Five on Friday

Here's 5 Random Things for Friday!

1. It's official, I've had a stroke of genius. Behold...

You know when you hand a kid a juice box and they promptly squeeze it and spray juice everywhere? No more! Just pop the top tabs of the juice box for them to use as handles. You're welcome. ;) 

2. Spring is here and everything is blooming! I love it! Jeremy bought me a bag of tulip bulbs this past fall and they are blooming! Aren't they gorgeous? By the way, buying your wife flower bulbs is a very smooth move. You get all the "awwwws" in the fall when you gift them to her, then another set of swoons when they bloom. It's like a BOGO flower gifting deal. Well played, Honey. Well played. ;) 

3. I've been obsessed with Nivea body wash for a few years now. My favorite scent is called Happiness (although all of their scents are amazing!) and it is the perfect fragrance for summer. Try it out! 

Image Credit: Target

4. I find Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs irresistible. There's just something about the peanut butter to chocolate ratio. Perfection. 

Image Credit: Target

5. I'm finishing up a project in the kid's bathroom. Can't wait to show it to you next week! 

Happy weekend, everyone! 

Consolidated DVD Storage

I've officially started on our home reorganization project! The first room I'm conquering is the living room. I needed a place to store all of the cords and gear for our computer and camera. The drawers in our TV stand were a natural choice for these items, but they were completely full of DVDs. I remembered Jen at Iheart Organizing storing her DVDs in sleeves instead of their original cases, so I took her idea and ran with it!  

I loved this DVD storage solution I found at The Container Store, but it was too tall for our drawers. Sigh. So, onto Plan B!

Image Credit: The Container Store

I emptied all of the DVDs out of the cases and put them into DVD sleeves I found at Target. I labeled each DVD using self adhesive index tabs I had on hand that were leftover from my college days. Um, yeah, I graduated college in 2005. Does this qualify me as a pack rat?! Anyway, I turned the sleeves to the side so the tabs wouldn't prohibit the sleeves from opening and closing. I bought the colored version of these DVD cases. Similar self adhesive index tabs can be found here.

I put all the DVDs into a media box I found at Target a few years ago. (Similar options here, here, and here.) There is still plenty of space in the box to add more DVDs in the future and to store extra DVD sleeves and labels. 

The DVDs took up a drawer and a half before, but now only take up about a third of a drawer leaving plenty of new storage space! Winning! :)

Dad

For those of you who aren't aware, my father-in-law tragically passed away last month. I can't even begin to put into words the heartbreak and grief we are feeling right now. He is loved and will be missed more than I could ever express. 

We had a memorial in his honor on Saturday in Florida. Now we are trying to figure out what the new normal will look like. Thank you to all of our friends near and far for all of your help and prayers this past month. The hospitality, meals, cards, calls, emails, texts, flowers, babysitting are all so appreciated and make us feel so supported and loved. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. 

My blog has been slow for obvious reasons. We have literally been gone from home for 2 out of the past 4 weeks. I'm looking forward to diving back into our home projects and getting into a routine again to feel a bit more normal. Be back soon, friends. 

Making Room

Sorry for the silence around the blog lately. We've had a major family emergency and would love your prayers if we come to mind. Thanks, friends. 

Let's talk about organizing... Our house is not necessarily small, but it's not huge either. It has plenty of living space, but organizing it over the past (almost) two years has been tricky due to the lack of closet space downstairs. The biggest area where I feel the lack of closet space is in the kitchen. We do not have a pantry and don't have a ton of cabinet space either. I cook a lot, so I have a lot of kitchen tools and pantry items. We also shop at BJ's. Have you even seen the size of their products?! ;)

My kitchen has literally overflowed into several other areas of our home. Crockpot and rice cooker in the coat closet? Yup. Paper goods in the playroom closet? Mmmm Hmmm. Griddle and serveware in the linen closet. Why not! Beloved hand painted dishes from Grandma in the office/guest room cabinets? Sigh. Ice cream maker in the master bedroom closet?! Now we're just getting crazy!

In the middle of the night, I couldn't sleep, so did what every rational person does. I planned how to reorganize my entire house more efficiently. Nerd alert! :) I got up the next day and wrote out my plans. So, that's the challenge! Go through every room and organize it the right way!

Now, what in the world do I mean by the "right way"? I am cheap and like to use what I have on hand. For the most part, I've used plastic storage bins from my teaching days to organize our home. I try to make the organizers work for what we have instead of intentionally purchasing organizers that fit the things we have and provide the best function. We've been thoughtfully considering the best way to organize each room, not necessarily the cheapest way. Obviously, we'll continue being our frugal selves, but we are going for quality here and may have to do this slowly to save enough beans for each project...and that's totally fine!

Here's our to-do list for the next several months! I'll be sure to post about each project!

Living Room:

-Storage for baby items
-Consolidate DVDs

Coat Closet:

-Storage for bags
-Scarf organization
-Door organizer for accessories
-Extra upper shelf for storage

Image Credit: The Container Store

Breakfast Nook:

-Possible bench with shoe storage?

Linen Closet:

-Wire shelves for tiered storage
-Candle storage

Playroom:

-Drawers for art supplies
-Wire shelves for tiered storage
-Wrapping paper organizer
-Possibly replace closet doors?

Image Credit: The Container Store

Kitchen:

-Install pull-out shelves in pantry cabinet
-Wire shelves for tiered storage
-Additional door organizer for Ziplock bags
-New basket for towels
-Rack for cookie sheets

Image Credit: The Container Store

Laundry:

-Laundry storage drawers
-Replace current shelving with cabinets
-Iron holder
-Hanging bag for rags

Attic: 

-Shelving for seasonal items

I'm almost done with the living room already! Hooray!

Opinions Needed

Alright ladies, please help me out! I am extremely low maintenence when it comes to anything beauty related. Or more like hopeless and helpless. Ha! To be completely honest, I don't wear make-up 95% of the time. When I actually do put make-up on, what I call make-up is pretty laughable. Concealer + Chapstick, anyone? Told you I was hopeless. Moving on... 

I constantly have extremely dark circles under my eyes from allergies. Add a hefty amount of sleep deprivation and I'm looking quite scary. I'll spare you a picture. ;) I have a couple different concealers, but none of them are doing the trick. I haven't bought foundation in probably 7-8 years. I bought one thing of powder a couple years ago, but that's it. When it comes to eye and lip makeup, I have zero favorites. Except Chapstick, of course. 

Now that you have an understanding of just how little I know and how beginner I am, will you help a girl out? I really need to invest in some simple, low maintence make-up. I tried wandering the make-up aisles and researching online, but came away empty handed and overwhelmed. I want it to be quick and easy so I can actually wear it every day. Please leave me a comment and let me know your favorite products and beauty tips! I'll come back and do a reader favorites recap so you can see everyone's favorites! Let's get this party started--comment away! 

Thanks, friends! 

Everyday Fireplace Decor

I don't know about you, but after Christmas, I always struggle a bit to redecorate my mantle. I don't want anything too seasonal, just something that's good for every day. I've been playing with my mantle decor since New Year's and finally came up with a mix that I love!

You'll remember I scored the antique window last fall for $15 and we gave it a fresh coat of paint. The boxwood wreath was part of my Christmas decor, but I really like it and think it transitioned well into our everyday decor.

The candles and candleholder are some that I bought at Kohl's several years ago. I love how versatile they are! When I'm not using them on the mantle, they go perfectly in our bedroom. I recently found the picture frame on clearance at Target. I love the washed wood tone. It's a subtle nod to this lamp that we purchased for our living room a few months ago when Target had their Threshold lamps 15% off.

I love this little faux succulent! It was only $3.99 at Target and adds a nice pop of green to this side of the mantle...and I can't kill it! ;)

Jeremy's family recently visited and we played Christmas while they were here. They gave me this lantern from Pier 1 that I've been eyeing for a while now. Love it! We purchased the plant and white pot at Ikea last summer.

So there you have it, our new everyday mantle decor. I'm loving how it ties in well with the greens in the rest of the living room!

Monogram Car Artwork

Remember a while ago when I introduced you to my friend Amy? She has such great ideas and finds the cutest projects to do for around her home! I straight up copied one of her ideas this time...and she watched my kids while I went to Michael's to get the supplies! Now that's true friendship! Haha! :)

Ever since we moved Little Man into his big boy bed and bought him a new quilt and rug, I've been wanting to change out the turtle decorations from his nursery and decorate in a vehicles theme. Of course, decorating Little Girl's nursery brought his room to a standstill for a while, but we're ready to finish it up now. When I saw this initial art that Amy made for her boys' room, I knew it'd be perfect for Little Man's room! And as an added bonus, it's super quick and easy, so it's the perfect craft for this sleep deprived mom! Excuse my phone pictures in this post. Remember the sleep deprived mom thing? ;)

Here's the initial that Amy made! Isn't it adorable? 

(Picture credit goes to Amy!)

Here's my copy of hers! Little Man loves it! (The metallic paint I used looks streaky in the pictures, but it's not streaky in person.)

I purchased the letter at Michael's. I used a 40% off coupon, so it only cost me $2.40. I also picked up bottle of metallic craft paint for $1.29 while I was there. I thought it was metallic charcoal gray, but it turned out more silver. Not what I was going for, but we just rolled with it. Little Man and I painted the letter together which was cute! :)

After the paint was dry, I cut white cardstock paper into little strips to make lane lines and laid them out on the letter how I wanted. Then, I modge podged the strips onto the letter. 

I finished up by hot gluing two cars onto the "road". Little Man was having a hard time deciding which cars he wouldn't mind donating to this decorating cause, so I ended up just buying two new cars. Haha! I haven't decided if I want this to sit on his shelf or hang on the wall, but if I decide to hang it, I'll just attach picture hangers to the back. Easy decoration and only cost me $5 and some change!