Decluttering Inspiration

I have less than 7 weeks left before my baby furniture arrives and a house that needs a lot of decluttering and mission organization success.

A helpful idea I came across was 20/10s. It is where you spend 20 minutes cleaning/organizing and then 10 minutes doing whatever you want to do. But start small, maybe two sessions of 20/10s (an hour), the first day. You don't want to burn yourself out. This idea comes from Unfuck Your Habitat (sorry for the language, but a really inspiring tumblr of before and after pictures and a few tips here and there).

Here's a short post with 18 Five-Minute Decluttering tips. I do #16 a lot, and between finding new homes and organizing all the stuff, I make new messes to clean up, but I guess I am making some progress.

Luckily, I am not a hoarder and most of my house is relatively clean. The problem is in the midst of cleaning it always tends to look worse before it gets better (I should take pictures!). That's the stage we're at. And being pregnant doesn't give me an endless amount of energy to work with. Hopefully between 20/10s and putting away 5 random items when I have time, I can hopefully start to make bigger strides. Then I'll get back into how behind I am in scrapbooking... wait.. what? Back to baby steps! Step 1: 20/10s!

Building a baby registry

As a first time mother to an infant, creating a baby registry has been one of the most difficult processes of pregnancy. Moms are marketed to all the time about making the best choice for baby. Well, what is the best choice for baby? Is it Graco, Chicco, Britax? Is it having a pinewood, oak, or cherry nursery furniture? Is it bumpers, breathable bumpers, or no bumpers? I don't have answers because in the end, you just have to research and weighs pro and cons of each individual product, but there is a lot of help out there to get you through it!

I started off making two registries one at Babies R Us and one at Amazon.com. I figured those invited to the baby shower would like the option of buying online or in store, and using those two venues gives them options.

Both of the sites I am registered at have check lists of "Baby Essentials," this is a helpful starting point, but not everything is necessary, or not in the quantity they recommend. 

One of the things I'd also like to point out is that some moms don't need or want much for baby. They are perfectly content co-sleeping, breast feeding exclusively without bottles, and thus they only need to worry about buying the bare essentials like diapers, cloth or disposable. Each parent is different, and that's perfectly okay. Since this is my first, I plan on being over-prepared for anything a newborn can throw my way. If that means baby likes bouncer instead of swing, so be it! But we will have both until we figure it out. :)

I've compiled these helpful registry lists that look at different products and attempt to give moms an idea of what they think is best and essential as well as other items that moms loved and how they were rated.

1. Lucie's List
This is probably my favorite that I've come across. Everything was just matter of fact, no frills, and I liked that there didn't seem to be some big bias or diss towards parents who may choose to go with a different option. There was nothing like, "Buy Graco if you actually love your baby." Also, I liked the ease of using the site. It wasn't too confusing about what pages to go to. I never felt lost about where to find information. She also gives you pros and cons for different things like car seats. I found it really helpful.

2. Amalah's Ultimate Registry Checklist
This wasn't my favorite, but it had a lot of different brands that I wasn't used to seeing. The format isn't as nice as Lucie's List, so the content can be overwhelming. I haven't used it much, but it's another option for moms to take a look at!

3. A consolidated version of Amalah's Registry Checklist
This one is definitely easier to go through with lists and links! Something she had put on her list that I never thought of: Splat Mat! Definitely going to be adding one to my registry.

4. Pregnant Chicken's kick-ass registry
This one has lots of useful items, as well as, some fun ones like mustache pacifiers and monkey hats. It definitely important to remember to ask for some fun things for baby!


My next registry related post will be a compiled list of stuff you might want for a baby, which will essential be my registry list maybe with a few modifications. I don't think my list will include brand name recommendations, but just a thorough list of things.

Next on the cleaning and organizing agenda

Not much to report as far as progress with projects, but here is a glimpse at our next one. We have to move all the stuff from this room into our living spaces so that we can create a nursery for our baby girl.

You can also see my key chain collection!

 

Currently the cat supplies are in this room because otherwise the dog gets into them, but we just bought a cool cat box hider, which we will set her food on top of so that the dog still won't get into it, and the cat box will be hidden. Link to The Cat Washroom Bench Litter Enclosure.

One good thing is that we know we can keep the paint color the same because we chose a bedding that has pinks and yellows. It's called Dena Happi Tree.

link

I am most not looking forward to cleaning all that stuff out. It's requiring me to clean out other parts of my house to make room for all my scrapbooking supplies. Good luck to me!!!

Part of doing the DVD/Video game organization and condensing the space it used was to make room for the cat washroom and my husbands desk. We have room for that. So we just need to address items in our closet and my scrapbooking stuff.


Happy Organizing, Friends!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I got this recipe from my wonderful and talented cousin's blog Eating True. Go HERE for the recipe.

Here are the final results! Nom nom nom! It was delicious! My husband prefers his banana bread sweet but without chocolate, so I may try it without chocolate chips, and adding 1/2 cup white sugar. I am pretty sure the chocolate was my favorite part though. :)

Kids' Valentine's Day Cards Round 2

Micah agreed that we could make Super Hero Lollypop Valentine's Day cards. I wish I could come up with my own ideas, but I am not that original yet.

Instructions/Printables

The instructions are here at the Little Bit Funky blog.
The printable graphics are here at Less Ordinary Designs.

Cape Template 

 

There is no cape template so my husband made mine for me which you can download by clicking this sentence or the above picture! When you print it, make sure your  page scaling is set to none, otherwise it won't print to the right scale. I put measurements on the cape so you can verify that yours printed correctly.

You need:

2 inch circle punch and scissors
1 hole punch (which I already had and did not include in cost)
Felt (the blog recommends stiff felt, but I just bought the regular flimsy kind.)
Ribbon
Lollypops
Glue
Cape Template
Printables
Sharpie (to trace cape template on felt)

You can either use a 2 inch punch or scissors to cut out the circle. I recommend this Fiskars Squeeze Punch, the X-Large size is the one that cuts 2 inch circles.I bought mine at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon, which reduced the costs from $16.99 to $10.19. What a deal!

Based on my cape template, I was able to fit 9 capes on each piece of 9x12 felt square. The total felt cost was $1.65. Because I printed the printables 4 times each, I needed 1 of blue, black, green, and 2 of red.

I bought 4 spools of cordinating ribbon for $3.49.

I used some Aleen's tacky glue to adhere my Super hero logos to the felt, and it worked fine. I gave it about 20-30 minutes to dry before assembling the super hero lollypops.  I used regular computer paper, when I printed my logos up, but I would highly recommend using some sort of cardstock. The glue won't appear as much, and the colors usually look nicer printed on cardstock.

Lastly I bought 3 bags of Tootsie pops. I could have just purchased two, but I wanted a variety of colors since which colors you get is random. The total cost was $6.72.

Total cost: $22.05
If you already have a punch, then it cost even less to do this project! Definitely more expensive than regular V-Day cards, but so worth it, since they are SO cute!

I am really pleased with how the Valentine's cards came out and I think the kids will be too.

Disney Express Scrapbook Class

I took this scrapbooking class a few weekends ago, and it was the most intense class I've ever taken. We worked for nine solid hours. Our 30 minute lunch break ended up being bites of food between pages. This class was offered at a local scrapbooking store and the pages were all designed by Nancy Evans. I did add a few little things here and there from extra decorations she provided us, but not a ton. So this is it! Now I just need to add pictures. :)

I've e-mailed Nancy to see if she has a blog I can link to. Otherwise, enjoy and be inspired!!

Kids' Valentine's Day Cards

Last year I did handmade Valentine's Day cards for Micah's class for the first time! I got the idea from pinterest, and found the blog here. So cute!!!! Mine are a little different than the original blog post, but that site has the file for "Our class would knot be the same without you."

This year I will ask Micah about what kind of Valentine's cards he'd like to give out. I know he prefers cool character ones that you buy at the store, but if we do something handmade, I will post the end results!