True (Laundry) Confessions

I am not good at laundry. I mean, I can put clothes in the washer and dryer and hope they turn out OK (disclaimer: I don’t even remember the last time I did that – Pete does all of our regular laundry) but ironing and stains have me beat. This isn’t usually a big deal because I a) don’t generally buy clothes that need to be ironed b) send clothes that do need to be ironed (like Pete’s work shirts) to the dry cleaners and c) am not that messy so don’t get a lot of stains on my clothes. (Also, now that I think of it, most of my clothes are from Target or Old Navy so even if I did get something on them it wouldn’t be a heartbreaking loss.)

However, this past weekend, I got on a spring cleaning kick and decided the couch slipcovers, window coverings, and our bedskirt all needed to be washed. In reality, they all probably needed to be washed months or even years ago which may be part of the problem here. But Sunday was the day I finally decided to do it. I treated the stains on the slipcovers with a stain stick and was pleasantly surprised that they turned out well.

I moved on to the white roman shades, sheers, and bedskirt. I figured this should be the easier of my tasks since they’re white and I could bleach them. The roman shades were the cleanest of the bunch. The sheers from our bedroom window were literally black. We open our windows whenever we can and I don’t really want to think about what we’re breathing in if that’s what they look like. The bedskirt was fine on the side of the bed away from the window, not so good on the side closest to the window (again, yuck.)

So I washed everything, with bleach, and they look the same as before. Did I do something wrong? Wait too long to wash? Not use the right bleach? Not use enough bleach? I didn’t dry them, so is there anything I can do to try again? Sigh.

Maybe if I had a laundry room like one of these I’d also (magically) be better at doing the laundry?

Source: organized-design.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: aglimpseofthegirlnextdoor.blogspot.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Jackie on Pinterest

30 Before 30: Final update….before 30

One last update on my 30 Before 30 list before my birthday! You’ll (unfortunately) be hearing more of this list once I am 30 as I work to complete the ones that won’t be checked off by tomorrow. These are the items that are in progress or completed in a way that I’m checking it off even if not done quite as originally listed. You’ll see what I mean.

Item 10 (In Progress): Re-paint the second bedroom.

We are so close on this one. So close. It took a few different trips to the paint store but the winning color is one of the ones in the picture below!

Now we just need to set a date to paint.

Item 11 (In Progress): Re-paint (or replace) the kitchen cabinets.

This one’s a hard one. I really want to just redo the whole thing. I can actually see in my head what it would like and it’s great. The problem is, if things go well (i.e. we could sell our condo…or at least get it rented…) we won’t be here too much longer. And so it becomes a matter of how much we should invest vs. what we’ll be able to get in return. We had our real estate agent stop by to check things out and collectively decided to proceed by getting estimates for the renovation. Once we have those, we’ll be able to take them into consideration with her advice regarding what we could list/sell with and and without the updates. Still not sure where this one is going to land!

Item 25 (Completed…but not quite as outlined): Go on a one-month shopping hiatus.

I’m definitely taking some liberties with this one but hear me out. I knew this would be hard. The real point of it, though, was to get me to be more thoughtful about my spending. I don’t tend to spend or shop extravagantly, necessarily, but its one of those things where the little stuff somehow just always adds up. I wanted to get that under control. There wasn’t any one calendar month where I stopped shopping completely. I actually bet if I looked there would have been 30 days in a row, however, where I didn’t shop. But that’s not where I’m trying to get the credit either. More importantly, earlier this year, Pete and I implemented (though have been slacking on the last few months…) monthly household meetings to discuss our expenses for the previous month, set a budget for the next month, and discuss any big expenditures that we might be considering. We’ve always had a budget (I am an accountant, after all) but we’ve rarely had to stick to it (a luxury that I was always grateful for…I know that is not the case for many people.) Our situation changed when I took my current job though and, hence, the need to be more thoughtful if we’d also like to keep working towards our longer term savings goals. Creating a set time to discuss things kept both of us (mostly me…) more accountable to actually making it work instead of justifying things when we might have gone over our original spending plan. So I’m going to cross this one off since the goal was accomplished, even if by slightly different means.

So, what’s left?

6. Visit the modern wing of the Art Museum.

7. Visit the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio.

12. Replace bedroom carpet. (This will be next up after the second bedroom gets re-painted.)

13. Finish photo album from senior year of college. (I swear this will eventually be done if it kills me!)

14. Make honeymoon photo album.

15. Organize things saved from our travels. (OK, in my defense, these last three items were all meant to be last winter projects since I usually hibernate during winter. But then I was busy so it didn’t happen! I swear I will get to them this winter…)

28. Go to a movie with Pete. We’ve only ever been to one together. This is my fault. (We do have a Groupon though so hopefully this will be done soon. :))

29. Try a Pilates class. (Funny thing is, my gym used to have a class but must have recently discontinued it. That’s what I get for procrastinating! I’ll figure something out though.)

 

So, eight things left plus the two things in progress. Wah wah wah. That’s not a good completion percentage. But I swear I have not been sitting around doing nothing all year. I swear. In fact, I will have to start crafting a post full of my excuses and all the other things I’ve done instead. We’ll see if I can pull that one together soon…

Oh, that’s right….

….I have a blog.

But here’s what I did to our condo back in May -

And here’s the 5 page long to-do list to put everything back together again -

In fairness, the list includes some normal things like “Do laundry.” But still, I might be the only person who can turn something relatively simple such as painting a living room into a multi-step project which also includes installing quarter rounds and new closet doors. Unfortunately, we do not have all the king’s horses and all the king’s men assisting us so it’s taking Pete and I some time.  But we’ll get there one day.

Opinions, Please

My habitual tardiness in the mornings makes it very difficult for me to get creative with my weekday wardrobe. I’m generally rushing around, planning an outfit in my head, and then just putting that on and running out the door. To make this all easier, I generally stick with combinations that I already know will work since there’s no time for trial and error. Yesterday, however, I came up with something new. And even though I wasn’t sure about it, I left the house in a plum colored dress with grey tights and flats. In theory, I think this combination works. In reality, I felt like a Smurf. Or maybe an elf. The grey tights just seemed like a lot. This got me thinking about how much I miss having girl roommates who can give you an opinion. There are many times, especially when it comes to the really trendy stuff, where I could use the confirmation that I’m wearing things correctly.

And so, this brings me to my question about ankle booties. I’ve long worn them under jeans because I had a really hard time finding tall boots. For several years now, I have also watched women who pull these off with skirts. That seemed out of the question for me. For some reason, though, I’m deciding I might want to do it. It seems like they’d be a nice option with black tights and a skirt. Easier to walk in than black tights and pumps since your foot would be held in. So, what do you think? Can I do it? Here are the ones I had in mind from White House Black Market. Love the girly bow.

Feeling a little self conscious

So, even though I’m been doing it for a few months now, I’m still pretty self conscious about this whole blogging thing. When I started I only told 3 people. Eventually I told another 3. I don’t know if this is odd or just how blogging works, but there’s otherwise something nice about the anonymity of it all.

 

The only thing I didn’t fully contemplate was the fact that one of the original 3 people I told happens to be a social media expert. Let’s call her Elaine. So, naturally, she posted a link on her blog and tweeted a link to mine (which happened to result in the most page views I’ve ever gotten in a single day). I was OK with this because the only people who I knew who read her blog fell into one of the two groups I mentioned above (the 6 people I had told or people I don’t know). And I just don’t get the whole Twitter thing.

 

Two things have happened recently to bump up the anxiety level. First, my sister-in-law made a comment about following Elaine’s tweets. Which means she may have seen one about my blog. Second, Elaine posted a link to her blog on facebook. Which means all of our mutual friends have access to that and then, therefore, her links. Oh geez.

 

I’m not remembering why but I recently told someone they needed to “own it.” I’m going to try taking my own advice and not feel so weird about this. In the meantime, if I know you and you are reading (Liz?) maybe you can let me know so I stop worrying about it. Haha. Thanks!

Oh, Chair Cushions

Sometimes I get ideas that don’t quite work out. For example, I found some cheap chair cushions at IKEA a little while ago but I didn’t like the velcro that actually attached them to the chair. I thought, how about I take that off and just sew on some ribbon to tie a bow. Seems easy enough, right? Only problem is, I don’t sew and anything that involves a needle and thread is not nearly as easy as it really should be.

With a bit of effort I managed to get two of the four sewn on. But it was so irritating to me that the other two stayed on my to do list for quite some time. Then, to add insult to injury, the two that were done got pulled off when someone actually tried to use the chairs. Sigh. Poor little ribbons with no cushions attached. Back onto the to do list they go.

This story is actually a little embarrassing because you would not believe how long the chairs sat with chair cushions on them but not attached. Clearly we do not actually eat dinner at our kitchen table very often.

Finally, I was in Target last week and found very pretty ivory cushions to just replace the originals all together. The material is like a raw silk so has a very pretty sheen to it. They were only $9.99 a piece. And, most importantly, they actually attach with no more effort on my part than tying a bow.

Thank you, Target, for letting me cross off “fix/finish chair cushions” from my perpetual to do list.

Trial and Error

When I first posted pictures of the master bathroom I mentioned that I wasn’t quite sure about the shower curtain I picked out. Well, we’ve now been through a few more (yes, actually purchased, brought home, thrown over the top of the bar, and then returned) and I think I’ve finally got it right. Here’s the two I tried out. 

First, this really cute one from Crate and Barrel (I’m pretty sure it’s no longer available in this color, though there is a more olive toned one) - 

 

A couple problems here. First, I realized after purchasing it that my best friend had recently registered for it. Oops. I was not trying to steal her bathroom look. But, with her permission (thanks, Tiff!), I proceeded to see if I would like it. It looked cute in the room but didn’t necessarily flow with our current bedding (the bathroom is attached to the master bedroom). After that I realized it also didn’t fit with the shelf liner I had used in the cabinet and drawers. I’m not sure why that hadn’t come to mind earlier (aka before I bought it) but I knew it wasn’t going to be the cohesive look I wanted so back to the store with that one.

The second one was from West Elm. It also appears to be no longer available online but the bath mat is. The shower curtain I got was the blue/white pattern only the colors were reversed - 

Also very cute only the problem here was all the white. I tried to do a mix of white (because the square tiles in the shower had been given to me for free and you shouldn’t pass up free!) and tans in the room but this seemed to throw off the balance. More importantly, the graphic design didn’t seem to sit well with the His and Hers signs above the towels. And since I really like those, I figured this shower curtain wasn’t the right one either.

Before and After of what I finally decided on to come later!

One Fish, Two Fish

Since we’ve been using the guest bathroom while our master is under construction I noticed one day that I really liked the bright pop of pink from my robe against the color of the bathroom walls. It was a somewhat surprising color combination (for me at least) but I think I’ve been on a bright kick lately. And we are talking about pink here so it’s pretty hard for me to resist that. I decided to give it a try by making something budget friendly to go on the wall opposite the sink and mirror. I knew I had some old unused picture frames laying around that I could paint pink and figured I could pick up some paper from Paper Source to frame. I decided on the chubby little fish because they seemed fun and much more whimsical than I would normally pick. Could be a good thing to spice things up, right?

I brought the tie to my robe to Michael’s with me to make sure I got the right paint so things seemed like they were going OK. Only problem is, they’ve been up for a couple weeks now and I’m still not convinced I like them. It’s almost that feeling of trying to force something or pretending to be something you’re not. The fact that I have two new backup pieces to hang on the wall instead can not be a good sign. Perhaps they’d be better in a different space or at a different time but I’m guessing these will be changed rather soon. Poor little fishies.