This morning, the view from my kitchen table was so pretty that I ran to grab the camera.  (And yes, there really was some oatmeal underneath that mountain of strawberries!)  For the past few weeks, I’ve been on a roll, and I think a lot of this has to do with changing my morning habits.  I thought I would share here since I know others of you are also trying to figure out how to get more done each day!

I have always been someone who is very high output, but consistency is not something that comes naturally to me. However, when you’re working for yourself, being consistent is sort of, well, everything.  So I have been shaking things up over here and reading books for more tips and just generally trying to get better one day at a time.

I recently read Never Check E-mail in the Morning by Julie Morgenstern, and while the book is mostly geared towards people working in corporate America, there are still a lot of helpful ideas even for those of us working from home.  For the past month, I’ve been using her “Golden Hour” Rule and it’s pretty amazing:

For the first hour of the day, I stay away from e-mail (and all of it’s associated distractions, twitter, internet, etc.) and do that one thing that would make me feel so awesome to have crossed it off of my list.  I plan it the night before, and in the morning after my quiet time and exercise, I go to my desk, cup of coffee in hand, no distractions, and I do it.  That’s it!

However, now it’s my most powerful hour of the day.  (I try to exercise every other day, so on the non-exercise days, I go for broke and have 2 golden hours!)

In that hour I have written a chapter of a novel, finished some daunting illustrations, taken care of paperwork/organization that I was dreading, planned photo shoots, and re-drafted fussy patterns.  It’s not always the hardest thing of the day, but it’s always something that’s important.  By finishing and getting it out of the way, everything else flows better.  And yes, all of those e-mails and messages still get read and returned, but now they are reigned in on my schedule.

Do some of you do this too? At first, it can sound a little daunting — especially if you are someone who gets a lot of messages  But what’s your one thing you really want to get done?!

(Disclaimer: Once again, I must say that I do not have kids.  I’m pretty sure that if you are also in charge of little ones, getting them dressed and making breakfast, etc. this gets trickier!)

Thank you so much for all of the kind words about the picture frames in the living room.  You guys really are the best!  Today, I wanted to share another small decorating project.

While my husband was marking off the living room wall with masking tape and the laser level, I had to do something to keep myself occupied.  I finally took the plunge and removed all of the dust jackets on our books and started grouping them by color.  (You can see what our bookshelves looked like before here.)  I know that this idea is nothing new, and I worried for a minute that maybe the trend had passed and was no longer cool.  Then I thought “who am I trying to impress?!  Does it really matter as long as we both like it?”

So, I gave it a whirl.  Many of our college books are paperback, and while I’ve thinned the collection and donated a bunch, there are still some we just haven’t parted with yet.  I was worried that the color arrangement might be a bit Rainbow Brite for our tastes, but I think it ended up being more subtle than I thought.  We have lots of black, white, and grey books that tone things down.

I spent about an hour grouping and arranging everything by color and still need to make another pass to get it all right.  However, I am liking it so far.  I will show another picture once it’s all done.  Have you tried this or is it too matchy-matchy for you?  Do you also worry about the secret decorating police who will come and judge your room?

I could probably have an entire column here called “things I learned from Melody, my college roommate.”  Melody is one of those rare people who just seemed to know that life’s experiences are better when you are in balance.  Her advice has turned out to be so practical and soul-nourishing that I think about her little sayings a lot.

Gems like:

• Relationships: “For every argument or bad experience you have as a couple, you need 5 good experiences.”
• Time management: “Getting into a good routine is everything.”
• Cleaning: “Put this stuff on the carpet, and it will smell nice.”

Then there’s today’s topic: Travel.  I don’t know about you, but before I leave to go somewhere, I usually get that pre-trip adrenaline rush.  I’m packing, running errands, researching my destination, charging batteries, and generally running around excited, but a bit frazzled.

I have distinct memories of college dorm life where I would be frantically trying to find things to shove into my suitcase and looking over at Melody, serenely fluffing her pillows.  Usually while humming.  (I’m pretty sure you don’t get a name like “Melody” without being prone to humming.)

On my side of the room, I am tearing through a giant pile of books and papers looking for airline tickets, and there’s Melody, gently using her pink feather duster on her fairy figurines.

Now, I can’t say that she didn’t ever have to rush to board a plane (we were college students, not nuns after all), but she knew something then which has taken me a long time to figure out: cleaning up your place before you go somewhere is a really lovely gift to give yourself. She knew she was going to get back, exhausted, maybe secretly wishing she was still on vacation.  There’s nothing worse than opening the front door and finding piles of laundry, bills, and stuff to be put away.  Instead, Melody came home to a freshly laundered robe, clean linens, and… serenity.

Melody once visited me and cleaned up my apartment before she left.  This is the person you want as your friend for life, people.

I don’t always pull this off, but I really try to be more Melody than old-Kelly when I travel.  (Thank goodness my cleaning and organization have improved since then!)  Next week, we are going on a mini-vacation, and as soon as we booked the hotel, I wrote a list of things to do before we left.  I’ve been dropping things off at goodwill, catching up on chores, going through the mending basket, and simplifying as much as possible.  I think Melody would be proud.  I’ve thought about her with each load of laundry I’ve folded.  The bonus?  I am as much looking forward to the trip as I am to returning to a cleaner, lighter home.

So ‘fess up!  Who’s a Melody out there?  And who is still crazy-Kelly?  Do you have any pre-trip rituals that help keep you sane?

Over the weekend, I put the finishing touches on my big reorganization project.  All of my fabric is folded and wrapped around comic book boards now.  I wish I could tell you that this is super quick, but it’s not.  To be honest, it took hours.  The good news is that when you grow tired of folding and pinning fabric, getting rid of things is much easier.  My fabric stash is lighter and more manageable now.

It’s also so much simpler to pull things out and put them away.  I have a separate bin for scraps and smaller cuts of fabric, but I’m going to try to hold myself to a limit there as well.  It feels good to only have fabrics I genuinely love.

This shot of the inside of the cabinet is not super glamorous, but I’ll share anyway:

I have dreams of all of the bins matching (one day), but first it was critical to clean out as much as possible and really see what’s left.  The bottom shelf contains a bin with all of my home dec fabrics and corduroys, velvets, etc.  This is also where the giant paper for the nice printer is stored plus my scrapbook/sticker collection.  (It’s OK to be 30+ and have a sticker collection.)

On the shelf with the fabric, I used a bookend so I could divide the shelf in two: fabric mini-bolts and full size rolls of muslin and interfacing.

We added a second drawer which makes me so happy.  I have all of my millinery supplies, notions, and other bits and bobs organized in separate plastic bins in the drawers.  Then there are separate bins for ribbons, adhesives, art supplies, paint, sewing patterns, yarn, tools, etc.  The top shelf has all of the weird stuff: left over pieces of foam, wreath forms, and other things I don’t need to access on a regular basis.

I decided that this cabinet should only hold supplies — not the abandoned, half-finished projects.  When I open up the doors, I want to be inspired by the possibilities not overwhelmed by incomplete or failed ideas.  This means that I tossed quite a few “maybe one day” projects.  That is a wonderful gift to give yourself.  I would encourage you to do the same.  Do you have any other de-cluttering and organizing tips? I’m on a roll and ready to tackle a few more spaces.

I think we are nearing a solution for artwork in the living room.  We have debated canvas, framed photos, and a dozen different layout options — everything from one giant piece of artwork to triptychs.  This has only taken us 18 months which is quite speedy for us.  In fact, I hope we have not rushed things too much here.  ;-)

A few nights ago, we went through our photography archives to try to choose which photos would make the cut.  I think we realized that a collage of smaller prints will work best.  On demand canvas printing seemed really cool, but committing to a few favorite images was just too hard.  We’ve taken thousands of photos in the past few years and our favorites are eclectic, so going with smaller photos will allow us to mix and match some flowers, special places, people, and maybe even a few animals (my design concession to my husband).  Our one rule is that we have decided to only use photos we’ve taken together.

Now for the hard part: the layout!  I really this photo from Ikea (up top) of the ever-popular Ribba frames.  The mixture of depths from the shadow boxes and regular frames makes me really happy.  So tactile!  However, we need an arrangement that is symmetrical or boxed in neatly somehow.  We just don’t do organic very well.

Here is one of about 4 different arrangements I’ve been playing with which didn’t make the cut (awkward spacing around some of the frames):

We’ll get there.  Eventually.

I owe everyone a pillow update, so I’m working on that post, too.  Alas, I still have not made it to the fabric store for pillow fabrics.  We’ve been running around like crazy, and I’m just trying to be at peace with our schedule however packed it’s going to be.  I hope your week is off to a good start!