happy living Design

thirsty : Pokal tumblers

We have a these glasses and as they have broken I haven't been replacing them.  They have these giant 'dimples' on the bottom that collect a ridiculous amount of water in the dishwasher and I have been on the hunt for new tumblers (w/o dimples).  I love these from Ikea and how much more affordable can you get than $1.99?  I sense an Ikea outing in my future so that I can inspect the dimples.

ps.  I guess when we registered for our wedding we requested a set of each size glass: juice glass, cooler glass and double old-fashioned.  We rarely use the juice glasses and could live without the DOF's since we have a set of crystal DOF's.  I think the Pokal tumblers would serve all of our needs and we'd only need to store ONE SET of everyday glasses instead of THREE.

purging and giveaway

My books needed some room to breath so I made a large pile to be donated.  But I have several of Martha Stewart's decorating books (the thinner paperbacks) that might be of good use to one of you 'out there'.  So I am giving away a lot of four books, one magazine and a few mini good things magazines.

They are all in very good condition, some like new.  Leave a comment below by December 20th at 12 noon and I'll pick one random person to get the whole lot.  I'll try to send them out before Christmas but they probably won't arrive until after depending on where you live.

a nice vessel

or plant pot as Ikea calls them. BLADET plant pot with saucer by Ikea ($8.99)

Useful for containing all sorts of things.  I could use these all over the house.

As seen on Bethenny Getting Married? in the kitchen.  Did I just publicly admit to watching that show??

spending hiatus #2

Starting today I am on Spending Hiatus #2.  This time around I am not following anyone like I did last time. I am trying it out on my own.  We will see how that works.  If any of you did not participate last time and want to  this time feel free to do so and let me know so I can follow you.  Either way I will do the same as last time and post each Monday (or Tuesday!) and re-cap.

So far I have a few exclusions such as two toilets, one refrigerator, paint and some other building supplies for our bedroom make-over.

I am committed to three months of this: June, July and August.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the spending hiatus exercise, I am committing to not buy anything that would be deemed non-essential for three months.  For me non-essentials means clothing and accessories, home and decorating items, specialty personal care items (it is amazing how much money I can spend in one trip to Walgreens), magazines that I don't already have a subscription to, books (thank goodness for the library), electronics and itunes music.  This list is not exhaustive and I think it would be different for everyone.

Like last time I am going to use the next three months to do some more de-cluttering and organizing my two favorite activities.

Wish me luck.

spring cleaning

Does anyone really do spring cleaning anymore?  It was more of a necessity back in the day when fireplaces were the main source of heat during the winter and the rugs and drapes needed to have the soot shaken out.  But spring is still the most popular time to do a deep-clean around the house, purge and organize (my favorite things!).  And after the 3-month spending hiatus, I feel some major purging coming on.  I did a bit during the last 12 weeks, but not nearly enough.

Martha has a nice Spring-Clean Your Life gallery which is based on the book Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear Your Clutter, Find Your Life by Gail Blanke.

photo from Martha Stewart

book giveaway

I am giving away a book from my own library.  It's used, of course, since I read it! but is like new and instead of sending it to Goodwill or selling it to some random person, if anyone is interested I will send it to one of you instead.

See book description and reviews here.

If you are interested, just leave a comment.  If more than one person is interested, I will pick randomly.  Leave a comment by 10:00 PM on Sunday, March 8th.

image from amazon

decluttering magazines

For a long time I have been a magazine junkie.  It all started with Seventeen and it was down hill from there.  Until recently I had baskets of partially or unread mags strewn about the house.  Over the holidays I went through most of them and they went out with the recycling last week.  I have also started canceling a few of them as they come up for renewal.

I consider this a decluttering of the mind as much as it is of the house.  I truly believe there is only so much information and inspiration that one person can absorb in any given amount of time.  I spend so much of my time on the internet these days where I feel as though I get most of what I need there.  As I write this, the rumors of Domino's closing have come true today.  I wonder if it is just a sign of the times.  Something is happening with print media.  But I digress.

Having a few subscriptions to the magazines that I really delve into when they arrive means less baskets around the house to trip over.  They can be displayed in fun ways too, really showing off the gorgeous covers each month.

I like this display and photo taken by Mika.

 

Mika has a lovely blog!

food for thought :: decluttering

I am a huge fan of everything Sarah Susanka does from her architecture to her books to her blog and newsletters.  I hope that as I think about developing my own architecture practice someday that my work can reflect a lot of the ideas about home and living more simply that she has brought to us.  I clicked through to her blog after receving her latest newsletter and was so moved by her blog post about her process of decluttering her office.

She says, "I see now that the real lesson of my decluttering task was not that I needed to throw everything out, but that through the process of sorting, reviewing, and culling I was able to render down the important ingredients of my life into its particular and unique flavor, just as one would do in the kitchen with a fine sauce. It’s all there already. We just have to take the time to let it simmer, and then after decades have past, to taste the results. I highly recommend it. I’ve learned a lot."

There are a lot of ways to look at what she said.  What I took from it is that in the process of decluttering whether it be our spaces, minds or lives in general we can let go of old ways, old habits, old things, and make way for new ideas and refreshed thinking.

I have not read her latest book The Not So Big Life yet, but if her previous books are any indication, I am sure that it is excellent.  I am putting it on my library list!

fun filing?

I love these new cheeky file folders from Knock Knock.

A great way to keep a sense of humor at work!  or even at home.

a way to get less junk mail

reduce the number of catalogs you receive: https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS or http://www.catalogchoice.org/
opt out of those annoying pre-approval letters: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

via Design Milk

Both good for the environment, less paper wasted, less paper to be recycled, but also good for you.  Think about how much time and energy you spend each week going through junkmail.  I try to do it quick but I still end up having to open about half of our junkmail to make sure it does not have any private information on it.  Such a time and space waster!  Arrr.

ps.  I must have done something bad, because Typepad has not let me insert images for the past few days.  Hopefully we'll be back to normal soon.