Two-for-one

I gave myself two small tasks today:
Decorate the small display board I mentioned here
Do 5 exercises from a magazine article I tore out some time ago

While they are both completed here is how it went:
Go through pictures I printed recently to sort out the "beach" pics as that is my theme
Decide it is time to send off a round of pics to the relatives
Sort, envelope, address, stamp... for 6 different groups
Work on board
Get distracted by clutter on my work space and do some cleaning there
Finish board (which now looks great with pictures from the Washington coast and Cape Cod)
Peruse magazine article
Sit on couch and "practice" counting with son
Get on floor to do plank exercise
Get toes tickled by son - feign laughter
Get raspberried by son - feign laughter
Do plank exercise until son thinks I am a bridge and tries to crawl under, so I have to go higher, then I collapse the bridge on his toes.
Continue until son is sleepy and ready for a nap
Finish other 4 exercises half-heartedly

At least I finished :)

I did not clean today

Unless you count dishes after baking. After a long hot streak, we finally have a cool morning here in the northwest. I decided to turn my oven on and use some of the zucchini from my garden. I found a recipe for pineapple zucchini bread at allrecipes.com. Instead of 2 loves of bread I made one loaf and some muffins...mmmm

The muffin liners are silicone from my mom...this was their first time out of the package and I think they worked quite well.

Color Scheme

Eventhough redoing my family room falls pretty low on my project list I have been searching for a site to help me pick colors. My search was in vain, but here is what I came up with:

One week down

Well, I started my journey one week ago and I am still going strong. Today I finished cleaning my appliances in the kitchen. I cleand the microwave inside and out and wiped down the oven and stove top. The inside of the oven will have to wait for a cool day and the inside of the fridge until it is not so jammed full of food that would spoil in the 80+ degree room.

This month my project will be blinds for the master bedroom. Thinking about this made me decide that I should do a personal project as well. Each month I will do something for me. This month I bought some eye product I have been wanting to try but passing up on since it is about $25. Some other ideas:
Trading my makeup for Bare Minerals (which I love)
Haircut
Pedicure
I can't wait!

Clutter

Today I took on a small clutter project. We had the ribbon board on the side of one of our kitchen cabinets and, in theory, it was a nice place to stick things. The problem was the things I stuck there:
business cards (then I forgot I had a business card and looked up the info online)
gift cards (then we would forget we had them - though finding $8 on a Starbucks card is nice)
postcards from my grandparents
cash (my husband asked me how much cash I thought was there and I guessed $20, I was off by $60! of and 50 in Filipino money)
bottle openers

The only thing that ever got touched again once it made it up there was the Broncos bottle opener (the Cape Cod one was worn out). So I took it down and disbursed the item to other "stash" places in the kitchen and am getting rid of the board.

On that note, I have another board for display and I like the idea of it, I just never know what to put up. I did the months of the year while I had a dye-cut membership and I have put together one or two displays but I am out of ideas. When my baby is older I have grand plans on making it a learning board where we choose something to study, say another country, then put up pictures and facts and one night cook a traditional food... But what to do with it now...

Projects

I have been coming up with a list of projects I want to do around the house, some big, some small, some energy improvements, some cosmetic... I have 3 tiers of importance and I plan to take on one project a month:
Tier 1
New coat hooks in the entry- two rows (one for adults and one for kids)
Programmable thermostats
A fireplace mantle
Blinds in the master
Tier 2
Organization components for under the sinks
Stain the TV cabinet to match the bookshelves
Organization for the snack cupboard
Tier 3
New bed pillows for the master (may move up to tier 2)
New curtains, throw pillows and fabric in the family room (I have come to loathe the current scheme)
New couch!?!

As you can see Tier 3 items all say "New" since what I have is perfectly serviceable. The Tier 1 "New" coat hooks made the cut since the one I have is falling apart.

Window sills

Today I didn't finish the appliances; I cleaned the window sills. I got out my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and it was a piece of cake. Only the smallest amount of elbow grease and the dirt came right up. I keep forgetting how amazing those are for getting grime off paint. I am "lucky and only have 3 to do so this task took about 4 minutes (the family room window was disgusting).