Apartment Therapy's January Cure :: Part Two

When I cannot bear outer pressures anymore, 

I begin to put order in my belongings…

As if unable to control my life, 

I seek to exert this on the world of objects.  

Anaïs Nin 

As the month of January came to an end, my list of projects for Apartment Therapy's January Cure had many lines drawn through it.   Items big and small were crossed off, a highlighter drawn over priority to do items and margin notes with measurements or notes to self for future plans.

A lot was accomplished and a lot more still needs to be done.  It was a great way start to the new year.

Grady's Room
My son's bedroom was the least of my worries this year.  That's not to say it flew under the radar during this round of the Cure, but it's good enough for now.  We purged three tsotchke shelves, tidied up his closet, purged his shoe collection, cleared his desktop and added a small chair for additional seating.  I also purged the excess linens I house on the top shelves of his closet.  We spent one hour on his room.

We will revisit his room design this summer and brainstorm new paint colors or wallpaper options.  Moving the furniture around might happen, too, and we'll need to work on sturdier hardware for his window treatments.  Also, I'm going to keep my eye out on Craig's List for a rug for this space.

The Laundry Room
This room is nestled between my kitchen and our tiny entryway.  It is a catch all for many things.  Cleaning supplies are stored in the lower white cupboard, out of sight.  Extra pantry items, as well as my cookbooks, kitchen towels & Dyson hand vacuum live in the top cupboards.

The green picnic basket on top of the dryer usually holds small gifts or books to use as hostess gifts.  Steve has an exposed cubby for his mail, wallet and other small items.  According to Apartment Therapy's guidelines, this would be considered his Landing Strip.  I know there's another meaning for this phrase, but stay with me here, friends.  Let's keep it clean.

The laundry room housed my Outbox during the Cure, but now it's free and clear of all of that mess purgatory.  The white shelf is primarily used to hold our library bags, outgoing mail or items that I need to return to friends.  I guess it's always been used as an Outbox.  The three baskets hold our dirty clothes.  Darks, whites & items to take to the dry cleaner.  I throw a load of laundry in almost every morning and this helps keep these baskets from overflowing.

The Entryway
Nothing much happened in the entryway.  Excess shoes were put away, the small rug vacuumed and the slider tracks were deep cleaned.  A few years ago we added these Flor carpet tiles and I love them.  We haven't had to replace any yet, but it would be easy to do so with the spare tiles we have on hand.

The Master Bedroom (aka - "The January Cure Project")
I posted a few before and in-progress pictures on my last past about the Cure.  This is a shot of an empty room.  I cleaned baseboards and window sills, cleaned the wood floors and said to goodbye to our old bed after a quick sale on Craig's List.

Our room is approximately 11' x 8' feet.  The new platform bed (with storage) takes up 7-1/4' x 5-3/4' - it's a tight fit, but the bed fits and we turned it so the headboard is on largest, blank wall in the room.    It looks a little boring right now, but the plan is to ditch the set of dresser drawers on the right and store those items of clothing in the drawers provided under the bed.  

I'm also toying around with the idea of wallpaper on this blank wall, bookshelves or a large piece of artwork.  These items are on my list and will stay there until I figure it out and run it by the husband.

We met with a local electrician over the weekend and she is going to hardwire a permanent set of reading lights above our bed, so we can get rid of these Ikea plug-in lamps.  Hallelujah!  I just hate the cords and funky look of these functional lights.  It feels like we're still in college with this get-up.  We use them every night, so they are important to us, but not the most beautiful option.  She's also going to add lighting to my hall clothing closet and my son's bedroom closet.  Let there be light!

We're also exploring the possibility of using stools (inspired by these) as our bedside tables, but we only have 13" to work with on either side.  In the end, Steve may just build a set of simple floating shelves for each side of the bed that can be used to store our nightly glass of water, book, eyeglasses and small electronics.

The master closet is predominately utilized by my husband.  I do have two shelves for jeans and t-shirts, but most of my clothing & shoes are housed in the converted water heater closet in the hall,  just outside our bedroom.

The simple pine racks with pegs that hang behind our bedroom door save the day.  I use them to hang our baseball caps on the upper level and use the lower rack for bathrobes, my rotating cardigan sweater collection, as well as scarves and tank tops.  It's not glamorous, but it works and it's hidden behind the door when it's open.

I had the jewelry hutch custom-made about 13 years ago.  It is a dreamy little cabinet that houses all of my baubles, plus Steve's watch collection.  I purged it and reorganized it during this month's Cure and now have an empty drawer.  I'm sure that won't stay empty for very long.

I also picked up a set of curtain rods for our bedroom this week.  I thrifted a set of sturdy chocolate brown panels by Woolworth a few weeks back.  My husband has agreed to hang them in the near future.

The Living Room
Last year I worked on my living room as my January Cure Project and accomplished quite a bit.  However, the artwork I was going to get framed...never got framed.  Surprised?  I'm not.  I'm taking the piece down down today (I hung it up with washi tape and it's been that way for 365 days) rolling it up and placing it in a cardboard tube.  I'll take it to the framer next weekend.  I promise.

I popped into Target this week to grab a few new throw pillows for the couch.  All three were on sale and I'd been coveting them since the holidays.  I'm drawn to mustards and golds lately and love the look of these on my beige couch.

Well, 106 magazines were housed in my living room, mostly hidden in the drawers of our  rehbilitated mid-century dressesr-turned-media stand that I thrifted a few years back for $3 and Steve brought back to life.  I ended up donating 72 periodicals to the local library and unsubscribed to Sweet Paul, Sunset, Taproot, Cook's and Audubon.  I also put a hold on my Sunday New York Times subscription until the end of Spring.  I have a lot of reading to catch up on and my magazine problem was getting out. of. control.

I'm on the hunt for a new side table to replace the blue one I pulled out of my bedroom during the new bed installation.  For now, it will stay in the living room until another one finds me while I'm out thrifting.

I've also asked my husband to install two bookshelves above my desk in the living room.  For a girl that loves books as much as I do, I can't believe I don't have any bookshelves in my bedroom or above my desk.  He's added this request to his honey-do list and I can't wait to fill those shelves.

The Landing Strip
My desk acts as The Landing Strip and I'm pretty fastidious about tidying up loose paperwork and incoming mail by the end of each day, as my desk sits in the corner of our living room for all to see.  I have an acrylic box that houses a few file folders for bills to be paid, tax & school paperwork and monthly receipts.  I have to start and end the day with a clean desk.  It's just the way I work.  But in the middle of the day?  It looks like this!

The Digital Dump
I got a lot done in the Digital Dump department and found this to be a good use of time during the last week of the Cure.  I was kind of over purging cabinets and cleaning my house at this point, but going through email folders and dumping old and irrelevant documents was liberating.  I also created a better file folder system for storing years worth of taxes and Grady's artwork.  There is still a lot of room for improvement, but it was a start.

The Master (aka - Only) Bathroom
Our house is less than 1,000 square feet and has only one bathroom.  We renovated this room when we purchased the house and made good use of the space.  Not a lot was done in here during this round of the Cure.  I have a cleaning lady that comes every other week and she did all the deep cleaning on my to-do list.  And, yes, I love her.

I cleaned out under the sink, ditched old washcloths, organized the drawers and went through our medicine cabinet boxes (which are housed in our slender wine-slash-linen closet just outside of the bathroom).  I found old prescriptions, sunscreens and makeup that needed to be tossed.

The Outbox
The Outbox concept is one I have adopted from my prior participation in the Cure.  It is crucial in helping break the bond some stuff has over me and makes it easier to see leave the house and, in turn, my life.

I read Marie Kondo's new book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing earlier this month.  I didn't love the book as a whole, but I did appreciate her advice about holding an object in your hands before you decide to keep, donate or toss.  I think there is some power in that advice.  Also, her question about does an item spark joy? resonated with me and I posed it to myself on more than one occasion during the Cure.

All in all, my house feels really clean and organized.  My husband was instrumental in some of the big changes and I would definitely sign-up again for next year's January Cure.

The marked-up to-do list is going to reside on my desk for the next few weeks and then I'll put it away.  I'll tackle a few more things this month.  But first, I want to sit down and read a bunch of magazines.

'Tis the [stormy] Season

Life has been so full lately.  I know this is true for everyone out there, but I just know it's especially true for women.  Among my girlfriends, I know we shoulder the brunt of the holiday list-making and gift-buying-wrapping-mailing-giving.  Sure, my husband does a thing or two to help keep me off the holiday crazy train, but it's mostly left up to me.  Now, don't get me wrong - I enjoy most of it, but sometimes it feels like it's just too freaking much.  

And so I really went into this month with the intention of doing less and being really present this season.  It's harder than I thought, but I'm feeling the benefit of it.  The first order of business was to lighten our December social calendar.  Declining invitations is a definite exercise in restraint (which is not really my forté) but, in doing so, I felt a big sigh of relief.  It was a start.

I don't know about you, but around the 10th of December I kind of start to freak out.  There are handmade items to cook, make & package up and get in the mail so loved ones receive them by Xmas.  

I love this part and I hate this part.  

Treats for the doggies in our lives :: recipe here

I love it because I get great joy out of ritual and tradition.  Creating things with our hands and gifting them to people we care about really makes me happy.  The pockets of time spent drawing or carving stamps become little gifts for me.  The conversations that spring from this merry-making often give me the little push to keep going.

Stationary sets :: we each carved a block to print with 

I also hate this part because I get all ratcheted up and stressed out.  It always seeps out and the passive-aggressive control freak in me unleashes on my poor family.  My to-do list becomes all important and I start to question why I do this to myself; to us.

Molly Wizenberg's Three Layer Peppermint Bark :: Amazing!  Make it. You won't be sorry.

Well, not this year.  

While I did feel a welling up of stress, a freak storm system rolled into Northern California and left us without power for 12 hours during massive wind and rain storms.  And let me tell you, I got some major shit done in 12 hours without any electricity and a dead cell phone.  For reals.

Top-secret Hecht family kahlua recipe :: even I don't know what's in it, seriously

School was cancelled for two whole days and that spilled into the weekend, making for four long, productive days at home.

Our dear friends and neighbors had a big bash over the weekend and that spurred some pre-storm shoe shopping.  Red satin heels ($8) and bronze knee-high boots ($7.50) were my thrift scores.  And, I gotta be honest, I kind of feel like Wonder Woman when I wear the boots and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz when donning the red ones.

Printmaking is my new favorite thing, too.  Along with smiling.  

We made a print of 50 wonky circles for our friend's 50th trip around the sun.  All three of us carved up the stamps and used red screen printing ink on kraft paper.  The paper is special to me, as it was given to me at a writing retreat earlier this year.  I saved it for just the right project and it turned out just beautiful.

I can't believe it's almost the end of the year.  My drawing a day journal for 2014 is one of my most prized possessions.  The daily ritual was hard at first, but has blossomed into this almost meditative way to start my day.  Pens, paper and coffee at the kitchen table.  I'll write more about this project in a future blog post, but this journal is my new favorite.

This guy.

He's been wearing this sweatshirt (almost) daily since November 10th.  He thinks it's the best thing ever and I think it's kind of cute how much he loves it.  Don't get me wrong, I don't love it being worn every single freaking day, but think he's sweet and funny for wearing it.

I hope to burn it on December 26th.  Kidding.  Sort of.

It's still raining up here and the highways are intermittently flooded to and from town, depending on the tide.  Winter is upon us and the wet weather is so very welcome to all of us in California.  

All of the out of town packages are mailed and gifts have been made or purchased.  This week has been left wide open for movie-watching and cooking a big pot of soup.  I definitely feel like I've made space and time for our family this year, minus the small stress attack around the 10th of the month.

We cancelled our annual Xmas eve open house in our home and have opted for a quiet dinner with a couple of friends instead.  Again, stretching a new social muscle is hard, but I'm really looking forward to cooking this prime rib for the first time and beating everyone at Scrabble.  Ha!

The only holiday decorations around the house are a few scattered reindeer, a string of white lights in G's room and our Xmas tree.  It feels right this season.

Less really is more for us and not just a tired cliché.

It's been a slow lesson to learn, but I'm grateful for the time and space to swim in this new way of doing the holidays.  At first, I felt sad because G was getting older and I thought the magic would disappear.  Instead, we've been sharing words and feelings about the season and what it means to our little family.  

Last night, while driving home from town, Grady shared that he still believes in Santa, but kind of thinks we have something to do with it.  When I asked him how he came to that conclusion, he shared that we (his parents) have messed up on a few of our stories lately and that the prior year's Santa letters (that I save in our Xmas box) have handwriting that looks a lot like our handwriting.

Hmm.  That's weird.

He didn't want to fess up 100% about the non-belief and I think he did that more for me.  He knows how much I enjoy having fun with the season.  His wish list was short this year and he passed up the opportunity to go to the annual Xmas party where he usually sits on Santa's lap.  He told me sitting on Santa's lap would feel awkward and you know what?  I would have to agree with him on that front.

As always, I'm following his lead.

The last little project on my list was to paint a tree for Grady for Xmas.

Every year we make one another a handmade gift.  Last year, I failed to deliver on said gift and, therefore, I'm making good on it this year.  I let the busyness and travel plans interfere with the one thing Grady asked me for.

A painted tree.

Looking back at my blog, I see that he asked for a painted tree in 2012, too.  He gives me simple assignments because he knows I'm not the artist his father is!  Check out how Steve showed me up in 2010 with his parrot painting.

And so it's almost here.  Six more days until Xmas.

Merry Xmas, friends.

Countdown to summer...

I'm up early to write and edit photos this morning.  I like this quiet time before the guys (and the world) wakes up.  I can hear the birds starting to chirp and there is a stillness in my house that just isn't here the remainder of the day.  I cherish the few hours of solitude before I kick into mom & wife mode, focusing on doing only the things I want to do - catching up on blogs, journaling and doing my daily correspondence for birthdays, anniversaries or putting together care packages.  The time I spend sitting at my desk feels a little like work, but it's the best kind of work because I am choosing to sit here and do it.  I like it when my day starts like this.

This last week was infused with a bit of creating here and there.  We attempted carving more stamps and mostly played around with our carving tools and figured out how to trouble-shoot some of our designs and fine-tune our technique.  We have amassed a small collection of beautiful, quirky stamps to use on stationary and packages.

I took a quick trip to the Legacy Thrift Store in Sebastopol where I discovered a plethora of embroidery thread in the most beautiful colors!  I only picked up a small assorted bag of mixed threads and quickly left the building.  I knew well enough to step out of that thrift shop until I had a few practice rounds under my belt.

I came home and asked Grady to draw the artwork from Daniel Johnston's Hi, How Are You? CD.  I think he did a great job.  The embroidery on paper part?  Not so much.  We're going to give it another go on fabric just as soon as I track down an embroidery hoop.  This is going to be Steve's father's day present and I think he'll love it, as Daniel Johnston is one of his favorite musicians and he's converted Grady into a fan, too.

I've been focusing on cooking vegetarian meals for our family and it's been working out okay.  It's funny how you think you don't eat that much meat until you really have to cut back.  Kind of like watching television, you think you don't watch that much until you ditch your cable and realize that you most definitely did.  Same on the meat front.

NEWS FLASH :: GRADY ATE A GRILLED PORTABELLO MUSHROOM BURGER AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE.  HAND TO GOD.

The weather can't decide what it wants to do, but we're pretty much into the June gloom now.  Hot inland, grey and cloudy on the coast.  We had a major thunder and lightning storm over the weekend and it's been warm & balmy.  I kind of like it.

I think I have summer pretty well booked for our family.  We're heading to Southern California to see Steve's family and take the boy to Legoland next week.  After that, G has three weeks of science summer school that will have a focus on anatomy.  He's not thrilled, but I am.  The rest of the summer we're home.  I love our home.

Golf, tennis & CYO camp are also on the agenda later this summer with a few weeks of nothing planned in between all of those activities.

We attended Open Studios last weekend and visited the lovely studio of Kai Samuels-Davis.  His new work is really cool and I just love his aesthetic.  Grady was rather shy around his former art teacher and proclaimed that the Pomegranate Study was his favorite piece from Kai's display.  We tried to order a print of same, plus two fishing lures that G had been coveting for some time, but Kai would not take his former student's money!  He said he would gift the prints to Grady.  An artist trade is how we'll make good on this sweet gesture.

I worked with G's 4th grade class to create the above Pollack-inspired painting for the end of the year teacher present.  I think it turned out great and the kids thought it was really cool.

Speaking of cool?  Um, Grady came home and informed us he was performing in the school talent show with Grace next week.  Yes, he would be singing the song Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae.  Who?  Yeah, that's what we asked.  We looked it up, printed the lyrics and downloaded the song for him to practice with.  I'm mildly horrified by the lyrics, but realize it's pretty harmless.  Completely out of character for this shy, quiet boy and I guess that's all the more reason to support him and not make a big deal out of it.  He even had rehearsal over the weekend with the oh-so-stylish, Grace.  It's going to be something else.

And the end is near.  I can't wait until school is out for summer.  I love the summer rhythm we get into. Slow mornings, lots of popsicles, creative endeavors, reading for hours in the sunshine, meals al fresco and no strict bedtimes for the boy.

Three more days...

nuggets :: from france with love

nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week, as inspired by dig

Our little house glowed as evening fell & the skies darkened.
Puffy, pre-storm clouds reigned over Valley Ford the very next day.

Last week our home was readied for special visitors.  Visitors from France, via Southern California, on part of their three month holiday in the United States.

In a burst of energy, I decided that we needed to lose a heavy piece of furniture from our dining area and enlisted the help of my husband to make it disappear.  A quick call to our neighbors and poof! it was gone.  I quickly edited the contents of the dresser and realized my attachment to Grady's childhood place mats, as well as wax-covered candlesticks, decaying craft projects and ungifted trinkets were ready for the donate box awaiting them in the garage.  The room feels light and airy now and the subtle shift and loss of stuff made me feel like spring cleaning had officially begun.

Thumb Wars are all the rage around here

I'm listening to a book on CD called The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua.  It's quite a lesson in Chinese parenting and a bit, um, extreme.  And while I don't subscribe to berating your child into submission over a six hour piano lesson, the author's observations on Western parenting is fascinating to me.  For example, how every child gets a trophy just for participating in a sport and the littlest mundane tasks are celebrated with praise (i.e. "good job!") sounded oh, so familiar.  I do worry that the children of this generation will be lazy, entitled and lack the skills needed to write a proper paragraph because of all the text-speak they use.  The author's view on self-esteem and family travel did keep me listening and whether you love or hate the book, I think you walk away with thought-provoking questions about how you want to parent and what type of future adult you are raising.

Our entire family went out to support our local Sonoma County 5th District Supervisor, Efren Carrillo, and attended his 31st birthday/reelection campaign kickoff.  I'm working on the campaign this year and it's a great opportunity to involve Grady and teach him about local government and politics.  Plus, Efren is just really nice to my kid.

When our Parisian friends arrived, we filled our days with coffee, wine, cribbage matches, local food and theoretical question and answer sessions.  We laughed a lot and just generally had a good 'ole time.

Jill D., Yours Truly (with a Liberty of London pillow!) & Sissy

I don't typically wake up at 6:30 in the morning on Saturday, much less a rainy, cold Saturday.  However, when my friend sent a Facebook message about the Napa-Sonoma Junior League Rummage Sale that was going to be held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds - um, I was all over it.  We rallied, grabbed the requisite caffeine on our way into town and shopped like the seasoned thrifters we are.

We quickly debated the necessity of a brand new deep freezer for a sweet $105 dollars (and quickly nixed that idea), texted my husband about tools and lawnmowers, while Sissy called her husband about golf clubs and whatnot.  Jill scored the beauty of the day in the Martha Stewart robin's egg blue cast iron dutch oven for a mere $30.  I talked myself out of a mid-century desk that I didn't need, but wanted - only to realize it would have been perfect for Grady.  Oh, thrifting remorse strikes again!

Photos by David Silpa & Scott Vancleemput

David & Manuella hosted us in Paris for our anniversary a year and a half ago and gave us David's apartment for the week that we were there.  They are the kindest and easiest house guests and we had a fun time touring Westside Road, lunching in Graton and ending up at the wine shop in Bodega Bay for a game of cribbage and time with friends.  David writes a blog about his observations on life in Paris and shares his amazing photography here.

We plotted our next visit to Paris and that it would most definitely include Grady.  He is excited to see the Eiffel tower and eat at the restaurant featured in the movie Ratatouille.   I'll be working on this trip in earnest, as I think it would be wonderful to go to Paris and perhaps take the train to London, too.

It is a Lego world around these parts and as much as I hate plastic, I'm surrounded by it en masse these days.  The building and make believe world of Star Wars' Legos is pushing ahead full throttle with the boy.  He retreats to his room, creates and names different battle ships, places them in small vintage suitcases and carries them to his friend's house for afternoons of play and trading.

And while I don't understand or much care for this world of plastic, I do enjoy the hours of creating and story building that has been taking place.  I prefer it tenfold to the Pokemon spell he was under not so long ago - that is a phenomenon that I just do not get.

This year's birthday list is compiled of more Lego sets, books and clothing.  I think a new bike might be in order, too.  His birthday is less than a month away and we will definitely be hosting the second annual birthday breakfast extravaganza (before school starts).  My mom arrives later in the afternoon and his birthday spills into Fish Fest weekend.  Oh, so much fun is on the horizon.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

Alameda Flea Market :: April

Spent this past Sunday at the Alameda Flea Market with a like-minded, vintage-loving friend.  What a lovely day to do so!  I wasn't really looking for anything in particular (but that's always besides the point, right?) and found myself perpetually drawn to this pretty hue of blue, as I perused the never-ending aisles for vintage goodness.

This Dodge van was the coolest of the cool and almost spells Dodgers.  Hmm.  That's strange.

I need more vintage luggage like I need a hole in my head, but it doesn't hurt to snap a photo of the set that got away.

Again, no place to put this globe, but I've always wanted a globe.  Childhood fantasy just waiting to be realized.

This worn baby carriage was home to a sad looking teddy bear.

These storage lockers were awesome.  I thought they would look great in my laundry room to hold cleaning supplies, brooms, mops and the like.

This blue was waiting for me at home.  Grady was fully decked out for the opening series with the L.A. Dodgers & San Francisco Giants.  He spent time with our octogenarian neighbors watching the opening game and learning the fine art of a little good-natured sports-related ribbing.

The sky must have inspired me today.  Spring has sprung around here and trees are in bloom all over Sonoma County.

All of these vintage treasures were a treat for the eyes.  This hat box was also beautifully lined on the inside, but I already have a few hat boxes.  None this cute though.

I walked away with a basket that can be used for holding my future bounty of apples to be plucked from the property where I work and a little beaker with blue numbers on it to hold a flower stem or two.  No photos!  Sorry.

What did you thrift this weekend?