Family Room Update: Counter Intuitive

Last week, I share the family room update to our fireplace. Just using paint, it made a huge difference! This week, I did more updating in there. Years ago I painted all the built in cabinetry. The fireplace sits between cabinets built by someone back in the 60s. It's great having them, and I painted them white many years ago. But, the tops of them kept getting chipped up. 

12 Ways to Organize with Command Hooks

There are some things in life that are just begging for me to share - those fun little "guess what I did with this?" kind of things. That's how I feel about command hooks - they have so many fun uses. I wanted to share 15 ways to organize with command hooks, so the next time you're looking for an easy and cheap organizing solution, you can pin these and save for later when you're trying to find new ideas!

How to Organize with CARDBOARD - 11 Ways

When it comes to organizing, I'm a big fan of getting the most bang for your buck! Cardboard is one of those things we all seem to have around, for FREE, that we can use to organize! So, I've got 11 ways to organize using cardboard. 

11 Ways to Organize with Towel Rods

If you haven't figured it out by now, I LOVE getting creative and finding cheap ways to organize! So, today I've found 11 ways to organized with something probably everyone has in their house - towel rods! Check these amazingly inexpensive and simple ways you can use them to organize - be sure to pin this so you don't forget too!

Organized Creative Corner for Just $15!!

This post is by my assistant, Tiffany. Enjoy!

When I want something beautiful to hang on my walls, need someone to take family photos or want help organizing a lovely party I am so thankful to live in a house full of "creatives."   Often times, however, this creativity comes with a bit of a mess.The random art supplies that my family collects and uses on a regular basis can quickly take over the house if I am not diligent to corral all of it.  In this post I will show you how I was recently able to make a tiny artist studio space in our home. 

11 Ways to Organize with Washi Tape

What could be more fun than using washi tape to organize? Or, maybe, you're wondering what in the world is washi tape? Well, if you don't know, you may have been living under a rock! Today I'm going to show you 11 Ways you can use it to organize -- the good news is that it's cheap and pretty! Two very important things when it comes to organizing, in my opinion!

Teaching Kids to Be Hospitable!

About a month ago, I was in Salt Lake City for a creative blogger's conference {called SNAP}. I had such a great time and learned so much, and one of the things that came home with me was a lot of crafting stuff. A LOT! My daughter loves to craft and I suggested she invite some friends over and plan a craft party using some of the goodies I got there. My ten year old daughter...

11 Ways to Organize with Magnets!

Everytime I look around my house, I notice that there are more and more ways I've been organizing with magnets! Yes, magnets! Think I'm crazy? Well, I've found 11 ways and you can try this inexpensive, easy way to organize, too!

An Organized Craft Room :: How to Keep Ribbon Organized

I have asked my blog friend, Marty of Marty's Musings, to share an area in her organized craft room, so she's going to be talking about how she's organized her ribbon supply! I love it...read on and be sure to visit to see the finished craft room HERE. 

Marty Walden has been blogging at Marty's Musings since 2008 but only recently has managed to turn her DIY/home/food blog into a business. She  has homeschooled  her five biological and adopted children for 20 years and loves DIYing with her husband Tim. She also has a passion to encourage and challenge other women to embrace the life they have been given and trust God through the difficult days living amidst chaos and heartbreak.  When my oldest son Joshua left for college in 2011 (and his oldest sister Rachel married six weeks later) I needed a project that would both inspire and distract me from the grief reflected by those changes. My craft/scrapbook room was just the project!  

 

I heart my fridge

I know...it's a weird thing to love your fridge, but I do! We had a side by side fridge for almost 17 years when we gave it to someone else and it just didn't keep me nearly as organized as my new fridge!

11 Ways to get your crafts organized

Are you the type that has a "crafty" side to you? You like all those fun projects and make a gigantic mess in the process and leave it on the dining room table for all to see...

Organizing Craft Supplies: My craft cupboard!

My Craft Cupboard has been a labor of love! Yes, I use it, but my daughter is so happy to have all the craft supplies easy to get to and easy to put away.

Organizing a Craft Cupboard {the big reveal}

Can I tell you how excited I am to share my organized craft cupboard with you? This has been one of the hardest things for me to organize - ever! Crafting is one of those things I dabble in, but my daughter LOVES it and I wanted a place for her and I to put all our stuff together and be able to craft together! It has already given us several opportunities to craft together and that's exactly why it's been worth the effort.

The evolution of a craft cupboard {Before and Midway}

This will not be a fun "look at how pretty it is" kind of a post! It's going to show you the evolving "craft cupboard" that I've been working on. This is the before, not the after.

First, I'm showing you the WAY before. This picture is from right before we moved into our house, in 2006. This family room has come a LONG way in six years. The wood paneling, the swimming pool tile floor, the curtains, the windows - all are completely changed! Of course, the furniture also since this was the former owner's furnishings. And who puts a cabinet knob in the middle of a cabinet? Do you know how hard it is to open it like that?

You can see I painted the paneling a light blue and then my Hubby and Daddy put in hard wood floors {they float over the existing swimming pool tile} - and I painted the entire ceiling white! What a HUGE difference those things made in this room! You can see in the corner where the future craft cupboard will be. {The couch is from Costco, since many of you have asked}.

In 2010 we knocked down our kitchen wall and I had an extra table. So, I moved it into the corner back there and made it a game cupboard and table to play games at.

Here you can see that I painted all the cabinets in the family room white and put in new hardware {covering up those holes in the middle of the doors, too, where the knobs used to be}. The top of this built-in cupboard has all our family photo albums and yearbooks. I haven't been too fond of how it looked. Just looks cluttered to me!

Since the kids are playing less and less games and my daughter and I have been crafting more and more, I decided we needed a place to put all the craft supplies. I must admit that this is has been one of the hardest places for me to organize. I'm nearing completion on this thing, but this is what it looked like for weeks! It's rather sad, but I didn't want to rush to put everything back until I was sure how I wanted to organize it all - if you are Instagram you have seen me show bits and pieces of how I've been working on it. So, I hope to have it finished in a couple of weeks to show you the complete and organized craft cupboard! Whew! I've got a lot of labeling to do and I want to make it creative and fun, too! So, it will take me some time to get that accomplished. If you'd like to see more ideas that I've been using to organize this craft cupboard, go to my Craft Cupboard Pinterest Board.

Do you have a certain area of your house that has stumped you organizing wise? What area and what have you done? If you're still stumped, email me a picture and I might select you for OMF to the rescue to give you ideas of how to organize that area. I'm always looking for a challenge!

 

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My boxwood wreath to cheer up the front door

I'd like to think I was super crafty, but in all honesty I'm not so crafty. My daughter is craftier than I - that sounds weird, doesn't it? I decided that I wanted to put up a boxwood wreath on my front door cause I saw it somewhere on Pinterest and thought I'd run to Michael's and buy one with my 40% off coupon. You know what? I'm a little behind on seasons, apparently. There was ONLY fall stuff! I couldn't even find foam wreaths, but I wanted a square wreath anyway. So here is what I made!

Isn't it pretty? It's cute and fairly easy and inexpensive! 

Here are the supplies I needed: square frame kit {found this on the clearance aisle}, wood initial, boxwood garland {found in the wedding department}, and floral wire {already had this laying around}.

I put together the frame kit into a square, then I began wrapping the garland around the frame with the floral wire. It was easy, sort of. Once I got a rhythm going it was easy. I also attached two screws on the back of the wooden initial and took the wire and wrapped it around the frame. 

On the back, I used command hanging strips and attach to the frame and then to the front door. The thing I love about these is they are strong {the wreath only fell off once when the door was slammed HARD}, you can adjust it if you put it on crooked {it's velcro}, it's invisible {no one can see how you hung it}, and when you're ready to take them off there is nothing left behind. I sound like a commercial, don't I? I LOVE these and have been using them everywhere in my house to hang all sorts of things on the walls!

Doesn't my cheery, yellow front door now look more cheery? 

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Parties:
Tater Tots and Jello
Six Sisters
Funky Junk Interiors
Home Stories from A to Z
A Bowl Full of Lemons

Future projects I need to do...AND an announcement!

OK...we've all got projects around the house that we just need to get done. And then we have projects we REALLY want to get done, right? I have three projects that I want to get done in the next few months. All of varying size! 

The first one, which is the most important right now for me, is my office. We have this tiny bedroom next to our master bedroom {across from our master bathroom}, which we turned into an office. The closet is my hubby's organized closet and works great since it's directly across from the bathroom and he can get ready in the morning without bothering me. Anyway, it's a small, dark room. It's only 8 feet by 12 feet. It's dark - I get about an hour of lovely sunshine in there in the morning and then that's it! The rest of the day it's like a cave. The ceiling is low, making it feel even more cave-like! I never work in there...cause it's not fun at all. 

My hubby suggested that while we were getting our new roof {which has FINALLY begun and it's pretty noisy here now}, we put in a tubular skylight! Then, he suggested I do some decorating in there, if I would like to - ummmmm, yep!!!  So, I have begun figuring out my budget and my color scheme! You can check out all that fun stuff on my "Home Office" pinboard to see all kinds of ideas! You can see a "sneak peak" {above} of my inspiration of colors that I will be incorporating into my office :)

I am also planning on changing the game cupboard that's in our Family Room into a craft cupboard. It's apparent that my daughter is a big-time crafter. I want to make it a super fun, organized area for both of us to use and enjoy in our family room. I have a "Craft Cupboard" pinboard for all my inspiration!

Last, once our roof is done, I plan to work on our shed. The shed is a little strange in that it's part of the garage - sort of a bump out - the roof in there is cracked {and leaks terribly} and I've been waiting to organize the shed and fix up my potting bench. It's a mess. Here is a picture of what it currently looks like - it's awful. Everyone goes in there and then leaves stuff everywhere. It is no fun at all to pot plants! The pegboard that's in there is from the 1960s and the holes are smaller than the newer pegboard of today and so it's a disaster to try and use pegboard hooks cause you have to drill bigger holes. Anyway, it's a mess!

So, as you can see I have a few things to get done. The good news is that you'll be seeing the progress all along the way! I'm excited to share these projects with you and get organized in the process - that's the fun part!

Oh, and I have an announcement! 

I am going to begin a NEW ongoing series {twice a month} called "Organized Dilemmas" {or something like that} where you can send in your organizing dilemma/area with pictures, and I'll pick out a space and give some ideas of how to organize it to solve your crazy organizing dilemmas! So, be sure to email me your question AND lots of pictures so I can more easily figure out how to help you. I'll use those pictures in my post and answer your questions {anonymously if you prefer}. So, how does that sound? 

 

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