Monday, April 18, 2011

Keeping Organized

I am a firm believer that you should try to start out the day in a good mood. One of the ways that I help myself do this is to keep one of the first rooms I look at  clean and tidy. 

I don't want the first thought in the morning to be " ugh! I have to clean this mess up".  


I just want to confess here that even though I have a custom closet organizer with a place for everything, my closet doesn't always look as perfect as the first photo above, but I do try to keep it neat.

One of the ways I keep it tidy is to keep what I'm currently using within reach. Since my closet doesn't have enough shelves to hold all of my shoes where I can reach them (I  have 30 pair), I only keep out the ones I wear that season. 
The weather is warming up so it's time to put away my winter shoes and take out my sandals.

The first thing I do is clear out the shelves and wipe them down. I also clean the shoes that are going to be put up.

I store my off season shoes up on my top shelves. Another good place is under your bed. My cardinal rule of keeping organized is to keep what you currently use within reach. This is your "prime real estate". Don't put anything in your prime real estate that you aren't using.


All finished....


Bought some new wedges the other day. Can't wait to wear them!


Now that my shoe shelves are clean and organized it's time to go through my tops and pants to clear out the ones I don't use. It's also time to change out my t shirts from long sleeve to short sleeve...I keep my in season knit shirts in my baskets:

You can see the rest of my closet HERE.
Hope your week is off to a good start!

Pam

Sunday, April 17, 2011

A Weekend In The Garden

My daughter's bookcases were pushed off yet another weekend because we had 15 yards of mulch delivered on Friday. (We normally order 30 yards, but the cheap place we get it was out & couldn't tell us when they would have any)
I wish we could say that we were able to put it all down, but we had another Spring storm pass through yesterday and we weren't able to do anything outside. Guess what I'll be doing the rest of the week!
Sunday we spent about five hours spreading mulch and a couple of hours on Friday. 
We still want to put down fresh cypress chips for the path, but that will be another weekend.

We had the playhouse moved up toward the patio in the woods.  We haven't leveled it yet, so it might look a little crooked.
Here's before the mulch was put down, but after the playhouse was moved.

These photos were taken as the sun was going down, so the color a little washed out.


The flower beds always look so good with fresh mulch!

Update on my 18 year old daughter who had an interview in California on Friday... She is home safe and sound....for another two weeks. She aced her interview and will start her new job in Hollywood in 3 weeks.
The first baby bird is flying the coop....bittersweet.

Hope you had a terrific weekend!

Pam




Thursday, April 14, 2011

Just One More Thing...

Mr. Fanatic and I are huge diyers, but as we are getting older, (and hopefully wiser), we are learning to let some things get done by professionals. We've had two trees in our backyard that have had a date with a chain saw for a couple of years now. It's a miracle both of the trees were still standing after the storms we've had lately.
So, even though it was difficult to part with the money it took to take these two trees down, we called the professionals at Victory Tree Service to do this for us. I can honestly say, we could not have done as good of a job. They were able to take the rotten to the core big oak down in just a few minutes without  damaging the other big oak tree next to it. The remaining oak had a huge branch that came out toward the one they took down. It was amazing ... and sad.



Of course, we will be cleaning up the rest of this mess, but that, we can do.

The tree line looks a little bare, and there is a little less shade in the woods, but it had to be done.

On a more personal note, I took my oldest daughter to the airport today to fly to California for her interview for the same position she's working here in Charlotte with the same company.
Got a little teary eyed on the way home. If she has a successful interview she might be moving back to SoCal in just a few weeks. 
I think I need a tissue ...

Hope you are having a good week.
Pam

Monday, April 11, 2011

Thought I'd pop in to participate in Tabletop Tuesday over at A Stroll Thru Life

I would love to tell you that I have some fabulous projects to show you soon, but I have been busy doing some BOOOOOORING stuff....2 tax returns for each of my daughter's, accounting for 2010 rentals for my extended family, getting our tax stuff together for our accountant ... and then there's stuff such as planting seeds in the garden and cleaning up flower beds, trimming trees, etc., that really don't make for good blog posts or photos!
The bookcases for my youngest daughter's room were suppose to be the next project -- 4 WEEKS AGO!!! That keeps getting pushed off. We were sure we'd start them this passed weekend, but we forgot about the fact that we had a neighborhood yard sale to participate in. :(
My mother in law's husband passed away and Mr. F and the girls had to make another trip(they drove) to Chicago. I wasn't feeling well, so I passed on the long trip. My youngest daughter had to fly home so she could leave for Florida for her senior trip.
My oldest daughter has an interview in Hollywood, California this Thursday and we've been making arrangements for that!
Ok, so that's the short version of all that's been happening at Casa Fanatic. I've left a whole bunch of stuff out to save you from being totally bored!

Here's a  couple of tabletops I'm loving these days... 


Found the metal birdie at TJ Maxx a couple of weeks back...



Found these apothecary jars at HomeGoods. The jars came with the decorations on them. Definitely icing on the cake! There will be another high school graduation party in another month at our house and these will look great filled with some colorful candy on the dessert table.




Thanks for stopping by! Leave me a note and I'll stop by and see you too! Sorry that I haven't made the rounds lately!

Pam









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