Lots Of Projects!

Ever since getting back from Wyoming I've been working on lots of little projects to get us more organized. I figured I would just lump them together in one post. 

This first one isn't really an organization thing, but it was fun to make. Last year I made my friend Kim and my mom both covers for their Kitchen Aid Mixers. Now that I have my Grandma's I knew I wanted to make one for myself. I found this super cute fabric on sale at Joann's. I love sunflowers! Since this one has a harvest theme I think I'm actually going to make one for each season so I can switch them out. They really aren't that difficult to make and it's a fun project that can be finished in an afternoon. 

 

While at my Aunt Linda's house we all got to look at my Grandma's jewelry and go shopping through my aunt's jewelry that she didn't want. It was so much fun! My aunt's jewelry is stored so nicely in her top dresser drawer. All these cute little dividers that are specifically for rings and bracelets and necklaces. So organized!!! Anyways...I knew I wanted to do something like that so I cleared out one of my drawers and got to work. My mom was going to sell these black plastic dividers at the garage sale this summer, but I snagged them from her first. I had no idea what I was going to use them for at the time, but I'm so glad I hung onto to them. Now all my jewelry has a place and I can easily see it and figure out exactly what I want to put on every morning. Love it! 

You may remember that earlier this year we did a major overall of the kids the rooms. Ella's room actually became the playroom and she moved into Owen's old room and all 3 boys moved in together. Wow that was a lot of work! A few days ago it struck me that her hutch...the one Papa Martin made from old barn wood...just wasn't being used to it's potential. Sure it held her pretties on top, but inside it was barely used. The only things we put in there were her leggings and jeans. There was tons of empty space. So we moved it out! 

And for the time being we've moved the old bench from the entryway...remember I redid that earlier this year as well. Yes...I know I'm nuts! I thought Ella might be really upset with me taking it out of her room...I mean it's gorgeous...but she was fine! She even said that she didn't really like it in her room anyway. It's been in her room since before she was born so we never did ask her if she liked it and she never told us...who knew! She actually loves having the bench in her room. Her dress up shoes have a place underneath and that for some reason makes her super happy! Also Michael had to hang the black shelf up so her pretty statues could go up there. You'd think hanging a simple shelf would be easy right? Nope....this thing gave Michael such grief and then when he did get it hung up it look totally crooked when it actually wasn't because her heating controls were crooked. We didn't actually notice that it was crooked before though since it was behind the hutch. Once Michael fixed the heating controls everything was all good. 

The lid lifts up and there was enough storage to put all her leggings and her jeans. I am going to be on the lookout for a nice dresser this fall at the Mill Creek garage sales, but I'm not in any rush since she's super happy with it. 

We did have to move a few of her pretties to her vanity and I'm crossing my fingers that they don't get broken, but we'll see! 

As for the hutch...we moved the kitchen island out to the deck to make room for it. The island will be a great place for Michael to have room to set all the stuff he's going to grill. In the past he's been just setting things on the deck railing. Also the storage underneath is great for all the BBQ tools. 

This is the hutches new home! To me it looks like it should have always been here. In fact Ella was so sweet when she first saw it she said, "It looks SO much better in here Mommy!" I have to say I agree! 

My kitchen has kind of a farm theme with sunflowers and chickens so it really does fit right in. 

All my cookbooks used to be stored in my pantry taking up lots of shelf space. Plus have the time I would forget to even look at them. now they are all displayed and ready to be used. I also decided to display my Grandma's rolling pin. It's so beautiful I didn't want it shoved in a drawer anymore! As for the glass cutting board that is there so the kids have a place to put their drinks and the condensation won't get on the wood and ruin it. 

Other than having a place to store my cookbooks my main motivation for moving the hutch down here was to make a lunch station for the kids. With 3 kids in school and my absolute hatred for packing lunches I'm hoping this will help streamline things. On the top shelf are all their lunchboxes and then the containers with their lunch choices. On the bottom shelf is there water bottles, soup thermoses, a basket full of accessories and a basket full of lunch containers. 

I saw this idea on Facebook a few weeks ago and knew I needed to run with it. We just happen to have some extra containers lying around so I put them to good use. Going from L to R....the empty container is actually going to be the one I put in the frig. It will be filled with things like string cheese, yogurt, ham chunks, carrots & ranch, summer sausage. The next one over has fruit snacks and baggies filled with craisins in it right now, but after I go shopping it will also have fruit strips, fruit cups and applesauce cups in it. The next one has goldfish crackers, graham crackers and individual cups of peanut butter. I will also stock it with ritz crackers or teddy grahams. The fourth one over has bars in it...fig bars, granola bars, nutri-gran bars, Z-bars...whatever bar is on sale at Costco basically. The last container is the treat container...right now it has a bucket of candy and also rice krispie treats and pudding cups. All of the containers have tape on the front telling the kids how many they can take from that particular container. They all say 1 except the frig container that one says 2. 

Here's a closer look at the basket in the hutch. It has compartments so the kids can grab a napkin and a spoon if they need one. Also I put all the fun cookie cutters in there if they want to use them to cut shapes into their cheese, meat or sandwiches. That was a lot of work, but it was actually very fun. Lunch to me is the worst meal of the day. I truly truly hate it...even making lunch for myself. So hopefully this helps make packing lunches fun for everyone involved. 

The last little project has to do with paying the kids for their jobs. Normally we would pay them for a job, make a tally mark on their sheet and then when it was time to go to church we'd have them bring down their money and we'd add up how much money they needed for tithe. As you can see from the tally chart we forgot to add it up...a lot! Then the kids would spend their money and end up owing God money they had already spent. So to solve that problem I used a container I had and we wrote God's Money on it and now when I pay them I always make sure I used the correct change so they can immediately take out 10% of their pay and put it right into God's piggy bank. Now they know that all the money in their piggy banks is truly theirs. It's also the start of teaching them about percentages. They already know if they make .50 they owe God .5 and if they make a dollar they owe him .10. It's been good for them to see that even though God has asked us to trust him by giving some of our money he doesn't ask for very much at all. They are getting to physically see that when they put in one little nickle and they still have .45 more cents left. It's the start of them realizing that God is the reason we have money in the first place. It's really all His and it's not ours....He actually is trust us with it and we need to be good stewards of it.