organization in the girls' room

There is a constant battle with the girls when it comes to them cleaning their room.  Or, I should say, the lack of them cleaning their room. 

I know, I know!  They are only 4 and 5!  And, I had a crazy, messy room when I was younger.  My mom will tell you that.  But, I can see in their room from the living room.  Heck, I can stand in the kitchen and look into their room.

There have been many benefits to having an open floor plan while the girls are young.  But, I can't stand to see a mess!  And, the girls are pros as making a mess.  I tell them over and over that if they are going to play with something, that is fine.  Just put it up when they are finished. 

Back when we painted and re-arranged their room, I bought a storage unit that I thought would help with the cleaning up process.  It did somewhat, but I think the problem was there were too many places to put things, and everything got mixed up and then they never knew where anything was.

I think I fixed it all on Saturday.  We are having major success with the girls putting things back where they go since I went through all their toys, got rid of stuff, threw away stuff, and organized the rest in bins with labels.  Now, they have a visual of where things are supposed to go.

First, I re-arranged their room, again!  I just can't help myself.  Plus, the girls LOVE it when I re-arrange stuff.  It must seem like a whole new room to them.  Since it has been hot, we put the couch cushion on the floor in our room and they sleep there since our room is the coolest in the house.  Sunday morning, the morning after I did their room, Jorge gets up and doesn't see Bella.  She, her pillow, and blanket were gone.  He found her sleeping in her room.  She told him that she liked the room so much that she wanted to sleep in it.  Even though it was hot in there.

So, here is what their room looks like now.  I know it is hard to tell with just photos, but things are moved around.  The only thing that stayed in the same place is Bella's pink dresser.

Before I go into what I did, I want to point out that one way I try to help maintain a cleaner room for the girls is by not having certain types of toys in their room.  We have the area by the green table that we call our "classroom".  That is where we keep all the toys that have parts and pieces.  This helps TONS with keeping all the parts together.  Things that go into their room are pretty much considered lost.  Games, Mr.Potato Head, puzzles, blocks, dominoes, Legos...  All the stuff pictured below the girls know have to stay in our "classroom".

We keep them all on this shelf. 

I took out that storage unit that held all the little colored bins.  I placed the bins around the room and put a picture label with the word so they can see what goes in the bin and where the bin goes.  The door on the sink wouldn't stay closed, so I took it off.  Here you can see I put two of the bins inside.

Here is a close-up of the bin with the photo and word of what goes in the bin.  You can see the out-of-focus label that is on the shelf.  That way they know where that bin goes.

The below picture shows you the matching label on the shelf.

Inside Bella's dresser are shelves.  I put the dress-up clothes in the bins and labeled them for each girl.  It would be easier if I just had a room for each one of them. But, I don't.  So, we try to keep their things separate.  It helps cut down on how many fights there are per day.

This shelf I kept all the toys that get played with together.  They have all the dollhouses on the top.  In each of the containers on the shelves, there are: people, horses (My Little Ponies), animals, and furniture.  Since they play with all of them in the dollhouses, it just made sense to keep them all close to each other.

I did the same with the labels here.  I put one on the container and I put it's matching label on the shelf.

They seem to be more willing to put things away.  I think they think it is neat that the pictures are everywhere.  It might seem like a game to them.  I just hope they keep it up!

everything is painted!

Everything is painted except for the first room.  And, that is not likely to get painted.  It would look better, but moving everything in order to do it just seems like too much work!  That room is packed full of everything.

The house looks so different now.  I really don't know why it took so long for us to decide to paint.  If feels so much more homey and welcoming.  I love it!  Thankfully Jorge likes to paint.

The kitchen was last to be painted.  I'm still not sure about the color.  The green I had in my head is not what is on the wall.  But, picking out paint is not easy.  I figured once I get some things hanging on the wall, and just live with it for a while, it will grow on me.  Part of it is the cabinets.  The color of  the cabinets is not going well with the paint color.  Oh well.  I am definitely not having Jorge repaint.  And it isn't like we can change the cabinets.  You know if I could, I would.  :)

Well, you can view my old video here.

Now, take a look at how much different the house looks with paint on the walls.

I also appreciate the fact that you can lean on the wall and not feel like you are a walking chalkboard with chalk marks on you.

a little more pinterest

Lately I haven't been doing much Pinteresting.  I look daily, maybe pinning something here or there.  But, I haven't been that invested in it.  Unlike how I used to be.  Addicted!

But, a while back I found a project that looked pretty easy and interesting.  Yesterday, while we were at Home Depot, I found the items needed in order to do the project.  Love when that happens!

You just buy some sort of rubber outdoor mat, spray paint, and sand paper.

I forgot to take a picture of the mat before I painted it, but this is the back side of it.  The only difference is that this side is flat, where as the other side is rounded.

I sprayed two coats.  I'm not sure it was really needed, just thought it was better coverage.

I hung it on the wall and I really like the results. 

I needed something over that chair and this fits perfectly.

It sort of looks like a metal grate.  Take a closer look.  Mine doesn't look as metally as the one that I pinned.  I think I might go at it with the sand paper again.

I'm thinking about buying more and cutting out parts of the mat.  The kitchen is painted now and I need some wall decoration for it.  I think this might be a good solution.

*** 10 minute later update ***
I sanded it a bit more and it does look better!  Take a look. 

I guess I was just nervous about sanding too much paint off.  I needed to just go for it and do it.  I think this looks cool!

it is all looking a bit familiar

My Valentine's Day was pretty darn good.  And, I don't think it had anything to do with that day being Valentine's Day. 

Jorge's boss gave him the week off work.  He actually worked on Monday, but Tuesday he was off.  And, he will be off until next week.  It is nice having him around.

So, Tuesday we went to look for some flowers to plant in the empty pots that I had sitting on my front patio.  We ended up buying three new flowers and two shrub/bush things to sit by our front door.  It is looking really nice.

At night, the flowers close like they are sleeping.  Pretty odd.

We ended up making a trip to Aguascalientes yesterday and bought the brown pots that they are sitting in.  Once Jorge transplanted them, I started to realize that our house is looking more and more like how we spiffed up our house in Indy.

Notice the trees/shrubs on either side of the garage.  And, the chairs on the front patio are pretty much the same.

We also bought a new dining room table from Cantia a few weeks ago.  We had it delivered and it finally showed up on Tuesday! 

Only problem is that there is a corner that has some damage.  We called the store to let them know and we are waiting to hear back from them.  I assume they will come and get this one and bring us a new one.

Even this table that we just bought looks similar to the style of table we had in our house in Indy.  While I do miss that house, this one is coming along quite nicely!

My nice, big kitchen in Indy.  And, look!  There is Bentley!  I miss him, too!

We finally bought the paint for the kitchen yesterday.  Soon you will get to see the new and improved house tour!  I feel really proud and happy about the house.  It is nice to feel like it is home.

the girls' room is finished

Last night Jorge finished painting the girls' room.  It looks cute.  Very cotton candy-like.  Which, I really wasn't going for that exact look, but it ended up looking cute anyway.

The girls are both happy with the colors that I picked out.  They said "pink" and "blue" and I picked the actual shade of each color.

I already showed you the color I was going for with the pink.  But, here is what my inspiration color was for the blue.  The one in the picture has a bit more of a greenish tint, but I wanted that light, girly blue.

Click here to go to the site.

But, the paint is up.  The girls are happy and I love that it is so much more colorful in their room.

I really would like to make a headboard for their bed.  I was thinking something like this.

Click on picture to go to Pinterest.

It looks easy enough.  I already have some fabric that would be super cute!

These pictures aren't the best.  But, for now, they are good enough to show you the room.  Tomorrow we are headed to Aguascalientes.  Jorge is going to take me to dinner and a movie for my birthday (which is Monday).  Since we will be there, of course, we will stop in at the Home Depot and get the paint for the kitchen.  Maybe we will pick up some wood for that headboard!

Once that is done, I am going to make another video of the house!  I'm excited to show you have it looks so much better than those nasty blank walls.

more tp art

What do you do when you have two little girls that use about 10 times the amount of toilet paper that they should?  You make more TP art. 

It takes no time around here to collect enough to do more "art".  Even after today, I still have a bunch of rolls sitting around just waiting for their turn to be placed on the wall for everyone to look at.

I made 6 flowers to hang over the girls' bed.  They are rather small, so I might end up making more.  But, this time I didn't bother with spray paint.  I just used a brush and tempera paint.  I cut the rolls first, then painted the outside, let it dry, then painted the insides.  It worked out rather well.  After it all was dry, I glued them together.

Jorge painted the pink on two of the walls in the girls' room last night.  The other two walls are going to be blue.  When you have two girls sharing one room, it is understandable that they won't want the same color room.  So, we just let them each have the color they wanted.  Tonight the blue will be painted and Emily will be happy.

Here is a little sneak peak at the pink.  It wasn't exactly the color I was going for.  But, it is close enough.  Bella really likes it and that is what counts. (Isn't that non-painted wall gross!? And, if you were wondering, yes, that is a little, green drawing on the wall one of my "artists" did.  I think they were both to blame.)

I had found a color on Pinterest that I really liked.  It had a touch of coral in the pink.  Here was the color I was going for.

Click on picture to go to the page on Pinterest.

In these two photos, it looks pretty close.  But, in person, the pink is a bit more pink than coral.  But, I am sure it will look cute once the blue is painted and everything is back in the room.  And, I have those cute, FREE, flowers to hang up!

shrinky dinks fun and a little more

For Bella's birthday, I bought her some Shrinky Dinks paper and a book that has a bunch of images that you can trace/copy and color in.  Today was the first time that we have used the stuff.  The girls had never done any Shrinky Dinks before.  And, as I expected, they loved it!

I remember being little and loving them, too.  I figured this would make a nice supplemental lesson to our homeschooling.  And, let us have some fun at the same time.  One of the workbooks that we do in homeschooling is tracing.  The girls practice being SLOW and actually staying on the lines in their workbooks.  So, the Shrinky Dinks paper was extra practice for them.  I think they did pretty well.

Emily and Bella colored in their names.  Bella did everything on the butterfly (tracing and coloring) and most of the snowman.  I had to help finish tracing for her.  Emily traced most of the airplane and colored it.  I did the house with the snow.  Emily did help me color it a little.

Here is Emily showing off her name and the airplane. 

Bella was more than proud of her butterfly and snowman.

After we finished school and our Shrinky Dinks project, we ate lunch and followed lunch up with some cake.  This cake is something else!  Leslie found the recipe in one of her cookbooks and was willing to give it a go.  When she blogged about it, there was no way I wasn't going to try it out.  She claimed it tasted like a pumpkin cake.

Now, you might not remember, but I can't find pumpkin anything here.  Not pumpkin puree or an actual pumpkin.  So, the thought that I could make a cake that tasted like it...  Well, that was pretty spectacular.  And, the kicker is that one of the ingredients in the cake is TOMATO SAUCE!  Yes!  I know!  Crazy!  Try it!  Really.  It is good!  Just look at it!  Recipe here!

And, one last thing on this post.  Jorge painted the accent wall in my living room last night.  So, I wanted to give you a little preview! I love the color of blue.  It, of course, is a tad different in person than in the photo.  But, this is pretty close.  I would say it is a bit more tealish than this.  The color is called "adaptation".  But, I would say it should be called "peacock".  It is beautiful!

We bought paint for the girls' room this past Sunday at Home Depot.  Once that is done, we will head back for the kitchen paint.  After that, I am going to give you another "tour" of my house!  I am very happy with how it is all turning out!  It definitely feels like a home now!

sneak peek and an unusual sight

Are you sick of me talking about my painted house, walls, wall art and such!?  I know!  I get carried away.  But, I LOVE it!  I love that the house looks like a home!

When I first moved here the house was as bare as could be.  We had the basics.  Nothing more.  Which is understandable since the only items I could bring down here are what fit in a cab of a friend's truck and in our Pacifica. 

Since then I have drove down a handful of time with the car loaded to max capacity and beyond. And, each trip I make to the States via plane, I go with one bag and come back with five.  It is a problem I have.  But, I have accepted it and moved on.  If you lived here or visited here, you might understand how hard it is to find cute, inexpensive stuff.  In any category.  So, I stock up every visit.

I remember having chats with people that were going to be moving down here to Mexico.  They inevitably ask what they should bring with them.  Knowing that I have lived her for a while now, that wasn't unexpected for them to ask.

I always tell people that the thing that made me most feel OK here was having my house feel like a home.  I want it to feel like mine.  A place I can relax and feel comfortable.  It has taken me a while to get to that point, but I am finally here.  So I always tell them, if at all possible, bring personal items not just things that are necessary.  I know logistically, that is not always possible. 

Or, check out the *original* living room we had.   There really was nothing! http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigvz/2476344733/in/set-72157604969268177

You can see we used to have only the couch.  Looks like Bella preferred a box over the couch.  The living room has come a long ways since those early days.

This might be a rental, and who knows if one day we will be asked to move.  But, for now it is mine.  And, I think it looks just like *my* place.  So, that is why I love sharing it with everyone because all the people that mean the most to me, that I want to show, can't come and see it.  I have to virtually show it to them.

Before picture -- no paint on the walls. (Our big TV was being repaired.  The small TV looks so funny there.)

And, since Jorge painted a few of the walls in the living room last night, I am beyond thrilled with it and wanted to give you a little preview.  We need to make another trip to Home Depot to get the accent wall paint color and another gallon of the color on the walls right now.

It doesn't look like a dramatic change in this picture.  But let me assure you, in person, it is a HUGE change!

And, on a completely different subject, when we were in Aguascalientes the other weekend, I was surprised to find this near the parking lot of Wal-Mart.

You just don't expect to see palm trees and an ice skating rink in the same picture.  But, that is how it is done in Mexico!  It was in the mid to upper 70's.  There was a fine layer of water on the top.  But not enough to slow down anyone.  They also had a Santa Claus sitting down the way.  I wish we would have taken the girls.  They would have loved to see Santa and tell him about all the things they want for Christmas.  Next year for sure!