Monday, February 9, 2009

To start off this week.....

It's raining and snowing today.  I'm happy to be in my warm cozy house, but not happy that I am sick.  Late last night, I started to feel a little scratch in my throat and I had a headache.  This morning I woke up to what felt like a ball stuck in my throat.  Realizing that my tonsils have been removed, I knew this was not a good sign.  It's hard to swallow and I still have a slight headache.  I'm thinking it's just a virus and hoping it's not strep.

We just found out last week that our insurance co-pay's were increased, so now we pay twenty-five dollars instead of ten to see the doctor.  Obviously, it makes me a little less eager to make an appointment.  I'll just go with the "wait and see" approach.  

When I'm sick it's hard for me to just stay in bed.  I have all these things I want to do....like:

Organize this closet.

or

Begin the daunting process of organizing what is supposed to be my craft/sewing room.


This room has been organized once before.  It was almost finished when I decided to destroy the downstairs storage room so that we could actually walk in there. One of my biggest pet peeve's is when you have to take everything out of a room just to get in there.  I just can't stand it.  This is a room I just shut the door on.  I'm really going to need a tremendous amount of energy to tackle this room.  Does anyone want to help?  

Eh..I didn't think so.  

I bet you're wondering just how bad the storage room was to make my previously organized craft room look that way.  


This wasn't even half the trash we hauled out of the basement.  It's absolutely ridiculious that we have accumulated and carried around so much junk in the past 16 years.  We still had manuals from the twin's carseats and at least a garbage bag full of manuals of stuff we have not owned for a decade.  It really felt good to go through all of those boxes though.  


This is what part of the basement looked like after I cleaned out the storage room.  It was a complete mess for over three weeks.  That's how long it took me to go through everything.  Unfortunately I do not have any before pictures of the storage room, but this is most of what was in there.  There are about 6 boxes that are not in this photo.  


During the three weeks the basement was in shambles my youngest son, Caleb (7), had no where else to play LEGO's. Of course, to a seven year old, making a mess among the mess is the perfect spot to build his creations.  

To his credit, he didn't have any other place to play because his own bedroom was in disarray while we took apart the bunkbed's and made two separate beds, but didn't actually finish making them two separate beds for a few weeks.   Procrastination at it's finest.  You see, Rob thought the two beds that were still in bunkbed form (one low with rails and two footboards, one high with two headboards) looked fine. And I, with gnashing of teeth, disagreed until the beds were put together right.  Who in their right mind.......?  Nevermind.

We ended up moving the LEGO's back to the bedroom once the beds were complete because those teeny-tiny pieces, that are extremely expensive pieces of plastic, do not fare well in dark brown deep-pile carpet.  My vacuum loves to gobble them up.  Caleb has keen hearing and can tell the distinct sound of the vacuum devouring his treasured pieces.  I, however, refuse to dig through the bag to recover the lost pieces, so Caleb has now learned he had better pick them up by the time I'm ready to vacuum.  There's nothing more precious than the sound of your child running at the speed of light while screaming "WAIT!  WAIT!  Don't let the vacuum eat my LEGO's!!!"

This is what the finished storage room looks like.  


When you open the door you see this.  There is a shelf with duffle bags and other various bags. Sleeping bags are neatly stacked on the top shelf.  Hard suitcases are neatly stacked in the corner. 


As you can see there is still a walk-way towards the back of the storage room.  The shelf you see with the Life game is actually our game shelf. 


The shelving unit in the far back holds Christmas boxes and other holiday items.  The two craft tree's do not collapse so this is how they will be until next Christmas.  I will put plastic bags over them to keep the dust off.   The second shelving unit has items we might need to get into at some point, but things I didn't want to throw in the trash.  Most of it is sentimental.

It was very motivating to go through the storage room and make it accessible.  

Now I'm off to organize the hall closet and do some laundry.  Or, perhaps, I'll just make myself some tea, wrap up in a warm blanket and read a good book.  



Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Organizing the Love Nest

Yesterday was a productive day for me. Instead of going shopping or sitting at the computer all day, I decided to focus on one room of the house. I'm in a major decluttering mood lately, so I chose the most important room to me. 

The Master Bedroom - BEFORE


This room is, sadly, the one place where everything seems to get dumped. 

Like you hadn't noticed.  

It feels like a junk room, at times, rather than a place of comfort and intimacy rest. Sorry...I couldn't resist. 



This plastic drawer system was used to hold whatever.  A couple of the drawers only had one thing in them.  What a waste of space.  Plus it just looked weird out in the open.  Oh, everyone say "Hi Lilo!" 

Yeah...that's a cleaning spray bottle in my closet.  I probably set it down in one of my many ADD moments.  Anyway....we already had the hook from IKEA.  In fact, we have two.  One for ties and one for belts.  They've been great and are only $4.99 each.


To be completely honest, I had taken the brown boxes that are on the floor down from a shelf in the closet before I remembered to grab my camera.  I am Semi-Organized,  you know.

The Master Bedroom - AFTER

I decided to stick the plastic drawer bin in the closet, though I'm still not sure what to put in there.  The bottom drawer holds my cloth pads, which I am very proud of and thankful I was brave enough to choose cloth over paper.  That's a whole other post though.  You really wanted to know all of that, didn't you?  

I already had the shoe holders and put them to good use. I found them when I was cleaning out the basement storage room a few weeks ago.  It's always nice to re-use things you have.  In fact, the only thing I bought for this organizing spree were some pant hangers for Rob's work pants, we already owned everything else.  


This whole system is from IKEA.  I bought them all in the "AS IS" section for a fraction of what they sell for new.  The utensil organizer is also from IKEA and was "As Is" for only $6.00.  It was sitting on the shelf in our closet since we moved in.  I dusted it out and thought it would make a nice place for Rob's sporan, watch & wallet.  My jewlery (which is not much) is on the other side. 


This drawer was full of junk.  I cleaned out TWO drawers that Rob was using to stuff things like; dead batteries and used movie tickets.  This utensil holder is also from IKEA and was "As Is" for only two dollars.  It makes a really nice holder.  Can you tell I love IKEA?  



Here is the other IKEA hook that holds our belts.  Love it!



This is a pile of bathroom items that haven't had a home for a long time.  I finally got them all organized.  

Bottom Shelf:  The shelving unit, woven divided basket and glass jars are from IKEA.  This shelf is for various items, but mostly things we use more often than others.

Second Shelf: This shelf is filled with baskets of sunblocks, shaving items, pedicure items.

Third Shelf: This shelf holds four plastic divided containers.  The dividers are removable so you can customize the spaces you need.  They are from IKEA and sell for $3.99 each.  I have them separated into four categories:  Owie's, Cold/Flu, Allergies (includes creams, benadryl, etc) and prescription medications.   

I know that I'm missing a few more "After" pictures.  As soon as the kids got home from school yesterday we were out the door for doctor appointments.  I didn't have time to wash the sheets or make the bed.  I don't know when I'll actually get the chance to do laundry.  Hopefully this weekend because I really hate sleeping on the mattress without a sheet.  

Monday, February 2, 2009

Valentine's Day Decadence


I wanted to share a wonderfully decadent dessert that I've made for Valentine's Day for the past 4 years.  At the time, I was an avid follower of Chookooloonk's who first posted about the scrumptious cake she chose to make for her daughter's first birthday.  I still read her blog from time to time....she's an amazing photographer!  My family and friends have begged me to make this cake ever since day one.  It's an easy recipe and one that will not disappoint. Well, unless you're my mother and would prefer something made with vanilla or banana.  The less chocolate, the better.  However, you could be like my Nana who absolutely loves chocolate, in which case, you'll love this recipe.  Just like her.

By the way, you can buy the heart shaped bundt pan at Spoon's & Spice,  if you're wondering. 

My glaze, on this cake,  didn't turn out smooth because I didn't have any light corn syrup, but it was still yummy.  



You really don't even need frosting or glaze.  It's so rich and moist as is.  I'll have you know that I am one of those crazy people that removes 80% of the frosting before I even take a bite of cake.  I also prefer the middle,  so my "you don't need frosting" tip might not be for those of you who prefer a corner piece.  

CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

1 18.25-oz package chocolate cake mix (I use the Devil's Food from Duncan Hines)

1 3.9-oz package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celcius). Grease and flour a bundt pan. I love the Crisco spray (like Pam) that has flour in it.

2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, eggs, hot water, sour cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into bundt pan.

3. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto wire rack and let cool completely.

DARK CHOCOLATE GLAZE

4 oz semi-sweet dark chocolate (again, I like Ghirardelli's)
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla

In small, heavy saucepan or microwave oven on medium, melt broken chocolate with butter. Stir frequently until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in milk, syrup and vanilla. When glaze is cool, pour onto cake. Let glaze run down sides. Chill about 10 minutes to set glaze.

*Note* I did copy and paste the recipe from Chookooloonk's and added a few of my own recommendations.  Here is a direct link to that post.