Hey Big Talker, what’s up with those projects?

You may recall a lofty goal I set at the start of the year.  And you may be wondering how that goal is going.   What?  You’re not wondering?!?  Well, I’m going to check in because we are (amazingly) on track! 

January unintentionally became art hanging month as we puttered around with a few projects that needed finishing.

The master bedroom got a collage wall:

The family room’s empty frames (hanging since we moved here in June of 2010) got a little DIY art and improved hardware so that they hang straight – yea!

The eat-in kitchen finally saw our hanging scale hung.  This was a garage sale purchase from 2010 – $5 scale, $10 basket from JoAnn’s (thank you 50% off coupon).  Finally, the fruit has a home!

Unrelated to the unofficial January theme, Kole built a step stool for Maggie to use in the bathroom. (Plans on ana-white.com). Now she can wash her hands without a boost from mom or dad.  We used our Menards rebates for the wood & the paint was leftover from her kitchen set redo,  so it was…FREE! And, there’s enough wood to make 2 more –  such a deal!

There was also lots of sewing, gluing and organizing, and I did finally tackle that tupperware cabinet.

Projects accomplished as of January 31st = 5

Fifty Two

That’s how many projects I’m aiming to finish this year.  I was perusing the blogosphere and looking at everyone’s resolutions and such, and a thought occurred to me.  Wouldn’t it be great to complete one project a week in 2012?  Would it be doable?  We’ll find out.  Here’s the challenge:  tackle one task on my ever growing to-do list every week.  Celebrate my accomplishments here.  There are some questions that go along with this I suppose. 

What constitutes a project? This is fairly loose.   Getting stamps = not a project.  Painting the bathroom, sewing those kitchen curtains, cleaning & organizing the god-awful tupperware cabinet = all projects.  Really it’s my own discretion.  Perhaps getting stamps will qualify as a project during a particularly hellish week, perhaps not.

While 52 is a lot of projects, I don’t think it’s totally unmanageable.  I am counting on divvying up larger projects into small chunks that we can celebrate.  For example, we’d like to do some landscaping this year.  I would not write “landscape” on my to-do list, but I would list “clean out flower beds, prune trees, dig up grass & put down top soil…”  I think you get the idea.

We started quite a few projects this week.  There’s some artwork getting rehung in the family room and a photo installation going up in the bedroom.  We also started cleaning out several closets.  Have I mentioned that I’m super great at starting projects and that I can often find the energy to finish them, but I get lost in the middle?  I lack patience.  Kole, on the other hand, is diligent.  He’s an excellent middle-of-the-project stick with it kind of guy.  Hopefully the balance will keep us going.  So, I don’t have photos of any finished projects from this week – though I’ll get them on here soon.  Instead, I thought I’d share a room redo from 2011.

Here’s Maggie’s big girl room "before”

During painting…

And after!

Come back tomorrow to get the skinny on what we did and for how much.  The only thing that we bought new is the abc carpet in this last photo.  Everything else was a previously loved treasure.