Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and celebrates the real reason for Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Decorating Has Begun!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We spent the week on the coast in a water front house with our whole family and it was our first vacation this year and I must say it was NICE. It has taken me a couple of days to readjust to being home again. It's funny. I haven't had the motivation to start putting Christmas decorations up until tonight. It took a lot for me to muster up the energy but it has begun! Here is a little preview!

I have recently inherited a couple of my Nana's house flags and so I'm putting them to good use. They are much more special because she picked them out. I think it's going to be a process this year to get the house all dressed up for Christmas. Have you been decorating yet? If you're all done, congrats!

Packing Lunches - Made Easier

What's up? It is coooold here! Burrrr! Does this make you hungry? Just a little organizational help with packing lunches here to save you some time! I used to despise packing lunches. Well I'm still not crazy about doing it but this drawer sure helps! Finally I made up a snack drawer full of lunch snacks for packing lunches for the kids. So instead of having to go into the pantry and find things out of separate boxes I have pre-made containers of cookies plus crackers, chips, you name it. It has been helping cut down time in the lunch packing department! Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

 

 

 

Post Halloween

Lots has been going on and I haven't been able to post. Today I pulled the Halloween decorations down and I didn't want to! They are still on the dining room table to be put away. We had a good Halloween but just like everything else it came and went FASSST!

Here was the mantel this year. I tend to change it up a little every year.

 

Just like with summer ending, I didn't want the spooky fun month of October to end! I've kinda been in denial plus my father-in-law has never seen our house decorated for Halloween so I left it up for over a week after for him to view! Can you believe I saw a house already decorated for Christmas??? Holy moly! What do you think about Christmas decorations already???

Table Top Decor From Dollar Tree

Halloween is almost here and the kids are talking about what they want to be this year. Unlike every other year they haven't decided yet. The house has been all decked since the beginning of October and so that part is fun and done!

 

Here is our kitchen table. I didn't do anything fancy. I really wanted to keep it cute for the kids. Have you been to Dollar Tree lately? They have some of the cutest Halloween decorations! I picked up the chair covers and felt pumpkins and spider webs which I used as place mats. The table isn't totally balanced since it has the pumpkin and spider web place mats but I thought it worked!

 

If I had thought about it I would have covered the light fixture with black shades and hung spiders from it. My kids don't like spiders though so I have to be careful! What have you done to spruce up for Halloween?

 

 

Organizing to Treat My Boots Better

Boots - I love boots in the winter time but I haven't been treating my boots the greatest. See the Before picture and how sad they were. They were all limp and the leather could easily be damaged by storing them this way. Saw this on Pinterest and LOVE!

 

 

The After picture shows them happily standing! This way hopefully the leather won't wear and age as badly.

 

 

My solution was to cut a pool noodle and stuff it in each boot to hold them up!

 

I didn't show a picture of me cutting the noodle but I used a bread knife and it worked really well!

 

Check it out again - Before and After the pool noodle!

 

Hope you have a great start of a new week.

Super Simple Star Wars Birthday Party Favor

What is new with you? For my son's birthday this year he wanted Star Wars. His party was very simple without a lot of fluff this year because I usually go all out and wear myself down. I don't think he even noticed it was simpler!

 

Here is the simplest party favor I could come up with. I found these white tumblers at Dollar Tree. I think 4 came in a pack. I made 12. I found a silhouette of Darth Vader and simply free-handed the shape on vinyl and cut with scissors. I applied the vinyl stickers to the cups and there you have it.

 

This post just reminded me I think I forgot a couple September Birthdays this year. Happy Birthday to my friends with September Birthdays! :-) Hope all is well!

 

 

Sanitize A Water Gun For Winter

Are you ready for summer to be over??? I've been in denial that summer is over. It's hot here in the afternoons and this is when the pool should be open but college and high school lifeguards have gone back to school and I've gotta get over it! It's official though. Summer is over and I have got to come to grips! Seriously!

So when I decided to finally deal with it and clean out the pool bag, I opened the super soaker water guns my children frequently used and took a sniff and got a whiff, let me tell you. Disgusting! What was I thinking?!?! Well it dawned on me I needed to clean those suckers out for the summer or we'd have to toss them.

Saving money doesn't include throwing away a perfectly good toy. We love the super soakers so I had to sanitize to winterize!

 

I filled the water guns with cold water and added several drops of tea tree oil to sanitize the guns.

 

I let the water guns sit in the sink for a little while and then sprayed some of the water out and finally poured the rest out the back end.

 

The super soakers are now clean and ready to use again next summer.

They smell so much better too! 

 

 

 

Fixtures and Features and Doors Rehung!

Guess what I did last weekend? I was so pumped and wanted to tell you but came down with strep which turned into pneumonia and here I am done with antibiotics, a steroid shot and an inhaler, yada yada. You catch the drift. Still not 100%.

Anyway this project was before I got ill. First off let me remind you that we live in an older home which doesn't have all the latest and greatest fixtures and features that I adore(not really adore but you know what I mean!) so we are slowly replacing and updating things. So it came with the aged brass door knobs, hinges and fixtures.

I changed out all the interior doors first(over a year ago). I did the exterior door knobs and hinges and we quickly discovered the hinges weren't very good hinges. The hinges were adjustable whatever that means. All I know is they did a horrible job at holding the doors up. They had these little nuts on the top and bottom of the hinges that kept falling off causing the doors to shift and not close. It took a lot of lifting and pulling to close the doors and lock them tightly.

What I was so pumped about was that I changed out the hinges on these doors by myself. I did all the interior doors, which wasn't a big deal because they were light weight. For those I simply removed a hinge, replaced a hinge, until I had all three done for each door. This door and the other exterior doors are solid and heavy. I actually had to take all hinges off and drill new holes into the doors and door jams for the new hinges. It was awesome. I had the doors completely off the hinges and was able to hang them by myself. I used a couple of rugs to prop under each door to help lift and hold at the height I needed. I couldn't believe I got it done but now the doors swing nicely and lock easily. Yay to the exterior doors being done. One less thing to have to mark off the to do list!

See what I mean - the hinges came apart, separating and loosening causing the door to loosen on the hinges. 

I didn't do a before but this is the after - brushed nickel door handle, lock and kick plate with a fresh paint job!

Ultimate Fail While Cleaning The Potty Room

I've been cleaning the house like a mad woman and butter fingers got the best of me! What a waste of a good roll of tp. Thought you could use a laugh today. Happy Weekend!