Checkpoint–How’d I do in March?

Posted in Goals by teamtradermom

Time once again to check in and see how I’m doing on my New Year’s Resolutions. This is about the time of year when I normally start to get flakey or lose interest. Think I stayed the course?

Family and Home:

1. Do at least one family outing a month. We did a few of these, including going to some new parks, surprise party for CJ and walking the pedestrian bridge downtown and even breakfast at my work!

2. Tackle the following home projects this year:

Buy and hang curtains on all the windows. I bought curtains for the master bedroom but they’re on back order so I haven’t hung them yet. Baby steps. Next room to do will be the living room.
Unpack the remaining boxes in the basement. No…though I did re-organize a few things down there.
Create a sitting room within the master bedroom. Not yet
Add built in shelves to the living room by the end of the year. No progress.

4. Move Isabella to a toddler bed. YES! Check this baby off! We transitioned her over just a few weeks a go and she’s doing great! It was actually really easy too, which is a relief. It still scares me that she has freedom now to wander around, and in fact she did fall down the stairs yesterday, but we’ll get used to it all in a matter of time.

5. Have Isabella potty trained by her 3^rd birthday (September 30). No but we did buy a potty seat for her to start training with!

6. Research pre-schools and enroll Isabella in one to start in the fall of 2012. No progress.

Financial and career:

7. Attend one career professional event a month. Done!

8. Spend less money. We actually did really well on this one. I started employing some simple money savings tricks every day and that is helping me feel empowered. Plus we got our tax refund from the state which helped. The Federal refund will all go to paying off the credit card. I also cashed in some points on 2 of our cards to help reduce the balance. Yeah!

9. Save money for Isabella. Her money saving jar is about 1/4 of the way full!

Physical and health:

12. Adopt one new healthy habit each month:

March – Do some type of physical activity IN ADDITION to regular workouts
April – Drink at least 64 oz. each day (includes water, tea, or juice. Does NOT include pop or alcohol)

I actually switched these around. I figured March would be too cool for outdoor activities (turns out, I thought wrong) so I opted to do the drinking more water one. I actually was doing really well at it for the first half of the month, then I fell off. I’ll keep working on it though!

Social and cultural:

13. Attend at least 4 cultural events this year. I attended a lot of things this month – saw “The Fantastiks” at the local Community Playhouse, saw “Rock of Ages” at our theatre downtown, and attended a Fashion Show with friends! All super fun!

14. Regularly participate in events put on by the social clubs I belong to (speakers events, parties, happy hours, etc). Did a couple of these as well!

15. Go on a date night with CJ once a month. We actually went on 2 in March! We book ended the month by seeing The Fantastiks on the first Saturday and then going to The Hunger Games on the last Saturday!

I also got a lot of projects done that I’d been putting off, which always feels good. Really good.

In April I’m going to try really hard to get to some of these that I have so far been ignored. They’re not hard, it’s just a matter of doing them!

Here’s to another great month!

27Mar2012

S & C

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

I don’t consider myself to be a crafty person. An artist, yes. Crafty, no. There is a difference but don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t. Kind of like the difference between jelly and jam or muffins and cupcakes. Everyone knows they’re not the same thing but does anyone really know why? (If you do, keep it to yourself or you’ll ruin everything.)

Despite my crafting deficiencies, I’ve actually been doing quite a bit of it lately. I spiffed up a lamp shade, repainted some mirrors and snazzied up a stool.

And now I’ve gone and done it again.

See, most of our efforts on the house have been concentrated either on the first floor, since that’s what most people will see, or Isabella’s room. Our bedroom has gone pretty untouched. Then I stumbled across this blog post and was inspired.

(source)

Aren’t those awesome? We all know how much I love Samson. What better way to honor him than by placing his beautiful silhouette front and center on our wall? That started the wheels turning and before long, I was digging out my trusty can of spray paint again.

There are many ways you can do this project. You can trace an outline of your pet on the canvas and then paint around it. You can put a stencil on the canvas and spray paint over it. You can make it all up on the computer, print and frame it. Or you can do what I did, which seemed the easiest: spray paint your canvas whatever color you want. Print out a pic of your pet that measures the right size and then cut it out with an Xacto knife. Cut it out again on white archival paper and then glue it to the canvas with spray adhesive. The whole thing took me about an hour from start to finish (not counting drying time of the paint).

Here’s the result:

I so LOVE how it turned out!

Isn’t he regal?

But why stop there? While I was at it, I did a silhouette of Isabella too! Can’t play favorites with your kids you know!

LOVE! Love! Love! That pose is very indicative of her personality too. Always heads down figuring stuff out.

Remember in my post from Sunday how I mentioned spray painting an “S” and a “C”? Well, those went up on the wall with these beauties!

And now for the big reveal!

Ta da! At first I was worried that it was too much black and white. But now I love the graphic nature of it. High contrast with a hint of color in the red ribbon gives our room a slight edge, so it’s not too “fluffy” (I’m not a very fluffy person).

Pretend there are curtains on the windows. This shot would look much better with curtains. I had planned to have some up by now but Target thwarted my plans. It’s a long story. Suffice it to say I bought 2 sets of curtains from there only to have to return all of them for one reason or other. I finally settled on some from JCPenney, which of course were on back order. They should be in our possession some time in May.

I also like how the black/white above the bed ties in with the black frames on the adjoining wall. I have read over and over that you can unify pictures just by keeping the frames consistent. So the rule in our house is black frame, white matte. Always.

I’m super happy with how it turned out. In my head, I had pictured hanging the letters by the red ribbon. But when I went to implement, I didn’t like it. So I went with this instead. MUCH better.

I’m also happy that CJ’s didn’t have a name that started with “M” or our bedroom would take on a whole other theme…

Oh, and another “crafty” project I did a while back but forgot to share was this –

I needed some sort of yellow tray to put on the dining room table to bring more of the sunny color into the room. Then I read in a magazine that you could take an empty frame and put fabric in it to make a tray. Voila!

It just so happened that I had some fabric leftover from reupholstering the dining room chairs so I used that! It worked out beautifully!

All right, that’s enough “Craft Time with Sarah”. I’m really excited about how all these house projects are turning out and love sharing them with you! I hope it gives someone else inspiration too!

If you liked this, you might also like:

29 Day Organizational Challenge – All done!

Look out Martha!

25Mar2012

Projects

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

This weekend was full of projects. I’ve had a few things in mind I’ve been wanting to do for a while PLUS I got a few things at Goodwill recently that needed a little TLC. I finally decided to bite the bullet and just get to work.

These mirrors I found at Goodwill a month or so ago.

Both are in great condition and a good size (the small one was $2.99 and the big oval one was $4.99). I wasn’t in love with the color though so I bought some spray paint and got to work. The little one was going to be black and the big one white, which would go in Isabella’s room so she’d have a mirror at her level. Wasn’t quite sure where to put the little one but figured black was a pretty safe color that could go anywhere.

I started by taping over the mirror with newspaper so it would stay clean.

Then set them up outside, on some more newspaper, so that I’d be working in a well ventilated area and wouldn’t have to worry as much about overspray.

Here they are after the first coat.

As you can see, it would take me several coats to fully cover them.

Getting closer…

I didn’t count the number of coats but I think it was about 5 for each.

Here they are in their final state, hung up to enjoy!

The big white one went in Isabella’s room, next to the door so that she could see herself after getting dressed.

I ended up putting the little black one by the front door to use as people are coming/going and want to check their hair, make-up, hats, etc.

I’m really happy with how they turned out and both were super easy.

Another painting project from yesterday was this stool I got at Goodwill for $4.99.

It’s the perfect size for Isabella’s playroom (and we needed one to help her reach some books). The natural wood color was ok but didn’t really go with the theme of the recently redone playroom. So, I got out my trusty white spray can!

Here it is after one coat.

It took about 5 or 6 coats for this as well, due to all the little divots of the wood and wanting to get those filled in.

Here’s the final product, set up in it’s new home.

Isabella already loves it and will pick it up and carry it around to various rooms!

While I was spray happy, I took on some wooden letters. See, I want to put an “S” and “C” up on the wall above our bed and I’d like to put at “I” above Isabella’s! I happened to find a wooden “S” at Goodwill for $.99 (see a pattern here?) so all I had to do was buy a “C” and an “I”. Isabella helped me pick them out. She wanted a glittery pink “I” for her room. While I could have made one myself, I opted to just buy one that was already done.

Here it is hanging on her wall.

Not the greatest pic but you get the idea.

The “S” and “C” had to be painted though because they were plain white.

I painted them black so that they’d stand out from our bedroom wall (which is a light tan) and provide some good contrast. Of all the painting projects that took place yesterday, they were the easiest. 2 coats later and they were done!

You’ll have to wait for the final reveal on those as I want to show them as part of the finished bedroom wall. More to come on that this week!

I also fixed up our living room lamp yesterday. The lamp itself was another Goodwill purchase made over the summer and it cost $14. The shade however was on it’s last legs. It worked for a while, until Isabella knocked in to it a couple weeks ago and broke it beyond repair. So, I bought a new lampshade (no, not from Goodwill…from Target…geesh).

It was a nice lampshade. Contemporary, with the cylinder shape and made of burlap, but a tad boring. So, I bought a clearance roll of ribbon from Michael’s and got to work. I basically took some spray adhesive and sprayed the top of the shade, as well as the back of the ribbon, and then just laid the ribbon around the top. It took me all of 5 minutes to complete.

Ta da!

I really like it. The change is subtle but enough to give it personality. I plan to add another ribbon along the bottom but I ran out and have to go buy more.

Finally, I tackled the kitchen pantry.

Here is the “before” shot.

Things were randomly jumbled in there and it was getting harder to find things.

I started by taking everything out and categorizing it – cereal, baking supplies, cooking, snacks, etc. Then I looked at each group and further sub-categorized (for example, in “snacks”, we had crackers, bars, bagged stuff and candy). Each category then got contained in a bin of some sort, labeled and put back on the shelf.

Here’s the after.

Look at how much more room we have! And it’s nice because some of the staples that I use for cooking or baking are corralled all together so I can just pull out the whole bin and have everything handy! Oh, and of course I got the bins at either Goodwill (for $.39 each) or the Dollar Store.

Here are a few more pics of items that I’ve ‘scored’ recently while thrift shopping!

This circle-patterned pillow ($3.99) on the living room couch.

Some summer shoes for Isabella ($2.99 each).

Some scarves and a vest for me (scarves $3 each and the vest was $5.99).

AND this toddler chair for Isabella to use at the table instead of her high chair (which I’ve been wanting to get rid of for a while)!

This was a huge score. We found it at a used children’s place for $5.50 (normally they can be in the $20-$30 range)! She absolutely loves it too! We also found a potty seat for when we start potty training. It was also way marked down to $5.50 (and it’s a nice one that converts from a self-contained potty, to a stool and seat that goes on the adult potty).

Well there you go – that was my Saturday! Seems like a lot for one day – and I guess it was – but most of it was quick. The painting takes a few seconds to put on one coat. It’s the drying that takes the most time. The pantry was the biggest project, which I knocked out during Isabella’s nap.

I LOVE it when ideas from my head come out in real life just as I pictured them to! And it feels even better knowing they were all thrift store finds (the most money I spent was on the spray paint at $6 a can. Considering I got 7 things painted using 3 cans, I think it was still a good deal)!

Now I’m off to play outside with my sweet daughter and handsome hubby!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Treasures

Accomplished

5Mar2012

February Update

Posted in Goals by teamtradermom

It’s the time again ladies and germs. Time to check in and see how I did on my resolutions for the year.

The shortest month of the year has felt very long indeed. To be honest, I really didn’t spend much time thinking about resolutions. We were so super busy that I pretty much just did what I had to do and called it good enough. However, much of these have sort of been ingrained in my head already so I was able to check a few off without too much hassle.

Love it when that happens!

Here are the items that we had success in.

1. Do at least one “special” family outing (i.e. the grocery store doesn’t count)

We went to a Super Bowl party and Isabella had lots of fun there. She was also a big hit during the halftime show.

We had friends over to celebrate Valentine’s day, which was also super fun.

We went to the Polar Plunge, which was quite the experience for all of us!

We were also invited to a neighbor’s birthday party, which was great. The more we can expose Isabella to other kids, the better. She’s getting better at playing WITH other children rather than just playing NEAR them.

2. Find window treatments for all windows

Got some valances hung up in the playroom, which was a huge win. Next room on the list: the master bedroom. At this rate, doing one room a month, we’ll be done by the end of summer!

3. Organize and decorate the front room

Big win! I participated in a blogging challenge that spurred me on to getting this room in tip-top shape! I’m super pleased with the results!

4. Add Built in shelves to the living room

We’ve started talking about what we want and I’ve been scouring Pinterest for ideas. Does that count?

5. Move Isabella to a toddler bed

We haven’t made the transition but she seems to be more and more ready. She’s taken to climbing up on our bed and laying under the covers, pretending to sleep. She always climbed up before but mostly to jump around and be silly, never to actually rest. I was *this close* to letting her take a nap in our bed one day but it didn’t end up happening.

6. Research pre-schools

As a matter of fact, yes! I have to give CJ all the credit on this one. He wrote down all the pre-schools and Montessori’s in our area and called them one afternoon. We still need to schedule visits and what not but this was a great start. Go Ceige!

7. Attend one professional event a month

Done! I attended an event all about the planning of the Omaha Marathon and it was really interesting. I work in technology so any time I can hear about projects in other industries it’s fascinating to me. All the details that have to be ironed out are mind-boggling.

8. Save 5% of paycheck and apply 5% to credit card debt

Not so great. I did initially set money aside in savings but then due to an accounting error on my part (I wrote in the ledger that we had deposited money but I forgot to actually do it), needed to grab it back to offset overdraft charges. I was so mad at myself for that. I did pay off a chunk of the credit card so I guess that’s the silver lining.

9. Daily prayers

I’ve been about 50/50 with this one when it comes to formally sitting down and talking with the Big Man. I do however have random talks with him throughout the day so I should give myself more credit.

10. One healthy habit a month – February’s was to read a daily meditation

Thanks to an app on my phone, it was pretty easy to do this one. I made myself stop and read every morning when I got back from the gym. It only takes a minute and helps start my day off right!

Oh and I’ve continued my January goal of eating one fruit/veggie at every meal. It’s truly become a habit now!

11. Attend 4 cultural events a year

I have 3 words for you – Barry freakin’ Manilow!

(my cube wall has become the Barry shrine)

12. Attend social events with friends

Super bowl party, girl’s night out with some gal pals from work to watch “The Help”, and Barry!

And these are the resolutions that we didn’t do anything on.

1. Create sitting area within master bedroom

2. Unpack boxes in basement (we actually ADDED boxes…)

3. Potty training

4. Find a church

5. Date night once a month – we had 2 date nights planned but one we canceled due to crappy weather and one turned out to be a girl’s thing (not couples like I originally thought). However, we have one on the calendar for March that will go on no matter what!

In addition to the above, there were a couple bonuses this month. For one, I found a new doctor (my previous GP had moved on to bigger and better things) and went in for a physical (I’m healthy as a horse)! I had been putting off getting a physical for years (though I do go to my OB yearly). After that I decided it was time to get back to taking a daily multi-vitamin and added fish oil supplements to the routine (given my family history of heart disease). Re-adopting these healthy habits feels great!

I also cleaned out our kitchen cabinet with mixed up dishes in it and added in a new set of china.

AND we overcame Isabella’s bedtime nonsense of fighting us when it came time to go to sleep. The Sleep Fairy + tough love = success!

How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions?

If you liked this, you might also like:

January Update

2012 Resolutions

28Feb2012

29 Day Organizational Challenge–All Done! {#29DOC}

Posted in Goals, House and Home by teamtradermom

Well, it’s the end of the month and therefore the end of the 29 Day Organizational Challenge I participated in (you can recap my progress here, here and here).

I’m really glad I participated in this challenge as it forced me to get moving on a room that I was continuing to put off. It now looks SO much better and I’m really pleased with how it turned out!

What room did I organize?

I chose Isabella’s playroom because it’s the first room you see when you walk in the house and it has a lot of “stuff” so it needs a good system.

Here are the before pictures:

Eeh gads.

I’ll give you that I took these pics on a particularly messy day but unfortunately, those messy days were becoming more the norm. With no real system in place, cleaning up seemed like such a laborious task. One that I was often too tired to bother with.

My goals with this room were pretty simple. Basically, I wanted to simplify, organize, coordinate with the adjoining dining room, and do it all without breaking the bank. I’d say I achieved all those goals, which feels great!

Here are the steps I took to ensure I completed the space in the 29 day timeframe:

1. I started out by making a plan of everything I needed to do to get it done, making sure to include my goals. I wanted to set up a course of action that would make sense and be doable. It wasn’t anything complicated. Literally my plan looked like this:

GOALS:

1. Simplify so that the room looks less cluttered

2. Use vertical space better

3. Unify color scheme with dining room so that the 2 rooms complement each other.

4. Visually separate the 2 rooms while still allowing for easy movement between them.

5. Keep costs down – try to use what we have first before buying

TO DO:

1. Paint cube organizer shelf white or use contact paper or find another shelf

2. Paint the canvas storage bins blue and yellow OR buy cheap new ones (around $15 for a set of 2)

3. Empty both LEGO bags into one of the canvas bins. Use remaining plastic bags for storage in basement.

4. Give each bin a distinct purpose and put labels on them

5. Put stuffed animals in ottomans and use the toy box for storage in basement

TO BUY:

1. Bench/ottoman

2. Possibly new canvas bins if painting doesn’t work

2. Next step was taking inventory of everything in the playroom and decide what to keep and what to purge (either trash or donate). Items that were kept were either relegated to storage (if they were something Isabella had outgrown but we wanted to keep for the next kid) or remained in the playroom.

3. Then I bought some new storage bins and ottomans and figured out a system of what goes where, labeling each one.

4. I also used a shelving unit we had in the basement to reorganize and “pretty up” her books, which also gave us more vertical space to play with.

After that it was a matter of re-evaluating how things were working and make adjustments. One thing that was bothering me were all the medium to large sized toys that were sitting out with no real “home”. I looked around and realized that the buffet we have in the dining room was full of junk and would be a perfect place to hide toys not in use. All I had to do was clean it out!

This picture gives you an idea of how the drawers were being used before.

Most had random toys, books, games, tablecloths, etc. in them, with no rhyme or reason. I went through each drawer and got rid of, moved or organized what was in them. Here’s that same drawer after my cleaning.

I was actually able to free up enough space to put several of Isabella’s bulky toys inside the cabinets of the buffet!

When the doors are closed, you wouldn’t even know there is a Sesame Street house and pirate ship in it!

After putting up some curtains, laying down a rug and finding some decorative items to finish off the room, we were all done!

Now for the big reveal!

Here are the “after” shots of the whole playroom!

I love how it still looks open and airy, yet there is a clear separation between the 2 rooms. It also feels grown up in all the right ways (like with the curtains, valances, rug, canvas bins and ottomans) while also having just the right amount of kid appeal.

(It’s a good thing Samson coordinates with the color scheme of the room!)

I also love how the dining room remains its own space yet the 2 rooms tie in together nicely (and the buffet hides some toys and coloring books)!

Close up of the bins/containers along with some decorative elements on top of the shelf (frame and flowers from Goodwill, lamp on Clearance at Target)

Finished bookshelf (2 items on top shelf on 80% off clearance at Kohl’s, yellow frame on clearance at Target, blue candle moved from another room). The Muppets paintings were actually done by my grandfather and given to me when I was 3! Such a cherished treasure!

What was the hardest part of the challenge?

Getting started! At first it seemed really overwhelming. I’m the type of person who wants to do it ALL right away but didn’t have the time or energy to knock it out in one afternoon. But once I made my plan and had a good place to start –as well as a vision of upcoming steps – it made it seem much more doable.

One of my proudest moments during the challenge…

…was when I saw my 2-year old daughter using the bins and figuring out where things went. Thanks to the labels having both words and pictures on them, when I told her to help clean up, she knew that her little cars went in the “little toy” bin and her blocks went in the “blue blocks” bin. She also thinks the “secret compartments” in the buffet are super cool. That’s when I knew the effort had been worth it and that this system would work!

If I had to give anyone advice as they begin their organization journey, I would say…

Make a plan and start small. As I said before, getting started is the most daunting part because it’s hard to know what exactly to do and what will work. Take a few days to think about it and write down a plan of action – including what you want to change in the space, what you want to get rid of, what you need to add (e.g. containers or labels) as well as what your final vision is. Also include the baby steps you’ll take to get there. Once you have that, the rest just falls in to place!

There you have it! A finished playroom – organized, tidy and still beautiful!

Next up for me? The kitchen pantry! I already got a head start today by snagging 5 bins from the Goodwill (for $.39 each)! Look out pantry, here I come!