Closet Clean-out

So, several weeks ago, I shared that my closet was in bad shape...... Partly because I have put on so much extra weight and partly because I just have a bunch of old clothes that are woefully out of fashion.

Welp, the time had finally come to do something drastic! This is super embarrassing because I never should have let my closet get into this kind of condition, but I had. This is life and lately, my life had not revolved around my closet! So, red face and all.....

I'm going in! 

What a mess!!

After 2 days, I had finally finished trying on everything in my closet and the dresser in my bedroom. Yes - I tried on Every.Single.Thing! Whew!!

This picture doesn't do it justice. Between the hubby and I, we donated 12 plastic bags of clothes to a dear friend. Her church was having a garage sale to raise funds for their Widow's Fund. It was a win-win for all of us! Gotta love that!

                                            

Luckily, I had a pretty organized system for my clothes already. I had just allowed things to get overcrowded and messy. Now that I had seriously purged everything, it was time to "put things right" again. Space is definitely not an issue with this closet. We are extremely blessed by the size of this closet. In fact, it's part of why we selected this floor plan. The closet surrounds our bathtub, so it basically has 3 long sides. Dave and I each have a long side and then we split the back wall. For this post, I'm just going to show you my 1 1/2 walls. I have big plans for the rest of the closet and I'll do a complete "Room Tour" when we get those projects completed.

CLOSET AFTER!

                                            

First up --> Shirts. I start by separating them into types: sleeveless, short-sleeve, and long-sleeve. Polos and athletic-types are on the bottom rod. Within each type, the shirts are hung in color-order......Rainbow order to be more precise! (Of course!! I want a Happy Closet!)

                                         

Also on the bottom rod, are jeans and pants. I only kept a couple pairs of jeans and actually zero dress pants. Hubby was SUPER sweet and bought me 3 new pairs so I'd have something to wear! I had to get a slightly bigger size, but that's only temporary. I can live with this new size for a little while.

I keep vests, shrugs, jackets, and blazers on the back half of my long wall. Again, I'll share all that other stuff like shoes and bags when I show the entire closet. This post is really about how I organized my clothes.

It's a little hard to see, but I like my hangers to match. All of my shirts, vests, and shrugs have the same type of white plastic hanger. The jackets and blazers have more substantial clear plastic ones. I've thought about investing in the nice, velvety-kind of hangers, but I really don't see spending that kind of money for hangers. Pants and skirts are both grouped by type and color on pant and skirt hangers.
                                         

The back wall of the closet has a single rod, so I hang skirts to the left and dresses and track suits to the right. For now, winter sweaters are in the suitcase on the floor. Cardigans are on the shelf above the skirts and short-sleeve sweaters are in that Sterilite drawer unit. I'm working on a new system for those items, so hopefully they won't be like this for much longer. It's just not working for me.
 

Since I was on such a roll with my closet, I decided to tackle my dresser. I've been super curious about the new way to fold t-shirts. I've seen this all over Web-land, so I decided to give it a whirl. I'm thrilled with how well it worked!! Hubby was so impressed, that he's going to do the same with his collection of t's.  

                                            

So, I can now say that the State of the Closet is muuuch better!! I feel happy every time I walk in. Sorry for the quality of the pictures. This closet is dark and very difficult to photograph. I am definitely still a beginner with this "fancy-pants" camera, so don't know what I'm doing with lighting and stuff. Bear with me and hopefully when I post the full closet, the quality of the pictures will actually match the quality of the closet!!

Until then, take a look at your own closet. What can you do to make it function better for you??

Halloween House Tour

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!!

I always decorate our home for Halloween in early October so we have time to enjoy all the spooky (really, just silly) touches! I love how just a few touches can completely change the feel of our spaces.

Immediately inside our front door, we have a hanging coat rack. It's one of my favorite places to put seasonal items.

(Hee Hee.....Did you notice the antique book by Poe??)

This picture is a wide shot of one wall in our family room. We tend to sit in our recliners and watch tv, so this is what we see every night. I like being able to see our holiday decor, no matter which holiday we're celebrating. 

 

I've been a collector of carousel horses for years and years, so when I found this piece, I HAD to have it!! I love it! The ghosts and goblins are having a ghouling good time on their ride!!
It's only about 7" tall, so I've propped it up on some old books.

I like to change my decorations every year. I never know what extra little touches I want to put out. (Also code for: I never how much time or how creative I feel!!) This time, I used basic Halloween-themed scrapbook paper and my Cricut to make a simple "BOO" display. I used different fonts for each letter, just to give it a special feel.  

 

 

I love our "J" pumpkin. I purchased it at Hobby Lobby 2 years ago. It complements our "J" wall nicely. This year, I took 2 books, wrapped them in plain brown craft paper, tore the edges in a random pattern, and then tied the books together with black tule.
 

 

(Riley LOVES looking outside!!)

I really love this display!!!  (Even if I do say so myself!!) I framed 1/2 of a plastic skeleton and set it with a copy of DH's Gray's Anatomy book! I put another plastic skeleton on top of the book. It's little things like this that just make me laugh a little when I walk by. I love the reactions I get from my hubby when I do something a little different like this. He never knows what I'm going to put out!

                                   

Here's a sweet picture of my brother and his family. It was taken several years ago. It's hard to believe how much bigger his kids are this year! The picture is sitting on top of two children's "scary" books.

 

I also put decorations in our dining room. Our house is open concept in the family, kitchen, and dining areas, so I like to make sure I have enough decorations for all 3 areas.

The dining room is the SPOOKY center.....full of witches, skeletons, snakes, and potions!
 

 

Confession: I know that arsenic is a white powder!! I guess I was having a "blond moment" when I put the label on the bottle. It was stuck too well to remove it, so now we just have
poisoned dragon's blood!!

Confession #2: Um......so that bottle actually started out as a mini bottle of red wine. "Someone" had to drink the potion so it looked like the bottle had been used......Wonder which which that was?!?! 

                                     

Like my spooky tree with all of the skeletons hanging off of it?? It started out as part of a dead tree down the street. It was destined to be destroyed, so actuallly.....I rescued it!! I spray-painted it a glossy black, and then sprinkled purple, pink, and gold glitter all over it. I stuck it in a bucket filled with sand and voila.....the perfect (FREE) centerpiece! Gotta love that TREAT!

 

 

 

 

Of course, I had to add some little touches to the hall bath and the guest room/bath. I didn't put out a lot in those rooms, just a few little things to celebrate the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed our SpOoKy and FuN home tour!!! The decorations will be up for a few more days and then it will be time to get ready for Thanksgiving!

 

Pallet Flag

One last summer project --- My pallet flag

I've been stashing this old pallet behind the house for a long time....waiting for just the right time to create a flag. I'm thrilled with how it turned out! It was also super easy to make.

I started with a plain pallet. Just a simple little thing that I happened to stumble upon one day! (Perks of living in a constant construction area!) I love the heftiness of it, but I didn't love the green paint all over the top and bottom. I just used a nasty old paintbrush to brush on some old brown paint-like stuff. (A few years ago, I picked up a random can of brown pain. It's super old and gross, but it does the job when I need it.)


I just wanted a good base and something to cover up the green.

                                      

Next came the measuring. I used a very faint pencil line to measure the blue square and the red/while stripes. They didn't end up perfectly spaced, but they are close.

   

                                         

I painted the blue square first and then immediately painted the red stripes. I didn't tape anything off. I wanted this to be more "hand-made" -- nothing perfect or fancy.

I  was definitely not going to free-hand all of those stars!! Holy cow!! I'm crazy, but smart enough to know better than to attempt stars! I dismantled a clearance 4th of July stake and then traced the stars.

 

White paint for stars and stripes, and this pallet flag was finished!!

                                      

I did not try to distress it at all. A short time in this West Texas weather and it will be perfectly distressed! Just the way all you city-folk spend so much time and money trying to create!! ; )

We screwed in into the fence as a backdrop for one of my flower beds. I can't wait for next year when the sunflowers and the canna are still standing proud. Won't it be beautiful?? 

 

All in all, a pretty good day's work!

Twine and a Bowl

My house doesn't usually reflect the current trends in design. You won't find chevron, or bright gold accents, brightly painted animals, or even the newest pantone colors. Those just seem "too much" for DH and I. We are pretty simple in our design tastes. We like natural items and simple items. I always tell people that I want our home to "Tell Our Story".

One of the trends that HAS caught my attention has been all the twine (or rope, jute, string, etc.) wrapped anything and everything. I love how you can take a very simple container and suddenly it is elevated into something special. This is also a look that can be created for almost no money, and that fits my current budget perfectly!!

Here is just a simple project that I've done. It all started with a bundle of inexpensive twine, a small bowl from the Dollar Tree, and my glue gun.

Some people start wrapping the twine on the top of the item. I knew I only wanted to the twine to go about 1/2 way, so I started on the bottom. I simply ran a line of hot glue and then pressed the twine directly into the glue. Just keep putting glue/twine until you decide when to stop. It's really just that EASY PEASY! 

I needed just that little extra "something" in this small vignette, and this twine bowl worked out perfectly! I couldn't be happier! That was a 10-minutes well spent!  

 

 

Scrapbook Room - The REVEAL!!

I'm ready to reveal to the world -- My Scrapbook Room!!!

Just to refresh your memory, we built our house in December 2011. I knew I wanted my scrapbook room to be in the front of the house so I could look outside while I was working. My hubby and I created this room from scratch, building it just the way I wanted it. YES - I am most definitely spoiled!! Anyway, as with all of our home projects, this one isn't 100% finished, but it's close enough to share. I LOVE it!!!!

Let's take a quick peek around the room first and then I'll open everything and show ya the goods!!

The main unit is on the left wall. You can see more about how we built this unit here and here. I like to stand and sit while I work, so I made sure the counter was standing height. The entire width is 9 feet and I have 6 feet of work space!!! That's a whole-lotta wonderful!!!  

My big front window is immediately in front of the door. This 5-shelf bookcase is to the right of the window and the 3-shelf bookcase is directly in front of my table.

                                                 

The final wall is a small one - just in between the entrance door and the closet door. I have my eye on a bookcase from Ikea, but that will have to wait for a while. This old baker's rack works fine for now.

                                        

Now that you have taken the "grand tour", let's get a little more personal shall we???
                            Don't ya just love getting to look inside? I do!!
I store all of my 12x12 paper in the tall cabinet on the left. I didn't take any close-up shots, but you can see that everything is clearly labeled. Some drawers are for specific projects, some are non-Creative Memories papers, and other drawers are CM papers that are in rainbow order. ('Cause my OCD self won't tolerate anything less!!)

I keep a variety of supplies inside the tall cabinet on the right. Things like floral supplies, simple sewing items, embellishments, die cuts, misc supplies and stickers that are too large for my other system.

I completely forgot to take a picture of what I store in the bottom left cabinet. (Drat -- I'll stay after Blogger School and write "I will remember all of the pictures" 1000 times!) Anyway, I keep my Cricut cartridges, paper packs (the 3 for $10 ones from Michael's), journaling blocks, and scrap paper. See a theme -- all of my paper is basically on the left side of the unit.

The bottom right cabinet holds things like scissors and punches. I also keep my Canon in that blank spot in the top right. That black cord runns from the plug (inside the cabinet) to my Ott light (on the counter top.) We designed the electrical outlets like this on both sides, so I can still use the plugs but you can't see the outlets. (Hubby is very smart!!)

You behaved yourself so well in the cabinets, that I think it's safe to open up the drawers!! Right now, the far left just holds some junk items, so I didn't take that picture.

The second one holds all my pens, just ready for journaling!!

Next drawer is reserved for cutting tools.



Final drawer is for adhesives.

                                         

                    
I lined each drawer with cork and used a variety of organizers to keep everything grouped together. I placed everything "just so" because of how easy they are to reach from either the desk or the counter top. Everything is in perfect reach! Easy peasy!

The entire back wall is a pegboard. On the left are my cutting mats and Sharpies. My CM cutting shapes are on the right. Across the top are some of my curling ribbons. At some point, I want to put a curtain across the ribbon, but I haven't found one I want. I'll keep looking.

                                       

                                                     

                                                      

Whoo Hoo!! That's the main unit. I LOVE it!!! Are you ready to move on??

Let's look at the 5-shelf bookcase by the window. Top shelf holds ribbon -- color coded of course! 
                                    

Next shelf is for Xyron and ideas.....books in the middle and loose cards in the basket. 

The third shelf is for stamps, stamp pads, and the old Creative Memories "Thanks to You" sets. I'm still looking for just the "perfect" way to store my ink pads. Right now, they are just on the shelf. I didn't really take a picture of the bottom shelf, but that's where I keep my stickers and items to scrapbook. I put each event (pictures and "stuff") into a clasp envelope and file then by date order. When I'm ready to work, I just grab an envelope and go.

I keep my albums and some specific projects in the 3-shelf bookcase under the gallery wall. I also keep a glass jar with Washi tape, a wooden bowl with baker's twine, and a Longaberger basket with small chalkoards.  

 

Even with all of this mind-sparking gorgeousness, one of my favorite things about the room is my gallery wall!! I just love getting to look up at some of my very favorite items/memories!!  

Life is GOOD!!