I"VE MOVED!!!

This blog will be continuing via a new server! All the same old content and lots more space for new stuff! come check it out!

Making Life Beautiful

Taking a Break

With finals looming and projects and paper hanging over my head- i'm going to be taking a little break from blogging to finish up my last 3 weeks of college! I'm so ready to graduate!

But don't worry! I'll be back in a few weeks with the 12 Days of Christmas (Twelve Days of Christmas ideas, crafts and thoughts.)

In other important news- I've used up all my free picture space for this free Blogger blog. I'm not sure what to do next- I don't really thing I want to pay to blog yet (since I'm not making money from blogging...yet...?). There may be a blog move or continuation on another blog site- so stay tuned!!!

I can't wait to share my Christmas decor ideas with you! Of course I need to have time to decorate first. Hmmmmmmm :/

Happy Pictures

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday I pulled out my camera to get a little more practice- here are my two favorites from an impromptu photo shoot with my mom and my dog.

Small Space Living- Living Room Closet

I know, a living room closet sounds strange, but if you live in a small space it totally makes sense. Our apartment is so small that basically the office, kitchen, pantry, living room, craft room are all in the same place. With such limited space I've had to get creative with storage and decor.

moving day! august 2011

Last week I showed you my biggest trick when I went through the bedroom closet- purging. Today I went to go drop off my massive box of donations at the Goodwill and of course go look through the lovely aisles of treasures. Don't worry, I actually had a to-get list to keep me from buying back a bunch of stuff to replace what i had just purged.

I'll come back to Goodwill in a minute, but lets go back to over a year ago when we first moved into this apartment. I LOVE this little home. It's so perfect for two newlyweds! It's just not easy on the storage.

Technically the apartment only has one closet-the walkin in the bedroom- but with that all full of clothes and linens we needed somewhere else to store things.

The above pic is from the day we moved in. See the back wall in that picture? There is a small space, about the width of a desk, between the fireplace and the outer wall. The spot was meant for a table and a desk-but I envisioned more storage. At first I just piled things in that corner while we moved in and i contemplated what in the world to do with that spot. Fill it with book shelves? No, I didn't want to SEE all my stuff-gotta make it cute! Install closet doors? no that takes up too much space.

you can see the space on the right of this picture. it's the perfect size for a closet.

Then it hit me. A quick trip to Target, a pretty tension rod and two long curtains later I had a lovely closet.

We hide a midsized fridge in this closet and store all kinds of things. The pile started to look something like this...

Every time I needed something out of the pile I either had to completely take apart the tower or risk death by landslide. So i decided it was time to build or buy a shelf to organize all that stuff.
I was at the Goodwill the other day (surprise surprise) and spotted a shelf that seemed perfect. I went home and grabbed my measuring tape and went back later in the day to see if it would fit. IT DID! and it had just been marked down to $20! (Apparently they mark down furniture Friday mornings to keep inventory moving.) I was so excited I bought it up and (with a little help from my neighbor) muscled it into the closet to surprise the hubby with!

My next project is actually organizing the closet so I know where everything is, maybe add some cute baskets, bu at least I don't risk being buried alive anymore!

Do you need more storage space? Look around. There might be a perfect little nook to curtain off and make into a sweet little closet.

Stay tuned for more Small Space Living Ideas, but until then check out past week's posts.

I'm Thankful

I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was able to go home to my parents house for three days! I spent time Christmas shopping with my sisters, cooking with mommy, and chatting and watching Better off Dead with my daddy. (that is a hilarious 80's movie bytheway!) I am thankful for so many things- my family, the great food, a warm bed, my husband getting a little time off work, and Poppop not only being at Thanksgiving but also walking around on his new steel leg and eating his fair share of pie!

Everyone signs the table cloth every year they come to Thanksgiving

I made this FANTASTIC pumpkin dip and carved a pumpkin to place the bowl in.

playing games

So good to have Poppop on two feet!

Went to the craft fair for a little Christmas shopping with my mommy and mommy-in-law!

Thankfulness in a Jar

Let's be honest- I LOVE mason jars, especially the uncommon shapes and the blue ones. I really fell in love with the dark teal jars that are even more rare and more expensive when I do find them in antique stores. But guess what I found at the Goodwill yesterday!

I literally gasped out loud when I saw it and snatched it (carefully) from the top shelf to find...a $2.99 price tag!!!! Thank you to whomever put that in their donate pile!!! I'm not exactly sure what I am going to do with it yet , maybe just display it or fill it with Christmas candy- I do have 3 of the same model but in clear so they'd look cute next to each other. Any Ideas?

So now that I've shared my excitement- thanks for listening :),  I want to tell you about another jar, one with much more meaning.

This jar was displayed on my lemonade table at my wedding to collect "tips," honeymoon money and marital advice. It was so sweet opening it up and reading well wishes and having a bit of coffee money in our pockets.

This is my lovely Aunt, Uncle and cousins who kept the lemonade full and my uncle built that GORGEOUS stand! (you can sort of see the jar sitting in the center of the table, it's an extra large mason with a tin cap.)

This jar was far to special and sentimental to just get thrown in a closet, it needed a purpose, a meaningful life. My husband came up with the idea to use it as a thankful jar, sort of like the thankful box our Premarital counselors/friends had. I knew I married a good guy!

Here's how it works, throughout the year we write down things we are thankful for on slips of paper and put them in the jar and we don't tell each other what we wrote down. On Thanksgiving, usually in the car while we drive to see family, we open the jar and read them aloud and record our blessings in our scrapbook (which is more like a journal we write big things in-like Thanksgiving, new jobs, big events in life). It's really neat to see what the other was thankful for over the year and which things we both wrote down. Last year was our first year doing this so this year I think I'm going to add to the tradition reading last years thankful notes as well. This is such a fun way to remember God's goodness throughout the entire year and remember what He has done in the last year on Thanksgiving.

Purging

I thrift a lot. I'm a sucker for great deals-clearance signs draw me in like a magnet. I also love change, at least changing my decor, and I do it every month if not more often. So I am frequently bringing new things into my home to fit my lastest decorating craze.

The problem is, I have a very small home and things fill up fast. I don't have very many walls to work with so when I want to change one thing everything changes...does that make sense?

For instance, my wall above the dinning table is the biggest wall in the apartment and for the last year it has been a slowly evolving gallery wall (I love that style!)...

 and although I still love how it looked I got bored and wanted more color and texture on the wall- so I added burlap and took most of the frames down. So now I have a BUNCH of frames I'm not using, just storing under the bed. : /

Besides frames and prettys for my shelf and mantle...

See more autumn decoration HERE

...I also love finding good deals on clothes! So the clutter and stuff start piling up everywhere and it's a pain to take care of and a stress to find places to store it. So my Small Space Living tip this week is:

 Purge it!

Yes, that's right, get rid of stuff. Grab a box or a couple of bags and pick a closet. I chose to work on my bedroom closet. It is a small walk-in closet and it stores everything from clothes to cleaning supplies-and it gets cluttered fast what with dirty laundry that missed the hamper, tossed in shoes and thrift store finds. Because it was laundry day (and most of our clothes were heading for the washer) it was the perfect day to clean out and organize this mess...

 ick, I can't believe I'm showing you all this. So embarrassing!

There wasn't really a good place to start, so I just sat down in the middle of it with my "goodwill," "hand-me-down" and "sell" bags handy and went to it.

Tip: if you haven't used it or worn in in the last year, get rid of it! Someone else will love it and use it more! Besides-you live in a small space remember? You don't have room to keep things you don't use!

Now my closet is clean, organized and happy. I even vacuumed in there for good measure.

The closet is a great place to hang posters that don't match the decor but you cant get rig of.

Purses neatly hung-I got ride of a few!

things are neatly hung and folded. I added boxes and baskets to my hanging organizer (that use to be overly stuffed with who  knows what!) to hold hats, gloves and laundry supplies

Another tip: hang your clothes in the order you wear them. Mark a hanger with tape and hang the cloths you just wore (and washed) in the on the right side of the hanger, after a year the clothes you haven't worn at all will be on the left. Easy to spot, grab and donate!

 

I ended up with a LARGE box full of donations for the Goodwill-purses, shirts, old Christmas stuff, old decorations, etc. A bag full of goodies (clothes and fancys) for my younger sisters, and a small pile of things to sell at Plato's Closet (a great clothing shop where you can sell your lightly used clothing and buy name-brand-used clothing for cheap!)

Next on the chopping block-our living room closet, under the bed, and the kitchen cabinets.

But to see more of this Small Space Living series, click on the menu bar above or go HERE.