Create your goals, follow your dreams!

SPRING cleaning/organizing,/de-cluttering….your life.

Posted on March 19, 2019March 22, 2019 by Melissa

Spring is upon us…FINALLY!!! Who else didn’t think that winter was EVER going to end? (I have both hands raised!!) I for one, have been miserable this winter! I am just over cold weather completely. So, to say I’m excited about SPRING, is an understatement!

With the warmer weather we get to enjoy so many things that we’ve been missing for months, such as birds singing, flowers blooming, the colors green and blue… lol It’s the little things that bring such happiness back into our souls and brighten our spirits.

SPRINGTIME and SUNSHINE!!
Makes me so happy, I wet my plants!!

This is a popular time of year to do a deep cleaning in your home as well. That’s why they call it ‘spring cleaning’ I guess! I hate cleaning my house, but I do love the way it looks when it’s done. And there is something about cleaning in the spring when you can finally open your windows and let some fresh spring air in. Even when I don’t plan a ‘spring cleaning’ it usually just kind of happens on one of those beautiful days where the breeze is blowing in, the sun is shining, and the music is pumpin. This year, we have actually tentatively planned our attack, though. Micah and I are taking a few extra days off during the kids’ spring break and the entire family will be tackling this chore. I’m hoping to only spend one full day doing it. Between the five of us, should be no problem, right? (Although that’s on a list of many things we want to do… so I guess it will depend on our other distractions that week… lol)

WHY CAN’T WE JUST HIRE SOMEONE TO CLEAN
SO WE CAN HAVE MORE FUN!?!?!

Besides the deep cleaning inside the house, it’s also a good time to think about de-cluttering and minimizing your life as well. Spring weather, brings garage sale season too. No better time to start going through closets and getting rid of clothes that the kids (and adults ?) have outgrown or just no longer wear. (Good rule of thumb, if you haven’t worn it in two or more years, get rid of it! Or, a better way to judge is if it has dust on it…it’s time to go!)

I didn’t wait until spring to start this project. I purged my closet in January. Eliminated at least 1/3 of my clothes plus several pairs of shoes. After I did it, the whole family followed suit! I didn’t wait until spring for garage sale season either. I gave a lot of stuff away, some to friends and family, some were donated to charities or churches. What was left was grouped into sizes and sold on facebook. I am a member of several local ‘garage sale’ groups on there and it worked very well for me. It was nice to make a little extra money on the side and it is very satisfying to get rid of stuff you don’t need.

(HINT: If you aren’t familiar with facebook garage sales, just go onto facebook, click on the ‘f’ in the top left corner, you will see a large menu on the left side. Go down to ‘explore’ and click ‘groups’. Look for garage sale groups. It will show you groups in your area. You will have to request to join, but once you are approved you will be able to buy and sell from there. Feel free to join multiple groups in your area to maximize your exposure when you sell and buy.)

Please excuse my painted floor…… it’s also an art studio!

I’ll admit, I haven’t gone through my closet, or any part of the house, like that in a LONG time. Definitely not something I do every spring. (I used to be better at it with the kids’ closets when they were younger, but once theirs were done, I didn’t want to do any more! lol) However, this winter I was watching a lot of documentaries on minimalism and I am HOOKED!!! It was really eye opening to me, watching these, I realized how much ‘stuff’ we have around here that we do not use and do not need.

Just because we have a house with a basement, means we have the space to store extra stuff, does not mean that we should have extra stuff. We have things down there that have been stored away for the entire 14 years we’ve lived in this house! We have stuff from our childhood, our school days, our wedding…WHY!!?? It’s all stuff that gets looked at each time you move, and that’s about it. So I decided it was time to eliminate the stuff we don’t need!

We would like to move eventually anyway, so why not get a jump on it. When we move, we want a much smaller house than we have now anyway, so we this is a good way to start deciding what the most important things are, and letting other stuff go.

Once the closets were done, I moved on to the biggest beast of all…that basement!! Besides the large area that’s just extra stuff, my art studio is down there. It had become 1500 sq ft of madness over the past year or so, so I knew it was going to be a huge undertaking.

I started with the clothes that had just been removed from the 5 closets in the house. I separated them all into piles based on sizes, seasons, & gender. I also had a “DONATE” and “TRASH” box. I’d say at least half of the stuff went into one of those two boxes. I took pics of the rest, for facebook selling, then organized them into labeled boxes so they were put away but easy to find when sold.

Then we moved onto the stuff we had stored away in totes on shelves for 14 years. We had kept so much stuff from our wedding, like all the cards, our napkins, matchbooks, etc. Again…WHY? We even had fake flowers, and ribbons/bows off of presents in there! LOL After going through all of that and our stuff from our childhood, we were able to condense what was left into just two totes instead of 4+.

I started a Coca-Cola collection as a teenager. I love the stuff still, but I have not displayed it or actively collected since I met Micah in 1998. I don’t see myself every really displaying it again, or at least not all of the things I have. So I decided it’s time to let that go as well. I got it all out, set up a spot in the basement to display it temporarily and started posting on facebook. I’ve sold some things already… but my dad loves the stuff too and hates to see it go. I haven’t been pushing the sales too much yet, because I still consider boxing it all up and giving it to him. Maybe I’ll sell half and give him the rest. ??? Anyway… that’s still up in the air. But since I was torn on that subject, I moved on….

WOW!!!! How did I even work in this space???

to the art studio!!! You see what a hot mess this section was in the photos here. It was to the point where I just had a small path to walk around my work table, and I was usually tripping over stuff! I had let it get way out of control!! Probably why I wasn’t going down there to create as much anymore. I felt like I was boxed in…in chaos!

I started out by organizing all of my completed paintings that are for sale. (I have hundreds!) Most of them are from classes I’ve taught. These paintings are different to me than my ‘artwork’. With these, my purpose was to teach others to paint. It’s not me, pouring my soul onto the canvas, it’s me teaching you how to hopefully be able to do that on your own someday. While I do love teaching others, I don’t feel that these are the same as when I just go create a piece just for the fun of it. Therefore, I refer to and price them differently. So, ‘paintings’ from classes were separated into different piles based on size and priced very low. The ‘artwork’ went onto the walls, until I ran out of space. Then I made more piles, but it is all on a different table now. (That’s just for my benefit) At this point, it was already starting to look much better

Then I moved on to my work area. I looked at stuff on shelves first. Pulled the items off that I no longer use and set them aside. Now I had room to put stuff that was on the floor on shelves, and again set stuff aside that I didn’t need or want. I threw away a lot of stuff, and I have a lot of stuff to get rid of. Slowly selling it on facebook, but I will probably have an actual garage sale soon as well. I was surprised at how quickly I got this place back into shape. I still have a few things to organize and some changes I’m going to make, but it’s SOOO MUCH BETTER already! Now I just need to get better lighting down there. It is so bad. I’ve been using a photographer light on an easel for lighting… it’s not the best, but it’s what I have to work with for now. (I’d love something fun n funky like this, from 1-800-Lighting…)

'before' pic of the art studio — *Before*

After I reorganized the art studio. — This is where our creative magic happens, after I reorganized.

It does still look a bit messy, but that’s because there’s paint all over the floor. LOL And that table is full of WIPs (works in progress) They are all pieces that have acrylic paint and epoxy resin. It takes a lot of supplies for these, but it’s organized chaos. The kids and I have been making a lot of things with resin lately. I need to cut them off, because we have used a 1/2 gallon of resin in less than a month already! The stuff isn’t cheap. But it’s SO fun to use! (We will be making videos of us making resin, once we get our lighting upgraded. Stay tuned!!) If you’d like more info on resin, how it works, etc, click here. I buy mine on Amazon or Ebay.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrIipEKhqvD/

This is one of my resin pieces I made.
It’s going to an art show in California in September, with two others. 🙂

As you can see, I still have a lot of stuff I need to get rid of, but getting it all organized was the first step. I will be posting more about ‘THE purge” as I progress with it. In the meantime, think about your own home, and ask yourself if there are things you simply don’t need, or use anymore. What can you get rid of? I’m not saying you should get rid of anything that means something to you, but if it’s something that you don’t enjoy as much anymore, especially if it’s something that could bring you some money, honey! It is something to consider.

If it’s not being used, why not sell it
and let someone else enjoy it while
you free up space in your life and
add some money to your pocket (or vacation fund!)

Comment below if you need to purge or have recently purged any part of your home… or life. 🙂 Also, let me know if you’re interested in buy any of my art or art supplies. Making great deals!

If you need to purchase some comfy clothes to do all of your cleaning in,
or for that new exercise routine you’re going to start…
here is a coupon for active wear on Ebay. (Just remember, you’re purging, so for each new item you buy, retire something old to make room for it. 😉

This blog contains affiliate links for products I love.
Clicking these links when you’re ready to purchase gets us a small commission, at no additional cost to you. This helps us continue creating our happy and sharing it with all of you! Thanks for your support. <3

Moving Goals

Posted on February 22, 2019February 28, 2019 by Melissa

It’s NO SECRET that we hate cold weather! The older Micah and I get, the more we hate it. Since Micah moved here from L.A. in 1995, he’s always wanted to get back out there! Not to L.A. exactly, but somewhere in SoCal. We love the Oceanside/Carlsbad area. Micah lived in cities near there before and now my best friend from high school happens to live there so moving there would be awesome!! But also would consider any nearby towns, even if they are a bit further from the beach than those two.

The kids are all so artistic and they are all interested in performing arts as well, so moving to California would be great for them if they decide to pursue anything in the field. (They are all interested in acting. Max and Macy would make great comedians. Macy wants to write and direct as well. Max would also make a great stunt double.)

We have actually been looking into real estate out there a lot over the past couple of years. Yes….. it is EXPENSIVE! Although, I have found some pretty decent deals. The problem for us is finding something with 4 bedrooms, that’s just not the norm out there, so when you find them, they aren’t cheap!. BUT, I am confident if we decide to move there we will find some great deal on the perfect place for us.

We have also considered moving to the Sacramento area, near Folsom, CA. Micah has a lot of family there and his siblings and parents are possibly considering moving back there as well. It would be pretty nice to live near more Cains, since we’ve always lived near my family, and rarely see his.

Another state I’ve considered is Texas. Freeport and Port Arthur, TX both made the list of the 15 cheapest U.S. beach towns to live in. I’ve never visited, but between my research in beach towns and friends that are familiar with Texas who say there are a lot of ‘artsy’ towns there…I’m definitely intrigued with Texas. I have one friend, from Indiana who has lived in Texas before and recently moved back there, and other friends who are moving to Houston in a couple of weeks!

I would love to do something REALLY adventurous and move to the Caribbean! There are so many reasons why! Real Estate is cheap. The lifestyle is so laid back. Weather is nice year round. I could go on and on!

I have been researching this for a few months now, after getting hooked on “Caribbean Life” and other shows like it. Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve found.

As of Nov 2018. The cheapest places to live in the Caribbean are:

Aruba is not on the list of the cheapest, but it is the one that’s least likely to be hit by hurricanes. Check out the rest of the list here.

Of the list of the cheapest, Dominican Republic also makes the list of islands who have the best healthcare. Puerto Rico is also on the list. Check out this article on NBC News to find out more about healthcare in the Caribbean.

When we talk about moving to the Caribbean, many of our friends have asked if we realize how dangerous it is. Especially when I mention Honduras and the DR, because they are both known to have high murder rates. However, just like in the U.S. or any place else, there are safe areas and not so safe areas to live. Think about where you live, you most likely have areas that you are aware of, near you, that are known to be less safe than others. Just like you probably wouldn’t choose to live in one of those less safe areas near you, you also wouldn’t move to an island and then choose to live in the slums. You would find a nice Ex-Pat community, where you will be safe, but still live like a local.

Check out this article on the
safest and most dangerous places in the Caribbean.

Here’s another specifically about Roatan, Honduras.

And another article on the top 30 most dangerous places in the U.S. as well. I found it very interesting that besides three cities in California,
nd one in Texas, all others are in the Midwest, South and Eastern states! Indiana has two cities on the list and one is Indianapolis,
which is basically ‘around the corner’ from us.

As of right now, my top three Caribbean locations to move to would be Roatan , Honduras , Utila , Honduras, and Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic. Since we’ve been to the DR already, we’d love to visit the two islands in Honduras, soon, so we can see how it measures up. I can’t wait until the day we get to actually look into real estate there! My dream is to buy something that has rental potential, like a little mini resort or a house with little casitas that we can rent out. Like this one!

For those of you who may be wondering about the kids…they are on board with the idea of moving. My sincere hope is that we can move by next year. 2020. I have to put this in the Universe as often as I can, so here it is for the Universe to see! I WANT TO MOVE BY 2020! Of course I wanted to move in 2019 as well, so I’m ok with pushing it back, if necessary, but you gotta start with goals! Right?

I know I talk a lot about the Caribbean, and even my deadline, but overall, I just know I’d like to move SOMEWHERE warm, sometime SOON… At this point, I’m just putting it out there and doing what I can to make it happen.

Always open to suggestions on places to move as well as moving tips!

Would you ever consider moving to another town?
If so, where would you go?
What are your thoughts about moving to the Caribbean
or to any other country?

Who loves travel?

Posted on February 15, 2019March 22, 2019 by Melissa

I absolutely LOVE to travel! I don’t do it near as much as I’d like to, but, who does? Right? I have a lot of great memories of family vacations growing up. My parents always did a great job of taking vacations and mini getaways.

As an adult, I don’t feel like we’ve been able to take our kids on as many vacations as we would have liked, but we have had some pretty great trips. Still, I’d love to do more! One of my goals in starting this blog is to help inspire others to travel more, to figure out a way to make it happen! I believe in positive vibes and putting things into the Universe will make them happen. So by writing out my travel dreams and sharing them with the world is putting them into the Universe. They are more likely to happen when you actually talk about them. So I will tell you about trips I’ve been on, as well as trips that are on my bucket list. You never know what doors will open up when you share your dreams and goals with others!

I’m 44. I figured up the other day that I can Only account for 40 weeks of that 44 years that was spent outside of Indiana.

I should note;
In this figure, I didn’t count my weekend get away trips to Ohio for amusement parks, which I’ve pretty much gone to at least once every summer of my life. Not to diminish them at all, it’s just one state away, so I was mainly counting up my longer getaways. 😉

Of the 40 weeks, 12 of those were still in the Midwest. And it wasn’t a ‘vacation’. Although, it was during our summer vacation from school. I had just finished fourth grade. We moved to Missouri for those 12 weeks, then moved back to Indiana. lol

Growing up, we almost always vacationed in Gatlinburg, TN, or somewhere in Florida. Living in Indiana, if you want to get to the ocean, most people vacation in Florida, or the Carolinas. You can drive to them in a day, or get a cheap flight. I’ve always loved the ocean, so any trip that got me on a beach was fine by me! I’ve been to pretty much every major tourist city in Florida, including The Keys. I’ve gotta say, I think Destin is my favorite!

4 glorious weeks of my life have been spent in the Caribbean! As a teen I visited the Bahamas a couple of times, as an extension of a Florida trip. One was a day cruise. The other was a cruise, plus 2 nights in a hotel on the island. That one was my favorite.

We took a Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon. We chose a 7 night Southern Caribbean cruise through Royal Caribbean. We made 5 stops in 7 days, with only 2 days at sea. Which sounded like a blast, up front, and it was, however, it was a bit much for us right after our wedding, because that in itself is exhausting, so another day at sea to just chill would have been nice. Of course, we weren’t forced off the boat either, so we could have stayed and chilled, but we did explore each of the ports we stopped in. We started out in San Juan, PR & visited St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, St. Marteen, and another one…that I’m forgetting at the moment. (Isn’t that awful? Well, it has been 19 years! lol) Barbados was our favorite!! This was the one where we chose to venture out on our own. Got a taxi to a nice beach and just relaxed in the sun and sand. The sun was SO hot there, it was crazy! But we enjoyed soaking in the beautiful blue water to stay cool.

Royal Caribbean cruise ship in port at Coco Cay – their private island.

Our second cruise was a Western Caribbean, Royal Caribbean. 7 nights but only 4 stops. This was was with my parents and my sister and family. We had Makensie at the time and I was pregnant with Macy, my sister was pregnant with my niece. Lol That happened AFTER we booked our trip.

After doing a couple cruises, we decided we wanted to experience the Caribbean in a different way so we went to Cancun in 2007 and did an all inclusive trip. (Link) our kids were 2, 4 & 6 at the time. Many thought we were crazy, but it was a good trip. The kids had a blast! Max was too young for the kiddie camp and activities, but he enjoyed splashing in the baby pool.

In 2016 we were invited on a couples only trip to Punta Cana, DR for a friend’s 40th birthday. It was so much fun and what a great way to relax and rekindle the romance. Micah and I acted like teen Agers all week! We stayed at the beautiful Majestic Elegance Resort and we highly recommend this place! 5 star amenities! Great food and lots of choices! The beds and rooms are so elegant and comfortable. They were building a new one next door at the time, we hope to return sometime & try it out as well.

Majestic Elegance Resort – Punta Cana, DR

I’d LOVE to move to the Caribbean! That is on top of my bucket list. I love the island lifestyle. More on that later… in another post about my desire to move.

Some of my favorite trips have been out West, here in the good ole U.S.A. Micah has family there so, we have had many trips to California and Oregon visiting his family, which is always a good time! My first trip out west was to Sacramento. Micah’s sister and some extended family lived in the area. His parents in Oregon. We all met in Cali for Thanksgiving. So, not only did I meet his parents and siblings for the first time, but I met most of the Cain family as well!
(Talk about nerve wracking!! But it ended up being a great trip!)

In 2000 we went again, in July. This time we took day trips to San Francisco one day and Lake Tahoe another. (Lake Tahoe is where he proposed!) after that his sister moved to Portland so we started visiting them in Oregon instead. I’ve been blessed to have visited several places in Oregon, including the coast, which is usually of course, amazing! During one of our visits we took a day trip up to Seattle, Micah’s birthplace. I have always heard such negative things about Seattle (like it always rains!) but I absolutely fell in love with the place, although it DID rain, it was still such a lively and super creative city. Spending one day there was simply not enough! Another place I’d love to re visit!

Perhaps my very favorite trip of all, so far, has been our #EpicRoadTrip2017 We drove from Indy to Southern California. We took an entire week to get out there, then spent a second week chillin on the beach in Cali. The beautiful part…we flew home at the end! (We were able to do this thanks to my parents, who drove a rental out there, and drove our car back home.) For more details on stops we made along the way, check out our blog post called “Epic Road Trip”

https://www.facebook.com/2247232375491740/photos/pcb.2257739291107715/2257738824441095/?type=3&theater

Deer running at The Great Sand Dunes NP, Colorado

These have all been VERY FUN trips, and we have a trip to
Lake Tahoe in July! We are so excited about that!

I still have SO MANY more places I’d love to visit. My bucket list is very long!

Our TRAVEL BUCKET LIST:
Hawaii
Maine
Canada
Alaska
NYC
Napa Valley, CA
Belize
Roatan & Utila, Honduras
Ireland
Australia
Europe
just to name a few…

It’s important to create a bucket list and actually work on making travel happen! Decide on a weekly budget you can afford, even if it’s just $20. Set aside $20 each week. In six months you’ll have $520 saved. Maybe you take a weekend trip with that, then save again for the next year. Maybe you can up it to $30 each week now, so in a year you’ll have $1560. You can most likely find a place you can go for a week with that. Make it a priority to set goals and work towards them. It’s fun and so very rewarding!

Please comment below with your favorite trips you’ve taken and/or your bucket list trips.

I really enjoy planning trips and take pride in finding great deals. I hope that my blogs can help inspire you to travel more, as well as help you plan your trips. Not gonna lie, I’m also hoping to enjoy some travel perks along the way! So far, I’m affiliated with some travel sites like Skyscanner and Kiwi, for flights, cars & hotels as well as Homeaway and VRBO for vacation rentals. When you click these links to book your travel, we receive a small commission at not additional cost to you. That helps us continue sharing our happy place with you and inspiring you to create your own happy.
Thanks for your continued support!

Happy Place Creatives

Category: Create your goals, follow your dreams!

SPRING cleaning/organizing,/de-cluttering….your life.

Moving Goals

Who loves travel?