i can see clearly now...

As i (Andy) write this post, i can't get this song out of my head: 

- it's a good song, so that's ok.

  

It relates as this is what our UV filter used to look 

like after our beach excursion.

After a little rinse in clean water,

and a 10 min soak in the same,

meanwhile,  cute photo op sans filter.

Used a non-scratching lens cloth and brush to polish,

hair dryer (on cool, mind you) to get it really dry,

and .... I can see clearly now...

mostly. 

Just for all you non-filter users, remember to practice safe photography and always use lens protection.

Your lens and pocketbook will thank you.

how to make "white space" happen

So, i'm sure you remember my chaotic "before" picture of this school room shelf? Well, as i mentioned earlier, i had previously tried to organize it by getting several plastic containers AND putting labels on them. Buuuuuut, it still looked messy and disorganized. THEN my friend mentioned the whole "white space" idea and i instantly knew that my clear plastic bins were the problem. However, i had just spent money on them and besides, sturdy, plastic, solid white containers are not to be had in my neck of the woods. I did found some online at IKEA and The Container Store, but those were inconvenient and more expensive than the walmart sterilite bins i already had.

So, what did i do with this clear plastic problem of mine??

Well,  I bought a couple cans of Krylon FUSION spray paint for plastic. It took about 2 coats, and i only did 3 sides on most of the containers to save on paint. But in the end, the fronts and sides were nice and opaque.

 Cool, right?!  i will admit that it can rub/chip off just a bit, but it gave me the white space that i needed and in a hurry and will do just fine until i decide to replace them. (IKEA did just move an hour away from me!!!)
Oh, and just fyi, the green crates are from Target this season. They were about $3.50 a piece.

There you have it, now you can make white space happen too. :-)


linking to

Stay Connected!

Hello this is Andy!

I just wanted to point out a couple features - some old, some new - that will allow you keep up with our blog! Look to the left---------->

You'll see an old option "follow us by email" that sends you a handy dandy email when we add something new. Below it is a new option for those tech savvy users of RSS readers - just click on the option you'd like to subscribe to and viola` meg+andy will pop up in your reader!

I have been long absent, but do not fear, there will be some new posts from me in the nearer future...
maybe? :-)


Andrew

Shelves Organized!

Welllll, remember these lovely little peeks into the disastrous state of our "plool"room (this, btw, is handy andy's new name for the play/school room. isn't he clever..) Anyway, I'm very happy to show you a picture of some real progress. i have a feeling some of you might have been a bit concerned. Now, you can see for yourself that progress is being made. [at least on this side of the room] ;) 

Here is the before of our shelf area with some handy arrows highlighting the most obvious problems

BEFORE:

Now granted, this picture was taken at the worst of this shelf's disfunction. But even at its best, it still looked cluttered. Even after i put labels on every plastic bin (which i thought would surely solve the problem) it still looked cluttered and i couldn't exactly figure out why. 

Until....an old friend who also happens to be a professional organizer (how did i become friends with her?!) happened to mention the term "white space" to me.  Do you all know about this??

My bins were clear- which means even though all the stuff was organized and nicely contained AND had nice little labels, the shelves still looked cluttered because there wasn't any solid "white space". Well...that's about all i know about it, but just knowing this much has helped my naturally unorganized brain a TON. 

So. Here's.....the AFTER:

Yay for progress! Can't wait to show you the rest...

linking to life made lovely

popsicles

Have you made popsicles yet this summer?! They have been on our summer list and so, as much as i dislike the ALL-OVER sticky mess that comes with it, we finally made some. And they are yummy. And fun. And worth it. :)

Here's what you need for our  Orange Cream "recipe"

*Little plastic "bathroom cups"
*Popsicle sticks
*A banana, sliced into medium thick slices
*Orange juice
*Yogurt, plain or flavored

1) Have kids stick a popsicle stick into a banana slice. And place in bottom of cup. This way the sticks stand up in the cup!
2) If you are using plain yogurt add a little honey, sugar or agave syrup to sweeten. Then fill half of cup with the yogurt
3) Fill the rest up with oj
4) Place cups in a baking dish and stick in freezer for several hours. We discovered that they take a bit longer to freeze inside the dish but it does help to prevent sticky spills all over the freezer.
5) When firm to touch, gently squeeze the bottom of the plastic cup and your popsicle will POP right out. :)

 Do you have an easy popsicle recipe to share?? There are a few more weeks left in summer and i'm sure the kids are going to ask to do this again. :)

Don't you LOVE this mouth-full-of-summer-goodness face. :)

linking to Just a Girl

Book Storage System

I'm here to share a little system that i {HOPE} will preserve my sanity and maybe yours too.
The kid books in the playroom have always been a source of irritation. No matter how many bins i put on the shelf to keep them standing up right, or how many times i tried to organize them into different categories etc, they ALWAYS ended up in a disorganized, half stacked, mostly stuffed-in-bins heap. Plus i could never find the right book at the right time. NOW, they all happily reside in color coded bins according to theme with matching labels on the spines. Here's how:

*Organize your books into as many categories as you want or have room for.
*Buy that # of clear plastic bins and sticky labels (1x3inch)
*Spray paint in the same # of colors.

 *Spray paint the labels. Some colors took a couple coats to get a good coverage

*Since some of my books were extremely thin i realized i could cut the page of labels into halves or smaller 

Here's one of my piles. These happens to be the non-fiction/science-related pile and since i had so many i went ahead and gave them two bins

*Wrap the label on the spine. i chose to wrap it close to the top so the kids would notice more easily.

*I might end up wrapping a small piece of clear shipping tape over the label to better secure it, but so far they seem to be sticking really well.

Ta-Da! Now, i can confidently say, "Go put the books away" and know that they should be able to do it neatly and quickly every time! Sanity restored! .....at least in this one area! :)

p.s. in case you are curious, here's the list of my bin categories:
orange: non-fiction/learning books
yellow: fiction: read-aloud/early reader type books
dark blue: poetry/rhyme books
light blue: board books
green: children's bible-related books


linking to A bowl full of lemons and SerenityYou

it's OUR birthday!

My birthday has always been my favorite holiday (i know, how much more self-centered can i get?!) so when our first baby's due date was set for August 5th- MY birthday, i wasn't quite sure how i'd feel about sharing the spotlight. Either way, on my 22nd birthday, 6 years ago my sweet little Will was born and he was indeed the best birthday gift ever. And i think sharing the day has been good for us both. 

Here's the card i found on my pillow that he had made for me last night all on his own.

Here's Handy Andy and Will about to leave on their annual "Birthday Breakfast Bike Ride". Will looks forward to this all year long. Even though A. had to leave on a trip at lunchtime, fitting this tradition in made all the difference for this birthday boy.

Awwww, our little SIX year old!!

After the boys got back i had to make a few quick errands to get food for Andy's trip. While i was away,  this fabulous banner was created. I don't think i'll ever want to take it down. :)

And mostly for my own information since my memory is super horrible, here's what we did the rest of the day:
*Said good-bye to Daddy *Ate lunch *Got out the slip n slide, realized it had too many holes to inflate and spray properly. Dealt with LOTS of tears about the situation, found some baby shampoo and a sprinkler head, tried to convince the devastated birthday boy that the S&S would still work, had a certain little girl poop in her swimsuit, finally everyone gave it a try and had fun in the water * Had quiet times, *Read books *Watched a show *had a picnic snack dinner on the living room floor *picked up our CSA fruit share, *Went to get Frozen Yogurt with our cousins, Got balloons AND a discount for our bdays *picked up a Redbox kids movie *Made popcorn, put Ben to bed, watched movie, *Bedtime, this involved crying (girl drama crying to be exact)
           

progress??

Well, I'm happy to report that our play/school room room is coming along quite nicely as you can clearly see in this picture. ha. 

I promised Handy Andy that since our "To-Do" list is a mile long, i would only paint this room if i could get it done while he was on a trip. Well, i did it! After 10 million paint chips taped to the wall i decided on "Eloquent Ivory" by Glidden, bought a gallon and used every spare moment (even if the kids ended up tunneling in the huge pile while i painted) to get it done while he was flying. And yes, ended up with paint splotches all over us, but it was worth it. Handy Andy on the other hand had to be very optimistic to see that this "progress" was worth it instead of seeing it as a huge step in the opposite direction. And to be honest, when i stepped back and saw the gigantic mess i had created, i was kinda doubtful myself. 

But anyway, thanks to Handy Andy taking the kids to the pool every afternoon this week, this huge pile no longer exists, things are finding a home, (which has frequently been the trash), and it is looking better. for the most part.

Thriftty Thursday- Vintage Song Books

I found these books at the same garage sale as the wooden puzzles. The gal was selling them for .10 a piece! I couldn't believe it, but quickly snatched them all up. The colors are SO beautiful. I often just sit and flip through them- getting more color inspiration than from a style magazine. 

 They are filled with adorable songs and gorgeous pictures.

 This one is a favorite

 Good thing at least one of us in the house is musically inclined (It's the handy one, in case you're wondering.) or we'd never know what most of these sound like.

The bindings are so beautiful- Aren't the color combinations perfect? lime and burnt orange, purple and robin egg blue, navy and yellow...so fun.  Anyway, now i'm trying to figure out the right way to display them.

The 1950's were so cool.

sunglass case/ color fail?

I can't even count how many times i've finished a project only to be a little disappointed with the outcome. This project is just one example.

A sweet friend mentioned in passing one day that her sunglasses didn't fit in a standard sunglass case and how a felt one would be nice to protect them from the inside of her purse. Right away i had in my head to make her one. But...i kinda forgot about it until Sunday morning and since it happened to be her last day before moving out of state, i quickly got out my felt and tried to put it together before church. 

In my head i thought these colors would look better, but now i can't really decide if i like it or not. Of course, once i finished with it, i  realized i only had a 45 min to get myself and the kids out of our pjs and ready for church, so there wasn't any time to fiddle...but anyway, putting together colors is HARD- at least for me. :)

Either way, the rest of it turned out pretty well. Mostly due to the fact that it was easy- just four layers of felt, a small piece of elastic sewn into the middle of one side, a cute vintage button on the other side, and then sewn together around the 3 sides, leaving the edge exposed. Then i sewed on the flower and hot glued the edges so they wouldn't get crumpled inside her purse.

If my sunglasses weren't just a cheap $9 pair from Target i might be inspired to try out a new color combo and make one for myself...OR maybe handy andy would like a black, white and gold combo with a little felt airplane symbol?! It could very well be the hot new trend in the pilot world...hmmm. ;)