January Cure: Day 4

Take 10 minutes to critique a room. The room I picked? The office/closet.

This whole room is really problematic. It's because this is our only storage in the entire house, so everything just gets tossed in here - usually in a pile, on the floor. Before I got my 9 to 5 job, I spent about 97% of my time in this little room, so it was a constant source of anxiety. Even though I'm not spending as much time, it's still bothersome. Why can't it look neat, clean and cute (my desk excluded) all of the time?

I think by possibly rearranging the shelves and clothes rack we might be able to offer a lot more space for another shelving rack. I might be able to get my clothes off the ground. And maybe our things will have a designated space, instead of wherever they're thrown.

I definitely need to get rid of that ugly rug and replace it with something less busy and more neutral. Possibly look for a better storage solution next to my desk and fill up that outbox with 40% of this room!

Monday Musebles

In attempt to keep my weekends productive and work on my photography skills, I'm starting a new weekly feature called Monday Musebles. It'll give me a chance to recap what I did all weekend and break out my camera for some always-needed practice. We completed our weekend chores for the January Cure, which included cleaning the floors, buying flowers and adding to the "outbox."

The landing has been a mess since the kitchen reno, so we tackled that first thing on Saturday. We sorted through the piles of boxes, moved stuff to the dungeon, donated magazines to the library and a bunch of goods to the CHKD. We treated ourselves to brunch at The Green Onion and I enjoyed a very tasty poached egg sandwich (I also noticed they have $10 sangria pitchers, which I will be back for).

 The rest of the day I spent working on my new felt food project: Donuts! Saturday night we met up with some friends for drinks at The Big Easy, and I always forget how much I love the place and am never impressed with the waitstaff. Oh well...

Sunday we slept in until 10 a.m. and I'm not ashamed to admit it! It was glorious! I video chatted and brainstormed with a friend for some upcoming blog posts (our first guest blogger) and finished up my donuts - I love when I can multitask. At about 3 p.m. I started cooking for Mike's Redskins Playoff Game Get-Together and didn't stop until after 6 p.m. I made wings and potato wedges, cinnamon pull-apart bread (recipe coming later this week), cut up veggies for the week and cleaned the kitchen. I'll note that I didn't mind any of it, because I LOVE my new kitchen.

Something for the Guys!

We're excited to finally offer a little something for guys in our shop (not that the guys couldn't do a little shopping for the ladies - or children - in their lives)! I acquired some vintage cuff links, tie pins and money clips when I was home for the holidays and am so excited to get them in the shop.

They make a great Father's Day present, wedding or best man thank you or even for the upcoming Valentine's Day. Check out the new selection and happy shopping!

January Cure: Day 2

Today's task for The Cure was to create an "outbox." The idea is that you put an item in your outbox and leave it there for a couple days/weeks. If you don't miss it or think about it, then it's as good as gone.

As you can see we need to empty our 'outbox' to make room for new outs. We started purging a lot of stuff last week as we made room for our Christmas gifts.

You can follow along in the LiveBlog process here or signup to be apart of The Cure here.

Chickpea Salad

I came up with this yummy concoction all on my own! That's one great thing about learning how to cook (and cook well), you realize you don't have to follow a recipe. Things come together naturally and end up tasting pretty delicious. You could toss these chickpeas with your favorite lettuce, pour in a pita or eat with a toasted pita (like I did). Best of all? It's only 226 calories per serving (makes 3 servings)!

What you need:

1 can of chickpeas
1 handful cilantro 
3 Roma tomatoes
1/2 green pepper
2 green onions
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp olive oil
lots of fresh cracked salt and pepper

What you do:

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas well. Pour into a big glass bowl and set aside.
2. Cut the tops off the tomatoes and throw into a food processor for a few pulses. Add to chickpeas.
3. Combine cilantro, green pepper, onions, garlic, oil and seasonings in food processor and chop well. Mix well with chickpeas.
4. You can eat right away or let marinade for a few hours (or over night) for a more intense flavor.

January Cure

After completing our kitchen project I felt I needed to keep going through the apartment and fixing everything up. Since we rent, and I'm pretty sure we aren't going to get a budget every month for new projects, the rest is up to me. You may also be asking why do so much to a property you're just renting? Well, my boyfriend and I have been living in this 800 square-foot apartment for about a year-and-a-half and while I hope 2013 may take us to our very own abode, it may not. I want to be as content and comfortable in our cozy little space as possible, which is why I signed up for Apartment Therapy's January Cure.

It's a month-long home/apartment cleanse and declutter with daily tasks and inspiration from fellow bloggers. Today's task was to make a Projects List. Identify spots in your space that need some TLC (or just a good scrub), then highlight 3-5 items from each room to concentrate on. Here's what I've narrowed my list to:

Living Room:

Donate Magazines to Library
Sort through crate of pottery and find a home for it
Add family/friends photos to room
Reorganize buffet table

Bedroom:

Clean ceiling fan
Refinish bookshelf
Get rid of stereo (that's ultimately up to Mike)
Clean closet floor

Bathroom:

Dingy shower curtain
Cluttered drawers
Dusty shelves

Kitchen:

Fix washer/dryer noise
Paint crown molding (ask Landlord to do)
Gas/carbon monoxide dector

Landing:

Better organize and utilize space
Get rid of leftover kitchen remodeling stuff

Office: 

Make better use of the space
Reorganize bookshelf
Get a new rug
Drop stuff off to Goodwill

You can follow along in the LiveBlog process here or signup to be apart of The Cure here.

New Year's Resolution

As I mentioned yesterday you’re going to start seeing a lot of new things happening around the blog – and shop! I’ll be starting a monthly self portrait (inspired by the lovely Gail Werner), color inspiration, current favs and contributing editors (very excited about this one!). I want to include lots more photography (that isn’t Instagram) and focus on a much more personal touch to my writing and articles.

My biggest resolution is to get and stay organized. It’s hard to get inspired when I come home from a long day to a messy work station. I need to establish a system for Fairview Place creations, finish to end. And make sure everything has a proper place, even if that means getting rid of some stuff. This resolution starts tomorrow with Apartment Therapy’s January Cure. For those of you who know me well, this is definitely going to be a challenge. But a healthy one.

As far as the shop goes, everything will trickle down to make the process easier, allowing for more crafting time. More felt food, like donuts, candy apples and mini cupcakes - to name a few. More greeting cards from vintage books, more felt wearables, button jewelry and who know what else will work itself out. 

Here's to another year of growing, learning, loving and crafting.