Much needed motavation: iheart organizing

I have always loved to organize.  I LOVE boxes, honestly the container store and Ikea (home storage area) are my favorite places EVER!

             

However since we moved into our new house, unpacked the organizing has kinda gone to the side.  I am going to link up with IHeart Organizing to get the kick start I so BADLY need.
It starts next week, which is great with school ending this week and all of the papers that have been coming home from school this week.  I have decided on my 4 problem areas which have been pretty much out of sight out of mind, yet still eating away at me every day.

1: Laundry room: AKA paper dump area
2: Linen closets: We have 2 one in each bathroom and they have just become a hiding place not organized.
3: Books, books and more books (boys room and office): I have wanted to get the new book, 

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,  with this in it, however I think I could use going through them twice. 

4: Under the stairs toys, and maybe playroom.  When my boys have outgrown their toys I have put them under the stairs to deal with later.   Well now is LATER.  

I'm nervous to get started and post all about it, but here goes nothing! 

Big boy bed!

May 25, 2015

I forgot to post this last week, but wanted to share this moment as a mom!

Last night was Ewans first success in his big boy bed. I am no expert when it comes to kids and I just follow my boys lead. For Liam's 2nd birthday we took off the side of his crib and he happily loved his big boy bed......with some catches. Since he was an only child we took one of the good ol baby grippers on the door and used packaging tape to keep him from escaping.

Ewan is jn no real rush for anything. Which with him being my baby, makes me totally happy with it.   However! Over the last 2 weeks ewan has been not wanting to sleep either at bed time or at nap time, and has successfully fallen out of his crib (3 times) and come to us crying and saying ohwee. Not ok for this little mama! I know my abilities of gettin hurt from nothing, I do NOT want my baby to follow in those footsteps. 

We bought a bunk bed on Craig's list about 4 months back. We had a friends girl staying with us a lot, and with our current set up, I wanted one. 

Ewan will show intrest and play in the bed, but after trying and him coming out a few times we put him to sleep in his crib. Over the past month, when given a choice he will pick the crib, but last night, after reading books and making sure all his toys are in his bed, he is just like his mom AND dad. Needs all his stuffed toys tucked in bed with him. 

We put him on the bottom bunk. And let him be. A few min later he came to me saying "mana, where's nummy." "Mickey"  Chris took him back to the bed, showed him nummy was in bed and we didn't see him again! 

Not sure we will continue to push it, but baby steps! 

They grow too fast!

Outdoor table

We live in a very Windy City. I had no idea it would be so bad. People warned me, but I though. Meh I've delt with wind before. What's the big deal!

Our first BIG wind storm was a few weeks after we moved in. There was no real problems more just stories.

Our bbq with a full propane tank moved about 20ft across the yard and got tipped over. Our patio furniture was a over ours and our next door neighbors yard.  The patio coushins were skatered around the neighborhood and our beautiful table was fine, but the glass was shattered all over our yard! 

Months later we still had no table top! :( I kept thinking about getting glass cut, then maybe plexi glass. But we just never really wanted to spend another $20-$40 when we knew the wind would most likely take it again.

After some ideas on Pinterest. I decided to do a diy wood one.

Saturday was hh birthday and he got some totally awesome tiki's. However they are not strong enough to with hold our wind so I was thinkin maybe I'd take them back.

Yesterday was our first feeling of "summer" day. It was over 90degrees (I love the heat!) so I went to work

I decided to NOT go to the hardware store.....even though I really wanted to.  So I used some scrap wood and spray paint.

I decided to keep the tiki and screw them into the new table top!!!

Rocking chairs

BEFORE

AFTER

Ever since we moved in I have wanted chairs for our porch. I started looking and fell in love with these beautiful ones.

However they also come with a lovely price tag we can't afford at this time.

So I searched our local Craig's list and found these.

They were priced at $150 each. Once again way over our budget so I watched them. On day 16 I decided to. Text and offer. $100 for both. They took it, but they were moving soon so I needed to get them ASAP.

I drive a cute little honda civic so this is what I got to do. 

One chair in the trunk.

One in the front seat!

I could only use gear 2 and 4 but I got them home!

On my porch and the beautiful chairs.

No shock, I decided to paint the white one. 

Not a fan of the colors!

Beautiful!!! :)

I used about 3 cans total of

Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X 12 oz. Satin Dark Walnut General Purpose Spray Paint

I love the color difference!

I bought the new coushins from home goods with the help of my little men.

Liam picked the "Give Hugs" pillow, and ewan just wanted the tags of them!

Total Break Down

-Buying from HD: $139x2=

TOTAL  $288 

               VS

-Chairs local = $100, 

- 3 cans spray paint = $12

-Pillows 2@ $11 = $22

-Cushions $42

TOTAL: $176

Not a huge savings but defiantly a fun project! 

What do you think? 

Garden boxes

I have a thumb! ;) actually I have 2 of them!! "SHOCK?!" Lol well at the moment they are a mix between peach and white colored. My goal is to turn them green!! :) we will see if that happens. In our last home we were able to successfully plant and grow some tomatoes and a whole bunch of herbs.  Now that we have our house it's time to try again.

This is our old house Garden! 

Once we do step 2 of our yard next year (pavers and waterfall) We plan to do this, but for now I need Cheap! 

I researched for weeks trying to decide what to use for our boxes. We have a lot of long term plans for our yard, but for now we need something. Cheap.

I went through many choices, and thanks to Pinterest who took my 2 ideas and gave me 100+.

I started with our size. We have 10ft between our house and property line, so not a lot to work with, but enough to make the space requiring a lot of time and energy.

My first idea was 16ft long 4 ft wide by 24 in deep.  On the "property side" and 2-2x4 boxes next to the house. 

During my search I learned some really important things. Wood is Expensive! (Common it grows ok trees!) 

My first choice was a beautiful 2x12x8,which I soon learned costs $12 each.  So for my garden we were looking at a simple 16 boards putting us at $200 in wood!' OUCH!! Gardening isn't cheap!!!

Next we moved to cinder blocks, which would be fine, but each one weighs about 25 lbs and we would only need about 100 of those. Suddenly 2500 lbs of moving and still at about $170 didn't sound too nice.

#1: DIY build your own (wood & stone), #2: buy them, and a few others! 

  

Here are my ideas and costs

Cinder Blocks => 4.6 ft x 18 ft x 8 in  16" x 8" x 8"  34 of them = approx $63 

Wood; => 3 ft x 18 ft x 10 in 5/8" x 5 1/2" x 6'  16 of them: approx $48  (ours ended up costing alot more then this, HOWEVER still the best option, since I did more then originally planed) 
Prebuilt => 4 ft x 8 ft x 8 in BOX = 51.50 (half size of others)  or  4 ft x 16 ft x 8 in = $103

I decided after a lot of time searching and planning, simple cedar wood was the most cost effective and best suited for our garden for now. We need it to last just a few years so seemed like the best option. And the idea of a 6'x5"x1" (approx) at $2.50 was great.

I decided to start with some and work from there. I took the 6' peice and cut it in half for the sides, so a bit smaller then planned. 

Here is what I bought. It took a few days planning, buying, building, and re buying and building.

I made 3 smaller ones and put them all together.  I used

16- Cedar 7/8 in x 5 ½ in x 6ft fence posts  

3- Cedar 7/8x 3 ½ in x 6ft  

2-  2x2x8 

1 box:dry wall screws

-cut 4 (5 ½ in) of them in half at the 3ft mark.

-cut 1 (3 ½ in)in half

-cut 4 (2x2) into 1 ft pieces

-cut 8 (2x2) into 8 in pieces

I chose to put all 3 parts together.  And stacked the 5 ½ in boards on top to make the two sides 10in and the middle piece 13 in.

I also decided to use a spray sealer that is safe for food.  

I chose to use Home Depot links, they are the closest hard ware store to my house and have the best prices!  I am in NO WAY associated or compensated for my ideas or materials!  

Project ideas!

I love pintrest and I spend way too much time pinning things rather then doing things sometimes.

We are still big time in the yard working on lots of things and many posts with step by steps will be coming soon.

2015 Projects

-Organize (KonMari) 

-Yard step one

-Laundry room

-Big boy bedroom

Going Live!

So i've been typing here for over a year, but been scared to share.  Not really sure why and what my concern is but I have fear.  Well time to concur the fear and here goes NOTHING!!!  Here's alittle about me, now that I'm putting myself out there.

I am Ashten!  I am married to my wonderful high school sweetheart, whom I affectionately call my Handsome Hubby! (HH)  I use other pet names for him, along with run of the mill Chris.  He is a very loving and supportive man.  Who is always coming to me with great ideas and research projects for this blog.  

I have my bachelors degree in Finance from one of the universities in Utah.  I was raised in Utah county and we now live closer to the city.  I am TOTALLY a city girl through and through.  We started building a home just over a year ago, and it was an AMAZING experience. 

We have two amazing boys Liam 7 and Ewan 2.  They both are totally AMAZING and I love my little Irish/Scottish men! They challenge me every day and I am so grateful to have them.

I work full time in a financial job.  It is not quite my dream job, but it's getting there. I have been here for just over a year and am going through the ranks to work with clients in the capacity I want.  For now I'm learning so much, getting lots of tests out of the way and licenses in hand. And as Liam would put it I "help people with monees" 

When I was young I always wanted to be a stay at home mom (SAHM) however after staying home with my Liam for 10 months (I worked nights PT) I went NUTS... I love working too much.

Long term I hope to help people manage their money, we all could do better and I love helping others.  I have a firm foundation in Christ and I have some very strong christian beliefs, that will come up from time to time in my view of teaching.

I hope that I can help anyone out there who might need that little push to take control of your money.

Luke 14:28

- Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.  Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

And when all is said and done

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

                                                       Acts 20:35