When outside looks like this…
We hang out at home and do this…
Then we go out to do this…
When our fingers and noses freeze, we come back in and take this…
And contain it all into this…
Busy day, huh? It’s not often we get this much snow here. When it does happen, everyone is homebound.
Tell me… What do you do when you’re homebound?
Can I make one last entry for the ‘What does not belong?’ game? This occurred today while I attempted to catch up on my emails and RSS feed reader. Sorry if you emailed me anytime last Thursday to Sunday. I am still trying to catch up on emails and my chaotic house…
Case in point. And look at the grin on that face.
This is a game of ‘What Does Not Belong?’ Will you play with me? However, I do have to warn you that I am awesome at this game. I have a sixth sense for spotting things that are out of place. OK, do know that I don’t go in people’s homes and see all the things that are out of place. I don’t care that other people’s homes are not magazine spread worthy. You will see in the pictures below that my house is far from being in the next issue of Better Homes and Garden.
Here is how to play… Identify in each picture below which item(s) does not belong in the scene. A point for each item you identify. This game is brought to you by… Kaye and Elle. My two girls who set up this game for me each and every day. See an additional entry to this game.
So how did you do? Did you find something in every picture?
Messy room and no corner shelves.
Hours before the photo shoot of our bedroom we were still putting things together. Goes to show I DO need deadlines. We were pressed for time as we had a few consecutive dark and rainy days here. I couldn’t take pictures since I used natural lighting in all my photos. I finally scheduled the photo shoot for the day before the reveal when it was forecasted to be sunny outside.
Either way, we still had tons to get done before the shoot. The morning of the shoot I was still finishing up one of the drapes, putting wire on the tree canvases I painted and cleaning up the room. Nathan was out exchanging wall shelves and putting them up along with the canvases. Just wanted you to know that we are like every other family out there. However, I do have an amazing husband who took time off work to help me pull it off in time. No complaints. Just kept asking me, “What can I do next?” Isn’t he great?
My handy man, Nathan helping me put up the canvases. He is very precise with his measurements for wall hangings. I love it.
Elle wanted to help, too. She loved playing with daddy's tools and going through mommy's bags.
This is now my favorite room in the house… and currently the only clean room in the house. The makeover for our bedroom began in October when I won the gift card to HomeGoods from The Inspired Room. Since then it has been a journey. One that I could see never ending if I didn’t commit to a deadline. And today is it.
Nathan and I talked about what we wanted for this room, our room… tranquility, relaxation and peace. We wanted a room inspired by nature and the color white. When we shopped at HomeGoods, we were drawn to all the white decorations in the store. We purchased beautiful decorations for the room using the $200 gift card. We also bought a drapery rod on Black Friday. Then I made simple drapes, actually two set of drapes. The first set were too cream colored for me. Those will be going in another room. And we painted the room a grayish blue color called Polaris. I am in love with this color. Everything else is accented with white and nickel colored metal.
Here we go with the before (and more before info here) and the after pictures…
So, what do you think? I love it. Other things we’ve done to the room… First, the craft supplies from the cubed bookshelf are now in my newly finagled craft closet downstairs. I needed a place where ALL my craft stuff can call home rather than some here some there throughout our house.
Second, the ugly covered green couch has relocated to the children playroom. That’s something they can spill on and jump on without me worrying about it.
Third, still no bed frame or headboard. But I concocted a simple solution using thrift store frames, ribbons and door knobs. Tutorial for this coming tomorrow.
Forth, at the last minute (as in last Thursday), I came up with an idea to paint a tree on canvas for one of the large empty walls in the room. I have an obsession for trees. Nothing more beautiful in nature than trees. I finished the canvas painting right before the photo shoot with only one layer of sealant. I will be finishing it up this weekend. But it did make it in the shoot. More on this tree canvas in a later post.
Fifth, my parents gave me the wall shelves that I asked Santa for this Christmas. Then we purchased a couple corner shelves. It worked out perfectly. Nathan also sanded the square framed mirrors and spray painted them white.
Sixth, we moved the cubed shelf to the end of our bed and filled with with white colored spine books. Minor details.
And lastly, the filing cabinet moved into our closet and replaced with this table purchased from HomeGoods.
That’s it. That’s the tour of our new room. Any suggestions?
Conquer time. Every parent, working or staying at home, knows time goes too quickly when you are juggling kids and a million other things. Thanks to the mastermind of Francesco Cirillo, he developed the Pomodoro Technique. During his university studies, Francesco found himself in a slump and needed a way to focus. His solution came in the form of a tomato timer from the kitchen, pomodoro meaning tomato in Italian. This pomodoro was his time tutor. Then came the technique.
The technique is pretty simple. At the beginning of each day, go through your task list and organize according to priority. Then set your pomodoro, a timer, to 25 minutes. Work on the task for 25 minutes then take a 5 minute break. That is the gist of it. This technique allows you to stay focus on the task you are working on, keep track of interruptions and calculate exactly how long it takes you to get something done. Simple. To the point. And that is how we like it around here. The short 45-page book goes into more detail while giving tips on how to eliminate interruptions, simplify tasks and so much more.
The Free Book
Available to everyone, a free PDF version of Francesco’s book, Pomodoro Technique, is available to download. Read and apply. Click on link to download.
The Giveaway
*This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for all the entries! Find out who won here.
The Pomodoro Team is offering THREE readers their soon to be released Pomodoro Kit. Yes, you’ll be one of the firsts to get it! The kit consists of the official Pomodoro 25-minute timer, Pomodoro t-shirt, pencil, and to do today pad.
To enter, do any of the following. For multiple entries, do more than one and make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry.
Good luck to everyone and the entries will close on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26 at 10 p.m. EST. The winner will be announce on Friday, Nov. 27. I know it will be Black Friday and all of you will be out shopping.
{image by Country Living}
If you have guests arriving this holiday season, give the guest room a little more luxury feel by providing…
on the linen.
{image by Country Living}
Take that tensity level down a notch this holiday season with these 10 tips…
What are some of your holiday de-stressing tips?
Invest in a personal fireproof and waterproof safe or file box. You can find them at Target, Wal-Mart, or office supply stores. Put the originals of important documents such as birth certificates, social security cards, marriage certificates, bank and credit card information, emergency contacts (someone outside of your household). Have copies of your important files in your regular filing systems for easy access.
Bills… file folders… important documents… taxes… bank statements… insurance… rent or mortgage…
Each month we get a whole new stack of them cluttering our home, desks, and filing cabinets. I complied a list of ways to help you simplify and condense the amount of time and effort put towards your paper filing system.
BY NATHAN BIRD
Nathan Bird is a technical consultant at Lucidius, LLC.
Like you, I have a lot of valuable data such as pictures, home movies, and documents all in one place… on my computer. And like you, I have experienced technical difficulties with computers and files. Having that much important data in a single location is asking for trouble. Recently, a couple friends and a family member all experienced computer crashes in the same week. All called me for help recovering precious memories and files.
I have concluded there are three sure things in life… death, taxes, and computer hard drives crashing. However, you can avoid the negative consequences of a hard drive crash. You just have to be prepared. There are three main ways of storing your priceless data: 1) computer hard drive, 2) external hard drive, and 3) an off-site backup.
Risks and Dangers of Backup solutions
Risks and dangers of a computer hard drive
Your computer hard drive has an average lifespan of approximately 5 years. With hard drive wear and tear over the years, I don’t trust it with anything critical if it is over 3 years old. Hard drives are affordable and easily replaced – especially if you have a backup system in place. The wise saying of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies here. Not having an automatic backup is placing fate at your door and I can guarantee you will lose some if not all of your data at some point in the future.
Benefits of an external backup
Having an external backup is the technological way of putting all your eggs in two baskets. An external hard drive coupled with some automatic backup software and you can reduce the risk of losing all your data by about 90 percent. The major risks left with an external backup are losing both your computer hard drive and the external drive in instances such as a house fire or natural disasters. That said, this is the easiest and quickest way to backup your data – and give you some peace of mind.
Benefits of an off-site backup
An off-site backup can be a couple of things. It could be your external drive which is backed up regularly and stored in a safe deposit box or at a place other than your home or office. More commonly however is an internet backup – a backup of your data sitting on a remote server on the internet. Having a remote backup offsets the risk of both your computer hard drive failing and your external drive being destroyed in a house fire or flood. And your files are encrypted for privacy and security purposes. The downside of a remote back is the slow backup and restore speed and a small monthly fee for using an internet backup service.
How to get started
First, you’ll need an external hard drive. Simply Modern Mom has good deals in the SMM Store (Amazon) for hard drives that I recommended. The typical computer user can pick up a 500 GB or 1 TB (1,000 GB) drive for around $100.
Second, you need software to perform the backup from your computer to the external drive. If you are on a Mac then you are good to go. Time Machine is what I recommend to Mac users and is as easy as connecting your drive and flipping the ON switch in the system preferences. Apple provides a video that shows you all you need to know.
If you are on a PC then your best option is to upgrade to Windows 7 (available October 22) and use the built-in backup tool. A guide can be found here. If you are using Windows XP or Vista then the cost of buying 3rd party backup software is about the same price as upgrading to Windows 7 so it makes sense to buy the new system and get reliable backup software with it.
Finally, for off-site backup solutions I recommend Mozy ($5/month) or Carbonite ($55/year). Both work well for Macs and PCs, are simple to setup, provide unlimited storage, and are roughly the same price.
My recommended backup system
I recommend using at least an external backup with software to automatically keep things backed up. I also recommend an off-site backup of everything you would consider essential. For me that includes pictures, home movies, and some documents. This system allows you the speed of an immediate restore from the external drive if your computer hard drive crashes and peace of mind.
It took me all day to iron all of this. Now that I’m done with it, I can get to work on some sewing. But before the sewing, I have a few other projects in the works that I need to get done.
Now that the children are heading back to school (except mine because they’re not old enough), make heading out the door in the mornings easier. Do most of the work the night before. Have each child prepare his/her backpack and set it next to the door or in the car. Prepare lunches if you can. If not, pack the non-perishable items the night before. Check to make sure they have all their papers signed, forms, assignments, and homework. Have them lay out their clothes. Get non-perishable breakfast foods to set on the table. It will calm your mornings.
Back to school time. As we all know, this is when our schedules get hectic. It seems like everyone has their own schedules and the mom has to try to keep up with it all. Cozi is a free calendaring service where yours and everyone else’s schedules can be combined and color coded. The site tries to help you live simply by taking care of the calendar problem. There is even a place on your homepage where you can jot down a few feelings and notes of the day as a quick family journal. Attach a picture to remind you what was special about your day. Write your shopping list and retrieve it on your phone. So this year, get back to school with a simple schedule for the family.
I feel satisfied when…
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