I'm Dreaming of an Organized Closet

This post is about some much needed organization. Yes, some much needed organization in a little baby closet that acts as our utility closet. Here it is in all of it's current glory...no sprucing it up or anything.

Beautiful, right?! So I feel like slowly I'm getting more and more organized in this house. Yes, the steps are incredibly small, but progress is progress. So I knew pretty easily that the next place that would be best to organize was this space.

Why, you ask? Besides the obvious of it being hideous. Well I can't tell you how many times I can't find the tape measure, or the laser level, or a screw driver, or anything in there. It's a pain. So my wheels started turning and then I went to Pinterest for some utility closet inspiration. Oh and I found some...feast your eyes on these beauties...

Link (BHG)

Link

Link (IHeart Organizing)

The above one is my favorite. I love the use of the drawers to conceal all of the small items, and that peg board. So functional and cute...

Link (IHeart Organizing)

So with using some of the above inspiration, here are some items I am looking at purchasing for our little space to bring about some major rehab...

1. Green bin - $1.49 (Ikea) - Thinking of using these to store light bulbs and extension cords...they should fit perfect on our shelves.

2. ClosetMaid door organizer - $16 (Amazon) - Since I don't really have wall space in our little closet, I thought over the door would be best to hang all of our brooms and mops.

3. Drawer Unit - $39.99 (Ikea) - I'm thinking this little guy will be perfect to store all of the little items, screws, nails, tape measure, laser level, screw drivers, and it has little slots for labeling...score.

It's only three items but I think they'll make a huge difference. We went to Ikea tonight and Rob laughed as I handed over some of my birthday money to purchase a few things. What can I say? The thought of better organization makes my heart soar more and more...okay, maybe that's an overstatement, but it does bring me some much appreciated sanity.

Oh yes, I'm talking to you, tape measure. Pretty soon you won't be able to hide from me ANYmore.

New Stuff and a Surprise Climb

Rob and I have lived in our house for almost 4 years. This is what I have to remind myself when I feel bad for buying a blanket or a toss pillow. (it's not Rob who minds, it's my frugal self) This room sat empty for 3 years...hence I get excited for the little purchases that are making this room more us. 

With that said, I recently purchased that yellow pillow in the background and this beautiful blanket. Both from Target. I wanted a lighter blanket for naps, since all we really had were fleece blankets. Fleece + Florida heat = no no. 

Target has these blankets/throws in a few different colors, orange, teal, yellow, navy and gray. Really like it though, it's got a great weight to it and feels like it'll last a long time. Oh and there's little Finn keeping an eye on the neighborhood birds.  

Speaking of lil Finn...while I was taking these pics the little nugget did something that gave me a lil shock. He climbed the couch. Yes, life as we know it, is over. 

He was quite proud. :))

Even climbed up the new pillow...lol. I know one day I'm gonna find him standing on the back of the couch.

We then went for a ride in Finn's car and headed out back. Our gardenia tree is blossoming and it smells amazing. The only sad thing is how quickly these blooms die...they don't last long.

Finn looking for birds while I was taking pics. Looking pretty relaxed in that car, huh?

And here's Jack sitting around waiting for Finn to throw him a stick.

Then we went back inside. There's so many moments that I keep trying to soak up as much as I can. I know with pictures and videos we can preserve memories, but it's something else when I just close my eyes in the moment, breathe in his sweet baby skin and thank God for this child.

Will be sharing some artwork on here soon...been spending lots of time painting and brainstorming. And Grey's Anatomy binge watching. :))

Hoping you all are well.

Reflections

Continuing with my get-on-it-already-and-hang-stuff kick, I finally hung up something over the piano. And it's not the peacock picture that's been leaning there for year(s?) now. 

My dear stepmotha gave us this mirror. I didn't know where to put it originally, but knew we'd make use of it. At first I was thinking of hanging it above the chair we used to take Finn's monthly pics (sniff, sniff) but then Rob suggested over the piano. And yet again, Rob shoots and scores another brilliant idea.

It's perfect for reflecting light from the windows on the opposite wall and highlighting the various touches of black contrast that goes around the room.

Those little green topiaries are my friends...found on clearance at precious Target.

I spy a little Finn and his sippy cup...going to town on that apple juice.

House projects aside, I'm not gonna lie, I've been a little down. Overall, just anxious for our schedules to change. I feel like a broken record. But it's been almost a year of Rob and I barely seeing each other for more than 15 minutes a day because of work schedules. He's understandably tired all the time from his incredibly long hours and our weekends feel too short. We still hold on to hope of getting out of this, but I can't say that there aren't days when it's harder to digest the circumstances than others.

So all that to say that during dinner with Finn tonight, I put on some music and this beautiful song of Louis Armstrong's came on and we had ourselves a little dancing session.

The combination of the music and giggles were absolutely refreshing to my soul. So thankful to God for moments like this that help me through the rough patches.

Maybe if Finn doesn't find it too weird (since it is a love song) maybe this can be on our short list of dance songs to dance at his wedding one day. Oh boy...why did I think that...hello tears. 

Nothing like being a mama to a baby boy. <3

You've Got Mail

Since we've been in this house we've had the problem of dumping our mail and the contents of Rob's pockets in the corner of our kitchen counter. With that in mind, I've always looked at this little space of wall by our front door and wanted to do something with it. You know, make it functional.

We don't have a foyer or anything, just this little corner. So this week I stumbled across this adorable mail organizer at Target. It was on sale and with an additional discount for a chip in the wood, it came out to $27.

I also figured it would be helpful for us to have a calendar as well to keep our weeks straight, as sometimes it can feel a lil hectic (as not shown on the calendar for this month, lol)...

I really like the look of it...great storage, a place for my umbrella and hats or jackets and it ties in with the wood color of the piano across the room.

It's one of those little updates that I know we'll appreciate for many days to come. Maybe me more than Rob. I can't stop staring at the dang corner, I'm lovin it so much. There's just something about function, eh?

I have a few more things to hang on the walls...hanging stuff is definitely my least favorite thing to do but I'm in the zone. So more to come. Hope you're enjoying your weekend, friends. :))

Christmas Party

For the past, I don't know, 4-5 years? My mom's house has been the place for an annual Christmas party. Well her house got a year off this year, so Rob and I decided to put together a little gathering. 

And you know what the best thing is about having a party? It makes you clean every nook and cranny of the house (well except for the secret junk rooms that hold all the mess). So before friends and family started to arrive I ran around the house real quick and took some pics. 

I've been eyeballing those topiaries (plant looking things) on the piano for quite some time now at Target, and they were on clearance for 50% off, mmm...clearance.

But overall I used what we had for decor and just stretched it as far as I could. It's amazing what you can do with leftover ornaments, berries and lights.

The angle I took this picture is weird, but it shows I just piled some lights in these tin pails (that are from my baby shower...I heard they were only $3 or so at Home Depot)...and put some berries around em.

Then I just placed leftover red ornaments throughout the house...

Ah, that blank wall above the couch...I'll get to you someday...

I used our shelves to hold the plates, cups, silverware...yeah, I'm really enjoying these shelves. And then I used some of our lovely Christmas cards received to decorate as well.

Another thing I did to get ready for the party is I raided my mom's attic. I only grabbed the berries and that sweet little ornament tree in the pic below, but it all definitely helped. And also lent a hand in me not feeling the need to purchase anything.

Then using those tin pails mentioned above I balled up some cloth or paper to fill the bottom of the pail, then piled some ornaments. Then just cut a few pieces of our Christmas tree and stuck it in there. So glad I didn't buy stuff to fill these, super easy but I thought they turned out cute...

I didn't take many pictures during the party, just grabbed a few...

One sleepy baby ready for bed...

We made chili and everyone brought a dessert or appetizer to share. Such a great night indeed.

I can't believe that Christmas is in 2 days. Fastest. year. ever.

Christmas Time Is Here

Although we did have some time to relax, a lot of the Thanksgiving weekend was heavy on the decorating side. We got our tree...got her standing...then I threw some lights and ornaments on her (if only it were that easy)...decorated our mantel and then that's pretty much it for decorating. I tend to reach a peak when it comes to Christmas decorating...maybe many of you do the same...but I'll have this energy to do it all and then slowly it starts to fade and I better hurry up and finish all I can before that energy is gone. 

So while the motivation was pumping on Friday, we set out to get our tree...

Christmas tree shopping in a Lowes parking lot...totally idyllic right? ;)

  

It's an ongoing joke of Rob's love for Christmas tree shopping...lol...whatever Rob, you know you love it!

Sweet boys...

We stopped by Target and got Finn a baby's first ornament (yeah, I was suckered by the elephant cuteness) and a stocking as well.

He approved. :))

The tree-standing-up experience was so much easier this year (last year it fell multiple times...Rob loved that experience). And I can't remember if our previous trees had the wrappings around it, but either way, this made it so much easier. Finn got to watch from his pack and play while we had some Christmas Pandora playing.

Finally got around to decorating it the next day or so while Finn napped. When he woke we showed him the tree and asked him where he wanted to hang his ornament. (gah, he looks so big to me in this pic!)

He pointed at a spot on the tree so I placed his ornament there. :)

Here she is from far away. Our first large tree...we started out with the table top ones, then to the 5-6 footers, and now 7-8. Oh and I can't express how excited I am to finally place the tree in our front window now that we have furniture in this room. I'm sure I've mentioned that to Rob about a billion times, lol. I'm known to repeat things that I'm excited/happy about.

My current favorite decorating combination for our tree. White glass ornaments along with limey green ones and pine cones. Makes me feel like I'm in Aspen or something.

The previous day I had decorated our fireplace mantel, once again while Finn was napping. I brought him out from his nap and he was loving those lights. Fuzzy shot, but love my sweet boy seeing Christmas in our house for the first time...still sometimes can't believe he's ours. <3

And yesterday while Rob was getting some sleep in for work, Finn was getting antsy in his room so we went into the living room to chill in the pack and play. I put on Polar Express and started to work on an art piece for our kitchen shelves while the boy played for a little bit.

Three stockings on the mantel...love.

I can't believe December is here. I'll be sharing a post this week of my adventures with this art piece for the kitchen. Let's just say third try is a charm. Wowzers, did I almost throw in the towel on this one. Happy Christmas season everyone!