I would like to take a moment to personally thank HGTV for making me feel like the laziest slob to ever walk the face of the Earth. How did this happen, you may ask? I watched Clean Freaks online last night, and it left me feeling like a complete failure as a person. Alright, that might be a bit melodramatic, but it did leave me feeling pretty inadequate in my homemaking skills.
I like to think of myself as a fairly organized person, even if sometimes that organization never really makes it out of my head and into reality. I remember speaking with someone before my husband and I got married about why I didn't have him over to my house as much as he would've liked. My reason? I wanted my house to look like a magazine, and if it didn't meet that standard (or as close as I could get anyway) I didn't want to let anyone in. This was met, perhaps understandably so, with laughter and a reassuring, "You better get over that if you want a lot of kids!" How right they were.
Now I frequently feel like I live with a bunch of evil gremlins whose sole mission on this planet is to destroy any sense of order I'm able to create in this house. Of course, these gremlins are some of my favorite people in the world, and I also happen to think they're the sweetest, most amazing things since sliced bread, but they do love to create a good mess. It's hard to make much progress in organizing and decorating this new(ish) home when I have three little ones running after me knocking over everything in sight.
Having a house that resembles a magazine is still my goal though. In preparing our old house for sale, we finally decorated and used spaces that had been empty for years. I don't want to wait until we're trying to get rid of this place to make it into a space we love and enjoy. It's a daunting task though. Our old house was the first my husband and I shared together. Most of our furniture was purchased for specific rooms, and we basically had a blank slate. In our new house, none of our furniture really seems to fit. Unfortunately, we don't have a great budget for furniture this time around so we're just going to do our best to make things work and maybe diy the rest.
Here's a link to HGTV's page Clean Freaks... watch if you dare! (And in all seriousness, there are some really great ideas in this episode. The gentle lights and music to wake up would be amazing!)
Sunday, January 20, 2013
My Helper
I mentioned in my last post that I greatly dislike grocery shopping, but two things do make it better: 1) an organized list so I can breeze through the store (my most recent trip took only 35 minutes for a week's worth of groceries. Without an organized list it would've easily taken an hour) and 2) a wonderful helper!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Meal Planning
I made these weekly meal planning and grocery shopping papers to help me plan our meals and make my grocery shopping trips as efficient as possible. I love grocery lists that are organized by product type and store location. I don't particularly enjoy grocery shopping so I enjoy it even less when I reach the end of a trip only to realize the last item I need is at the other end of the store where I started my trip. Such inefficiencies pretty much guarantee that my little ones will have meltdowns in the check out line, if not before, and I like to avoid those at all costs. By organizing my lists by type of food I'm able to grab everything I need as I go and get out of there as soon as possible.
Another great feature of these lists, they increase husband efficiency too! I love to have my husband at home as much as possible because: 1) I love his company and 2) I'm a stay at home mom so any help and relief I can get is much appreciated. The sooner he can get home from a errand the better.
I made a general list:
And one that's personalized:
Interested in getting a copy? Click HERE to visit my etsy store.
I'm always looking for better and faster ways to do things so I'm curious, what tips and tricks do you use to meal plan and keep grocery trips as short as possible?
Another great feature of these lists, they increase husband efficiency too! I love to have my husband at home as much as possible because: 1) I love his company and 2) I'm a stay at home mom so any help and relief I can get is much appreciated. The sooner he can get home from a errand the better.
I made a general list:
And one that's personalized:
Interested in getting a copy? Click HERE to visit my etsy store.
I'm always looking for better and faster ways to do things so I'm curious, what tips and tricks do you use to meal plan and keep grocery trips as short as possible?
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Soccer Cookies
I really enjoy baking. Cakes, cupcakes, brownies... basically anything with a ton of sugar is great in my book, but my favorite thing to bake is by far sugar cookies. Our family recipe is amazing and supposedly from a bakery that closed decades ago. How we got a copy I don't know, but I'm glad we did!
When I have the opportunity to volunteer to take something to one of my kids events sugar cookies are always a serious contender. These were for Daniel's end of soccer season celebration. The kids and parents gobbled them up (and I snatched a few for myself too). Yum! The only problem? Now I want to jump in the kitchen and make a batch.
When I have the opportunity to volunteer to take something to one of my kids events sugar cookies are always a serious contender. These were for Daniel's end of soccer season celebration. The kids and parents gobbled them up (and I snatched a few for myself too). Yum! The only problem? Now I want to jump in the kitchen and make a batch.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
New House, New Bed
This bed used to be at my mom's house, and Grace was always very excited to sleep in it. However, when we moved into our new home my mom decided to give it to Grace for her new bedroom. It's been a huge hit as it has space for her Dora toddler bed below and a twin size mattress on top. It also has the lovely bookshelf and some storage compartments on the side, which has helped with organizing her books and many stuffed animals.
As you can probably tell, she was over joyed. My original plan for her room was to paint the baseboards white and do some kind of mural on the walls. I was thinking a pretty nature scene, but now that we know we're having another boy, and he and his older brother will only be 16 months apart Grace will probably be moving to a different (smaller) room soon. I don't think this news is going to go over too well, but her bed will go with her, of course, so hopefully that will soften the blow. Anyway, my home improvement ideas are currently on hold until we figure out where everyone's going to go.
As you can probably tell, she was over joyed. My original plan for her room was to paint the baseboards white and do some kind of mural on the walls. I was thinking a pretty nature scene, but now that we know we're having another boy, and he and his older brother will only be 16 months apart Grace will probably be moving to a different (smaller) room soon. I don't think this news is going to go over too well, but her bed will go with her, of course, so hopefully that will soften the blow. Anyway, my home improvement ideas are currently on hold until we figure out where everyone's going to go.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Thank you, Ikea!
The entryway from our garage was always a mess of shoes, jackets and backpacks. Despite having an open rack shoe organizer in the closet, the shoes always ended up in a pile in front of the rack. "Closet filler" was not exactly its intended purpose. So, when I stumbled upon this gem online buying one as soon as possible was a no brainer.
Ikea's about 45 minutes from our home, and while that's not too horribly far, I like to buy as much online as possible. With two little kids and another on the way the idea of tackling a 90 minute round trip drive and shopping was not very appealing. There were a couple available on ebay, but I wasn't about to pay twice of what they were asking in the store so off to the store we went.
Thankfully, my mother met us there and was able to help us. I wouldn't have been able to do it without her.
Jack made quite a few purchases.
These made it all worth it! Now our shoes are beautifully organized and off the floor. Wonderful.
Ikea's about 45 minutes from our home, and while that's not too horribly far, I like to buy as much online as possible. With two little kids and another on the way the idea of tackling a 90 minute round trip drive and shopping was not very appealing. There were a couple available on ebay, but I wasn't about to pay twice of what they were asking in the store so off to the store we went.
Thankfully, my mother met us there and was able to help us. I wouldn't have been able to do it without her.
Jack made quite a few purchases.
These made it all worth it! Now our shoes are beautifully organized and off the floor. Wonderful.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Painted Ornaments
This year I decided to give painting ornaments a try after seeing some beautiful pictures online. Unfortunately, there was no tutorial provided with the pictures so I tried a couple different techniques on my own.
The first technique was "squirt the acrylic paint in, replace the top, and shake." Needless to say this didn't work very well. If I was lucky, half of the ornament would end up with paint, but the other half became impossible to coat no matter how hard we shook them.
The second technique was "add a little water and shake." This was when I learned that water and acrylic paint are not friends. They don't like to socialize and will be unkind to one another if forced to do so.
The third technique was "squirt the paint in and smear it around with a brush." The worked pretty well and gave a interesting, impressionistic look to the ornament, but given the size of the brush handle it because impossible to paint the top half of the ornament.
Unsatisfied with half painted ornaments, I grabbed a few cotton swabs, bent them as necessary, and was able to finish all of the ornaments with complete coats of paint.
Grace, my three-year-old, helped me. We used a variety of colors, and let them dry in a muffin pan.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. The blue and green one was my favorite; it reminded me of Monet's Water Lilies. Sadly, they never actually made it to the tree. The season was over before I knew it, but I'm planning on putting them up next year.
The first technique was "squirt the acrylic paint in, replace the top, and shake." Needless to say this didn't work very well. If I was lucky, half of the ornament would end up with paint, but the other half became impossible to coat no matter how hard we shook them.
The second technique was "add a little water and shake." This was when I learned that water and acrylic paint are not friends. They don't like to socialize and will be unkind to one another if forced to do so.
The third technique was "squirt the paint in and smear it around with a brush." The worked pretty well and gave a interesting, impressionistic look to the ornament, but given the size of the brush handle it because impossible to paint the top half of the ornament.
Unsatisfied with half painted ornaments, I grabbed a few cotton swabs, bent them as necessary, and was able to finish all of the ornaments with complete coats of paint.
Grace, my three-year-old, helped me. We used a variety of colors, and let them dry in a muffin pan.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. The blue and green one was my favorite; it reminded me of Monet's Water Lilies. Sadly, they never actually made it to the tree. The season was over before I knew it, but I'm planning on putting them up next year.
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