Blogiversary + Giveaway

***stay tuned (or just scroll down!) for an AWESOME giveaway at the end of this post***
I can hardly believe it, but today marks one year since I launched this little blog of mine. Over the year, I must say I have grown to thoroughly enjoy blogging.  I started it to give myself a creative outlet and a way to permanently document our lives, and it has certainly served that purpose.  My blog, though, has also kept me motivated to keep trying new things...projects, parties, whatever.  I can hardly fathom that people actually stop by this thing (some daily!) to read it, and to those of you who do, I say a very sincere and humble
                                    
 Like most other things, though, my blog is definitely a work in progress.  As I enter year 2, I have set a few goals for myself and this blog:
1.  Get a face lift (well, the blog, not me).  I think it is high time to give this thing a more legitimate look.  I have actually already started the process, but have no idea when it will be done.  Be on the lookout!
2.  Get to know my bloggy friends.  Over the course of the year, so many of you have been so kind to stop by and leave me comments...some of you even daily.  Like that terribly rude friend that never returns phone calls, I have not been so courteous.  Honestly, as much as I love writing my own blog, I don't spend much time reading other blogs.  But I'm going to change that.  Now that I am no longer in the working world, you blog people are my "coworkers," and I want to get to know you better.  Do me a favor, though,...leave me a comment or shoot me an email, so I have some blogs to start visiting!
3.  To go along with #2, I hereby swear (and somebody better hold me to it) that I will respond to it.  Your comments seriously make my day, but I usually read them from my phone as I'm out and about and forget to respond.  Again, going to change...swears it!
4.  Like most other bloggers, I strive to grow my readership (in fact, my private goal is to get to 250 followers in year 2!).  However, I want to do it by producing original content and having people follow me because they are genuinely interested, not because it was some sort of courtesy or something (not that I mind those kind folks either).  I want to give you quality reads (daily, if I can keep that up!).

So....as a way of saying THANK YOU for reading and a little bit of a bribe to ask you for some help, I am hosting my second giveaway.  While Target is not an official sponsor of my little blog, I certainly am a big fan of the place and know most of you are too.  One lucky reader, then, will win themselves a $25 Target gift card!!!


Interested?  All you have to do is be a Virginia Beach Housewife follower (if you're not, just click over there to sign up-------------------->).  Then, leave me a comment and let me know which posts you most enjoy reading (DIY stuff, recipes, parties, Colton pics, whatever).  That's it!!!  How easy is that?
So please, please, please help me out (and possibly help yourself out!).  I'm keeping this giveaway open until Friday at 5PM, and then will select a name from the comments at random.  Again, thank you so much for reading!

Spring Cleaned: Phase I and My First Giveaway!

I've stuck with my promise thus far and tackled our first problem area this weekend.  Admittedly, our living room "closet"/shelving was probably the easiest due to its ***relative*** lack of clutter.  But I am going to pat myself on the back anyways, and say "job well done" for starting the process.  Truthfully, I find the whole cleaning/organizing/purging process to be a little cathartic...a reflection of where we've been and where we're going. As a reminder, this is what our space looked like before:

 Each time I tackle a clutter zone, I start out by completely emptying the space.  The next step is to divide the stuff into four piles: 1. stuff that will stay where it is, 2. stuff that I think we should keep, but move elsewhere (another place in the house, storage, etc), 3. stuff that should go...either to Goodwill, possibly in a yard sale (we're debating having one), or maybe to the trash depending on Josh's final verdict, and finally 4. straight to the trash.  Let me explain here that Josh has slight hoarding tendencies and would keep anything and everything, so it is absoultely critical that I do the initial dividing process myself or we would never get anywhere!  Once the diving is done, I put the stuff that's staying back in an orgainzed manner.  Check out our cleaned up shelves:

You probably see, like I did, that some baskets were essential to further corral our junk.  At least for me, if I put stuff on a shelf, it will inevitably get cluttered again.  However, if I put the stuff in a basket, it typically stays put!  Plus, they just look prettier.  So, off to Target (hint hint of my giveaway later in this post) Colton and I went, and now this is what it looks like:

Amazing how much more room we've uncovered, huh?

The next step is to deal with the stuff that needs to be relocated.  For this, it was mainly some baby items that Colton has outgrown (his Bumbo seat and Boppy pillow) which I figured should be stored somewhere in the event that we need them again.  In addition, though, I also found some fun Crate and Barrel pillows that I used to have in our living room when it had lighter sofas.  I had been looking for pillows for our outdoor furniture (which is actually on a screened in porch), so I'm thinking these might work there.  What do you think?

Finally, I took the rest of the stuff and relocated it to Colton's future playroom/current junk room for Josh's evaluation.  The only rule with this stuff is we will no longer own it, and I'm thinking as I continue to conquer our closets this little pile is going to grow rapidly!

although Chipper might have a hard time parting with some of it

Well, there it is!  My first spring cleaning project tackled.  Not too bad for about 30 minutes of work, huh?  What about you guys?  Did you do any cleaning this weekend?  Or are you like my lovely husband and just keep everything?

And now for the really fun part.  I started this blog a few months ago as I way to have some adult time in my otherwise child-filled life.  I have loved documenting our family's journey, but am beyond humbled that so many of you stop by to read it.  As my way of saying thank you, I figured I should host my first giveaway!!!  Because I have no real talent to offer, I reasoned I would give you access to one of my favorite things:

That's right...I'm giving away a $20 Target gift card!!!  Wanna enter?  Just follow these few simple steps:

1. Be a follower.  Just click over there if you haven't already---------------------------->

2.  Comment on this post.

3.  For added fun, tell me your favorite thing about Target (if you can pick just one)!

 

I'm going to keep the giveaway open until Friday at 5PM, and will then randomly select a winner.  Good luck, and again thanks for reading:)