Weekly wrap-up: Makeup + office supplies + more
It’s been a week, and all I can say is that I’m really grateful there is school today. School is a blessing! Preschool, too!
Of course, I only have two hours to work so I’d better get this post finished so I can focus on the rest of my to-do list.
Here’s a quick re-cap of what happened this week:
MONDAY
Did you catch the makeup table and chair I created for our daughter’s bedroom? I’m really feeling that Anne of Green Gables fabric.
TUESDAY
I talked about how our whole family is suddenly into Sudoku puzzles. I had no idea there were special versions for kids — smaller grids, or grids with shapes — and I linked to some great free printables.
Over on Instagram, I shared that the kids and I had a rousing UNO tournament that resulted in two wins for C, one win for me, and 0 wins for D. There were tears and complaints and people tried to leave the table — even the WINNER, for some reason??? — but I forced everyone to stay while I preached about the importance of being a good sport. *sigh*
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WEDNESDAY
I shared my favourite work-at-home treats, like my fancy leather desk chair (SO WORTH IT), the mist that keeps me awake when I’m on deadline + tired, and pretty office supplies that make my office a nicer place to be.
And, in the spirit of treating myself, I took myself through the McDonald’s drive-thru for a Secret Early No-Kids Car Lunch.
Who cares that it was 11:01 a.m.? Those kids were about to be home with me ALL AFTERNOON thanks to another snow day. I totally deserved those nugs, and they were excellent.
Then on Facebook I shared the interview I did with the hilarious Jim Gaffigan. It literally paused one of his Netflix specials on one monitor so I could interview him and take notes on my second monitor. Cray.
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Can you believe it’s been two years since I had surprise surgery? I know. Me, neither.
(If you’re new here, you can catch up by reading about how I got an IUD to solve period problems and the damn thing fell out, and then I went into the hospital for a minor procedure that ended up turning into a full-blown surprise hysterectomy.)
It was March 30, 2015 that my “Hysterecomy at 31” story was published on the Huffington Post, so I re-shared it over on Instagram for old time’s sake.
Oh, and there was also a pretty picture of a gallery wall in our kitchen/dining room because I heart gallery walls.
FRIDAY
My story on the lovely Angela Campagnoni ran today, so please check out her new book helping children deal with loss. It’s beautiful and the illustrations — those bears with tears in their eyes!!! — are perfection.
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//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.jsWe’ve got a full weekend ahead of us, which includes TWO birthday parties for THREE different children — all tomorrow, yikes — and I’m heading into the city on Sunday with Lori from Farm Fresh Style for a special East Coast Mom Media event.
But first, of course, there is pizza + movie Friday. Ahhh.
xo
Treat yo’ self: Work-at-home edition
Today I thought I’d talk about the treats you can buy — or steal from other rooms — for your home office.
After all, I spend a LOT of time in mine — throwing parties and such, mostly — and I have learned the hard way that it’s IMPORTANT to make it a place I want to be.
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| Missed the party? Check it out here. |
A really comfortable desk chair.
For the first few YEARS I worked at home, I had a cheap $40 desk and sat on a leftover dining room chair from our condo.
See how sad?
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| Oh yeah, and my office was bubblegum pink. |
I don’t remember why, exactly, but there came a point — a couple of summers ago — where I felt like I could finally afford a REAL home office chair.
I went to Staples with C and we tried every single chair to see which one was the most comfortable. “Price is no object!” I remember decreeing. Of course, it was, but I didn’t even look at the price tags until I’d tried them all and narrowed down my most comfy favourites.
Yeah, it was a lot of money to spend on a chair. I had heart palpitations at the time. But it was the BEST thing I could have done for myself — office-wise, anyway. It’s SO comfortable, I spend a lot of hours sitting in it, and it was an excellent purchase.
A proper desk.
See above, RE: my crappy $40 desk. It was life-changing when I got my handy husband to build me a custom L-shaped desk.
(Which later was expanded to a huge U-shaped desk that I really should photograph when it’s tidy.)
It’s messy a lot, but I LOVE it.
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Pretty notebooks.
I don’t have a paper dayplanner (Google Calendar is my ride-or-die) but I do like making lists, sketching project plans, or jotting down ideas on paper.
I have these ones and, oh, they are so lovely on my desk.
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| Kate Spade New York Extra Large Spiral Floral Notebook |
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| Rifle Paper Co. Tapestry Stitched Notebook Foil Set |
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| Kate Spade New York Spiral Notebook / Curious |
Software that will make your life easier.
I use mostly free software (like Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc.) so sometimes I get complacent and don’t think I need to pay for ANY software. For a long time — other than my monthly payment for Google Drive storage, and my cloud accounting software — I didn’t.
But recently I upgraded to a paid — yes, PAID — PicMonkey account. I held off for a long time, despite using it daily for the blog, because you can get a lot of the features for free.
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| PicMonkey = awesome! |
But it got annoying to accidentally click on an option I wanted that wasn’t included, and there were a few features that I knew would *really* speed up the time it took for me to make graphics. So I upgraded and I’m very happy I did.
Little pick-me-ups.
It’s important to have a few things on your desk that make you feel good when you’re working. For me, it’s my Vichy Thermal Water — a single mist to the face wakes me up when I’m starting to lag — mints, a bottle of water, and a pump of lotion so my hands don’t dry out.
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What are your favourite work-at-home treats? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Facebook!
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| How to work faster from home |
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| My top three tips for new freelance writers |
The family that Sudokus together
I was working in a newsroom when Sudoku really took off in Canada. I started doing the puzzle in the paper each day. It was excited and new, and everyone was doing it — wait, that makes it sound like something else.
As someone who has struggled with math since childhood, Sudoku really challenged me. It didn’t come easily and I could literally feel my brain firing up in different areas. It was an excellent challenge and I liked it.
Over time, I stopped doing the puzzles. So did most other people, as the fad died off. Coincidentally, this was around the time when phone games really took off, so I guess everyone was too busy playing Angry Birds to try a game on real paper.
I’d forgotten about it until this past Christmas when was I picking up stocking stuffers for my husband. I’d been poring over the magazine selection at the grocery store, trying to find a woodworking one without any luck, when I saw the little book of Sudoku puzzles. He’d always enjoyed them, even more than me, so I stuck it in my cart.
Yet again, I forgot about Sudoku until the book appeared on the kitchen counter months after Christmas. There was a pen tucked inside and I noticed he’d completed a lot of the puzzles! I was shocked because the man is glued to his iPhone or PS4 remote for 90 per cent of his waking hours. (Apparently he’d been Sudoku-ing while cooking dinner one night.)
I carried the book over to the table and decided to try a puzzle for old time’s sake. I remembered how to do it — each grid, and each row, had to include numbers one through nine without any repeats — but it was harder than I’d remembered. I kept pausing, pen mid-air, and not being sure where to find my next move.
Of course, it didn’t help that my husband hovered over my shoulder saying “I see one … I see another one … How can you not see that one?”
“STOP!” I cried, frantically looking at the grids until the numbers swam in front of my eyes. I remembered my old habit of writing teeny numbers in the corners of the blocks that “might” be a certain number.
“That’s cheating!” he crowed from behind me.
“I’m writing down the possible sevens!”
He peered over my shoulder again. “You think almost all of them could be a seven!”
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …
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| MathInEnglish.com |
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …
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| Pin this idea for later! |
DIY floating makeup table, revamped chair
When we were planning our daughter’s bedroom makeover, most of the discussions centred around the huge loft bed we were building.
But our daughter was even more excited about adding something else: a ‘real’ makeup table. Did I mention she’s four years old!? She’s literally closer in age to needing a crib than a tube of concealer. Read More
Weekly wrap-up: flashing lights + snow days + baby clothes
I shared my fun Lite-Brite DIY — including a blinky-blinky picture over on Instagram — and basically had the commercial’s song in my head all day. Lite-Brite! Lite-Brite! Turn on the magic of shining light!
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And over on Insta, I dried my pretty new sink because STRESS and because cleaning makes me calmer.
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We had yet another snow day! For real. The second one in a week, and DID I MENTION IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SPRING? Oh, Canada. You are a butt sometimes.
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Oh, and I shared the baby-clothes quilt I was finishing up for our baby girl. I already finished D’s, too, actually, so I’ll be sharing within the next couple of weeks.
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Lots of projects on the go this weekend, as well as pizza + movie night tonight. I am READY for a weekend after this heck-hole of a week.
xo
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Heather's Handmade Life 