Organizing the toys-

My mom has alot of toys for her grand babies, and they are all stuffed in a closet upstairs in a guest bedroom, that is not organized. Here are some pictures of the before:

We decided it would be best to put the toys downstairs where they all end up anyway, and keep them all in one place- in an armoire. I considered a downstairs closet- but I knew that it would end up being a "play house" and would never stay clean, the armoir was the best idea. Also- even though the guest room had that nice big closet for toys- it is a guest bedroom. Who wants kids running into their room while they are napping, still sleeping, or not wanting to be interrupted! Not to mention toys left behind randomly in the room through the whole process. The toys needed to be down stairs in one destination. The other nice thing about having it downstairs is: whenever the kids got the toys out- they would stay left out because nobody wanted to go upstairs to put them away, having the armoire RIGHT THERE- will make it much more motivational to get up and put the toys away. So VIOLA:

The basket at the top holds all the barbie stuff, the garbage looking can holds all the baby/house stuff, and the rest are organized into their categories, since then my mom has labeled everything. There wasn't room enough for one more item though: dress up clothes. So my mom has since purchased (don't have a pic though) of a cute tall basket with the lid, that will also go downstairs near the armoire. Now everything has a spot, it's downstairs- nobody has to run the Olympics to go get their child a toy! And nobody knows that there are toys in those baskets or armoire.

More napkins

I got this butterfly print for a dollar a yard!
The stripe one below is what I sold at the Saturday Market last time for 15 dollars.


The stripe was a dollar a yard.

the one above and below were a dollar a yard!

the one below on teh right was a dollar a yard.
the napkins below on the left side I sold one set that was 12 and one set that was 18, (one had 4 napkins, one had 6)

the one above on teh right side was a dollar a yard!

my dress

I made this dress, a project I started a year ago and finally decided to finish. Notice the beautiful bra in the back round- brother.

Napkins

So- I've been making napkins- super easy if you have a surger. I am going to the Saturday Market for the first time and I am going to sell them! I have made alot more but I need to take pictures, as soon as I do I'll post them. Some of them are styles that i wouldn't necessarily like- but I think would appeal to different personalities. Some are made with a rolled hem, and others are just a really narrow stitch.

ugly mis-matched frames

How do you make your wall look like an adult decorated it rather than a middleschooler? My husband and I got all our mis-matched frames (wooden, stained, plastic, metal, glass- everything) and we painted them a pale blue, painted the mats white, and had wedding pictures developed in black and white. We took down everything above the couch and made a collage. WE LOVE IT. When you paint the frames- the first coat will not paint very well. It will seem as though it is not working... blotchy. Let it dry, and your second coat will stick really well, and look great. I chose the matte finish, because I have a country shabby chic look to my home, but you can obviously do whatever finish you'd like. I would suggest doing all ONE color, or each a different color, not one the same. It needs to be unified, a package. This makes it look like you bought an expensive pack of frames. Martha Stewart gave a great suggestion for hanging frames. You stencil your frames onto brown grocery bags, cut them out, and tape them on the wall, in the arrangement you want. Then tack the nails, then hang the pics, then pull off the taped papers behind. It saved me from nailing a million holes, and moving a ton of pictures. This way I only had to move paper and tape. Much easier.

ugly shelf turned cute

Ugly shelf from value village for 2 dollars. painted it, added pink glass knobs to match my bedroom furniture. Now i have a cute accent for my bedroom that was super cheap.


This was an ugly brown cupboard/shelf, and I accidentally deleted the stupid before pic. I painted it, added the glass knob, and gave it to my mom for mother's day.

Ugly apartment curtains

Now what do we do about those ugly apartment curtains? Take them down, put them under your bed, and put them back up before me you move! I found some really cool fabric that actually looked really ugly by itself, but it was the same color as the green in my accent pillows, and had really cool texture, sort of a linen, silk dupioni feel. I knew it would look perfect but there wasn't enough on the bolt of fabric. I thought I'd take the cream color from my couch and make a wide cream border to make up for the missing fabric. I tried to find a cream in the same texture as the green so it would flow better. Ideally I would have a cute black rod and clips, but I couldn't take down the apartment rod, so I had to adjust my ideas to the curtain rod provided. Also ideally I wouldn't have the cream against the cream wall, but - you can't paint apartment walls, and it's only the border, so I thought I could get away with it. If you are going to do a color against the same color, I suggest only doing a border or piping or trim, nothing too large, or it will just disappear.