Kitchen Decluttering

I spent a few hours on Sunday reorganizing and decluttering our kitchen counters.  A few weeks ago we got a new coffeepot and that's what started this whole process.

It's a Hamilton Beach Scoop and I love how it's a regular coffee pot with a single serve built-in.  I am a deaf drinker but Handy Hubby requires regular on occasion so this solves the problem. I also reused one of my canisters for my coffee. It used to hold tea bags and packages of artificial sweeteners for visitors.  Along with our pot filler over the stove, we have a perfect breakfast station. 

But, the new coffee pot got the ball rolling. I put away our flour and sugar canisters in our cleaned out kitchen closet (more on that at another time).

I also took a bunch of other pictures of our kitchen while I was at it so you can see how much cleaner our counters look.  Prepare yourself for picture overload!

Sadly the island was only that clean for about 15 minutes!

What do you think? All sources here except for the tiered wire basket which is from Willow House. I also updated a lot of pictures on my house tour page. Check it out here. 

Homemade Valentine's

When I was a little girl, I loved Valentine's Day - especially at school. I loved exchanging Valentine's with my classmates and over thinking who got what Valentine from my pre-printed box of Valentines features Hello Kitty, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite or whatever the character of the month was.  You wouldn't want to send the wrong message to a boy, right?

Now my little girl is in kindergarten and I was giddy when I read the Valentine's Day party notice. Each child has to make a mailbox and bring in Valentine's for the class. I knew exactly what I wanted to make with Elizabeth thanks to Family Fun Magazine.  

The process was relatively simple once I finished editing the picture. She held a tube of silver wrapping paper which I turned into a white stick using Pixelmator (Mac App). I then ordered copies of the pictures from Shutterfly using a free prints coupon.  Heart lollipops were from Target. Fortunately I grabbed two bags because several were broken in the first bag. I then made a slit in the picture near the end of the "stick" and slid the lollipop through. Elizabeth then taped all of the lollipops on the back of the picture, and we glued a 4x6 index card on the back for a little extra stability.  Total cost of the project was less than $8 thanks to the free prints from Shutterfly! 

Elizabeth is so proud of her Valentine's and cannot wait for Valentine's Day! 

I forgot to take a picture of her mailbox before she took it to school yesterday but it was totally made by her and adorable.

Any fun Valentines in the works? 

Winter Wreath

Winter is a daunting decorating task for me. I really like Valentine's Day (especially now that we have kids), but the other aspects of winter don't really call to me. So, what to do with the door. I pinned some door decor ideas on Pinterest (see that here). The greens and whites seem to speak to me.  I started searching high and low for a wreath that fit the bill but of course the stores all have spring and Easter wreaths out (it's January people!!!). Nothing just green. So, I was determined to make something. I always have a grapevine wreath ready for customizing in the attic. I went to Michael's expecting to pick up a bunch of sprigs but found nothing that fit the bill, or they were $4.99 per stem. No thanks.  Finally, I wandered into the garland section. Aha! Lots of green. Grabbed a pussy willow stem for some white and was on my way.

About 10 minutes after I got home, I put together this wreath.

I won't insult your intelligence with a tutorial. Just wrap the garland around and tuck in the ends. Voila.

Happy Tuesday!

Mommy Guilt

As I was reorganizing our living room bookshelves (more here), I reorganized our photo album collection. Turns out that Elizabeth (my 5 year old) has about 7 albums devoted to her first year of life (including quarterly shutterfly albums and a raft of prints in larger old-school albums).  Alex (my 2 year old) has 1 12-page paperback album which I got for free from Shutterfly. You can see the purple/pink pile of books in the lower right hand corner of this picture.

All I could picture down the road is him looking for his albums and not finding anything from his first year but Elizabeth bragging about her well-documented 1st year of life. Ugh. Mommy guilt!

So, while Alex was down for the count with the norovirus, I got to work putting together an album for his first year.  Fortunately most of the pictures were already on Shutterfly so popping a new one together was really quite easy.  5 days later, I got this in the mail... 

Nothing like turning lemons into lemonade! The kids have really enjoyed looking at the book. I have always been a big Shutterfly fan although they now have a lot competitors.

p.s. This is not a sponsored post. I just love Shutterfly.

Den: Small desk details

I have a bunch of small things to share in the office. This may be the last update for a while unless I score a great deal on a rug this weekend!

First Handy Hubby filled in some gaps on the sides of the shelves which were really irking me. They were probably irking me when we built the shelves circa 2003-2004, but we forgot about it soon after!

Now he has filled in the gaps on the left and right side. I still need to touch up the paint but it definitely looks loads better. I still would like to add a door to the bottom right cabinet so we can store extra printer paper and other unsightly office gear.

Note to self: Do something about that random phone cable on the floor in the top picture. At a minimum, just reattach it to the wall inside the bottom bookshelf!

Finally, I added some cute details to the desk top. First, a vintage desk lamp purchased at a yard sale for $5 last summer.  I thought about spray painting it but now I love the gray in this room, so it will stay as is.

I also wanted pens and scissors to be easy to grab.  I picked up a clear plastic cup on clearance at Target for about $1.50. These are so cute and the teal color works well with the bookshelves. I have wanted a tape dispenser for a while and now I have one - sad but true. It's the first time I've had a real desk in 6 years, so give me a break!  No more digging around for tape to wrap gifts.

Let me know if you see any great deals on gray rugs! The room feels cold and loud without a rug so I am itching to find one. Still looking for a permanent chair. The acrylic chair is taking up residence right now, but that will return to the basement when my parents visit next.

Have a great weekend! What are you making for the Super Bowl? We're heading to our friends Amie and Brian's Cheesebowl. It's a blast but not good for the thighs! No idea what I'm bringing yet but it has to be cheese-based. Ideas welcome!!