Spring has sprung… in my head, at least! We had legitimate warm-ish sun last week, so it must really be here soon, right? I hope so, because I’m itching to get my spring on. It started with these gorgeous yellow ranunculus, which just scream spring to me:

Then sun turned to springlike showers, so I succumbed to the siren song of this trench.

Perfect for early spring, wouldn’t you say? So with allergy meds in hand and a true “spring” in my step (tired of the puns yet?), here’s what I’m ready for:

Cherry Blossoms! What better way to celebrate my new city than take part in its premier annual festival?

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We’re lucky enough to have a large patio in our new apartment. While I love grilling and lounging in the sun with a good book as much as the next person, I must confess the biggest reason our patio excites me: GARDENING! The patio of our last apartment was always too windy for anything to prosper, but I’m hopeful that the interesting angles of our new patio will provide protection from the wind and offer both sun and shade.

I’ve so missed having my own herbs right outside to use while cooking (seriously, I grit my teeth every time I have to buy basil at the store, which is weekly). And I love the thought of trying to grow greens and vegetables in containers, too – maybe as practice for the “real” garden we might have someday. Here are some images from my urban patio garden inspiration folder that have me eager to dig in (winkwink) and get started:

Even the tiniest spaces can accommodate container gardens, depending on your conditions. I mean, if this apartment can do it…

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Herbs galore! Going vertical is so smart.

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For the time being, I’m working out of a home office that also doubles as a guest bedroom. It makes the most sense to do so given the logistics of my current job, and to be honest… I’d rather work in sweats with NPR droning on all day long anyway. I’ll post about home office decor soon (hint: some of it might look familiar), but for now, I’d love some advice from my fellow telecommuters about time management. Particularly when our apartment is still full of unpacked boxes and a never-ending To Do list, I’m finding it really difficult to ignore the chores and focus on what I get paid to do for eight hours a day.

I have made one smart decision for my working self: driving my husband to work each day. It sounds silly, but waking up earlier than I might like to in order to get him to his office by 7:00 a.m. is the sort of routine that helps frame my work day, even if I’m the only one who knows it. By the time I get back to our apartment, I’m awake and ready for coffee – and much less likely to climb back into that cozy bed.

But oh, the distractions! Here’s what I have trouble with:

Unpacking and organizing. While our apartment is livable right now, there’s still so much that needs to be done. Working in the midst of boxes, it’s impossible to ignore them or feel like I can put them off until later. They’re right there. Just one box! And then I’ve unpacked ten of them. (And don’t even get me started on “just one quick Ikea assembly…”)

Daytime errands. It’s so much easier to run errands in the middle of the day than after normal work hours, when the rest of the world is running errands. More times than I can count, I’ve told myself how much more effective I’ll be doing that thing that needs doing in the mid-morning, and then I’ve justified it with the ease of city parking during the daytime. But as we know, one errand can so easily lead to an afternoon of them.

Service scheduling. “I work from home, so come at any time.” I’ve said it to cable guys, maintenance folks, building management, etc. And it’s true, I do work from home and I can receive them at any time… but if I’m on the clock should I really be assisting the building manager as he climbs behind our washer/dryer to fix the wiring?

Evening realities. Telling myself that I’ll make up for lost daytime hours by working at night has become a complete joke. When T gets home for the day, I want to be with him, not shut away in the home office. So if making up for lost time then isn’t a reality… when is it?

So tell me… what tips help you shut away the world while working from home (or at least quiet it a little)? Is it silly for me to expect so much of myself when our life is still in cardboard-boxed chaos? Should I get my apartment in order, then work my days away… or set my work rules now and early, when the best habits will stick?

Greetings from Washington, DC! You might remember that after a topsy-turvy fall, we landed in our first choice city. Why, then, haven’t I been blogging my heart out about all the fantastic nesting we’ve been doing in our new city? Well, there are a few explanations for why this move hasn’t exactly been routine:

1. We moved here during a blizzard. Snowpacalypse, Snowmaggedon, Snow-Over-It, take your pick… This was our view when we pulled into our new apartment, days before another storm hit. What a mess!

2. We moved here with only a carful of belongings. We thought we’d be doing a little urban camping for a few days, so we packed the car full of just what we needed: an air mattress, one pot and pan, one set of dishes for each of us, a few clothes, and some travel-sized toiletries.

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Remember Next Stop Wonderland? We now have a destination! We’re circling right back to where we began, it turns out… with politics. It goes a little something like this:

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That’s right, folks! In one month’s time, we’ll be the newest citizens of our nation’s capital, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s a new chapter for us both, and I’m excited and humbled and EXCITED and just plain grinning at the opportunity. (Did I mention EXCITED?) To begin an adventure side-by-side with my favorite person in a fantastic city… I’m a lucky, lucky girl.

We found an apartment over the weekend and we have ten days before the moving truck arrives. In other words, someone needs to be packing right about now…

Let the adventures begin!!

In addition to our boozy gift baskets, we made cute marble magnets for nearly everyone on our gift list this holiday season. In fact, these were so easy and fun to create, we couldn’t stop making them. We packaged them in little cellophane bags and tied them right into the bows on our packages. Now that we’re past the holidays, these would make great little hostess or birthday gifts… dressed up in an Altoid tin, perhaps? Here’s a pile of our magnets before they went into their gift bags:

Supplies: You can find the supplies to make 50 magnets at your local craft store for less than $10. You’ll need glass floral beads and basic magnets (I chose 3/4 inch for the size of my magnets/beads, but other sizes are available), Glass & Bead glue, and a circle punch (the punch is completely optional – if you’re more precise and less lazy than I am when it comes to cutting out tiny circles, skip it!)

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Subtitle: When All Else Fails, Get Your Siblings Drunk!

You remember the extreme limitations imposed upon my family gift-giving this year, don’t you? After trying and failing at a few different ideas for my siblings and their SOs, our highly scientific thought process went something like this:

Without further ado, our Crafty Christmas:

To set the theme, I made booklets for each couple that were printed on cardstock, hole-punched, and tied with holiday ribbon. I forgot to take a photo of the finished products, but here are the jpgs. Read them vertically, and click for a larger version.

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My family is a crew of perennial over-gifters. We love giving gifts; in fact, we can’t quite control ourselves. Our Christmas Eve extravaganzas are infamous. Presents begin in neat piles under the tree, but not two feet later are stacked to dizzying heights, toppling over one another, and spreading out half-way across the living room floor. We have a ritual for opening the gifts, too: one at a time, oldest to youngest. It takes hours. There is applause and fanfare after each gift is opened. As I said, it’s a ritual.

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But 2009 has presented itself as that fateful Christmas that would belie tradition, for reasons of scheduling and economy. First, we’ve moved our usual Christmas Eve extravaganza to Christmas Night so that my niece’s maternal grandparents finally get a chance to host Santa (they’re three hours away). With that being the case, Trevor and I realized how much money we could save by traveling on Christmas morning instead of Christmas Eve, so we jumped on discount airfare. (Christmas Eve all alone with a boy? What ever’ll I do?!) Oh, and did I mention that half of us are looking for jobs or desperately hanging onto the jobs we have? Yep.

So with everything so in flux this year – and our family focus becoming increasingly grandchild-centric anyway – the family matriarch put her holiday-socked foot down and issued a proclamation*. In the spirit of simplifying and treading lightly while Ye Olde Economy is still kicking our butts, no gift can cost more than $10 per person.

What the…?!

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It would be easy for me to write a post professing love for my most expensive kitchen tools. I could wax poetic about Le Creuset and All Clad, expound upon my favorite Shun knives, and admit that I, too, have fallen victim to the lure of the Peugeot grinder. (And oops, I guess I just did.) But this is a different kind of year, and in this recession I know I’m not the only one feeling the tough times. Here, then, are my favorite kitchen gadgets that are both economical and multi-tasking. These inexpensive yet invaluable tools might be just what you need to round out your holiday wish list for yourself or a loved one, guilt-free.

Cuisinart Mini Prep Processor
(Doubles as: Food processor)

I’ve had my mini prep since college, and it’s still going strong. Some day I’ll upgrade to an adult food processor, but I’m really not in a rush. This little guy is the definition of a workhorse – it’s made me buckets of hummus and pesto over the years, takes care of nuts and herbs in a flash, and is a dream with dressings. Plus, it’s small enough that it never, ever takes up too much space.

Immersion Blender
(Doubles as: Stand-up Blender, Food mill)

I don’t own a stand-up blender, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rolled my eyes at recipes that call for lifting my enormous dutch oven full of yumminess and pouring its contents into a blender for pureeing. I can do basic pureeing in my mini-prep processor (I told you it was handy!), but it still involves scooping out batches of soup one at a time. Messy, messy, messy. Having an immersion blender is a dream because you can puree right in the pot, thus avoiding a more expensive blender purchase if you don’t need one. I have a friend who swears by her immersion blender to make baby food, too. There are expensive models out there, but this is Recession Kitchenware, remember?

Bonus: A delicious recipe for testing out your new immersion blender.

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A funny thing happened last week when I was in Boston for a conference. After finishing up my work as quickly as possible, I burst out of the hotel to explore the streets of one of my favorite cities. I found myself smiling at old places, mesmerized by new ones, and… shivering. Violently. My cute little jacket with the pretty lapel and two little buttons and no lining? Not really doing much of anything in the face of Beantown wind. But I pressed forward, committed to the task of reacquainting myself with my old college town, and simply walked faster to generate more body heat. Only, um, well…. my feet hurt. A lot. Of the searing pain and bursting blister variety. Those cute “so practical!” heels on my poor feet? Boston was laughing at them. Actually, between the tiny jacket and impractical shoes (with bare feet inside them, of course) that I was sporting in America’s best walking city, the natives were all but pointing at me and laughing. And I used to call myself a Bostonian…

What my wardrobe debacle brought up for me was how much I’ve gotten accustomed to the climate and way of life in Dallas. I lived in Boston for six years, but did it ever occur to me to pack a wool coat or gloves for my trip? Nope. Did I pack even a single pair of flats in my suitcase? Nope. Why this matters is that we’ve set our sights on the Northeast as our next stop on the newlywed train. That means my closet full of fun, lightweight dresses and shoes unfit for a walking city are going to start gathering some dust. Time to take a refresher course on all things boots, tights, layers, and coats. I guess that means my cold weather footwear fantasy will have to substitute these:

For these:

Tell me: How has your wardrobe adjusted with big moves over the years? What do you miss about your old look, or look forward to about your next one?