The rules are.. there are no rules!

I hope all of you got what you asked for from Santa - we sure did!

Hubs and I got Makita drills for Christmas and we played guns for about 20 mins after family left - we are unhealthily excited about them:/..

It has been a long stressful week but it was so great spending time with friends and family over the holiday weekend:) 

I hope everyone had a safe New Years as well! We had a nice dinner with M & N (from my previous post) and then we went to my favorite friend's house from elementary school, followed by watching the star rise (30 seconds late - c'mon Chicago) together at home:) Couldn't have been better! 

I also had all of last week off and decided to reupholster an arm chair.. I haven't done "heavy" reupholstery before so it was really exciting to try! It's always rewarding taking on projects that you never thought you could do:)

There is still quite a bit of work left, but it looks much better so far! Then I have to do the second chair - ugh! 

. . .

I have gotten some good feedback about the OCD Challenge! I hope you have been making your lists and getting excited about an organized year. There are no right or wrong answers and everyone's list are going to look different from the next. 

Whether you just moved into a house, lived in your house for decades, live in an apartment or are still living at home, there is always room for improvement! That's the fun with this challenge - we will all have a different approach.

When making your list, always know that it can be changed - nothing needs to be set in stone, unless that works better for you. For instance, when putting my list together, we will probably organize it according to budget - but there are many other ways to organize it. 

• You can organize it by location - sometimes when cleaning the house, I like to start upstairs and work my way down - that way I know everything was touched. 
• You can organize according to budget, like us. Take everything into consideration when doing this - for instance, December is a difficult month to spend extra cash - pick a smaller project for those months. Make note of birthday months, anniversaries, vacations, etc. 
• You can organize it with your schedule in mind. My mother-in-law just sent me her list and she said she will be taking off October - December because she knows she won't be able to give it her full attention with trips and holidays etc. She even said she will be giving her basement TWO months - this is a great idea for those spaces you think will need more attention than 30 days. 
• Season can also take a factor when putting your list together. Clearly you wouldn't chose February to do your yard or garage - you may not want to pick July or August either. May/ April are good months to be outside for these kinds of projects. Also think about when things usually go on sale - I know I have seen a list on Pinterest about when the best time to buy [mattresses, furniture, appliances, cars etc]. The hotter summer months would be a good time to do the basement because it's nice and cool. Hopefully you will be getting rid of lots of things down there, so taking out the garbage without putting on snow boots would be nice:) 

There are so many ways to set up your list - post your ideas on the Facebook page! This will help give ideas for those who don't know where to start! 

Our January Project is the upstairs bathroom! Yes, we did just remodel this space - there are only a few changes we would like to make and also there are a few things that need to be finished. Nothing major, guys! 

We just ordered a new shower curtain and plan on painting the walls again:/ I want to really hone in on the linen closet - being that it is so small, it's hard to keep organized and functional yet still stylish. I plan on getting cute baskets and trays to corral toiletries and beauty products. We may add some shelving for extra storage outside of the closet. Cleaning top to bottom and touching up paint on the trim and doors and boom - complete:) 
Can't wait to show you guys and we progress through the space. 

What's your January Project??



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This last weekend we had our annual ornament exchange with my family and it was so much fun! We all wore our pajamas and had breakfast for dinner - bacon and overnight french toast! We had "midnight snacks" and a cereal and mimosa bar - it was so much fun! There was a point in the night where I shaped everyone's eyebrows... maybe I should do a tutorial - ha!