a girl in her element

I’ve mentioned previously that I do not consider myself a pack rat.  I  ’squirrel’ things away and I like to stockpile things, especially when I find a smoking good deal on them.

But lately, the clutter around me is starting to stress me out.  Maybe it’s the holidays fast approaching, and I ache for a neat house.   Or perhaps it’s the fact that I can’t see my desk… or nightstand… or bottom of the closet, any closet.  Whatever it is, the clutter around me is starting to muddle my head.

Which is never good.

Because I have enough jumble in my head as it is.  I do not need to add to it.  In any way, shape or form.

So I’m embarking on a new project.  DE-CLUTTERING.  Getting rid of crap.  Simplifying my life.  Turning over a new leaf.  Whatever you want to call it, this stuff has GOT TO GO.

What I really want to do is just haul everything to the side of the curb and let the garbage men deal with it.  But the common sense part of my head (and yes, I have one, albeit small) says “don’t do it!”  I’ve done something similar before, and it creates an insurmountable amount of chaos.

I start running around the house looking for something.  I can’t find it.  I call my parents and my friends to see if I lent it to them.  I didn’t.  I call them again to see if they have one I can borrow.  They don’t.  I run around the house again to double check.   It’s not there.  I remember I tossed it out thinking I wouldn’t need it.  I curse.  I skedaddle out to the store and buy a new one.  Life is good again.  Until the next time I’m looking for something I threw away.

Because I desperately do not want to recreate that scene again, I have decided to go about this strategically.  The only problem is that I’m strategy-less.  I think I’ve gotten in way over my head.  But alas, I’ve made the decision to de-clutter and I’m sticking to it.  I have to because let’s just face it – this ain’t working no more.

My head is entering a state of disarray just looking at that photo.   And this explains why I pick out my clothes by closing my eyes and randomly pointing.  Well, that and the fact that I’m insanely indecisive, so if I don’t randomly pick, it might be time to crawl back into my pajamas by the time I pick an outfit.

I’m attempting to find comfort in the fact that this is all going to change.  I’m going to de-clutter my closet and my desk and everything else in this house.

Ahhh, what have I gotten myself into?!?

I don’t know if I can handle it.

Maybe I will just toss everything out of the window and onto the curb.  Let someone else deal with it.  Why do I never, ever learn my lessons?  I can’t do that.  History has proven so.

I will conquer this mess, and I’m going to write about it as proof… to the world… well, mostly to myself and maybe my parents who probably won’t believe that their daughter is de-cluttering her life.

Bring it on!

Now living in the city, I’ve never seen a crow… well, maybe just the random one that’s lost.  Nevertheless, I still love these scarecrows.

These guys are going outside in the yard.  I wonder if scarecrows will keep pigeons away because we’ve got plenty of those.

I’m not a magician.  I don’t have any tricks up my sleeves, no rabbits pulled out of a hat, no making people disappear and reappear, but I have to brag a little bit and say that this bathroom makeover might have involved the word, abracadabra.

Here is the bathroom before… well, sort of before.  I was so excited to start painting that I forgot to take a photo before the paint.   You can imagine how stark the bathroom was before the splash of color.

BEFORE

We changed out the standard shower curtain rod for a curved one and hung a colorful  shower curtain from Target.   Even just the paint and shower curtain make a huge difference.

AFTER

Please excuse the Halloween clings on the mirrors!  I’m a bit of a dork, so yeah… it’s what I do.

A lot of the decor was taken from different parts of the house or things that I had purchased on clearance and stashed away.  I included it in the total cost anyways.

• Paint from Lowe’s – $18
• Shower Curtain from Target – $18
• Shower Curtain Rod from Lowe’s – $20 on sale
• Organic towels from JCPenney – $40 for several sets of bath, hand and face towels (these were 75% off, yay!) – They were a little more than I would typically spend on towels, but they’re organic and the softest towels I’ve ever laid hands on.
• Bamboo rugs from JCPenney – $16 for two (again 75% off!)
• Etagere over the tolilet from Wal-Mart – $15
• Random accessories and baskets – approximately $20 (most are from Bath and Body Works Outlet, check their 75% off sales after the holidays for great deals on baskets and containers)

Grand total – $163. The magical part of this makeover is how much it would have cost had I not scored deals on clearance racks and outlets.   The towel sets alone would have cost me $160.  The rugs would have cost $64, and the baskets and containers would have cost me around $80.  That’s a total of $304, not including the paint, shower curtain, shower rod and etagere.

There you have it!  A new bathroom!  I love the yellow as the standout color complemented by earthy but refreshing colors.   A few touches of bright hues inserted not-so-subtly really sets my heart ablaze.

As I’m typing this, I’m still attempting to put the fire out in my hair.  Never ever put a lighter (or anything associated with fire and flames) in Element Girl’s hands.

And want to know the funniest thing?  I wasn’t even lighting a candle.  I just wanted to see what they would look like with flames flickering.  I know.  I need help.  I’ll check myself in… as soon as Halloween’s over.

I ogle at all the orange and black decorations filling store aisles.   I jump and scream with glee like a little girl when I stroll by those talking candy bowls or the ones with the grabby hands.  I get tangled up in faux spider webs.  I feel a little lightheaded – it’s either from blowing up inflatable ghosts, spiders and black cats; or from the insane amount of candy I’ve consumed in my diet.   I love Halloween and I love everything that comes along with it.

Miss Purples!

She’s so fun and delightful.  I feel slightly bad because the cats got their mischievous paws on her and attempted to chew her hair off.  She’s a trooper though because she’s still got a great big smile plastered on her face.

You know those people who can’t seem to finish a meal without dripping, spraying, spilling, dribbling or some equally messy action?  The ones who should wear bibs while chowing down… or perhaps just drape a tablecloth over their bodies, Halloween ghost style… and while they’re at it, cover the table and floor with tablecloths too.

Yeah, I live with one of those people.  There’s also a very small likelihood that I fall into that category once in a blue moon.  Speaking of blue moons, when is the moon ever blue in Las Vegas?  I swear I’ve seen it every color of the rainbow except blue.  The gleaming lights from all the hotels light up the moon, and I have yet to see it blue  MGM green?  Yes.  Bellagio gold?  Check.  Wynn brown?  Yep.  Blue?  Not yet.

Anyways, what the heck was I rambling about before?  Ohh, untidy diners.  Yeah, so I know a couple of them, and that is precisely where this idea comes in.

Placemats from the dollar section of Target!  They were $2.50 for a 2-pack.  I snatched up 2 packs.

Aww, look how nifty!

Hmm, does anyone else think it looks like a checkerboard? Well… resemblance to a board game or not, they’ll serve their purpose in catching bread crumbs or steak bits or spaghetti sauce or beer snorted out of a nose while laughing too hard.

Oh, oh, oh!  While we’re on the topic of this table, I find it absolutely necessary to show off my coasters.   I scored them from Target for 75 percent off after Christmas.  They didn’t strike me as being particularly holiday specific, but hey, I wasn’t going to complain about a sale.  I love them dearly.

So does the cat… oh wait, she’s probably just admiring her dainty little reflection.  She’s a conceited cat.  I’m not kidding.   Remind me to tell you the chronicles of her encounters with mirrors one day.

Still admiring herself.  I tempted Thomas with the mirror, and he couldn’t be bothered to check himself out.  Well, that’s not typical boy behavior… weird.

There you have it.  Now I have no delusions that these placemats will completely eliminate crumb chaos, but they’re a start.  Next on the list… three tablecloths.  And hey, since it’s Halloween season, I might even be able to skip one of the tablecloths and just get a ghost costume that doubles as a bib.  Spooky ghost costume for the messy eater, tablecloth for the table and one for the floor.  That should do it.

I found these cheerful frames in the dollar section at Target.  Little mini frames in bright rainbow colors?!  I love photo frames.  I love bright colors.  The two together could rival Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream to win a spot in “Element Girl’s Great Loves” list.

I was planning on printing out some wallet sized photos to frame but came up with this instead -

I had a stack of calendar pages I pulled out of Cute Overload’s calendar.  I was saving the cutest ones for something.  I just hadn’t figured out what to do with them.  Until now…

Cute Overload calendar, pages and pages and pages of adorable animals!

After much deliberation, I was finally able to settle on the four photos I wanted.  I cut them down to the right size, stuck them in the frames and ended up with four very fun frames.   You could do this with any kind of frame – any size, any color – and any calendar.

I would say that’s ‘cute overload’ indeed.

Element Girl’s DIY Total -  $1.25

- $1.25 for four frames – they were in the dollar section at Target, but they were $2.50 and 50 percent off for a grand total of a crisp dollar bill and a shiny quarter

- nothing for the photos since I’d been saving them for the perfect project