Maddie's Room

Maddie's room seems to be one big, evolving project (and I love that).  I try REEEEEEALLY hard to live without ANY clutter, but sometimes that doesn't jive with a six year old that is practically one step away from a Hoarders episode.

When she was at VBS one day, I tackled her room.  I didn't throw out anything (well, maybe a little.  Ha!) but I did clean out drawers, move furniture in and out, deep cleaned, and made it feel WAY more functional.

Grayson thought he was so tricky, hiding in her bed.  :)

Her bed, by the way, is a Jenny Lind bed and was MINE when I was little!  Mike just spruced it up with some white paint.

This Ikea dresser had never found a good home but it has now!  It's perfect for Maddie.

Also, check out the Pottery Barn chandelier that our friends found for us.  It was on the side of the road and in PERFECT condition!  Mike removed the ceiling fan (which I immediately sold on Craigslist) and hung this instead.  Love.

No more dresser inside her closet.  Now we have room to hang clothes!  What a novel idea, right?  :)

These are Ikea plant pots that I had stuck some chalkboard labels on.  They work great!

Her garage sale vanity got cleaned out, organized, and moved to another wall.  She loves sitting here and playing with jewelry or doing her hair.

Isn't this a cute system?  My friend suggested it and it's perfect.  It's just a $2 rod from Ikea, paired with a metal bucket (also Ikea; comes in white, too).  She LOVES sleeping with books (??) and this is way better than rolling over on books all night.

Chalkboard paint was used on her closet doors.

Grayson had to test out her new Barbie set while she was away.  :)

She loved it and was SO excited by the changes.  She probably won't be so excited by me doing these things in, oh, ten more years so I'll just enjoy it now.  :)

Home Staging!

I'm almost five months pregnant now and I thought it'd be a good time to start out another business venture.  Ha!

I actually did not seek this one out, but rather am going along with the flow and enjoying every moment!

Mike and I refinish furniture (as seen on my other BLOG, which has been neglected lately) and then I list on Craigslist.  Long story, but a property manager found me, went through my album of completed projects, and hired me on to stage two children's rooms in a new home!  Apparently, "big stagers" don't do a lot of kiddie rooms so... Enter me!

I was so nervous but Mike assured me I could do it, which I actually could NOT have without him.  The boy has an EYE!  He's the best teammate I could ever ask for.

Anyway, here are some BEFORE shots:

A room designated as a "little boy's" space:

And a nursery:

One of the first things I asked was if I could ditch the Looney Toons bedding.  Ha!  No offense if you're a Looney Toons fan but I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  :)

And now, for the AFTER pictures!

We rearranged the room and brought in some new items (and lots from my own home!).

I dressed the crib in Maddie's old black and white damask bedding (loved seeing it after all these years, too!).

A sweet baby girl's nursery!

And the boy's room:

The rooms are tiny but I wanted to show how much functionality we could pack in there.  There's plenty of space for a functional art and toy table.

One of Blessed Nest's refinished pieces:

And it's ready to go!

I'm so in love with these two rooms.  I told Mike that if we had a spare $435,000 hanging around, we should totally buy the house.  Ha!

Back to School: Paper Organization

This time next week, Maddie will be sitting in her kindergarten classroom.  Eek!

This fast-approaching milestone has definitely kicked me into high gear, getting everything (seriously, everything from shoes to papers to lunch snacks) in smooth working order.

Today, I tackled school paper organization.

Throughout the school year (so for us, the course of two years of preschool so far), I keep a storage box in our hall closet.  When Maddie brings home artwork, progress reports, or awards, I stick them in the box.

But, it was getting crowded and I needed to organize it, knowing that we'll be getting so much more in the coming years.

So I bought a plastic crate on sale at Target and found some hanging file folders in my old teaching supplies.

I went through and labeled each folder, with one year for each grade of school (all the way through high school!).

I handled the first two years of preschool, purging some crumbling artwork and filing all the other important papers, creations, and memories she made.

I tied a big bow around her baby book to keep the contents inside and popped it in the back of the crate.

I'll keep this crate in our hall closet and at the end of each school year, I'll file the "keepers."

 And of course, now I feel compelled to start one for Grayson... despite him only being one.  He has created some artwork already!

Creating a Family Binder

This was a project that I'd been thinking of doing for months, but kept putting it off because I was dreading it.  I thought it would take forever to do and... I hand't been inspired with a cute binder.  All the right reasons, huh?  Ha!

Last week, I found the pink and orange binder on a Target end cap for $2-something and I grabbed it.

I already had the dividers and page protectors at home.

I set to work, labeling the tabs and sorting all our papers into the correct piles.

This thing holds everything!  From car titles to marriage licenses to birth certificates, everything that's important is now in one, safe location.

Everything was slipped into a plastic page protector.

And honestly, from start to finish, the whole project took me less than an hour.

I love it and am so glad that it's done!

Plus, it matches my expandable folder I use for our store's receipts and tax information.

Do you keep your important papers all in one spot?  I'm really hoping this will streamline our life!

Linking up at A Bowl Full of Lemons

Our Room

Every time we have a yard sale (which, if left up to Rachel and me, it'd be about every other month!), I put some of the money in savings and take the rest to Ikea.  :)

With this past chunk of yard sale change, I decided to give the master bedroom a little facelift.

Check out the before picture (could I have made it any messier?!  Ha!):

And, here's the after:

 New duvet, new lamps, new bedside prints, and new white curtains (all from Ikea) freshened it up.

I'd love different nightstands so I'm always keeping my eyes on Craigslist for the perfect ones.  :)

The "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" sign was one of the first things we bought for Maddie's nursery, but now it resides with us.   

And, our free-to-us Craigslist dresser that Mike lovingly (and painstakingly!) redid:

It's definitely fresher and cleaner (and I do make the bed.  Most of the time!).  :)

New Family Room!

What a busy weekend we've had!  We kicked it off with a 6 family yard sale at our house on Saturday morning.  So much fun.  Made money, hung out with friends, and sat in the sun.  :)

Late Saturday morning, we had new carpet installed in our back room!  My dad set it all up for us and it was such a gift.  Our whole house has the original hardwood floors, but since the family room was an addition, it's carpeted.

And even though we'd put in new carpet 4 years ago, it was looking shabby.

But of course, you can't put in new carpet and not paint, right?!

At least that's what I told Mike.  :)

Here are some befores:

 One green wall...

 and three brown.

Light carpet (that had become super stained, despite Mike's steam cleaning).

Here it was yesterday morning:

And here it is this morning:

 Love!

This was such a "design on a dime" project.

New carpet, new Ikea rug (thank you Ikea Family card for saving me $30!), new paint, new room!

 This would not have happened without my patient husband and my incredibly supportive and helpful friend Rachel.  Seriously.  She stayed over all day to help see this project through and help us get it done!!

The walls got a fresh coat of griege paint (a gray-beige combo) and it's light and clean.

All the furniture was moved back, including the kids' bookcase

and behind-the-sectional play area.

 Grayson seems slightly confused by the change.  :)

But we just love it.

I'm so happy with how it turned out and feel like we have a brand new room!

Thank you Dad, Rachel, and Mike!!

Our Hall Closet (aka: My Office)

Last year, we decided it was time to attack the hall closet because it was slowly attacking us.

It was so. so. bad.

Half the battle was unloading the disaster of scrapbooks, coats, puzzle pieces, and other items that gave me heartburn just looking at.  I blogged about the process of demolition and restoration and was thrilled with the resulting wire shelves and boxed supplies.

What we created was a functional, clean, and very accessible home office space for me.  Since I'm half of Time for Tots, it's far more important to have space for materials, rather than space to house lost jackets and junk (which need to be in their correct place anyway).

But recently, I was needing more.  It was time to purge some old supplies, condense, reorganize, and breathe a little life into a little space where I spend a fair amount of time!

So after a little bit of work...

It's good again! 

Just looking at the "after" picture brings about a sense of serenity!  Next time Grayson is fighting a nap and I'm wanting to rip my fingernails off (he has the tendency to fight naps hard), I think I'll just visualize the "after" photo and all the stress will melt away.  :)

I'd love to give you a tour of my closet-office-warehouse.  :)

All of my scrapbook paper is sorted and labeled in Rubbermaid drawers.

All our family photos have been organized in THESE great photo storage containers.  Each box is labeled and anytime I print pictures (because I do print pictures because someday I will get back to scrapbooking!), they get sorted in the smaller containers and labeled.

And then, if I never actually do get back to scrapbooking, I'll be able to send my kids off into the real world with a briefcase of photos, chronicling their childhood.  It's win-win.  :)

We hung an Ikea rod and then swung cheap cups, which hold my stashes of tiny animals, seashells, and miniatures (they're all for learning kits; I don't have some weird thing with collecting tiny things just for the sake of it!  Though tiny kangaroos and panda bears are adorable...).

Hanging up work from two of my favorite artists, Suzy Ultman and Maddie (as in, my child) brightens up the space and makes me smile.

(Oh, and see that light switch?  Having recessed lighting in here is uh-mazing.)

So, did you know that there's this new thing called Ikea Family Rewards (or something like that)?

Not only do your kiddos get to spend an extra 30 minutes in Smaaland if you're a member (which would be reward enough!), you get inside deals on selected merchandise.

For example, this storage cart (which I assembled... and then reassembled when I realized I'd done it inside-out) was a reward deal for only $9!

I also bought a couple plastic dividers from Ikea (which fit perfectly, of course) to house my hefty supply of beads, erasers, and magnetic letters).

A ceramic serving dish from Big Lots holds my freshly sharpened pencils, pens, and Sharpies.  A little dish my mom got from thrifting holds my paper clips.

Open baskets help me see how my stock is and what I need to stock up on.

These Ikea boxes are super sturdy and do a great job of housing everything from extra kit materials to my sewing supplies to scrap paper.

But, my favorite part is that little thing to the left of the box.

Electricity!

Our friend (the same one that hung my Re-Store lamp re-do) ran a surge of electricity (technical term?) in here so that my printer and laminator can be hooked up.  We print wirelessly (best. thing. ever.), and it is so nice to have all our printing needs tucked away behind a door!

It really is amazing how great it feels to have a space so organized and streamlined.

It's also Maddie's pretend spaceship so clearly, it's important for it be a clean part of our home!  :)

Thanks for taking the warehouse-office-closet tour!

**Linked to A Bowl Full of Lemons**