and i quote...

found here

Organization Motivation

Summer is a great time for simplifying and dealing with less!

Less busy schedules (hopefully)....less clothes (definitely)...and maybe, just maybe, less stress from messy spaces.

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So, as I said here yesterday, I'm going to take a couple days and talk about ways to get and stay organized...especially with kids. But before we can even get that far, you have to figure out what's going to make you actually want to do it! That's truly the hardest part.

Let's get some motivation- what will get you at least a little pumped up to clean and organize?
Here are some things that do it for me...


 One, it's knowing that taking a few seconds to wipe off the counters, or doing a quick vacuum, makes me feel like someone could pop in for a visit unexpectedly and I'll feel ok about how the house looks.
I know my friends and family will love me regardless, and not think any less of me if my house is a hot mess when they come over. But I do it for me. I enjoy having company, and I'm proud to show off my home.

{And please understand this pride has nothing to do with the size, age, or type of home you have! When we first got married we lived in a 379 sq foot studio condo in Greenwich, Connecticut. T-I-N-Y. Insanely tiny. Like the if you get in a fight someone had to leave the condo and go ride the elevator up and down to cool off because there's no place else to go, kind of tiny! And I was just as proud to decorate it and show it off as I am our 4 bedroom home today).

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Two- I also feel like keeping a tidy home is a very small way of expressing my thankfulness that God has always blessed us with a roof over our heads. And I want to use that blessing to provide a relaxing, clean, place for friends and family that come to stay or visit. 

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Three-Another thing that motivates me is probably not my husband's favorite {sorry minks!}
Getting something new or changing something up decorating-wise in my house is enough to push me to want to clean the laundry up off the floor, or mop the bathrooms. If I just bought a cute new set of rugs for my bathroom, I don't want to just throw them on the dirty floor and be done with it. Having something pretty in  my bathroom  makes me want to make the whole room look better to go along with it. It doesn't have to be something expensive...even just having a vase of fresh flowers to put on my dining room table makes me want to clean off the clutter and wipe it down.

Four-soaking up inspiration from pictures of beautiful, well-planned spaces. I could do this all day. As long as you don't let staring at pictures of amazing homes get you discouraged or jealous! Big or Small, owned or rented, your home is wonderful because it's filled with wonderful people. And it's not about magazine perfection...it's about having a comfortable, lived-in, loved-in, space 

that you really want to come home to.

 I'll be back tomorrow with some really easy baby-steps towards giving your home a fresh, clean start to summer :)

Tina Fey...you rock my socks

A mother's prayer, by Tina Fey

“First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches. May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty. When the Crystal Meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer. Guide her, protect her when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age. Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels. What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit. May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers. Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen.Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait. O Lord, break the Internet forever, that she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed. And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it. And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes. Amen.” 

The most ridiculously marvelous little nook ever...A "little house" tour

This little tour is the cutest thing I've seen a long time. I am pining for something like it soooo badly. And not even for my girls. for ME.

Take a look at what  Birdie Blue created for her four lucky daughters...

an amaaazing little get away

with an amaaazing little loft

Do you die from the cuteness? Are you laying there, slain from the adorableness of it all?

Don't you wish you had someplace like this to escape to?

love it. 

Head over to her wonderful blog to check out all the details

House tour from A La Mode...

Shelli's  fun and sophisticated nursery she created for her daughter, was recently featured on Ohdeedoh. I love the punch of lime with crisp navy and white...

{check out the rest of the sweet nursery here}

I knew the rest of her house must be just as fabulous and it is...

master bedroom

eat-in kitchen

living room

don't you love this old church pew??

office- so pretty!!

Go check out the rest of Shelli's home, and find out what else she's up to on her blog,

A La Mode

Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday!

For you...

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“As we drive along this road called life, 

occasionally a gal will find herself a little lost. 

And when that happens, I guess she has to let go of 

the coulda, shoulda, woulda, buckle up and just keep going.”
- Carrie Bradshaw

For you...

Show House show stopper {say that 5 times fast}

*i just realized that it's not hard to say at all. tongue twister fail. sigh.

Canadian House and Home magazine is quickly becoming my favorite design publication.
I know I'm not the first person to show off this gorgeous house, but I just had to share.
It's the 2010 show house, located in Oakville, a suburb of Ontario.

living room

glam. hellooo there ghost table. 

loooving all the natural fabric choices in this home...from burlap to baskets, 

and a jute or sisal rug in just about every room

a welcoming space for guests

a place for everything in this mudroom

garden party, anyone?

I think it's such a light, bright, welcoming home. 

And not decorated within an inch of it's life either...it's pared down and simple

some things...

 Sometimes my kids are insane, and my life is ridiculous, and I feel like at any moment someone is going to jump out of the bushes and tell me I'm a top finalist in a "your life is like a crazy sitcom" contest, and it all gives me funny things to write about.

{I will not tell you which family members in my life uncannily resemble certain characters on Everybody Loves Raymond. I would like to. But they might read my blog. And I enjoy receiving birthday and Christmas presents too much}. 

But other times Charlotte isn't funny, she's just a flailing ball of whiny two-year old arms and legs, and sticky hands on my skin, and needy eyes, and my house gets destroyed faster than I can pick it up, and my laundry piles up higher than Kilimanjaro, and I don't really have anything to say that I think anyone would be interested in.

But then, one, I find blogs -with far more readers than mine- that are dedicated solely to what sort of gourmet homemade meal they're making for their cat each day, or how to knit toe-socks using organic camel wool, or other such weirdness. And two, this is my little piece of the written world, I suppose, and I shall darn well write about whatever I choose too. {Possibly badly, and likely chock full of grammar mistakes because I usually type with one hand holding a baby. But again..mine. all mine}

So today I have nothing funny. Probably too many words. Not enough pictures. Something different. I just wanted to try to encourage you. Maybe there's someone that needs some kind words today. Maybe there isn't. Maybe all you people are just fine and dandy and walking on sunshine and you will say, thank you anyway...I'm a-ok, and kindly hand my words back to me. Maybe It will only serve to encourage me, if I go back in time someday and read this. I'm alright with that.

It's nothing new. I'm not preparing to gift you with some amazing, ground breaking, never heard of before, secret of the universe. But it is truer than true. And sometimes you need to be knocked in the head with something one-thousand and one times before it grabs on tight to you and you really feel it's meaning.

Before might have been a thousand.

Maybe this will be plus one.

You don't have to have a terrible, awful day 

to still feel like things are getting all crumbly around the edges. 

Sometimes that grey feeling can worm and twist itself into a things-are-going-fine day.

And you don't have to be alone in a room with the shades drawn 

to feel completely by yourself. 

And tired.

And very small.

Sometimes that comes in the middle of a day filled to the brim with 

people.errands.work.talking.driving.calling.never ending being needed-ness.

But then there's this. 

 bad day or bad entire year

a small problem that subtly pricks your spirit or a huge problem with no end in sight.

It's not the end. You're not alone. 

because there's this

and it's always, always, closer than you think.

maybe not today. and maybe not tomorrow. 

and maybe not ever in exactly the way you picture it.

But it's there. 

You are wonderful, and talented, and obviously have fabulous taste because you read this blog.

And although I promise you there are others who have felt how you feel, 

and have been where you are right now,

there is no one else that can be who you are, 

in the same way that you are,

to the people who love & care & depend on you.

That's something you were uniquely made to do.

You are needed, and valued, and so very, very, very precious

to the One who put you here.

{and gave you these people that ruin your house, and can't find the laundry basket that's a foot from where they dropped their dirty socks, and who generally are the cause of days that get crumbly around the edges, but yet you still love fiercely.}

{oh, just me?}

Jeremiah 29:11

Have a wonderful weekend sweet friends O' mine!

for you...

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see

Hebrews 11:1