January Organization

I've had fun organizing my house this month. It wasn't anything huge, but lots of drawers, cupboards, bins, etc. that just needed to get organized. Here are a few of my favorite things that I got organized-

Ribbon: The ribbon I have stored on the skein is all pretty and organized. But what about all the ribbon that you cut by the yard?? And all the remnants from packages and projects?? I had them organized by color into 4 different Ziploc bags. But I realized I never wanted to dig through the bag to see what I really had. So, here's how I organized it so I could see what I've got:

I had some extra USPS packages that I realized I didn't need to have stored in my house. So I cut up the boxes into 3 or 4 inch squares of cardboard (love recycling and reusing!). This was much cheaper than buying chip board because I needed so many. I just wound the ribbon around the different pieces of cardboard and voila...

Instant organization to my formerly chaotic ribbon mess! I found the cute containers in the dollar bin at Target! Love this.

I also found this cute matching pail that I'm using to store some extra ribbon, and my twine!

Family Home Evening Lessons: The other area that was an annoying mess was my box of Family Home Evening Lessons. I'd have various lessons or materials or stories that I come across or have used and instead of organizing them, I'd just dump them all into this box. Some things were in folders by topic and many were not. Well, the day finally came to get it organized. And I LOVE it!! Holy cow! I love having everything organized by topic and realizing that when I don't have time to do a brand new lesson, I can just pop open my box and pull out a great lesson!

It would be even better if I had some cute matching labels on all the folders, but I don't mind. I LOVE having everything in one spot, and clearly labeled. I had way too much stuff to put it all in a binder like a lot of people do. I'm really into this nice box from Costco.

It seriously feels awesome to have these 2 things organized. It's totally random, but they were 2 areas that I always thought of in the back of my mind that I needed to sit down and organize them!! Check that off my list!! Happy organizing!!

Photo Updated Bread Tutorial

This has been on my 'to do' list for forever! This Honey Wheat Bread Tutorial was my first tutorial on this blog and the pictures were not good! I took them in my dark kitchen and they just looked awful! So, I updated all of the pictures in the tutorial! I left the tutorial in it's original link space, as I know it's been pinned and saved in that location. But, wanted you to know and check it out! Click the picture above or the link below for the updated tutorial!!

Honey Wheat Bread Tutorial

Grey & Yellow Reading Nook Redo

Happy January!! Now that it's almost over, I'm finally back on the blog! It was a nice break for Christmas. Then I've been so busy doing projects, I just have not had time to sit down and blog about them. But now I have too many new projects to share, so I've got to get posting :-) So stay tuned for some fun new projects....

After cleaning up Christmas, I felt this tremendous "need" to update several decor items in our house! Many, I have been thinking about for a long time. First up was this little reading nook.

We have this unique small space at the top of our stairs. It's only 4 ft. x 6 ft. When our 3rd was born and we had to move all the kids around in their rooms (only 2 rooms for 3 kids), I ended up pulling the book cases out of the kids rooms and making this little nook into a reading area. My kids LOVE it! They sit there everyday and read books. I'm obsessed with reading and books and try hard to pass this on to my kids.

I have 1 girl and 2 boys so I needed something gender neutral and really wanted it to be fresh and bright.

The Before Pictures:
Notice, the hand-me-down 90's/2000 flower arrangement, rug, generic photo's, old hallway lamp. It was all just leftover stuff that didn't fit anywhere. I finally got rid of all of it, and put our personality into the space. (but I appreciate all the hand-me-downs, mom! It worked for 11 years!)

The After Picture:
Notice the new color scheme!! Grey and yellow!! Love it! When you only have a small space, you've got to make every inch work! Here's the updates:
Custom Artwork (ABC's)- I bought this print file on Etsy (My Posh Designs) and had it printed locally. I LOVE it! You'll notice I had this cute ABC poster that I got from a teacher supply store but it was generic and too large and no way to really hang it. I love this new print!

Flowers- Some new yellow Ranunculus in an old blue Ball jar that I had in storage. I also moved our paper back, chapter books up high so the little ones wouldn't be able to ruin them.
Chair Update- This chair was pink and white with my daughters name on it. She's too big for it now, but it's perfect for my boys. So, this chair got a new coat of white paint and new gender neutral cushions and pillow. Fabric is from the Fabric District in LA. The grey circle is Robert Kaufman.
Book Wall Hanging- I always pull out books that pertain to the holiday or season that we are celebrating. I never really had a good spot to put these, so I ended up making this wall hanging to hold our "featured" books. I change them sometimes weekly, just depending on what books we have. This is a heavy canvas material and its even plastic on the back. It doesn't fray so I didn't have to finish the edges. I simply made a pocket on the top so I could insert a wooden dowel. I then took plastic vinyl (sold by the yard at Walmart) and sewed some large strips across it to make 6 large pockets. They could easily hold multiple books. I hung the dowel with some grey and white polka dot ribbon on a nail.
New Lamp- Grey Lampshade, Silver Metallic Lamp- From Home Goods

Globe- I just love this accent item. I got it from Home Goods and mainly loved the colors. But my kids LOVE it! There's something about looking at it on a globe versus google earth that they really love. I love the 'old school'.

Hand Artwork- One of our favorite books is "The Kissing Hand", about a raccoon that has to go to school but is too sad to leave his mama. So the mom makes him a kissing hand so he knows his mom loves him no matter where he goes. So, we made our own kissing hands. I got each kids hand print and gave them a heart (kiss) and had them put their initials. I love this because it relates to a book. The kids love it too.
Vase- I love the new yellow vase (from Home Goods). I want to get some large stick/flowery things to go in it but haven't found the perfect thing yet. I also cut down on a few frames.

Blue Runner- I loved this simple muted blue fabric and thought the runner helped break up the large white space of this cabinet.
A Big Reading Pillow- Many times I'll have 2 or all 3 of my kids hanging out here reading books or my oldest will hang out reading when her brothers are napping. I really wanted a big pillow they could use to lay down and relax to read. They love how soft and fluffy it is. I love the colors!

New Rug- From Ikea. Love it!
I know it's a small space, and it's a 'walk-through' space, but I love having it feel special. I love that it has a purpose and feels pulled together. Now onto other rooms... :-)