Coat Closet: Organized

We have been on an organizing frenzy at our house lately. I am much more inclined to clean this time of year instead of the spring. I want my home clean for the holidays and if I am going to be cooped up inside all winter, I don't want to be in a mess!

One of the projects I did on Saturday was organize the coat closet since I am now using it every day. We had all of the mittens, gloves, scarves, and hats in a plastic tub in the top of closet. Any time we needed something we had to stir through the mess, and it was particularly hard when short on time in the morning.

My solution to this problem was to buy an over the door shoe organizer. I got one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. With the 20% off coupon that always comes in the mail it was only about $12. Sooooo worth it!

All of the gloves and mittens have their mate, and everything is easy to see. I have only been using it for two days but it has been so helpful to find the right color of gloves and just go!


If your winter gear is in need of an overhaul, I would highly recommend this method! I just love looking at it! All the neatly organized bright colors just make me happy (including my red rain boots!) AND I have more space in the top of the closet now!

In case you are wondering... yes, I will be doing a Black Friday-Cyber Monday sale this weekend for all items in my Etsy shop. There will be percents off and even free gifts for the early birds! Come back late Thursday night to be the first in line!

Retro Room Redo

Do you remember my retro room? It's our downstairs family room. Recently we gave it a small facelift. Over the summer I gathered retro-inspired paraphernalia and we rearranged all the decor to add it in. I want the walls to be plastered with stuff, like a themed restaurant.

(This wall has an empty space... waiting for me to make or find something...)

The photos don't do it justice. It's such a fun room! So if you have any unused retro-inspired decor, send it my way! : )

Half-birthday

My birthday is in July. I have never got to celebrate it at school. It was always forgotten as a student, and even now as a teacher. Until now. My sweet sweet friends at work had a half-birthday party for me this year. I got to have cake and even got some presents. Everyone gets a nice card and pretty handmade bracelet. It's fun to do at lunchtime.

But I got the sweetest bonus gift. My cute friend Ashley had done some paintings and shown then on her blog. I said how cute I thought they were and how it would look cute in my bedroom so she painted me my very own for my half- birthday!


Isn't it so cute? She says she is not an artist, but this is what creating is all about!



I rearranged the items on my beadboard headboard and it looks so cute front and center!

Thanks Ash!

Bonus points if you counted how many times I said "cute" or "sweet" in this post!

Living Room Makeover

My Internet was down and I missed What I Wore Wednesday. Rather than do it late, I will just save the outfit pics until next Wednesday.



Today I am going to share with you my living room makeover. It has been 2 years in the process and now it is 100% done!

The previous owners had decorated the room like this:

Not only was it not my style, but we wanted to make our house OUR house. I didn't want to feel that I had moved into someone else's home.





We started by painting the walls a light tan color and replacing the carpet. We added our furniture and decor. Several months later we added the orange wall (LOVE it!) and the tile entry way.



This summer we changed up some of the decor, starting with this wall collage.




I love how it turned out. I cut papers the same sizes as the frames and hung them on the wall with painter's tape to make sure I liked the arrangement before putting nail holes in the wall. I took a picture of this process but I can't find it, sorry.





This is what it looks like over the couch. Before it was just the mirror, the large painting, and a wreath. This really adds some color to the room and makes it a little more modern.

All of the photos (besides the wedding ones, of course) were taken by me.

The frames are all cheap ones from Walmart and I shopped around for deals on matching art.

I really love the orange wall.

Orange and green were our wedding colors so I used them for decorating colors too. I was able to reuse many things including the beautiful floral arrangement below.

I bought this corner shelf at Ikea for pretty cheap (I think $20 but I am not sure).

The end table is also from Ikea ($20- we also have 2 for nightstands in the bedroom).

The couch is a hand-me-down from my grandma. When we first got it we put a slipcover on that matched the other couch. I took it off to wash it and decided we liked the whimsy the uncovered couch added to the room. What do you think?

How could I forget the tile? All carpet and tile work done by my husband. His family owns a flooring company. If you are in the Utah or Salt Lake county areas and are in need of some floor work or repair let me know I will get you his contact info! (I will be showing a wood floor and bathroom tile floor soon, too!)

If you have been thinking of going bold with the paint- DO IT! You can always paint over it if you want. I LOVE it. Click HERE to see my bright red retro family room!

Have a great day!

The Retro Room

When we moved into our house we knew we wanted some kind of fun family room in the basement. We chose a retro theme (we used 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s). We put a few posters up but left the pale green paint and striped curtains up. Last fall we finished the room and are very happy with the results.

It isn't very conventional, but it is super fun! We really aren't going for a room that looks like it is from that time period, but one that celebrates the past!

The pictures aren't fabulous. It is the basement so I had to use the flash. : (

The bright red paint is from Home Depot (if anyone happens to want the exact color just ask and I will go find out). The tables from Ikea matched perfectly. We also bought the entertainment center from Ikea. This is the Expedit entertainment center. You can customize it so we put in the red cupboards and blue drawers.

I also loved this piece because of all the display shelves. A lot of these items were gits. My favorite is the Rosie the Rivetor tin my grandma brought me from Washington D.C. I also have a Rosie poster given to me years ago by friends but it doesn't show in any of these pictures.

I made this mirror by attaching cut up scrapbook paper to the frame with Modge Podge. It actually represents the 20s and 30s so I guess we got a little older than the 40s.


The black curtains were really cheap at Walmart. We like the movie theater look the curtains add to the room. I love the WWII posters I have!

The black shelf is from Ikea and matches the rest of the furniture. These tin signs were given to me as gifts also.

An old fashioned Utah greeting card purchased at the capitol building and a Hershey tin.

My husband loves Star Wars. He gets to display a little of his collection here!

I had a hard time finding ideas for a retro room online so I hope that some one who is searching for ideas finds this post!