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31 Days Day 10 :Sorting the Etc.

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It would seem that life has been getting in the way of blogging lately, which would explain my absence on days 8 and 9 of this 31 Days of Getting it Done challenge. I’ve been getting things done, they just aren’t exciting things, or bloggy things, think more work things, things that allow me to continue to receive a paycheck. Which honestly, is a little more important than making sure I’ve got a post up everyday. Have I ranted mentioned the time it takes to get these guys (meaning a blog post) up and running? I mean we’re talking a good 2 or 3 hours including photo editing and thinking up a coherent string of words to put a post together. So, do you forgive me for ignoring the blog for a few days?? I really hope so, because I’m ready to jump back into the swing of things, at least until life gets in the way of my fun.

When I left you last, I showed you some sweet non-entry way ideas from Pinterest. Quite inspiring actually, I had planned on mounting a few baskets to the wall like in this photo:

Thanks to my teeny house, the vintage locker baskets I had planned to use wouldn’t fit anywhere in my pseudo entry way. I tried them on either side of the door, but in each space they just seemed to stick out too much. And with my abundant gracefullness, (HAR-HAR) I feared many bumps and scrapes on my hurried exit out the door on work day mornings. So, it was a no-go, instead I realized the only way I would be able to even think about making changes to any area in my home would be to actually clean it. What a concept right? A clean house really is a happier house. I started my little cleaning frenzy in the areas by the front door. Here’s what I started out with:

It’s a cluttered mess right? A bit shameful, but I am only sharing it because it doesn’t look like this anymore, I’ve got my pride people. Also, notice the “etc.” sign? Yeah, that pretty much sums up my home. Actually, I have two “etc” signs…

A top my ugly wall heater resides my secondary “etc.”. Speaks volumes doesn’t it?

Anywho, after some shuffling, throwing, dusting, and a little bit of mild cursing, I had some nice piles.

A pile for magazines, catalogs, movies and hard back books. I really have no idea how any of those things got thrown underneath this little table, but there they were. And also, a flying pig, maybe he made an appearance because I was finally going through our “etc.”

I didn’t realize what a magazine hoarder I had become, all of these are Better Homes and Gardens. Wonder what that says about me.

After all the dusting, shuffling, and mild cursing, I ended up with a much cleaner and less cluttered space to put my keys and sun glasses.

I replaced the random magazines, movies, and books with a basket that now houses the yarn for my current TV watching crochet project.

Ahh…much better.

 

And I got it all done while my faithful companion kept a close eye on me a top her perch.

The joys of sorting through the etc, not exactly my idea of a good time, but the outcome is oh so rewarding.

31 Days Day 7: Cleaning Schedule

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I thought Sunday would be the perfect day to post a cleaning schedule. Of course, I’m not this organized nor  this talented to have come up with this myself, so feel free to click the picture to be taken to the original source.

Via Discover Create Live

And if all else fails:

Happy cleaning everyone!

31 Days Day 6: Procrastination

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Happy Saturday all! I trust you are all having a smashing good time this weekend. As you are reading this I am working on a few projects to share with you this coming week. Maybe you won’t be subjected to my fake autumn-ness outside again, there’s nothing that says fall is in the air like fake flowers.

So, on this 6th day of 31 Days of Getting it Done, I thought it might be fun to  look at some pretty pictures from Pinterest.  You know, because that’ll really help in hacking away at that long to do list! Maybe I should have named this series 31 Days of Procrastination.

Anywho, on with the eye candy. I’ve been thinking about organized entry ways lately, particularly entry ways that really aren’t entryways, but more of a door and then suddenly the living room. At least, that’s how it is at my house, when you walk in through the front door you step directly into my living room. Which means that all those things you carry into the house with you, get plopped down right by the door. Keys, purses, shoes, wallets, anything and everything that is part of “leaving the house” gets thrown on the floor or the end table near the door. So, it’s become apparent I need to do something to wrangle all that clutter. Thanks to Pinterest, I have a few ideas to work from. Hopefully, you’ll get to see the outcome, you know I’m not the greatest finisher of these types of thing

Both of these came from Martha Stewart, if you are curious about the original context, click on the image to be taken to the original link. I liked the use of both baskets and hooks, especially the baskets that are mounted to the wall. I’ve got a couple of vintage locker baskets that would be perfect for something like this.

Via Modern Parents Messy Kids

The bars with huge “S” hooks looks like it might be an easy fix to a messy problem. I especially like the cork board on the wall, and that mail sorter thing-a-ma-gig.

Via I Heart Organizing

Speaking mail sorting things, I liked what was done in this little entryway, in particular those cute little rainboots. If only it rained enough here to constitute purchasing my own little rain boots, but alas, in the desert there is no need for such boots. Wonder if anyone makes cute sand boots??

And with that deep thought, I leave you to enjoy your Saturday!

31 Days Day 4: Autumn Outside

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Yesterday I showed you how I made the coffee table more autumn like, well, today you’ll see how I’ve made the front porch a little more fall-ish.

The mums came from Wal-Mart, the hokey scare-persons I bought for 90% after Christmas a few years back, I think those came from Wal-Mart as well.

I love this wreath! It’s been on my door every fall for two seasons now. If you haven’t guessed, it’s a fake and it’s spectacular.

(Name that 90’s sitcom!)

The little signs in the flower boxes came from Big Lots (I think this store used to go by Pick-N-Save), again bought off season and at a pretty hefty discount. Some of the flowers stuck in there are fake, the theme this fall seems to be faux. I wanted some color and couldn’t wait for my natural mums to bloom so off to the dollar store I went. I didn’t want to put more real mums in the same box as the others for fear they may choke one another out.

But not all is fake out here on the porch, as mentioned above,  I hit up my nearby Wal0Mart again, and found these GIANT mum for $10 each. Typically I’m pretty cheap when it comes to this sort of thing, but this time I’d say they were worth it.

What have you done to fall things up at your house?

31 Days: Autumn in the Living Room

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This month, I’ll be talking about getting things done. You know, those things that nag at you everytime you walk by them, like that wall with the 20 zillion paint swatches on it, or those annoying little jars of nail polish that jump out each time you open the medicine cabinet. Yeah, those things, the annoying things, the things you end up ignoring or not even noticing after a while. So, October will hopefully bring a home for all those little jars of nail polish, and a painted wall in one color. October will bring a mix of big and small project, more than likely you’ll be seeing lots of smaller projects, the kind of satisfying projects that go quickly.

I love those quick satisfying projects that have a big impact. It really helps to keep the momentum going. Well, today is a teeny tiny thing, it’s not really a project, but it makes me happy so I’m including it in the 31 days.

  I turned my summer owls into fall owls.

You may remember this shot from my 31 days button. I like to recycle, especially when it means less work for this lazy girl.

The two big owls have been living on my coffee table since July, they were a gift from my uncle, you can read more about that here. The teeny squirrel and golden owl came from various thrift stores around town. Since this picture was taken, I have replaced the golden owl with a much cuter bronze owl that my mom gave me. I would have taken a picture of it, but by that point the table was cluttered again and I wasn’t in the mood to move keys, wallets and junk mail. Hmm…my spidey senses are tingling, maybe it’s time for a post about key and other “leaving the house” paraphernalia.  Would that constitute spidey senses to tingle? Anywho, the clear leaf containers came from Goodwill, I got a stack of 4 of them for $2. See? I may be a hoarder, but I don’t spend a lot of money on my hoard.

While I was setting all of this up, Goldie was helping.

Yeah, that had nothing to do with the fall coffee table set up, but I don’t feel that a post is complete unless I include a dog picture in there somewhere. But isn’t she cute? I have a fear that I may be turning intthe dog equivalent of the crazy cat lady from The Simpson’s. But instead of throwing cats, I’ll be throwing dogs.

And with that nice random thought, I think it’s time to conclude  today’s installment of Getting it Done, making the living room all autumn like and such.

Clearance Plants

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Here we are on day 2 of 31 Days of Getting it Done, and it appears that this 31 day challenge will really be a challenge considering it’s 11:30pm on day 2. Maybe I over estimated the hours I have in my day, between 8 hours of work, nearly 2 hours of dog time, and an 1 hour for dinner and dishes (I won’t lie, most days I let the dishes build up during the work week.) there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time left over to blog and do a project. But it’s only day 2, so I can’t throw the towel in yet!

Anywho, on this second day of Getting it Done, I had planned on talking about this great organizational project I had completed, but then the clearance carts in the Lowes garden center happened.

Yup, I managed to fit 4 large shrubs and three smaller ones in my trunk. Bubba (my husband) thought I’d never fit them all in there, but I showed him!

I ended up with:

Two of these, for 7.50 each. They will live in the backyard, and they’ll be pretty big guys once they grow up.

Two more of these, for 5.50 each. These flowery gals will live in the front yard.

Two of these, for 2.50 each. For the front yard.

And one of these, I didn’t read the label and thought this guy was another boxwood. Since, these get pretty big he will live in the backyard.

After unloading everyone it was time to get my dig on. Everything went well, until a few minutes into it, I hit a small road block.

Actually, it was a water line 3 inches below the surface. Why they put a waterline right smack in the middle of a flower bed and at such a shallow depth is beyond me. All I knew was that this posed a slight problem, and I had to change my layout slightly. And when I say change my layout, I mean digging all of my holes three inches closer to the outside edge of the flower bed.  Hopefully, the roots of the my new sticks won’t cause problems with this water line down the road. I guess only time will tell. But in the mean time, this is what the front yard is looking like now.

It’s still looking a little sad, I need to put in new mulch and would like to lay a little sod out there to green things up a bit. Living in the desert has given me a greater appreciation for green things, well maybe not the scary fuzzy green things that seem to lurk in the fridge. I see a fridge cleaning post in the near future.

Once I got the four shrubs planted, I was too pooped to start digging holes in the back for the Privets and the Holly. Plus, it was time for the season premiere of Once Upon a Time, is anyone else hooked on this show? Honestly, I can’t get enough of it.

Anywho, the last three shrubs have been sitting on my front porch for nearly 3 days now. Which has given me a little bit of time to do some research, I found that both Privets and Holly shrubs are toxic to dogs (!). Yeah, toxic.to.dogs. I have two dogs that consume just about everything that enters their yard. So, sadly, my beautiful ,new and cheap plants will not be going in the backyard. In fact, I’m considering returning them, if they are that toxic to my doggies, I’m not sure I want them in any of my yards. Although, after researching the Boxwoods a little more, (after they have been planted) I found they were also toxic to dogs. Actually, it turns out a lot of shrubs aren’t good for little dummy dogs who insist on taste testing everything.

So, I learned a valuable lesson, always research plants before buying them or in my case planting them. You never know what could be harmful to the little dummies you love.

Thrifting Thursday: Kooky-ness

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Maybe I should rename this series Thrifting Thursdays-but-sometimes-on-Friday or whenever the heck I can muster enough words strung together to count as a post. Sorry for the absence this week, it’s been kind of a busy work week, which translates into less internet time when I have non-work time on my hands which translates into one random thrifting post at the end of the week. Anywho, to blow off steam I’ve recently been doing more window shopping at nearby thrift stores. Since, I have put myself on buying ban until I can sort through the pile of treasures I already have in my arsenal, I have been a good girl and haven’t added anything to my pile. Yay for me!!!

This past week I spied many interesting pieces:

Like this lizard, he was made of wood and signed. He’s not really my style but I was very impressed with the detail put into it. Look at the scales and his horn type things. I used to know what those were called back when I was going to grow up and be a zoologist.

I had to use much strength and will power not to bring this iced tea set home. It even came with matching tea spoons, although the spoons and the rack were plastic, so I can’t be sure of how stable this set would be. If only I didn’t already have a huge pile of breakables in my home.

Speaking of breakables, I found this adorable hedgehog, doesn’t he look so happy? I don’t know what I would have done with him, but for some reason I was drawn to his happy face.

Then there’s always the owl, this guy was pretty big, and a little scary, but I found him to be picture worthy. Maybe it was his snooty expression.

And I can’t forget his teapot friend.

Nor their kooky-eyed companion. This guy was really big, probably about 10 inches tall, but again I found him to be picture and blog worthy so here he is.

Have you seen anything cooky lately? Or have you put yourself on a buying ban???

Thrifting Thursday:Thrfriday

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So, another Thrifting Thursday on a Friday, at least it’s only one day late. And it’s finally Friday!!!! *Enter Happy Snoopy Dance Here*

With the end of the week, comes time to talk about thrifting. Lately, I’ve been showing some restraint when it comes to buying everything in sight, but this week I couldn’t help myself.

This little guy was too perfect to pass up, and was 25% off, so that brought the “adoption fee” down to 75 cents from a whopping 99 cents. I know, such a big spender right? Anyways, since I’m a nite owl myself, this little possible sugar bowl(?) was just too cute to leave on the shelf for someone else. I have always been a notorious night owl, even as a baby! My parents have told me stories of staying up all night trying to rock me to sleep but to no avail, I just wanted to be awake. Some things never change I guess, even nowadays, with a morning job, I often have to force myself to go to bed by 1AM. Mornings, though, yeah, those are almost painful, and I’m ALWAYS late for work. So glad I have a boss that’s sweet enough not to kick my butt into the unemployment line from my frequent tardiness.

So, back to the bowl, I couldn’t resist his charms, the owly-goodness of it, and the handmade-ness, and who could resist those blue flowers? Yes, I’m making up words, but it’s my blog and if I want to make up words I’m allowed. Besides, it’s Friday, all goes on a Friday right?

Indeed, one mans trash is another mans treasure. Or rather, one mans discarded craft is another woman’s treasured piece of owl hoard.

So tell me, are you a night owl or one of those annoying cheerful early birds that steal all worms from us night owls?

Thrifting Thursday: Christmas Mouse

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I know, it’s Friday and not Thursday, but I didn’t want to gip you out of this weekly gem. Since I have put myself on the great buying-of-old-stuff restriction of 2012, I won’t be showing any new loot, in fact I’ll be sharing some really really old loot today. As in, something I’ve had since childhood sort of loot, and I wouldn’t really call it loot, I would call it more of a token.

My mouse ornament, my sweet mom bought her for me when I was 4 or 5 years old. I remember going to a local craft store with my mom and big sister one year after Christmas. I carried this little ornament through the whole store, and incessantly begged my mom to buy it for me, there may have been a few tears shed and some pouting. In the end I had to leave her behind, maybe it was the tears and the pouting that prevented me from taking her home, or maybe it was the choice my mother had to make between buying another little trinket for her whining 4 year old or feeding her. Either way, I remember having to set my Christmas mouse back on the shelf and say goodbye (dramatic much?). 

One day, my mother surprised me with this little token, I don’t remember how all of it went down, but I do know that every year since  this little mouse was on our Christmas tree. And when I grew up, Mom gave me my little mouse to adorn my own Christmas tree, and every year since then she can been seen amongst the fake branches of my hypoallergenic tree. Until one year I was taking all the Christmas decorations down, but this one little mouse caught my eye. For some reason, I couldn’t bare to put her away with the other Christmas mementos, she needed to be out all year. I wanted to be able to look at her not only at Christmas time, but anytime even in the middle of September.

You see, this little mouse represents not only that one time when I was 4 and wanted something new, it represents the love my mom had/has for me. She went back to that store to surprise me with something she knew I didn’t need. It may have been something small, but at the time it was a sacrifice to buy extra things that we didn’t need. I realize that now as an adult, and can greater appreciate the sacrifices that were made for my benefit. As a kid I was just thrilled to have that mouse that I wanted, but now I cherish that mouse because of what it represents.

Are there things from your childhood that you’ve held onto, a token perhaps? Do they hold great memories?

Do they represent something special for you?

Pretty Pics from Pinterest: Sunrooms

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Hello Friday!! This week sure felt a lot longer than 4 days, maybe it was that extra long weekend that threw me for a loop, but things have really been a little weird this week. I just couldn’t get back into the swing of things, but it’s Friday now so I’ll worry about getting back into the swing of things on Monday! With it being Friday, that means it’s time for my weekly Pretty Pics from Pinterest post, this week we’ll be oogling some pretty sunrooms. I’ve been working on a little sunroom make over at my house, our sunroom has sort of been a catch all for the stuff we couldn’t let go of, but didn’t really know what to do with. That sort of sounds like the rest of the house doesn’t it?

Anyways, I’ve decided it’s high time that the sun room become a room that we can actually use. Our house is pretty small, about 950 sq ft excluding the sun room. So, we really need that extra hanging out space that the sun room provides. I’ve gotten the room fairly well cleaned out there are just a few things left to do. This weekend I have made a promise with myself to finally finish it, or at least put some curtains up. With that in mind I’ve been hitting up Pinterest for some finishing off design ideas for this sunny little room.

By the way, if you are on Pinterest and would like to follow me, I am April@theyellowcasa.wordpress.com, I still don’t know how to put a Pinterest button on my little blog. Maybe I need to own my domain? Does anyone know how to get those snazzy Facebook and Pinterest buttons??

Anywho, on with the eye candy! As always, if you are interested in seeing the original source of these pretty pics click on the photo or the link provided below the photo to be taken to the original website.

Pinterest via Jenna Sue Design

I love the colors she used in this room, and that coffee table is awesome, her how to can be found here.  Also, those floors are a cool idea as they are wood look tile. I toyed with the idea of putting those throughout our house, but threw the idea out when I priced out how much that would cost for the whole house. Instead we went with vinyl plank floors, you can read more about my floors here.

Pinterest via Hooked on Houses

Julia at Hooked on Houses has such a sweet sun room, it looks like the kinda place you could curl up and read a book in. I am really loving the green and yellow she used in this room.

Pinterest via Young House Love

How could I not include John and Sherry’s sun room, they are the rock stars of home blogs and DIY renovations, if you haven’t heard of them you definitely need to check them out. So, I am sharing their room because I loved their floor embellishments and window treatments. I may have to utilize their curtain concept for my sun room, soft yet still allows the light in and the view to be seen.

There ya have it, three gorgeous sun rooms, if that doesn’t give me motivation to finally get my sunny room functional I don’t know what will.

Have a happy weekend everyone!!!