Cabin Fever and More OCD Tendencies

I think the feeling of winter cabin fever has set in for a lot of us (are you ready for Spring yet.  I know fo' reals).  I know that my friend Caitlin has been bitten by the organizing bug in her new apartment and I totally empathize with this sentiment.  Last week I got snowed in on Thursday and used the time to take on the task of organizing my pantry (and the rest of the house).

Here's the pantry in a sort of sorted phase...I say "sort of" very loosely.

Before

 We've been keeping the pet food in these huge containers in the middle of the kitchen/eating area...They're huge and not very attractive.  If only I had a place to put them...  Also, enjoy Oliver pining to go out in the snow: love him.

Sadly, my shelves in the pantry are really low.

 I used some elbow grease to remove the bottom shelf and ta-dah!  Even found a great place to hide my step ladder.

I used clothes pins and my label maker to mark where things go on the shelves, Now there is no excuse for Mr. S not to put things where they go. (Seriously, let me tell you how much I love my new camera lens...life is good)

 And once I was done, everything had a home and was sorted by beverage, mix, fiber&oatmeal, oils, etc.  Oh and I made the plastic bag holder out of old materials I had.  If you're interested in the how-to, let me know.  Easy-peasy.

After

A was for Amanda, but now it is for Apron

 I installed a great shelf to hang brooms and mops too.

What do you think?  I also organized the hall closet with bins and a little set of drawers for outside gardening things and our sport accessories...There was a lot of closet action last week, but I was in panic mode trying to get all the junk in the house sorted because our new cleaning lady started this past Monday...and let me tell you...I'm so in love with her!  She cleaned my door handles...and unclogged our tub, and even moved the dog's crate with him in it to clean...and she emptied our vacuum, which she didn't even use...

I'm in raptures because my house has that bleached clean smell you get when you slip into hotel sheets.  I might be the only person who likes that, but I really loved coming home from work.  If you're in my area and need a recommendation, let me know and I'll hook you up!

And I'll leave you all with a teaser for my next kitchen renovation project.  I got the idea back in October and one weekend I'll actually get to it.  It took me forever to find the materials for this because I ended up special ordering them.  I've been a weeny about doing this one because I only get one cut.

Ain't it fun?

A Place in the World to Sit

Steven and I have been on the hunt for a sofa since before we moved and now we have one!  We have tried out every sofa in the state.  I'm not even using hyperbole when I say that, promise.  We found a dream chenille sectional at Arhaus, but when we measured it was too big to fit in our space.  You see, this room was actually supposed to be a dinning room and living room.  They designed the living room to be at the far end by the front of the house and the dinning room table was supposed to be where the ottomans are...and I think that 6 ft does not a living room make.  So since we have a space in the kitchen for a table, I wanted the whole room to be a living room.

We ended up finding this sofa and chair at Crate and Barrel...a magical place, to be sure.  The cats certainly like it.  Penelope spent the morning rolling all over the furniture like it was catnip.  I got the ottomans at Pier 1, as well as the console on the right.  I also got matching end tables, but they're still in transit from the warehouse.  I'm still in a heated mental debate about what rug to put in here.

Now we really need to paint!  Let me tell you how gross our walls are.  The backstory of our walls is that the builders put the worst paint up, it doesn't even have a finish to it so anything that comes in contact with the wall is absorbed by the drywall.  Don't believe me?  Let me show you my jelly stain on the kitchen wall.  I hate the paint, so I've slowly been trying to paint a room at a time.  The only rooms I've managed to get done are the rooms upstairs.  Anywho, the dog's crate used to be in this room and the far corner is tres gross.

I spent the morning washing my baseboards.  I know that sounds ridiculous, and I used to laugh at my mother a lot when she cleaned the walls and the basboards, but dang it, I get it now. You work so hard to keep the house clean that the little details will keep you up at night!  I scrubbed those things to get the dog and cat gunk off of them.  I feel much better, but it made me notice all the nicks in the walls and all the stains and all the things I couldn't wash off because they had fused with the drywall.

The moral of the story kiddies is that you should always have a paint with some sort of gloss to it and that you will eventually turn into your mother.  Heaven help me.

Introducing the Power Lunch:

Everyday Steven and I run home for our lunch break.  Today, I was flying solo since he wanted to have lunch with a work buddy.  Since I'm not that sick anymore, I was feeling a ton of "get it done" energy.

I decided to have a "power lunch" (you know--power nap, power walk, etc.) so that the house wouldn't be in a shambles later this weekend when my parents come to town.  Maybe one day our house will look like a home...and maybe the day after that, it will look like a home featured in Home and Gardens.  Anywho...

This is what I got done:

1. Let Bramston out of his crate to relieve himself.  He's only 6 months old so we're still crating when we aren't home.  However, we always go home for lunch everyday to give him a break.  8 hours in there would be the sucks.  I should also point out that he is in a 48 in tall crate right now...that's huge!  And we're about to upgrade to the 56in (a small room). 
2. Gave an exasperated sigh because he had already pee'd himself.  I really think he enjoys it because the vet says he can hold it for 8 hours.  I know he loves the, almost daily, baths we have to give him.
3.  Loaded the dishwasher and started it
4. Moved Mother's Day gifts to one side of the kitchen for future wrapping
5. Moved the wrapping paper to the work area in the kitchen so Steven would remember that my birthday is coming up and to please produce presents wrapped and ready for inspection.
6. Tidied up the countertops and opened some mail from my orthodontist.
7. Clorox'd the countertops.
8. Sorted recycling to take outside.
9. Changed into my nice pants.  They 're from Anne Taylor LOFT and I love them oh-so-much because they're the only dress pants I have that fit right now.  I feel bad wearing jeans to work, but I don't want to buy new pants yet (still losing).  I needed them to work at the Pier tonight since jeans are completely against the dress code.  The pants have been getting a lot of action lately and since they're dry clean only (didn't know that when I bought them), I've been trying to get a lot of wear out of them before I send them to the cleaners.
10. Realized that they are splashed with lots of dog drool.  My dog drools.  My dog drools a lot.  It's the one, and only, thing I don't like about his breed.  Other than that, Newfies are top-notch dogs, but we have to keep towels around to wipe him off. 
11. Remembered to take my antibiotics
12. Started a load of laundry
13. Said a silent "Thank you!" to our water heater for being big enough to let me do dishes and laundry at the same time.  Love it!
14. Carried a stack of books downstairs and put them back on the bookcase
15. Thought about hitting the "clean" button on the Roomba, but then I decided I'd need to clean out the dirt-trap first and the floors weren't looking that bad.
16. Put the pup back in his crate with a new red teddy bear I found at work.  He loves to carry around his little babies.  Only once has he torn one apart.
17. Grabbed my keys
18. Said "Good-bye" to Penelope, who was on the steps--yelling at me.
19. Watered the plants.  My petunias need some help this year.  Send "grow-baby-grow" thoughts to my purple petunias, please.
20. Thought: I really should put window boxes in...tried to think of a way to do that without drilling into the house...the jury is still out on that one.
21. Started to drive to Subway since it's on the way back to work
22. Wondered why a guy was walking down the road in just swim trunks when we aren't anywhere near the beach.
23. Got a little saddened by the fact we aren't by the beach since the weather is so great right now.  Need to schedule a trip to the wah-tah!
24. Turned down a date from a construction worker named Howard working outside the Subway.  This was probably the most interesting conversation I've ever had with a random person.  I ended up telling him I was engaged.  It seemed like the easiest thing to say...but I'm not really engaged.  Tomaaato, tomahto.  I mean I've been in a completely monogamous relationship for almost 3 years, we live together, share a bank account, have fur-babies...I mean it's close enough of an explanation for dear Howard.  Since he hadn't broken into my car while I was in the Subway or done anything shady, I decided to take it as a self-esteem booster.  And apparently, Howard likes drool covered pants.
25. Ate my sub in the car
26. Added lite mayo stains to the drool on my poor pants

Finally, arrived back at work--what a lunch hour!

Where have I been?

Oh blog readers, I know that I have dropped off the planet. My life lately has been a jumble of activities. I'll try to lay out the past few months for you, catch you up, and start writing again.

Work:

I've been working about 37 hours a week for peanuts at the Pier 1 up here. My assistant manager is horrible and is probably the first person I have never been able to find anything I like about them. I've been trying for 5 months to find something I can like so that I focus on that when I have to deal with her. The search has been fruitless, and I've just about given up hope on her. I spend most of my time at work protecting the associates from the wrath of this woman and it's getting to me. It's a very toxic environment to say the least. The customers up here are also very rude and I get a lot of people who think I'm too young to be a manager.

The job hunt has been very slow goings. Even though I have a degree and a lot of kick-bootie grades, most employers only notice my retail experience so it has been extremely difficult to break into any professional scene. I'm still working on it. I think that to really have the time to find a new job I will have to quit my old one. This is very emotionally taxing since I do love my company and I have been there for 2 years. However, I need a job that is full-time and has benefits. There was a brief lead with a stationary company, but the most they could offer me was 2 part-time positions at once where I shuttled between two of their stores and it was a pay cut.

Home:

The house is slowly coming together. The key word there is slowly. I've been doing some craft projects, we finally hung some stuff up, and our room has a mind of it's own. So far the design is a mix of Pier 1 and Ikea. Ikea is such a magical place and I live 30 minutes from it. I live about 30 minutes from most major retailers. There is even a Tiffanys store somewhere near me. I can't afford anything so I've figured it would be dangerous to go. Anywho, I'll post some pictures of my house updates soon. I need to charge my camera...I haven't done that since we moved and that has affected my blogging.

Steven is amazing. I relish in every moment I have off from work to spend with him. He is so supportive of me and gives the best hugs. It has been great to live with him and have him around all the time. I love it! We play tennis with his family and I'm getting quite good. So much fun!

Health:

Through the stress of the move, my crappy job, and lots of eating, I gained back all the weight I lost for my graduation. So I got a gym membership at an amazing gym called the Freedom Center (the pool has a huge water slide) and I go every morning for 30-45 minutes of cardio. Steven is doing a biggest loser challenge and has lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks. He's doing so well on the program and I'm extremely proud of him.

I discovered soon after I moved here that I needed to have a root canal done. My mother canceled my dental insurance just before my graduation so I've been paying out of pocket. I have been going back to Gloucester for this because it saves me about $700 to go there then to have it done here by an endodontic specialist. In the end it will eat up $2205 from my savings. My tooth also got extremely infected and I had to take a lot of antibiotics. For about 2 weeks all I could eat was mashed potatoes.

Literature:

Where would I be without my books? So far I've spent a lot of time re-reading Harry Potter since the last movie came out. I'm currently reading The Historian. I'm halfway through it and I find it to be predictable. I hope that it gets better because I've had several people recommend it to me and those are normally good books. As Dracula books go, it hasn't been that entertaining for me. After you have experienced the joys of Tanya Huff and her Blood series...one cannot go back to just any vampire story.


Those are the big things that I've been up to. So much has been going on. I need to start writing again for my own sanity it seems, so stay tuned for further updates!

Busy Beaver! (House Pictures)

I know I've been a bad, bad blogger lately, so I wanted to take some time to show you what a busy beaver I've been. I present the following few exhibits and I apologize that the pictures are so icky. I haven't unpacked my camera so I used my phone and uploaded the pictures to facebook.

The first thing I painted was the bathroom in the basement. I got this color idea in an unusual way. I actually found the swatch under a chair at my old Pier 1. So of course I needed it in my new house to remember my Pier 1 family. I started with the basement to see how it would turn out and if I messed it up it wouldn't be seen that much. ;) It turned out fabulous! The green towels make it kind of tropical. It also flips the green I want to do in the half bath.
Next, is the guest bedroom! This is where we've been sleeping since we moved in. Because it has all of my old furniture in it, it is the closest room in the house to completion. You can see that I re-covered the headboard with a different fabric. It looks and feels so fabulous! I got the lamp with a gift card Sony's mother gave Steven for his graduation and the front pillow I got from Ross with a store credit i got from returning some pillows that didn't work out (Steven is so picky about pillows, you just wouldn't believe it!). I made the body pillow. You can't see it very well but I got some fabulous peony patterned fabric from Hancock fabrics. I used the same color--Spiced Cocoa-- for the accent wall. You can see some blue swatches beside the lamp I'm thinking about for the rest of the room and for the guest bath.
On the other side of the room is the seating area and the painting I did about a month ago.

So now everyone needs to come visit me! hehe.

It's Twins!

Identical matching washer dryer that is! Steven made our first house purchase today. So stoked to move in a week. What we've been waiting for for almost 2 years is finally about to happen.

I got inspired

You may remember a DIY project I did last summer when I covered some canvases. I have been planning to re-cover them for the guest bedroom that we still don't know if we have yet, bye the by.

I love the dandelion silhouettes that I've seen on a lot of stationary lately, so I decided that was going to be my theme of the series I wanted to do.

Instead of writing a paper, I went to JoAnn Fabrics with coupons in hand and picked up some paint and brown quilting fabric, as well as some fabulous and rich-looking brown fabric to re-cover my headboard with.

Here are the results:

(The originals)

(After painting)

(Back on the walls. I moved them closer together after I took this picture. There will be so much patching to do when I move.)

Not too shabby, eh? I cannot wait to put this whole room together! The only thing left to do is to find or make a cover for a body pillow.

Almost done!

I've got one 4-5 page paper left to do for a class I'm taking pass/fail so I'm not that worried about it so onward to graduation prep and packing! I started packing up my kitchen last night. Craziness!

I'm really stoked about being able to give a lot of stuff to the goodwill during this move. I'm downsizing a lot since I'm moving 4.5 hours this time instead of 5 minutes. I love downsizing!

We're hoping to hear about a house today so cross your fingers. I don't exactly want to downsize so much that I'm living out of my car with my two cats and my love.

When I Won't Be Insane

I'm looking forward to the time in oh...2.5 weeks when I am done with school because I have so many projects that I have wanted to complete, it's ridiculous. I wanted to share a few of them so that you will all know what to expect when my blog rises from the ashes of lost internet causes.

Most important thing...ever: READ. I haven't done any pleasure reading in quite a while and I have the feeling it's going to be a mind-blowing experience. I also realize that I haven't done a book review in ages. My apologies.

Sew. I have about three things that need fixing and I've been itching to try a DIY where I make a pair of black pants I have into skinny jeans (cause I love the look, just hate how every pair you can buy is ultra low rise and I'm too curvacious for all that. I need to be able to move and sit/bend over)

Re-cover my headboard. Since my bed will be in the guest bedroom when we move, and I've been redoing the colors, I need to redo it in a fabulous brown. Easy project, but it will make a dramatic impact and allow me to post pictures of the project on this blog.

Cover and paint 3 canvases for the guest bedroom using some muslin. I need to find something that I want to paint...I'm thinking bamboo or mum silhouettes, haven't decided yet. Can't be anything too ambitious because I haven't painted in a long time.

Send Thank Yous for any graduation gifts I happen to receive. I might make the thank yous because I have developed a love for DIY paper products.

Finish a doll I started making for Baby Kaveena when she was born, four months ago.

And you know...all the randomness that will happen when we finally get a house and are able to move in.

You'll be the first to know when that happens, of course.