no longer take residence in my home. I love the quote by William Morris Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. and that's a good way to live.  Clutter is a nuisance and makes me a not so nice person.  I just can't work in a clutter home and sometimes, yes, I'm sorry to admit this out loud, but I can get pretty mean and sometimes I've been known to throw things, though not at people. 

What's I've posted in the last week:

* Precor EFX 5.17i Elliptical Fitness Crosstrainer  SOLD AUG
* Klaussner Sofa SOLD AUG
* Coffee Table, wood and glass SOLD 02/08/13
* Vita-mix  SOLD FEB 2
* collapsible doggy steps sold JAN 29
* Rocking Chair SOLD JUNE
* Antique Twin Metal Bed:
* Full Size Metal Bed Frame: SOLD JAN 31
* Scandinavian Dining Set:

I plan to take this ad off, because I really LOVE this table set and hope to sell the Elliptical which is currently housed in my dining room. Once the Elliptical is sold and I hang the 2 LACK Wall Shelves that I plan on buying once the bookshelves are moved I believe I'll have room to fit my 5' table.

Things to return Saturday:

I finally found the receipt to my for my shower tension rod caddy after weeks of scoring the house for it.  so now I can return the shower caddy +$25, a 2013 planner +6, and a mustache clock +10.  The planner and clock I think will only be in store credit, but I shop there all the time so I'm going to spend money there anyways.

UPDATE ** 02/12/13
All items above were returned.  1 store credit and 2 items were returned to my card.

Errands to make this coming week:

JoAnn's:
- cardboard letting want to make a yarn sign for W-A-K-E U-P & wire to do a script DIY for beautiful.
- Felt to make letter cut outs & freezer paper for the template.

Verizon:
activate my iphone.  I've had it now for 3 weeks and have yet to get it activated.

Finally activated on 02/12/13

I also plan to update my House To Do project list this week.  Need to change out a few projects that I've decided not to do and add the new ideas then mark some complete.

We haven't made much this week, but I did make the money back from purchasing my headboard set.  Although the frame doesn't really work with my mattress and soft box-spring combo and so I have to build another bed frame to support my mattress like this one.  I don't think it will cost more then $35 and I would prefer not to buy a box-spring, because then my bed will be to high.

I plan on posting the built ins in my 3rd floor bedroom, some running shoe's I've worn a few times, but are to big, a 70's veneer bookshelf and some household decor.

I've also been working on new plans for my living, dining and 3rd floor guest / office / workout room and I'm looking forward to implementing them, but don't have the funds to spend so I really need to start selling so I can implement the plans.

Furniture swap outs:

Want: Strandmon Wing chair & Foot Stool
Selling: Klaussner One-Arm Sofa

Dining Room

Want: IKEA LACK  
Selling: 70's bookshelf

3rd Floor Guest / Office / Workout

Want: IKEA PAX Wardrobe (x2)  
Selling: Built In Dressers (x2)

 SOURCE

I also have a very sturdy and amazing IKEA bookshelf that I love that's currently in my dining room that I plan to temporarily move to my 3rd floor to use for Linens, Towels, and my workout gear until I can afford to purchase the PAX single door wardrobe.  The Photo above best represents the feel and look that I'm going for with my closet.  I also have a Hovet mirror from IKEA the size of the one in the image thanks to their as is section, which I LOVE for only $100.

Want: IKEA EXPEDIT 6 CUBE 
Selling: Children's Toys

The intended purpose of this is to store some books we are selling, and to house our mailing supplies.  It will be placed so it's 4 cubes wide and 2 cubes high.  I also intend to buy the drawer insert to store pens, markers, scissors, scotch tape and labels, along with 4 DRONA fabric bins to hid the books.

 SOURCE

I was originally inspired by this Closet Mid Unit from Target, that Love Grows Wild had set up, but it's an inch to high and the Expedit will be almost 2" shorter then the trim on the half wall where I want to put it, which should look a little better.  Plus, the Expeidit is a nicer shelving unit and I really don't need that many cubbies.  though this would be a great idea if our basement was a little lest dusty to use for our extra toiletries.

UPDATE 02/12
I decided   earlier last week that we would just use bookshelves that we already had instead of buying something new.  Plus, I kind of wanted the Expedit shelves instead and I really didn't want to commit to buying either at the moment in fear that I would regret buying more stuff.