Down time

Sorry for all the down time. I'll probably be away from real projects for a little while longer. Chubs had his tonsills out on Wednesday and is having a rough time with it. He just wants to snuggle with Mommy all the time. Today, Hubby will be home this afternoon to snuggle with while my sister-in-law comes over to sew with me. Hopefully I'll get a few things done and wrapped for Christmas! Maybe I'll get pictures taken before wrapping. If I do, I'll try to post some later. I've got four pairs of pajamas to get done, plus I made a few hot-cold rice bags and some books for Baldy. One of the rice bags and the books are already wrapped, so those will wait to be posted until after Christmas. Thanks for being patient!

Tile Pendant giveaway!

I love these tile pendants. I think they're adorable! And now you have the chance to win one. Woohoo! (You know you want to say woohoo too...just do it!) Check it out here. You won't regret it! Or don't check it out. It definitely boosts my chances of winning if you don't. ;)

My idea was featured!

Okay, for anyone who blogs, you know that this is kind of a big deal. Like, huge! (Okay, maybe that's me...I need to be validated.) Anyway, Somewhat Simple featured my Christmas neighbor gift idea over at her blog. Head on over there and check it out, along with other fantastic ideas. And, as it turns out, I will only be using that idea on one neighbor. My wonderful new neighborhood has a tradition of taking the money that you would have spent on neighbor gifts and collecting it to donate to someone in need. This year is a single mother who lives in another part of our neighborhood. I'm excited about it, but a little bummed that I won't be able to use more of the ladel idea! So use it for me, everyone! :)

Little Aprons

I love aprons. It's because of my husband. Is that weird? My husband actually started the apron trend at our house. You know how when you're first married, your husband actually helps sometimes? (I joke, he still helps, almost 7 years later...just not as much!) Anyway, he liked working in the kitchen, and I didn't mind the bathroom, which he detested, so I did the bathrooms and he did the kitchen. And he always wore an apron. I have actually made him one and bought him one. I like to personalize, so he's got two aprons with pictures of the kids on them. The first one has definitely seen better days, so that one may be going soon. Anyway, on to what I was actually trying to get to. My kids love helping in the kitchen. And they've grown. It makes me sad to see them outgrow all of their old things, but it's probably a good thing. So the latest thing for them to outgrow was the aprons they've always had. Very cute aprons. Okay, one was cute. One I decorated when I was ten and you can't wash it because it bleeds all over your brand new clothes (thankfully the shirt was on clearance, so it wasn't too bad to replace it!). So I broke down and made them new ones for Christmas. With them in the room. Out of fabric that the older one picked out for them. Yup, I don't get a lot of time away from them. So here's the reveal.

As it turns out, I’m about the worst photographer in the history of blogging, but I can sew a straight line fairly well, so I figure it evens out! :) On the Thomas apron on the right, I used navy blue bias tape for the edges and the straps. One the princess one on the left, I bought white bias tape, which I neglected to realize was single fold not double, so it was not going to work. And I was not going to Walmart the day before Thanksgiving! So I improvised and made my own. It took forever and a day to iron it all, but I actually really like it, so it worked out well! The kids are way excited for their aprons, even if they have to wait until Christmas!

My recent project

So I decided to go ahead and make a present for my mother-in-law. (So, if you’re reading, Tina…skip this post!) Anyway, I’d seen this eyeglass holder online, but it was way more than I wanted to spend, especially when my dad has taught me how to make jewelry. I know, I know, it’s a little weird that it’s my dad, but I also have an uncle who quilts. Our men are just very secure in their masculinity! :) Well, I decided to bite the bullet and make it myself, sans help from Dad! I don’t know that I’ve ever really done anything without his help before (jewelry-wise), so I was really excited that it turned out well! Here it is:

The idea is that she can put the earpiece of her reading glasses through the washer. For now, the washer is plain, but I figured once I gave it to her, I would give her the option of leaving it or me stamping it (which will be another first…maybe I’ll have to make myself one first, to practice!).

$15 gift certificate!

No, not from me. I wouldn't know what $15 was worth of my stuff. But Inspire Your Walls does! They're amazing! I've won stuff from there before and love it. So head on over to Readaholic for the chance to win a $15 gift certificate to Inspire Your Walls. They're awesome and you'll be upset with yourself if you miss out. The giveaway ends 11/25.

My Pet Peeve...

AKA my kitchen. Sad, I know. But, honestly, who does this?
Yup, that's my dishwasher so close to my kitchen sink that there's no possible way to do the dishes without having to do this...

All of my dishes sitting on the other side of the sink, completely washed, just waiting to go into the dishwasher to be sterilized. Because, let's face it, at the point where you have to do this, they're just going in there to be sterilized. It's almost more work than it's worth. Currently, we have a 'U' shaped kitchen. As soon as we save enough for new flooring for the first floor (because it's hideous and they carpeted the dining room! The dining room! Yuck!), then we'll be rearranging the cabinets. The peninsula we have right now is exactly the right size to be able to turn and fit along the wall perfectly. It will mean getting new cabinets for the wall, most likely, but that's okay too, since we can't reach the top shelves of our cabinets now. (I'll have to post a picture later, cuz Blogger won't let me move pictures and it's frustrating!) We'll also have to get a new countertop and sink since the counter is a solid-surface with built-in sink, so it's all got to go once part of it does. Darn it. Oh well. At least I have this sight to make me feel better.

My kids got very upset when I wouldn't let them do the dishes by themselves. But I did let them wash the cups they were drinking out of as soon as I was done with the rest of the dishes. I'm so grateful that they love to help right now! That lasts until they leave the house, right?

Christmas Idea

So, I love Christmas. I loved Halloween and now I love Christmas. I'll love Thanksgiving in between (especially since it's right next to my birthday!), but for now, this is a Christmas post. My neighbor had a Halloween party a few weeks ago and had soup for everyone and did not have a ladel! The funny part was that she asked her husband where it was and he told her it was in the sandbox in the backyard! :) I thought it was funny, anyway. So, I figured for my neighbor gift for her this year, I'd get her a ladel, fill it with Hershey's Kisses, wrap with cute cellophane (or cheaper, yet just as effective Saran Wrap) and a ribbon and put a label on that says, "Have yourself a merry 'Ladel' 'Kiss-mas'." What do you think? I thought it was pretty clever and would fill a definite need that I know she has, instead of adding tons of sweets to her house!

Mud Room Reveal!

Alright, I might be in love with this room in an unhealthy way. But it makes me so happy to have it done (for now at least!). Keep in mind, I'm possibly the world's worst painter (at least when it comes to walls...oh who am I kidding, I'm not a painter at all!) so don't you dare blow this up and look at the job around the trim, etc. It looks awful when you look too close. So I don't! But I think the paint gave it a good beachy-cottagey feel and it makes me happy. Also, if you look too close at the mail holder in it's "finished" state you'll notice it's missing a hook. The hook is there on top, but the screw somehow got misplaced, so I'll be looking for that for a while I'm sure. Overall though, the room only cost about $75 for all of that storage and places to hang things! I'm thinking about putting a little cubby or something under the light switch in the big empty space, but it'll take a while for me to decide exactly what I want. Until then, enjoy the reveal!

Winner!

Ha...I figured I'd see if the one person who left a comment on my roll call is still reading! :) Anyway, you won something Jen! If there's a project you've seen on here that you'd like me to make for you, let me know! You even get to pick...what a great prize, huh? I can do hats, aprons, holiday decorations, just let me know. To anyone who didn't leave a comment...see how nice I am? You should leave a comment next time. ;)

Project in progress!

Hopefully sometime this week I can post the pics of my completed mudroom! I'm so excited! I picked a color and then couldn't find anyone to mix it for me (gotta love the Walmart paint desk!) so I headed over to mis-tints and found the exact same color in another brand, thus cutting the price in half! I love paying less than $10 for a gallon of paint!

Also, we're working on potty training Chubs this week, so it could be a long week! Wish us luck!

Roll call!

Hey, if you're out there and you read this, leave me a comment! You never know what you might win if you do! ;) Leave an email or a way for me to get hold of you, just in case.

Finished the capes!

Well, I've been working on an apron for my grandmother for Christmas. First of all, I've never made an apron before. Ever. Secondly, I made up the pattern instead of buying one. Thirdly, it's reversible! Yikes! But, except for the ties (since I ran out of fabric...gotta run to the store today!) it's all done. I'll share a picture now, even though it's not done. Maybe when it's done, I'll model it for you! :)

I also finally got around to making the other cape for my kids' Halloween costumes. I really needed to get it done since my mom's supposed to be coming to pick up her sewing machine tonight. (Mine died so I'm at the mercy of my mom's sewing schedule to get my projects done. Yay for my birthday being close though! I've asked for a replacement sewing machine.) I think it turned out pretty well!

Halloween!

You know, as much as I love Christmas, I think that Halloween is definitely my "most wonderful time of the year." What other holiday has kids using their imagination as much as Halloween? Which holiday makes us think and create more than Halloween? I don't think there is one. Sure, Christmas has presents, but Halloween has magic, fantasy and fun! So we've been getting in the Halloween spirit this week at our house. It took us a while longer than I would've liked, but who knows where all the decorations got put when Hubby emptied the garage? So I made my own. I asked my sweet dad to cut a 2x4 that I had lying around in the garage for me. Then I used leftover paint and a "Boo" sign I got at JoAnn's for $1 and made this:

I also made this ghost and mummy set that I've seen all over the blogosphere lately. So fun and easy! I wish I could've found my camera to take pictures while my kids and I were making these. At one point (while I was mod-podgeing...if that's a word) I heard Bubs say to Chubs, "No, don't paint yourself!" and looked up to see him with paint on his nose and cheek! He looked a little like a kitty cat. Pretty cute!

Anyway, today I also tried to work on finishing Halloween costumes. Bubs is going to be Princess Presto (from the PBS kids show, SuperWhy!) and Chubs will be SuperWhy! Baldy will probably be Alpha Pig, also from SuperWhy! unless it's really cold, in which case, we're hoping he still fits into the pumpkin costume that we were given for Chubs but never fit him. So here's the reversible cape I made for Chubs today. I printed the logos onto iron-on paper for the capes, so it was way easy! I love how it turned out. Chubs isn't so sure about the SuperMan side since he's never really seen SuperMan. He actually asked me to take it off, but it was a little late. I got a yard of each fabric, and had enough for two capes, so I may be making another one!

(P.S. Sorry about the formatting at the beginning. I cut and pasted and something happened. Any suggestions?)

Recipe Cards

So, I made my mom some recipe cards this month. They're way cute, using a freebie that I got from somewhere (give me a sec, it'll come to me! Aha! Digital Scrapbook Place. ) Anyway, I love them, and apparently someone else did too! One of my mom's friends has asked me to make some for her. Don't worry, I'm doing this all nice and legal-like, so I won't be using that freebie. I don't wanna tick someone off. I am going to be using a kit, though and buying a commercial use license for it. I love the kit and it comes with recipe cards, but I won't be using them. They all have colored backgrounds and I prefer using a white or cream background for my recipes. It's so much easier to read! (Especially for those of us with not-too-great eyes!) I'm trying to decide if this is something I should try to do for more people. What do you think? Would you pay to have all of your recipe cards typed for you and made all cute?

Well, here's a peek at the recipe cards I made for my mom (complete with a yummy recipe for you to try!). You should be able to click to enlarge, and I'll even let you keep the recipe! :)

This is one of my favorite holiday recipes. It's really not just for Christmas-time, but who can resist a good cinnamon and cloves recipe around Christmas! Also, it may not say (since it was word-for-word from my mom's card) but you use a large cookie sheet and press the dough into it to cook. It's so yummy and is always gone when we take it to potlucks! Hmmm...maybe this is what I'll take for our Halloween dessert for the church party. Yay! Enjoy the recipe!

Older Projects

Well, here's an older project that I haven't shared. I decided to make some chore cards for my kids. Someday I'll get around to making the rest of the project, but these are some of the finished cards. These are the cards that the kids get to choose between for general chores. They also have specific chores for their rooms (or they did before they got stuck sharing a room again!) I went through the rooms with them, cleaning up, and then when we were done I took pictures of how it is supposed to look when they're done. Now, they're 3 and 4, so it probably won't ever look quite this way, but at least they have something to aim for, other than throwing things in the closet! When I was done with the pictures, I put them in my digital scrapbooking softward and "prettified" them. I printed them out at http://www.artscow.com/, where you can get tons of prints for free (although the shipping is a little more, since they're located in China...but it's still cheaper than some other places).

Success

Well, the last post was Fail, so I figured I'd start out on a more positive note this time. I had a rough couple of weeks there, but I finally got the car cleaned out. I did use the clear shoebox with snacks, tissue paper, gas mileage tracking stuff, and other miscellaneous items in the front seat area. I also kept a baby shower gift bag in the van, since that's what I'm most likely to need a last-minute gift for. I used another clear shoebox in the back to keep swim diapers, regular diapers, diaper wipes and sunscreen in, since I very often forget those. Also, my husband's amazing and he cleaned the laundry and bathroom for me this week! Just thought I'd throw that out there. Yay for husbands!

FAIL!!!

Okay, so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Last week sucked. It just did. But, I didn't get my car cleaned. I was hoping I would this morning, since my sister-in-law, niece and nephew were coming to town and I was supposed to pick them up, thus needing a very clean van, but then I got a call saying that my niece had thrown up and my mother-in-law was just going to do it herself to protect my kids from the germs. And I appreciate it. But it kept me from feeling like it needed to be done again. So we'll keep working on it this week and I'm sure it'll be done by Friday. I also didn't sell anything at the boutique on Saturday, so if anyone's interested in some nursing covers, crocheted baby booties or hats (for boys or girls) let me know and we can work something out! I'd love to get them out of my house at this point. Just a reminder of the big FAIL! (Like I said, last week sucked. I'm moving past it, thank you for indulging me in my self-pity!) Anyway, this week is going better, so hopefully I can get out of my funk and move on to funner things.

Week 6 Goal

Okay, so I know that it's Thursday, but we have the boutique this week, plus I've been teaching Bubs's preschool this week, plus I have two showers (which I had to deal with presents for), so it's been crazy! (Oh, and Hubby hasn't been home before 8:30 p.m. at all this week...yikes!) Anyway, I thought I'd post my goal, since I'm supposed to reveal it tomorrow, just to keep me accountable. My goal is actually not in the house...I hope it still counts. I'm going to attempt to do some organizing in the van. It's looking a little lived in. Which wouldn't be a problem if we lived in it, I guess, but since we don't, it shouldn't. My plan is to clear out the front seat a bit. I hope to make a garbage bag container for the backs of seats, but that may have to wait until I can get some more boning next week. I've been dealing with a lot of boning this week making nursing covers, so I'm not sure I'm up to it right now. Anyway, I'm planning on getting one of my already purchased plastic shoe boxes for underneath my console between the front seats. It'll probably hold a couple of bottles of water, some snack baggies full of snacks, cereal bars, plus those things you always realize you need while you're out...for example, tissue paper, tape, ribbon (for those times where you head off to a birthday party or shower and realize you haven't gotten a gift yet!) and some stamps and envelopes (because I'm clearly not good at planning ahead and need those things at the drop of a hat). I'm sure I'll come up with some other things that I'll need, plus I need to come up with a good garbage solution for the front seat, so that the passenger doesn't have to swing a garbage bag out of their way to sit down. Yikes! I'm sure that was too much for some of you...just wait till I get a before picture up. It's frightening. Wish me luck!

Applique

Okay, so if you're name is Sheri and you're my sister-in-law, stop reading now! I doubt she is, but it was worth throwing out there. I have her baby shower to go to on Thursday night. She's having a baby girl and I decided to try my hand at applique. And because I'm insane, I figured, "why not throw in some ruffles?" Why my mind does this, I don't know. I have too much to do this week with our Boutique coming up and I still did it. Oh, well. It was better than making yet another nursing cover just to give away. So, I think it turned out pretty well and thought I would share. The pictures aren't great, but they're way cute! And for future reference, if you ever want to do applique, do it, it's fun, but don't do letters on your first project...or circles. Straight lines are a good place to start. So are larger shirts. Onesies, not so much. :) (Oh, and I'm not sure why my picture turned itself, sorry!)

A purse giveaway!

I know! Who gives away purses? Awesome Becca over at Blue Cricket Design does, that's who! She's got so many tutorials to check out while you're over there too. Anyway, she's giving away purses, graciously provided by www.luggage.com. They're awesome purses, too. And that should tell you a lot since I'm not normally a purse person, but she's won me over by having a tote as one of your options if you win! I love totes! I can fit diapers in them (at least a little easier) and my big gargantuan wallet. Yay! Check it out and enter yourself. Or don't. I like my chances better if you don't. ;)

Week 5 Reveal!

Here's the after, complete with pictures! I kept going with Week 4's goals and am pretty happy with how things turned out!
Cabinet after: The three drawer organizers by the cook books have medicines in it. One is pain killers for me, one is fever reducers and kids' medicines and the other is cough and cold medicines. There are still two other bottles of vitamins that don't fit, but that's okay. Maybe seeing them will remind us to take them! :)

This is the pantry after. This is the view from the door. The shoebox actually has snacks pre-measured into snack bags to give the kids some more responsibility for themselves. They still have to ask, but they can choose which one they want. The space by the fruit snacks is for graham crackers.

*Edited to add: The red and black fabric hanging from the right is my homemade plastic bag holder. I love it, but still had to take out another bag full of plastic bags to go to recycling! :) The bag holder is hanging on a plastic hanger (I think 3M makes them, but the previous owners put these up) and there's also another one with aprons on it.

This is the view to the left of the door. That open spot is where the kids' plates used to be. It's past the garbage can so I'm not sure what to put there yet.

This is right outside our garage door. Now our napkins, extra plasticware, kleenex and toilet paper is all out of the way, but still close by! Yay for a productive week and getting things done! :)

Fall Boutique

(Click image to enlarge)

If you happen to live in the Utah County area, we'd love to see you at our Fall Boutique on Sept. 12th! I'm making nursing covers for it. They're about 44" x 44", 100% cotton, reversible nursing covers. Each side has a different fabric (unlike other "reversible" covers I've seen) so you can switch it around depending on what your mood is that day! My covers are also unique because they have a hidden pocket on the side, that you can keep nursing pads, pacifiers, washcloths or anything else you can think of in! There will be a few designs available, but I'm only doing six covers for this boutique to test how well they sell. They'll be starting at $25. Here are a few pictures of them (pardon the couch as the background...I don't have any place that's really good for taking pictures!):
Each cover has an 18" boning so that you can see your baby while your nursing and has an adjustable strap with a d-ring. I originally made one for myself and figured out what was comfortable to me and asked around for what other moms were looking for. This is what I came up with. I'll have more than just what's pictured, plus some crocheted baby hats for sale. The other vendors will also have tons of stuff available! Please come support us!

Week 5 Goal and update

Well, I thought I'd let y'all know how much I love my spice organization! I tweaked it a little bit today (not enough to need a new picture, though!) and it's even better. I had a couple of doubles in my spices, so they were taken out and thinks fit a little bit better now. I baked a cake from scratch on Sunday and was able to just pull out my baking basket, make the cake and put it all back quickly! It streamlined the process so much! Yay for good things!

Week 5 is pretty much just a continuation of Week 4. I didn't get anything done in the pantry last week, so I've been working on it today. It included moving the recycling from next to the garage door, so that I could move a shelf there to keep paper towel, toilet paper, plastic utensils, etc. on. That cleared out so much room in my pantry! I have my garbage can in the pantry now since Baldy (who's about 9 months old and has been standing up for two months now!) pulls himself up on the garbage can, which then falls over on top of him and he hits his head on the tile. Not good. So we put it somewhere where we can close the door. So far it's working well. I rearranged things so that the garbage can is no longer blocking my kids plates, cups, and bowls so they can set the table for themselves and get their own sippy cups. Anyway, things are going well on the organizing front!

My hubby's also been very helpful this week getting some stuff done. It's been a pretty productive week. We put a shelf up over our t.v. to put the blu-ray player and wii on so that the 9 month old would stop hitting them. My brother also helped me get blinds up in my kitchen, which has definitely lowered the amount of time that we've had to have the air conditioning on. It was also my son's birthday, so I made him a super-cute cake and cleaned the place up for that. It's almost back to looking that good and it's only been two days. :) Anyway, things have been going well so far this week and hopefully I'll be able to find batteries for the camera so I can get an after picture of the pantry up tomorrow!

Picture of Chubs with his birthday cake: Pillsburry Funfetti with vanilla ice cream. The outside is covered with KitKats and the top has M&Ms all over it. It was so yummy, but so rich!

Week 4 Reveal

Okay, it's not much of a reveal. I got the spices organized (this morning...what's that saying? A day late, a dollar short? Oops!) but not anything else. My hubby didn't have the week off like he thought, although he did have yesterday off at least, before he started yet another class today. Unfortunately, I'm running way behind on the nursing covers that I'm making for a boutique that's two weeks from today, so the time yesterday was spent making those nursing covers. I've gotten two done in the last two days, though, so at least that's finally coming along! Well, here are the spices.

I got the containers for 2 for $1 at Walmart and got an extra small set as well for other projects. I like these because they're just the right depth for the cabinet and two can fit side by side. They're still not perfect, but I know that the one on the middle shelf on the left is for baking, the one on the right is my cooking spices that I use most often and the stuff on the top shelf is the stuff that I don't use as often. (I know, a lot of unused spices, but I do use them occasionally, so I can't just toss them!) Hopefully I'll figure out a better system soon, but for now, this should work just fine. Clearly dishes got lost in the shuffle since there are no cups on the bottom shelf! Oh, well, the dishwasher's running right now, so it's okay. Also, I'm thinking about getting another set of the baskets for my medicine that's up above the microwave so that I can separate them into kids' medicine and adult medicine. I did go through those and throw away the expired stuff, so it's all nice and safe to take. Hopefully next week will be better.

Week 4 goals

Well, we'll see if I actually accomplish as much as I'd like to this week. Hubby's coming home tonight finally and has the week off, plus Bubs is starting preschool, so it might be a busy week. But ideally, I'd like to organize my spice cabinet and the cabinet above the microwave and the pantry. The spice cabinet and over-microwave one are definitely the priority though, since I think I need some more containers to organize the pantries well. There are just too many little packets running around in there! So here are some before pictures. (Yay for doing before pictures before the project! Woohoo!)

Before: This is actually only the part of the pantry that you see when you open it up, but it's the part I'm going to focus on. Some of the stuff is just overrunning the whole thing! It's driving me a little nuts. Now, organizing this might involve containers, plus cleaning the chest freezer in the garage so there's a place to freeze more bread and buns, so it's last on the list.
Before: Currently the recipe books are to the left (which still haven't all been found in the move, but the most important one is there...and no, I don't mean the cookie one!) and the medicine's on the right. They're kind of spilling out of their container and I need to do something about it...we don't even take medicine, so I really don't know why I have so many. There are more on top of the fridge, so they need to be consolidated. In the cabinet further to the right are the spices and my glasses. I just moved the glasses there because it's next to the fridge where we get all of our water from (since the tap water in this place is nasty!), so it's more convenient for me. We'll see what Hubby thinks when he gets home tonight! :) But it meant moving spices around and I don't like it one bit. My measuring cups ended up in a better place, but the spices are a mess. So that's it for this week!

Fireplace Before and after

Okay, I decided that I had a little extra time since Baldy's been taking some decent naps lately (not to mention the nap that Chubs took yesterday! Heaven!) so I added a project. The fireplace is where the mail gets dumped, so a lot of mail had to be gone through and I added a basket that I had bought a while back for the mail to go in and out of. Between that and the letter holder in the mudroom, hopefully we'll be able to keep on top of the mail a little more! Wish me luck with it! :) I also was inspired to finally get the zucchini off of my fireplace as well, so it was a very good project...from the big zucchini alone I grated seven cups to make zucchini bread from and to freeze for later.
After: I know it doesn't look like much, but we keep our church magazines on the fireplace so they're out for us to read whenever we find time and our Netflix movies are in the basket, waiting to be returned.

Mudroom: Here's the proof!

Okay, I swear my kids keep stealing my camera. The mudroom is actually going to be its new home so that it's high enough that the kids can't reach it anymore. So, here's the proof. I did take care of the mudroom and it looks so much better now! I also took care of my fireplace (which is electric) since it's our dumping ground for mail (or I should say my husband's!). Here are the before and after pics.

Before: (Excuse some of the blurry pictures, lighting wasn't good at all!) A dumping ground, the land of the lost craft projects and place to keep the recyclables that hadn't made it back out to the garage pile yet. (The garage is another project for another time, yikes!)
The bench and shelf still need to be painted, but I had my dad build them and they didn't cost too much since the previous owners had left tons of wood (including the shelves themselves) in the garage! Yay for free wood!

After: The key rings and letter holder on the right still needs to be finished, but I figured it was better to put it up and use it until I actually get around to that. It's going to be so nice finished (once I make a few more decisions about this room!).

The baskets on the shelf were a prize that I won at a family reunion raffle. There are three there that are approximately the same size and then one that's about 2/3 the size of these that I have down in my craft room.

Look how clean it is! Too bad the pictures fuzzy. I'm thinking about putting shelves or a bench in the corner closest to the doorway that I stood in to take the picture. I can't decide which, though. Any suggestions?

Week 3 Goal

Well, the camera seems to have been misplaced...again. You'll probably notice that this is a recurring theme. One of these days my organizing goal will be simply to find a good home for the camera to live in. That's not this week, though. My goal is going to be my mudroom. It's right next to the mudroom and has piles of, well, crap in it. (Now no one call DCFS, it's not literal crap! I'm not that bad!) It has become the home of the unused laundry cart (which some of you may remember from week 1) and numerous diaper and church bags, not to mention craft projects that were waiting for a home while my craft room had lighting installed. Ah, but you haven't heard about that project yet...we'll get to that tomorrow. Meanwhile, we're going to be focusing on the mudroom...as soon as I find the camera to take a before picture. I know it's here somewhere...

Find your Style

So, I'm not good at figuring out which style I like. I'm kind of a it's-comfortable-and-the-kids-can't-kill-the-fabric kind of decorator. Unfortunately, our last couch set was not so kid-friendly as it turns out, so it looks awful now. Oh, well, now I can move on and figure out what I'd like better next time.

So I took a quiz that my friend had linked from on her blog. It turns out that I am 50% Cottage chic, 25% Nantucket Style and 25% Rustic Revival. Now the next trick is figuring out what that means! :) I'm just kidding.

According to the quiz, Cottage chic is lighter colors, with intimate seating arrangements and somewhat ocean-inspired. Well, I agree with the last two, but I definitely do not do light colors with kids if I can help it. Maybe someday when I have no kids at home...nope, grandkids'll ruin it too! Oh, well. Nantucket Style doesn't actually seem to be that different from cottage chic, so maybe the two would've been better combined, but either way, light, airy and intimate seems to be the running theme. Rustic revival is a combination of city and country, bringing together the best of both worlds, but also very light colors. I'm not sure it knows me very well! ;)

Check out how well it works for you here.

Yay for comments and a preview!

Thanks everyone for the comments you're leaving! I love knowing that other people are looking at this blog. My other blog doesn't get many comments, but it's mainly for journaling purposes so I don't care, but I'm grateful that other people get to see this one. So thanks again and feel free to leave as many comments as you'd like. I love 'em! :)

Meanwhile, here are some befores from some projects I'm working on. Hopefully I'll have afters up on Saturday, at least of the desk.

Week 2: The cabinet

The cabinet really should be followed by some eerie sound effect from a horror movie. A good "dun-dun-dun" would not be uncalled for. Every time we had family or friends come over, my husband would shove stuff that was cluttering the counter into this lovely box that fit right into the cabinet. Granted, it kept it close and easy to get to, or at least that was the thought. I think he figured that if we needed it on the counter that it should go someplace close. But most of the time, it wasn't anything that we really needed in the room to begin with. So, we had lots of things shoved in there, including a sprinkler for the kids to run through, jewelry boxes, etc. Well, without further ado, here's the before:

And here's the after:

Anyone who paid close attention last week will recognize the file box from the laundry room. The stuff on the top shelf is filing stuff. The red binder has medical records in it for our information. Unfortunately there's a whole boatload of papers between the binder and the file box that need to be filed and there's just no more room in the file box. It might be time for another. I started to go through the original file box, but a lot of it is stuff I need to go through with hubby, and he's out of town, so it'll have to wait. The boatload of papers consists of stuff for our new house, including inspection info, paperwork, floor plans and manuals from the old owner (which I was very grateful for the other day, when the oven starting beeping at me for an unknown reason...still unknown, but at least we got it to stop!). The green card file boxes are actually quotes that my hubby's grandmother collected during her life, and I have an ongoing goal to put them all on the computer and get a cd of them to her grandchildren. I think it'll be nice for them to know what kinds of things their grandmother thought were important, and since I never met her (just her husband), it's been kind of fun for me as well.

The bottom shelf is not stuff intended to stay there. I think once the kids are older, if we still haven't remodeled our teeny-tiny, poorly laid-out kitchen by then, this shelf will have some art supplies. Right now, with three kids ages four and under, that's just asking for trouble. So currently the stack on the left is computer supplies (which will move downstairs once the basement is finished enough for the computer to move down there), the stack next to that is phone books and the thing on the right is actually an alarm system key pad that kept beeping at me that I was sick of. We don't actually subscribe to that alarm system, so it was a pretty pointless keypad in the dumbest spot to get to. So when it kept beeping, I didn't feel bad at all ripping it out. Currently it's staying under there until I can decide if it's worth keeping it or getting rid of it completely, which will probably mean talking to hubby about it. Meanwhile, it's close to its old home, not in the way of anything else, and nothing else was really going to fit there, so I figured it wasn't a big loss of space. I think I'd like a container for the computer stuff, but meanwhile this works for now. I'm loving this challenge right now, but I'm so grateful I picked something small for this week since my hubby's out of town and Baldy and I managed to get sick. This was just the right sized project! I'll decide tonight what next week's project is going to be and post it tomorrow with a before picture!