Clutter Free Memories

When I think of our dream house there is one constant. I want low maintenance. I want a clean and uncluttered abode. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Don't get me wrong I don't want it to look like a magazine picture or a cold formal showroom. I don't mind toys laying aimlessly throughout our house, I am just so tired of shifting stuff.

See there is the crux of my problem besides limited storage space that is. I am constantly shifting things. My biggest offenders at the moment are the boxes and boxes of abandoned pictures and kids drawings or accomplishments haphazardly shoved in every nook and cranny. I have been promising myself for years that I will get it tidied up just so we don't have to move these same tired boxes again. Before I know it they are being thrown in the moving van with a look and a growl from dh and off they go to be neglected again. "Well no more!" (imagine me shouting that from a dusty pile of boxes Norma Rae style).

I tried scrap-booking. I am way too OCD for it. I enjoy picking out the pretty papers, cute stickers, bright pens and admiring other people's creativity. But when it came time for me to commit to gluing in the pictures I found myself having more fun organizing my supplies. Now that I think about it, there is at least one box of scrap-booking supplies within the mess. I bet I could unload that pretty easily. See this could be simpler then I thought. But what to do with those pictures? And how do you organize 10 years of momentos?

If you have any tips or tricks to help please leave me a comment. Until then I shall be up to my elbows in memories.

Mediterranean/Spanish style home

We decided to build a Mediterranean/Spanish style home. We live in the desert and it wouldn't make much sense to build a New England colonial or Log cabin after all. That was the easy part.

There was much discussion and debate about how many stories (one verses two), the bedroom placement (split or all on one side) and great room verses traditional rooms. Until my husband, Brian threw up his hands in surrender, if we could just agree on something we could start the close of Escrow. When the dust settled we finally agreed on a split bedroom ranch with a great room.

So the plan is set. Now we need to decide on exterior colors. We are going the traditional Mediterranean/Spanish route with bright tiled roof and light colored stucco house. We would love to do a white house and red roof but we need to come up with a variation being that we live where it virtually never rains. No seriously it never rains. It is extremely dusty and I don't want the maintenance that type of color scheme will require.

Intro...

Hi all. I started this blog on a whim. Hence the name Notion's and Novelties. I have played around with the idea of opening up a boutique type shop of my own for a long time. Sometimes I imagine a cool and fun decor shop, other times a trendy clothing boutique, possibly a crafty do it yourself pottery place, or maybe a fancy flower shop. The type of place I want to hang out in for most of the day changes depending on my mood, but what doesn't is the desire to have a warm and welcoming home.

With that in my mind I decided to write a blog to chronicle the transformation of a house to a home. We are just starting to build a new house. The lot is picked out, the plans are drawn and now the clever part comes in. Creating and financing our personal shangri la.