The Love Mitten!

So I realized that I forgot to share this craft with you!  I'd like to state that this is not my idea.  I'm not that creative.  Haha.   (I stole it from Our First Nest via Pinterest...right down to the colors! :) )  What's sad is that I actually don't have a place for it in our house, yet. I've found that while I the colors, it doesn't really go with much around our house. Hehe.  Such is life.  I'll find a spot eventually.  Right now it is hanging in our closet. ;)

I picked up a canvas from Michales on clearance (which prompted me to do the project) and used acrylic paint and brushes.  I paid less than $7 for the whole thing.

First I marked off the board using painters tape...

 Then I painted in the lines.  I printed Michigan from a google image and flipped the "Mitten" over and colored over it with a pencil.  I pushed pretty hard so some of the ink would come off on the canvas.  Don't know if you can see it to the right.

Then I painted everything in and put a <3 near Detroit...where we met!

Now if I can only find a spot for it....I'm sure I will eventually! ;) 

Awwwwwww, cool stuff!

When I was in a sorority back in college (I was a Delta Gamma), we used to do all of these crazy chants and songs for recruitment.  And since we sang them SO MANY TIMES, it's one of those things that will stick with you forever. 

There was one that went "Awwwwwww DG!  Awwwwww DG!"  (The awww is a crescendo of sorts to give you an idea).  When I get really excited, I still do it, but instead of "DG", I insert the thing I am excited about at the end.  This might make me lame.  Oh well, no one says you have to follow this blog. ;)

Awwwww, Goodwill!

I snagged this purse for $2.99.  I totally heart it.  I saw a similar one at Target a while back.
 

Most of Goodwill is total junk, but when you find a gem, it's a sweet score.  I love pawing through junk to find awesomeness.  I think it's thrifty and resourceful...so don't think I go in there to buy the toilet seats and bras.  Now that's just nasty.

I also picked up this bathroom basket for our master for 99 cents (I've been using it as hand towel storage):

As for the other items, I found the q-tip mason jar at the Dollar Tree and the little canisters from Michales in the dollar section.  The are mostly for things like floss, nail clippers, Vasaline, etc. that are too small to fit anywhere else well.

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but I secured them using that wall tacky (that you use to hang posters).  It's been working really well so far :)  I actually like the way this weird towel-rack/shelf/whatever it is works now!   

Awwwww, ebay!

My school is hosting an International Festival in March.  I am in charge of the "Spain" booth.  I knew I wanted to dress up, and I found this amazing, used Flamenco Dancer outfit on ebay for $20.  It is performer quality (I think it was used in shows), so I got it because it knew it would be made well.   It also fits me perfectly!

It's all lace detail.  Pretty, no?

I think it will be cool for the kids to see it up close.  I can dance a (very) little Flamenco, from a few classes I took in Bilbao of all places.  I have a video that better shows it that I will play at the booth ;)

Flamenco dancing is beautiful, and I'm excited to share it but also dispel the myth that all Spanish people are flamenco dancers and love bullfighting.  In fact, Flamenco is mostly an Andalusian dance (Southern Spain) and only a very small piece of the culture... I'm still gathering up my other artifacts out of storage!

Awwwwww, birthday!

This weekend we also hosted a surprise birthday party for my friend Erika.  She turned 30.  It was an afternoon shin-dig at our home.


The birthday girl and I!

 We have been planning this for a few months with her husband.  She was suspicious something was up, but was totally surprised to see all of us at our house!

Ahhh!  A party!  (Our cover story was she was coming over for us to give her a present before going out to lunch)

She was especially happy to see her mom and dad, who flew in from Massachusetts as a huge surprise!  Check out this AMAZING cake her mom made (including hand-making each flower).

There were 23 guests in our home, but somehow we managed to fit everyone in our house and it was comfortable.

I also made this for her:
 

It says "Write a blessing, note, or favorite memory with Erika and leave it in the jar for her birthday!"

It was a happy day.  :)

Tata for now!

Things I wanna make

Here are the list of things I've found on Pinterest that are inspiring me at the moment....which do you think I should attempt first?

1)  A family tree (to hang on our large stairwell).  She painted old toilet paper rolls to do it.  Genius and totally cheap!

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2)  I also LOVE this.  Similar concept...although you'll have to poop a little more to make it.  That was inappropriate.  You'll need more toilet paper rolls.  Pretty, right?

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3) I think this framed art is really cute.

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4) Easy-Omelet With Zucchini, Goat Cheese, And Mint.  Um, seriously?  Nom.

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5)  I WILL stencil a wall in this house....don't know where, yet.  But I will.

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5)  I would SO wear this...probably a less chunky version, but I so would.  And I could totally sit there and watch waste-your-time shows like the Bachelor and do it.  Totally.

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6)  More noms.  I never though this quiona burger would make me wish I was vegetarian. 

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What has you drooling today? 

Mission: Organization 2.0

New Year's Resolutions are still going strong.  We've experimented with some new recipes (via the crock pot, pics to come of this) and I also diversified my 401K portfolio and better understood how it works by making everything online.  Boom.  Feeling productive.

Another big accomplishment has been my mission to organization. I was having the same problem in the Master bath closet that I was in the kitchen pantry.  Shelves are too deep, shelf bars are too far apart and things were constantly falling over.  Also, so many bathroom items are so small that they needed to be corralled somehow.  I was able to economically organize our kitchen pantry from the Container Store, so I stared there.

The shelves are such a strange size (22 1/4 inches wide, 17 deep) so fitting the same bins from the pantry wasn't going to work.  There was really only one type of available bin from the CS that would work in the space.  A quick look at the sign told me there were $7 each.  Not bad.

But when I went to purchase...the total was HUGE.  Like over $100 huge.  I soon realized that each container was about $20, not $7.  Ahhhh... total was sticker shock.  As I was walking out of the store, I had a pit in my stomach and realized I shouldn't have bought it.  Oh, don't act like you haven't been there.  Sometimes we act out of impulse ;)

I was hoping when I got everything into the closet it would win over my heart and be 100% worth it.  But when I got it into the closet, it was nice, and very sturdy, and fit perfectly.  As Charlie put it perfectly... "Yup.  Looks...like...it's all still in there."

Fail.  I decided to scratch, return everything, and go back to the drawing board.  And then I remembered the Dollar Tree.  The little faithful dollar tree has storage bins.  TONS of them, actually.  So, 25 minutes plus measuring tape later (don't expect the dollar store to have things labeled with L-W-H like the Container Store!), I was out of there.  And the total cost was $12.  Yup.  12 smackers for the following...

If you need to organize a space, the Dollar Tree has tons of organizers available.   Check it out!!


I actually like how colorful it is and the quality is so much better than I expected.  I am a huge nerd... I'm going to go through and label all of the bins.  Then things will get put in their proper place every time.  Plus Charlie will know what to do.  He was nervous that me organizing would disorganize him and stress him out because he only knew where things were in the mess.  So I'm hoping labels will be helpful to him.

Although, truth be told, he still asks me where things are and probably always will :) 

Another check!

• Pantry
• Bathroom Closet  
• Laundry room  
• Front closet  
• Under guest bathroom (AKA my bathroom sink)  
• Bathroom makeup cabinet  
• Under Master Bath Sink  
• Garage  
• Snack cabinet

Also at the dollar store I picked up some "words"...those inspirational quotes from the wall?  I'm sure you've seen them.  I couldn't pass them up for a buck...as opposed to $20 at Target. 

 

Here's the one I picked up for a frame collage in our hallway.  I thought it completed it.... 

"Every Day is a Gift"

I thought this one looked nice in the front hallway under my basket thingy from the Goodwill.

 

"Love One Another (John 15:12)"

That's all for now!  Are you organizing anything lately?

Things that make me smile...

Going back to work after a beautiful long break makes everything seem so...I don't know...serious?  Painstaking.  Tiring.  You name it.  I'm quite frankly still adjusting to sleeping in so much over break.  Not going to lie.  It got excessive.  9:30 exessive.  Even 10:00 exessive.  Oops.  :P 

But there were lots of little things that made me crack up this week.  Made it trot along.  Those things connect the dots for me.

One in particular made me smile today.

As a short back-story....

There is a giant, pink, stuffed rabbit in my Spanish classroom.  I got him from a garage sale for 50 cents a few years back, but he took off in popularity is a favorite in my classes this year.  Heck if I know why.  I suppose it's because he doesn't fit in any bin or storage container, so he's always just sitting out, staring at you. 

He's been (lovingly) named El Señor Chubby Chub Chubs.  One of the kids made it up.  I don't know.  It stuck.

He's wonderful, because the kids love to hug him, pull on him, play with him, throw him, and get to learn and practice all those fun "I'm-in-middle-school-wanna-know-'em" words like gordo (fat), feo (ugly), tonto (dumb), and my favorite, gordito (fatty)... all without offending anyone.  It's all in good fun.

Anyway, every time I tell a Spanish story and there is a bad/evil/wreched character, it is always El Señor Chubby Chub Chubs  Poor rabbit.  One little boy volunteers to do his voice every time and he always hams it up.  He makes him sound really dumb and laxidasical. 

Anyway, Monday morning, I walk into my classroom, and in the corner of the room, I see this...

Poor Sr. CCC.  He had a hard weekend.  Hitting the carrot juice way too hard.  It made me smile.  I hope something made you smile today, too ;)

Pantry Organization

Might as well start the year off with a bang-diggity, right?  As stated in my previous post, one of my resolutions this year was to "get organized."  Vague, I know.  But I'm really, really working on it.  One space at a time....
I decided to start with the kitchen pantry.  We actually have a relatively large pantry which makes us really lucky.  The huge challenge to it was making it work for us.... and here is the final product:

Although I don't have any good pictures of the "before", there were numerous problems with it...

a)  The shelves are 17.5 inches deep.  Yes, 17.5 inches.  Talking about making it hard to access things in the back/knowing what you have!  Especially on the higher shelves...
b)  Cans and bottle just don't sit well on these shelves.  They have big spaces between each of the metal bars, so things were CONSTANTLY falling over/through.

c)  The top two shelves were virtually un-usable.  I couldn't reach anything at the top and I needed a step latter to get to it... one that doesn't have space to be stored in the pantry.


My dream pantry with custom Elfa storage...


It was then that I discovered The Container Store this year.  I'm enamored, really.  I love this place.  If you've never been, it's basically a giant warehouse of every storage container imaginable.  Unfortuantely, it's also relatively costly, especially for custom installations.  So that's why I worked with what I had, bought very affordable, clear-plastic bins and labels.  Plus, combined with a sale, and yes, a teacher's coupon, I did it on a tight budget ;)

I got stacking storage bins (with an additional 15% off)...

Plus elfa labels (45% off between my coupon and a January sale)...

I loved the bins because I could see through them, they were the perfect width/height, and they slide easily on the shelves.  Also, if I decide to take them out and use them in another space, they stack together to make storage easy.  Quite versatile.  

Here are some up-close shots...

Now, when I need items from the top shelf, I can easily take the basket down!  So much easier than needing a step-ladder.

I thought outside the box with the cans...the way they are situated now, all I have to do is pull out the bin, and I can see everything, label up.  Now I feel like I'm maximizing the depth of our pantry but I can actually see it all....and eat it. Which is the overall point, right?

Check!

Still left to organize...

• Pantry
• Bathroom Closet
• Laundry room
• Front closet
• Under guest bathroom (AKA my bathroom sink)
• Bathroom makeup cabinet
• Under Master Bath Sink
• Garage
• Snack cabinet

My family was thrilled.  Thrilled I tell you!

A year in review...

Everyone in blogger land is doing it.  So I guess I will, too.

(I'm the one with the floatie, by the way)

2011 was a year of joys, triumphs...

2011 was crazy busy but amazing.  I think that pretty much sums it up.  We didn't mess around around here.  We were content to be extremely busy.  EXTREMELY.  When I told Charlie that we would start looking at houses in March, we actually ended up closing in January.  That pretty much sums up our year:  faced paced and always about 3 steps ahead of ourselves.

So that comes in at #1 in our review...closing on our house.

Therefore, this was also the year of a growing number of house projects, many of which involved paint.  Okay, most of which involved paint....and rabbit poop! ;)

Just kidding about the rabbit poop.  But Luna does love it.  ;)

Among my favorite projects were painting our built-ins, our mantle, and our fire place door.  I think it really elevated the room.

Probably my favorite paint color of the year was Behr's Contemplation, which became our new living room color.

We also completed other fun projects in reupolstery, grass growing, landscaping/woodchipping, spray-painting, and Goodwill hunting.

Let's not forget that I spend the summer finishing my Master's in Spain!

And wrote some "diddies" here and there that were on my heart....that's what a blog is for after all.  Like here, here, and here. :)

So, I looked for my post from 2010 that had my New Year's resolutions, to see if I succeeded in filling them.  Here were my resolutions for 2011:

1) Finish my thesis THIS year, so I can get my Master's sooner. Well, like we've established, I'm cheap, so I'm sure this will be a huge motivator.  CHECK, CHECK, CHECKITY CHECK!  It felt so good to finish her!! 

2) Wear sunblock on my scar every day! I just got a mole removed, and I know this will be hard to remember, but it's important so my scar doesn't look worse! Weird, but important.  Fail.  Well, not a total fail.  I do wear sunscreen on it, but only when I plan to be outside for a longer period of time.  My makeup does a pretty good job of protecting it I feel.  No discoloration, yet!

3) Stress less, laugh more. I think that one is simple enough :)  I would say I definitely did a lot of laughing this year.  Lots.  I love laughing.  But I also did my fair amount of stressing (what girl doesn't?)  However, I found myself stressing much less than last year about work, my Master's, etc.  So, did I stress?  Yes.  Did I stress less?  We'll give me a silver medal on that one.  Yay. :)


With that said, here are my new resolutions for 2012!  Woop! 
1) GET MORE ORGANIZED!  I've already started working toward this goal.  I want to be able to find things easier and lead a simpler, more stress free life.  This means working toward my goal in steps and taking one area at a time (I'm currently working on the pantry).  But I want the layout to make sense.

2) BETTER UNDERSTAND MY INSURANCE.  Okay, like number 2 last year, this one is weird.  I often feel I don't have a good understanding of how my insurance works/how to full maximize my benefits.  I've got the basics, but I want to know the ins and outs before we start to expand our family one day.

3)  EXPAND OUR COOKING REPERTOIRE.  Charlie and I have grown so, so, SO much as cooks.  We do eat very well (and quite healthfully) which I am very proud of.  However, I want to start expanding our capabilities while continuing to eat well.  Pinterest is my new inspiration for recipes, etc.  I'll keep you posted and post pictures of food that will make you (nearly) stop reading my blog because they look so good.  Muhahahaha!

Well, I think that's about it. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!