I took all the books and DVDS off the shelf and put them into a box to donate them. I kept my favourites and found a fridge insert — yes, a fridge insert — that held my leftover books and DVDs perfectly! Since all my new books are on iPad and all new movies are on Apple TV, this setup will be good for the long run.

Much. Much. Better.

After that, I was a woman possessed. I decided to tackle my “bedroom junk drawer”. This drawer houses extra wallets, memories, pens, jewelry and miscellaneous items.

I took out the felt insert that came with the closet organizer. It was meant for jewelry, but the layout was awkward and it didn’t really keep anything organized, per se. One quick trip to Home Sense later and I have an organized jewelry/memory box (there is a hidden drawer on the bottom) and a divided container for my extra wallets, pouches, phone cases and screen cleaners.

Aaaaaand my other bedroom junk drawer, located in the little table I have underneath my TV.

Yes, that’s a sock. My dad’s sock. I think I had intentions of turning it into a sock bun that never came to fruition.

Here’s the after!

I used a divided container to hold my iPod/iPhone armbands, headphones, pens, coupons and passport. In the other drawer, I used a displaced makeup holder for my dry erase markers, camera cord, Apple TV remote and headphone splitter.

Organization is definitely a long process, but I love working on one small project at a time because it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

Now I’m off to spend the rest of the day listening to NSync’s greatest hits and work on a magazine article! NSync definitely needs to reunite. I think boy bands are the way to go! It just seems that no matter what kind of music you listen to now, you can put on any song from 1998-2004 and practically everyone knows the lyrics and/or still loves the song. Also, now that we’re old enough to understand the dirty lyrics from boy band songs (O-Town’s We Fit Together and Liquid Dreams, B44′s Down on Me just to name a couple), we might even enjoy the music more!

into this…

…is surprisingly easy.

What you’ll need:

- a candle jar that’s at the end of its life (I used a Slatkin & Co one from Bath and Body Works and the scent was soooooo last Christmas)

- Mod Podge

- Glitter

To easily and efficiently clean out the candle jar, stick it in the freezer for about an hour. Run a knife along the edge of the candle and then in the centre to break it apart. It should come apart easily. To get the wicks out, pour hot water into the jar and gently use a knife to unstick them. The stickers will wash off easily in hot water.

Clean the jar out thoroughly with dish soap and a sponge. To remove remaining residue, use a cotton ball and nail polish remover. Then it’s time to begin!

Paint the inside of the candle jar (or whichever cylindrical jar you use) with an even coat of Mod Podge.

Watch out for globs because they won’t dry evenly. Once it’s even coated, dump a generous amount of glitter at the bottom and then turn the jar on its side, rolling the glitter around to evenly coat the entire jar. Dump excess glitter onto wax paper/newspaper and funnel back into the glitter container.

And you’re done!

These ones aren’t fully dry yet, but after they dry for several hours (at least 10), you’ll have cute glitter jars to store make up brushes or what have you! I would also recommend spraying a sealant (I use Krylon) to ensure you won’t get glitter all over the stuff inside the jars.

So…first step = throw shit away.

Second step = raid Home Sense or Home Goods or a similar discount Home store for organizational trays. Like I said in the previous post, this just gives a space to come back to after everything gets out of place.

This is my makeup drawer. Right off the bat, you’ll notice I don’t have a lot of makeup. That’s a personal preference. I don’t wear foundation, bronzer, concealer or pretty much anything on my face except tinted moisturizer and blush. The tray was $6 from Staples.

Palettes: Too Faced Natural Eye & Too Faced palette (Sephora 500 point perk). Clearasil Daily Cleansing Wipes. Blush: Nars Orgasm. Mascaras: Tarte Lash Primer, Too Faced Lashgasm, Benefit They’re Real!. Eye Liner: Stila Gel Liner in Black. Urban Decay eyeshadow in Baked. Moisturizers: Bliss Oxygen C, Perricone MD Face Finishing moisturizer, Philosophy 100 point Sephora sample. Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream. Tweezers: $2 Forever 21. Benefit PoreFessional cream.

Under the Sink

Some things I have found helpful for organizing under my sink are the graduated shelving unit ($9.99 Home Sense), the bin containing tampons/pads/etc, the cotton ball container and a plastic bin behind the graduated shelving containing replacement products/products I don’t use as often.

The graduated shelving unit makes everything easy to see (it’s also great for the medicine cabinet!) and is perfect for organizing my nail polishes. I am obsessed with Essie polishes.

(From left) Blanc, East Hampton Cottage, Set in Stones, Mint Candy Apple, Turquoise & Caicos, Mesmerized, Navigate Her, Pretty in Pink, Tarte Deco, Cute as a Button, Off The Shoulder, Peach Daquiri.

That’s it for this chapter of Operation: Organized Life. I will also post on the rest of my bathroom (all the drawers, countertop and shower).

I’m learning as I go and it feels so refreshing to gradually make a place for everything in my life.

Some posts that I have planned out for the next few days/weeks:

- Step-by-step organization of a terrible bathroom cabinet (see all my garbage & shit!)

- Closet organization

- Diet changes/weight loss

- DIY Tutorials

It feels good to be back!

Also…does anyone watch Girls on HBO? It’s my newest favourite TV show. It’s so awkward, weird, and uncomfortable to watch, but I find myself watching each episode 3x over because I can’t get enough of it. Highly recommended.

I guess I just didn’t know if anyone was even remotely interested in what I had to say. I don’t have elaborate stories to tell, but rather just discoveries/activities that I make day-to-day.

But anyway, I organized my car and I’d like to share my tips!

I’m really into organizational accessories right now, because when things get out of place (and they do quite often), I love when they have a place to go back to. Ideally, I’d like to have a series of organizing posts from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen, and so on.

I’m not a fan of clutter in my car, so I have a few tricks to keep everything tucked away.

I’ll start off in the trunk. I keep hardly anything in my trunk, and that’s good because that’s the place where everything I buy has to go.

Just a snowbrush (in pink of course), that gets moved to the backseat during winter, and my yoga mat + towel.

Backseat:

I keep a storage tote containing a towel, an umbrella, reusable grocery shopping bags and a spare pair of flip flops ($4 from Joe Fresh). These totes will also come in handy during school, because I can keep all my notebooks and textbooks organized in one. I also keep a box of Kleenex under the seat and a portable container of moist towelettes in the back cup holder.

In the centre console, I keep a few necessities/emergency items, mainly a hair tie, bobby pins, bandaids, tampons, iPhone charger, a comb and I guess my student card.

Underneath the console is a little groove for spare change, but I have found it to be perfect to keep a little bottle of Febreeze to keep my car smelling fresh.

In the glove compartment, I keep my ownership/insurance for all those times I get pulled over, a lint roller and a notepad + pen. All that is pretty easy to imagine. For my dash, I just keep my USB cord there to so I can charge my iPhone and play music. 

And that’s it! I don’t keep a garbage bag in my car — I just throw everything in the side compartment on the door and empty it out once a week.

And I guess that’s it for my first post back in two months! A lot is new, some things big, some miniscule. I welcome anyone to ask questions, or wait (with breath that is baited — ten points for whomever knows where that’s from) for my next post to find out all that is new. Also, if you like the organizing posts, I would love to do a series. Most of the search engine terms are organizational, so I figure I can build on that.

Ciao for now!

The backs of the frames had protruding hooks for hanging hardware, but since I was going the Command Strip route, these needed to be taken off.

After that, I placed three Command Strips on each frame.

Upon determining the placement for the pictures on wall, I realized that I hadn’t taken into account how difficult it is to ensure the picture is straight. Luckily (or rather, obviously), there’s an app for that.

So I peeled off the Command Strip backings, placed the picture on the wall and levelled it, pushed all my weight onto the three strips for thirty seconds and said a little prayer that it wouldn’t come crashing down and ruin my hours of work. I’m also hoping they don’t slip off the wall during the night and kill my face.

Et voila!

I’m really liking the look of having pictures on both sides of the wall to balance it out a bit. I might add two small mirrors or 2 small framed pictures around it, but that’ll be for another rainy day.

Speaking of rainy days, I’m really missing that pseudo summer that spoiled us in mid-March. I was thrilled to get back into my power rollerblading workouts which are both fun and toning. I could see a minuscule difference in my legs, but it was still good to see!

I’m using my tax return money to invest in a new pair of rollerblades. Mine are currently about five years old and since I use them daily for almost 5 months, they are pretty worn out.

Plus they’re so much cuter than my old ones! And they have 90mm wheels, which equals a faster, smoother ride.

Long time no see! How are you? Good? Good.

Just going to jump right in…

You know those things that inhabit the back of your mind at all times and yet you still can’t bring yourself to remember to just f*cking do it already? Well I’m telling you (and myself) that it feels much better when you just do it instead of mulling over it for days, weeks, even years.

Case in point — the dentist. Oy vey. I had not been to the dentist in five years. FIVE YEARS?! Gross, Dawn. I don’t even know where those five years went. About 3 weeks ago, I started to feel really bad about myself and guilty for not going to the dentist. But I didn’t want to face the awkward moment when they’d be like … oh, you’re still alive? So of course, I mulled over it for three weeks. Long story short, I finally made the appointment and all went well. My teeth are healthy and clean (save for a few coffee stains on the backs of my bottom teeth).

Also, when I built my new bed and got rid of my old one, I noticed there were black marks all over the wall where my old bed used to bang against it (this happened during normal activity, TYVM).

It took 5 months to mull over and all of 10 minutes to break out the paint and fix it, which is what I did on Sunday afternoon.

Before: To the heavily edited but nonetheless improved after: My walls aren’t ombre white and turquoise — it was just sunny.

Which lead me to my next thing that I’ve been thinking about for years. What do I put on that empty wall space? I have a giant picture of New York, but it’s asymmetrical because that’s where the stud was and the picture is heavy as hell. So I was left with a lopsided wall.

Enter cheap, commitment-free DIY project:

First, I bought 2 glass picture frames from Home Outfitters for $9.99 each. They’re about 10×15.

At Micheal’s, I bought a few of their scrapbooking sheets for 99 cents – $1.99 for a couple different options. Then I traced letters on printer paper and cut them out of the scrapbooking sheets. Cutting out the letters took an absurd amount of time, but I wanted to make sure I did it right the first time (a rarity for me).

Here’s why it’s a commitment-free project:

The glass frames are air-tight, so you don’t even have to glue the letters down. I can change it up whenever. I am also using command strips to place the pictures, so there is no permanent damage to the wall.

The finished products:

The second one is the same idea but I just filled the space with stickers. The reason I love the glass frames is that they’re translucent. I love seeing them against my turquoise walls.

Unfortunately, I forgot to buy command strips, so they will just have to sit prettily against my wall until tomorrow.

Cost breakdown:

Glass picture frames — 2 at $9.99 each

Stickers — $5

Scrapbook paper — $3

All in all, this project cost me about $30 and gave me something to do all afternoon, which I was thankful for. I love the finished product (probably because I did it myself and I’m proud like a kid whose macaroni art got put on the fridge).

Today I learned that no, I can’t drink Diet Coke (without consequence). 7 days, 7 DCs, one giant ass headache.

Until we meet again, Diet Coke…

Today I tried some new healthy-esque chip-esque dealies and I really like them!

I’m just confused about their name. Is it snap-pea? Snappy? Snap-eeeea? They’re delicious though. And addicting. Almost as addicting as DIET COKE.

 Today is March 1st and it’s my good friend Lindsey’s birthday! Go over to Happy or Hungry and wish her a fabulous one!

Also, here’s a cute question for today (inspired by the conversation on my daily commute to school with Ally):

What’s the one thing you’ll buy regardless of its high price tag?

I would have to say it’s a toss up between lululemon clothing and Frederic Fekkai hair products. $25 a bottle but it is incredible.

But damn.

Diet pop is so good.

I drank Diet Coke all week in Florida (albeit with rum mixed in…) and did not feel like I was doing something wrong. It only made me miss the delicious carbonated sugar-subsituter-y beverage.

The problem is that I’m a Pisces and we have a naturally addictive personality. I’ll probably go way overboard drinking Diet Coke, swear it’s the best thing ever, then completely go off it cold turkey. This happens a lot. It’s probably why I “need” to eat eggs every morning for breakfast. Eggs & Diet Coke. Just kidding. Maybe.

Anyway, I went to Florida over Reading Week and that was a blast but I’m back now so… that sucks.

I finally got to go to Hogwarts and see what all the hoopla was about. I had high expectations of the main ride, The Forbidden Journey, but it was kind of disappointing (and for anyone who has been on it, I legitimately FREAKED out when there were giant spiders in my face). 

I met Hedwig.

Then Adam got eaten by a dinosaur…

And I got hit by a train.

The rest of the trip was blissfully spent eating Pinkberry, shopping at the Under Armour outlet (never realized how amazing Under Armour is), and drinking at the bar by the pool.

x4

On the plane ride home, Adam and I passed the time by watching episodes of The Big Bang Theory on my iPad, which was our saving grace. I’m not a crazy-nervous flier, but the plane hit some pretty bad turbulence on the way back. It was the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced and my heart was racing and my hand was clutched on to Adam so hard I may have left nail marks. It feels good to be on the ground, but not on the ground in Windsor, where the temperature is currently 1 degree.  D:

Feb. 19th.

Time for a bit of a blog overhaul (how’s it look so far?).

I’ll be preparing some content for the blog instead of just plain slacking.

In the meantime…

Just thought I’d let you all know that the cutest and cuddliest puppies ever, Muffin and Donut, were both adopted last week.

I was sad to see them go. Even though I was getting a little flustered with the sudden influx of puppies crying and pooping everywhere, I still miss them. The new owners don’t know how lucky they are.

I also thought I’d let you know that if you’re having a bad day and you’re one of those people whose spirits can be uplifted with music, I’d suggest listening to What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction.

They’re a boyband!!!!!!!! #ThingsThatMakeYouGoAllggkfhfhfhgkfjdhgfkjgsdfbdgInside 

Apparently their album comes out March 13 (two days before my birthday). I’ll definitely be checking it out. We need to see the return of the cheesy boybands. I’ve been saying it all along. The one just needs to stop being a Bieber lookalike.

Also, my new favourite app is called PicFrame, because you can easily edit and turn your photos into cute collages right on your iPhone!

Example: Oh, and the way I see it, if something makes you happy, no matter what it is, you can go a little overboard about it. This week, it was the new Starbucks cups with Love on them. Some people might be thinking, “Why the hell is she obsessing over a cup?”, but for those who understand, EEEEEEEEE right?!

Since it was so beautiful out, I chose a cold drink over my favourite latte at Starbucks.

Venti Iced Americano with 2 pumps SF Vanilla & a splash of NF Milk.

It lasted the duration of my 1.5 hour Italian class and had me so high on caffeine and therefore life.

I came home & played with the puppies outside.

And had a weird snack.

New (although they used to make it yeaaaaaars ago then it was discontinued) Weight Watchers cinnamon raisin bread with egg whites & some real CanadianEh maple syrup.

The verdict? 

Not really sure why I thought a sweet egg sandwich would be alright. I prefer my bagel+egg+ketchup.

In other excitingbutnotreally news, they have new candles out at Bath & Body Works! The colours are so vibrant and springy and the scents are tropically and florally and happy I bought two that match my room. They smell fantastic, which is a bonus because I probably would have bought them anyway just based on the colour. 

Glee tonight!!!!! FINALLY. Although I’m not particularly excited for this Michael Jackson tribute episode. I love MJ, but they’ve pretty much done all my favourite songs by him already (Thriller, Man in the Mirror).

Make today beautiful!