Category — Organization + Storage

Admittedly, I’ve been feeling spread a little thin these days…again, I know! As I spilled to my partner Elisa at the shop yesterday, I’m really good with lists and deadlines (I’ve got good hustle!) but the reality of being a store owner/mother/wife/friend/daughter/etc/etc/etc is that my lists will never be done.. It’s mostly exciting but I definitely do have my moments of feeling overwhelmed. During one of these “moments” the other day, I dropped everything and did a spontaneous Spring cleaning of my daughters’ shared room. As most parents can relate, hearing yourself make the same pleas to “tidy up” and “put things away” gets very old, as do the teeny bits and bobs that my little hoarders-in-the-making seem to endlessly collect. So, while the girls were outside on the trampoline (sneaky!), I emptied every last nook and cranny in their room and eventually found some order amidst the chaos. It felt so great to organize one entire room from top to bottom! Sometimes it takes clearing the physical cobwebs to rid yourself of the mental ones, would you agree?

A Beautiful Mess

Obviously, I’m a lover of collections and displaying what you love but there’s a fine line between a curated collection and plain old clutter. Art and objects need room to breathe to be appreciated and a little space is good for everyone ;)

The Marion House Book

Style At Home

Dear Me via We Heart

Stylizimo

Linus Bikes via DesignLoveFest

Academy Tiles

Are you drawn to minimal displays or are you of the more-is-more mentality? Or do you prefer to hide it all behind closed doors? Either way, it’s always good to reevaluate all of the goods that we collect over time. Whether that means emptying a single shelf or an entire room, putting back only what you truly love and/or find useful is so refreshing. An ongoing challenge, most definitely! Speaking of challenges, my girls were thrilled to come inside and find their room so neat and tidy! They’ve been trying to keep it in exactly the same state ever since….although, we’ll see how long that lasts!

Well, hello friends and hello Friday! I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’ll likely never tackle everything on my weekly to-do lists but some weeks seem to hustle along a lot faster than others, don’t they? This was one of those whirlwind weeks for me yet I’m somehow still feeling inspired and motivated to tackle important tasks at hand, several of which are more daunting than others. Like getting healthy, for example. It can be pretty discouraging to realize how fast things can slide (especially at my “vintage” age of 33…) but I decided to stop pouting in my closet and do something (anything!) about it. I’ve been eating clean, walking every day and drinking green tea all week and I plan to step up my workouts over the weekend. There’s never enough time in the day but I really have no excuse not to fit in at least 20 minutes of cardio in somewhere. How do you juggle fitness goals in amongst work, family and life in general? I know some people love working out but unfortunately I’m just not one of them, are you? Wait, I don’t want to hear it if you are…just kidding :)

Kwestia Smaku

That’s enough talk of fitness (yawn!), so here are some other pretty pics that inspired and motivated me this week. I’ve got some continuing organization to tackle around my house and it’s due for a good Spring cleaning too. My poor house has been somewhat neglected since the shop opened up but I’m starting to get excited (rather than overwhelmed) at the thought of a few small-ish projects.

Rue via Camille Styles

Amanda Catherine Designs

The Design Files

Janis Nicolay / Pinecone Camp

Emily Henderson

Tulipina with SF Girl by Bay

I’m off to work now but enjoy this rainy weekend and I’d love to hear more about your own Spring goals, if you feel like sharing!

I’m feeling a wee bit maxed out after the past few days. Single-momming it (Brad’s away on work, don’t worry!), Christmas decorating at the shop (a waaay bigger production than any of us anticipated!), hosting a baby shower for my beautiful sister (I’m almost an auntie, hooray!) and life in general have all caught up with me.  So I’m going to take a few days off to gather my thoughts and organize a few things, like the state of my kitchen table! See you again on Friday and have a great week :)

Photo by Vickey Weiss for Design*Sponge

My new partners and I are seriously powering through with all of the details for our new storefront…nothing like a tight deadline to keep things moving! So far, I’m totally amazed by how smoothly things keep falling into place and we’ve had so many serendipitous moments along the way. Our renovations to the store itself are starting to come together and I cannot wait to share the final results with you in a few very short weeks! We’re almost ready to get to the fun part of setting up shop and displaying our wares throughout Spruce Collective…obviously far more fun than the business side of things! It will likely be a wee bit overwhelming once we unload all of our vintage finds and new products into the space but for now I’m collecting inspirational retail spaces like these to stay motivated throughout the process…

Three Fold Eatery via Habitus Living

Donna Hay General Store

Harvest Textiles via The Design Files. Photo by Sean Fennessy.

Poppytalk

Photo by Sarah Szwajkos for Elle Decor

Photo by Bodil Bergqvist for Trendenser

Thank you all for your encouraging words and positive thoughts along the way! It’s always great to hear so feel free keep the comments and vibes coming! I’m finding it extremely hard to believe that school starts in only a few days! Tuesday morning will come mighty fast and I haven’t had much time to wrap my mind around it, to tell you the truth. I do hope that the sun comes back out though and that we can possibly squeeze in one last beach day before we’re back to routine for good. What do you have planned for the long weekend?

Rachel and I have mentioned several times before about our longing for home workspaces of our own. Now that the kids on vacation from school it’s been especially hard for me to sit down and write (between “I want a snack!” and “can you turn the sprinkler on?” interruptions) and I’ve pulled a few more late nighters than I anticipated. I did plan on stocking up at least a few more blog topics this week while they were at their day camps but suddenly found myself very distracted with a potential business adventure and it’s BIG! I am literally chomping at the bit to tell you more but for now will have to leave you hanging, at least until some key details fall into place. But these pictures may just give you a huge hint about what’s in the works for the very near future…

Photo by Bethany Nauert for Apartment Therapy

Lonny

Micasa Revista. Photo by Jake Fitzjones.

Amy Osaba Floral Workshop via 100 Layer Cake

Photo by Carina Olander for Bolig Pluss

Lonny

Design Milk

Atlanta Homes via Verdigris Vie

The Globe & Mail. Design by Kelly Deck. Photo by Barry Calhoun.

Photo by Jennifer Causey for Design*Sponge

Have you had the opportunity to sit with a group of like-minded people to brainstorm and swap ideas with? I’ve been lucky enough to share plenty of creative sessions with Rachel (who I’ve been missing more than ever this week!) and casual coffee dates with other vintage sellers, bloggers and larger groups as well. It always feels great to bounce ideas off of others who “get” what you’re doing and I’m always amazed at the amount of creative inspiration that can spark from seemingly chance encounters. Fingers crossed that I’ll have many more of these meetings-of-the-minds very soon! Sorry for the cliff hanger but please stay tuned…