Day 8: Give Thanks.

So today, being Thanks Giving, I figured I would actually Give Thanks!

A lot of the time when we go to various family dinners and gatherings someone suggests that we should all go around and say what we are thankful for. Usually everyone groans at this, and it either doesn't happen, or everyone kind of fires off an 'acceptable' response. This year I decided to take it a little more seriously and actually think about all of the things in my life that I have to be thankful for!

Family: Something I normally kind of take for granted. I have an amazing Husband who tries to make me happy and truly understands that it's the little things you do every day that make a real difference. =) I have a Twin sister who is my best friend and who is always right there when I need her (aka All the Time). I am actually close with my entire nuclear family. Growing up we always did things together and kept with Traditions, and have had fun making up new Traditions. I'm really grateful that my Parents put in so much effort to make us such a close family because that's something that we will always have now. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My Home: I'm grateful to have a house! Something I for sure take for granted, but I mean, I really shouldn't. Originally we were actually going to rent an apartment, but then this house suddenly became available for rent right in the area we wanted! What Luck! But after living in this house for a while I kind of forgot that we were lucky to get it, and have been really focused on how awesome it will be when we can actually buy a house! (I wanna paint!!!) But I'm going to try to remember that this is a nice house and that there are still ways to decorate a rental. I'm also going to stop thinking of it as temporary. Even if we are going to move in like, a year, or two, or at-some-point, we are living here now. This is my home.

Those, I think, are the two biggest things for me. (Watch, there's something else that I'm totally forgetting that is a huge deal. =P) I think in the future I'm going to try to keep with the positives and remember the things in my life that are worth celebrating.

Happy Thanks Giving Everyone! And Thanks for reading.

Day 7: You Know What They Say About Cleanliness

Hey Everyone! I've been really thinking about the direction that these "Love Living Simply" posts are going in, and I'm realizing that a lot of it is just cutting down the things that cause you daily stress. I think that everyone has things that stay in the back of their mind that they try to avoid, and then just sort of dwell about, and hopefully if we can all get past these obstacles everything will just be a lot more simple and relaxed.

One thing that I find I am constantly worrying about is the amount of cleaning that I have to do. Realistically, you can only get so much cleaning done in one day, and you only WANT to clean for so long in one day! I'm starting to realize that admitting that I don't want to clean all day is sort of a healthy thing. No one really does, so why pretend? Anyway, whenever I start cleaning something, say like, doing a load of laundry and washing all the dish clothes, I notice all the other laundry that could be done and start to panic because I don't have time for 8 loads of laundry! I begin to feel really overwhelmed because I can't finish everything, and my one little load of laundry I was going to do suddenly seems insignificant. I have sort of the same reaction when I do any sort of cleaning in my house. After all, how can I vacuum and not dust?

I had to eventually realize it's okay to not clean every room in the house, and I decided that if I knew for sure that these other tasks would get done in the near future, that I wouldn't worry about them as much! So I made a weekly cleaning list for myself.

Sunday: Clean Fridge. Wash Bedding

Tuesday: Wash Dish Cloths. Clean all Floors.

Wednesday: Tidy Office. Clothes Laundry.

Friday: Tidy front Closet. Dust. Clothes Laundry.

Saturday: Bathrooms. Tidy Bedroom.

I skipped Monday and Thursdays because those are always very busy days for me. =) I think that I was originally hesitant to make a cleaning list because well... it means you have to clean! But I actually really love it because, I would have to clean anyway, and this lets me know when I am done. I only have to do the few things that are listed for that day, and yet everything will be clean all the time!

Day 6: Use What You Have

Hey Guys! So lately I've been getting so excited about everything fall. I've been drinking all kinds of teas and coffees and have been burning candles every day, the works. One thing that I like to change up quite a bit for the season is nail polish. I like looking into the new collections for that year from all the different nail polish brands and pick out a bunch that I want to get and everything... and then usually realize that I can't actually afford a whole ton of nail polish. I mean, even 4 nail polishes is between like 24-32 dollars, which is fine, I just don't have it for nail polish all the time.

Then I realized, I actually do have a fair few bottles of nail polish, and I'm sure some of them would be good for fall. So these are my nail polish picks for fall, just from what I already had. =)

Left to Right: China Glaze 'Champagne Bubbles', China Glaze 'Fast Track', OPI 'Chicago Champagne Toast', OPI 'You Don't Know Jacques', Sephora by OPI 'Pushing Your Luck', ORLY 'Rage'

Left to Right: China Glaze 'First Mate', China Glaze 'Watermelon Rind', OPI 'Don't Mess With OPI', OPI 'Ski Teal We Drop', OPI 'Get in the Espresso Lane'

I was so surprised with how many nail polishes I liked for fall, that I ALREADY HAD!! A lot of these colors were also kind of pushed to the back of my collection and forgotten because I really wasn't using them for spring or summer, so I kind of got to rediscover these polishes, which was a lot of fun, still really exciting, and FREE!

I think mostly I was excited about this discovery because it was kind of a baby step in the right direction for me. Yeah, maybe it was just nail polish, but I actually did managed to realize that I don't need to be able to afford every little thing. There are lots of things that I already have in my life to be happy about. 

Day 5: Clutter's Got to Go

Hey Everyone! So today I was thinking about all of the things I keep thinking about and meaning to do, but there are always just so many things that I want to get too and just not enough time in the day. Lately, however, it has been really bothering my that my kitchen has been getting over run with clutter. It seems like we have just been running from one place to the next lately, and with that, our house is suffering a little. We've been able to keep up for the most part, but I suppose that the little breakfast bar in my kitchen has kind of turned into a junk collector. This makes me not even really want to be in the kitchen really, as, because it is so small, any amount of mess or clutter is very very noticeable. It instantly takes up a very large portion of the room!

Just wow. I'm still surprised that it got to be such a mess. Clutter is such a trigger for stress, and it makes it very difficult to really appreciate the space that you have, as all the good qualities of the room sort of get masked over. I love this little 'breakfast bar' that we have in our kitchen, but when it gets covered like this I can't even look at it. Today I decided enough is enough and I just dealt with the issue. 

Reading that, and even thinking about how I didn't just clear away all that junk the moment that I noticed what a mess it became, makes me laugh. Has it really gotten so bad, that I'm sure I don't even have 15 minutes to clear all of that away?!

It really did not make me a long time to find a proper home for all of those random items (accept the absinthe... that was gifted to us, and as beer and wine drinkers, I'll don't think we'll be keeping it...) and now we have full use of our breakfast bar again, and our kitchen seems so much more bright and open! I also put an oil burner on the bar just because I've been really liking them lately. Don't know if it will stay there long term but I like it for now.

I'm really happy that I just got to it and crossed that task off my list. I think I am going to try to really think about everything that I've been meaning to get to lately and try to cross some more of them off my mental list. It really is such a good feeling to get them done and out of the way! And for the rest of the day I was happy with my small accomplishment which made my day just that much better.

Day 4: Make Time for Breakfast

I can't quite remember when it was that I sort of pushed breakfast and lunch together in order to make my mornings more productive... but I realized that I was eating an apple at 11:30 and calling it breakfast.

I used to eat breakfast every morning, and I liked that it was just a few minutes that I got to myself where I wasn't doing anything or getting anything done. When I started working later in the day I started to read my emails, or watch a youtube video, read a blog post, and before I knew it I had wasted a good part of my morning! So I kind of just stopped having breakfast because it was taking up too much time.

Unfortunately, if I don't eat in the mornings, I get pretty hungry and don't have the same kind of energy I usually have. So this morning I decided to go back to the way breakfast used to be. It was really simple, just cereal and coffee, but it was just nice.

It just felt like a really concrete start to the morning; and it only took ten minutes! After that I felt much more willing to go out into the cold and run my errands, and to clean up around the house. I guess there's a reason why it's been coined the most important meal of the day.

Day 3: Craft for the Sake of It!

Hey Guys! So basically I was thinking today about how crafting, for me anyway, has become sort of a means to create things for my home or to create something to sell. Either way, everything has a purpose, and it's always "productive". I decided to go back to crafting just for fun today, and actually wasted a good couple hours (VERY unlike me) to make something I've been wanting for a while.

I bought a travel mug a little while ago that was all black, and had a removable insert that you could decorate to have a custom travel mug. I bought it with the intent of making a ton of different inserts so I could really have fun with it and change it up all the time. I FINALLY got to making one, and I couldn't be happier with it.

So for starters I pulled out the black paper insert and sort of used it as a template. I cut out the cardstock and got to designing.

I took inspiration from a lot of the hand painted white ceramic mugs I've been seeing lately. I just love how some of them look like the string from a tea bag hanging out the side of the cup! I wasn't really sure if drawing on cardstock with a permanent marker would have the same look, but it was worth it to try.

I just love it! I proudly showed it to my sister who was over at the time, and she thought I should maybe add some color. Sounded like fun so I gave it a shot.

Coloring took a little lot longer than planned because I could not find any markers, and ended up using a green and red colored pen!

I'm so excited with how it turned out! I think the color really was worth it as it added to the charm. I'm so excited to use this cup now, even though it's the exact same cup I've been using for a while now! It can be really fun to re-vamp something you already have to make it fun again. I think I'm going to be making a LOT more inserts for this cup.

It was also really nice and kind of relaxing to just do a craft for fun. It really did make me feel kind of like a kid again. Back when doing something "productive" and "fun" were the same thing! Do you have any crafts or hobbies that you do just for fun? I think it's about time every body goes out and picks up a pack of construction paper and a box of crayons.

Day 2: Put Work Away!

For my first real post for 31 days; I decided to start off with work. I know, not ultimately that exciting, but I figured that seeing as work is unavoidable it would be a good place to start.

I find that a lot of my daily stress revolves around work because I sort of work at a job, and also at home. I work at a part-time job to pay bills, and then I also am working towards creating a Handmade Soap Business. I'm hoping that if I can cut down on my work related stress I can actually get closer to my goal of working from home.

How will cutting down on stress help me start my business? For a while I was pretty sure (subconsciously) that it wouldn't! I thought if I was busy and really stressed, then I must be pretty productive! The only problem was that I would get defensive about my free time, and would start putting off getting work done for my business because I 'deserved' my free time. Which is all fine and well, accept for the whole time I was 'relaxing' I would keep stacks of whatever it was that I was supposed to be working on so that I would feel guilty remember to get back to it. It was really stressful, and it wasn't enjoyable or productive... aka? Flawed.

I constantly feel like I don't have enough time in a day, and I feel like a lot of people also feel that way, whether they work full time, or own a business, or are a stay at home parent. Truth is? None of us have a lot of time, but we should all have enough time to balance work and life. I think the key is to get work done, and then put it away. It's not doing me any good if I decide that I'm done working, and then it's still staring me in the face.

Some things I'm going to try to do to make work less of a stresser for me:

Get up earlier: Getting to have a proper breakfast and a little bit of downtime before the work day really starts is worth the 30 minutes to an hour of sleep I would be losing.

Prioritize: I'm going to work on anything I want to get done earlier in the day, as opposed to leaving it for later. Even if it's nice to relax in the morning, you'll only be thinking about work!

Focus! : I'm going to keep my computer, cell phone, and tv off and away from me while I'm working so I can have a productive couple hours and then stop!

Put Work Away: When you come home from work, or decide that you are done for the day, really stop. Don't keep thinking about it, or working on it sort-of while you watch youtube or check emails, really let yourself stop working.

I really think that if I try to make a habit of doing all that, that I'll be less stressed and more productive.

Is this something that you struggle with too? Let me know if these tips have helped you out at all, or what you do to balance work and life.

Thanks for Reading!