...organized decorator as well!

So even though we've been in our house over a year, I have yet to decorate about our beautiful cabinets in the kitchen. They're a pretty cherry wood and they're pretty much the reason I fell in LOVE with our house. I walked into the kitchen and BAM there they were in all their prettiness. Like I think I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I tend to put things off for as long as possible. Things like...decorating the top of my cabinets. Here's what they've looked like since we moved in.

Bare. Boring. Blah

Nothing. Nada. Not a thing up there. What's wrong with me? I like pretty things. I like decorations. I like buying things. But for some reason I had let this area go by the wayside. Shame on me!

Last weekend we went to HTB's (hubby-to-bes) cousin's (you still with me) fundraiser for her non-for-profit   organization "Reins to Recovery". She helps kids who need help with all kinds of things. The whole event is to help raise money to keep her going for at least another year. She's such an amazing person and the organization does wonderful things. At the fundraiser they have a silent auction.

Apparently HTB really gets in to auctions because we gotta lotta stuff. I wasn't sure what to do with the slushie maker and the basket that says "Happy Easter" on it. The rest of what we bought was cute decorative things. Only problem was, I didn't have anywhere to put it all.

Light bulb! I decided this was a sign to finally FINALLY decorate the top of the cabinets. It was easy to start cause rule #1: Clear the space, was already done.
SO at the auction we got artwork and baskets.

(You can see the books I used to prop things up in that pic. Shhh!! Don't tell anyone.)

Candles and more artwork...

AND even more baskets...

I did find a good purpose for the Easter basket...for now...

Awesome!  The little pumpkins are so goshdarn cute too. I used a great rule-of-thumb I learned from my sister at thrifty decor chick to always go up and down with the decorations. You'll see each item is shorter then taller then shorter then taller. It makes all the random items look really good together and creates a nice flow. 

This isn't what will always be up there, but it's good for now. And once fall is over, I'll take the cute patoot pumpkins down and replace them with Christmas stuff!!! I love Christmas even more than fall...and have twice the decorations too! So what do you do on top of your cabinets? Any fun fall ideas? Show me so I can get that spot looking even better!

**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!

...Oh So OCD at night

OCD in a good way, that is. That is, if there is a good way. There is right?

So the big argument around our house is "What's for dinner?"
Half my morning is spent texting my HTB (Hubby To Be) back and forth ideas for dinner. He never EVER wants to pick what we are having and sometimes I just get sick of having to decide. Anyone else the same way? I wanted the arguing to stop so I came up with a solution.

My solution: Plan a week ahead. (enter OCD behavior now)

I've been doing this for a while now. I know tons of other people do too, and have tons of creative ways of how to make their meal boards. Mine?...well let's just say I've never claimed to be crafty and I think this board is from college!

Every week I start with my first rule of organizing...
Clear the space:

It may be plain jane to you but she works perfectly for me! Maybe when we have kids I'll make cute magnets that say different foods that help my kids learn how to read and make healthy eating choices blah blah blah. For now though, I know how to read and I think my little board is great.

I section her (when did the board become a her) off  for the week like so...

This follows my second rule of organizing by making her functional. You'll notice (hopefully you can notice with my lil camera phone picture) Friday and Saturday don't get a day. That's because those nights are just too hard to plan for us.

Then I walk around the kitchen with the cabinets and fridge and freezer open and make my meals

TA DA!! There's my board all ready to go for the week. I have main dish and sides on each day. I have future ideas I wanna do and things I need to get to complete my list. Easy peasy! (Get it, peas? Nevermind.) I usually do it Sunday morning. It's been such a nice change to not have to bicker about dinner anymore. I usually go home for lunch, and now I know what I need to take out for dinner every day! Again, I am OCD and that extra bit of organization in my life is HAUGE.

Like my little cow guy?

I have never hidden I am a huge dork...and never will. Share your fun meal board or creative way that you organize dinner around your house. Who knows? Maybe you'll inspire me to do my own cute fun creative one.Obviously I'm not a bad doodler. And I do love construction paper! Still can't wait to show you my fun Halloween decorations I made. Patience...patience Elie.


**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!

...obsessed with Halloween by night!!!

I big fat heart Halloween. I don't really know why, I've just always loved it. I think it has something to do with my parents. They always got really into it and apparently it's rubbed off...cause I love it!

I must say I have the most amazing, most patient, and most understanding fiancee in the world. I don't know how he puts up with me and my dorky goofy craftiness. I've had Halloween/Fall decorations up since August the middle of September. Sad, I know. But why should I have to wait until the weather feels like fall to decorate for fall? Oh wait, I don't have to wait...cause it's my house! Awesome!

One fun project I did today was inspired from my sister who you can check out here:
http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2011/10/before-after-party-ghosts-in-trees.htm She rocks.
I took a quick trip to Lowe's to see if they had little white bags that I could fill with leaves to make little ghosts, and I sadly realized Lowe's doesn't really have "Halloween" (fingers doing quotes in the air) stuff.

So...option B was to make my own. I stole some white material from my sis and got to work. These were my supplies:

I know, I'm so organized. I just cut the fabric into squares, cut a little teeny tiny hole in the middle:

Fancy picture, right? Then I tied a buncha knots at the end of a string about a foot long:

Then I taped the string to the fabric just so it wouldn't be pulled through in the wind (tape not pictured...because I forgot to picture it). I wadded up some newspaper into a ball, covered it with the fabric, tied a string around all that, and VOILA!!

(Do you see my oh-so-cute construction paper spider in the background? She's the sweetest little thing! More on my construction-paper-decor in another post)

Do that about a half dozen times and you get this:

SOO Cute! I love them. Their a big squishy-faced ghost family!!

And now they live in my trees:

And now I think I'm done with the front. Do you like my spider web bushes? And my spooooky ghoul awaiting trick-or-treaters?

Believe it or not, the rain and wind have zero affect on my webs. I couldn't believe at first, but now I do. It's wonderful! And my pumpkins are from our local pumpkin patch. Love 'em!

I know there wasn't much organization in this post, I just had to show those cuties off. And, technically, I showed you how to make them in an organized way ;) I'll show my wanna-be Halloween mantel soon, too. It's wanna-be because we don't actually have a mantel. It's really a Goodwill table that I let think is a mantel. And it's organized too! How's fall coming around your house? Are you crazy weird organized like me and have all your fall up already? Or are you like normal people and are just starting to get things out?  Happy fall everyone!

p.s. Yes! I did say fiancee! Since we've been apart I've gotten engaged, had a sort-of promotion go through at work, and dyed my hair. Lots going on! Promise I'll be back much sooner!

**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!

...just need a stinkin hair tie by day too!!

OMG!!! So I swear my plan was to re-organize my master bedroom closet and show you how I methodically put everything away so nice and neatly and it completely changed my life, and I'm so in love with my new closet...blah blah blah. I've been wanting to do this since we moved in over a year ago and I had butterflies dancing through my happy thoughts as to what it was going to look like. Butt...when I went to go grab a hair tie to pull up my mop and get to the closet, this is what I saw:

Bleegh!! I couldn't get over how messy it was down there. So I put the closet on hold, again, and decided to focus on down here. I cleared the space first and foremost. Then I organized everything in to piles. One for hair stuff, one for makeup, one for all the things I use the most. 

**side note** 

I told you guys last night that there has been a lot going on this week with me. Well, one of those things is getting out of debt!! Woo to the Hoo I'm so flippin' excited I can't even take it! I've been following the amazing and wonderful Mr. Dave Ramsey:

He's changed my life as well as thousands of others! Look him up people. I swear you won't regret it. 

Anyhoo...since I've been so focused on getting out of debt, I haven't been able to spend money on any extra things. This will hopefully be my last organization project where I have to use what I already have. I'll now have the money available to purchase things that suite my spaces so much better than the things I use from old apartments that I'm forcing to work now.

**side note over**

I used all of the storage objects I already had to help me organize this spot:

I forgot I had this cute little guy:

 Once everything was sorted I threw it all into these bags/bins/boxes and made sure to put the things that I used the most into the most convenient storage. All of my things I couldn't live without hair and makeup stuff went into the nice big open bin...

And I put all of my favorite stuff front and center (kinda) so that I can finally find them in all this crap access them easier:

And now it looks like this:

I'm ohhhing and ahhhing right now at the difference. I love that everything has a place now and everything down there is something I'll use or need. You wouldn't believe how many travel size thingys I threw away that have just piled up over years of vacations. So even though you might not want to, suck it up, and get down on the ground and clean out that sink. You'd be surprised what you'd find.

Which brings me to this question: Do you have tons of old jewelry boxes with nothing to do with them? Cause I do. Should I get a jewelry box instead? Is it unsafe to store jewelry in the case? I'm not sure what to do with all of these. Gimme some ideas...please!

Have a great weekend!!

**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!