The KonMari Method

A friend posted a link to this video on Facebook, which is the author of the book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" explaining how she teaches her clients to organize their stuff.  The main criteria involves what she calls the "spark joy" feeling - how does the item make you feel?

I watched the video, which is about 40 minutes long, and felt quite inspired.  The first 20 minutes is Marie Kondo (nicknamed "KonMari") describing her method and the second half is a Q&A session with audience members. The author is very cute and energetic. Sadly the interpreter is less so and isn't as fluent in English as she could be but I find Japanese to be a very interesting language to listen to, so it wasn't an issue for me.

I was also interested to realize that there are many videos posted on YouTube about this method, many of which involve how to fold your clothes and socks. Some feature the author herself and the rest are other people showing how they implement her techniques.  After watching a minute and a half video of the author organizing an underwear drawer, I immediately realized I have been doing it completely wrong for the past 53 years! No wonder I have trouble closing my dresser drawers!  (I think her folding methods would also be great for travelling, as a way of maximizing space in your suitcase.)

I'm looking forward to spending some time this weekend trying out her method. She recommends doing clothing first, which works for me, since my bedroom closet is a bit of a disaster at the moment!

But for now, I'm off to organize my sock drawer!

A Mexican Bakery

One of the places we visited last month in Mexico City was a bakery.  Never before have I seen so many beautiful cakes in one place.

And never before have I seen cakes this size - they were HUGE!!

We asked about the price of the one above and were told it would cost about $2,000. Can you imagine?

Cakes of every size, shape and colour.  We walked about the floor and gazed in wonder.

Absolute works of art.

The cakes were all located on the second floor. On the main floor, there was a large bakery with every other type of pastry you could imagine.

Happy looking customers like this lady placed their selections on a plate and then took it to the counter to be wrapped.

The staff bundled up your goodies into packages like this.

Believe it or not, I left without buying a single item.  I just couldn't decide, there were too many choices. Plus we had just eaten lunch before our visit and I was feeling rather full.  Of course, I regretted not buying anything for the rest of the afternoon!

Counter Cat

My beloved Maggie has recently started to spend time on the counter in my bathroom.  At first, she would sit like this:

But now, I think she has started to feel more comfortable up there:

My Draw and Dump Project

One of the things I love about Facebook is reading about what my friends are doing and being inspired by their actions.  Today was the perfect case in point to illustrate how wonderful this can be.

The wonderful Orly Avineri posted about how she was decluttering with the help of a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, written by Marie Kondo.  I have been thinking about starting to seriously declutter my home (I always seem to get this urge in the spring, as so many of us do but it has been a long time coming!) and was inspired by Orly's recent efforts.

Then my friend Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd posted about a project she is starting today as part of the Great Discontent's "The 100 Day Project" on Instagram.  You can read all about her project here on her blog or check out her images @unfinishedspirits.

I liked the idea of playing along in the 100 Day Project but was really feeling the urge to declutter as well.  Since the focus of the 100 Day Project is "making", I needed to think of something "artful" to do.  So I decided to mash the two ideas together and voila, my "draw and dump" project was born.

Every day for the next 100 days, I'm going to find at least five (5) things in my apartment that I am going to discard.  But before I pack them up and they head out the door, I'm going to sketch them. By July 14th when this project draws to a close, I'll have discarded at least 500 items and, hopefully, improved my sketching skills by drawing daily.

Here's what day 1 looked like:

The actual items look like this:

As you can see, they have all been cat approved!

Here's the journal I'm using for my sketches:

If you'd like to track my progress, you can find me on Instagram under #100daysofdrawanddump. Feel free to play along!

Haiku My Heart Friday: Happy Easter 2015

A bunny, an egg,
A celebration of life.
Easter is all this.

Happy Easter to all who are celebrating this weekend!

Click here for more Haiku My Heart Friday.

National Letter Writing Month 2015

April 1st has finally arrived and that means the start of National Letter Writing Month, "an annual effort to promote literacy and celebrate the art of letter writing" by the U.S. Postal Service.  This marks my third year participating in the group started by Lindsay Ostrom - you can read more about the whole process here (one of my blog posts from 2014) and here (a post from 2013).

This year's format is a little different - we have each been paired with one penpal and asked to send them at least four handwritten letters this month.  I've already received my first letter from my new friend Marissa who lives in the Philippines.  Check out the cool stamps!

I love how she wrote my name on the envelope, don't you?

Yesterday, I paid a visit to my favourite postal employee, Jovy - you can read about her here.  I stocked up on stamps, as you can see:

Those red lip stamps are unusual, aren't they?  It's a photo by Montreal photographer Genevieve Cadieux, part of a series entitled "150 Years of Photography".  Rather a strange choice for international stamps, if you ask me, but who knows how Canada Post makes these decisions?!!

It's been a long time since I've written to a stranger in another country. I'm looking forward to hearing more about Marissa and her life in the Philippines. It's going to be a great month!

If you want to join in the fun, get your pen and start writing some letters!

Highlights of Mexico City

People have been asking me since I got home from Mexico City what part I enjoyed the most.  I must say, it's extremely hard to narrow it down to just one or two things.  As I have been downloading my photos, I've been trying to decide what were the highlights of the trip for me.  Here's my list of the top 12 (with items 3 to 12 in no particular order):

1.  Our amazing instructors, Judy Wise and Katie Kendrick, and the trip organizers, Kathie Vezzani and Ana Elena Martinez.

L to R:  Ana Elena, Katie, Kathie and Judy

2.  My fellow students and new friends - such lovely people and incredibly talented artists.

Photo by Judy Wise

3.  The Red Tree House where we stayed.

4.  The museum that used to be the home of Frida Khalo.

5.  The Museo del Carmen, which shall forever be known to me as "the one with the mummies in the basement".

6.  The afternoon we spent on floating along the canals of Xochimilco

7.  The Museum of Popular Art

8.  The delicious dinner we enjoyed at the home of the home of photographer Ignacio ("Nacho") Urquiza and his wife, food stylist Laura Cordera.

9.  Chapultepec Castle/Castillo de Chapultepec

10.  What we made during the workshop

11.  Our visit to the studio of artist Carlito Dalceggio.

12.  The Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino (the one with the peacocks everywhere!)

Of course, these are just the highlights, there were so many wonderful experiences.  I will be sharing more detailed posts about our adventures over the next several days, stay tuned!