Almost...de Gournay!

My spring cleaning always  seems to have a way of morphing into much bigger things other then just wiping things down with a little  baking soda and vinegar.  You can see what I mean by reading last year's list, "Not Too Late for Some Spring Cleaning".  And I still don't have all that stuff done yet!

I'm sure this year is no different than all the years past but my visions for extending my spring cleaning all started last week.  I started off on a beautiful spring day by reading GBGP's daily blog on de Gournay and Gracie wallpaper--wallpaper that I have only wanted for years now!  I wrote  "One Fine Day - de Gournay!" five years ago, and I'm still not there just yet! Anyway, while reading the  GBGP post it got my juices flowing again.

De-Gournay and Gracie wallpapers are expensive, and I could never afford to do a whole room, or even one wall for that matter!  As the saying goes, "the more things change the more they stay the same".  Case in point - my tiny closet!  The perfect place for wallpaper that I can't afford, plus I've always wanted it there to begin with--my little oasis, if you will!  With spring almost here, I have the huge task of taking out all my winter clothes anyway!  Now there's my opportunity to add wallpaper...Don't you think?

So here's a small backup plan that won't break the bank, and won't take long at all.  Scented drawer liners from Crabtree and Evelyn, which may have to suffice for my closet until that "One Fine Day", and  to give me a little  floral boost that I'm craving now!  Plus it's scented!

Labels, Labels, Labels!

I'm little obsessed with labels.  There is just something about personalizing your pasta, rice, chickpeas and plants and herbs that I love!  I bought the ones above from Crate & Barrel last year.

 

 

 

I found these at Terrain.  Love this store!

 

 

And these! Great spring hostess gift for the gardener.

 

Happy organizing Monday!

Organizing My Office

I woke this past Saturday, not unlike any other Saturday morning, ran downstairs grabbed a cup of coffee (Hubby is off on Sat) grabbed my netbook to shop and read blogs. Pretty much, like I always do. Though, I'm still shopped out and realized it was high time to organize all my pictures from the last six or so years.  Sometimes, I think that I've been living under a rock or so it seems.   

But after all this time, I've decided to clean up my act, and quit being the incognito and inconspicous blogger I have been, perhaps I'll even join Pinterst.  And who knows, maybe I'll even tweet.  As far as Facebook is concerned,  now that's a different story.  You'll have to drag me kicking and screaming!  

In the weeks ahead I'm getting my files organized info structured sets, and  making some much needed changes to good old Southern Inspirations.  Perhaps now that I'm motivated, I'll even get my office above (My Office),  that's missing it's chair rail and other necessities, done.  But now that's a different subject...isn't it?

By the way, my name is Lisa

Sale Time!

Tommorow is  Monday, February 17th - President's Day meaning among one extremely important thing...sales.  I, for one, missed the Winter White sales this past January -- way too busy doing this here!  Now that I'm done with that, I personally need sheets, pillows, towels.  In the kitchen, we're in  desperate need of white plates, that is, if we ever plan on having more then three people over for dinner.  We could also use a few new pots, especially after Hubby scorched one while making hot cocoa this past week!  I Just got this in my email from Bloomingdale's.  It's really too bad that we're  suppose to be on austerity.

Getting Organized for the Holidays!

While glancing through my Martha Stewart this weekend I spotted this great tip on recycling holiday cards.  Perfect -  because this past Sunday, I finally got our Christmas tubs out and discovered that I have five boxes of cards that I need to do something with.  I think this may be one craft project that I can hopefully handle.

Organizing The Jamie Lee Curtis Way!

Last time Hubby and I were up at his parents' mountain cabin, I spent the entire time going through my mother-in-law's last five years of Good Housekeeping magazines.  Its where she keeps her overflow for guests and such.  Good Housekeeping is one magazine that I don't receive, though it always brings back memories from when I was young.  My mother always got it, so maybe that's how I became a huge magazine junkie.  Anyway, I'm always looking for new and better ways to organize and when I read Jamie Lee's methodology for organizing I was very intrigued.  Go here to read all Jamie Lee's great tips...I bet you may just find a few!

Containing our Clutter

I was watching The Today Show this morning and caught  a few minutes of Brooke Shields (who's co-hosting this week) she revealed that she finds zen at The Container Store. This caught my full attention, as I can relate about the zen part at the Container.  The boxes the staff later brought out looked liked a few of the boxes that  I just bought last Monday. I'm definitely not a type A person but containing our stuff  is something that I've only been trying to do for years now.  

From 2002 to now  Hubby and I have moved  a mere ten times. With each and every move, I would pitch more and more.  When we sold our first house in 2002 I had a massive garage sale.  Unfortunately, this is when I made the mistake and made Hubby get rid of his huge album collection. Since turntables tend to be a trending now, I offered to buy him one for Christmas last year. He wanted no part of it because I made him get rid of his prize Led Zeppelin collection.  

Last Thursday evening, as I was planning out my Friday, it went  sort of like this -  go to work, hit the paint store, go home, go for a jog, empty closet. Trying to empty our filled-to-the-brim closets and getting organized was crucial!  I had guys coming first thing this morning, to start my ceiling smoothing process and I didn't want a mess on our stuff.  So I panicked Friday and stayed home from work, thinking to myself, this won't take long, I'm pretty organized.   I'll be able to clear out my office, Hubby's office, guest room, and gather up all the books thrown  in linen closets.  Plus, I can hit the paint store all before Friday afternoon traffic.

Will it didn't exactly happen that way!  Since the beginning of the year I've been going through my office.  Finally last week I broke down and bought a filing cabinet.  Unfortunately, since I receive almost every design magazine out there, I finally had to say goodbye to my old Southern Accents.  Trust me,  I had a hard time letting them go.  Of course, before pitching them, I had to to poke through each one just to make sure I didn't miss anything. After spending most of the afternoon browsing through them, half the day was shot.  But, you know what? I found a few things in one house I'll post tomorrow if I can find my scanner.    

Anyway, as I made my way to Hubby's office feeling so great, having just trimmed twenty years away worth of  old bank statement and such, and as I started to  empty out Hubby's closet, I found  a box which I thought was suppose to be his old  boy scout stuff.  Hmmm he had been holding out on me.  Our 90's tax returns and his old bank statements from college were thrown in the box. Needless to say, I was not very happy with Hubby.  After all, I had already returned the shredder back to work.  As I counted his huge tape collection, not wanting to make the same mistake that I had with his albums, I took inventory of how many old vintage steamer trunks  and suitcases I would need to store all his stuff.   Too bad, a few months ago I had my hands on this one above one but  missed out.   But you know what?  I'll find him a couple of goods ones, you wait and see!

My Office!

A few years ago I wrote this "I want an Office"!  For twenty-one months now, we've been in our current house.  After carving out a master bedroom, an office/man-cave for Hubby, and a guest room, their is actually a small room left over for an office for me!  Currently it's a room holding all my magazines and bills, thrown in bakers boxes.  Here's what I need:
. 
1. Desk - Most important...one would think.   I've been waffling between three...

A.  Crate and Barrel

B.  Z. Gallerie

C.  Pottery barn

 

2. Chandelier- Not the most important thing but I can't stand the dated ceiling fan in there now!
3. Credenza - To store some more of  my magazines.
4.  Shredder - I'm the bill payer - tired of borrowing the one from work that doesn't really work!
5.  Wallpaper - Yes, I'm treating myself to wallpaper, probably Grass cloth.
6.  Frank -  I need Frank to come and buzz the ceiling and add molding- like above.
7.  And most importanly - A filing cabinet - Just something so wrong with our whole life in a bakers box...Don't you think?

More Glass Jars Please!

 

 

 

  

Yes, it's true, I have a thing for glass jars...can't get enough of them!  At beginning of the year, I was in the market for some new ones.  I already had the ones you see above which you can get from most stores - Target or Ikea to name a few.  The glass jars you see, again, above, are on my kitchen counter storing milk bones and such.  But for my small pantry I needed some smaller ones to store the rest of our dry goods - oatmeal, rice and pasta that we never eat.  Though when food is stored in glass jars it become a work of art and so much more organized.  Don't you think?  

 

 

I spotted these in Martha...love all the different shapes that she used.  Look how organized!

And then in the January issue of Real Simple I spotted these glass jars.  It looks like they came from Crate and Barrel and Bed Bath and Beyond.  I ended up getting these jars from the Container Store.  You know what?  What a decision!!!

Chalkboard Paint...Gotta Have It!

Monday "Getting Organized"
 
Here in Atlanta we have had nothing but rain, rain, and rain!  For little Ellie, it's been very boring.  She jut sits in her chipmunk-stalking room and gazes out the window wainting for the little chipmunks to come out of their holes.   The good news is she did get to see a  mommy deer and a baby fawn run through her front yard the other day.  Very exciting for her.  For me, with the rain, it's been non-stop HGTV, and I was forced to finally pick paint colors for my office, Hubby's office, and the guest room. Didn't actually make it to Home Depot for the paint but at least I know the colors that I'm going with.  For Hubby, because of the  rain,  he got out of a boat load of yard work...so he is a happy camper.  

Anyway, I cannot begin to tell you how much I love chalkboard paint!  Love it, Love it, Love it! 

Here House & Home's Suzanne Dimma painted a nice size wall in her kitchen.  I thought about this.

And here, I  thought about painting my pantry like what you see below.  Great for writing your grocery list and such.  Somehow or another, I was using chalkboard paint! 

I even thought about doing a weekly calender like this. Great for organizing your busy weekly schedule. I strayed from this because of the taping involved.  I don't think after striping our dining room we would have the patience for this project.

 

 

What I ended up doing was just painting a wall out in my mud room that I had Frank install to hide the ugly hot water heater. And no, I don't have a five year old.  But you know what?  You don't have to be in grade school to want draw on a chalkboard!

 

 

Controlling the Chaos Part 3!

Monday -  Getting Organized

 

 

 Okay, I know you’re about tired of me talking about my garage, laundry & mud room.  BUT…just one more thing…I promise! I’ve been thinking about these shelves from IKEA here lately. My original plan was to find an old hutch, but now I’m thinking the money would be better spent on other things…they can be pricey!    My friend Colleen, when redoing her kitchen, used these shelves for her pantry (from IKEA).  When she gave me a tour of her new remolded kitchen this past Christmas, she had to kick me out of her pantry. I was like a kid in a candy store…loved it!  Since my pantry is so small, I’m thinking I may extend it into my mud room, by using a few of these shelves.  Perfect to store canning jars and junk. I like the untreated pine too! 

Next time, I’m heading upstairs to tackle my office and Hubbies office…this won’t be pretty!

Contolling the Chaos...Continued!

I just spent my weekend cleaning up my yard from the brutal storm here in Atlanta  this past Thursday.  We weren’t hit too badly, just lots of down branches. I was also able to wrap up some much needed power washing on my driveway, a process that has taken forever and a day.  In the process I have discovered it’s a little decompressing for me.  Just me, my power washer, my walkman, listening to some Pink Floyd.  My neighbors probably think that I’m little crazy.  After all, how many women do you know out power washing their drive until 8:00 on a Saturday night?  Probably not too many, I would reckon.

 

Anyway, last Monday I told you all about the chaos in my garage, mud and laundry room (see Controlling the Chaos).  And I even shared all the great pics that I sent to Frank.  The good news now is we’re about done… only eight months later!  I don’t really understand why. For a couple who doesn’t own any sports equipment, backpacking and hiking gear, hardly any grilling stuff, and very little gardening stuff for that matter, this process has taken a while.  But, I discovered we have enough painting rollers and such to start our own painting business.  The reason for this is because when we (mostly Hubby) can’t find something we go out and buy it. So I have sorted and sorted painting brush, sticks, rollers, drop cloths, paint… you name it.  And I have put the fear in Hubby!   Here are a few items that I’m going to finish picking up so that we're ohhh so organized!

I have a few of these galvanized bins already...great for garage stuff. At Home Depot

 I have a few of these Smith & Hawken chalkboard baskets from Target, and love them.  Where I keep my gardening gear. I need to label though...baby steps!

Oh, boy I do need this, and this is the one I'm going to get.  The Heavy-Duty 3 Bin Laundry sorter from The Container Store.

Hubby's In The Laundry Room!

I bought a few new bath towels last week and there staring me in the face was a sign that said “Wash in warm water”.  Hum...Hubby has always washed the towels in cold water and has berated me for washing them in warm water.  Do I dare say anything to him?  The back story is Hubby has always done the laundry even before we were married.  It’s something his mother taught him early on in life.  Way before taking off for college when most young adults learn.  While in college Hubby would leave the LSU campus and hit his Mamere’s house in New Orleans. And it was not to grab a few free Po-boy sandwiches, but to do his laundry. So when we hooked up while in college…guess who did all the laundry? He was the one who would even hit the dreadful laundramats!!  For a young lady, not too interested in doing laundry, indeed a guy worth keeping around…Don’t you think?

Oh sure, a few cashmere sweaters have been sacrificed here and there.  Had a few whites t-shirts come out of the dryer pink (I think he washed them with Ellie’s red blanket). Lost a few pairs of jeans that were shrunk….but who’s counting? Here’s the best part, Hubby does the sheets…every Saturday our cleaning day.  The bed may not be made until 10:00 at night but after all, again, who's counting? Not me! I don’t go to bed until 10:30.

 

 

All in all, I think doing the laundry is a little decompressing for the Hubby, kind of like me doing the floors—see " It's Not Too Late for Some Spring Cleaning". So after all, I guess it’s up to me to make sure Hubby has a nice laundry room, don’t you think? 

 

 

Next time Hubby's in the....Continued!

Controlling The Chaos!

Last fall I started the process of tackling our garage, laundry & mud room.  Much needed in our house, we're extremely short on storage!!! I was looking for my mud room to act as a butler’s pantry: store all my flower vases, canning jars, hurricane lamps, basically all the left over spillage from the kitchen.  Also, I wanted the mudroom as a place to store my old wicker furniture (I refuse to throw it out), a place to store Ellie’s rain jackets, leashes, and all her doggie-gear, and a place to hang our coats when we come in.    Everyone said “Don’t spend money on your garage, laundry & mud room… it’s just a garage”. Nope...not for me.  It’s the first place  I see when I come home. My plans were easy!  

 

 

For Frank: 

1.         Scrape garage ceiling (dated ugly star pattern)

2.        Paint garage & ceiling

3.        Install clap board in hall (which is leads from garage to kitchen). Both on the walls & ceiling

4.        Remove ugly oak cabinets from mudroom

5.        Install clap board in mud room ceilings and walls

6.        Hide ugly hot water heater in mud room

7.        Install clap board in laundry room to ceiling & walls

8.        Install  sink to laundry room

9.        Change out all lighting in mud & laundry room and hall.

10.     Install brick pavers throughout

 

My Plan for Hubby and me (Mostly moi) was this:
 

1.        Price wood etc.

2.        Pick out paint, lighting

3.        Find brick pavers (not easy to find)

4.        Power wash garage floor – remove oil stains

5.        Shop for shelving, hutch, baskets etc.

6.        Organize, Organize, Organize

 

Here are the  pics that I sent to Frank.

Love this Mud Room!  Pics above & below The Great American House (Best book I bought last year) by  Gil Schafer

Martha - Love the color, colored knobs  &
the shelf wrapped around

Martha - Love this--perfect for my garden gear!

 

Southern Living - I saw this showcase house a few years ago... love the cabinets, tile, & sink!! Perfect place to store my flower vases etc!

 

I saw this home a few years ago on a home tour...absolutely loved it!  As soon as you walk into the foyer are the brick pavers.  I've wanted them ever since.  Pic from Atlanta Homes

More on Controlling The Chasos...later!

How Do You Organize Your Spices?

This past January, I was obsessed with trying to organize our spices.  What a huge  mess...we have several teeny-tiny bottles from  McCormick's.   Ground ginger, ground allspice (don't know how that one got there), ground cloves, just to name a few.  Then there are several medium sized ones from Target--they have such cute jars (I bought these).  Here we have rosemary, dill weed, parsley,etc.   Then there are a few big spice jars from Publix--nutmeg, red pepper, cayenne pepper (of course we have that one I'm married to a Cajun) and a huge ground cinnamon (Hubby must have bought that one).  Enough cinnamon to last five years, after all, we only do our cinnamon-pumpkin dish once a year (see Thanks Ina! ). The point here is there is absolutely no order and it's driving me crazy!

I'm familiar with the spice rules, and everything I have is properly dated. Most are no more than eighteen months old which is from about the time we bought our house. When I moved from Nashville to Atlanta, I gave all of our spices over to my neighbor, Sandy.  Whewww...did she hit it big!   Reminds me of several, years ago...I got to house sit for friends of the in-laws. Their movers took off and left their a collection of spices. Too bad for them, but guess who got them?  Below Two-Tier Revolving spice Rack from Williams - Sonoma.

Anyway, when I met my friends for lunch this past January, this was my first probing question to them, "How Do Your Organize Your Spices?" Not "How was Your Christmas" or "How was Your New Years?" or "How's Your Life?" for that matter.   I really wanted to know how  they organized their spices. I heard conflicting reports. And to tell you the truth,  none of them were all that thrilled with how they organized them.  I did discover that there is spice store in Sandy Springs where you can buy your spices separately, and then store them in your own containers. This really threw me for a loop...now I was really confused as to what to do!  Below is a set from Williams Sonoma that I love.

 I read in Real Simple how you should store your spices in a drawer away from the stove. I don't have a drawer to give up due to space so they have to go in my small pantry, but this is the idea.

So one cold January Friday I was explaining my weekend wintery tasks to Gwen from work about my spice dilemma.  I told her about all my choices with buying fresh spices and storing them in  new cute containers, or just buying a spice rack with the spices already included. As I was leaning toward taking the easy way out  and just getting the spice racks with spices included. She said, "How do you know how long the spice rack been there in the store".  As such, this option got thrown to the wayside! Below is a Revolving Spice Rack from Crate & Barrel.

 

How Do You Organize Your Spices?

Gotta Have 'em... Glass Storage Containers

Monday - Getting Organized 

 

Ok, how many of you have switched all your food storage over to glass?  It has taken me a little while but I am slowly getting there.  My friend Colleen ( I call her Martha if that tells you anything) first introduced me to them.  She brought me and Janice, a co-worker friend, lunch in one. Ahhh! I started with a couple from The Container Store.  Below.You know me--love the green silicone seal lid!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, a few months ago, I bought these from Bed Bath & Beyond.  I used  my coupon! Such a great price!!! Just a clear seal.   

 

 

 

 

I am looking to add a few more  to my collection.  Their compact, stack able and attractive!  Plus, I know it's strange but just like with my shoes (see Spring Organizing )  use see them you wear them.  Here you see it and you will eat it. Because it's all neatly stacked!   

 

Below,  just the other day while reading Martha's June issue I  noticed she has a  set for

Macy.  Here I love the Blue green tint seal!!  Decisions...Decisions!  

 

 

Who Wants a Pretty Linen Closet?

I do!!  OK we’ve been in our house longer then I’m going to admit to you.  It’s embarrassing that my sheets pillowcases—twins, queens, and kings—are piled high in two stacks in my guest room (which is finally getting painted this weekend).   I did manage to take all my old Ralph Lauren sheets to Good Will last year…Yeah!  The one pair of sheets that I donated was his homage to the Victorian era.  Funny, I just spotted those sheets while on a home tour a few weeks ago.   Anyway, you can’t keep them all, especially when you used to be a sheet-oholic!

 

 

Martha Stewart

I won’t get into the long story but my linen closet is in a bathroom that needs gutting.  Short story is I’m at least going to get the sheets sorted by using these linen containers from the Container Store.  I actually spotted them while shopping for something to sort all my handbags and read a review how a  lady suggested using them for sheets…Perfect!

On a quick side note a few years ago I wrote this:

This past fall, I wrote how I wanted to organize my blog a little (see Best Tomato Pie Ever). It looked a little something quite like this:

 Monday “Kicking the Week off Right & Getting Organized”
Tuesday – How about “Down with Some Serious Decorating”
Wednesday -Hump day...time for something fun such as,“Girl Stuff”
Thursday of course was going to be getting ready for the weekend. You know "Happenings Around the South". A few places that I’ve been (still have yet to talk about the Hermitage home with all its original wallpaper). Where does the time go?

With leaving Friday as you guessed it, the weekend and time for “Recipes & Entertaining” So here you go.  

I may give Thursday a quick tweak!

How Do You Organize Your Books?

Here I have my travel, self help, old college books (I was a Political Science Major, Hubby was Finance), travel guides, antiquing, and finding a job of my dreams types of books. And yes, we're big fans of Harry Potter !

My books are the one thing that I cannot live without! I keep everything, and not just the expensive decorating books, but my old college books, paperbacks, travel. etc. You name it, I keep them! I still have the first Let's Go Europe book that Hubby and I used on our first trip to Europe. It's quite funny to look back at some of our old notes. Another thing is that when I loan books out, I'm not a very happy camper when they don't get returned! Just last year when I loaned Sandy, our old Bohemian neighbor in Nashville, several books and she forgot to return them. In fact, I don't even think she ever read them! But that's OK, because she gave me all her old back issues of Martha Stewart Living . I had pitched my collection some time ago when we moved to Charleston. I do tend to pitch magazines collections but only when we move. I hate to do it but they can get mighty heavy!

Our night time reading...I'm currently reading The Help.

.

Really, the whole reason why I'm even blogging about this is the last couple of years I've seen some people sorting their books according to their color spine. I did try that and it just did not work for me. I have found what works best for me is to have my book sorted according to self-help, travel, entertaining, gardening, you-name-it, and in different areas of my house! Hint, my self help books (Men are from Mars Women are from Venus ) are upstairs. I believe my buddy Cruella gave me that book, which is odd in and of itself because we usually get each other expensive decorating books, not self-help! In fact, I'll give Cruella a decorating book for a gift just so she doesn't have to borrow any of mine. Well...She does the same thing!

Of course my entertaining books with a few cookbooks thrown in, mostly Ina's.

Last but not least, my decorating books, which I have stacked throughout my house...here they are used to stack Hubby's bourbon. Also, I have several in my Man Cave (see Decorating A Man Cave) but Hubby doesn't mind!

I've shown you mine...your turn! How do you like to organize your books?