Pinterest Inspired

This was a quick update... took me about 3 minutes.... Once I found the loops!!

Ok let me back up a bit.

I own scarves!  I have started to use scarves as a fashion piece and not just to keep me warm during our New England Winters, so I have more "decorative/delicate" scarves than I ever have before.  They are also relatively new to me, so they're not totally ingrained in my head as to what exactly I have.  So I needed a way to see them easily so I can readily choose the appropriate one for daily outfits.

This hook situation inside the closet..

...just wasn't working for me.

I saw on Pinterest someone had used Shower curtain loops on a hanger to organize their scarves and make them easily accessible.

The kicker to this story is that I knew I had those hooks somewhere, wasn't using them on a shower curtain, they're still in the box... but I couldn't find them... even in the Move!

The one Saturday morning, they Appeared to me!

I stopped what I was doing and dove into this 3 minute project.

Take Loops out of box

Put hooks on Hanger and click closed

Feed scarves through Loops

Hang Hanger

Super easy and oh so satisfying!!

Full access to Scarves and Closet where scarves previously impeded.

Gotta love a 3 minute FREE project!

Hang It Up

Another update from my weekend loot:

I do love when one shopping trip can provide so many updates.  It helps to make it feel like we're really making our mark on this place, making it our own, and adding our personality to it all at the same time.

Let me back up a quick step before I tell you about the next one...

I got started into blogging when I stumbled upon Young House Love blog.  They are an amazing couple who blogs together.  I've mentioned them a few times already on this blog of mine, but this time I mention them because they designed a line of merchandise..., and I bought a piece of it!

The little box to the right in the above photo, in front of the plastic door knob case, that's it!  It's a Picture hanger designed by Young House Love that I bought at Target!

I have this amazing shadow box full of our wedding story that has been sitting in storage since we moved into this house of ours.  When I read about John & Sherry's line and that it included a hanging knob for just this very purpose, I was excited!

It was super easy to install, and worked great to add interest to my already interesting piece when I hung it on the wall, instead of just having a screw or ugly gold picture hanging hook above our wedding box.  This shadow box was hand crafted by my Dad specifically for us to display all the little memories from our Wedding Journey, and it finally has a rightful place in our House.

Thanks again Dad for making us such a wonderful and personal piece, and thanks to Young House Love for the inspiration and interest-added to my wall!  This is literally the Only thing hung on all the walls downstairs (besides in the man-cave) and I love it!

Door Makeover

Have you ever wanted to paint a room, or a wall, or a cabinet... and you know you want to paint it, but you're not sure what color would look best.  So you go to the hardware store and grab a couple paint chips to hold up against that spot.  Then you narrow it down to 2 or 3 colors, so you grab a test-pot of those colors and paint a patch of each on that wall, then you finally choose a color and get to painting....?

Anyone have that experience?

Because I sure didn't!!!

This door in the Laundry room was white... kind of....

It was trying to be white, but like many things in this house, it was done poorly by the previous owners.  You can even see in this crappy iPhone photo that the area by the locks only got one coat of white way back when.  That's not dirt, it's a crappy paint job.

 From the first week of living in this house this little voice in my head has been saying "Why isn't that door painted Red?!!?"

There was no thinking about colors, Paint chips, or paint swatches.  I went to Lowes, grabbed a test pot of pain (Hoping that would be all I would need), and painted that door.  After 2 coats it was starting to look as magical as I knew it could be.

The third coat and a day of drying, and I'm in Love!

I am so happy to have this door painted Red, you have no idea!  I'm also happy that it didn't require going through the full scenario from above.  (Though I have other painting plans that will be more like that first scenario just waiting in the wings :)

Have you ever painted a Door? Had a hard time deciding on a paint color? Think I'm crazy for choosing red?

Under the Kitchen Sink

Ok, back to this Loot and the Bang-for-my-Buck projects that stemmed from it all:

See that shelfie looking item and the pink command-strip hooks that are in the tray below it... these two items facilitated probably the most functioning update from my shopping trip.

That pesky space under the kitchen sink got a make-over.  This make over even got a "Nice job on that" comment from Mr. Man, so you know it had to be good!

We started with this:

It's not that it was disorganized per-se, but stuff was behind each other and it was very hard to reach anything but those 2 bottles that were right in the front.

So with a little bit of elbow grease, pulling everything out to see what I was working with, and adding in a shelf and 3 pink hooks we ended up with this:

The plastic drawer was all we needed at the condo to organize under the sink, and we were able to utilize it again here, but with the corner shape of this kitchen v. the rectangle of the last one, that drawer just wasn't enough.

I am thrilled with how this little update has made daily tasks so much easier.  I know what we have and can reach everything without having to move anything else out of the way.  Our Cascade Complete packets and garbage bags are easily accessible and not blocking access to anything else.

It's a win-win!

Little Updates

They say life isn't a destination, it's a journey... well, I feel like our house is also a journey.  We have been living here just over 2 months, and patterns have started to emerge.

I've heard people say that you should live in a new place for a few months before making any larger changes, and I 100% agree with that.

2 1/2 months in this house have showed us where the dust (i.e. dog hair) collect.  We know where we end up throwing our clothes (i.e. not always in the hamper).  We have discovered the paper-collection areas that we didn't necessarily want to have that title.  We know how much easier life is when we have the Dustbuster nearby, and we know which doors we use the most.

These little facts about our house and how we live in it help us to make better long-term decisions about how we live here long term.

This past weekend I did a "little" shopping and a couple "little" projects.  By "little" I mean that I literally bought Little things that would make the most difference for us.  The most Bang for our Buck, if you will.

Here's a picture of the loot from my trip...

(don't mind the mess in the background)

Some not-exactly-for-the-house doggy treats snuck into my basket... but we'll just ignore those for now :)

On the left, you can see a carpet rolled up.  This carpet now lives in front of my stove, and makes cooking for any length of time a much more enjoyable task now that there's some cushion under my toesies.

(Don't worry, I centered it on the cabinets right after taking this picture.  Just forgot to re-take it!)

The next Item from my shopping trip that I opened up was those blue scissors!  They are my new kitchen scissors and are totally awesome in my all black-handled knife block.

Why did I need new kitchen scissors you ask?  well, I have a dog, and he apparently really enjoys the soft rubbery handles of kitchen scissors.  So my black-handled matching nice kitchen scissors are no longer a part of the family, so this happy blue pair steps in to fill the void for a whopping $2.50!

That tray there found a home on top of our microwave to hide some of our paper collections that seem to congregate there even when there wasn't a bin.  So now we have a pretty bin, and it looks like they're supposed to be there.

The "littlest" project of the weekend was an un-screw, then re-screw project.  Remember that craft closet, with the awesome new wrapping paper holding towel bar in the craft room...?

Well, the mechanism in the door knob for that closet was installed backwards.  The angled part of the latch was facing out, so you could just pull the door open, but had to turn the knob in order to close the door...

So I switched it around for proper function.

And all is once again right in the land of door knobs.  (well except for that one that you see in my "loot" picture above, because that knob project was unfortunately not nearly as simple, nor successful... but more on that another time...)

Check back on Thursday for more about what I did with my "little" goodies.

Today..

Today is my Parents' Anniversary!

31 Years ago today, they were married and began in incredible journey together.

1 year ago today, we were in Rome Italy Celebrating their wedding day once again!

We love you Mom & Dad!!

Thanks for getting married and having us Kids :)

Happy Anniversary!!!