our house

8 moving tips that you need to know

May 1, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 1 Comment

It seems to be moving season! I don’t know if it’s just on the top of my mind and I’m noticing it more, but everywhere I look I hear, “we are moving”! My facebook is flooded with congrats and happy new seasons for many many of my friends. Several people have asked for me to share more moving tips, so that’s what I wanted to do today!

Honest to goodness, we have moved three times, and helped lots of friends move, and I think this was the most streamlined move I’ve ever experienced. I was still major stressed. We got started much later than expected, we got a truck and trailer super stuck in the yard, there was just lots of commotion. But it was still probably the easiest move I’ve seen. Here are a few things I would HIGHLY recommend if you’re moving soon.

Make a list – of all the utilities that need to be changed, addresses that need to be changed, set up mail forwarding or change of address. Our list included banks, work, services, etc. About a week prior to closing, when things are less likely to fall through, make sure you have the water and electricity taken care of. You don’t want to get to your new house and be in the dark, or without water!

Use labels – I made these (and you can download them here, too). This made unloading and unpacking such a breeze! As I packed a box, I made sure I labeled it – where it would go, and what was in it. We got to our new house Friday night around 8:30 – it was already dark, and nobody had seen our house yet. But NOBODY had to ask where anything went, because it was labeled! I didn’t have to stand at the truck and direct people. I was able unpack what needed to be unpacked right away (refrigerated food, soap, bathroom supplies, etc).

Pack ‘like things’ together - Obviously, things room by room will be, but I found bundling the clothes up in trash bags helped so much. Nothing was loose. Clothes weren’t dropped and trampled. They didn’t get dirty in the truck. This was so easy, you could grab a handful right out of the closet, take it to the truck, and then take it directly to the new closet.

Get a sitter – If you’re moving locally, get someone to watch the littles. I couldn’t have made it moving day with Elizabeth (and Jade) under my feet the whole time. Nor did I want to worry if they were inside or outside, since the doors were open and people were constantly in and out. Thankfully, my aunt kept her during the day while we packed up. I let her come home before we left, so that she could see it empty and understand a little more what was happening. We still weren’t sure if we would be staying at the new house or old house, and it was already bed time, so she went to her best friends for the night. It was her first night away from home, but I didn’t once have to worry about her. I didn’t have to stress to get her bed set up before we could sleep. I will do an entire post on how to help children handle moves.

Eat what you have – meaning, finish up the food you have on hand without going to the grocery. You may have to get creative, but the less food (particularly things from the fridge / freezer) the better! I tried to not go to the grocery the last 2 weeks we were in our old house. Of course, I had to run out a couple of times for milk and fresh fruit, but that’s about it. One night, we had these hamburger salads. I needed to use up the peppers & mushrooms and didn’t have steaks, or bread, so wala, I sautéed the veggies and then pan fried the burgers and served it on spinach. It was really really good.

Pack an overnight bag – Yep, you do NOT want to have to dig through boxes to find essentials. I left out a small suitcase that we could throw 2 changes of clothes in, toiletries from the shower, our supplements, 2 towels, and a set of sheets. I also packed a box that had soap, toilet paper, paper towels, dish towels, my cleaners, paper plates, silverware. They both stayed with me so that they wouldn’t get mixed up with everything else – it was the last things I put in the car, and the first things I got out. As soon as we walked in the house, wouldn’t you know someone needed toilet paper (and soap), and the previous owners didn’t leave anything (see this post for what I suggest you leave / do at your own house when you leave).

Expect things to be overwhelming. They will be – no matter how much preparing you do! It’s a brand new house, a new routine, new things to get use to. And a whole lot of work to make your house a home and get settled. Unless you hire someone to pack, load, unload, and unpack, things may look like this for at least a few days.

Make things ‘normal’ – as soon as possible get things taken care of that you will need for your home to function right away. For me, this was the kitchen. I had to get my kitchen unpacked and put together. I knew I would be painting in a few weeks, but I have to have order, and the kitchen is where everything happens in my home. I also got Elizabeth’s bed set up and her furniture placed and secured to the walls in her room before she went to bed her first night there. I unpacked her favorite books and toys so that she could have a little normalcy and feel secure.

And finally – as a bonus – you can celebrate!!! If it’s like ours, it will be a crazy, busy week! Take time to celebrate! While we were still packing up the old house, I made sure to still keep things as “normal” as possible and took lots of breaks to play outside with Elizabeth. And similarly, you need to take breaks after the move. Sit and celebrate! Enjoy your new home, chances are, you’ve worked hard to get there! Don’t let the work of getting it settled get in the way of loving it. One night, with sweat in our hair, and very tired bones, we just sat on the porch after Elizabeth was in bed and enjoyed a bottle of champagne. The mess was forgotten, and we took time to celebrate and love it!

So these are things that I do when moving… What things would you add?

Filed Under: organizing, our house

welcome to our new home

April 16, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 11 Comments

Whew, I’m not sure I’ve ever been so tired, yet thrilled, in my entire life. This move has been exhausting, but yet exhilarating at the same time. Friday, we closed on our dream home. Afterwards, we started loading trucks, and at 8:30 Friday night we arrived at the house with the first load! (if ever there’s a next time, I’m fairly certain I will hire it all out).

But here we are! We’ve had a couple of nights in the house now, and it’s slowly, but surely coming together and seeming more like home.

It is about 45 minutes or a little more from where we did live – just the other end of Nashville. So, it’s pretty much new everything for us – new routines, new grocery stores… it’s a huge transition.

Elizabeth and Jade are loving all their new space. Before, our front yard was very close to the road, and we just had a gravel drive.

But the past couple of days, I’ve opened the back door and let her run. We have 4.5 acres here, and are way off the road. I can see her from pretty much anywhere in the house. The patio is covered in chalk – something new for her.

The home was privately built in the 80s, and we are practically the second owner. The real second owner (that we bought from) only lived here for about 9 months before relocating.

Elizabeth has her own little playhouse in the back, which she loves. We’ve got to get it cleaned up a little for her, but she has a lot of fun out there.

Yesterday we enjoyed lunch on the deck, which I think is where we will spend all summer.

I will share much more later and give you the full tour once we get a little settled. I kind of feel like I’ve been running in circles the past 3 days. My feet seriously ache. Moving and unpacking, while chasing around a toddler and dog is not for the faint of heart…

But the move went pretty great. We are so incredibly blessed. We had lots of help. In fact, I was in our old house throwing the last few things in boxes, and cleaning really well, so I didn’t know who was there. But I walked outside at one point and lost it… I looked around at all the cars and trucks and folks that had come to spend their Friday evening helping us. It was overwhelming. I couldn’t help but cry. Four of the guys that helped this weekend were C.J.’s best friends. I don’t know what I’d do without those boys.

I forget what the total count was, but I think we had 7 or 8 truck/trailer and a couple of cars procession making the hour trek to the new house Friday night. We looked like the Beverly Hill Billy’s for sure.

Hope y’all are having a great week! I promise, once things get a little more settled, and I figure out a new schedule with Elizabeth, things will get much more back to normal with lots and lots of postings, new recipes, how I’m organizing, etc…

Filed Under: our house

bitter-sweet days

April 9, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 4 Comments

Tonight, after a few beautiful days in a row, that we’ve spent either running all around town or inside packing, we took a nice break after supper to just play. I walked out to just sit on the porch swing – to reclaim my thoughts and clarity and to let Elizabeth play in the rocks (her favorite).

This whole move is bitter-sweet. Don’t get me wrong, we are ecstatic for a new adventure. For a positive change. And to live in our dream house. But this house has been quite special for us, too. It was our safe-haven when our worlds were collapsing. It was our peaceful little home that we brought our daughter home to. It was our saving-grace when we desperately needed to learn to think like a two percenter and challenge ourselves to pay off all of our debt in one year. We made this house our home. Before we moved in, it was a 1970s trailer with green carpet, paneled walls, wavy floors, and little love. The improvements we did, and the joy we filled it with made it a home – a great home.

Beyond the boxes and little piles of things that need to go into boxes, looking in from the swing, I thought about all the meals we’d had at that table. The times we’d had more guests than chairs. How, even when Elizabeth was first born, she sat at the table with us for dinner. I thought about all the painting and “art” Elizabeth and I had done there. The many times, I’ve chased her around and around it trying to catch her for bath time. How she use to crawl across the wood floors in hopes of catching the dog. I thought about the hundreds of times I’ve told her to “don’t climb on the window”, and how I was sure the dog would scratch her way through it one day. I remembered the nights Elizabeth would watch for her Daddy to come home and squeal with excitement when he arrived. And the mornings he use to go in late, and we’d watch him leave from breakfast as he waved goodbye and honked.

I thought about the hours we had spent trying to do something with this yard. About the neighbors dog that wouldn’t stay out of my flower beds. About how the yard looked when we moved in, and about the night last summer I finally dug up the remaining of the sidewalk. I smiled as I saw Elizabeth playing and thought about the times she begged to go “ouside”.

I remembered all the parties we had on this front porch. It seems like every time we planned a party for our larger back deck, it poured rain. At one time, on CJ’s last birthday party, we had like 15+ people on this porch. I’ll never forget those nights. We’ve had many, many bbq’s served on this porch. I remember walking up the steps with baby Elizabeth on the day we came home from the hospital. I recall sitting on the front steps 8 months pregnant to take a break from painting and renovating, because we didn’t have chairs in our house yet. Thousands of bubbles have been blown in the past couple years from this swing. Lots of blog posts have been written on this porch. Tons of coaching calls have happened here, in the quiet escape from the busy house. But even before we lived here, I remember playing on it as a child (it is my aunt and uncles home in case you didn’t know). I remember CJ, as a toddler, finding money my Paw-Paw would hide in the “money tree”, which is what we still call the tree Andrew & Bean are standing by. I also remember my mama driving her huge clunker car to pick us up in the afternoon, when we stayed with my aunt. There have been lots of hide-n-seek games played behind the trees in this yard. By my generation, and Elizabeth’s.

But now, we’re on to our next adventure. Ready to make NEW memories. To hopefully raise our children and grandchildren in a home we loved before we walked in (you know that “this is it” feeling?). Soon, the walls and walls of boxes will be moved to our new home, and this home will be passed on to another family to create memories in.

Throughout this whole process, I just keep singing, Building 429’s song. (on a side note, their lead singer is our current worship pastor, and we will sorely miss our church).

I’ve sang this song, the entirety of our stay in this house. We knew, going in it would just be a temporary home. We had no idea how long we would live here, but we are thankful for the almost three years we’ve had here.

Filed Under: Faith, our house, This is Us

how to stay organized during a move

March 28, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 2 Comments

Moving in and of itself can be stressful. At least for me. Throw in three big conference trips to three different states and your husband going away with the Army for 3-5 weeks all while trying to close on a house and move, and things just get chaotic

I don’t know of anyone who just enjoys moving. Sure, it is exciting and we are superduper ready for the next chapter in our lives, and thankful for the opportunity to move, but the moving part is just no fun. This will be our third big move. A lot of people don’t know this, but I was only 19 when we bought our first house. I’ve always been a go big or go home kind of gal – one to not just think about how awesome something might be, but to do it. People thought we were nuts. Only a select handful of people thought we might possibly make it. Eight years later, we still in fact own that house, and our relationship is better than ever. Then, after the accident, we moved back to Tennessee (and when I say we, I really mean Andrew – I was very pregnant and he made trips back and forth to Connecticut twice a month to pack and move stuff). And now, we are leaving our temporary home that we have been blessed to have, and our moving into our dream home.

Okay, if you have been here for a little while, you are well aware of my OCD tendencies. I am slightly giddy to share you my newest creation, birthed by my OCD. But first, I want to share with you how to make the whole process of moving a little easier and a lot less stressful.

One way I have found to streamline all of the boxes, is to print labels. I designed labels for every room / location in our new house – they are all different colors and include enough space below the color/name to write what’s in the boxes. This way it is much easier to direct your helpers where to put stuff. I don’t want to have to stand there with our helpers unloading the truck and tell them where to take things – this way they can see for themselves. Also, it is much easier to prioritize what to unpack and helps you find those lost things. And, because I love my readers, I am offering you all the labels I made for free! You can download them all right here. Then, you can change the names to fit your rooms, and simply print on Avery’s 8163 labels.

Here’s an example of the rooms I used.

Before you consider packing though, or even moving really, go through everything you have. Start with one room, or one section of a room and focus on just that one space for the time. I am a big time purger. I feel like I spent the last two years (since we’ve lived in this house) purging things. And yet I’ve already collected 4 big bags of stuff to donate. Everything in my home has to have a purpose, or a real sentimental value. If I don’t love it, if it doesn’t serve our space, if I haven’t used it in a while – it’s GONE! If you’re just beginning to go through things, either as part of your spring cleaning, moving, or just because, start with 3 boxes/bags. 1 to trash, 1 to donate, and 1 to keep. You can also include a box to sell, if you want to take the time to do that (I love getting paid for my junk). And then, immediately do something with the boxes when you’re done. Either put the keep stuff away, or pack it up ‘til you need it. Take the trash out, and take the donation box to your car for when you go by a place to drop it.

When you are boxing up stuff to keep, keep it labeled. You can see here, I’ve already started packing up stuff we won’t need for the next few weeks.

If you really want to make it easier for your friends or hired help during the move, you can keep the boxes also separated by room. I also circle an “F” on the labels when the box is fragile!

And there you go… I hope this helps you have a more organized, balance move. Someone on facebook commented that this is also a great idea for teachers who have to pack up there rooms every summer. You can label the boxes by center, subject, or area of the classroom. (have I mentioned how much I love the RATR facebook community and being able to chat with y’all there?)

You can download your own labels right here. Then, you can change the names to fit your rooms, and simply print on Avery’s 8163 labels.

And please go ahead and follow along on facebook and instagram to see how I handle the move (be it gracefully or not)

SHOP HERE

Filed Under: balance, Home Making, organizing, our house

diy table tray

March 17, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 1 Comment

This weekend was spectacular. Saturday was gorgeous, 70 degree weather. Elizabeth and I loaded up with my aunt, cousin (who I often refer to as my sister – because well, she practically always has been), and my niece. We hit several local yard sales and had lunch. I got Elizabeth a lot of summer clothes and picked up a few things for the house. Yesterday was not quite as nice weather wise (seriously, what is up with this crazy weather). It was super cold and rainy, but we all went back out for lunch and a trip to Goodwill. I am on a hunt for some new things for our house.

And while I was there, this idea was born.

I found a 2.99 frame and .99 pillow case, that were each discounted. I found lots of other things too that I’ll share with you eventually (as well as where this nifty little tray will stay), but I just couldn’t wait to get this project done and shared.

I simply popped the glass out, painted the frame with craft paint I had on hand (only because I am out of spray paint). Once it was good and dry I went over it again to make sure there weren’t any paint strokes (they drive me nuts). While it was all drying, I cut the pillow case out and wrapped it around the cardboard insert of the frame. Then reassembled everything.

I really love it. I cannot wait to show you where it will go and how it will eventually be styled.

Here’s just a couple of things I pulled together to give you an idea of the size and colors.

For about $3.00 I have a new, custom tray! I love it! This one will go on our ottoman, and I am working on a similar one, to go on our bathroom counter to corral all of our stuff.

_____

in other news, I am SUPER excited and a little overwhelmed for this week. Early Thursday morning I will be flying to Dallas for BlissDom! Excited to be a Community Leader and meet up with some of my favorite people! I have a lot of prep to do before then, eek!

I have been selling tons of things from our house that I just don’t need/want. I thought I had already purged everything I didn’t love last year, but I am still finding stuff… Getting it out of the house is so freeing to me, and getting paid for it is makes it even better!

Filed Under: decorating your home, diy, our house

my home “office”–where the magic happens

March 6, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 6 Comments

If you’re wondering why office is in quotations… then check out this post. Last year, we turned an old beat up camper into my home office. And it has worked out perfectly. It is my little get-a-way sometimes. I really love that it’s not actually inside the home where I am constantly reminded of the piles of laundry and the projects that need to be done around here. Having an outside office forces me to walk out the door and into my “work environment” so that I can focus solely on work.

So here is where we started… you can see all the before pictures in the original post. It was disgusting. But it was free, so with a couple hundred bucks and a lot of elbow grease, it is now an awesome little room!

Now, for the after pictures of the inside…

When you first walk in, this is what you see

Up until about a month ago, it looked like this… and then my amazing hubby surprised me with a new flat screen and wireless accessories to replace the 3 monitors I had and all those messy wires and speakers. (He rocks, huh?)

to the right of the door, is my make shift bookshelf. It and the desk are both part of Elizabeth’s Pottery Barn bedroom set, and the bookshelf is technically suppose to hang on the wall (the side against the wall has a beveled edge), but I’m all about making due.

Since this space also doubles as our guest bedroom, I wanted to add a mirror and some welcoming accessories. The mirror came from a local thrift store. It was gold, but after a little spray paint I love it so much more. The picture frame came from Charming Charlies and the flowers were clipped off my bush (these were actually taken last summer).

to the left of the door, and if you’re sitting at my desk, this is the view:

This is a futon that pulls out into a full size bed. It is actually pretty comfy. We added a humungous memory foam mattress pad, and no bed is complete without a nice down comforter. There is room under the bed for storage or small suitcases as well. And I left 2 of the baskets on my bookshelf empty for guests.

I know my colors don’t all mesh very well together. The blue baskets on the shelf are too blue instead of a turquoise for the quilt and “YAY” banner (from one of my favorite etsy shops), but for now, they work. Truth be told, they won’t have to work for much longer, and I’m dying to tell you why, but I can’t just yet…

To give you perspective of how small this space is, here’s Bean visiting… you can see where the doorway, the shelf, and part of my desk chair is in this photo

Can you believe it once looked like this though? Skeevy… (yes, that’s the same corner, looking in from the door).

Having a dedicated home office is one of the most important parts of working from home. Before hand, I was working from the kitchen table, or couch, and let’s be honest… it is not very effective. There are too many distractions in our homes and to be successful we need to FOCUS! Or at least I do.

So what do you think? Do you have a creative home office you can share with us? Feel free to leave a link below or post a picture on our facebook page to see and be inspired!

Filed Under: Home Making, organizing, our house, wahm

organizing puzzles

February 16, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 7 Comments

Elizabeth got several puzzles for Christmas, and she LOVES them. The boxes were always out, and the pieces were always scattered about the floor. And since then, the boxes have long been demolished. So, I needed to find something (for my sanity) to organize the pieces by puzzle again.

I bought several of these wire baskets at the Dollar Tree for her birthday party in July, and man, I wish I had bought every one they had, because I’ve used them for so many things since then.

I grabbed an empty one and a couple of ziplock bags. Then, I managed to find a picture of the puzzle from the broken boxes and cut it out.

Then just sort the pieces, throw in the picture, and rejoice before they’re all dumped out and mixed together again!

I have been on an organizing binge lately. Last year, I focused on getting rid of everything, and now that the house is almost completely cleared out, and the balance seems so much better, I’m trying to make things flow a little better with organizing! Truth be told, I have always been way OCD and organized, so be prepared for much more!

In the meantime check out these posts I think you’ll like:

Creating Balance in your Home and Day to Day Life

Our Family Room Tour

The Most Amazing Enchilada Recipe

Filed Under: Home Making, organizing, our house

new favorite flowers (bedroom refreshing)

February 5, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 2 Comments

I wanted to give you a quick sneak peak of our bedroom makeover. Makeover isn’t really the appropriate word, since we’re not really doing any thing except refreshing it… Finally, after almost 3 years of living here, it is getting the much needed attention it needs.

Pulling out ALL of the clutter and anything that doesn’t belong in a master bedroom, but that’s been stored here for lack of space. Adding some touches to make it much more relaxing and retreat like, so that we can actually come to the bedroom to relax and sleep, and not have to step over 4 piles of laundry.

I think the master bedroom should be the most romantic, zen room in the house. And ours has been the total opposite of that. It should be a place you can escape to, rest, dream, and well, you get the picture. But more on that in the full post.

One small thing I did in here (besides new bedding), was added simple, fresh cut flowers to the bedside table. They immediately calm me down, and it is so nice to see first thing in the morning instead of the mess. Such a small thing that looks so elegant, but with a HUGE impact.

And you want to know something? This is what the flowers look like today. Guess how long they’ve been there… TWO MONTHS!!! Crazy, right? Flower Muse sent them to me before Christmas to review. I forgot to take any pictures of them then, because the holidays were so nuts.

You can tell that they’re starting to turn just a tad around the edges, but I’ll be honest in saying I haven’t changed their water. I’ve never had fresh flowers last longer than a week, which is one reason I don’t buy them very often.

Oh, and something I like even more… they come STRAIGHT from the farm. There’s no dyes, or anything like that, they are real, organic, flowers. Flower Muse is an eco friendly, farm-to-table floral e-tailer. And I don’t think I will ever buy or send flowers from anywhere else again… I am not a huge rose fan, so I love that they have a lot of variety…

So tell your hubby’s all about it… do like I do, and just send them the link as a nice subtle hint!! Or heck, treat YOURSELF, Mama! I know you deserve it!

How do you make your bedroom a retreat!?! I would love any ideas as we finish ours up!

disclosure* Flower Muse sent me the flowers to review. I was not compensated for my time or opinions. To see all of my policies and full discloser statement, please click here.

Filed Under: balance, Home Making, our house, sponsor

our family room

January 10, 2013 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 4 Comments

So many bloggers put up pictures of their immaculate houses. Everything is perfect, clean, and accessorized. And that is fabulous, and one day, our dream house will be too. But, I want to share with you that it isn’t all about the house you live in! You can make a home out of anyplace without feeling like it’s not Pinterest worthy.

You see, so many of you have asked for a home tour, and I’ve put it off forever because our house is nothing special. Well, that’s not true – the house itself is not special, but the home we have created it to be is special. It is special because it’s the home we brought our daughter home to. It’s been our safe-haven when we really didn’t know where else to go after the accident. My aunt and uncle rent it to us, and for that we are eternally grateful since we still have our house in Connecticut as well.

This has made a great home for us. I’m not going to lie, I complain about it a LOT. Which then makes me feel guilty because I know there are lots of people out there who have NO place to call home.

For now, the 980 square foot home works. There are lots of little quirks that I’d like to fix, and a lot of redecorating I would like to do, but those things haven’t fit in with our “paying off ALL of our debt” lifestyle. Plus, we both realize it’s just a temporary home.

Living in only 980 square feet, you have to get creative, and you have to be very intentional with what you have in your home.

This room was built on in the 80s sometime, so it’s a step down from our dining room. Before moving in, we painted everything. The back wall (to the left of the fireplace) use to have a huge mural of a lake. I’m not kidding. And green carpet. The ceilings are pretty low throughout our whole house (like maybe 8’). There are still things I would love to do in here. We really need to raise the curtain rod, and I would love new curtains, new rug, and new accessories. I’m over the red BIG TIME. Andrew had the rug and couch when he was on Active Duty, and we’ve just kept it and brought in things that matched. But I’m over it. Our carpet also needs to be restretched – Andrew says I vacuum too much (sometimes twice a day), but I think it was just a poor installation job. Those lines drive me BONKERS.

(And don’t mind the pretty pink potty – we’re in the throws of potty training)

This fireplace is electric and I LOVE it. We bought it for our home in CT and just love it. It makes the home feel so much cozier.

Andrew plays the piano, which I love. He plays late at night when Elizabeth is in bed, and I just love hearing it through the house.

You can see our gallery wall in more detail here. I like things simple and clean, so I don’t like all kinds of knicknacks and clutter all around. On top of the piano is a basket for storing remotes, a Scentsy warmer that I adore, and our daily devotionals.

Love having the basket there. We (almost) always know where the remote is this way, and it hides the extra XBox controllers. Little to no effort is involved with tidying up, or putting your game stuff away like this.

I love how this Scentsy warmer reflects hearts onto the wall at night. We don’t have lamps for the room (they’re on the list too), but this puts off the perfect cozy glow. I had never bought Scentsy before, but it made the holidays smell like home, and now I’m loving the clean springy scent of coconut lime! I tried to cheat and buy a different scent pack at walmart – FAIL! The smell only lasted 1 day, and who knows what’s in theirs. I cut mine on at night as a nightlight and don’t need to use it during the day. You know I hate plug-ins and aerosol sprays and how toxic they are for your babies air. Scentsy claims to not use phthalates.

We honestly do not watch much tv. We do not have cable or satellite or anything like that. Just a few local channels. We do have Netflix that we occasionally will watch at night. Andrew use to play XBox a lot, but we have both become more conscious of where we spend our time and mind.

We store his games in this basket so that they’re all out of site. I store a couple of Elizabeth’s movies and my workout dvds in the center. She became obsessed with Rio after seeing it at her cousins. She loves Veggie Tales and Mickey Mouse, too. Those and Nemo in the truck, are about the only things she’s ever really seen or knows of. She has no clue who Dora, Spongebob, or those other mind pollutants are.

My hand weights stay beside the tv, because that’s where I work out in the morning. I like these because they stack.

Elizabeth’s art easel is in here too, because she uses it ALL the time. And her basket of puzzles and small toys are between the couch and piano too.

So there you go. Our uncluttered, simple family room. Tell me, what is your design style?!

Filed Under: Home Making, organizing, our house

$75 Bathroom makeover

October 22, 2012 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 5 Comments

Several of you have asked for a home tour. I am working on it for you! Honestly, I never thought I would have showed you this room, but in the midst of 2 pretty stressful weeks, I coped by giving this room a little tlc! With only $75, this bathroom is finally complete! It was the only room in the house that we hadn’t really touched.

You can see how I transformed the mirror, sconces, and other accessories here.

First, a few befores! I thought I took more, but can’t find them now.

Honestly, this is how the room looked most of the time. The boarder was falling, the mirror and lights were rusty, clothes were everywhere. I stored the towels in a basket on the floor (no linen closet).

It totally stressed me out. This is the first room I walk into when I wake up, and immediately, I would wake up stressed to a big hot mess!

Finally, I’d had enough!

I cleaned out everything from under the sink and the medicine cabinet. Honestly, how many different body sprays and creams and things do we need? I threw out anything expired, anything I hadn’t used in a while, anything I now know is toxic, and was left with very little – which is what I actually use! Why do we waste so much space and energy with crap we don’t even use?

Then I stripped the paper and gave everything a fresh coat of paint! The walls, the trim, and all of the accessories. The old towel basket is now being used for dirty clothes (just keeping it real in the pics for you!)

My wonderful hubby hung shelves above the toilet for us!!! What an amazing and incredible easy transformation! I’m hoping to replace all of our towels this Christmas with fluffy white ones. We’ve had all the others since our wedding shower in 2006. It’s time!

I bought the wire baskets in the $1.00 section of Target back in the Spring!

I also painted the inside of the medicine cabinet! The inside of the door, I painted with chalk paint, and just gave the inside a fresh coat of white!

I use small glasses a lot for corralling stuff. In this one, I have my tweezers, nail clippers, nail file, and little tubes of creams!