More Organizing Fun

***Last chance to enter my giveaway!!!  It ends tomorrow.  And there are low entries and 5 winners, which means great chances for you.  So hurry and go enter! ***


I did the 21 Days of Organizing challenge way back in January, but I still have a couple more of the BIG projects to complete.  Well I finally did one- the refrigerator!

Here are the all important before shots.  Funny story, I actually took these pictures a few weeks before I cleaned it out.  Took me awhile to get around to the actual cleaning... ha! So that's why the food in the fridge will be different. :)

Before

 All emptied out and cleaned.

Aaaaaaannnnd After!

 I had a gift card to The Container Store and used it to buy some fridge organizing things and I love it now! 

 Here's a close up of the middle shelf with all my Fridge Binz trays {the plastic containers). 

On the left is all our cheese.  The bottom tray has unopened shredded cheese.  The middle has sliced cheese.  And the top has opened shredded cheese.  {We love our cheese!}  The middle tray has miscellaneous items.  And the right tray has meat, mainly lunch meat. 

Here is the bottom of the fridge.  It's just organized and emptied of the old/expired items. 

  I do have the my eggs in the handy dandy Egg Stay Fresh container.  I love it because protects my eggs better than the store cartons.  If the eggs weren't pushed back far enough when we shut the door, it would smash the carton and sometimes the eggs too.  This container is a hard plastic and protects them from that.  But it just looks nice, clean, and fresh- love it!

Once more... Before and After

So glad it's done!

Dishes and Luggage

It had been awhile since I used my sewing machine and I was craving some sewing.  So I pulled it out and whipped up some stuff!  Here are a couple of sewing projects I finished recently. 

The Dish Towel Mat

Its for drying those dishes that are too big for the dishwasher or that don't quite get dry enough.  I've used mine a bunch and I love it.  When I'm done with it, I just fold it up and put it in the basket with Grayson's bottles above the microwave.

I used the tutorial from here. All you need is a dishtowel, fabric, a sewing machine, and coordinating thread.  For the fabric I used 2 different fabrics the tutorial used 3, it's just your personal preference.  I probably would've used 3, but I couldn't find a 3rd that worked with the owls and the green.

 The tutorial was really good and easy to follow.  But my fabric pieces weren't quite long enough to make it the edges like in the tutorial {see below}.  So if you want to make one, I'd cut the fabric strips an inch longer.  But it's fine, I still love it!

Here it is in action! Haha :)

Fancy Schmancy Luggage Handle Covers

Ok, these were seriously SO easy peasy to make.  For reals.  I used the tutorial here from Little Birdie Secrets.  I made 4 super fast.  There are only 2 pictured because I ran out of velcro and had to wait to sew on the velcro to the last 2 after I bought more.  I couldn't wait to take the pictures though!

I made 3 of the blue polka dot and 1 of the grey and white polka dot.  The gray I'm using for Gray's suitcase and the blue for me and Josh.  

These babies will make it super easy to tell which suitcases are ours when we're at the airport.  I mean everyone uses different color ribbons.  But I haven't seen anyone with these!  I can't wait to use them when we go to California this summer!!!

Linking to these parties.

Basic H2 Giveaway!!!

Did you know that today is Earth Day?!  Well it is.  And in celebration Kristina at A Home Made by Kiki is having an Earth Day blog hop and giving away tons of Basic H2 samples.  

Woo-hoo!   

I was given the chance to review some Basic H2 and let me tell you, I have NOT been disappointed!  First off, Basic H2 is a cleaning product from Shaklee and it's non-toxic.  It's safe for you, your family, the environment AND it works!  No more worrying about toxic fumes or if your kiddos are around while cleaning.  Plus, Basic H2 is super concentrated, so it only takes 1/4 teaspoon per 16 oz of water for your basic all-purpose cleaner. It is so economical that one 16 oz bottle of Basic H2 makes 48 gallons of cleaner!  It sounds too good to be true, I know, but it's not!  I'll stop talking though and just SHOW you.

Here is my messy counter.  

I was using the food processor to make make baby food and some of the veggies splattered.  I left it there over night {*gasp*} but it turned out perfect since I knew that dried up food is harder to clean than the freshly splattered stuff.  So I took that opportunity to show you all how great this stuff works.

I sprayed my counters and simply wiped them for a few seconds.  And now look.  Completely clean! 

Plus I don't have to worry if I put Grayson on the counter in his bumbo while making a bottle.  He can reach down and touch the counters {which he loves to do} and there are no toxins to worry about.  I don't want my precious little boy around dangerous chemicals! 

Here's on more before and after.

I also used it to clean out a kitchen drawer that I've never cleaned out since we moved in almost 2 years ago.  Yikes!
{And I know I have ugly, plastic, 70's yellow drawers...we're renting! :) }


Yeah, I'm officially embarassed.

There was also some sticky residue from who knows what in there too.  But after a couple sprays {I did let the spray sit for a minute on the sticky stuff} and a few wipes, good as new! 

 Want to win some?!  Ok!

For the full experience of the blog hop you need to start over at Kristina's blog!  She's the first one.   Each blog will give you the chance to win some Basic H2 and then direct you to to the next one where you can have more chances to win and so on.  You also can collect a letter {or letters} at each blog that will spell out a phrase when you have them all.  {The letters aren't scrambled, so if you start at the beginning you'll know what it says}  

If you get all the letters you can email the phrase to Kristina at healthy-solutions@hotmail.com  for a chance at an Amazing GRAND PRIZE- $30 via paypal!  Who doesn't need an extra $30?!  I wish I could enter. 

Another sweet deal- Shaklee is offering FREE MEMBERSHIP for the month of April to all new members with a $30 purchase.  Normally it's $19.99.  And once your a member, you never have to renew or pay a fee again.  You get the membership discounts for life!  I'd been wanting to order some Shaklee products for awhile.  Each month is a different deal.  When this months free membership deal came, I knew I couldn't wait any longer.  This is the perfect opportunity if you want to have safe and economical cleaning products for your family and home.  Plus, if you email Kristina {healthy-solutions@hotmail.com} she has some unadvertised specials on TOP of that.  I did and boy was I happy about it.  If you're thinking about getting some Shaklee Basic H2 and some of their other great products, now it time!    

OK, now for the giveaway!  There will be 5 winners.  Yep, 5!  If you want to win a sample of Basic H2 and try it for yourself you have 2 ways to enter-

1.  Mandatory- be a follow of Kristina's blog via Google Friend Connect and leave a comment saying you are.  

2.  Be a follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect and leave a comment saying you are.

That's it!  {I love simple giveaways}

The giveaway ends April 30th at midnight!

Here is your letter- S  :)

And I'm the last blog in the blog hop, so you should have your complete phrase if you went through them all!  Now just email it to Kristina at healthy-solutions@hotmail.com!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Dresser Project {+ some more random stuff}

First, here are a couple cute father-son pictures I took today.

Gray sure loves his daddy!  

{And so do I!}

My friend Nancy called randomly the other day asking if I wanted a dresser that needed a little bit of work that they were getting rid of.  Boy did I ever!  Little did she know that my little sister Angelyn is moving in with us in a few months.  I'd been looking on craigslist the past couple of weeks for a dresser.  It was so perfect.  And let me tell you, Nancy has some good taste! Her home is so cute.  So I knew this would be a cute dresser.

After my coffee table makeover, I discovered my love for refinishing furniture.  So I'm super excited to give this dresser a makeover.  

Here is what it looks like now.

close up of the details

What a great before, huh?! 

{and to think, if I didn't want it, it was just going on the curb, ack!}

I almost don't need to do anything to it.  I love the hardware.  And I love the paint color.  But it's quite chipped on top, see?

That's fine, I'm excited to pick out a fun color.  We {the hubs and I} also already used some Gorilla glue and E6000 to fix some minor problems.  All it needs now is some sanding and painting!

I love color so much, I can't decide.  I like the blue it is now.  But yellow is fun.  And green.  And a million other choices!

Do you have any favorite and/or go to paint colors???

I'd love to hear your opinion. :)

Also, have you noticed I'm SOOO close to 100 followers?  I can't really believe it.  I want to have some kind of fun giveaway when I reach 100.  So follow follow if you haven't yet!

One LAST thing!  I'm participating in a fun Earth Day blog hop starting Friday, so be sure to come back then to join in the fun.  There will be tons of chances to win some Shaklee Basic H2 samples {which I've started using and l.o.v.e.} from the 10 participating blogs and a little scavengar hunt and a grand prize too!  I'll tell you more about it soon.  Just be excited.

Couponing 101

On a recent shopping trip I got the items below for a grand total of $3! 

I went to a couple stores- Walgreens and Staples.  The laundry detergent and tampons were $1 each and the paper and toothpaste free. 

A lot of people wanted to know more last time I did a coupon trip post.  I'll tell you my secret.

Hip2save.com

There are a lot of other couponing sites and blogs out there, seriously, a TON!  I used to read a bunch of them.  But slowly began to realize that they mostly posted the same deals so I slowly started narrowing them down until I found my favorite.  Hip2save.com

She has some links for newbie couponers at the bottom of her site.  I would highly recommend reading those to start out with.  She also does videos which are super helpful in my opinion, especially when you're starting out.  

{Maybe it's because I'm a visual learner!}

 For the videos, look to her right sidebar and scroll down a little until you see "Hip's Video Series" and you can choose from there.  Some of her oldest videos are about individual stores and are also really helpful.  Also her most recent video here on proper coupon usage is really good for beginners.

So that's your homework for now if you are interested in saving some big money with coupons.  And if you are confused about something you read on her site or anything, please ask me.  I'd love to help and I can probably answer a lot faster than Collin, since she has 78,000+ facebook fans! Also, tell me if you have suggestions for future coupon posts that I could do...  :)

Look at that Boy!

My goodness, my little baby is growing so fast.  It seems each day Gray has a new trick up his sleeve.  I wish I could slow him down a little bit.  But he wants to go go GO!  I know my family has been wanting to see more pictures and video of him, so here you go!

He did this all on his own.  He LOVES to stand up.  And he falls a LOT.  But there's no stopping him.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say he'll be an early walker.  He is always trying new things and wanting to move!

Here's a video of him when that picture was taken

And of course, we can't forget crawling!

Gray loves him some tickles :)

 

Cousins cousins are so fun!

*side note* Gray loves Drew! He screams in delight whenever he's around Drew.  Drew just looks at Gray like, "why are you screaming at me?"  Gray also tries to get Drew, but Drew is faster and can get away. It's funny.  Watch for it in this video.  :)

 

More cousins with Jackson trying to get the babies to listen to him.
Watch and see how well that went. :)

30 Items in 30 Days- Living Room

If you didn't see my last post on this, I'm participating in a challenge on the IHeart Organizing blog to purge 30 unneeded/unnecessary/just-generally-junking-up-my-house items in 30 days.

Today is the living room.  I didn't think I would be able to find much at all to get rid of in my living room.  Basically it's furniture {which I'm not getting rid of!} and my two bookshelves with books I love and decorations.  I looked carefully though and was able to get rid of these 3 items-

The letter "J" I've had since college and it's pretty beat up now and I'm kinda over it.  Plus now that I'm married with a family and all, I think the letter R is more appropriate.

The Prince Caspian book I got for free last year.  I've never read the Chronicles of Narnia nor have any desire to. 

The second book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, I got at a yard sale last summer.  I liked it and enjoyed reading it.  It was good.  But I don't think it's one of those book I'll want to read again.  So it's gone too.

***If any of my Lexington friends wants one or both of the books, you can have it/them!  {Or even the J for that matter} Leave me a comment if you do.  Otherwise I'm selling them. {Half-price Books baby!}

It's so freeing to get rid of things and declutter.  Seriously!  If you haven't tried it yet, you should.  You'll be surprised.  It's a great fresh start for Spring! 

Total items purged = 6

A Momma's Cry for Help!

I posted recently {I think} that Grayson has started crawling.  In addition to crawling, he is also now constantly pulling up on things.  I did NOT think these 2 things would come at the same time!  He is not too balanced yet and often falls when he tries to stand up.  He's been getting lots of head bonks as a result.  But he keeps on tryin' and tryin'.

Unfortunately, now when we put him in his crib, he just crawls around and plays and pulls up on the sides.  Which means it's almost impossible to get this kid to go to sleep in his crib!  We've let him cry and cry, but he just keeps sitting up and moving around.  Eventually, when it's waaaay past his bedtime, I give up, and put him in his swing where he'll fall asleep.   Then later, Josh will transfer him to the crib where he'll sleep the rest of the night. 

{This was 2 different days.  We peeked in and found him standing up!}

Did any of you other moms have this problem?  What happened when your babies got mobile and could crawl and sit up and pull up?  How do I get him to go to sleep in his crib?

PLEASE HELP!

I'd love any of your suggestions, tips, advice, comments, whatever!

thankssomuch :)

30 Items in 30 Days- Shoes

One of my favorite blogs, IHeart Organizing, is doing a challenge to get rid of 30 items in 30 days.  It the perfect challenge for spring {cleaning}! And it feels so good to de-clutter and get rid of unnecessary things that are junking up my house.  I love it!  So I was super excited to hear about her challenge.  I did a bunch of organizing and getting rid of things in January and February, but I figured I could come up with at least 30 more.  Especially since it's only one a day {minimum}.  And you can get ahead too, so if you do more one day, you can miss a day. 

Anyways, so today was the shoe challenge!  I had recently gone through my shoes, so I couldn't get rid of 11 pairs like Jen from IHeart Organizing.  BUT, I did get rid of 3, which was pretty good for me!  She also challenged us to organize our shoe areas, so  I did. 

Here is my before.  

I put my shoes in our master closet.  They are in 2 areas- a hanging thing and on the floor.

Pretty messy.

I got rid of my 3 pairs and then organized. 

 I love those black heels, but my sister's dog chewed up the tip of one awhile ago.  I don't know why I still kept them for so long.

Then I stole the white thing from up here...

...and put it on the floor to organize the floor shoes. 

Then I stacked the shoes nicely in the hanging thing.

Before and Afters-

Total items purged = 3

{ahead by 2!}

Day 1 CHECK!