Organize Me 2010

Feeling Guilty

2011-06-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been feeling really guilty. I have been planning for a new baby girl (in other words shopping!) and planning for preschool, which has involved a bit of shopping, and a LOT of printing.

I know the organizing rule that when you bring new stuff in, old stuff should go out...and that has not been happening in this house! Some of it is not for lack of trying, I have listed a few things on craigslist several times, but so far as many replies as I have gotten, no one has followed through. So today I went to work re-listing items, apparently if you try to make 4 posts one right after another "craigslist can't keep up" and you have to wait a while...I don't know how long that is as I tried over an hour later and still got that message!

However, that's still no where near the number of things I need to be getting rid of, and so this weekend I am going to start with a small goal to get rid of 25 items. They must LEAVE the house by Monday and items that are already in the donate box do not count.

So far I have collected:
-3 shirts out of my closet that are way too small, which I will be giving to my neighbor's daughter
-3 shirts out of my son's "store for winter" bin that I don't think he will fit in next winter, that will go in the donate box.

I have less than 14 weeks until baby #2 arrives, and I really want to be able to relax and enjoy my baby without the stress of all this clutter and disorganization when she arrives. So I have a ton of work to do in the next 3 months...hopefully that means more activity on this blog and a more peaceful Momma!

PS, you can check out my new pre-school/tot school blog over at http://piecesofparenthood.blogspot.com/

Closet Project (Almost) Complete

2011-05-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

I decided to go ahead and post this even though there are several finishing touches to be done. Mainly touch up paint, and some more things to be organized and put away. My husband is out of town this week though, and I had the boys pick up the toys in the living room before nap, so I went ahead and put them away in the closet, and I am loving it! No more stacks of toy bins in the living room and the big toys with no place to go! Now the boys will have to ask for what they want to play with, and I can easily have them pick up one thing before they are allowed to have another bin out.

Now my pictures are not too good because I just snapped some quick pics, but here they are:
Before:
I took the hanging closet organizer out, and it will most likely be going in Baby #2's closet. We keep the dresser in his closet because it doesn't match his furniture, and it will save space once we move the big guest bed into M's room. And yes his closet is packed full of clothes...in my defense...I do keep a lot of long sleeves and sweatshirts even for summer so that on cooler days I have a variety to choose from.

Now for the after:
One of the best things we did, was to move the closet rod down just a bit so we could go from having one shelf to having 2 shelves. I love this so that I can put his big toys on the bottom and I can reach them easily. Yet I will have a top shelf that may be hard for me to reach, but I can store things that I do not need to get to as often. I will probably be storing some of his "to grow into" items such as shoes and clothes that I have as hand me downs from my nephew, that I haven't gotten to organizing yet. Adding the extra shelf is something I definitely plan to be doing in the new baby's closet also!
I used the spot on the right bottom side of the closet to add some more shelves. These will function better for him now that he is older than the closet organizer I had. I can store his toy bins (which I do plan to make labels for someday) and still have a little bit of room left which I am sure I will soon find something laying around the house of his that needs to be put away.

Here you can see the spots that need to be fixed with the paint because initially my husband put the shelves at 18 inches apart and it made them too high so that the clothes hit the top shelf and I wouldn't be able to store anything on it, so he redid them to be 12 inches apart and it works great this way. But he barely finished up Sunday evening and M had to be going to bed so the paint touch ups will have to wait until my husband gets home this weekend.

I am so thankful to my husband for doing this project, I am already starting to feel better now that I have somewhere to put the toys away. I know that as we continue to do these projects I will feel better and better as things start to really have specific homes!

Making our house a home

2011-04-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted on this blog in a very long time. Honestly, I had pretty much given up with how unsuccessful last year turned out. I had all these hopes of getting organized, and did not accomplish even a fraction of what I had hoped. The few things I did accomplish quickly fell apart without constant maintenance, that I have yet to figure out.

I thought I would give up this blog all together, but a friend of mine found this blog a while back and said that it inspired her to do some much needed organization in some of her kitchen cabinets. Which in turn inspired me to get back on the wagon and try again.

Now I have a plan for the future, I want to buy a bigger house with 4 bedrooms instead of 3 and of course have a bigger yard, etc, etc. I spend a lot time thinking about it and how to make it happen, and in turn I neglect the house I live in. I think "well I don't want to put too much money and effort in here because I would rather save to get our dream house" I realize that this is totally off and I should be making the house we live in our home, instead of planning for something that we will be lucky if it happens in the next 10 years. So I am determined to focus on turning the house we have into something that can feel more like home, and be more pleasant to live in for the time that we are here.

We have several projects lined up for the coming months. Putting some extra shelves in our son's closet, and some extra shelves in our hall cabinet. We are planning to stack our washer and dryer so that we can take the dryer side and turn it into a pantry, and turn our entry closet back into a storage/coat closet since it really does not function well as a pantry. And most important of all, turning our guest bedroom into a nursery for the new baby girl that we are expecting in September!

Organizing Time

2010-10-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

I am starting to think I really need to take a class in time management. I am discovering that all other forms of organizing will not ever be successful until I can successfully manage my time. I may get started on something, but it rarely gets completed, and if it does, it does not stay nice and neat for long.

My husband and I often talk about creating schedules, cleaning schedules, meal schedules, scheduling "my" time, and "his" time. But never have we really stuck to one even if we halfway made one. I don't like rules, and I don't like restrictions. I don't like sticking to schedules because I like being flexible, if tonight is meatloaf night, and the neighbors are outside, I don't want to be stuck inside cooking while everyone else is outside visiting. So I really don't like the idea of a schedule in that way. But I am thinking that some kind of schedule is going to have to be made, and we can be flexible with it when necessary, but we also need to really try to stick to somewhat of a routine.

Right now as it is, I have so many projects I want to do, so much cleaning I need to do, etc....that when I have a some time I am so stretched in all directions, that I don't really accomplish anything. I am so stressed constantly over all the many things that need to be done, I can't focus long enough on just ONE thing to actually finish it...and half the time I can't concentrate enough to even get started!

So I would love tips on how you manage your time, or examples of schedules that work for you (or that you are trying out and tweaking, like I will be for a while I'm sure!).

C25K Drop Out

2010-09-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

So I am a Couch to 5k drop out! I haven't jogged since August 18. It is just too hard right now to find a good time to go jogging.

So instead I found something that I really enjoy - ZUMBA! A neighbor introduced me to a place here that has hour long Zumba classes for $5 and childcare for $2/child! So it is affordable and fun! I have gone 3 times so far, and really look forward to going again. I hate working out, and this is a great way to work out, without it being about how long you jog or how many push ups you can do. Being in a class with others also helps me push harder and makes it so that I won't give up in the middle of a workout!

Other than that, I haven't really gotten very far with my organizing. I did get my office floor all picked up so that I can vacuum later (boys are napping right now). And a while back I started reorganizing my file system, so mainly I had to pick up a bunch of folders and papers that came out of my file cabinet that still needs to be gone through, so I have them all stacked on a shelf.

I really wish I could just take everything out of many rooms in my house and completely start over including building shelving, etc that fits my needs. But that is not possible right now, so it is kind of discouraging.

However my hubby got an offer for a new job! We are so excited but he won't be able to start until October 4th, because first he has to accept the offer letter and then wait on drug testing/background check. But at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel! He will have to leave at some point for at least a couple weeks for some training, but will be well worth it. It should be better insurance and will be a bit better income! Hopefully that will give us a little extra to do some house projects I want to do.

Week 1 Update

2010-08-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well I started the Couch to 5k last Monday. The first day was really hard I actually only managed to do the jog/walk alternating for the first 10 minutes and then walked most of the last 10 minutes with about a minute jog in the middle.

So I did W1D2 on Wednesday and did the whole 20 minutes. Was supposed to do it again Friday, but we went out to dinner and had big meals too late to go jogging at night on Friday and Saturday. So I did W1D3 on Sunday. Went the whole 20 minutes and got a faster pace, but still wasn't ready to move on to Week 2. So tonight I did what I am going to call W1D4. I haven't decided whether I will do another day of Week 1 or move onto Week 2.

I also have an update on DH's job situation. He did not get into the police academy. He applied today at another job where a friend of his works, and hoping to hear back something soon. It would not be nearly as big of increase in pay, but hopefully enough to take a little stress off of us.

As far as organizing goes, I haven't gotten a lot accomplished there, but I did get my first Christmas present made! I really hope to make all Christmas presents, and so I am starting early and hope that I don't have to do any last minute gifts this year!

Couch to 5k

2010-07-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, so part of this getting organized, also needs to be about time management, and about me getting in better shape in every way, not just getting my house in shape, but my body too.

I really wanted to be back at my pre-preg weight before getting pregnant again, and I still have 10 pounds to go. But what bothers me more than that, is the extra inches that are on my thighs/hips.

I just attempted to go swim suit shopping and it is AWFUL!

We are also planning to maybe try for baby number 2 in the winter, so I really need to get in better shape before that, so that I will be in good enough shape to try to keep from gaining 50lb like last time.

So I have decided to join Jolene's Couch to 5k challenge over on http://nthnbutmoonshine.blogspot.com/

I really hope I can stick with it, I am hoping my DH will do this with me, hoping maybe we can borrow our neighbors jogging stroller and see how it goes. If we like it, we may have to buy one.

I also got out my old pedometer today, because I want to try to start walking more and making sure I get in more steps. Today I am going to just kind of see what an average day is for me and then I will add to it for a daily goal.

Hopefully I will also start doing elliptical or my Jillian Michaels video on off days from running. But right now I am just going to try to start out slow with the walking and the couch to 5k program.

Laundry Room Solution

2010-07-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

I am finally back, and working on organizing. I am currently working on organizing my office/craft room, yet again. The February organizing obviously did not last very long.

But today I am going to share a solution for our small laundry room we did a while back, that has helped a lot. We have a very small laundry area that is basically a walk-through to our garage with a washer on one side and dryer on the other. They do have cabinets above each, but no where to put laundry. I always ended up with dirty dish rags and towels stacked on the washer or dryer while waiting to add up enough for a load.

So I found some wire baskets (the stackable kind you find in the pantry shelf isle at Walmart). They came in sets of 2. First I only bought one set, but liked it so much I had to search all over until I finally found another set for the other side.

So now I have hanging baskets underneath my cabinets. My sister liked the idea so much, she got some and hung them in her own laundry room!

Above my washer I have a baskets for dirty bibs, rags, towels, and one for my husbands work rags.
Above my dryer I have baskets for my son's clean bibs and one where I store my place mats, cloth napkins, and tablecloth.
First I tried to hang bibs inside a cabinet, but he has so many that they didn't really fit well on one hook, so I like this a lot better.

Half a year almost gone...

2010-06-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is almost the halfway mark for 2010, and I am not even close to being halfway organized.

I am working a little each day though boxing up things for the garage sale and sending them on over to my sister's house where we will be having the sale. It is at least making me feel somewhat productive.

My husband takes his entrance exams on Saturday for the Police Academy! I am so nervous and anxious, and I hate wishing the summer away, but I NEED to know if he gets accepted. At least Saturday we will know if he even has a chance at getting in. If he passes the tests I think I will be able to take a short breath before holding it in again while we wait for background checks and interviews and such to be done.

In the meantime I became a ChaCha guide to try to make a little extra cash. I got to start yesterday and I have only earned $7. It is a bit disappointing with the amount of time I have spent answering questions. I don't expect to get rich, but I would like to make more than $2 an hour. I really would like to earn some extra money sewing, or even baking, but I don't think that is going to happen. With as little money as I am making on ChaCha, I feel like I should be cleaning or organizing instead, but now that I started I feel like I at least need to make enough to make it worth cashing out, they charge $2 for the "pay me now" option and in order to get a "monthly" payment you have to have made at least $100!

I don't currently have any organizing pictures; however, I will share the cake I made for my son's 1st birthday:

Leaving Azeroth

2010-06-16T14:44:00.001-07:00

My husband and I have been playing World of Warcraft for nearly 3 years now. It is now official that we have both canceled our subscriptions. We are hoping that my husband will be accepted to the police academy and then with the increase in income we can get everything caught up and hopefully get our subscriptions back. Right now though, it was just money that we really didn't have to be spending on it, and it took time that we really should have spent doing other things. We never sit down and watch movies together anymore because we always spent that time playing WoW. And we have a stack of borrowed movies, so it will be nice to sit down and watch movies together again. It will also help me get done more on my crafting or cleaning, because I won't be able to sit down and play during naptime.

The thought of not being able to play is much worse than actually not playing. I haven't even logged on in a couple weeks because I have been busy with other things, and I hate paying for something I am not using a lot, but it's hard to think that Saturday night we won't be able to log on and run some heroics with the guild.

We will be back however, I most definitely will not want to miss out on the new expansion, but I am going to try to enjoy my summer away from video games!

Update

2010-06-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

We have been pretty busy around here lately, and spending a lot of time outside enjoying the warmer weather, so I apologize for abandoning this blog, yet again. I am also trying to get my craft blog going, but haven't had a lot of time for that either.

As far as organizing goes, I haven't gotten a ton done, but I did go through my clothes drawers, and now have 2 empty drawers, so my husband can now have some space to put his clothes! I have a big stack of clothes that will be going into a garage sale, and I'm not completely done going through clothes yet!

I am trying to work out more. I got Jillian Michael's 30-day shred, but have only done it 3 times in 2 weeks, which isn't great, but things keep coming up, like the weekend after I got it we were going to the zoo, and boy was I sore after the first time, so I decided I should skip a few days because I didn't want to be miserable hobbling around the zoo! Then of course holiday weekend, so I didn't work out. Now we will be out of town this weekend, so hopefully I will workout again tomorrow (I worked out today, YAY), then hopefully maybe just do some walking/jogging while we are out of town. We may be going to another zoo, so at least that will be a lot of walking.

And a big update is that my husband is going to try to get into the police academy. It is something that he has wanted to do for a while, and it will be a big increase in pay and much better benefits. He has to take the written and physical test in about 2 weeks, and then they start the background checks, etc. This would be a great opportunity for him and help us as a family.

After we get back from our trip I will be spending the next couple weeks clearing out as much as I can for a garage sale, so hopefully I will have something to blog about then!

Craft Blog Update

2010-05-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I couldn't really get used to wordpress, so I ended up moving my craft blog to blogger. The new address for my craft blog is:

http://livelovedreamcreate.blogspot.com/

Hope you like it!

I have a couple small organizing things to post about soon and need to upload pictures from my son's 1st birthday party, but I may be posting those over on the craft blog, since it involves a few crafty things I did.

Sorry I haven't kept up with this much, I am really hoping to get into the swing over organizing and decluttering this summer. We are planning a garage sale for June, so I definitely need to get to work!

Yay for Spring

2010-05-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Our utilities are split into our electric/water/city all on one bill, and our gas (heating/water heater) are on another bill.

In the winter our gas bill has been over $100/month. This past month I have tried to keep our heating/ac off. I was quite proud of myself for making it through a 90 degree day and I still didn't turn on the ac. Having central air has definitely spoiled me as I grew up in a house with only a swamp cooler. So I am going to try to go for windows/fan/being outside before I go for turning on the air. There have also been some cooler nights, but I like it to be cool at night, so we have just been turning on a little heater in M's room at night instead of heating the whole house.

So I got our gas bill yesterday and it was only 23.32! I am so happy as I was trying to over budget and had entered 100 for that for our budget this month! This will definitely help us catch up.

Now if we can just get our electric/water bill down!

Craft Blog

2010-05-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

This post is probably going to turn into a long rambling introduction into my new craft blog, so in case you don't want to read it, I'll start with the link:

http://lovedreamcreate.wordpress.com/

I'll start off by saying it is a wordpress blog because neither lovedreamcreate nor love-dream-create were available on blogger, although I have checked both, and one has never had a post and the other it says doesn't exist. Oh well I guess I will give wordpress a try.

The reason why I had to switch blog sites is because I have spent a long time trying to come up with a name for a craft blog and a logo to go with it, because it's just not the same if I don't have some cute little logo to go on the top of my blog...you can tell how great I am at that right? :) So today I finally came up with this and what I think will be a cute logo, I just have to figure out how to make it digital. I drew up a sketch, not well, but it gets the idea across, just need to play around with photoshop to see if I can make it, or find someone who can! So you see if I stuck with blogger, it would be another 6 months before I got a craft blog going, because it would take me that long to come up with another name, and then I still might not be so lucky for that name to be available!

If you haven't been able to tell already, I am a fairly pessimistic person, who also gets discouraged easily. I spend a lot of time thinking about what other people can do or what they have or how they are, and think how I want all of those things. I don't really ever sit back and think about things that I CAN actually do, and mostly I am afraid to do things, because, yes, I'm afraid of failing, or I'm afraid no one will like me and so on. I am also a perfectionist, and never see anything I do as good enough, and I really need to quit being so hard on myself and start being proud of the things that I do. So this craft blog is about me attempting to step out of my shell and actually start doing things instead of just thinking about them.

I don't really know much about using wordpress, so it may take a while for me to get the layout set up, but I do have an intro blog up, and will hopefully be posting some project pictures tomorrow. I am a little sad that I can't find a "followers" thing on wordpress, but interested to learn about the features it has.

I hope to see you over there!

Some Organizing At Last

2010-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

So I started this blog to post my progress in organizing, but have been stuck in a rut for the past couple months.

It's actually amazing how little time it would take, if I could just find the motivation to do these things.

Yesterday, I decided it was time I finally clean the shelves in the living room that have been piled with stuff for months.

I actually took these before pictures on March 11, and it has taken me til May 2nd to actually do anything about it!

The top of our entertainment center:
Before:
After:

Top of my DVD shelf:
Before:
After:

Bookshelf:
Before:
After:

Sorry the boxes are blocking the bottom shelf, it still looks kind of bad, but I'm not exactly sure what to do with the bottom shelf to make it look great, but the books aren't leaning like they are in the before pic.

Getting these little things done has definitely motivated to try to do more little things, because they really don't take all that long, and it makes me feel good to have accomplished something.

New Month, New Start

2010-05-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

So I have decided that I am going to start looking at each month as a new start. A time to evaluate the past month, and make adjustments to start moving in the right direction, with finances, time, organizing, etc.

A few things going on this month...our neighborhood is going to have it's first block party! We are so glad to have great neighbors.

Our 2 year wedding anniversary is on May 17, and our baby boy turns 1 on the 18th! We are having his birthday party on the 22nd, which is also my sister's b-day.

I can't believe my baby is already going to turn 1, but I am excited about his party, and am loving planning for it! I think I have discovered a new love in party planning!

So yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day, and while I didn't exactly work on my scrapbooks, I used my awesome Animal Crackers paper stack from DCWV to create an awesome birthday banner, for my little man's jungle themed birthday party.

I am thinking of other ideas for decorations and such too, and look forward to showing you all after his party!

I will also have pictures soon of some organizing I have done today! Got lots to do to get ready for having all the company over for M's party!

I also have decided we need to somewhat start over financially. I use Quicken to track our finances, and have made a new file starting May 1st. We are going to start tracking better and trying to stick more to a budget. We are not going to eat out unless it is socially, when family is here, or we go out with friends.

Well the family is heading outside to enjoy the evening, so I will go join them! Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Seriously Slacking

2010-04-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

So here I am again, apologizing, for seriously slacking on my blog.

I haven't really been able to get out of my slump that I have been in, and was just dragged down more last night when I realized, we barely have enough money in our checking account to cover our first of the month mortgage payment (though pay day is Sat) I need to pay the bill in the next couple days. So we are having to dip into our cash stash to keep our bank account afloat.

We have been talking about cutting back, but have been so busy we haven't put a lot of effort in, that maybe we needed this wake up call.

I also went to the dentist last week, and we discussed taking out my wisdom teeth in June, but with the way the money thing is going right now, I don't feel comfortable taking $1500 out of savings to pay for it, so I believe it will be put on hold until next spring. Hubby needs his removed too, but says mine are of priority, since my family has invested a lot in my teeth, having had braces and all.

Other than that, I haven't really accomplished many other projects, I have started many but not completed anything. I have a ton of things to accomplish before my baby boy's first birthday party in May! His invitations are being mailed out today, so at least that is accomplished. But I have a ton of house keeping/organizing to do and need to get his birthday banner and decorations made.

Hubby and I are trying to work out a schedule so that I can have more time sewing, so that I can try to get some more items up on our Etsy, and in a local shop where we have some items for sell, so that hopefully we can somewhat get that up and going to bring in some extra money.

We are planning a garage sale for June also, so hopefully I can get rid of some clutter and make a little extra cash.

I haven't had many tutoring gigs lately, but tutored an hour this weekend, and am tutoring half an hour this evening, and right now every little bit helps.

I am also waiting on 2 $5 amazon cards from swagbucks, and I have enough points to get another $5 card.

I know it will all get worked out, but my stomach is still in knots for even letting it get this far. But if it gets my husband more on board for putting effort into cutting back and saving money, then hopefully it will be worth it!

Some sewing projects

2010-04-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted recently yet again.

I still haven't accomplished a lot and haven't felt like I have had much to post about.

I have been trying to start sewing more, and today I thought I would show you some of my projects:

This is the first project I did a couple years ago:

I also made a 2nd one that I gave to my sister. I use mine for carrying books, my sister uses hers to take books and stuff to church for my nephew.

After that I had frustrations with my machine and quit sewing for a while. I got a new machine recently and started sewing again.

What I have been doing lately is sewing a bunch of burp cloths.

Here are a couple sets:

Some coasters I made, I want to make some potholders to match, I am in love with this fabric and the one that matches on the burp cloths:

And a crayon roll I made yesterday:

New (old) light

2010-03-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

Changing a light fixture is an easy fix, that can make a huge difference in the way a room looks. We have put in new ceiling fans in all bedrooms and the living room, and we just finally got our dining room and entry way lights changed (pictures of those will come with the big kitchen reveal).

So our hall light is pretty hideous...or at least I think so...you can judge for yourself:
I can't stand the shiny yellow gold (also why we changed our dining and entry way light fixtures). I much prefer the oil-bronzed finish or a pewter finish.

However I didn't want to buy a new light just to hang in the hallway. So I took one of the lights we took down from the dining/entry way and modified it.

Before:
After some oil-bronze spray paint:
And some glass frosting (which is so much fun I want to find something else to do this too!)

Ta-da....new hall light...which still needs to be hung :)

Feeling blah...

2010-03-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

I am really sorry that I have not posted recently. I have been feeling really blah lately and haven't done much at all.

I am so sick of the cold spells every couple days. Which means that most of the nice days in between can't be spent outside either unless you want to breath dirt, which is what it is like today. I need fresh air and I need sunshine and blue skies, desperately, yet today is brown skies and tomorrow is calling for gray skies, AND more blowing dust.

I also got a new sewing machine, because I was getting frustrated with my old used one getting stuck every 5 minutes, only to have problem because I absolutely cannot get my stitches right to sew together a piece of cotton and flannel! Is there some magical trick to get it to sew cotton and flannel together? It worked just fine when I did cotton with terry cloth. So I have been down about that, too.

My kitchen is still incomplete.

Bills and ads and receipts have once again taken over my desk.

I have no energy, so have not done much cleaning or cooking or exercising.

I haven't really posted because since I haven't done much, I haven't really had much to post about.

I am finally breaking down and we are going to purchase a new washer and dryer this weekend. I dread spending the money, but we have been searching for a good used pair that fits our needs for a couple weeks with no luck. And I don't want to risk buying used ones only to end up in this same situation 6 months from now.

I have felt terrible because we have been spending lots of money, after I was so sure I was going to start tracking and quit spending so much.

So all in all, the past few weeks have just been...well...blah... I really need something to get me out of this rut, but I don't know what it is. At this point I believe I would be willing to pay to have someone come in and organize and give me a fresh start...

Birthday Invite

2010-03-17T09:42:00.001-07:00

I am not very experienced with digital scrapbooking. Actually I have only ever made 1 digital scrapbooking layout before, but I decided I wanted to make photo invites for Mason's first birthday party.

His first birthday is May 18, and I am also planning on making a birthday banner and maybe a few other things, so I decided I better get started.

So I bought this kit to work on the invitations:
You can find it here: Kay Miller Jungle Boogie kit

I love this kit, it is so cute!

The only thing was it doesn't have an alpha, and I had no idea how to make patterned letters how I wanted. So thanks to the help of the ladies over on the scrapbooking board on preg.org, I finally figured it out!

I haven't taken his picture for the invitation yet, because I am waiting for some warmer weather to take him out in, but here is my first digital photo card invite:

Not much going on

2010-03-12T13:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't really posted this week. I haven't really accomplished much this week. I have been really lazy.

I did get a new sewing machine this week. I have sewn a couple burp cloths. I need to get some pictures of them.

I was just now working on sewing some more burp cloths only I am using flannel on these instead of terry cloth like my others and now I can't get my stitches right, so I gave up for now.

Earlier I was working on making invitations for my son's 1st birthday coming up in May. I am using a digital scrapbooking kit to make photo cards. I am not very experienced with digital scrapbooking though, and my kit didn't come with an alpha. So I don't know how to get the letters the way I want them, so that is on hold til I figure that out!

So all my projects seem to be on hold!

This week I HAVE to go through pictures and get some printed. Some for my Grandma's photo frame that she has been waiting on for a while, and some to give out, and some for me to scrapbook. I have a ton of older pictures printed, but I just don't feel inspired by any. Or I feel like I have all this paper and it doesn't match! And I absolutely have to use up some of my stash before buying more!

Since I haven't been working much on any of my projects or organizing I have spent my spare time play World of Warcraft. Yes, I play WoW. I have a level 80 paladin, and I am working on getting my mage to 80. I have her at 72 right now. My husband does play too, but I am the one that got him started playing. He has a 72 hunter. That is kind of our thing we get to do together, instead of spending a bunch of money on date nights to the movies or wherever.

I really hope that I can gather up so motivation to get some stuff done this weekend. My sister offered to babysit Mason Saturday, so we are planning to take her up on her offer so that we can try to work on the kitchen without interruptions. Now that we got our tax refund in, we are going to buy our microwave and lights so hopefully the kitchen will finally be done this month.

Well the little one just woke up, hopefully I will have some progress on something to post soon!

Menu Plan Monday ~ March 8

2010-03-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We had company this weekend and yesterday I wasn't feeling very well, so my menu plan Monday is a day late.

Monday - Leftover Taco burgers
Tuesday - Spaghetti
Wednesday - Leftover Spaghetti
Thursday - Chicken Strips with Mac & Cheese
Friday - Eat out
Saturday - Jambalaya
Sunday - Leftovers

A money saving decision

2010-03-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

I didn't really get a chance to work a whole lot on our budgeting last night, but I did look at our bills to try to see where we can cut some costs.

Not too long ago I changed our cell phone plan to a smaller one. We upped it while I was wedding planning because I was always on the phone and going over my minutes, but now we have almost 1,000 rollover minutes, so we obviously didn't need all that. I haven't gotten our first bill with the lower rate yet, but hopefully it will be about $30 less.

Last night though I sat down and discussed with my husband turning off our satellite. We have the smallest package on Dish Network with DVR. It costs us about 55/month. So as soon as our contract is up (we have to call and find out because we don't remember if it got renewed when we accepted the special 10/off a month for 10 months thing) we will be turning off our satellite.

We are both guilty of watching too much TV, and we really need to cut back on our spending. So this is step 2 (cell phone plan being #1).

I would love to hear what you do to cut back costs!

2 months down

2010-03-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well it is already the 3rd month of the year.

I am thankful to orgjunkie, for hosting the 28 day challenge which really helped me get started organizing my house. It is in a lot better shape than it was in January, and it has motivated me to work on the rest of the house, and work hard to get into habits that keep it that way.

I actually did some scrapbooking yesterday, 2 layouts! One I feel is unfinished, but it may stay that way for a while as I'm not sure what else to do. And I picked some of it up yesterday, and put all the rest away today. I was hoping to do another yesterday which is why some was left out, but couldn't find the inspiration.

So while I feel like I am definitely making progress in the house department, I feel like I am way behind in the money department.

Money stresses me out more than anything. We aren't really BAD off, but we are no where near where we need to be and even further from where I want to be.

I am hoping to get some time today to sit and try to work out a budget and plan for our long and short term goals. Right now though, my little one has woken up from a nap and is in need of an afternoon snack.

28 Day Organization Challenge End

2010-03-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

The 28 day challenge has come to end! I think I did pretty well for being as organizationally challenged as I am!

First of all I would like to say a big thanks to my husband for all his hard work in helping me get this accomplished!

Next I will start with the summary questions:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

I think the hardest part of the challenge and organizing and decluttering for me in general is purging. My husband and I both have a hard time getting rid of things. I think we have made a significant difference in letting things go, but I am sure there is still lots of room for improvement!

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Now that we have designated spaces for all our items, we can know where to put things away. Before we often didn't have a specific place for items to go, so they just got left wherever they landed. I think now knowing exactly where everything is supposed to go, it will be much easier to get everything put away!

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

A lot of the things we purged went into the trash. And many items went into donate/sell boxes which we will be putting in a garage sale this spring, whatever doesn't sell will go straight to Goodwill.

4. What creative storage solutions were you able to introduce in order to create additional space as well as establish some limits and boundaries?

One of my favorite things was the wire shelves we added in the closet close together to store all my cake pans. Makes it easy to get to them without having them all topple over when trying to dig one out from the bottom. I really planned to do more, but when my husband went back to get more of the wire shelving (it was 12 foot wire shelving that was cut to fit our closet) it had doubled in price! OVERNIGHT. I was mad, but I really hope to add more specific shelving for items if we ever find that shelving cheap enough again.

5. Why do you think you should win this challenge?

This is a hard question for me, because I really never think I deserve to win anything, so I will try to pretend for a moment to have a few ounces of self confidence: I think I have made a dramatic improvement on our office/craft room, and I already feel a big weight lifted off my shoulders, and feel like now I actually can accomplish something in here. I joined this challenge in the hopes that it would hold me accountable to actually getting something done, and it has definitely given me the motivation to conitue organizing all over my house. I think I have turned a room that was barely usable and made me feel so stressed before into a room that will be great for doing all my craft projects, and be more inspiring than holding me back because of all the clutter. And because I have a lot of work to do organizing all over the rest of my house, I would definitely put any prize to good use!

So now to the pictures:
I will start with the closet:
Before:
AFTER:
Left side:

Right Side:
Now into the room:
My desk Before:
Our new desk area, we moved my husband's desk by mine and moved the printer table to where his desk was:
The end of my desk before:
After:

Printer Table Before:

The spot when it was my husbands desk:After:

Workbench Before:
After:
Sink Area before:
After:
Craft Table Before:
Probably the most dramatic difference in the room...After:

My First Blog Award!

2010-02-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

Wow, I am so excited I got my first blog award! A big thank you to JBranagan at http://adventuresofawifeandmommy.blogspot.com/ for nominating me!

I am supposed to pass it on to 12 others, so here we go:

1. Justin ~ http://thefabulousvoicemailofjustinduncan.blogspot.com/ My wonderful husband's blog where he posts about his crafts that we sell in our Etsy store!

2. Suzie ~ http://kiddosavings.blogspot.com/ My fellow May Momma who shares a ton of great deals!

3. mscstephens ~ http://scrap-happy-mommy.blogspot.com/ Another from my birth board who is also an awesome digital scrapbooker!

4. Danielle ~ http://transforminghome.blogspot.com/ Danielle has probably received many awards, but her blog is very inspiring for me to make my house feel more like a home!

5. Gwen ~ http://flashbulbspurpleirises.wordpress.com/ A fellow scrapbooker who is also a great photographer!

6. Kath ~ http://findingthecalminthechaos.blogspot.com/ Another blogger on a journey to organization!

7. Brooke ~ http://organisedandclean.blogspot.com/ And another blogger sharing her journey to organization!

8. Krista ~ http://organizedin15.blogspot.com/ And yet another blogger sharing in the organizing challenge!

(You can see the trend, I spend much more time reading about organizing than actually getting any done! LOL)

9. Penny Saver ~ http://thesavedquarter.wordpress.com/ A great blog about saving money for an emergency fund!

10. Amy ~ http://www.raisingarrows.net/ Another blogger who has probably received many awards, but I really enjoy reading her blog!

11. Nancy ~ http://homesclscrapper.blogspot.com/ An awesome scrapbooker, who shares lots of great projects!

12. Cheryl ~ http://www.aprettycoollife.com/ One more blogger who has probably received lots of awards, but many of her awesome projects are on my to-do list!

Thanks again so much for the award! It is definitely an encouragement to keep blogging!

Organizing Update

2010-02-22T18:50:00.000-08:00

Less than one week left to get my office organized! I have made some progress with the help of my hubby. He put up some shelves for me this weekend, and made me an awesome gift wrap holder!

I am not posting many pictures of what we have done yet, since there is only a week left, I want to leave a lot of it for the big reveal, but here are a few things that got done this weekend!

In this picture, you can see the 3 pink shelves in the corner, well we exchanged those for 2 nice new shelves. The ones in this picture were plywood, and I much prefer the smooth laminate finish.
Here is the new shelf where I keep my office books and photo albums:

And now to my gift wrap organizer:
Each thing rotates for easy access, and I can store 8 rolls of wrapping paper!
And here is the wall in the closet that it is on, along with my door signs (I like to change them with the seasons) and my quilting mat.
Sorry, that's it for now, time for the little one to have a bottle and go to bed!

Menu Plan Monday - Feb 22

2010-02-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

We decided to make Friday our "Eat Out" night. We pretty much always eat out one night on the weekend. A local restaurant we like has live music on Friday nights and the past couple weeks we have went and we have decided that we go there most Fridays to enjoy the live music and have dinner. Since we both enjoy live music, but rarely get to attend any kind of concerts or anything, this is a good compromise. Music is free and the food is good, and it would be likely that we would eat there over the weekend anyway.

For the rest the week:
Monday ~ French Bread Pizza
Tuesday ~ Tater Tot Casserole
Wednesday ~ Chicken Strips with Mashed Potatoes
Thursday ~ Pork Chops with left over Mashed Potatoes
Friday ~ Eat Out
Saturday ~ Lasagna
Sunday ~ Leftovers

Shoes - Minus 10!

2010-02-16T12:04:00.000-08:00

This past weekend in the process of cleaning our master bedroom, I spent a bit of time trying on clothes and getting rid of things that don't fit and things I never wear to make my closet a bit more organized and have a bit more room.

Well worse than having too many clothes, I have a very big addiction to shoes!

This is what my shoes in my closet looked like before:

yes, there is another shoe rack hidden back there!

Minus 10 pairs of shoes! :( yes I counted my slipper socks as shoes! I did get a new purple pair last Christmas that I have been wearing so I said goodbye to my worn out penguin pair (I also LOVE penguins!). You may also tell that I really like flip flops! If it was up to me, I would have a pair in every color! Goodbye shoes...

(you can also see a pile of clothes that is going in the sell/donate box also)

And now for the final results:

I know I should really get rid of some more, and I am going to try to convince myself to...but I need a little break after getting rid of 10 pairs at once!

Master Bedroom Organizing progress

2010-02-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm working on 2 rooms at once! I know I should be focusing on the office, but recently DH and I have made a habit of going to bed a bit earlier so we can spend half an hour or so reading our books before going to sleep. It really helps me to be able to relax a bit because it usually takes me so long to go to sleep because my list of things to do is so long and it keeps going through my head! So we decided we should make our bedroom more relaxing by trying to clear some clutter!

It isn't done yet, but it looks a whole lot better!

My night stand Before:
After:

My Side of the room Before:
After:
Still work to do...the sack of clothes I still have to go through. The other 2 piles need to go in storage boxes, one is maternity clothes the other are pre-pregnancy clothes I am hoping to fit in again by the end of summer. And the top of the dresser still needs a lot of work.

This is the top of the armoire, my husband uses it as dumping grounds for whatever comes out of his pockets. There is a basket on the dresser that he was "supposed" to use, but that obviously didn't work out. He did work on cleaning it off some so here is what he accomplished.
Before:
After:

I did do some work in the office, but since we are taking out a bunch of the stuff from the closet there isn't much to show that has been finished yet. But I did decided that I will only keep as many magazines (not including my Wilton Yearbooks) as I have holders for. I have 10 magazine holders seen here:
And this is the stack that I got rid of to make my magazines fit in the holders. I still need to go through those though and get rid of more so that I can have room to grow!

Hopefully this week we will be cracking down on the office since there are only 2 weeks left for the challenge and I am guessing that our family that is supposed to be making a trip up here soon will probably be here the last bit of February, so I am really hoping to accomplish a lot this week!

Menu Plan Monday - Feb 15th

2010-02-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

Monday: Leftovers - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Spaghetti

Thursday: Crock Pot Chicken and Rice

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Eat out

Sunday: Grilled cheese and noodles

Budget Kit Giveaway

2010-02-10T18:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share a giveaway that is being hosted at The Saved Quarter for the book The Budget Kit by Judy Lawrence.

Budgeting is something that I really want to work on. I have never really "had" to budget, but by not budgeting money, we end up spending way more and not saving! So I am hoping to learn how to budget and this book looks like it would be a great help for me to get started!

Baby steps

2010-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

I was really hoping to post a lot more progress on the office/craft room organization challenge, but haven't made as much progress as I hoped. However, I am making baby steps!

Here is one small thing I accomplished this past weekend:
Before:
After:
And here is a couple toss piles that came out of the office:
I also filled a small box and working on a big box of things to sell/donate. Unfortunately we have so much stuff it seems like we haven't even made a dent! Hopefully this weekend will be full of productivity. I designed a shelf that I am hoping maybe we can build this weekend to store some of my scrapbooking items.

I am also looking for some ideas for storage for our closet.

I found this image from Country Living:
I am thinking about making a gift wrap storage similar to this on a wall in the closet.

I am also going to make a coupon binder for organizing my coupons, if I can find some trading card pages. I got a binder that zips up and some dividers, and hope to get some trading cards pages in the next couple days. So hopefully I will have some pictures of that to post up soon also.

Menu Plan Monday - Feb 8th

2010-02-08T10:34:00.001-08:00

So I said a while back that I wanted to start doing Menu Plan Monday, but I haven't ever gotten around to it. So today I decided I am going to make a menu for this week. I am not sure if I will stick to it, but since I am planning to grocery shop for it today, hopefully it means we will at least have something in the house to eat this week!

Monday: Chicken Spaghetti

Tuesday: Country Style Pork Ribs BBQed in oven with baked potatoes

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Grilled Cheese and noodles of some kind

Friday: Turkey chili for frito pies

Saturday: frozen pizza

Sunday: Meatloaf with mashed potatoes (a V-day meal for DH since it is his favorite)

Feeling guilty...

2010-02-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

So I created this blog as a way to hopefully keep myself accountable for actually getting some organizing done around here. Well I did get a tiny bit done today, and I did take pictures, but have not loaded them onto the computer yet, so will save them for tomorrow and will hopefully have much more progress to post along with it.

I enjoy reading blogs about organizing/crafts/decorating/whatever it is, but where also you feel like you get to know a bit about the person writing the blog. So tonight I will share a bit about how I have been feeling lately, and maybe some other moms can relate.

I have been feeling really guilty lately because I have baby fever already. My son is not even a year old, but I am already thinking about having another baby (we are planning on waiting a while before trying again). I think it has been creeping up on me as the months go by since my son's birth, but has hit me even more since the beginning of January when my baby boy started crawling! I say everyday how much I miss my tiny baby. I miss him curling up and cuddling on mommy and I even miss my big belly and feeling him kick before he was born. I think this is why I am so anxious for another, but yet I know it won't cure anything, because #1 my Mason will still be growing up at a rate that is much too fast for Mommy, and #2 it will happen all over again as baby #2 grows up. I know that I really do want to wait before trying again. I want to spend this time enjoying Mason as baby and focusing on him, and it makes me feel so guilty to be already wanting another one like it's not fair to Mason. I really do enjoy watching him grow up and seeing his personality develop and his smiles and giggles and all his milestones, but I will forever miss holding the tiny baby boy I brought home from the hospital.

This evening Mason actually laid on me and fell asleep which is a very rare occurrence since he has learned to crawl, because now he just wants to go everywhere and as long as someone is holding him he is more likely to fight sleep even when he is really tired. I can't believe at 8 months old, how independent my baby boy is already becoming. I miss my cuddly boy that I could pick up and cuddle him to sleep whenever and where ever. It made me very happy to have that moment with him tonight, I really needed it.

Mommy and Mason:
One week old:

one month old:
January 16, nearly 8 months old:

Organization Progress!

2010-02-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

I decided to start out the 28-day challenge with my desk! This is where I try to keep my calendar and where all my bills and such go and it stresses me out to have to go searching for bills or paperwork needed for something or other, so last night I decided to get started with my desk...now let's see if I can keep it this way!

I have 4 paper trays that I have just always stuck stuff on. I have now decided to label them (will hopefully be done this evening if my husband brings me a label maker from work) so that they will have specific purposes and I can no longer just put throw things on it.

The top tray is for incoming, so if DH brings in the mail, or brings me receipts he can put them on the top tray. The 2nd tray will be for outgoing, things that need to go in the mail. The 3rd tray is the "to do" tray, such as bills that need to be paid, paper for filing taxes, etc. The bottom tray is the "to file" tray so I can put things in there and hopefully I will make time at least once a week to file everything from the bottom tray.

Before:
After:
And now this is what my craft table looks like after clearing everything off my desk:

28 Day Organization Challenge

2010-02-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

One month down already, and I haven't gotten much accomplished towards my goal of getting and staying organized. Orgjunkie.com is hosting a 28-day organizing challenge and I am thinking that this is just the motivation I need to actually accomplish some things this month.

I have so many places to choose from, but my office/craft room is the area frustrating me most at the moment. I always feel like I am forgetting something because I have so much stuff piled on my desk I am afraid I will lose a bill or something. It is also frustrating when I want to work on sewing or scrapbooking and have to do so much moving things around just to find a space to work. So I am hoping posting some "before" pictures will make me accountable for actually getting this room organized this month.

Here is a picture of my desk:

This is my husband's area:
This sink cabinet was here when we bought the house...this is that area:
This is my craft areas, a table and a work bench. These pictures were taken in January in preparation for this challenge they have been cleaned up just a little since these pictures were taken so that I could work on a sewing project:
I am also including our office closet in my challenge of organizing this room, as that is were a lot of the stuff in the room will have to go. We previously took out the shelving that was in it and put in different shelves, but I don't really feel that it is very useful this way either, so likely it will all be ripped apart and redone yet again. It is very hard to get the camera to take good pics since it is very long and skinny with 2 doors, but here is a college of a couple pics from it so you can get an idea of what it looks like:

I will try to post some progress pictures as I accomplish things this month and hope that I have a completely transformed room to show you in 27 days!

Inspiration

2010-01-29T13:53:00.000-08:00

So I decided that it was time to do a search for some organization inspiration.

My office/craft room is the spot in this house that is bugging me the most at the moment. It is where both DH and I spend a lot of our time, but right now we can't even have the baby in here since he is into everything because most of our crap is on the floor! I realize we need to get rid of a lot of things, and we really need to figure out some storage solutions that work for us. I do scrapbooking and sewing so I have a lot of crafty items, but I feel like I can't work on much of anything because I have no room, because all my flat surfaces are always covered with stuff.

This would be absolute heaven for me:

The Dream Scrapbook Studio from Scrapbooksetc.com

I just imagine having a room surrounded by cabinets and counter tops, like a kitchen but for crafting!

So that is totally not an option right now. We don't have the space, nor is the room we do have set up in any kind of way that would be possible without some major renovations, but we do have a fairly large space with a decent sized closet. Now - to figure out a way to set it up to be useful, pretty, and organized....and CHEAP!

Looking for motivation...

2010-01-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

As I posted before I knew we wouldn't get half done of what we planned to this weekend. But in our defense, we did have an unexpected problem with the leaking of our washing machine last week, which still has not been fixed. We did find out the problem, but have yet to work out a solution, but several hours were spent this weekend working on it, therefore taking away from our kitchen project. Not to mention after my husband got the top of the walls painted and ready for the glaze, I put on a little of the glaze and decided I hated it. So Sunday we had to go back to Lowe's so I could pick out another color of paint.

What we did accomplish in the kitchen:
The top half of the walls are now painted.
DH mudded over the paneling on the bottom half under the chair rail.
The bottom half of the walls are now painted.

ummm....surely there has to be more! That sounds like so little!

I did finish a couple of burp cloths. I am hoping to get some more done and start listing them on our Etsy store. I do need to go get a bit more variety of fabric though. I will try to get some pictures of them soon and post them.

So I had been planning to start trying to get up earlier for a little bit of me time, but that's not really working out. Mason has decided this week he is going to start waking up at 7:30 in the morning. Which was about the time I was getting up for my me time. And I just don't think I can go a whole lot earlier than that! I don't do the whole getting up before dawn thing! I need daylight to make me feel alive!

Lucky for me today Mason and my nephew are down for a nap at the same time! Of course until I say that...now Mason will probably soon be awake. And what have I spent my time during their nap doing....nothing! There is so much to do I feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start! I need some motivation! What motivates you?

Kitchen Sneak Peek

2010-01-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share a sneak peek of our kitchen. Hopefully I can do a reveal next week. I am hoping to get just about everything done with it this weekend. Except the floor, which will be on hold for a while. This weekend hopefully we will get all the walls painted, the molding up, the new microwave for over the stove, the outlets changed, new light fixtures, and hopefully some new window treatment....but don't count on it! We always plan to get lots done, and we are lucky if we make it halfway!

I will share some before pictures:

And here is a little sneak peek of the open shelf we added. We added another cabinet on the other side of the dishwasher to create a little more counter space (and the extra storage is nice), and this was created to fill the wall above it.
I guess I should add what all we have done so far: painted the cabinets (except for 5 drawers that still need to be done), put in new counter tops, added a cabinet next to dishwasher, built and put up open shelf above new cabinet, ripped out cabinets above stove and put an open shelf to go above our new microwave when we get it, took out old backsplash and put up some new beadboard which we painted and left at the back to our open shelf. I think that's about it.

My kitchen has been in shambles since August and I am SO ready for it to be done. It took a long time to end up coming to the decision to paint the cabinets, but it's a long story and Mason is being squirmy on my lap and making it quite difficult to type, so I will leave that for another day....Time to feed the little one...

Coat closet turned Pantry

2010-01-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

I was reading Transforming Home's blog about turning her coat closet into a toy/craft closet and was inspired to post my coat closet turned pantry. We moved into this house at the end of May 2008. It didn't take long to realize that we did not have enough storage in our galley kitchen with no pantry! So I decided to turn our coat closet into a pantry. I would really like to make it more efficient and add better storage, but this is what it looks like for now:

This is a big reason I hate it: there is a step up into the closet that is quite high. Makes it really annoying to have to step in there every time I need to reach something off the back shelf.

If anyone has any great ideas for pantry storage for my coat closet turned pantry, please leave me a comment!

Vacations Over

2010-01-19T06:48:00.000-08:00

Not that it was really a "vacation" as there wasn't much relaxing going on around here, but today I am back to babysitting my nephew as it is time for another semester of school to start. He should be here in about 10 minutes, so this will probably be a short post, but I have been slacking here and felt the need to post something.

I actually managed to get out of bed a little before 7:30 this morning. I have decided to start trying to get up earlier to either accomplish something or just have some me time before Mason wakes up and my nephew arrives. So this morning I at least got to eat some breakfast in peace and I picked up all the toys in the living room so that I can vacuum after he wakes up and has breakfast before he goes to play on the floor.

We have been having all sorts of problems with our house this week, mostly involving water leaks of sorts. Biggest problem is the laundry room leak, so as of right now I can't do laundry at home.

We did however manage to get our new backsplash up and painted and my new open shelves that go above our added on cabinet. Thanks to my hubby for doing that!

I have been going through my closet a little at a time too, when you have an 8 month old it is hard to find time to do it all at once, but I have gotten rid of some clothes, and my clothes are not quite as squished in the closet anymore! I will still be getting rid of more as I get some more time to work on it, but for now at least it's a little better.

Well I better go since my nephew should arrive any minute now. Hopefully I will be able to keep him entertained!

Confession...

2010-01-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

I still have not unpacked all of our suitcases from our trip over Christmas!

So this is my goal for today for sure. Get all unpacked and the suitcases put away!

Other than that I have not accomplished a whole lot of anythings, just little things here and there, and then they get messed up again in no time!

Right now our kitchen is in shambles, we are trying to get our new shelf and backsplash up this week. We actually have a lot to do because I have to get the kitchen child-proofed since my nephew will be back next week and we took the gates down since one of them was broken and fell apart everytime I used it. So we have to get child locks on all the lower cabinets and get our project to a point that I don't have stuff covering my kitchen table!

I also need to make a grocery list today and plan meals for the week. I am going to try to start doing Menu Plan Monday. We will see how that goes...hopefully I get my first one up this evening.

I will also make time to do a sewing project this week....I hope...

Organized Baby Cabinet

2010-01-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well I got one goal completed. Yesterday I got the baby cabinet organized:

Maybe not great, but its much better than it was.

Now I have to find a place to store my storage bowls, but hopefully DH will be building me some open shelves this weekend to go over our new base cabinet we added to extend our countertops when we put new ones in. Then I can store some of my nicer glasses on the open shelves which will allow me to reorganize the cabinets to find space for my storage bowls.

I didn't have time to do a lot today between Mason wanting attention, me tutoring, and me just being plain lazy...LOL. I did get 3 loads of laundry folded, and most of it put away.

I got my new external hard drive tonight, so I may be spending free time tomorrow organizing photos so that I can have them all backed up and nicely organized. I also really need to edit all the pictures from Christmas. I will definitely feel a little relief when I have all my pictures backed up because right now I am absolutely terrified of losing them!

Last night we also went grocery shopping and I came home and listed everything in an excel spreadsheet. I am hoping to keep much better tabs on how much we are spending on what this year so I can try to get a good idea of common prices so I know when there is a good price, and also see what categories we can cut back in. It is all very overwhelming right now, I really hope I will be able to stick to it and actually feel more in control of our money and know where it is going instead of asking where it went. I also made a weekly budget for this week and put cash into envelopes for each. It will take a lot of tweaking, but hoping to try this system and see how it goes.

Weekend Assessment...FAIL

2010-01-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this weekend was bad. I did not reach all my goals. But it is a new week, so I will try, try again.

Friday I spent the afternoon at the mall with my sister. We rarely get to hang out with out the little ones, so I'm ok I spent the afternoon out instead of home cleaning/organizing.

While we were out I purchased the book The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting You Grocery Bill in Half. My sister had a 40% off coupon for the book and she let me use it. I figure that is ok, since it is inline with my goals of organizing our finances.

Friday evening I did manage to get our Christmas decor taken down and stored into boxes, now I just have to convince my husband to take it up to the attack.

I also managed to clean off my scrapbook table, although now it is covered in bills that I need to pay and coupons I was clipping last night.

I need a system for organizing my coupons...what do you use?

The kitchen was also looking a lot better thanks to my wonderful husband for doing the dishes, but then he decided to organize the "baby" cabinet where we store all Mason's food/bottles/cups/etc, so now my counters are once again covered in stuff because he started taking things out and never got around to putting them back...so that may be my goal for today.

I also would love to get my whole office/scraproom cleaned and organized so that I can start working on some sewing projects. I also soon will need to start my projects for Mason's first birthday party. Even though his birthday is 4.5 months away, I am planning on making his invitations by hand, I guess we'll see how that goes. I may have to make digital ones and have them printed. Though I still want to make him a happy birthday banner with my animal kingdom cricut cartridge that needs some use.

I didn't get my household notebook ready for the new year either, though realy the biggest thing I have to do is take out 2009 bills and ditch the 2009 calendar. I never really used it for much other than a place to put bills...would like to do more with it this year, but I'm not really sure where to start.

Well the little guy is begging for some attention, and after some play time, and probably after lunch I think I will try to tackle the organization of the "baby" cabinet.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

Well today is the first day of the new year, and I really need to get some motivation to get to work.

I am setting a few goals for this weekend as it is easier for me to set goals for the weekend than for each day individually.

My goals for this weekend:
1. Put all the Christmas decorations away.
2. Clean off my scrapbook table in my office.
3. Clean the kitchen.
4. Get my 2010 household notebook ready for the new year.

Now I really hope to accomplish a whole lot more than this, but I figured I should start small with my list of goals.

So far it is noon today and I haven't accomplished much however I did use my elliptical for a few minutes and read a print out on how to save on groceries.

Hopefully some motivation will come to me after lunch and I can get started on my list of to-dos.

New Year, New Me....I hope...

2009-12-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

I'll start off by saying that this is a blog about a stay at home who can't seem to get anything organized. My goal for the new year is the same as many others out there I'm sure...to get organized. Everything from the house, to time, my hobbies, meals, schedules, finances, photographs.

Of course this is always a goal of mine that never seems to be accomplished. I might get one area organized, only for it to soon be a cluttered mess again while I am in the middle of trying to organize another room. So I guess I should say I now only need to GET organized, I need to learn how to KEEP it that way. I am hoping that making this public will give me a little bit more motivation to actually get something done.

A little bit about me:
I am 23, a wife, and a stay at home mom to my 7 month old son. I am also a babysitter to my 2 year old nephew 4 days a week. I am a photographer...kind of...I have a degree in photography, but mostly just take pictures for family...with the occasional job from my husband's work. I love all things crafty. My main hobby is scrapbooking, and I am also learning to sew...and eventually hope to learn to embroider once I can justify buying the machine. I also love to read. And I have discovered I love reading about organizing. I bought Jennifer Ford Berry's Organize Now! and I love reading organizing blogs. Unfortunately while I am doing all that reading nothing is getting done! So hopefully I can start taking the tips I learn from books and blogs and put them to good use in this new year.