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!