Totally Organized Tuesday: Master Bedroom Closet

This is what I call the "wow moment" of the house. It is the moment my husband knew that I would compare every closet to this one and no other closet could even compete. I wish I would have taken a picture of the closet at my old house so I could do side by side comparison and wonder how all those clothes ever fit in such a tiny space. Well the answer is they didn't. We had clothes hanging in the laundry room closet, jeans were folded on shelves in the laundry room and coats were in a closet by the front door.

This is one of the first rooms I organized. My husband had brought all the clothes over one night before we moved in and lets just say he didn't keep them in their color order and my clothes were mixed with his clothes and it was one big mess. So by about the second night I woke up in the middle of the night and started sorting through it.

It is really hard to photograph this room because all of the different angles and lack of natural light so bare with me. I will start from the door and go clockwise through the room.

Hats were always a problem before I found this nifty over the door hanger at Bed Bath and Beyond.

These built in shoe shelves make me very happy but it makes me very sad to think of all the shoes I got rid of when I purged my closets when we were trying to sell our house. If I only would have known that I would have a closet like this.

My jean folding skills are thanks to 2 years of working at the Gap ;). The black picture frame is actually a jewelry organizer.

I don't wear jewelry much after having many broken necklaces from two little boys who like to use them as toys.

Shirts are on top. Short sleeve on the left and long sleeve on the right separated by color. My cardigans and coats are on the bottom rod.

My husbands coats and sweaters are on the top and his suit jackets and pants are on the top.

Kevin's shirts are separated by t-shirts, polos, short sleeve button ups, and long sleeve button ups. Each category is then separated by color.

Remember my laundry sorting bins that were in my old laundry room? They found a new home in my closet. My new laundry room is a little bit smaller than my old one and my closet is really close to the laundry room so it makes it just as easy to keep them in here.

Next Tuesday I will break away from my usual every other week schedule for Totally Organized Tuesdays and  I will do Part 2 of my closet. In Part 2 I will tell you how I keep my closet staying this neat, why I put my clothes in color order, and why my husband has way more clothes than I do.

If you have any questions leave them in the comment section or email them to lifewithbothhandsfull@hotmail.com and I will answer them next Tuesday in Part 2.

Updated: You can now read Part 2 here.

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 Sisters' Stuff
Spring Into Organization Link Party

School of the Momma: Fall Fun

Fall is one my favorite times of the year. I hope the boys grow up to like it too. To start out our fall fun we made some jack-o-lanterns because what says fall better than pumpkins?

To make these I cut the shapes using my silhouette and cardstock. Then traced it onto the stiff felt. I made the eyes and mouth detatchable by putting velcro on them(as you can see in the pictures below). I only put the hook side(the rough one) of the velcro on the face parts and there is no need for the loop side because the felt works as the loop. Hopefully that makes sense.

I did something similar for Christmas with a Christmas tree with detatchable ornaments. They really had no interest in it at 12 months old so I was a little worried they still may be too young for the pumpkins but they LOVED them.

I had no lesson planned for this it was just supposed to be a fun game for them but while playing I would ask them where the eye was and where the mouth was.

And my camera died before he could show you where the mouth was.....story of my life haha.

Since they like these so much I am thinking about making more shapes for the face. Yay for fun and learning!

Another fun project we like to do is fingerpaint. But as you know that is usually one big fat mess and if you are like me and usually give your kids edible fingerpaint because they are going to put it in their mouths then this is an alternative where you can cut the mess and not have to worry about them putting it in their mouth so you can use regular finger paint. We still like to do the messy fingerpainting too.

I found this idea here.

You take construction paper and leave several drops of paint on it. Cover with wax paper and tape it down to the highchair or table. Then let the kids do the rest.

After they finished I let it dry for several hours( or if you are impatient like me you put it in a oven at about 150) then cut it into the shape of a leaf.

They are now proudly hanging on our french doors :)

Another fun fall activity that I already showed you was my pumpkin playdough which you can read about in our Operation Orange post.

One Hundred

This is my 100th post on this blog. Since I have a lot of new followers I thought I would highlight my 5 most popular post to date.

#1: Laundry Room Organization

This is at my old house. On Tuesday I will show where these hampers have made their debut in my new home. Hint: It is not in the laundry room.

#2: My New Pantry with Chalkboard Doors

This has been pinned and repinned many times on Pinterest lately. If you have featured my pantry or "pinned" it...THANK YOU!

#3:How I Organize My "Junk"

This was at my old house but I have a similar set up in my new home. I also featured my pantry at my old house in this post.

#4: My Entryway

I have BIG plans for that empty space above the stairwell. Also, the house tour that I have been doing every Wednesday will be put on hold for awhile while I try to get some projects crossed off my list. All these holidays coming up are already keeping me busy.

#5:  First Birthday Party: Thing 1 and Thing 2 Style

My boy's birthday is on December 26th which should explain the birthday party themed christmas tree.

Hope you enjoyed this flashback! Here's to 100 more!!!

It's Snowing?!?!

In Texas? In October?

What it's not snowing in your house?

Be very jealous because my boys are making it snow here!

1st mistake: Went to the bathroom and didn't bring the boys with me. Was gone 2 minutes or less.

2nd mistake: Left styrafoam to close to the edge of the counter.

Lesson Learned: Take boys with me to the bathroom and push everything to the back of the counter.

If you have toddlers you know how true this statement is.

Then the very next day it snowed again...

This time in the bathroom with toilet paper while I was making their lunch.

Lesson Learned: Buy covers for the door knobs so the boys can't get in.

Silver Lining: They didn't put the toilet paper in the toilet which would have made a bigger mess...yet.

It's a good thing I have the best clean-up crew around ;)

Hope your week wasn't as "snow" filled as mine was!

Outdoor Fall Decor

I was going to wait to post this until it was complete but what the hay(and this post does involve some hay).

Because my husband didn't want to put a hole in the door, we he screwed a nail on the top edge and we tied fishing line around the screw and then around the wreath.

Closeup of the wreath.

This is the part that I am not finished with. When the pumpkin patch opens we will be getting some pumpkins to put out here. Here is my little words of wisdom for the day: Use a truck when hauling hay bales. JUST TRUST ME! I am still finding hay a month later in the back of my expedition.

Want to know where I got this stuff?

wreath: Kirkland's

doormat: Kirkland's

lanterns: Lowe's

scarecrows: JoAnn's

hay bale: Ellis Pottery

Linking up to these fabulous parties:
Thrifty Decor Chick
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

No Shoes

We are a no shoe household and what I mean by that is if you live in our house you take off your shoes before you come in the house. So I by no means expect a guest in my home to take off their shoes (unless they have been playing in the mud). I am mainly just trying to cut down on the dirt that comes in our home by us not wearing shoes.

For the boys, the shoes they wear the most stay in the car or diaper bag so  we take their shoes off before we get them out of the carseat and usually don't put them on until we get to destination because we will have to put them on again anyways. So we do it for them so they don't need a reminder and hopefully it will just become a habit for them when they get older. I don't need a reminder because mopping as often as I do is reminder enough. My husband is a different story, as soon as he opens the door I am saying "take your shoes off". So I felt he needed a sign to remind him so I made this sign for the entrance to our home from the garage.

I had all the stuff that I need for this project on hand.

Supplies:

wooden plaque from Hobby Lobby

spraypaint- I used Black Satin finish

vinyl cut by my Silhouette for the letters

photo of my sweet boys feet at 2 months old

photo corners that I had from my scrapbooking days

Mod Podge

picture hanger

ribbon

3m hook(you can obviously use a nail though I just didn't want to put a hole in my door)

-Spraypaint the wooden plaque.

- Apply the vinyl lettering.

- Mod Podge the picture on to the board.

- Stick in the picture hanger to the back and tie on ribbon.

- Hang on the door.

Easy right?

Want to see some other creative sayings to remind your family to remove their shoes?

Tip Junkie did a post on the subject.

Some of my favorites were:

If you're not God or George Strait, take off your boots.

Life is full of choice, take off your shoes or scrub the floor.

Please remove your shoes and don't take better ones on the way out.

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

Glazed Pork Chops

I found this recipe on Budget Bytes. Go check her out...She has step by step pictures and her picture of the finished product looks way better than the one I snapped real quick while my children were waiting oh so unpatiently. Before I give you the recipe to this can I just say that I LOVE when I happen to find a recipe that I want to cook and I have all the ingredients for it. It rarely happens! I bet you have all the ingredients for this in your kitchen too.

4 thick cut pork chops (bone-in or boneless)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

STEP 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine the brown sugar and spices (salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika and garlic powder or whatever spice blend you like).

STEP 2: Remove the pork chops from their package and rub the brown sugar/spice mix all over both sides. Use all of the spice mix.

STEP 3: Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium/high heat. When the oil is nice and hot (it will look wavy in the pan), add the pork chops. Cook the chops for about 5 minutes on each side or until they are nicely browned.

STEP 4: If you are using an oven safe skillet, place the skillet in the oven for an additional 5 minutes to make sure they are cooked through. If your skillet is not oven safe (most plastic handled skillets and teflon are not safe in the oven), transfer the chops to a baking sheet lined with foil then place in the oven.

STEP 5: Remove the chops from the oven and drag each side around in the thick glaze that has formed around the chops in the pan prior to serving.