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Finally!

It's snowing outside and cold.

The suet covered with icing of snow

One little guy comes to the window to remind me about food

Others hang back to see how he fares

Nature has her own color scheme and it does suit the day

Every other tree is winter covered, but these two have their own ideas

Frosting

 Snuggle down in your chair and doze by the fire

Add Enough Green Plants to keep the hope of spring alive

Find a book and an afghan 

Ahh.......

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I needed to refresh my wardrobe, after reading some interesting articles on the effect of buying new clothing on the environment I decided that I am committing to adding recycled clothing to my closet and I was pleasantly surprised at what I found recently at a local resale shop. 
A brown tweed skirt that matches a top and a couple of my favorite scarves.

 

Add knee height boots and I have a couple outfits easy to throw together.

A black top and plaid black and white a-line skirt that are perfect for the winter months. There aren't many winter clothes available in January right when I am running out of ideas of how to put together the same old stuff. AGAIN! So adding these are such a lift for me. 

A nice little bonus was a handkerchief skirt for spring and a top that matches! 

 I'm  pretty happy with my new resolution to be more thoughtful about my impact on the environment, and it certainly was easy on my budget.

I am putting together a small list of things to look for that will be long term additions, classic cuts and styles that might be more expensive, but are wearable year after year instead of new things every season. What do you think?

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My parents lied to me.... Money does grow on...er..Plants.
I finally found a Money Plant mama(botanical name:  Pilea peperomioides) at a local growers and it was loaded with babies that I separated and put in their own pots.

Money Plants 

I found it at a locally for $15 as they were closing the section down for the winter. That was a great thing, because the $55 price tag that I found online was way more than I was willing to pay.

I almost lost them when I replanted them, though. I sprayed thinking they had some kind of infestation. 

White dusty looking areas were appearing. It turned out after doing online research that I was watering them too much. They are not succulents really, they do have thick leaves, though and I now know not to water till they are dry and the pots are light when I lift them.
They seem to do well in my west window and I turn on some plant lights occasionally to supplement the light during these bleak winter days.

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So how does this 

31 Days Day 11 Prehistoric Kitchen Cupboards

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What we're gonna do here is go back, way back to the troglodytes* When the cave man dragged home someone to cook for him and she had nothing but a cave and if it was a modern sort of cave it had holes on the walls where she could store stuff. Deep holes. And if there was no prehistoric snake in those holes she could stick her arm up to the elbow and pull out something to fix. Dino neck or something. Yeah! Ugg!
But mankind got smarter and they invented wheels and light, oh yes, and they invented DRAWERS. Nice smooth working, deep drawers.
But not here. Some genius in his wisdom (because surely a woman would not do this) thought, and I use the term loosely, that we would love 2 ft deep boxes for storage of, oh I don't know, a haunch of brontosaurus maybe.

 And oh great, a teeny, tiny, little shelf waaay back in there to put stuff on. Thank You. But not to worry folks cause this also comes with a bar down the middle to make it even more inconvenient so the brontosaurus will have to be chopped up in...LIT..TLE...PIECES.
And where will you get the ax to do this?

 Yes my friends out of these paper thin drawers! Yep! This small galley kitchen just takes me back, way back and I don't want to go there. So...

remember those drawers that wouldn't fit in the bathroom?  Well I measured and found that they would fit in the kitchen...IF I took out that shelf back there. Oh good you're saying. Not so fast. Didn't I just say they are 2 feet deep bottom cupboards AND while there isn't a prehistoric snake back there, there is something just as bad.

These little monster clips. You have to kill them. But how you ask do you kill them, you put your arm in..way in and then you press sideways on that little clip there on the top. Got it? No? Press harder. This thing is made of hard plastic. Got it? No? Push with all your might with a screw driver and pound on it with a hammer. Ok got it. Do it three more times and don't let the ones on the one side pop back out while you're doing the other side.

You're a little red faced. Take a minute and stop muttering mayhem under your breath. We still have to kill them. Take your wire cutters and chop their heads off!

You heard me. Chop their heads off. Ok now it's safe to put them aside and put in the drawers that should have been there all along.

Ah good. Storage that works!

Beautiful and room to put the cooling racks, cookie sheets and other tall things in there. Sanity at last.

There's more. Remember the  little animals we killed? OK, they can go in the other set of cabinets and we can lay that board we got out of the first set into this second set of cabinets and that makes a whole shelf that will take 3 trays 13"W x 23"D that will now slide out and later maybe wire racks on rollers.

 On one side all the plastic wraps and baggies are in magazine holders and laid sideways.

and set side by side on the top shelf of the bottom cabinets. Whew!

Well, that's our story for today. Thanks for the help. It was quite something to get this project done, but I feel like we really accomplished something that I will enjoy for however long we are here. 

Tomorrow I am going to try to get the W/D closet more organized so come back and see what we can do with it. Don't be afraid.There are no prehistoric animals in there.

*Based on The song from The Jimmy Castor Bunch

31 Days Day 10 A Change of Plan - Bathroom

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In anything you do I can't stress enough how important measurements are. A mere quarter of an inch can sink an absolutely wonderful plan and that's what happened to me. I had found a couple of very useful looking drawers and was using them to store DVDs but after seeing similar ones in a catalog used under the sink in the bathroom I quickly decided to put them there. I measured the width, they would fit, but the height, not so good.

 What a great idea!

Nope, not here.

Ok, on to Plan B

My version:

I'll be dressing it up a little as time goes on, but first the bones or foundation. I took the drawers away from jewelry storage (I have other plans for that) and moved them into the cabinet. Blow dryers curling and flat iron went into the square basket along with other bulky objects like lotion and hand sanitizer. The drawers hold tweezers, thermometer, bandages, extra toothpaste and make-up. The basket on top has tissues, hand mirror, soaps, etc. The bar in the middle limits how wide I can go, but I can see another drawer under the basket for more storage.

 Another very useful item is a stand or shelf that is narrow. If it has a shelf underneath so much the better. This stand is a mere 12' deep. It has a small footprint, 26" H x 31"W perfect for the limited size of this bath.

I plan to store bulky paper products on the bottom and cover it with a nice linen cloth. On the top will be Jars for storage and guest towels.

No bathroom is complete for me without a mirror for seeing the back of my hair and with a magnifying mirror on the flip side. It is so easy to put up and pays back dividends every day when you leave the house feeling well put together. So that's the bath for now. I still have to come up with a plan for towels, washcloths and hand towels because I have no linen closet. I know, hard to believe in a newer apartment, but I'm working on it.

As you can tell I'm just moving into this place and I am putting this on as I am putting things away and figuring out where and what and how so you are getting the ground floor tour. It is a challenge and, actually, it's been fun to see how things are evolving, but they may not stay where I put them or may get upgraded as my DH has time to work his particular brand of skill so I'll come back and add to these blogs as I go along. 

Tomorrow or days 11 and 12 will move around the house to different ideas I am trying out here and there. Thanks for joining me and I hope you'll check in again.

31 Days Day 9 Goodwll Hunting Yields Big Rewards

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I found some sort of little cabinets at Goodwill one day and even though I wasn't sure what to use them for I dragged them home.
Over time they were used for various things and ended up storing my DVDs, but I happened onto a picture in a catalog for Pottery Barn and this is what they were being used for.

In case you can't tell They are under the bathroom cabinet. Huh! I quickly measured them and sure enough they will fit. I never thought of that, but mine are dark and I like these white ones so I'm going to paint them.

I had other ideas in mind.

 Baskets on a towel rod of course add warmth, but I am not a fan of things overflowing the container and using the items while keeping things attractive is a little iffy for me. I am not a fan of constant maintenance. But it might work for some things.

 The old stand-by shoe holders again will work for some things but I did do this once and it seemed to me the only things that were practical to put in it were hardly ever used so the jury is still out on that one.

 This is what I was going to use before I saw the catalog. Practical easy to clean if I spill something and adaptable to just about any use...but not so attractive.

 Again not crazy about having utilitarian objects out there sitting for all the world to see. I was hoping to have shelves with some doors, but not so deep I lost too much space in an already small bath.

I have blogged in the past about how many sewing machine drawers I have accumulated and I wasn't really even looking for them, but I think at last count I have something like 14 and I think some of the things that go in a bath would be well suited to those small cubbies so I'm looking for Ideas....anyone?

Day 10 already...I'm putting things in the closet and although they may not stay there at least it's a start...

31 Days Day 8 Material World. Bringing Texture and Utility Together

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So we are working on more projects, painting and building which I will show as we go along and complete them. But in the meantime some of the materials and ideas I've gotten along the way.

Too many times a slim small space is ignored in the kitchen. this idea from Houzz utilizes pegboard. You can get pegboard in metal or chipboard so it can be as heavy duty or light wieght as you need it. This pegboard and foamcore board are two things I plan to incorporate into my organizing plans.

Baskets are so common that we forget sometimes how universally appreciated they are. Basket remains have been found as far back as civilization has been discovered and yet even now there is nothing like them for warmth and texture.

 Entry into a home gives many opportunities to add useful items and introduce guests to the theme of the home at that time and what better and more organic vehicle than wood especially antiqued and distressed.

I am really enamored of this idea using baskets and scraps of wood over the door in my small bath. My entry tomorrow will be on the bathroom cupboard under the sink. I need to put away my make-up!

31 Days Day 7 Space Shift Making The Most Of The Laundry Space

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So if a washer and dryer are side by side or on top of each other what difference does it make?
As it turns out it makes a lot of difference if you could use vertical storage for the sweeper, your broom or mop and bucket, cleaning supplies, not to mention also light bulbs rags, clothes baskets.
You can get a whole nother cleaning closet out of it if you stack them and that really matters if you have a small apartment.

makes the best use of the spaceWe will have shelves hangers and many more options than if they were side by side.