And the Winner Is...

Thank you to my very lovely voters!  

And if you've been wondering, the winner is...

Benjamin Moore's Colour of the Year

Wythe Blue

House of Turquoise via Cottage &Vine via Houzz

And the winning comment goes to, "Why use a colour at all that is not your favourite?".  

Yes.  

So true.  

Good advice Leanne.

And now, to choose the carpet...

GAH!

My New Bust

One of my sisters is getting laser eye surgery, and I was feeling a bit left out of the whole "new look" scene.  

So I figured, what the heck?  And now I just cannot resist showing you my new bust.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

Is she not fab?  She was actually a gift from Darla.  I saw her in Envy and could not stop talking about her so Darla very kindly got her for me.  Perhaps Darla hoped owning her would shut me up a bit, but if so, that plan has backfired a smidge.  

Her name is Marin. 

 (after a character in one of my favourite movies)

She's pretty fun.  Right now she is living in my bathroom,  

but she'd make a lovely addition to any space.

However I would advise you not to leave your bust unattended in the kitchen.

Pretty Organized Pantry

There is a time in every pantry's life when it needs to get an overhaul.  The day to day use by multiple family members is bound to cause even the best organized area to get a little unruly after a while.  

The other day, Darla's pantry got a Pretty Organized makeover.  

When I do a confined space like this, I like to start from the top and work down.  I also like to sort the job into one food category at a time.

Top shelf was home to cereal, games and puzzles as well as the treat box.

The deep shelves are great, but the cereal boxes in the back row were hard to reach.

I decided that these baskets would work well on the top shelf since they take up the full depth but can be pulled down easily.  

I pulled everything out of the baskets and sorted it into categories.

I filled two baskets with baking supplies and filled the top shelf.  Then cereal went down to eye level and while it still has a row in the back, it is now easy for anyone to access those boxes.  A section of breakfast items also moved to the cereal shelf.

The games and puzzles that are least used are in the corner, and favourites are more reachable.  The treat box is filling the full depth of the shelf and is up out of reach.

I stacked cans in categories but left lots of room for more to be added.

 Next I emptied all coffee, tea and cold drink mixes from the pantry and sorted them.

I wanted these to be easy to grab without having to search for a specific kind of tea for example.

On the next shelf down - pasta.

Another basket holds oils, one for spices, and a bin for lunch making supplies that is easy for the kids to grab and use.  Items that are not often used can hide in the back row.

The goal for the floor was to leave space for 3 school bags and 3 lunch kits to be stored.

I put a bin for the lunch kits so that they can be pulled out all at once when it's time to fill them up.  School bags can stand in the space left.

The finished product.  

Don't let a job like this overwhelm.  Do one shelf each day if you need to break it into chunks.  Keep food categories in mind that make sense to you and to your family's needs.  Use bins to store items that you use often and choose containers that are easy to grab.  Dollarama is a great source of inexpensive storage.

And remember, if you haven't used it for awhile...maybe you never will.  Keep that garbage can close by!

Cast Your Vote

Now that the basement looks like this...

I decided it was time to finalize a colour.  After browsing various photos for many months, I have narrowed it down to 2 choices, both from Benjamin Moore.

Palladian Blue

image via Simplified Bee

 OR

Wythe Blue

image via Houzz

Colour is so tricky.  Shots over the computer are never realistic.  So I got the colour card.

But those teeny squares are hard to imagine on a large scale, so I got samples from the paint store.  Hard to believe these are different colours!

I painted them both on the wall and once they were dry, had a look in all different lights...morning, afternoon, dusk, dark, natural light and artificial. 

Everyone in my family has cast their vote.  Let us know yours!

The Hostess with the Mostest

When I was recently asked to share some organizing tips for hostessing, I was reluctant.  There will be seasons for every single one of us when we feel like our homes are not organized, and I would never want you to pass up a hostessing opportunity because of that.  Being a gracious hostess is about your attitude.  The way you greet your guests, the way you listen when they are talking, your comfort level at having them in your less than perfect home.

So, before you read on, please believe that you can still have someone over even if your living room is stacked with furniture and you have portable heaters all over the place and you can only sit on kitchen stools or dining chairs because you have no other furniture.  

Okay.  Now let's talk about some things you can do to be organized before your guests arrive.

Entry:

Whether you have lots of space or barely any, there are steps you can take to make your entrance guest friendly.  If you keep guests' coats in the closet, make sure you have extra hangers and push your jackets aside to make some room.  If you have enough room in your entryway, put up some hooks that are special for guests.

A rug, especially something with a bit of depth like shag, will keep your visitors from that wet floor dance when they come in with snowy boots.

It's nice to have a chair if you have space, so people who need to can sit to put on footwear.  A mirror is helpful as well in case someone wants to do a quick once over before coming in.  

Don't forget to pop a little pretty into your entrance to help your friends feel welcome.

Potty Talk:

No joke.  I have had the empty roll experience on more toilets than I can tell you.  Just the other day it happened to me in a restaurant.  

Ugh.

Please, please, please keep spare rolls in the bathroom!

I fell in love with this idea that I saw on the Jones Design Company blog...brilliant!

I also think a garbage can is essential in your guest bathroom...it can be kinda awkward without one.

Corral the Clutter:

I am a huge fan of the tray.  I use them all over the house from my nightside table to my coffee table.  Trays come in all shapes and colours.  They look pretty and are useful to corral your stuff.  If you need more space when you are entertaining, it's easy to move a tray to create more room.

House of Turquoise

 If you have an ottoman in your entertaining area, a tray makes a perfect spot for guests to place their drinks or snacks.

House of Turquoise

Even my in my temporary living room I have my trusty trays out.

Way up there in the first photo, I really wanted to make excuses for my unfinished door frame and my lack of baseboards.  And did I mention that I want to paint the wood on that turquoise chair to match the love seat?  But when someone comes over and you spend your whole time apologizing, it sorta starts to feel a bit uncomfortable.  So, no apologies please.  I'm not perfect, neither are you.  Come in and let's have a great time enjoying each other's company.  

Patience is a Virtue

Oh. Yah.

The ribbon appeared.  That's right.  In my ribbon box...where I did not ever look.

  These things happen to the most organized.  

Right?

(no age comments please)

Now the scarves are all hung behind the mirror with care.

In case anyone (besides Jake) is waiting on the edge of their seats to see Room Number Four, I apologize.  A key piece of furniture for the redo is in that room with the load of furniture in front of it.  Hopefully, soon I will have a basement storage room to move all that stuff into and Jake's room can get done!

Don't Call the Stuff Police

WARNING:

If you have anti-stuff issues, please stop reading now.

I've been living in reno land since the Spring.  Which means I have not had access to my storage room for quite awhile.

Yup.  That's it.  Way back there.  Even if I did haul all that stuff out of the way, the room itself is FULL of everything I had in the basement as well as items from the main floor where the reno is happening.

Since we started renovating I've been on a few trips, had a birthday, Christmas has come and gone.  Not to mention yard sales and Kijiji.  So yah...I have some stuff hanging around and nowhere to store it.

Ugh.  My great little gift storage room turned into a dumping ground.

Oops.  Because even when parts of your home are in chaos, there are things you can do to keep your living space normal, and that is important so that you can feel some sense of peace even if, you know, half your main floor is ripped apart and your basement is still unliveable and you can't use your front door still (just for example).

So today I pulled all that stuff out.  

Darla, who should be on salary, and I sorted everything into bins according to which room it will eventually go into.  And here we are, 12 bins later.  If you want to say, LADY, you have a lot of stuff, then what I have to say to you is, I KNOW.  But by reno end, I will have gained 1700 square feet (plus my porch).  So, I think it is not smart to purge anything until I am sure it will not be needed.

And now my little gift/craft room is back to normal and it feels much more peaceful up here.

Now let's play a little game.  I thought when I got that big pile out of the way, I would find my brown ribbon which I need to add some new scarves to my scarf collection.  

But it was not there.  And it is not in my sewing area.  ARG.  

So?  Where would Shannon store her ribbon???

HELP

And no age comments.