Monday Makeover II

So, my mother-in-law let me take home this table a few years ago. (No, the woman NEVER stops giving..) She even had a new top made for it because she rocks like that. I have to be honest and say that I have loved it ever since I saw it in its original state. I thought the old paint gave it character.. I had it in my living room for a long time. But one day, I noticed the paint was literally falling off onto the floor. When I picked up the pieces of paint, they would turn into powder. All I could think of was "LEAD PAINT!", and perhaps the realization that the man's mother might have an alternative motive with all this gift-giving...

-and HERE is a picture of an organizer the man bought for my birthday last year. A hint maybe to, you know, be more organized? You have been following the blog and saw the before shot of the closet yesterday, right? Even though there was important "stuff"stuffed in those cubicles, there was no order to it at all. I really do love this little piece of furniture, but still haven't used it properly.

And then that man went and helped me make a teeny tiny, fantastic office...He actually helped make the stripes, remember? 

Now I know this is going to be shocking to all of you, but I decided to paint the table and organizer. Yes. More paint. Even all those little annoying cubicle-thingies.. (what in the world was I thinking?)

I used the last of the aqua paint from the room and mixed it with another quart of creamy-white paint. When it was finished, the man helped spray the whole thing with a lacquer spray paint. I know you can't see it from the pictures, but it has a soft shine to it. Perfect for a very girly office. Will it stay organized? Your guess is as good as mine.. (if your guess is "No!")

Here is the finished product..

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I'm not sure if I'll regret painting that old red table.  For now though, it's exactly what I want.

Have an organized week for me, friends :)

In your face, cupboards!

Okay, so just two cupboards. Out of four. And two drawers. But I only did the two cupboards, not the drawers... Celebrate the small things, people. :) If you were here yesterday, you saw the heaping mess that was my baker's pantry....

 Baker's pantry. Sounds fancy, eh?

It's actually a set of very small cabinets, filled with items I use for baking; too thin to hold much else.

On a wall with a shelf.

That doesn't host electricity.

With bowls and cookbooks on it.

So, I name it after whatever is stuffed in the cabinets at that time. Once, it was a "Tupperware Palace". Before that, it was my "Flintstone/Garfield got-it-free-with-purchase-from A&W/McDonald's/other burger joint jelly-jar-collection hutch." For conversational reasons alone, isn't "Baker's Pantry" a better fit?

I was overwhelmed at the mess that I, with no regard for dignity, posted.  I took out everything and gave it my best shot. Or half-hearted shot. You get it.

So here it is. If you haven't viewed the "before pictures", check out the previous post or this is going to be an EPIC letdown. For the rest of you, bask in the glow of an organizational masterpiece...Ha-Ha-ha.....ha...ha.  Aw, I love you guys.

Where did I put all that chocolate? Well, I placed it...

...

yeah, right. My family reads this blog!

DISCLAIMER- the organization in the above photos is guaranteed to last 24  12 hours. After that, who knows......

Woo Hoo! Now, On to those two drawers....

I'll try and work on them soon. Or at least before June.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Are you kidding me?

Oh, I knew I'd use the name of this post sooner or later...

Hello friends,

Being that it's the third day of the year AND a Monday, I thought I'd get off to a rousing start on the whole "organization" goal I set for myself in 2011 (aka this morning.)  I figured I'd start with 2 cupboards I use in the kitchen for storing my baking stuff. Confident and full of energy, I saw this- 

 and this.....

Yup. And there are two more just like it on the bottom. Ugh. So, I started cleaning out some of the contents and began to see  a pattern....Amongst the flour, sugar and cupcake liners,  I found these- (organized for your pleasure on apparently the only surface I own)...

This leads me to a question. Can one EVER own enough chocolate, coffee or frosting? I'm going to say no. No, one cannot. Especially when  one is a stay-at-home mom of a teen, a tween, AND a six-year old. Some days are hard, man.

 I'm frustrated.

 I'm embarrassed.

 I'm hungry.


I stuffed it all back. Yes, I did.  Organization will have to wait. I thank God that I have cupboards filled with yummy foods, but I thank Him even more for the doors on those cupboards.

 Happy Monday, friends :)

Another normal day at home....

Crazy Me #34-  I have this insane need to put decorations away the day after (sometimes the night of) any holiday. Don't ask. I have no idea why it must be done, it just HAS to. Valentine cards get put away on the 15th of Feb. to make room for St. Patrick's Day stuff.  The Christmas tree comes down on the 26th to make room for New Year's. It's become a habit (and a family joke) and I have no intention of trying to quit. I'm not sure if it's a Utah thing or a teacher thing, but we are always ready for the next celebration....

God bless you if you are still reading this stuff. On a scale of real-world issues, this doesn't even rank. I get that. But you came here, and you're still reading these words, so there's enough blame to go all the way around, isn't there? :)It makes you feel wonderfully normal, doesn't it? Well,  I proudly have this kind of crazy down to a science. I start in the kitchen, move on to the hallway,  get stuff from the bathroom (don't ask), scan the living room and finally, finish up the front door and porch. By keeping this routine, I am able to grab everything, put it in a plastic box, take it down to the storage and grab the next one. I ask everyone to take one last look before I go down there because once it's down, it's not coming back up until the day after it's previous holiday. :)

As you can guess, On November 1st, the Halloween stuff came down to make room for Thanksgiving. Carved pumpkins got chucked and anything black/orange got packed away right along side the cobwebs. (I'm talking about the ones we put up on purpose.) Turkeys are now up where the skeletons were. Acorns are scattered where tin foil bats use to be. It's as lovely as it's going to get. So imagine my surprise when I go to set the table this afternoon and glance at this. A week later.

Say what? We had meals at this table! How on earth (no pun intended) did I miss this? I practically live in my kitchen and never noticed. I live with four other humans who must have walked by it countless times. I'm losing even more of my mind.

Somewhere deep down, I now have fears of my family waking up on Christmas morning and seeing Easter baskets and American flags instead of a tree. It could happen, people. Sanity is fragile. Keep your eyes on the prize.



Have a fantastic weekend, friends.

Mini Redo-

On one of our "vintage" shopping trips, we found this adorable old mail center shelf. As much as I love to paint, I wanted to leave this one alone. First, I love the way each compartment has a simple white splash of paint with a stenciled number. Second, I would in NO way enjoy painting each of those little cubes....

In lieu of paint, I decided to back each cube with a piece of scrapbook paper. I went with pastels since it was going in the craft room. If I ever change my mind on color, (imagine!) I can always switch out the papers.

Now I have a neat little place to store my ribbons and things. Isn't it cute?

Happy Thursday friends :)

A place for everything and everything has it's Blah blah blah...

The notion is that everything should have a place to be stored in and that it should be tidily returned there when not in use. Mmm Hmm. Yep. That's what someone said. Once or twice...

My lack of organizational skills began when I was small. I was the child who was always told to clean her room. It was never to straighten up a few things, but rather make it possible to find my floor. I was famous for piling papers on any flat surface, stuffing objects under the bed, or shoving things in a closet. God bless my sister and college roommate who had to endure the mess that was me.

Now before you start to imagine me as some Peanuts' character with swirling dirt surrounding her, please know that it's not a "clean" issue. Things MUST be clean. It's the tidy part that gets me every time. I have a moderate pack-rat problem. I seem to collect and keep way too much of nothing in particular. It is very hard for me to throw anything away. I believe in a past life I amassed maybe a rock and two sticks to my name. I can't explain any other reason why I'm this way.

When I started teaching and had my own classroom, I became blessed with TWO places to hold all my junk. It was wondrous. If you recall George Carlin talking about our ridiculous obsession with "stuff", understand I could have been his muse.

Alas, I quit teaching to become a stay at home mom and was forced to condense said stuff into a garage and one and a half storage units. Ridiculous.

When we moved into this house, we agreed it was time for a change. Actually, the husband said it was time for a change and I reluctantly agreed. Kind of. We got rid of the storage units and I went on what equated to a drunken binge of giving everything away. Okay not everything, but for me it felt that way. We were on our way to a neat and organized new home.

Hahahahahahahah! After reading this post you couldn't possibly think we stuck with it, right? I still struggle with clutter. It happens to collect everywhere. Even though I'm much better at controlling it, I seemed to have spawned three children who are more like their mother than they care to admit. It is hard not to fall off the organization wagon with a busy family of five.

I AM working on it. Every single day. One step at a time. All those cliche's. I'm kind of hoping this blog will keep me on the right track. Help a girl out, will ya? And don't worry. When you come to my house you probably won't even notice my little clutter problem. In fact, you will more than likely step into a neat looking, nice smelling, seemingly organized home. As long as you call an hour before you come over and don't look in my closets.

Happy Weekend, friends :)