Slowly but surely

I have stalled in my attempts to get my office organized before the end of the school year.  I've painted, bought a new desk and have a few storage spaces set up. 

But it's still a mess.

I did give my hubby's high school file cabinet a quick makeover so I could start getting my paper organized.

We went from being homely and lonely:

To this sweet looking thing (after a few coats of my favorite Apple Green spray paint!)

Right now I need to start organing all my organizing containers (sounds ironic!) so I can put things back where they belong. 

I did repaint my breakfast buffet (using a DIY chalk paint) so I can have a place to put my sewing machine and Cricut (which I'm hoping to use to cut vinyl instead of scrapbooking....which I just haven't been into lately).  I need to take some after pictures and load those up.  And I stained a bunch of crates from joanns to make my own rustic looking shelves (need to find the pictures on my camera!).  So things are coming along!

I want to recover my mouse & wrist pad and my office chair.  We'll see how that goes!! 

I am getting there, slowly but surely! :)

Can I make it sparkle?

I realized something the other night when I couldn't sleep (jet-lagged, sick kids and maybe that coffee at 6pm before we boarded our plane wasn't such a good idea....).

I really am not all that organized!

The question I had for myself, could I ever become that person?  Someone who puts things back where they are suppose to go, follows a list for cleaning, makes a list for grocery shopping, plans out her meals, writes down what she would like her husband to do around the house, creates a chore chart for her kids to follow and just plain has a place for everything to go.

Ummmm, probably not.

I'm good at finding things on the Internet and just following directions.  I can copy DIY like no body's business.  So why can't I just do the same for organizing and cleaning??    So that is the challenge I present myself, get your house in order.  Get your life in order too (I will lose this weight before I turn 40 next year!) Did I just say that out loud? And maybe create some peace and happiness along the way.

Maybe I can learn to love the label maker I have and never use.

Or actually put tabs on files.

Organize my recipes (and maybe use 1 or 2..) instead of just shoving them into a binder.

Use the coupons I clip (I do have good intentions!)

Make use of the pantry (aka closet in the mudroom) instead of just shoving crap in there.

Do something with the piles of old clothes/toys/knick knacks that keep accumulating in the basement.

Finish one DIY project before starting or buying more stuff for another.

Maybe I can make my life and house sparkle this year (is it really already April? I think I might just pretend it's January!)

lack of blogging

Wow,  I have been gone for awhile!

Life just got crazy.

So hopefully 2012 will bring lots of organization and lots of fun little projects around the house.  And maybe a little Christmas crafting in July for it just didn't happen before the holiday!

My friend dubbed it "the year of peace" and I'm hoping she's right.  The last few months have been stressful and 2012 just has to be better!  I need to get my "sparkle" back and I need a little crafting/scrapping/decorating mojo to help me along.

First up is to get this office in working order.  It's a mess.  I mean filthy, unorganized, over-crowded, filled with crap I wasn't sure where to put.  Time to purge, clean, paint and make it sparkle.  Literally!

Happy 2012!

Easy Faux Roman Shades

I have been trying to get my kitchen put back together the way I would like it since giving my cabinets a face lift.   One thing I have been putting off is window treatments for the one small window.  I have never had them for this window but since painting the cabinets white, I wanted to add just a hint of color!  I searched hi and low for some pre-made ones but nothing that I liked.  And then I saw this on Tatertots & Jello...

I thought to myself, I could totally do that!!!

But then saw the stencil price tag and decided I'm too cheap. But towards the end of her post, she mentioned this website, Imparting Grace.  So I clicked away and LOVED what I saw!

And so easy to do!  You can easily follow her steps or check out my pictures below.  I already had the fabric, I want to make some throw pillows from it.  I have plenty so I measured my window and went to work!

1.  Cut your fabric to fit your window, giving yourself about an inch extra on each side.  I purchased the tension rods from Target, Heat and Bond from Joanns.

2.  Place heat and bond about an inch below fabric. I first ironed about a one inch hem.  The directions on the back of the Heat and Bond are very easy to follow, this was my first time using it.

3. & 4.  Iron fabric down, gently folding a small piece in to create a nice clean edge. Sorry, this picture sucks...

5.  For the top edge, I wanted to have a space to slide the tension rod in.  So I made a hem about 2 inches (sorry, I was working upside down on my ironing board, this is the top part of the shade).

6.  I measured about an inch from where I ironed to figure out where I wanted the Heat & Bond to go.  Then I carefully ironed that seam, making sure I had at least an inch opening for my tension rod.

 Once all the seams were cooled, I hung my shade using 1 tension rod. 



I then placed another tension rod about 4 inches below the top one.  And then the last tension rod about 4 inches below that one.  I then "roman-ized" my shade to my liking, adjusting the distance between the tension rods until I liked what I saw (sorry, forgot to take a picture of that part). 

Voila!  Easy Faux Roman Shade!! In less than an hour!

And here's one with my lovely vintage light on!

Changes are happening!

Yea for fall!  And yea for crossing a few items off my long to-do list!

paint A's big girl room

organize kid's closet

organize pantry

paint mudroom/build lockers

add some bling and accessories to piano room

finish organizing master closet

paint vanity in kid's/guest bathroom

convince husband master bedroom needs a face lift

purge toys in playroom and organize

figure out what to put over the couch...the wall has been sitting empty for 9 months already.

office/craft room needs help. lots of it. might have to save that for 2012!

So I guess I really haven't done as much as I would like but that's a start!  I painted Ava's room but need to finish it, the ribbon stencil was a complete fail (I love how idea pamphlets seem so much easier than they really are!).

Hopefully I can get a few more things done before Thanksgiving!  And then lots more as we enter 2012!!

Locks for Love!

I have to say, my daughter has the most gorgeous hair you have ever seen.  It's long.  It's thick.  And it has the most beautiful natural curls.

But she hates it.  Or I should say, she hates having it combed.  Which means we are pretty limited on what we can do with it for she freaks out when she sees a pick, a comb or brush.  We go through lots and lots of leave-in conditioner and she still cries every time we need to pick through it.

She has been begging me to cut it off for months.  So I told her once it was long enough to donate (because how can you NOT donate this mane of gorgeousness!!), we'd get it cut.

I might have shed a tear or 2 upon seeing her beautiful curls being cut......  But like my very smart 5 year old daughter told me, "it will grow back, mommy."

She's still beautiful and so wise beyond her 5 years!!

Tissue Poms Tutorial

I'm having so much fun getting my daughter's big girl room put together!  I have finished painting the walls, however, the ribbon stencil just didn't go as planned.  So I'm not sure what I'll do about that. :)

I've seen adorable tissue poms all over the party planning blogs and thought, these would be so cute as bedroom decor!  Etsy is overflowing with premade ones but those were a little out of my budget.  So I enlisted in my trusty googling skills and found a great tutorial here.

I went to a few stores to find the colors I wanted. I gathered up my supplies and went to work!

For the first pom, I used all 9 sheets of the light green tissue.  And did not cut them down, I wanted a larger pom.  I started on one side and folded the sheets like an accordion, about an inch wide.  I secured it in the center with white covered floral wire that I picked up at Michael's.  Next, I rounded the ends of each side.  You could do a heart, triangle or whatever look you are going for.  I wanted something soft for these poms.

I then started to slowly separate the tissue apart.  I had a few rips but you can't tell at all once they are hanging!  I carefully attached my choice of ribbon (you probably could hang them with the white covered floral wire too but I wanted a little bling).   I'm assuming there must be an easier way to do this which is why I didn't take a picture....  I made 2 smaller balls, I just trimmed the larger sheets to a size I wanted.  Hang and admire their prettiness!