Color in the Kitchen

Anthropologie Latte Mixing Bowls and Quilting Circle
Napkins

I've been wanting a couple of medium-sized mixing bowls for literally years...not quite sure why it took me so long to finally get some! We had a really cute 5 bowl set as a wedding gift from Crate + Barrel (making it over 10 years old!) and a few years later Peter dropped the second largest bowl. That was the green one - my favorite! So keeping with the spirit of my January Cure to only bring things back into the kitchen that were functional and colorful, I stumbled upon a set of 3 pretty mixing bowls at Anthropologie today. They're actually larger versions of the latte cereal bowls that I already own in a few colors, so I thought they would be the perfect addition!

I've also been wanting to switch to cloth napkins for some time now - I just hate throwing away paper towels all the time and it seems to add a little something to the whole mealtime process to have a real cloth napkin. I had already found a couple cute silver napkins on sale at West Elm a couple weeks ago, but then stumbled upon these today at Anthro as well and loved the patterns!

Thanks to the Cure, I've got plenty of empty cupboard space to house these new purchases - hoping to keep it that way though! I do feel like it gets a little less daunting each time I do a big clean and purge because each time I get a little better at letting go and have definitely gotten better at being more selective about what I bring in - thanks AT!

Brushing up on my Spanish

So while I did pick up my Spanish lessons again this semester, I have been meaning to sign up for a language app for awhile now just to get that extra practice in each day and help me keep up with my studying when I'm not taking classes (as in, when baby #2 arrives!).

I found an article on the Wall Street Journal that recommended three language learning apps and I went ahead and downloaded the first one last night - Duolingo. It has a pretty simple interface with a cute little owl as your guide and it's completely free. This one was their favorite and I tested it out to get a feel for it and went ahead and started at the beginning - the basics level. I really like it because it makes you set a goal at the beginning of how much time you want to commit (I said 10 minutes per day to start), because I think that's where my language skills keep stalling. I feel like I've stayed at about the same level since college and each time I take a class I brush up my skills a bit and get all gung-ho about it, but then kind of fizzle out once the semester ends - studying and practicing ceases at that point. So let's see if I can stick with this one! I really like the format so far - I completed three lessons last night and each one so far introduced a few new words and grammar concepts and then poses different types of questions to get you practicing the material. They keep you engaged by rewarding you with points after completing each lesson and showing you your progress toward your daily goal. You can also "test out" of various levels if the material is too basic for you but you're not exactly sure where you should start. I should probably do this as well, because I'm probably more at the intermediate level, but I still enjoyed the lessons. I even got Peter to sign-up since he's been saying for awhile now that he wants to learn Italian. We'll see how it goes!

Here's that Wall Street Journal article, "Language Learning on the Go"

All this Spanish talk got me thinking about our trip to Spain a year after we were married - way back in 2004. We moved all of our old pictures to an external hard drive so it's not as easy to view them now - basically I have to open them one at a time, ugh. It was fun to go through them all though. Sadly, there are quite a few that I can't identify where we are. We look like such babies - and yikes, those highlights!

I do actually remember where this one was taken - from the balcony of our
hotel in Madrid - this is one I have framed with a few other pictures
from that trip

Sadly, this is one of my better hair days on the trip - not
sure where this one was taken

Or this one...Peter looks so skinny!

Ice Day Round 2

Our second "ice day" in under a week, so Conley and I took advantage of being stuck inside all day and made some good headway on the master closet clean-out! I'd say we've got about half left to go - basically all the hang clothes and everything in the cabinet and drawers. We took care of my purses (yesterday), shoes, jewelry, scarves, one section of hang clothes, and other odds and ends stuffed in there and actually purged quite a lot of old, tarnished costume jewelry. Not quite as ruthless with the shoes and scarves, but at least some purging took place!

All of this cleaning and organizing has me on the lookout for cuter ways to organize and corral things and I stumbled across these cute canvas bins from Pehr Designs on Gilt and bamboo jewelry boxes (or I'm sure I could find another use for them) by Allyson Johnson on Rue La La. These might find their way into my shopping cart tonight!

Mint Stripes and Arrows Jewelry Box from Allyson Johnson

One of many cute canvas bins from Pehr Designs

Dancing Dots Storage Bin from Pehr Designs

As for the rest of the Cure projects, here's my latest progress:

Day 12: Weekend Chores: Flowers, Bedroom Cleaning + Wardrobe Organizing
So I did get started on this task on the appropriate weekend - we had actually started cleaning the bedroom the week before because we had a new bed delivered so everything was moved out. Both of the bedside tables have been cleaned out, dusted and reorganized and we purged quite a few books and moved others out to the office. Peter got through his clothes in the closet, but as I mentioned earlier, I've still got about half of the closet to go. I'm hoping to get through a little the next few days and hopefully be finished by the weekend! I did want to show some of my closet progress though - probably could make those purses look a little neater, so thinking about a linen box for the smaller ones...looks like another Container Store visit is in order this week!

Day 13: Less Mess + Stress: Getting Your Paperwork and Files Organized
This is a task I actually got a good jump on on the actual due date - luckily I really don't have that much paperwork anymore. For the most part, it's just various doctor visit bills and I always record the payment date, amount, etc on the actual invoice, so I'm planning to scan all of those and then shred everything. I've probably got less than 30 sheets of paper to deal with, just have to make it out to the office one day during Conley's nap to get to scanning and shredding. As for cards, receipts, brochures, coupons and other odds and ends, I had gotten a good jump on organizing and purging all of these items with my kitchen clean-out since most of those things were either in the junk drawers or pantry.

Day 16: Lightening Up: De-clutter Media Collections
So I know I skipped two days - cord control and bathroom cabinet clean-out. Both are needed, but have not had a chance to get to either yet. I think I will put Peter in charge of cord control - we definitely have problems in the living room behind the TV, but this is one task I just don't want to handle on my own. I have seen a lot of cute cord wraps and such at Container Store so that's where I could help! And the bathroom cabinet clean-out will happen soon - I did go through and throw some things out, but luckily I just don't accumulate that much in this area anymore since I stick to mostly organic products plus I did a big purge for last year's Cure. So back to today's task - another one where I had a head start since most of our books were in our bedroom side tables. And then I don't have many magazines, but I did get rid of a few older ones that I'll never read. One thing on my "to-do" list is to cancel my New York Magazine subscription - as much as I do love reading it when I get around to it and it reminds me of our time there, I honestly probably read 1 out of every 5 or so that I receive - and it comes weekly. So this is something I can purge from our mailbox. And then we don't really have many DVDs or other media - most of our CDs were transferred to iTunes years ago, so pretty good in that department.

Day 18: The Assignment We've All Been Waiting For
So I skipped over the weekend chores of outbox removal, living room deep clean, and lighting - I did a big outbox emptying last weekend, but I will definitely have another big one at the end of the process. The living room gets cleaned this week and lighting will be added to my list. Today was a catch-up day so Conley and I spent it getting started on the master closet.

Day 19: A Gift to Yourself: Hang That Artwork!
So I did finally hang my Amsterdam print - I think I like it, but not positive about the placement and other prints around it (they were already there). I'm going to give it a few days to sink in before changing it around. For bonus points I was going to hang our Italy trip collage but that didn't happen - hopefully this weekend though! I'm having a really hard time finding a wall to put it on - we've got a pretty small house and there isn't much open wall space, so not sure what to do with it. Hoping something will come to me in the next few days! ;)

Love this image from AT Day 18 post - I need that white drawer stand...what I could do with all those little drawers!

My little helper modeling some of my sleeveless tops

The one section of clothing I did get to today plus
half the purse collection above that - need to get
something to organize them in so this looks a little
nicer!

The rest of the purse collection plus some summer heels

Flats and more flats and scarves...yes, I own way too
many flats!

My nicer shoes get to stay in their boxes plus the
jewelry shelves

My kale flower from this past weekend's chores

The new print is the one in the middle - not so sure how I feel about it yet

Playing catch-up

No surprise, but I've fallen a bit behind on my January Cure - but I'm pretty happy with how things are turning out so far and the progress that is being made. My complete kitchen clean-out (minus the pantry!) and re-organization left me feeling great and then Conley and I finally finished the pantry during the "ice" day this week, so kitchen is done! Since the kitchen was my big project for the month, I'm happy that I can at least say I will have completed that!

Besides some Cure-ing, I've gotten back to my Spanish classes. Two nights a week now, and I leave for my 7:30 class while Conley is in the bath so that works out well. Except I am so tired by then, that it's been hard to get myself out the door some nights! I've already missed one class, but am going to try to keep with it. It has been good at getting me to study up more consistently, so hoping this semester will see some progress on my never-changing Spanish language level!

Here are some "after" shots from my kitchen clean-out and what else I've been up to with the Cure the past couple weeks:

Day 7: Flowers, Kitchen Organizing + Cleaning, Make a Meal
My kitchen clean-out was my big success this weekend - it was definitely a 3 day project, but it was worth it in the end! Last year's Cure had helped me pare down my kitchen supplies and this year I think I was even more ruthless, which resulted in some empty/sparsely filled cabinets. Things are looking good and I have learned the past few years to be much more thoughtful about what I do bring into my home, so replacements (where needed) will be functional AND colorful. I needed new organization containers for some of the drawers, so this task spilled into the following week - but I'm loving the results! I think this time around it should be a little easier to keep up - if only because we have so much less stuff! I also picked up some flowers and made an updated chicken broccoli bake (my favorite childhood recipe!) for dinner on Sunday, so it was quite a packed weekend!

Nicely re-organized fridge door

Missing a few tall glasses that were in the dishwasher

New and improved Junk Drawer #2!

Love my new Anthro measuring cups!

Coffee and tea center and overflow wine glasses

Still have a lot of tea towels, but did get rid of a few!

Clean fridge!

Made room for those metallic gold flecked champagne
flutes from Anthro - just can't put them to use until June!

Day 9: The Clutter Filter: Create a Landing Strip
This one was pretty easy as we already have this in place - it just needed a little tidying up. We have doormats on either side of the front door (although the outdoor one could be replace, it's on my list!), we've got a coat closet right in the entryway, and then as you enter the living room we have a dark wood console table with 2 little drawers that is our drop spot for keys, glasses, mail and other odds and ends that are coming in or heading out. I cleaned out the drawers, moved a little Anthrolpologie painted dog bowl over to the table as a little "catch-all" and done! I did add to my list a larger porcelain dish or something similar to hold sunglasses - the drawers aren't deep enough - so that's still to be done, but I'm sure I can find something!

Day 11: The Halfway Point: Project Progress
Wow, halfway there! I don't think I accomplished this task on the actual assigned day, but I did start on the pantry a little at a time and then finished the second half with Conley's help - so all good here! Entire kitchen area complete!

I skipped a few days in there - planning a get-together for the end of the Cure and a media fast night. I think both would be valuable, but just didn't get to them this time around. I've got quite a few more days to catch up on as well, but will save those for another post!

Junk Drawer #1 - now with organizing bins!

Pantry "Before" - not nearly as bad as it was for the last
Cure though!

My little model and helper with the "After"

The Tea Center - could probably upgrade to cuter organizing boxes,
but these will do for now!

My Little Helper

Conley is such a good little helper - he is such a busy body and loves moving things around and putting things away. He is especially helpful with putting away groceries, paper towels and toilet paper, diapers into his drawer, empty boxes in the garage for recycling and especially throwing away trash (unfortunately not everything is actually trash). The other day we finally took all the ornaments off the tree and he put every ornament into the bin for me and was very proud of his work afterwards. Based on this, I knew he could be quite a help with my January Cure projects as well, which he did today! :)

Taking a much-needed break from all the hard work
in his new favorite reading nook - dad's still packed
suitcase from New Year's

Day 5: It's Time to Commit
Today's task was to decide on a project from the big list to commit to finishing this month. Even though I remember from last year that a complete kitchen cleaning is likely one of the upcoming weekend chores, I decided to pick that as my big project for the month. I know from last year that there is no way I can do my entire kitchen in a weekend, so this gives me a few extra workdays to successfully complete it. Also, I've expanded it a bit to include coming up with some sort of organization system to corral all the inevitable junk that ends up in our many junk drawers along with the various utensil and dish towel drawers. I see a trip to Container Store in my future. I also want to purge a lot of my older (and food encrusted) bamboo utensils along with older baking supplies, dishes, glasses and so on. I really loved this photo from today's post and I dream of one day having a dish collection this colorful (just maybe not quite so big.) I already have some cute pieces (mostly from Anthropologie of course), so I've decided that while I want to keep my kitchen collection to a minimum, the pieces I do buy in the future are going to be along the lines of the cute and colorful. Anthro's end of season sales are a great time to pick these pieces up, as I did after Christmas this past year. So one day I'll have a mini version of this photo.

Love these colorful dishes l Apartment Therapy

This is actually not that bad - need to purge some of
Conley's stuff, but I like most of my existing dishes
in this cabinet

Love the colorful mugs - and that top shelf has space
for more!

Do a clean out and replace some of the boring utensils with fun colorful ones

Needs a purge of those gross bamboo utensils and some
dividers

Not too bad, but some organization needed

Way too many dish towels in here - can barely close it!

Day 6: Making Your Home Your Own: Prep Artwork for Framing and Display
Sadly, this was another major fail on my part from last year. We are supposed to pick one piece of artwork to frame and hang on the 28th - so in the meantime, work on getting any supplies needed to frame it ourselves or drop it off to be framed.

Last year I picked a print that I had bought in Amsterdam on a work trip way back in 2006. I love the teal color, the book-ish vibe and that it reminds me of my one day exploring Amsterdam and the cute little shop that I found it in. It's not a standard size (of course!) so I had purchased a frame for it and then was just going to do a quick DIY matte job with white poster board because it really only needed to be expanded by less than an inch on all sides. I bought the poster board but that's where it ended last year. The print, frame and poster board are still sitting on the window seat in the guest room in the endless stack of unhung prints and frames that never seems to go away, So not only did I decide that this was the year, as soon as I read the post I went and framed the print and it took all of 3 minutes to do it! How did I not do this last year? I still need to attach some hardware to hang it - seems like I have misplaced it in the last year - but that print will be hung on the 28th!

Since I was feeling ambitious after finishing the matte job, I decided to commit to a second print as well - the canvas collage of photos from our Italy trip. This requires no work as it is already framed and ready to go, just need to figure out where it will go.

I was on a roll from those two small tasks, so this afternoon Conley and I decided to get going on our big project and clean out the number one junk drawer in the kitchen. Conley was oh-so-helpful with removing things from the drawer and making trash runs and I divided things into different piles: trash, recycling, medical stuff to be scanned and shredded, memory box items, and then a few things to keep in the drawer that I like to have easy access to. It's so nice and clean now, but I do think I need to find some sort of organization system to keep it from getting out of hand again and to keep things seperated. Fo now I've got a few different types of items in there, not all of them should be there permanently though: coupons, gift cards, art stuff for Conley, note pads, checkbook, user manuals, recent pictures that I printed out, my "pregnancy folder" from the doctor's office, extra sunglasses and then a few other odds and ends. I think the hard part is done, but I'm not quite finished yet. Think we will take our first of many trips to Container Store tomorrow!

The numero uno junk drawer - Before

And the "After" - nice and clean, but needs some
organizers to hold the different categories

My DIY matted Amsterdam frame

The Italy collage that has sat framed and ready to go for about 5 months

Time to get to work!

So I mentioned in my last post that I was participating in The January Cure again and I am going to try to keep up with it this year and blog about it again. I'm already behind on the blogging aspect (but not the tasks, yet!) so I've got the first four days in one post this time around.

I did make some progress with last year's tasks, so I don't feel like I'm starting from scratch when it comes to some of the to-do's. Of course, with a one year old running around (well actually he was just crawling then), I didn't get to do quite as much as I would have liked - but every little bit helps to have a more organized and happy home! Here's to round 2 (with a 2-year old) and more progress!

Day 1: Create a Project List
My room-by-room list is sadly very similar to my list last year. It's also a lot longer than some I see from other participants, I think because I include a lot of deep cleaning for each room and list out each task line by line. I guess that deep cleaning should happen every year anyhow (or more often!), so maybe it's not so bad after all that my lists are similar. I'm not going to include the whole thing here because it is kind of long and repetitive with the cleaning tasks, so instead I thought I would highlight a few of the more project-based tasks by room instead.

Living Room:
Paint
Patch holes from previous owners on wall above TV (we've been here 4 years!)
Edit and redecorate media hutches
Buy new couches, coffee table/ottoman and maybe a dog-friendly rug as well
Change window shades
Add cute toy storage

Dining Room:
Paint
Change out pendant light

Kitchen:
Clean out junk drawers
Develop a new organization system for junk and utensil drawers
Replace bamboo utensils, old baking supplies and white crock ware
Replace pantry door knob
Edit and redecorate corner bookshelves
Start a windowsill herb garden

Hallway:
Complete picture gallery
Replace calendar wall art

Guest Room:
Empty room and closet! (where to put everything in that overflowing closet??)
Convert to nursery - furniture, decor, bedding, etc.
Move wireless/cable mess elsewhere
Change window shade
Finally frame that Amsterdam print (bought the supplies during last year's Cure!) and find it a home
Deal with stack of prints and frames - hang it or dump it!

Guest Bath:
Change out wall art
Buy new hand towels and rug
Replace shower curtain

Conley's Room:
Major toy bin edit! (should have happened before birthday/Christmas!)
Change out ultrasound picture (2+ years later!)
Store old clothes

Master Bedroom:
Paint
Change prints above bed
Hang art/family pictures above TV
Buy a fluffy duvet cover/insert
Replace 4 standard pillows and covers

Master Closet:
Semi-annual edit and purge
Buy space saver hangers

Master Bath:
Paint
Clean tile grout
Re-caulk tub
New bath towels and rug

Kanga:
Finish work from the Style Cure - made good progress but never finished! :(
Buy batting for bean bag chair and assemble
Find small table with drawers for next to desk
Replace mushroom art with big calendar
Add to city and Conley art galleries
Find desk lamp
Buy cute desk supplies/organizer
Add books and decor to shelf unit

Day 2: Weekend Chores: Flowers and Floors
I loved the weekly flower chore and tried keeping up with it most weeks the rest of the year too. It's amazing what a couple vases of flowers can do to cheer up a room! This time I found some orange tulips (my favorite flower) and divided them into two vases for the kitchen. LOVE!

Tulip vase #1 - on my newly de-Christmased kitchen island

Tulip vase #2 - on the windowsill above the kitchen
sink, so I have something nice to look at while doing
dishes!

So I literally just had the floors cleaned, but I know that the "cleaning" isn't the only point of that exercise, so I improvised. Since I sort of combined the list making and the weekend chores into the weekend, I moved stuff around and looked behind furniture as I went room-by-room making my list, so I could get a feel for problem areas, etc. So not quite the same, but close! And then as for green cleaners, I already own those and am pretty well stocked, so one less to-do for the weekend!

Day 3: 10 Mindful Minutes: Get a Fresh Perspective
Last year, I sat in the living/dining/kitchen and re-imagined the living room portion with new couches, a coffee table/ottoman and dog-friendly rug. Sadly, none of those visions have come to fruition yet but they are still on the list and I hope to make some purchases this year.

This time around, I decided to sit in our current guest room which will become baby #2's room come June. We painted the walls a light grey color that I still love when we moved in, so that won't change. This room is a bit smaller and more square than Conley's, and with 3 out of 4 walls consumed by a door, closet and window seat that doesn't leave many options for the crib. So it was actually pretty easy for me to figure out the layout and I'm planning to keep it simple furniture-wise. Will need a crib, dresser/changing table combo and a glider and that should about do it. Of course, I'll want some cute accessories as well - a throw rug, wall art, a mobile, a new 3 Sprouts toy/laundry bin (I already own 3 and LOVE them!), maybe some wall shelving and of course bedding and change pad covers. Oh, and I guess I will need to replace the blah beige window cover as well - that's one item I don't enjoy searching for as much as the others, but probably needs to be done. I'm thinking my pop color this time around will be kelly green to go with the grey walls and what will likely be white furniture. Conley's room is grey/aquas/minty greens/white, so this one will be a little more bold and less pastel, but I think it will be a nice contrast!

Love all these cute pops of kelly green - especially
that little step stool!

Love the green in this mobile too!

Being baby #2, I'm much later this time around in planning out the nursery, but today's task has gotten me excited about getting this room together. Can't wait to get searching on Pinterest for inspiration! Here were a few images I found the first time around on my Pinterest Nursery Ideas board.

Day 4: Set up an Outbox
This is one of my favorite tasks from last year - it's simple, quick and really does make it easier to let go of things. Last year I found that I got rid of just about everything that I put in the outbox, it just made it a little easier to let go when I had the option to change my mind. I even got Peter in on the fun last year and it worked for him too!

I set up our Outbox again this year in guest room (soon to be baby #2 room) because that seemed to work for us last year. I put a white cropped pea-coat type jacket in as my first outbox item. I used to really love it, but not so sure I like the crop style anymore and I haven't worn it in years...so off it goes for now. I kind of want to keep going on this outbox task, even though I know we're only supposed to place one item in it today.

The Cure Take 2

It's been over 3 months since I last posted so since I'm beginning year 2 of Apartment Therapy's January Cure, I thought this was also a good time to start back up again. A lot has happened in the last few months, but the main reason I haven't posted is that Conley will have a new little sibling on June 1! I am very excited - not so sure about Conley - but the nausea has been horrible and is still around a little bit (at week 19!?). :( This time around it was even worse than with Conley and reading a book or a computer screen magnified it, so I didn't do much reading, writing or web surfing the past few months. I've finally started feeling about 80% better over the past few weeks, so I'm pretty much back to doing all my normal things. Except for two of my favorites - yoga and tea! I still can't quite stomach either, which is really sad because I'm ready for them both. At this point when I was pregnant with Conley I really felt great and was so active, so it is a little disappointing to still not be back to normal yet (well despite the expanding baby bump!) Hopefully any day now!

All my favorite fall and winter holidays were even more fun this time around with Conley being a year older and he gained a third stamp in his ever-expanding passport on our trip to Argentina!

Second year at the Pumpkin Patch!

Family picture in Argentina

Best lasagna ever - Italian restaurant near the Japanese Gardens in Palermo

Loves riding on dad's shoulders!

First pony ride at the zoo in Buenos Aires

This was the back of our Christmas card - sadly, this was the best shot of the 3 boys!

My little elf loved decorating the tree...everyday

Cookie decorating party at school

Loves his furry brothers!

At the Zilker tree...before the lights went on

First trip to the Trail of Lights was a success!

However, the Santa visit was not!

Birthday picture with furry brothers

Petting Zoo Birthday!

With lots of balloons!

Someone actually enjoyed his cake this year!

Lights at Mozart's with the cousins

Kisses for his new cousin

Cousin line-up!

The Maestro in his doggie Christmas PJs