Long time no post

Has it really been 16 days since my last post? Wow, time flies! I have been busily crafting and house decorating away. I have sooo many plans of things I want to get done. No room in my house is safe!

Here is a peak of 2 of the projects I am working on



the living room



in the dining area

I will (hopefully) follow up soon with full posts on these projects and many others!

Pantry Organizing

I've been busy crafting, organizing and decorating...
I just haven't blogged about any of it. 
My husband has been gone for 23 out of the past 28 days. 
(Boo hoo for me...I don't know how military or single mom's do it) 
I've been keeping myself busy with projects. 
I have a bunch of posts coming up. 
Today I am posting about my pantry.


Now let me start off by saying that I love to organize 
and I have organized this pantry about 10 times 
since we moved in 6 years ago. 
I bought red bins for all the little things 
and the door organizer for baggies, etc, 
but still wanted more storage.




The amount of wasted space under the bottom 
shelf and above the top shelf drove me nuts.




So I measured the shelf length 
and went to Home Depot to have more wire shelves cut. 
I think it was around $10 for both. 
 I'm not going to lie and say the shelves were easy to install. 
I may have cussed a little and thrown a little tantrum 
when I messed up and was frustrated .  
But I kept telling myself it would be worth it when it was done.




It was totally worth it! 
 I put one above all the other shelves, where I store paper products.




And I added that bottom wire shelf for lunch stuff.




Isn't it so lovely! 
I even have some empty space for now. Yay! 
So if your short on storage, look up and down in your closets 
and see if there is room to add more shelves.

While the hubby's away

I gave our playroom a makeover.

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house. I chose this house on the Internet because of the playroom. We use it as our play/craft room and my office area.



Before the room was very cluttery; there was stuff everywhere and it was painted a horrible color. I am embarrassed to admit that I chose the ugly, practically fluorescent green color. The room has vaulted ceilings and it took me some time to talk myself into climbing back onto the extension ladder to paint it. But I could stand the ugliness no longer so I used a grey/greenish color Behr Paint plus Primer from Home Depot. Love that paint. It went on very smooth and I only had to use one coat.

How about a little tour of the room.

For these shelves, I had a 1x3 and 1x4 cut to the same length. Then I butted them together and attached them with wood glue and screws. They make great ledge shelves for pics of my kiddos. I love having pictures of my kids at different ages out to see and compare how much they have grown.



Under the bottom shelf I threaded some drapery hooks onto a dowel and attached that to the bottom of the shelf with cup hooks. This shelf sits right above the crafting table so now my kids have a place to hang up their masterpieces.



I've had this old window for a long time and filled it with more kidlet pictures. I need to add some of our 2yr old, he will think he's unloved. The letters (spray painted paper mache') at the top of the window are my kids' initials.



There is a game theme going on in here.


Here is my office area. The shelf is made from brackets and a painted piece of wood from Lowes. I got the star above the shelf at a local craft show. The cork board is kind of messy looking, but I have to have a place to put my junk! The black cabinet holds all my die cutting supplies and on top of that is my Cricut. The black framed piece above the cabinet is a magnet board. Same one shown here. I bought it when I lived in Utah.

I love having a shelf above my computer for my collection of cameras that I love and quotes I love. (that's a lot of love!)


The shelving unit is from Ikea via Craigslist. I got the bins from Target. I wrote what's in each bin on a circle, laminated it and attached that to the bin with ribbon. It has helped a little bit with the toys being put back in the right spot. The black desk is also a Craiglist find that I skirted with yards of fabric that I tacked underneath.


Above the shelving unit is another game board (from a local antique store) and this cute little red wagon (from a yard sale). There is also a globe (clearanced from Target) and our fish tank. We inherited the guppies from my son's 2nd grade class last summer and they are still alive.



This door in the back corner is my crafting storage closet. I will show pictures of that another time. All the stuff I cleaned out of the playroom is hiding in there. About a year ago I ripped up some of the carpet and laid 12 x 12 black and white tiles. I didn't do the entire floor because I wasn't sure I would like it. I'm still undecided so for now it's staying 1/2 carpet and 1/2 tile. I would really like to eventually put in hardwood floors.



And the finished room. Yay! I love it! I'm glad I have the pictures of it being so clean because it will probably never look like this again!



Linking up to



Blue Cricket Design

Spring time fun!

Last week my kids were on spring break so we did lots of playing.








We went here to eat. I was quite disappointed not to see Alan Jackson. Our waitress said that the last time he was there, he sat 3 tables over from where we were. So cool!






We went to the zoo. It was beautiful weather so we spent the day walking around the zoo. My kids were totally pooped by the end of the day. It was great!!





We also went to the Rain Forrest Cafe for dinner. Not so good food, but a pretty cool atmosphere. My kids loved it!



We also saw this movie. LOVED it! I read the book a month or so ago. My 3rd grader is reading the book in class right now. We all, including my 2yr old thought it was wonderful!

I haven't been doing much crafting...but I want to. Here are some links to projects I am planning

  • this darling playroom inspired me to redo ours. Check out her whole blog! It's great!!
  • Look at this awesome mantle. Love it!
  • I am definitely making these decorative balls
  • I wanted to make these eggs but ran out of time. I might just do some brightly colored balls for jar fillers
  • Another fun crafty item on my list
  • Wish I would have done something like this, my kids would have loved it. I need to file that away for next year
Ok, I've got lots of fun projects coming up along with repainting my living room, stairs and dining area. Better get busy!