Organization... tip #3

This isn't crafty or anything, but I thought I'd throw it in here anyway. It has been a LIFE SAVER having these hooks in the kids' room. And total there are 30 hooks to hang stuff on! What more could you ever want. I bought them from Home Depot for about $15 each, worth every penny. With very little closet space, this was my solution for pretty much anything that can hang on a hook... backpacks, hats, coats, snow pants, sweatshirts... anything the kids might need on the go. Everything is easily accessible, and I make sure to put the older kids stuff on the bottom so they can get it themselves. When it comes to organization, a couple things I try to do is (1) make sure everything has a place, and (2) have things I use a lot in a place that is easy to get to. That way I have no excuse to leave things sitting all over the table, floor, wherever.

Organization... tip #2

I have finally come up with an idea that will (hopefully) free my desk and kitchen counter from all random papers, mail, bills, receipts, coupons... the endless clutter that accumulates that I don't really know what to do with. I call it a wall file. It takes everything that might be covering your desk/counter space and puts it on the wall, hidden inside folders, but still easily accessible and easy to find.


Here's how I made it:
-I started with a magazine/newspaper rack that I found a couple years ago at Ikea for $2-$3.
-Cut out 5 pieces (or however many racks there are) of foam core. I cut them to be 11 5/8" x 8 1/4". As wide as a manilla folder and short enough so you can see the top of the folders.
-Use spray adhesive to stick scrapbook paper onto the foam core. Choose colors that will go with your room.
-Place on rack, then put manilla folders behind each. Label for whatever loose papers you want to hide... bills, receipts, coupons, letters, etc.
-Enjoy feeling organized and still having the room look cute!

Organization... tip #1

As much as I like decorating and crafts, it doesn't compare to my LOVE for organization. My house certainly doesn't stay organized and clean on a day-to-day basis (how could it with 3 little tornados constantly running through the house?!), but I'm always searching for ways to simplify and organize my home. So I decided to start a series of organization tips... things that have worked for me and helped make my life easier.

I have a changing table and drawer full of diapers and wipes in my kids' room, but I have found that it's super handy to have a stash in our front room. I'm constantly needing to grab a diaper as I head out the door or changing the baby in the family room while the other kids are asleep in the bedroom. So I keep everything I might need on our bookshelf. Throw it in a basket and it even looks somewhat nice! If you don't have kids, this is a useful idea for anything you use often or need as you're heading out... umbrella, purse, lipstick, gloves, book... whatever. If you put random things that might always be lying on the counter into a basket, it all of the sudden doesn't look like clutter!

Hair clips

Just because I don't have any girls doesn't mean I can't make cute little clips :) I made these with my friends Tiffany and Liz today, and we got the idea here. All you need is felt, a scrap of material, needle, thread, buttons, clips, and a glue gun (to glue the clip onto the back) . No sewing machine required. With different colors of felt and material, the possibilities are endless! And they make great (and very inexpensive) gifts.


John was nice to model the clip for me. haha

Simple Display Frame

I've been wanting a magnet board for a long time and I've also been wanting to try out chalkboard paint. I had an old frame that I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to make it into a display board.
I started out by getting a piece of metal at Home Depot. They sell sheets of metal there that are 1' x 1', 1' x 2' and 1' x 3' so if you can find a frame that fits a piece that size, you won't have to do any cutting. For mine, we had to cut about 1/4" off the side so my husband used kitchen shears and they worked great.Then I taped off half of the metal sheet and painted it with chalkboard paint. I did about 4 coats since metal is kind of a slippery surface. Then, I pulled off the tape and put the entire metal sheet in front of the glass and put the frame back together. The piece of glass showing at the bottom is used as a white board and I just put a piece of fabric behind the glass on this part to add a little texture.

This project was super easy and I love how it turned out. You could do this with any frame you have and divide it up however you want with magnet board/chalkboard/white board.

5 second Christmas Card Solution

We're staying at my parents house for the Holidays and the other day I came upstairs to find all my mom's Christmas Cards just stacked on the kitchen table. She told me she didn't know what to do with them, so I thought and thought of a cute way to display them. I'm probably not the 1st person in the world to do this...but I thought it turned out cute.

All we did was tie a bow at the top of a big ribbon and staple her cards down the ribbon, leaving space for more cards as they come. It literally took about 35 seconds and now she can show off all of her cute cards :)

DIY Garden Lampshade

So here is the shpeal... I saw this garden lampshade at Anthropologie and loved it and was inspired from it... I had a plain cream cloth lampshade at home and I thought...hmmmm... I could spruce it up a bit... and so I called my friend Dani and begged for her help since craft stores scare me and I don't know what to do when I go into one... so she came with me, and this is what we came up with... we used the cheapest material we could find... felt... and we bought a few squares of different colors... some green yarn (she already had some yellow), and she already had a glue gun and a sewing machine so we were set there... and we went to town... in this manner...

1st we cut out flower shapes... the perfect circle flowers were done with my friend Dani's various sizes of dye cuts, but we free-handed the spiky flowers and the leaves, and the middles of the flowers were either knotted strips of felt we glued on or knotted pieces of yarn.  Some flowers we tried to make 3 dimensional by bunching them in the middle, some flowers we sewed detail on (and same with the leaves) and we sewed at least a tack in the middle of each flower to hold them together... and you probably get the idea...

 The perfectly good and nice lampshade before we glued the heck out of it...

 This is the manner in which we designed what the lampshade would look like... we measured the height and circumference and then mimicked that on the floor and made our design. We also ate m & m's to help us think better... highly recommended...

 We then glued our first flower... and got confident and glued the rest...

We then used spray adhesive to spray pieces of yarn to make the stems... this was the hardest part because it stuck to our hands so bad but we managed and it worked!
And this is the finished project posing on Dani's cute lamp...

 A close up of some of the detail...

And the lampshade resting on its rightful stand in my house...

And thats it! It only takes 6 hours! HAHA... which is a LONG time... but its worth it... you initially will have gluers remorse because it was a perfectly nice lampshade without all the flowers on it, but then you will start to love it because its funky and fun and gives your room pop.  Anyway, give it a try, copy it if you like or you don't have to like it at all... just thought I'd share (most the pictures are courtesy of Dani's camera).