A Few New Favorites

We MOVED!!!! Holy smokes I can't believe it's actually real! We have a new house with so much more room. We have been so busy decorating, building barns, fencing, and pens that I haven't had time to stop for pictures but soon!

For now, I just want to share with you a few new things I've found that I really love. 

First up is a company just getting off their feet called Rumala and Co.  Clicking on their name will take you to their Facebook page where they will be announcing all their new products. Here is the calendar I bought from them through Amazon. It's huge and beautiful and I love it so much that I bought their smaller one to keep on my fridge upstairs!!! 

I'm still working on this little command center but I love the direction it's taking. The girls have their chore chart here and the baskets hold their assignments for the day. 

Next up is Grammarly.  It's a little add-on for Chrome (and maybe other browsers too, but Chrome is what I use) and it corrects not just spelling but grammar too!! 

It just shows up next to your search bar as this little green circle and corrects you as you go. Maybe you're a grammar police but I'm not and this definitely improves my typing. I'm not going to tell how many times it's corrected me here, lol.  

And you may have noticed that little camel up there too. That's for a site called Camel, Camel, Camel. 

You add your Amazon Wishlist to it and it watches the prices for you. When the price dips below what you are looking for it e-mails you an alert! I have bought 2 books I have had my eye on for a while now. Both of them are usually about $60 and I got them for under $10 gently used! 

Anywho. Those are my fun finds recently. I hope to have my house cleaned up enough soon to be able to start sharing some rooms with you soon. For now, we are still battling post-move clean up and trying to get everything locked down for the winter. So in the meantime tell me what you've discovered that you are excited about! 

Reinventing The Closet Part 2

Read part 1 here. 

Ok. So I weeded out the obvious stuff and tried on a few things to see if they still fit and then washed what was left. Why did I wash it all? Because I have two very hairy dogs that are the perfect height to rub up on all my clothes while they are hanging in the closet. Gross. 

So, now we get to the "fun" part. I'm still on the fence about exactly how much sarcasm I'm associating with that word here. I don't particularly enjoy trying on clothes but I am excited to have a more functional wardrobe. But they fit, they're clean....why am I trying it all on again?

I'm a home schooling, homesteading, crafting, teaching, mom of 3. I don't have the brain power left to put together an outfit every morning. Right now, my kids are lucky if I get out of my pajamas and that's just sad. So I went to Pinterest to get some ideas. I saw lots of pictures of put together outfits that were super adorable. Unfortunately, I don't own anything in those pictures. So then I headed to Amazon to try to find the things in those pictures. I do not have that kind of money. In fact, I don't have money to go out and buy anything because I've spent it on 4 BAGS of stuff I can't even wear!!!! More clothes is obviously not the answer. Then I came upon the idea of "Capsule Wardrobes." Go ahead and Google that. I'll wait. 

With me again? Isn't that idea awesome?! Alright lets head the store and buy all those essential pieces it says we need and.... wait. No money, remember? So here's the new game plan, starting with the sorted clothes from before. 

1. Put on your best fitting bra/panties.
2. Try on one outfit at a time. 
3. Slowly change the outfit. Trade the pants for a skirt, try a different scarf, put on a jacket...Take a picture with each new look.
4. Toss anything that doesn't have more than one look.  
5. Print pictures, put together in an album.
6. Enjoy your own Capsule Wardrobe complete with a no-brainer look book!

Is this not the most awesome, time saving, closet utilizing, thought free idea ever!!! PLUS you could even take your look book with you while shopping to see what kinds of things would match!

*Here is where I would share the photo evidence of me trying on outfits for 3+ hours but the card reader on my computer and the sd card from my camera are not getting along :( So if you try this and do it to you're own wardrobe let's see some pictures!

What I learned:

While black is up there with my least favorite colors most of my staple clothing is black. I'm ok with letting a lot of the color in my wardrobe come from accent pieces like scarves, statement necklaces, cardigans, or under shirts.

Having white clothing and being a mom is hard.

I like solids with texture.

I have hardly any patterned pieces.

I am going to have SO MUCH LESS laundry and that is awesome!

Reinventing The Closet Round 1

In spirit of my first new years goal I am going through the closet and weeding out the crap! 

The first step was to take it ALL out of the closet. Holy BANANAS!!! 

I don't consider myself much of a clothes person. Some of this is from before I had kids!! That's 8 years and I'm not telling how many sizes ago. I've cleaned out before but obviously things were falling through the cracks. 

Just in case you needed another angle on that. My pile of clothes take up my ENTIRE queen size bed. No one needs that much. 

I sorted it out into groups and this is what I ended up with: 

Group 1: Stuff my Mom would probably fit and like (1 bag)

Group 2: TRASH (1 bag )

Group 3: Donate (2 bags)

What I had left was 2 baskets of  *possible* keep items. Seriously. 4 trash bags of stuff to get rid of and only 2 baskets to keep. I'd say this was long over due. 

Here is where I had to stop for the day. My children claimed that they needed food of some sort. I'm going to wash ALL the clothes tonight and then the fun part begins :) 

Filing my Fabric

 

Today I had the itch to get something creative done. I didn’t care/know what but something! So I turned to my 2 B Knocked Off Pintrest board and found something right away.

Inspired by this pin here’s what I did.

I found these extra files from before we had our legal sized file cabinet.

Then I took assessment of my fabric drawer and tossed the tiny or unusable scraps.

Wanna know something really cool? My drawer just happened to already have rails for file folders!!! I love it when that happens1

I just folded my fabrics over the file folders and tada!

Quick organization and eye candy.

What have you been Pinteresting lately?

What's hiding in YOUR closet?

So does ANYONE remember this post from *cough* February *cough* when I picked up this craft closet?

I told you I go it for FREE but what I didn't tell you in that post was that I drove through one of our worst snow storms and almost got involved in a multi-car pile-up that I couldn't see in time because the snow was SO THICK. Then when we got there the elderly lady told me to get out of my truck and she whipped in into her driveway herself because they thought I was taking too long. I was mortified of sliding in the snow and hitting their car. Slow and steady plus a big pickup doesn't really jive well with a foot of fresh now. Then, when we got out she whipped out the power tools and took this bad boy apart pretty much by herself! What an inspiring lady! 

Obviously I'm not so on top of it as she is because it's taken me 7 months to write up this post. In my defense the room we put it in has undergone 3 MAJOR changes in those 7 months and, in fact, it's not even in that room anymore! But those are posts for another day. 

It's in my living room! Kind of a strange place for it, I know, but sometimes you just have to work with what you've got. and all closed up it looks pretty unassuming. 

And what I've got is a LOT of craft storage! I'll admit that this is not everything. I have a closet in my daughters room that is full of Scentsy/Crafting/Velata supplies but this holds the stuff I use most often. You'll see most of my sewing stuff on the left and mostly scrapbooking stuff on the right.  The sewing machine only comes down when I'm using it, being on the shelf keeps it up and out of the way for when I am scrapbooking.

The top shelf holds all my papers and a few extra scrapbooks. 

Each side has 3 shelves. Some of them are empty to accommodate the things on the other side when they are closed. I have thought about using some command hooks to squeeze in a few more inches of storage.

The drawer holds fabric and shelf holds sewing notions. The lazy susan holds scrapbooking and sewing supplies it goes back in the center when it's closed up. The holes were cut by a previous owner. I am waiting to find the perfect thing to cover them up. Maybe even a curtain? Since it is in a corner for now a curtain would allow the cords to go through and I could use the empty space behind it for storage! Hmmm... wheels are turning! 

So, spill it. What's hiding in your closet?

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Renew!

I have been making some BIG changes in the entry closet and now that I am putting it back together I had a few extra parts. 

One of them was the crib railing we were using as a bench back.

See it nestled in there behind all those pillows?

As you can see the bench is making a temporary home here in the playroom/craft room too. The wall above it has always been kind of tricky to work with since it is right next to a door way on the right and a closet on the left.  I wanted it to be functional but not block the door way. This space has gone through bookcases and seats and all kinds of other things but it never felt quite right. 

Enter the crib railing. 

Yep, my lovely hubby screwed it right up there for me. 

Getting it out of his garage was a big incentive.

And WHAT is it?

Tada! A magazine rack!!!

Joel put "spacers" on the back made from a baby gate that was on it's last leg.

This makes it just far enough away from the wall for magazines to fit right inside but you hardly notice them since they mostly blend in with the wood paneling. 

I like that I can see all my current reads. Maybe this way they will actually end up read instead in the dreaded basket. 

Total cost: $0

Everything was up-cycled, some of it even up-cycled from an up-cycle! 

Evolution

It seems like something is always constantly changing around here but this room has under gone quite a few changes. Let look back.

It started out a hot mess. 

Then we cleaned up and painted and it was a little bit less of a hot mess. More on that "makeover" here. 

Then we crammed the whole office into the closet. More on that here.I have since updated this area too so keep an eye out for more posts on that later. 

And there wasn't much going on in the room until this beauty came along.

I painted it and crammed it in there and never gave you an update on it. 

It's pretty, I decided to keep the handles, and I love it very much but I might stain the top a little darker. 

The rest of the room was STILL a hot mess!!! 

Then in desperation for organization I tried to organize everything in to boxes. To see more cringe inducing pics click here. 

AGHK!!!! <----- My feelings towards this room. 

It lacked function alright but, what really bothered me was that it looked like a dejected toy store. It really needed to have some functional storage that was bought for this space, not whatever happened to rotate through the rest of the house so when taxes came along.... 

I bought two of these cheap cabinets at Target. 

I placed them on either side of the dresser. 

Sorry the girls are in here too but they were watching the tv on the other wall. That should give you a better idea of how small this room really is. 

 I got these metal boards from a friend who was purging (Thanks Kris!!!) and put them to use.
They were red  when I got them so I spray painted them to look like canvas. 

Anberlynn frequently asks me to hang up a picture she's painted but they usually end up on the counter>floor>trash. :( 

Now I have to ask her to paint me another one just to fill up the boards! 

I'll show you the other side of the room once I get it finished- which may or may not take me another 3 months. :S

Take It Out, Take It Out, Remove it!

Does any one know the little song that's from? It cracks me up every time I hear it :) 

Our poor house is always collecting things. Some of it we bring in on purpose and other stuff just finds it's way here. Either way I am AWFUL at getting rid of stuff but it was time for stuff to go! 

Up first: Our collection of VHS movies. While they are nice because they are cheap and we have some of the ones you can't buy on DVD at the moment there is a reason why DVD's were so popular- because they take up SO much less space. 

I work at Blockbuster so we have been gradually buying DVD's as they go on sale and the girls now have plenty of  movies to watch that aren't on VHS. 

Also on the list of things to go was the TV with the VHS Player. We have a TV with at built in DVD player that's int he girls room. I don't feel like they need a TV in their room so it will take the place of this one in the playroom. 

Last but not least the extra chair that is always in the way.

Good buy Mr. Chair! Enjoy your new home that just happens to have a set of other chairs just like you!

And that's how it's done! A little bit at a time and a little bit more every day.

*Sigh* A little bit a breathing room! 

Magnetic Make-up Board

For Christmas I decided to get a little crafty for myself, my Mom and Cheria, my sister-in-law. 

For me I made this bug honkin guy.

For my Mom and Cheria I didn't know how much wall space they wanted to take up So I made them ones that could hang on the wall or stand- their choice. 

This was not an original idea and I read how to make mine here:

Laura Thoughts 

I bought all my frames at Walmart.  I was running out of time and my local thrift stores have a pretty sad selection.  Joel bought the sheet metal at Lowes. The bigger piece is a good deal thinner but it does just as good of a job. 

We used metal sheers to cut off the extra. 

I used the paper from the frame to let Anberlynn trace so we knew where to cut. 

It doesn't matter if you leave a little marker on the edge or if it's not cut perfectly because the edges will be covered by the frame. 

For the fabric I used left over pieces from previous projects.

I sprayed the front with re-positional spray adhesive and flipped it onto the fabric. that way I could move the fabric around to get it straight and cut off the edges without drawing lines or worrying about the fabric moving around on me. 

I did the same for the larger piece except I used a mat and rotary cutter. 

For a clip holder I measured 3 dots on opposite ends of the board.

Then I lad my ribbon underneath, lining them up with the dots so they would be straight. I glued them in place with glue dots. 

Then when I flipped it over.... ta-da! 

Here is mine hanging in my bathroom. 

Next up I went through the 2 baskets that have been attempting to house all the girly stuff. 

After going through it all, throwing out anything old or worn out I realized that I don't even use 90% of it.  What I do use I hot glued to magnets (I tried glue dots first. That's not the way to go.) to the back of  my make-up. 

I clipped the girls bows to the ribbons and now everyday Anberlynn points out the one she wants to wear. 

Enjoy your presents Mom & Cheria! 

Looking at theirs makes me want a patterned background too. I think I might have to get me some more of that fabric on the right ;)