Re-Designing My Days

One of my goals for 2013 is to keep it simple. I've been inspired by zenhabits lately, and one post in particular struck a chord. It espouses the virtues of doing more by doing less. After a weekend spent in a semi-mindless state surfing the Web and watching re-runs of Law & Order: SVU it was clear that this was advice I needed to take...stat. Sure, those things help me unwind temporarily, but they're not helping me live the kind of life I really want to. When I found another post on a similar topic during my nightly blog reading tonight, I knew the time had come to make some changes.

Starting now I'm going to carefully curate the tasks I allow to fill up my days. Out go the mindless distractions that don't add value. In go the tasks that align with my values, goals, and priorities.

Starting today I am going to do less: TV watching, Pinterest surfing, Facebook checking, shopping.

And I am going to do more: sleeping, exercising, cooking, organizing, de-cluttering, hanging out with friends, reading, and volunteering. 

I know these sounds like New Year's resolutions type things but I am going to make my goals more specific than that. Here's the current plan:

1. This week I will not be on Pinterest, Facebook, or the few other social media sites I normally check at all. 
2. The following week I will limit my time on these sites to 15 minutes after breakfast in the morning, just to catch up on what's going on in the lives of friends I don't see every day. The need to get up and go to work with help me enforce the time boundary. I'm deleting the bookmarks for these sites from my work computer so I'm not tempted to check them from there.
3. I'm limiting my TV watching to the morning and evening news, one hour of DVR'd TV per night, and of course Downton Abbey on Sunday nights. That's the only show I really look forward to watching anyway. The rest of the time it's just on for distraction. 

What to do with all that time I'm no longer wasting?

1. Work out 3x this week. 
2. Tuesday night is going to be cooking night. I picked 3 recipes from Pinterest that I've been dying to try and I am actually going to cook them instead of pinning new ones. What a novel concept! 
3. I've gathered all the "stuff" around my home that doesn't have a place onto the dining room table. I'm going to go through it all and either find a home for it or put it in the Goodwill bag. Hoping to have the whole pile cleared off by Friday night.  

If I have time left over, I'm going to go to bed earlier, read, or write posts here. It's still cold and dark early in the Northeast so giving my body a little extra shut-eye isn't a bad idea.

Seeing all this spelled out I'm actually excited for the rest of this week. I've done this kind of thing before and it always feels so good. Clearly it hasn't stuck, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying!

Are there any tasks or habits that you want to eliminate from your day? Things you want to do more of to achieve your personal goals?

New Year, New Goals

I can't believe it's been more than 6 months since I last posted on this blog. Yikes! I've been trying to focus on living life and I guess that meant spending less time writing about it. But I do love blogging so I definitely want to pick it up again. I've been busy organizing and updating my apartment so there are plenty of new things to share!

Before I can do that I need to have a little photo shoot, and considering it's dark outside now is not the best time to do that. So instead I'll do what many of my fellow bloggers did at the start of the month and share my goals for 2013.

1. Keep it simple.

I spent much of my holiday vacation purging things from my home and do not plan to bring new things in unless I absolutely need them. This forces me to use what I have, and as it turns out I have pretty much everything I need. I am also trying to de-clutter my calendar. One of my favorite lessons from The Happiness Project is that you can control what you do, but you can't control what you like to do.  I'm giving myself permission to beg off any activity that doesn't excite me. These days I'm very content putzing around my house organizing things, having quiet dinners with a small group of friends, or hanging out casually at someone's house watching a movie or just chatting. Saying no to other things has made life feel calmer and more peaceful.

2. Keep it clean.

This goal applies to both my home and my diet.

Home: I am lucky enough to have someone who comes and cleans my place every 2 weeks, but I am trying to be better about putting things away as I use them. De-cluttering and organizing helps because everything has a home to go to at the end of the day (well, almost everything!). I'm cleaning up the products I bring into my home, too: I've stopped using any chemical based cleaning or bath products and I've switched almost entirely from plastic to glass for food storage. I've recently made friends with a woman who does research on endocrine disruptors so I'm hoping to learn more from her and make my environment as natural as I can.

Diet: A few years ago I started removing processed food from my diet, and the work continues. This year I'm focused on cooking more from scratch, trying new things, and eating mindfully. Energy bars were a crutch for me in the past so I'm going cold turkey on those, switching to things like oranges as a snack instead. I don't go crazy with clean eating, but read labels and try to eat as clean as I can. My body feels so much better when I do that it's not a sacrifice at all.

3. Make it beautiful. 

Part of the reason I started this blog was to share my efforts to make my home beautiful. In 2013 I'll share my latest efforts on the home front as well as attempts to make myself beautiful through clothes and makeup, ways to make food beautiful (we eat with our eyes, right?), and how to find the beauty in everyday life. Photography is my favorite art form so I may occasionally share images I find beautiful, and even play around with my own camera to improve the pictures I take.

4. Have fun. 

I haven't shared much from my personal life on the blog in the past but this year I'm going to try to change that. I'm a fairly private person, but live in an area that has so many fun things to do. I love reading about other people's adventures but it's time to start having - and writing about - my own!

That's it. Four goals, very doable. I used to set rigid, quantitative goals every January but these days I'm much more relaxed. It's a nice place to be. Here's to a simple, clean, beautiful, and fun year!

My Favorite Things: July 2012

I've been expanding my horizons in many ways lately and have stumbled across some "how did I ever live without this?!" beauties. Here are the ones I'm currently going gaga over:

1. SodaStream. I bought this DIY seltzer maker for two reasons. First, I'm trying to cut back on processed foods and by making my own I know exactly what's in the fizzy water I'm drinking. And second, because I hate, hate taking out the recycling and the re-usable bottles that come with it mean many fewer trips to the bin. So far I'm loving it. I don't use the flavors that come with it - they're just chemical junk. I add a splash of 100% juice or a slice of fresh citrus and it satisfies my craving for soda without any of the terrible health impacts.

2. Maxi dresses. At 5' 4" I never thought I could pull off a maxi dress. But just for kicks I tried one on at The Gap the other day in preparation for my recent vacation. Much to my surprise, I loved it. The length is just above my ankles and the top (which is less baggy on me than in the picture below) skims my hips perfectly. Plus, it's like going out to dinner in your pajamas! I'm officially hooked.

3. Pinterest. Do I really have to say any more? I am officially addicted! But I'm also proud to say that I actively use the workouts I pin, have made many of the recipes I've pinned, and use the pins in my Style File to inspire new ways of putting together what's in my closet already. It's turned me on to some new bloggers that I LOVE (hint...see #4!) and boosted my own design confidence to see how many others are re-pinning things I loved or following whole boards of mine because they like my taste. I don't know most of them, but it feels great!

4. I Heart Organizing. This blog is amazing. The author, Jen, does such creative, beautiful things and is expanding to include a whole host of other creative ladies out there as well. It's already added to my list of daily checks and I can't wait to see what she'll bring us next!




5. People StyleWatch Magazine. I'm not a fashionista, and I don't want to be. I do, however, like looking good in modern classic styles. People StyleWatch is the only "fashion" or "style" magazine that (IMO) features clothes and outfits that real people over the age of 18 actually want to wear (and can wear to someplace like an actual office). I cancelled all my other fashion mag subscriptions but kept this one and regularly add to my paper inspiration file.

So there you have it - my favorite things for July 2012. What are you coveting this summer?

Going Green...Baby Steps Add Up

A few years ago I quietly started trying to live in a more eco-friendly way. It started with a switch to re-usable grocery bags, and has continued in a myriad of small ways from there. Chatting with a friend who is just starting down this path made me realize just how far I've come through a series of seemingly minor baby steps. I thought it would be fun to catalog all the little, painless changes I've made in the hopes they'll inspire others.

1. Switched to re-usable grocery bags
2. Skip plastic bags at many other stores (e.g. Target, mall) in favor of recyclable paper shopping bags or my giant purse. 
3. Phased out plastic containers in my kitchen in favor of glass
4. Started using re-usable foodsafe storage baggies
5. Started using a BPA free refillable water bottle
6. Got a Britta pitcher to make my own tap water taste better
7. Bought a Soda Stream for DIY seltzer - no empty bottles to recycle
8. Started buying only humanely raised, no antibiotic meats and other food with minimal processing
9. Started buying organic produce for at  least the "Dirty Dozen"
10. Cluster errands to reduce fuel use
11. Switched to eco-friendly cleaning products (homemade when I can!)
12. Started sanitizing dish sponges in the dishwasher to extend life (vs. throwing them away)
13. Switched to buying canned goods in jars, packets or BPA-free cans wherever possible

There's much more that I could do, but for now these have been virtually painless changes that most people could do without much effort. And every time I say "no thanks" to a plastic bag or refill my Soda Stream bottle I feel good inside because I know I'm helping preserve the environment for future generations.

What small steps have you made toward a goal recently that added up to a big accomplishment?

Recipe book courtesy of Martha Stewart

A year or so ago I decided to ditch a huge binder full of printed or torn-out recipes and go digital. I scanned or printed everything to PDF on my laptop and created a virtual recipe box. I'd just put  my laptop on the counter when I needed a recipe as reference. Unfortunately, I found that the digital approach led to an "out of sight, out of mind" scenario. I've been cooking less in general for a whole host of reasons, and not having my favorite recipes led to a rut of quick fix dinners that got boring pretty fast. Once the shine wore off those I went even further down into the PB&J or cereal for dinner realm. Not good.

One day when I was browsing Pintrest and some of my favorite blogs I kept seeing these handy recipe files that people keep right in the kitchen. I didn't want a giant binder like I had before, so I started thinking of options. First I realized that the binder got so out of control before because it was aspirational. It held every recipe I might want to try ever. And I don't know about you but my ambitions far outweigh reality in the kitchen! Second I realized I didn't have room for - or want - a full sized binder in the kitchen. I'd tried a recipe box didn't work for me either (tried it before). I needed something in the middle.

Enter Martha.

I remembered seeing a set of nice, small binders in her new line at Staples. I thought it would be the perfect size for a binder to keep my favorite - and JUST my favorite - recipes for handy reference in the kitchen. I went and got one for the great price of just $6.99 in a pretty aqua color.

The original plan was to print recipes on small sheets of paper and laminate them then punch holes to put them in the binder. But I found something even better in the Martha aisle at staples. Turns out they make sheet protectors just for this sized binder! Some hold a single 5x8 sheet, while others hold two 5 x 4 sheets. I bought a couple packages of each and brought them home.

The next step was to scan my recipe file for the greatest hits. I have another blog about healthy eating so I pulled a few from there, plus those in my virtual recipe box. It was a big surprise to learn that there were only about 15 that made the cut. I printed the recipes on card stock in either a 5x4" box or a 5x8" box depending on length. Then I cut them out and slid each one into the appropriate sized sheet protector for protection against spills. Voila - my very own "greatest hits" cookbook!

I'm sure I'll add more recipes to this over time, and in fact it's encouraging me to try new ones so I can fill it out. I'm going to stock up on the sheet protectors just in case they get discontinued (hoping to do this when I have a coupon to save some $$) and when a recipe is tasty and simple enough to add to the regular rotation it'll go in.

The great news is also that having the recipes so handy has reminded me of my favorites and gotten me back in the kitchen after my rut/hiatus. I've made three of the recipes just in the week since I put this project together. I love it when organization not only helps my mental health, but also my physical health. This project fits that bill perfectly.

There are still a few things left on the to do list, like finding a way to label the outside and maybe adding some dividers to group recipes if it gets too large. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Have you done any fun, creative organizing projects in the kitchen? Come up with a recipe storage solution that works for you? If so please share - I'm always on the hunt for new ideas!

Taking the zip out of lunch

I did the Project Bread Walk For Hunger today (well, 15 miles of it!) and had the pleasure of walking partway with a new friend who is a researcher at Tufts University. She studies the effects of endocrine disruptors (particularly BPA) on breast cancer. We talked alot about environmental factors and how they affect not only cancer but obesity and a whole host of other conditions. She taught me so much, including the fact that thawing frozen plastic containers still emits BPA, not just heating them in the microwave. Methinks my few remaining plastic containers may be seeing the recycle bin soon!

One thing I hadn't found a good replacement for, though, was zipper top baggies. I freeze alot in them and use them for transporting snacks, etc. in my lunches. Well, problem solved. A co-worker uses a neat alternative called "LunchSkins". They are BPA-free, food-safe fabric baggies that are dishwasher safe and reusable. They come in three sizes - snack, sandwich, and sub. I'm going to try them out by buying one snack and one sandwich. If those work out I'll stock up on a bunch. They're more expensive, sure. Each one is about the cost of 4 boxes quart sized of zip top baggies. But these reduce the risk of all sorts of diseases, they keep plastic baggies out of landfills. I'm willing to pay a little more for those benefits, and eventually the cost/benefit equation will even out with enough re-use.

I just ordered several and can't wait to try them out!

Fun shelf paper site

I've been searching for some fun patterned shelf paper lately for a project I'm working on in the bedroom. I was really disappointed in the limited selection in my local stores but once again my favorite bloggers came to my rescue.

This week's sponsor love post at Young House Love featured a site called Chic Shelf Paper. Seriously, Petersiks...were you reading my mind? Awesome!!

I'm still working my way through the many awesome patterns available but you can be this site has gone into my bookmarks list. I can envision this site being helpful for other things, too, like backing bookcases to make them more interesting to DIY artwork for my gallery frames. I love me some fun graphic prints and this site is full of them at super-low prices.

What are some of your favorite places to shop for fun, inexpensive decorating and organizing items?