Better Than Nursing a Hangover

I know that Spring is a reasonable time to clean, to go through your closet and pack up all your cold-weather gear, unpacking the summery items like flip-flops and tank tops.  All I remember from this past Spring was that I was really busy and got very little done.  I kept meaning to do a bunch of household projects and snuck in a few here and there, but never a full scale attack on my to do list.  Granted, the shoulder/neck injury I was dealing with (lots of appointments between an ortho, chiro and physical therapist) made it impossible to do some of those things.

Earlier this week I hadn't been feeling too well, just run down and over the holidays, so I opted to stay in on New Year's Eve.  In years past, I would have regretted this decision.  This year, it led to me finally getting things checked off that damn list and to keep my original promise to myself about Pinterest:  only pin things that I might use and make sure to go back and use them or delete them every so often.

• Bathroom shelves that have been sitting on the floor of bedroom for months, finally installed thanks to a Pinterest pin.  Using scotch (or painter's) tape, you mark where the holes are on the shelf (frame, etc), then put that strip of tape on the wall.  At this point you can check it with a level, then drill the holes.  Sets you up nice when you're afraid of drilling multiple holes and destroying your walls. 

• Kitchen thoroughly scrubbed, even the stove top.

• Curtain rod finally hung up in the living room (the curtain have been pinned up there for far too long) thanks to yet another Pinterest pin.  This was another fear-of-drilling episode for me, but Pinterest saved me...with Command hooks...

• All laundry washed, dried and put away ON THE SAME DAY.  It's a freaking miracle.

• Nail polishes culled for my niece (now I just have to ship them).

• Made some Sonoma Chicken Salad because it kept popping up on Pinterest, too. 

It was pretty fabulously productive for days I usually spend recovering from overindulging in drink.

Repurpose

I have been trying to get creative with my living space - finding new ways to use what I already have, since I really can't afford to go to IKEA or The Container Store every week.  Nor should I be doing that, but it's been a hard habit to break.  However, I have discovered two things.  First, that all that pinning on Pinterest actually does serve a purpose, just like I hoped it someday would.  Second, that my own spin on the things I add there seem to work better for me.  I am really not good at following instructions, you guys.

So here is an idea I had that came from one pin, but inspired me to take things a step further.  This Apartment Therapy pin (which can be found on our Things to Consider board) features a bit on putting sheet metal at the back of your bathroom cabinet so that you can put magnets up and organize certain items.  I had quite a few Cube Mighties that I wasn't doing anything special with and those suckers are strong!  So I put a couple in my already metal-tastic medicine cabinet and stuck tweezers and a small pair of scissors in there.  They're slim enough that they don't interfere with the contents of the cabinet and it's way better than hunting for them on the top shelf or in a drawer.

Then I remembered that I once used dry-erase markers to leave myself reminders on my bathroom mirror.  I decided to reinstate that fabulous idea (below left) and put up a couple of inspirational quotes in the cabinet.  Since this is a rough month for thinking positive, I also noted upcoming plans with friends to remind myself of things to look forward to in the short-term.

All this took was a cheap pack of dry erase markers that already had magnets attached (though you could easily glue on your own).  The ones pictured above were picked up at Target and I love that they're mini markers that hang from little chains with magnets on the end.  But the ones that Amazon offers (to the right) are even fancier - they are double-sided, so you get more color variety while saving space, they have erasers on every cap, and they still come with magnets if you don't want to buy those separately and stick 'em on.

Aside how horrible that picture turned out and how much it reminds me that I need to clean my bathroom, I'm a bit proud of myself.  The point is that, aside from actually using some of the pins you spend all that time organizing on Pinterest, let them inspire you to look around and see what pin-worthy ideas you have rockin' about inside your brain.  If you like Pinterest as much as I do, you've probably got a fair few just waiting for discovery.

"Like Scrambled Eggs...But Notes"

Don't just sit there, watch this:

Meg put this video on our LostGirls Music pinboard on Pinterest and I finally got around to watching it today...and couldn't look away or stop smiling.  Well, at first I thought it was just something a little funky, but I trust the Meg and it paid off.


Okay, now go over to the left sidebar and click play on that MP3 widget:


If you haven't checked it out already, we've replaced the last rather crappy MP3 widget with one we have more control over.  It now features clips from the music mix in our store,  so saunter on over to the left sidebar (below the blogroll) and hit the play button.  You only have to hit play once to hear the mix and the price of each MP3 will come up for you, in case you're interested in downloading the whole song for yourself (if no price is listed, click through - a few of these, like Father John Misty, are currently free on Amazon).  If you like what you hear but aren't necessarily interested in buying, you can watch the videos for all of these songs (plus extras from some musicians and songs not available on Amazon that we love) on our pinboard.


Thanks for the sharing:  Meg, Revaz, NPR All Songs Considered and Colleen from Inspired to Share

Pins in the Mix

For you pinners out there, we created a LostGirls Music board on Pinterest to go with our aStore's Music Mix.  Megan and I found as many YouTube videos (live and official videos, maybe a fan one here and there when nothing else was available) as we could from our list so that you can hear and see for yourselves.  If you're not on Pinterest, you can still look up the videos on YouTube or listen to samples of the music on Amazon.com by clicking on the links on the Store tab.

Pinterest on Uncrafty

Whether you’re considering joining Pinterest or trying to kick your mad pinning habit, check out the new post at Crafts for the Uncrafty on resolving at least some issues pinners have.