want, need, wear, read, and make

At not even one and a half, this is only Sweet Pea's second Christmas and I know I could give him nothing this year and he'd still be as happy as a clam (well, that is true as long as I let him play with the TV remote). However, I worry about the future and getting caught up in wanting to smother him in stuff that he won't necessarily want, need, or play with more than the time it took to unwrap (this book has been an eye opener for me in many ways that I'll share with you in another post). Anyway, I sure am glad to have stumbled upon The Four Gift Rule. It makes gift giving seem easy and it also makes a ton of sense to me (although I think I would add one additional category: 1 Thing They Make - for art supplies, crafts, etc.). Stockings, on the other hand, are a total free-for-all...

a plan

This photo made me spring into action. Instead of daydreaming, net surfing, and gathering images of all potential workspaces that I could maybe/sometime/one day fit into my house.....I am taking that weird wall area in the nook of my bedroom and putting up some prettily covered clipboards to get the stray paperwork under control. 

It will help with organization- one child to every clipboard, one clipboard for art projects, one for home projects, etc.. It will not require purchasing of furniture or shelving and I won't even need to move anything!

I even have a variety of papers for the covering part. I'm half a dozen clipboards away from home organization :).

Image: ecoetsy

52 Weeks To An Organized Home

The site Home Storage Solutions 101 is posting a series of 52 home organization challenges to lead you to a completely organized home over the course of a year. Certainly even the most clutter-prone person could tackle this plan since it is mapped out so clearly and methodically each week.
Although they offer you the opportunity to sign up and "join" the free program, I think I will just stick to checking the site for each week's task. Who knows- 52 weeks from now I could be living among rooms like the snapshot I posted above....fingers crossed!

Image courtesy of moss moments

bookshelfporn.com

A post on Facebook this weekend reminded me of the photo blog collection bookshelfporn. It is a site filled with pictures of bookshelves and bookcases, from the over-designed to the haphazardly stacked.... If you are a lover of books and organization (a thrilling combination :) ) like me, it is worth a gander.

Images courtesy of bookshelfporn.com

lovely laundry rooms

via Design Sponge

Not too long ago I posted about my love of pretty entryways. Well, here's that companion post that features the other space I'd love to organize in my own home - the laundry room. I'm lucky enough to have a laundry area/hallway, but it looks nothing like these spaces. While mine feels like a dumping ground for dirty clothes, I love how organized, well-stocked, and crisp and clean these laundry rooms are with their white or minty-colored walls. So much promise in these spaces!

via Design Inspiration

via ...love Maegan

via House & Home

via The Nocturnal Nest

entryway inspiration

via Apartment Therapy

I have two random weaknesses - entryways and laundry rooms. I don't have either, but I love admiring how pretty these functional spaces can be. Here is my ode to well-designed entryways...

via Home Sweet Home

via ffffound

via Emma Mitchell Photography

via Apartment Therapy

via Next Home Design

listography

Image courtesy of chroniclebooks

list: a series of items written together in a meaningful grouping.
-ography: a writing about or a representation of a thing.

Chronicle Books publishes this super cool series of listography books designed by Lisa Nola and Nathaniel Russell. They describe a listography as "a perpetual work in progress, a time capsule, and a map of your life".

The books provide the starting points for a collection of lists that come together to form an autobiography of sorts. There is not only the original listography, but volumes for specific topics such as-music, friends, my future, and kids' listography.

Each page in these funky journals prompts you with a subject/question/directions and leaves space for you to list your ideas and responses. The concept is simple and the format equally uncomplicated, but once it is all filled out- what an extraordinary way to record the details of life.

Images courtesy of listography.com

Inspiring Space

This work area of Ishtar Olivera, from a decor8blog post, makes me want to be creative and productive. I am bookmarking it for inspiration. I have promised myself a hundred times to find an area where I can set up all of my art supplies and the little things that interest me and just make me happy. Seeing this image just reinforces my desire to have a spot like that and proves it does not have to be grand or spacious, just a somewhere that is me....

September Hiatus for Viv.

via Coraline

So with our wedding in November and a dissertation that I'm meant to finish before that very important date - something has to give. And I've decided that I'm going to have to back down on the blogging. That might not be much of a surprise to any regular reader since it seems that these days Lorelei is already carrying Hiving Out all by her lonesome, but I thought I'd just confess to my absence all the same. So here it is: I am stressed. Overwhelmed. Gosh darn tired. So in order to make myself sane and useful - I've got to prioritize all that pesky writing I've yet to be and plan on writing my heart out for the rest of the month. With that said - I do look forward to returning to HO refreshed and ready to roll on October 1st, but until then - pop back in when you can 'cause Lorelei is a blogging machine and she's still going to be posting... :) 

Happy fall everyone!

reckoning day

Because I seem to live my life according to this motto - today is one of those days when my procrastination has caught up with me and I must grade and grade and grade until I can't see straight anymore. When will I ever learn?

P.S. For a free printable card of this Keep Calm spoof - head on over to this post on "Creature Comforts'" old blog (or, as I am likely to do, procrastinate by checking out "Creature Comforts" latest posts at its newer location).

a pretty desk, please

via the goodie life

My desk is presently littered with pages and pages from a dissertation that I don't don't see an end to anytime soon. There are no pretty notebooks or books left open that are being read for pleasure or desk lamps that stand slim and tall like bright flowers, but it is lovely to think that one day (maybe soon?) I'll be swapping out stacks of scribbled notes with bunches of poesies. And these darling desks just make me happy to think that I will be able to some day reclaim my own pretty work place....

(These images first found here, here, and here - all on the lovely tumblr blog, "it's mary ruffle")

via Hooked on Houses

via My Scandinavian Retreat