Summer Lives On and On...and On

As you may know I'm a big fan of photo books.  They organize your photos compactly in a form that is enjoyable to look at, pass on, etc.  I picture my children looking at those photo books many years from now.  As I declared on Facebook, I am determined to finish my 2012 book before the end of 2013.  Having a 2 year backlog is a recipe for disaster!!

At the beginning of last summer, a wonderful local portrait photographer (who teaches incredible "get your DSLR camera off auto" classes) suggested that her former classmates attempt a daily photo project where you take a picture every day for the entire summer.  You could use a DSLR or a cell camera to meet the goal.  DSLR only would have been a deal breaker for me since I cannot carry that camera wherever I go. I was super excited to take this on and started right away on the last day of school.  Here are a few highlights.

The kids even got in on the game and were reminding me to take some photos most days.  I took most with my iPhone - it's so convenient and is pretty much always with me.

In September, I put everything in a Shutterfly photobook and called it a daily photo journal.  I styled the pictures as squares and even made my own custom page layouts because I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for amongst the existing templates.

Our family has enjoyed looking back through the book - especially on some of the chilly nights we have had - to remember what it was like to have warm sand between our toes!

I can't say I will do them for every season, but summer is always packed with so much family fun that I wanted to preserve those memories in their own book.  I'll still make a book for our year as well... at some point.

Note: Shutterfly provided me with a promo code that I used towards the purchase of this photo book.  All opinions are my own.

 

Back-to-School Clothes Organization

Many of my friends tell me that I am lucky that Elizabeth is not very interested in clothes.  As long as an outfit is reasonably comfortable, she won't fight me.  She will occasionally wear skirts and dresses so long as she can wear tights, leggings, or bike shorts underneath (bikes shorts have been a LIFESAVER!).  I generally put out her clothes for school the night before and she puts them on.  Last year I tried to encourage her to pick out her own clothes but she is nervous that it won't look right if she does it.  I have analyzed the problem and realized that I often mix and match outfits, brands, etc. and that rattles her organized, rule-following mind.  She is her father's daughter.

While on our beach vacations this summer, I started organizing her clothes by outfit instead of by type of clothing (shirts, shorts, etc.).  She could pick out her own outfit without worry, thus exerting some of her own choice. AMAZING.  Perhaps I should do this for Handy Hubby too?

I reorganized her closet last week before school started - she was excited immediately!  Woohoo!  Here's how it looked before (though not quite this neat):

Here's how it looks now:

I took out a shelf and hung a bar at her height (thank goodness for Elfa).  I will probably move that shelf with the bar below it up another notch or two, so she has room for a few baskets for headbands and tights on top of her shoe cubbies.

I then assembled her outfits on a single hanger (for the most part):

She even helped me put outfits together and immediately put on an outfit that I don't think she has ever worn before - probably because I didn't even think of it as an outfit.  I found I put more thought into what goes together and what she could use to complete outfits -  more so than if I just throw things together the night before.  I realized she only has one shirt to go with a pair of bright yellow jeans (she does love colored jeans which is great).

And a picture of the proud closet owner (blog photo bomber):

I hope I can keep up with this system throughout the year.  I often hang out in her room while she gets ready for bed (pushing her along) so perhaps I can do some outfit assemblage instead of just sitting and waiting.

And here are my cuties on the first day of school.  Her dress is from Gymboree. Wish they had the dress in my size!

First day of school: DONE!  Both kids loved their teachers.  I hope the rest of the year goes as smoothly!

Doorways Safehouse: Elfa Closet Systems (Thank you Container Store!)

Soon after starting the Doorways project, I realized that storage in the bedrooms was a big issue even with bringing in more practical furniture pieces.  The closets are small and pretty typical 1950-style closets - one bar and shelf with a small door and that's it.

Closet systems were a necessity.  I wanted something flexible and durable.  Elfa was my top choice - I have it in over 10 closets in my own home!

I immediately approached our local Container Store in the Clarendon neighborhood in Arlington about making the donation.  The store manager was immediately receptive to the idea and passed my project information on to their main office in Texas which handles donations.  The process was not a quick one but we finally got the go ahead just as the families were moving back in.  We made it work and two local Container Store employees, Stuart and Sindy, came out and did the installation for us.  It was so much fun to watch them install the closets.  We have Elfa in nearly every closet in our house so I'm familiar with the methods but they are FAST!

In about 45 minutes we went from a blank slate to...

Thanks to the Container Store, and Stuart and Sindy for the fabulous Elfa installation (and tips along the way!).

For those wondering, I am still waiting to get a few more pictures of my finished office.  The room has been an organizational staging area in the house so I have not been able to get good pictures.  I hope to do that in the next couple of weeks.

Centralized Charging Station {Kitchen}

Please tell me that I'm not the only one with this going on in their kitchen or some other central place in your house....

Phones, chargers, pens, radios, papers, etc.  Drives me crazy.  

I started looking at charging stations such as this, but nothing was really working for me.  So I sketched up a quick plan and Handy Hubby took on the task...

And now we have this...

It holds our phone chargers, pens and pencils, our Tivoli radio, and even some paper under the hinged top where the radio sits.  Everything plugs into a power strip which is inside at the bottom. I chose to paint it the same color as our trim (Sherwin Williams Toque White)

It's about a million times better than where we came from...

Of course Handy Hubby and I are considering how we would improve this for version 2.0.  Maybe a place for paper, an iPad, and possibly a variation on the phone holder.  We'll keep you posted!

Master Closet: Displaying Oversized Necklaces

A few months ago I purchased a closet/wardrobe consultation from a local stylist, Wendy Pilch, of Spendalla.  She and I had a really fun hour digging through my closet and putting outfits together.  Wendy is an amazing stylist and can put together amazing outfits using things you already have, give you suggestions on what to buy, and helping you accessorize (I was clueless with scarves!).  Highly recommend it as a birthday gift to yourself :)

Anyway.... When I pulled out my jumble of necklaces out of my dresser for accessorizing, it became pretty clear to me that I needed a new solution.

Fortunately I  had this really cool hook purchased nearly 2 years ago to hang a robe or two in our closet.  It was too cool to be covered by a robe but I had not found the right purpose or place for it since then.  So, it sat on the floor of my closet where Handy Hubby and I kept stubbing our toes on it!  

I finally found my solution.  Now I had to find a location.  I thought about hanging it on the door of the closet, on the bedroom wall, and in several other possible locations.  In the end, I decided the wall just inside the closet was the best possible location. 

I knew Handy Hubby wouldn't be super thrilled because this is technically his side of the closet... but oh well.  I wanted easy access to my pretty stuff.  Ten minutes later, the hooks were hanging beautifully with only one extra hole which is thankfully nicely covered!

The best part was hanging my pretty (mostly bargain) finds on the hooks.  So easy to grab a necklace as I run out of the closet.  I used the hooks but also the tips of the fleur-de-lis.  Bonus!

Now I have so much more space in my regular jewelry storage.  I can actually find things!  How do you organize your long or chunky necklaces?  

Behind Closed Doors {Magnet Wall}

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have had a little inkling that I had a magnet wall planned for the house.  I have been intrigued with magnet walls for a long time but Elizabeth's room was the perfect place to give it a go.  She previously had a disaster of a bulletin board behind her door.  It was a hot mess. I didn't take a true before picture but here is the area right before I took down the bulletin board and (cute) frog barrette holder.  She won't wear barrettes any more (wah!!).

My friend Colleen recommended some magnetic paint that she found on Amazon with good reviews.  It seemed better than the Rustoleum version which I heard is stinky and doesn't work all that well.  after reading all of the reviews, I learned that I had to paint at least 4 coats using a foam roller to limit texturizing the wall.  This stuff is THICK so be sure to stir it well.  I gathered my supplies and started a couple of coats just before we started painting the walls.  

Soon, the wall looked like this.

After a few more (and some paint on the other walls...

After I tested it with 4 coats, I realized it would definitely need a couple more.  I called it quits after our full day of painting.  Sunday morning, I rolled on two more coats before painting the whole wall blue.  Fortunately, two coats of the blue paint covered it beautifully.

Another Amazon review tip was to use strong magnets (also known as neodymium magnets or rare earth magnets) if you want to hold paper up.  They are easily found on Amazon.  I picked up some of these pushpin style magnets to hold up her masterpieces.  Just two of these little guys held up her oversized "getting to know you" school poster.  

She also received a set of magnetic poetry for kids for Christmas (I may have tipped off Grandpa) which has been fun for all of us to play with, especially Handy Hubby...

You can see the slight texture in the paint in the picture above.  It was tough not to have texture but super thin coats seemed to be the way to go.  I just wrapped my roller in a grocery bag between quotes (I waited about an hour or so between layers).  

So, that's the secret behind the door.  I love that when you take all of the magnets off, you cannot even tell it's a magnetic wall.  In the long term, it will be a great place to hang certificates, photographs, and other childhood memorabilia that deserves display.  Perhaps the best part is that only she really sees it since you have to close the door to see the wall - it cannot be seen from the hallway.  

Any fun projects at your house this weekend?

Linen Closet: A Bargain Find

As luck would have it, I hit up a couple of great neighborhood yard sales over the past few weeks. Neighborhood yard sales are my favorite and almost every neighborhood in Arlington holds one each year including ours. I love that people who would not normally hold yard sales decide to throw some stuff on the lawn - usually that's the best stuff with great prices!

Back to the story... you may remember that a few weeks ago I reorganized our kitchen storage closet with some Elfa door organizers, making it a better use of space for our family.

They were a bit pricey but ultimately worth it for a closet we use daily.  Wouldn't you know I stumbled on another Elfa door organizer in a yard sale. It didn't have a price so tried to play it cool and act like I really didn't know what it was. The guy selling it explained how it worked and then the price... $10!  I basically threw money at him and ran down the street with it.  It sat in my basement for a few weeks while I pondered the possibilities. I thought about our master bathroom linen closet but I like to keep our bathrobes there.  The next best possibility was one of our two hall linen closets which are original to our house.  I guess I never photographed these before but I probably should at some point!  I still think it's amazing that in a house where the original bedroom closets could barely hold hangers, would have not one but two decent linen closets!  Priorities were clearly different in 1940.
It took Handy Hubby about 3 minutes to take down our large ironing board (which we almost never use since installing our beloved built-in ironing board), and install the new organizer.

It's certainly not a magazine worthy transformation but it is certainly better than what it was before. All of that stuff on the door was thrown on two shelves and the floor of the closet.

It was probably originally used in a pantry for spices and oils because the baskets are skinnier but there are about 8 of them so it doesn't bother me!

Now we have a bunch of extra closet space.  I even cleaned up the stuff on the floor which is now completely empty.  In the long term, we may put a plastic hamper in here for bathroom towels. Our kids use our bathroom most of the time now so their towels generally end up in there.  

I even found a bag of brand new beach towels which I had completely forgotten about!  We go through  a lot of beach towels between pool trips and school water days twice a week for both kids.  We love poncho towels for the kids which make it so much easier for them to walk without tripping on their towels.
Now I just need to do some hard core reorganizing in this closet and it's companion which holds all of our every day guest bath towels and sheets for the kids beds and the den (which still lacks an actual bed!).

For other posts about my closets, click here. For other organization posts, click here.  

Linking to: Southern Hospitality

Date night with Elfa

We had such a great weekend. I went to a HUGE neighborhood yard sale on Saturday where I got some great cheap finds - I spent less than $20!  Because of the crazy storms on Friday night, Elizabeth's soccer and t-ball games were canceled... surprise - a free Saturday!!  So, we took advantage of the low humidity and went for a 10 mile bike ride along the Potomac River.  I know 10 miles doesn't seem like much but for my kids - it's plenty!!  After a yummy trip to District Taco, we swung by the Container Store so I could pick up my latest Elfa love.  I'm officially addicted to Elfa.  

This time I attacked our kitchen closet.  A few months ago, it looked like this on the outside. 

Honestly, the bifold doors were almost never fully closed.  They often were half open or askew in some way. Drove me batty even though I was the culprit 90% of the time. 

So, when we did our screen porch, we had our builder install standard swinging doors.  I am not in any way opposed to bifold doors and we have them in our bedrooms because they save space in the room and allow more flexibility with the furniture arrangements. 

Inside, things were much, much worse. 

I wish I had intentionally messed this up before taking the picture but this is actually not that bad for this closet.  It has been worse in the past.  Something had to be done.  First I cleaned out the stuff that didn't need to be in there or needed to be in the trash (stale chips, anyone?).  Next, it was time to put my most recent Elfa purchases to work...

Handy Hubby installed the standards with standard 3" screws.  

Then I clipped on the shelves which took about 5 seconds each.  No joke. That's why I heart this brand.  45 minutes later and lots of over thinking, here's the result.  

This makes me happy.  This wasn't the only organization project we did this weekend. A certain 6 year old got a little more organization in her room.  More to come later this week.