It feels like the year is flying by, and I still can't believe how fast it went. Is that just a thing as one gets older, we lose all sense of time? Or do the days just stretch out so long that we lose sight of them until they've passed and accrued into months and years?
Anyway, I'm not here to wax poetic, I'm here to plan projects. Main reason being right now I have very little coming up, job postings are already drying up *sigh*, and I need SOMETHING to distract me other than daily housework. Seriously, I suck as a housewife - I'm getting better, but man oh man it's a chore to make me do chores. Yet when I re-purpose the idea as a "project", it somehow gets done. *shrug* Don't know how or why, but I'm going to run with it.
Last summer my project was decorating our living room, dining area, and bedroom walls. This wasn't too much fancy stuff, just lots of framing free artwork from the internets, personal pictures, and hanging my own canvas/shadowbox collages to dress up the joint. Whatever, it worked, I was able to do it for relatively cheap, and it really added motivation to keeping our home cleaner for both The Hubs and myself, because we finally LIKED where we lived and wanted to keep it looking pretty.
So aside from finding a job, what else can I do to occupy my time so I feel I have worth and don't go insane? Well, I finally figured out what I wanted to work on, and it's actually two things that should be relatively cheap and fun to do as well!
Project #1: Get the pantry/kitchen in order.
You guys, our pantry is a disaster. Like, there are designated shelves for stuff, but it's still packed with crap because when I think of "cleaning", the one area I rarely consider is the pantry. So there's near-empty boxes of stale crackers and spices I used once that we need to get rid of, like, YESTERDAY. Then I would like to find an organization system to get the pantry in order... I'm still debating if the pantry will stay a pantry for goods, or change it over to housing pots/pans/plates, or a mixture of the two. We have a TINY kitchen, where counter space is at a premium, and I have an awful lot of stuff that needs to be stored SOMEWHERE that our tiny cabinets can't quite house. Switching out the pantry and cabinet functions (even if it's just a couple) might be just the way to go... I dunno, still deciding. So here's the plan for dealing with the pantry:
- Purge. Throw out the expired/stale/carbs-I-can't-eat-anyway crap out!
- Decide on organization and designate. Ultimately, I want each shelf to have a specific purpose, and the best way to go would be to use the open-the-door-THERE-IT-IS visibility of our big pantry (Which, seriously, was one of the major things that made me go OMG THIS APARTMENT IS PERFECT, it's RARE to have such a large closet/pantry in one bedrooms where I'm from). Once I get it purged, I think it'll be clear to me what I should do with it, and I'm thinking that most likely it'll be turned into more of a storage space for pots/tupperware than for spices/food. Might serve my tiny kitchen space better. I'll update as I work on it!
Yes, there is still more decorating I want to do. Not a ton, but it's something to do that will make me happy.
The funny thing is that the reason we didn't decorate for so long is that for most of my life, I've moved around. I'm not an army brat, but I am a child of 3 divorces. The longest I've lived somewhere since I was 10 was 3 years... until The Hubs and I moved in together. We've been in our apartment almost 6 years now... but it took almost 5 for me to realize that we should FINALLY decorate! We're hoping to move in the next year or two, but since we'll most likely be here for a little while longer, might as well finish the decorating job.
There's not a lot I want/need to do. Only two projects, really.
- The big blank wall in the living room - in my decorating spree last summer, the only thing I could not figure out was what the hell to do with the shared wall between the apartments. It's just this big blank space, and it stymied me. I think I have an idea that would work:
Obviously my version will not be for a nursery, nor am I decorating with an adorable baby girl. (At least not yet ;D.) But this would be a cute way to fill up a lot of the empty space without overwhelming the living room, I think! Not to mention it's certainly reasonable, cost-wise. I'll use fabrics in browns, soft pinks, and pale yellows with soft gold-painted letters.
Click the link to go to the site! - The Dining table - I've had this project in my head forever and I've got all the pieces to complete it, but I just haven't gotten around to it. My table is this fabulous 50's-diner style piece that I loooove, but I've been wanting to make it nice so we're not tempted to use it as a storage piece as we tend to do. (Us eat at the table? Whaaaa?). So I want to slap a tablecloth on it (a nice white cotton one, simple) that I might need to make myself 'cuz the dimensions of the table are weird. Then I want to finish my cute table runner that I'm making out of dollar-store dishtowels (seriously, it'll be SUPER-cute and so easy), and a centerpiece out of this awesome thrift store bowl I bought that looks like a lemon cut in half with white paper flowers and fake lemons I found. Since my kitchen/dining room decor is lemon/lime with turquoise and silver accents, it'll look SO CUTE. Plus maybe it'll make us eat at the table more often! :D
Figuring out my summer projects actually makes me happy and really excited for the summer, which is a nice change from the dread I usually experience. ;) It'll be a good distraction that benefits more than myself. Plus it'll give me something to blog about! Yays all around!
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