Keepsake Card Books

I have already showed you how I journal about my boys day to day life and how I keep all their memorabilia. Today we will talk about how I organize all those baby shower and birthday cards. Normally cards would probably get thrown away because I don't like to keep clutter but since my boys can't read nor can they really appreciate what is written in cards yet, I really want them to be able to read later how much they were loved, how much everyone couldn't wait to meet them, and what their personalities were like as babies and toddlers.

Around Christmas time I saw a lot of people around blog land were binding their christmas cards in book rings. I don't save Christmas cards but I knew it would be the perfect thing for all the birthday and baby shower cards I had saved.

I knew I wanted it to have dividers so I could put all the cards in one book. I cut out the dividers using my Silhouette, added a picture to the front, hole punched the cards, put them on the book rings, and tied some ribbon on the rings.

Next I did a book for all the congratulatory cards and baby shower cards.

Some funny things I found while looking at the cards, I had given Kevin this card for Father's Day right after we found out I was pregnant. Any guesses what is wrong with this card? 

 And there was a lot of cards like this one...that needed some scratching out to be made plural.

I will be doing a post later this week to give an update on my two littles and what they have been up to.

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:</div>

<a href="http://www.lilluna.com/">Lil Luna</a>

<a href="http://organizeyourstuffnow.com/">Organize and Decorate Everything</a>

<a href="http://www.crystalandcomp.com/">Crystal and Co.</a>

<a href="http://www.houseofhepworths.com/">House of Hepworths</a>

<a href="http://delightfulorder.blogspot.com/">Delightful Order</a>

<a href="http://www.brandyscrafts.blogspot.com/">Gluesticks</a>

<a href="http://tatertotsandjello.com/">Tatertots and Jello</a>

<a href="http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/">Be Different Act Normal</a>

<a href="http://www.iheartnaptime.net/">I Heart Naptime</a>

<a href="http://www.tipjunkie.com/">Tip Junkie</a>

<a href="http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/">A Bowl Full of Lemons</a>

<a href="http://letbirdzfly.blogspot.com/">Let Birds Fly</a>

<a href="http://www.somewhatsimple.com/">Somewhat Simple</a>

<a href="http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/">Fingerprints on the Fridge</a>

<a href="http://tidymom.net/">Tidy Mom</a>

<a href="http://www.320sycamoreblog.com/">320 Sycamore</a>

<a href="http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/">Six Sister's Stuff</a>

<a href="http://lollyjaneboutique.blogspot.com/">Lolly Jane</a>

<a href="http://the%20ny%20melrose%20family/">The NY Melrose Family</a>

<a href="http://blah2beautiful.blogspot.com/">Creatively Living</a>

<a href="http://www.craftytexasgirls.com/">Cowgirl Up</a>

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The Days Of Your Life: Journals

Obviously I keep record of most of my children's life right here on this blog. But there is some little moments that I tend to forget about before I get a chance to write a blog post about them, so I started jotting them down in a journal I made them. I write about the silly things they do, the mischief they get into, the things they say, and the places we went.

I started out with a journal like this one. Look familiar? You probably used these back in your school days.

I just traced the cover on some scrapbook paper, mod podged it on and  added some embellishments.

I started documenting in a journal in January of this year. I keep their journals in the living room so that I can easily jot stuff down as it happens.

I also made one for my pregnancy with the boys. Wondering how I remember what went on two years ago?

Well I jotted things like their weights and stuff that went on at my doctor appointments in a Word document and  Facebook's new timeline design makes it easy to go back two years and see what I wrote.

If you haven't already check out my post from last week on how I organized my children's memorabilia.

"A memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore
Six Sister's Stuff
Lolly Jane
The NY Melrose Family
Creatively Living
Cowgirl Up

Organizing Your Child's Memorabilia

I think even the most organized person becomes somewhat of a hoarder when it comes to their kid's stuff. I know I have no problem getting rid of stuff unless it pertains to my kids. Let's just say now I can see why my mom still had my Sesame Street Party Decor from the 80s.  I am starting to get better with letting go of stuff now that they are not babies anymore. Knowing that all their memories are well documented in writing and pictures helps too.

So today I thought I would show you how we keep it all contained and organized.

I used gallon sized ziplocs to separate it into different categories.  This is all the stuff from their hospital stay: coming home outfits, hospital bracelets, name cards, hats, and ribbons that had their stats from their door wreath.

My curious little boy got this out while I was taking pictures for this post. Can't believe he use to fit in that tiny outfit. At the same time though I can't believe two babies big enough to fit in those sleepers ever fit in my belly.

Special Outfits: Personalized Shirts, their onesies about being a twin, and their anklets that they wore when the hospital bracelets got to small but we still had trouble telling them apart ;)

First Holidays: I put their bunny hat, the hat I made for their Mario and Luigi Costumes, and their Christmas ornaments.

First Birthday: Highchair banner, monthly photo banner, birthday onesie, and handprint mold.

Baby Shower: Since I have twins I separated the stuff so that one gets the stuff from my family and friends shower and one gets stuff from my work shower. I kept a plate, napkin, corsage, and  invitations.

I just stacked all the bags in the bin. See that name sign? The nurses in the NICU actually made those for them so they could stop calling them Baby Boy A and Baby Boy B.

The rest of this week, I will be showing more ideas on how to keep and store your children's memories.

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore
Six Sister's Stuff
Lolly Jane
The NY Melrose Family
Creatively Living
Cowgirl Up

Organizing Spices Part 1

One of the most unorganized cabinets in my kitchen is the spice cabinet...too many spices and too little space. Another problem is my kitchen cabinets are up pretty high and being that I am only 5'2, I can't even see to the back of the cabinet which results in me climbing onto the counter everytime I am looking for something that is not in the front.

I got this Swivel and Store contraption which I thought would be a good solution. While it is a good idea in theory, it is not big enough for hardly any of my spice containers. Anyone else have one of these? What do you use it for?

I also had bought this spice rack many years ago. Problem is none of the spices I used were in it. So it sat on my counter for years just wasting space.

Not anymore folks. I emptied out all the spices in the containers and took all the labels off and let them soak in some soapy water. Then using my Silhouette, I cut out new labels for spices I use all the time. I then filled them up.

What I love most about this project is that I took something that was wasting space and made it useful. Also, now all my spices are easy to find and in arm's reach.

I still have some bigger spice containers and oils and sauces that need to be organized in my spice cabinet. So I will talk about that in Part 2.

Do you have a project that you made functional that was previously just a waste of space? I would love to hear about it.

 

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore
Six Sister's Stuff
Lolly Jane
The NY Melrose Family
Creatively Living
Cowgirl Up

Play Room: Organization

I bought these ClosetMaid Cube Organizers when the boys were newborns and their first purpose was to hold bibs, blankets, onesies, hats, socks and books in their closet. You can see that I still use some of the fabric bins in their closet now but when we moved I put the cube shelves in their playroom to organize all their toys.

I originally had plastic bins in the cubicals with the fabric bins but they broke very easy so I set out to find something that was "Gabe and Grant proofed" and I found these sturdy metal buckets at Ikea in the gardening section.

I labeled the metal buckets with vinyl.

 We have a bin for small stuffed animals....does anyone else hate these things as much as I do?!?!

 Every little boy needs a bin for cars, right?!

A bin for all their electronic devices. They have probably 8 phones...you know because they have so many people to call. 

A bin for all their basketball and footballs.

I leave out a few baby toys for when their baby friends come over but now those baby friends are all growing up too. 

A bin for all the stacking cups and blocks. 

You can find more about their playroom here:

Reading Nook

Art

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore
Oopsey Daisy
Six Sisters Stuff

New Years Resolutions

Last years goal was to lose all the baby weight I had gained during my pregnancy. Happy to say I accomplished that goal and can fit in all my pre-pregnancy clothes even though they don't look as good as they use to.

This years goal is to potty train the boys. I don't have high expectations with this so maybe that is a good thing I would just like them to be semi-potty trained by the time they are 3. This isn't my first rodeo and I have potty trained many of other people's kids so I know that this is not something that happens overnight...especially with boys. We have owned a potty chair for a about a month now and the boys will sit on it....that's the first step, right? I am just impressed that they do that because I can't get them to sit still anywhere else. I hope next year I am writing about how we accomplished this goal. Wish us luck!

Now onto your New Years Resolutions....Was "GET ORGANIZED" on your list of things to do? If so you have come to right place. 

Here are some of the many projects I have done in the past year to give you some inspiration to get started.

My Pantry

My Closet Part 1 & Part 2

Kid's Closet

"Junk" Closet

Gift Wrap Station

Those are just a few of my organizing projects. If you would like to see more click on the organization label on the right sidebar or at the bottom of this post.

In the coming months I will be showing you how I organize our playroom, kid's memorabilia, my spice cabinet, my craft room and much more.



The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore

Totally Organized Tuesday: Christmas Storage

I know if you haven't already done it, most of you are thinking about the dreaded task of taking down your Christmas tree and decorations. I personally don't take my tree down until usually the second week of January so I won't have too many pictures to share with you just yet but I wanted to share this before everyone has their decor packed away.

 Now is the best time to go through and get rid of all of the stuff you probably won't use again.  Afterall, most people have "get more organized" on their list of New Years resolutions.

My favorite organizing tip for Christmas storage is to get rid of all those boxes that hold your ornaments and use these ornament storage containers by Sterilite. It doesn't take up as much space as all those boxes and makes it easier to see everything. I also should add that almost all the ornaments below are glass and none of them broke being transported in these storage boxes during our move.

I also like to seperate them by color so if I change the theme of my tree and only need the red ones next year I won't have to drag out the gold ones. 

I also have some red ornament storage boxes that have the ornaments for the boy's tree.

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore

Totally Organized Tuesday: Gift Wrap Ideas

Last time I shared with you how we organized our Gift Wrap Station. Today I will show you how I keep all those gifts straight.

We have so much family and so many different places to go that I have been known to forget gifts at home. So this year I color coded the wrapping paper by the different places we have to go and the stuff that stays at our house. I used red, green and brown kraft paper to wrap the presents and found different ways to make them look pretty other than buying pretty paper and putting on traditional bows.

I curled some old wrapping paper like you would ribbon to make this bow and then stamped on the letters.

Instead of using traditional tags like I did in the past I just put a initial. This wouldn't work if you had many people with that initial but for the side of the family that I am using red paper on there is only one person with name that starts with C.

This present was for a gift exchange so I didn't know who would get it to put an initial on it.

Anyone else have tips on how to make sure their presents make it to the right place?

If I could just find a way to remember whose present I just wrapped when I am in the middle of some late night wrapping, which is usually my sign that I need to go to bed ;)