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?

Dish drainer as home command center

I just found this adorable organzing/re-use idea on the BGH website and had to share. So clever!

http://www.bhg.com/rooms/home-office/storage/cheap-home-office-storage-ideas/#page=3

Adorable DIY Lego table

I love a creative DIY project and just found this homemade Lego table tutorial online. I don't have any kids of my own yet but my godchildren just might be getting this for Easter. So simple, low cost, and hours of fun!

I'm also thinking of ways to add a container to the underside of the table to store the Legos in place when they're not being used. Maybe screw a drawer underneath or a slide out basket? Hmmm...a trip to IKEA might be in order for this weekend!

Grocery-list shortcut

One of the first principles of organizing is to work with your natural tendencies, not against them. Well my natural tendencies when it comes to a grocery list is writing it on a whiteboard that's on the front of my freezer. Problem: I'm not going to schlep the whiteboard to the store!

I tried using my ListMaker app on the iPhone but that requires re-entering my list into my phone. Doesn't tend to happen very much!

But today I had a realization based on a new trend I see at work...using the iPhone camera to take a picture of the notes on a whiteboard you want to save. I can take a picture of the list on my whiteboard with one click and have it in my phone at the store with no extra typing required.

Genius!!

This is definitely going to be my new approach for list transference in the future. Such a time saver!

Inspirational Quotes

I'm a big fan of inspirational quotes and have amassed quite a collection myself. Web surfing recently led me to another collection on the Your Life Your Way blog. Many of my favorite quotes are on there but one in particular has been relevant to my life lately:

"Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections." - Unknown

I also found a great quote on this blog with a particularly pretty printable to go with it. The quote is:

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows. It empties today of it's strength."
- Corrie Ten Boom

Pinspiration: DIY earring display

I'm still working on pictures of the bigger decorating projects I did in 2011, but here's a small one I just did this week to keep things moving.

For a while now I've been enamored with picture-frame earring holders like this one I saw on Pinterest. I thought for sure I could make my own, and sure enough all it took was about 15 minutes and about $15 worth of materials.





I, too, used an IKEA frame but a smaller one - Ribba 5x7 - because I didn't have a ton of space or that many earrings to store. Instead of the fancy aluminum sheeting she used (it was $18 a sheet) I grabbed a $4 removable window screen panel at Home Depot that gave me two sheets of screening the perfect size for my frame. It's a good thing because I cut the first one a little too small so I needed the second one to complete the project.


I took out the glass, mat, and backing and just pressed the screen in to the frame opening from behind. I used staples to secure it to the inside of the frame and the bulk of this baby was done.


There was only one problem...I have alot of hoop earrings and those can't hang on the screen the way my dangly earrings can. To solve that problem I busted out the cordless drill and some old 7/8" cup hooks I had lying around. I drew a straight line across the center of the frame's bottom edge then marked off every 1.5" I drilled a small pilot hole at each mark and screwed one cup hook in. Now my hoops can hang below the frame from there while my dangly earrings do double-duty as fashion and room accessories in their new more decorative home!

(P.S. The photo above is missing one cup hook because I ran out. I've since bought another pack for about $3 at Target and plan to use them for more DIY projects in the future. In fact, some friends might even be getting one of these DIY earring racks as a gift soon! But shhh...don't tell them!)






I'm also hoping that seeing these earrings out all the time will lead me to wear them more often rather than just stick with the standard small hoops and studs that I typically default to.

Lots of work, but not much blogging

I can't believe it's been 5 months since I last posted to this blog. The end of 2011 was rather chaotic for me so blogging feel by the wayside, but I am proud to say that working on my apartment decor, organization, and fashion did not. In fact, when I re-read my last post about the "to-do" list I was floored by how many of those things I had actually accomplished. I'll be updating with detailed posts (and pictures!) over the coming weeks but here's the same list updated with what I've actually accomplished.

Dining room:

• Find a fun fabric and make a table runner. (I used mirror tiles instead of fabric)


• Bring the curio in the corner back to my mother. (it's hers but she lent it to me) - I put it in the attic instead. She's not ready to take it back yet, but I had to get it out of the room.


• Get a small Expedit shelf and wine rack for the corner to create a little bar and dining room supply cabinet for linens, napkin rings, etc. - Done! I am most proud of this project.
  

Kitchen:

• Replace the prints over the laundry closet door with a decal. - In the ordering process for the decal now but a mock-up is currently on the wall.


• Purge and reorganize cabinets with only what I need and use. - Mostly done


• Accessorize above the cabinets with something more attractive.- Waiting for an upcoming kitchen remodel to do this one

Guest Room/Office:

• Make a larger fabric magnetic board to replace current corkboard. - Done!


• Get a third file folder for my active file baskets. - Done!


• Secure the magnetic strip holding my supplies with Command Adhesive strips. (The screws it came with aren't enough for the strength of the magnets in my supply containers!) - Done!


• Finish filling the picture frames on the display shelf. - Done!


• Clear out the closet/clutter and donate stuff to Goodwill. - In progress


• Sell my old desk and chair on Craigslist. - Done!
  

Living Room:

• Finish painting the TV wall and the edges around the other walls. - Done!


• Add a self or artwork in the space above the TV (between the bookcases)


• Find a home for larger books/binders and re-accessorize the last bookshelf. - Done

Bedroom:

• Put duvet insert back in to puff up the bed. - Done!


• Paint and re-organize the closet. - Reorg done, decided not to paint


• Take down the white curtain panels and paint the back wall. - Done!


• Find art for over the bed. - Opted to leave it blank

That's way more than I would have told you I've done in the last 5 month if you asked me. I'm proud of how much progress I've made. There's still some things to do, but the place is finally starting to feel like a real reflection of who I am and who I aspire to be.