Through Every Season

Month: April 2010 (Page 1 of 2)

Closet Organization Projects

I rarely wear any of my jewelry.. 
Mostly because I am too lazy to pull it out from my drawer.  
I saw some jewelry boards when we were in TN last 
and I thought ‘what a wonderful idea’..  
I had a mini bulletin board that I wasn’t using..
Looked in my fabric/linnen closet.. 
I am so happy to have it all out where I can see it and not in boxes anymore.
Found this stained dresser cloth..
Put them together… and added some push pins and jewelry
Doesn’t she seem to be saying, .. “Don’t forget your jewelry.”
It’s so accessible now.

I found some extra space behind my closet door while I was there.
When I found the idea of hanging a packed toiletry bag in my closet
 on “Organize Your Stuff Now”, I was very excited.
I used keep this bag under my sink.. 
It was very messy and unorganized under there and I had
to sit on the floor to dig it out.
Taking it out and packing it.. made room for me to organize 
the rest of the stuff under my sink.. 
Leeanne suggests buying travel sized bottles of the stuff you use 
then refilling them with your large bottles when they get low.  
I do that but I also collect trail sized bottles from our hotel rooms.
With a family of 6 you can use a bunch in a few days.
The toothpaste and floss samples we save from dentist visits.
I take new toothbrushes with us.. just incase someone forgets theirs.
All I have to do when we go on a trip is grab my makeup etc. from my drawer.
Yay!
I bought this over the door hanger at the same time I bought 
the popup hanger thing for the laundry room.
  
I didn’t need it in our new laundry room so I am using it to hang 
my extra purses and a straw garden hat from Thailand.
Thanks for taking my closet tour..
Love,
J

Sunday Go To Church Hats

My Mamalene’s hats hung in Judi’s room until she out grew her “girly” room
and got a fancy new red comforter for her bed for her birthday a couple of years ago.  
We never unpacked them our last move, but since this time I am bound
and determined to unpack and use everything I own or throw them out
I decided to spruce them up and find a new place to hang them.
A few of them had some water damage (not sure how),
so I googled “how to clean vintage hats.”
No one would suggest anything to try except to take them to a professional.
My dry cleaner wouldn’t touch them,
so I brought them home and cleaned them
in the sink with some water and spray and wash.. 
They came out OK.. better than they were.. I discovered that the hats have
an inner liner that I think is starched.. when it gets wet it gets sticky
and the hat looses all it’s shape.. but when you blow dry it it stiffens back up again.
I used one of my tupperware canisters as a reshaping block.
I only washed the off white ones.. then I used a permanent marker
to touch up a couple of the colored ones.. 
The veiling on most of them was very brittle and in bad shape
and I couldn’t find any new veiling locally so I found a great millinery supply
store on line called Judith M. Millinery Supplies.  I thought that was a great name.
They had all the colors I needed and more for only a little over 2 dollars a yard..
and they shipped them to me supper fast;
I ordered them on a Monday and received them by the following Wednesday.
Before.. this is one of the ones I touched up with a permanent marker.
After with new veiling.
I had most of them finished and ready to hang Friday and asked Mike if I should hang them over our video cabinet or in the foyer… his answer was neither.. “Hang them somewhere I won’t see them.”  
Thankfully I had a back up plan.. other wise I may have reverted 
to acting like a two year old by throwing a tantrum.  
Yes, I occasionally still do that.. but not as often as I want to.
Here are all the hats together.
I learned a trick of stuffing them with tissue paper to help them hold their shape.
I wanted to hang them above our video cabinet.  I thought it would be fun 
to have them near my vintage pictures of my grandparents.
This was my back up plan.. 
luckily it was in the one place Mike wouldn’t have to see them, my closet.
It’ll be fun to see them first thing in the morning when I get dressed each day..
I thought it would be fun to have some ladies over for tea and to pull them 
off the wall to wear sometime.. of course then I was thinking my prayer room wall.
I did a couple of other projects in my closet today too for my mourning therapy..
I love how I feel when I get something organized.
.. to be continued.

Angel our Bunny

I took our bunny to be put to sleep today.  She’s had breast cancer for sometime now and the last couple of days she all but quit eating.  With the trips we have planned, I didn’t want to leave her home and be worrying about her or keep dreading the upcoming duty.

Judi volunteered to come with me.  We didn’t attempt to stay with her during the procedure… I sobbed when I had to take our cat, Whiskers, in several years ago.  
Back in the car, the minute I was about to start crying, Judi brought up a cheerful subject.  She is really good at guiding difficult conversations… if someone is about to get in an heated argument or something, she knows how to smooth things over and redirect the conversation.
The two of us had a mini wake by going to DQ and buying our favorite treat; Moolattes.  I felt really peaceful about it all.. like we were dong the right thing and the right time.. and as Joel said.. God gave me grace.  
The empty space where her cage belongs is a little sad, but I am glad for the 10 years we had with her.

I spent the rest of the day crafting .. such a mood lifter.. next blog entry..

Love,
J

Introducing the Laundry Room

My laundry room is usually the last room unpacked and the one I am most excited 
to have done; there’s something about weeks and weeks of 
trying to get the wash done admits chaos.. then wa-la.. order!
The lack of storage and the fact that the mirror/coatrack (a garage sale find) 
that’s hung near our backdoor for the last seven years broke in the move 
inspired me to buy some paint and shelf paper and go a little over the top coordinating.    
Our laundry room is right off the kitchen.. here is a view from there.
The door straight back leads to the garage.
Here’s a close up of the back wall.  I made the clock for our kitchen in FL.
All my left over decor ended up in here so it’s mix matched.
See the tall plastic thing with the polka dots?
I bought it at the Container Store for our last house.  It opens up.. (see below) 
A family of six can never have too much space for hanging clothes.
Here’s a view from the garage.  The door on the left is a pantry.  
I use it to store our vacuum, light bulbs.. etc.
If I re-mat the “Train up your child” verse over the
 window in blue, it might go a little better.
This is what the shelves looked like before I recovered them 
with the new polka dot shelf paper I found at Target.  
The shelves held Josh’s rock collection and dinosaurs among other things for years.  
For the last two houses, Josh hasn’t unpacked the stuff 
that goes on the shelves, so I repurposed them.
My friend, Suzanne, gave me this cute breadbox 
that she found at a garage sale in Germany (I think).
My dusting supplies are in it now.  I hung the selves so it’d just fit.
The little covered can next to it is a little trash can for my dryer lent.
I found the canisters years ago at Goodwill.  
They are too fussy for my new kitchen, 
so I am using them to hide my dry cleaning supplies etc.
I labeled them so I can remember what’s in which.
I found the plastic carafes at Target and made labels for them on the computer;
 there’s one for bleach, softener, vinegar.. and several for detergent.  
 Two or three times a year I buy this huge bottle of Ecos laundry detergent 
at Costco that washes a whopping 150 loads.  
My new front loading washer (love my new washer & dryer) uses half as much 
detergent and washes almost twice as many clothes in a load than my 
old washer and dryer (that broke in our last move).
There are so many small detergent bottles because I divide up 
the large, heavy bottle of Ecos into smaller bottles to make it easier to manage.
I moved my gift rapping supplies from my closet into this basket in the laundry room.. 
I am not real happy with the way the two baskets look together.. 
I moved two Raggedy Ann ornaments from my bathroom vanity 
to the window sill to make a collection.  I like them all together.  
I made the message board from a frame I found in the trash.
It’s hung over my kitchen sink in our last two houses.
I need to find coordinating fabric to re-cover it and dress the window.
I use the trash cans between the washer and dryer for sorting whites etc.
I got the wash rags in a white sale at Kolhs.  They cover the washer drain hose nicely.
The rags I’ve had for 20 years all but bit the dust.
I bought the mail box years ago as a place to put videos in 
that need to be returned to the store.
We have Net Flicks now and I am not sure what to do with it.
I bought the laundry baskets years ago to sort the kids’ laundry into.  
I color coded them with ribbons.  The idea was that they were to take their basket
and put their things away once a week, but instead they just use them like drawers.
They hardly even use their dressers for clothes anymore.
The posters are from DoorPost.. I don’t use them any more.. 
I need someone to give me a rule about what to keep and not keep for grandkids.
I am keeping plastic shopping bags in the container with the blue lid.. 
found it in the neighbor’s trash a couple weeks ago.
I made the shelf from left over parts from a porta-crib I slept in as a child.  
I used most of it when I made Joel and Josh’s beds a couple of years ago.
Here is my inspiring mirror.  I had a new piece of glass cut for it.  
It was a darkly stained, oak mirror with brass hooks before I painted it to match.
I used dots from the shelf paper to dress it up.  
The raincoats are handy for we have to walk Sally in the rain.
The door on the left houses our AC and the one on the right is to our half bath.
Judi’s claimed it as her bathroom and keeps it locked so no boys can use it.
If it were up to her, it’d have a shower, too.
One last piece of the porta-crib is currently holding family photos.. 
One day when my photos are more organized I’d like to change them up.
Last photo.. I love this broom/mop holder.. 
so nice to have the stuff up off the floor where it won’t fall over.
I miss it when it’s packed away.
That’s a lot of photos for one of the smallest rooms in my house.  
Don’t know if you’ll ever really be able to get a sense 
of the lay out without coming to visit in person.
We are sure looking forward to Mom and Dad coming next week.
Miss you all,
J

Van Moved In

I’ve been working really hard towards having all my boxes unpacked; 
everything either in use or thrown out.
Exceptions are in the garage.
I don’t like putting stuff in the attic.. it gets too hot up there.
This is what Mike’s side of the garage has looked like for months.
Scraping ice of your car every morning before work isn’t much fun,
so we made getting his car in the garage a priority.
The shelves hold tools, camping supplies and holiday decorations.
The totes that didn’t make it on the shelves are what’s left of the kids’ toy collection:
legos, Lincoln logs, cars, and stuffed animals.
We donated two more big bags full just a couple of weeks ago.
Ta-da!! My side of the garage today.  
We had to catabolize two of our bikes to end up with two bikes in good condition.  
Montgomery + no garage = rusty bikes.
The desk armoire won’t fit into the house until a couple of kids move out.
It has school books in it that the kids have out grown.  Grand kids??
The paper boxes are full of packing peanuts.  
One day Josh is going to sell some stuff on e-bay…
if not, I don’ think they will last long.
The chair on the armoire is broken.  I have the pieces.. but not the talent to fix it.
I really need new chairs… but it’s more fun taking weekend trips.
I hung the large list on the walls for the movers.  
Hoping they’d organize my boxes for me as they unloaded them off the truck.  
They kinda did.  One day soon I’ll climb up and take the lists down.
🙂 J

Spring Springing

Before making the trip home from Chattanooga we took a vote to see
if anyone would want to drive an extra hour to Rome, GA to eat at..
We had 3 yeses and 2 that’d be OKs, so we went.  
Mike enjoys planing his trips around food.
One funny thing about the trip was that we drove from AL to TN 
then to GA where the KOA was on the way there, 
back and forth between GA and TN while visiting attractions, 
then from GA back through TN on the way to Rome, GA to 
eat at Fuddruckers before driving home to AL.  
Kinda cool after living in Texas where 
you can drive for days and never make it out of the state.
I like to plan my trips around nature and going to Fuddruckers meant that 
we got to drive by Little River Falls in Mentone, AL.
Mike was very sweet and got out in the rain to see it with me.
It’s just a short walk from the main road.
Watching Spring spring along the way was pretty cool too.
We saw a bunch of these showy trees on our drive, 
but these trees are just around the corner from us.
This is a Bradford Pear tree

a Judus Tree
And Cherry Trees
I am loving Spring.. 
Mike has a mountain view out his widow at work.  
He said that on Tuesday that it looked just like it had all winter,
then on Wednesday it was covered in green
Love,
J

Tennessee Aquarium

While in Chattanooga, we visited their very impressive aquarium.

It was probably the nicest we’ve ever been to.
You start your tour by riding an escalator four stories up.
Then you work your way down and around all the exhibits.
Old friends from FL.
Fish we’d never touched before.
The pirana found Judi’s finger very appetizing.
They had some
really funny
looking fish.
Leafy Dragon
I am always in awe of God’s creation when I visit an aquarium.
After you finish touring one building, there’s a whole other building with another escalator.
Good thing I overcame my fear of escalators.

The second one 
has a butterfly house.
Wish we lived a little closer.
Mr. Pinquin

Doesn’t this make you want to go for a swim?
Ok maybe not here..
They called this exhibit, “Living Art.”
God’s an awesome artist.  
Love,
J

Trains by the Ton

Mike choose to camp near Chattanooga for two reasons.  
One he wanted to ride a train. 
Two he wanted to eat at…
So we went to the..
It was pretty cool.
They had nice collection of trains…
One was open to explore
It told a little about the history of trains in America
Judi’s my Vanna White
James and Joel are a little less enthusiastic.
The engine room.
We had some time to kill before the train arrived.
Their across the tracks ended in a tie.
The real ticket office..
was in the gift shop. 
This one’s for show.
The train’s a coming.
It’s pretty grand.
Mom, did you ever think you’d see your luggage in a museum?
We road 3 miles through part of Chattanooga and a tunnel.

Then we stopped at this train yard and turn around.

The turn table was the highlight of the show.
They said back in the day

4 guys would turn the train by hand
Now it’s powered by the little red engine room in the left corner.

The train balances on some mega bearings.

And turns all the way around.. 

While the engineers hooked it back up to the other end of the train..

We got to look around the yard.
They keep everything they can for parts as there aren’t any new parts in production.
The kids thought this “hippy” train was cool 
and actually asked me to take their picture with it.

Some More S’mores!

For Mike’s Birthday
He chose camping
Which means fun in the out of doors
Roasting Marshmallows
And making S’mores
Judi brought her music theory homework.
A full moon.
I wasn’t up for camping in tents this time.  So we got cabin J.
Most of the campers brought their RV’s.
See the reflection in the window?

Joel noticed that no one was outside while we were making s’mores
and playing games and asked where they had all gone.
I answered, “In side.. watching TV.”
We agreed that that wasn’t real camping.

Our cabin had two rooms.  One for Mama and Papa bear.  
I was sure to bring plenty of blankets.
And a room for the kids with two bunk beds.  
You can’t see it in the pictures but the cabin had a pretty good amount 
of floor space where we played a game of chicken foot.  
Our oldest didn’t come, so Princess J stole his mattress to make a double thick one.  
She was very proud of this trick that she learned 
from her youth pastor, Tammy, in Florida.
It was cold the first night and we were very glad to have space heaters.
The second night a rain storm blew and blew all night 
and we were very glad to have a real roof over our heads.
The best weather for tents is warm and dry.

Birds Around the Lake

The ground here stays pretty wet when it rains and the ducks and geese 
found plenty to eat in our yard.  I am glad Sally doesn’t mind them.
There are a bunch of geese that fly around to different lakes and ponds in the area.
The ducks live here.  One of our neighbors raised them from ducklings up.
Love,
J
« Older posts

© 2024 Finding Joy in Him

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑