Bathroom Closet Organization

Last week I wrote about how I rearranged things in the Spencinator's room and because I just can't work on one thing at a time, I was also reorganizing the kids' bathroom closet.  

Well I'm back to day to show you what I've done.

Here's the BEFORE pictures of what I started with:

The top shelf housed our beach towels, some cleaning rags and some extra bathroom accessories like a rug and shower curtain.

The shelf second from the top held some baby lotions and such, as well as my nicer towels (the tan ones).

Inspiration For The Weekend - 29

I'm looking for a piece of furniture to go behind the sofa in our living room.  Our sofa floats in the room and the back of the sofa is when you enter the front door.  I'd like to have something unique that makes a statement, and has storage space.  I have certain measurements in mind such as 58-72 inches long and 28-30 inches high so it isn't longer or higher than the sofa.  I've been searching craigslist and yard sales but haven't had any luck yet.  I'm thinking of an older piece of furniture, maybe even a dresser or bottom part of a china cabinet.  I like the idea of cabinets or drawers to hide stuff better than open shelves.

Here are a few ideas I found on Pinterest:

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Anyone else have an older piece of furniture as a statement piece in their home?  Did you keep it original or did you paint it?  I'm thinking of painting some of it a rustic red color like in the last picture, but not sure I can convince the hubby of that.  I'll keep you posted as to if and when I find the perfect piece.


Every Friday I do a post called "Inspiration For The Weekend" where I share something that has inspired me in some way.  Sometimes I'm inspired to create, do something, learn or change.   I hope you'll find something that inspires you too.

Have a great weekend!
Christa

Hanging Closet Organizer Take Two

OK, so the hanging closet organizer I installed only lasted a couple of days before it came crashing down.  I installed this organizer in a non traditional way because I wanted it to take up as little closet space as possible.  It is as high up and as far back to the wall as possible, thus allowing more room in front of it to take the boxes of toys in and out.  I had to do this since the organizer isn't in the middle of the closet, but to the side with the wall in front of it.

Apparently the hanger I used didn't have the wire all the way through the cardboard tube, so the wire sides just popped out and the closet organizer fell down.  At first I tried using packing tape to keep the hanger wire inside the cardboard tube, but that didn't work.  

But don't worry, I've fixed it and it is even more durable.  Again, just using what I had on hand, I used a Lincoln Log and two zip ties (at least I think that's what they are called).  

Hanging Closet Organizer

Monday I mentioned how I reorganized my son's room.  I also mentioned that I put up a closet organizer into the otherwise wasted space next to the lego storage unit.  You can just barely see it in the picture below, it's that long blue thing to the right of the Ikea trofast storage unit we use to house all his legos.

It is supposed to just velcro together over the closet rod like so:

However for our situation, this created some empty space behind the closet organizer which wouldn't be a problem except there is a wall in front of the closet organizer so we needed more space in front to see and retrieve the toys that would be stored in there.

Rearranging Bedrooms AGAIN

Friday I mentioned how I decided to rearrange the Spencinator's room - AGAIN.
The reason I wanted to rearrange it was because it wasn't working out.
To see what his room used to look like, you can check out this post HERE.

The yellow table next to the lego storage unit wasn't being used like I thought it should.  Plus the Spencinator said he didn't like it and wouldn't build legos on it, he prefered to use the floor.
See what I mean:

The mess was not contained to the lego side of his bed, legos spilled out to the other side too:

It was a hot mess:

So you see, I was totally justified in having to rearrange his furniture again.

Inspiration For The Weekend - 28 (Superhero room)

I've decided to rearrange my son's room - again.  If you know me, that's no surprise.  I jokingly say that rearranging furniture is a hobby of mine, but really it's true.  You can check out these posts HERE and HERE to see what I'm talking about.  When it's all done, I'll do a grand reveal.  The before and after will amaze you.  Not because of my rearranging skills but because of what a mess it was before and how much more cleaner it is after.

Anyway, speaking of boy's rooms, I saw this great post about a superhero room.  If you have a boy into superhero's, this room would be a dream come true.

  Check out what Telisa did over at her blog Sugar Tot Designs.  

She has a tutorial for how she made the super hero toy storage bins too.


Here are some more superhero rooms to check out:

Jeremy's Superhero room from Polish the Stars

and

Rex's Superhero room from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar

And if you don't want to deck out a whole room to this theme, you could do a superhero birthday party.
Here is a link to a cool superhero birthday party from Fabulous Features by Anders Ruff.  Be sure to check out all 3 parts to this party.

And let's not forget the Book of Mormon heros:

LDS Bookstore has some cool posters that would be great for an older kid or teen's room.

There are some great ideas out there for doing a superhero theme.  Just thought I'd share what I found.

Every Friday I do a post called "Inspiration For The Weekend" where I share something that has inspired me in some way.  Sometimes I'm inspired to create, do something, learn or change.   I hope you'll find something that inspires you too.

Adding More Pink to a Pink Room

I've been working in Sweetie Pie's room for a while and it's almost done.

I'm still adding some of that bright pink into her room to tie things all together.

I found these pillow cases on sale and thought they'd match Sweetie Pie's room perfectly.

I like how they match the pictures hung with the pink ribbon and bows (as mentioned in THIS post)

And the pillows look great with her new reading chair and ottoman that I mentioned in THIS post.

5 Ways To Keep Kids Cool This Summer

I guess you could just keep them inside, in the cool air conditioning, but if your kids are like mine, they need to be outside running around.  Keeping them cooped up just leads to fighting, tv watching, video game playing or "I'm bored".  When it's 100 degrees outside, how do you keep your kids cool so they'll stay outside for more than a minute?  Well, here are a few ideas I've come up with that have kept my kids cool and entertained.

1.  Have them take water bottles with them when they play outside.  Attach it to their bike, or have the water bottle on a strap so they can sling it over their shoulder.

2.  Act like their waiter, and serve them cold drinks, popsicles or ice cream.  Say for every 10 minutes they are outside, you will bring them a treat.

Hanging Pictures With Ribbons and Bows

Last week, I told you I had a few more things to do in Sweetie Pie's room.
Here's how the wall behind her bed used to look:

She had these two pictures sitting on top of her dresser and I wanted to free up some dresser space, so I thought I'd hang them on the wall with the white frames to the left of her bed.

Inspiration For The Weekend - 27

We are about half way through the summer.
Can't believe school starts in about 6 weeks, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Let's enjoy the second half of the summer.  Although some days we've been even busier than during the school year with places to go and things to do, we have not forgotten to just sit back and relax.

And that is exactly what I think of when I see this cute little letter set:

Amy from The Happy Scraps made this cute Summer craft.  I am just loving the watermelon 'U'.  Stop by her blog to see how she created this.  Just looking at it makes me want to sip some lemonade in the shade.

What relaxing things have you done this summer?
If you haven't found time to relax yet, I hope this post will inspire you to sit back, relax and enjoy!

The Improved Reading Corner

In my last post about how I DIY-ed a Littlest Pet Shop House for Sweetie Pie, I gave you a sneak peak of the new and improved reading corner in her room:

Here is what that reading corner looked like before:

 It had a bookcase for all her books, plus another Ikea trofast toy storage unit for her toys.  It was crowded and didn't have a cozy place for her to read.

The first thing I did was to move the Ikea trofast unit into the Babes' room.  That freed up some space for a spot to read.

A DIY Littlest Pet Shop House

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I've been wanting to make a house for Sweetie Pie's Littlest Pet Shop figures for a while.  So when I saw this cute little pet shop house by Kiki from Kiki & Company, I knew I wanted to make something similar.   The drawers on the bottom of this shelf are great for storing the little pet shop figures, and I love how each shelf has a different background which creates different scenes that the little pets can play in.

There was no way I was going to build my own house, so I'd have to find some type of shelf to repaint so I could create a similar look.  Here's what I came up with:

Inspiration For The Weekend - 26 (Raising Daughters)

The Spencinator is spending a few days at his grandparents' house so it's just us and the girls.

That got me to thinking about raising daughters and I found two great articles on the subject.


"There is nothing in this world as personal, as nurturing, or as life changing as the influence of a righteous woman."

"A mother-daughter relationship is where a daughter learns how to nurture by being nurtured. She is loved. She is taught and experiences firsthand what it feels like to have someone care about her enough to correct her while continuing to encourage and believe in her at the same time."


The first two quotes are from a 2010 talk titled "Mothers and Daughters" by M. Russell Ballard

And the next quotes are from a 2011 talk titled "Love Her Mother" by Elaine S. Dalton


"How can a father raise a happy, well-adjusted daughter in today’s increasingly toxic world?
The answer has been taught by the Lord’s prophets. It is a simple answer, and it is true—


“The most important thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother.”

By the way you love her mother, you will teach your daughter about tenderness, loyalty, respect, compassion, and devotion. She will learn from your example what to expect from young men and what qualities to seek in a future spouse. You can show your daughter by the way you love and honor your wife that she should never settle for less. Your example will teach your daughter to value womanhood. You are showing her that she is a daughter of our Heavenly Father, who loves her."

I'm feeling like I need to step up my game and be a better example to these sweet little girls.

linking up to:

http://www.atthepicketfence.com

A New Ironing Board Cover

Hope you had a great 4th of July yesterday.  We had a fun evening with friends - talking, playing, and of course eating.  The kids had a great time and were so good we didn't realize how late it was when we finally decided to head back home.  Here are the kiddos all decked out in red, white and blue:

It's the little things that make me happy like getting my kids dressed and looking cute for a picture.  Or getting a new ironing board cover.  Yes, I just said my new ironing board cover makes me happy.  You'll understand when you see how bad our old one looked.  Besides the fact that it was stained and falling apart, it was a metallic silver color which totally did not match our decor.  It was like something from a futuristic 70's movie.  Does anyone have a metallic silver ironing board cover?  How do you get that to work into your decor?

Here is the sad shape of the old cover.  You can see it had foam underneath which was falling apart too.

Ever since getting a new iron for Christmas, the old ironing board cover just doesn't seem good enough.  So I've decided to upgrade.  The few times I've looked for a new cover, I noticed the plain off white ones were more expensive than the colorfully patterned ones.  The colors didn't match our master bedroom so I really wanted the off white one but didn't want to pay the higher cost.  We are only talking a couple of bucks here, but it's the principle.  I was in luck one day when the off white cover was on clearance.  It was still a little more than the patterned ones, but it was worth it to have it match.

Happy 4th Of July!

While you are enjoying time with family and friends, eating good food and having good fun, I hope you'll take a moment or two to reflect upon the meaning of this day and thank those who have served and our serving our country so that we can enjoy the freedom we have been blessed with.

I've been doing some patriotic crafts with the kids this week.
Yesterday I blogged about the popsicle stick flag Sweetie Pie and I made.  She loves to do crafts and made a patriotic dream catcher decoration out of pipe cleaners all by herself.  I helped her make the star shapes using a star shaped cookie cutter.

I just shaped the pipe cleaner around the star shaped cookie cutter to form the hanging stars.

Popsicle Stick Flags

I'm on a popsicle stick craft making kick.  Yesterday I made some Popsicle Stick Puzzles, and on Friday I mentioned this craft using popsicle sticks:

Sweetie Pie and I made our own version of Popsicle Stick Flags: