A little late bc we're on the road...

 

Hope your new year is filled with blessings and God's love and presence!

[A little sign I made with two picture frames from goodwill + lights around the inside... and a transparency [printed at Staples] on top of the glass...]

 

Okay - I've really not taken the

 time to do a whole of projects around the house this month...

 

But!

[ha]

We decided at the last minute to go to a favorite event called Jingle in July 

[another post coming soon on this, I promise]

so I needed to gather all the Christmas decor

 for Annie Lee to look as nice as possible! 

I think I shared this tree last Christmas when I bought it from Home Depot.... 

I love that it has a bit of a mid-century vibe when you get up close to it.... but I don't love that is has such a long trunk... 

 

so I'd set aside this pot back in the winter to use the next time I got this tree out...

My big project for the month [other than digging through all the Christmas stuff for just the right decor for #annieleetheargosy] was painting this flower pot. HA.

But I love how it turned out.

And I really think it balanced the tree out perfectly.

So there's that.

Ha.

Monthly Re-cap

 Time really does fly, doesn't it?
Here's our highlights from May...

in no particular order...

I had a quick meeting down at The Gulf that involved stops in Montgomery both going and coming home so we took #AnnieLeetheArgosy along and made a long weekend of it... loved our spot right on the canal...

Loved cooling off in the pool at Gulf State Park...

LOVED riding our scooters on over 

40 miles of trails throughout the park!

What can I say?

THEY ARE SO MUCH FUN!!

Loved eating at Tacky Jacks [Orange Beach]

One of our favorite spots for fish!

We've decided to travel to new places and camp in new areas ... 

so we enjoyed meeting the folks with the Western Kentucky Vintage Campers one weekend... 

The theme was aliens - and it was fun to see how everyone 

interpreted and decorated for it!

We took some time to see the riverfront [Ohio River]

and surrounding area...

On the way back from The Gulf we stayed one night at 

Gunter Hill [near Montgomery] and kinda loved our looooong isolated spot 

with river view [Alabama River.]

Speaking of rivers... Craig and Matt had some time to fish together on the Tennessee River before he headed home...

 & Craig and Drew had some time together when they drove out / town to pick up a little motorcycle to commute to work on ...

Meanwhile... I had my eyebrows dyed - and WOW. 

The first few days are a little strong, dontcha think?

I've never really had eyebrows and once it all settled down I kinda love that they are always there - ha.

I also re-did our TV cover for the camper - 

and like it so much better with its bright colors and quote.

We walked the Beaver Dam Boardwalk - and it's as beautiful as ever... 

and is ALIVE with birds and critters chattering around.

We enjoyed seeing Craig's mother several times during the month!

So glad we live close enough to visit often!

And lastly - as always...

I'm loving seeing out yard change with blooms each week!

Have a great month, y'all!

Here's a favorite little project

 I completed last month - 

hello.

 

I'd seen some people re-purpose rugs on the internets 

during the past couple of years so I thought I'd give it a go...

And yes, my 'joy' rug was still out on the porch... in April...

So there's that.

I think I shared the inspiration on an earlier post...

[and there are several 'hello' rugs available this year...]

I loved the lower-case block font I saw on my inspiration

so I used my cricut to cut out something similar...

Prior to taping it down I actually painted that section of the rug 

with dark yellow [spray paint], 

then I put double sided tape on the back of the letters to adhere them to the rug.

 After that, I used blue spray paint to cover the entire rug.

After I picked up the letters I could see a bit of 'bleed' 

so I went back with some acrylic paint and filled in the letters...

I know it won't last forever... 

And I'll probably need to refresh it a bit after we use it some...

but it's just perfect for how we're using it right now...

So don't throw your old rug away!

Get creative and re-purpose it to use it again!

This is an easy-peasy project!

My 'designated' project for this month

is more about cleaning up our yard a bit than anything else... 

and since that's really an on-going process I'll share some other things

that's been happening 'round these parts lately...

 

I love the spring blooms each year... 

This little [??] bee is helping me make blueberries!

The real challenge is gathering them before the birds or other critters get them!

 

Here are a few of my favorite thrifty Easter finds from years past...

a vintage card in a frame... an egg wreath...

 and an old ceramic bunny - could that be Peter Rabbit?

I planted a [very] small garden for the first time in years...

Had to cover it up during the recent cold snap...

And I'm happy to say it's all still growing...

 

Lettuce, radishes, beets, cabbage, and brussel sprouts here..

 

And onions and carrots in the cold frame 

+ mums that stayed here over the winter...

 

My hostas also survived the recent cold temps.

Yay!

And I feel so blessed to have a friend who shared some from her yard 

so I could fill in the gaps of our border -  

WOW! - And THANK YOU!! 

The best thing about this was being able to sit down and have lunch together 

for the first time in more than a year!

 

We have old trees in our yard [lots of them] and tend to gather the limbs, etc. that fall

into a pile or two throughout the winter... so I took one afternoon to burn one pile... 

still have a bigger one to do...that'll be an all-day project since I don't like to leave it unattended...

The #elfstriketeam has been working hard patrolling the yard for chipmunks; 

when they come in at night they are completely tuckered out... ha.

 

Love that Dobby has decided this old Ty Bear is his and his alone...

I keep trying to get a video of him tossing it up and catching it....

Good practice for the chipmunk drill...

#naturaleradication is all I'm sayin'...

 

We've had some discussion about purchasing new dogwoods... we have three that are over 40 years old and at least one has bit [bitten -?] the dust.... 

We're discussing pink or red to add some color... 

but I do love the white... so they will stay too...

 

Pro Tip: when you bake a cake that sticks to the pan and comes out in chunks, 

you make a punch bowl cake  - lol. 

And it was GOOD.

FYI - it was supposed to look like our Easter cake from past years...

Alas...

 [This kinda, sorta, makes me want a white fridge again..ha.]

And lastly, just for fun - 

 

This hilarious photo was accidentally taken [duh.] when I was trying to take a selfie at our recent family gathering - but I love how tiny sister looks as she was walking up the little hill towards us... and how it looks like I'm looking right at her...lol.

Moral: Behind the scenes photos are often the best....

And there's more to life than the pinterest perfect photos we so often see... 

Life is good, y'all....

Even in the craziness of it all - 

So - I'll admit that I'm a little [A LOT]

 embarrassed to even show you some of these photos - 

 

Because - WOW.

I'd sure let our pantry get

 OUT-OF-CONTROL.

We'd gotten to the point of just stuffing it in to make it all fit... 

And while I'm not one to alphabetize my canned goods...

 

I am OCD enough to want things in categories so I can find what I need easily...

And this was no longer working for me. Ha.

But of course - I started with the AFTER photo -

Because. 

OMGoodness.

What a difference.

This month I decided it was TIME to get this space organized!

First - I made a plan:

I took photos of each shelf because I needed for things to stay 

basically on the shelves where they were. 

SIDE NOTE: When we first moved into this house over 15 years ago I couldn't unpack the pantry until it had the same number of shelves as my former pantry. 

[So things could go where they were SUPPOSED TO BE.] 

Yep. I've got issues...

 After taking photos of each shelf and listing what it held, I measured and planned for containers to make it easier to access it all...Then I searched the internet for available products... but ultimately bought most everything EARLY one morning at Wal-Mart and curbside pick up at Michael's - based on the measurements I'd taken. And of course, I bought more than I needed, but again, returned the leftovers safely early in the a.m. hours.

[So much easier than mail-order for me...]

 Next I emptied EVERYTHING out - all over the dining table - and begin to group things... sort things... and discard things... But surprisingly... there wasn't an awful lot to throw away... 

 

 [We did move the BIG box of light bulbs to the laundry room...

Other than that, it all went back in. Yes.]

I painted it all a nice coat of paint, white mixed with a little blue...

just because I wanted to play a little...

[What a difference a fresh coat of paint makes, y'all.]

I knew I wanted an additional shelf up on top to hold some lesser used items - namely my cake tins [that I love.] So my sweetheart took care of that for me!

 

Of course, Bernard the Curious One had to supervise... 

[our pantry is actually in the hallway beside our stairs...]

SIDE NOTE 2: I prefer wire shelves that I can see through

I know it's not for everyone...

 

The cart from Michael's was easy to put together and fits perfectly [due to my measurements!] to the side. It's holds all the things that were stacked willy-nilly in the floor... 

 and now we can just roll it out when we need something like a waffle iron, fry-daddy, pasta maker, etc. [We also have some other lesser used items -- like large serving trays tea pitchers,etc.--  behind it that we can get when needed.]

Let's look at a few details -

Remember I told you I purchased a bunch of storage things to use... but as I cleaned out the pantry I realized I had SO MANY containers stuck behind that were not being used at all... and call me sentimental... but I LOVE my tupperware containers that I bought when we first got married... so I simply used what I had...

I have larger bins and baskets on the 2nd shelf that holds our tea, coffee, and sweeteners that we buy in bulk..

.  

And I REALLY LOVE having a favorite Aunt's canisters in my pantry...so I wanted to put them front and center... I used some creative ingenuity [alright, just some refrigerator bins I'd gotten CHEAP at Aldi's a few years back] to raise the tupperware up a bit so that those canisters can still be seen with the smaller ones in front.

These two canned goods holders came from Wal-Mart and it's so nice to SEE the canned items we have without having to pick each one up to see what's underneath...lol.

I can tell at a glance if we need to buy more tomatoes...

or olives - what's up with THAT.

[And yes - they are organized by soups / beans / fruits / other veggies...] 

There's a bin just to the right that holds our [pancake] syrups, honey, jelly etc.

I labeled most everything... including my sweetheart's snow cream kit that is always ready to go - just in case we get that ONE GOOD SNOW here in the South. [It's actually tucked behind one of the bins on the first shelf - but having it all together was very nice and easy to pull out recently. These labels are simply printed on the computer and taped on... that way I can change them up whenever I need to do so. I tried to put them on the canisters so they could be read in one cohesive row... if that makes sense...

It's pleasing to my eye...
 

The next shelf has  the following: a bin for  pasta / rice / quinoa, one for tuna packets / granola bars, one for crackers [including my tupperware saltine keeper,] 

and a bin for sauces / peanut butter / etc. 

 

The area to the bottom right of our pantry is actually the AC / heat return so I use that as a shelf and have a LARGE shallow basket there. I purchased these two extra-big containers for the rice and beans we buy in bulk.

 

Cereals, oatmeal, and sauce packets are in this basket as well. 

The bin beside the rice and beans[to the left] is a tupperware container that held snacks for the boys through the years [it has their stickers from childhood on it, still] so I'm using it to hold our individual servings of almond packets.

 

The top shelf of the cart is filled with hot chocolate and apple cider packets [in smaller tupperware bins w/out the tops] as well as re-purposed jars that hold cranberries, nuts, chocolate chips, pop corn, bulk shrimp seasoning, raisins, etc. 

 

I hung this little 'mail' folder container [Michael's] to the right. [The pantry sign is from Magnolia Home that I picked up on sale sometime last year - Craig riveted it on for me -] 

It holds extra foil, parchment paper, etc. as well as easy to reach tea mix, and other things we might want easy access to [right now it's sun-dried tomatoes and instant rice.] I also put in hooks to hold my pop-over pan that was forever getting in the way before... 

and our pizza stone holder hangs up there too... 

 

To the right we hung an Ikea trash bag holder to take the place of the bag bunny we've had for years [and years]. It holds those plastic garbage bags we recycle as smaller trash bags throughout the house... If you look closely you can see I cut out a bit of the bottom so I can pull bags out from there... but really - it's not problem to pull them from the top when I need one...

So. I think that's it - 

AND I LOVE IT.

It's just a much calmer space now... 

But more importantly, it's so much EASIER to use.

I know it looked like an overwhelming task to try and rein it all in... 

But I used my best social work skills [HA] and set out a [case] plan that broke it all down into doable parts. And honestly - it worked. 

I didn't try and do it all in one setting... 

Just tackled one part of it at time, took a break, then moved on...

I'd love to hear about the projects you're working on these days...

I"m trying to tackle one big project a month

 so I'll be sharing another one of mine soon...