Category: At Home

Magazines

I had a problem.

I say “had” instead of “have” because that problem is very soon to be done away with and therefore I already think of it in the past tense.

You see, in the summer of 2009 I went to Morocco. Cool, right? VERY. So, last winter, I get some stuff in the mail from American Airlines (I think) about my frequent flyer miles expiring. Now, I’m not THAT frequent of a flyer but it dawned on me that I had about 8000 miles. Not enough to put towards another ticket or anything cool like that, but plenty to rack up free subscriptions for Time, The Economist, Vogue, Conde Nast Traveler, Lucky, and Sunset. Anyone counting? That’s 5 magazines, if I’m not forgetting any! Time and The Economist come every week, and the rest come monthly-ish. That’s a lot of paper!!

The "to be read" pile. Some will meet their unfortunate fate unread.

My problem comes in here–I’m not really the type to throw away magazines. I’ve had this problem ever since my American Girl Mag and Girls Life days. This week, though, I am biting the bullet and taking a few huge stacks to the transfer station to get recycled (they have a special bin for magazines, since they’re printed on a different kind of paper). I’ll keep Sunset for my collection, along with any especially outstanding Vogues, but everything else is going to a better place. Maybe they’ll come back as a recycled coffee cup or something some day.

Maybe someday when I have a real office/studio...

I’ve read several posts in which the bloggers say in order to cut down, they tear out the best parts and file them away. I should consider this, especially on some of my way older issues.

Can you recommend any alternate fates for these guys before their date with doomsday tomorrow?

Dining Room Inspiration Board

First and foremost, I need to move all of the boxes I’ve stuffed behind the piano into storage.

Then (after payday) I can get Doug on board and we can start in on the dining room! It’s current forest green vibe dosen’t jive with the freshly painted bright yellow living room (although from what I hear it’s quite an upgrade from the red dining room Kellory moved into…).

I’d like to brighten up the paint underneath the chair rail with a lively terra cotta (staying away from getting too far into the pink zone). Everything else we already own so aside from painting and hanging a frame/window/painting collage on one wall, the room will be largely the same.

I forgot to include the dark brown cafe chairs with a teal cushion. So use your imagination--teal will be the accent color...

Balance

Home, Work, Blog, Etc.

Today’s a balancing day. I didn’t get a blog post out before 11 this morning like I like to; instead I slept in till 8:30 (leaving me half an hour to get ready for work, which is pretty typical). I was a little extra tired due to our good weekend in Oklahoma City, which I enjoyed but tired me out due to missing out on my “sleep in” days, AKA Saturday and Sunday.

Actually, here’s another part of my lack of energy: somehow I threw out my back last Friday so I’ve kind of been taking it easy so as not to a) aggravate the pain and b) give it a chance to heal. So here I am blogging from my bed (I’m usually at my desk) among piles of pillows like an old timely invalid. It’s actually quite cozy. Somewhat contrarily to what I just finished saying about being an invalid, I’m also doing laundry and such… including putting away my suitcase from Christmas (I got back over 3 weeks ago, just sayin’).

Catching up on chores like this make me feel better about not being a hypocritical blogger. Creating a comfortable and stylish living space is only half of the battle–keeping it clean so that it looks good all the time (not just when I clean and style it for photos) is the REAL challenge that I’m focusing on maintaining. For the record, ever since “living room week” and all the photos I took of the room–it HAS stayed quite clean since my initial cleaning & styling! Now I’m trying to get my bedroom back to it’s full glory. I mean, it’s great to take on projects, work on them, and complete them, but being a mature adult and having a neat and tidy living space is a life long project and deserves to be celebrated just as much as another DIY.

Unless you have a maid. Then it’s not really Do It Yourself.