Weekend To-Do List!

It's been quite a while since I've done one of these. The last few months have been more a whirlwind. I think this will be the first weekend in a. long. time. that I don't have to worry about apartments, jobs, moving, traveling or entertaining. I just get to enjoy the little life I've spent 6 months trying to set up for myself.

This Sunday is also one of my very dear college friend's due date! I wrote this post, right after she announced she was expecting...I can't believe its already time to meet the little guy. She's the first of a handful of friends expecting in the next 6 months. #wegrowuptofast

As baby watch commences,  I'm hoping to finish the book I started {and almost finished} in Florida, hit the late pilates class at the gym, meal plan for next week, catch up on Netflix {Parenthood season 6!!} and clean out/organize my giant closet where everything gets stuffed when I quickly 'clean' between work and traveling. I can't tell you how pumped I am to have my shoe rack up and running!!

Friday Five: Moving Tips!

Trying to facilitate a move is quite an intimidating venture. I spent 3 days organizing and re-organizing piles of things just because the thought of packing everything up was overwhelming. How do I organize? How to I track? How do I pack? Finally I just told myself to start putting the piles into boxes and it would all work itself out. Fortunately that did the trick for me and I was able to get my act together. Here are a few tips that helped me stay motivated and organize.

1) Start with a To-Do list
As simple as it sounds write down everything you need to do. I chose to do it by room in my apartment and wrote down things as simple as 'pack up Kitchen Aid mixer'.  It was a bit redundant but to see all the tasks in front of me was super helpful. In the moments I was so overwhelmed with everything I just made myself pick one of the things on my list  and that got me started.

2) Schedule out your time
This was a technique I used in college when I had a lot going on. In addition to dealing with the task of packing, cleaning and shipping my entire life. I had people I needed to see and things on bucket list to do. My last week was jam packed. I took my to-do list and scheduled out hourly blocks to get the items done {literally everything from getting coffee to painting the walls}. It took thinking out of the picture and really allowed me to just enjoy the moment.

3) Think about how you want to unpack
In San Francisco I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate. Things weren't always kept where they 'should' be. I kept my Kitchen Aid Mixer and Ninja Blender in my closet for example. I knew that ideally those would go in my next kitchen so as I packed up my kitchen stuff I pulled those out. Also worked with some bathroom supplies. I keep lotion and hair tools in my room, but pulled them out when I packed up my bathroom things.

4) Create an Inventory
As I sorted through the last 7 years of my life in the typical keep, sell, goodwill piles I recorded everything I put in a box and which box I put it in. This helped me determine insurance for each package as well as serve as a helpful key to finding things when you just too exhausted to unpack a whole box. I used towels and sheets to help pad various breakables too, so they found themselves in several different boxes. I used GoogleSheets, so I could access it from my phone and computer. It was also easily shareable with my parents whom I sent some boxes for storage too.

5) Pick out Necessities
One of the lists that I made was all the items I would 'need' when after everything is packed up and shipped. Including clothes, toiletries,  tools and cleaning supplies. I pulled them all aside before I started packing boxes so I didn't have to make that decision as I was going.

Friday Five

Just a few things that have made a life a little better in recent days ...{or months}


1) Lemon Water
I had heard about the glories of lemon water before and started to give it a try. It's quite honestly been perfect. Soothing, sweet and quite easy to turn the kettle on, wash my face, brush my teeth and pour a cup of water.  It has plenty of other health benefits that Wellness Mama discusses here.

2)Laura Mercier Lip Glace
About 6 months ago a friend convinced me to splurge Laura Mercier's lip glace. I was in NYC and need a new neutral ASAP. She claimed it would be worth the $28 price tag and I have to say it is.
Winter in notoriously dry and having returned from a 2 week trip to the midwest, I was on a pretty heavy chapstick regimen, but was loosing the little guys everywhere. I'd often just have to turn to my Lip Glace and it seemed to work just fine. It wasn't until I brought out my Chanel lipgloss that I truly noticed the difference. I wanted a bright for NYE and turned to Tocade. My the end of the night my lips were basically peeling off. It was not pretty by any means. In that moment I realized what I had in Merciers Glace, not only a fun gloss but a powerful moisturizer for every day use. I went back and bought several shades, my favorite for everyday use is Blush.

3) Yummie Leggings
Tummy taming and a solid quality legging? Yes. Please.

4)Amazing Hairdryer
I finally got my fan-cay hairdryer for Christmas! My finger dry time is down to 10 mins, 30 mins for a blow out! Cannot get better than that. If you have thick hair, or blow dry daily I cannot stress how much you should invest in this!

5) Wunderlist
For some reason when I updated my iPhone, the Reminders app crapped out. I downloaded Wunderlist to keep my random daily thoughts and reminders and shopping lists together. I do my best thinking on public transportation in the morning and its great to have this guy handy to write things downs and set deadlines.

This Week's 30 Days of Thanks

I should have probably seen this coming. I'm finding 30 Days of Thanks a little overwhelming in my super busy life. I find myself getting up in the morning, thinking about what to be thankful for, but never getting the time to sit down and write an amazing post....or even a sucky post. My goal is to condense them into a week. Yes, I realize this is not "Thankful Thursday", but it's better than nothing.

Here are the things I was/am Thankful for last Week!

1) Accountable Committee Members
Chairing a committee for a volunteer organization means you were one of few people that was actually accountable last year so you can handle doing all the work this year. We hold monthly meetings, delegate action items, close our eyes and pray they'll be done in time. So far this year my committee has been absolutely amazing. Only 1 ball has been dropped and it was promptly picked up by another committee member willingly! Knowing how intense this has turned out to be for me, even with delegating I am so so thankful I can trust them!

2) Michael's being SO CLOSE to my office
I've been working on gift bag design and Michaels has been an absolute savior. It's 2 blocks from my office so I've spent many a lunch roaming the aisles. It's also got me in full Christmas decoration mode (post to come soon on that), but sparkles and cinnamon and paper meche deer have got me ready to go!


3) The Ability to Give-Back 
One of my favorite quotes is "To whom much is given, much is expected" and volunteering has always been a passion of mine. It was easy in college, I felt like they had volunteer opportunities out like free pizza. When I moved to San Francisco it got HARD. I don't know if it's real life or being in a non-profit loving city, but it is impossible to find an organization with an opening. That lead me to Junior League, which not only has a huge monetary impact on the community but access to  grassroots, hands dirty volunteer experiences that make you feel great! Especially this time of year when people wear their gratefulness on their sleeve I'm so happy I'm able to be involved.

4) My Mom is Coming to Visit!
This might be a selfish reason, but my mom has always been willing to help where she can. There are certain areas of my life I'm been avoiding. Primarily room/home organization. As a young adult when your parents come to town, consciously or sub it starts an evaluation of the status of every aspect of your life. I realize that I've fully ignored any nesting instinct for at least a good year. My parents just moved, so I hope she's still excited about this stuff, but we're going scrub, hang, redesign, re-organize the shiz out of my apartment and I'm pumped!

5) Zipcar
I spent the first half of the week getting a bunch of Gift Bags put together for a meeting on Wednesday. I thought the Gift Bag assembly was going to be the hardest part, but boy was I wrong. To decorate the gift bag tables I needed a half dozen gold, metallic '8' shaped Balloons. Easy for any party store right? After arriving at work late due to a Doctor's Appointment and wrangling 8 members of my team together for a work lunch, I thought all I would have to do was make a phone call that afternoon and pick them up on the way to the venue. NO ONE had them! Well, one place did but it closed at 5pm and I wouldn't be able to get there until 6pm. Disappointed I switched my efforts to figuring out when to pick up the gift bags from headquarters.....when I found out that closed at 5pm. At this point I'd have to leave work immediately to get to either place in time. Zipcar saved the day, zipping me around town in an SUV full of gold tinsel and balloons. I really couldn't have gotten it all picked up and delivered without it.

6) Wine Club Memberships
I have a slight obsession with Francis Ford Coppola's Sophia Champs. So much so that when I stopped at the winery I decided to not only buy a case, but join the wine club. I've gotten 2 shipments already and my wine cabinet is filling up and staying full! With the insanity of last week, I had more then my fair share of glasses of wine. With the holiday season coming up as well, they'll be great hostess gifts!!

7) Laundromat Being Steps from My Front Door
No seriously it's 2 doors down, I don't even have to put a bra on if I don't want too. With my mom coming, I decided it was deep cleaning time. So EVERYTHING got washed.  Having it be right next door is almost as good as having one in house. If enough machines are open I can whip in and out of there in an hour with all 5 loads washed and dryed!

My Smart Phone - 30 Days of Thanks

via weheartit

Like a lot of us, my smart phone is my life. I have the world at my finger tips; family, old friends, new friends, weather, bus schedule, google {the answer to any question you could ever have}, e-mail, blogger...literally everything. I've heard every arguement for and against the constant contact with the world it provides, but I relay on it primarily as my schedule maker, my list keeper and my life organizer. I've very much considered swapping in my phone for an old school nokia and just upgrading to an iPad mini...but it just won't fit in a clutch.  I really don't know how I would make it through my day or life without it.

Weekend "Getaways"

I've been heading home "for the weekend" about once a month now for the past 4 months. There have been bachelorette parties, weddings, one of those I-Need-To-Sit-On-The-Couch-At-HOME-And-Do-Nothing weekends. When I say home, I'm referring to my parents house which is.....2,000 miles from San Francisco so heading back for 4 days could be quite the adventure. I've officially mastered airport security and the perfect weekend getaway bag! Last weekend I flew back, for a wedding,  and what will hopefully be the last time before the holidays...heres what I'm tucked away!

I find the classic LL Bean Boat Tote in medium to be the perfect carry-on size! Monogrammed, of course, like Reese is carrying here and seem in the background of my instagram from this weekend above! I do wish I would have gone with the longer handles for a little better over-the-shoulder action.

Vera Bradley's 3-1-1 Cosmetic Case is great for getting liquid toiletries through security! I usually throw this in my purse so I can easily remove it  without unpacking everything.

I love Aveda products, I don't use their shampoo, conditioner and body wash in my normal routine, but I find something luxurious about having them when I'm traveling AND they come in travel size! 










When it comes to your ensembles step 1 is to check the weather! Once you've figured out climates, I've found the best way to pack for a short getaway is to do it by outfit. The nice thing about short travel is that you usually know what you'll be doing (Friday: Dinner/Drinks, Saturday: Wedding,  Sunday: Brunch & Shopping) it's just simple to pick out an outfit  (down to the jewelry, shoes and necessary panties) for each and then pack a few extra basics. Plane Clothes, Sweat Shirt, Yoga pants and you're good to go!

Office Inspiration

I'm inlove with all these office designs! Now to translate to my own....

vtinteriors.blogspot.com

Stylish To-Do Lists

I just moved offices at work and after three years of  having very minimal decor I've decided to make myself more at home. I've really only begun the process. I've been scanning Pinterest and Tumblr for office layouts and decor ideas, but I have decided on Navy, White and Pink as my color palate. My room and apartment are primarily neutral colors and I wanted a little more fun energy at work.

Meanwhile, in the  middle of all this moving, unpacking and redecorating I have a job to do. I do most of my time and task management through lists and my decorating bug has inspired me to invest in a notebook that not only doesn't fall apart like the free ones at work, but is also 200% cuter than the free ones at work.  I stumbled upon May Books who offers eco-friendly notebooks that are bound (yup, that means no loosing pages), canvas (yes, you can set your coffee on it an it won't leave a ring!) and best of all Customizable with lots of cute preppy patterns, colors and even your monogram! You can pick 1 of 5 page options, which is awesome. 2012 Agenda,  Weekly Planner, Meal Planner, Grid Lines or Plain Lines.

I picked this one, with plain lines inside:

I love the greek key pattern and the colors match my (imagined) office perfectly. I really wanted the chevron stripes, but unfortunately they don't make them in navy.  You may have guessed that I used their preview tool to make my icon :)

The plain lines will work perfectly for my millions of to-do lists!
First things that are going in there:
1) New Desk Chair
2) New Cover for guest chair (navy and white chevron?)
3) Art and Frames for the walls
4) Cute Lamps