Closet Clean-out

Last weekend I spent all day Saturday sitting on the couch working on a difficult group assignment for 8 straight hours! Saturday we had the most beautiful weather and I missed it completely because of school work. Argh. Sunday was much better. I refused to work on the paper any longer and decided to instead do something fun....Clean our my closet! With the hot weather it was time to switch out my winter clothes for summer clothes. Of course I hadn't been in the back of my closet in months and months and knew a lot of stuff wasn't going to fit anymore. So I started by pulling everything out and puting it on the bed so I could start with a clean slate. Next I tried on every item that was in the closet. Greg was there to give his opinions and also to laugh at some of the articles that looked ridiculous now. Plus I love telling him the stories about why I bought certain things. In addition to finding lots of stuff I had shrunk out of, I found lots of favorites that I have shrunk in to. A fun surprise! Some things even had tags on. I had intended to return them because they were too small and now they fit. Things not going right back into the closet went into 2 piles. The donation pile (above) and the alter pile (below). The donation pile looks small but it ended up being 2 leaf bags worth of clothes. The alter pile included stuff to wash and dry on hot in order to shrink them a bit. This technique actually works very well for knits. What was left in the pile I had intended to try and alter with my sewing machine but it was a huge pile. In all honesty I am not good at alterations and knew I wouldn't have time to work on that much stuff. So I went back through and kept only things that would be fairly easy to alter, items I really loved, or items I had spent a lot of money on. Those (pictured) are now in the studio waiting for school to let up so I can work on them. Here is my closet now. It was crammed full before. A lot of stuff ended up folded in my dresser like short sleeves tops that were hanging over the winter. That is a big reduction. I also made a list as I went of items I want to look out for when I go outlet shopping next month with the girls from work.

An example of the fun. I pulled out these capri pants and tried them on. Last summer none of my capri pants fit. I had grown out of all of them and since I live in capri pants I had to go out to the gap and buy a pair. I bought these size 16 and wore them a lot. This weekend when I tried them on I could get them on and off without unbuttoning them! But even better, I found my old favorite pair of olive green capris. So beloved that I refused to toss them even though they stopped fitting at least 2 summers ago. I tried them on and they fit great! Gotta love that!

Baby Shower Planning Part 2

Sorry, I realize now that there was no punch in any of the photos yesterday. I left it in the freezer until the very last moment. It is an orange-pink color when it is made. It seemed to go over well at the shower. Now, on to the party itself.

Games:
What shower is complete without shower games. Games are the thing most women dread about going to showers and who can blame them. Have you ever done a Google search for "Baby Shower Games"? Some of the games out there are 1.) disgusting (melted candy bars in diapers) 2.) embarrassing (diapering each other with rolls of paper towels) or 3.) Non-PC (guessing how big mom's belly really is). I looked high and low for some entertaining games to play at the shower that would not be gross, too embarrassing and wouldn't offend anyone. There were actually several games that fit the bill but here are the games I chose for us to play.

Game 1: Mystery Baby Items. I filled a bag with random baby items (you are supposed to use a diaper bag but someone had already bought that off the registry in this case and I didn't want to buy a 2nd one). I tried to get things that would be hard to figure out but not too hard. Baby comb, bottle, pacifier, aspirator, butt paste, baby lotion, baby powder, digital thermometer, diaper, travel wipes, bottle brush, teething ring, and rattle (baby food jar, baby spoon, etc the possibilities are endless). Let each guest reach into the bag and feel around at the items sight unseen for 1 minute. Then they write out as many as they can remember and identify. We only had 1 mom in our group so I didn't make it too obscure. You could get really specialized if you had more moms there. The person who gets the most correct wins a prize. The mom keeps the bag of goodies.

Game 2: Baby Items MSRP. I combined games 1 and 2. As I pulled the items out of the bag to reveal them in game 1, I had a friend put them back into their packages and place them on a tray. I handed out a card with the items listed (40 pack of diapers for instance, since only 1 diaper had been in the bag). Next we had everyone guess how much these items cost in today's market. Let them know that you have rounded the prices to the closest 25cents. I let them work for a while and then announced that no item was over $10. That created quite a stir since some people were way off base. Then I went through and read off each item and had people call out their guesses. Then I told them the real price. The one with the most exact answers won a prize. Mom of course still got the goodies. This was pretty funny since no one knew how much stuff really cost and their guesses were pretty out there. Our mom was the worst with 0 correct! Don't underestimate this game!

Game 3: Multitasking Mommy. I picked one game that was pretty funny and a little embarrassing. I bought about 15 pairs of baby socks (a few multi packs) in various colors. We unpaired them and put them in a big pile on a chair. Each playgoer took a turn trying to match up the socks as quickly as possible....but there's more. We gave them a baby (a bear) and a phone. All the guests made crying baby sounds while the "mom" tried to sooth her baby, hold the phone to her ear and match the socks together. It was harder than it sounded and really funny to watch people as the bear would slip from their arm or they would forget to sooth the baby and the guests would just cry louder. The "mom" with the fastest time won a prize. Great game!




Prizes:
Since this was a ladies shower we chose prizes that were from a local jewelry store that has inexpensive but nice items. I also threw in a few 1 month certificates to our lab coffee club. Definitely get a few extra gifts. We had 1 tie and not enough necklaces for them to choose from.

Gifts:
Gift opening time was pretty straight forward for us. Just make sure there is someone there to feed the mom-to-be gifts so she can stay seated (it keeps things moving along too) and pack items up once she is done. Another person to keep notes on who gave what and to keep all gift receipts in one place is also helpful. And don't be afraid to pass those items around. Everyone loves to hold the little clothes and toys and coo over them!



Favors:
What party is complete without a favor to send home with the guests to thank them for their attendance and gift. I put together some easy and inexpensive favors for the guest. I found these little pads of paper and tissues at Micheal's in the dollar spot that were black and white. I tied them together with a little blue ribbon (also from Micheal's dollar spot). At Micheal's I also found bags of colored M&Ms specifically for favors. I bought 2 bags each of blue and white, mixed them together and put them into little wax bags I already had. Trimmed with decorative scissors and punched for more ribbon. Next was a little thank you note that I made and had the mom-to-be sign. Lastly this was all put into a little white bag. These were also in clearance at Micheal's for 1.99 for 3 bags. They were meant to be decorated and I tried stamping them with paint but it didn't take so I left them blank. Super cute and kept with my color scheme for the party.


Timing:
Lastly a note on our timing. We started with mingling and punch. We had baby Lucy join us at our party and this mingling time gave everyone a chance to ooh and aah over the baby while the guest trickled in. Next we ate and talked, then games in quick succession. We followed games with cake and while everyone was savoring the butter cream frosting we watched the mom open her gifts. Here are some photos of the guests enjoying themselves.

Our Mom-To-Be, Indrani due in just 3 weeks

Baby Lucy and her friend Marcela

Managed to get one shot of me! And a couple guys did end up getting into the party!

Mingling and punch!

Overall, it was a huge success. Of course I had lots of help with setting up, food buying and transporting things to work. In the end not only did we get to honor our co-worker and her little boy on the way, I got to try out a bunch of party ideas I had been collecting over time. Hopefully some of these ideas can help you plan your next party!

Baby Shower Planning Part 1

I had the pleasure of planning a baby shower last week for a co-worker. I had originally wanted everyone to come to my house on a Saturday afternoon but some serious scheduling conflicts had arisen and the only free Saturday was 6 days before the mom-to-be's due date. We didn't want to risk a cancellation due to an early delivery so we planned the shower for after work last Friday. I want to share some photos of the event and some of the ideas I used to make it fun, sophisticated, and easy!

Invitations:
Because of our scheduling conflicts we ended up picking a date that was fairly short notice. I decided to use evite.com to send my invitations in order to maximize the time people had to shop and prepare for the shower. Paper invitations would have been cuter but evite worked out just as well and can even be customized with your own photos, clip art or scans.

Decorations:
Our conference room at work is actually a great space with big bright windows, clean lines, and ample room to move around. However, I wanted my guests to feel like they were at a party and not a meeting or even happy hour. I asked everyone to come in "party attire" and wanted the room to have on party attire too! I started by cleaning the room as best I could and breaking up the 4 tables that make up our conference table which fill the entire middle of the room into 2 separate banks of tables pushed up against the walls. This left the center of the room totally open. I covered them with cheap disposable white table clothes. One set of tables for gifts and games and the other held all the food and drinks. Next I found some super cheap ($1) paper lanterns in the clearance section of Michael's. They are marketed for kids to paint and decorate. Then I made these Martha Stewart tissue paper balls to hang from the ceiling. They sell kits of these at Michael's but I figured I have tons of tissue paper, I could probably make them myself. Sure enough Martha had instructions on her website. I will say that the large and medium balls turned out best. The small balls (1/3 of a large ball) were not so great. I hung them from the ceiling over my 2 sets of tables. SOOOOOO CUTE!!!



Drinks:
I decided to have a signature drink at the shower and wanted to go with a traditional punch. This Rose wine punch is a recipe that I got from my friend Katie years ago and served it at my wedding and at other summer parties in the past. I brought my punch bowl in from home and we drank it from wine glasses sporting my new wine charms. I provided GUS (Grown Up Sodas) for the mom-to-be and anyone else who wanted a non-alcoholic beverage although the wine punch is mostly juice in case you were wondering.


Here is the punch recipe:
Rose Wine Slush Punch
1.5L of Rose wine (2 standard bottles)
1 Can frozen orange juice
1 Can frozen white grape juice
1 Can frozen lemonade
1.5 Cans of water
2 Liter bottle of 7-up

Thaw the juices and combine them with the wine and water. Mix together in a large container and freeze through (do this the day before). Once frozen break up into chunks and put into your punch bowl. The wine prevents this from freezing rock hard. Pour 7-up over the top, stir and let thaw until it is a slushy consistency. If you don't have a punch bowl I am told you can scoop the frozen mixture into a cup about 1/2 to 2/3 full and then pour 7-up to the top. Give it a quick stir to combine. You may need more 7-up for this method.

Food:
It is always best to keep party foods simple and tasty. All of our food came from Whole Foods and was purchased the day of the event. We decided to offer some build your own brioche sandwiches as our centerpiece. Here was the menu:
-Split mini brioche rolls (with a couple flavored sandwich spreads)
-Thin sliced meets and cheeses (salami, prosciutto, grilled chicken breasts, cheddar, and Jarlsberg)
-Antipasti Platter (olives, mini mozzarella balls, artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, and pepperoni slices)
-Cheese and mini toasts (Camembert and goat cheese)
-Fruit salad
-Tossed green salad (Spinach, Romaine, Candied pecans, dried pear, balsamic vinaigrette, and crumbled blue cheese)
-Cake for dessert
The best part was that people could add almost any of those items to their roll to make a sandwich or eat them separately. Everything was devoured by our guests. Do remember your mom-to-be's dietary restrictions. She isn't supposed to eat soft cheeses, cured meats, and many seafood items. Make sure she has some food options. We made sure our guest of honor had a salad set aside with no blue cheese, we provided her with chicken breasts for her sandwiches and some hard cheeses so she wouldn't be left out.




At this point the room was pretty much ready for the party. More tomorrow!

It’s all in the details

While working on my closets I did a few small things that have made a huge difference. It really is all about the details! Next to the treadmill I hung 3 3M hooks to hold our heart rate monitor, headphones, and my warm-up jacket. These things used to be hung all over the machine and would often fall down while walking. What a difference to have them all hanging in a handy location out of the way but still accessible. (I also cleaned the treadmill really well!)

Next was the hall closet again. I keep a bag of shopping sacks in there for 2^nd floor garbage liners but that bag ends up getting tossed around when trying to find stuff and the bags inside fall out. I hung a hook on the wall in there to keep them off the floor and secured in one place. Love it! I also put up a hook for my feather duster to keep it out of the way. It had been crushed by the bucket at some point when everything was jumbled in the bottom and lost some feathers (not in the photo but still great!).

It is hard to see but I had some spare bookends from IKEA (I think they cost about $2) for Billy bookcases that I put on the shelf to hold the linens in place so they don’t get all jumbled. Works great!

***PRODUCT NOTE: I love 3M hooks. I use them all the time during the holidays to hang decorations without leaving holes or marks but they are so good for other things too. I keep a big bag of miscellaneous sizes and styles in the closet for little moments like these. They are great for non-permanent solutions (helpful for renters) as well as for trying out an idea before getting out the hammer. This way you can try a hook to see if it will really work for you and is in the right location before investing in a nicer hook or making any holes. I can’t say enough about these gems. They are all over my house!

Closets

As I mentioned before, I took a week off at the beginning of June to relax a little at home. I had a lot of plans and projects for my time off but most of that fell to the wayside except for a few things. I really wanted to get a couple of my closets in order and managed to do it. First was the bedroom. So crammed full I couldn’t see the clothes in the back and had no idea what was even in there. I started by pulling everything out of the closet to dust and vacuum it out. Then I pulled all winter clothes from the pile and put them into storage under the bed and up in the closet. After that I went through each article of clothing looking for stains, damage and fit (for my stuff), weeding out clothes I no longer liked or used (like skirts from BSF!) and hung everything back in order by article type and then by color (ROYGBIV).(Greg's were not hung in color order because I know he will never maintain it. It just doesn't matter to him that much. He has more items than this but a lot of stuff needed to hit the laundry first! I am glad I checked.) This was really great because I could see instantly which colors were underrepresented in my wardrobe. Yellow, orange, purple and greens in my case. I went to the outlet mall with the girls from work the next day and found some cute pieces that fit into these color ranges instead of buying more black, brown and gray which I apparently love according to my closet! I then moved on to the dressers and even my jewelry box decluttering and getting everything in order. It feels so nice to open my closet now and be able to step in and think, “what color do I want to wear today?”. Greg even likes that all his short sleeve shirts are hung together, long sleeves together, etc. No photos of my underwear drawer but I put some small boxes inside to keep the different groups of items separate and it also looks really nice and organized and I can find everything really easily. The best part is that it makes it really easy to pick out my clothes the night before to streamline my morning routine.

The other closet I really needed to tackle was the upstairs hall closet. Since we moved in it has been a jumble of stuff. I had things kind of organized but the boxes I used in the old apartment were the wrong size for this place and weren’t really working for me. I bought new containers ages ago but never had the time to work on it. I forgot to take a before picture but I emptied the entire contents onto the office floor and began sorting into my different containers marked travel, medicines, refills/new items, household, etc. Then I made cute labels for the boxes and re stacked them on the shelves. The other thing that made a huge difference was going through all the linens. I had 3 sets of towels from 3 apartments in 3 colors, multiple odd blankets and duvets, and more. I cut that way down to what we really used and donated the rest. Now everything fits neatly on the shelves and floor is cleared out for just a few items instead of a mountain of old towels that constantly tipped over. I picked up a canvas basket for the blankets that are stacked on the floor in the picture making the closet look even better. The basket has a little window in the front where I slipped in a matching card labeled "blankets". Now the closet it totally usable again. I love it.

Filing and Flinging

While Greg was away recently for a trip to Texas with our friend John who has moved to Dallas I decide to try and tackle a big project. At first I wanted to re-do the closet but that would have required a bit of demolition and I didn't think I could do it alone. Plus I still had to work everyday so I really was only going to have a day or two to finish the project. I decided to tackle the office which was still only partly organized. All the major furniture had been purchased but nothing had been done since that time. One area that really needed work was all the paper and files. We didn't have room for a file cabinet in the old place so we had a system of containers and folders that held important documents. This new office had room for a file cabinet so I needed to put together a new filing system to go with it. I decided to used a filing product that came highly recommended on some of the organizing blogs I read. It is called Freedom Filer and is a self purging system that is supposed to take just a few minutes to sort into and purge from. I had read the directions for the system and had put the folders together to customize it for our needs but I still need to take my mountain of files and incorporate them into the drawer. That is one thing I worked on while Greg was away. It took me almost 4 hours to go through all our old papers (only a few piles shown above) and weed out stuff that could be discarded, re-classify the stuff that should be kept and file it all away. That also included the time it took to shred 3 bags of documents that were being recycled. My shredder got a lot of lovin that day! And here it is all done. I am loving the new system so far. It is truly very easy to maintain as it takes me under 2 minutes to file a stack of new bills, receipts, and documents. I did a lot more to the office during Greg's absense which I will report on soon.