Rock out!

Kyrie recently went to a birthday party for one of her friends that had a rock star type of theme. Derk got Kyrie this shirt last year for Christmas, and it was perfect to wear to the party. After she got dressed, she asked me to do "something cool" for her hair. What I came up with definitely isn't rocker material, but I still thought it still was in the "something cool" category! ;-)

Let there be light!

One of the drawbacks to our house is that we don't get much natural light. There's the window in the kitchen that faces west, and then Asher's bedroom window faces east. Those 2 rooms get great light. The rest of the rooms face either north or south, so they are a lot darker than I'd like. Our family room is one of the worst because it only has the light from the ceiling fan. I've been dying to buy lamps for that room ever since we moved in (May 2009!), but it wasn't until a few days ago that I finally found exactly what I wanted at a price that didn't make me cry. I found the lamps at Walmart, of all places, and it came in a box that had 4 lamps for a great price. I used 2 of them in the family room and the other 2 in our bedroom.

I really can't believe the difference that simply adding 2 lamps makes in our family room! It's so much more warm and has a much homier (is that a word?) feel to it. I also found a cute little table on Craigslist for $15, which was the perfect spot for one of the lamps in the family room. And it gave me an excuse to go shopping for a couple more accessories! ;-) I found the little basket and the metal decoration picture/thingy (technical term there) at a local store here for about $11 total!

Like I mentioned, I put 2 of the lamps in our bedroom. I don't have any pictures of that yet because our room is still a work in progress. But I did take one of the lamps we used previously and gave it a little makeover to use in Bri's room! The other one will receive the same treatment and will go in Kyrie's room, but I didn't have the right color spray paint for hers at the time (I already had the pink for Bri's room from another project). It's not quite done yet. These lamps we've had for at least 4 years now, so the shades are looking a little sorry. I have plans to recover the shade, but I haven't had a chance to go look for fabric yet. Here's the progress so far, though!

Before:

After!:

Kitchen teaser

I know it's taking a LONG time for me to post the kitchen reveal pictures, but I'm still not quite finished. Here's a little teaser, though! ;-) My goal is to show the big reveal next week!

Laundry room love

After organizing the pantry, I felt like I needed to do something about our laundry room. When we moved in, I had Derk build me a shelf above the washer and dryer, and it's always been a thorn in my side. It just constantly looked cluttered, and it was a place where people (cough*DERK*cough) would randomly shove things they were too busy (*cough*lazy*cough) to put away. ;-) I was doing a little deep cleaning/rearranging on a few rooms in the house (stay tuned!), and I found some baskets I didn't need any more. Then I realized they would be perfect additions to the laundry room. The baskets hold all the random clutter -- iron, starch spray, dryer sheets, extra cleaning products, etc. Some of the cleaning products were a teeny bit too tall for the basket, but I don't really care. It's all still hidden very nicely and looks so much more clean. I can finally breathe a sigh of non-cluttered-relief when I walk in there! :-)

Next project for this space will be PAINT!
And as usual, when painting is involved, don't mention this to Derk! ;-)

Homework for Asher

He's officially initiated into kindergarten -- he had his first night of homework tonight! Oh, to be in kindergarten again where homework is coloring! :-)

Story Time

Today I was able to take Cambria to the library for story time! She'd never been before. When we were homeschooling, we couldn't go because Kyrie and Asher were too old. Now that they're both in school, we've been waiting anxiously for the chance to go. The library stopped doing story time over the summer, and it finally started up again this week. It was so fun! We read 3 books about monsters, then we sang some songs, did a craft where the kids made their own monsters, then they served a little snack. It was put together so well, and the lady they had doing the story time was fabulous. Bri can't wait to go back next week!

You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures. I didn't want to be pegged as the totally weird mom who takes her DSLR to story time, so I just took my little point-and-shoot... ;-)

Pantry overhaul

Like I said in my last blog post, I came across a blog that totally inspired me. The blog is titled Prepared, Not Scared, and it was this post in particular that got the wheels in my head turnin'. There are still a few random containers I want to purchase, but for the most part, it's done! And I LOVE it! Behold!!

And 2 hours, a label maker, and some new baskets/containers later...

The first step was to kick those cats OUT! We've had their food/water and litter in there because we didn't have another place for it. But after living for the past year being greeted by the smell of the litter box every time we go into the pantry, we decided the cats could just DEAL with their litter box being moved to the garage. After that, the next item of business was to empty the entire pantry. Whew, that was quite a process! Then we gave all the shelves a thorough wipe down before loading everything back in.

I found some of the containers at Goodwill. The ones with the yellow lids I've had for a while and found at Sam's Club. They hold all my flours and sugars. The stackable containers hold onions, garlic, fruit, snacks, and bagels. My favorite storage solution is something I came up with all on my own. I have tons of seasoning packets (taco/fajita seasoning, gravy mixes, etc), and I was looking for something to store them in. I had an idea in my head but couldn't find anything that was exactly right. As I was cleaning the kitchen a few days later, I saw it! The perfect solution! An ice cube bin:

It holds and hides them all perfectly! It was exactly the shape/size I was looking for! I didn't think to look in that section of the store! Giddy, I say. Giddy!

Now you know what a total dork I am! But if I have to be a dork, at least I'm a dork with a totally organized pantry! ;-)