These are a few of my favorite things...

Before we sent 2011 off, here are a few of my favorite projects from the past year...

Smurfettes Lemonade Stand...this was by far my favorite!! I learned it is a pain in the a$$ to take apart pallets, but we had such a fun time as a family making this!

Budget Breakfast Nook...It is so incredibly awesome to NOT have the washer and dryer in the kitchen anymore! And we were able to create this on a super slim budget after finding a great piece at our Habitat ReStore!

Kids Outdoor Chalkboard...I learned that making outdoor chalkboard paint is harder than it looks, but the kids LOVE this! Neighbours comment on it when they drive by and after 6 months it is still in perfect condition...yay!

Jules Back Deck...My very first total design project where I got to spend someone else's money and do what I wanted. This was a fun, stressful, learning experience. They love the end result, as do I, and I hope to be able to do this again!

via The Lettered Cottage

Spackle Can Change Your Life...In September I went to Atlanta to help Layla and Kevin and the people from HGTV shoot a TV pilot. Seriously. I learned so much...about Spackle and about myself. Hopefully January will bring great things for this sweet couple...I'll keep you posted.

Of course there are other projects I loved like making homemade vanilla,  our wonderful new laundry closet, and the kids homework area.

The past year I fell in love with old windows, wood pallets, and chalkboards.

We grew as a family and the Smurfs proved that they are old enough to help with projects and make design decisions. :) I grew as a person by taking my first big solo trip to Boston and realizing they would survive without me.

Marlene decided she didn't want to blog anymore because she didn't have anything to say, but I'm still trying to convince her to come back because she is by far the funniest person I know. And she's my best friend. And I love her.

Overall, it was a great eye opening, learning, wonderful year and I am so looking forward to 2012...

Happy, Happy New Year!

Rachel :)

Pumpkin Muffins and More...

When the weather gets nice, my attention span tends to not function, resulting in DIY overload. It happened this weekend. I started by deciding that the table in the breakfast nook was too dark and maybe I needed to strip it...

I should have been doing laundry...

Or cleaning the kitchen...

But when I sat down at the computer and pulled up Pinterest (hello...I have a problem), I saw some pumpkin muffins that I had to make. That minute. Thank goodness I had everything I needed, because I never over buy when Publix has awesome B1G1...hmmmmmm....

You will need a whopping two ingredients...

Canned pumpkin and cake mix...that's it! The recipe calls for Golden Yellow. All I had was Butter Golden...Butter=Good...

I mixed them together with my mixer from 1974. That's right. 1974. Don't hate. It's a MixMaster with a Burst Of Power. When my mom and dad married, my grandfather thought every good southern woman should have a mixer. So he bought this one for my mom. When I moved into my first apartment, I inherited the mixer. It rocks my socks. Seriously. Mixing is a lost art...as is sanding...

Mix and divide.  

Bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.

When they come out, they will be as awesome as these...just add a little powered sugar. Or turn into Martha Stewart and make some homemade cream cheese icing. I had laundry and cleaning and sanding calling my name...

Rachel :)

It All Comes Together

If you are still reading this saga, you are either super patient or super bored! If you haven't read the past two days, I'll take a minute and catch you up to speed...Our old house has no laundry room. It does however have a super great sewing closet which slowly turned into a junk closet. What it lacks in the laundry room department, it makes up for in having two small coat closets. We purged and merged our coats into one closet and turned the other into a cloffice. This left us with an empty closet and still no laundry room...

Empty Closet + No Laundry Room =

Laundry Closet

lauset is the technical french name

Today it's making its big debut! With further ado, I would like to introduce the best thing we have done to our old house...

I keep the things I use daily within easy reach

the Smurfs lunchboxes

two shelves of cleaning supplies

I L.O.V.E. this new area we created! We purchased a new washer and dryer and stacked them. I had enough room for a small (but big enough) shelving unit to put beside them. We didn't want anything permanent to make maintenance to the machines easier. The shelves are on felt pads and they are super easy to slide in and out. Behind them I mounted the iron and ironing board to the back wall. This has been a wonderful use of space! Mr. T and I are beyond thrilled...and I can't say that enough!

If you are up to speed...you might wonder where this leaves our kitchen/laundry room/breakfast nook? Once again...stay tuned...

Rachel :)

Laundry Blues

Like most old houses, our old house has no laundry room...that's right, NO laundry room. Unless you count the one outside, which I don't. But maybe I should. Hmmmm...so, I guess there is a laundry room, but it's outside. The previous owners didn't use it as a laundry room either. They went through the wall and "pullled" all the hoses and other stuff into the breakfast nook. At 6' x 7' it could be a really, really cute nook, but instead there sit my circa 2003 washer and dryer...in my wanna be really cute breakfast nook. At least at 2 am when one of the Smurfs throws up I am thankful it is inside and not outside!

When Mr. T and I moved into this house I was obsessed with hiding my washer and dryer. We talked about all of our options: walls, doors, curtains, even moving it back outside. We were never happy with anything we talked about, so there they sat. I think its better to do nothing than do the wrong thing. These days, I am so glad we waited. Here is what the laundry nook looked liked in relationship to the rest of the kitchen:



looking good! nice and neat!

normally there is not a bike in my kitchen...still trying to figure this one out!

Unfortunatly not everyday can be an organized day. So on a lot most days, the laundry nook ended up looking like this:

and the kitchen ended up looking like this:

Stayed tuned...

Rachel :)

Wintertime Blues

I have got a case of the wintertime blues today. I only have one more day until the kids are out of school. I am not done shopping, which really bothers me. Still haven't done holiday cards yet. (This has been a struggle for me because all of these cards have got to be filling up our landfills...right?) I have oodles and boodles of money to count for the American Heart Association that was raised by the kids school. Tomorrow Brainy Smurf is having a spend the night party with 9 of his closest Smurf friends. His birthday is Saturday and I still don't have a birthday present for him. He has requested an Atlanta Braves jersey cake which I need to make. I have holiday parties tomorrow at school and it's my Meals on Wheels day. On top of all this I have 5 more scarves to monogram for teacher gifts and my mommy chores to do like this:

The worst thing about this old house is that I don't have a laundry room...
so the kitchen gets turned into one.

A few years ago I was having a conservation with a good friend (who also happens to be a mom of three) about laundry. I couldn't figure out why I never could stay caught up with the laundry that my family of four produces. She looked at me and said..."Rachel, winter clothes are bigger therefore they take up more room in the washing machine." Huh?!? Such a simple concept really. Jeans are bigger than shorts; fleeces and long sleeve shirts are bigger than the tanks and t's we wear in the summer. If you are somewhat fashionable, you wear lots and lots of layers, creating lots and lots of laundry. I never really thought of it that way. Turns out, it wasn't my imagine and I wasn't going crazy! We really do produce more dirty clothes in the winter which take up more room in the washing machine which leads to more laundry. Lots of it!!!

So...keep up, stay organized, and do laundry everyday! Everyone likes clean clothes!

Rachel :)

P.S. Do as I say, not as I do...

P.P.S. I would love suggestions on how to get Mr. T, Brainy Smurf, and Smurfette to turn their socks right side out!