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a slice of life

a slice of life

No Spend February 2021 Recap

Well, we made it through no-spend February!  I received a few confession comments/emails from people who felt like they blew it, but the point isn’t to be perfect.  The point is to become more aware of what you spend (and why) beyond tracking it in a budget.  I’m happy to report that I stuck with it pretty well and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. So, first of all, did I buy anything in February beyond bills and necessary expenses?  Yes.  I ended up buying a few small things. I bought a , so I could finish my pair of socks.  I ran out of yarn halfway through and Jeff agreed it was a purchase to finish an existing project, so I could purchase it.  I only bought what I needed to finish. I bought another because I bent a couple of needles while making the

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a slice of life

uncle George, grandpa henry & other organizing rabbit trails

It all started very innocently.  As a part of my organizing push in February, I tackled the lower right built-in in the living room.  It’s not a cabinet we’re in and out of a lot, so it’s been sorely neglected.  It houses our photo albums, boxes of photos, some family mementos, and it’s where we would drop the school photos each year.  It’s also where I would stick random decor, apparently, like the antique scale. I’ve been avoiding this cabinet because it’s such a mess, but I finally dove in.  As is the case with most messy cabinets, it looked worse than it was.  It didn’t take me long to get things sorted and labeled.  I readjusted the shelves so the photo albums could stand upright.  I sorted the remaining photos and documents into categories and put them in bins.  I also added labels to everything… Everything that is loose

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a slice of life

scanning old documents, photos, & postcards

One of the big projects I want to work on while organizing and purging is scanning antique and vintage family photos, letters, postcards, and documents.  Fortunately, I have a lot of them!  Unfortunately, that means the task is a little overwhelming and I’ve been putting off most of it for years.  So, I’m just going to chip away at it.  Here is the basket I’m currently working through, but it’s just a fraction of what needs to be sorted, scanned, and properly stored. I started by scanning the letters that are most important to me – my Opa’s letters and telegrams to his family when he was serving in WWII. I organized them and made copies once before, but now that I have a nicer scanner, I scanned them all.  I have uploaded them to a Google Drive, so I can share them with family members who are interested, but

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a slice of life

February Organizing Update

Despite a busy week and feeling a little under-the-weather over the weekend, I chipped away at organizing a bit more.  I’m still avoiding the huge projects, but I’ve been trying to do something most days, even if it’s just cleaning out a part of a cabinet or one drawer or sorting one bin.  Making small strides each day will help me maintain some momentum and I know that one of these days, I’ll be ready to tackle some of the tougher areas.  I find that once I get going, I usually end up doing more than I initially planned. Here are the little areas I tackled last week and into the weekend… The junk drawer!  This drawer always ends up a bit of a mess (living up to its name) because we’re in and out of it so much.  It only took 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned and sorted,

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February Organizing Update

Despite a busy week and feeling a little under-the-weather over the weekend, I chipped away at organizing a bit more.  I’m still avoiding the huge projects, but I’ve been trying to do something most days, even if it’s just cleaning out a part of a cabinet or one drawer or sorting one bin.  Making small strides each day will help me maintain some momentum and I know that one of these days, I’ll be ready to tackle some of the tougher areas.  I find that once I get going, I usually end up doing more than I initially planned. Here are the little areas I tackled last week and into the weekend… The junk drawer!  This drawer always ends up a bit of a mess (living up to its name) because we’re in and out of it so much.  It only took 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned and sorted,

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a slice of life

January 2021 Favorites

Before February comes to an end, I thought I would share my favorites from January!  Instead of just sharing a book for each week, as I did in 2020, I am going back to sharing a little bit of everything…what I’m watching, what I’m listening to, foods I’m enjoying, experiences, projects, etc.  It’ll be a little mixed bag of things I enjoy that you might like as well. Here are some of my favorites from January 2021… On Pointe on Disney+ As someone who went to a performing arts college and was involved in theatre and dance for the first half of my life, I was so tired of seeing the same narrative about performing arts schools in TV shows and movies…  Everyone is petty and hates/sabotages talented people.  Everyone has an eating disorder and is on drugs.  Every professor is abusive and demeaning.  I know these portrayals are for

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a slice of life

no spend February | how we got out of debt

While we’re focusing on money this month, specifically not spending beyond the bills and necessities, I thought I would post a couple of times about finances.  I’m not a financial expert by any means, but we have completely transformed the way we spend, save, and view debt over the past 10 years and I thought I would share the story of how we got out of debt as an encouragement to those who might be currently under the weight of student loans, credit card debt, car payments, or any sort of financial obligation that is paying for past purchases instead of current and future ones. First of all, let me say that none of this is said in judgment of anyone who has debt.  It’s very easy to get into and almost expected in society today.  As soon as I was old enough, I had a credit card and started

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a slice of life

February 2021 Organizing & No Spend Challenge

I know I’m not the only one who felt like things got a little out of control in 2020.  Not only did we have the big, global things going on, but I had a lot of significant events happen in my business…selling a part of my business and writing a book to name the two biggies.  When big, overwhelming things are happening, I find that I start to slip in the little day-to-day things.  I’m not quite as on top of daily habits that keep the house organized.  I’ve tackled a few organizing projects over the year, but small things like getting rid of the boys’ shoes they outgrew or cleaning out a linen closet, or purging the freezer start to feel simultaneously too small and too big to worry about. But I’m feeling ready to deal with all of the things that have been forgotten and neglected.  I’m ready

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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