time to get my pinterest on.

happy sunday afternoon, folks.  i hope it's been a good weekend for you all.  next weekend i'm heading to the beach with the fam to ring in the first of the wonderful red-white-and-blue holidays of the summer months: memorial day.  while the 4th of july remains my favorite holiday (naturally), i celebrate any excuse to deck out in some patriotic gear.

in order to catch as many rays as possible over the weekend, the 'rents are stopping by my apartment to pick up macy so that i don't have to double back once i'm already at work on the day we're leaving.  coming back to pick up the fluffy puppy would put me about an hour behind so they're really helping me save time (and gas!).  sweet of them, right?  right.  

HOWEVER, this means i had to do some major cleaning and organizing this weekend.  i was running beyond empty on friday, but after some much needed sleep, i was ready to tackle my mess.  by saturday evening, the layer of procrastination that was covering my furniture was gone, the bathrooms smelled like bleach once again, and the clutter was organized.  for the most part.

[side note: this organization does not include the second bedroom which i have dubbed as my extra closet. a girl needs a lot of closet space, okay?  and i need a solid week to make a dent in that room.  it can wait for now.]

anyways, one organizational headache that has been waiting since february is that of my jewelry.  i have the select pieces that i wear on a routine basis in accessible piles, but everything else was in a hot tangled mess.  after brainstorming what i could do (besides toss it all out), i decided it was time ... it was time to get my pinterest on.

and get my pinterest on i did.

just some of the tangled mess.

after photographing the hideous proof, i got to work.  not only did i separate everything so i could see what i was dealing with (and of course, take a few trips down memory lane as i came across the sentimental pieces), i hit the stores to gather materials.

supplies

i had seen a DIY jewelry organizer on pinterest using a bulletin board and i thought with some paint to match my bedroom decor, this could be an inexpensive solution.  i bought the paint (color: espresso), foam brushes, and board.  i have about a bazillion pins leftover from college so i was all set in that department.

who doesn't love a magnetic chalkboard?

while i was gathering these things, i found a magnetic chalkboard that i thought would be perfect for another pinterest project i had seen: the magnetic makeup organizer.  after buying magnets, some glittery ribbon (i couldn't resist ... i'm just not that mature yet), and the magnetic board, i was set.

step one: tape the inside

i made sure to put tape down inside the wooden part of the bulletin board in case my paint ran (which i was sure it would due to my lack of painting skillz) and then i slathered that thing, espresso style!  

chalkboard with glitter ribbon

while my paint was drying, i glued my ribbon to the outside edges of my magnetic chalkboard and attached the magnets to the makeup i use most often (ie: mascar, powder, lip gloss, blush, brushes, etc.).  

organized makeup!

once i was done gluing the magnets, i attached the chalkboard to a wall in my bathroom with only minimal holes in the wall (i'll deal with those holes another day) ... and then i stuck all my magnetic makeup on the board in an organized, easy-to-access fashion!

once that unnecessary-but-oh-so-fun! project was done, i returned to my jewelry bulletin board and touched up the paint with a few extra coats.  after everything was dry and i was satisfied with the color, i attached the board to the wall with much improvement (and fewer holes!).  when everything was secured, i pinned my sorted necklaces up on the board.  and while it only organizes the necklaces i'd actually wear and it doesn't even make a dent in the rest of my accessories, it's a start, right?

organized necklaces!

in conclusion, i hope you have a very happy, pinterest-style-organized, patriotic memorial day!  xoxo.

always clean your apartment before you leave for the weekend

it has been no secret (unless you don't know me that well) that i've been kind of a mess since i was a small child.  i mean, i don't mean to be and i actually really enjoy things being clean, but there's something about starting a bazillion projects at once and going 100 mph at all times that sometimes leads to small hurricanes of crap everywhere in my apartment.  of course i clean them all up and don't stop until everything's beautiful again, but then the crap builds up and out of no where i'm living in a pile of mess once more.  how does that always happen?!

last week, in my excitement to finish up a busy week at work and head up the mountain to work a weekend at cheerio, i pretty much left the apartment a disaster zone.  i rushed through laundry late thursday night and scurried around friday morning throwing random outfits in a suitcase before i dashed off to work (without so much as a short sleeve shirt in that suitcase ... epic packing fail).  anyways, upon my return this evening i was greeted be exactly what i had left behind: a hot mess.

laundry was EVERYWHERE (and still is because naturally i decided to blog about it instead of pick it up), a makeup store apparently exploded all over my sink and bathroom floor, and my latest sewing projects are strewn throughout the living room and kitchen.  because obviously that's where they belong.

and that's not even the worst of it.  the plants are wilting as they die from thirst/neglect, my praxis study materials lay scattered in the foyer (apparently that's where i last studied?), and there's a mysterious looking blueish bead-like item in the sink ... which may or may not be what happens to a blueberry if it's left sitting in the sink for quite a few days.  ew, right?

anyways, of course i'm too tired after my weekend away to do anything but blog and dive right into my bed (which luckily is made or i'd have to make it first ... it goes against all that's natural in the world to get in a bed that's unmade, right graham?)

so i've learned a very valuable lesson (arguably one i should have already known): always clean your apartment before you leave for the weekend.  your sunday night self will thank you.


also: 4 days until harry potter. YES!

thank goodness it's earth day

just like many children, i had chores to do each weekend.  my mom's three "children" (me, my sister, and my dad) rotated our chores between vacuuming, dusting, and bathrooms.  to be honest, i was bad at all of them.

for the bathrooms, it wasn't uncommon if i flushed the toilets, swished some water in the sink, and called it a day.  i was also notorious for dusting around everything on the furniture, yet never actually pausing to pick anything up to dust under it.  heaven forbid i actually dust the items on top of the furniture.  that was completely out of the question because it would have taken hours in my room alone thanks to the gazillion disney figurines i insisted on displaying on each piece of furniture in my room.  i actually did a decent job vacuuming, but that was the least fun for my parents because they had to listen to me complain about how heavy the vacuum was.  i swear it was the heaviest vacuum known to man.

despite my lack of cleaning talent, my parents insisted that i help (something i didn't want to do in the first place) because "that's what you did in a family."  while i still believe we should have gotten a maid, as long as i helped with the weekend chores, my parents were fairly lenient about the state of my room.  that's not to say they didn't expect me to keep it picked up, but let's just say it never looked like my sister's.  she was the queen of clean rooms (and tucked in tshirts, perfect parts in her hair, matching socks...all the things i didn't/couldn't do).  my room was similar to what pig-pen's room might have looked like (if you don't know who pig-pen is, check out the wikipedia article...and yes, i know wikipedia isn't always right, but it gets the job done for me).

anyways, as i got older and my cleanliness didn't seem to be improving, my dad began shutting my door every time he walked by my room.  he always said that if he shut my door, he didn't see how terrible it looked so he didn't get angry and punish me.  he assured me this was for the best.  naturally, i just accepted always having a closed door and didn't think much about it.  i didn't get yelled at as much and i also didn't have to pick up my room all the time -- it was a win win for me.

however, today i realized that my very own apartment had gotten to the point that i wanted my dad to come close the door on all of the rooms within it.  that's right, i wanted to pull something from my dad's bag of tricks so that i wouldn't get so angry...with myself.  how's that for strange?  i wanted to close the door into the living room, i wanted to shut the bathroom door, and i wanted to shut/lock/seal the door on my bedroom.  everywhere i looked was a disaster.  it got to the point that i couldn't even begin to tackle the five thousand projects i have because i couldn't find table space OR floor space to work in.

so i took a break from procrastinating on my research proposal (oh the irony of taking a break from procrastination!), channeled my inner clean freak, and set to work.  i scrubbed floors and baseboards, swiffered my heart out, vacuumed for what seemed like hours, and in honor of easter, found all those little dust bunnies on and under my furniture (and yes, i even lifted things up during the dusting process!).

oh, there's the floor! (and no, i'm not 12. i just like pink.)

the bathroom, particularly the sink, was so disgusting i had to let the cleaner soak into the nasty scum buildup in hopes that i would eventually be able to scrub it off.  i ended up spraying unprecedented amounts of cleaner all over my house which i can't believe is good for the environment (or my nose as i'm afraid it's close to bleeding from the bleach).

but you know what?  it's earth day today. there are people everywhere doing really wonderful things for our planet and for that, i'm very thankful.  i hope somewhere someone plants a tree for me.  goodness knows the planet needs it after i just released enough chemicals into the air for another ozone hole.  if there's one spotted over my apartment, i take full responsibility for it.