Random things that make me smile

A few random things around the house that are making me smile lately:

A smiley babe.

New tray shelves in the laundry room cabinets to house the kids' craft supplies, etc.  This one makes me insanely thrilled, it was getting really nuts in there.

Homemade blankets on the crib in the baby room.  The one with his name is from a friend, the "Hey Diddle Diddle" one is from my mom.  Take a closer look, it's amazing...and looks so cute with our farm-animal theme.

Gemma's copious "projects".  She's always having 'ideas', it is fun watching her follow through with them.  I am amazed at her sticktoitiveness.  She is quite creative.

• From left to right: homemade boats with paper and straws, a homemade telephone with cord and a "bunny banner" for the park.

•  Baseball helmets

• "Go", "slow" and "stop" signs in green, yellow and red respectively.  They used these for riding their trikes on the patio.

• Working on her homemade boat with a crib in it (seriously, where does she come up with this stuff?) for Clement with some leftover shelf-liner.  Oh, and tape.  Lots and lots and LOTS of tape.

Kids having fun in nice weather on their trikes.  

Sleeping Kolbe.

Life is GOOD.

Another nerdy organization post

For Christmas my sweet parents got me this awesome nine-cube organizer and some baskets to go along with it!  I've had my eye on this (and been practically drooling over it) for quite some time now, so I was so excited to finally get it!  It was one of those things we didn't really "need", so I could never really justify buying it...but holy cow now I don't know how we ever lived without it!!  Its induction into our basement caused a whole slew of reorganizing throughout the house (tell me you know how that works) and I'm really happy with how things have ended up.  Here's the chain of events.  

Put nine-cube organizer in basement = very de-cluttered play-space, YAY! 

Move three-drawer plastic organizer from basement (it used to house our toy kitchen things and some other items) upstairs to kitchen. It is now the new home for the children's craft supplies (the ones I let them access at will) which has led to a much less-cluttered "junk" drawer for me; it also houses some of their learning toys (puzzles, beads, matching cards, dominoes, etc.), which emptied out the side-server (formerly the "learning cabinet") considerably.  

With the extra space in the side-server, I decided I really didn't need the organizer I was using for our homeschool preschool anymore.  It was really handy for keeping me organized and on-track the first semester when I was still finding my way with our schedule and activities, but now that we've settled into a nice routine with our school activities it just seemed a little overkill, and was really taking up a lot of space in the front closet.  So now we have space back for hanging our coats and putting the vacuum and such, and all our school stuff is neatly organized on two shelves in the now-emptied side-server.

WHEW!  I am pretty happy with the results, and now you have yet another glimpse into my absolute and complete nerdiness when it comes to all things organization.

An exciting find!

A couple months ago I was at Joann Fabric's and came across this organizer.  I thought it would be just perfect for organizing our school items in the coming years but didn't really want to spend $30 on it.  So I practiced some temperance (very hard for me sometimes) and resisted the urge to purchase it on the spot.  I have thought about it often though.  Well, this past week - with all my preparation for the coming school year and such - I had a 40% off coupon so I decided I'd go ahead and purchase it after all.  Much to my delight, there was one left, and it was clearanced at 60% off!  So I got it for $12!!!!  I was soooo excited!  I have it in our front hall closet and think it will be ideal for keeping track of all our school items and making sure we don't forget anything as we go through each week.  There are seven labeled "cubbies", one for each day of the week, and pockets on either side for storing things like workbooks, flashcards, etc.  YAY for a good deal!

Small successes XLI

1.  Despite the oppressive heat, some of my summer annuals are doing very well...particularly the lantana and moss rose.  AND IT RAINED LAST NIGHT!!!  2.5 inches!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!

2. Finished some sewing projects for some new babies in the family!  Pictures to come!!!

3.  Did some planning for our "school year".  Gemma is 3.5 yrs and while we don't intend to send her to preschool, I would like to do some structured learning with her at home.  She's definitely ready.  I'm going to be using the Alphabet Path and this new book from Catholic Icing (SO EXCITED!!!) 

4.  Got a good deal on some school supplies (crayons, markers, water-colors, storage tubs, construction paper, glue, etc.) and got them all organized and stored in the cabinets in our laundry room.

5.  My husband (yes this is his success, not mine) spent time cleaning up some trash that blew in the neighborhood lake.  We're not able to participate in the HOA (besides paying our dues) or do many of the neighborhood activities and projects, so it was nice to be able to contribute in this way.  I did play outside with the kids while he worked though.  ;-D  

6.  The bathroom remodel is coming along.  It is taking way too long, but I'm trying to be patient and the end product will be so worth it.  The joy of the pink formica being gone makes the weeks that this has been going on and things have been torn up and/or out of order a bit more bearable.

7. Scored some cool books I'd been wanting to read on inter-library loan.  Yes I am lame and get excited about things like that.  Speaking of scoring good deals on books though, have you checked out Thriftbooks?  It is fast becoming my new favorite venue for ordering used (and like-new) books!  FREE SHIPPING all the time without a $25 minimum purchase!!!

Share successes each week over at Chocolate For Your Brain!!

Solved!

Thanks for the tips everyone!  That's why I asked!  The most obvious solution to my shoe storage issue hadn't even occurred to me.  But we definitely have a winner, YAY!  And for $10 (with coupon) at Bed Bath and Beyond, I'm THRILLED!  I have shoe storage and room for other things (mail, garage door openers, sunglasses, etc.)  WOOT!

HELP!

I am in need of some tips for shoe storage in our "mudroom" (just off the garage), which is also our laundry room.  Not counting the floor-space where the washer and dryer are, we have about 4' by 5' of floor space.  And two doors open INTO this room into each other on the wall opposite the washer and dryer.  Hence, no floor-space against any walls.  Super handy, I know.  All of our shoes seem to congregate in this room.  Winter is by far worse....a pile of flip-flops in the summer isn't the worst thing but it still annoys me.  Anyone else have this issue?  And if so, what is your resolution?  I really don't want to keep shoes in the garage.  First of all I don't think it would work.  Second of all, we have spiders in the garage sometimes and I don't want to have to worry about one of us putting our foot into a shoe crawling with spiders.  BLEH!  If I set something up elsewhere in the house, again, I am convinced it will not work. My family (including myself) takes our shoes off in the mudroom.  We just do and probably always will.  So any suggestions you may have to help tidy up this problem would be greatly appreciated!!