Rainbow Bookshelf

So this afternoon, after I returned home from a class of a jam packed lecture (and a hand cramp)

I discovered that the kids emptied their bookshelf....Completely.

Awesome.

I literally had on my "to do" list this week to reorganize the bookshelf.

Sometime opportunity presents itself via a naughty 3 year old.

It literally took 20 min (including making my "trash" and "donate" piles).

Then I sorted the books by the color of the binding.

Little work, high impact.

My kind of afternoon.

And for anyone concerned with trying to enforce your OCD tendencies onto your children, look at it as a teaching opportunity. 

We've already had our discussion about the "rainbow bookshelf", all of the colors, and where each books now belong.

And I'm not the only one to do this... check out these puppies

source

source

Of course I'm not holding my breath for this to last that long.

But its looks pretty darned good.....for now!

Folding a fitted sheet...nerd alert

Ever have one of those days that you don't intend to be productive?

At least in the home sense.

Well thats what happened to me yesterday, until I watched this...

then I thought about this

::groan::sigh::wail::gnash teeth::

Pretty horrific, isn't it? I assure you my house is not normally like this.

Maybe my house doesn't get like this because my closets are.

Hmmmmm...

anywho, so I decided I should probably get on that and all.

Best way to clean something...empty it out, COMPLETELY.

Then I took all the stuff and sorted it into piles.

Towels

Bedding

Donate

Destroy

This closet also doubles as my gift/craft goodies closet.

Yeah, we're gonna need a bigger house.

Then refold (the correct way)

and label....because thats how I roll.

Yeah, I used masking tape to label.

Until I discover a label maker, or a Cricut (or Silhouette!) on my front steps thats how I'm gonna roll.

Then step back and enjoy the beauty that is organized chaos.

PS. When I (proudly) showed this to my husband later that evening he said, "Yeah....I'm not gonna be putting towels away cause I don't want to mess that up."

Nice Try, Love.

Shutter Card Holder

While cruising around some blogs I saw and fell in love with Kristen's door in the corner @ We are that family.

In my own improvisational/bartering extraordinair style, I found a shutter at a local "junk" store to use instead.

But then, I saw Shelley's Shutter Message Board @ How Does She.

Put the two together, plus an over whelming feeling of "What do I do with all these Christmas cards!?" and you get...this....

Thanks for the inspiration ladies!

Framed Bow Organizer

Everyone is doing it.

Making fantastic bow holders that is.

I've seen it done many times before in frames, frames, and more frames.

I've also seen it done in old windows (of course I can't find the link now!)

So when I saw this frame on sale at Walmart for 5 bucks, I had to try it.

So here it goes...

Take everything out of your frame: glass, matting, I even used my utility knife to cut the backing off.

Then paint and distress as you please!

Next, I hot glued different ribbons across the length of the frame. I also reinforced my ribbons with thumb tacks (although I'm not sure it was necessary. I just felt better about doing it!)

Flip and clip!

Cute huh!?

It makes a great gift too. Buy some clips and bows, and you'll have one very happy little girl (And Momma!)

TV Tile Chart

I'm so excited to show you guys my very first project! We've got lots more coming up, so stay tuned. But for now, here's one that I'm linking up to the Shanty2Chic sister's Rustoleum Revamp Party!

After realizing how much television my children watch, and reading (for school) about the correlation between increased TV time and decreased attention spans, I knew we needed some way to give (and take away) TV time. So here's my solution...

The kids start the day each with a tile on the chart
(1 tile=1 show). If they happen to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, the TV is taken away before they even get to eat their Wheaties. Then throughout the day, they can earn another TV show (or have it taken away as punishment)

Ok, I realize that there are enough tiles to amount to like 5 hrs of TV but they don't earn them all in one day (Don't worry Mom!) I made extra incase we lose some!

So here are the steps I used to create our
TV Tile Chart

First, I primed my clipboard with Rustoleum magnetic primer. I put on several coats (ahem....like 5!)

Next I traced the clip board and cut out my paper. (Note that I cut out a square in the bottom paper for the magnets so they would not have to go through 2 layers of paper).

Then I used Mod Podge to adhere my papers to my clip board. Before I put on the center square, I inked it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I sanded and inked around the rest of the board, after I had glued the rest of the pieces down.

After I rubbed out all the air bubbles, and let the paper dry, I put several coats of Mod Podge on top of the paper to seal it and keep it from tearing.

Then I embellished! (My favorite part!) For the clip, I made a little sign that said 'TV' using matching paper, stickers, and MORE MOD PODGE!

Then for the top ring I simply looped all different ribbons through the ring, and kept adding til it looked not-so-pathetic.

I debated on just buying plain ol magnets to stick on there, but WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT!?

So I took some metal charms (a letter for each child's name) and painted and sanded them.

Then I Mod Podged them onto some brown cardstock and (you guessed it...) Mod Podged over them! All I had to do was slap on self-adhesive magnet strip, and we're in business!

What do you think?

Now if I could only make a "remote sharing time chart" for my husband!