West Coast Bound!

Even though February is the shortest month in the calendar,  it has taken FOREVER to come to an end this year. I hate to wish away time, but I am so excited to board a plane tomorrow morning and reunite with P in San Francisco! It has been a long and exhausting month for him and we are looking forward to reconnecting and relaxing together.

I would be lying if I said I remained strong every day this month. So before heading out of town I wanted to give a big thanks to all of my friends and family who have helped me get through this month with phone calls, texts, happy hours, dinners, snow days, etc. I am so blessed to have all of you in my life!

I'll be back next week with pictures and a recap of my trip!

Five on Friday

Happy Friday!  With spring right around the corner (I hope!), I've definitely caught the organizing and cleaning bug. A few weeks ago I did some purging and organizing in our bathroom and this past weekend I did the same thing with our desk drawers. So today's Five on Friday is all about organization.....

//1// I am in desperate need for a new system for organizing my jewelry. It is currently hanging on two different stands on my dressers, in a box on my nightstand and in an assortment of trays. I don't have an expectation that I'm going to find one jewelry box or container to hold it all but I definitely need a better system. Any suggestions?

//2// I have been inspired by Cassie's DVD streamlining and I am ready to do the same with our collection. We have a great entertainment stand with doors that is filled with DVDs and video games plus a DVD stand. I would love to streamline this into one container that is hidden in our entertainment stand and frees up some shelves. I think we would keep some of the TV series box sets in tact but pitch the rest of the plastic containers. I hope I can get P on board with this soon!

//3// For a while I've been wanting to clean out our bookshelves. They sent in our office/den so they do get neglected. Also since we are limited on space, P and I have transitioned to reading on our iPads through the Kindle app and buying less books (although I still like the feel of holding the book). I know there are books on our shelves that we will never read again and could be donated to a library. I'd also like to style them better with our picture frames and keepsakes. Here are few inspirations from Pinterest.

//4// Our coat closet could use some help. Again it's an area where we've been keeping things that we never use or holding onto coats that we haven't worn in a couple of seasons. It's time to let go of the extra stuff and make the closet more functional.

//5// Now that the cabinets in our bathroom are so functional and organized, it's time the cabinet under our sink get the same treatment. I think another trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up one of these should do the trick.

Is there anything on your spring cleaning list? Do you have any suggestions on tackling any of my projects?

Have a great weekend!!

Thursday Brain Dump

//1// I leave for San Francisco in one week and could not be more excited to see my husband and explore a new city!

//2// Prior to leaving for Cali I'll be getting my hair cut. I'm planning to cut off 2-3 inches. I have some shorter pieces in the front that are growing out and are driving me crazy so I was looking for options to tame them. Here are my top two inspiration pictures:

//3// While it was tough being separated on Valentine's Day, P was so sweet and sent me beautiful roses from my favorite florist. He also let me pick out a new bag from the outlets. I fell in love with this Kate Spade one!

//4// I have been obsessed with the Olympics and try to watch some of it every day! I cry when the underdog wins or is elated to get bronze and was nearly sobbing during the Bode Miller interview when he broke down. Good thing this only happens every four years!

//5// Our new couch and ottoman arrived last weekend and I love it. With my sister's help, I had to rearrange some of the furniture but I think our apartment looks better than ever. I need to take some pictures to share on here.

//6// I'm starting to look into my next race. I can't decide if I want to go for a 10K or something a little longer.

//7// This weekend over 700 students at Penn State will stand for 46 hours during the largest student-run philanthropy to raise money for pediatric cancer research. You can stream the action live and/or donate at www.thon.org

//8// THIS made my day yesterday and ignited an amazing email exchange with my fellow Gossip Girl and OC-loving friends.


Happy almost Friday!

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm linking with Natasha, Christina, April, and Darci for another edition of Five on Friday! Here we go...

// 1 // This morning I dropped Calvin off at the kennel and I'm headed up to Pennsylvania this afternoon for a weekend with Aubrey & Taylor (I cannot get enough of her) and family.

// 2 // Last night my sister and I went to a Caps again at the Verizon Center. We had so much fun! Secretary of State John Kerry did the ceremonial puck drop. They also honored the players who will be competing in the Olympics and the countries they will be representing. It was really neat and got us in the spirit of the Olympics! We're planning to get up early next Saturday morning to watch the USA vs. Russia men's hockey game.

// 3 // Continuing with the bathroom organization, my acrylic make-up organizer arrived yesterday and I love it. The drawers are the perfect size to hold the Naked Palette and other eye shadow containers. This is the one I ordered from Amazon but I know there are tons of options out there.

// 4 // Last week I received my first Birchbox and was really happy with the contents. As an added bonus, the box it came in was so nice that I reused it to package some Valentine's Day goodies for Taylor (Minnie Mouse socks, stickers and coloring book and a cute heart t-shirt from Target). I just used scrapbook paper and a heart die cut to cover up the letters on the top and tied it off with a light pink string. I think it turned out pretty cute!

// 5/ // Like me, Calvin is really missing P. He has been keeping his spot warm on the couch ever since he left. It is so sweet.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Bathroom Blitz

There have been a couple of projects around our apartment that I've been wanting to attack for a while and with P being gone, it's the perfect time to do so. At one point in time I thought I had done a pretty good job of organizing our bathroom cabinets and linen closet. We each had our own shelves, baskets and containers were purchased and filled, etc. But over the last few months the set up just wasn't working. I didn't like having the towels under the sink, I couldn't easily access my favorite nail polish colors, and our baskets and containers were overflowing.

Step one was to purchase find a better solution for organizing the cabinets below the sink. I knew I would be moving the towels to the linen closet which opened up the other half of the cabinet for storage. We needed something that would make the products we use daily easily accessible but not tempt us to just throw things in random baskets like we used to. After searching online I opted for the Simple Solution Cabinet Drawers in medium and large. The top drawer is divided into three smaller compartments and the bottom drawer is divided into two compartments. This really helped in dividing up items and I think will ensure items don't just get tossed back in.

Note: this is not my bathroom cabinet, but a sample picture from online.

Step two was the most time consuming, cleaning everything out and purging. I filled one large trash bag of old and expired products, lotion scents I would never use, make-up I used a handful of times but decided I didn't like, etc. Then from there I set up the drawers and gave each of us an assigned top drawer for daily products. The bottom drawers hold shared products like first aid items, spare toothbrushes/toothpaste, etc. Here's the before and after of the cabinet:

Top: Before (obviously), Bottom: After (yay!)

I texted this picture to my mom and sisters last night and was immediately embarrassed by the before! I didn't realize just out of hand things had gotten until I did this clean out and reorganization. I am still debating about getting something for the cabinet doors to hold the blow dryer and my curling/flat irons but haven't fully committed to that yet.

And now here is the before and after of the linen closet. It was hard to get a full shot with the layout of our bathroom and the doors.

There are still a few more changes to come in the bathroom. I ordered a shelving unit to put above the toilet to get some things off of the bathroom counters (jar of cotton bowls, dish with my hair ties, etc.). I also have an acrylic make-up organizer headed my way. My older sister inspired me with hers and said it makes getting ready much easier and faster without having to dig through a make-up bag.

I texted P the results too so he could see just how much fun I'm having while he was away. While he praised my hard work and complimented the update, I'm sure he was rolling his eyes and thinking she's at it again. And he's right, I am....next up: the desk/office!