DIY Friday: Verse of the Week board

I love chalkboards. I think they are so much fun and I wanted one in the house so bad.

I got the idea to make a "verse of the week" board for the girls' playroom when I saw this picture:

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[source]

And then I found this picture: 

[source] 

I went to Lowe's, bought a seven dollar poplar plank, a can of chalkboard paint, a brush, and created a stencil. I am almost finished cutting out the stencil, and I cannot wait to show it to you! Tune in Monday so you can see the finished product! 

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

DIY Friday, one day early

Hi all! I know you're probably getting tired of my nursery posts, so I promise you, we are almost finished.

Yesterday, I created one of the easiest DIY projects I've ever created. It started with this beautiful silver 8X10 frame I had lying around. I also had some left over vintage lace from when I created the lamp on the table beside the nursery chair.

I started by hot gluing the lace to the frame.  I put a piece of scrapbook paper in the back of the frame just to give it some color. After that, I just used some Command strips to attach it to the wall. Then, I put all of these cute little hairbows on it. I think it made a nice addition to her room! 

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

DIY Friday/Monthly organizing project

Hi all! If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw this post on Wednesday:

That is my baby's closet, or what I liked to refer to as "organized chaos." Just like all the closets in our house, this one was a nice size but very poorly laid out. Lots of wasted space!

Four week "Wait no more" organizing challenge: Week four

Hello all! If you're new here, I have been participating in the Four week "Wait No More" Organizing Challenge with Jen Jones at I Heart Organizing. If you've never been to her blog, you need to. You'll be blown away by her home and her talents. While you're there, be sure to check out some of the other bloggers participating in the challenge as well. I'm glad to be included among so many talented and wonderful people! You can find Jen's bloghere.

Here are the other parts of the challenge I participated in:

Week one: my daughter's dresser
Week two: the pantry
Week three: my daughter's closet (We're still working on my hubby's closet and the baby's closet) 
Week four: playroom

My daughter's playroom was bursting at the seams. We had some great systems in place, but there were just far too many toys in the playroom. Then, she had a birthday, and things got a little worse. Ugh. We are having a new baby this fall and we needed to clean out the playroom and make space for her things. We plan to soon purchase another tall shelf but haven't yet. 

Here is what the playroom looked like before I got started. 

Four Week "Wait-No-More" Organizing Challenge! Week 1: My daughter's dresser

Hi all! Welcome back to Organized and Simplified! This is going to be a busy summer for us- once again, I'm homeschooling my daughter this summer, just like we did last summer. We are also preparing for a new baby this fall, so we are cleaning and organizing, and working on the nursery. I am also preparing for maternity leave and am writing lesson plans. We are also squeezing some quality time in there, too. Whew! Just thinking about all of those things makes me tired.

When Jen at I Heart Organizing proposed a four week organizing challenge, I knew I was on board. By the way, you should definitely check out her amazing blog.

My four-week challenge areas are as follows:

My daughter's room
Closets in my room, daughter's room, and baby's room
Playroom
Pantry

For week one, we began emptying out the nursery. My daughter has been sleeping in her "big girl room" for some time now, but her clothes were still in the nursery next door. We moved all her clothes over to her dresser in the new room, and moved all her clothes to the closet.

I began by first weeding out the clothes that no longer fit, or are in poor shape. I put her out of season clothes that still fit in underbed bags and stashed them under her bed. I put any clothing that is used often but not necessarily daily in baskets in her closet, such as her workout clothing for gymnastics, and her leggings (too hot to wear them right now). By the way, check out the closet next week.

I designated a separate drawer for necessity items, such as undies and socks, pajamas, shirts and shorts.

Nursery planning: What I'm loving right now

We recently completed our oldest's big girl room, and are now beginning to work on our baby's nursery. The baby will be occupying what is now my daughter's former nursery. I have so many ideas floating around, but I certainly want to keep the farmhouse theme. Of course, we don't know the gender yet, so I can't do too much planning. We find out the gender in 4 weeks, and then I can plan all I want.

Here is a list of some of my favorite nurseries that I am currently crushing on. These are, of course, in no particular order.

1. Beadboard or board and batten in nurseries

This is something I definitely want. I haven't decided exactly which type of molding I want yet, but I do know if will be one of these. I love the board and batten, wall sconces and art work in this picture.

[The Bump}

[http://www.projectnursery.com]

A quick and easy DIY: dresser tray

I am a bit obsessed with trays. I have a silver serving tray in our bathroom to corral our glass canisters. I also have a wooden tray in our kitchen with a grain sack print, an apothecary jar and some spring decor. 

Emorie's big girl room: DIY art work

You may have seen my last post, in which I stenciled the back of my kiddo's bookshelf in her big girl room.

As I said before, I tried to first stencil on poster board that I cut to fit the backs of her shelf. Whenever I finished, the result was way too pink. 

I couldn't let all that time and effort go to waste. We had a big, blank wall in her room, beside where I put the book shelf. I trimmed down the painted poster board and popped it in some frames with mats. I also printed off some clipart from the computer to go with it. I really like the results, don't you? 

Emorie's big girl room: a stenciled shelf back

We are currently creating a "big girl" room for our 3 1/2 year old daughter. We have been slowly but steadily working on this room for the better part of a year with the idea of slowly transitioning her into the bigger room. When we were expecting late last year, we began working a little more quickly on the room. When we miscarried, we kept creating the room even though our nursery wouldn't be needed.

21-day organizing challenge: Week two recap

21-day challenge: Week two, days 8 through 14

8. dressers/chest of drawers

9. kid spaces

10. Media storage

11. Laundry room

12. Garage

13. Vehicle

14. Purses/diaper bag/ gym bag

Organizing and Simplifying after Christmas

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! I took a little time off from blogging over the Christmas season so I could focus on what really matters- our Savior and our family. Most of our family draws names or buys only for the children, which makes it a lot easier on your wallet. Still, our child was very blessed and well-gifted this Christmas. We celebrated Christmas seven times with various family members and one time with just the three of us.

A Christmas DIY: Gettin' in on the sweater trend.

The sweater trend is huge right now. Christmas decor with a Christmas sweater theme is everywhere.

A closet and a dresser fit for a little girl

My daughter is getting bigger, and so are her clothes.
                       
We are in the process of transitioning her to a "big girl room," but for now, she is still in the "nursery," but uses her convertible crib as a toddler bed.  Currently, her room  has a lingerie chest and a low three-drawer dresser that once served as her changing table. The lingerie chest used to hold two items side by side, and it still will...if you stuff it in there.

Now, I am not a fan of cramming clothes into drawers because a, the clothes always come out looking as though they've been slept in, and b, you can't find what you want! The solution was to re-organize both her closet and her dressers to make them best fit her needs.

As for the "three-drawer dresser:"

She no longer wears diapers or Pull-ups, except at night time. Her top drawer, which used to be the "diaper drawer," now contains tiny undies, tank tops and socks. Remember my post about repurposing diaper boxes and wipes containers?

Common Sense Cleaning: Kid Spaces

My daughter's bed sheets are washed weekly, but her comforter and the stuffed animals she sleeps with are washed monthly. However, the teddy bear that she takes to daycare is washed weekly.

When I am doing my monthly spring cleaning, I make it a point to straighten up her closet and dresser drawers. Luckily, we are pretty good about putting things back in the proper place, so a quick once-over is usually sufficient. Lately, she likes to take everything out of her drawers, so I am frequently re-folding and putting them back. Making her help me re-fold and put everything back has slowed her down a bit :)

Common Sense Cleaning: Bathrooms

Am I right when I say no one wants to talk about cleaning bathrooms? 

Probably. I've already talked about my weekly cleaning schedule and my monthly deep cleaning schedule, so you know my baseboards, trim, doors and cabinets get dusted once a month. My tubs and toilets are scrubbed weekly and the counter tops are wiped down daily. 

Playroom organization

My daughter's playroom is one of my favorite rooms in our house.  It is one of our two bonus rooms, and there are windows in the wall so you can see into our office. This is especially handy when E is playing in her playroom and I am working in the office.

We purchased one of the cube shelves you see here. We already owned one of them, as we used it in her closet at the old house.