Shadowboxing

I am constantly tearing pages out of all kinds of magazines, then stashing them in books for inspiration. You just never know where the next idea will come from! Here's one that popped up in a recent Pottery Barn Kids catalog. It's a shadowbox with a little baby onesie perched inside.

With that as inspiration, I remembered a baseball jersey we had tucked away with Nina's name embroidered on it. Sadly, it's too small now, but I can remember receiving it when she was a baby and thinking "There's no way that will ever fit her!"

So I bought a shadowbox at Hobby Lobby. I added some hooks on the back so I could affix a grosgrain ribbon. I had a piece of scrapbook paper that made a perfect backdrop. And then it was just a matter of folding and pinning the jersey in place.

How cute is that?

I was always afraid of shadowboxes for some reason, but they're quite forgiving and easy to work with. I encourage you to give them a try if you've got an odd-shaped something-or-other that you'd like to save. It's a great way to get things out of the boxes in the basement and up on your walls!

Buying and Storing Kids' Clothes

I am in a weird place. Knowing that we're moving, that our house is on the market, but we have no buyer yet, so we have no idea when this move might take place. We therefore can't commit to any house in California, enroll Nina in preschool, or even decide, in some cases, which furniture to keep and which to sell.

It's like the nesting phase before having a baby, but not. My garage sale pile grows ever-larger:

I've also been trying to get organized. I figure if I'm not packing and selling a house, I might as well be doing something constructive! Here's my system:

It's earth-shattering, I know. I get a plastic bin for my kids' clothes, one for each age/stage. I tend to buy clothes ahead of time if I see them on sale. Henry's ready for the next year:

Nina's ready too!
But here's my question: Do you have any other tips for buying and/or storing kids' clothes? What has worked well for you? The only problem is that sometimes I duplicate items when I buy ahead, because I forget what I've already got.

Share any thoughts you've got! I'm a desperate girl, in need of projects while I wait for my house to sell!

Fun Baby Gift Idea!

A few weeks ago, my friend Sarah had a baby! You may remember her from this post. She also has a fun blog where she has chronicled her pregnancy and baby Jackson's birth.

I wanted to send her a unique gift that was full of things I thought she needed for her first baby. You'll notice that some of the gifts are for the baby and some...aren't. Mama needs a few things for herself too!

First I made a little onesie for baby Jackson using this method.

I bought him a few different sizes of footed PJs because I found it to be something no one buys you when you have a baby, and you need a million of them!

Now here's a few things for the mama. "Simply Sleep" is a gentle sleep aid by the makers of Tylenol PM, and it is my lifesaver if I've had a few sleepless nights and just need to make sure I'm not a cranky basket case. Ditto for the earplugs!

This wine is my go-to gift for new mamas. It's called "Mommy's Time Out," isn't that hilarious? You could also do some kind of coffee and make a handmade label with "Mommy's Medicine" or something like that. The little box is for baby Jackson's gas! (Mylicon)

I tied everything up with some cute grosgrain ribbon and fun striped paper. I also sent Sarah this book about baby sleep, because I love it and it has changed my life!

Wouldn't you love to get a box like this in the mail? :)

I Really Have Been Busy!

Hi everyone!  It's been a busy few days, and I want to start by saying thanks again for everyone who entered my giveaway and visited me over the weekend.  The new traffic coming from Today's Creative Blog is so much fun!  I have really been trying to visit each of you in return, but please forgive me if I didn't make it to you.  

Maybe when you see what I've been up to over the past few days you will cut me a little slack.  I am trying to convert this pretty, organized and neat guest room into the baby's room:

How far do you think I've gotten?  Yeah, not so far.  Some of you have commented to me in the past that you didn't know where I got my energy.  Well, I don't have it anymore!  Even thinking about climbing the stairs makes me exhausted.  This is why people should really start these projects earlier than 8 1/2 months into pregnancy. 

In addition to organizing the baby's room, I needed to come up with a storage solution for all the things that are being re-zoned out of the guest room.  So this space in the upstairs loft...

...got a new armoire instead.  For those of you who have Craig's List in your town, I will again sing it's praises.  This new armoire was only $100!

Thank God it has a ton of space, so it can hold a bunch of stuff that used to live in the guest room.

The wrapping paper has a new home in the loft too.  I got sick of pawing through it when it lived underneath the guest room bed.  Now at least I can see what I have so I don't keep buying more and more Christmas paper on clearance!

So there you go.  The big switch-a roo has begun in my house, and it has a bit of a deadline (say about three weeks, if this baby decides not to arrive until my actual due date)!  I really hope that I'll be able to show you a somewhat completed baby's room in the next week or so.  Otherwise I'll have to tromp down to the basement and just take photos of some baby clothes that still need to be washed and are sitting in a box somewhere.  Yikes!  

My First Tip for 2009!

Well, are your Christmas decorations put away yet?  I admit, though I love to put them up, I quickly want to put them away after December 25.  It depresses me to know I have to wait another ten or eleven months to celebrate Christmas again, and I don't want the reminders!

One thing that really helps me to face the new year and get organized is a simple trick I've been using for years.  Anytime I am at a thrift store or a home goods sale, I look for baskets.  Mostly all the same color, but the shape and size are important too.

I seriously have baskets all over my house.  They help to hold books in the bedroom, stationery in the loft...
...and of course magazines waiting to be read.

I keep them in the guest bath for little shampoos and other goodies.

And in the mud room for incoming mail and coupons.

Of course, Nina's toys take up quite a few of these baskets!

And cozy blankets and pillows fill another large one in my family room.

Holding toilet paper in the powder room isn't so glamorous, but hey!  Still necessary!

Once in a while I break out of my usual basket style and color, especially when I see something that I really love.  This copper bucket was $25 at an antique sale, and it works perfectly next to the door as a catch-all for shoes.

So, my first tip for 2009?  Keep your eyes peeled for cute and functional baskets when you are out and about.  Even if I don't know where I will use it, if I see a great basket I just buy it and stash it away somewhere.  Then when I get on an organizational kick, I have plenty of baskets to choose from!

How Organized Am I?

**Updated to add: The font that I used in the binder is called "Curly Cue" and I downloaded it for free on urbanfonts.com.  I love that site!  Also, someone asked me what my categories are: living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, adult bathrooms, kid bathrooms, adult bedrooms, kid bedrooms, hallways & entryways, dens/offices, porches & patios, exteriors, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, miscellaneous holidays, winter, spring, summer, fall, birthday decorations and crafts.  Phew!  I bet you can think of lots of others!

A few weeks ago, I showed you how I organized the recipes that I had torn out of magazines.  As I was putting that post together, it occurred to me that I could use the same type of binder for my decorating ideas.  So here is what I started with: a huge pile of file folders that I have been lugging around with me since before my husband and I were married, adding to them along the way:

I bought the biggest binder that I could find, and, of course, added a cute title page.

And now all my ideas are organized into plastic sleeves by rooms of the house, with a special section for each major holiday and season:

This is so wonderful!  It took only about an hour to put everything in it's place, not bad for such a big payoff.  The cute fonts that I used are just a bonus for little obsessive ol' me!

Yippee!

Organizing Spices

**Updated at the bottom with additional information!

Today I am linking to Shannon from Rocks In My Dryer, who hosts a weekly "Works-For-Me-Wednesday" feature where people share tips that have made their lives easier.  Shannon's blog was one of the first I found when I was a new mama.  I can remember being up in the middle of the night with my newborn, reading her old posts on parenting and life with tears rolling down my cheeks.  I wrote an email to thank her, and she wrote me right back with the sweetest message.  So I guess I will always have a special little place for her in my bloggy heart!

Today I am sharing with you about something that works for me in the kitchen.  I used to have a cupboard all cluttered up with spices of varying sizes and shapes, and I could never find what I was looking for when I needed it.  I got this idea to put all my spices in jars of the same size, all labeled and organized.  Below, you can see the results:

Some of you will call me Type A (and you would be right!) but this has made a world of difference to my sanity.  I shopped around online for a place that sold these little tins, printed the name of each spice onto clear address labels (in a cute font, of course!) and there you go!  It saves me some time when I am cooking, but it is also secretly pleasing to this organizing junkie to see neat little rows of spices every time I open my cupboard!

Works for me!  (And I am sincerely sorry to those of you who this does not work for!  I know this is a pretty boring post if you are not a Type A chick like me!)

**To answer a few questions:

I found these tins a few years ago and the name of the company escapes me.  But I did a quick Google search for "spice tins" or "spice containers" and came up with this website.  I know there are others out there.  You buy them in bulk.  I think I had about 100 of them when I started!  The name of the font I used for the labels is Cezanne.  Lastly, yes I admit it, the spices are in alphabetical order!  Yikes, I need help!