In honor of Josh’s birthday today, I thought I’d use one of his favorite quotes. I’m glad I’m married to an “unreasonable” person. Happy Birthday, Josh!

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” -George Bernard Shaw

This sweet dog puts up with a lot from Jasper. I wonder how many times a day I say, “Jasper! Leave Bebo alone!”. Thankfully Bebo is very tolerant of Jasper and usually likes playing. I really like that Jasper has a dog as a friend.

Josh and I got a little time away on Saturday evening and we hit up our favorite coffee place and the used bookstore down the block. I seriously love this bookstore. The smell, the stacks of books, the random categories…everything about it is perfect.

We wandered around leisurely since Jasper wasn’t with us. I found a copy of Emily Post’s Etiquette book from 1937. I wanted to rescue it but I already have a copy of that book. That’s the only problem with a used bookstore is that some of the really old beat-up books I just want to save.

I could totally work there. It seems so laid-back and everyone working is so knowledgeable. It’s like I would have to read all day just to do well at my job. I could also pop down the street for the best caramel latte in town. I would probably end up working just to pay for my book addiction. My thought is you can never have too many books. Thankfully the books at this store are cheap and some of the thrill is just wandering around there. I really like that you never know what you’ll find. A bookstore is probably one of my favorite places to go and I don’t care how nerdy that sounds.

The other night I turned our DVDs from the picture on the left to the one on the right. I have wanted to do something about them for over a year now. We had to keep our movies two rows deep in our credenza. It was difficult to find movies, put them back in the right place… Finally I came up with a solution and executed it.

I’ve been planning what to do since I first decided the DVDs needed reorganization. My first plan was to get a small binder and put each DVD and cover in a protector. (I didn’t want to just do a cd booklet because anytime we’d get a new movie, the whole thing would have to be re-alphabetized.) With the binder we could easily flip through them. I liked this plan since we’d still be able to see the movie cover. The big problem was that finding the right size sheet protectors was kind of difficult and they were very expensive. I also wasn’t sure how quickly the binders would fill up because of the thickness the DVD would add.

After much more googling I came across these boxes from The Container Store. Okay, now I was on the right track. These boxes hold just the DVD and you don’t have to re-alphabetize every time you get a new movie. But I wasn’t crazy about the price (given that I would need two to start and extra sleeves).

Thankfully I came across the Memorex File-n-Store Boxes on the Office Depot website. Even better I could go to the store and actually look at them instead of just hoping it was what I wanted. So I bought one. Then when we could afford it I bought another. And finally just the other week I bought the last one I needed.

All DVDs got put in a white sleeve. I didn’t use the hanging file system that was included because I could get a lot more in the boxes this way. Movies alphabetized and split semi-evenly into the three boxes, check. Most likely I’ll label each box in some way so it’s easier to know which box to pull out.

Every movie we own is now cataloged in an Excel spreadsheet so we can “look through” our movies that way. When I transferred all of the movies into the sleeves, I checked to make sure they were in my spreadsheet. (The spreadsheet was probably 80% complete already because I’m a nerd like that.) Surprisingly we were only missing two movies that have been loaned out.

I can’t even tell you what a relief it is to have our movies organized. I feel like we gained a whole new collection of movies. I think that’s the great thing about keeping things organized. You can use them effectively and efficiently. It may be pretty nerdy to have a spreadsheet for cataloging movies but it’s definitely a lot easier to find the one I’m looking for. Now if only it didn’t take Josh and I all evening to agree on what movie to watch…

I have so much floating around in my head that I just can’t focus on one thing.

Have a good weekend, friends.

Maybe it’s not our day; but it’s going to be our year.

I tweeted this article the other day about how to deal with copycats and idea thieves. Number 3 really struck a chord with me. “Go where the air is thinner. As you advance your body of work into deeper levels of depth and connection, the copycats simply won’t be able to coherently follow you; and, even when they can, they won’t because it’s too hard. Combine depth of work with your own unique voice and it’ll be impossible for people to successfully copy you.”

I can’t do anything about that uncreative person that has chosen me to copy. I can however, do something about my own work. I have to just keep creating and doing it that much better than they ever could. That’s one of the great things about the 365 Project that I’m doing. I realized that I’m making an effort to MAKE a picture, not just take one.

Yesterday’s picture was something completely different for me. Slightly “racy”, something I thought up and created. (Thankfully I have a husband who is willing to play along for me.) I was actually on the phone with my mom when she saw it for the first time. That was the highlight of my day. “Oh my gosh. Kimberly! Oh my goodness!” I love my little momma.

Sometimes a picture comes together just how I see it in my head. Other times it’s trial and error. The key is to take my ideas and run with them. Not be scared to post pictures that are different for me (like yesterday’s shot). I’ve got to keep moving up where I can’t be reached by people “nipping at my heels”.

I sewed 24 little felt hearts on Sunday. An arbitrary number I just chose simply by how many I hearts I cut out. I stuffed them with cotton and filled each with love. I made them so I could tuck them in places that Josh and Jasper would find. Little love reminders… If you ask Jasper what’s inside each, he whispers “love”.

I randomly decided to make a little coffee cup cozy while I had all of my felt out. It was so much fun I’m going to make a few more. Felt is probably one of my favorite materials to work with. It’s cheap, forgiving of mistakes, colorful, easy to work with… I go in spurts of felt crafts. I once made a felt mitten which turned into 15. Don’t be surprised to see a few more cozies pop up in my Flickr stream.

You can find me here on Pinterest.