Book Page Magnet Board

Old Book Pages

Old Cookie Sheet

Mod Podge.

Mod Podge torn book pages on bottom of the cookie sheet. 

Old Magnets.  Cover them with Chalkboard paint.

Add some paper flowers.

Happy Crafting!

Menu Board.

Well, here I am again... finally.  I forgot to take pictures of this along the way, but it's super easy so I don't think the step by steps are really all that necessary.

How I Made It

Items:

Picture frame

Hot Glue and Glue Gun

Ribbon

Days of the Week, "Menu" and Quote-- Printed and Cut Out

Tape

Scrapbook Paper cut to fit the inside of the frame

Dry Erase Marker

1 Set of Velcro Dots

Steps:

1.  Take the back off the picture frame.  (I put a thin line of hot glue all the way around the inside edge to keep the glass from falling out.)

2.  Glue the ribbon to the inside edges of the frame.

3.  Place the words where you wish to have them, slipping them between the glass and the ribbon.  Tape them in place.

4.  Slip the scrapbook paper into the back of the frame.  Mine was snug enough it didn't need any glue, but if you find it loose, glue in the corners.  

5.  Put one side of the velcro onto the board and the other on the marker.  

Cost:

I had everything on hand, so I didn't spend anything {extra}.  This could EASILY be done for less than $5, but you could spend a lot more if you wanted to. 

And it's finished.  

I love it because if I write out the meals at the beginning of the week, I know exactly what groceries I will need to get and my husband can know what to expect for dinner.  I also give him a chance to choose/veto the meals before I go grocery shopping.

Making the Master Bathroom OH SO MUCH Better.

I decided to start my major organization process in the master bathroom because:

1) I was sick of having to get ready in the morning with all of the junk on the counter in my way 

2) I hated the thought of cleaning the bathroom because it was always SO cluttered... thus it was not      cleaned as often as it should have been.

3) I could never find anything under the bathroom sink.

4) I had no idea that I had 6 things of floss, 9 toothbrushes, or 3 travel sized toothpastes because of lack of inventory of the underworld of our vanity. I also did not realize I had 3 opened bottles of nail polish remover.  Or that we were almost out of our toothpaste (regular size).  

5) I was sick of stubbing my toe on my hair dryer that had no place other than the floor at least 2 out of the 4-5 times I got up in the night to go to the bathroom (thanks to the little bouncer in my belly).

So, I decided that it would be wise to start there.  Plus I would be able to consolidate all of the stuff from the other bathroom as well.  It was a smaller space and I could practice organizing.  I also knew they had the appropriate sized bins at Dollar Tree, so this organizational project wouldn't break the bank.  

Before I describe what I did, I want you to get a little peak into what my bathroom was like beforehand.

MASTER BATHROOM BEFORE 

It was a mess! And as sad as it is, this was the typical state of our bathroom.  So, I took EVERYTHING out of the bathroom.  I emptied the medicine cabinet, took everything off of the countertop, took everything out of the shower, and emptied the contents under the vanity.  *Then, first thing first, I did a thorough cleaning of the bathroom.  I wanted to be sure I had energy for that part of the task.*  

Everything was now piled in the loft area.  In order to start the organization part of the task, I disposed of all the expired medicines and old shampoos/lotions that were gunky that I knew we would not use anymore.  After that, I made piles of stuff.  I had a ton of Band-Aids, razors, tooth care items, cold medicines, a nasal rinse system, cotton balls/ Q-tips, unused-but-still-good lotions, extra shampoo/conditioner, nail polish, make-up, hair accessories, hair appliances, and feminine products--split into two categories.  I separated all of these items into piles and counted up how many bins I would need buy.  I had 14 different piles.  I already had a bin that I used for cold medicines, one that I could use to contain my hair appliances, and one that I could easily arrange and store my nail polishes.  That meant I needed 11 bins or baskets.  

*At that point, I also remembered that I had two shelves that my mom had given me and I had white paint leftover from where I had painted the nursery furniture.  So I painted the shelves and decided to put some of the stuff into baskets on top of those.* 

So, I went to Dollar Tree in search of 7 bins and 4 baskets. I got 7 shoe-box sized bins--that was easy.  I looked and looked at different baskets.  The ones I liked the most had acorns on them because they were seasonal baskets.  So I got some ribbon to cover it up.  It wasn't a hard project at all and took very little time and was very inexpensive. 

I hot-glued the ribbon around the outside and made a bow on one side.  

Here are the finished baskets.  $5 plus a little hot glue and some scraps of navy blue ribbon. 

MASTER BATHROOM AFTER

The Vanity: Not entirely cleared off, but some things get used so often

 that leaving the out is the easiest solution.

Underneath The Vanity:

Cleaning supplies, Cold medicine... 

 Tooth care items, razors, cotton balls/Q-tips, Band-aids, Sinus Rinse... 

Extra shampoos, conditioners, and sunscreens; nail polish, hair appliances. 

And as for the baskets, they now reside here:

I also wanted a place where my hubby could keep his magazines. 

The baskets hold the items that I wanted easier access to like the hair things, makeup, and feminine products.  

The magazine holder was a Goodwill find that I added embellishments to.  The art hanging on the wall behind the baskets was super easy and inexpensive.  I'll do another post on that later. 

Cost for this organization project:

$7... bins

$5... baskets

$4... magazine holder

$1.50... hanging art work

*The shelves were ones I got for free.  You can find inexpensive ones at many places out there. :)

TOTAL:  $17.50

Done and done.  Now hopefully it will stay tidy. 

Baskets... Easy Enough.

For my quick and inexpensive bathroom reorganization, I bought 4 baskets to put on some shelves above our toilet to allow easy access to some items and still look nice the rest of the time.  I didn't want to spend much on the baskets so to Dollar Tree I went.  The baskets, however, had acorns on them.  So what did I do?  I'll just show you.

Items needed: glue gun, glue, 7/8" ribbon (enough to go around the basket plus about 6 inches), 3/8" ribbon (2 1/4" - 2 1/2") , and the basket.

 Step 1: Glue small ribbon around larger ribbon. 

Step 2) Turn the finished side of the small ribbon facing out (away from the basket).
Pick where you want your bow to be at the end.  This is where you will begin gluing the large ribbon down.  *Make sure to start just to the right of the center of the bow.

 Glue about every 2 inches.

 Your last dot of glue should be just left of center.

Step 3)  Make sure the finished side of the small ribbon is facing out. 

 Pull the ribbon so it's tight.

 Fold it back over ON TOP of itself and tuck inside the small ribbon.

 Tuck the end underneath to the center...

 ...so it looks like this.

 Glue...

 Glue...

 Glue...

 And glue.

 And there you have it!

 Easy.

Tiddly Trinkets of Life: Getting Organized...

Sometimes I feel as though my life is in complete disarray.  That's when I look around my house; it often IS in disarray.  On bad days my routine goes somewhat like this:

I see piled up laundry in the bedroom, so I try to spend as little time in there as possible--get dressed and ready for the day--and get out of the bedroom lickity-split.  I shut the bedroom door behind me, and what do I see?  Our upstairs living area in total chaos: craft messes left out from the day before, luggage from my husband's recent business trip, exercise balls and leg weights out, night-before-snack-dishes placed on the end table.  So I think, "I'll start putting this stuff away in the office/craft room."  Then I look in that room: receipts piled high, more craft stuff not put away, clothes that we have sorted through but have not gotten rid of yet, phone books, magazines, and electronics all scattered across the room. My thoughts quickly turn to, "This mess can wait until later."  I'll just take my laptop downstairs to work.  As I head down the stairs, I notice sock fuzzies all over the carpeted stairs... I haven't gotten to THAT in a while.  Then I am greeted downstairs my shoe prints tracked inside and watermarks all over the floor. Mopping hasn't been on the top of my priority list.  I see mail piled up on the hall tree from where I haven't sorted through it yet.  My sink is full of dirty dishes.  My dishwasher is full of clean dishes.   I open the blinds to let in some natural light and I see a yard full of weeds and our old/broken bikes piled along the wall.  The rat trap is closed... we must have caught some kind of creature.   Where to begin??

I often get the clean dishes put away and the dirty dishes loaded into the dishwasher.  And then?  Where to next?  On those days I usually give up and think I'll try again later.  It takes me quite a while to finally get the house back to looking "normal", or should I say, what I WISH was "normal".  I would eventually tidy the house, but not quite clean all of it; or I would clean the floors and bathrooms, but not get rid of the piles.  I tried really hard to stay on top of things, but could never decide what to do when or how to keep a schedule to stay on top of things.  I wanted my hubby to be able to come home to a clean house with clean clothes--a clutter free environment, or at least have the clutter organized :).  Also, being well into my 3rd trimester of my pregnancy, I started getting that "nesting" feeling.  I want to bring my little girl home to a peaceful environment.  I don't want to feel stressed just because of the state of my house.

So, I began the search of how to become organized and be able to stay on top of cleaning as well as tidying. I recently found a wonderful website: Life As a Mom.  It has wonderful daily, weekly, and monthly organizers as well as meal planning tips, etc.  It had a weekly cleaning checklist included, but I wanted something daily.  So, I created my own.

Another thing that I realized is that if we invite people over, that means that I at least need to try to get all of the main areas of the house clean before they get here, especially if we're trying to impress them.   That got me boosted, and the last couple of weeks I've tried to stay on top of things.  I'm also attempting to become thoroughly organized (even behind closed doors!).  Luckily, my husband is a very very patient man and doesn't mind the in-between stages of cluttered closets to uncluttered closets where the entire room seems to be in shambles in the mean time. 

I started my organizational journey in our master bathroom.  It is almost finished!  I'll probably put the finishing touches in it tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post all of my pictures.