Organizing for a small space

My Belts were taking up WAY too much space, they were all over the floor, and taking up about 10 inches of much needed closet space (don't ask me why I forgot to take a before pic) so I needed a new solution. (if you haven't read my blog before, we restored an 1886 cottage... with NO room for storage) Gotta love these old houses! 

SO I dragged my annoyed sweet hubs out the door and we headed for the antique store. I was looking for some type of old crate, preferably one with dividers. I had really wanted one made of wood, but then I stumbled upon this beauty, and at $14.99 I couldn't resist!!! 

(I actually bought 2! The other one is in my bathroom post)

All I did when I got it home was wipe it off with a wet rag and some clorox wipes. I already had the wooden crate that I set it on. Then I just rolled up my belts and set them inside. I had a couple belts that wouldn't roll so I grabbed an ikea hook I had lying around, hooked it on the side and it worked perfectly!

Hats were another 'issue' for me, they just kept getting thrown into different places (then usually smushed!) and I could never find the one I wanted to wear.

I had bought these hooks at Hobby Lobby back in July not knowing what I wanted to use them for.

They sure came in handy for my hats! (they still have the hooks as of last week)

 I might be the only person you know that keeps her jeans on her nightstand! YUP that is my nightstand, right next to my bed! But like I said, I am pretty short on storage for my clothes. OR... as my hubs puts it, we have plenty of closet space, I just have too many clothes.    (probably true)

I make up my own rules, and if I see usable space, I USE IT! Try to look at tabletops, shelves, or empty wall space a little differently, stack some baskets or crates, try to use what you already have, get creative!

OH, and my cute lil girl and my hubs got me those super cute earrings for Christmas, I had them laying in my jewelry box, but don't they look much cuter hanging from my basket! 
(They got them on Etsy, HooplaHoopla)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you! (sorry it's a few days late)  I hope it was a wonderful day for you all!
My hubs worked a graveyard shift Christmas Eve, so Santa was set to work alone! Though I think the Lindt Truffles made it worth it :) I struggled a little bit to get our little one to bed, but that is not irregular... it happens EVERY night! People wonder why I stay up so late, well this is why -11:30 is when she finally falls asleep!! 
   She was so cute Christmas morning though... she was really struggling opening her stocking presents (hubs Santa's elf wrapped them, used LOTS of tape!) and she kept saying, "Those Elf's wrapped these too good!" Well when she started unwrapping the gifts under the tree she said, "I know Santa wrapped these himself, because he made them easier for me to unwrap." (Santa didn't use a lot of tape) LOVE her! So lucky to have her!


         Leave it to Holidays to remind us what is truly important in our lives!

My Father in Law passed away exactly 3 months ago. It is a continual reminder whenever anyone close to us passes of how fragile our lives are and how precious our relationships need to be. (In case you were wondering, me and my lil fam are in the top right corner behind the wreath)

As a family we met at the cemetery on Christmas Eve to send Balloons to Heaven for Christmas. We surprised my Mother in Law with the headstone.. it was set the day before, and she had no idea. We cut it close! We were hoping that it would be in before Christmas... it wasn't looking good, but it happened after all. We love you and miss you!!!

A Few Things on My Wishlist

Canon EOS Rebel T3i

Been wanting this camera for quite a while now (hunny do you read my blog?! because you haven't gotten the hint yet!- Well maybe you have but you aren't willing to spend $800 bucks on a camera... oh ya, that has to be it!), 

I love my Lumix, but it has it's limitations.

    SNAP! Conference

 I am always wanting to go to these creative conferences but I never hear about them until it's too late. -Or they are in another state, and that just isn't feasible for me right now... Well wouldn't you know, this one is only 20 min from my house and I am just dying to go! I love meeting new friends, I love being inspired, and I love being uplifted by such creative geniuses. Please Please Please can I go! 
********************************UPDATE!! I got a ticket to got to SNAP!!! I am SO excited!!*******************************

Silhouette Cameo

Silhouette oh how I dream of you! I have SO many projects I could finish if you were in my life... hear that hunny...no more projects that are half-way done lurking all over the house! This machine is amazing, and I probably don't even know half of what it can do, but I sure would like to find out!! HINT HINT!

My Cottage Kitchen... Just a peak!

Here is a little peak at my kitchen. We still need to install the kitchen cabinets and the kitchen sink, but I wanted to show ya'll the progress it's making! The kitchen wall color is wythe blue by Benjamin Moore {I had PPG Porter Paint match the color for me, because we love their paint!}... it is my FAVORITE color, the perfect mix of blue, grey, and green!

A few of my Favorite... Posts

So I guess this is what happens when you are sick on a Sunday...

 you totally revamp your blog!!

Click on the links to be directed to each post, I have one more I will be adding soon, but I need to re-do the pictures first!

       HomeMade BirthDay Calendar

                                                                  I Love a Good MakeOver

 PiNk PriNceSs PiRatE ParTy and Freezer Paper Stenciling

Some Christmas Cheer

                                     
                                        

Since this house is considerably smaller than our last house, our big tree won't fit... So I have 3 small trees, shoved in a nook or cranny whichever you prefer. My 6yr old says that the small tree is for our 2 kittens (Penelope Mittens, and Fuzz Boy) and our Bulldog Bella, the medium tree is for her, and the biggest tree is for Me and Dad... makes sense I guess. She helped me decorate them, she did the small tree all by herself, pretty good if I say so myself. Well I hope you are all getting crazy white elephant gifts and drinking LOTS of eggnog! God Bless!

The Living Room Re-Do

I never thought this room would be clean...EVER!

~Wall Color is Martha Stewart Cornbread~

As I have mentioned my hubs was a professional painter for 10 years, so we buy PPG Porter Paint,  they can match any paint swatch you bring in

My darling husband bought me an old house I could fix up... I thought it would be SO easy, cuz I'm creative and crafty... WELL that only has a little to do with it! You need to have a LOT little extra cash and be willing to get REALLY dirty and work harder than you thought you were capable!

First things first.. tear out carpet! Next.. sweep up all that nasty dirt. 

Oh and did I mention that there was sub-floor screwed AND nailed down to the original hardwood floors.. No I did not, because I thought it would be the death of me! Not only were they screwed AND nailed, there were like 10 different types of screws and nails (we estimated we tore out, or pounded in over 300 nails and screws!)... It was like they ran out of one style so they just grabbed whatever was in the toolbox... Needless to say, my floors have character, lots and lots of character!  

  Then you take crowbars, hammers, jack hammers(totally serious bout this one, my Dad had a hand-held one that I went to town with!) 

And start ripping down the sheetrock, only to find lathe & plaster underneath, which has to come out too! 

 This was one of the hardest things to do, it is VERY time consuming! 

We could only haul it out in bucket loads because the plaster is SO heavy!! 

We pretty much tore every wall down to the studs except a few, because that 'few' were brick under the sheetrock. 

We also replaced all the electrical throughout the whole house (which is a whole other nightmare for another post :) BUT, the electrician did tell me that I am the hardest working 'Woman homeowner' he had seen in his 20 yrs in construction! (woot woot)

  Obviously we had to put up new sheetrock, mud it, and install trim. ~I went with 8in flat trim~

 I had a cabinet maker come give us a bid to build a new mantle, well lets just say, I designed it, and Eli and I built it for $210 LESS than what he quoted me, and he wasn't even going to paint it!! We are pretty proud of how it turned out. 

   Luckily my hubs was a painter for 10 yrs before he transitioned into Law Enforcement, so the painting was almost the easiest part (for him) I was SO impatient by this time, I drove him nuts! PLUS picking the paint colors was WAY harder than I thought it would be, I am sure I changed my mind everyday!

   We used MINWAX Dark Walnut to stain the floors, I LOVE how rich they look!

   

And OF COURSE I had fun decorating it, just in time for CHRISTMAS!!!!

Recap

The Staircase! Done... Well Almost!

As Some of you know, my husband bought me an old house to restore, we have been SO busy, but we are finally moving in, and I finally have a little time to share the pictures with you. I hope I can inspire some of you to take on a big project or two!

The first picture is the entrance into the master bedroom, we didn't know we were going to be covering it up with a staircase. We had no idea when we bought the house that the attic was so huge,,,, I can't wait to finish it!

We also opened up the doorway into the kitchen, found a chimney, so I HAD to expose the brick.. Obviously!  And we also got extremely lucky and found hardwood floors throughout the entire first floor! 

(Those are My wonderful cousins guiding us through the stair building)

1 We decided to add the stairs because of the size of our attic to add square footage to our home... WARNING: When you see that the roof is being supported like it is in the above attic picture, you have to reinforce EVERY one of the trusses with at least a 2X8!

-We also have to reinforce all the floor joists with 2X10's! = at LEAST $2,500.00 just in reinforcing! 

2 Staircases are tricky! You need to have someone that is experienced help guide you through.

 They will know the size of hole to cut in your ceiling according to the hight of your ceiling and how many stairs you'll need.

 They will guide you on how to frame the wall to support the stairs 

And they will help you cut the stringers (the supports for the treads)

3 Budget about $400 to $450 for lumber (that's doing it MY way) It just goes up from there!

   I bought regular 2X10's (which saved $$) to use for the stair tread, I wanted it rustic and paintable! 

I used pre-primed mdf for the faces. 

And if you want skirt-board (the white trim that runs up the wall) You have to go to a lumber yard, the box stores don't sell it in that width or length. It's Pre-primed mdf measuring 12inX16ft - approx $40.00 each! 

~When we add the railing I will give a play by play for that as well~

4 Little bonus... When you build stairs, in a way you are building storage! I suggested to open up the back of the stairs and build a pantry! Now I have more much-needed storage in my kitchen!

Lots and Lots of hours of hard labor, and we did most of it ourselves. 

I still can't believe it!

      DONE!!!! I can't believe it!!!

Well, Almost... I need to paint a runner down my stairs (maybe) and do some type of railing of course, oh and I need to decide what to do with that back wall...hmmm
Recap