New Years

This post is a little late but better late than never.  On New Years Eve Eriks, Aivars and I went to the city to celebrate.  We had so much fun.  We took the train into the city because not only is it a whole lot cheaper than having to pay for parking, but it is a lot easier too.  We were really lucky because we were standing next to this lady with a baby who was using a total of 3 seats.  Well we started talking to her and when she got off she let us have her seats which was awesome!  The train was so packed I was glade we were able to sit down.

Once we got to the city we all went to pizza.  Actually we went to the same pizza place that Eriks and I went to last year for our New Years Eve dinner.  I don't remember the last time I have laughed so hard.  We got pizza, bread sticks and soda.  We were probably there for an hour just hanging out and eating.
After dinner, the three of us just walked around and got some drinks at random bars.

Around 11pm we started to make our way down to where the fireworks were going to be.  There were so many people!  I didn't remember there being so many people last year.

We were able to get a really great spot to watch the fireworks.  They were beautiful!

Once the fireworks stopped it was almost as if the flood gates were opened because it started raining really hard.  The three of us practically ran back to the station.  Because we ran, we were able to get in the front of the line for the train.  It was great because once again we were able to get a seat.

It was so much fun ringing in the new year with my two favorite men.  What made it even better was that I was able to talk to all 3 of my brothers too.  I am so excited for what 2011 has in store for me!

Day 10 of the 21 Day Challenge

Day 10 of A Bowl Full of Lemons 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge was the Laundry Room.  Eriks and I live in an apartment with communal laundry facilities, but we have a cupboard for our stuff in the Laundry Room.  Also since Eriks' mom owns the complex, we have a little more liberty than what you would think with apartment living.

Here is the space

Here is our cubby

I have everything just kind of shoved in the cubby and on top of it.  In that green bag I have some parts for these really cool sweater dryer.  It allows the sweaters to lay flat but still get dry.  The second half of the dryer is on the top of the cubby.  I thought it would be a good idea to let my neighbors use them too if they want to. (we only have 3 other apartments besides Aivars and we are all really close so it is not that weird)  I decided to make some cloth bags from an old table cloth to hang from the wall to hold them.  Here is how they turned out:

After I put that up, everything fit into our little cubby

After that was finished, I took a good look at the washer and dryer.

Oh my gosh!  So GROSS!  I had never really looked at how clean they were before.  I broke out my handy dandy Clorox Wipes and went to scrubbing.  Woot Woot!

So much better.  I cannot wait until Eriks comes home and sees it!

Day 9 of the 21 Day Challenge

Day 9 of A Bowl Full of Lemons 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge was your kids toys.  Well.... I don't have any kids or toys, so I decided to go through these containers that I keep in my coffee table.  They stack on top of one another.  One pair contains electronic stuff and the other pair contains some school stuff.  I have been wanting to go through these for a while now.  This is how I started out

I started out by dumping all of the writing utencils out onto the floor.  I tested every single pen and sharpened every pencil.  I through away all of the pens that didnt work and then cleaned the container out and put everything back in.  The second container wasn't too bad, I just kind of titied it up a bit. After that, it was onto the electronic boxes.  I took everything out and tested all the cords and donated the ones that didn't go to anything as well as my two old phones (I have no idea why I was holding onto these)  I then organized all the the stuff I had left.  It is a nice feeling to have finally done this.  Now every time I sit on the couch I will not think "ugh I still need to do that".

Day 8 of the 21 Day Challenge

Day 8 of A Bowl Full of Lemons 21 Days to getting Organized Challenge was the Coat Closet.  I have already organized most of my coat closet except the floor.  For some reason I cannot get the before picture off of the camera, but I will try to give you a description. Imagine this: A case of water bottles with no more water bottles in it,a huge bag of cat food with only about a bowl of cat food left in it,a yoga mat, toilet paper, random duct and clear tape, a plastic kitty litter bin that I keep the cat food in, a hammer, a shoe horn, a football, a soccer ball, a kite and tones of wires.  The first thing I did was clear everything out.

I swept the floor but all of these cords look gross.  I asked Eriks if we need all of these, and he said we do and not to unplug anything.  Since there really wasn't anything I could do about them I just tried to contain them the best that I could.

It is defiantly not perfect or pretty but I didn't know what else to do.  So there you go, it is at least better than what it was before.
  I then combined the cat food all into the plastic container and took out everything that didn't belong in the closet.  The only thing I was left with was the cat food, the balls/kite, my yoga mat and the toilet paper.  I can't believe how much better it looks!  I was so happy with how it turned out.

Quilting Group

Since I moved to California, I found out about this website called Meetup.com. It is a site where people form groups that you can join. Then the different groups post events that anyone can go to. I started looking at this site as a way to meet new people but haven't really followed through with anything.  I still check Meetup.com every once in a while just for kicks, but this time I just so happened to find a brand new group that is all about quilting!  I was so excited.  I signed up for the next meeting which just so happened to be the very first meeting ever of this group.  I was really excited about going but I was also really nervous.  I don't know why but the last 5 years or so I have had difficulty meeting new people and get really anxious.  I am working really hard to overcome this because I do not want it to hold me back from doing what I want to do. This time especially I did not want to let my nerves get the best of me.  I was going to go.
The meeting was at 3pm on Sunday.  It was in Fremont at the organizers house.  I ended up getting there really early, so I drove around a little bit.  I turned a corner and saw this:

 Doesn't it look like the Boise Foothills?!  I think it does.  Well I pulled the car over and just looked at them for about 10 min.  It was a very nice reminder of home and made me feel happy inside.  On my way back to location, I saw this sign and laughed out loud.

I have never seen a sign that says "Speed Hump" before  only 'Speep Bump".  Now I know, my mind sometimes thinks like a fifth grader, but I don't care.  I still think this sign is funny.
 I ended up being the first one to show up.  The organizer was obviously there and so was her mother.  Over the next 30 minutes 2 other people showed up too.  We had so much fun.  I worked on cutting out my quilt (that I am blogging about on E Designs) and everyone else worked on other projects that they had brought.  We had appetizers and desserts.  Here are some pictures from the event:

Everyone at the table working on their projects

Where I was cutting

The table where everyone was working on their projects

I was actually the first person to leave, I stayed for 3 hours (I had to get home to my honey bunny).  I had so much fun though.  I am soooo glad that I went, and cannot wait until the next meetup!

Day 7 of the 21 Day Challenge

It's Pantry day.  Before I could tackle Day 7 of A Bowl Full of Lemons 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge I needed to go to the Dollar Store.  I just discovered that we have a Dollar Store in our area.  I got up and headed directly to the Dollar Store, I haven't been to one since I lived in Boise.  I was so excited.  I got lots of great stuff and lots of containers.  Once I got home, I got to work on my pantry.

Before (whole pantry)

After (whole pantry)

Shelf 1 Before

Shelf 1 After

Shelf 2 Before

Shelf 2 After

Shelf 3 Before

Shelf 3 After

Shelf 4 Before

Shelf 4 After

It is so nice to finally have this thing organized and to actually be able to close the door.  There was so much stuff on the floor I couldn't close it.  After all of my organizing I had plenty of space to put everything on a shelf.  The only thing that I am still going to want to fix is to get another one of those round containers to put the chips in.  Besides that I feel very accomplished! We have tomorrow off from the challenge, so I get to relax tomorrow.  Yay!

Day 6 of the 21 Day Challenge

Today was Day 6 of the 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge. Toni wanted us to all organize our dresser drawers.  Well my apartment is so small that we do not have the space for one (even though I would LOVE one).  So in the same theme as yesterday, I decided to organize the little cabinet under the television.  Eriks has A TON of Game Cube and PlayStation stuff so I wanted to organize all of that and clean all of the gross dust.

Before ( Eww look at all that grossness!)

It took 3 of these to clean under here

After: All Clean Shinny and Organized! Yay!

Toni has already put up tomorrow's challenge.  The Pantry.   Eeeekk!  I am going to have to make a Big Lots and Dollar Store run tomorrow morning to make sure I have all of the tools I need to tackle this project.  Well wish me luck.  I (obviously) will let you know how it goes!