Day 3: Kitchen Cabinet Overhaul

Day 3: Messy tupperware cabinet!

Well in my attempt to clean up the tupperware cabinet it turned into cleaning up almost every cabinet and rearranging them!!

This was my tupperware cabinet/children's plates, cups, bowl cabinet.

I tossed the sippy cups (we haven't used for a while) and took everything out.

This is that same cabinet afterwards. I decided to move all my mixing bowls to this cabinet.

I have a small narrow cabinet where I kept most kitchen appliances (I've already removed most of them). This is embarassing to say but the crumbs from the toaster have been there for over a year!!!

I cleaned it all out with my Clorox spray anywhere cleaner (a new thing I bought when the kids were sick).

Went through all my tupperware and tossed what was missing lids and put some in the give away pile. It fits much better in this cabinet.

I didn't take a before picture of my dishes cabinet but decided to take and after.
I moved my kids' bowls and plates to this cabinet and took many coffee cups (we don't even drink coffee) and added them to my give away pile.

The other side of the dishes cabinet. I do have more glasses than this though...washing!

My pots and pans cabinet and whatever else I managed to shove in there.

Pots and pans after

This cabinet was a disaster! I held my glass bowls, casserole dishes and whatever else!

back corner of that cabinet

After: My kitchen appliances fit much better!

Holds my seasonal dishes too...way in the back!

This is my give away pile just from tonight's cleaning/organizing!!

A nice looking desk!

Today was Day 2 of the challenge: Clean/Organize only the top of my desk.

The sad part is that this desk was clean a couple of days ago.

I moved my desk downstairs so I would use it more for my crafting, hair bow making, and actually place my laptop on it.

Up until now I have been doing all my creative work on my diningroom table....enough of that!

I re-cleaned the top AGAIN and I've started using my cute magazine holders that I snagged in the See Spot Save section at Target only a $1 a piece.

I also bought a cute little desk calendar from Mead for $1.

The tiered wire basket will start to hold my odds and ends items I use for crafting. I have my scissors and pencils in a cute striped pail that held a Christmas gift.

I also love that I can now use my mirror hooks to hold my clipboard and special doo-dads!

This was after I started to bring things to my crafting area to be put away..only they didn't find their home right away...

Starting to really love my crafting area. When I need my laptop out of the way I just close it up and slide it into the keyboard compartment of the desk....

One Little Word...

My world for 2011:

Determination!!

I chose this word because I am determined to do/change a lot of things this year!

I am determined to:

Continue to eat healthy and workout....I'm not far from that goal.

Not let the little things get to me (this is a BIG one).

Continue to pay bills off....hope to buy a house again someday.

Spend more time with my family and friends.

Complete the 21 day challenge to get organized!

and last but not least at all..

ENJOY LIFE!!!

Day 1 and I'm on a roll...

I was very excited to start the 21 Days to get Organized project today.

Challenge #1: Organize the dreaded junk drawer (or drawers..I have about 5)!

I started with kitchen junk drawer..

I had a phone book, batteries, old birthday cards and christmas cards stashed in there!

Here is the before:

And now the after:

I didn't buy any fancy organizers (I forgot), but I did put to use some of the GAZILLION Glad and Hillshire Farms reusable lunch meat containers!

After the main junk drawer I moved over to my Kitchen Utensil Drawer.

Before: there was so much crammed in that most times I had a hard time closing it.

After: I used more of my reusable containers and did some basic organizing. I do want to get a regular drawer utensil holder but for now these will work.
Looks a lot cleaner and it closes easier too!

I feel much better that those 2 drawers are now clean and "organized!"

I'm going to tackle these drawers next.....

This is a small entry side table that has been the catch-all for anything and everything...it's the drawer that I toss things in while doing a last minute walk through before company comes over....

another junk drawer in my hutch.......I know I can get it organized too!

Organizing Bandwagon!

I'm jumping on the organizing bandwagon!

Let's see if I can keep up with the daily organizing challenges from this site A bowl full of lemons.

Maybe YOU should do it too!

I'm looking forward to a more organized house and life!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to YOU!

Hope you have had a wonderful Holiday Season so far. We've had a good one despite Kara and Michael being sick, Kara more than Michael.

I've been doing a lot more praying this month....I pray every night on a normal basis but the past couple of months I've been saying extra prayers...

So if you can say some prayers for some special people in my life I would greatly appreciate it...

1. June Vierra (wayne's grandma). Before Thanksgiving she went into the hospital with pains in her chest. We found out that she has congestive heart failure.

2. Molly Lavilla...my niece Chelsea and Molly's daughter are best friends. Molly also works for the Weaver School District. She has had several surgeries on her head...they are trying to find a shunt that her body won't reject.

3. Miss Denisa....Kara's dance teacher for the past 3 years. Denisa went in for testing and found out she needed surgery....while in surgery they discovered that she has Stage 3 ovarian cancer. Denisa is a strong woman and has a wonderful outlook on her condition. Kara decided she doesn't want to dance anymore (hopefully she will go back) but we will be keeping in touch with Denisa!

Here are a couple of Holiday pictures for you to enjoy!

My mom's tree topper this year...isn't it cute!

Kara dressed in her PJs for her Christmas Show at school

Michael and his BFF (sorry Adrian) Tristan. Tristan is in the puppy dog shirt.

I adore this picture of Michael...this is his true personality shining through!

My sweet Kara...santa's little helper.

Christmas Card from Shutterfly!

After reading Sally's blog and Amy's blog I decided to check out Shutterfly for this year's Christmas Card as well! And this special even made it better! We took the kids to Disneyland Thanksgiving weekend and I HAD to use photos from our first trip on this years card!

This is what I will be sending out....

They have a MASSIVE amount of Holiday/Christmas cards to choose from.

This isn't the first time I have used Shutterfly. I've used it for birthday invites...

This was for my brother's 30th!

I also have made a couple of photo DVD's.

This one we made for Wayne's mom, she's in Montana.

Shutterfly offers so many great gift ideas..

Calendars are another great way to share pictures throughout the year!

Photo mugs make a great gift for coffee drinker...or if they don't drink coffee then make is a Hot Cocoa Mug!!

I can't wait to receive my christmas cards in the mail and send them out!

Merry Christmas friends!!

Santa came early!!

Oh how I have been waiting so long for a pair of RED heels!

I think every woman should have some RED heels!!

Wayne said he would buy me some for Christmas and they came a bit early.......

aren't they purrttyy!!!

my view.....

shoe shot!!!

Little Dancer...

This past Saturday Kara had a "mini" recital at the mall in front of Santa Cluas.

She did a wonderful job on her dance.

They performed a dance to Willy Wonka's "Pure Imagination"

My FAVORITE picture!!

with Miss Denisa

with her 2 BFF's...Rachel and Charlotte!

Ribbon Reef (wreath) for Sally!

A a BIG thank you I made a ribbon wreath for Sally.

She met me at Michael's and picked out all the ribbon she wanted for it...and I went to town!!

Oh and we got the idea from this awesome blog: http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/search/label/wreath?updated-max=2010-09-17T00%3A27%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=20

14" wreath form all wrapped up...

10 different prints cut at 4.5in and sewed into loops...

..after I cut the loops apart from eachother....250 total!

....starting the gluing process.....

Close Up...

Completed Project!

New Project..

I made this Fall Wreath (I pronounce it reef...Sally kept correcting me) out of some Fall inspired fabric my grandma made me.

I might add our initial "B" to it somewhere or add a turkey....not sure at this point. I'm just excited to have a new fall wreath that cost me $0. Yep I didn't pay a thing for it...old coat hanger, hand me down fabric there ya go!!

.........

Last Saturday, Wayne lost his Grandpa Norm after a long battle with cancer. He was a wonderful man with a BIG heart. He will be truely missed!


This was taken 2 years ago this coming Christmas