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A Mini Makeover

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When Amanda got home from college a few weeks ago I was so excited! We hadn’t seen her in more than two months which is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing her in her whole life- and I don’t really like it. We prepared for her arrival by moving Chloe and Halle back into the same room and gave Amanda her old room back. But I wasn’t prepared for how.much.stuff. she has. I mean, she’s the host of RAW TV and she has the shoes to prove it! This little rancher is just not able to hold the amount of things that 3 adults and 2 kids have. So we purged. And I was a bit of a wreck. I have handled the lack of space pretty well and when confronted with the question (always from Travis), “Where are we going to put it?” my answer is always, “I’ll find a place.” And I have to say that I’m pretty good at it. Now, the place I find for said item might drive Travis crazy and he might move it somewhere else (ahem) but a place is always found.

Except this time. Apparently I’m only good at finding spots for one thing at a time. Like the drink dispenser I *had* to have for Mother’s Day.

When I’m trying to find a space for just one thing it’s easy. At the very worst I can just get rid of something that I’m not using anymore. This time though we had a truck load of things to find a spot for. Plus we couldn’t continue to use one dresser for Chloe and Halle. That was possible when we first moved in and Chloe was 5 and Halle wasn’t quite 2 yet. They’ve gotten bigger and so have their clothes so their room was just awful. Trav’s solution was to give Chloe the dresser he’d been using which made her very, very happy. Me? Not so much. It meant that Trav’s clothes were in piles and shoved in plastic bins. That was the time that I broke down and sobbed on his shoulder…at 1 am.

We’d put off making any type of furniture purchase because we couldn’t really agree on what we wanted. We finally decided to repurpose the armoire that had been housing the TV in the living room and use it in our room for Trav’s clothes- for a couple of reasons. First of all, it wasn’t meant to be a TV cabinet so the doors didn’t retract in and you couldn’t see the TV from some seating spots in the living room. In fact, we’d taken the doors off at Thanksgiving when Shane and Angie and the kids stayed with us and never put them back because it was easier to watch TV. Secondly, the armoire matches the rest of our bedroom furniture and while I don’t like the finish, it at least brings some cohesiveness to the bedroom. It also gave Travis a lot more space for his clothes than he had originally.

Then each of us had to give a little. I wanted a fancy piece of furniture that would hold up for the long haul so we wouldn’t be looking for another media cabinet in a couple of years. Travis wanted something more modern that would eventually hold a flat screen (we don’t have one now). After I measured the armoire and how it fit in the room I realized that what we really needed would be less than 50 inches wide and put my furniture piece out of the running. The one Travis wanted didn’t have enough storage and I didn’t want to have to store the metal bracket that came with it until we get a flat screen. So we headed off to Target to see if there was something suitable that would also not break the bank.

First we saw a traditional-ish console with two drawers and an espresso finish.

I’m typically a fan of the espresso finish but since we have a chocolate brown sofa, a brown dog crate, a brown-ish chair, and the walls are beige I just wasn’t feelin’ it. The drawers didn’t seem strong enough to store much of anything and we had to have room for all of this…

Yes, we still have VHS tapes. Why? It’s mostly because if I got rid of those tapes it would be like throwing Amanda’s childhood in the trash can. I’m weirdly sentimental like that. Plus some of them are really good movies that I like having and don’t want to replace right now. Swiss Family Robinson, Alice in Wonderland (Disney), Toy Story…you get the idea.

The next one was too black…

These were too black and too much glass (we didn’t want any glass because of the kids and Daisy)…

Too traditional…

This little cabinet was fabulous though and I’d love to find a place for it… it’s not for a TV though. Bummer.

Finally we chose this…it’s the only one I didn’t get a picture of (hangs head in shame).

We chose it because we already have a mission style side table in the living room so the finishes look nice together plus it has sliding doors instead of drawers and the storage space is larger. There’s no glass and it will accommodate a flat screen in the future.

I do have pictures of the assembly process though.

Aren’t they cute?

Travis is calling out the parts list to Chloe who keeps track of all of the nuts, bolts, doodads, thingamajigs, and whatsits. The assembly was pretty easy and I was happy that a lot of the cabinet is actually wood rather than completely particle board. Not bad for $139.

Stay tuned because next we paint…

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Summer Solstice

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Today on this first day of summer I’m thinking about many beautiful things.

Making blueberry lime tea for Travis- it’s his favorite.

Summer nights spent on the patio, talking and laughing with our kids.

Sunflowers in bloom.

Afternoons at the pool.

And color….

BHG.com

I’m finding that more and more my eyes want bright pops of color rather than the blues I normally lean towards.

Those are my thoughts for today. Well, at least the interesting ones. The rest of my thoughts are focused on de-cluttering my whole house. I’ve actually entertained thoughts of renting a dumpster and tossing half of our belongings into it. We used to move so often that once a year we got rid of things we didn’t need. We’re coming close to 6 years in this house and we need to purge in a big way. This afternoon, Amanda asked me about getting rid of some magazines and I said, “Just put them in the recycling bag, don’t even show them to me”. I get too attached, magazines are full of too many good ideas that I’ll never, ever get to so it’s best to toss them.

So I guess I’ll add a de-cluttered house to my list of things to enjoy this summer. I just wish it wasn’t such hard work.

 

Taking My Own Advice

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My last post gave me some inspiration to tackle two things that drive me crazy here at the Button Casa. The kitchen island and next to the microwave.

I cleaned this up a lot before I took a picture of the mess. Usually the fruit basket has a newspaper, bills,  hand cream, a pack of gum or various other odds and ends. I couldn’t show you that. So here is an example what a mess on the kitchen island might look like if you walked into our kitchen.

Frustration number 2 is next to the microwave. We live in a 1,000 sq. ft. rancher style home so every bit of space is used to store something. Or shove something when we don’t know where to put it. Which happens a lot, I’m not gonna lie.

I didn’t edit this picture first. That Indiana Jones movie has been there for at least two weeks waiting for me to donate it to the library. Whenever we have people over I frantically try to find a place to hide this stuff.

The girls and I headed out to Target yesterday to find supplies to organize just these two spots. I’ve been in this position before and have tried to tackle every out of order thing at once. That usually leaves me with closets emptied and piles of things everywhere then I run out of steam and shove it back into the closet. However, once we got to Target  I was totally distracted by aisles and aisles of clearance merchandise! It’s a sickness I tell ‘ya.

The white isle. Crisp, clean and goes with everything.  I had a $25 dollar gift card that I’d gotten for Christmas with me, it was my lucky day. I was tempted by this cake stand but the top was a little crooked and I’ve already given away a slightly crooked cake plate so I passed.

I snagged this napkin holder though. It wasn’t on clearance but I was looking for one because we usually have a pile of napkins sitting on the island. Travis puts them there so we won’t grab a paper towel every time we need a napkin but are too lazy to look under the china cabinet to get one.

Then it was on to stationery. I had something simple and colorful in mind and wasn’t disappointed. It’s Target after all.

All of the grey, black and industrial choices were out. I’m not a fan of grey. I’ll catch the next trend color. Then my little Vanna White helped me find what I was looking for. She totally matches the office supplies…super cute. I could say I planned it but I didn’t. I was actually looking for something in a robin’s egg blue which they didn’t have.

I chose the apple green trey and magazine file for $4.99 each. They’re very cute, functional and budget friendly. I love it when a plan comes together.

I also chose this blue and white bowl, on clearance for $7.98. It was on an end cap in stationery, which seemed like an odd spot for it,  and I had a gift card. Lucky me.

It’s hard to tell how big it is in this picture. It’s serving bowl size and I can’t wait to take a summer salad in it to a party. My mom has the matching coffee mugs, they’re on clearance too, they also have platters and dinner ware all on clearance. If you’ve had your eye on dishes and such at Target you should check to see if it’s on sale because the whole isle had clearance stickers. It’s dangerous I tell ‘ya.

See?

I’ve sort of wanted to be a temporary redhead for quite a while and I found this yesterday that’s good for 28 washes. I have a question though. Will it actually wash out? Halle was very upset because she wants us to continue to have the same hair color. I figure if I hate it then I can just wash my hair 28 times in a day.  Some advice would be helpful…anyone?

Ahem, back to organizing. I get distracted easily. Here’s my plan for the tray. The checkbook, calculator, random mail that Travis might need to see like cable offers and whatnot, coupons we get in the mail and my phone charger that I have a terrible time keeping track of. All neatly in a tray. Now I need a plan for it to stay neatly in the tray. Baby steps, folks.

And the magazine file, I love this thing. One day I’m going to have built in shelves and I’ll have a place for all of the magazine hoarding I do. I love magazines and I hate getting rid of them. For now though it holds bills and mail nicely.

Now that space is neat and uncluttered and it only took a few minutes. I’m so happy to have done this without adding on a room or taking over one of the kid’s bedrooms for office space. So how about you? Do you have any small plans to make your life easier? I’d love to hear them.