Art Tray

When kids are little, they are sponges when it comes to art projects. I remember my daughter cutting construction paper into squares for over an hour one day. It doesn’t take much, but they just love it. And then…they get older.

My 8-year old is still on the fringe, but my 11-year old’s artistic creativity has been limited to monsters, sports, and skulls.  There was a time when any one of these rooms would have been a perfect fit for my little ones, but now they’re just…well…for little ones.

I decided something needed to be done. I’m not overly impressed with the art teacher/class at their school, so I took matters into my own hands. I shopped the house to see what I could come up with that would spur some creativity in my kids. And….I came up with this! 

The paint, the paper, the glue, the scissors—that’s a given. I felt like they needed some sort of embellishment tray to jumpstart their artwork.

My local grocery store (Meijer) had this outdoor tray, and I found a circle placemat that fits perfectly inside. I thought it would be good to keep things from sliding around, and it would prevent some major scratches on the surface. Plus, it adds a nice pop of color!

The little glasses were found at Goodwill for $.49 cents a piece. Cute! The larger jars are Mason jars I already had on hand. All the art supplies—already had them.

When I set the tray on the table, my son said, “Wow! You bought a bunch of new art supplies!” Uhhh no. So maybe that’s it? Maybe kids just need things in front of them? Maybe the inspiration comes from accessibility and a colorful display? We’ll see.

I thought I’d be able to show you some picture evidence of its success. You know, pics of my kids frolicking in pom poms and skipping through fields of foam letters. Alas, it decided to be 80 degrees here today, so they opted to watch my husband burn the Christmas tree in the backyard.

That may have been cooler, but my option was MUCH prettier. Just sayin’.

Practical Pantry

You can tell it’s the new year. We all have our trees down (or do we?), and we’re feeling the need to clean and organize. I, of course, am no exception. I’ve been drooling over some of the pantries through blogland, and it inspired me to kick my “pantry” into gear.

Case in point:

I had actually started gutting one of the shelves when I realized I needed to take a picture (shame on me). As you can see, it required some attention.

One of the best rules I can pass along when organizing a pantry-like space is to purge—and purge often. I will admit that I practice what I preach until it comes to purging my pantry. I threw out a can of beans that expired in 2003. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 8 years ago. 

Don’t panic. It must look like this before it gets better. If it doesn’t look like this, you’re not doing it right. :)

Alright. So the kitchen is a mess. Now what do I do? Something I make a habit with as soon as I unload my groceries is to get rid of as much extra packaging as possible. Rule #2 (Purge was #1, remember?) is condense, condense, condense. Does that mean it’s rules 2, 3, and 4?

Whenever I buy something in bulk—and yes, it’s always gummy bears—I take it out of the messy, blobby bag and…

…place it into a container. I keep lots of sizes on hand just for this issue. It saves so much room!

Ready for the reveal that won’t mean much to you but makes a world of difference for me?

By now I feel silly to even say it, but you know how much I love baskets, tins, and bins. USE them. There are moments where I will simply tear off the tops of boxes (see below), but I generally try to put individually wrapped items into a container. I swear by it.

I think it goes without saying that you should keep your products together. I try to break it into canned goods, snacks, dinner items, desserts. Don’t judge the boxed pasta. I hate noodles, so this makes it easy for me to make for the family.

From what I understand, if you throw out 3 old packages of hamburger buns, 2 packages of pita bread, and 1/2 a package of bagels, you will have more room for your bread. This brings me back to Rule #1—purge.

If you’d like to see some more of the kitchen cabinets, you can visit here,and here. Perhaps you’ll find that inspiration to purge your pantry!

2010: In a Nutshell

Another year gone by? Really? This is the point where I start to think, “Did I even do anything this year?” and my friend Rhoda from Southern Hospitality decides to have a party to remind myself that I did!

Perhaps the largest undertaking was also the most rewarding. Board and batten treatments were quite the “blog rage” this year, and I’ve never looked back since completing mine. I’m simply in love.

You can read more about it (including specifics about the how-tos) here, here, and here.

The year also included some other projects around the house. Making the office into my craft room was a moment of genius (albeit much delayed genius), and I had fun putting the girly touches on it.

This girly lamp wasn’t so girly when I purchased it. We’re talkin’ eww to ahh here, people.

Adding some spray paint to an organizer helped me to organize my obsession with love of stationery.

Then there’s the ol’ “fly by the seat of my pants” project that made me swear like a truck driver. If you’re a truck driver who swears a lot. When reupholstering chairs.

What’s a craft room without organization? I was in some definite need of storage space, so I resorted to a $23.00 beauty (that didn’t start out that way) to add to the space. Just another one of those love at second site things.

Organizing. It makes my heart flutter with delight.  I gutted by laundry room cabinets and prettified them with spray painted bins and colorful ribbon. How can you go wrong with those elements?

Speaking of colorful ribbon (nice segue, huh?) Some chopped up cardboard and a dollar store basket changed my life—well, the life of my ribbon—by keeping it all together.

I was able to use a picture-turned-canvas as my inspiration for a baseball wall for my son’s room. Unfortunately, this is temporary. Yup. 2011 will bring some major changes for this room. Until then, appreciate the baseball nostalgia.

And with a year-end wrap up, would it really be fair to exclude the holidays? Remember any of these around here? You can click on the pictures to go there.

  

Well there you have it. Some highlights of 2010 at JaG’s place! The good thing is that now I’m looking forward to the new year—which includes new projects! That’s normal, right?

Ok. The Craft Room

I spent forEVer looking for a picture of my den “before”, but I could only find a couple of isolated shots. It all started with this desk.   I loved it, but it became useless once we purchased our laptop.

Once we sold it, I knew exactly what I wanted. A craftroom. Scratch that—I wanted an obnoxiously girly space just for me that no one could ruin with toys or camouflage gear.

It started with a table and a hutch. I refinished the hutch from my grandparents, and I painted the table to match. I was so happy to have a large workspace for all my hotglue, glitter, paint, and paper projects.

Well, after a few purchases, some creative resources, and some major elbow grease, I present you with---------the girl room.

 

I should have warned you about all the pictures. It’s the one room in my house that I didn’t worry about “showroom quality”. I wanted it to be pretty for me, but my main concern was function. You may notice that I’m still struggling with that just a bit.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a snapshot of all the projects I have yet to work on in here. The bench is priority #1. I’ve been looking. We just haven’t found each other yet.

I’m gonna show you the hutch side of the room. However, no making fun of me just yet. I’m still getting that area organized, but I couldn’t be happier with the amount of storage I now have.

If you have some catching up to do, you can read the other posts I’ve done on this leading up to the grand finale. The pegboard, dresser, hutch, lamp, and chair have all had their own moments.

What’s in My Drawers

I know I’m trying to be less original and more “findable” with my post titles, but this one was just a natural fit. By drawers, of course, I mean my craft dresser. I knew you’d ask, and you didn’t disappoint.  Ready to find out?

Paint, glitter, glue. Every crafter’s must-haves, right? Bins and tins are my saving grace. I didn’t want to get this room around and just throw everything into a drawer.

Remember when I showed you my ribbon organizer? Well, I didn’t say I had all my ribbon organized. At least all most of it’s in the same place. That’s a good start!

My sewing box (another must-have for me) and my glue guns. Needless to say, this drawer gets some use!

Now that my BFF has moved in, I decided she deserved her own drawer. First the drawer. If it works out, I’ll get her a key to my place.  Lots of vinyl, blades, etc. I also house all the cording I need to get work done.

Here’s a not so brilliant tip. I label all my cords so that I know what they’re for. If they don’t already have a tag, I simply wrap a piece of frog tape like below and write on it with a permanent marker. No more trying ten different cords when attempting to upload pictures to my laptop!

The #1 reason I wanted this storage dresser is for my waiting-to-be-altered items. I tend to give gifts for random reasons, so I always like to have some staples around. Ceramic tiles for coasters, tins for packaging, lots of stationery…blah,blah,blah.

Of course, now that I’ve taken out a lot of the office storage that my other desk provided, I had to leave a drawer for a couple of those supplies. I keep tape, envelopes, cards, hole punch and what not in here.  Now if I could just get my husband to remember that they’re in there.

The middle drawers are a work in progress, but here’s a horrible picture of what’s in there now. I don’t know how convenient it will be for my fabric, but I didn’t want to have visible piles. I also keep my craft table cloths in the top drawer. They’re a must.

So there you go. A look inside my drawers! I’ll stop there. I’m just immature enough to continue going with that one.

See you Friday!