Clutter

I will not, cannot tell a lie. I am messy. I have a hard time keeping our space clean and organized and without clutter. I don't like dirty, I clean the kitchen, the bathroom, sweep and mop the floors and keep the house "clean" almost every day, but not organized. We work where we live, so in every nook and cranny you will find tools, supplies, items from our shop, junk we collected. I don't mind it. For the most part. Sometimes, I go into a cleaning tizzy and don't want to be cluttered anymore. But, it always goes back to the way it was before. Cluttered. I am learning to create a space (in this tiny, tiny place) that is healthy and comfortable. (remember, we have an entire vintage shop stored in our home...)I don't have any advice for others who are also cluttered, except that you can probably live without the stuff, but why should you. If you enjoy collecting, then collect. As long as you can live your life around your stuff, then I don't see what the problem is. We're not all rich and have huge houses and garages to store our stuff and organize our spaces with. I can't go to ikea and buy tons of chic storage units and wall shelves. Although sometimes, I wish I could....
Most of my "collections" have sentimental value to me. We have acquired a lot of it from family or friends. It is such a hodgepodge collection of sorts, that I don't even really consider it a collection. It's just stuff that I look at and think "Dad" or "Sid" (Our friend from the Tucson swap meet who would gift me items from his shop every week) or "Alita," one of my best friends and soul sister when it comes to vintage and thrifted.
I'm not embarrassed of our clutter. Usually when people come over, they get lost in all of our collections. It's fun to tell stories and let people explore. It's us and our home and who we are. I am happy in our space and happy where we are in our life. Maybe someday we'll have a beautiful loft space, or a big old house, or a cabin in the woods, but for right now, we're city mice in a tiny house full of love.

Do you have clutter in your house? How do you feel about it? Is it hard to keep your house clutter-less when you're working full time, raising a family, or just right brained-artist type who doesn't care much for organizing?

xo,

Beca

Project Restyle - Coffee Table Before

Two for one, yo!

(Enjoying my third cup of coffee this morning, thanks D!)

I guess I got a lot more done in a shorter amount of time than I expected. I still need to do the dishes and remember to eat lunch. My morning was full of productivity. Shipped out everything that I needed to, found this horribly heavy coffee table a few blocks down from our house that I thought would be a lot easier to carry home. It was SO effing heavy! But, we made it home and I am going to strip all this ugly black and gold paint, sand down all the chips and finish it dark.

Ok, I probably won't do most of that, Doug will probably do most of it, but it was my idea, so I'm going to go ahead and take credit for it. I'll post up photos here and in the Project Restyle
Flickr when it is done. Hopefully this weekend! Also, I am going to start using flickr, so if you want to follow my photosteam (is that how it works?) here is the link.
<3

I don't have an after photo yet, obviously, since I just lugged this baby home. I need a nap before work! Just kidding, I have a couple of cake rounds to make. And a boatload of blue butter cream. Hooray!

xo,

Beca

What I Wore and Doug's New Work Space

We have a pretty tiny house. Honestly, I think half of our rent is paying just for the yard, which is worth it's weight in gold. For having 3 dogs, the fenced private yard with grass and plenty of room to play is worth it, to me, BUT, we don't have a lot of room to work inside, so it usually just happens on the living room floor, or the kitchen counter, or wherever we can find the space. (But, I'm sure if the weather keeps up, I will be spending a lot of time working in the yard, and on the yard...garden season is quickly approaching.)

Doug helped me last week put everything for the shop into the laundry room (since the washing machine and dryer were both broken when we moved in, we opted for the space rather than try to fix them.) That means I have a space to take photos for the shop, a space to keep my stuff (albeit not organized, yet...still working on that.) I told you it was tiny!

So today, I started putting together a place for Doug to work on his leather projects, like bike seats and rings. It is still a work in progress, as our roommate brought home this leather armchair that doesn't really fit anywhere, so it's kind of in the way, and we need to put in some shelves or something for the rest of his tools that are stored in random places.

I won't leave the candles there, I just forgot that I took photos with candles on his table. I was also cleaning on top of the entertainment center (which is where I keep all my candles...mmm...I love apple cinnamon candles so MUCH!)

Oh, and I guess I'll do a What I Wore post today too, since I LOVE my new blouse. It makes me super happy. I got it at the African League Thrift Store on Monday for $1.50. Stooooooked! If you know me, you know I HATE spending money on clothes, so I wear the same few things until they disintegrate and then I buy something else, very similar. But if I find a deal like this, i can't pass it us. (And yes, it is so beautiful outside I can keep the door open all day loooong!!)

Doug made me this skull necklace. He carved it from a damaged deer antler. I haven't taken it off in years. My buddy Alita gave me the peacock necklace for my 25th birthday and then she and the twins took me to eat french toast and go dress shopping. I miss them, a lot.
My hair is fading into a really pretty reddish color, I like it.

And my favorite thing that I did today, painted my nails, a very festive red and gold flake. I LOVE gold nail polish, and I always have, and I am totally going to claim stake on that, even though everyone in the blog world is stoked on gold polish right now. Girls, welcome to my world.

Back to cleaning this house. It is pretty overwhelming, but it was refreshing to read Rubyellen's blog post about her messy house. I don't feel all alone. I also don't have three young children, but I do have two grown men and four dogs to clean up after, and that is pretty much the same?!?? I'm going to go ahead and say that it is! Two more hours until I need to be at work, two more hours of cleaning. Maybe some hummus and garlic toast and some reading in the middle.

xo,

Bec