OLW | Learn. Create. Do.

Nihao, Cupcake! Blog Welcome to a new year of One Little Word blog hopping hosted by Margie who has also created the above new button. (Have you grabbed yours yet?)

For those of you not familiar with One Little Word (OLW), it’s is a class being run by Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes. My One Little Word for 2012 is Home. (All posts on my OLW for 2011 and 2012 can be found here.)

Last year my word was Create, and boy did I spend a lot of time (and $) creating and learning so many new things. This year I’m focusing on the Home… my house and family.

My pre-class title page:

In 2011 we went though a rough patch and the photo below that I’m using for January was taken on our 15th wedding anniversary, at a time when I was really unsure of our future. Thankfully we are working through it, but this was a real turning point where I realized that I needed to do more (as we both do) to make our house a home. We worked hard to build it. Now was the time to nurture it.

I’ll be spending this year working on unpacking the last of our boxes from our move 2 years ago, and decluttering what’s in the boxes as well as the stuff that is starting to accumulate. I’ve worked out a plan where I’ll spend each month concentrating specifically on one room, decorating, adding display areas/shelves, putting pictures on the walls.

January was the month for Grace’s bedroom. We purchase a new desk for her which meant we had to rearrange her room a bit, and also a small bookcase with baskets for her bits and pieces. She wouldn’t let me do much more that that… being a 13 yo… so it was left to her to sort through her clothes and donate those that she had grown out of. February is the time to work on our bedroom.

To me Home is also about family and the people you love. The ones you want to come home to. January is school holiday time here so DH and I both took time off work and we went down the coast for a holiday. It was good to just get away. Funny how being away from our house made me feel more at Home.

Above are my 9 canvases which helped me define my word and why I chose it. The quote really hit Home with me.

“A house is made of walls and beams

A home is built with love and dreams”

~ unknown

When I think of a home I often think of the fantastic Australian movie “The Castle”, especially this scene and in particular Darryl Kerrigan’s lines at 4:05

Classic stuff!

I’m looking forward to what February will bring.

Thanks for stopping by my place.

Next on the list is Monica so hop on over and check out her One Little Word. There are more fabulous people participating in this blog hop which commences at 8am PST (Pacific Standard Time). They are listed below if you would like to start from the beginning… See you all again next time !

Sam x

As I revealed in the December OLW Blog Hop, my One Little Word for 2012 is Home. One Little Word (OLW) is a class being run by Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes….and it’s never too late to join! I’ll be revealing more about my word and why I chose it on the next blog hop on the 1st of Feb. I just wanted to let you know of one of the things I will be doing with my word this year.

Decluttering! That’s right…decluttering. It’s something I vow to do every year but with Home being my word and focus this year I really hope to make a dent and get our home organized.

I found another great site via Pinterest which has a simple yet very practical approach to decluttering. It is My Simpler Life. Beth Dargis has created a Declutter Calendar that is amazing. It has small, very doable, tasks for each day of the year … except Sundays where there are fun little things you can do instead. And it’s Free!

I was two weeks behind, due to holidays, but I have managed to catch up in only a few hours, with breaks, yesterday. Another plus is I don’t feel overwhelmed. I just do the task on the calendar AND NO MORE. One task said to clean only the top shelf. I resisted the urge to continue with the other shelves as I knew that would be covered another day. Simple!

I believe that with this calendar, along with my other daily, monthly and seasonal routines, I’ll have our house running smoothly in no time.

Hello 2012, the year of our Home!

Sam x

Learn. Create. Do.

~ making time for me ~

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