...on Island Time by night!

So unless you live under a rock, I'm sure you know headbands are HUGE right now. I've personally always loved them. It's a way to get your hair out of your face without having to put it up. My hair breaks easily so I don't like putting it in a ponytail. Hence why I luff me some headbands.

Even when I was a little girl I would always be adding things to mine. Sometimes it was an extra ribbon I would wrap around it, sometimes I would put my barrettes on them to give them something extra, and I always had dandelions flowers tied to them. I wasn't always the best dresser (who is when they're young right? I only won worst dressed like 8 2 years in a row), but even if my pants didn't match my shirt, my headbands always matched my outfits. Weird Funny right?

Anyway. So now that society has finally caught up with me and realized what I was doing in the 2000's was totally cool, I'm back to wearing my wonderful headbands with big ol' feathers and bows and flowers on them. I love it! I especially love the flowery ones (is flowery a word?). People at work always comment on them and I simply say "I'm on Island Time!"

Aren't they GORG?! (name that show) I think so. The only problem with my wonderful headband beauties though  was I had no place to put them. There's no good place on the sink without getting them dirty. And they're too pretty to put under the sink. So I thought "What is round around here?" (I was thinking round since the headbands are round)

*enter Genius Organizing Light Bulb going off here*

I was standing in my kitchen and looked around for about 2 seconds and set eyes on our paper towel holder. It was like it was saying "Use Me!". So I did. And a few other things...but not many:

I grabbed some VS bags that I keep around just in case I need to pretend I got a cool gift when really I didn't have time to get a bag use one for a gift bag, the paper towel roll, tape, scissors and two of these:

That's it people. I promise it doesn't take much sometimes to get organized. So I cut the middle of the bag out:

And wrapped it around the tube:

I used the scissors to put holes on either side of the tube. It was easy to line them up because of the stripes on the paper. I put the pins on each end of the tube and stuck it on the bathroom wall right by where I get ready in the morning. Then I put my lovely headbands through the holes...and voila!

Here's some side views:

See how it works? The pins are strong enough to keep it up for now, but if I extend my collection (which I tend to every payday), I may need to nail the tube up. Or maybe make a stronger one made out of something stronger than cardboard. Who knows though? This baby is holding strong:

Alright, who else out there loves these things? I get most of mine at Charming Charlie. Are there other great stores to try? Do you ever get too old for Claire's? If so, I'm at that age. Are there any styles you wish would come back that haven't already tried to make a comeback in the past couple decades? I think the bow tie is starting to make one. I fully support the bow tie!

* I was not paid by Charming Charlie to talk about their awesome headbands. I just luff them!

**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday@gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!

...I have a dining room table (to eat at at night :)!!!!

So HTB and I moved into our house May of 2010. We were actually still fresh into our relationship (9 months) and we were taking a huge leap of faith. It all worked out of course since we're getting hitched this year!! (Mention #24 of my wedding so far this year) We also were taking a huge leap of square footage. We went from two teeny tiny apartments to a four bedroom, three level, two car garage (my) dream home. Seriously, I love our home! Thing is, we didn't have enough stuff to fill it.


I was always hoping that a wedding was in the future...so I didn't really focus on buying things I knew I could  register for wait a while for. Fortunately, my future mom-in-law rocks and she bought us wonderful decor we can use on our dining room table. That way I don't have to wait until the wedding in October. (#25)


Anyway...so before we got the good stuff our table looked like this:

Yes, that is Santa St. No, I didn't have anything on my table before I received these Christmas decorations (also from my mom-in-law...what would I do without her!). So once the holiday was over, I did my first rule of organizing. I cleared the space:

I gave it a good rub down, too. So shiny! Then, taking only what I had cause I'm on a major wedding budget (mention #84), I created what I think is a wonderfully-simple-yet-elegant dining room table:

Here's a view at night:

I took the lovely hand-me-down place settings from my big sis and set them up on top of the pretty new tablecloth. I love love love fresh flowers and we always make sure there's room in the budget for those. I placed a beautiful bunch of them on a tray (also from sis) and filled it in with filler(?) I had from the wonderful Target:

I put our new cute napkins by each plate and called it a day! Here's another angle:

Isn't it precious! Another night view:

So before:

And after:

It may not be crazy fancy-schmansy, but it's me. It's us. And that's what I wanted. Maybe we'll register for a China set for the wedding (last mention I swear...for this post), but should I? Do you have a China set? Do you EVER use it? What does your table look like after New Years? Do you start with a new look at the beginning of the year? Speaking of beginning of the year, who has a great resolution? What about any resolution? I forgot to even set one. Share yours so I can have some ideas!


**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday@gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!

...Cooking with Ruby by night!

Hello! Happy 2012! Welcome to what's going to be the best year (of my life) ever! So far this year I have my wedding to plan, I'm going to New Orleans for the first time, the SuperBowl is coming to Indy, and I'm getting married! Did I mention that? That I'm getting married? Well I AM!!

Moving on. So since I will be walking down the aisle this year, I've already started my diet. I'm not dieting, I'm just making sure I at least maintain my weight. I thought it would be easy...until I met Ruby:

Here's another view:

!!!! Isn't she beautiful!!  I luff her! If I knew how to put little fluttering hearts on pictures, I wouldv'e done it. My KitchenAid is my BFF. She is seriously awesome. She rocks my kitchen. All the cool attachments are dishwasher safe. Cleaning her is a breeze. And she helps me make things my hips don't need wonderful goodies! Last night we made Strawberry Cupcakes together. I went with the box mix cause I was bein' lazy:

All I needed was a few simple extra ingredients...poured it all in the big bowl...and two minutes later we had this:

Seriously, two minutes. That's all it took. The batter was the perfect consistancy. The box even told me what setting to put it at, and was right on with the instructions. I popped those babies in and was so incredibly pleased with how perfect they turned out!

Is your mouth drooling? It should be cause these were amazing! I love Ruby. Cupcakes are a piece of cake (get it? cake?...ok) for her. She does all kinds of stuff. She mixes, beats, she actually gets "peaks" with egg whites...She even kneads bread!! I've been debating buying a bread maker because everyone tells me they get it and then never use it, but now I don't have to...because I found Ruby! Have I told you how much I love her?! Yes?

Anyway. Do you have a KitchenAid? Are you weirdly madly in love with yours too? What's the best recipe you've done? I need ideas. My next recipe I'm going to attempt is homemade brownies from scratch this time. I just need to find the right recipe. Hope you had happy holidays! I sure did, but also glad they're over.

*I was not compensated to talk about my KitchenAid by KitchenAid. They have no clue who i am or how much I love their stuff.

**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday(@)gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!