30 Days of Christmas – Project 24

Popcorn tins.  They always appear at Christmas.  What to do with them when they’re empty?  Well, if you’re a member of our extended family, you hand them off to MOI!

I’ve been fighting with storage for the playroom since we moved into this house.  I thought these might help corral some of the toy chaos.

I considered spray painting them, but then they’d just look like a bunch of spray painted popcorn tins.

What’s a girl to do?

Fabric + glue gun = brilliance.

I covered the lids on 2 with more fabric.  This did make them more difficult to close so the lids aren’t secure.

The other 2, I left the lids plain because I liked the red.

Just in time to make room for all of the Christmas toys the kids received!  (Our families are too generous.)

Want to See Something Truly Inspiring?

You’ve come to the wrong place.

This was my office/craft space this morning.

 

I’ve been working on reorganizing and emptying out the last boxes I’ve had since the move.  (These boxes were miscellaneous decorating, craft and office supplies I had no need to pull out of boxes yet.)

For the past 9 months, I’ve worked in this space. 

NO MORE!

I can say it doesn’t look nearly as bad now after spending the afternoon in here but it’s nowhere near a showcase.  Not to mention, I haven’t even dealt with paint – I’m waiting until next summer for that at this point. 

I’m hoping to have an inspiring space soon.  Very very soon.  Or, at the very least, a clean one.

Just keeping it real, folks!

Hair Clip Organizer

We’ve had this frame for quite some time:

This summer, while I was refinishing a coffee table (I’ll share that soon – it’s been done for months but I haven’t taken any pictures yet!) I needed something to entertain the kids with.  They wanted to help paint – I was NOT letting them touch the coffee table.  So I pulled out an old quart of paint, grabbed a couple of foam brushes and dug this frame out of my heap of a craft room.  Monkey wanted it in her room but I had no inspiration, so it’s been sitting pink ever since.

Until now.

I found this adorable organizer on pintrest a few weeks ago.

We’ve seen them done over and over again so what stood out with this one?

The hooks for the headbands!

Brilliance.

And ridiculously easy to recreate.

I had a couple packs of cup hooks I never used in my kitchen remodel at the old house (you can get them at any hardware store – I’m sure you can even find them at Walmart in the hardware section).  I grabbed my trusty spray paint and gave them some love (Eden by Rustoleum).  After they’d dried, I just screwed them into the bottom of the frame.

Then I grabbed some strips of fabric leftover from the shades I made for Monkey’s room and stapled them to the back of the frame with my heavy duty stapler.

The frame was missing a hanger hook on the back.  I’m too cheap to buy them for such a light weight project so I hot glued the tab from a soda can (meh – who am I kidding?  It was probably a beer can. ;-) ) to the back of the frame to hang it.

Voila!

The inspiration photo looks like the hooks were attached and then the entire piece was spray painted at once.  (I’m assuming – I never went looking for the link because it’s not linked properly on the pin).  Ribbon was used rather than my scrap strips of fabric.  Use what you have!

While we were at it, we had this old mirror we got at a yard sale this summer for $1:

I taped up the mirror to protect, hit it with some Heirloom White (Rustoleum) spray paint, lightly distressed it and…..

She wanted it down low so she can admire herself after she puts clips in her hair, of course.  How did I end up with such a girly girl?  lol

Total for both projects = $1.  Yup.  I had everything on hand.

I love when that happens.

 

Linking up here:

Mission Organization: Day 5

All of the soggy weather we’ve been having is good motivation to keep moving with my kitchen organization.

My 2nd window eyesore was much worse than my 1st.  Yesterday, I fixed that problem.

The Monkey art (birdhouses) received some wood glue and have made their way outside.  The yeast tin was cleaned up and put on the 1st windowsill.  We’ve planted our seed pots and put them in the living room with our Table O’Seedlings (our seedlings are still inhabiting my living room but are to be transplanted in the garden ASAP).  Everything else was trashed or put where it belongs.

I decided my precious mixer needed to be moved and gave it a home under my butcher block table and rearranged the small display shelf immediately to the left of the window.

Ahhhhh.  So much better. 

I’ll be putting a few potted herbs on the sink under the window mainly because I am sick and tired of buying fresh herbs all of the time (and my thumb isn’t nearly as brown as it used to be).  

The shelves have 2 old milk bottles, complete with lids and the Maine Seal in the glass.  The large glass jar is a Tom’s peanut container my grandmother gave me.  I use it as a cookie jar but my mom remembers it being filled with homemade doughnuts all of the time when she was a kid (I love pieces that have a story – especially when it’s a piece of my family story).  A couple of cookbooks and my recipe box round it out.  My recipe box got some love and a makeover while I was at it.

Monkey did a number to it on the shelves at the old house.  I had to replace a few letters and changed the ribbons.  I’ll have red in the kitchen even after we get around to redoing it, so I’ll incorporate red accents now and ignore the orangey-red on the cabinets and walls in the meantime.  ;-)

Here’s what I attack today:

It’s the good, the bad and the ugly here, folks.

I’m trying to decide if my Day 7 and final day of this round of organizing should be under my kitchen sink or my junk drawer.  Both need a little [lot of] help.

I can’t go wrong with either, that’s for sure.

Mission Organization: Day 4

I realize I’ve posted Day 1-4 today.  I started on Friday but just haven’t kept up posting.  :-P

The kitchen is coming along nicely.

Today, I took a small and easy organization project (seeing as I have my hands full with fiddleheads!).

The window above my sink was a real eyesore.

I’ll be putting a display shelf up eventually.  Until then, I’m keeping a few small NEAT things on the windowsills.

Now:

So much better.  I got the yeast tin at a yard sale for $1.  I keep our matches and scraping blades hidden in it (out of the kids’ reach, of course).  The spice jars I found in my grandfather’s store.  It’s mostly been cleaned out but there are a few little hidden treasures still.  These jars are still full! (The thyme still smells good too – though I have NO intention of using them.  lol)

Next up – the 2nd window sill in my kitchen.

What.an.eyesore.

Mission Organization: Day 3

 

After finishing up on the sun porch, it was time to move into the kitchen.  The one room in the house I insist on being clean is my kitchen.  My entire house can look like a tornado (or 2) came through, but my kitchen MUST be clean.

One day last week as I was doing my morning cleaning, I noticed I have a few hot spots of clutter.  They’re spaces that we stick things to keep them away from the kids or because we don’t know what else to do with them – or, my favorite, something that needs fixing and we still haven’t fixed so it sits there, forgotten.

This is really what sparked my Organizational Mission.  As I was looking around I realized, no matter how clean my kitchen is – the clutter just detracts.

No more.

I started with the kids cubbies.   I forgot to take a before picture of this.  Bad, I know.  Let me describe the mess for you.

The cubbies are a freestanding unit given to me by my boss.  It has 3 cubbies, each with a hook and a shelf.  I have the kids hang their jackets on the hooks, put mittens and hats on the shelf and shoes on the bottom shelf.  The extra cubby had a ripped plastic bag stuffed with paper recycling.

The top has a basket for T and me to leave our hats and gloves.  A basket for mail was also there, overflowing with 2 weeks worth of junk mail.  I also had a nice collection of tupperware to return to family members (we’re a big family of stuffing filled tupperware containers to give each other.  :-)

Does this paint a good enough picture for you?

Now:

I tidied up our basket of gloves (yes, we are still wearing gloves – but they are our work gloves which get used almost daily), sorted through the mail, put up our farm sign and added a plant on the top.  So much nicer.

Don’t mind the weird shadow.  My kitchen doesn’t have the best natural lighting.

I added a hook to the side and made a bag to tame all the tupperware (which, amazingly, I have none of right now!).  I also made a matching bag for the 3rd cubby for our paper recycling.

It’s so much better.

Today, I attack windowsills.

In particular, this one:

These projects don’t need to be big or time consuming.  They just need to make an impact.

In need of organization

Life has been…  crazy.  Yep.  There is no other way to put it.  But, we have been loving being near our families.  And the kids are eating up all of the extra attention. 

Unpacking all of our belongings made me realize one thing.  Ok, maybe two.  First, we have a lot of stuff.  (The two biggest culprits would be toys and crafting stuff – though T has quite a bit of hobby stuff too).  Second, I need to do something about the jumbled mess. 

I’m in need of quick projects.  Quick projects may not have a big impact on their own but they add up fast.

Today, I’m making a knitting needle roll to contain the jumbled mess I have tossed into a tote.  They’re nothing new.  Just new to me.  :)

Inspirations:

Made by Loulabelle 

 

Dreamalittle

 

Sewing School

 

Crafty Bob 

Oooh…  the possibilities.  It gives me a great excuse to get out of my painting clothes for an hour and I won’t be so discouraged while trying to get scarves and hats knitted up for the kids for next winter!  Win/Win!   

My $3 Toy Bin

Back to my yard sale loot of a few weeks ago.

See that adorable little hard cased blue suitcase?  I scrubbed it out with the kids this week.  Then it got a little paint love.

 

Little Man’s toy storage looked like this:

Originally, I thought I could just close that drawer every night and hide away the mess.  Then we had a finger catastrophe so I pulled the drawer right out and here it sits.

Now we have:

And it can tuck away at night.  Even better.

I’m linking up at The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday (again).   

My big ass crazy project

There’s no other way to describe it.

HELLO big ugly yellow cabinet!  You are ugly.  What possessed me to paint you yellow? (Oh – I know.  A compromise with my husband.)

You going to talk smack to me?  Well then.  I’m just going to spray some chemicals all over you. (Tip – Get a sitter if you’re alone with kids…  unless you can lock them out of your kitchen.  Open concept kitchen/living room in my house makes that impossible for me.)

Then I will attack you with a putty knife.

After a quick bath, I will caress you with a paint brush.

Then after you have dried for a few hours (not long enough, but I’m impatient after all of these years with the ugly), I will refill your shelves with care.

This is section ONE of SIX.  This is a fairly SMALL section.  I’m breaking this big ass crazy project into small, bite sized pieces as to not completely and totally overwhelm myself with it.  I’m sure some of these items will be moved around once I paint/organize the rest of my cupboards.  But for now, this is what I have.  I store a lot of our dried goods in jars.  I have a ton of canning jars, so why not put them to use, right?

I’m supremely annoyed at the bleeding from the tape.  Tape is supposed to PREVENT paint from getting all over the place.  TAPE FAIL.

Also on slate for the kitchen is to replace the countertops (they have been purchased and have been residing in the basement for a month or so now), build in a book shelf on the end of one cabinet for cookbooks (and to ever so slightly increase counter space in that area), add bead board to the ends of the lower cabinets, paint the walls and re-accessorize with the new color scheme.  The walls and re-accessorizing also happens in the living room thanks to that open concept flooring I mentioned earlier. 

Baby steps.  One little bite at a time.  I hope this doesn’t take me a year.

Two organization projects in one day!

In finishing my hall closet, I emptied off the top shelf of my bathroom closet (it's where I previously had some spare bedding and all of my rags).

An empty shelf?

Must organize!

Here is the before. I had already started a little with the 2 little drawer units, but I still had a ways to go. Our extras were a jumbled mess. And, I hate to confess, but I never cleaned this closet out last spring when I did my Spring Cleaning (Grand Menage for you Franglais speaking people like myself).

The entire closet is nice and clean now. Not to mention, organized! I'm able to store my paper towel, toilet paper and tissue on the top shelf now, instead of in a heap in my basement. I also sorted through all of the old hand lotions I had and all of the medicine. We had quite a bit of cold and allergy medicine past it's time.

It's not pretty to look at, but at least I can find things now.

Turns out, we've got about 10 spare (new) toothbrushes. Good to know!

Hall closet - CHECK.

I finally started my hall closet organization project last week.

I finished it this morning, with Monkey's help.

Let's not forget the mess it was before (actually, I'd very much love to forget it):

I put sleeping bags and spare pillows on the top shelf. Then I put in the 2 hanging garment organizers I got at Target on clearance for $8 a piece. They organize spare sheets, air mattress and air pump very nicely.

I wanted to use an S hook to hang my cleaning bucket from the shelf but had nothing on hand. I'm impatient so I found a teeny bungee cord in T's work bench and used it as a hook. My step stool fits nicely to the side and my vacuum has just enough space to be parked, also. My seldom used ironing board is hiding against the back wall, but still in easy reach should I ever need it (I couldn't tell you the last time I used it. I think it was to iron T's clothes for the wedding we attended back in October...)

This peg rack was already installed inside the door when we bought the house. I decided to utilize it for more organization. We had the hardest time finding this backpack on Sunday to use for Monkey's paraphernalia to go to the hockey game. Now, it has it's very own special spot. The tan bag I made to store clean rags (I even embroidered "Clean Rags" on the front, because I'm cheesy like that).

Now I just need T to paint the door. We did the 2 kids' rooms when we remodeled during my pregnancy for Monkey. Perhaps we'll get the rest done this time?

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the end result!

Home clear out

T's schedule is off this week, thanks to some re-certification classes he has to take. So I'm in the office on Wednesday instead. Next week, it's Monday. Everything should be back to normal after!

So I'm doing my normal Wednesday "Clear it Out" work today.

The two bridesmaid dresses sitting in my spare closet are still sitting there. Today, it's time to list them on craigslist.

I dug out the box of Precious Moments we've had in storage since we bought the house. It's time to ship them on out. So I've spent the past hour looking them up on ebay and deciding on a listing price. I need to figure out how much shipping would be and then list them.

I also found the graduation gift I had given T when we graduated college. It's a hand carved likeness of him. The glue used to attach a syringe and stethoscope has since dissolved, so I need to pull out the glue gun today to fix it. I want to have it fixed and on display when T gets home from work tonight!

Baby steps. Eventually my house will be organized and clutter free.