Best Home Cure Yet!

I’m so very excited to hear that Apartment Therapy will be starting its next Home Cure this coming Monday, October 18th. Better yet is their new approach.

In only 20 minutes a day for 20 days we’re all going to make our homes beautiful, organized and healthy.

So perfect! I certainly plan to follow along. I hope to share my experiences with you all and also hear about your experiences along the way.

What a great way to head into the weekend.  Also, here’s a great quote for you to consider

Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.

– Chamfort

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend.

Image from Elle Decor.

Two weeks of freedom!

I had my last day as a “Research Analyst” on Friday, September 10th. My first day working as a “Fed” (Federal Government Employee) isn’t until September 27th. This means I have two full weeks of NO WORK!

I can’t remember a time, since I’ve been able to work at 15 years-old, when I had two weeks with absolutely no work and no obligations. It’s beyond amazing. I’m a few days in and still loving it. I’ve decided to use this time for a few different things:

• Fitness. In the last year, with my health finally in check, my workout schedule has been sporadic. I’ve discovered that I really enjoy yoga. I hope to use the next two weeks to get into more of a routine with my physical fitness.
• Crafts. I have lots of half-started projects that I would either like to finish or get much further on.
• Decorating. I’d like to finish-up my office area decorating and organization and then move on to my closet.
• Learning to build a Web Site. I would like to take this blog to another level, but don’t have the technical know-how. With the help of the library, a tech savvy friend, online tutorials and a lot of patience, I hope to learn a bit more about web design.
• Getting ready for my job. I need suits. My previous job had no dress code – literally. I’m used to wearing jeans and a t-shirt to work. This will go along with cleaning out, organizing and styling my closet as I will need to go through my clothes to determine what work clothes I need to purchase.
• Dotting my “i”s and crossing my “t”s. I haven’t been eating the best lately. This is entirely due to laziness. The last thing I want to do when I get home from work is cook a meal. This needs to stop. I need to figure out what steps to take in order to make cooking more enjoyable and easier. I also want to make sure I at least start this new portion of my life with as much organization as possible.

I could ramble on and on about how amazing these two weeks will be and how much I have grown and changed in the past year, but I won’t.

The weather is gorgeous in D.C. and I hope it is where ever you are as well. Have a great Tuesday and don’t forget to e-mail me your space redecoration pictures!

My cat, Lola, enjoying the sun and fresh air on my newly recovered chair.

Getting a little personal

Apparently when I said I would post a little later, I meant MUCH later – my bad.

I thought I would get a little personal today.

I’ve loved writing this blog for the past 2 months! I’ve enjoyed sharing my ideas, experiences and projects while also sprucing up my own apartment. When I first started this blog, I’m not sure I had any real plans beyond just writing a few posts about my decorating projects. Since then, a lot has changed – my small plans have turned into big ideas and my life has been on a bit of a roller coaster.

BIG Ideas. I’m a dreamer a heart and have a creative spirit that I’ve apparently suppressed for the past decade. In the past year-ish, I have been discovering quite a bit about myself and as a result, I’ve grown and changed. All for the good (at least in my humble opinion). To make a long-story short, I have been toying with the idea of starting my own business.

My bestest (translation: best friend) and I have been meeting up every two weeks to work on a business proposal and explore the possibilities, obstacles and intricacies of starting a business. I think I have a name picked out, and am very anxious to get something started.

To be completely honest, this is all getting a bit scary.

My Roller Coaster of a Life. This year has been eventful to say the least! After several years of single-dom, I started dating an amazing guy in July 2009. I have decided to cope with some deep-seeded issues from my past. My ‘step-cousin’ died in a car accident at age 20. Most recently, my mentor and role model died of pancreatic cancer.There you have it – a very brief description of the past year.

There is just one more thing – my job. I have been job searching since January and was given a conditional offer from a government agency in June. All wonderful, except that for the clearance they had to contact my current employer. To make another long-story short, my employer has already hired my replacement. My replacement has started working and works in the cubicle next to me – awkward. My last day at my current job will be Friday, October 29, 2010. While I now have a conditional offer, I don’t have a start date from either agency as my clearance is still in progress. As you may have already figured out – I will, as of now, be unemployed for the first time since I was of working age (15 I think) in my life. Frightening!

So there you have it.

I’ve been able to post so frequently at the start as I have completely checked-out in my current 9 to 5 position. I have realized, however, that I need to check back in, at least a little bit. This is where you finally see how this sh*t-show affects you.

I will have to cut-down my frequency of posting. I will post Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Should I become an occasional slacker at work, I may add an extra post or 3. Just wanted to give you all a heads-up.

I’m so grateful to all of my readers. I can’t tell you how happy your comments make me (to know that someone is actually reading and cares a bit). Keep reading and I hope that you all will start to share your spaces and decorating projects and challenges with me (email: fab400sqft@yahoo.com).

Redecorating a Living Room (or any space) – Step 1: Inventory and Survey

Step 1 is just to get you started on the process of redecorating without getting overwhelmed immediately. Overall, for Step 1 you will be taking inventory and a survey of the land, so to speak. Basically you are going to establish what it is you are working with and where (the space) it all needs to work.

Inventory

• Exactly what is in this space. Look in drawers, under couches, behind couches – everywhere. Make sure you know what exactly is in this space. Sometimes we all forget about something we ‘stored’ here or there.
• Think of your day-to-day use of this space. Do you typically have everything you want and need to feel comfortable or to accomplish the tasks you want?

Survey

• How much space are we working with? I prefer an exact answer to that. This involves measuring or referring to your floor plan. This is helpful for any future purchasing decisions and to be able to accurately lay-out, on paper, any furniture rearrangements you may have in mind.

Not too bad – right? You could do this while watching your favorite evening sitcoms.

Please share your ideas, challenges and accomplishments by commenting or e-mail me.

5 Steps to Redecorating Just About Any Space

Just like with organizing your kitchen, I have 5 steps to follow in the redecoration process that are very similar to those I explained during the kitchen project. The general idea when approaching anything is to look at what is in front of you, dissect it, consult resources/references, solve problems and put it back together. Here are the 5 Steps to Redecorating Just About Any Space (a Living Room this time):

1. Inventory and Survey
2. Purge and Purpose
3. Inspiration
4. Budget and Shopping
5. Pull it all back together but better

I really wish I could come up with some saying or something to make this easier to remember, but so far no luck. I’ll keep thinking about it.

In the meantime, think of an area in your home you would like to redecorate.

Who doesn’t love steps?

step -noun:a movement made by lifting the foot and setting it down again in a new position, accompanied by a shifting of the weight of the body in the direction of the new position, as in walking, running, or dancing. (From: dictionary.com)

I certainly do. I love all sorts of steps – the ones you climb (great workout!), steps of the corporate ladder, and most of all how-to steps.

For most of my life, I never knew that I was ADHD, and therefore, was un-medicated until the middle of my undergraduate years. As a result, I had unknowingly taught myself methods and systems to help me be successful. Looking back, I’ve learned that one of those systems, which I still use today, is breaking tasks, or pretty much anything, down into steps.

You will notice that I did this earlier with my 5 Steps to a More Organized and Usable Small Kitchen. These weren’t just steps I made up to help explain to others, but they were steps I had applied to help myself accomplish this task. Now that I am correctly diagnosed with ADHD, I find that I still break down tasks into steps for several reasons:

1. A sense of accomplishment. Each time a step is completed a goal has been reached. This great feeling of accomplishment and completion can be a motivator to continue on in the project and help when you are losing focus. With steps, you do not need to wait until everything is 100% completed in order to feel accomplishment.
2. Less overwhelming. When approaching a task, particularly a large or important one, it is easy for anyone to feel overwhelmed. This can be discouraging. To prevent this, breaking it down into steps allows for the once large task to be viewed as several smaller ones.
3. Keeping on task. I have purposefully made steps very focused. There aren’t several tasks or goals to be accomplished in each step – just one. This helps prevent being easily distracted and taken off-track or off-task.
4. Time management. Large project can be time-consuming. While recognizing that is a start in planning and scheduling your time, it’s often not enough. It can be challenging to determine how much time a project will take especially if it is something you have never done before. Defined steps provide individuals tasks or goals which are much easier to schedule.

I know that recognizing this organizational method I have used for years, and applying it to most things I take on, has certainly helped me to get to where I am today. As such, I figured I should be a bit more methodical in the projects I share in the event you would like to try them at home (which I hope you do). I will begin by breaking down the redecoration of my living room into more defined steps.

Who doesn't love steps?

step -noun:a movement made by lifting the foot and setting it down again in a new position, accompanied by a shifting of the weight of the body in the direction of the new position, as in walking, running, or dancing. (From: dictionary.com)

I certainly do. I love all sorts of steps – the ones you climb (great workout!), steps of the corporate ladder, and most of all how-to steps.

For most of my life, I never knew that I was ADHD, and therefore, was un-medicated until the middle of my undergraduate years. As a result, I had unknowingly taught myself methods and systems to help me be successful. Looking back, I’ve learned that one of those systems, which I still use today, is breaking tasks, or pretty much anything, down into steps.

You will notice that I did this earlier with my 5 Steps to a More Organized and Usable Small Kitchen. These weren’t just steps I made up to help explain to others, but they were steps I had applied to help myself accomplish this task. Now that I am correctly diagnosed with ADHD, I find that I still break down tasks into steps for several reasons:

1. A sense of accomplishment. Each time a step is completed a goal has been reached. This great feeling of accomplishment and completion can be a motivator to continue on in the project and help when you are losing focus. With steps, you do not need to wait until everything is 100% completed in order to feel accomplishment.
2. Less overwhelming. When approaching a task, particularly a large or important one, it is easy for anyone to feel overwhelmed. This can be discouraging. To prevent this, breaking it down into steps allows for the once large task to be viewed as several smaller ones.
3. Keeping on task. I have purposefully made steps very focused. There aren’t several tasks or goals to be accomplished in each step – just one. This helps prevent being easily distracted and taken off-track or off-task.
4. Time management. Large project can be time-consuming. While recognizing that is a start in planning and scheduling your time, it’s often not enough. It can be challenging to determine how much time a project will take especially if it is something you have never done before. Defined steps provide individuals tasks or goals which are much easier to schedule.

I know that recognizing this organizational method I have used for years, and applying it to most things I take on, has certainly helped me to get to where I am today. As such, I figured I should be a bit more methodical in the projects I share in the event you would like to try them at home (which I hope you do). I will begin by breaking down the redecoration of my living room into more defined steps.