A Little Something New

Hey everybody!!! I am trying to find more things to blog about when I am in between parties. With that in mind, I have decided to try to start putting together mood boards for parties that I would like to throw. This is my first attempt.

If you guys have been following along, you probably know by now that I LOVE mixing patterns and colors. With this party I would mix chevron, stripe and polka dots in red, white and black. I think this would be a fun, modern Valentine's Day party. I'd start off with this tablecloth in red and white chevron and add in the polka dot balloons and plates. The striped straws add just a bit more fun to the mix and the solid forks and cups keep it from being too busy. I would definitely add some red, white and black tissue poms and possibly even some patterned ones. Wouldn't this be great for a school Valentine's Day party?!! Hmmm, maybe I should become a homeroom mom... :-) Would you like to see more ideas like this? Let me know what you think!
Remember....Create the life you love

Organizing- Challenge 4

Hey there everybody! For the final challenge, we are moving on to the living room. It can be a small area of the room or the whole space. I am starting out small with just my craft area (which is located on some shelving in my living room). If I get really motivated, I may add to this post and completely overhaul the entire room, but we'll have to wait and see. So, let's get started with some before pictures, okay?


Basically, I had started out attempting to organize my craft supplies, but somewhere along the way, I gave up. This shelf is not that bad, but it was hard to get to a lot of things.

Ok, I lied, now that I'm looking at the picture...it's pretty bad.

I condensed some things down and moved some things to a few different containers I had recently purchased. On the bottom shelf, I have two big boxes. One holds all of my gift bags and tissue paper. The other holds pictures that I'm hoping to go through and put in albums soon. The next shelf up holds all of my ribbon, yarn, decorative tape, etc. Yes, I have an addiction to ribbon. On the next shelf, I have these awesome containers that are made to hold scrapbook paper. I use them to hold my paper scraps, stickers, felt and more. I love these things!!! I got such a good deal on them at Joann's! It makes me happy every time I look at them. :) The top shelf holds boxes that have miscellaneous craft things in them. I am hoping to get all matching containers at some point and to label them, but for now, this will have to do.

Now for the second shelf. The before picture of this one is pretty bad too. I understand if you need to avert your eyes.

Some of this stuff wasn't even craft related. It was just a catch all for random stuff.

And now for the after.

Much better, right? The bottom shelf holds all of my greeting cards, labels, etc. It also holds some jars of craft supplies, my adhesives and a box of miscellaneous craft and party supplies. I'm going to skip the next shelf and come back to it, because it's my favorite. :) So, moving up to the shelf above that, it holds all of my wood and cardboard letters, my sticker machine (which I LOVE!) and some party supplies.

Now for my absolute favorite thing about this shelf...

Aren't these little containers awesome?!!?

I saved these from the trash! The cafeteria at the school where I work was going to throw these out!!! I took one look at them and knew I could put them to good use. I think they held little packages of grapes before. Now they hold all of my small craft supplies, such as, beads, buttons, glue sticks, etc. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!!! Ok, you're probably thinking I am such a nerd for getting so excited over something like this, but I can't help it.:)


So, there you have it. My little organized area of the living room. I wish I had gotten around to the whole living room, but it just didn't happen this time. Maybe next week! Oh yeah, please don't forget to go and vote for me!


Remember...Create the life you love,

Organization-Challenge 3

So, for the third space in the Organizing Challenge that I am taking part in, I'm tackling a closet. My bedroom closet, to be exact. If my typing becomes jumbled, it's because I am buried under an avalanche of clothes.... Please send help.

Of the three bedrooms, our closet just happens to be the smallest. Doesn't seem fair, does it? The things we do for our teenage daughters. :-) She would never survive with the smaller closet... Not that she really uses her closet. Most of her clothes just end up on the floor. Anyone else have this problem? Sorry, I'm rambling. Back to the point of this post. One small closet + Two people using it = One big mess.

Here is the before picture. As you can see, we were not using this space to its fullest potential. The set of plastic drawers was really just a big waste of space.

The hanging clothes were just shoved into the back of the closet. It made them really hard to get to and I forgot half of what I had.

Handy Dandy Hubby's clothes were just thrown up on the top shelf. This drove me NUTS!!!

I did have my purses hanging on Command hooks on the door. They kind of got in the way when we opened the door though.

Some of hubby's clothes were shoved in the other corner of the closet and there were things just piled on the floor. Not cool. :-/

Now for the after. I took everything out and got rid of anything that doesn't fit or that I no longer wear. I bought 2 shelves from WalMart (for only $20.00 each) and put them in the place where the green drawers had been before.

I folded the clothes that didn't have to be on hangers and put them on the shelves. Since these shelves are much shorter than what was there before, I am able to slide the hanging clothes with no problems.

Before, I didn't have a place for shoes in the closet. Now, the top shelf is the perfect place for them.

I still feel like there is a lot of wasted space on that top shelf. I'm working on coming up with a solution to that very soon. Until then, this closet organization has definitely improved the function of this closet. Please don't forget to go and vote for me over at A Bowl Full of Lemons!
See you soon!

My Budget Binder

Hey girlies! Today, I'm showing you how I keep track of my bills and some other important paperwork. It's simple and it's what works best for me. Hopefully, you'll find it useful too. I don't have any really good before pictures of my bills because I started doing them this way before I ever even thought about starting this blog. I had slacked off a little, so I do have some pictures of my before binder and the way it looks now that I've organized it a bit better.


The front cover of my binder before. I hated that the scrapbook paper didn't cover the front completely. I couldn't get a good picture, but I slid a full piece of scrapbook paper in the front and it looks so much better.

As you can see, I really hadn't kept up with the paperwork like I should have. I knew that meant it was time for an update. :-)

Before, I only had one big section for utilities, I didn't separate them. Big mistake! Now, I have each section separated by type of bill (rent, cable, etc.) and I think this is going to work a LOT better.

I now have dividers for each bill. I also have dividers for banking, check stubs and tax info. When I finish paying a bill, I write the confirmation number on the bill, hole punch it and stick it in the corresponding section. Easy peasy!

Look! I made it prettier! I saw these folders at WalMart and had to have them! I three hole punched them and Ta-Da, they are now my new binder dividers! Love it!

So, this is how I organize my bills. How about you? How do you keep track of your bills? Do you have any tips for me on how I can improve my system? Let me know!
See you soon, Jamie

Fridge Organization

So, this Organization Challenge has really inspired me! I now want to organize everything in sight! I'm not sure I should post this, but I'm going to anyways. Please remember when you see the before pictures, everybody has a dirty little secret somewhere in their home. Some people's secrets (mine, for example)just happen to be a bit dirtier than others. Are you scared yet? If not, you should be. ;) You are about to see the most frightening before pictures ever.... pictures of the inside of my fridge. Stick with me though. If you can make it through the before pictures, the after pictures will be worth you being scarred for life. ;)

The before picture: Doesn't get much worse than this, does it? There are no words...

Pretty bad, huh? Do you think you'll survive after seeing that mess? Does it make you feel better about the "mess" you thought you had in your fridge? Are you ready to see some after pictures so that you can get the awful images out of your head? Here you go!

As you can see, I added some shelf liner to each shelf. Maybe it will help me keep it clean! I also prettied up the outside of the fridge.

Soooo, what do you think? Do you think I have a chance of winning the challenge? Maybe not, but either way, I'm happy I did it. Makes me smile everytime I open the door or walk in the kitchen. :)
Hope I've inspired you to pretty up or organize your space! See you soon, Jamie

Organizing- Challenge 2

Hey everybody! I told you in my last post that I am participating in an organizing challenge hosted by some amazing bloggers. Well, today I'm showing you the results of the second challenge, the kitchen! Let me just tell you up front, my kitchen is the size of a shoebox. Now, you might be thinking that a small kitchen should be easy to organize, less space, less stuff, no big deal, right? Wrong! See, for some reason, I didn't get the memo that said less room = less stuff. I seemed to think that I could have enough stuff to fill a kitchen the size of the Grand Canyon. Don't worry though, I came to grips with reality. I needed to do some serious purging. I mean, let's be honest here, if you know me, you are already laughing because you know my dirty little secret. If you don't know me, let me fill you in... I don't cook... like, ever. Why did I have all this stuff taking up space when I NEVER use it?!! Someday, when I have a bigger kitchen, I swear, I'll start cooking. Until then, some of the chaos must be tamed. Please don't judge me when you see the before pictures!!!

The snack cabinet before. Everything was just shoved in there and we never knew what we had.

The snack cabinet after. I got rid of anything outdated, poured the cereal into some containers that I already had and sorted the snacks into a tray I had in my "supply closet".

I don't have a before shot of the baking cabinet, but I did get a few after shots.

Canned food cabinet before. I know...it's bad.

After: I moved the canned goods to another spot and transfered the pasta to some jars I had on hand. I also put all of our miscellaneous stuff and our hot chocolate and drink mixes into baskets I had on hand.

This is the mess I was left with after I had emptied out everything that was outdated or being moved to other containers.

Ok, you're going to think I'm crazy... I moved my canned food to a drawer and I love it!!! It's a pretty deep drawer so I am able to see what I have at a glance. So different from them being stacked in a cabinet and hard to see!

My bottom cabinet before. YIKES!!!

And after a LOT of purging...Much better!

Ok, now for some random pictures. :-)

Have I ever told you how much I love labels?!!

Well girlies, that's all for today. Hope this inspires you to organize a drawer, a cabinet or maybe your whole kitchen!
See you soon, Jamie

Organizing- Challenge 1

So, I might just be the tiniest bit obsessed with a website called A Bowl Full of Lemons. Toni (from Bowl Full of Lemons) ,along with some other AMAZING bloggers, has issued a challenge. Get organized during the month of January one space at a time. The first space is supposed to be your office/desk area. Hmmmm, I don't have an office, but I do have what passes for a desk. Now, I'll be honest, Handy Dandy Hubby uses the desk much more than I do, but he really just uses it when he's on the computer. As I got going on this challenge, I realized that the desk really wasn't being utilized as much as it could be. I started to question why we even had a desk. It had become a dumping ground for miscellaneous papers and other things and there was nothing pretty about it either. I also had a small bookshelf that I used to hold some office supplies, but it was definitely NOT organized. Time to change that! :) Some before pictures (sorry for the poor quality, still working on that).... I hated the blank wall above the desk!

The desk "organizer"... Haha!!!!

And now for the after....

I used a poster frame I had collecting dust in the closet and backed it with wrapping paper. As soon as I make it to Walmart to buy some clips, it will become my memo board. I have one like it at work and I love it!

I organized the shelf and moved the printer from the floor to the top of the shelf. Much better!

I recovered a chair I had sitting around in my favorite pattern...Chevron!!!

My Household Binder. You'll be seeing more of this soon.

My desk organizer went from that awful before picture, to this. Much better!

I forgot to mention, this project cost exactly $0.00!!! Everything I used was stuff I had on hand! So, there you have it. My newly organized and decorated desk area. Hope this inspires you to organize or pretty up a space of your own! See you soon! Jamie