I'm telling you, January brings out the organizing in all of us! Ok, in some of us. Maybe just in me then. So here I am with another organizing tip that I hope will save you (and me!) some head-banging when Christmas 2017 approaches. Years ago I had cleaned up our basement (*don't look at it now*) and I had beautifully labelled every box. Then we needed more storage space so I became ruthless when going through those boxes and I didn't update the labels. So when Christmas came around and I was looking for my decorations, in one box marked 'Christmas Lights' I ended up with photo albums (*cue a few choice curse words - and then a few more*) This year I'm changing that! Enter these beautiful $6 bins from Walmart: And the colours!!! There was more selection in ... [ Read More ]
Hello 2017!
Now that 2016 has come to a close and we've started 2017, John and I did a little reflection and planning for the new year. I thought I'd share a little of that with you! We usually assign a meaningful word to live by for each year. In 2016, that word for me was courage. Every time I was feeling anxious, shy, unsure or just plain scared, I remembered that word and pushed through. Starting this blog last year is definitely an example of me doing just that. To those that have met me, I seem like quite the extrovert but I'm actually not! There were so many instances where I had to keep referring myself to that word, courage, and each time it helped. For 2017, my word is believe! This is the year where I will pay a little more attention on myself, both inside and out. ... [ Read More ]
Organize with yogurt cups!
Happy New Year!!! Did you have a great holiday? My heart (and stomach!) are absolutely full - I hope yours are too! Now that we're in January, thoughts turn to getting our lives back into gear and, like most stores are telling us to do, organize! My next project will make you think that I've lost my mind but one morning, as my daughter was finishing up some of her yogurt, I stared at the empty cups and a lightbulb went off! (Literally and figuratively as John just turned on the living room light that was above my head). I thought about organizing small do-dads into yogurt cups! These are the ones I'm talking about: They are tiny but oh so useful! I have cleaned up and saved all of her yogurt cups since and set out to use them for a myriad of tiny things I wanted to ... [ Read More ]
Happy Holidays!!!
It's Christmas!!! Wishing you all a wonderful everything this season! Let's check back in the new year, ok? ... [ Read More ]
No wreath hanger? No problem!
Long time no see! I can't believe it's December and how quickly Christmas is coming! It is my absolute favourite time of the year and I'm on countdown (pretty much always) to the next December 25th (feel free to commit me to the nearest mental institution). As the season is fast approaching, all my thoughts turn to decorating! Our outdoor front porch area gets quite a bit of snow during the season (Ottawa has had, I believe, the second coldest winter on record - Moscow being the first) so I have to keep it minimal. I fill the urn with a fresh outdoor arrangement, I pair it with a wreath on the door and call the outdoor decorating done! This year though I was late in the game to buy a nice and large outdoor wreath and all they had left were small ones so I bought two with the idea ... [ Read More ]
No more rummaging! (Organize your purse!)
This is my purse. A vision, oui? All those receipts, spilled make-up, earrings, random stuff... Every time I had to find something, I had to wade through waves of stuff to find whatever it was. And it always took me FOR-EV-ER to find anything despite it not being a very big purse! Enter this new beauty: She is my new fall/winter bag and I love her. Her beauty inspired me to buy these lovely organizing helpers: They're from Chapters and the sayings ("Like a Boss", "I can and I will" and "World Domination") are an adorable bonus. I then dumped out all of my stuff out of my bag and divided everything into these 4 pouches. The first holds my receipts for the month (which makes me feel like I'm being accountable - "like a boss"): Next up is my make-up pouch. ... [ Read More ]
Welcome to our wall of ducks!
Brace yourself. What I'm about to show you is what a corner of my living room used to look like: It wasn't TERRIBLE but it was pretty bland. And it looks like the TV is growing hair. In the re-design of the space, the TV got moved (you'll see where in a later reveal!) and I was left with a big blank space to fill. Now you've seen what our mantel looks like from a previous teaser post but here is what now lies next to it: Ta-da! A wall of ducks! Why ducks you ask? It's a bit of a badge of honour for me. A few years ago we were in Hyde Park near Kensington Palace in London and I saw this cute duck. I wanted one picture of the duck looking head-on at the camera but it wouldn't oblige. I had to chase it in the park (resulting in the other 7 pictures shown ... [ Read More ]
Make your own Halloween Trick-or-Treating Tote for under $1!
If you've been to Costco lately, you'll feel like Halloween has come and gone - hello Christmas! So I'm happy to report that we still have a month to deck out our houses for fall and decide what our little ones are going to dress up as - and to also buy Halloween candy. And re-buy Halloween candy. In my case, the re-buy happens a few times. I like to think I'm pretty organized when it comes to holidays but more often than naught I find myself scrambling at the last minute. So when I walked into HomeSense the other day and found an adorable costume for my little girl that was plush and warm, I scooped it up! (In Ottawa, every Halloween has been frigid - sometimes we see snow!) Three guesses as to what it is: I haven't shown it to her yet, otherwise it would go into her ... [ Read More ]
The guest room closet FINALLY gets organized!
Our guest room closet. It held a lot of stuff. Like bags and bags FULL of stuff. Everything from clothing, to crafty things, to sewing materials, to fabric, to guest toiletries, to things we didn’t know what to do with. When it came time to have guests stay with us, it was a miracle I was able to clear one of the hanging bars with about 6 inches of hanging space – that’s all they’d need right? And they won’t judge the mess, right? RIGHT?! Here’s what it looked like in all its glory: It needed some attention. It took a few days for me to figure out what to keep, what to give away and how to categorize what was staying. I also wanted to make sure that I had a system I could maintain when it came time to accessing the things that the closet would now store. So my ... [ Read More ]
Impulse Buying!
Confession: I’m a serial re-decorator. Well, in my mind anyway. I’m always re-designing, tweaking and testing out new ideas. When I see a product, a design or even a colour that strikes my fancy, I start mentally re-configuring the room that I think would suit that inspiration best. Even if the room I’m envisioning isn’t on our list to change in the near future, I start looking for the materials I’d need. And then I online shop. This is so dangerous for me as I don’t always have the restraint to not hit “purchase” on the checkout page – my basement can attest to that: A few items I’ve impulsively bought for future renos includes: A round sink: I got it for a ridiculously low price (< $10!) at IKEA for our future laundry re-do a few years ago. Now that we’re ... [ Read More ]
