apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Tonight is my party. It's my sons 4th birthday and it's just a family affair- my parents, my husbands mother and us. I am making Grilled Pork tenderloin, roasted carrots and potatoes, green beans and stuffing. I am also making the cake- chocolate with homemade vanilla frosting (with a layer of white chocolate pudding) !
This cure has been great. I got everything I wanted to do done. (except for the paint in my bedroom- but that's a weather thing. Once it gets nice I get to paint) Things really clicked for me this time (3rd ones a charm) and I have moved out a ton of stuff. When I have the garage sale- first weekend in June- I will post some pictures for everyone.

This Sunday is my sister's college graduation party at my house. It is just my family and my grandmother coming in from Chicago. My husband is going to grill and I am making a Norwegian cake translated as "The World's Best Cake".
This past weekend we (I mean, my husband) painted our downstairs bathroom, installed new hardware and hung a shelf. I am so excited to have that bathroom re-done and it is painted my favorite color, grey. Also I eliminated 4 boxes of papers and other stuff and almost have the spare bedroom back together.
Overall I have really enjoyed the cure. I still have a few things left but the main goals were accomplished. It was great having all the support and very motivating seeing everyone's amazing progress for this group.

Since my Cure kind of got derailed by health concerns, and since a couple of my plans for the bedroom didn't work out, I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd hoped when I started on the 8 weeks. Oh well, there's always next time, and the things I did get done definitely make me happy.

I won't be hosting a party, but I'll try to get the last few "after" pics posted this week. I *did* change the color scheme of the accents in the bathroom, from the ice-blue that didn't work, to yellow, which works very nicely. Pictures to come (I really need to get a digital camera for these cures!!!)

Even though I didn't get much done in the last few weeks, it's been great reading about other people's progress, and seeing the pics that have been put up on these posts (haven't had time to browse the Flickr pics, unfortunately).

Here's to next time! (I always seem to do better in the Fall Cures, anyway.)

I'm cleaning up now, but some things will have to wait until my backorder is in.

I resized the mirror: that was less expensive than I thought, just 10 dollars. I'll get my husband to hang it this weekend, and I'll put a frame around it, wood I think, 3 or 4 inches wide.

I'm posting some pictures in a few minutes.

I've learned a lot of things from this cure. I've learned how much happier I am in a more organized space. I've learned how much impact a strong pop of color can make. I've learned that I can't do everything at once. I've learned that decluttering NEVER ends.

When I started this cure I thought that I would have everything done by week 8. 8 weeks is a long time! Well I don't. I've cured my dining room, kitchen, hallway, and have made some serious progress on my living room. I'm now looking ahead to my fall cure. I want to cure my bathroom, finish my living room, and do the bedroom in the fall.

I guess the biggest lesson I've learned is to be happy with the little changes that you make in your home. I would get frustrated with myself at times because I wasn't seeing enough BIG change. It's the small things however, like organizing a junk drawer, that make the biggest impact on how I live and function!

Thank you Apartment Therapy for all the guidance and for showing so many of my pictures, it really kept me motivated! AND of course thanks to the amazing Chicago Cure Group!

Well, I finally got the computer cords looked after. I am much happier with my arrangement than the one I had set up--and now all those cords are safe from the puppy!

I have an interesting (and welcome) problem.
For the last 8 weeks, my entry way cabinet has been piled with videos and books destined for our Church library. They finally went out the door on Sunday--and now there's nothing on it but outgoing mail. We're using our backdoor pretty much all the time, so I don't need a bowl for keys and I keep my incoming mail somewhere else.

Essentially, it's a surface totally free for "decoration" and I've no clue what to put on it.

For now, I'm just enjoying a clear surface.

Well, it turns out the clear surface is useful after all!

We had two guests (at separate times) yesterday, and we used the clear space to put their shoes!

Nice and safe from the chewing monster we call our dog.

I may get an inexpensive tray to put down on it so that if the shoes are a bit wet and muddy it won't be hard to clean.

I went a little overboard yesterday, preparing for my guests.

I dusted the dining room from top to bottom carted all kinds of stuff down to the basement, washed the floor.
I had my daughter wash all the window panes in the french door. She also washed a couple of mirrors.

In the living room I wiped down the end table, washed the electronics, swept and washed the floor.

I completely cleaned the bathroom, right to the baseboards and walls, washed all the fixtures and the floor. I even changed out the bathmat.

Did dishes for hours in the kitchen, washed everything in sight (I had my son wash the chairs and garbage can) and yes, washed the floor.

The house looks great. And what's more we did this and had a proper school day. I was amazed!
But I'm a little stiff this morning!

I made plans with a few friends to come over Sat. night for homemade pizza and drinks, so even though I haven't done too much official "curing", I'm motivated to wrap up some odds and ends and get the place clean. Plus, some of these folks have never seen my apartment at all before, and so it will be their first impressions, and not a drastic improvement that they'll experience!

Have fun STLcolleen!

Thanks Alana! I'm getting things ready right, now, and have a LONG way to go, but it's a good feeling knowing that I'm going to be proud to show off my home, and not embarrassed...

I also realized that I didn't really have a party after the fall cure, when I made my MAJOR changes (which then spurred continual changes and improvements from then to now). I started having people over more often, but just one or two at a time. This is my real first party, and I am doing it to celebrate both the Fall and Spring Cures, I guess!

Right, so enough AT time, better get to making that pizza dough!

Pictures tomorrow!