Class is now in Session ~ Mrs. Hines' Class

Well Hello Friends!   

Blogging has been such a blessing in my life.  At a time when I was feeling like there was really something missing in my life, I stumbled upon blogging.  It awakened the creative side of me that had been dormant for way too long.  That in itself was a huge boost to me...but that's not the only benefit of blogging.  It has opened up an entire world of amazing people that I otherwise would never have had a chance to meet.  The blog world is full of talented, smart, creative, funny, inspirational, and driven women who choose to share their stories and inspiration through blogging.  I am continuously surprised and amazed by the talent and skill of my fellow bloggers.  And it's not just talent and skill that is found in blogland.  The amount of love, friendship, encouragement and support offered by fellow bloggers is heart-warming!  Some of my favorite people are fellow bloggers that I have never met in person, yet we've developed strong friendships.  

Today I thought I would share with you just one of the Amazing Bloggers I have had the pleasure to "meet" through this awesome blog world:

Sharon of Mrs. Hines' Class!

Sharon says,

"Welcome to Mrs. Hines’ Class, a virtual classroom where I share the creative process behind turning my house into a home. I enjoy sharing recipes. I love sharing home decorating ideas that prove a beautiful home doesn’t have to be expensive. And, it’s so rewarding to acquire a new set of skills after completing a DIY project, and then sharing what I’ve learned with you. But my real motivation for all of this, is my love of family. I hope after spending time in Mrs. Hines Class, that you will be encouraged that above all else, love makes a home. So, please join me for the lessons that await in Mrs. Hines’ Class."

When I first "discovered" Sharon and her blog back in my early days we were running into each other at many of the same link parties.  Link parties are a great place for beginning bloggers to share their work and meet others.  Sharon would come by and leave some sweet comments on my posts and I ALWAYS read her blog name as Mrs. SHINES' Class.  The funny thing is I still picture Sharon like that!  She just seems to radiate light and warmth in all that she does and shares, so "Mrs. Shine" just seems so fitting! 

Here are some samples of the types of lessons you will find at Mrs. Hines' Class

Vinegar as a Household Cleaner

Sharon shares so many great cleaning and organizing tips on her blog.  I'm always up for some good "get your house in tip-top shape" advice.  Yes, she shares tips on making your home shine!

Garden Design & Landscaping Tips

Don't stop on the inside.  We want our outdoor spaces to be attractive and inviting too! Sharon has some terrific tips on Garden Design and Landscaping as well.

A Simple Side Dish ~ Spanish Rice

As busy as we all are we can really use some simple recipes and meal ideas....you'll find those "lesson plans" in the classroom.

Bed & Breakfast Room

I've noticed that Sharon is really laid back and not afraid to step outside of the box every now and then.  You can see this in the choices she makes in her home decorating.  One of my favorite spots in her home is this little bed & breakfast area.  Yes, I did say bed & breakfast!  She put a day bed in the dining area and I swear it was brilliant! 

What a great spot to chill with a cold beverage and a good book.

DIY Painting Tips

Sharon has been DIYing her home to create a warm, welcoming environment for her family and all who visit.    She shares her tips learned through personal experiences.  It's nice to get advice from someone who has already done a project before...it saves us so much trouble trying to figure out the best way to accomplish our projects.

Memorable Moments

And what I love most about Sharon is how she infuses her blog and posts with her sweet personality and love of life.  She encourages us to look at life with a positive attitude and enjoy the little things more, like good times with family and creating lasting memories.

See You In Class!

Mrs. Hines' Class

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you will head over to discover what other treats Sharon has for you in her virtual classroom.  

Have a great weekend!

Sherry

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Dangly Earring Storage & Display DIY

I sent my big jewelry box off to be photographed by Somerset Home awhile back in the hopes that I'll see one of my projects on the pages of a magazine someday.  That would be a dream come true for me!  Ever since then all my jewelry has been thrown together in a basket.  Not a convenient way to store jewelry, let me tell ya.

Whenever I tried to find earrings I couldn't seem to locate a matching pair.  So, not much earring wearing happening around here lately.   Something needed to be done and quick...

Then I remembered this little wooden house I had found at a thrift store eons ago.  I think it cost .50 cents.   It's a simple little shadow box made out of wood.  I've seen these at Michael's and Joann's for a few dollars, I think.  When I bought it I intended to put fun family photos in each section.  Wouldn't that be cute?  But now my wheels were turning about using it to display some of those dangly earrings that were getting all tangled together in a basket.

(FYI ~ Dangly isn't really a word but it's what I like to call my long dangling earrings like the ones below.)

So I painted my little shadow box house with white gloss spray paint.  I added some little metal loops that screwed into the wood pretty easily.  I screwed these in with my hands because the wood is fairly soft.  You could use small pliers for this step too.

Then I added some scrapbook/crafting decals to give this little house some personality.  Apparently some 80's personality since one of the stickers says "gonna dress you up in MY LOVE".

I did love that song waaaaaay back when!  :)

Just a couple of nails attach it to the wall next to where I get ready.  I might wear earrings every day now!

My dangly earrings have a new home and they are loving it.

Now what to do with all those post earrings...

Sharing With:

http://www.everydayhomeblog.com

http://igottacreate.blogspot.com/

http://www.artsyfartsymama.com

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INSPIRATION CAFE'S GRAND OPENING!!! What Inspires Us

Welcome to Inspiration Cafe! 

The day is finally here!  Welcome to our Grand Opening!!! 

We've got loads of fun and creativity planned for the weeks ahead.
We would love for you to join us.

For this round of Inspiration Cafe each of our Contributors will be sharing What Inspires Us personally.  On the sixth Monday we will be launching our very first link party!!!   You must come join in!  The theme for the link party will also be 'WHAT INSPIRES US'.   So stop back each Monday to see what inspires each of us, and then on Monday, November 26th, come back and link up a project, a post, a tip...anything that shares Your Inspiration with all of us.  It can be anything that inspires you.  We will be featuring our favorite links from the party on our individual blogs, sharing teasers on facebook, and of course the overall winners will be featured on Inspiration Cafe!  Won't you share your inspiration with all of us?

And now onto what inspires ME!

Hi!  If we haven't already met...I'm Sherry.  :)  

I blog over at Pondered Primed Perfected.  I hope you'll come by and check out what we've been up to there.  I have been doing DIY projects with my husband for many, many years.  We are inspired to create something out of nothing, so to speak.  It really is rewarding for us to take something discarded, outdated, or unwanted and transform it into something new and useful.  We've rescued quite a few Roadkill Pieces over the years.  We've scoured thrift stores, made over Craigs List freebies, and even pulled things from trash piles.  Sometimes we just want to upgrade something we already have instead of throwing it away.  You should check out our Project Gallery to see some examples of our work!

BUT...

One of my biggest challenges is keeping my busy family organized.   And when everything is all chaotic and unorganized I have much less motivation to work on my projects.  So here's what I came up with recently:

A while back we went to a garage sale and I bought some stuff for my classroom.  As we were leaving the lady threw this corkboard in for free.  You should all know that I LOVE free stuff! 

It wasn't fancy, or fabric covered, or anything.  Just pure utilitarian corkboard, and that was okay.  The perfect spot for all of the school, sports, friend and family photos, as well as various schedules, appointments, and events.  Did I mention it was free!?

I'm not going to act all cool ~ like I'm ultra organized.  I'm not.  There have been times when I've struggled keeping up with a family calendar.  One that will keep us organized and where we need to be on time.  We lead very busy lives, like most families do ~ with work, school activities, playing sports, coaching, college courses, volunteering and keeping up with friends and family.  We like being busy, don't get me wrong, but it can be challenging keeping it all straight.  (It does help to be informed of events before it's time to leave...eh hem...not naming any names!).

Now...

I wanted to maximize this corkboard's usefulness.  It still needed to be utilitarian, but I was envisioning it being more ORGANIZED at keeping track of our appointments, events, important papers and notes, as well as keeping our favorite photos out for everybody to see!

Here's what I did  ~ Click here to read the entire post...

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Welcome to our new pantry space

 

IT'S FINALLY DONE...

And organized.  Aaaahhhh.  Now that feels nice!

Scott created the built-ins with wood we had hanging about.  We painted the shelving white and I painted the back wall a soft green color.  Nothing fancy.  Just practical.  ;)

 

I added wicker bins and baskets so I could organize things by category:  meal components, crackers & chips, snacks & treats, and the one at the very bottom holds our paper plates, plastic utensils, napkins and baggies.  The very top shelf holds baking supplies.

 

After the first built-in was done we realized we needed more space, so Scott added the second built in to go further into the angle of the closet.  There was only so much we could purge without tossing things we'll need.

I brought in a wire rolling cart for all the miscellaneous and canned foods.  It's very narrow so it fits perfectly against the wall.

I used up a good portion of my wicker to organize this space.  The tote at the end holds all of the extra paper shopping bags. 



I put up one of our new handmade chalkboards.  This one I jazzed up a bit with some jute strung across the top and attached with upholstery nails.  AND Seven little clothespins ~ one for each day of the week.  I went to BHG.com and printed up a bunch of labels with our favorite main course meals on them.  It was easy...go HERE if you want to make your own. 

I didn't worry about sides or desserts.  Maybe I'll add those later.  I like this chalkboard here ~ I can jot down the ingredients I will need as I plan my weeks menus.  When we use the last of something, we can write it on the board as a reminder.

Alex helped make these tags.  Next time I think I will print the labels on sticky address labels so we can just peel and stick them.  That would have been so much quicker.

I love these mini clothespins.  I wrote the days of the week on them with a fine tip marker.  I'm not looking for anything extravagant...I like utilitarian...especially in this type of space.

Big Improvement, huh!

More to come tomorrow when I reveal the LAUNDRY ROOM

Previous posts about this space:

http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2012/01/good-day-2012-nice-to-finally-make-your.html
http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2012/01/storage-under-stairs.html
http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2012/01/imagine-impossibilities-challenge.html
http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2012/01/imagine-impossibilities-challenge-take.html
http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2012/01/well-stocked-pantry-p3-style.html
http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2012/01/imagine-impossibilities-challenge-take_23.html


We are so glad you've stopped by and we hope you've enjoyed your time here. We would LOVE IT if you wanted to follow along with us. You can follow by clicking Google Friend Connect on the sidebar or typing in your email address. You can even friend Pondered Primed Perfected on Facebook and Pinterest.

We love making new friends!!!

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Imagine the Impossibilities Challenge ~ Take 2

This project may turn me into an over-caffeinated, chocolate crazed, DIY disaster. 

via http://chicagogirlgonemild.blogspot.com/2011/01/stress-and-chocolate.html via http://www.etsy.com/listing/63973889/11x14-poster-stress-out-and-eat?ref=sr_list_8&ga_search_query=stress%2Bprint&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=2

Don't worry about me though...Scott is here keeping me sane.  Right now he is working at making the laundry room an eclectic mix of frugality, functionality and organization.  He is straining his brain trying to make this work without spending any money.  And just to be fair, he is very encouraging each time I throw another item into our "purge" pile.   Positive reinforcement.  That's right, Baby!

*SIGH* 

Here's what We've done:

Removed all pantry items from the laundry room and put them on the dining table.  WOW.  This is just one small portion!

Scott moved all the other items that were hanging out in the laundry room to various surfaces in our home.

Discussed space planning, purging, and organization plans.  (That didn't go so well.)

I took a chocolate, wine and hot tub break, while Scott did his homework and watched sci-fi.

Started putting pantry items into the new pantry area under the stairs... 
Realized we were already running out of space.  Yikes...that's no good.

Created a WELL STOCKED PANTRY LIST, in order to make sure that we are allowing enough space for all of the items we would like to keep on hand regularly.  Click here if you want to check it out...maybe create your own.

Determined that the shelving that Scott originally built under the stairs would not be sufficient for all of our pantry storage needs.  You can see his original built in shelves here.  Scott jumped in and added a couple more shelves to the closet.

Gathered up all of our canisters, bins, baskets and other storage items that we might utelize in our spaces.

Overwhelmed with the magnitude of this project, I went on "strike" for a day. 

Unable to sit for long, I went back to other projects:  We did some finishing details on a chalkboard.  I painted my little blue shelf a pale green color.  I made a HUGE chocolate kiss.  I baked a triple-chocolate loaf cake.  More about these later!  Scott did more homework and watched more sci-fi.

Finally, back to the project at hand, I mixed up some chalkboard paint with my hand mixer and applied it to the walls behind the pantry shelving. 

(We've discovered that mixing our own chalkboard paint is pretty easy, but it tends to be lumpy - no matter how much you stir.  Using the hand mixer works great!  I may need a new mixer though.  Maybe one of those big KitchenAid stand mixers?  That would be very nice...I think I will plan a spot for it.)

Here's the closet with the chalkboard paint:

While I worked on painting and organizing the pantry space, Scott was busy planning and building the laundry room storage:

Just a peak!  More on this later...

That purple-blue color has got to go.  We will get to that.  Hopefully before the challenge deadline, but it's low on the list.  It isn't really going to break us if we don't get the painting done.  It's the purging and organizing that are the priority! 

Things are coming along.  We still have tons of work to do.  Don't ask about the garage.  I'm kind of wishing I'd left it off the list.  I'm confident that I can get it purged.  Not so confident that it will look real pretty.  We'll just have to see how it goes...

 xoxo,
Sherry

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Imagine the Impossibilities Challenge ~ Take 1

Yesterday we attempted to discuss the challenge that lay before us.  You know, that challenge that we talked about HERE? 

Basically we want all of our storage spaces to look something like this:

Via Pinterest and http://roost-home.blogspot.com

Here is a before picture of the closet under the stairs (Our DIY storage area):

And here is a look at our laundry room and makeshift pantry in all of it's "laundry day" glory:

YEP, THIS IS REAL LIFE PEOPLE.  We wouldn't want to clean it up to give you the wrong impression.  That cabinet shoved into the laundry room is our pantry space.  It makes no sense.  The doors are always left open and even if you wanted to close them there might be something on the floor stopping you...like piles of laundry waiting to be washed!  The mops and brooms are shoved into the corner behind that little chest freezer...and who knows what else.  Yikes...do we even want to know!?

Let me just say that Scott and I have very different styles of getting things done. 

How can I put this???

I am a Planner.  I want to sit down with a paper and pen and "map out" what needs to be done and in what order.  Pinpointing the main goals and possible difficulties before getting started.  Knowing where to start, what steps to take and in which order.  Sometimes this may slow down my progress but it also keeps me sane.  (I know, that's a matter of opinion!).  I just strongly dislike house wide chaos...

Scott is a Doer.  (Have you ever heard the term, "Bulldozer"?)   He wants to know what the end-goal is and then he jumps right in to start tackling whatever aspect is in sight.  He doesn't let any grass grow under his feet!  He doesn't like mapping out the steps or explaining why he is doing what he is doing.  If I say, "Honey, what do you think about tearing down this wall to open up the kitchen?", he has his sledge hammer out in the blink of an eye.

Some people say we balance each other out...or...
Opposites attract...or...
We complete each other...

Call it whatever you want.  When it's time to work on a big project together it goes something like this...

Scott "So, what do you want done?"
Me "I want to purge and organize the pantry, closet and garage storage space."
Scott "Okay, what are you doing with this and this and this..." grabbing miscellaneous items.
Me "Wait a minute, I need to look at that..."
Scott doesn't hear because he's too busy moving large armfuls of stuff to different areas of the house to clear a way for his new shelving project.
Me "Hey, we need to look at this project and figure out what shelving and storage containers we already have to utilize and what items we KNOW we need to have a permanent space for."  And yes, I speak in run on sentences too...
Scott "Where do you want this and this and this..." holding out miscellaneous things.
Me "Hey, can we plan to do this in several stages so we don't have everything strewn throughout the house for days on end ,when we aren't able to work on it?"
Scott "Hhhmmmphfff" still moving things to miscellaneous piles throughout house.
Me "Hey, we need to define our storage needs so that we get it right the first time and don't have to do it all over again in six months or a year."
Scott "Uh Huh" Hands me a clipboard and pencil.  "What are we keeping?"
Me "Do we want to move the pantry items to the stairwell closet so they are closer to the kitchen and the DIY stuff to the garage or laundry room?"
Scott "Sure."
Scott standing in the laundry room "We obviously need storage for paper and plastic bags."  As he pulls countless bags out of the little pocket of space that had been formed between the cabinet and the freezer.
Me "Can we just start with the first space and clear it out and get it ready for what we KNOW we want there..."
Scott "We need a spot for food, and chemicals, and extra kitchen gadgets, and cleaners, and bags, and we need a laundry sorting doodad...and..."
Me "I can't do this with you tonight..."

I like a plan.  He likes action.

Moral of this story:  Do not tell Scott there is a project until you have completely mapped out the plan of action.

These basic differences can sometimes cause me stress when we are working on a project TOGETHER.

That may have something to do with why we seem to settle into our own separate projects most of the time, or work on the same project in "shifts" (i.e. ~ he does the sanding...I do the painting).

We have a lot of stuff to go through, purge, donate, sell, junk, and organize. We don't really have a space to lay it all out and organize it all at once. How are we going to accomplish this project without driving each other CRAZY?

Did I mention I work from home. With numerous young children running around our house? I have a need for uncluttered spaces! I cannot have piles and piles of stuff strewn throughout our house during the week. I just can't.
Needless to say, last night was a chocolate and wine night for me.  ;) 

Aaaaaaand I played around on Pinterest looking for the perfect pantry and laundry room spaces to give us ideas!!!

Pantry Ideas:

via Pinterest and http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com

Via Pinterest and http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

Via Pinterest (uploaded by user)

Via Pinterest (uploaded by user)

Via Pinterest and http://www.realsimple.com

Via Pinterest and http://sissyprint.blogspot.com/search/label/organization

Via Pinterest and http://www.etsy.com/listing/61189102/pantry-kitchen-stickers-labels-print

 LAUNDRY ROOM IDEAS:

Via Pinterest and http://mydesigndump.blogspot.com/2010/03/laundry-rooms.html

Via Pinterest and http://alkemie.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-cleaning-inspirational-laundry.html

Via Pinterest (uploaded by user)

Via Pinterest and http://remodelingtherapy.com/lovely-laundry-rooms/

Via Pinterest and http://shopruche.blogspot.com/2011/08/if-ruche-were-laundry-room.html

Via Pinterest and http://ana-white.com/2010/11/laundry-basket-dresser

***UPDATE***

*I was able to move the pantry items to the new storage shelving under the stairs, leaving that huge cabinet in the laundry room empty and ready to be moved out of there.

*Scott was able to empty the contents of the small chest freezer into the freezer in the garage,  get it out of the laundry room and ready to put on Craigslist.

*I've also identified several items that we can definitely PURGE. 

THINGS ARE GETTING DONE!!!

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