The Luck of the Irish

Well I am pretty sure I am not Irish (not even a teeny tiny bit) but that certainly doesn' t keep me from enjoying St. Patrick's Day. As the Valentine Decorations came down the St. Patty's Day ones went up.

Can't wait for the big day to arrive.....Lucky Charms for breakfast, cornbeef and coleslaw for dinner and a hunt for coins that will lead to a pot of gold for the girls!!!

WANTED....

lost socks:
* white sock with cupcake and pink edge
* pink and brown poka dot
* pink with flowers and swirls
* stripes with a hippo
.......ETC

These are just descriptions of some of the lost socks in our house. Everytime I do the girls' laundry it seems as though several go missing. I'm worried the dryer might be eating them???? Where could they possibly be???

I refused to put the unmatched sock in the sock drawer for fear it would be forever lost all alone. So I started laying them on a shelf in Emma's closest. This was definitely not ideal. So during a recent blog surfing expedition I found this and this. What a great idea!!!

So last week during an unexpected day off this is what I did:

When we remodeled our 1/2 bath we stained tongue and groove floor boards and put them on the ceiling. We had scraps just laying in the basement that worked perfectly. I painted over the stain with crackle then topped it with off white paint. I didn't like how that turned out. So then I painted it with a greyish tan color....much better. I stamped the clothes pins with brown swirls so they didn't look so plain. I used my Cricket to cut out the letters and Viola!!!!!!

I hung this in the upstairs hallway next to the bedrooms.

****Since this photograph was taken 5 missing socks were found (in Emma's bed between the sheets and in the dress up drawer). Off course after the latest laundry washing 3 lonely socks were found and added to the board. I believe this will be a never ending mission!!!!

Valentine Decor

Been doing a little decorating. Had originally decorated with the snowflakes after taking down the Christmas Decorations but I realized the house needed some warmth, especially with the cold temps and snow.

The lanterns are from IKEA.




The framed subway art is from Dittle Dattle Blog (free printable). I added the hearts at the bottom. The 5x7 framed quote, "Love One Another" is from Becky Higgins (free printable).





The "Be Mine" garland is something I saw on a blog last year and didn't get the time to do it. I apologize that I can't give credit to the appropriate Blog.

The decorations are up and Love is in the air.

Tis the Season....

to Flea Market!!!! I love this time of year....everyone is cleaning house and getting rid of all their junk. You know the saying, "One person's junk is another person's treasure." I think in the past several years there has been a resurgance of flea marketing, maybe due to the economy or due to the effort to recycle and reuse.

This weekend was a big weekend for community yard sales. Craigslist has a catagory for Garage Sales and that is where I have been finding the hot spots. I hit two of them and several individual ones on Saturday and here are my finds:

I put the side table in Emma's room for a night stand - matched the color of her furniture perfectly. $5

Have a plan for the picture frame - will post pictures when the project is complete. $.25

I have NEVER liked our dining room light and have been looking for something to replace it - I think I will paint it black to match the room better and get some shades. $5

Looking forward to my next outing and finding some treasures!!!!

Outdoor Eating

This time of year we take full advantage of the weather and eat outside as much as possible. Some weekends we will eat every meal outside. I love my deck and yard, however it is not my "dream" space. I would love something more like these.

A girl can dream!!!!!!!

Spring is ALMOST here

Well a few weekends ago we had a warm weather teaser. We were riding bikes, playing in the yard, swinging and sliding, wearing flip flops and shorts. Unfortunately it was short lived. Since Saturday it has been cool and rainy. Monday night and this afternoon we had some heavy rain. But there is SPRING in our future. Tomorrow it is suppose to clear up and hit 60 degrees. By Easter we should be sunny and in the high 70's, possibly in the 80's. I think we will turn the corner this weekend and welcome SPRING.
In anticipation I have been decorating. A few weeks ago we all decorated a birdhouse (yes, even Sean). I have displayed the birdhouses in a "springy" way.
I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and wherever you are you have BEAUTIFUL weather and a blessed Easter.

See that little speck of green in the front middle??? That is a plastic grasshoper that has found a home in my decoration, thanks to Abby. He looks kinda cute in there :)

Crocheting 101

On my long list of things I want to learn or do was crocheting. I have very vivid and fond memories of my mom crocheting when I was little. I remember pulling out the yarn for her and spreading it all over the floor. I never really had an interest until I got older and unfortunately I didn't have my mom here to teach me. But I am lucky to work with an amazingly crafty gal... Elisa. She scrapbooks, crochets, knits, plays multiple instruments and is a genius on the computer. Elisa was kind enough to have a lunchtime lesson. It took a while to get comfortable holding the needle and yarn all at the same time. I also figured out I am very stressed and it reflects in my crocheting!!! I tend to crochet very tight. I had to really pay attention to loosen up my stitches. My first project was a hat. It was suppose to be "one size fits all" however because I crochet SOOOO tight it ended up being SOOOO small I don't think it would fit on a newborn's head.
So I moved onto a new project: a scarf. It was a one skein scarf. It took about a week and I pulled out several rows before I was happy. Here is the finished scarf:

Countdown Calendar

Last year as an easy and fun way for the girls to countdown the 25 days leading up to Christmas I made this.

I used a muffin tin then covered magnets with scrapbook paper. Everyday under the magnet is a treat or something fun to do. Here are some of the goodies I have planned for this year:

*watch Polar Express

*drive around and look at Christmas lights

*go visit Santa

*go ice skating

*bake cookies

*I bought reindeer pens and a snowman puzzle for other treats.

*decorate the Christmas tree

*watch a movie in Mommy and Daddy's bed

I've been planning out the schedule for the month. I then write the treat or surprise on a piece of paper, fold it up and put it under the magnet. The girls loved it last year and I look forward to the excitement and fun again this year.

(If you are one of my wonderful dedicated BLOG followers you might have seen this on my old BLOG.)

Problem Solved

If you remember a few posts back I was having organizational dilemmas. Trying to organize all the school calendars, school papers, to do lists, etc. So after much thought and lots of BLOG/web surfing I came up with a few ideas. I knew how I wanted it all to be set up just didn't want to spend a lot of money. I found a desk at Sears (online) that I really like but it would of cost $200 with shipping....way over budget. So I figured I would give Kmart a shot (since they are owned by Sears). I found a great deal.... a console table on clearance for $55 (originally $129). Then while shopping at AC Moore I found large poster frames on sale which reminded me of this idea I saw with a picture frame on Creative Crate Blog.

It was all coming together. We moved the "Command Center" from the kitchen to the dinning room. Sean helped with the grid lines and calendar. He drew it on poster board and then I added stickers for the days. We put the table together and rearranged the dinning room.

So here it is:



The top frame is a weekly calendar. The bottom shows the current month and has room for notes. I have the girls school papers on the left in the slotted organizer and misc papers on the cork board to the right. I got two baskets with lids (one for each girl) and put an accordion file folder inside each one. I labeled the file folder with the months for all of their school work and art.
I love it. Even Sean admitted afterward my crazy thoughts turned out nice. Of course the girls love it.

So wish me luck on better organization!!!

Lists and Calendars

I LOVE LISTS. I love to make a list, complete the task and then scratch it off the list. I have TO DO lists, HONEY DO lists, SUMMER PROJECT lists, WEEKLY MENU lists, GROCERY lists, WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT lists, SCRAPBOOK PAGES TO DO lists, HOME REPAIR lists not to mention all the lists and notes I scribble down on post-it-notes. When I am at work sitting at my desk I often write myself reminder notes or make a list of things I need at a certain store or a lists of area yard sales I find on CraigsList. Sometimes I look at my desk and it is covered in yellow....post-it-notes or paper from my small yellow tablet. Then when you look in my pocketbook there are more lists for things to buy or things to do. (I'm not even considering all the notes and lists I have for work related things). What is very frustrating is when I need a list and I don't have....example at the store.

Do you get the picture.....my lists ARE EVERYWHERE. Sometimes this is overwhelming.

This is not to mention the calendar situation. I have a date book I carry with me. There is a monthly calendar on our bulletin board in the kitchen, then Abby will get a monthly calendar from school and I am sure Emma will as well.

I consider my self an organized person but the lists and calendars make my head spin. I need more organization in this part of my life. Now that the girls will be going to different schools and doing more activities I feel like there needs to be a BETTER SYSTEM.

Currently in our we use this:

This is in our kitchen over the counter. It has worked in the past but I am feeling that it is no longer adequate for our busy life. I have found several ideas I like but they are either toooo expensive or won't work in our house.

The first one is an old door with chalk board paint...this is really cool. The next are chalkboard wall decals....I do like this idea but they are expensive you can find all kinds here.

As you know I like to read BLOGs and have read what other people do. This is a popular topic this time of year with school starting. Some people have BINDERS that they keep all their lists. That is great but I am certainly not lugging a binder everywhere with me. This is a good idea for a stay-at-home mom. Check out the Organizing Junkie...there are great ideas here for tons of stuff .

So I am looking for ideas or inspiration. I hoping I figure something out soon, as school starts next week and there will be much more to keep track of. Wish me luck.