Yep, you guessed it…  My 2011 taxes.  Look who’s on the ball!  (It’s me, it’s me!)

For the past few years, I’ve taken my tax info down the street to HR Block, simply out of convenience, to have one of their employees quickly chew me up and spit me out.  “See ya’ next year!” they’d say with a smile as I wrote a large check for their data entry, and moseyed out confused as to why my fairly simple tax return was so expensive.  Not this year, readers.

THIS year, I changed it up.  I’m using a firm to prep my taxes who was highly recommended to me by blog regular + close friend, Loren S.  They don’t advertise – they rely on word of mouth.  (And, we like that!)  They’ve done such an excellent job with my taxes this year, and really handled me with care.  So, I want to help ‘em out a little.

siegel & siegel, p.c.

Siegel & Siegel, P.C. is a small, family-owned firm that was started in the 1950′s by Abe Siegel.  All three of Abe’s sons became CPAs and all worked there (and still do).  Josh Halpern, my new CPA (um, do I sound fancy pants or WHAT?!), is the newest addition to the group.  He started working there in 2007, and has been a CPA since 2009.  Josh is a Georgia Bulldog (which I didn’t hold against him), and an all-around really awesome guy.

Siegel & Siegel provides accounting and tax services for individuals and small businesses.  This includes compilations (another way of saying financial statements), as well as tax services.  Many of their business clients are service-oriented (doctor, lawyer, dentist, real estate), but they can also work on any small “closely-held” businesses.  Josh had no problem at all helping a little guy (girl) like me with my super-simple tax return, either.

Clients like Siegel & Siegel because of the personal attention they receive from the firm.  They don’t have young staff for partners to hand over their clients to ”to be worked-up” and then passed back for a quick check-over and a signature.  They do the work themselves, and they each know their clients issues/ business versus having to find the staff person who worked on that client (larger firms are like this) to inquire about what is going on.  They do not bill solely based on time, so they are happy to take calls and respond to e-mails.  (Even I know that this is very old school – and I appreciate it.)  Siegel & Siegel considers itself to be a “vintage firm.”  The kind where you receive the personal attention you deserve.

Siegel & Siegel’s office is located in Sandy Springs near Roswell Road and Hammond, close to Breadwinner Cafe.  Give Josh a call.  He’s a great guy (I absolutely vouch for him), and he will very thoughtfully walk you through your taxes.  I sincerely appreciated the care with which he explained everything to me, and the speed at which he prepared my return.  If you’re looking for some tax help this year, I highly recommend Siegel & Siegel. 

P.S. Tell Josh that the Q+DD sent you!  We don’t get a kickback or anything (I can’t even imagine what it would be if we did…), but it would be nice to know that we were able to help out a really great, small business that we believe in! 

xx, L

Siegel & Siegel, P.C. – Josh Halpern
140 Hammond Drive
Atlanta, Georgia 30328
404.252.6667 ext. 106
joshua@siegelcpa.com
www.siegelcpa.com

She suggested jewelry bureaus or perhaps a jewelry board so I immediately went to work researching.  I was getting very frustrated trying to find the perfect piece – something that fit my needs, style, AND my budget when I found…drumroll please…

ArranGEM!
(Actually, luckily, owner Tiffany Huff found me.  How’s THAT for perfect timing?)

I love the idea of jewelry boards, but usually I find they’re are a little kitschy and D-I-Y for my taste.  Not these.  These are GORGEOUS and very chic.  Check it:

To die for, right?

These babies sell for a mere $60! You can (and should) also purchase an earring mesh for $15 to go with it.

Now, I’m a total costume jewelry collector, so I’d need about 3 ArranGEMs to hold ALL of my jewelry…but I have all my favorite baubles on it and its incredibly functional and looks precious in my room!

The good news is – all those “statement necklaces” I collected over the last few seasons can now do double duty as wall art on these posh little pieces!

Win/Win!

xx, L

ArranGEM by Tiffany Huff
404.447.6255
tiffanyhuff@arrangem.com

I hesitate to even call it a New Year’s Resolution because, for me, those usually fall by the wayside in Q1.   Fact: People forget about their NYRs somewhere between MLK and Groundhog Days. (Think I’m wrong?  Why don’t you take a poll of gym employees…)

The point is, I’m serious this time and I decided to call in a professional.  No, not A&E – it’s not “Hoarders” bad.  (I asked.)   I called in a professional organizer. I did some extensive research (ok, I sent one tweet and got the names of 4 POs in the Area and called all 4) and settled on Renée Kutner of Peace by Piece (Great name, right?) and in just 2.5 sessions, she changed. my. life.

Here’s the QDD on Renée: She’s a member of the NAPO – National Association of Professional Organizers (that’s a real thing!) and she’s a pint-sized organizational machine.  Click here for Renée‘s full bio, but suffice it to say, she’s got an amazing talent for identifying issues and bottlenecks and creating personalized systems for order that anyone can live with.

She came in for a 2 hour assessment of my home, my life, and my personality.  She not only looked at the artfully arranged chaos that is my condo, but asked me questions about my life, my routines, and my priorities. By the end of the session, she had determined that the greatest use of our time would be in my closet, drawers, and bathroom (ding ding ding!) while my kitchen was the lowest man on the priority totem pole (bingo!)  She made some furniture rearrangement suggestions and recommended that I lose one piece of furniture (a simple Ikea desk that I was using to collect junk) and purchase another:

photo courtesy of Home Decorators Collection

This gorgeous distressed buffet (that only took Greg 2 days to assemble for me…) which provides far more storage space.
We then scheduled 2  4-hour sessions (any longer than 4 hours, according to Renée, people start to burn out)

We removed every, single, solitary item from my closet and grouped them or purged them.  (Sidebar: I ended up with 8 garbage bags of items for Goodwill and 5 garbage bags of items I am going to attempt to sell on EBay.  It was unbelievably cathartic.) She really helped me to determine if I should keep or lose things and repeatedly assured me that I am, in fact, NOT a hoarder every time I asked …which was a lot. (Renée to me: “You’re not even a pack-rat!” …Whew.)  She then helped me to assemble all my clothes back in my closet in a way that made sense.  We repeated this process for my drawers and my bathroom and I just can’t tell you how streamlined this has made my morning routine.

Yes, the aesthetic piece of it is nice – I mean my closet went from this:

To this:

And my bathroom went from this:

To this:

but as Renée would tell you, it’s not about having a beautiful closet when she leaves, it’s about creating systems that will ensure that your closet STAYS that way. And now, a month after she left my house, I can tell you, it does pretty much look exactly the same.  What she put in place for me really makes sense in my life! I’m totally a new woman.

Additionally, I didn’t need to purchase a bunch of new organizational pieces. Renée really made do with what I had, which is working great!  She did suggest a few things that I have absolutely LOVED such as the “Hinge-It” towel rack (my doors are much too high for a traditional over-the-door unit) among a few other pieces (a jewelry bureau, baskets for “incoming” and “outgoing” tasks…)

You can follow Renée on Facebook – she’s always posting great little tips! (Click here)

And register for her newsletter by clicking HERE.

I have to tell you – I think this was some of the best time and the best money I have ever spent!   It was liberating, empowering, and I can totally feel my chi flowing better already!

If you’re feeling overcluttered and overwhelmed, give her a call and get your life in order (one drawer at a time!)

xx, L

Renée Kutner, Chaos Advisor
404-309-4807
Peace by Piece Organizing
www.peacebypieceorganizing.com

I LOVE MY MOBILE DEVICE!

Boop.

The best part is? I find more to love about my iPhone every day. (I think this love is going to last!)

It’s true…change is hard, and my ‘berry had been good to me.  Mostly, I was VERY nervous to say goodbye to BBIM. I’ll be honest, I DO miss BBIM…but while it will always hold a special place in my heart, when I think about all I have gained from the iPhone, I’m happy to reserve BBIM as a fond memory.

I have had this phone for a mere 8 days and there are about 5 zillion things that I LOVE about it.  If I were going to tell you about ALL of them, well, I just couldn’t…there are too many. So I’m going to hit the high points.

1.    It organizes your voicemails. All of your voicemails are listed in the order in which they were received, showing the time and length of each vm, and you can listen in whichever order you choose.   BRILLIANT!

Also, once you delete them, they stay in a deleted folder for a while in case you were too quick on the draw and deleted one you need.

2.   It keeps your text conversations running. If you need to reference a text conversation with anyone from anytime, they will forever be recorded in your text history with that person.  Unlike the BlackBerry where you have a million little strings to reference.

3.   It’s pretty.
4.    It’s an iPod! I loaded a TON of music onto it and I can play it anywhere I can play my iPod and it has some pretty decent speakers for impromptu dance parties!

5.    THE APPS! Ok here are SOME of my favorites SO FAR (by the way, these are all FREE apps):

Scoutmob – Ok so I HEART the ScoutMob app. Not only does it eliminate the need to acquire the deals daily in CASE you may want to use them, but they are all RIGHT THERE, organized in your phone either by, as they put it, “newest, most popular, nearby, and hurry-you-fool-it’s-about-to-expire.” All you do is show your phone and BOOM – discount. I just can’t tell if the deals are my favorite part or the “curiosities” tab telling me random facts about my favorite city in the world (Atlanta, duh.)  or the camera with the built-in mustache. (four ‘staches to choose from!  I chose “The Van Skeevy” for G):Four Square – It’s just so much easier to check in with the iPhone app than it was with the BlackBerry one.  And it’s cuter.  It does NOT, however, help me to remember to check in.

AroundMe – Wherever you are, find the nearest bank, bar, gas station, hospital, hotel, movie theatre, restaurant, supermarket, theatre and taxi with this app.  Phenom.

TweetDeck – I use TweetDeck on my desktop for the distribution of all my up-to-the-minute, so fast-breaking-you-need-to-know-right-now updates (such as “So excited about patio cocktails” -@LaurenKAtlanta 05/04/10 at 4:43pm)  and to keep track of all of yours.  Now I have it on my iPhone! Sweet!

Shazam – If you’re ever in a store or a car or wherever and you hear a song you absolutely love and MUST HEAR AGAIN, yet have no idea who it is…you just click Shazam and it tells you who’s a-playin’ and you can purchase it right then and there for iTunes and have it in your hot little hand in seconds.

White Noise – Totally turns your phone into a sound machine!  The settings are: Beach Waves Crashing, Crickets Chirping, Thunder Storm, Oscillating Fan, Extreme Rain Pouring, Grandfather Clock (creepy.  Hello, Edgar Allen Poe?), Chimes Chiming, Train Ride, Airplane Travel, and White Noise.  It even has a timer that will fade the sounds out as you drift into slumber!

Other apps to try (more to come, I’m sure!): Google Mobile, Lose It!, SpendingLite, Pandora, UrbanSpoon, CheapGas, ShopSavvy, iThesaurus, New York Times

There was even a Camp Dance iPhone app! (too bad I was tardy to the iPhone party…)

Oh, and don’t forget the previously blogged about Carb Tracker App!

(and, as always, PLEASE leave comments with your app/general iPhone suggestions!)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go spend some more time with my phone. iLove my iPhone.

xx, iL

Not my actual fridge (mine at least has vodka in the freezer)

Yeah. Well, my closet is the exact opposite. In fact, up until just recently it didn’t look much better than this:

NOT my actual closet. (mine is 90% black clothes)

Listen, as far as I’m concerned it’s an entire closet FULL of “nothing to wear” but I’m unwilling (and unable) to rid myself of some of these pieces. I’m super picky and trust me, each article of clothing represents countless hours of debate.

Anyway. Until I am able to afford an enormous, digitally enhanced closet (a la Cher in Clueless) I had to come up with a solution. And here it is!

VELVET. HANGERS.

Here’s the Q+DD: I got them because we use them at the theatre (for our 9342391 costume changes). The main benefit I saw is that they are ultra skinny, so you can cram so much more into your closet just by switching the hangers out.

But that’s not all: the velvet texture keeps your slinky little tops in place…instead of slipping off onto the closet floor, where a lot of mine had permanently taken up residence. ALSO – the rounded corners prevent “hanger peaks” (as my sister and I like to call the lovely little teepees some hangers will produce in the corners of starched shirts.)

Just get them. 10 of these bad boys will set you back about 8 bucks at Bed Bath and Beyond (click here) and you can use the bazillion 20% off coupons you have in your junk drawer OR: a set of 50 are about $15 at Costco.

(I may or may not have just thrown out 5 empty boxes...)

You. Are. Welcome.

xx, L