Chip It! with Sherwin Williams

This is what I would Chip It! It's an all time favorite of my daughter.

how do you organize your planner?

just thought i'd share this in case it helps anyone else. we have three kids. the sports are endless as are trips to the ortho for all three. whenever people see my calendar they laugh and then they realize what a great idea. each of my kids has their own color. i know cole is blue, brock is green and sophie is pink. my husband and i are gray/black. this way when i use color to identify each child, i don't need to also write down their names. sometimes i do out of habit, but most times i just write time, event and location.

i keep all the pens handy in the back, along with important phone numbers. i've had this style of planner for the last 5 years and purchase it from barnes and noble.

leftover candy canes = valentine's day treats

thanks, crystal, for reminding me what to do with all those leftover candy canes. i had seen the post in prior years but always forget.

think i have enough for 2 classrooms. my 5th grader's last valentine's day party. :(

a big surprise ...

my husband bought me this for Christmas ..... [love him] very surprised i was. he was tickled i thought it was a crockpot. the stinker even put it in a big box and weighted it down so i would think it was a crockpot. little stinkers were able to keep it a secret from me too, even more amazing.

now i'm a pc girl. learning curve, absolutely. the kids use macs in school. my 8 year old is showing me how to do some things, pretty amazing. so of course i'm hauling this baby to hockey games and lacrosse games so i can play and learn. that absolutely necessitated a bigger purse. thank you marshall's for having the perfect and reasonably priced purse for me and my new buddy.

Just got a little more time on my hands

So I quit my part-time school year job. Got a little more time on my hands to finish up house projects. With the kids in school, I am enjoying the quiet hours of getting things done without interruption. Okay, well maybe I haven't quit started that list yet as I did just quit three days ago, but I did make a list. Here's what I hope to accomplish by the end of the year.

• Clean and rearrange my closet [later post]
• Curtains for the family room
• Curtains for the lower level
• Spray paint Pottery Barn desk [find a chair for said desk ~ refinish?]
• Finish mudroom decor [already did board and batten] just need to finalize
• Paint walls, touch-up woodwork, trim
• Paint stairs and stain landings
• Design foyer architectural detail [thinking board and batten]
• Wallpaper powder room
• Sort and rearrange gift wrapping closet
• Sort and rearrange boys' linen closet
• Sort and rearrange storage area in lower level

Looking at my list, I feel like I didn't do anything over the summer! Lots of organizing and shuffling around, hopefully not spending too much money since I'm not working and all.

Iced Coffee ~ homemade version

I don't pay Starbuck prices for drinks. I think it's ridiculous; however, I do love their stuff. Take 1 pound of coffee, any flavor, any brand, and add 1 gallon water, stir and let sit overnight or at least 8-10 hours. You want this to be really strong.

Carefully strain the coffee through a coffee filter or paper towels into a pitcher. I used a collander to make the straining easier.

Fill cup with ice, add Coffeemate to 1/4 of the cup and fill the rest with coffee. YUMM-O [and cheap]. I'm addicted.

pantry makeover

it all started here. oh, that mrs. smith, she did it to me. made me realize i needed to do this too. just look at her pantry.

so here's mine. blah, blah, blah. the shelves were all silver from cans being slide across them. the shelves had finger and toe prints from my monkey climbing them. it had to be painted.

{before}

i also realized i needed to clean/rearrange/find a better storage solution for one of my cabinets.

old storage containers with white lids, just didn't use my space well. i took measurements, went to walmart and found exactly what I needed, introducing the 3 new containers with red lids. see how nice they fit on my shelf below?

perfect for grab and go. okay, done with that cabinet, onto the pantry.

take everything out and put it on your dining room table and live like that for a week.

oh, lovely new silver/blue paint. i did the shelves in a light color i had leftover.

here's the wall color - yum

in order not to have my pretty shelves get all scratched by the cans again, i lined the shelves with clear contact paper.

i used everything i already had on hand except the flour and sugar jars [walmart]

i've actually had my pantry like this for 2 months. i wanted to live with it for a while to see if we could really keep it look nice and neat. i did add one metal basket from hobby lobby to store my bags of lunch size chips, but other than that, everything has stayed the same.

love, love, love that mrs. smith and her jar labels. you can buy them here at wonderfully wordy. thank you shelley for your inspiration.