Closing Out the Year with Some Christmas Cheer!

Well, this year has turned out to be kind of a dud as far as this blog goes. I want it to grow and plan to make that happen in 2012. I've got some organization projects to share and maybe a little home decor too.

I thought I'd share my tree to close out the year. Enjoy!

Thrifty Decor Chick

Awesome Finds!

I have been looking for a ruffle edged cake stand and vintage milk bottle holder for a long time. I see things in blogland sometimes that catch my eye, and I search high and low until I find them.
I was so excited to find the cake stand that I was looking for at Pier 1. They only had two in the store. Yahoo! I scooped it right up. I can’t wait to top it with cupcakes or a yummy frosted cake. The tablecloth it’s sitting on is new too—it’s Waverly brand, and I got it at Burlington Coat Factory.

 

Last weekend I found a bottle holder at Target. They have a new line of items that are wine-themed. This is technically for holding wine bottles, but I love the patina and shape. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Even though it’s not vintage, which I would have loved, it’s still lovely and holds all of my French sparkling lemonade bottles perfectly. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but it has a greenish patina.

 

 

 

 

I’m looking forward to filling these bottles with flowers. I think they look pretty empty too!

Cute Find!

I love finding cute, new products! On a recent trip to Wal-Mart, I found these cute pocket-sized tissues, which are pretty and perfect for my purse. Even the packaging is fun!

 

 For just over $2.00 you get six packs.

Sometimes it's the little things that make life more pleasant. :)

Weekend This 'n That

I am so looking forward to the three-day weekend, but my to-do list seems to be getting longer and longer. :-) Funny how that happens. There will be a little bit of relaxing going on, but mostly I'll be doing...

Some of this...

A lot of that...

This...

A little of that (hopefully)...

Some of this...

Except I will be sporting something more like that...

Baking a little of this...

And to cap off the weekend, watching a lot of these...

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Summer Favorites

I’m looking forward to being able to post more in the near future. I work full-time as an editor, and my job was in jeopardy until earlier this month. I was really stressed out for a couple of months and not really in the mood to tackle house and organization projects. I’ll be employed for at least another year, so I can relax a little bit. My 9-year-old daughter was also diagnosed with mono in May, so I was dealing with that too. But, all is well now, so I can move on to the fun stuff!

I am normally NOT a fan of summer at all. I hate the heat and humidity. Living in the Southeast, we can’t get away from it! This year, though, I’m trying to make the best of it and enjoy the things that I DO love about this time of year. Here are some of them…

This is my favorite summer scent, and unfortunately, it is not made as a perfume, so I have to settle for the body spray. I wear a pretty heavy scent in the winter, so I like switching to something lighter and sweeter for summer. It’s the white tea and ginger scent from Bath & Body Works.


These BPA free bottles are great for keeping water ready at hand. I love the container that keeps them together and organized in my fridge. I just pull out a bottle and go. I got them for $7.99 from Home Goods.



I discovered this refreshing drink recently at Home Goods—sparkling lemonade! It comes in several flavors, and I LOVE the bottles. I’m saving them. I’ve seen them at TJ Maxx too.


LOVE this hand soap when I need a good hand washing (Safeguard). It smells great and leaves my hands feeling super clean. Kroger uses it in their bathrooms, and I looked for it in stores for a long time. I finally gave up and then saw it at Big Lots one day for $1. Woo hoo!


I love wedges, and these are one of my favorite pairs for summer. They are super comfortable. They are made by Keds (Bliss wedge) but have been discontinued.


And one of my favorite treats is Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches. Love ‘em!


And, last but not least, fun summer dishes. I got these this year. Plates are from Wal-Mart, and glasses are from Pier 1.

Those are just a few of the things that I love about summer. It’s also a great time for entertaining, but we aren’t doing that as much as we used to. Maybe we’ll plan something in July.

What are your favorite summer things?

Linking up here:

Making Use of an Odd Space

With a little creative “out of the box” thinking, it’s possible to turn a space with no apparent purpose into something quite functional. I’m usually not very good at thinking outside of the box, but occasionally I have “a hah” moments. Take this little odd space in my kitchen. It’s a small floor-to-ceiling cut out in one of the walls in our kitchen, probably four or five inches deep. It would be a great space for a small pantry, but I guess structurally that’s not possible. When we moved in I knew it could be used for something.

My “a hah” moment came when I realized that it could be used as a good space for storing things like spices and other odds and ends that don’t have a place to live elsewhere in the kitchen.

So, we purchased a pantry door organizer, and it fit perfectly! The nice thing about it is that it’s not made for over the door, so we didn’t have to deal with hooks at the top.

It’s hard to get a good picture of the whole thing, but here’s a general idea of how it looks in the space.

We have a regular spice rack with labeled bottles, but this is a good place for storing odd-sized containers. It’s also perfect for storing paper wraps and ziploc bags.

The little Command hook on the wall is a great place to store the dog’s leash.

 

 

 

We ended up deciding that this was a wonderful space for all of the dog’s food and treats, and accessories, because he’s king of the house, you know, and needs his space too!

I like this little space, too, because it is hidden behind a wall, so if it gets a bit disorganized and we have company, no one can see!

Cabinet Organization

I don't have a formal pantry but do have a fair amount of space for canned goods, baking supplies, snacks, and boxed meals and mixes.

The cabinets are deep, however, so I decided to add some bins and plastic containers to corral things that were getting lost in the back of the cabinet.

This is the right side of the cabinet. The green bin on the bottom has snacks.

And this is the left side. Microwave popcorn packets fit perfectly in the little green basket on the middle shelf. Muffin mixes are kept in the bin on the top shelf. Baking supplies are in the green bin on the bottom shelf. These shelves obviously need to be painted and cleaned very well!

And here are some shots of the items located in the back of the cabinets.

I wish I could put everything in the same kind of container, but this works in the space I have. It's wonderful to be able to pull out a basket instead of move everything around and never getting it back in the right place!

Linking up to these parties: