When the Peanut was a baby, I used to scrapbook.  During his naps I would pull out all the papers, stickers, embelishments, inks, chalks, pictures, etc.  I always had quite the scattered mess lying around and have quite a few half finished scrapbooks to show for my efforts.

As he grew and naps became less frequent, I had less time to work on these scrapbooks.  So, all the materials got packed away for "someday" when I have time again to complete the project.

In the meantime though I have kept all those little mementos through the years that should go in a scrapbook.  The problem is that they usually end up in some box or drawer somewhere, with no context to give a clue what or when they come from.

What to do with them?

It took way too long for the realization to hit me that a scrapbook doesn't have to be a Pinterest perfect project to be worth keeping.

Organizing and keeping those mementos doesn't have to be some sort of arduous task!

And so I created the World's Easiest Scrapbook for myself.

There is a wall in my house I like to fondly refer to as the problem wall.

Theme Thursday is back!  And not a moment too soon.

I love color.

Bright, happy, color.

The brighter the better.

Which is why I choose bright colors for the walls in my house.

When we moved in all the walls were white except for the living room.  That was dark fake wood paneling.  That was the first to get painted.  I refused to even move in until it was painted.  I had always wanted a green living room and a blue dining room but my husband wasn't really excited about the idea of green.  So, we compromised with blue.

Later I painted the dining room green.  WINNING!

The kitchen will be yellow someday.  And for some odd reason I decided to paint the downstairs bathroom a beige color.  I don't really know what came over me but for now I actually like it.  The red shower curtain helps.

The kids room is Periwinkle and someday my room will be teal with red accents.

We have a small entry way space which I decided to paint a taupe color since it was right in the middle of everything.

Which left the hallway.  The hallway leading to the kids room, bathroom and master bedroom.

What color to paint it?

There is one special spot where I can stand in my dining room and see the dining room, living room, entry way, hallway and kids room all lined up.  I love to see the green, blue, and Periwinkle together and wanted to add another happy color to the mix.

The sweet spot.

But what color?

Jenn is being all helpful over at her blog and teaching us how to properly fold a towel.  Complete with video.

I have had the flu all week and my voice is doing the whole raspy thing so I will spare you the video.

But I thought I could teach you a little something too.

You see, awhile back I came up with a clever way to organize the kids toys.

Then I procrastinated for awhile.

Tried one way and it didn't work well.

Came up with a plan B.

And now I will show you my amazing system to organize and store the kids toys.  Something that will allow them to easily identify their toy storage so they can clean up their own room.

Too good to be true?

Let's find out!

I started with several cubes from the Target Itso collection.  I like these cubes better than the smaller cube shelf ones you see all the time because these are bigger.  Also the cubes are plastic and snap together easily and come apart easily.  This works well for us because we are frequently having to empty out the room when Gremlins attack.  Also they are more water resistant.

Fabric bins of various sizes and colors (Itso brand, the other brands are too small) work well in the cubes to sort toys into.
The problem is, all the toys end up thrown together randomly into the bins and then to find anything, everything gets dumped out creating a huge never ending cycle of mess.

Then I end up spending an entire day sorting toys into various cubes and trying to explain the system to two oblivious children who immediately go back to doing it the way they have always done it.  And all my sorting efforts are just wasted time.  Much like any other form of housework...

Obviously the bins need to be labeled.

But trying to write out cute little labels for the toys won't work well until my kids learn how to read.

I thought about little picture labels but they needed to be really specific for the kids to see what kind of toy when into each bin.

Pictures...  Hmm...  Oh, photos.  Right.  That could work.

But how to attach the photos.

My first attempt was to simply scotch tape the pictures to the bins.  That didn't hold.  The pictures ended up falling off and getting destroyed or lost.

Plan B.

My house was looking better and better so I decided I needed to keep the ball rolling and take the Christmas decorations down.

First of all, I'm going to make it very clear that I am a messy person by nature.  My husband is a messy person by nature.  We are both pack-rats.  I can't organize to save my life.

It's important that you understand this so the following doesn't come off as some kind of excuse.  I'm not trying to say any of this is actually responsible for my messy house.  Only that when you combine two messy people who collect and treasure clutter and then add other challenges to that mix, well, you end up with my house.

And when I say other challenges I think we all know who I am talking about.

Yep.  I'm pointing at you Pipe Gremlins.

But I am not going to cower in fear any more.

It's time to take a stand.

For the time being, the water is staying where it belongs, you know, in the pipes.  That is, aside from the bathtub leak.  But we have fixed that problem by not using that bathtub.

Ha!  Take that Gremlins!

The furniture is staying where it belongs along with clutter keeping to it's designated spaces.

So, I have decided to reclaim my house.

A long long time ago, before the first attack, I had plans.  I had ideas.  Things were happening.  I was painting trim and horrible brown posts.  I was arranging furniture in certain ways.  I was getting creative with what I had.  Heck, I was even scrapbooking!

Then came the Gremlins.  There's just something about having all your living room furniture stuffed into your dining room that suddenly takes the focus off the little bit of trim that didn't get finished.  You know, when you were interrupted by your son making a mad rush to the bathroom, only to return and find the curtains had been painted by your daughter.

Somehow that just fell to the background.

And let's be honest.  I gave up.  I just didn't care anymore.  Really, what was the point of finishing the trim?  Nobody would ever notice anyway because no one would ever be invited over to a house they could barely walk through.  Even if they did there were plenty of distractions.  "Why is your daughter's dresser in your dining room?" would probably be asked before, "Why is there a strip of green painters tape under that trim?"  And so that tape stayed there for well over a year.

Not to mention the fact that, when you have just spent thousands of dollars on fixing water leaks, that $20 curtain rod becomes a bit of a strain on your budget.

Finally I am giving up on giving up.  I've had enough of living my life according to the rule of the Pipe Gremlins.  Which pretty much says, "If you attempt to improve your home in any way, we will create another disaster to derail you."

I'm taking the risk.  Tempting fate.  Risking the wrath of the Pipe Gremlins.

When I walked into my house for the very first time and saw the living room I fell in love.  Not as much with how it looked then but with how I envisioned it looking.  It had so many of the features I was looking for.  I instantly felt at home.  I just knew it was the ONE.  It was actually the first house we looked at so, because we didn't want to be the people who just bought the first house we saw, we went around looking at all the other houses.  Then we came back and bought this one.

This is what the house looked like.

This is actually the picture from the listing (with my husband's notes) because we, in our enthusiasm to move in, never took any before pictures.

What I loved?  The stone fireplace.  The space.  The two story vaulted ceiling.  I hadn't really wanted a two story house but if I was going to have one I wanted the stairs to be spectacular.  When I saw that railing it took my breath away!  How cool is that railing?  I had never seen anything like it.  Best of all check out those doors!

Ok.  Maybe not those doors in particular.  But the doors they could be!

Something like...

Remember my ugly bathroom?

Ugly!

Ugly counter top!

Ugly dated cabinets.

More specifically, do you remember what was under the sink in my ugly bathroom?

Yuck!

As will inevitably occur, when one has a three day weekend, with oodles of time to do things, like blog, and read blogs, and blog some more, the internet decided to go down.  It seems it decided it deserved a vacation, just as much as the next person/artificial intelligence.  Which of course left me staring at the little blank icon at the bottom of the screen, willing it to come back on, as I futily clicked the refresh button, repeatedly.

Refresh? No.

The cable company promised to get right on it.  They would schedule us for Wednesday.  Wednesday?  It was only Sunday!  What to do for an entire 3-4 days without internet or cable?!?!?

Refresh? No.

There was only one obvious solution.  Start honing my Angry Birds skills.

Yesterday my family and I attended the Dallas Comic Con.

I'm posting a bit late today because I was pretty busy all day working on assembling a shelf for the kid's room.  I know what you're thinking . . . "It took you the entire day to put together one shelf?"  Of course not.  That would be crazy.  I actually put the shelf together about a month ago.  It has since been laying down right in the middle of the floor of the dining room.  We have been walking around it, tripping on it, kicking it, falling over it.  See, as I am apt to do, I got the sudden urge to put together the shelf before I really thought it through.  My husband then, as he is apt to do, pointed out the flaw in my plan.  We had not yet entirely finished the floor in the kid's room and so had no place to put the shelf.  So it sat there.

Shelf on the Floor

This weekend we finally put in the last few pieces.  What took us so long to finish it?  Well, we haven't had a free weekend for awhile.  We have had people in hospitals and bridal showers and birthday parties.  In all honesty though I might have procrastinated a teensy bit actually ordering the last few pieces.  Maybe because I kept forgetting or wanted to wait till payday.  Maybe because I knew once we had those last few pieces I would have to get serious about getting that room clean and back in order.  Hmm . . . probably mostly the latter.

Unfinished Floor

What did I spend today doing then?  I spent the day putting the back on the shelf.  Logically I realized that I should probably leave the back off the shelf if I was going to be leaving it lying in the middle of the room.  I figured the kids would be climbing all over it and step right through it.  It was a pretty good call I think.

I had the bright idea awhile back to use wrapping paper to cover the back of the shelf and make it all pretty like.  It was of course right after I had finished assembling the last shelf.  I attempted to take the back off but that was not an option.  Rather than the nails coming back out, the cardboard-like back threatened to rip right apart.  So I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Pretty Wrapping Paper

Today I did attach the pretty paper to the back of the shelf before I nailed it on.

Shelf with Pretty Wrapping Paper

Smart right?

Closeup of Shelf with Pretty Wrapping Paper

I am proud to announce the shelf is officially fully assembled.  I think it came out well.  It looks all pretty and stuff.

Pretty Shelf - See I can be all crafty like!

Once I get all the toys and books put up on the shelf it will probably cover it up of course.  But I will know.  It's all pretty underneath all that stuff.  I even have the pictures to prove it.

Like how I coordinated the colors of the paper with the lids?  Totally on purpose . . . ;)

After it was all finished I was exhausted!  Had to take the rest of the day off.  I'll work on the rest of the room tomorrow . . . maybe . . .

Yes, I do realize I just wrote yet ANOTHER blog post about a shelf.  Maybe I should have named my blog Shelf Obsessed Non-Domestic Mama?

This weekend was spent installing a new floor in the kids room.

You may recall our incident with the pipe gremlins that resulted in one ruined carpet and two kids without a room of their own.


After all the plumbing was repaired and enough time had elapsed to be relatively sure (holding our breath) that there would not be a re-occurrence (again) the time had finally come to install a new floor.   I still really wanted to put cork in but we were and are still wary about possible future leaks.  Excess funds haven't exactly been flooding in (pardon the pun) either so we had to come up with a more economical solution.