This was a home weekend for me.
Nothing too excited and I spent the weekend catching up on sleep,
getting things in order for my mom’s visit today and general life stuff.
1.
Style. As I’ve been slowly
weeding out my closet and tracking what I wear and what I don’t really touch, I’ve
been forced to figure out what my style is.
I’ve been trying to figure it out anyways as I move into the next
chapter of my life. With my upcoming
Paris trip, I’ve been planning and figuring out what to see and do. One common thread is what not to wear when in
Paris. Parisians are always stylish and
you stick out like a sore thumb when you dress with some of our American
habits. I’ve been searching through the internet to
figure out what shoes to wear in winter that are both comfy and warm while staying
stylish. On a side note, I stumbled upon Coach shoes. They are a bit pricier but I have a pair of
ballet flats I wore almost all summer and a pair of wine red loafers I’ve been
wearing this past month that are just really really comfortable. They are the most comfortable shoes in my
closet and well worth the little extra cost.
This weekend, I was making a run
to return something to TJ Maxx and ended up walking out the door with a few
elements for the closet. Near the end of
the shopping visit, I stumbled upon The navy blazer. I had been looking for one for ages -
something that can be worn with jeans but is dressy enough for work. I couldn’t believe I found the perfect one -
it fits exactly right, the fabric is better than I could imagine, and the color
is just right. It’s from Theory which is
one of my go-to stores. I also picked up
a classic white shirt from Theory, that is a little quirky, a pair of Coach
loafers for the spring and a cream silk blouse from Marc Jacobs. What was interesting was that I found I was
already editing when perusing the racks.
I would find pieces I liked, but then realized they didn’t fit in with
my over all image I was building. I was
happy to see I’ve started heading in the right direction.
This morning, I was putting
together the basics and was trying to figure out how to make it more
Parisian. I ended up adding the red wine
loafers and keep my accessories to some larger, funky earrings. Everything else is well tailored and kept
simple and clean. Next up is taking the
critical eye to the closet and not only axing favorites that don’t really fit,
but also identifying the gaps.
2.
Water. Following on the
Parisian style theme, one item that is consistent is that it’s not just about
the clothes but also how you take care of yourself. Reading up on different blogs and articles, I
found one that really fit my gut instinct (strange pun since I’m consciously
wanting to keep my gut in check). It
mentioned to drink a lot of water. Which
I already knew, but it put it into perspective.
Basically, you should drink half your weight in water. That equates to about 65 oz for me (130 lbs). Which is equal to just under 6 glasses of
water. So at work today, I started a new
system to track what glass I’m on. On
one of my monitors, I have 6 tabs, and as I finish each glass, I move a tab
over to the other screen. I try to get
half way through (or more) before lunch.
As I work, I’m noticing the tab and I am reminded to drink some more
water. So far so good, but I’m not quite
through one day yet, so a little too early to tell. Plus I’m not wild about having to run to the
bathroom more frequently. Ugh.
3.
Nesting. As I edit my
wardrobe, I’ve been editing my house and belongings too. Everything is slow going as I slowly come to
terms that some items, although nice, aren’t really part of my core love. This weekend I spent some more time on the
endless picture project. I have art and
other items that I’ve slowly been framing. The idea is that if I don’t have the art on
the walls, I really shouldn’t be keeping it and out it goes. This weekend I spent some time cutting out the
frame boards and matching up art with frames.
Some are just absolutely lovely and a perfect framing job (the Mongolian
huts Nick brought back from China works great with the silver frame I got at the
VT dump for free). Others are almost
there, but something is off - not quite the right frame, or backing frame
board. Figured this is something I can
have mom help with - figuring out the framing and then also the hanging of the art. Of course, I’m getting to the point where I
have a lot of art up on the walls already so need to make sure I’m editing and
not having things too crowded. Always a
challenge!
4.
Cleaning. I do say I have
gotten a lot better with cleaning. I was
very close to getting a cleaning lady once a month and then it dawned on me
that all my cleaning woes are associated with things that require cleaning more
often than weekly. Mainly due to the cats. So a cleaning lady would be nice but not
address the route issue and I’d be in the same predicament. I think I stumbled upon some tips on
pinterest and between the tips and a change in mindset, it’s a lot better. Something from my time management book is
that you should take things to the end.
For instance, if you are done with dinner, clear the dishes, and instead
of just leaving them in the sink/counter, take the extra few seconds to put
them in the dishwasher. This goes across
all topics and really makes a difference.
I’ve been keeping things pretty tidy.
And then cleaning, the biggest tip, is the 4 minute clean. During the evening while you’re watching TV,
when the commercials come on, go do a quick clean, like wipe down the bathroom,
or sweep, or vacuum. It’s amazing that
the chores are really so short on their own and can be done in such a short
period. It also keeps you from going
into the deep vortex of wanting to clean everything to the nth degree which is
completely unnecessary. I will periodically
tackle a bigger cleaning chore on the weekend.
A few weekends ago, I went through the house and while putting in the
storm windows, I washed the windows. I
had set a time so when I realized I was going to run out of time, I only washed
the windows I would notice (skipped the bedrooms and study). It’s been great!
And that's me. As I was downloading pictures, I forgot about a lunch I had on friday with work colleagues. I ordered the french onion soup and it tasted as deliscious as it looked!
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