It Matters

Inspired.

Lately I'm feeling inspired. I'm not sure if it's my new surroundings or just a phase but everything I see or hear seems to be oozing with inspiration....Just to name a few....

The statuesque deer resting beneath the swing set in my back yard this morning.

My third grade son who spends hours on school work that doesn't come easy.

Bright workout clothes for spring...

The "Enduring it well" & "conversations" series on the Mormom Channel.

The Power of Moms group my friend Heather recently started and I joined.

Cool Quotes...and the possibilities they conjure up...

Nature, the moutains and my desire to get the family outside hiking and biking.

Parents and Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

Martha stewart paint colors. 

Following Dr. Oz on twitter.

8 Turbos in a row during Turbo kick classes at the Legacy Center this month.

A trip to the bahamas.. .I'm joining my husband on a business trip in March.

T.J.Max and Home Goods. 

Watching Cache go skiing for the first time...doing HARD things.

Getting to know new neighbors and learning from dear friends.

Lately I've thougth a lot about living inspired, what it means and looks like. How grateful I am for all that's good, beautiful, uplifting and encouraging about my little family and life in general. There's much to be inspired by.....and always much to do:)

Happy Monday,

Darci

images via pinterest. 

 

 

 

Family Room.

I love Mondays. I think it's because I make so many mistakes and missed oppurtunities each week that I'm always up for a do-over, and each new Mondays like a do-over to me. This morning I'm filled with so much anticipation and excitement to have a great week. I wanted to start by sharing a few pictures of our family room and getting a little advice!

This is the fireplace and mantel, the mantel I love but have no idea what to do with. I ordered a picture to go above it last week, but am having second thoughts if it will look good. 

I saw this on Pinterest last week and followed it to what seems to be a great blog titled Honey & Fitz. It was full of advice for decorating a mantel, some I hope to implement this week. However if you have any additional suggestions as to what should go on the mantel I'd love to hear:)

The rest of the room is coming along. I'm in search of bright eclectic pillows for this little couch.

Waiting for another vinyl quote to hang above these matching frames.. 

and I'm thinking not just one but a collection of globes would be cool on top of this computer desk.

 

This room has already met my expectation of being bright and welcoming where the kids love to draw, do puzzles, flip through books and play with their animlas.  It's meant to be cozy and kid friendly which I love. 

It's hard for me, a challenged photographer, to take a good picture with that big window but you get the idea. We still have work to do and pictues to hang but we're getting there slowly. It was cool to have a fire burning in the fireplace all weekend...we all hung out together and it was so toasty warm... which is good because this girl won't keep clothes on.....

 however she did put on a hat when it started to snow.

Silly Girl:)

Darci

Progress in the mud room.

I've been making progress in what's quickly becoming one of my favorite spaces in our house, the mud room. It's not perfect yet, I'm still deciding on a fun color to paint the back door, and I've ordered a vinyl quote for above my bulletin boards, but it's coming together and i'm ready to share a few pictures. 

A bit of orginization has appeared on the wall, So far it's functioning nicely. 

The bulletin board on the right is for art & school work, the one on the left is for planing. It's my calendars for now but will soon have my meal plans etc. A colorful vinyl quote will go above and read, "By Small and Simple things are great things brought to pass." I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will look good:)

 

I thought long and hard about how to get papers off the counters, make them easily accessible to who needs them and how to organize everything so it wasn't all shoved into a cute basket and forgotten about or lost. (the system at our previous house) The solution I came up with was hanging baskets and I LOVE IT. Each child had a basket where all their paper items belong. Weekly homework, take home reading books, scout schedules, handwriting notebook etc. plus their clipboards. 

On friday I check their clipboards to see that they marked of their chores and checklists each day then clip their allowance right on their baskets. Keep in mind we're only on week three, but it's been great so far. I finally wised up and requested that Kevin bring home a large envelope of one dollar bills so that I could actually be consistent. (In the past I've been notorious for not having cash when it's time to pay allowance)  All I can say is there have been no piles on the counter and the kids really love having a specific place to keep their school papers organized.  

What is now our mud room used to be a bathroom and was configured very differently. It is actually the only place in the house we moved walls, I'm so glad we did.(Thanks mom:) It's now a long skinny room that connects the kitchen and family room with a door also leading to the backyard. 

All the cabinets are a nice soft yellow, and the floor is a black and white tile. I'm now in the process of throwing in bright colors everywhere I can. 

Painting this door is my weekend project..

This is the little desk that I love, but I'm stalking Peir 1 and TJ Max for a colorful chair cushion, then I'll love it even more.

This is the actual purpose for the room...washing clothes..but the little shelf is what I love the most. The laundry soap will eventually be stored between the washer and dryer and I'm picturing a fun collection of random colorful jars with a Happy print hanging on the the wall above. It's fun to imagine what I might find in the near or distant future that will be perfect to finish off this little spot. 

Lastly the utility sink with the really cool faucet. Funny story, there was a mix up with faucets and needless to say we ended up with a very fancy faucet above a $30 utility sink. It's a little silly, but almost every room has a mix up and they're all starting to grow on me. The one thing I do love is the rod that hangs above the sink to hang dress shirts when they come out of the dryer. Seriously cutting down on the ironing around here.

So that's the mud room. We're expecting snow this week so we'll see how much actual mud I can handle in a room designed for just that:)

Happy Day.

Darci

two things.

There are two things I've been meaning to metion for a while; my Paper Cortorie weekly calander and my customized i-phone case. I'm completely in love with both items because of their coolness factor so I thought I would share. 

Paper Coterie's Weekly customized planner.

This things is perfect, at least for me. It's bright & cute, fuctional and divides the month into weeks, which is my favortie way to plan.

You can uplaod your photos quick and easy on their webstie to personalize a planner for yourself or for a gift. It's great because even though it's a planner there are no dates filled in yet so you can start using it at anytime during the year. So COOL.

It's spiral bound which I love because you can lay it flat with two weeks showing or fold it over to display one weeks schedule at a glance.

The best part is what I mentioned above, you fill in the dates. If I'm on vacation or miss a week of writting everything down I don't waste paper or pages. Each new page is a Mon-Sun just waiting to have the dates filled in and the lines filled up. I LOVE that it starts with Monday in the top left hand corner and ends with Sunday becasue that's how I approuch my planning. Really, who starts planning the week with Sunday? 

I-Phone Case.

My super cool friend gave me a heads up on this one a few months back. Cafe Press is an online store that offers customized photo printing. You can upload a picture and have a phone case made for most any phone, even old 3G's like mine:) It's been so fun to have a picture of my cute kids in the palm of my hand. I get so many comments and compliments on it that I figured I'd share a link with everyone here, so you can get one too! 

So there you have it, two things I'm loving right now. I'm not a spokesperson for either one of these companies, but they have cool products so I'm passing the word along.

Happy Day,

Darci

5K Friday. Push

A few weeks back I headed up to Park City, UT to take what they call a "Master Class" by Chalene Johnson, the creator of TURBO KICK. I've mentioned my love for Turbo Kick, a fast paced kick boxing routine, before.... so needless to say I was excited. The workout was high intesity and a lot of fun but the thing I thought was most interesting was meeting it's creator. She was 5 foot nothing and tiny around. She was full of charisma, confindence and the perfect mix of girl next door meets celebrity. She was a lot of fun.

I'm not a huge self-help book person, not that I don't need all the help I can get- I do, I'm just not a huge reader. However that afternoon I came home and ordered her book on Amazon out of sheer curiousity about her more than what she had to say. 

It's called PUSH and it's been very interesting. It's more about habits and goal setting than exercise, and I've realized I actually needed to hear many of the things she had to say.  So if your looking for a book to keep you on track in February or a book to help you identify what your priorities are and how your goals and habits either support your core priorities or fight against them, this book is a decent place to start. I'm not done with it yet, but I'm on my way to making a few changes in the way I set and strategize to accomplish goals in 2012.

I got my 5K in this morning, did you?

I'm off to help decorate a wedding this weekend. So Fun!

Darci

Dance Party.

So the new thing at our house is....the DANCE PARTY! Ty got an i-touch for christmas and now considers himself a bonified DJ. We "get our groove on" in the toy room at least a couple nights a week. Ty's got a few favorites that definatley get the crowd hopping such as; I've got the Magic in me by B.O.B. , Wake me up before you go go by Wham, Dynomite by Taio Cruz and Celebrate by Cool and the Gang. If nothing else it's fun for Kevin and I to just sit and giggle at their crazy moves (or lack of any real talent or coordination.) I just keep thinking I should join them, it would be good exercise:)

It's the simple things in life that matter the most. 

Have a groovy day!

Darci

A few little touches.

Now that the holidays are over and the new year's settling in I'm tryiing to finish unpacking. We did the initial "get everything out of boxes and put somewhere" but now the real work of orginizing, and decorating begins. I'm really trying to put alot of thought into our families daily routines, how we function as a unit and individuals and what I can do orginizationaly to best support those daily routines. 

What all that means is it's not coming together quickly...and if you know me, I like quick. I typically want to do something, anything to make it look good even if it doesn't work- but this time I'm determined to get it right. I'm not just going to hang pictures anywhere I want to hang them in the right place. I want to orginize the flow of papers, mail and schoolwork so that it doesn't just get stacked in a cute basket but is actually orginized and accessable to those who need it. 

So It's not coming together quickly, but it is so good. I'm exercising patience so I can purchase what I really want instread of what I can afford right now. I'm waiting and thinking and planning.

However in the mean time I've purchased a few touches that make me happy and are a step in the right direction for what I hope will someday be a very bright and colorful kitchen.

 cute polka dot bowls from Gardiner Village.

Bright Tea kettle from Home Goods. 

a fruit basket for my island. 

These three little touches on my counter are keeping me motivated and excited for what's to come!  

Happy Day, 

Darci

5K Friday. Back to Basics.

It's the begining of a new year, and many of us are making resulutions and formulating goals in the area of health and fitness. However this year instead of doing anything new I'm simply going back to the basics. I've had three basic rules that whenever I've struggled or gotten off track (going back to highschool when I first became intreseted in running & fitness) I've used to get back on course. They are three simple habits really that keep me in the right frame of mind when it comes to eating. 

1. Sit down to eat, no eating while standing up.

2. Set a small plate at the dinner table and fill it once.

3. Brush your teeth at 7pm.

I know, I don't aim very high! The thing is these three basic guildlines have never failed me yet. When I put them into practice along with regular exercise I'm a very happy girl. If I try to resitrict certain foods, or do some kind of strict plan I simply can't maintain I'm setting myself up for failure, so I've found these three basic guildlines or habits are best for me. They help me keep things in proportion, (small dinner plate)  help me minamize mindless snacking or eating, (sitting down before I put anything in my mouth) and they keep me from eating when I'm tired. (brushing my teeth at 7pm) 

So there you have it. I'm going back to the basics after a few month of craziness. So far, so good and I'm feeling better already. 

I also signed up for this just to sweeten the deal and add a little excitment, or to be honest Anxiety until June. It's been a long time since I've run a full marathon and I'm wondering if i can really do it?

We'll see:) I got my 5K in this morning....you have to start somewhere. 

Good luck to all you out there will goals and resolutions to stay fit and healthy in 2012. 

Have a great weekend,

Darci

 

 

In the Nick of time.

Alright. Long story short we moved in just in time for Christmas. Tuesday, December 20th we just decided we were moving in and did it! The home wasn't entirely ready- the Kitchen and master bedroom was still wrapped in plastic with painters busily painting, the plumber was still installing toilets, none of the appliances were hooked up and we had no hardware- but it seemed ready enough to throw down some sleeping bags and grab a few boxes out the the garage. The first 3 nights we slept all together in the basement, but it was exciting. The next day both my brothers came over and carried in all our furniture in a matter of hours. (they are seriously strong:) helped set up beds, and Cougar even put up our tree. Needless to say by the time they left I was in tears, overwhelmed with love and gratitude.

Just 4 days later we had Christmas Eve at our house. I was a very tired but HAPPY girl. 

All the Utah Cousins.

Loading up our plates around the island. 

My two brothers and their wives.

The tree.

I know I'm not the first to anticipate moving into a home, we certainly didn't wait the longest or endure the most difficulties- but as my family gathered around the tree to read the christmas story and sing carols my heart swelled and I couldn't hold back tears of pure joy. In that moment what had seemed hard just days and weeks earlier simply melted away and every second of it felt worth it. 

After the party ended the kids opened up their Christmas PJ's, we read a story and they all crawled into bed. It was a perfect evening I never thought would happen. I layed in bed feeling sheepishly grateful and excited for Christmas morning. 

Since then the water heater broke, we realized we dry walled over all the phone jacks, the furnice went out and my switch to turn on the disposal turns on a light...... but I pretty much love all of it. It's great to be home.

Happy Day,

Darci

Good Day & Happy New Year!

It's been a long while, but today is as a good a day as any to start blogging again! I'm filled with excitement and anticipation for the new year... to be in a new house....and to revamp and renew several routines and resolutions.  Yipee!

I feel like there's so much I want to record, document and share with you about the last few weeks....finishing up the remodel, the BIG move, Christmas..and a cute little 4yr olds Birthday, however today I'm going to simply be happy that I blogged anything.  So here's a fun quote I saw on Pinterest,

and I hope it's true for you!

I can't wait to share a few pictures of Christmas Eve in our new home tomorrow (that is if I can find my camera cord:)

Good Day,

Darci