Hangers

I have been starting small on the organizing project in my new home. I would love to dive right in to so many projects but I am trying not to overwhelm myself. Besides the holidays are right around the corner and I am in a pretty tough class for school so my time is limited.

We finally have a nice walk in closet so of course I would like it to be neat and organize! However this is what it looks like with all our miss-matching plastic hangers.

I am in love with the slim line hangers!! I bought a box of 35 for $10.00 at Costco and tried them out. At first they were a little bit of a pain because they have a felt fabric around the hanger and it really grabs the clothes but it's a plus on my tank top style shirts! No more need for hangers with the indent or slots to place those spaghetti straps! You have to adjust the clothes a bit to have them hang right on the hanger, but wow what a difference! 

I have converted almost all of the closet over. I have to grab a few more boxes to finish the rest this week! They really do maximize the space and I love that all the hangers are the same color! I organize my clothes by color, as you can see, but I also organize by sleeve length. Spaghetti strap tank tops first, then thicker tank top straps, short sleeves, 3/4 length sleeves, long sleeves, and finally sweat shirts or fleeces. I have mostly black clothes (what women doesn't) then my colors run white, brown, red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and grey. I hang all my jeans and pants and again by color and length (pants, or capris). I also have a section for sweats. I am a stay-at-home mom so I have lots of sweats! So I organize the sweat outfits by color as well.

How do you organize your clothes? 

Were in! Let's get organizing!

Wow that 19 days went fast since my last post! We have been in our new home for a week now.....swimming in boxes trying to find a spot for everything but we love our new home. I can't wait to organize it and show you what I have done. First spot (because it's the easiest and I need to start small) my mud room. Any suggestions as to what I should decorate the cubbies up top with? I have bins for the 5 cubbies below for the shoes, and two smaller bins for a cubbie up top to hold keys and sunglasses. Am I missing anything? Coats, backpacks, shoes, keys, sunglasses????

19 days and counting

I can't believe I will be in my new home in 19 days! I can't wait........seriously I can't wait. I am going a little crazy with all the boxes. I can't tell you how many times I go to look for something only to realize it is packed! The chaos in my house is getting to me but I just take a deep breath and think about all the organizing I will get to do when we move in, and that calms me. I know, clams me, really? Yes, I am weird and love to organize stuff, and make it neat and pretty! I think the kitchen is my favorite space and the first room I will tackle to organize. Any organizational tips for the kitchen please leave me a comment, I would love to hear how you organized your kitchen and what is working for you.

31 days and counting!

OMG I have been so busy with packing and getting ready for the move. On top of school, state test, kids and life in general. We are officially 31 days out and I can barley stand to wait! Even though I feel a little overwhelmed I am still organized. I am to the point where most of the house is packed and I will only have the last minute packing of stuff we are currently using or need. My organization system is working out great! Here are a few new pictures of the house! 

Front of the house 

Back of the house 

Wood floors before the stain 

Wood floors after the stain 

 

Title in the shower 

Cabinets

Let me repeat.....I can not wait to move in!!!!

Pre-drywall House Pictures - So Important!!!

We just had our pre-drywall walk thru on our house. I can not stress to any future home buyers who are building a home how important it is to take pre-drywall pictures! We did it on our first home and I can't tell you how many times we referenced those pictures to "see" what was behind the wall. However on our first house we did not take enough. So this time thru I took about a 130 pictures!

On our first house we also made another mistake. We took the pictures and then downloaded them. That's it. I did not label what room it was, or make any notes about the pictures. When it came time to look up a picture it took awhile to find the right wall as they all look alike! So this time I took the pictures and then did some editing. Thank goodness for Photoshop! I was able to bright the pictures and then write right on the picture as to what room it was. Here is just a few:

See that big pole??? I know I would more than likely want to hang something on the wall and would hit the pole with my luck! 

The house is moving along so fast! I can not wait to get into it! And when I need to "see" what's behind the wall.........I think I will be ready!

Packing Boxes

So now that I have my moving organized system in place, I have started the packing. We started by asking everyone we know for boxes. Thankfully our great friend who runs a restaurant has had his crew saving boxes for us for weeks. My favorite is the boxes his lettuce comes in. They are a great size!

Organizing a Move

 I have never moved before......well let me rephrase that. I have never moved 11 years worth of stuff and two kids. When my husband and I moved into our first home we were young, childless and had barely any furniture or stuff! We have begun our first step in the moving process and are trying to go thru and donate or sell items we will not be needing but the rest all has to get packed. I of course need to have some sort of an organization system in place to help me not feel/get so overwhelmed! After searching my favorite site, Pinterest, for some packing/moving ideas I collaborated my organizing system. I loved these ideas from one of my favorite blogs A Bowl Full of Lemons. She borrowed from another favorite organizer of mine, Alejandra, a color coded system to label her boxes. I loved that idea and did the same. Here is my legend.

We have a roof!

They are moving so fast on our new home! I can't wait I am so excited.

They have moved our closing date up twice which is awesome as I can't wait to get into the house but that means less time for me to pack! My packing/moving system is working well so far. I will be posting about that really soon!

Longboat Key, Florida

How fast time flies when your on vacation! My husband and I traveled to Longboat Key in Florida at least once a year. We love it there. We just got back and I think this was the first time we went that it was cooler in Florida then it was here in Chicago!!! We add a short stop in Clearwater this year and the kids had a blast at the pool in the hotel we stayed at. Just a short ride down to LBK and fun in the sun began! The kids swam at the pool or played at the beach everyday! I even got a great family photo of us. 

On our return flight home we end up stuck at the airport for over 5 hours due to mechanical issues. The airline was very nice about and even gave us all free round trip tickets for a future flight for our inconvenience.....Florida here we come again! 

Longboat Key on Dwellable

Took a break and scapped!

It felt so good to take a break from my chaos and scrap. Did a quick digi page. Enjoy!

Products used: Bella Gypsy Extra Strength Mischief Kit and I do what I want template from Bella Gypsy.

It's official ~ We are moving!!!!

I am so excited because the construction on our new house has begun. See me and the boys and our hole :)

So I have already begun our moving plans. I have created a moving binder, color coded system for the boxes that will correlate with what room in the new house they will go in, tabs in the binder such as address changes, moving to do, a moving calendar tracking the progress of our house as well as packing schedule and so much more. If anyone has moving tips or organization ideas for making a smooth move please share!!!

Chalkboard Paint ~ finally got to play with it!

I tackled my first project with spray painting furniture and using chalkboard paint. I picked a piece of furniture I knew the kids were outgrowing just in case I messed up! Here is what it looked like before:

Lego Instructions....Everywhere!!!

My son has so many legos! I have organized his legos by colors in drawers but he is out growing that storage so soon I will need to make a trip to Ikea for some larger storage. The other part of legos that is crazy out of control is the lego instructions. I had them all in a bin thinking a 6 year old could keep them organized that way. Wrong!!! When he wants to build he pulls out every instruction book and spreads them all over the floor. Then he finds the one he wants to build and starts building leaving all the other instruction books all over the floor. Then Tornado Trace comes into his room and steps all over the instructions on the floor, ripping, bending, and folding them! So I could not take it anymore. Time to organized all those instructions!

School Box

Thanks to Pinterest I am so motivated to do projects. I found this project here at I Heart Organization one of my favorite sites. Jen has amazing ideas and I heart her blog! Now let me tell you a little story as to why I wanted to make these boxes for my kiddos. They bring home TONS and I mean tons of paperwork from school. I began taking pictures of their art work when my oldest son was in preschool. After I took the picture I threw away most of the artwork and save a few pieces in a bin. After they complete a year I then take the pictures and put them together in any online book.

What's for Dinner?

I dread this question. I really dislike this question when I have forgotten to thaw the meat, need to go grocery shopping and have a child whining how hungry he is. I don't know about you but I feel like I am constantly thinking about food. I have to plan out a menu, look to see if I have all the ingredients, write the shopping list, drive to the store, pick up the items of the shelf, put them in the cart, take them out of the cart put them on the belt, take the bags and put them in the car, drive home, take the groceries from the car to the kitchen, take the items out of the bag and set them on the counter, take the items from the counter and put them away, take them out later for the meal and use them! I have touched all those items 10 times and haven't even cook anything!

I have kids so I am always watching the time. It's time for breakfast, it's time for snack, it's time for lunch, it's time for snack and now it's time for dinner and I don't have a plan! UGH!!

So I have been working on re-vamping my Household Management Binder (to be reveled soon!) and I knew I need to have a better plan for my dinner menu. I can handle the breakfast and lunch items but dinner needed a plan. I was looking at all the wonderful menu planners out on the web but none of them seem to fit what I was looking for. I was in the mood to scrap so I decided to make my own menu planner. What do you think?

Hot Day Fun!!!

I don't know about where you live but here in IL we need some rain....badly!! With that being said the kids are dying to cool off everyday but we are trying to conserve the water and our water bill!! So thanks to Pinterest (I heart that site) I found a great idea. Water sponge balls!!! They were so easy to make. You just buy some Cello sponges (I bought the package that was 4 to a package), cut them into 4 strips, put 6 strips together (I liked using 2 different colors) and zip tie in the middle. My husband has a great little tool that cuts the zip tie so there is no sharp edge left over and it cuts it clean. I used some dollar store buckets filled with water and put one kid at one end of the yard with a bucket and sponges and the other kid at the other end of the yard with a bucket and sponges. The kids had a blast and got really wet. All we had to do was re-fill their buckets from time to time. We saved on water, money and the kids had a blast!! Thank you Pinterest!

Family Meeting

I am not sure if it is because school is out but my children seem to have forgotten the rules. My husband and I feel like all we have been doing is disciplining and we are tired of hearing each others voices. Trace is now 4 and is in the whiny, screaming when mad, talking back phase. Nathan is in his "I want all the attention and if I don't get it I am going to do bad things to get attention." He also is in the I want to be first all the time,not be nice to my brothers and talking back phase. So we had a family meeting last night and here is what I did. First I took my son's art easel and set it up in our living room with a message on the white board that we would be having a family meeting at 7pm

Let's Remember That Birthday!

Today my youngest son turns 4. I can't believe how fast the time goes by. We have lots of excitement planned out for the day. Over the years I try to write down all the moments and funny things my kids say so I can look back someday and remember. That got me thinking about doing a birthday sheet of questions for the kids. Here is what I came up with.

Strawberry Picking!!!

The kids and I went strawberry picking!!! The strawberries looked great this year. This is the second year I have taken the boys. They really have fun trying to find that perfect strawberry. The great thing about strawberry picking is we get these cute little baskets.

I am already thinking of idea on how I can use these baskets! Maybe for my scrapbooking items, or the boys art items, or maybe in my pantry to hold those lose snacks??? What would you use it for?

Summer Fun and Learning

Well my kids are officially out of school! Time to start our summer fun. This year I have decided to keep things a little more simple. We will of course have our bucket list but our "school" work will be a little more laid back (see our bucket list here). With me in school this summer my time is limited. So I decided to run with a theme each week, read books based on the theme, an arts/craft project, 2 letters of the alphabet a week to practice our writing, one fun activity and maybe a stick from our bucket if it correlates. Here are my themes for the 12 weeks:

Summer Bucket List

The kids and I sat down and made a list of all the thing we want to do this summer and created our summer bucket list. Last year we made a list and checked off the things. This year, thanks to Pinterest I found a great idea with popsicle sticks from The Home Teacher.

Don't forget about those bus drivers!

I wanted to thank Nathans bus driver Kim. She is so sweet,  and always waves at me when she picks up Nate. On the school improvement days when Nathan has AM Kindergarten instead of PM Kindergarten she always makes sure he gets in the house before she pulls away. It also blew my mind that she gave Nathan goodie bags for all the holidays! I never had a bus driver do that when I was younger. So I made her a card and then found this of course on Pinterest!

There are several great printable on this site. Click here for the bus printable. Here is the card I made her. I love it! It started off with just the bus and then my mojo kicked in.

Happy Memorial Day

We have such a great weekend planned out. Tomorrow we are hanging with some great friends of ours to swim and BBQ so I made some quick buckets for the kids. Each bucket cost about $6.00 I have snaps, temporary tattoos, glow sticks, a ring pop, and a pinwheel all wrapped up in a cute bucket. Here is what I started with:

Teacher Gifts

I wanted to find something for my kids teachers that wasn't the typical thank you gift. My husband and I absolutely loved our son's teachers this year! They were wonderful and we wanted them to know it! I found this idea on Pinterest (who doesn't love that site).

So I copied the idea and modified it a bit to add my personal touch. I got most of the items at Walmart and Meijer. Each gift cost about $13.00!! I printed a little note and had the boys sign their name. Here are the supplies I started with.

 

I put it together and thought it needed something refreshing. Water maybe??

Nope....didn't like it. The water was too heavy and I could totally see my boys losing the water bottle and then trying to jam it back in and wreaking the whole gift. While in Meijer grocery shopping I saw these cute little cups....perfect! Here is the final outcome.

All three together

I am happy with the outcome and can't wait to give them to the best teachers!

My One Word - Change (update)

In January I picked one word to be my word for the year. I choose CHANGE. There were several things I wanted to change in my life. One thing I wanted to change was my grade point average. In high school I was for the most part an honor student but always felt I could have done better. After almost 7 months in school I am currently holding a 4.0 GPA!!! Another thing I wanted to change was more "me" time. I have sacrificed for years between family, friends, and life style choices. Now don't hate me when I say this, but I decided to change, and become a little more selfish. I was always trying to help others, and always saying yes to others. This year I took a step back, not that I don't want to help others, or say yes to others, but I think I learned to say "how will this affect you and how will this affect your family." If I found that saying yes meant sacrificing time with my family, or something that I wanted to do on my priority list I have learned to say no. I also wanted to change my diet and exercise. I can say I have made some minor changes but I need some bigger changes to happen there. My relationship with my husband has changed. Changed for the good. I think we have learned to appreciate each other more and we have had some of the best talks. My favorite time is sitting with him on the sofa just talking after we get the kids in bed. We have had so many great talks that I have logged in my memory banks! The biggest change is yet to come (I'm so close to telling).......to be continued!

My one word for 2012

CHANGE

That's my word. So many things in my life need to change and I need to change them for me. Sorry if that sounds a little selfish but this year I need to stop putting so many of my efforts into everyone else and take care of me a little better. I have started a pinterest board to remind me of my word thru out the year. You can see it here

Here's to a Happy New Year!

Thankful

Everyday in November I will post what I am thankful for. I have seen this many times but I feel I want to do just to remind me how blessed my life is:

Nov1: I am thankful for my husband. He is a wonderful man.
Nov 2: I am so thankful for my kids. They have brought so much joy to my life and I am truly blessed that they were brought into my life. I could not imagine life with out them! Love you boys!
Nov 3: I am thankful that my husband is employed. Just over a year ago he was laid off from his job of 9 years and it was the scariest moment in my life. I believe things happen for a reason and now he is more than happy with the job he has moved into.
Nov 4: I am thankful for my dog Hazel. She has been my companion since my journey with Ron started. It is hard to watch her age.
Nov 5: I am thankful for the marriage I have. My husband and I are really a team, best friends, lovers, and at times annoyances to each other. It makes our marriage strong!
Nov 6: I am thankful for my Aunt. I really don't know what I would do with out her. She always gives me a helping hand. I am so lucky to have her!
Nov 7: I am thankful for coffee! I really don't know what I would do with out it!
Nov 8: I am thankful for my mother in law. I'm so lucky to have such a loving, caring mother in law. I know so many who don't get along with their mother in law but mine is the best. She loves me and my kids and everything about us! Happy Birthday Mom!
Nov 9: I am thankful for bad days. Yes I know. Sounds silly right. But today I am having a bad day. This helps me realize and be thankful for the good days.
Nov 10: I am thankful I was born on this date!
Nov 11: I am thankful for my father in law. He is a sweet, wonderful man and is so good with the boys. I see so much of Ron in him. He loves me like I am his own daughter. Happy Birthday Dad!
Nov 12: I am thankful for my little brother in law. I am so lucky to have such a great relationship with him. He makes me laugh so much and brings so much joy to my heart!
Nov 13: I am thankful for sleep. Oh boy did I need it today!
Nov 14: I am thankful for my best friend Carey. She is truly the definition of a real best friend in every way!
Nov 15: I am thankful I made my decision to go back to school and get my BA in Elementary Teaching
Nov 16: I am thankful for the feeling I have when my house is all clean and in order. Nothing beats that feeling.
Nov 17: I am thankful for my Dad. He is my hero and always will be!
Nov 18: I am thankful for my Mom. She is such a strong woman and sometimes I don't know how she does it.
Nov 19: I am thankful for the team effort me and my husband have. We really do work well together (most of the time).
Nov 20: I am thankful for the time I got to spend with my Dad today. It was wonderful!
Nov 21: I am thankful I made it thru my first week of school!!! Hopefully reaching all points!
Nov 22: I am thankful for that all the necessities in my life are provided for me and that I never have to want for simple life necessities.
Nov 23: I am thankful for Christmas shopping. I love trying to find gifts and imagine what there face and reaction will be to it. I love it when I find that perfect gift for someone that they really wanted!
Nov 24:  I am thankful my families live close and I was able to spend time with both sides of the family!
Nov 25: I am thankful for Black Friday! I love getting up early and shopping.
Nov 26: I am thankful for my neighbors Ron and Tanya. They are really great neighbors and that is so rare to find good neighbors now a days. We may not always get together do to our schedules but we really do appreciate their friendship
Nov 27: I am thankful for Christmas music. There are so many memories that are brought back to me every year I hear them. I love seeing my kids now sing them.
Nov 28: I am thankful for the joy on my kids faces when we do our family holiday traditions. They love them all and I am so thankful I am able to share those traditions with them.
Nov 29: I am thankful that I get to spend the holidays with my family every year. There are so many that have to miss holidays because they are out defending our freedom. God bless them all!
Nov 30: I am thankful for my friendship with my friend Mike.  I am so proud of all his accomplishments in his Navy career and the man that he has become. Today he is being deployed :( Stay safe Mike and I will see you when you come home!