Feeling Like Fall . . .

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago (yes, two weeks), I decided (with urging from my hubby) to put up our fall decorations. I know, it's early, but as I mentioned before I have a retail background so we always rush the holidays!

So I have decided to give you a little tour of what I did:

This is an old mold I bought at a local store several months ago. I love it!!
I added leaves (store bought because I do live in Florida),
small candles and even smaller pumpkins.

Notice my pretty leaves hanging from the chandelier?
I bought them at Hobby Lobby last year.
I would love to add some more for a bigger impact but remember -
no excess spending!

I might paint the pumpkins, the jury is still out on them.

I just L.O.V.E. these Pottery Barn cabinets. They hold so much stuff and are so fun to decorate. I still need to build the trough to go on the top and since I don't have the wood in my garage (I did clean the garage and didn't find what I need) so I plan on taking myself to Home Depot on Tuesday to buy the wood required.

This is a large lantern I bought at Home Goods at the beginning of the year.
I want to find a trunk or cool crate for it to sit on,
but haven't come across the right piece yet.

I just filled it with a few fall-colored candles and some small pumpkins
and leaves I already had. I would like more but since I don't really NEED them,
not gonna happen!

So this is one room. I will share the living room later but that is for another post!

Starting to Feel Crafty . .

Ok, so I have been going on, and on, and on, and on, about my play room that is S.L.O.W.L.Y. turning into a craft room.

I have shared the paint job with you (love the color) -

I have shared my makeovers (love the outcome) -

I have shared the items I created for this room (love the look) -

And don't forget my awesome ribbon holders (love that the ribbon is viewable and accessible) -

But I have yet to share with you the B-A-N-E of my existence, the stairwell leading to the craft room -

And now you know why!

Doesn't the aesthetics of it make you want to run and curl up in a fetal position? I have on more than one occasion.  In fact, my large workspace has me looking at those stairs, not feeling so craft now! So I started high and worked my way down the walls.

I painted all the walls. I used the same color paint I am using in the living and dining rooms (look at me saving money and use existing paint!). I think it warms it up just enough but still goes nicely with the blue grey of the room. After it dried, I pulled out all the frames I had bought at Ikea this past March (yes, you read that right, I said March. I know it is 6 months ago but please, can't we just let it go?). I just love Ikea and can spend all day in there. Heck, they way they design it, it's almost impossible NOT to  spend the whole day there. You get "stuck" in their floor patterns and have to follow the arrows, not many shortcuts to be had - and those of you who have been there, know exactly what I am talking about! So I bought these really inexpensive, but actually quite nice, frames to fill with some of the girls favorite artwork.

Here's the grand reveal -

I think the finished product looks great! I might buy a couple more frames to fill some gaps but I think I accomplished what I set out to do. The girls are really proud to have the artwork on display and we had fun going through their keepsake boxes for them to pick their favorites. 

Also, if you notice on the right side of the photo, I have a bulletin board strip. Actually, I have four of them going up the stairwell. These I use for all the other art the girls bring home or seasonal art I have stored away. I also hang the selective pieces made by a then very young artist named Kristin! Can't believe the paper has disintegrated!

So I am thrilled with the overall outcome and love seeing all the great colors made by those little hands! Now I have to tackle the stairs themselves but that is for another post!

Election Time . . .

Ok, so my oldest daughter, a freshman in high school, decided to run for student government. She was originally going to run for Vice President of the freshman class, but once she realized she would be running against several of her friends, decided to switch to class representative.

They only had several days to campaign and so we ran to the store to buy some poster boards. While there, we saw these black pencils and got an idea -

We thought we could put tags on them and she could pass out to the freshmen in her classes. I mean seriously, who doesn't want the World's Best Pencil"?

So we came home and I grabbed my Avery Address Labels and ran them through the printer. We kept it simple and since her school colors are green, white and black, we (naturally) used a green font.

I then started wrapping the labels around the pencils. They looked great. We were excited and knew they would be a hit. Then, we noticed they started to unwrap, no matter how hard we pressed/rubbed/sat on them! So I grabbed some Scotch tape and taped up those bad boys. You couldn't notice the tape and it held everything in place. Problem solved!

I am not sure if it was my pencils or Caitlin's previous student government experience and outgoing personality that won the election, but she was chosen to represent her classmates. Mission accomplished! Should be a fun and busy year.

Now I am off to put together some scalloped potatoes for dinner tonight, but that's for another post!

Hall Closet Clean Up . . .

Ok, so I continue to reorganize-refurbish-redo, and finally feel like I am turning that corner. Of course, I have lived here for over 9 years so you think I would be there already!

Here (I am embarrassed to show you) is the closet outside our guest bathroom - before:

 

As we have been known to say in the south, "it ain't pretty!" Now, this closet was organized a couple of years ago but this is what happens when you don't put things back where they belong.  So I took it all out, every last piece of junk and I was left with this - 

I decided the inside walls were just too messy and I wanted to add a fresh coat of paint. I debated a pretty wallpaper but really didn't want to spend the money or time looking for one. I also don't like the Closet Maid jank shelves but they will stay for now. I will eventually buy some wood and either replace or cover the current shelves. I went down to my paint storage and was looking for a Mediterranean orange. I didn't have anything like that but decided to mix two colors (Martha Stewart's School Pencil Yellow, which was on my family room's walls 4 colors ago (oh, vay), and a burnt reddish color). This is what the final result was:

 Ahhhh, much better. At first it looked a fleshy for me but when it dried, it turned to this golden color I really like it. Picture it with those someday-wooden shelves, dark wood trim and a beautiful wooden door . . . again, ahhhh. Is it sad I like my closet so much?

Now time to organize all those lovely things lovingly shoved in there.

So I sat down at the dining room table, turned on the TV, and started detangling . . .  and detangling . . .  and, you get the idea (by the way, did you know Lifetime shows reruns of Will & Grace, then Frasier, then The New Adventures of Old Christine? That Christine show is really funny!). I spent so much time plugging cords into various electronic pieces to see what belonged to what. I needed something to keep them sorted so I did head to Target (yes, I know I am not suppose to spend a lot of extra money but that technically didn't start until yesterday!). I went to get a couple more baskets that I wanted but then I discovered these bad boys!

 

Please do not adjust your computer.
This photo is blurry and I do apologize for that!!

Aren't these cool? You can pop out the dividers or leave them closed. It's exactly what I was looking for and they had two sizes - again, exactly what I wanted! Yeah me and yeah Target! I don't remember the exact cost but I think they were about $10-$14. Target.com has a couple more sizes and a pattern design. 

These kind of projects make me so excited because I get to pull out my handy dandy label maker. I labeled EVERY SINGLE CORD I could figure out. Just like they say at the airport about all bags looking alike, I can say the same thing about electronic cords. Once everything was labeled, I got to put them into my pretty new containers.

Don't they look great? I also labeled the inside of each box as to what goes where. I love it! Then I got to put it all back together.

Annnnnnnnnndddddd . . .  drum roll please! Voila!

I pulled out my beautiful Martha Stewart chalkboard labels and started labeling. I would like to find a smaller point chalkboard pen but for now, this will work. 

So I gave each family member a tour and a lecture of the beautiful new closet and reminded them about returning items where they came from. (Oops. Just realized I wrote Air Freshers instead of Air Fresheners. I will correct that). It's funny but I am notorious for keeping closet doors closed but I have kept this door open for the last couple of days. One, to admire all my hard work. Two, to remind me to get the wooden shelves made. And three, to push me to keep tackling those chores I have been avoiding.

When cleaning out the closet, I came across two items we had bought a couple of years ago to help organize our photos. I plan on using them in the near future but that is for another post!