Just a little Sunday Project

Yesterday I decided to try and work on some of my "goals" for 2013, considering I don't actually have that much time left. I crossed off: unpacking!!! I also ALMOST crossed off the hanging of items in the house, but it isn't completely done. But, between the cleaning of the closets and yesterday I will have taken two FULL car loads of items to Goodwill. LOVE IT!!!

Unfortunately I thought I took a "before" picture of the attic, but it no longer exists on my phone, so you'll just have to imagine (or if you've been up there, you can just be impressed). Four trash bags worth of stuff went to the garbage and of course the car is packed full for Goodwill.

Enjoy some after photos!

This is the view as you're walking up the stairs... used to be all boxes/bags/etc

This is the view to the right of the stairs - the Christmas Tree will be
assembled here when I take it down this week

And here are my organizational skills - these are the only items
that are now up in the attic anymore (pretty much decorations, luggage,
and a couple random kitchen items)

Oops, found a little leak from today's rain storm

Oh here's the dining room ceiling (below the wet spot)

December is almost over!

So a few weeks back, Laura had a post about her phone taking photos where the lights twinkle or it snows when it actually isn't... I thought that was really strange until I opened up my blogger today to write a short blog and apparently my phone decided that it was snowing the night we went to see tacky lights. It actually did snow/sleet the night we went to see lights, but it didn't start until way later... so December weekends started off with tacky lights, followed by cleaning out the closets, then NYC for a weekend, Christmastown at Busch Gardens, then to MA for a weekend. Holy Moly! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Tacky Lights in Richmond

This house had its own radio station and the lights followed the music

Here is the snow my phone added

Virginia is for lovers

NYC for the weekend!

Tiffany's Tree (sparkly)

Rockefeller Tree - the whole reason I would
venture to NYC in December

Courtney's first NYC Hot Dog

CJ's Adult Booster Seat because the guy in front of me
at Rock of Ages had some really TALL hair

Lunch with my Favorite 3 Month Old

Christmastown

Massachusetts

Charlie and Rich

Hiking with the boys

Lobsters for dinner!

Scotty ready for his lobstah

Mmmmm Chowder

Gingerbread windmill

Charlie and Scotty on the merry-go-round

Millie got a Christmas gift!

Afros run in our family

Here is Millie's gift from Aunt Zilla - a little tight

Christmas!

Got to spend Christmas Morning with
Laura and family (oh and Brutus)!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a wonderful end to your 2013!

Look what Google+ Created for me... I have no idea how, but it's cool

Get Rid of It!

Sunday was a cold rainy/sleety/freezing rainy day. I drove my friend, Laura, to church so she didn't have to drive in the mess, which turned out well because it was raining when we went into church but was sleeting/icing when we got out of church. When we got back to my house we started watching the Live Sound of Music (that I DVR'd) production and enjoying not being in the cold weather. 

Theeeeen Laura got an idea to help me clean out and organize my closets. If you've read some of the past blogs, you know that one of my goals for 2013 is to get rid of things I don't need/use and unpack from when I moved in. So we began in the 2nd bedroom, took everything out of the closet and went through it ALL. I don't have much left in the closet now, so that's good. We also organized the dresser in there to accommodate towels and sheets and things that were haphazardly piled in the closet.  

After finishing that room, we took a break to watch some more Sound of Music, then we started on MY closet... 

Poor Millie didn't know what to do with all this crap on the bed!

Stuff from closet - Before

Stuff from closet - before

There was a lottttt of stuff in my closet from shoes, to clothes, to yarn, to guitar, to any other random thing you probably can think of... so Laura had the patience of a saint when she went through this with me. She also has some pretty good organizational skills and as you see the finished product below. Have no fear, I did warn her that I wouldn't guarantee it would stay this way. But, at least I know that there's not a lot of excess in here!

Closet after

Closet After

This is the list of items I donated...

So many things donated, so many items thrown away, three closets (hall closet, too) and two dressers organized, several hours later, and a few glasses of wine (for me) later, we completed. And I will say, I actually didn't have TOO much of a problem getting rid of a lot of things, so in that, it was a good exercise that needs to be repeated MUCH more often. Goodwill, however, has now benefited from my packrat tendencies!

So thanks to Laura's determination (because I was starting to get tired towards the end) and organization, I now have clean closets and dressers and WAY fewer clothes and other items.

Next up to tackle?!?! The basement... that's going to take a while, but I will get it done!

What's on YOUR list of things to do before the end of the year?

Millie afterwards on the CLEAN bed!

Less than a month and a lot of goals to go!

I gave myself a list of 30 goals to complete before the year. You can read that blog here if you want. But see below to see how we're doing here!

Alright guys... here's what it comes down to... I still need to hit 3 (not likely), 4 (I'm the member of a gym), 21 (totally going to happen), 24, 25, 26 and 27 (24-27 are totally doable).

1. Start a blog (check) AND write a post at least once per month (January, February, March, April,May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

2. Visit three or more new places - Ha! I visited 7 new STATES nevermind places!

3. Lose at least 15 pounds (I would love to lose 30, but I want to make a realistic goal) - working on it

4. Get back in shape or at least become more active by doing some form of exercise frequently - I have gone on a few walks here, AND did a 5k

5. Be specific about doing something kind for someone at least once per month 

• January  - I brought my older neighbor's recycling bin out to the curb for her 
• February - I sent a card/gift card to a family who is going through a rough time and needed some encouragement
• March - Went with my friend to go hang out with her mom, and brought dessert!
• April - Helped one of my friends out by emptying her dishwasher for her when she wasn't feeling well :(
• May - Drove to NC to watch my cousin graduate from college
• June - Made dinner for friends who had their baby! (Chicken Parmesan)
• July - Prayed for my friend every day while she was on her three week trip to China
• August - Helped my friend with last minute things before she left to go to AFRICA for two weeks
• September - When my nephew was here for Labor Day weekend he was so helpful, so when I sent him his sweatshirt back (that he left at my house) I also sent him $10 so he could do something fun!
• October - Brought dinner to my friend who had a baby AND to my aunt who had surgery
• November - Baked cookies for the police officers who had to work on Thanksgiving
• December - My friend Kathryn and I bought Christmas gifts for a teen mom and her kids

6. Try six new recipes (Who saw the blog posts about Chicken Delicious, Turkey Breast & Turkey Tetrazzini?, Creamy Italian Chicken - Thing 5, Chicken Parmesan, Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies)

7. Make a new friend - I would say I have a couple new friends, but mostly people I work with that are new to me

8. Watch the sun rise - Saw the sun rise on our way back from Lake Gaston!

9. Enjoy a sunset - Totally saw the sunset on our road trip!

10. Swim in the ocean - Totally did this in Sandbridge!!! :)

11. Do a charity run or walk - April 6 the SCAN 5k See my Blog Post!

12. Raise money for a charity (Can be combined with number 11) - Well I posted a couple things about #GivingTuesday, so we'll see how that goes, but I think that was a good try anyway.

13. Donate to a new charity - I did actually donate to the organization for Sharon to go help orphans in China

14. Get a facial - Yup, totally did this last Sunday... it was kinda weird

15. Take a dancing lesson of some sort (salsa, country line, etc.) - Anna and I took dance lessons at Rigsby's Jig a dance studio here in Richmond

16. Go to more than two Flying Squirrels games - so this goal will not be completed because I went to ONLY ONE game and then the season was OVER! - I am replacing this goal with "shoot a gun" totally did that a few weekends ago!

17. Go to at LEAST one Hokie football game - Totally hit up the VT vs. UNC HOMECOMING game last weekend!

18. Participate in a murder mystery dinner - Murder at the Juice Joint was AWESOME!

19.  Attend a horse race at Colonial Downs Look!

20. Pay off my car?!?! Or at least come close -Paid off last week!

21. Ride my bicycle more than once - I have ridden the bicycle once at this point

22. Read a non-fiction book (I know this might not be a big deal, but I 100% stick to fiction books)I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand I would SERIOUSLY suggest it!

23. Build something - Built some shelves... I'm counting it!

24. Go through my house and get rid of things/clothes/etc that I haven't used in the last year (This is partially complete. I went through my closets and got rid of 6 paper grocery bags full of clothes & shoes. I still have more things to get rid of but that is definitely a start!)

25. Organize my basement (especially the workroom) - I totally started this... I broke down SO MANY BOXES

26. Hang the rest of the pictures, art, and shelves that I haven't hung

27. FINISH UNPACKING from when I moved (yup, that's right folks, there are still boxes in my attic)

28. Volunteer for something I helped with Laura's Church (Third Pres) at their annual Stop Hunger Now event and we packaged 80,000 meals for kids in Haiti

29. Spend some serious time in my backyard weeding, killing weeds, and planting pretty things that don't take much effort to keep up - Totally paid for "16 Man Hours" of labor to do it for me, but it was an amazing change! you can check it out.

30. Have the BEST 30th Birthday party EVER!!! :) (Especially since Laura is planning it!) - Holla! This was REALLY fun! Laura's party planning was A-MAZING! Check out my Birthday Blog!

#GivingTuesday

Remember when I had those goals and one of them was to raise money for a charity? Well I haven't done it yet, and what better a day to at least champion one than #GivingTuesday. So here is my ploy. Help the Salvation Army as they care for those in your community.

https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=206&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=paid%2Bsearch&gclid=CLzD8NyRlLsCFct9Ogod2W8AhQ

Thanks!

Two Busy Weekends & A Happy Thanksmas!

Two weekends ago, I had a very busy weekend. I baked pies, watched movies, organized my shed, built a set of shelves (really just put them together but I will call it "building"), had a goodbye brunch for my friend Elaine (involving the cutest baby I know!), trimmed the shrubs in my front yard, took a dance lesson/class thing with Anna, and purchased Christmas presents for a 19 year old and her three children. See pictures below...

Cutest baby EVER!

Begin shed madness

Stuff everywhere

Just a few shelves makes a WORLD of difference!

The walls can be used for something?

Bicycle even fits in here!

Oh hey, did I mention I got the cutest thank you from my nephew?!?!

Anna and me after dance class

Then the week of Thanksgiving began. I worked from home on Wednesday and was able to bake some cookies and brownies for the police officers who had to work on Thanksgiving. They were having a Thanksgiving meal on Friday. I baked some pies, had my Thanksgiving feasts on Thursday. Knitted... a LOT! Friday I decorated my Christmas tree and Anna and I went on some adventures and were REALLY productive, including getting me a little tree that I can actually see in my living room! Then on Saturday, I had some friends over for leftovers/ham dinner and to watch the Hokies play and Millie got to put on her santa hat. 

One of the many hats I made in the past couple weeks

My little tree (it's real)

The mantle with Christmas Cactus, Manger Scene,
Stockings and don't forget the elephants :) 

The Christmas Tree that everyone ELSE can see! 

The Christmas tree that I Can see!!!

My decorations from the outside!

Uncle Sam, me and Millie donning our Thanksmas attire!