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Printable: House Cleaning

Posted by Nat on Apr 23, 2012 | 3 comments

Before I get into this here printable, don’t forget:  Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day is THIS THURSDAY!  Yahoo!  I can feel the organization and inspiration coming back to me now….

I hate cleaning.  You can’t make me like it.  I know I’m not alone in this.  My friend Ashley at It’s Fitting just posted about her cleaning woes at The Trend Tribe last week.

However, I have recently come up with a system that works for me.  It’s more of a maintenance thing.  I still have to do a deep cleaning every once in a while, but sticking to this keeps things presentable and manageable.  And…. If I keep up with it then I don’t have to do much on the weekends, which is so nice!

Each day I have one task, Monday through Friday.  If I get that one thing done, I’m golden.  This does not include laundry- I do laundry when it has to be done, and no sooner.  The kids have to be on their last set of PJs before I will toss in a load.  It also doesn’t include things like dishes.  Dishes are never ending around here.

I respond very well to checklists.  So for this printable, I gave myself space to check off each day’s task so I can at least have one satisfying “Check!” during the week.  I also like that the frame blocks all the crap behind it.  Doesn’t it look so neat and tidy on this shelf?

As you can see below, I did okay this past week.  Vacuuming is so hard around here because all three of my kids- ALL THREE- are TERRIFIED of the vacuum.  It’s ridiculous.  And sad.  It makes me sad to make them cry just because we need clean carpet.

Below is the printable.  I hope you can use it!

Eat, Pray, Love {Crafting Crazy Style}

Posted by Nat on Apr 6, 2012 | 13 comments

As I blog more and more, there are definitely projects and posts that I am most proud of.  This is going to be one of them- mainly because this project took me for.  EVER.  I hope you enjoy and can use some of these printables!

Eat. Pray. Love.  It’s a book.  It’s a movie.  I saw the movie long after it came out and was prepared to hate it.  Really hate it.  I do love Julia Roberts…  I just found so much inspiration and encouragement in the book; I didn’t want to like the movie because it couldn’t possibly live up to the book.  But it did.  At least, it did for me. I love both.

A few weeks after seeing the movie I was still thinking about both the book and the movie, and had this idea.  When it came to me I went to my Facebook friends for ideas of languages to use (thanks, friends!).  Then, following the suggestion of a few more friends, I used Google Translator to finish things up.

I learned a lot in this process- a LOT.  Accents, Photoshop, framing, printing- you name it. I’ll share a bit below about a few things, but first, here they are!  You are welcome to download and print whatever you want, but please do not sell or manipulate these files.  While I have grouped them together in threes, maybe you just want one or two for different places in your house- it’s up to you! If you look below you’ll see that I printed one trio for our kitchen and I LOVE them- a nice pop of color.

Here they are grouped together.  I just had a few color combos, then I left the project for a while, and when I came back I wanted more options, so I added more.  (If you want to download, scroll waaaayyy down.)

Simple black and white

Pinks & a deep burgundy (good for Valentine’s next year?)

 Subtle blues and gray

Operation Organization: Art Station

Posted by Nat on Feb 10, 2012 | Comments Off on Operation Organization: Art Station

I realize that this is not rocket science.  It’s a simple plastic bin with labels.  But I LOVE to see how other people organize their crap, so I thought I’d share what I did in this situation.

I was going absolutely bonkers.  For reals.

As I mentioned in my recent post about Anna’s mail slot, she is a very creative little girl.  She comes up with crazy Tinker-Toy creations, she builds amazing things with blocks (engineer, architect perhaps?), and loves, loves, loves to draw.  She loves art so much that I have to throw things away on the sly, lest our house become a fire hazard of paper.   I’m still working on a system to determine what stays and what goes, but what was more pressing was how to contain her supplies and her completed work.

I mention in my “About Nat” page that I am a practical crafter.  While I LOVE looking at DIY art stations with cute, color coordinated tubs, repurposed antique holders and such, that is not me.  If I put a lot of energy into something that is likely to get used, abused and tired, it will make me mad/frustrated/annoyed if it doesn’t hold up, stay perfect and pristine.  So with something like this, I like to go with easy, plastic bins from Wal-Mart.

I think this thing cost about $17.  I may get another when Jack gets more into art, but right now I’m lucky if I can keep up with the sticker trail he leaves all over our house.  He has one coloring book right now.  That’s all he needs.

What I like about this thing is it can only hold so much, so every once in a while I go through and downsize to prevent further insanity.

I started with simple labels on the drawers.  From top to bottom they read:

• All done!
• Not done & Blank Paper
• Coloring Books & Stickers
• Art Supplies
• Activity Books

The labels however, did not stick to the plastic bins- they kept curling up.  So I sliced up a scrap of paper and stuck them to the paper.  Then I used some adhesive squares to stick them to the drawers, and now they stay nice and flat.

The art supply drawer is great:

The kids can pull out a tub (Target $1 section- they always have these) of crayons or markers, take them to the table, and then put them away easily (in theory).  Or, in reality, when it’s time for dinner, it doesn’t take me forever to get their crap out of the way. 😉

I’m sure there are cuter ways to do this- if you have one, please do show me.  If I see something too cute to resist I may do something different, but for now, plastic bins rule this particular roost.

Our Lemon Tree

Posted by Nat on Feb 7, 2012 | 2 comments

Living in SoCal has so many perks… it’s a bit ridiculous.  I’ve lived here for 10 years now (wowzers) and there are still days when I say to myself, “Holy Cow.  I live in California.  Southern California, no less.”

When we moved into our house, which is also the house my husband grew up in, I was sort of non-plussed about having a lemon tree right outside our kitchen.  It’s cute and everything, but I didn’t really let it register.  Can I tell you something?

 It’s awesome.

 Need one lemon for a recipe?  Done.

Have a four-year-old who loves lemonade?  And a two-year-old?  Done.

Want to add some zest to something?  Done.

Our lemon tree is a Meyer lemon tree.  Apparently they are milder in flavor and are more closely related to the orange.  Hmmm.  The lemonade we make with them is definitely not too tart- it’s very smooth, but still lemon-y if that makes sense.

All I know is they are delish, and I love them.

They also make great last-minute gifts.

Do you have any simple pleasures where you live?  It’s the little things.  Or in this case, the rather big things that produce the little things…

Garage Door Update

Posted by Nat on Feb 3, 2012 | 1 comment

My friend, Janis, watched my little one yesterday and she reminded me that I hadn’t updated on the new garage door.  It’s amazing what a little pop of white will do, no?

Here’s a side-by-side comparison.

We have to decide what to do about the trim- they had to add some pieces to even things out, so we have a combo of white, wood and brown.  I’m voting white, but Michael isn’t so sure.  Thoughts?  We agonized about the color and the window shape, but I’m happy with what we ended up getting.  I have never really paid attention to garages before- now I do.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever show you the inside of our garage, but let me tell you- it’s like a whole new world in there.  Animals cannot get in (unless we leave the breezeway door open…oops), there’s light coming in from the windows, so it’s not uber-scary.  Dreamy, really.  We have a lot of organizing to do before I can park my momvan in there, but it’s coming along.  Progress!

New Garage Door

Posted by Nat on Jan 27, 2012 | 2 comments

We’re getting a new garage door today.  I’m super excited!!!!!!!!  No really.  For reals.  Why so excited, you ask?  Well, the current state of affairs is rather dismal.  Here’s our current garage door: 

(Please disregard our cracked and dirty driveway.  Our driveway is huge.  I want a leaf blower.)

Now, granted it does actually enclose the garage to keep out animals and sunlight, but that’s sort of where the love ends for me.  This door is rotting.  If you stand IN the garage when the sun is out you can see the sunshine coming in through little cracks in the wood.  But it gets even better.

This garage door does not open on it’s own. Nope.  So we have to lug it open.  It’s frickin’ HEAVY.  And even better than that…  when it rains, it somehow sucks in all the moisture like a sponge and then it doesn’t stay open, so if you have to open it, you have to be able to get what you need out AND hold it open at the same time.  Neat.  It also, as you can see below, does not close flat, and the lock with which one would secure it shut to keep out robbers… doesn’t work.

Farewell, garage door. Today you will meet your demise.  You will be replaced with a lovely, white garage door that has these lovely transparent things called windows.  It will have a magical button I can push.  When I push the button, it will open and close at my command.  It will have a keypad.  It will be….marvelous.

I can’t WAIT to show you the after pics!  We are doing some special stuff this weekend so I will likely not post until Wednesday or so.  Hooray!