Makin' a List

Day 4

One thing that has helped us the past couple of years is making a list of what we'd like to do during the Christmas season at the beginning of December or earlier. We ask the kids, we make suggestions, and we write it down. Next we grab the calendar and plan out when we can do those things. If you wait until the middle of December, it might just be too late.

This is also a good idea if there are certain Christmas movies that you want to watch on TV. This is becoming less of an issue though with the internet, cable, and netflix.

My Christmas Lights Secret

Day 3

I've been putting up Christmas lights since I was a kid. Taping Christmas lights up into a cold window is a huge pain in the butt. For so long I wished there was a simpler way. One year I found some sticky clips at Walmart. They were only so so at staying up and then they stuck out so far, that I had to take them all down to be able to open and close the windows. Finally, 3M made command light clips. They are awesome. Just follow the directions (that is important if you want it to work right). Wipe the surface you're attaching them to with rubbing alcohol. Let it dry and then press the thing on for as long as it says to (like 30 sec I think). Then just leave it for the amount of time it says (I think it's min 2hrs) before using them. I put these guys up in the windows two years ago and just left them. They're clear, so they're not very noticeable and they're small enough that I can still open and close the windows without any problems. This is now the third season I'm using them. It's made putting up the lights in the windows super fast. Only one or two of them have come down (in two years!) and had to be replaced. I don't know that they're meant to stay up so long, but the ones that came down didn't have any problem. We have vinyl windows as well, so I don't know how well it does on wood or metal.

The other thing that helps is having a pattern to follow. For my windows one set of 100 does the trick. I start in the bottom right corner, go straight up to the top, across the top, down half way, back to the right across the top of the sash, back to the left along the bottom of the sash, down the bottom half of the left side, and then back across the bottom to where I started.

Kid Safe Ornament Hangers

Day 2

I came up with this idea a couple of years ago when the kiddos were smaller. Instead of dangerous metal ornament hangers, use twist ties instead. I don't know that's is necessarily safer if a kid was to ingest one per se, but it's a lot harder to get an ornament off when you twist tie it onto the Christmas tree. At first I used whatever random twist ties we had around the kitchen junk drawer. Then I realized that the plethora of clear plastic covered twist ties that take forever to remove from your kids toys could be used instead (they're a bit nicer looking than the ones that come in boxes of trash bags or on bread). They're usually quite large too so you could cut them (all you need is a regular pair of scissors) and get a few from one twist tie.

Another option would be to use some pretty, thin ribbon

(you could get all fancy with coordinating colors or something). But that costs far more than free stuff you were probably going to throw out anyway.

Cheap Christmas Tree + Garland = Lovely

Day 1

We got a Christmas tree free after rebate a couple of years ago. It was a decent height and prelit with white lights. But it was a bit sparse. I bought some garland at Michael's that is similar looking to the tree branches and added it to the gap areas. Someone asked me once if it was a real tree.

Count Down to Christmas Posts

Now through Christmas, I plan to do a post a day on ideas related to Christmas.

Entry Closet? Pantry? Mudroom? Command Central? Yes!

A few months ago, I started looking into options for redoing our entryway closet. This closet is right by our front door which is also right by our kitchen. It was not being very well utilized in it's original configuration (big wire shelf across the length of closet, some stuff hanging from wire shelf, and lots of junk tossed in where it stayed until it fell down). We had coats, out of season storage, overflow kitchen items, a stroller, recycling bin, and various other papers and stuff. We still have most of that stuff in it now but it looks way, way better now! And you're much less likely to have stuff fall on your head when you open the closet.









Before, yikes!




I decided on the Antonius system from Ikea. Using a piece of graph paper, a tape measurer, and the info sheet of Antonius components from Ikea, I devised a plan. Then months went by, then our Ikea actually got the white colored parts in stock (the originals are all silver, the new ones are white) and I purchased the parts. With Bob's help, I took down the old rails, patched the walls, painted the walls (they sure were scuffy!) and put up the new system. (I must confess, Bob did most of the wall drilling into parts) We decided to get one more shelf and we bought some cute storage containers to get things organized. I did the organizing part.


After






Now everything has a place. Office supplies, mailing supplies, art supplies, and more can be found on the desk. The storage bin labeled "plastic" has plastic storage containers. The one labeled "paper" has paper towels, paper plates, and bowls.
Out of season storage (one side says winter, the other summer) is tucked up on a high shelf in the corner.

That's where you'll also find extra warehouse food boxes, our Sunday bags, and the kids sidewalk chalk (they ended up with an awful lot of sidewalk chalk this year!) Right now hats and bike helmets live in this basket. In the winter, it will be home to boots, hats, and gloves. The bin below has emergency gear.





Sources:


IKEA- Antonius Storage System in white (to make it fit in our closet and using various width components, I used five 35 3/8" wall uprights. Also used- desk top with legs, one wire shelf with bracket, two 11" shelves with brackets, one 14 3/8" shelf and brackets, and clothing rod.
Emu set of two silver storage boxes with lids (2 sets)
Kardemumma pot plant (the pen holder)


Walmart.com-Sterilite Jumbo Ultra Baskets set of 6 (three used here)


Goodwill- candleholders


Michaels- Sticky Alpha Stax letter stickers for labels (I also used the waxed paper letter shapes that came off the backs for the labels with white letters)


The large bin on the floor is also a sterilite bin I got at Target a few years ago. The lid was green, but I painted it white.
The three drawer plastic storage on the desk is also sterilite possibly from Walmart

*update* We had a slight problem with the center piece coming out of the wall. Bob got some new anchors that reach out behind the wall board and grab a hold. We also moved a couple of the heavier things down to the bottom. Attaching stuff to studs is always best, but as this is a shared wall with our neighbors, there aren't any wooden studs in it (just metal). It seems to be holding up great now!

linked to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party

Super Cheap Button Bracelet

Going through the small bag of recycled buttons I bought at Michael's last year, I found these pretty black buttons. I thought they'd make a pretty bracelet. But I'd have to buy some elastic string or something. Then I remembered, I'd just bought the girls some flip flops on clearance for next year from Target. They had that stretchy stringlike elastic stuff tying them together (seems like nearly every shoe at Target has that keeping them together). I strung the buttons on randomly (there were larger and smaller ones), tied the elastic, cut off the excess and ta-da! I think it took me longer to sort all of these buttons from the rest than it did to make this bracelet.