Long Time No Blog

By Amy

It seems like my blogs lately have a theme. I have a big project going or I'm out of town and then I'm overwhelmed and it takes forever to catch up. So here is another blog like all the rest! I made it back from Arizona and now I'm overwhelmed and behind. Story of my life! Arizona was crazy busy. So busy in fact that I didn't take any pictures. Well I think I took four. Here they are. The view from my room.....

And a mirror that I almost tried to put in my suitcase because I love it so much.

I spent my days serving, washing, helping, offering and eating and drinking. Hello five pounds I didn't need! I did get a break on Saturday and was treated to a massage and pedicure/manicure. Awww....loved it. I also went shopping with the ladies one day and in between carrying bags and running back and forth to the car with purchases, I was bought many beautiful things. BEST BOSS EVER.



These aren't all mine. I take the bosses purchases home too so she doesn't have to pack them up.

So that is my Arizona trip in a nutshell. I have alot more things to blog. But not tonight. At this rate my sister's blog tally to be more then mine. And that's ok with me!

First Snow

by Ang

It snowed for the first time this winter on Thursday. It was a VERY light dusting...and it was gone within 2 hours or so.

I snapped a picture of the cute little birdies I have on one of our tables out back. They look cold!

MISSION: Organization (Project 2)

by Ang

On to Project #2! My pantry organization project was a success and I'm proud to say I've kept it organized! (I realize it's only been about a week, but still).

My next priority was my desk. We have an office here at home, but it's my husband's office (he works from home). When I moved in, there was no room for my desk in his office. And I wanted to have my own desk so I could have a place to study, pay bills, BLOG, etc. So we designated a corner of our living room for my 'office'. Our living room is long and narrow, so it worked out just fine. My desk sits right by the patio doors so it's nice and light. And it doesn't feel like I'm right in the living room either. It's sort of on it's own.

BUT it is still technically part of our living room and our living room is visible from the kitchen, dining room and entry way (our house is very open). And I'm sad to show you had bad I let it get:

Aack! It's awful. I don't even see my laptop anywhere. And look at the piles and piles of....stuff!

The first thing I did was clear everything off and put it on the floor. And then I went through every sheet of paper, every folder, every miscellaneous item and divided it: keep (to file), put away, shred, throw away. This was obviously the most time consuming part. Once I went through everything (my 'throw away' pile was the largest!), I then went through my existing files. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a 'before' picture of the files in the cabinet.

This is the after picture of my files:

Okay, so this may not look like much. But I have to work with what I have. My desk has a small cabinet and it's not an actual file cabinet. So a few months back I bought a small portable file case (the gray thing with the hole) for my hanging files. The files you see on top of that are larger files that contain too much paperwork for a standard hanging file folder:

And everything on the left of the gray case are extra folders, envelopes, etc.

Now if you have a large desk or a large office with room for lots of hanging files, than that's obviously the way to go. But I don't. Plus, I believe that the more space you have, the more items you keep. I went through all of my files and got almost an entire trash bag full of files I don't need anymore. I simply don't have the room to keep them! I have a stash of the plastic folders that will hold a LOT of stuff. I just sorted everything down, got out the label maker and went to town!

It works for me. You don't need a label maker or fancy folders or anything. The most important thing is go through your files on a regular basis and get rid of what you don't need. With so many things available online, you don't need to keep a copy of your electric bill from a year ago. Or even six months ago. In fact, I just keep the most recent bill on a lot of our statements. It has saved a lot of space!

After I got the files taken care of, the rest was a breeze. I just had to put pens, clips, etc. back where they belonged.

I feel so much better with this project done and out of the way. I'm going to try my best to keep up with my filing and purging!

Before:

After:

Update

By Amy

I had good intentions of blogging about a project I've been working on. It's a scrapbook of my Grandma's keepsakes. However time is getting away from me. I'm leaving on Tuesday with the boss for Arizona. So I'm trying to get my house in order as well as dinners lined up so my family won't starve while I'm gone. So the scrapbook blog will just have to wait. I may have time to blog while I'm in Scottsdale. So I hope to see you then!

MISSION: Organization (Project 1)

by Ang

I love to organize; I’ve blogged about it before. I think everything should have a place. I’ve lived in my current home with my husband now for 7 months. After I moved in, I rearranged a few things, but for the most part I just put things away for the sake of putting them away. There wasn’t a lot of rhyme or reason to, well, anything. But it was finally time.

I made a rather large list of things I want to go through and get organized in our home, and I’ll be blogging about it on the way. For those of you who find this boring (and trust me, I know you’re out there!), you can skip these posts. But I know there are others out there who may want to get organized themselves and just need that little extra push or some motivation. If that’s you…keep reading!

The first project I tackled is part of our kitchen. Notice I said ‘part’. This is the first rule in organizing: 1. Do not take on more than you can finish in one setting. This is important. There is nothing more frustrating than starting a project and having to leave it mid-way because you ran out of time. And then it sits there….and sits there for who knows how long. It’s best to make sure you have enough time to finish what you started.

I chose the kitchen first because it was the room that was driving me the most nuts. On the outside, it looked fine. But if you opened the cabinets, well that was a whole other story. The last straw was when we made a trip to Costco and bought a box of individual bags of chips and we had no room for them. They ended up on top of our cabinets (you know the space between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling?) That was it. I was ready to do something. I was NOT okay with chips on my cabinet tops.

Step #2: Plan ahead. You don’t want to be right in the middle of your project and realize that you don’t have the tools you need to finish. Before I tackled this project I thought about how I wanted it to look and how I wanted it to function. Once you’ve decided what you want, get what you need. If you already have everything – great! If not, it’s time to shop.

I went to Ross and got all of these for $20 total:

I highly recommend if you tackle any kind of a kitchen organization project to check out stores like Ross, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s for kitchen items. They are way cheaper than even Wal-Mart (and the quality is better too).

I bought more canisters, because I hate boxes and bags. Boxes and bags take up too much space and they are ugly. Not that everything in the kitchen has to be pretty, but one of my pet peeves is when I see the tops of refrigerators covered with cereal boxes, chip bags, etc. If you’re going to have your food set out and not in cabinets, at least make it look a little better. I like having items that we eat every day more easily at our fingertips, so I think it’s fine to leave them out on the counter….but not in their original box.

We keep all of our food in two cabinets and a long pantry-type cabinet. To say that it was disorganized was a total understatement. See?


Just awful. See my hand holding back the items in our top cabinet? I had to do that because they would fall out. Every time we would open that cabinet, my collection of reusable grocery bags would come tumbling out. Not the best system.

I tackled one cabinet at a time, the first being the long pantry. It was the worst. I took everything out first. This brings me to step 3: Clean as you go. Because really, when else are you going to remove everything from your cabinets, shelves, closets, etc.? Only when you’re cleaning them out. I wiped down the shelves, the back, the sides, everything. I worked from the bottom up. Thankfully, our shelves in this cabinet are adjustable. The pet food stayed at the bottom. Then I looked at all of my items and grouped them together (cereals together, pasta, sides, etc.). I had originally started doing this because it’s the obvious thing to do, but then I ran out of room and would just put new things wherever I could find the space, thus leading to the total breakdown of the cabinets.

Cereal came next, along with the almonds (now in their nice new airtight container). Before and after pics:

Then pasta and sides. Before and after pics:

This is where I switched it up a bit. Before, the canned goods were all in a different cabinet. It didn’t work well, because the shelf was a lot smaller. So I moved them over here. Before and after pics:

And then I switched it up some more. We keep all of our medicine, vitamins, etc. in the kitchen. It works for us. But they were also in another smaller cabinet. So I moved those to the top shelf in our pantry. Before and after:

And then came the dreaded top shelf safety hazard. I removed all of the bags, threw out the FIVE Albuquerque phone books (why did we have five?) and a couple other things that didn’t belong in the kitchen. It became the new home for my spices, oils and stock. For the before picture, see the 'hand' picture above. Here's the after:

I folded the bags and put them in an empty drawer.

Next I did the cabinet that previously held our baking supplies, medicine, and other miscellaneous items. I did the top shelf first. The baking supplies stayed there, but instead of open bags and white powder all over the shelf, it now looks a lot better. Before and after:

Now I have almost the entire bottom shelf reserved for my tea. I think that gives me reason to buy some more…right?

Now onto the last cabinet. This one was bad too. It was just a mix of stuff. It still kind of is, but it’s much more organized now. I wanted this cabinet to be our snack/sandwich cabinet. For chips, peanut butter, crackers, anything snack type. And that’s what it became! Before and after:

This whole project took me 3 hours. Not bad considering the time it will save me when I’m cooking, putting away groceries, trying to find that extra bottle of salad dressing that I KNEW I had bought last week, etc.

And I really didn’t get rid of much. Maybe one (Target sized) plastic bag full. And that’s it. It was all reorganizing and putting things where they made sense. For example, I don’t bake often, which is why the flour and sugar are on the high shelf. This may seem obvious to most, but some people have a really hard time organizing. I work with a woman who wants me to come over and help her get organized because she really doesn’t have any clue how to do it.

The fourth and final rule of organizing is take before and after pictures! It will really help you to stay motivated to tackle the next project. You can even blog about it if you want. :)


So you can call me a geek (my husband does, but lovingly), but I’m okay with it. This is one thing I can cross off of my ‘To Organize’ list. I’m going to work very hard to keep it looking as good as it does now!

Next up: My desk

Her Momma's Gonna Kill Me

By Amy

This last weekend I dropped off the husband and firstborn at the football game and me and the little kid went to my mom and dads. And guess who else was there?

The poor sweetie had a fever of a 101. You would never have known it though. Except for the runny nose and droopy eyes. Im posting the next pictures at my own risk. When she came to us her hair was as smooth and shiny as goldilocks. And of course her clothes were clean. But then she played hard. And ate. And I was snapping away. And I'm sorry Miss A's mommy, but I still have to post these. (:

Dirty shirt. Messy Hair. Still adorable.

Another Random Post

By Amy

I thought I would copy my sister with a random post. Because I don't have anything substancial to share with you.

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This picture is for my mom. It's proof that I can make good cookies. My mom will sing praises about me high and low but she will be the first to admit that I fall short in the cookie department. I'm trying to work on it. It makes me crazy that the majority of the cookies I make are no good. This batch turned out great.

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I watched a little girl get her ears pierced a couple days ago. She looked about my age when I got mine done. I was in second grade. I loved watching her little face go from terror to excitement every other second. She did great and didn't cry. I told my youngest who was with me that it kind of makes me sad that i'll never have a little girl to take to get her ears pierced. My boy said to me, "Mom I'll get my ears pierced if you want to." What a sweet heart. But no thanks.

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It's coming. Winter that is. Can't you see it?

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Hello Ginger girl. You are my sunshine.

A little sleepy?




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I deep cleaned my kitchen the other day. I threw out four garbage sacks full of junk. Just look at all these old, expired spices. Gone.

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We lit a fire tonight. I think I'll go sit by it. Have a great weekend!

Random

by Ang

*I got a new toy. My iPod was about to die (I was having to reset it every hour, and I listen to it pretty much all day at work). So my husband bought me a new 6th generation Nano. It’s so cute! You shake it to shuffle songs. I love Apple.


*My car is officially mine. No more car payments. I even got it registered and have a shiny new New Mexico license plate on it. Exciting! Now that it’s paid for, I’m sure it will break down.

*I miss my family. My sister’s post (a few below) made me cry. Look at how big my nephews are getting. And look how big my niece is getting!

*My husband is a prince. I can’t say it enough. He is the best person I know.

*My piles of laundry are out of control

*I love football season

*Since my post about our dog’s toys, I have bought two more. I seriously have a problem. He needed a pig though!

(the pig does have another arm, you just can't see it)


*The 'Books Are Fun' people came to my workplace yesterday. It's like a traveling bookstore (for those of you that aren't familiar) that sells books for 1/2 price. Sigh. It's a weakness. However, I only bought one book:

I really, really want to learn how to knit the cable stitch:

However, the skill says 'Intermediate' and I'm not quite there yet. But when I am, I'll be prepared.

*And finally, I'll leave you with a cute kitty picture. This is our largest cat in our smallest sink (in the guest bathroom):

Yes, I was tempted to turn on the water. No, I did not.