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! 

Minimalist Shminimalist

I have recently had the perfect opportunity to practice minimalism in all its glory.  If you don't already know we put our house up for sale earlier this year. It was under contract once, fell through, and now it's under contract again.  All in all, we had about 10 showings.  We packed away ALL the extra crap I thought I could live without.  I pared down my wardrobe even more. I packed stuff we hardly use, stuff I thought was just extra. Lots of furniture went to make the house look bigger. YAY! Right? I mean this is THE goal. You know,  the one where if you could just ______ then all the stars would align and a heavenly chorus would come from the heavens.

No. Not yay. Turns out I like my crap.  Like a lot.  I like my toaster. And my printer.  And my glitter. I like my yarn. And the string. I like the itchy but flattering shirt. I want the fabric I bought years ago. And I like having enough pencils to bury myself in. The garden stuff that makes an appearance every other year is loved.  I even like the kid's toys. ALL OF IT.

Maybe there are some people that don't ever use the things they buy. I do. I don't care if it doesn't all have a home.  I use it and I want it there when I want to use it even if I'm  not going to use it every second of every day. It's the most frustrating thing ever to not have what you need when you need it.

So to all my cluttery crap that I thought I could do without,  I love you and I promise to spring you from those big meany face boxes ASAP! I will never pack you away again!

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!