Tag Archives: pinterest

Mar14

Spring e-Cleaning

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clean

I’ve been thinking about some of the things that bog me down during the day. My computer is one of them! Ok, my computer is pretty much the only big one. There is so much online that wastes my time.

Some of these time wasters are:

  • Email that I have to wade through. As of yesterday, there were thousands of messages in my email inbox, about 300 unread ones.
  • Facebook- be it groups I don’t participate in, pages I “liked” to claim coupons or enter contests, and people who really have too much drama in their lives and I really don’t need to know about the every detail of their day or their fight with so-and-so.
  • Twitter notifications, even though I’ve not done much on Twitter in the few years I’ve had an account.
  • Followings on Pinterest. I *love* Pinterest, and I’ve used it to better our home and life in certain ways

But Spring is nearing and before I tackle the madness in my house, I’ve started to clean up my little portion of the internet!

  • I’ve weeded out my email. I no longer have 3,000 or so emails in my inbox or 300 unread emails. There are now less than 150 emails in my box (most of which contain some level of importance) and less than 20 I’ve not read. I no longer have folders and folders of unread mail either. They’re all gone!
  • I’ve unsubscribed to roughly 50 different mailings I would get on a daily or weekly basis. If I don’t visit the website within a week or two, why bother continuing my email subscription?  And can I just say, LivingSocial and Groupon are the two worst offenders of email spam! They have so many sub-category email groups. I don’t need Groupon goods or LivingSocial escapes. One email a day from their company is more than enough, not ten!
  • Facebook has been trimmed too. Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve deleted roughly 200 friends. Maybe that sounds mean, but I’ll explain my reasoning. I’ve been a part of the Facebook world since the beginning of 2005, and thus accumulated a number of friends from all areas of my life. If I’ve not talked with the person in the last five to ten years, are we really “friends” or do we just stalk each others news-feed?  If the person hasn’t been active on Facebook in years, why are we still “friends”? If you have more drama in your life than a tv soap opera, do I really need to be subjected to it on a daily (or hourly) basis? Nah! Cleaning out my “friends” list has been so freeing!
  • Twitter. Oh Twitter. I really don’t like you and have never really used you. In fact, my account has now been deleted. One less thing to worry with or to clog my email and iPhone
  • Pinterest followings. I don’t follow a ton of people on Pinterest. But there is a reason for that. Not that I don’t like my ~1500 followers, because believe me, I do! The problem is, when I start following a lot of people, I can EASILY find my ADHD kicking into high gear. Instead, I’ve pared down the list of people I follow to a small handful (less than 30). It makes life a little more simple for me. And, I can easily click-through my friends and followers when time allows (not often here lately) to see their pins.

Cleaning up my little slice of internet pie is making things so much more breezy! Instead of having to delete 50-100 emails a day and respond to maybe 1 or 2, now I can respond to 1 or 2, and delete 4 or 5! And, less drama on Facebook is always welcomed!

Sep11

Recent Pinterest Projects

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Are you part of the Pinterest cult yet? It is by far one of the most addicting things I’ve ever seen, but I try to limit my time on there to only when I’m feeding Jonathan…if I can help it. There are so many projects I want to do, so many recipes I want to make, so much decor inspiration that I’d love to do for my house!

My recent pin projects I’ve completed:

My front door (pardon its dirtiness) is now ready for fall! The original inspiration came from this pin. The project was around $20. I used 4 pieces of wood from WalMart ($0.99/ea), scrapbook paper (less than $2 total), black letters (I think they were $1.99/ea). I had a coupon for the ribbon which started out at $10 for a huge spool. I spray painted the pieces of wood black & used ModPodge (both I had on hand) for the scrapbook paper (about 4 coats worth). I glued the letters on using heavy duty wood glue. I finished it off by drilling a hole in each corner to thread the ribbon through.

I hung a command hook upside down on the back of the door (thanks to this pin for the tip) to catch the ribbon from the FALL sign hanging on my front door.

This sign now hangs in the window next to our doorbell. I thought it was a brilliant idea so that visitors didn’t wake my possibly napping baby. Apparently the UPS man couldn’t read the other day. The idea came from this pin (her’s is much prettier than mine. My pink paint pen bled everywhere). The pencil lines have since been erased!

Recipes recently (as in the last month) attempted:

Slow cooker Salisbury steak - great, and we’ll have it again…once Jonathan’s intolerance for dairy subsides. I served it with rice, because that’s what I had on hand. Mashed potatoes would have been MUCH better!

Sweet & Sour chicken – Decent, but doubt I’ll make it again. The amount of time spent wasn’t worth it!

See all of the pins I’ve completed over on my “I did it!” page on Pinterest

Aug17

We ARE alive

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I’ve not posted much recently because of timing. Jonathan has been sleeping better at night, praise the Lord. However, we’re still dealing with nap time issues. I’m beginning to work on getting Jonathan to nap in his crib, which I’m guessing will end up being a nightmare since he hates napping to begin with. But I will persevere. I have his 3 month post sitting in my queue, waiting for me to publish. It’s all about getting the pictures off my camera. No worries, I’m only 17 days late :)

Pinterest has consumed my soul. During what few breaks I get, I’ve tried to accomplish a few projects. I’ll post more later of the DIY projects I’ve completed. The recipes, which I failed to take pictures of, have had some successes while others have flopped.

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak was a huge hit and we ended up eating it two nights in a row. The only downfall was that it has a little bit of milk in it (1/16 of a cup, per serving). Jonathan paid for it for two days and then I ended kicking myself because I didn’t think about it.

Baked Italian Chicken- this was a good, easy recipe to throw together. Joe thought it needed more seasoning, so next time I may use two seasoning packets instead of one.

Strawberry Cookies- Super simple, and they were tasty. Only thing I would change would be to cook them about 12 minutes instead of 10

Dr. Pepper cookies- I made these because I scored a 2 liter Dr. Pepper for $0.20 last week and wanted to make these. I used Devils food cake mix (the recipe says any chocolate cake mix, and thats what I had on hand). Not to be gross, but these turned out like little piles of poo. I am going to attempt again with another, regular chocolate cake mix.

Apr24

This Week on Pinterest

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Here are a few cool finds from Pinterest this week…

Pretty cool- instead of having a maternity photo session, have an adoption photo session! Read this couple's story on their journey to adopting a child (or children) from the Congo!

 

Yes they are!

Cute summer outfit

This housewarming gift is a great idea for friends or new neighbors

My mouth waters every time I look at these

Apr17

An Organized Closet

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Back in January or February I decided that one of my organization projects would be our linen closet. While it wasn’t horrid, it needed a little TLC and a little more of a “system” to it. After I embarked on the journey, I quickly realized that I wanted/needed some sort of storage baskets to house items. Using Pinterest, I came up with a few different ideas. The only problem was finding baskets that were 1) my “style”, 2) affordable, 3) easily attainable.

After a few weeks of searching, I finally found baskets I loved from The Container Store. I decided to run by after work one day to pick them up, but was quickly disheartened when I saw they were out of stock.  I came home and went to their website to purchase them there…again, out of stock. I decided to put the project on hold because I loved the baskets that much. But my hold went from two weeks back order to almost two months on back order.

I eventually went into the store to ask about the baskets and the cashier told me I could go ahead and order them, and as soon as they were available in the warehouse, they would ship my order to the store. So I did. And I also stalked the website (which is really accurate, by the way) to see when they’d be available in my local store. The day they became available, I went to the store to inquire about my order. It was there and ready for me to pick it up. They didn’t even have time to call me!

So my project was finally back under way! A few months later than planned, but I was finally able to get it done! I wish I had before pictures, but I don’t. Just imagine your average closet was stuff stacked, piled, and shoved in…with no organization to it whatsoever.

- The top shelf houses a sleeping bag, pillows (more will be returned there, post pregnancy), our travel cooler for our car (an unexpected, yet very useful wedding gift we received), and a queen duvet cover that has been shrunk to the size of a towel

-The second shelf keeps our blankets and quilts

-The third and fourth shelfs are home to these baskets… which contain sheets organized by size, hand towels and wash cloths, extra curtains, kitchen/dining linens, etc.

-The floor is MUCH more organized now than it was before, and these wheeled baskets are the reason why. One basket is home to our TP (which, when you buy in bulk, can easily get out of control!). The other basket contains our beach towels, travel towels, and a bag with all of my cleaning rags.  Extra boxes of tissues fit right in between! (Note: I also purchased another one of these baskets to corral our paper products for our pantry. Its working out beautifully!)

I also loved the idea of using the doors for added storage, an idea I found on Pinterest. I purchased a towel bar on the clearance rack at Lowes and had my father-in-law trim the bar down to the size I needed. The bar now keeps our table runners nice and straight so I don’t have to iron them again when I want to use them.

While the linen closet project was on hold, I decided that the laundry room needed a little TLC too. The main reason behind this was because with a little baby on the way, we didn’t want any chemicals stored near the floor. Once again, to The Container Store I went. I love when they have sales, because I can stock up on things much cheaper!  Again, no before picture, but here is the result of my efforts:

Everything now has a home and everything is in its home! Sure I could have done it without the bins, but it feels so much more organized now than it did! I’m also able to really keep an account of how much of a product I have. I was buying Febreeze Air Effects like you wouldn’t believe (thanks to sales + coupons). I don’t use THAT much, so I need to stop buying it, even when I get it so cheap. Now if I don’t have the room, it doesn’t get purchased!

Jan31

This Week on Pinterest

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My love for Pinterest spans back quite a ways now. Recipes, decorating ideas, projects for kids, DIY ideas, signs, the list of things could go on and on. It definitely plays to the creative side of me.

Here are a few of my favorites this week:

Decorating ideas for our kitchen- I love the table and light fixture
Love these for a boys birthday party! (If you’re in the NC area, check out The Party Booth at partybooth.info for party booth rentals!)

Life sized Operation game to teach the Armor of God

 

Color scheme for the nursery...sort of

 

bananas foster french toast, get in my belly!

 

 
Jan4

Nesting

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I definitely think the nesting bug has settled in for me, and it’s probably driving Joe crazy at times! We’ve gone through boxes and files, and more files and lots of papers. Furniture is being moved inside the house and is scheduled to be moved out of the house in less than two weeks. Its crazy, when this bug hits, it hits hard. I read an article a few days ago saying that the nesting urge hits around month five, and sure enough, that’s when it hit!

I’ve gone through old files and new files, combining them both. I’ve shredded bags upon bags upon bags of old documents and bills. Now our filing cabinet is as close to immaculate as I will probably ever have it.

I’ve slightly rearranged a few things in our bonus room (and by slightly I really do mean slightly). We’re moving a cabinet that Joe’s grandfather built out of the guest room closet and into the bonus room, and end tables that flanked the couch are now repositioned beside the couch and chair. Cookbooks and cds have found a new home inside the cabinet. Books (and boy do we have a ton of them) have been rearranged. Magazines and medical journals have been sorted and chucked.

Our guest bedroom is slowly being converted to a nursery. We’re installing (or having installed) an Elfa closet system for the nursery. This serves the purpose of not only having more storage and hanging space, but also allows for lower hanging bars for the little one. Once he is big enough, he can start hanging up his own clothes, can help pick out his own clothes, and can learn to dress himself.

My sister and brother-in-law are helping take the guest bed and  ladder bookshelf away for us. We’re also going to be installing new windows for the nursery. Hopefully some that are more energy efficient and actually seal all the way shut, with no gaps that allow air to flow freely in and out. The dresser and crib are going to be ordered by the end of the month. And once those are delivered, we’ll really be able to build our nursery!

I’m trying to sell a few items I brought with me into the marriage- wall pictures, lamps, etc. I’m going through clothes and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Some stuff will end up at Goodwill, some at consignment stores, some in a yard sale, and of course there is always the stuff that finds its way into the trash can.

At some point I’ll have to go through my crafts and really downsize those. But that probably won’t be for quite a while.

I need to buy or make curtains for our bonus room, and then I’ll have to figure out something for the nursery too.

And then there is downstairs…our kitchen needs some TLC. Its a place I make and do for others, but it needs and deserves its own love as well. I’ve thrown away almost all of of our plastic storage containers and replaced them with glass (thanks to an incredible sale through Woot.com on pyrex)

One of my “goals” for the new year was to make at least 8 new things on my list. One of those was THIS shower cleaner recipe I saw on Pinterest. I made it earlier today and it definitely gets two thumbs up! My shower is much cleaner with less effort than I’ve had to use before! Soap scum be gone! If you decide to make it, let me suggest a few things. First, make sure your spray bottle works BEFORE you put your soap/vinegar mixture in. Trust me, you’ll have much less hassle. Because I found this out the hard way, I had to climb in the shower with the bottle and a sponge and scrub everything down that way. If you have stubborn spots or haven’t cleaned your shower in the past month or so, be willing to let the solution sit for more than a few minutes.

We’ve still got so much to do, and less than 20 weeks to do it in! Crazy isn’t it?