organization!!!

hello there! so one of my new year's resolutions was to only buy/keep things i use. pretty easy right?
i pride myself on being organized. i also pride myself on being thrifty and saving money. sometimes my being thrifty overrides my being organized. the result: too much stuff in my house! i often hang on to things because "i could need it later" but then they sit in a closet for too long. not anymore! here are all the things i got rid of:

also my back seat and front seat had stuff in it!!!
i am feeling great! cleansed, free, light!


i also reorganized my kitchen. thought you might wanna see:

resolutions, for the new year, of course

it has been said that if you make your resolutions public you are more likely to keep them. so what better way to make them public than to blog about them.
the husby and i are pretty laid back people and we are really good at going with the flow. we have never really done new year's resolutions. i always felt it was silly to make extravagant resolutions just to quit them within the first month of the year. but this year i have realized that it is good to have goals. we make them rarely, and i think its good to be intentional about your time and your life.
so here they are in no particular order:

                     

                                                       1.   listen to the husby more/better.
                                             i tend to think that my way is the best way all the time :)

                                             2.   reduce my use of plastic. by buying more of these:

                                            3.   reduce my garbage. currently we take our can to the street
                                    (well alley) twice a month. my goal is to cut that down to once a month.

                                      4. only purchase/keep things that i use. this is resulting in a organizing frenzy.

                                                        i will share my progress in my next post.

                      5. play outside more. this picture is super old! but it makes my point :)

do you have any resolutions? i'd like to hear them.

pyrex refrigerator set

take time to clean

a very Horst-Lee Feast

over christmas we went to visit the husby's family in western washington. before we got there though, we made a little stop to visit our good friends bill and danae. danae is my business partner, best friend and shopping buddy. we celebrated christmas early with a horst-lee dinner. i thought you might want a peek.

 meet bill.

 meet danae

meet my tasty drink.

 my husby, excited to eat.

 me

 what we ate. steak frites with sweet potato fries

we laughed, we ate, we opened gifts. it was a very good time. and hopefully will become a new christmas tradition. be sure to check out danae's blog , she has pictures up of her christmas decorations that are all lovely lovely!

Homemade advent calendar

i know super late right? well maybe you will try it next year?

 i started with a pile of vintage christmas cards.

i chose my favorites and glued them to a large piece of cardstock. overlapping them so they covered the paper.

 next i stenciled 1-25 on some vintage sheet music. 

then i cut out doors for my numbers and glued my numbers to the 

back of my cardstock. be sure to double check your numbers are going left to right. i accidentally numbered mine from the right to left and had to redo it.

i put the whole thing in a vintage frame. and...... here it is! i kind of love it!

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas---- wait, decorations???

finally christmas decorations are up!! i have been busy busy. here are a few things i did while i wasn't blogging:

threw the husby a birthday party
put up new bookshelves
organized and had Crafty Britches
hosted thanksgiving
went to seattle to do business stuff
got stuck in seattle because of the pass
finally got home
decorated for christmas
never wanted to do anything ever again

i totally forgot! here are my new bookshelves. aren't they awesome? i wanted something industrial feeling. i really really like them. and they  make my room seem much more open. here's the best part. they were 10 whole dollars!!!!

there you have it. christmas at the lee's

Merry Christmas everyone!

I painted the kitchen, the kitchen, the kitchen!!!!!

i know, i know. this is not the season, nor do i have the time right now for house projects. but when i start i just dont know when to stop. i am very good at biting off more than i can chew (which is the grossest analogy ever). this results in things done halfway. well not anymore!!!! it is my new resolution to be more detail oriented.
one of my best friends, and business partner, Danae, is so good at this. I have decided to take a few lessons from her and give details a little more attention. i am queen of starting something and only half finishing it. for example: the trim in my living room right now is only half painted gray and has been for probably 6 months or more. the husby, is good at balancing me out in this aspect.... and what i mean by balancing me out is that he usually finishes what i start. anyway, i have learned from my mistakes and now have decided to do things right from the beginning.
this however turned my small painting project into a huge painting project. i got out the white paint so i wanted to repaint everything in my house that needed white paint. so my kitchen repaint turned into a bathroom repaint and some doors in zula's room, and the trim in the dining room. but i stuck with my new resolution and did everything well. really, i did. you can come over and look for yourself!

anyway. i decided to do ALL of this (well thats not quite all. we also stripped and sanded the dining room floor, rearranged/made room for two new lockers, made gluten free bread and cleaned up outside for the winter). a week before the husby's birthday party, two weeks before thanksgiving. oh and did i mention i am planning a craft show also? needless to say i was feeling a little overwhelmed. in the middle of all those projects i realized "i have to get these finished cuz we're going to be having people over soon." and "oh yeah i should probably plan a birthday party for the man i married."
i keep telling the husby that these are the last few projects until winter. and i really do mean this.

well i am truly truly happy with our kitchen result. and wish i had painted this room years ago!!! like before we moved in, it looks so nice and fresh.

p.s. you do not get to see the sanded dining room until we paint.... in the spring (i dont know if i can wait that long!!!)

zula belle joyful lee's place to sleep

finally. i know you  have all been dying to see it. zula's room!
the color was left over from when alicia lived here. she always picks great colors for rooms, so i left it.
then i found this awesome map at a church rummage sale. it was 2 dollars!!!
ah.... living in yakima. where cool things are considered worthless. oh how i love you!