Putting odd wall space to use

I have a major staircase redo in the works, but until then, I'm adding this post to Beth's party!
Thank you for your encouragement about my last post! You are all so wonderful and it warmed my heart. Thanks to those who have already gotten in touch with me -- I'm so excited about working with you all!!

So you may have heard me complain about our lack of beautiful stairway railings in our house. (Especially at Christmas with the GORG garland wrapped around them.) I only have myself to blame for this -- hubby wanted them when we were building our house but I was already hyperventilating about the growing size of our mortgage with every. single. little. thing. we were adding. The extra four grand for railings (come on) was enough to put me over the edge.

So I've dealt with what we have. Which is a bunch of HUUUUGE walls on our stairway. It is open to the top of our house, about 25 feet up, so there's lots of space to work with. I've done a couple things to fill these spaces, the first of which I wanted to share with you today:

I started with a vinyl rub on from Uppercase Living. If you haven't heard about them, I wrote about the products here. I love this stuff!! Luuuuurve it!

I found floating frames at Joann's at half off -- I've probably spent about $50 on all of them. I love that there is no mat, just the wall showing through:
I started taking my own pictures of our son when he was itty bitty -- the baby who NEVER cried screamed like a banshee for his first professional pictures -- so that day I went home, stripped him down, laid him on black fabric, and shot away. I did this often his first year or so:
**This does not work with a two-year-old. :)

I didn't use any kind of design to put these up -- just hung them willy nilly, and I love doing it that way:
It's one of the first things you see when you walk into our home and it's one of my favorite spots. I just added a new one today, and may add one more, but I don't know. I like all the "white space":

I always suggest this kind of wall for weird hallways and stairways. I think it is a beautiful way to deal with awkward spaces like this. The pictures cost me nothing because I print them at home, on regular paper. Love it!

And yes, I hang my head at the awful lack of stepdaughter pictures. I am really a good stepmom, I swear. It's hard getting a good picture of a teenager -- especially when they don't live with you full time. (Or hardly ever come over anymore cause they are too busy with work, choir, friends, boyfriend, school, sporting events....wait, sorry....rant.) Sniff. :)

It's about that time

So I’ve been debating on doing two things on this blog for a long time now… my mind started spinning when I started to get really into this bloggy thing a few months ago and I’ve been mulling over it since then.

Because I spend more time blogging then on my real job lately (it’s only a part time job but…seriously) and because I have dedicated so much time to this site (and have loved every second of it), I have decided to go ahead with these two things and I hope you’ll support me…

Nervous giggle. Bites nails.

First of all, I’ve decided to accept advertising. I would love it if any of you (or anyone you know) would want to advertise on the site. My hope is it will become an avenue for Etsy sellers or moms and women who sell items and services. The rate is $10 a month and will go month to month. For more info on this, please contact me via e-mail (see left column).

Another one I’m REAL nervous about is consultations. Back in the day I thought I would never do this, but the idea has occurred to me more than once and it’s been growing on me. I have decided to offer simple decorating consults for $10. They can be just about anything you can think of – help with paint colors, molding ideas, furniture placement, accessorizing, organization ideas, draperies – you name it. I can’t offer any fancy-schmancy graphic programs though, just ideas and inspiration and maybe a kick in the you-know-what to make it happen. And when I say this will be simple, I mean it. You can send pics, videos, etc. Whatever you want. And I will use what knowledge I do have about decorating to help you out. If the project is bigger, like ideas to finish off a whole room, we can discuss pricing.

Click here to try it out and then e-mail me:

I have to say – I LOVE LOVE LOVE when you all e-mail me questions on how do something I’ve posted about and I welcome those, adore those, please keep those coming. I really don’t want to sound like I’m taking advantage of you…and I hope you all keep the e-mails and questions coming. I am thrilled when I get a message from one of you telling me that I have inspired you. That is part of the reason I’ve decided to do this – it has been an honor to be that inspiration and I want to help you make your home even more comfortable and beautiful.

I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this. I guess I don’t want any of you to think I think I’m all that. I most certainly don’t. I have thought long and hard about this and am fully prepared for them to totally flop and that is OK with me! My love of decorating and blogging will keep on…and you’ll all still be my BFs. Foreva.

Thanks for your support!

I'm baaaaack!!

Well hellooooo there! First of all, thanks for your sweet thoughts about my son! He's doing GREAT -- actually improved quite a bit within 24 hours. So I felt OK leaving town with my stepdaughter, more on that later. And I am overwhelmed by your comments on the pantry. Glad I wasn't the only one who was gaga over it!

Before I tell you about our trip...I have to give you a rundown of my VERY VERY BAD week last week.

Saturday night, on a date with my husband, our car was broken into while we had dinner. Window smashed, bags taken, police report, all the fun stuff. Felt so relieved and blessed when an hour later, they found our bags tossed just around the corner and all that was taken was my husband's iPod.

Took three days to get my window fixed because of two mess ups with the window replacement companies.

Found our our son had pneumonia, as you know, right before both my husband and I were leaving town to separate places and leaving him with family. NOT fun. He's never done breathing treatments and was a champ, but I was a bit of a mess at the thought of leaving him.

He was doing much better the next day, I was feeling better about leaving town. Then we realized a STUPID financial mistake that cost us $1,000 -- and I felt like it was MY fault. My sweet husband argues that but I felt completely responsible. I cried. A lot. (A lot a lot.)

I had to leave by 3 a.m. Friday morning to get us to the airport, and ended up getting NO sleep that night because of my mind racing. None. Zilch.

I pulled out of the garage at 3 a.m. and proceeded to back (slam.) right into my sister's car. Hard. Cussed a bit, pulled up into our garage to get around her, and then ran over my son's not-cheap stroller. RAN OVER IT. Needless to say, it's a goner.

So, you can tell by now, I really, really, REALLY needed a weekend away. That came in the form of a school trip with my stepdaughter to New York City. Some of you already know my love for this city. We love it so much, we got married there. So it was just what I needed. I had to share some of my love with you all:

I took advantage of our free time that first day by walking around and getting my NYC mojo back -- it's been a couple years since I've been there. I stumbled upon this:

Any of you that are Sex in the City fans know this little bakery -- I never really watched the show, but have heard about this place for awhile now. I knew I must. have. a cupcake. I wish I had the nerve to take pics inside...but I will only go so far. I'm a tourist through and through. But these were REAL New Yorkers in line...I couldn't do it! It was just beautiful...old fashioned tin lights, tile floors. Beadboard everywhere. Aqua subway tiles. Carrera marble countertops. GORG!!

I got a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese icing. Oh. my. Goodness:

Stop with the goofy eyes, my girlfriend said. So she tried again...

Now, stop with the freaky eyes. Tried again:

There we go. I wasn't processing well -- I had been up for 24+ hours straight and that cupcake was blowing my mind!!

Times Square is ALIVE. No other way to put it:

People don't think of NYC as a family vacation but you SHOULD!! There are so many fun places for children! You could spend days just in FAO Schwartz, Toys R Us, Central Park, the Hershey's store, the M&M store -- it's endless.

There is a massive ferris wheel inside Toys R Us:

There are so many fun things to look at in the store -- a life-size Barbie house, massive Lego buildings, the coolest Thomas train table I've ever seen (my son would DIE!), and more fun stuff, like this guy, who moves around and gives you the stink eye:

Told you:

Look at the all of the M&M colors to pick from at the M&M store! Three floors of this stuff!:

If you go, you must see a show. One of our favorites is Wicked:

This time we saw Billy Elliot and it was A-mazing. I can't even tell you how amazing. It will take your breath away:

Kids would LOVE Lion King, or Little Mermaid. This time we saw Shrek, which wasn't one of the best I've seen, but young kids would have a blast!

And you have to go to the top of something. On my first trip to NYC, we were able to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty, but you can't do that anymore. We've also been to the Empire State Building, and this time went to the "Top of the Rock" -- Rockefeller Center. Best view I've seen yet. This is facing north, toward Central Park:

Looking down at the city:

And south, toward the Statue and the Empire State Building. The twin towers stood all the way down at the end, slightly to the right. You can see how bare the sky looks there now. Still hard to see it that way:

Sigh. I love this city. I just adore it. I can't really explain it, but I love it like a person. Weird, I know...it just makes you feel alive.

Boy, did I need it this week!! Now, I'm recovering from 18 hours of sleep in four days. I'm off to take a nap. :)

My dream pantry...almost!

First I have to apologize for keeping you hanging...we found out this afternoon our toddler has pneumonia (!!) so we have been dealing with doc and pharmacy visits, breathing treatments, phone calls, etc., all night. He's only got a cough and otherwise is great...we just feel so awful for him. AND I'm supposed to go on a trip out of town this weekend and now I'm not sure if it will happen...time will tell. I hope he gets better quickly! My poor baby...


Anyhoo...last year started my quest to have a GORG pantry. Don't ask me why. I obsess about the little things. I want to get a new door with glass panes...but with the seedy glass in them so you can't really see everything inside. I want a light installed at the top of the pantry (WHY don't we think of these things when we build our homes???) so when the lights are off in the kitchen, I can just turn that on and it will just glow...sigh. I see it all in my mind. I'm weird, I know.

BUT that takes lots of money...soooooo onto the new plan. I saw Melaine's new organized pantry last week and it put me into a tizzy. I HAD TO HAVE IT. So I started my thrifty sleuthing and figured out a way...

I found some big honkin' glass containers that were perfect for my quest at Hob Lob early this week. I stood in the aisle staring at them for about 15 minutes because they were $8 and not on sale. Should I?? Shouldn't I?? I decided to be patient and wait till they went on sale. But then I went to the Deals store and there they were. For $5. OK, still not a great deal, but better. And no more delayed gratification! So I grabbed one, thinking I'd see how they worked.

Got to the checkout and she says, that will be $1 something...I said WHAT HUH?? And asked about the big $5.00 tag on them and she said, nope they are ringing up at a dollar!

Good God woman, I love you!!

Before she could change her mind, I said real quick and quiet (so the manager wouldn't hear) -- can you add five more on please??? I went back (fast.) and scooped up five more, blew a kiss to the cashier on the way back out and SKIPPED OUT THE DOOR. Whew. hoo.

I went ape crazy when I got home...and turned this:



Into this:

The skies open up...birds sing...

Later that day, I went back for more. DRATS they had fixed the price!! But the kind checkout lady pointed to some huge honkin' plastic containers that were a dollar as well and the skies opened up again. They were PERFECT for the snacky foods my son eats. This way he can get to them and not have to pick up a five pound glass container. (This is good. Things happen for a reason.)

Then I went to Lowe's and got a piece of plywood cut into five shelves. Got some shelf liner and covered them and just laid them on top of the wire shelves (I. hate. wire. shelves.) and this is the result:

Do you hear singing? I hear singing. Remember my little clue? (Ummm...hilarious reading your guesses by the way...) I bought wood rulers, painted the backs with my extra chalkboard paint, and hung them with ribbon:

You know I labeled them all:

I ended up putting all of the pasta, flour, powered sugar, rice, brown sugar and three containers of crackers and two of cookies into these glorious jars/containers. (Oh, and I need to go grocery shopping in a BAD way. It is normally not this empty, I swear.)

I hear singing.

I never knew how glorious the container in the pantry idea was -- it's AWESOME. Now I can see what we have and how MUCH we have. Deals Store Heaven, help me.

This whole project was $10 for the plywood. Six dollars for glass containers. Six for plastic containers. Five for shelf liner and $2 for the rulers. Two trash bags full of old food and cardboard boxes and $29 later, a new organized pantry.

I realized last night many of you probably aren't quite as excited as I am about this...but I just had to share. Many of you are saying..."Huh. A pantry. Wow. She's lost her mind." But you know I'm a bit of a freak so you'll just have to deal.

Thanks for sharing in the madness ladies!

An organization tease

So I realized after Aimee commented on my last title that it sounded like I was gettin' a little frisky with you all...with my "Valentine quickie." I thought I'd keep getting fresh with you with this one too...a little tease:

I swear to you I have died and gone to the Organization Heaven, and that Heaven is called the Dollar Store.

I'm almost done with this project. But I had a margarita with dinner and I'm extra tired tonight -- there ain't no way this girl is staying up till midnight to finish this one. I only have ten more minutes of work to finish up...but the way I roll -- ten minutes will turn into two hours.

So I'm going to bed...but any guesses on this one? (I'm sure the out-of-focus, too close-up, dark picture really helps you out.) I'll post it tomorrow! Good night!

A Valentine quickie

Keep linking to the Organizing Party here! Mr. Linky has been grumpy, leaving the party here and there, but keep checking back if he's gone.

I had grand plans to make a fluffy GORG Valentine's wreath this year, but I'm on a self-imposed spending freeze.

Well, let's just say thaw...

I planned on using a ton of red flowers to make a wreath, but when I figured how much I would need, it was getting a little ridiculous. I decided to try rose petals instead. I got teeny tiny pins so I wouldn't burn the tips of my fingers off with the glue gun:


Oh wait. Need these too...it's cold outside and I couldn't resist the chocolate at the checkout lane:

Half an hour and half a bag of Flipz later:

Not exactly what I had planned, but it works. The red looks awesome from the street. I still have half a box of rose petals left, so I may keep adding to fluff it up more.

AND it was CHEAP! So that means it will stay, for now. :)

Have a great weekend and clean out some closets! (I've done three so far. Just sayin'.)

All that kid stuff!

Keep linking to the party below!

I was SO naive back in the day...before and when I was pregnant, I was one of those who swore that the baby and kid stuff would not take over our house.

Stop laughing. I was serious.

I succeeded for quite a while. Diapers, wipes and blankets were out of sight in my cool chest I showed you. I had a cute little wicker box for all of the baby toys in the office. Then...one day I looked around and this had happened:

What the ??? I've since given up, really. I mean, I try, but really. It's just not gonna happen for another 16 years and I've come to terms with that.

But I have found some cute, cheap and efficient ways to at least control the baby and kid stuff. First, in his bathroom, I showed you the cute bins for toiletries. I keep this basket in the shower room for bathing stuff:

This baby was $2 at a garage sale. Awwww yeahhhh! I covered the front panel with fabric from a clearanced PBK pillow case:

I've shown you the toy box in his room, which houses toys that I try to cycle out of the main ones (he doesn't play with these much). I added the letters to the front and the cushion to the top:

Pottery Barn Kids had adorable storage boxes with stars all over them that would have been perfect in his room, but OMG they were like $20 each or something like that. CRAZY. So I got cardboard boxes half off at Joann's and painted them the colors of his room. Then used scrapbooking tags and star brads to label them:

I found the cutest font on the computer and printed them out in blue:

I made four of them and labeled them accordingly. They are still in perfect condition today and all four cost less than $20.

Two girlfriends bought me a bunch of these boxes. One friend had seen the room and knew how perfect they were. One hadn't and just happened to find them and loved them. I use these for sweet little mementos like his hospital bracelet, etc:

I walked by these every time I was at Target for weeks, months...but couldn't bring myself to spend on them even though they were perfect. I registered for them and got them, then they went on clearance and I got more! Awwww yeah...

One dollar bucket from Target for crayons:

Another gift that ended up being perfect. (Is everything in this room "perfect?" Yes, it is.)

And some not so pretty but very functional pieces. I have two of these bins in his closet, this one holds clothes for the next season. The top bin is for summer, the next is fall, the next, a year from now. It has worked out great:

I keep a storage bin in the closet, for clothes that he grows out of. When something doesn't fit, I wash it and stick it in. When it's full, I pull everything out, take out anything I don't want to keep, and then stack the bin in the basement:

Another reason I love the Dymo -- you can make cauuuute labels!

This small bookshelf used to sit next to the changing table with all of the boxes on it, but now that I don't need them out, it sits in the closet for additional storage:

My son's room is easily my favorite room in our house. I'll show you the whole room later, because I'm already planning the big boy room and his precious room will be gone...I have to make the next one as beautiful, but in a big boy way. Is that possible? :)

Keep linking up to the party below ladies...you are welcome to keep linking for days, weeks, months! Have you gone through any closets or drawers this week? Huh? Have you???

Our Mission: Declutter and Organize!

And the Linky is gone again...keep checking back!

Welcome to the party ladies! I think I'm most excited about this one. Decluttering makes me giddy. Organizing makes me blissful. I heart them both, very, very much.

If you decide to take on this mission, you will find out what I did last year --

1. YOU HAVE WAY TOO MUCH STUFF.

2. There is nothing quite as satisfying as throwing out trash bags filled with junk and taking weekly trips to Goodwill to drop off junk.

3. You have WAY too much stuff.

4. Decluttering feels BETTER than spending money/shopping. I swear to you.

5. You know...you have way TOO MUCH STUFF.

Last year about this time, we had been in our home for almost four years, and I realized I had never really gone through the entire house. I thought it would be easy because I didn't feel like we had a lot of "stuff." (I was wrong-O!) But there was a pile in the basement that was growing and growing and GROWING. So I realized I had to do something.

My plan was to go through every. single. nook and cranny of every. single. space of our home. I went through EVERYTHING. Closets, baskets, under the beds, in junk drawers, in cabinets, jewelry, linens.

I mean EVERY. THING.

I did it room by room and did NOT start one room until I was done with another. I tossed whatever I knew we didn't need anymore. The rest I took to the basement. It was my landing zone for everything I was going to donate or that I knew needed to stay down there. I think this is very important -- having a spot to put everything while you are in the process.

Next step was to reorganize it all, or organize it better. I labeled A LOT. I bought lots of bins, baskets and storage containers.

Third step was to deep clean each room as I finished with it. I made a list for each room (it was mostly the same for every room, but I'm a list girl and love to cross things off.) I moved furniture to vacuum, cleaned baseboards, got on ladders to clean above eye level...have you ever seen the top of your refrigerator??

YUCK.

The final step was to work on the basement, to sort through everything and bag it all up. I had a MASSIVE garage sale pile sitting down there for months, waiting for the warm weather, and it just about killed me, but I was determined to make some money from it.

We donated ten LAWN trash bags of clothes to Goodwill. (Not exaggerating.) We took another three to a clothing consignment shop. Another four loads to the home decor consignment shop. You CAN make money from your old stuff -- do some research in your area.

Our home functions so much better now. When I open our linen closet in the bathroom, I don't stand there for five minutes searching. I grab what I need and am done. I know where all of my kitchen gadgets are and USE all of them. Our unfinished basement is functional now...I'll show you that soon.

It feels like a breath of fresh air.

But it's time to do it again! So here we are. Share your tips for decluttering. How you determine what to get rid of? How often do you do it? Show us how you organize:

tools
kitchen stuff

jewelry

clothes

toiletries

junk

mail

shoes

wrapping supplies

crafts

toys

kid clutter

DVDs/tapes

office supplies

food

The list is endless! Just show us! Also, show us how you make your organization look GOOOOD...like tags, pretty boxes, benches, chests, open cabinets...whatever! I want to see it all!!

To kick us off, here's some of mine...there will much more to follow!

I LOVE cigar boxes. I got these for a buck each in NYC and use them for office supplies:

I found photo boxes that matched my family room perfectly, so these stay out...I printed out the labels on the computer...


The Bub's step stool is storage for the power room. (Reading materials mostly. Shhh!)


I wanted a mail sorter for the mud room and couldn't find what I wanted for less than $40. This was less than ten...I drilled holes into the back to hang it. I also added the tags to the front:

Pottery Barn bins for my son's bathroom hold everything in the open so I can just grab it, but is still CAUUTE!


I love chests, I have them all over my house. This one holds magazines:




This one used to be just for baby stuff -- diapers, wipes, blankets -- so I didn't have to run upstairs all day long. Now it just holds random stuff we use but I don't want out. And still a few diapers. ;)

Extra blankets and pillows in our loft:

I needed a spot for the decorative pillows on our bed, and these were a DEAL on clearance at Target:

Because I only make our bed five times a year, the pretty pillows don't see the light of day much:

I'll be back to show you more! Now show us yours. If you have an organization tab on your blog, just link to that. Feel free to link to old posts as well! Have fun!

Oh, and YOU HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF.

***I have taken down the Linky because it's crashing my site. I will put the links back up soon...working on it!