Extreme Makeover: Little Miss Edition

It was a year ago last week that we finally moved into our house. Maybe I should be a little embarrassed to admit that, in that time, we've only completed one room. By "completed" I mean, painted, accessorized, and achieved it-will-be-this-way-for-years status. But honestly, I'm not that embarrassed to admit it. This is our long-term home, so we are taking our time to make each room the way we want it. Plus, we've chosen to do other things with our time and money in the last year that will create lasting memories for our kids (Disney World, traveling to see family, play dates with friends, etc.)

I am so excited, however, that we did get Little Miss's room done. We did the bulk of the work last fall, but I just finished the last touches a few weeks ago, so now I can finally post pictures! To truly appreciate it, you need to see the before  picture....

Not a great shot, but honestly there wasn't that much to
capture...white walls, beige carpet, blah, blah, blah!

This is that same corner now. Much more colorful;
a room fit for a princess!

Of course, every princess needs a canopy bed...Little Miss's favorite part.

My favorite part are the little accents, like this great picture we found at Hobby Lobby.
It's perfect for my creative, artsy girl,

Or these adorable letters that spell her name. Hubby glued them to circles
we had painted to match her bedspread....so cute!

And these little accents (also from Hobby Lobby...love that store!)
The little flower hooks are perfect for keeping her necklaces organized.

I also love her little "workstation" (which will come in so
handy in a few years when the homework comes more steadily!)

The green chair is my proudest accomplishment...a $16 find at a local flea market, plus a couple coats of paint, and voila! (It may sound simple, but trust me...refinishing furniture is not my forte, so I was very pleased with how it turned out!)

 

                    Before                                                                              After

I must admit I was surprised by how "grown up" her room looked when we were finished. I was a little sad that she passed right over all the pastel and princess stuff when we were shopping. (I had to talk her down from hot pink and zebra stripes!) But I'm thankful that this room will last awhile (at least through jr. high, and maybe through high school!). Plus, I love all the color and the creative little accents...it's so Little Miss!

Now, on to Little Man's room...stay tuned for pics (someday)! :)

Project Organization

After all we went through last year, we declared 2011 The Year of the House (more on that in a later post). In preparation for our impending move, I embarked on a couple MAJOR organization projects over the long, cold days of January and February. (Hence the bloggy silence recently.) Now, I am finally getting around to posting about them.


Project Organization #1: the Playroom
As the kids get older it seems their toys come with more, TINY pieces! The constant corralling of teeny, tiny toys was about to drive me crazy after Christmas when I stumbled on some clear plastic tubs on sale at Wal-Mart. That inspired me to do this...

I bought one tub for each set of toys: Littlest Pet Shop, toy tools, animals, My Little Pony, etc. (Since the above picture was taken I have purchased more tubs so they are all contained.) Once all the pieces were collected in their respective bins, I downloaded clip art (or in some cases, the actual brand logo) from the Internet and printed them out. I taped the picture or logo to the inside of the tub and voila! instant toy organization.

I am not naive enough to believe that this small act will cast a magical spell over our playroom so that it remains in a constant state of tidiness and organization, but you would not believe how much it has helped! Not only does it give my kids some direction as they clean up, it also helps when we have friends over to play. Everyone knows exactly where all the toys go. Plus, the tubs stack neatly on a shelf. Magic spell or not, every little bit counts!


Project Organization #2: Recipes
When we got married 8 1/2 years ago, some of the girls I worked with made me a starter cookbook. It was great..a huge 3-ring binder with slip-in sheet protectors and all! I added to it faithfully over the years as I discovered new favorites. As a matter of fact, I added so many that it eventually looked like this:

My recipe collection had outgrown my organization system. In addition to my printed collection, I had various electronic files stored on my laptop (in multiple locations and formats). It actually took me longer to sift through the mess and find a recipe than it would to search for it online! So I set out to tackle the mountain of recipes.

I found some 3-ring binders on clearance and invested in some sheet protectors. First, I started with the recipes I already had on my computer. I formatted them all the same and printed them out. (Sorry, I didn't get a picture of these, but trust me...they look nice!) I had several recipes printed from various web sites, and although they didn't match my format they were clean and easy to read, so I left them as is.

The biggest job was the many hand-written recipes I had scribbled down while on the phone with my mom or my grandma. I spent several evenings typing those up and printing them out (a huge undertaking in itself!). The last type of recipe I had were the ones I had clipped or torn from magazines. I have a terrible habit of finding a recipe that "sounds good," so I tuck it into my trusty notebook, never to be seen again. Since most of these were untried recipes, I couldn't justify taking the time to type those up. I left them as is, rationalizing that I will type them up if and when I get around to trying it (and provided we love the outcome).

Next, I made a list of categories. I had five binders, so I organized all my recipes into five main categories and then created sub-categories for the tab dividers. This may seem like a lot of work, but honestly, this is how my brain works so it just sort of "fell into place" in my head. I even created folders on my laptop that reflected these categories so I always know where to find the electronic files of the recipes. Here are the categories I came up with based on the recipes I had:

Appetizers, Snacks & Dips

*Appetizers

*Snacks

*Dips

*Beverages and Sauces

Breakfast

*Pancakes & Waffles

*Muffins & Biscuits

*Casseroles/Quiches

*Cereals

The Main Course

*Beef

*Chicken/Fish

*Turkey/Pork

*Pizzas

*Pastas

*Casseroles

Soups, Salads, Sides

*Soups

*Salads

*Rice, Pasta, Potato Sides

*Veggie Sides

Desserts & Goodies

*Cakes, Cupcakes & Icings

*Cookies

*Pies, Brownies & Bars

*Cold/Chilled Desserts

*Miscellaneous

Finally, the easy part: assembling the binders. I printed all my recipes, put them in the sheet protectors and organized them in the binders. I put of all my "to try" recipes (remember the ones from magazines?) in one sheet protector at the back of each section. That way, when I'm in the mood to try something new, I can sift through them and see what I find. Once I try it (if we like it), I'll type it up and add it to the section. (I also put extra sheet protectors in each section so I'm ready to add new favorites as I find them.)


It was a daunting (and, at times, overwhelming) undertaking, but I'm so pleased with the results, and they look so nice sitting on my counter where they're so easy to grab!

So what are your organizational secrets? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Disclaimer

I will be hijacking my own blog for awhile. Let me explain...we used to have a secure web site where we could share photos of our kids with friends and family who live far away, as most of our family does. This allowed us to share everyday moments with those we wish could share them in person.

Unfortunately our site is down for the time-being. So I will be using my blog to post even MORE pictures of my children and our outings to share with our far-off loved ones. (I can't imagine why anyone would NOT want to endure pictures of my GORGEOUS children, but I apologize for any off-putting self-indulgence. ;))

I will still be posting the occasional book review, household ideas, comments on life and faith, or anything else that strikes my fancy; however, as time is limited I'm afraid most of it will be devoted sharing snippets of our life with those we love. Of course, you are included in that, so I hope you will join us for the journey...I'm sure it will be a wild ride!

Weekend Fun and Projects

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend as much as we did. On Friday we attended a community I Love America celebration that our church hosts each year. They have a ton of games for kids, live music, presentation of the gospel message, then a spectacular fireworks display. It was a long day, and we didn't make it through all the fireworks (Little Miss is not a fan of loud noises!) But it was a lot of fun, nonetheless.

The rest of our weekend was spent cleaning out and organizing our attic to prepare for an upcoming Yard Sale. Since we're unsure if we have completed our family, I have kept some baby clothes from both Little Miss and Little Man, plus my maternity clothes. We spent Saturday and part of Sunday shopping for plastic bins, hauling boxes down from the attic, and reorganizing and labeling boxes for easy access in the future. I was pretty proud of the outcome (although a lot of the credit goes to Hubby for being the Organizational Guru). After a weekend of hard work, here's what we have to show for it:

Next on our "list" is the other keepsake-type stuff in our attic (high school yearbooks, college term papers, wedding memoribilia, baby keepsakes, etc.) Do you have any creative and/or ingenious ways to store such keepsake items? If so, leave me a comment...I'd love to hear your ideas! (Feel free to leave a comment even if you don't have any organizational ideas...one can never have too many comments...as long as you keep them nice!) ;)