A little Valentine fun, a little organizing fun

First, a little Valentine fun.  I always like to bake candies/cookies/foods for the kids' teachers.  They all have way too many "teacher" things so this makes the holidays more fun and shows how much we appreciate them!  This is Amariah (she really dislikes having to stand in the pictures, can you tell?  Lol!) with some goodies for her three teachers that she has this year:  Cinnamon Apple Jelly, Brown Sugar-Oatmeal Mini Loaves, Peanut Butter/Kisses Surprise cookies and Oreo Truffles.  Yum!

Well, since I've been back from Mexico... I have been FREEZING!!  I'm not one to complain but that sunshine on my face and sand between my toes every day ruined me!  I've been trying to stay busy.  My projects have only been ones that can be worked on by the fireplace.  I LOVE my fireplace so much!

I finally put my cabinet together.  Well, I guess I should tell the truth... Rich finally put my cabinet together.  We talked about painting it a different color because I didn't think black would look good in that room.  But here it is finished and it will stay black:

Oh, I think I need to show a before shot.  This is what the room looked like in October when I decided to tackle re-purposing two of my rooms.

Here's a (not so good) close-up shot of what this cabinet's purpose will be.

I finally found an open cabinet that held three sections with interchangeable shelves.  One section for each child.  When they come home from school, they go straight to the laundry room and drop off their bags, books and lunchboxes.  It has been wonderful this week to use this cabinet.  I got so tired of stepping over bags and kicking them out of my way.  This is a lifesaver!  And now for the fun part!  I'm going to show you how we made the boxes on the top shelf that will be used to hold all their papers.

I grabbed these boxes from when I put Christmas candy out on the shelf at Hobby Lobby.  At the time, I had no idea what I would use them for.  They turned out to be the perfect size and shape!

Then each child went through all my scrapbook paper and picked out some paper for the sides, front, and lettering.  We used Elmer's glue because it is safe for the kids to play in.  This was their favorite step of the whole process.  Here are Amariah and Robbie spreading out their glue.  Ryan, at age 14, was too old to get his picture taken and I had to make him sit down and play in the glue.

Once they glued the paper to the front and the sides, I used a xacto knife to cut around the curves in the front of the box.  If you don't have a Cricut, then I highly recommend you get one!  I only have the smaller one but it gets the job done.  I originally bought it for my scrapbooking but have used it on every thing else!  We cut out their names and glued them to the finished box.

Robbie had fun saying his letters as he put them in the machine.  He was so excited to see his name print out.

 

This is what the finished boxes look like...

 

It's a little bit of organizing but on a grand scale for our family!  School stuff has been an eyesore for us as long as I can remember.  Now I have one more small cabinet to buy for this room to hold all their extra school supplies then I can mark it off my list as complete!

I am grateful for fun loving kids that like to get in there and be messy with me as we create and see what we can come up with.  I love to bounce ideas off of them and see how creative they can be.  A simple but messy project, a small amount of time, but wonderful memories made!

Cabinets, Paint, Mexico!

Sometimes it can be frustrating if you know in your mind what you want, but trying to find it in a store is a different story! Know what I mean?! We looked online for about an hour and a half Thursday night for some cabinets for the kids' catch-all area in the laundry room. Nope. Nothing. Well, nothing in the price range that I set for this little project. Yes, we can go over what I allotted but that would mean a delay in getting this room done. A delay in this room would mean a delay in my craft area. And I sure don't want that to happen! =] Everything we found had huge shipping costs attached to it! I'm talking like as much as the cabinet itself. So... this morning we dropped the kids off at school and headed out for a full day of shopping for that perfect cabinet that is in my head. This picture is not of "my perfect cabinet", but the closest thing I could find, $99:

I just wanted to share it with you because it'll be a couple of days before we can set it up and see if it'll work.

I found this FREE neat little tool on Sherwin-Williams website.  You take a picture of the area you want to paint.  "Mask" it off, and then select the color you want and it shows you what it will look like.  The stuff hanging on the wall has been masked over because I didn't want to go in and tediously mask around it so I just covered it all.  Now mind you, due to monitor limitations the colors are not completely accurate.  In fact, it almost looks rose in this picture, but it is really one of their darkest red colors.  You get the jest of it.  How about this for my dining room?

Or stay like it is...

I've been debating this color change ever since I painted the family room (the room off to the right in this pic) during spring break 09.  I picked out about 20 color swatches of the dark red.  Narrowed it down to one and taped the swatches to my walls.  I moved them around all summer and fall.  Then one day I just gave up and decided to leave it like it was because I couldn't decide.  I am probably the most indecisive person you will ever meet in your life.  Really, it is ridiculous!

So... here I go again!!  Decisions, decisions, decisions!!  I was going to buy the paint today, but ran out of time because of the cabinet ordeal.  Honestly and truly, what do you think of my 'Sun dried Tomato' wall color?  Ditch it or keep it??

I have a little bit of time to think about it.  Everything is getting ready to be put on hold.  I'm going on vacation!  Woo Hoo!!  Except without Rich or the kids.  So that's gonna be kinda weird.  Next Wednesday, the 27th, I head out to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!!!  Hello sunshine!  I'm so excited, yet sad about leaving my family.  My parents live in Mexico during the winter months.  The first half of the winter they live in a village a little north of Puerto Vallarta.  Then the last half of the winter, they move up to central Mexico (because the beach gets too hot, so sad!) to Guadalajara.  Because of Rich's incredible flying benefits from working for American Airlines, I fly FREE!  I stay with my parents for FREE!  And while there, they spoil you rotten by taking you out to eat almost every single meal.  How could I pass up an offer like this??

I'm so glad my parents have internet and a laptop where they live. I can sit out in the sun by the beach and keep up with my blogs!! =] Yes, they live that close to the beach. It is an amazing time, I've been there before.

Well, lots and lots to do before I leave.  I have a home to clean (because I'm a freak like that.. can't leave a messy home even though my kids will be making a mess while I'm gone), camera to get ready, summer clothes to dig out (that's going to be nice for a change!!).

Don't worry; I won't be rubbing in the perfect paradise weather of 80 degrees.  I'll just wait and post some pics for ya.  Have a wonderful week ahead and I'll be checking in from time to time.

 I am grateful for opportunities like this that God places before me. To travel and see his beautiful creation, to get a glimpse and a taste of paradise. Then to realize that it's not even a drop in the bucket compared to the eternal paradise awaiting me one day with Him!

Slight Progress

I've been working all weekend in my laundry room, turning it into the kids' catch-all room.  Whew!  We have too much stuff!!

There are three areas of this room that I'm going to re-purpose.  The first area-- it is the area behind the door as you walk into the room.  This door is always left open because it leads to a bathroom.  So this door to the room kinda acts like a door to this "closet".  All the stuff is hidden, because you have to walk in the room and shut the door to see what is behind the door.  I like it that way!  It's all very accessible, yet hidden.  Perfect!

Here is the YIKES! before picture (and before painting)...

Here is the after picture.  I hope you can tell a difference.  Lol!

The top 4 shelves belong to cases of pictures that are waiting patiently to be scrapbooked.  My soon to be 11 year old (as of next week) daughter has the next shelf.  Yes, along with all her scrapbook supplies, the Cricut is on her shelf.  I bought it with intentions of using it all the time with my scrapbooking but somehow it has become hers with her many school projects.  I will say I'm thankful to have it; her project boards look rather smashing when the Cricut is used.  So far... an "A" on every project.

Then we have the little guy's shelf.

Am I insane for putting Play-Doh, stamp ink, paint, chalk and markers at the reach of a 4 year old?!?  Probably so!  I brought him in and showed him his little shelf.  I wish I was recording him.  He was oh so excited to have his own little place for all his neat stuff!  I sat him down and we discussed how important it is to tell Mommy or Daddy when he wants to work on something.  Then we get the clear table mat and take it to the dining room table.  When we are done, we put it all up and put it back in its place.  If not, then everything gets put up where he can't have it.  He's pretty good about listening.  Even at four years old, he understands consequences.  We'll see how it all pans out.  Actually, I look at it as investing in him and influencing his creative side.  I love being able to offer him choices at his age.

Yah!  Stage one completed!  Stage two started!  Gotta love progress, right??

I'm grateful for kids that get almost as excited as me when it comes to organizing and taking care of their things.  I believe it's very important to teach them to respect and take care of all things that God has blessed us with.