January 2015 goal A cleaner house (a little late!)

Time for a new calendar! Do people still have calendars on their walls with appointments and birthdays written on them? Or is it just me? Technology is great but I prefer being able to flip through and see whats coming up instead of scrolling and clicking. Anywhoo, thats not what I came to write about.

Let's be honest. My house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be. I don't think it ever will be and thats mostly ok. Mostly. I already have a system for cleaning but unless its clean the kitchen day the counters end up our dumping ground for everything. Mail, keys, Someone likes to leave their hats, gloves, phones, etc on the counter. Like I said it's a dumping ground.

The kitchen drives me nuts more than anything else. My goal for January was to deep clean that sucker and keep it clean. Organize the crap thats there and get someone to stop dumping everything on the counter and put their diet coke cans in the recycling!

Here's the messy truth!

In order to get this mess clean this is what I did. We started slow, weeks 1 and 2 we focuded on cleaning the counters and table before bed. Easy enough. Weeks 3 and 4 we made sure all the dishes were done and the floor was swept along with clean counters and table. It was pretty doable. I'll admit there was a few nights where I left dishes soaking in the sink. I did them first thing in the morning but thats not quite the same.

As for my deep cleaning goal, I took everything out of each cabinet, went through each item (toss, donate, keep), cleaned inside and out, moved shelves that needed moving and hopefully everything will stay mostly clean. Sorry Scribs, the rice cooker we haven't used in 4 years is getting donated! Aside from orangizing the kitchen needed a good washing. The ceiling, walls, baseboards, floor, outlets and light switches, trash can. Every surface is now clean! All the appliances needed a good scrubbing too! I hate cleaning ovens and mine was BAD! I didn't clean it when we moved in and oh boy, that was a project! It took 3 days! Here's the after, still not spotless but at least there is less crap everywhere! Oh yeah and I no longer have a red dining room (still not done painting the windows, ugh!).

February will be another room until this house is clean but with two kids under 4, a dog and a husband who knows how long it will last! I think the bathroom will be next, we have tons of junk in there that nobody uses or needs. I can't believe it's almost February already!

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 28

Flowers. 

I'm a few days behind, I know! I still have black and white and another self portrait to do, we'll see if they get done in the next few days. It's been so nice out lately, it's tough to spend time in front of the computer when I could be out in the sun. 

Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 21, 22, 24, 26

30 day photo challenge day 26

close up. Definitely something I like!

Next up is flowers. That's going to be a bit tricky in January!

(Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, 22 & 24)

30 day photo challenge day 24

Animal.
What to choose? Something wild, the dog? hmm…

What's next, lets see… Close up one of my favorites!

(Challenge days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, & 22)

30 day photo challenge day 22

Inspirational. This one I find to be very easy. My natural setting is unbelievable. How could I not be inspired!

Beautiful! Up next we've got patterns. It's going to rain all day, so we'll see what we get!


( Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 & 21)

30 Day Photo Challenge day 21

a portrait without a face.

I definitely blew it last week! Partially because I didn't really find the subjects interesting and partially because I got into cleaning/painting my kitchen like a crazy person. I'm going to try and make up for it this week but I still have to paint the trim in my dinning room and there will be a post about that later! 

So here it is, my faceless portrait, I took it last week while messing about with bubbles and reflections. 

If I do another photo challenge, I think I'll do one that more technique based. I really have no interest in taking pictures of what is in my bag or shoes. I would rather spend a week learning how to get bokeh or long exposures. 

Today as soon as I put my camera away of course 2 eagles were fighting for about 10 minutes. So it goes. What's next? Inspirational. Sounds good!

(Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 & 15)

The man in he high castle

Holy moly. Did you watching the man in the high castle? It's a pilot from Amazon, based on the novel by Phillip K. Dick and produced by Ridley Scott. You know it's going to be good!

It's about what could have happened if the Nazis had won world war 2. 

There's a few other Amazon pilots I'm looking forward to checking out! Here's the trailer of the new pilots.

The reviews seem really good, I'm hoping that The Man in the High Castle gets picked up. Scribs and I watched the first episode and were ready to watch the rest of the rest season.

Now I'm off to get the book and add it to my never ending books to read pile!