I did day 1 of Apartment Therapy’s January Cure! I almost went to bed instead but I figured, why not try and stay on track? Below is my list. It make not make sense, but it’s good for me to have it out here in the open. The bolded ones will be the assignments I’ll try to focus on during the Cure. I chose 3-4 easy projects and 1-2 hard ones per room.

Kitchen / Dining Room
- find a better way to prop up dish drainer
- finish crates
- hang fish from Mum
- find and hang a clock
- find a spot for wineglasses
- make curtain for vacuum cubby

Bathroom
- remount shelf
- clean shower liner
- make shower curtain
- hang shower accessories with suction cups

Living Room
- reorganize cables/wires
- do something with windowsill things
- clean and recover pillows
- shelf over TV area ?

Hallway
- deep clean cat cabinet
- deep clean litter box and use liners
- reorganize and tidy top of cabinet
- repaint mirror frame? (unsure about this)
- look into baby safety lock for outside of door to stop knocking

Bedroom
- WD-40 squeaky door
- get new rug mat
- move boxes from under bed to rolling closet
- reorganize and move craft supplies to under bed or in closet
- make curtain for rolling closet
- reorganize desk
- reorganize file box
- frame and hang square art from 2D class over bed

Other
- clean and switch out Tucker toys
- think about mounting Tucker’s scratching post somewhere
- maybe move artwork around
- switch out decorative things from boxes; put away more things to make less cluttered

Recently I’ve been feeling like I’m falling a bit behind my own life, as strange as that may sound. I think one of the major reasons is the state of my small East Harlem apartment. Sure, it’s relatively organized and I have some nice things here and there, but I’m the worst at keeping it clean on a daily basis and a culprit of letting simple projects fall to the wayside in favor of vegging out or going out with friends. I was perusing Apartment Therapy today looking for ideas to help me get back on track when I found The January Cure. It’s a month-long program of sorts that helps readers get on top of their cluttered homes. I thought this would be perfect for me, if only I had found it earlier! Why not just offset the schedule a little? So, I’ll be starting my February-March Cure (which I’ll just refer to as Apartment Cure or Cure) very shortly.

Here’s the full list of assignments.

First up is to make a list of projects, which I’ll be posting about soon. I’m a huge nerd for organization, but it’s about time I start doing it instead of thinking “someday”. That’s not how things get done!

I promised several people I would post photos about two weeks ago, and now that I have some down time (thanks, Hurricane Sandy) I can do just that!

But first, an update to my friends and family. I am safe and sound, with power! The storm was pretty scary, I even moved all my valuables away from my big bedroom windows, just in case. Much of Lower Manhattan and the coast is under water and without power, and MTA and the Mayor’s Office released a statement that mass transportation will continue to be suspended until damage can be assessed and repairs made. All the bridges and tunnels off of Manhattan were closed down last night, but many have been reopened today now that winds have died down. There are a few trees down in front of my apartment, but besides that it looks like my block hasn’t suffered damages. Today I am continuing to work from home, and tomorrow’s work day I think is still up in the air, as the subways will most likely not be running. NYC schools have already been closed for tomorrow. I am very thankful that I’m ok, as well as my friends that live south of me!

Now, back to the show.

I went on a fabulous July 4th vacation with some friends from RIT to Shadow Lake in Glover, VT. Here are some photos from that!

I took a walk through my neighborhood and took some photos, just before I left Richmond. Here’s a couple I liked!

Meet my new apartment!

My building! There are 18 floors, I’m on the 4th. Laundry in the basement! There are laundry cards that you refill with your credit card, so much easier than using quarters.

My room! Look at all those windows. I need to buy some cheap curtain rods and put up my red curtains. They aren’t going to match the rest of my color palette, but I can replace those in a couple months when I’m less poor.

Living room. It’s not huge, but at least we have one!

Kitchen, it’s a beaut! Giant fridge, dishwasher, and cabinets and countertops galore. Which is good, because I have more dishes than any other 24-year-old I know. Thanks Syracuse China!

Just a standard bathroom. It’s got three mirrored cabinets! That’s me and our amazing handyman, Raphi, in the background. My roommate is decorating the bathroom (picking my battles), so once she’s got the colors all set up I’m going to line the inside of the cabinets with purdy paper. Can’t do much about that awful fake marble sink top, though.

That’s all I’ve got! More and better pictures coming once I get everything set up how I want it. I don’t have a closet, so I’m going to have to get creative. In other news, my kitty is coming tomorrow! I miss him so much! He’s going to have fun exploring my mountain of stuff, but it’ll take him some time to readjust to me (and NYC, and the roommate), after spending so much time with my mother!

I’m moving to NYC! My last day in Richmond is this Thursday. Today is my last day at Martin! There’s still a lot to be done, but I’m trying hard to keep it all under control. Thought I’d take a few minutes out of my totally busy work day (not really, I’ve done one thing today) to write about some of my favorite things about Richmond, things that I will miss when I leave. So, this post is kind of a personal thing, not usually what I write about.

Friends! It was hard to make new friends at first, when I moved down here almost two years ago. I didn’t know a single person, or know really anything about the city. Nicki was my first good friend in Richmond. We were both new to the city and didn’t know anyone. Then one day, I spotted Jamie interviewing at Martin. Jamie and I were in a drawing class together freshman year. We didn’t know each other really, but I recognized him. He introduced me to his roommate Andy (also from RIT), and then his girlfriend Katie, and Katie introduced me to her best friend Rachel. They’re usually my go-to crowd for weekend fun, they’re always down to do something. Then Whitney started working at Martin soon after that, and I became good friends with her. It all sort of happened at the same time, and I’m so glad I met and became friends with all of them. If that didn’t happen, I probably would have left RVA much sooner.

This may sound kind of silly, but I’m REALLY going to miss Padow’s, my favorite VA deli. It’s a local place, but I think they have locations in North Carolina, too. It’s delicious. Best rueben I’ve had in my entire life. I would eat them every day if that wouldn’t make me gain 20 pounds in a month.

The beach! I love day trips to Va Beach. It’s only an hour and half away, and last summer Nicki and I went I feel like almost every weekend. Whitney came along a couple times, and once Katie did, also. Nicki and I had some *ahem* innnteresting adventures at the beach, and met some very interesting people. Very memorable! I definitely have to plan a beach weekend to come back down here in the summer sometime. Maybe I would bring some NYC friends!

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the south, but both the weather and the people are nicer. It’s much slower and hotter down here, and that’s most likely related. I am not looking forward to the shock of a six-month-long winter, even though I lived through 21 of them. I didn’t even have to take my winter coat out of the closet that past two years! I did definitely miss the snow, but it’s so nice when I can go out in a tank top and jeans at night in April. Today it’s 90 degrees!

I’m sure I’ll think of other things to add, but that’s where my thoughts have taken me today.

I’m doing a bit of spring cleaning this weekend – trying to cut down on the amount of stuff I have that I don’t need/use. Part of that was going through my 2 full boxes of CDs, half of which were archives and half of which were music CDs. I’m burning all the music to my computer and then getting rid of most of the hand copies. For the archives, I’m transferring them all onto my external hard drive and then tossing them. Through the process, I’ve rediscovered many old photos and projects! Thought I’d share some of my favorites from memory lane.

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone!

This year, I made a serious effort to keep my Christmas spending to a minimum, and give handmade presents instead of giving in to America’s sad, sad commercialism of the holiday season. I managed to mostly do this, save for a couple purchases here and there I just couldn’t make by hand (Zelda video game for my brother, among others!).

Here’s this year’s roundup:

• lake glass bracelet
• raspberry-infused gin
• “memory jar”
• 2012 calendar
• two letter sets
• cracked marble necklace
• sugar and salt scrubs
• hardware necklace

View the whole post for pictures and links!

Here are some things I made for my cousin Kate! She just got married.

A painting created from some photos taken by whom I assume to be a good friend of Kate’s, found on her blog here. I didn’t ask for permission to use the photos, but hopefully since it’s just for personal use only, and it’s a gift for Kate, it’ll be ok! Definitely check out her photos, she’s got some good stuff. The painting features the happy couple overlooking a trickling waterfall, with their rings in the foreground.

Here’s some process work:

And the final painting:

I’m pretty proud of the second gift. It’s a letter set! It’s the first one I’ve done, complete with stationery, envelopes, and made-from-scratch box. I think it’s pretty classy. This is a gift just for Kate. After all, she is my cousin!

Tucker helping me: