Archive for April, 2011

Oh little one…you steal my heart each and every day.
You and Bella spend every morning getting dressed together.
My little fashionistas.
In fact, every move and expression that Bella makes…you mimic.
You love to sit up in our porch window.
You call me out there every 30 seconds to show me something new.
Seeing squirrels outside makes you giddy with excitement.
When you want to get my attention…you scream. LOUD.
Your favorite food is ketchup.
Eggs and ketchup. Avocados and ketchup. Oatmeal and ketchup.
Even in my most weary mama moments…
Your bright, wide eyes and your infectious laugh bring a smile to my face.
But I think if we asked you about your favorite part of the day…

….you would say it’s when your Daddy comes home.

I love this happy little corner. It’s inviting, cozy, and it has all of my favorite things! As you might remember from my living room tour, it used to be a bit more sparse. I’ve had this vision for a plant shelf here since we moved in…and Matt decided to build it for me on Sunday. He used the wood from the fence he tore down in our backyard. Have I told you how amazing he is!?

I’ve always wanted to have LOTS of plants in my home. They make me smile…and they filter our air! (check out Tara’s article about this topic on Sustainable Baby Steps).

Succulents. Oh the succulents. I love love love. However, we shall see how long it takes me to kill them. For some reason, I’ve never been able to get my succulents to thrive. Any tips? I would love to hear about  your favorite varieties of plants too.

Having my “current” books displayed and accessible inspires me to SIT DOWN and read. So often I just run around all day like a crazy person and forget to just take a break for a bit to feed my mind. Or at my first break in the action, I grab my computer…which does nothing to SLOW me down at all. I’m working on creating new habits in this area of my life.

This corner is my sanctuary…especially when my family is sleeping. I sit here to read my Bible, drink my mate, watch my HGTV It feels familiar and calming.

Where is the familiar “corner” of your home?
(take a photo…we want to see!)

*for more inspiring corners from other homes, check out this fun Flickr set!

I was SO excited for our weekend project of painting the bathroom! The “before” photo may look white…but it was more of a dingy yellow. Every time I walked in, I would cringe I need color!

BAM! Color! A big thank you to my amazing hubby who is the painter extraordinaire…he remained positive and upbeat even after doing remodels all week at his “real” job The color is a bit darker/richer in person…it’s the Valspar color “City Chartreuse” in the Olympic No VOC paint base for kitchen and bathroom.

This shower curtain was my inspiration…I found it World Market and I love the design and rich tones.

Bella’s room was another beast to tame. Her room goes from spotless to “were we robbed?” in 3 seconds. We’ve been continually purging unwanted toys to get it down to a reasonable level. Less stuff = less cleaning!

The main playthings in her room are her kitchen, her dress up clothes, her art supplies, cash register, books, stuffed animals/dolls, and her TV. We tidy her room twice a day to keep it under control and that seems to be working. Where there is open space…there is joyful play!

And lastly, my desk! This has been completed for awhile, but I did some major decluttering and have resolved to keep this surface open for activity and not for storage! (Thanks Francine!). It’s amazing how having completely clear surfaces can make you feel instantly inspired.

This little nook is in our kitchen and is such a great example of how you can use wasted space to create something wonderful! There used to be a high table and a couple of stools here (they belonged to our landlord), but we removed them, built shelves, and made a desk out of our old front door. Add the chair we got on Craigslist for $15, and voila!

It’s nice to have my printer/scanner up there, but it’s out of the way. The gray wall “file” is for papers I need to sort through. I like having somewhere to keep it all in one place! The large clear bin is for recycling and the drawers on the right are mailing and letter writing supplies. I would eventually like to replace those with lovely fabric covered boxes and put them up above on the shelves. The blue cupboard above my desk is our pantry for dry foods.

I love to sit here and work with the door swung open while the girls play in the backyard.

…and that was our weekend.

* * * * * * * * *

Many of you are asking for book and blog recommendations for decluttering and minimalism. I will compile a complete list when I do my longer blog post about it, but you can start with these! If you have a favorite that is not listed…please leave it in the comments so I can add it to the master list!

*For those of you who think minimalism is only about living in a sparsely furnished tiny house with white walls…think again! To me, minimalism is clearing out the things and thoughts that are cluttering your life so you can LIVE FULLY! Now get inspired!

Blogs:
Miss Minimalist
Becoming Minimalist
Minimalist Packrat
Zen Habits

Books:
The Minimalist Mom
The Joy of Less (highly recommend!)
The 100 Thing Challenge
The Radical Minimalist
30 Day Clutter Bootcamp (I’ll be writing more about this later!)
Sell Your Crap

On Saturday morning we headed to Boulder to meet up with our family…and we were pleasantly surprised to find the Boulder Farmer’s Market up and running for the season. It was PACKED. I have to say that I do NOT enjoy the market unless we get there super early to avoid the rush. It was nuts…and hot! But so fun to see all the goodies. I picked up two big bags of organic mixed greens and had half of it gone by the time we got home!

It was lovely dining outside at one of our favorite restaurants and basking in the sunshine.

Dan and Jess have now moved to Boulder from Minneapolis (in addition to Scotty), and we love having everyone so close!

The Girls!

The rest of our weekend was spent being insanely productive. One of these days I am going to have a “real” Sabbath (I should write about that…but not on the weekend!) It’s funny because I still feel like we had a very restful weekend even though we got a lot accomplished. I’m also so aware of every minute that I get to spend with Matt now that he’s gone all week!

We cleaned and purged and built stuff. Well, Matt built stuff. It was awesome. The bathroom is now painted…photos coming soon! A few other projects I have been wanting to complete are now finished, including having ALL of my laundry done at one time for the first time in….FOREVER? *sigh* Feels good.

Bella discovered several new friends in our neighborhood…we have about 8 kids her age within 2 blocks. She wore off crazy amounts of energy and is sleeping soundly tonight.

I’ve been devouring minimalist blogs and books and having a blast purging. I got rid of about 1/2 of my wardrobe and gave away 8 large garbage bags of STUFF. Crazy. I love seeing SPACE in my house. I promise I will write about it all!

Yesterday it was 80 degrees and today is snowed all afternoon and is supposed to be in the 20′s tonight. Hoping it warms up soon because , my parents are driving in from Iowa on Tue. and my sister and her husband fly in from Minneapolis on Thurs. for Bella’s birthday, so things will be fun fun fun around here for awhile!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

xxoo

And the winner is….

Cindy at cindycindy (at) aol (dot) com!

Congratulations Cindy…I will contact you soon to get your address and color choice.

Thanks again to everyone for entering and spreading the Happy Cow love. Check out their website for all the goodies. They do stock some retail stores in the U.S…so check out their site for locations. If you’re in the Boulder area, Umba on Pearl St. carries some of their styles.

Have a great weekend!!