Making Me Happy This Week–1/28/2018

^What it looks like when I take 10 minute walking breaks outside my building at work, in the courtyard.  It makes me happy.

One thing that I’ve been doing for a couple of years in my paper notebook is making a sort-of-weekly list of things that are “Making Me Happy This Week”.  I thought I would start sharing them here on the blog, because we could all use some reminder of what makes us happy.  Maybe it will inspire you to make your own list regularly. 

Here’s what’s been making me happy this week.

• Monday day off – it was my first day off in 2018.  I went to Target and Burger Lounge by myself and it was glorious!  (No, I don’t mind eating by myself at a restaurant at all!)
• Using the Matsumoto Shave Ice shopping bag that my friend Patsy gave me.  For those not in California, we have a law that you either have to bring your own shopping bags to grocery/retail stores, or you get charged 5 cents per bag.  We’ve actually been bringing our own reusable bags for years, but the law went into effect about a year ago.
• Giving Todd the clip-on fan for his too-warm new workspace at work, and him loving it.
• Restaurant Week dinner on Tuesday night at Avant in Rancho Bernardo Inn.  My lobster dish was so good!
• Organizing the pantry and snack cabinet.  Read the full post about it here.
• My new letterboard that I bought from Target for $15.  I used these 3M command hooks to hang it up against a cabinet in my home office.
• This Glade wax warmer I got from Target.  I have leftover scented wax melts and now I can use this in another room!
• Getting an unexpected handmade card from an awesome friend, with heartfelt words.  What could be better?  Nothing.
• Cozy scenes at home, like this one.
• Watching Victoria season 1 on Amazon Prime streaming (PBS Masterpiece).
• My new rechargeable clip-on light for reading in my recliner!  We have canned ceiling lights in the family room, but there isn’t a canned light located above my recliner.  This clip on light solves the problem when I want to read a physical book or magazine rather than my Kindle.  (And oh yea, using a Raskog cart as a side table is AWESOME.  I put my remotes, drink, ipad, laptop, coloring books, pens, notebooks, etc. in there.)
• Todd’s new over-the-door hook for his backpack on the office door.  He had been just laying it on the floor and this is much better!
• Noodle loving the pot roast that Todd made and begging for more, ha ha.  (We only gave him a taste.)
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Organized Pantry

We have very limited pantry space in our kitchen.  The way our kitchen is laid out, there just isn’t a closet for pantry.  Instead, we only have a wall of shelves on the side of the kitchen.  In the past, we didn’t use the pantry shelves efficiently, because there wasn’t enough shelves to really store what we wanted to store.  So everything was sort of haphazardly strewn, and stacked on top of each other.  We decided to finally really remedy the situation with more wire shelving, and dry goods storage. 

I forgot to take the “before” photos, so you’ll just have to imagine what it would be like without the additional white wire shelving and containers.

I saw on Clean Mama’s blog that she used mason jars with white screw-on lids to store some of her dry goods.  I thought that was a really great idea, because we had been hoarding mason jars for various purposes and have a BUNCH of them in the cupboards in the laundry room.  I took them all out and was chargrined to see how many jars we have!

For convenience’s sake, we went and purchased some regular and wide mouth white screw-on caps for the mason jars.  Then we went to work on the dry goods and used my label maker to label each jar.

These mason jars, combined with the Oxo airtight containers that we had previous purchased, have helped make our pantry a lot more organized!  We did also have the problem of things stacking haphazardly on top of one another.  So we purchased some white wire shelving (one tier, and two tier) to make everything look more neat when stacked.  It also made the small space way more efficient.

Our last pantry problem to solve was our huge deep snack cabinet that was built into our kitchen peninsula.  It was just really deep shelves in disarray.  So I purchased some clear bins that are 14.5” long so that they were almost as deep as the cabinets.  Now I can pull all my teas and Keurig k-cups out and see what I have, pick one, and put them back without a hassle.  I’m all about products and processes that make life easier or save time! 

This year we are decluttering and re-organizing our house one little project at a time, mostly on the weekends.  Some of these small changes have really made a big difference in our satisfaction with our space.  Ever have something that you use everyday that annoys you?  To me, that kind of annoyance can start to permeate your life and actually make you feel worse.  So why not think of your processes and come up with solutions to finally solve those small annoyances that can get you down?  These solutions make me happy!

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Making Me Happy This Week–1/21/2018

One thing that I’ve been doing for a couple of years in my paper notebook is making a sort-of-weekly list of things that are “Making Me Happy This Week”.  I thought I would start sharing them here on the blog, because we could all use some reminder of what makes us happy.  Maybe it will inspire you to make your own list regularly. 

Here’s what’s been making me happy this week.

• Grace & Frankie on Netflix.  Season 4 just dropped on Friday.  We are still in Season 3.  I love that there’s a show that portrays the complex lives of women in their 70’s.  It’s a terrific show, but contains adult themes and language.  (So be careful about watching in front of children.)
• Making someone else happy.  We gave our old 52” TV to Todd’s friend Gwen.  We also freecycled an old Roland synthesizer to a stranger.
• Scented wax melts in my Ohio State Scentsy warmer.
• Walking outside.  One of my goals this month is to walk outside at least a few minutes every day that I’m at work.  We also do a longer walk outside on the weekends.
• Purging and organizing the closet space under the stairs.  We have an awkwardly shaped coat closet under our spiral staircase.  It was filled with stuff we didn’t use or love anymore.  Things were just piled in there.
• I took inspiration from this IKEA photo and we’re going to try to put up some shelving and more flexible storage.
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• But for now there’s a lot less junk in there, and the shelves are an extension of our pantry, since our pantry is very small.
• Noodle loves to nap on the Santa rug that I got from Target.  I need to find the exact same rug except not Santa so he can use it all year long!
• The free organ concert at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion every Sunday afternoon.
• Walking through the Prado at Balboa Park.
• Trying out a new to us sandwich place in Hillcrest called T-Deli.
• Week of Putting Me Together Winter Style Challenge outfits.  (Except the last two. I usually only dress up for work.)
• Weather cooling down for cozier clothes.
• Our new silicone wedding bands!  I read about them on a style blogger’s blog.  Apparently when people travel, they sometimes wear these as wedding bands instead of their real rings so they don’t lose them or get robbed.  We loved the idea so much that we bought some just to wear them. Neither one of us wore our original wedding bands anyway.  My finger got too big for my band.  Todd lost his swimming in the ocean.  He had been wearing a titanium ring that we bought him a few years ago, but the metal is very hard and he was always afraid he was going to get it caught on something and rip his finger tendons.  (This happened to someone he knows!) So now we are both wearing the soft silicone rings.  They are so cheap too!  And you can change colors when the mood strikes or according to outfit.  Also we can workout with weights and it doens’t bother us.  This isn’t for everyone, but we don’t care about jewelry so this is a really great solution for us.
• My old boss who left us for another job in December texted to say, “Have I told you all that I miss you??!! My new team is no where close to your performance & quality. I miss you.”
• Takeout dinner from Punjabi Tandoor.  My favorite Indian food in San Diego.
• I finally upgraded to Lightroom 6 for the facial recognition. Lightroom thinks Todd looks like white Jesus. I just about died laughing.
• Trying out different plain yogurts (w/o added sugar).  I tried Islandic Provisions, Fage, and Yoplait.  I think so far my favorite is Yoplait, but it has 30% more calories because there’s more fat in it.  It figures that’s why it’s my favorite so far.
• Todd’s chocolate prune and rum cake.  Sounds weird but super yummy and gluten-free.
• Noodle snuggling on me.  Always.
• Banh mi sandwiches from Cali Baguette.
• Monthly and weekly goals.  Yearly is way too long on me.  I feel like I can stick to monthly and weekly goals better and it’s working for me.  I use the Ink & Volt planner for it.
• Trying out Trello for my personal project management and to-do list.

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Making Me Happy This Week–1/14/2018

One thing that I’ve been doing for a couple of years in my paper notebook is making a sort-of-weekly list of things that are “Making Me Happy This Week”.  I thought I would start sharing them here on the blog, because we could all use some reminder of what makes us happy.  Maybe it will inspire you to make your own list regularly. 

Here’s what’s been making me happy this week.

• Rain.  Lots of rain.  Rare rain.  Rainbows!  Saw this view from my office window at work.
• Sunshine & warm weather.  It’s been in the 70’s this past week.
• Walking at the beach.  Fresh ocean air is my favorite!
• Watching the “Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban” movie.  As with the books, I thought, “Yay, it’s finally getting good!”  I didn’t like the 2nd book and thought it was boring.  It was finally after reading the 3rd book that I said, “Now I see why people like this”.
• Not spending money on crowded categories in my life.  By “crowded categories” I mean categories of things in my life where I already have more than enough.  Categories such as clothing, shoes, pens, notebooks, etc.  It makes me happy to USE those things and not just collect them and waste money on MORE of them.
• In depth, heart to heart, honest conversations with a good friend.
• Yoga with Adriene – I started this 30 day TRUE program on Youtube (free!).  I haven’t done it every day, but will try to do it 4x per week.
• Nutrition adjustments going well.  In January I’m not eating candy.  And I haven’t eaten any candy!  Between that and eating well and eating smaller portions has made a big difference in how I feel, my mood, and general well being.  Not to mention effective weight loss.
• Week 1 of the Putting Me Together Winter Style Challenge.  Audrey tells me what to wear each day!  I started an outfit Instagram account @listgirlwears.  You can follow me here.
• Quiet times at work because all our VPs are gone at our demand generation conference in Spain. 
• I’ve been making my own breakfast sandwiches at home and then wrapping them in parchment paper and bringing them to work to eat.  It feels fancy and like a treat that I purchased!
• Noodle snuggles.  In this photo I was wearing my leopard snuggie that my dad’s wife gave me.  Noodle climbed onto me for snuggling.  I feel like he was saying, “Now you look and feel like my real mom!”  Bwahahaha.
• These dual-tipped cotton cosmetic applicators.  My friend Patsy at work gave them to me, and after using it once to put gel eyeliner on, I said to myself, “Where has this been my whole life?!”  It sure beats the stupid little useless brush that comes with the pot of gel eyeliner.  Use these!
• Todd’s new Indian clothes (I think it’s called a kurta).  His friend Asmita at work returned from a month-long trip to India and bought these clothes for Todd as a gift.  He works with many colleagues of Indian decent and now he can fit right in!  I like it.
• Todd texting me random selfies with Noodle.  It delights me.  Here Noodle is mastering the “faraway gaze”.
  
• Donating a bunch of old electronics to free up space in our house.  We are going to systematically declutter this year and surround ourselves with only useful and delightful things.

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