What Ana Does

Declutter My House My full-time job right now is getting the house squared away for us to be gone for two years. Mostly that means decluttering, donating, selling (AKA Craigslisting) and organizing. The 142 Picture Books I Donated to Bernie's Books!  When I get to the "Packing Step" of this move, I don't want to dig through the unusable detritus that lives in our house. Once it's gone, all the good stuff should be sorted together. For example, all the yoga mats not eaten up by Lando our dog should be in a tidy pile so I can pack them up together. Or the mystery and expired items under the bathroom cabinets. Or I'm only considering the books we LOVE to read. Because maybe, just maybe, we'll have a someone living/renting our house while we're away. Or maybe we'll list it on Airbnb, or something crazy like that. (Those plans are still being ironed out.) Which means all our personal junk needs to be sorted and stashed away. Decluttering a...

File this as another upcycle art project that I'm so fond of these days. With the Paris move , I'm looking for ways to get things OUT of my house. Some things I'm just tossing, but if it's usable material, I'm going to use it. So you know those paint chips AKA "color samples" you collect at the hardware store? Well, as I've painted every room of this house, I have about a million. Maybe billion. And they're all such pretty colors, of course. This summer, Leah brought home a little mosaic art project that used these paint chips and I thought, how genius! What a great way to put those little, colorful paper to use. Voila ... I created these ... I had these largish white frames that I picked up at IKEA. (I'm pretty sure it's impossible to go to IKEA without buying frames, there might be a way, but I haven't found it.) And I decided to use them to replace the two very old boxwood wreathes above my mantel in the family room. Obvio...

Paperwork - In the Details This week is all about paperwork. We need to have all kinds of documents at the ready for our visit to the French consulate next week to apply for our resident visas -- called "Salarié détaché ICT (famille)." These will allow us to get an apartment rental in Paris, and legally live there for the duration of our stay. We've gotten some help, of course, but I can't help but think this is probably a deterrent to a lot of people who think about working abroad. It's a lot of scrutiny, standing in lines, not to mention the language barrier -- these forms don't come in English. I think I have just about everything I need ... all that I have left to gather is passport pictures of all four of us. So Long Dogs Speaking of, so yes, it will just be the four of us making the move to Paris. We've talked to a few folks and they all recommended NOT bringing the dogs. Why? Mostly because there's a quarantine period for animals mov...

We're coming up on my One Year Quit-viersary , the day I stopped working full-time. Yup, it's almost been a full year since I hit the bricks and did something completely ill-advised. September 23 was my last day at work. The reasons I left were serious: I was tired of the type of work, after 15 years I was not challenged and there was no foreseeable career path or advancement. Most importantly, I decided to commit myself to "righting the ship" -- to point my career back towards what I'm passionate about. Ultimately, the experiment was a success. Last month I got a full-time job offer in my ideal field. Huzzah! Just, unfortunately, I had to turn it down because ... I'm moving to Paris. So, yeah .... Financially, this has been a good wake-up call. I was definitely buying way too much, and not watching my spending. But on the upside, I was contributing to my family's monthly budget. And once that stopped, well, it's taking me some time to get used t...

And it continues! So these two boards held-up the mattress on the trundle part of Leah's bed . They're heavy but a very smooth white finish, so obviously I thought two blackboards. Here they are set up for painting. I made a white boarder by taping out around the edges. Step One: Paint Prep Next, I painted two coats of chalkboard paint. And YES! I used up the last of the chalkboard paint pint I bought several years ago. Step Two: Chalkboard Paint. Pro Tip: Paint Chalkboard Paint on Thick. And then they were done! I've got a few ideas where I'll place them. They're SUPER HEAVY so I'm opting NOT to hang them, and to just find strategic places to lean them against a wall. Finished Blackboards! The point is, more bed pieces that didn't get tossed out. And they're cute and useful. I've got two more projects to go until I've probably hit the end of what I can successfully up-cycle. Related posts: Leah's bed died, here...

Where Will We Live?  If you talked to me this week, you probably heard me babbling about Paris neighborhoods. We're looking at possible schools, timing commutes, touristy vs. non-touristy spots, and hoping to triangulate a few target neighborhoods. Our exploratory trip is coming up, so I want to have a list of arrondissements to walk through, along with schools and apartments. Paris Arrondissements -- Study Up! The Kitchen? One of the most colorful stories our friends who lived in Paris told us was about their kitchen battle. It's unusual to find a rental apartment WITH a kitchen. And their rental didn't have a kitchen, just an empty room with some visible plumbing. Their tale of spending hours at Ikea France, waiting months to get delivery and installation, all the while using a patchwork rental kitchen really got me nervous. How does one go about life with school-aged kids and no kitchen? I realize we're in a city with restaurants on every block, but yike...

I was here at Round Lake beach in Clifton Park, NY where Alice and I were staying for a week of sightseeing while Leah was at camp in the Berkshires. This was my view when my cell rang and David gave me the news: he got the Paris assignment; we're moving to Paris. Of course I wanted to jump and holler and cartwheel and high-five everyone on the beach, but we decided to keep the news under wraps. Let's not tell the girls yet, either. Even though we'd been talking about it in an abstract, "maybe someday" kind of way since he interviewed for the job in May. But we needed to review the offer and accept first. Wait until it was official before spilling the beans. So instead, I squealed into the phone while Alice was out of earshot. And walked into the lake as far as I could go and told the water: "Hi, I'm going to live in Paris. This has been my dream for years. And now we're going. We're going to live in Paris." Even as the words left my...

I've been meaning to play around with this clever idea ever since I saw it scrolling through  Pinterest , so today I gave it a go: The Mounted Fox Wall Art Concept Version 1. Have you seen these stuffed heads all over Target and other stores? They're super cute. But kinda creepy. Unless you're totally comfortable with hunting and taxidermy, do you really want an animal head on your wall? Maybe. Anyway, I thought the idea would be more meaningful with an already-loved toy. A way to "memorialize" a beloved thing from childhood. This fox is NOT a beloved thing, by the way. It was the first thing I pulled out of the toy box that fit the circle. And a fun place to start. So, I started with one of those little pine plaques you can find at Micheal's. I can't remember the original intent of this plaque when I purchased it years ago. Maybe a handprint? Step 1: Mark the Holes I placed the fox toy (which is actually a tree ornament from Target), and...