Hey, I Won An Award!

When I checked my email this morning I saw message from o'habitation. I've won the Liebster Award. It specifically seeks out new/small bloggers.

I think the last time I won something quarters, Fred Flintstone, and plastic eggs were involved!

This is what she had to say about me: Tracie at Middle Class Modern had my attention immediately with her hilarious writing style.  She stalks houses (real and fictional), shares the ups and downs of her embroidery projects, offers great pet advice, and steals her husbands clothing for DIY projects.  I can’t wait to read what’s next!

I don't know about great pet advice, but I do regularly, um, "repurpose" J's clothing for lampshades and the like!

I'm supposed to list 11 facts about my self, and then answer some questions. So here's your chance to learn WAAAY to much about me!

11 Random Tracie Facts

1. I wore a sunbonnet to school every day in third grade due to an obsession interest in Little House on the Prairie.

2. I have scoliosis. I wore the brace and everything for a couple of years.

3. J and I met when he moved in next door.

4. I graduated from a women's only college.

5. I loved college.

6. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up; this probably explains why I have the taste and likes of your average 80 something.

7. I'm a voracious reader.

8. When I take a shower I don't feel properly clean until I've steamed myself and my skin has turned a nice shade of pink.

9. I have insanely thick hair.

10. During the same period of the scoliosis brace, I also had a mouth full of braces AND a spiral perm. See number 9? Thick hair and spiral perms are NOT a good combo.

11. You know how you buy six months worth of disposable contact lenses? I made my last pack last three and a half years. Oops.

11 Questions

what is your favorite blog and why?

Um...I have so many I love and read faithfully. I'm going to answer Pam at Retro Renovation, just because I started reading her about a month after she started posting...six years ago. She was my first homespace blog. I love how well-researched her posts are and I've learned a lot from her posts over the years.

would you choose the mountains or the beach?

Preferably, I'd live somewhere where I'm close to both. Actually, we sort of live there now. We are at the  foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains and live right by two lakes.

what prompted you to start blogging?

I don't have a neat, linear blogging path. I wrote one post in 2010, and then a handful in 2011. 

Fall of 2012 I was reading the comments on a Young House Love post and saw a comment from Emma at Broke Ass Home. I HAD to check out that blog. Emma and I soon struck up a friendship, and I "met" Kenz from Interiors by Kenz and Sandpaper and Glue's Stephanie. My bloggy besties help keep me on track with blogging!

what is your favorite time of day?

Depends on the day! 

when you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Usually a writer or an actress. 

what is #1 on your bucket list?

Finishing grad school.

what is your favorite meal to make at home?

Beef Stroganoff. It's beefy, carby, creamy, AND has copious amounts of mushrooms and onions. These are basically my favorite things.

what is your favorite meal to eat out?

Probably Mexican, although a good Dim Sum Sunday is hard to beat.

if you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

So many people! Eleanor Roosevelt, Marie Curie...I'd really like to meet my paternal great-grandmother. I've talked about my interest in genealogy before, and when I researched my family I became sort of fascinated by her. She died before my dad was born, but my grandmother (her daughter-in-law) described her as the "sweetest woman she'd ever met."

If your DAUGHTER-IN-LAW thinks that about you...wow. Anyway, she went through a lot in her life and I'd love to hear her take on it. I wish SHE'D had a blog!

what is one thing you would change about yourself?

What my husband describes as my Eeyore-tendencies. Self-doubt and a slightly pessimistic nature are my foes.

what is one thing you would never change about yourself?

I think I have an unbridled curiosity and I love learning things.

Organization For The Chronically Disorganized

I am not by nature a well-organized person. (Everyone who knows me in real life just nodded in agreement.) This has been an issue my entire life. Anne Cobb, my amazing fifth grade teacher, recognized the tiny disaster she had on her hands and taught me some basics which helped me be successful at school.

Her hints, which I still use today, are the kind of thing Maxwell based Apartment Therapy on! Get your stuff together the night before. Write things down. Write things down in one place.

Now I'm a freelancer (which has its own set of organizational issues), dealing with a husband with health issues, two pets, a house full of DIY projects, and a blog. If I don't keep everything organized utter, sheer I-can't-work-like-this chaos results.

Here are the internet and real life organizational tricks I use to stay organized.

Computer/Internet Organization

1. Evernote. I don't even know what I would do without Evernote. At any moment I can be working on five freelance assignments, a month of blog posts, and my own private projects. Evernote lets me clip relevant information as I find it on the internet, and combine like things with like. I have notebooks for upcoming blog posts and each freelance assignment. It makes keeping research together super easy. It also helps nourish ideas because as I come across fragments or have thoughts I can clip or add to each note easily. 


2. Library Elf. Library Elf hooks into your library account and sends you email or text messages about what materials will be due soon, what's due now, and what's overdue. It also sends you reminders when reserved material is ready for pick-up. We are both heavy library users and this helps us avoid overdue fines.


3. E-Statements. I prefer getting bills through e-mail. As they arrive I move them to a certain folder and when payday arrives I simply open the folder and start paying. Bonus points for utilities that let you pay your bill online for free.


4. Online Prescription Ordering. Our local pharmacy has a website that lets you order your refills online. This saves me so much time in trying to call in J's refills. It also sends email reminders when you are due for another refill. Some of J's medicines are take as needed, so it doesn't always match up, but it reminds me to check so he doesn't run out of a needed med.


5. i-Calendar. Yeah, we all know about it. I use one main calendar to track due dates on assignments, bills, J's doctor appointments, pet information (like flea medicine), other assorted appointments, and DIY projects. It lets me see our month in a glance. And now that J has a smartphone, he can see the calendar even when I'm not with him.

Organization At Home

1. The Foyer. 

We have an actual foyer with a coat closet, which makes leaving/coming in a little easier. As soon as I enter the house I can hang up my coat and kick off my shoes. Speaking of coats, J taught me a great trick he learned in the Navy. When I take off my coat and gloves and slip a glove into each pocket. When I put my coat on I can just slip my hands right into the gloves.

2. The Landing Strip. 

As you walk from the foyer into the living room the credenza is immediately on your left. On the credenza is a little milk glass dish. I use this to coral my keys and sunglasses. Every time I come home I drop my keys in the dish. I used to be notorious for losing my keys. No more. The white vase is a change collector.

3. Get Out Of My House!

The small chair by the credenza serves as an outbox spot. Things I need to take with me (reusable grocery bags, library books, things to mail) get placed in this chair.

3. The Returnable Shelf. 

Library materials live on this shelf unless they are being actively read/listened to/watched. This way when I'm making a library run I know from Library Elf what's due and I know where everything is.

Blog Organization

If you don't blog you can skip this final section! I talked about how Evernote saves my sanity, but here are my other tricks for keeping Middle Class Modern updated and the behind the scenes stuff organized. I made a LOT of mistakes when I started out, which led to me stopping blogging and then blogging off and on.

1. Monthly Calendar. At the start of each month I pull up a Word Calendar template. Then I figure out a posting schedule based on the projects going on around here and anything else I know I want to blog about.  I also note on each post what special actions I need to take. For example, for this post I noted what pictures I needed to take and then I took them while I documented another project. On other posts I'll note if I need supplies for the project we don't currently have. This is also where I track things like DIY Action Squad projects and upcoming link parties I want to participate in.


2. Feed The Hopper. Life gets crazy. Sometimes I get absolutely slammed with freelance work, or J has a health crisis, or I get sick. I don't want to worry about writing a post, but I do want to consistently update my blog. So over Christmas I wrote five back-up posts. These are evergreen, stand-alone posts, not pieces of projects. Right now I have some recipe posts, a blogging post, and a couple of little DIY things. If I don't need them in the next month I'll post them in February and replace them with other evergreen backups. 


3. Schedule, Schedule, Schedule. After I had to spend pre-dawn hours finishing my first DIY Action Squad post, my beloved informed me of the utter ridiculousness of my actions. He had a point. So I now I work on the actual projects the week before. I write the posts over the weekend. For example, this weekend I worked on the curtains and making the curtain rod. I spent Sunday writing up all the posts for the week. I try to repeat this pattern each week.

So what awesome organizational tips do y'all have?

Linked up At Liz Marie's Organization Party

State of the Blog 2013

Happy New Year's, everyone.

So...here we are in 2013 and I thought a look back and a look forward was appropriate for New Year's Day.

*Important Update*

Middle Class Modern is now simply www.middleclassmodern.com. All the blogspot addresses now point here, but it would be great if you are linked up with me in some way if you could change it over. I feel so official!

And now...

The Most Popular Posts of 2012

1. DIY Action Squad Day Is Here. The DIY Action Squad was formed, I painted a roller shade, Kenz got a shoutout from Young House Love, all of our stats soared.

2. Differences In Decorating The radically different design aesthetics going on here at Casa MCM and J got all Seussical about an Emily Henderson inspired light fixture.

3. 11 Super Affordable Mid-Century Modern Leather Sofas. Y'all love a good sofa.

4. Family History Ideas For The Holiday Season. Genealogy and Christmas. Also my most pinned post. 

5. Seriously, Someone Thought These Pictures Were A Good Idea. The worst MLS photos ever and my first ever house stalking. 

6. Basically, all of my embroidery posts took up the next spots. Creating Easy Embroidery Patterns and Embroidered Quotes and Vintage Frames were the top two.

So What's Happening in 2013 (or, Naval Gazing Time)?

I'm going to continue with what works. More House Stalkings, more "collection" posts, more slices of life, more embroidery, more DIY, and I'm going to kick off a Genealogy 101 series since the Family History post was really popular with very little promotion. I'm also going to try out a few other things I'm interested in, while keeping the focus on achieving a vintage modern look for very little money.

Also, I'm going to work on taking better pictures. This is a growth area. I'm slightly hampered by a lack of DSLR, but still. There's room for improvement. I'm also getting better with my Photoshop replacement.

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting here. This little blog is an excellent hobby and I enjoy it immensely, almost as much as I enjoy interacting with you guys.

What Y'all Did This Year

Thank you all for the support and kind messages yesterday.

The reason I have a blog? Is because I love reading blogs. These are the projects I found especially inspiring this year, in no particular order. Except for the last one, because? ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

Photo From Young House Love

Young House Love moved into their new home in 2011, painted their master bedroom Carolina Inn Club Aqua by Valspar (embarrassingly? I didn't even have to look that up. Love that color.), bought a new bed, bedding, a rug, and decorated their nest. And then? They realized it wasn't working. Kudos to them for admitting it. Not only to themselves, but to their MILLIONS of readers. They proceeded to switch the bedding, rework the bed, buy an amazing new rug, rearrange the furniture...and then they hit pay dirt when they repainted the room in a great, moody gray. Their room looks amazing and it illustrates the point it's okay if you've made a decorating choice you've come to regret. Move on and make yourself happy.

Photo From Broke Ass Home

If your puppy needs a new bed, do you....

1. Go to Petsmart?
2. Recycle an old television?

If you are Emma from Broke Ass Home, you go with option two. Isn't the television turned dog bed adorable?

Photo From Interiors By Kenz

When the adorable Kenz from Interiors By Kenz announced she was going to revamp her um, not lovely fireplace I gave her the internet equivalent of a pat on the head. It was bad, and I didn't think a few DIY projects could change it.

Yeah. I was wrong. It looks amazing, and totally changed her living room.

Photo From Sandpaper and Glue

Anytime Stephanie from Sandpaper and Glue posts a picture of her master bedroom I comment on how much I love this dresser. She took a regular you-see-them-at-every-junk-store older dresser and completely transformed it with some navy paint and and reworking the original hardware.

This project makes me think of Stephanie every night before I go to sleep. Why? Because I stare at a our giant hulk of a 1970s chest of drawers and plot a hopefully as effective new look for it.

Photo From Boxy Colonial

Gretchen from Boxy Colonial is pregnant, homeschools, and is DIY-ing an entire house makeover. In the midst of all this she created a lovely little library I like to call "my dream space"! The storage! A room devoted to my books! A cozy chair! A cool lamp! Pretty blue paint!

She knocked it right out of the park.

Photo From DIY On The Cheap

DIY On The Cheap's office/living room is filled with the end products of great projects. These include the shelving unit, a dresser, and a card catalogue, amongst others. Also? I'm completely obsessed with that desk.

Photo From Ugly Duckling House

Sarah from the Ugly Duckling House is a DIY wunderkind. I love this bathroom update that included painting linoleum floors and a new vanity.

Photo From The Brick House

The Brick House didn't have one specific project or post I could point to this year as especially inspiring, but Morgan's whole aesthetic inspires me. I love her white walls and vintage modern minimalism. I'll never achieve it, but I love it. Her furniture choices are always amazing, and I love that she rotates pieces in and out of her home.

Photo From House*Tweaking

Dana from House*Tweaking walked into your average 1950s ranch and thought, hmm, this would look so much better with fewer walls and a vaulted ceiling.

She proceeded to tear out the walls and loft the ceiling to the rafters, along with installing a brand new kitchen (okay, she had help, but you get my point). There are no words for how much I love this.

So what projects inspired y'all this year? And, more importantly, what projects did you complete you are especially proud of?