Time off = organizing the house! Tutorial on creating cute and cheap organizing 'baskets'

I have been enjoying time off maybe a little too much.  I have been getting up early to enjoy my coffee and quiet time in the house, then working hard at re-organizing the mess that I call my home.   It is way, way overdue, and I am thankful for time to work on it.  It is going to make my life so much easier in the long run

The first day I wanted to begin to tackle the kitchen.  I had seen people organize their cupboards and pantries with baskets and I had a thought.  I am a little bit of a hoarder...hehe...in that I love to keep old boxes, tins, etc to reuse.  So, I went in the craft closet and found some boxes perfect for the job.  

First, I needed to paint them.  Good ol' spray paint to the rescue!  I chose the vintage-y green, as I thought it would match the new dishes (even though they are not in the same area...hehe.)

Then I went and bought these handy dandy metal book plates at the local JoAnns (which is not only where my hubby works, but also a 7 minute walk from my house...I know, I am a lucky girl!)

This is what I started with....

But then had the idea (I am sure I saw it on the box or something) to put ribbon through the holes like this:

So it would then look like this!

To make sure they would end up staying, I added a little glue to the back.  Any kind will work.  I had already tied the book plate around the back of the box, then kind of flipped it in place to get some glue on it, and then flipped it back.  The ribbon helped keep it in place while the glue dried.

And here are some of the almost done pieces!  In the forefront is the tied ribbon on the back of each box.

Ta da!  I think they came out great!

Finally, here is the finished product!  (Well, basically...forgot to insert the tags in a few of those book plates...hehe.)

But the book plates are perfect to give the family the labeling and organization they need to keep things in better order...something we desperately needed in the kitchen!

Happy organizing!

Ash

Holiday crafting bonanza!

Well, now that the holidays are over, I can finally share some of the things I made for folks!  There are a few people yet to get their gifts...so...hope this doesn't spoil anything for them...hehe.

One of the things I really had fun with this year was kitchen goodies.  In particular, crocheted dishcloths and hotpads.  I had fun making different styles and colors for each of the people's kitchen color schemes.

Here are actually just a few I made.....

This adorable pattern for the hot pad house can be found here at Lion Brand.

So much fun to create!  I actually probably spent more time on these than I should have, and did not finish some of my other gift to folks.  So, they are getting theirs late, and I will share those with you soon. ;)

Ash

My most exciting thrift store find ever!

I have been beside myself this week, after getting my most exciting thrift store find ever!!  On Sunday, my hubby, my friend and I all hit the local St. Vincent de'Paul's thrift shop for fun.  I was super excited when I saw a vintage dishware set there with 56 peices!  It was so cute,and reasonably priced for a set like this at $150.  I thought that I'd better wait and see if it was still there after the holidays, when suddenly we realized that everything with a green tag was 50% off that day...and it had a green tag!!  Now....the big decision came, but I had been wanting to get rid of our boring dishes for a long time and start replacing all of our kitchen with vintage items.  So I went for it!

I know these pics are not great, but they still show off the cute little green and yellow flowers on the dishes.

And then, when we got home, we looked up the dishes, which are Franciscan Earthware, and found out that they are the 'Picnic' set made in 1971 or 1973 and that they were selling for much, much higher prices online!! And, one of the things I am really excited about is that I get to keep collecting, as there are more prices out there that were not in my collection!

What are your favorite finds?

Ash

Dreaming of order...

Sometimes when things are crazy in your life, it is helpful to have order at home.  I am not there yet, but here are some awesome rooms that I would love to have.



Love this craft room! (Image from HGTV)

Oh and this kitchen!



I found this one at This Old House... Mine is a similar size....wonder if I could pull something like this off?

I think I want something a little more bright for the kitchen... I keep finding kitchens like the one above and like the one below that I like...



This one was found here.

Hmmm....wonder what I can find for the living room....

Ash