Paper or Cloth?

If you know me at all. You know that I am cheap thrifty. Sale signs make my heart beat faster. And I get a high when I bag a bargain. It's in my genes. Definitely passed down from my mom.

I also hate to spend money on things like deodorant and paper towels. Consumables are the anti-bargain. Total buzz kills.

So about a year ago, while BSD was away on one of his trips, I decided to switch to cloth napkins. I found some clearance (wheee!) fabric at Joann's and whipped up a set. I bought a vintage-looking wire basket from TJ Maxx (where else?). Put the napkins inside. Set it on the windowsill next to the table. And gave them a test drive.

The ballerinas were hesitant at first. Not wanting to get them dirty. But about two weeks later their default to the paper napkin drawer dissipated. And they were taking the few extra steps to the basket when they needed to wipe their mouths. Victory!

There were also no complaints when I packed cloth napkins in their lunch boxes. Even if the pattern I made them out of was a bit juvenile. It was the only way I was going to get away with using that adorable fabric.

I decided to take it one step further. And picked up some cute cloth dish cloths at Walmart.

These came in a pack of eight. Two each of green, red, blue, and yellow stripes. Only about $5 for the pack. And into the trash went the old, stinky consumable sponges.

Phase three was replacing the paper towels. This was the hardest hurdle. Paper towels and me. We go way back. Smear a dab of jelly on the counter? Grab a paper towel. Time to give the counter tops the once over? Grab 10 paper towels. Spill a glass of water on the floor? Throw down the whole roll.

Every time I reached for a paper towel, I had to wrestle my hand back off the roll. I was an addict. The withdrawal process was long and painful. But almost a year later. And I am still using the same 12 roll pack I had before the switch. And if weren't for BSD. Who uses two paper towels to dry an apple. I would probably still be using the same single roll.

It feels good to be using less. Helps with my crunchy-granola, chicken farmer image too. I'm trying to get BSD to hook me up with clothesline next. But I draw the line at reusable toilet paper. And the whole GladRags and Lunapanties idea. That's a whole other league.

So...what about you? Paper or cloth in your household?

Before and After: The Little Ballerina's Book Shelf

It's still project central over here. Just downshifted into slow gear while BSD is away. But there is one project that is basically complete that I can't wait to share. So here goes.

One of the goals of our redecorating is to gain some sort of organization. As I've said a million times. I am not an organized person. Put that together with a young ballerina who loves to play with all-things-small-parts and you get one big-fat-mess. That mommy has to either clean up. Or shut the door so she can't see it.

Finally fed up with this chore, BSD and I decided both ballerinas needed a desk in their rooms. We were all set, thanks to a dear friend who took the ballerinas for the night, to drive four hours each way to IKEA to get each girl a desk. At the very last minute, BSD said, "I don't think a desk is the answer."

*crap*

So...we scrapped our overnight trip to DC and made it a local date night instead. Stopping off at a local furniture store along the way. Where I spotted this fun shelving piece.

I love this piece. But I have no space nor place for it. I just tucked it away in my head as FUN! And $2,000. And off we went to dinner.


Weeks passed. I cleaned up many toyswithmanyparts. Many times. Until BSD, pumped up by his recent hallway project success,  finally told me, "Find some baskets. And I'll build a storage unit for LB."


That was the plan. Until one day I stopped by my favorite Habitat for Humanity store. And I stopped short. In front of this.

Are you with me? Do you see where this is going?


If not, that's OK. BSD didn't either. He thought I was just dragging home another piece of junk to clutter up his precious garage.


Not this time. This time I had a clear vision. I was motivated. I got right to work. But still wound up needing BSD to bail me out on the finishing paint layers. Because I am a lousy painter. I don't know WHY I can't paint well. But I can't. And BSD thinks I am ridiculous for being paint-impaired.


ANYWAY...


That doo-doo brown, faux wood grain piece of ugliness became this oh-so-fun, Steven Shell inspired storage shelf for the Little Ballerina.

And the best part was all I had to buy was a second matching tote on the bottom right. Luckily Target still carries that pattern because these fit perfectly. And now house her American Girl doll clothes in one. And her Barbies in the other. The upper purple tote holds all her Barbie clothes. Although it's a bit overflowing.


And the VERY best part??! LB helped me organize it like this over a month ago. And I pinky swear that I did NOT clean it up before taking this picture today. She is keeping it clean HERSELF! *snoopy dance*

I still need to finish hanging the art on the wall above it. But I can't seem to locate the poster I bought over 3 years ago that I want to put there. hmmm...imagine that.


Oh, and I have to tell you about that drawing. I got it from my neighbor. It was a wedding gift from the artist to my friend's husband and his first wife (who sadly passed away). The artist now fetches a pretty penny for her works. Everyone in my family hates the picture. I love it. Before I hung it up in her room, LB told me, "That scares me." I thought perfect! It kind of looks like the person is in jail. Hopefully, it will scare her straight!

Oh Martha, you're so fine...

You're so fine. You blow my mind. Hey Martha. Hey Martha.

You may remember our little New Year's Eve party. Where we made resolutions. And posted them.

One of those resolution cards read "The person I want to be more like this year is..." I left this one blank for most of the night. And finally just scribbled down Martha Stewart. Not really giving it much thought.

Maybe it was because of that piece of paper that I picked up this magazine in January. Because any magazine with the word "organizing" in the title would normally send me running for the hills. I. am. not. an. organized. person.

But much to my surprise I found myself enjoying this magazine. And ultimately falling in love with this picture...

Since our entry way looked like this...

And because BSD is uber organized, (we've got that whole yin yang thing going on) it wasn't hard to get BSD on board with the project.

He quickly built the upper shelf. Using some cool old brackets I bought at an estate sale. But after that he started getting cold feet. The built-in bench was a little daunting to my new handyman's skill level. So we took the easy way out and bought a bench instead.

We lived with the space like this for a few weeks, but I could not get good ole Martha's bench out of my mind. Finally, after much begging, BSD agreed to give it a whirl. We had no instructions so we had to just wing it. And when we were done we ended up with this.

It probably took us ten times longer than someone with mad carpentry skills, but we got there. And I find myself wanting to hang out in this space now instead of shutting my eyes tight every time I walk in the front door.

My favorite parts? The red Euro license plate that was on my car when my parents picked it up for us at the factory. My dad's name is on the registration sticker on the back. And that little woven mail basket? A $1.25 Good Will score. *woot* I'm loving the ole G dubya lately.

Oh Martha, you're so fine. You're so fine. You blow my mind. Hey Martha. Hey Martha. 

Stay tuned. There's more Martha in the making over here.

Kerri...note the lack of window treatments on the side lights. ;)

Come and Knock on Our Door...

I love projects. Well, actually, I love the idea of projects. The possibilities. The hunt for the perfect piece to transform. The excitement of something new.

It's the follow-through that bogs me down. I've said it before. I have design ADD. I can't stay focused on one project before another one starts calling my name. Maybe if my funds were unlimited I'd have my dream house. I have a vision, but don't have the money to back it up. I always fall in love with the $90+/yard fabric or the $3,000 light fixtures. So, I have to move at a snail's pace on every project. And by the time everything is about to fall into place, I'm ready to change the whole look.

Every closet in my house is crammed with half-finished projects. BSD's garage has quite a few unwanted guests squatting on his sacred ground. And I get an earful about their extended stay every few weeks. I need to hurry up and do something with them or they are going to find themselves evicted.

Well, it's too cold to paint in the garage so instead I finally finished up a smaller, warmer project I started in December. A yarn wreath.

I've seen these yarn wreaths everywhere. I just love them. There are so many different looks out there. The possibilities are endless. And that of course is one of the reasons it took me so long to make this. Too. many. choices. But I saw one like this in a magazine recently and knew it was THE one. I'm more of a copycat than an original idea generator. Plus, I was a little intimidated by the felt flowers. Until I found a great, easy tutorial here.

I am pretty pleased with my new project. Looking at these pictures now, I think I may need to add a few extra "leaves" to the left side of the flowers to balance it better. Knowing me, I'll probably never get around to doing it. But at least the Christmas wreath is finally gone.

NOTE: If you plan to make a yarn wreath, here are two suggestions for what I would do differently. 

1) Use "chubby" yarn. Thicker yarn makes it go faster. The yarn I used here was ultra thin making it more tedious to work with and harder to cover every speck of the wreath underneath.


2) Take the time to turn the skeins into yarn balls. I didn't do this at first and the skein kept unraveling so I'd have to stop working to constantly rewrap the thread around the skein.

1.1.11

QUESTION: I've gone in and resized the photo and have posted 2 different sizes. The top one is smaller. I see the whole photo on my desktop, but when I switch to my laptop I get a cut-off version. Can you tell me if both of these photos look the same to you? Do you see the less of the Christmas tree in the smaller picture? I think I may need to resize my photos for posting. In case you can't tell, I like things BIG! Maybe I need to move to Texas?!??!


It's official. I am allergic to cleaning.

I guess 1.1.11 is supposed to be a magical number. Something about guardian angels watching over you. I'm not sure of all the details. What I do know is if my guardian angels were buzzing about me today they were yelling, "STOP! STOP CLEANING!" How do I know? Because right in the middle of putting the house back together. After all the Christmas chaos. And our rockin' family New Year's Eve bash (sans alcohol). I became incredibly ill. My stomach was churning and my head pounding. It felt like a major hangover. Without the slurred speech and the lampshade on my head the night before.

So my house now sits in worse condition than had I left it alone. My New Year's lucky foods have gone uneaten. And my resolutions remain unwritten. Maybe when my guardian angels take a hike tomorrow I'll get something accomplished. If not, my first resolution of 2011 will have to be Hire a Weekly Cleaning Team.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a rockin' New Year's Eve surrounded by those you love.

BEFORE and AFTER: The Big Ballerina's Sewing Table and Chair

The sewing table and chair makeovers are basically done. I haven't quite dialed in the Big Ballerina's whole sewing space just yet so for now I'm only going to share the Before and After photos of the two pieces. 

I'm happy with the pieces, but the style of the chair just does nothing for me. It's hard to tell from the Before shot, but it's a Scandinavian style dining chair. I'm pretty sure it's teak. The wood had splatter marks here and there and one of the front legs looked like it had gotten hit by a stray black spray paint can. 

We covered the cushions with a cheery Annie Selke fabric (you know who Annie Selke is, right? The designer behind my favorite Dash & Albert rugs. I just can't stay away. It's a sickness.) 

BSD sanded down the frame and gave it a fresh coat of stain and wax. After it was all put back together again, I ran out and bought two cans of black spray paint. But I didn't go through with it. I don't think changing the color is going to make me fall in love with the chair. It's the lines of the chair I want changed. And a can of black spray paint, as magical as it can be, ain't gonna change the style.

The table? Now that's all kinds of fun to me. It's really not a pretty piece, but it's solid and makes a great workspace. I removed the keyboard shelf. Sanded down the finish. BSD made a new shelf for the bottom that was missing.

We gave it a few good coats of white spray paint. Changed out the knob. Glued a funky Amy Butler fabric to the table top. And covered that with a piece of plexiglass to protect it. 

So...it went from this...

To this...

It's fun. And I hope it inspires the Big Ballerina to keep enjoying her new passion. I can't wait to get the whole space put together. I promise I won't make her go out to the backyard to sew. 

Even though it seems pretty peaceful back there. I can turn on the fountain for her. hmm...maybe I should set her up out here. BSD shapes his surfboards only footsteps away.

And the Little Ballerina's art studio is set up in the garage. Maybe this corner of the patio is the perfect spot?

Sew You Think You Can Sew

The Big Ballerina has been doing really well with her sewing. Since her sewing class, she's gotten orders for about five new purses.

While shopping for new fabric at Joann's, she met a woman who makes adorable flower hair clips. So now she's trying her hand at making these too.

 This was the second one she made. Not bad, huh?

To help BB with her newest endeavor, BSD and I are working on creating a designated sewing space for her. We tore apart the mess I had in the playroom closet and got that all organized for her to store her fabrics and supplies. 

Then, BB and I went to see "Larry" from Craigslist for a sewing table. Larry is my new hero. Larry has five storage units full of furniture for sale on Craigslist. We went to see him about a sweet little French Provincial desk that BB decided was too small. "Never fear,"  Larry said. "I have plenty of desks." After flipping through his "catalog" (a binder of Craigslist postings complete with photos and dimensions), she chose this bad boy instead.

Practical. Yes. Pretty? No. Definitely not in keeping with my motto. But it is her space so I bit my tongue and forked over the cash. To go along with her new sewing table, she picked out this beauty.

Again, the girl went for practical over pretty. I was weeping on the inside for all the cute orphan chairs that could have come home with us. Instead, I shook Larry's hand and hoisted this sad soul into the back of the truck.

This weekend, BSD helped me give these pieces a makeover. With a little help from Amy Butler and Annie Selke, I think they are slowly squirming their way into my heart.

After pictures coming shortly.

Gonna Make a Change

There's something about March that makes me want to make a change. When I was teaching this was always the point in the year where I'd start to wonder what else I could do with my life. Luckily, spring break was always right around the corner to provide the energy I needed to go back and enjoy the rest of the school year. 

I'm not teaching now, and I still wonder daily what I'm going to be when I grow up, but the changes I feel like making now are to our house. 

We've lived in our house for over eight years yet we have done NOTHING with our master bedroom. We did get a new slick bed last year. Because our old one broke. A fact BSD is extremely proud of. For some odd reason. But, other than that, our bedroom is just a yucka space with not one picture on the walls. Very depressing. 

My plan was to go to town finally feathering our empty nest. That is, until last night. Last night, I started showing BSD tons of cool ideas for adding architectural interest to our master bedroom and he was nodding in agreement to them all. 

"Yep, I can do that." 

"No problem." 

"Sure! I can use my new router to do that."

And, then he finally turned off his UFC match, realized what he had gotten himself into, and decided he needed an out. Pronto!

"Hey, MAW. I'm willing to give up my leather chair if we can make the living room look more beachy." 

And, that is how we wound up staying up wayyyy past our bedtime, moving furniture around and around and around, drawing up a new floor plan, and finally deciding that all of the seating in there must go.

Anyone interested in a gently used leather club chair? 

New, official ASID, living room floor plan

Stay tuned...

Slide Show Sunday

Ok, so the new look is in process. Not in love with the new template, but it'll do for now. I am still hoping to create a banner on my own, but if not, I have the PhotoShop Master (PSM) waiting in the wings to bail me out. Thank you, Kathy! You're the best.

I've posted that one of my resolutions is to take part in Project365 where you take a picture every day. I've kept this up, and while most of the pictures are nothing more than snapshots, I hope that I'll see some nice improvement by year's end.

I'm thinking that Sundays will be designated, "Slide Show Sunday," and I'll go ahead and post my favorite pictures of the week. The plan is that by the end of the year I'll be able to turn these slide shows into a calendar for the grandparents without the hours of whining, crying and swearing it usually takes me. Because, as you can probably guess from my lack of organizational skills, they are lucky if they get a calendar by the end of January, if at all.

The Big Ballerina, what else, studying for a geography test...

The Little Ballerina taunting BB while she studies...

Job training for my new Mall Santa career

The Big Ballerina getting ready for a day of ice skating

(she had a full snow suit on hours before she needed to leave)

 Playing Barbies

(I love this one because she didn't know I was taking this picture. I took it through a little crack in the door.)

Only Four Shopping Days Left

It's really just laziness on my part. If I was an organized person, I would have written a list and stuck to it weeks ago. Everything would be done by now and I would be relaxing at home with the ballerinas baking Gingerbread men, watching the Christmas specials, and sipping hot cocoa. That's not how I roll, though. Nope, just can't do it. So, here I sit with only four days left until Christmas and I have no idea what I still need.

I'm not sure why, but I can't be that organized. When I do make a list and follow it, I usually feel pretty damn proud of myself. Most of the time, if I take the time to write out a list, I wind up leaving it at home and flying by the seat of my pants anyway so that feeling of accomplishment is rare.

I guess I'm just wired differently. By the time Christmas rolls around, I will have made 23 trips to Target (22 of them in search of the same item that I kept forgetting), 9 trips to Borders, 12 trips to Michael's, and wandered aimlessly through the mall for a good 10-12 hours without a clue what I needed.

I've tried to be more efficient with my time. Instead of hitting the gym, I've been counting these excessive outings as my cardio these past few weeks. I see those people walking the malls. That's what they call it. I figured I'd give it a whirl. Guess what? It's not working. Maybe I wasn't dressed properly? In all fairness, I wasn't wearing my Easy Striders, stretchy pants and my I Love My Beagle t-shirt so I wasn't giving it a real college try. Again, just pure laziness.

So, for the next few days, I will continue running walking around the stores guessing at what I still need, freaking out on the ballerinas when they tell me for the 24th time that they can't brush their teeth because they have no toothpaste (back to Target), and praying that come Christmas morning all the presents will have been remembered, wrapped and made their way under the tree.

And, then hopefully I'll be able to get back to this blogging gig more regularly again.

What Am I Going to Be When I Grow Up?

• professional organizer
• fitness expert
  
• thin
  

'Twas a Month Before Christmas...

'Twas a month before Christmas, as I was vacuuming the house,

Not a crumb was stirring, not even a louse.

Why am I cleaning? This just isn't fair.

Nobody's coming over. Why do I care?

You see, I have this fancy vacuum that cost more than my Mac,

"It's a Miele. It's worth it," said the salesman, after he had us smoke crack.

"It has the sucking power of one thousand whores."

"Buy it! You'll love it! You'll have sparkling floors."

But, today it is sucking, just not the right way,

The crumbs have decided that they rather stay.

I checked all the possibilities, the bag and the hose,

All clear, so instead I turn up my nose.

"I'm not going to vacuum. No way! Forget it!

This Miele is just an overpriced piece of sh--!"

I shove it in the laundry room, slamming the door,

so much for your promise of bright, shiny floors.

The morning goes by in a blur of web pages,

the animals continue to have dirty cages.

Just great! Freakin' wonderful! What could be keener?

For Christmas this year, I'll be getting a vacuum cleaner!

I grumble and complain to the laundry I'm folding,

"I'm going back to the store to give that salesman a scolding."

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but

A sassy My Little Pony flashing his rear! 

Will you forgive me, dear Miele? If I doubt you no more.

Will you forgive me, dear Miele? You really do suck like a whore.

The War on Worms

There are worms in my kitchen! Tiny cream-colored worms. BSD said they are maggots. OMG, how did this happen??!?!

I hesitated to even post about this because...

1.  It is, er, rather embarrassing, not to mention disgusting. 
2. Many of my new shiny, cyber friends barely know me and this confession may wind up scaring them off. 
3. Only just recently did LiLa blog about the lack of dignity on Facebook (who, by the way, just got their very first book deal, and are giving away a free Kindle in celebration). 

But, since this is not Facebook, and in the interest of saving you from the same ill fate, I decided it was OK to post about worms in my kitchen.

My first task was to figure out who to blame. I started with the dog.

"I think they're coming from Ruby's butt," I informed BSD. "You know how she scoots on her ass all the time. Yes, it's definitely Ruby's fault."

"They're not coming from Ruby's butt," said BSD protectively.

The next one to get thrown under the bus was the hermit crab we inherited from our babysitter who went off to college this fall.

"It must be Sammy then," I tried next. "You let him out of the cage yesterday for the first time since August, and he dropped the worms as he crawled around."

"Kim, he's a CRAB! Crabs don't have worms."

"No, but dogs do. See, they are from Ruby! I knew it!"

"They are not from Ruby. We already went through this," he said again, shaking his head at me. I'll never get rid of that bitch!

"Then, it's got to be the apples. I just bought a big tote of apples. The apples must have worms," I declared. "Oh no! I just bragged to Anne and Linda about the great deal I got on all these apples, and now they're going to go out and buy their own apples, and they'll wind up with worms in their kitchen too! They'll never forgive me!"

"That's it. The worms crawled out of the apples. That makes sense," BSD finally agreed, his precious pets off the hook.

"hmmm...let me check Google. I thought apple worms were green." I did a quick search and discovered they were not from the apples, and they were not maggots. Thank God!

No, they were moth worms that eat off grains and nuts.

NUTS?!? We just served peanuts on Saturday night for Poker Night. OMG! Our guests were munching on worms! But, the can was vacuum sealed with a tin pull top so that couldn't be. Where were they coming from?

I went into my pantry and pulled every last item out until I finally found my scapegoat...

Yep, an old expired box of Grape Nuts shoved way in the back of the cabinet. That gigundous picture of wheat must have had them pee'ing their pants in anticipation.

So, my friends, let this be a lesson to you all. Do NOT eat Grape Nuts. They will give you worms.

I spent the rest of my morning tossing any other box, jar or can of food that appeared suspect. When I was done, I had a splitting headache and this is all that survived the holocaust.

I'm still not sure what caused the headache. It was either the gallon of Clorox I inhaled or that gallon of Firefly that was full when I started. Either way, I'm up from my blackout nap now.

So...would anyone like to come over for dinner tonight? We're having chocolate covered Spam.

What? You don't like chocolate? You're in luck. We have vanilla too. See you at 10.

It's Time

Taking down the Christmas trimmings is always a chore. I'm starting to feel the same way about the Halloween decorations. Yes, it's a chore to put them away, but more so, I like having them up.

Maybe it's because I was born on Halloween, but looking at them everyday just makes me smile. I don't put up anything really scary. In fact, my giant spider is more friendly than frightening. The crows are more cute than creepy. For whatever reason though,  I feel cozy and content among these creatures.

BSD and I were just discussing when we should tackle this project...

Me: We should probably start thinking about taking down the Halloween decorations.

BSD: Yeah, that's a good idea. When do you want to do it?

Me: When we get the Christmas tree...

But, it's already November 5th, and the Jack-O-Lantern is starting to shrivel and mold. I guess we better get packing. We don't want to be THOSE PEOPLE who keep their Christmas lights up all year long.

 

  

No, that would just be batty!

Just ask the Little Ballerina.

If You Give a Girl a Table Saw...

If you give a girl a table saw, she will make a play kitchen out of an old entertainment center (see Sutton Grace Play Kitchen) which will lead another girl to start her own play kitchen business and auction one off for charity (see Charlotte Play Kitchens). Then, a mom with kids who are too old for a play kitchen will be inspired to turn an old potting bench into an artist's studio...

And, that is how it began....just like it did for Mouse and that infamous cookie.


BSD wanted to give this old potting bench away. It was just sitting on the side of the house rotting away. I had to think fast. The ballerinas were taking over his beloved tool bench with all of their "arts and projects" (as the big ballerina has called arts and crafts since she was 3) so I suggested we repurpose it into an artist studio for them a la Sutton Grace.

Knowing he would get his space back, BSD agreed. Since he has some time off from work this month, we were able to knock this project out in a few days. Here is what we did...

1. Cleared out a tiny space in the garage next to his tool bench so they can all work on projects together. (Most of that hanging stuff will be sold in a garage sale as we don't need it anymore.
2. Painted the wall behind it to freshen up the space.
3. Cut the bench legs down a bit to make it a   more kid friendly size.
4. Removed the upper slats and replaced them  with a piece of plywood covered with plexiglass for a smooth table top.
5. Painted the bench.
6. Hung shelves above the bench for supplies.
7. Made an "Arts & Projects" sign.
8. Added a hook in the corner for their smocks.
   
9. Added a child size bar stool.
   

And, now for the "After" picture....

You can't see the smock hanging in the left hand corner. We also haven't labeled the jars or tins yet. I almost bought a cool label maker, but the fonts weren't any fun so I am looking for cute label stickers that I can just write on. Plus, if I bought the label maker I would have to actually use it which would mean being organized, and that is something I am not.

I also think we should paint the bar stool, but BSD thinks that's too "Martha Stewart". What do you think? Paint it or not?

Martha may not let me work in her test kitchen, but maybe she has an opening in her craft department? I can't take the credit for DOING most of the work here as BSD thinks I'm too messy to paint (which is true), but I do a good job of coming up with ideas and supervising. Martha, do you have any openings for messy cheerleaders?