The Art of Hanging Art

Remember my two DIY art projects? There was this one, and this one. Remember how I said I’d hang them on the wall eventually? Well I try not to make promises I can’t keep – so I got those babies hung up!

Hanging anything on your walls can be intimidating. You have to get it level, get the nail in the right spot, etc. And hanging multiple items on the wall can be even more intimidating – getting the spacing right, getting them all at the same height. What’s a girl to do?

Throughout my professional career as a Pinterest browser (that should be a real paid gig…), I’ve stumbled across a few different ways to ease the pain of hanging things on the wall. Here are a few:

1.) Make a Photocopy {via}



This method involves making a photocopy of the back of the item you want to hang. You could use a regular photocopy machine or a printer/scanner/copier. Then tape the photo on the wall where you'd like the object to hang. Drill where the holes are, set your screws, and hang your item perfectly!

2.) Masking Tape {via}



Here, you place a piece of masking tape across the back of your frame or item you want to hang and mark on the tape where your screws should go. Then, using a level, stick the tape on the wall where you'd like to hang your frame. Drill where the screw marks are, and set your screws. Easy, easy.


3.) Paper Template {via}



This one involves tracing an outline of your frame onto a piece of paper, cutting it out, and marking where the nail hole is. Then you tape the outline to the wall where you want your item and put the nail or screw where it needs to go. This is an especially helpful method when you are looking to do a gallery wall or hang multiple items because you get a good idea of the layout before you start putting holes in the wall.

So what will it be? Did I choose method 1, 2 or 3?

I chose method 3. I retrieved the level, ruler, picture hanging kit, scrap paper, and hammer from the basement and marched upstairs. I told the Mister that he was going to hear some loud noises and maybe some obscenities (not really, I don’t do that…) but not to worry. I was just making our house better. He loves when I say that. 

Since my frames were 12 x 12 and I had 12 x 12 scrapbook paper on hand, I skipped the tracing and cutting step and went right to marking the nail holes. With those marked, I taped my three pieces of paper on the wall and moved them around a bit until I liked where they were. Then I used the level to make sure each piece was straight, and checked the ruler to make sure they were evenly spaced. I measured twice and nailed once. I think I actually measured about 13 times. Once all three pieces of paper were "perfect" I nailed all of the nails into the wall, removed the paper, and hung the frames. 

No “oops” holes were created in this hanging of art. All three projects are evenly spaced and perfectly lined up. When the mister walked over to investigate all of the loud noises and lack of obscenities, he had me slam the door a few times just to make sure they would stay on the wall. They didn’t budge. High five to me.

If you want detailed instructions for either of my DIY projects, click here or here. I am super happy with this collection of “art” that will greet our guests. So many more projects to complete to finish off this room – but these three make the room a bit brighter and happier. 

What are your tricks for hanging items accurately?

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New & Improved Cleaning Schedule

It’s spring cleaning time, right? I’m not so sure. I still see snow and I’m still trekking around in my winter coat and mittens. But I have cleaning on the brain nonetheless. 

Back in January, I shared my shiny new cleaning schedule. I was really excited about it for a few reasons. Up until then, I lacked a schedule completely which often resulted in me spending an entire weekend trying to catch up by cleaning the whole house, top to bottom. I don’t know about you, but I can think of about 100 things that are more fun, even if it is frigid outside. In addition, I thrive on lists, so I figured this new schedule was a no fail solution.

If you recall, I created a yearlong calendar and filled in each day with specific cleaning tasks. 

While each week looks generally the same; monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, and annual tasks got filled in wherever I thought would be appropriate. It was my intention that this would help me stay on top of not only the little things but also the bigger, more time consuming projects. Well I’m back with an update and a bit of a re-do.

There are a lot of things about my original schedule that worked.

• Having a routine saved me from spending many hours (or days) cleaning the house
• The schedule kept me accountable for what was getting done and what was not
• It helped me plan out my week
• It has allowed me to keep the house clean and, perhaps more importantly, cleaner than it was without a schedule

On the other hand, I’ve realized a few things about this schedule that are not working.

• Some of the tasks that I’ve denoted as weekly or monthly don’t need to be done nearly that often
• Having a calendar based schedule leaves little room for flexibility
• Scheduling larger annual tasks into this calendar has proven somewhat ineffective because I do not know my weekend plans a year in advance or have any idea what the weather will be like 
• I found myself not changing out the schedule each month, but instead just pulling up my digital version on my computer at the beginning of each week

A few weeks ago, a fellow blogger (whom I largely admire), talked about revamping her family’s cleaning schedule to make it a bit more simple and easy to follow. I was intrigued. I started dissecting my own plan and thinking about how changing it up may improve it. I didn’t copy her schedule. That’s lesson number 1 here. Not every plan/schedule is going to work for everyone. For example, she has three boys and I have no children. That changes the schedule in itself quite a bit!

I re-worked my original list of cleaning tasks, adding some, removing some, and changing the timeline of others. I was honest with myself in doing this and asked myself the same question for each task: “Is this a good use of my time?”

Then I set out to create one page that I can hang in my current dry-erase frame. This will eliminate the need to switch out the schedule each month. 

I decided on four daily tasks: load the dishwasher and do any hand wash dishes in the sink; wipe down the stove, counters, and sink; take out the recycling; and clear the counter of any clutter piles. 

I have found it extremely helpful to fill the sink with hot, soapy water when I start the dinner making process. Then, as dinner cooks, I throw anything that needs to be washed by hand into the hot water to soak and everything else gets loaded in the dishwasher. After dinner, I finish washing the dishes and use that same soapy water to wipe down the kitchen. 

I took off making the bed and sweeping the floor as a daily task because it just wasn’t something I was making a priority to do. If the floor is a mess, I will clean it and if the bed needs to be formally made, I will make it. But to me, these two things were not a good use of my time every single day.

I also chose seven tasks that needed to be done each week. My plan is to do one of these tasks each day of the week, but if I am extra busy one day, I can always double up another day. None of these tasks should take much more than 20 minutes (aside from laundry, of course). 

Next, I decided on 16 tasks that needed to be done each month and then three or four other tasks that could be rotated. This means most months will have 20 tasks to complete and I plan to complete one of these tasks each weeknight. (Thanks to Jen for this idea!)

I love the idea of just having a list of tasks instead of a calendar. This way, if I don’t have a lot of time one night, I can pick a shorter task on the list. It gives me a small sense of freedom to be able to pick what chore I want to complete each day. Not only that, but I can look at the month and see when I might be able to fit in some of the larger tasks and plan accordingly. 

Will I change this schedule again? Perhaps. Part of getting organized (and staying organized) is figuring out what works best for you. Being honest with ourselves is key to doing that. You’re more than welcome to copy my schedule and tweak it to fit your needs. Like I mentioned earlier, don’t expect that my schedule will work perfect for you and your family. But I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about cleaning or creating a schedule for your home.

I highly encourage you to step over to Jen’s blog and check out her new schedule. In addition, she is devoting most of the month of March to showcasing in detail each task on her list. There are some great ideas (and beautiful pics) to get you motivated and encouraged to clean.

Happy Cleaning!

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50 Ways to Arrange a Kitchen

I apologize if this title is misleading. I don’t plan to show you 50 different ways to arrange your kitchen. But after playing around with our current kitchen arrangement, I’m fully convinced there is not really a correct way to organize the kitchen. 

That being said, I think I’ve come up with a tentative plan to rearrange some of the areas in our kitchen that are not working. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those continuously “in progress” projects, but hey, at least it will keep the Mister on his toes! 

After my post about the current state of our kitchen, I visited the sites I mentioned and got some great tips and ideas. I played around with my homemade map and rearranged things about a billion times. It was probably closer to six times, but it felt like a billion.
To reduce that overwhelming feeling, I decided to break the kitchen down into three zones and then I focused on each one individually.

The first zone is the dish storage zone. 

This area is right next to our dishwasher and seems like the logical place to store our everyday dishes as well as our extra set of dishes that I haven’t convinced myself to purge yet. I decided to move the “drink” glasses over by the alcohol cabinet and replaced them with our coffee mugs and coffee making supplies. I plan to move the coffee pot over to that corner of the counter so that everything we need is right there each morning. Our daily dishes will be stored in the top cupboards and any extras will be stashed in the bottom for when we need them. One of the drawers in this area will also hold our place mats and fabric napkins since this is the closest drawer to the dining area.

Next, I worked on the food prep zone.

I decided that I will consolidate our two drawers of silverware into one. I plan to move our knives out of our knife block (and off the counter) and into one of these drawers. I often prepare food (chop veggies, meats, mix, etc) on this part of the counter which leaves me constantly turning around to look for the knife I need. I think it will help to put them right there in the island. I am also going to attempt to purge our utensils from three drawers to two. 

The pots and pans will stay where they are since this seems to be working pretty well. Next to those, I’ll put our glass baking dishes and I’m hoping to put our cutting boards here too. This way, they are right under the knives when I need one. To help the consolidation of utensils, I plan to stash a basket filled with all of our “formal” serving utensils in one of the lower cabinets here. Right now, they are in the drawers and just get in the way most of the time since we don’t use them often. I will also store our Pyrex carriers in the same cabinet.

The last zone is just a general storage zone.

The alcohol will stay where it is for now. I haven’t found a good place to put a buffet or hutch in our dining area so, unfortunately, these items will stay in the kitchen. This is where the drink glasses will get moved to also. Next to the stove will be cooking oils. And, for lack of a better place, I decided to put our lunch bags and to go cups in this space. The spices will move to the top drawer. I made this change after I saw this adorable spice storage solution and plan to implement something similar. The remaining drawers will hold foil, Ziplock bags, cookie cutters and other baking supplies, and then our trash bags and plastic bags. 

The cereal will move to where the coffee supplies once were and I decided to put our cereal bowls in that same cabinet. The fruit bowl sits conveniently underneath on the counter. The set of drawers between the sink and stove will hold our kitchen towels and hot pads, small appliances, and larger mixing bowls and colanders. I decided to put these items in drawers because I figured they’d be a bit easier to get to than stuck in the back of a lower cabinet. 

My hope is that with a little bit of purging and some creative organizing solutions, this plan will slowly take shape. Since my calendar and budget are constantly demanding my attention, I plan to tackle this project one zone at a time. As I promised before, I will share each step of the process along the way. 

Do you have any tips or tricks for kitchen arrangement/storage?

Anniversary Date Wall Art

If you’ve been following along on this blog of mine, you know that I’ve been on the quest for some cheap and easy wall art ideas to add color and personality to our entry way. A couple weeks back, I completed a string art project which I adore. But that wasn’t quite enough. I saw these two projects on Pinterest -  {one} and {two} – and was inspired to create something similar. It tells our guests a bit of history of how our family came to be, which I like. And, it will always remind my Mister of those important dates ;)

I picked up a simple 12 x 12 black frame from JoAnn’s with a 50% off coupon. Then I scoured the scrapbook paper aisle at Hobby Lobby. My Mister was waiting in the car so it was more scrambling than scouring, but that’s okay because if I have all the time in world at Hobby Lobby, I will spend it there. 

I found a 12 x 12 polka dot print that had the brown, turquoise, and yellow currently highlighted in the entry. I scooped up a couple of those and then some 8.5 x 11 sheets of vellum. I couldn’t decide what shade I liked best so I grabbed three different ones and headed out the door; $4.75 - not bad.

I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted the fonts to look like but couldn’t find anything in my standard word processing program. I visited www.1001freefonts.com and, wow, I was a bit overwhelmed. The category options at the top helped a bit and I finally settled on two fonts called A Song for Jennifer and Clicker Script. I downloaded those and set up my layout using Microsoft Word.

Once I was satisfied with the spacing and color, I printed it out on the three different shades of vellum. I decided to go with the least transparent option because the polka dots peeking through felt too busy to me. 

Then it was just a matter of inserting the paper into the frame.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s simple but cute and adds some color and personality just as I’d hoped. With the string art and another piece that I purchased shortly after we moved in, I have three 12 x 12 pieces that I plan to hang vertically in the entry way. I’ll share another pic when they are all hung up!

This project was shared in a link party over at:

      

Setting Up a Functional & Efficient Kitchen

Getting the pantry in order made the rest of the kitchen look like a disaster. Well, from the outside looking in, it looked fine. But behind all those cupboards and drawers lay an unorganized jumble of kitchen supplies with no apparent rhyme or reason. How many is “all those” you ask? 16 drawers and 19 cupboards to be exact.

They are a blessing and a curse. There is a voice on one of my shoulders saying that if I can’t fill every single one of those compartments, I’m failing as a homeowner. There is a voice on the other shoulder asking me why I have three utensil drawers and two drawers filled with silverware. I decided it was time to address this tug-of-war.

I started out by doing what everyone does when they are faced with a large dilemma – I Google-d it. I found a couple good sites of trustworthy info that made sense and seemed simple enough to follow. You can check them out here and here.

I considered dumping everything currently stored in the kitchen into the dining room and then reloading the cabinets in a more sensible way, but then I considered the fact that I’m probably not a complete failure and some things are probably already in their “best” place.

I started to get overwhelmed and considered throwing a temper tantrum, but instead I settled on playing with graph paper and highlighters. Nothing kills a temper tantrum like coloring, right? In all seriousness, I drew out a so-not-to-scale version of our kitchen and then cut out “inserts” for every drawer/cupboard so that I could play around with arrangement ideas until I was blue in the face happy.

Here is the diagram showing our current arrangement.

I apologize if you can't read the comments clearly. Nonetheless, it’s obvious that this arrangement can be improved upon. I plan to painstakingly go through every single item and determine what we need and don’t need any longer as well. Of course, I will share my progress as I muddle through this project. 

March is also the month I have set aside in my cleaning schedule to wash and polish all the kitchen cabinets so this will be a great time to do that chore as well. 

Do you have any tips for organizing a functional and efficient kitchen?

Recipe Organization

I love food and I love organizing, so you’d think that my recipe collection would be highly organized. Think again. My recipes are a mess. Think one small set of cookbooks + one bajillion food magazines + hundreds of random pieces of paper stuffed into a file folder organizer. Never mind. Don’t think about it. It’s bound to make you nauseous.

As I finished up our command center, I was reminded of the cupboards and shelves surrounding it (and the mess contained in them). My cookbooks currently sit on the shelves and the food magazines and random pieces of paper are stuffed into one of the cupboards. This has always been an area that I’ve wanted to organize; it’s just always felt too overwhelming for me to get motivated. 

I have had a difficult time deciding what organization system to use for my recipes. I’ve looked at online databases, cute recipe cards and recipe boxes, binder systems, etc., and while I’ve liked parts of each, I could never settle on one. When I decided it was finally time to tackle this project, I was leaning towards something colorful and cute. But the more I got into it, the more basic, simple, and streamlined approach won out.

I felt an urgency to get my recipes in order, but my budget wasn’t really sensing that same feeling. I decided to get things organized as cheaply as possible and ended up doing it essentially free.

Here is what I started with:

I rarely ever look through the recipe magazines for new ideas so I set the magazines aside for now. I sorted through all my random slips of paper first. I recycled anything that wasn’t titled (and I couldn’t figure out what the recipe was for), anything I made once and didn’t like, and anything I had once intended to make but now didn’t see that happening. 

Next, I divided up the remaining recipes into categories. I menu-plan each week based on what is on sale. So, for example, if beef is really cheap one week, I put together more beef recipes than chicken to save some cash. My final categories were: beef, breakfast, chicken, desserts, fish/seafood, miscellaneous, pasta, pork, sausage/ham, and turkey.

I thought about buying a large amount of page protectors and just taping or gluing the little pieces of paper onto an 8 ½ x 11 sheet and inserting them that way. But the obsessive organizing part of me wasn’t okay with that solution. I created a template in Microsoft Excel that allowed four recipes to be printed on each page. I actually re-typed each recipe into the template. Now before you roll your eyes at how ridiculous that sounds let me tell you that it literally only took me one hour a day for five days. That’s not really all that bad figuring I ended up with a very streamlined and organized recipe binder in the end. Or so I tell myself…

I re-purposed some old file folders by cutting them in half and adding labels to the tabs. These became my category dividers. Then I just printed out each category, three-hole punched the paper, and stuck it in the binder.

I still might invest in some page protectors for each of the printed pages just to protect them from spills and such. I figure now that all the random slips of paper are taken care of, I can go through the magazines and just rip out pages that I’d like to keep. I can three-hole punch the actual magazine pages and insert them in the binder by category. I don’t see a purpose in keeping all the magazines because there is only about one or two recipes in each that I use. 

I saved any handwritten recipe cards from my grandmothers. I’d like to preserve those someday, somehow. All of the other pieces of paper got recycled though. 

Re-typing these recipes helped me remember all of the yummy meals that I have made in the past and got me really motivated and excited to get back to making them again. They also made me really hungry –so word to the wise – don’t work on a project like this when your tummy is rumbling. 

In the end, I opened up an entire cupboard above the command center. I’m considering moving my stash of cookbooks into the kitchen and reorganizing the bookshelves with other items. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure this recipe binder will be updated at some point in the future, maybe even to something cute and colorful. But for now, it solves the problem I was struggling with and will help my recipe collection to stay organized.

This project was shared in a link party over at:

How To Create a DIY String Art Project

I hope everyone survived the "spring forward" event this weekend. It is starting to feel like spring as we are expecting a high of 41 today. I will believe it when I see it! I found myself wishing for sunshine and warm weather often this past weekend. I was also wishing for a million dollars.

If I had a million dollars…

I’d probably go crazy because I wouldn’t know which project to start first. So I must give thanks to our strict budget for keeping me sane….mostly. 

But if I did have a million dollars, I’d tackle our mudroom by redoing the coat hook shelf, building a bench, buying new rugs, hanging art on the walls, changing the light fixture, and putting in some built-ins in the closet. 

Since Publisher’s Clearing House hasn’t shown up to my front door with balloons and an oversized cardboard check, I’m slowly chipping away at that wish list and I decided the next project to check off was the art on the walls. 

I want our entryway to be a welcoming area for our guests, but also an introduction into who we are and what we’re all about. Though this harsh winter has really made me question my loyalty to our good ol’ mitten state, the Mister and I really do love living in Michigan and we spend a lot of time exploring our state through camping, hiking, and kayaking. I saw some string art projects on Pinterest that really captured my heart and decided to tackle one myself.

Now Pinterest is great for gathering ideas, but Pinterest doesn’t always know best. Since I’m prone to migraines and have been suffering from a sinus headache for the last four weeks (will spring ever come?), a project involving a lot of hammering and pounding did not appeal to me. 

I found 12x12 squares of Styrofoam at JoAnn’s for only $7 and, with a 40% off coupon, I decided styrofoam would be a great (quieter) alternative to wood.

I glued two of the ½ inch pieces of Styrofoam together and then wrapped it in some brown fabric I had laying around. I wrapped the corners like I was wrapping a Christmas present and used hot glue and some straight pins to secure it in the back.

I used Google to find a basic outline of Michigan. I printed it, cut it out, and laid it out on my Styrofoam "canvas". Once I was happy with its placement, I pinned it in place temporarily so it wouldn’t move.

I used ball-tip straight pins as my “nails” and placed them about ½ - ¾ inches apart around the cut out of the map. I added a heart shape inside the mitten as well. 

I used cross stitch thread as my string. It comes in so many colors!! To start, I tied the string in a knot around the bottom corner pin and then started wrapping. I went from each outside pin to a pin on the heart and back and then connected the string to the next pin in the outline. It’s important to wrap the string all the way around the pin before moving to the next one. I learned this the hard way. At the end, I tied another knot and added a drop of superglue to the knots to hold them in place.

Since I didn't have a heart or any other shape in the middle of the U.P., I just zigzagged the string back and forth to fill in the shape a bit. I worked my way around the perimeter the same way and tied the knot at the end.

This project is simple but it adds a pop of color to our entryway. When I finish the next DIY art project, I plan to hang them on the wall but that will come a bit later, unless of course that big cardboard check shows up...

This project was shared in a link party at:

Creating a Command Center: The Final Reveal

Bit by bit, I've shared my process of creating a command center in our home. Today is the day for the big reveal of the entire project all put together. Well, mostly all put together. 

Let’s start at the beginning. 

If I had to describe this space in two words, I’d use majorly under-utilized. Is that three words? Either way, this command center project had three purposes.

First, it is an effort to thwart my own laziness. This space has become an easy dumping ground for items that either have no real home or items I’m just too lazy to return to their real homes. So task one, end homelessness.

Second, this project is an effort to purge unnecessary items. We have two of every office supply you can imagine: two computers, two staplers, two desk organizers, two desks, two rulers, etc. We’re kind of like the double mint twins, only less refreshing. 

And last, I wanted to relieve the brown oppression going on in our abode. I love our house, but there is so much brown! I’m craving color and this was a great spot to bring some in.

Project 1 was moving our active files from a tippy, cramped plastic filing cabinet into one of the built-in drawers in the command center. Now, they are easily accessible and conveniently located. 

Next, I consolidated our wealth of office supplies into a manageable collection and repurposed “junk” drawers into organized office supply drawers. I also added two large baskets to hold legal pads, note book paper, and other larger accessories that wouldn’t fit in the drawers.

I made a dry-erase calendar so we could keep track of ourselves.

I updated another dumping ground device, our mail organizer, into a functional system to keep us from becoming buried in paper. After that post, I ended up changing the labels to a different color because, while the red looked great on the black organizer, it didn’t really match the overall color scheme of the command center. They are now blue!

In an effort to conceal our apparent wine addiction and, more importantly, to curtail the number of random slips of paper floating around, I put together a DIY cork board for free!

I purged and hung our writing utensils so they are readily available whenever we need them. I also wanted to keep the Mister aware of how many pens we had so he’d stop bringing them home from work and other various places. So far, it’s been successful!

Finally, I added some much needed color. My intention was to use liquid starch to transform the fabric into temporary wall paper but because the fabric was so think and my patience was so thin, I ended up pinning the fabric into the wood using a few small straight pins and then hot gluing ribbon onto the edges of the fabric to conceal the pins and cut edges. This way, if I get sick of the fabric or want to change it up, I just have to remove a few pins to take it down.

I still want a new-to-us chair that is a bit more comfy and brings in more color. I want to purge our two desktop computers and two desks located in the spare bedroom and purchase one laptop to use in the command center space. I also want to address the cabinets above the desk and the shelves next to the desk. But all of those wants must wait.

For now, this space is commanding me to throw off my laziness and get to work on other things!