Ladder Quilt Rack

I have so many projects I want to get started on, but I am still having to wait on the doctor's approval to start lifting heavy items. I am reminded several times a day that where once was a gallbladder, now resides a slight tinge of pain when I try to over-do it.. I am not a patient person. If the mind is willing, so should be the body, is my thought;o) 

So I have been piddling around the house, trying to clean things out and make things a little more organized.

I love to organize.

 I cleaned out a closet this morning that had tons of junk in it...it was the hubs' junk closet...shhhhh! Don't tell him I threw away a ton of boxes that had absolutely no purpose what-so-ever;o)

He's never been one to throw away boxes that electronics come in. Some of the boxes have been hanging out in that closet since before we moved here...mind blowing, right?;o) 

That last statement is absolutely impossible since we are the only owners of this house;o) A slight exaggeration. 

So anyway, here is another way I have been organizing.

I found this cute ladder (1/2 a ladder to be precise), on a Facebook yard sale page.  I have been able to find so many great deals on our local site. If you guys aren't apart of one, I highly recommend it; from a buyer and seller standpoint. 

It's so much easier than having to get up at O-dark-30 every Saturday morning. 

This little ladder has been a great way to store our blankets in the living room, and it's super cute. And guess what?!? I only paid $10 for it. Awesome, I know.

Now to teach the kids and the hubs how to properly fold the blankets and re-hang them...one can dream, right?

New Chore Charts

Now that summer break is here, I decided it was time to reinstate the chore responsibilities for the kiddos. Last year, I made a chore list, and my intentions were to teach E and S.R. responsibility and the value of hard work, but my system was truly broken and our excitement for it lasted all of one week. 

Expecting my kids to do the same things over and over again day after day was just expecting too much. I certainly don't do the same things day after day. We all need a little variety, right?

So to fix my broken system, I searched on line for age appropriate chores. 

It's truly amazing what little ones can do...we really don't give them enough credit. If you check my Pinterest board, you can visit the sites where I found my ideas...

This particular idea came from the Martha Stewart website.

 Thankfully this little project was mostly free to me. I had one sheet of magnet paper left. I printed the kids' pictures and the chores with the money value on them(in 25 cent increments). I had blue card stock, and cut it down to size and put the kids' pictures on top and made little button magnets to hold the bottom in place. 

The paycheck pad is something made on publisher. I used Vistaprint to print the notepad. Once it arrived in the mail, I attached magnets to the back.

We are now on week three and still going strong. The kids get to pick some of the chores to do and I delegate some as well. Saturdays are for make up work because sometimes we are gone and they don't get the chance to really make any money those days.

It is amazing how much cleaner my house is now. If you haven't started making your kids do chores, you are truly missing out....and so are they!

Cottage Style Kids' Bathroom

Last Saturday, while the hubs was hard at work in the backyard, I was wasting the day away indoors. It dawned on me that I have started SEVERAL projects over the last few months, and haven't finished ANY of them. 

I decided that since hubs was working so hard, I probably should get with it, and do something myself:o) So, I finally finished the kids' bathroom.

Our kids' wipe their little paws all over the walls, and leave the paw prints behind. We needed a solution where we wouldn't be using a Magic Eraser on our walls every other day.

I had noticed a lot of magazines using horizontal boards as a wall treatment, and I knew that would be the perfect solution to our dilemma. 

I happened to be in Lowes one day, and these boards were marked down significantly...and in my van they went!

 I have gotten the hubs do so many wood working projects over the last 10 years, that he has gotten really proficient at it;o) Mad skills I tell ya.

He's not a fan of miter cuts, but he did a fantastic job in this bathroom!

There is a lot of storage space in this Jack and Jill bath. This closet was only holding towels, so I decided to make it into a little nook for taking shoes off. 

 It was full of wire shelving, so we had to rip those out and patch a lot of holes. I really like how cute it turned out. The fabric for the seat cushion and curtain came from Hobby Lobby. The basket was a Marshall's purchase.

I found this cute little hook at Hobby Lobby. They were 50% off this week, so it was around $4. This is where the kids hang their towel while taking a shower. Notice that awesome mitered corner?...mad skills..I'm telling ya, mad skills;o)

 I spray painted this coat rack a metallic silver, and now it serves as a towel rack.

The art work is something I came up with. I'll share how I did it in my next post, so stay tuned!

I'm so glad to be able to check this bathroom off the list. Now to finish S.R.'s quilt, and the playroom!!

Ideas to Make Life Easier

Here is an email I received today. Thought I would share this tips with you all!

Enjoy!

Hull strawberries easily using a straw.

Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture

will disguise dings and scrapes.  Rubbing a walnut

over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings

and scrapes.

Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or

computer screen with WD40.

Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box

by securing with a rubber band.

Overhaul your linen cupboard, store bed linen sets

inside one of their own pillowcases and there will

be no more hunting through piles for a match.

Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone & iPod

in a bowl.  The concave shape amplifies the music.

Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.

Add this item to your beach bag.  Baby powder

gets sand off your skin easily, who knew?!

Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys.

Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls

against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the

floor.

Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a

stocking over the vacuum hose.

Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting

crosses into a box lid.

For those who can’t stand the scrunching and

bunching: how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet.

Forever losing your bathroom essentials?  Use

magnetic strips to store bobby pins, tweezers

and clippers, behind a vanity door

Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty

soles rubbing on your clothes.  And you can

find them in just about every hotel.

A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy.  Magnets

hold the plastic cups down to make them

tip-resistant.

Bread tags make the perfect cord labels.

Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones, so

much more fun and easier for kids to eat.

Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper

bag.  Much healthier and cheaper than the packet

stuff.

Install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles.

Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough

over the top and voila, you have cookie bowls for fruit

or ice-cream.

Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing

sunburn relief.

Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.

Use egg cartons to separate and store your

Christmas decorations.

Pretty cool, huh?

Finds From the Dollar Tree

I was needing a Dollar Tree fix the other day, so I packed up my babies, and off we went. I wanted to see if there was anything for E's birthday party (which is in 3 months). I like to plan ahead, don't hate;o) Anyway, I didn't find much for his party, just 2 horse shoe games, but I found some other great stuff.

This will be one of the party games. I am doing a cowboy theme. I asked E the other day if he wanted a cowboy themed b-day party and he said YEAH! I think we have a winner. It may be that Toy Story 3 is on the brain:o) Speaking of that, they have a really good selection of TS3 stuff. I found some stocking stuffers.

The sticker books in the back were actually advertised during the TS3 previews, and I couldn't pass up the canvas art. It comes with markers. These may be coming from Santa this year;o)

I thought that this oven mitt was really cute, and I have needed one like this for about 3 years now. I have been too cheap to go out and get one...it's not like they are expensive. It was more out of pure laziness. I like it because it has that vinyl-ish stuff on the other side.

Now for my FAVE finds at the $ Tree:

I found these little bins at the $ Tree!!! Are they not the cutest things? And how perfect are they for S.R.'s Dollhouse bookcase? I'm not sure if you are aware of how much I LOVE to organize. I was in organization HEAVEN when I saw these pups.

I couldn't believe it when I saw them, and of course that's when the children were at their worst....but I didn't care, I was going to search thru the stash and find exactly what I needed. I love it! Check out this one:

Perfect for her little dress up shoes with it's cute compartments.

And I also found these:

I really like these. They are wall decals. I know where the "family" one and the "God" one are going already.  Ahhh! Can you stand it? I love $ Tree. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. I am gearing up for a yard sale tomorrow. I am letting go of all the baby stuff....sniff, sniff:( It's gonna be HOTT! 

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Just a reminder, we are 3 followers away from the next give away!

My Craft Room

So glad to be back in the blogging world. I have missed you all! I took a much needed break to recover from a procedure done on a kidney stone. Feeling great and ready to jump back on the crafting horse:o)
During the recovery process, I had bits of energy and wanted to get some spring cleaning done. I thought I would start in my craft room first. I can't seem to find the before pictures, but I do have the after, and I am glad I finally got around to cleaning up.

 This is actually supposed to be a walk-in closet, but I made sure that the hubs new when we were building this house that this one was a-a-a-ll mine! I wanted a place where I could just shut the door and leave the creative mess behind and know that it wouldn't be touched by sweet little precious hands:o) This room is 5'9"x7'. It's a small space, a really, really small space, but it is mine...ALL MINE!

Because there are no windows in this closet, (why would there be??) I painted a mural on the wall just to add a little color, so as to not start rocking back and forth, staring into space and humming an eery tune;o) 

 A little storage organization...I used these boxes when the babies were little to keep stuff organized in their closets. I think they were from the Dollar General? Anyway, they weren't being used anymore, so I put large spools of ribbon, small wooden projects, and other misc. stuff in them. 

 My patterns, (green box & the basket), my sewing books, and a few other binders holding projects of past, present and future. Notice that roll of duct tape? Every craft room needs some:o)

 This side holds all my scrapping supplies. I have to say, I am not as into the scrapbook stuff like I used to be. I don't get the instant gratification like I do from sewing. And when I sew something, I can get better use out of it. I still use this stuff on occasion, but I use my sewing machine more.

I got this storage rack from a yard sale last summer. It even still has the orange $3 price tag on it(top right). This houses all my ribbon, notions, and owners manuals. I love having this thing. Keeps all the mess out of sight.

 All my fabric on hand. I actually went thru all of it the other day and folded it all. Blech! But it does look really nice:o)

Where all my creations start. This is actually an old singer sewing table with the foot pedal and it still has the original machine inside. I think it belonged to a very old cousin of my mother's. I used to do my homework on this thing when I was little. I am so glad that I have it. 

Well there ya have it. My craft room. My own special place to create. Now off to the craft room to get biz-ay!