organizing: turn crates into a bookshelf

in small rooms utilizing every inch of space to its full potential is key.  boy, do we know this :)

the little guy's room is one of the smallest spaces in our house.  we even put a loft bed in his room to allow a little more "play" space.  

he's getting older, getting more toys, and in need of  organized places to put them.  of course, he'd rather just dump everything in a pile.  we call him our "nester". 

there is this space between his bed and the entry to his room where a bookshelf would fit perfectly as a nightstand/storage combo.  regular bookshelf's are boring :) and sometimes pricey. finding one the right hight, but to wide was difficult, too.  so let's make one :)

Michael's has these bare wood crates for about $13 each.  after a few weeks using those 40% off coupons, i had enough to turn into a bookshelf. 

before painting them the same color as this, the hubs screwed them together for me. (i'm not a power tools kinda gal.  wish i was...someday, right?)

i'm kind of obsessed with crates, just check my crate board on Pinterest 

♥ i just might start hoarding them ♥

linking up with:

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots and Jello

Tickled Pink @ 504 Main

summer beach memory jar

summer always goes by so fast. there's only a few weeks left before school starts up again.
we've managed to squeeze in a few trips to the beach, and we are hoping for one more.

two years ago i put together THIS beach memory jar.  this year i made another one, but different.

inside the jar:  1. sand from the beach 2. a sandcastle cut from sandpaper 3. a washi tape flag on the castle :) 4. a picture from our trip (printed on regular printer paper so that it bends in the jar easier. velum would work great too)

i love the picture inside.  they were standing at the waters edge waiting for a wave to come in.  once it did it was bigger than expected:

happy memory creating, friends :)

linking here: Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap up Party 504 Main Tickled Pink Link Up

Chalkboard Labels

i mustache you a question... have you checked out the shop lately?

hee hee...i couldn't resist.

my sweet little guy did some modeling today.

i spent most the day working on shop updates.

as of today there are 11 new chalkboard label designs in the shop!

that makes a grand total of 31 different designs to choose from.

it's all about variety :)

i'm loving the mouse ones. there will be more mouse items coming to the shop soon...yay!
♥ happy creating friends ♥

Organizing School Papers

i am always fighting the paper clutter around here.  school papers come home everyday, and now i have two wee ones bringing home precious hand written work.  i needed a quick and easy way to store the "keepers".  

i had this wood file cabinet that my parents had gifted me a long time ago.  i once used it to file important documents, but now have another system for those papers, so the cabinet was sitting all lonely in the basement.
i used a little gray paint to give it a fresh new life.  (i'm not telling my dad...he has this thing against painting wood furniture.)  i tried to sand it a bit before painting, but i wasn't too concerned about it (mostly because i was in a hurry :).  

the little frame plates on the front i painted white, and added some new pretty drawer pulls i found on Etsy.  i love the way it turned out♥ 

one drawer for each kiddo, and the files inside are labeled with grade levels.  

the front of each folder will have school year info & their picture.  in the upcoming years i'll also include a sample of their handwriting & a short list of their current favorites.

right now we will keep it in our little make shift office for easy filing during the school year.  around Christmas time we will be in a new home (yay) where i'll have a craft room to keep the cabinet for easy access.

this system is going to help me control that urge to save every paper they bring home.  i'll only have so much room in the drawer so we will have to choose what we keep carefully. 

conquering one paper battle at a time :)



linking up here: Tickled Pink @ 504 Main Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest Simply Create @ Simply Designing Hookin Up with HOH weekend wrap-up party @ tatertots and jello





 

puppy love

our puppy turned one year old this summer. 

summer 2012

summer 2013

   to celebrate we made a cake and enjoyed it in his honor.  

the "dog food" in the "bowl" is just cocoa puffs.
i thought i'd share some of my favorite pictures of our furry friend from over the last year. 

what is it about big dogs that makes them believe they are little lap dogs?  

i love that he is so trusting with the kiddos

if you sit on the floor in our house be prepared to get snuggled :)

 

thanks for letting me share a snippet of our life with Briggs today :)