Happy to say...

This little blog won a little award!

 

My sister and two of her friends have a super cute blog, The Plum Verbena, where they blog about the cutest crafts, clothes, food, parties, home decor, etc. If you have not checked it out already, be sure to head on over there and show them some love! They nominated me for this cute little award!

 

 

The Liebster Award is for blogs that have 200 followers or less. The word "Liebster" is German for kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, valued, cute, pleasant, endearing and welcome.

 

How sweet, right?!

 

Here are the rules for accepting the award:

 

1. Each person most post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you, and then create 11 new questions for the people you tag with the award.

3. Chose 11 bloggers (with less then 200 followers) and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them about the award (social networks accepted).

5. If you have not done so already, follow the tagger and visit at least three nominees. Spread the love!

6. And remember, no tag backs!

 

 

ONE: 11 Things you don't know about me.

 

1. Fall is my favorite time of the year! I love the crisp air, the changing leaves, and most importantly fall fashion! Boots are my favorite thing ever. I already have a new pair for this year, it's so hard not to wear them now. Boots in 90 degree weather are okay, right??

 

2. I'm a night owl and have really bad insomnia. I can't remember the last time I went to bed before midnight, unless I was really sick.

 

3. I am really weird about my feet when I sleep. I absolutely CANNOT sleep in socks under any circumstance, but I can't sleep without my feet under the blankets. I always feel like something is going to come and bite my toes off or something.

 

4. I love pretty much any chick flick in the history of mankind, no matter how cheesy and I strongly dislike boy movies (I'm lucky my husband likes chick flicks, too and don't worry, I still see some boy movies with him!).

 

5. In the 5th grade, my teacher passed out my cursive writing assignment for my classmates to trace. They all found out it was mine and pretty much hated me for it. It was a huge deal at the time and I cried about it. I cried a lot when I was younger, actually. I guess I was a little dramatic. My husband still thinks I am.

 

6. I love talking on the phone. My old roommates used to make fun of me because every time I walked in the door I had my phone attached to my ear.

 

7.  I went to London and Paris in high school with a school group and I can't wait to go back one day. I love to travel!

 

8. I don't like sports. Playing them, watching them, watching my husband play them on XBOX, watching ESPN. Any of it. I don't like it.

 

9. I secretly wish I could be a ballroom dancer.

 

10. Bruster's cotton candy explosion ice cream is my favorite ice cream of all time.

 

11. I can't eat breakfast food for breakfast. It makes me feel sick. Therefore, breakfast is my least favorite meal of the day and it is my husband's favorite.

 

 

TWO: Answers

 

1. Cake or Pie?

Pie. My mom's coconut cream pie. It tastes like heaven. I wish it didn't take her 6 hours to make so she would make it more often. That's why I can't wait for Thanksgiving.

2. Best gift you have ever received?

 That's a hard one. Probably my DSLR from my in-laws because it has made me want to take more pictures!

 

3. Favorite guilty pleasure food?

Hot Krispy Kreme donuts. Oh my gosh. I could eat a dozen of them in one sitting.

 

4. Do you sing in the shower or in the car?

In the car, when I am driving by myself.

 

5. Anywhere exotic/off the beaten path you would love to go?

I don't know how exotic this is, but I would love to go to Greece. It is the top of my list and is definitely off my beaten path...

 

6. What would you buy for yourself with $100?

Probably the new Juicy perfume, Viva La Juicy La Fleur. It smells AH-mazing and Benefit High Beam.

7. If you could go on a dream date (think Bachelor/Bachelorette style) where would you go? What would you do?

Oh wow. Well, of course we would have a private plane. So, first we would fly to London and see the sights and go on a shopping spree, then we would head over to Italy and eat some delicious authentic Italian food and gelato. THEN, after that, we would finish off in some exotic place with a beach and get couples massages and go horse back riding on the beach. It would definitely be an overnight date.

8. Favorite, can’t live without, beauty product?

Just one? This is hard. I guess my Colorescience Mineral Foundation. I love it.

 

9. Would you rather buy an old house with lots of character or a new house you could add your own style to?

A new house that I designed.

 

10. Favorite TV show?

 Desperate Housewives right now.

 

11. One thing on your Bucket List?

To run some type of race or marathon. I better get on that.

 

THREE: 11 Questions for the winners.

 

1. If you could meet any celebrity, who would it be and why?

 

2. Favorite childhood memory?

 

3. If you could choose 3 words to describe you, what would they be?

 

4. Would you rather live in a small apartment in a big city or a large home out in the country?

 

5. What would your dream job be?

 

6. Dogs or cats?

 

7. What is your all time favorite movie?

 

8. Staying in or going out?

 

9. Flats or heels?

 

10. If your house were on fire and you could only grab 3 things, what would they be?

 

11. What snacks would you bring on a road trip?

 

FOUR: Winners! Go check them out!

 

Fresh Coat of Paint

Up to Parr

Love, Lauren

Finding Lovely Things

redfly Creations

 Love Grows Wild
Once a Mom Always a Cook
norrey.
Number Fifty-Three
The Evas of Bellabini
Glamorous Mommy


 Thanks to The Plum Verbena!!



Medicine Cabinet Redo

Although we don't have any drawers in our bathroom, we are fortunate to have a large medicine cabinet over our sinks that stores so many things!

I love having a medicine cabinet to store our bathroom products because they are shallow and you can see everything really well.

We use them to store our everyday, most-used products. To see how we store the rest of our bathroom products, see our bathroom cabinet post!

 

I took these "before" pictures a few months ago, so the products we have may be different in the "after" pictures. Here is the process I went through to accomplish the end result.

 

1. I took everything out of the cabinet, section by section and cleaned thoroughly with a warm damp cloth.

2. I made a plan of where to put each thing that would make the most sense.

3. I put the organizers where they should go and put all of the products back in, with the labels in the front and made sure I could see everything.

 

It all works like a charm now!

 

 

On his side:

I added a larger medicine-cabinet-clear-acrylic-storage-container (wow! That's a mouth full!) from Target to store his everyday products and rearranged a few of his products.

 

 

In the middle section:

I used one of the smaller clear dividers we had (I found those at Ross a while back for $1.99 each!) to store our toothpaste and other "mouth products."

Then, I moved the white plastic container from my side to this section to hold my makeup primers, setting sprays, and other makeup that would not fit in my makeup holder (a makeup storage post is coming soon!). I store my makeup brush cleaners next to those (did you know baby shampoo works well to clean your brushes?! So much cheaper than the cleaners made for that!) 

 

 

On my side:

I used the other clear storage container to hold my tweezers, little scissors, and contact stuff.

The middle shelf holds all of my skincare products. Yes, I am a skincare product junkie.

The bottom shelf holds all of my hair products and my deoderant.

 

 

I love how it turned out! It is so much easier for me to put things away after I use them when I know that they have a place and that it looks so much better!

 

If we had this medicine cabinet in a more permanent home that we owned, I would definitely add some fun patterned paper to the back walls and maybe even a little chalk board paint to the back of the doors! :)

 

And there ya have it, my non-medicine medicine cabinet makeover!!

 

Does anyone actually use medicine cabinets for medicine anymore??

I know my grandparents did, but I can't imagine wasting prime bathroom storage space on medicine! Maybe if we had a bigger bathroom...

 

Let me know what you guys think and as always, if you have any requests!

 

 

 

 

 



Day 7: TV Cabinet

Last day of the challenge!

I will actually miss having a schedule of what to organize and blogging about it.

Maybe there will be more "7 Spots in 7 Days" Challenges in the future!

 

Anyway, today's project is not that great, to be honest.

I just wanted to get our TV cabinet in order and it really did not take much to make it look a lot better.

 

 

 

It took all of 10 minutes.

 

I added some baskets that we already had to hold all of the Wii and XBOX controllers and random parts and pieces. Are you so surprised I didn't label them?! Yeah, me too. I figured you can tell because I put the Wii Games with the Wii basket and the XBOX ones with the XBOX game.

 



I had already alphabatized the DVD's a couple of days ago, so that worked out nicely!

 



 

My next project is going to be to make a user manual binder with all of the random manuals from our TV, Wii, XBOX, Cable box, vacuum... all of those kinds of things! I'm sure I will do a post on that soon!

 

 

And... that was it!

 

 

 

Let me know if you guys take on the 7 Spots in 7 Days Challenge! It really motivated me to get those little projects done that I had been putting off!

 

Let me know if you guys have any organization requests! I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have!

 

Thanks for reading!

 



Day 6: My Closet Makeover

This has actually been a project in the making for a while now. I am so glad I finally put the finishing touches on it today. I took these before pictures probably 6 months ago, it looks a lot different now!

 

 

First step is always to purge! Get rid of anything that you have not worn in the past year and anything that is damaged or too worn to recover. Then, get to work!

 

For the top shelf, I color coordinated my sweaters, separated my leggings/tights and belts and put them in bins, and then separated my bottoms with the most worn ones the closest to the middle.

 

 

I searched high and low for some cute bins in the right size. I originally bought the white lacey ones that I have in the linen closet for my closet, but they were not tall enough and that really bothered me. So, I put them to good use in the linen closet.

 

 

Then, the other day when I was at Lowes for 2 hours getting stuff for my bathroom cabinets I came across the ones that I am using now and they are the perfect color and size!

 

 

Of course I added the labels.

 

 

I also bought these shelf dividers which really help to keep my stacks straight and orderly.

 

 

I then color coordinated my clothes and hung them on all white matching plastic hangers.

 

I stored my coats in the back for the warmer months.

 

Skirts and dresses in the back on the other side.

 



 

I use the shoe holder to store my sandals.

 

 

Then, I store my flats, heels, and booties on the shelves at the bottom with my tennis shoes in the front on the floor. I put my tall boots in a flat bin under the bed. I also store extra hangers under the shelves for easy access.

 

 

I have an extra blanket tucked in the lefthand corner and our weekend bags and some shopping bags in the righthand corner.

 

I pretty much use every spare ounce of space in this closet!

 

 

And, there ya have it! My newly organized bedroom closet (my husband uses the closet in the second bedroom and I recently reorganized his, too, so I will do a post on that soon!)!

 

I can't believe there is only 1 day left in the 7 Spots in 7 Days Challenge! It has gone by so quickly! Let me know if you guys are going to take on the challenge! :)

 

 

 

 



Day 5: Silverware Drawer

This seems really simple to organize. You buy one of those little divider things and you just use it... right?! Well, not so fast. I bought one of those trusty little trays right after I got married and this is how my drawer has looked for the past year:
 

 A giant mess.

 

You have to buy the RIGHT kind of divider. DO NOT get the kind with the little slots at the bottom that the silverware can slide through. It will pretty much ruin your life. Not really. But, you get the point. It won't be good.

 

So, I finally got this one and I am a much happier camper!

I added some fun patterned scrapbook paper that I already had, removed some of the random items that had ended up in there, threw away the random take-out plasticware, and arranged the silverware in a better way.

 These simple changes made a huge difference.

I put serving spoons in the top section in the back, because I don't use them very often. Then, I separated the large and small forks and spoons and put them in the first 2 sectioons. Then, regular knives and steak knives go in the last 2 sections.

I also store some sticky notes, scissors, dry erase markers (we have a dry erase board/cork board on the wall next to our fridge), and my favorite pens in the front of the drawer.

And there ya have it, a neater, prettier, more orderly silverware drawer!

Thanks for reading! :)
I'll be back tomorrow with my closet makeover! You don't want to miss it!



Day 4: Refrigerator Organization

Doesn't this sound like an exciting post??
Not really.

I wish my refrigerator looked like this:

(from iheartorganizing.blogspot.com- only my favorite blog EVER!)

 

Sadly... it does not!

It does look a lot better now though than it did earlier today!

 

 

I just made a few simple changes.

 

I added a snack bin. No, we don't have children. Yes, we are 5 years old.

 

 

I tried to group everything by category.

 

Drinks go on the top shelf.

 

Snacks, dairy, bread go on the second shelf.

Cheeses and raw garlic go in the deli drawer.

Eggs and a random leftover fit perfectly on this little shelf.

Then, meat and some berries go on the bottom shelf. I am going to try to rinse and store fruit like this from now. I think it will cut down on messes and save a lot of time.

And, of course fruits and veggies go in the crisper drawers.

I just tried to categorize the condiments as best as I could.

 

And then I added these little babies:

I have become a label freak. I love labels. Rule of thumb: Label everything you possibly can with really cute labels and it is bound to look pretty!

Eventually, I would like to invest in some nice glass storage containers, as well as some glass pitchers to store milk and juice. I also saw a bunch of refrigerator bins at Bed, Bath, and Beyond today that would work really well, but they were really expensive. I could probably find some cheaper somewhere else, but for now, I am happy with using all of these things that I already had!

Do you have any refrigerator organization tips that would be helpful??