Plastic Bags

I have an abundance of plastic bags. Ok, not any more, I tackled this problem and thank goodness! I wish I had a before picture to show you how awful my broom closet looked.  Just try to picture no room for anything, and a ton(about a million) plastic bags all crumpled up everywhere, and you are maybe close to how it looked!

This is what I have after the fact.  I have one big container for the broom closet, a glass jar for under the bathroom counter, and I have an old Lysol wipes container for down in the laundry room.  Looks great right!

Now to show you how I did it! It is super easy.  Remember making paper footballs in high school?  Well that is all we are going to do, just out of plastic bags instead of paper.  This took me quite a while to tackle them all the first time, but since has been so much easier for our busy life and really helps me feel less cluttered.  Way worth it in my opinion!!

 Lay your bag out flat, and push out all the air.

 Now fold it in half. Pushing the air out again.(when you do this by moving from the bottom towards the top, you don't want to pop a hole in your bag). I typically use them for garbage bags, holes make them unusable.

 Tuck the handles in!

 Fold in half once more!

 Start by turning one corner over, to make a triangle, keep going in the pattern until you get to the top of the bag.

 Now that you are almost to the top, you are going to fold the last part into the top of the triangle.  Make sure you stop when one of your triangles bottoms is up that way you have something to tuck the end into!

All done!  Now just put in some wonderful Tupperware containers and you have them all nice and neat for much easier storage!

 I can now enjoy my nice clean broom closet!

Stuffed Animal Hammock-knit

I was looking for something to put all of Eli's stuffed animals in, since he has a ton of them and they seem to take over his crib.  I liked the idea of the animal hammocks, but didn't want to buy one.  I had some extra white yarn sitting around so I decided to get to work and make a pattern for one. So here it goes. This was his other b-day present-practical yes, but he needed it and I wanted an excuse to make it besides just because!

white yarn
Size 13 circle needles

CO2
Knit row
Increase in each st
Knit row
Increase in each st
Knit row
Increase in 1st and last st, knit all sts between
Knit row
Increase in 1st, 5th, and last st, knit all sts between
Knit row
Repeat the above two rows(instead of the 5th st always inc in the middle st of the row) until you have 80sts on needles.
Knit 20 rows
Now you are going to decrease in the same pattern, so it looks even so your decrease row should be:
k2 tog in 1st 2sts, middle 2sts, and last 2sts, knit all sts in between.
Knit row
Continue this until you have 10 sts left on your needles then do as follows:
K2 tog in 1st 2sts, knit and k2tog for last 2 sts
knit row
k2 tog for row
knit row
k2 tog for row
knit row
k2 tog
bind off stitches and leave a long tail so you can tie it all together and you will be able to hang it.

I finally decided to hang this in his closet, low enough so he could get to it, but so they were not just thrown in a pile in the closet!

Kitchen Happenings

Today was a very productive day, which always makes me a very happy person!

First, I went grocery shopping (I was out of creamer for my coffee and that makes it an emergency).  Got all that put away, looked around my kitchen and noticed how messy I have been letting it get.

Second, because my kitchen was trashed I got to work cleaning it.  I mean really cleaning it.  I cleaned the oven, the stove top, all the counters.  I washed all the containers and everything that sits on the counters.  I put everything in my new canisters that I made awhile back with the frosty labels.

Third, I organized all the counter space and cabinets so they made a bit more sense based upon where other things were found in the kitchen. I really like the new feel of how it is set up. (I will add here in the last 2 years of living here I have rearranged where things were kept in the kitchen at least 4 times) I'm hoping this will be the last time, and it should be because it makes more sense than the last 4 times as to where everything is located.

Forth, I stained 3 cabinet doors (doesn't seem like a lot but that's all I can fit in one section of my house blocked off so no animals or babies get into it while it's still drying). 

Fifth, I stained the bottom of a long counter top that I have in the kitchen.  There are no cabinets underneath, so I just had to do the legs and then the bottom of the broom closet that it butts up against.  It looks really nice I must say.

Sixth, we put the flooring in.  Notice this one says we! Greg helped and I was so happy to have him in the kitchen with me. It had been a long day in there. (when I wasn't working on something, I was cooking the next meal, and washing the dishes!)  Eli helped me with the flooring as well.  He saw me patting it in, so we crawled around the floor and would pat all the tiles in as I would lay them down.  It was really cute, I'm wishing now I would have gotten the camera out for that!

Side Note- Greg did a wonderful job keeping Eli occupied so I could get some much needed work done, and I greatly appreciated it.  He also got some sanding and muding done in the basement while Eli was taking his nap.  Also a huge plus, working on two projects at the same time! He is the best husband a women could ask for! I'm telling you, everyone should be jealous(except jealousy is a sin so maybe don't be jealous just be really happy for me that I have such a keeper)

Seventh, As you notice it is a bit late in the evening now, and I just finished putting up those three cabinet doors I stained at the beginning of the day.  I had to wait for them to dry so it was the perfect time to get them up.

And Last but not least, I stained two more cabinet doors so come tomorrow I could get those up, maybe. 

I may just take tomorrow off, and use it as a day of rest as it should be.  After all, I feel quite accomplished after everything that I got done today!  Keep your eye open for some posts of all the things I got done in the kitchen.  I'm tired now so this momma is going to bed, but I will post about at least the floor tomorrow!

Dresser refinish

We recently decided to move my dresser up the Eli's room, so that when the next baby arrives there is room for both of their clothes.  Currently there is just closet space but Eli takes up the closet so figured we needed to add another piece of furniture to the room to accommodate this.  My dresser was a very small one from walmart that we got on sale.  Light Birch/Oak color, so didn't go in the room too well. 

Soooo.... we decided to be different.  The room is currently brown on the bottom, blue on the top.  We decided to be different and paint it in the chalkboard paint.  I couldn't help but think how fun and different this would be.  We could write what items were in the drawers or draw pictures.  The possibilities seem endless.  So very excited.  Greg seemed to really like the idea too, so off we went to walmart to find some paint.  They sell it in a spray can for $4, not too bad.  I am going to use our sidewalk chalk to write on it with so we don't have to buy more chalk.

Before Picture:

After Picture:

Dresser Finished:

Yeah, so excited to fill this with little boy and girl clothes!

Storage Boxes

I was needing something to put all of Eli's toys in since they seem to have taken over the living room.

So I pulled out an old diaper box (I was trying to think of something creative to do with them), and got to work.  I cut off the top pieces so that it would stay open.

I then spray painted 3 of the sides blue.

Then because of my new found love with chalkboard paint, I painted the front of the box with that!  Yeah, now I can write toys on it. 

I'm so very excited to have somewhere to put all his toys instead of just scattered all across the floor! Greg is too, as the clutter I think gets on his nerves more than mine. Below is what the room looked like before!

It sits so nicely on the bookshelf and now it is a bookshelf of everything Eli instead of just some random stuff!

Much better don't you think??
Now I just need to find my chalk so I can write on the box.  You have to wait for 24 hrs before you can write on the surface, so maybe tomorrow I will try and find the chalk!