Back to School: Outfit Organization

My oldest is starting Kindergarten this year. Just a few more days. She is beyond excited. I'm excited for her, but I sure will miss her! With school comes the busyness of the morning routine: getting dressed, eating breakfast, packing lunch, and getting to school on time. In an attempt to make things less chaotic each morning, I came up with this weekly outfit organization shelving. 

Sometime during the weekend, we will pick out outfits for each day of the coming week. That way each morning she can get dressed without me having to help her pick out and get down an outfit. She can read the days of the week, so this makes for an easy method. 

How I Made Them:

I simply printed the days out on a sheet of cardstock, cut out the rectangles, and laminated them. Then I cut them out again leaving an inch above each day's rectangle. I punched a hole on each side of the extra space and used safety pins to pin them to the fabric clothes tower.

Sidenote: They do have pre-made towers with the days already printed on them. This is simply the cheaper, DIY version.

Can't wait to pick out the first weeks outfits, and particularly the FIRST DAY of SCHOOL outfit. (That was always one of my favorite parts of going back to school.)

How are you getting organized for back to school??

Kitchen Progress

So we tiled the backsplash. Here's a little peek at the kitchen backsplash.

I still need to do a few more finishing details, so more pictures will be in future post.

What I really wanted to show was this quick project I got sidetracked doing when I should have been caulking . . .

With a beautiful new backsplash, we could hardly stand the cluttered fridge detracting from the glistening tiles. 

So while I was out to Home Depot, I picked up two sheets of galvanized metal and some Command picture hanging strips. These are the velcro-like ones.

Then I attached 4 strips on each sheet- 2 at the top, and 2 at the bottom and mounted it (per instructions) to the inside of the two cabinets above the computer desk. 

Now I can simply close the door and the mess and chaos is hidden from sight. Simple project, great impact on the organization of our kitchen.

Closet Dividers

The addition of our little man to the family, means that he and big brother will eventually be sharing a room. Me being the organized maniac that I am, knew that I needed to get their closet in order. I dream of built in beautiful closet shelves, bins, etc. but for the time being, at least getting the hanging clothes in order was good enough to satisfy my ocd. Browse the internet and you will find tons of options for closet dividers. You can buy pre-made and designed ones, you can craft ones out of wooden shapes or letters- tho options are boundless. 

Not wanting to put much into this project, I decided to just design and print up some simple ones for now. I measured my rod to make a center opening big enough, and I measured the space from the rod to the upper shelf to make the surrounding shape fit within that range. I could have got fancy with fun patterns on each divider, but I decided to keep it simple so that I could easily see the size text on each divider. After designing, I printed two of each size onto cardstock, used a circle cutter to cut out each one. Then I glued the two of each size together, laminated, and cut again. I was left with sturdy yet flexible dividers:

Here they are in use:

I am using up to the 3T dividers. But, as you can tell there are still boxes of clothes to put out, but we won't be using any of the 3-12 month clothing too soon. I keep all of their onesies and sleepers in their dresser to free up room to hang day clothes. It's nice to be able to see what we have in what sizes. In my dreams I'd love to have all store bought white hangers, but why pay when we get them for free. With the dividers I can ignore the sizes on the cheap-o hangers- so I can put a 2T top on a 3-6 month hanger and it doesn't get me confused.

The great part about my dividers is that I didn't have to spend a penny to be organized! Oh, how I love organization!

Chicken Wire Earring Frame

I've had this project in my head for a while now, okay several years now. I don't own a jewelry box of any sort, so my earrings currently reside in a large cardboard jewelry box- you know the kind that a nice pair of earrings or a necklace comes in from the jeweler. They'd get tangled and I never knew what all of my options were. Since I'm trying to keep busy lately, I decided today was the day to finally just do this project.

I headed to a local thrift/antique store and bought a large frame without glass. It was sloppily painted white, so I came home and gave it a few more coats of white and topped it with a pearl finish. 

Once it dried, I measured the opening, and cut some chicken wire [I bought mine at my local Home Depot. It's back with the fencing materials in the lumber section, but you can always ask an associate for help finding it.] about an inch bigger on each side. Then I used my staple gun and stapled it to the back of the frame. I didn't take a picture of this next step, but because the edges of the wire were scratchy and could scratch up my wall, I put some duct tape over the raw edges for some padding (I was going to hot glue some seam binding over the wire edge, but didn't have enough in the right color so I took the easy route with duct tape. I think eventually I'll take the tape off and do it right.)

Then I hung it on the wall. I just put a few nails in the wall and hung the chicken wire loops over each nail.

 Then it was ready to get some earrings. After hanging them all up, I realized that my collection is pretty sad- looks like I need to do some shopping ;)

Finally, all of my dangling earrings are out where I can see them to quickly find a pair to match my outfit.  I think I may get some S-hooks to hang up some bracelets, and I'm sure you could hang necklaces  the same way too.

Another Baby Shower!

So I went to the cutest woman's baby shower the other day. (Did I mention that we are very-distantly related... she's the cousin of my cousin's husband...) Anyways, she is having a girl this month and I just know that this baby is going to be one adorable and stylish lady- just like her momma. I was trying to figure out what to make her and this is what I came up with.

Ever wonder what to do with all of these?

Get someone to make you one of these:

I was running out the door headed to the shower and realized that I hadn't taken a picture of it- ack, no picture!! So this picture is a bit dark and it's ready to be gift bagged up. So, if you were confused, those three little rolls aren't toilet paper (as my sisters thought when first seeing the picture...) they are three lengths of ribbon attached to the back. You just clip your bows on the ribbon and you're set!

It was my first time making a bow holder and now realize that I NEED to make one for Kiera. She currently had all of hers jammed onto a little bow holder thing I made that also houses her necklaces, ribbons, headbands, and belts... a little overloaded I'd say. Well baby Mia's turned out so cute, that I've added that project to my list of things to do.

Can't wait to meet you baby Mia!!

Revealed

I finally finished the quilt top, and had a chance to clean up my crafting area. Since my craft table is usually covered with fabric and other crafting supplies, I decided I had to take this rare chance to take some pictures. This is the basics, I want to decorate it, but for now just being organized is WONDERFUL! So here it is:

We bought the table and shelves at none other than Ikea. I love my big work/cutting surface! I plan on painting the cork board frame... someday...

The bookcase keeps everything organized and within reach.

I love the little hints of aqua glittered throughout the area. I made the fabric box that is holding my patterns out of a tablecloth that I bought big and then trimmed. The fabric next to it is just a few from current projects, the rest is kept in a closet in two big plastic storage shelves. Having everything in my sight keeps me inspired, thus a project is always underway- yay for being able to craft again!!

Thrifty Storage

Isn't it fun to reuse and recreate things, especially when you get to make them cute?! Here are just a few of the things that I've made so far as storage items for my craft area. The first is an old hot cocoa tin that I recovered with scrapbook paper. A quick and colorful fix to hold markers. The other is a before and after picture. I have tons of old babyfood jars that I had saved for a while. I bought aqua spray paint and painted the lids to all match. Now they hold my buttons and beads. These are simple, inexpensive, and easy ways to revamp some old items into cute storage!

What are some things that you've repurposed?

Sunday Sundries- Organization

Sundries- plural noun; many different or small things.

In the spirit of craftroom organization, I have found some really fun things that I would love to add to my room. Once again, Etsy's artists show creativity and make me want to buy and be organized. I've decided to kick off Spring Cleaning in our house- maybe if I try to pass things off as necessities of spring cleaning/organization I can convince hubster that these are needs not wants...

JotItDown- weekly organizer

PrettyLilThings- pincushion

Paper Pumpkin- thumbtacks

Betz White- pincushion

So, like the picture above, I hope you have a sweet Sunday!


(P.S. My 100th blog post is not far away, meaning I've been thinking about a giveaway. However, for me to feel like it's worth the effort, an increase in comments is neccessary... I want to know what you guys think about the different types of posts and that my efforts are worth the time. Yup, this is a plea for comments! Luv you guys!)

Craft Area Sneak Peak

(I know, not much of a sneak peak, aren't I mean?)

This past Saturday, the hubs and I went shopping for my new furniture. In under two hours (because we didn't have K with us, thanks to my mother), we had found what we needed/wanted and were on our way to pick up K. As soon as we got home, she went down for her nap and we went to town putting together the furniture and setting up my space. For the past few days I have been having so much fun organizing, sewing fabric storage baskets, and decorating. I got to pull out all of my little sewing and crafting goodies and see their loveliness again. There are still a few last minute touches to make my space more complete (I'm sure it will always be morphing). Then I will take pictures and let you all see where I will be crafting away.

Get Organized & Inspired

I'm finally getting down to business and am going to organize my craft/office area. The hubs and I are going out Saturday to buy all that I need to get organized so that I can start up again on being crafty! I cannot wait. So in the meantime, I have been looking at pictures to get inspired for my crafting makeover!! Here are some beautiful rooms, whose owners deserve to be inspired every time they enter- I hope my room does the same.

The Cupcakery Girl

Crafty Intentions

Emmy Lizzy

Super Shopper Too

Lil Miss Cupcake

And of course, the ever inspirational, Heather Bailey

I will definately post pictures of my completed craft space once the work is done! Stay tuned!