Tuesday, Tuesday!!

The college students came back on Sunday so I am busy, busy, busy at work.  I made these cute little treat bags to welcome them back to school.  They had pens, pencils and candy in them. 

Last weekend Allison and I went to yard sales.  I got this adorable turqousise enamal bowl.  I just LOVE it!  I put a plant in it and put it in our dining room table. 

I'm also SO proud of these flowers on our deck.  They have just done so well this year.  Usually my deck flowers wilt and die in June. 

I got this milk glass container at yard sales too.  I added this basil plant that I got at the farmer's market.  I hope this basil lives it would be so nice to have fresh basil at home.  I'll let you know usually my basil dies after a week or two. 

Last but not least these pretty flowers from my garden.  I love all the summer blooms I've gotten from my garden this year!

Happy Tuesday!

Changing and Rearranging!

This month I have decided to TRY not to buy anything new for our house.  This is going to be really challenging for me because I love to shop and buy new things.  We just have SO much stuff  and  I am trying really hard to organize our basement, attic and closets and drawers.  So I need to take a little break from buying things and really concentrate on organizing what we already have. 

At the beginning of the summer I stenciled the area above our fireplace.  I liked it OK but I didn't love it so I knew I would change it.  I painted it halcyon green the same color that's in our dining room. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this color in our dining room. 

I also added the same color to the backs of our shelves in our living room

Here is the same color above our fireplace. I'm not sure if I like it or not.  I would like to add another stencil and I have looked a little online but I haven't found anything that I love yet. 

This beauty was hanging by our side entrance (the door that everyone comes in!) and I thought it was too big so I moved it to our dining room.  My friend Sabrina and I made these shutters a few summers ago.  I still love it!

This is our office.  Actually Graig uses this office more than I do especially since I made my own little office space in the living room.  I re-did that patchwork picture a few years ago using scrapbook paper and modge podge. 

I found these large frames for $5 so Sabrina and I spray painted them and I added wire to the back of mine so I could clip things on it.  I think this looks best hanging in G's office.  That way we can clip up notes, pictures, etc.  I am SO happy because I was going to buy something to go in this space but I think this fits really well!

Here's a closeup!

This is our side door and the way most people enter our home.  I did have the shutter hanging in this space but I think it's too big for this area.  I had this magnetic board hanging in the office but I moved it out here.  I actually have two of them so I am going to hang another one below this one.  I am going to use one for B and one for A to organize all of their school paperwork. 

I think re-decorating my home this way will be fun.  I'm thinking of other stuff I could move around.  I will let you know how my month long hiatus from not buying anything home related  I know  G will be happy because I'm not spending any money-ha ha!

Home Organization notebook

Erin from Blue Eyed Bride is having a home organization notebook link up party today.  I have had my home organization notebook for about a year and it has made things so much easier for me!    There are a lot of websites and blogs that have printable pages and templates that you can use.  I found that it worked out better for me to create my own personalized sheets.

Here is my home organization binder.  I keep in on my desk in the living room. 

My sections tabs include

To Do-a running to do list.  I add to this list almost every day.

Home Daily Sheets-I took a picture of this sheet below.    This is where I keep track of the things I need to get done every day. 

 Workouts- I took a picture of this sheet below.  I like to workout 5-6 days per week.  I keep track of my daily workouts. 

Decorating-I print out pictures of decorating ideas and things I'd like to do in our home.

Cooking-I took a picture of this sheet below.  I keep my running grocery list, a weekly menu and a list of daily chores that I need to get done. 

Projects-That I want to work on, crafts I want to make, etc. 

Lists-longer range to do lists, things we want to do around the house, gifts I need to buy,  etc. 

Goals-the personal goals that I have for myself and my family.  I review these once a week. 

I also have a pocket in front where I keep miscellaneous things.  Right now I have a list of things that need to be done before I go back to work on August 8, bunco scorecards, a workout from a magazine, and a picture of a house that has beautiful landscaping. 

This is my daily sheet.  I plan what I'm going to do each day and write it on this sheet. I also like to keep track of what I eat (I'm doing WW) and keep track of the money I spend each day. 

I'm home today so my sheet is pretty full.  On days when I am working I only put one or two things on my to do list.  If I put too much on my daily to do list  I get overwhelmed and I feel like a failure if I don't get everything done. 
These are the things I need to accomplish today
-work out
-water plants inside and out
-start organizing my basement craft area
-work outside in our flower beds
-return library books

This is the sheet where I keep track of my daily workouts.  I like to see what I've accomplished week to week and track my progress. 

I also like to plan what we are going to have every night for dinner.  I find if I know what we are going to eat at home we tend to eat at home more. I also like to do a least one daily house chore so I don't have to spend all weekend cleaning my house. I am lucky because I  have someone come clean our house every other week.  So if I don't get to things or if I get too busy I know it will be cleaned.  I feel so good when our house is clean and organized!

Here are some other blogs that really helped me in developing my home organization notebook.  
Erin from Sunny Side Up.
Jennifer from Her Southern Charm

My home organization notebook has helped me SO much. I love it! I am MUCH happier if I am organized. If my house is clean and I know what I need to do each day I am much less stressed out and I am a more cheerful wife,  mom and friend.  I am happy to email you my sheets if you would like to use them. Thanks Erin for coordinating this link up!

Bad Storms

Last night at a little before 10pm we had a REALLY bad thunderstorm.  Graig had just fallen asleep and I was upstairs looking at the weather map on my phone, I knew from the weather map on my phone that the storm was coming toward our town.  All of a sudden the wind started blowing really hard and I told Graig that we needed to go downstairs. There was a lot of thunder, lightening and, of course, rain but the absolute worst part of the storm was the wind.  We had 3 big trees that were blown over. 
This one near our driveway we saw last night.  I loved this tree :( 

When we woke up this morning we  saw that we had two large trees down in our backyard.  These trees were HUGE, I can't believe they were blown over in the storm.  They damaged the fences but I am SO thankful they didn't hit our house or our neighbor's house.

I am also thankful this big tree (I call her Big Bertha) didn't blow down!

A utility pole down the street from us blew over and caught on fire.We watched the fire trucks, police cars and electric company trucks who came to put out the fire.    We lost power all night.  I am SO thankful it's back on this morning. The road is blocked off where the pole is down. 

  
This morning Graig found our neighbor's shutter in our yard and the big plastic lid to the bin that Brock's paper route papers are put in was found in our neighbor's yard.

Today we are calling our insurance company and Graig and his brother are going to start cleaning up our yard.  I'm going to Brock's last middle school baseball game I can't believe his season is already over!

During my blogging break...

I worked on a few cute projects that I wanted to show you.  I really enjoy quick and easy projects so these were fun to do.  One night my friend Sabrina, Allison and I had a craft night we made some rosettes.  OK they made rosettes.  I mainly messed mine up and they fixed them :)  I had one good one that I put on this basket that I covered in reindeer moss for spring. 

I also made a terrarium which I think turned out really cute.  As usual this wasn't my idea but I got the idea from a soft place to land.  Kimba did a great tutorial on making them. 

I have been going through our old family pictures and I found this baby picture of my Mom.  I think it's SO cute so I put it in a frame and it's now in our living room.  I think my Mom looks a lot like my baby niece Ainsley!

 My sister Shelby got this cute tart warmer at Wal-Mart in Iowa.  She showed it to me one night when we were talking on face time.  The very next night I went out and got one for my kitchen.  I love it!

Happy Thursday!

Hobby Lobby finds

Last Saturday I went to Hobby Lobby with my two friends Allison and Sabrina.  It was a lot of fun and we spent 2 hours in the store!  Allison had never been to a Hobby Lobby before she wrote a blog post about all of the great stuff she found.  Her post is here.
I went to find some things for my big wall behind our couch. 

My favorite find is this turquoise mirror.  I love it!  I am going to hang it on the wall behind my couch.

I love this metal square sign.  It was all black but I wanted a little blue on it so I added a robin's egg blue glaze.  I like the way it turned out!

This candle stick was in the 80% clearance aisle.  It only cost $3!  It was black with red spots so I painted it and distressed it. 

This was another fun find!  A Fleur Di lis metal sign.  I have been wanting one of these and it was 50% off so I couldn't pass it up!

These are metal signs that I made.   Sabrina gave us the idea and Allison did a tutorial on how we made them.  They were SO easy!  Sabrina always comes up with these cute ideas I keep telling her she needs to start a blog!

 

This is not from Hob Lob but it's really cute so I wanted to show it.  I found this candle holder at Wal-Mart on Sunday.  I'm going to put it on the wall behind our couch. 

I love the Hob Lob but I'm glad we don't have one in our town, I would spend way to much money there!

Under $10, under 1 hour!

Today I am linking up to Melissa's blog party "Under $10 and under an hour"  These are my kind of projects!  I love being crafty but I don't have a lot of time and I don't want to spend a lot of money making things. 

Monograms are an easy and cheap way to make things that you already have around your home look great.  I discovered vinyl monograms a couple of years ago and I LOVE them!!  I get mine from Decal Monograms on Etsy but you can find them all over.  I like Decal Monograms because she always does a great job and she has really fast shipping! 

Here are some quick projects that I have done using monograms from here.  All of these monograms were $6 or under!

I got this container in the Wal-Mart craft section for $3 then I added my monogram.  I use this vase all the time for different things.  I put lemons in it for summer. 

Right now it has a pumpkin candle and leaves for the fall

I did the same thing with this little plate that I got in the housewares section of Wal-Mart for $2.  This little plate hangs in our kitchen.

Same idea but I used our monogram on an outside bucket that I got at a yard sale for $2.

I can't wait to see all of the other great projects!  I love getting new ideas for quick and easy projects. 

Hobby Lobby finds!

When Ava and I were in Illinois for my sister's baby shower the one thing that I wanted to do was find a Hobby Lobby to do a little shopping for our house!  We have HL's in NY but the closest one to my house is 2 hours away!  I am SO jealous of people that have HL's right in the town where they live!  If they had one in my town I would be there every day-ha ha!
Anyway, we went right after dinner on the first night we were in Illinois.  I got the cutest things!  Most of the things that I got were from the 80% off aisle!  I LOVE that sections, there are so many cute things there!  I can't find my camera cord so these pics are from my iphone and aren't the best quality!


Glass jar-I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this in the 80% off aisle!  I love it right now I have sea shells in it for summer but in the fall I will change it over to leaves or pumpkins!

Silver candle holder  I actually used this as part of my sister's candy buffet at her shower!  The best part was that it was only $2!!

White cake stand-this is not from Hobby Lobby but from a thift store that we went to that is called "Saturday morning" because it's only open on Saturday mornings.  They had so many adorable things in that store but I only got this one little thing because with Ava and Anika  plus all the shower stuff I brought I didn't have too much room in my car!

Have a great week!  This is Brock's last full week of baseball so we have games every night this week!