My First Meltdown

I'm an obsessive planner. I love to plan things and then proceed to make myself crazy doing it. Lately, almost every person that I talk to asks the same question "How's the move planning going", to which I reply with complete composure, " Great! We are just moving along as planned. It's really busy but its coming along just fine". And then I just hope no one but me can hear the screams of panic inside my head as I try not to go off the deep end in public.

Well, it happened. Thankfully not in public. We all knew it would, especially MDHK (who now more than ever deserves the "D" in My Darling Husband Kent). Last Friday night we were enjoying a quiet, intimate moment, nuzzled together in an after-work nap when I had to go and ruin it by bringing up my current source of stress and obsession; the estate sale. Feeling much like I've been working in a vaccum on this project because MDHK has been extremely busy at work I had it all planned out in my mind. Unfortunately I forgot to inform him. So when I said, "Are you ready to start going through the house and setting up for the estate sale next weekend?" he acted like I had just landed from Mars. Not the reaction I was looking for. Of course I responded like any level headed, rational, adult, female would; I FREAKED THE HELL OUT! Not just a little but a lot (super unattractive and really bad for your complection I might add).

Once I calmed down long enough to ask MDHK what he needed to get on board with this program a few things became very clear:

1. I was not from Mars

2. All he needed was to see it in a schedule, which he promptly produced in Microsoft Project

3. He was not only on-board he was ready to kick into high gear, which we have for the last 3 days.

4. I was going to owe him one really special dinner of his choice (which turned out to be paella Sunday night).

5. As suspected and repeatedly learned, we own a lot of stuff!

And if you are curious about our estate sale and want to see what it looks like to get rid of 60% of your belongs in one weekend you can visit our listing http://www.nwsource.com/classifieds/scr/detail/?id=15761873

Twister Puked on My House

As I mentioned earlier, we have 13 years of accummulation in our house. As if that wasn't enought we just completed (almost) a year and half long basement remodel which included buying additional new furniture for the living room. And now I have to reduce all of this down to a small New York apartment.

Obviously multiple estate and yard sales will be in order, but where to begin. It occured to me to ask my friend Tricia Wells who recently helped her mother move from their large family home into a smaller retirement community home. She and her husband also live in a very small and efficient condo on Queen Anne. I just had a hunch she'd have some ideas and she did.

You know those packs of Avery colored dots you get at any office supply store? I don't know what their original intent is but they've become a brilliant way for me to organize everything in my house based on its fate. RED=sell, GREEN=take to NYC, YELLOW=donate, BLUE=dibbed by a friend. I spent all day identifying, sticking and a little tossing too. Next time you have a lot of stuff to organize turn your house into a Twister party aftermath.

The Butcher The Baker The Relocation Specialist

Oy vey! (how's that for working on my NYC lingo? stay tuned for a blog post on that one). MDHK (My Darling Husband Kent) informed today that the Rental Agent in NYC, the moving company and the relocation specialist all called him to day. I could almost see the stress lines in his forehead deepening over the phone. Time to jump into 'Calm-Creative-Multi-Tasking-Supportive-Wife' mode and say something re-assuring to him like "Don't worry about a thing, honey, just give me their numbers and I'll call them back".

Am I crazy?! I have no idea what to tell them. Where do I begin? How about I start by having a nervous breakdown over the tremendous amount of crap we've accummulated over the last 13 years of marriage? Or that we aren't actually finished with the basement remodel yet. Oh, I know I'll start by telling them we have no idea when MDHK is actually supposed to be in NYC because they are too busy here in Seattle to have figured that out yet.

In the meantime I have two proposals to write, a newsletter for LifeStyled to send out, a press release for my DVD to start pushing on editors & publications. "Calgon take me away!" (you have to be of a certain age to get that, sorry kids).

The Sum Of Our Experiences

As I watched the people pour through the door it hit me that this was going to be the perfect opportunity for me to make a big announcement.

A week ago on January 22nd I co-hosted the biggest party I've ever thrown; New Style For New Times. Not only was it the collaboration betwen like minded business owners, Craig Williams of Craig Williams Interiors and Evelyn & Michael Lee of Alchemy Collections,and myself but it was also billed as the launch event for my new DVD, "The Essential Guide".

More than a party it was the sum of many life experiences for me. The over 200 people that attended were friends, clients, compatriots, collaborators, supporters, and family. They were there to show their support and drink free wine, but they got so much more.

As I took the microphone to say some 'thank you's', announce my DVD, share tips and insights on how to maintain personal style in a challenging economy I realized that this was the pefect time to tell everyone what I'd been slowly leaking out over the last month. So I did it.

I announced to group of 200 people that my darling husband Kent and I would be moving to the other apple of my eye, New York City in May of this year!

There it was. I said it. No turning back now. People were thrilled, excited, sad, happy. I knew just how they felt. Now the real adventure begins. Right?!