Getting Organized

When trying to organize closets, my biggest problem is that I get overwhelmed just looking at the large task at hand. I try to break the job up into smaller parts. These days it's really hard for me to get motivated. I have all these ideas of things I want to do, but even thinking about them exhausts me. I'd really like an organized house before the baby comes, because everyone knows that once the baby is there, it's hard to start a project!


Photo from RealSimple

Last week I saw a few shirts falling off hangers in my closet and I thought to myself 'Why do I even still have this? I haven't worn it in ages.' That jump started a mass closet clean out. I accumulated 2 large black lawn bags of clothing and shoes to take to Goodwill. This jump started a frenzy in me. I want to get everything organized everywhere in my home!

The main space I need to go through and organize is our garage. It became the dumping ground when we bought our house. Everything is mostly in totes and boxes stacked on shelves. The problem is, I couldn't tell you what is in all those totes and boxes. We've been here over 2 1/2 years, I think it's about time to get organized! I think I'll have to start with all the closets in the house and attempt to tackle the garage sometime this spring after Little Man is born.

For those that know me well, I'm the person everyone gives things to when they don't want them anymore. I'm the hand me down queen. Seeing a few episodes of Hoarders, I realized maybe I have a slight problem. I don't openly seek out things, though, which is good. I slowly accumulate and then I don't get rid of things. I'm pretty sentimental, so holding onto things that remind me of this or that has been a small problem for me. I have pretty much everything from high school through college sitting in totes under Ryan's parents house that I need to go through too! I'm just itching to finally get rid of things.



One of my big problems is trying to decide if I'm going to need something in the future. I know there is the old rule of thumb that if you haven't used something in the past X amount of months, chances are you can live without it. I realize Ryan and I have a lot of electronics and computer components, wires, and gadgets that are archaic and 99% of which we'll never use again, but we hold onto them regardless. I think it's time to really evaluate what needs to go! The downside is that Ryan is pretty sentimental like I am; so we both are sitting at Pack Rat status.

A tip I've learned is that if something means a lot to you, and it really has no use to you. You can take a picture of it and then get rid of it. That way you'll still have the memory of what it looked like without it taking up precious real estate in your home! I'm sure this won't work for the things that really mean a LOT to you, but for some things it would be fine. Now to start following my own advice. I want 2011 to be a year of personal growth, not material growth. For every new thing I bring home, I want to get rid of 2 or more. With the baby, that might be difficult as he needs his own things.

I have a feeling that I will be visiting the Goodwill store a lot in the coming weeks/months, and not as a shopper this time!

31 Weeks 1 Day Pregnant

I have no idea what Photobucket is doing to the quality of my photos! They look like they were taken with a phone! Ugh. Better versions on Facebook.

Really getting there! I can't believe I have less than 9 weeks till my due date. Insane!

More Toys, Books & Etc

Well, turns out that the "orange" lamp turned out to be red (which is not in the nursery color palette) But hey, it's still cute. Behind the little people there is also a spot for a small bulb that makes a nightlight. I didn't have any on hand, but I'm anxious to see what it looks like.

Light off:


Light on:


The crib mobile was made in the ' 60s. I thought it was funny that the directions and info for reordering the music box were typewritten. I'm going to restring the little guys back on with clear fishing line for a cleaner look.


The creepy vintage clown was in the color scheme and was $0.50, so I figured why not. The Kewpie doll is from the ' 60s and goes with his framed Kewpie postcard art pieces. The Miffy Bunny was too cute to pass up for $6 new on ebay. Baby will be born the year of the Rabbit, so it's perfect!


My niece Kiley had a seahorse just like this and it really helped her sleep. Ryan's mom bought the Pooh Bear last year for our last baby.


When I was at Goodwill and saw this book I thought "The farting dog, that is SOOOOO Walter", then I looked a little closer and well, it WAS a Walter hahaha! I had this same Richard Scarry book when I was little and I loved it.

More Clothes

Here are more pictures of more clothes and shoes we've accumulated lately.

Ryan's mom bought these for us last summer.


All of the following were purchased at consignment shops. A lot of them still have the tags on them!

More Room Art

A few more in the series for baby's room. I just have a few left to make, then I'll get them ordered and in their frames! Ryan likes Bob the Builder, so I had to include him in the room somewhere without getting all theme-y about it.

Cloth Diapers Ordered

When I tell people I plan to use cloth diapers most often I'm met with a horrified look. The next thing people tend to say is "We'll see how long that lasts". Cloth diapering has evolved so much in the last few years. No more boiling diapers on the stove, no more pins. In the long run they will end up saving us a TON of money as we can use them over and over again not only with Baby Boy, but with future kiddos! Plus they are better for the environment!

The ONLY real difference is instead of throwing them away, you toss them in your washer. They make this handy little sprayer that resembles a small shower head that you hook up to your toilet to spray out the poo before putting them in the washer. You might think this extra step is a hassle, but it is actually stated on disposable diaper packaging that you should flush the contents of the diaper before throwing away. I don't know anyone that actually does that, but still.

I ordered BumGenius 4.0 diapers. The size grows with the baby. Will fit 7-35lbs! They were having a special Buy 5 get one free and any orders over $100 get free shipping. So I ordered a total of 7 diapers for about $104.00. I still need to get more, but I might get a few different brands to try out to find which ones we like best. There are SO many types and brands to choose from, that it is very overwhelming. BumGenius came highly recommended and after countless hours of internet perusing and research I decided they would most likely fit our needs. Plus, how cute are they?!



Also, if for some reason certain brands don't work for us we can sell them and buy more of the ones that do work for us. Cloth diapers have an insanely awesome resale value!

Baby's 1st Christmas

Okay, so baby boy's not technically born yet, but he is in existence! I really didn't expect anyone to buy him anything for Christmas, but my family wouldn't have had it any other way. Here are all the gifts he got:

From my mom:


From my mom:


From my mom:


From my mom:


From Ryan's parents:


From my grandma (mom's mom):


From my grandma (mom's mom):


From my grandparents (dad's parents):


Thanks everyone, I'm sure he'll love everything!

Alphabet Art

Alphabet art is a lot of fun! This was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to stay pretty strict to his room color scheme for this piece.

Belly Button Ring Officially Removed.

It was starting to hurt a little so it had to come out. Last picture with the belly button ring.

27 weeks front view:

More Artwork

I got pretty ambitious last night while Ryan was playing Call of Duty. I made a Name picture of baby B's name to go over the crib. Since we're not revealing his name till he's born that one will have to wait. Here is another I made last night. I like the look of collage/cut out art, so I made something like that. Keeping the color scheme of his room in mind this is what I came up with.



I have a few more ideas for the remaining pieces, nothing too concrete yet though.

Waiting

I keep getting this feeling like I'm very quickly running out of time to get everything I need to get done around here done before baby B is here. His room has been on hold for a few weeks for me for several reasons. I have it all planned out, I just need to start! There are a lot of things that need to happen and each thing is waiting on something else to be done before it. I need his crib before I can color match the paint to paint the chair and dresser. I need room to have somewhere to put the dresser while we're waiting, I also need to get the crib so that I can measure it and start making all of the bedding and crib accessories. I also need to paint the room. I'm really anxious to get my whole house organized, not just his room. Wonder if this is the "nesting" I've heard so much about? I'll be 27 weeks in a few days. Where is the time flying away to?!?! There's only about 13 weeks till he's here!

24 Weeks Pregnant

I've been a massive slacker in taking belly pictures. For a few weeks it seemed nothing changed, but I can definitely tell a difference between week 20-24!


Front/Side View

Vintage Irmi Lamps: I can't choose!

I love the look of vintage Irmi lamps. There's nothing I hate worse than matchy-matchy generic nursery decor, and lamps and bedding are tied for the matchy-matchy prize. Don't get me wrong, there are some really cute baby bedding sets out there, they just aren't what I'm looking for.

These lamps are very unique and one of a kind and I like that a lot. Here are the Irmi lamps I'm leaning toward the most. I really need help deciding which one to get. The train and trolly definitely fit the color scheme best, but there's something about the ark and animals I like on the other lamp. HELP, I can't choose! Which one do you like best?



The ark comes with a plain white lamp shade (not original) but is missing the trolly driver part of the lamp. The train comes with the original shade. It has orange trains on a white and yellow checked background. The tolly doesn't come with a shade.

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UPDATE: I just purchased the Orange Caboose lamp. I think it fit more of the criteria than the other two. I like that it still had it's original shade. Can't wait to get it!

Kewpieville Framed Pieces

I LOVE how these turned out. These are postcards adapted by Florence Baker in the style of Rose O'Neill. They are from the 1950s and I love them. I really like the rich colors in them, and I think they will look great on the seafoam wall. I was initially going to paint the wooden frame gold to match the triptych frame, but I really love how the rich wood looks with the postcards.



Yes, I typed the word "love" three times in this post. But it's true, I love these (okay, now four times).

Mockup on Seafoam wall:

Rocking Chair Drama

I think my brother is totally cursed when it comes to hauling furniture (especially chairs!) for me. Back when I was moving into my first place, my Grandma bought me a table and chair set and one of the chairs fell out of the truck and shattered on the highway. When he was moving an overstuffed living chair back to Libby to my mom's house, that took flight as well.

As you might remember from a previous post, my mom gave me a rocking chair that's been in the family for quite some time. I was going to refinish and reupholster it. My brother was doing me a favor by bringing it to me and guess what happened? Yep, it grew it's wings and took flight and shattered like glass on the highway. Dang!

Tim and I decided to go look around a few second hand stores, and what do you know, the first one we go to I find the PERFECT glider rocking chair! And it was only $30! Not bad, not bad at all. I plan use the existing cushions on it as a pattern to make new ones. I'm going to sand this bad boy down and paint it to match the crib and dresser (An antique off-white color).

I don't think I mentioned how PERFECT this chair is! It matches the crib ( I don't have the crib yet, but that's in the works!!!) almost perfectly. see...



Here are the pictures of it with and without the cushions:









I can't wait to get started on it. RIP old family rocking chair, you will be missed!